Category Archives: Home

The previous owner of my house erected a 30-foot flagpole at the end of the driveway right on Mud Bay. There’s a benefit from having your own flagpole—the opportunity to proudly fly our flag. But there’s responsibility too—the flag needs to be displayed properly and replaced when it gets tattered, fades, or wears out. That happens more often than you might think.
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“Never buy a cabinet on the Internet.” The advice was supplied by my neighbor, who doesn’t know a lot about purchasing things online but does know about cabinets. Judging by the quality of the materials and hardware in the corner TV cabinet I ordered recently (see photo), I now agree with him. Fortunately, the remedy offered by the vendor, Home Improvements, turned a depressing experience into one I can live with.
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Today when I was in the nursery at McClendon’s Hardware in Belfair buying trellis plants, I was reminded of the old joke about the guy who wasn’t sure of the plural form of mongoose but needed two of them. Mongooses didn’t sound right and neither did mongeese. So he asked the pet-store owner to sell him one mongoose and while doing so to sell him another. Since I wasn’t sure if the plural of clematis is clematises, clemati, or possibly clematum, I played it safe and asked for two clematis plants (see photo). K will like them. The pink one is called Clematis montana (her mom is from the Treasure State), while the one with purple flowers goes by Clematis alpina.

Last summer I built a trellis at Treasure Island. The structure was supposed to add color to the front yard. A secondary purpose was to provide a bit of privacy. K bought three ornamental climbing plants for it: wisteria, honeysuckle, and jasmine. But we planted them during the hottest part of the summer, and despite abundant watering, so far they have acted like they need crampons and a rope team to reach the top of the trellis. So this spring they are getting a bit of help in the form of these two new recruits. That makes 5 plants in all for a 21-foot-long trellis. Overkill probably, but still cheaper than building a solid fence.

It’s a long shot that anyone reading this would have a similar problem, but if the buttons on the handset of your cordless phone stop working, there’s a fix. I’m not sure what’s more amazing—that I fixed my phone (which implies almost anyone can perform the repair) or how easy it was to find a solution using the Internet.
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Compact fluorescent lights (CFLs) can help reduce your electric bill. According to the Energy Star web site, CFLs need more energy when they are first turned on, but once the electricity starts moving, they use about 75 percent less energy than incandescent bulbs. They also last up to 10 times longer and can thus replay their higher initial cost several times over their lifetime. A single Energy Star-qualified CFL can save an estimated $30 in energy costs. So when the light bulb in the 3-way table lamp I use for reading burnt out last week, I decided to replace it with a 3-way CFL, assuming such products exist. They do, but my great idea went nowhere as the one I bought was expensive and wouldn’t fit in the lamp.
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The product is Seafin teak oil, made by Daly’s. Locally, it’s available at McClendon’s Hardware. The directions for use include the most puzzling step I have ever seen for a product designed to beautify and protect wood.
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