What? No hot water!

Recently, the gas hot water heater in our home stopped working. The water was running cold. I opened the water heater closet and found enough pet fur to weave a tiny sweater. I pride myself on clean floors, so this was bothersome to me.

Follow the directions when resetting the pilot light

We vacuumed the area and reset the pilot. Voila! Problem solved. Such an easy fix for an uncomfortable problem.

Until next time...

Take the Dave Brubeck approach to tidying up

Get off of my bird feeder!

My daughter Hampton (age 8) is a naturalist. We installed a bird feeder. It's a cage suspended from a shepherd hook. The bird feeder is great! We've had lots of bird visitors ... and squirrels. I thought the shepherd hook design would discourage squirrels.

Get off of my bird feeder!

I contacted Dwayne Elmore (Associate Professor and Bollenbach Endowed Chair in Wildlife Management) about my squirrel problem. Dr. Elmore suggested the following: "The best solution is some type of squirrel guard. This is typically a cone that faces down."

Readers, stay tuned. I will devise a solution that meets my needs and is aesthetically pleasing.

GP

Bonded leather?

I purchased this sofa about 10 years ago. The material is disintegrating. Why?

Despite appearances, this is not a leather sofa. Since I have had the sofa for awhile, any tags are long gone. I really can't be sure about the material content.

A quick visit to the manufacture website leads me to believe that the sofa is made from a bonded leather product. Meaning, it's bits and pieces of leather and other content that has been pressed and formed to resemble leather.

As you can see, the bits and pieces are separating into one big mess. The sofa cannot be repaired.

Falling apart!

Thinking of purchasing new leather furniture? Please do your homework. To me, this sofa is not very old and sofa represents wasted money and resources.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has established "Guides for select leather and imitation leather products" to help inform consumers. Having the right information is key to making the right choice. For a link to the regulations, please visit: http://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-idx?c=ecfr&rgn=div5&view=text&node=16:1.0.1.2.14&idno=16

Until next time ...

GP