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| Welcome Back |
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BOO!! Happy Halloween. It's hard to believe that Halloween is here already. Just a blink ago we were celebrating Labor Day. As far as trick or treat activity we usually have around 15 to 20 goblins and that's about it. It's always fun to see what the little crumb crunchers have put together for costumes.
Don't forget to "Fall Back" this weekend. Daylight savings time comes to an end Sunday morning at 2:00 AM. We just love the bi-annual "setting of the clocks" ritual. Unfortunately we now have to do it four times a year because some of our "smart electronics" are preprogrammed to change time automatically. The problem is that they are preprogrammed to change for the old daylight savings time and not the new one. Sometimes our creative engineers outsmart themselves.
It's always amazing how quick the weather changes here in the Northwest. It seems like our fall this year lasted about two weeks and now we are into winter weather. In Western Washington that means clouds, rain, wind and temperatures in the mid 40's and 50's.
In our little town of Coupeville the scarecrows are out in full force. Every year there is a contest to see who has the best scarecrow. This year seems better than last with more of them and better ones.
Now it's on to the Thanksgiving holiday and then the big one. Unfortunately Santa hasn't been making great progress in the woodshop so Christmas may be purchased for the most part this year.
Ken and Marilyn |
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Wood'n Wares Hand Made Wooden Utensils
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Holiday cooking is right around the corner so now would be a good time to get some great new kitchen tools! These wonderful, Wood'n Ware hand crafted, hard maple kitchen tools feel great in your hands and work exceptionally well. Not only do they look and work nice but they last a lifetime when treated with our special Spoon Oil. Check out the large selection by clicking on the display below. www.runnerduck.com/woodnwares.htm.
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| Wood Plans |
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| Woodworking Tools |
Rockler Specials
Rockler always has great specials, here's the latest!
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| What's New? |
It's going to be a computer geek weekend for Ken, he's upgrading our computers motherboard, video card, memory and power supply after which he will be installing Windows 7. We'll report on that next month and tell you how it went and how well we like Windows 7.
In the mean time there is some nasty "phishing" schemes going on is cyber space. Apparently some huge "computer bot" got shut down so there is a new effort by the bad guys to start collecting data again. If you get emails from Microsoft telling you your Outlook needs upgrading or from FaceBook to change your log-in DON'T DO IT! This is how they collect data and unless you want them to have your information don't go there.
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| Site Of The Month |
There's been a lot of buzz lately about Ben Huh's web site and blog's. For once someone is having a ball with the internet. His Cheese Burger group of web pages and blog's are very entertaining. The most fun thing about his sites is that you can contribute your humor to it by supplying funny pictures or adding captions to existing pictures and that's just the tip of the iceberg. Be warned that some of the stuff on this site is for more mature people so before you share it with your kids be sure the check out which areas are appropriate. To start having a good laugh go to http://icanhascheezburger.com/, enjoy! |
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Marilyn's Corner |
Old Silverware Place Settings
With the holidays fast approaching it's time to think about how your dining table will look. We're not talking about setting old silverware around the plate we are talking about something much more whimsical. With some old silverware and a creative eye you can make this old silverware look pretty nice. Old silverware is easy to find either by digging through your silverware drawer or visiting any thrift store.
Here I made a napkin ring out of an old spoon and a place holder from an old fork.
For the napkin ring I bent the end of the spoon around a wooden dowel. This helped make it nice and round.
I placed a tiny pumpkin in the spoon for the Thanksgiving arrangement but did not glue it in place. This way it can be changed for different holidays.
The fork place card holder was made by bending the tines of the fork, two rolled forward for the card and two rolled backward for the back legs.
It will take some fine adjusting to make the fork stand level and at the angle you want. A little bit of bending goes a long way in making it sit flat to the table.
Use a good card stock and either write out the place card or run it through your printer, cut them out and you should be good to go.
Have fun with this and enjoy your holiday entertaining.
If you have a craft project that you'd like to share with our readers just send it to marilyn@runnerduck.com.
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| The Tempos Big Swing Band |
The Tempos summer concert series is over but if you'd still like to hear them you can buy their CD below. If you have an event planned in the Seattle area and in need of a great band The Tempos are ready to perform for you. Just drop a line to kennyb@runnerduck.com
The Tempos
The Tempos CD, "Big Swing", features fourteen great swing songs from the 40's and 50's. If you love the old big band swing music we think you'll enjoy this CD. It's the kind of music that makes you just want to get up and dance, you do remember how to swing don't you?
The only place you can get this CD is from our web site. Go to www.thetempos.com and click on the "Click Here" at the top of the web page or click the album cover.
CLICK HERE.
If you'd like to get a taste of this CD just go to The Tempos web site. When you are at the Tempos web site click on the horn valve button that says "Hear our CD". Then click on the song titles to hear a little bit of each song.
The Tempos big swing band is available for hire. If you have a special event that could use the wonderful music of a classic sixteen piece big band be sure to contact kennyb@runnerduck.com. We perform all over the Seattle area for all sorts of events. |
| Joke of the Month |
| This was sent to us by Michelle C. of North Bend, Washington.
A Chinese Doctors Advice
Q: Doctor, I've heard that cardiovascular exercise can prolong life. Is this true?
A: Heart only good for so many beats, and that it... Don't waste on exercise. Everything wear out eventually. Speed up heart not make live longer; that like say you can extend life of car by driving faster. Want live longer? Take nap.
Q: Should I cut down on meat and eat more fruits and vegetables?
A: You must grasp logistical efficiencies. What does cow eat? Hay and corn. What are these? Vegetables. So, steak nothing more than efficient mechanism of delivering vegetables to system. Need grain? Eat chicken. Beef also good source of field grass (green leafy vegetable). And pork chop can give 100% recommended daily allowance of vegetable products.
