Nice going, Joe! You MacGyver clone, you!

Looking at that pic makes me feel even more luckier to be living in South Africa. Snow, in this country, let alone an icestorm is unheard of!

Haha, yes warmer climes do have their comfort zone & advantages for sure. But cold weather can really force you to improvise, MacGyver style.

The power also went out a few times in that icestorm. That causes problems with the water pipes - especially at -25c temps where the home can cool off exceptionally fast - what to do? If the pipes freeze, they could break and cause serious water damage to the home.

So you've gotta watch the ambient temperature and if starts to get too low - you'd better bleed the pipes of water before they freeze solid. If they do freeze solid, you've gotta thaw them with various means of focused heat sources and, a big and, leave the taps open a tad so the gases from the de-thawing ice have an ability to escape.

There's also ice damming that can happen on the roof - this occurs when snow melts and then freezes along the edges forming ice that if not dealt with has the strength and the ability to literary lift you roof and cause major leakage. There are ways to deal with it including strategically placed heated wiring, channeling cutting and complete removal of the icy layer. All need constant monitoring and often MacGyver like timely action - if you will.

Wow! Scary. Well, looks like you're more than capable!

Nice work!

One thing I've learned from MacGyver and photography - is to simply take a look around before you mentally draw any conclusions on what is doable .... or not.

In photography, I used to see something interesting to photograph, snap it and move on ... with very average results. Nowadays, I'll see something, spend about 10 minutes walking around it and to find the best possible point of view, angle and most favorable lighting position before shooting. Often much better results.

Similar to MacGyver, who you'll always find having a studied look around, scanning the potential useful 'tools' and clearly performing some mental gymnastics in the process. A simple, cognitive step that works.

I had to think like MacGyver a second time on that same research cruise last year. We had a fish stuck in the tubing of a piece of gear that we use for much smaller fish. It was clogging the pipes. After taking the gear apart, we still couldn't get our hands down to the fish (think relatively small fish ~3 inches long). I put on my MacGyver thinking cap and tried to think of what we might have onboard the ship to get it out. So, I went to the galley (kitchen) and rummaged around until I found the ship's BBQ stuff. With the long grilling "fork" we were able to skewer the dead fish out and get the system working again! Thanks again for Mac helping me think outside the box!!

Yesterday, I saved my day with MacGyverism :-)

I've decided to mow my lawn, and then after few minutes of mowing, my “ancient” lawnmower lost it’s one wheel. Ok, it happens from time to time, but this time – I couldn't screw it up again. The metal plate with screwed holes in it was permanently damaged. When I started to thinking about ordering new parts, money I’ll have to pay for it (to my “ancient” lawnmower), and time it will take (2 weeks maybe), I've looked on my lawn, holding my hand in my pocket… then my fingers fund my SAK – Spartan :-) and… you know what happened next ;-)

I’ve took my lawnmower to my garage, I've grab some wire, some tools, duct tape, some spare screws, and metal plates. It took me 2 hours because I've realized later that I don’t have dill bit for metalwork (I usually use woodwork once and those for cement and stones) – but I made it :-)
It works, and lawn mowing has been successful. I hope that the way I've repaired the wheel is permanent and is totally MacGyverish, because I’ve used only things I've found in my garage – No shopping involved ;-)

Well done, Marcin. That's fantastic. Precisely what effect the show seems to have played on all of us!

We all think we're MacGyver. And in a way, we are! If we just sit back and think before we do something, a solution will present itself.

Thank you Henry Jones Sr.

Aha! I knew I remembered that from somewhere!

Well here is what I did when I didn't have a clamp for a dryer hose that goes to the dryer I thought what would Macgyver do? Well I thought oh a coat hanger it worked I went and inter looped the hanger after bending it so that the hanger was flat it was a wire hanger and it worked I did this trick a few weeks ago to this day it is still on there I love Macgyver and so does my son I love when we watch Macgyver it brings back memoirs of when I was younger watching the show

Nice going, blondmama!

