EPISODE #98 -
SATURDAY NOVEMBER 12, 2011
The chill is
in the air and that means I had to fire up the woodstove for the
first time last week. Of course it had been a couple of years
since I had the flue cleaned so I called Mark at Ludeman’s and
he came out and gave it the once over. I’m glad he did and I
would recommend that everyone do the same. He was able to give
it a good cleaning and replace the catalytic converter (to help
keep the stove clean and reduce the amount of smoke) and now we
are enjoying nice warm fires and keeping our heating bill down.
Check out this week’s story on wood stoves and fireplace
inserts. They will help you stay nice and warm this winter.
We are just
2 weeks away from the last show for this season. This year is
our 3rd season and we have had a great time putting
together new shows for you every week. We will finish this
season on the 26th of this month and then we will be
taking a vacation until March 3rd of 2012. you can
still keep up on the Fusion crew by checking out past stories on
the Fusion website, becoming a fan on Facebook and even signing
up for the free online Garden Time magazine. David and Robin
will be contributing writers for the monthly magazine.
Portland Rescue Mission
During these
holiday times when we are getting together with family and
friends it is good to remember those who may not be as blessed
as we are. We visited the Shepard Door facility which is run by
the
Portland Rescue Mission (503-MISSION (647-7466)). Brian
Merrell joined Robin to fill her in on the Mission and what it
does. Most people think of the Mission as a building downtown
that feeds the homeless, in fact, just a few weeks ago they had
the ‘Meal to Remember’ at the Mission downtown. This event was
co-sponsored by Sysco, KOIN and a couple of local restaurants.
Over 400 guests were served and it was a special night for
everyone. But the Mission does more than feed the homeless.
The Shepard’s Door location is a women and children’s center
that help women during their recovery from addiction. It is one
of the programs that will benefit from the ‘Good Hope Telethon’
this coming week on the 16th at 7:30pm. KOIN is
hosting the Telethon and your support provides meals, shelter
and recovery care for people in need in the Portland area. You
can help by watching the telethon and making a donation or by
going to the special website at
www.PortlandRescueMission.org/KOIN and making a contribution
there. Their motto is ‘everything starts with a meal’. Show
your support for this great cause and make it a great holiday
season for everyone!
Legacy Diabetic Recipe
The Pacific
Northwest Diabetes Week kicks off on the 13th and we
wanted to help bring awareness to the event with a recipe! We
stopped by the kitchens at Legacy Emanuel and Randall Children’s
Hospital to chat with executive chef Brian Seto to get a
wonderful Pumpkin Bavarian recipe that was tasty and especially
made for diabetic patients. They make 7 different patient diets
and serve thousands of people every day and they make sure that
all their offerings are healthy, nutritious and tasty. The
recipe was not sugar free, but had reduced sugar, fat, sodium
and calories than a normal piece of pumpkin pie.
You can find the recipe
here. While Chef
Brian started to work on the recipe, Robin chatted with Julia Hanfling about diabetes in Oregon and how we can stay diabetes
free in our lifestyle. To avoid the long term problems of
diabetes she recommended that we all get a good night sleep,
stay active, eat a good healthy breakfast and eat lots of
healthy vegetables. Those are just the basic rules to follow
and they will help you maintain a healthy lifestyle.
To help
everyone observe Diabetes Week everyone is invited to the Circle
on the Court, a free diabetes health and wellness fair on the 13th.
There will also be a cooking demonstration on Tuesday night at
Lloyd Center from 5:30 to 7:30 pm for a list of all the events
for the week you can check out the
Chris
Dudley website.
Legacy also has a wonderful website with more information
too. Check it out and learn to live a healthier life!
Cleaning Stickers Off Your Doors
Our girls
recently left for college and in the process of fixing up one of
the rooms as a guest room we found the back of the door covered
in stickers! This had us wondering if we could remove the
sticker without damaging the door. Once again we found ourselves
at Parr Lumber
(503-531-7277) to talk to Chris about what to do. Stickers can
be a problem because of the type of adhesive used on the
sticker. Chris told us about 2 different products, Goof Off and
Krud Kutter. The Goof Off is a stronger product and it could
remove some of the paint off of the door. He recommended this
product for the tougher jobs and for jobs where we were going to
repaint. The Krud Kutter may require a little more elbow grease,
but it is not as strong and there is less danger of damaging the
paint. Once we got home we peeled off as much of the old
stickers as we could and then applied the product. After a few
minutes we started rubbing the adhesive and it came off. In a
half an hour the whole job was done! If you have a job that
seems too tough to handle, check in with our friends at Parr for
tips to make that job easier.
