RunnerDuck Review, a newsletter for friends and family 03-30-01

March 30, 2001

WELCOME BACK:      Happy daylight savings time. It's time again to spring forward and mess with our sleep. My personal thought is that they should set it to daylight savings time and then leave it.
     April fools day is upon us and I'm curious as to what sort of devious plans you have for your friends and family. I've been pretty good the past few years but I think time is right for a good practical joke.
     Some more water conservation thoughts. Get a plastic barrel and put a faucet near the bottom. Keep an empty milk jug or other appropriate container near your sinks. When ever you need to get some hot water run the cold water into the jug until it gets warm. Take the jug out to the barrel and dump it in. You'd be amazed at how much water you can save for you plants. Run a hose from faucet on the barrel and water away.
     If you have any water conservation tips please drop us a line at duckmaster@runnerduck.com., I guess if everyone does their little bit we will all benefit.
     This past weekend we went to Mount Vernon, Washington to check out Charley's Greenhouse Supply. What a great little store!. They have lots of really cool items for your greenhouse. Their web site is very nice also. I thought this was appropriate since this week our new project will be building a greenhouse.
     The reason we went up there was to find a vent opener for our green house. The one we found would work great for the cold frame project also. The vent opener uses heat to open it and closes when it cools. The piston uses bee's wax as the hydraulic material. Here's a little picture of the vent opener.

It's from Univent in Denmark and cost about $40.
If you're ever in Mount Vernon and looking for a place to eat, we had a great meal at the Calico Cupboard.

All in all just a really fun day.

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Thank you,
Ken and Marilyn

VISIT OUR HOME PAGE AT www.runnerduck.com

What's New This Week? I've been having some discussions with Tom B. about using treated wood for raised beds, as I suggested last week. Some people have concerns about arsenic leaching out of the treated wood and into their plants. While the risks seem pretty low you can never be too cautious.
     Tom suggests using bare wood and treating it with a couple of coats of Jasco, Termin-8 Wood Preservative. It's available at most hardware stores.
     If you want to find out more about treated wood you might check out this thread on ibiblio.org's list server, http://www.ibiblio.org/london/agriculture/
bioremediation/1/msg00017.html.
     Marilyn suggests plants that grow with their fruit above ground are less likely to absorb leached chemicals than plants that grow underground like carrots and potatoes.

Be sure to visit our Goodies Store. We are changing some of our designs so keep checking to see what we have in store. If you haven't made it to our store yet, check it out. We have lots of neat gifts.

COMPUTER TALK

There is a little known bug that was introduced into Microsoft software back in 1995. It only kicks off when April Fools Day (4-1) coincides with day light savings time. It's not a biggie in the sense that the clock won't be right for a few programs. The likely hood of this affecting your computer is rather small but there is still a chance.
If it should happen to you, don't panic. The problem will go away on April 8th. I guess that's some programmers way of saying April Fools!

Here is a little heads up for you Netscape 6 users. When you click on a radio button, the browser actually selects the previously clicked value. For example, if a user clicks option one and then changes their mind and selects option two, the value that is really selected is option one. Both Internet Explorer and Netscape 4.7 will correctly return the name of the radio button. However, Netscape 6.01 will return the previously selected value.
If you use Netscape 6.01, pay attention when you are selecting things on line.

SITE OF THE WEEK

     Do you play the card game solitary? I played it a lot as a kid and then when it came on computers I really spent a lot of time. It's a great lunch time game to punch at while munching down a sandwich. This site has the mother load of solitaire games and it's all for free.
     Check out http://www.zdnet.com/downloads/stories/info/0,,000XTA,.html and you'll find 91 different solitary games. He calls it Solitude for Windows, and it sure is!
     He has some other neat card games and a RPN calculator so snoop around his site while you are there.

Do you have a favorite site, besides RunnerDuck.com? Let me know and I'll share it with everyone. There are a billion sites out there and growing every day. I can't check them all out by myself so please share with us your findings.

THIS WEEKS FREE RECIPEBroccoli Cheese Soup

This is from Deloris R. in Mexico.