OK everyone my name is blondmama. I have created this thing to hook the dryer hose to the back of your dryer but didn't have a clamp the thing I said was what would Macgyver do? And came up with putting a hanger bent into a circle then wrapped it around the hose and the metal piece that you cover when putting on the hose.

The other thing I have done like Macgyver is I created something to keep my covers from falling to the floor I use good old elastic that you use for pants and Ex and safety pins to hold it.

I created a cover for my tablet to keep the flap part from scratching the screen I used felt and elastic and then sewed it on then used another piece of felt to cover the elastic up it was ugly you know but now I can still put the thing in back to pop it up so you can watch news or to type

If all else fails I dream about what I can use if I find myself in a bind

Well everyone have to tell u what I did yesterday I was laminating my CD insert s and something so wrong went wrong at the wrong time well I desired that I was not going to buy another laminater so I did another Macgyverisum I guess I was not happy that it jammed up but I had put it back together I thought it was right but my friend and I fixed it I cleaned it all out and so it works but I will make sure I am on the same level as the laminater I was in a kitchen chair doing the laminater on the floor not good so I guess I won't do that again my boyfriend had came in and asked me if I did a Macgyver trick on it I said yes I did he said go figure. Well my friend and I tried it out before she left and it works like new but like I said next time I will not be higher then the machine that is how it jammed up on me. I am so happy I got it back I didn't want to have to buy a new one.

There was multiple times when the chain that connects the flusher handle on the toilet to the rubber stopper broke. I used a paper clip to reconnect the chain to the bar.

I fixed my sunglasses with paperclips and ducktape

Nice job!

Hello All Here are the things I have done and things I did that are ways that Macgyver would do First thing I did was my dryer hose I didn't have a clamp so I used a coat hanger to hold it on it is still working I did this I forgot when I did it.
here is the other thing I did was I Have a dipping kitchen Faucet I have my sons Water bottles I stick a funnel in it and then I let it drip when they are full put the cap on and put them in the fridge
a good friend of mine came up with an Idea which I love she took a small bottle and cut the top off and then cut a U shape in it and then left about 2 inches and used that for her daughter when she washers her hands.

Great job, blondmama!

I'd like to see a picture of those glasses!

Ok, my greatest MacGyverism is probably last time we had a show with my choir. We were supposed to sing "Cabaret" from Liza Minneli, and the 40 of us would wear a hat. The problem was to give each one of us a hat in the 1 and a half minute we had between "cabaret" started and the former song finished. And I do not tell you about everyone finding his spot and position on the stage. It had to go FAST!:o

We tried to make it organised, that 8 persons would take responsibility for sending 5 hats to others. But then, some people got 2 hats, some did not get any, it was a mess... For me it was obvious, the hats had to come from the roof and down over each of us, so that we could grab our hat and run to our spot.

Then, I fixed 2 long bars over the stage, with a mechanism to get them down and up fast and safely. So was the problem to attach the hats there in a way that would make it possible to have them there from the beginning of the show without them falling, and to grab them without people having to remove anything or taking the risk of damaging the hats: we had to use them for at least the 5 shows + all rehearsals.

So I used curtains rings with a clip on them, and in the clip I attached a magnet. I had to sew a little metal piece on each hat, and then it was done. It worked.

The first evening, we all stood with our backs to the public, in position for "Cabaret", ready to grab our hat. We could hear the public holding its breath when the 40 hats came down, it was just fantastic! And now the choir is expecting GREAT things from me for the next show in January

I once produced a piece of baling twine from the bottom of a pocket and made functional someone's suitcase handle that had failed with a mile walk in front of them - apparently the repair lasted another 5 trips!! I also fixed a broken ski binding in the middle of nowhere with my Leatherman screwdriver.

I also couldn't put the paperchains up on our 9' high ceilings and do the tree at Christmas without the help of my kitchen tongs (puts the fairy on the top of the 6' tree standing on a 2' table) and my walking poles hook the paper chain ends over the permanent hooks I have in the corners of the ceilings, but which have things like the TV now in the way of standing a ladder where I would want them.