Ludeman’s Fireplaces and Inserts
The weather
is getting cold and you may be thinking of getting a fireplace
or insert for your home. To learn about these heating systems
we stopped by
Ludeman’s Fireplace and Patio (503-646-6409) to chat with
Mark Ludeman. Mark first answered the question that most people
ask about fireplaces, ‘am I getting any heat from my
fireplace’? Most fireplaces will run from a -10 to a +10 in
heating efficiency. That means you may be getting little or no
heat from your traditional fireplace. If you use an ‘insert’
you will increase the efficiency from 70-80 percent. An
‘insert’ is a metal box that captures the heat and reduces the
draft that will pull heat from the house while sending that heat
into the room. These inserts can be put in just about any
fireplace opening but may require some additional venting and
piping. Gas logs may be a great substitute for a natural log
burning fire, but they are not as efficient as a regular insert,
pellet or gas fireplace. We then moved to the gas inserts and
looked at those. Gas inserts are very efficient and can
sometimes heat an entire home. They are usually enclosed and
may contain a fan to circulate the heat from the fire. You can
even customize the look by including colored glass or decorative
fronts. If you are looking for a heat source during a black
out, there are only 2 choices, wood inserts or gas. Pellet
stoves require power to operate the motor that pushes the
pellets into the flame. If you are looking for more information
on fireplaces or inserts, or you would like to have yours
cleaned for the season, contact the experts at Ludeman’s.
Standard’s New Electronics
The holidays
are here and that means electronics are at the top of everyone’s
list. If you follow the trends you know what is hot, but if you
don’t you may wonder what products are popular in the market and
which ones are just hype. We stopped by
Standard TV and Appliance (503-619-0500) to talk with Tony
about which ones are the most popular with their customers. Our
first stop was the audio department. Everyone has their
favorite music on the phones or i-pods these days. The problem
is sharing that music with everyone at a function. The answer is
the Sony Wi-fi network speaker. This speaker system can sync to
your phone or i-pod and can broadcast your tunes to everyone.
The speakers are portable and if you have an electrical plug you
can have music. If you want to cover the whole room, just sync
more than one speaker to your phone and they will all play your
music. Pretty cool!
Next we
moved to the visual! We weren’t sure about the next item, was
it a computer or a TV, and the answer is yes! It is both. This
video system is a computer, slash TV that is hooked to the
internet! So if you want to watch TV you just choose that
mode. Want to surf the web, just select that! Want to listen
to music, select Pandora and you are good to go. It is a Google
TV. Facebook, YouTube, Napster; they all are here!
The final
stop is the biggest TV on the market. It is the 92 inch HD TV.
This monster is not just a TV, it is more like a wall! The
picture is incredible! One of the benefits to this TV is the
sound system. It has a wireless subwoofer and 16 speakers that
are designed to bounce around the room so you don’t need to add
a whole audio system to the mix. It was amazing! David loved
it!
For all the
greatest electronics, check out the coolest gadgets at Standard
TV and Appliance.
Newspaper Tips
The
newspaper… all the news that’s fit to print, plus it is great
for chores around the house too! David and Robin took a few
minutes to show us a couple that we learned. First of all,
since it is paper, you can use it for wrapping. The comic
section in the weekend edition is great for kids. They get a
colorful print that they can read after they unwrap their gift
and you get to save a few cents on buying expensive wrapping
paper. Some of the other uses are tied to the absorbency of the
paper itself. Robin used it to absorb odors in an old lunch
box. You can also use it to absorb moisture and the smell in
your old shoes too. Fall is harvest time in your garden and the
paper can help you there too. If you have green tomatoes and
you would like to have them ripen indoors, just wrap them in
newspaper and set them on your counter. They will ripen quicker
and you will have tasty tomatoes in a couple of days. One use
that everyone has heard of is using newsprint to clean your
windows. Use your regular window cleaner or a weak solution of
ammonia and water, and then wipe it off with the paper. The
newsprint will leave no lint or streaks! Finally, David had a
suggestion for the gardeners in the house. Lay pieces of
newsprint down in your garden and cover them with mulch. The
paper will act as a barrier for weeds and will eventually break
down and be food for your plants. There you go, breaking news
on recycling your newspaper for chores around the house. |
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