EPISODE #67 -
SATURDAY APRIL 2, 2011
It is
GardenPalooza day! Today, Saturday, April 2nd from
8:00am-4:00pm you can come out and get your garden taken care of
for the coming year. The garden is the extension of the home
and we are proud to be co-sponsors of the
GardenPalooza event along with Meta and our sister show,
Garden Time. You can
come out to this free event and visit with Robin and David and
while you are there you can pick up one of David’s fresh
sourdough starter. He only made 50, so come out while supplies
last! Come visit one of the 45 different vendors and leave with
something for your home or garden.
Hard Surfaces
In the past
we looked at all the choices in countertops that you can have in
your kitchen or bath. This week we met up with Barry at
Cascade
Flooring America (800-942-0376) to chat about some of the
newer designs that are available this year. First we talked to
him about the ever popular granite. Of course one of the
benefits of this type of material is that there is a minimal
amount of breaks in the slab and that means less grout lines to
get stained or dirty. But it is one of the most expensive of
the surface materials. Then we looked at a quartz and resin,
man-made product. It looks like granite but it is
anti-microbial and you don’t have to seal it like you would a
natural stone surface. With these two materials you can place
hot pans on them and they are very resistant to scratches. The
next material was a very earth friendly surface. It was made
with recycled glass and concrete. This one was VERY colorful
and bright. The next material was ‘old-school’ Formica. This
surface has been around for years, but with all the new
technology in the production of this material it has the largest
selection of color and pattern choices. You still have to treat
it gently when compared with some of the other materials, but
you can pretty much find a pattern you will love. And since
this is a pressed paper type of product you will not be able to
place a hot container on it. Finally we checked out the Corian
material. This is a plastic based countertop and it is designed
to handle just about everything. You can cut on it and even
place hot pans on it. It can even handle the toughest of
cleaning products. You can even get some of your appliances
like sinks mounted in the material and that will make your
countertop look seamless! The Corian product also comes in over
100 different color choices. If you are a little confused by
all these choices you can stop by Cascade Flooring America and
get some help from Barry and the rest of the staff.
Donut Machine
This is a
robot we won’t mind having in our home. Erica from Fir Point
Farms showed us the Donut Robot. This machine is responsible
for churning out hundreds of delicious apple cider and
marionberry donuts during the GardenPalooza event. This machine
does it all! Once you add the batter, the machine makes the
donut shape, drops it in the hot oil, flips it and tosses it on
a cooling rack. All you need to do is add sugar! To see the
machine at work and have one of these tempting donuts, just stop
by
GardenPalooza or Fir Point Farms anytime during the spring
and summer season!
Sourdough Starter
Sourdough
starter is one of the most prized possessions of the home and
professional baker. This ‘starter’ is what makes your bread
tasty and delicious. A starter is actually just leavening for
making bread. You use it to help your bread rise and make it
fluffy and soft. In old days it was the difference between soft
bread and hard flat-bread. All most starters are is flour and
water and the wild yeast and bacteria in the air. The flour and
water feed this wild bacteria and that makes the starter.
There are 3 ways of getting a sourdough starter. The first way
is by getting some from someone who has one already. This will
allow you to start baking right away. David uses one that his
mother made over 30 years ago. (You can get some of his starter
at GardenPalooza on Saturday, but hurry, he only has 50 made for
the event) Next you can get a commercial product that will
start the process. Finally, you can make your own. Just mix 2
cups of flour and 2 cups of water in a glass bowl (never metal)
and cover it with a towel. In a week or so you will start to
notice that the bacteria are working as the mixture starts to
bubble. If the starter has a pink coloring or if it smells bad
you may need to start again. Once you have it how do you keep
it going? You can store it in your refrigerator but every
couple of weeks you want to add either sugar or a little flour
and water. Then place it back in the fridge. This additional
material will keep the bacteria fed and the starter going. If
it seems too tough or hard to understand,
here are some tips for
helping you get started.