Mac always finds loads of ways to cut the rope that he is often tied up with. I was out in the barn the other night faced with a real tightly tied bale of hay that I couldn't flick the string off, no SAK in my pocket (duh!), and not really wanting to walk back to the house, take all my muddy boots off etc. just to get a knife I needed another solution. I looked all around in the finish spied a shovel. Held up close to the bale the edge of blade nicely sawed through the string in true Mac style.

I originally posted this on another forum I'm a member of on a thread called "What is the scariest situation you have been in?", but thought I'd post it here too as it I felt it has some relevance:

First time I went to my (now) wife's home city, it was the first major trip I'd done on my own (I was 22).

On the way back to Moscow, I was waiting in the departure lounge at the airport, when this cop walks into the lounge, points at me and says "come with me".

So, I followed him back to their office, where his colleague invites me to sit down at the desk.

There's one older cop and one younger cop, the older one's sat at the desk and the younger's stood at the door.

My knowledge of Russian's very limited, so I manage to get the gist that they're "foreign coin collectors" (this is back in 1996, so very few foreigners had ever been out there before that time), talking about "oh, your monarch's Queen Elizabeth", and some such.

Anyway, long story short (too late), I had a small amount of UK coins on me, and I managed to get out of there intact after giving them a few pennies (I needed the bigger value coins for when I got back to the UK).

I was scared - Russian cops all carry guns, at least a small sidearm (probably 7mm or 9mm), and I wouldn't have made it to the door if they wanted to shoot me - but I think I kept my cool on the outside and played it like MacGyver would.

Great work, Mac!! Corruption is not uncommon in Russia, so I've been told.

I worked in Mexico for a large international hotel chain for a year, and our bus was routinely stopped by inebriated Federales who were on the hunt for even more booze. There was one and only MacGyverism too rid ourselves of them at that time .... fork over all our tequila cargo. That's it. That's what they were after. Not nice to have these boys waltz on the bus with their guns have drawn, and half threatening ... even though they were being relatively polite & jovial at the time.

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My scariest experience was riding the Himalayan roads in Northern India aka 'freefall freeway' - came within a whisker of meeting thy maker too. No Macgyverism was getting me out of it, once I accepted the ride and decided to go on/through with it. It was effing unreal ...

Freefall Freeway

Sounds like something out of a movie SakLumberjack

They blackmailed you into giving them your money? Practically a robbery. Could've reversed that into a bribery and give them money to leave you alone.

I was at a construction site and I needed to open a package, there was mo knife handy, but a saw is a serrated blade. I had to do it carefully, but it did the job. The back side of a handsaw blade works well as a straight edge for marking lines on wood.

I used the SAK saw to cut out a Jack O Lantern for Halloween. It worked like the champ it is....the Swiss Champ!!

well lets see I have a few things that I have done that are what would MacGyver do well the first one is the dryer hose that has the other end outside well I guess you can say I didn't have a Clamp so I used a wire Hanger then since I haven't been on here I guess I have to I love the music is awesome oh I have to say this is really a good one I guess I was in my van and the sun gets me every time on the left side of my face but I put the visor to the left to help well thought every time I turn right I got hit in the head so I thought I took a piece of elastic and Velcro what I did is I put a safety pin on the side close where the hook was and I put the part of Velcro that was the soft part on the piece right above my seat belt is I then took the other end and had to pin the other part of Velcro to the end that is going to hold the visor in place and it works like a charm I love it no more getting hit in the head so I guess my other things I did was instead of buying a thing to hold all my stamps I got a big ring binder and some cereal boxes cut in half then take fold one end up to make a pocket then three hole punch I punched the holes then I put all my stamps into it the single stamps that I have I took double Sided tape I taped a piece of the covers that my stamps i took the smaller ones and put my stamps in the plastic pockets I have so many tricks that I use everyday I have to tell you that we were staying at a friends house and my son had got a small drone and the fan wasn't on but drone got caught in the part that would be attach to the ceiling well it fell in that part first thing I did was unplug the fan and we were thinking about how we were going to get this done then my son said hey what about a paper clip we had two of them and sure enough we got it I was really happy about that did work