Q: Should I reduce my alcohol intake?
A: No, not at all. Wine made from fruit. Brandy is distilled wine. That means they take water out of fruity bit; get even more of goodness that way. Beer also made out of grain. Bottoms up!
Q: How can I calculate my body/fat ratio?
A: If you have body and you have fat, ratio is one to one. If you have two bodies, ratio is two to one, etc.
Q: What are some of the advantages of participating in a regular exercise program?
A: Cannot think of single one, sorry. My philosophy: No Pain...Good!
Q: Aren't fried foods bad for you?
A: YOU NOT LISTENING!!! .... Foods fried in vegetable oil. How getting more vegetables be bad for you?
Q: Will sit-ups help prevent me from getting a little soft around the middle?
A: Definitely not! When you exercise muscle, it get bigger. You should only do sit-ups if want bigger stomach.
Q: Is chocolate bad for me?
A: You crazy? HELLO ...Cocoa beans! Vegetable!!! Cocoa beans best feel-good food around!
Q: Is swimming good for your figure?
A: If swimming good for figure, explain whales to me.
Q: Is getting in-shape important for my lifestyle?
A: Hey! 'Round' is shape!
Well, I hope this has cleared up any misconceptions you may have had about food and diets.
If you've got a funny family friendly joke send it to kennyb@runnerduck.com
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| This Month's Free Recipe |
 Apple Crumble Pizza Pie
Here's a really fun twist on apple pie. It would make a great dessert at your Thanksgiving dinner.
Pastry for 8 or 9 inch Two-Crust Pie, use your favorite recipe
Cornflakes, finely crushed
½ Cup Sugar
½ teaspoon Nutmeg
6 to 7 Jonagold Apples
1 teaspoon Cinnamon
Crumble Topping
¾ Cup All Purpose Flour
½ Cup Sugar
½ Cup Butter, firm
Mix all the Crumble Topping ingredients until crumbly.
You can add slivered almonds and crumbled cheddar Cheese.
Prepare pastry as you normally would for pie.
Roll to 1 inch larger than your pizza pan or approximately 13 to 14 inches if you use a cookie sheet.
Place in pizza pan or cookie sheet and flute the edges.
Cover the crust with a thin later of Corn flakes.
Pare the apples and cut into slices about ½ inch thick.
Begin at the edge of the crust and overlap the slices, cover the crust with apples.
Stir together Sugar, Cinnamon and Nutmeg and sprinkle over the apples.
Top with the Crumble Topping.
Bake at 450 degrees F for 10 minutes then reduce the heat to 400 degrees F and bake for an additional 30 to 40 minutes or until the edge is golden brown and the apples are tender.
Serve warm.
If you have a recipe you'd like to share with our readers please send it to marilyn@runnerduck.com. We'd love to share it with everyone. |
| Woodworking Project |
WOOD PROJECT PLANSDOWNLOADABLE & MAIL-DIRECT
WOODWORKING PLANSDownload WOOD Store® woodworking plans directly to your computer and start building in just minutes! OR, we'll mail them to you, your choice!
CLICK!
This Months Woodworking Project
Outdoor Wood Rack
My woodshop is quite small at around 350 square feet. That doesn't leave a lot of space to store wood inside. I do have some wood racks in the shop where I let my wood season before I make something from it but the rest of the wood lived in a big pile beside my shop. This was bad for several reasons, one it made it quite difficult to find the piece I was looking for. Second when it rained, which it does on occasion here in Western Washington, the bottom of the pile would get soaked. And lastly it looked terrible!
My solutions was a rather simple storage rack made from 2" X 4"s and 1" X 4"s. Since everybody's storage requirements are different I won't go into dimensions only the basic construction.
I cut four supports from 1" X 4"s for the height of my rack.
I cut the shelves from 1" X 4"s about 18" long. You don't want to get them too long otherwise you'll need to move the braces out further on the shelf and further down on the support for strength and it takes up space for the wood.
Spacing the shelves evenly down the support I glued and screwed them in from the backside of the support.
I made the braces from 2" X 4"s and cut each end at 45 degrees. I tried to keep their length to a minimum while still providing sufficient support.
I clamped the braces between the shelf and support using scrap 45 degree pieces I cut from the braces.
Irwin® Quick-Grip® SL300 Clamps
Clamping this way kept the clamps out of the way of so I could drive screws through the support and shelves into the brace.
I glued and screwed each brace into place.
I drilled (4) 1/4" clearance holes in each support for lag bolts.
I screwed the supports to studs in the wall using a large flat washer and lag bolts.
As you can see in the picture at the top this turned out quite nice. It's now much easier to find the wood pieces I'm looking for and it protects them more by keeping them close to the shop under the eves.
One improvement I might make is a cover to help keep the wood dryer. I would screw a tarp under a board above the top pile of wood. I would wrap the bottom of the tarp around a steel pipe and secure it in place with tie-wraps or rope. This would provide enough weight on the tarp to keep it from blowing around. I'd also make some sort of pipe holder at the top so I could rest the pipe above the rack to make it easier to get wood out.
Once I get that part refined and working the way I want I'll update this project on my web page.That's about it for this month. We hope you liked this project. If you build it and your friends ask where you got such a clever idea, please tell them that you got it at RunnerDuck.com. |
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If any of you have wood projects to share I would be happy to put it into a format for our newsletter. Just send me an email at kennyb@runnerduck.com and lets see what we can come up with. Thank you! |
| Free Rockler Catalog |
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Get a Free Rockler Woodworking Catalog by clicking on the link below
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If you want to talk about something just drop us a line to kennyb@runnerduck.com any time, we like to talk about most anything. We are always looking for content for our newsletter so if you have something to add we'd love to publish it, assuming it meets our strict family oriented requirements!
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