Vacuum Maintenance
Spring
cleaning time is here; do you know if your vacuum is up to the
challenge of all that cleaning? We stopped by
Starks Vacuums
(800-230-4101) to learn some tips for maintaining your vacuum so
it will last longer and clean better. Ken Raasch joined Robin
to give us the ‘dirt’ on cleaning machines. First of all he
talked about upright vacuums. You should always check your
filters and never let them get too dirty. It cuts the airflow
down and that affects the cleaning. Most of these filters can
be cleaned a couple of times by hand, but after that you should
replace them because there is too much dirt for anyone to get
at. If you have a canister vacuum you will usually find a
vacuum bag inside the unit. The problem here is that people let
the bag get too full and that will decrease the airflow too. Do
not try to empty the bag and reuse it. There is still dirt in
the ‘pores’ of the bag and that will make the bag less
efficient. Another problem is your beater bars and belts. The
beater bar is the part that ‘sweeps’ up debris from carpet and
allows the vacuum to suck it up. The bars can become clogged
with hair, string and other stuff and it may even quit
rotating. This will create a strain on your belts that drive
the bar and cause them to break. Even if the belts don’t break
they can become stretched out and work less effectively. If you
smell something burning that could be a sign that you have belt
problems. You should look at changing belts 2-3 times a year to
keep it running smoothly!
Deck Materials
On an
earlier show we told you how to get your deck ready for the
season. But what if your deck is in pretty sad shape and you
are thinking about replacing it? We went to
Parr Lumber
(360-887-7277) and picked Chris Erskine’s brain again to learn
about the different kinds of products on the market. It used to
be that you only had the choice of different kinds of natural
wood, but now there are choices of wood, composites of wood
fiber and plastic, and a PVC coated composite material. I know
it sounds confusing, but Chris made it easy to understand. The
wood material hasn’t changed and as far as price goes, it is
still your cheapest option. Then there are the basic composites
in products like Trex. This type of material is a combination
of wood fiber and plastic compounds that are blended together
and shaped into boards. This product will last much longer than
ordinary wood and is easier to maintain. The other product that
we looked at was from Timber Tech and it was a complete PVC
(plastic) product and it was the most expensive, but the most
durable, lasting for the life of your home. The newest product
on the market is a composite core covered by the durable PVC
coating. This one uses the composite core to keep the price
lower and has the PVC coating to make it very durable! Another
benefit of the composite materials is the fade resistance of the
product. This material will look great for many years to come.
Finally, the major consideration, price. The composite
materials will cost about twice as much as the wood when you
first buy them, but after a few years the cost of the wood
product surpasses the composite because of maintenance, kind of
a ‘you can pay now or pay later’ scenario. If you are thinking
about building a deck or replacing an old one, stop by and see
the experts at Parr and they can help you make the right choice.
Home Office Organizing
People
working from their homes are a growing segment of the
workforce. However, once you established your home office you
may find that things are piling up and your workspace has been
taken over by clutter. We stopped by
Environments (503-236-3600) to chat with Chris Corrado about
how you can keep your workspace efficient and clean. Your home
office is precious space and so you need to plan accordingly.
Chris showed us how you can use a wall to create more space by
going ‘up’ with your storage. What if you don’t have a wall to
mount shelves on to help you organize? Then you need to look
at shelving that takes stuff off your desk top and gives you
more room. Cubbies for papers, desk accessories and even
computer monitors can be elevated to free up workspace. One of
the most useful items we saw was a small cabinet. You can use
this item to keep the clutter behind a door and out of site.
One of the neat items that Chris had in the store was a
roll-around file cabinet that doubles as a seat, in case a
client shows up and needs to sit down. The final thing that
you need to be aware of during your organizing is lighting.
Good lighting will help you stay organized once you have your
space put together. If you need help organizing your area, stop
by Environments for some friendly and helpful tips. |
||||
Website design and content ©2009-2011 Gustin Creative Group.
Please send website inquiries to
gustingroup@comcast.net. |