2 Tablespoons oil

1 Medium Onion, chopped

6 Cups Water

6 Bouillon Cubes

1 teaspoon Salt

2 Packages of Frozen Broccoli (thawed) or Fresh Broccoli

6 Cups Milk

1 Pound Velvetta Cheese, cubed

8 oz. Package of Small Egg Noodles

Saute Onions in a large pot.
Add Water and Bouillon and stir until the cubes are dissolved.
Gradually add Noodles and Salt and continue to boil uncovered for 3 minutes.
Stir in Broccoli and Garlic Powder, cook 4 minutes.
Add Milk and Cheese and Black Pepper to taste, until Cheese melts.
Serves 12. Freezes very well.

Let me know if you've tried our recipes and what you think. If you have any suggestions to improve them just drop me a line. All of them are from friends and family and some are very old.
We also have a free recipe at the RunnerDuck Kitchen Store. We offer a new recipe every month so check it out.

If you have a recipe that you would like to share, please send it to The DuckMaster and I will post it on our web site or in the next RunnerDuck Review.

If you are looking for something in the kitchen just type it here and let Cooking.com find it for you.

JOKE OF THE WEEK

A guy was sitting quietly reading his paper when his wife walked up behind him and whacked him on the head with a frying pan. "What was that for?" he asked.

"That was for the piece of paper in your pants pocket with the name Marylou written on it," she replied.

"Two weeks ago when I went to the races, Marylou was the name of one of the horse I bet on," he explained.

"Oh honey, I'm sorry," she said. "I should have known there was a good explanation."

Three days later he was watching a ball game on TV when she walked up and hit him in the head again, this time with the iron skillet, which knocked him out cold. When he came to, he asked, "What the hell was that for?"

"Your horse called."

Sent to us by Wayne P.

PROJECTS

Lets build a Greenhouse!

Don't let the size of it scare you away, it's really pretty easy. I built this over about three weekends in my spare time.

As you can see it is attached to another building which makes it easy but adds a few challenges. The stability of being attached eliminated the need for any trusses although I've seen lots of greenhouses without trusses.
     Following these directions you should be able to build a freestanding greenhouse also.
     Of course the first thing you need to do is design your greenhouse so that you know what materials to buy. I built this greenhouse similar to the previous two projects. Build a frame structure and set glass/plastic panels in-between the studs.
     Here are my drawings for this greenhouse. Design your frame similar to what I did here. Keep in mind that you will be inserting glass/plastic panels in-between your studs. For the roof I just mounted the glass/plastic panels to the tops of the studs.

    I realize this is hard to see but it's a little easier on my web page. This green house is 8' wide and 4' deep.
     To figure out your material needs measure for all your 2" X 4"s. All of the basic structure is made from 2" X 4"s. The door is made from 2" X 4"s without any 2" X 2"s. I made my door a Dutch door to help with ventilation. You will need 2" X 2"s to frame each window on the sides and roof. I nailed that studs together and screwed the window frames together and into the studs.
     You will need a foundation which can be concrete or wood. I prefer wood because it's so easy to install. You don't need to mess with forms, rebar, concrete mixing, etc. For this project we'll use a wood foundation using 6" X 6" landscape timbers. I imagine you could use railroad ties or any other well treated wood although I don't like the smell of creosote. If you cut the wood remember to treat the ends with a preservative.
     Depending on your soil different approaches should be used. Dig a trench 3" - 6" bigger than your timber on all three sides. If you have loose or soft soil dig the trench a little deeper so you can pack some crushed rocks underneath. Put in a layer of small or crushed rock in the bottom and pack it good. Get it good and level and place the timber on top. I like to have the timber an inch or so above ground level. Put rock on both sides of the timber and pack it well. This should make a good foundation for your project.

Until Next Time...

I hope you start the new month off with a bang and have some fun on April Fools Day. Sometimes you just have to kick back and enjoy life with little humor.
If you want to chat about something just drop us a line any time, we like to talk about most anything.

We've really been enjoying the jokes and all your comments. We always look forward to hearing from you.

We are still waiting for one of you readers to step up to the keyboard and tell us about your interesting projects, ones that we can write about. If you have one please let us know. Just send us an email. If you have something that you would like to share in this newsletter just let me know and I will consider publishing it in a future article.

Some of you have told me that you forward this newsletter on to your friends. If you send me their email address and they can get it right from the ducks beak. Just drop me a line or go to our registration page and sign up your friend.

If you enjoyed this newsletter please tell a friend, if you didn't please tell me but tell me in a nice way, I'm very sensitive.

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The DuckMaster

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