UltraPing Blog

As you are cleaning leaves out of your home’s gutters, dealing with Christmas lights, or adjusting a satellite dish, don’t forget to evaluate your chimney caps while you’re on the roof. Chimney caps are those mesh-sided enclosures (usually made of stainless steel, copper, or galvanized steel) atop your chimney to prevent water, animals, bird droppings, and leaves from entering your home. A once-a-year assessment of your chimney caps’ condition can be well worth your time for protecting your house. Here are four things you can easily check on your chimney caps:

1.Are the chimney caps there?
If there have been high winds in your area, your chimney caps may have blown off. Properly secured chimney caps withstand most high winds, but exceptional winds can do damage, including blowing chimney caps off.

2.Are the chimney caps securely attached?
Time, wild animals, or high winds can degrade the security of your chimney caps’ attachment to your flues or chimneys. You can retighten screws or reapply a sealant if your chimney caps are no longer securely attached.

3.Are the chimney caps rusting through?
Galvanized steel chimney caps generally last about three to five years before they become too rusted to serve their purposes. In salt water environments, galvanized chimney caps corrode even more quickly. Stainless steel and copper chimney caps usually have lifetime warranties, so they are good replacement choices for those who don’t want to be replacing their chimney caps every few years.

4.Are the sides of your chimney caps clogged?
The mesh or screen sides of your chimney caps may get clogged with leaves or other detritus forced into the mesh by very high winds. More frequently, chimney caps’ mesh can get clogged with soot and creosote, especially if you are using unseasoned, green firewood. This clogging is most common in chimney caps designed with smaller mesh holes for use in wildfire prone areas. If the mesh sides of your chimney caps are clogged, your fireplace’s or woodstove’s draft will be reduced, leading to poor performance or even to a chimney fire.

When you head up to the roof, take along a metal tape measure, paper, and pencil. In case you find you need new chimney caps, you will have the tools at hand to measure your flues or chimney crown for their replacement chimney caps.

About the Author

Susan Penney appreciates simple ways to make our homes renewing spaces for our families. She invites you to visit http://www.fireplacemall.com for fireplace accessories to serve your fire-less or your fire-filled fireplace.

After the latest and accurate opinion relating to landscaping.
When you’re after high-class advice about landscaping, you’ll find it’s complex unscrambling quality information from inexpert landscaping proposals and directions so it is wise to recognize ways of moderating the information you are given.

NeedContractor: Landscape Design Contractors
Submit your landscaping project and receive free estimates from licensed landscapers within 48 hours with no obligation. Landscape design contractors.

Now we’d like to give you some advice which we sincerely believe you should use when you are searching for information about landscaping. You need to understand that the help we present is only appropriate to internet info about landscaping. Unfortunately we are unable to provide any assistance or guidance when you are also conducting research in books or magazines.

Find Local Landscaping Contractors
Start an landscape, lawn or garden project with a prescreened home contractor. Fill out a short form to connect with local landscaping professionals and start your project now.

A good hint to follow when you’re presented with information and suggestions on a landscaping page is to verify the ownership of the website. This may divulge who is behind the site landscaping integrity The quickest way to work out who owns the landscaping site is to find the ‘about’ page.

Any reputable site providing information concerning landscaping, will almost certainly provide an ‘about’ webpage which will list the people behind the site. The details should tell you major points about the owner’s necessary expertise. You can then decide for yourself about the webmaster’s training and understanding, to provide advice to you regarding landscaping.

About the author:

hugh campbell is the webmaster for http://www.landscaping-1st.info

(ARA) - Want to stir things up around the house this summer? Add a ceiling fan. It’s true stirring up the air will make you feel immediately cooler. But ceiling fans do more than just bring about breezes. Designed with the latest home decor trends in mind, these overhead fans move in fashionable circles.

“Fans today are design pieces as well as functional appliances,” says Patrick Wilson, vice president, sales and marketing for Minka Aire, a ceiling fan manufacturer based in Corona, Calif.

John Pearson agrees. “Customers are interested in using fans as design elements,” says the vice president for marketing for Casablanca Fan Company, a Pomona, Calif.-based fan manufacturer.

High-tech, contemporary designs have become popular in the last few years. As a result, brushed nickel, steel, and sleek pewter finishes get thumbs-up approval from trendsetters. Earth tones like rustic copper and bronze are also hot-sellers. Ditto painted finishes and washes. “People are more inquisitive than ever about ceiling fan possibilities,” says Troy Lee, general merchandising manager for Progressive Lighting, Inc., a retailer in Kennesaw, Ga. “People want something attractive on their ceiling and they are concerned about matching the fan’s design to their decor.”

Ceiling fans work well in any home, thanks to a variety of design options. Ornate filigree blade holders offer a graceful, turn-of-the-century ambience. Brushed steel housing and light-colored maple blades offer the ultimate in contemporary styling. Classic polished brass finishes work well in more traditional homes.

“Today’s fan customer seems less interested in price and more concerned about matching their ceiling fan to their home décor. I think it’s great to offer a product that makes a home more comfortable and adds beauty at the same time,” said Cliff Crimmings, vice president of marketing, Craftmade, a fan manufacturer from Coppell, Texas.

The soaring ceilings and expansive great rooms in today’s newer homes have increased demand for larger fans with bigger blades and longer down rods. Manufacturers comply, creating phenomenal fans that move massive quantities of air and work well in 30-foot tall spaces and lofts.

Fan design isn’t the only thing that’s expanded. Places to put ceiling fans have also increased. These fans bring a breeze to almost any home space, inside or out — from kitchens, bathrooms and dining areas to porches, patios and gazebos.

“We are seeing more fans being used on patios than ever before,” says Kathy Held, manager, buyer and vice president of South Dade Lighting, a 10,000-square-foot lighting showroom in Miami. “People are using their porches and patios as extra rooms. They spend money on landscaping and landscape lighting, then add the fans so they can sit out and enjoy it all.”

With more than 14 million ceiling fans sold annually, most do double-duty, lighting a room as well as moving air. “Our research indicates that a majority of ceiling fans are sold with a light fixture because consumers are usually replacing a light in their room,” says Mark Jeffrey, general manager for Emerson Electric Company Air Comfort Products Division, a St. Louis manufacturer.

Little wonder. Ceiling fans today offer a wide variety of lighting options that add interest to any home. Mission-inspired fans look great with mica or stained-glass light fixtures. Art Deco styles boast white frost fixtures for a clean look. Glass shades etched with flowers add a romantic touch to a little girl’s room.

“Ceiling fans have become an important part of the lighting scheme in homes today,” says Held, who often works with customers to combine recessed and decorative lighting with ceiling fans. Some fans feature built-in lighting. Others work with light kits, allowing dwellers to mix-and-match light fixtures and fitters to create a customized look.

When choosing lights for your ceiling fan, be sure they meet the room’s needs. Workspaces like kitchens and home offices demand bright light. Bedrooms and dining rooms, however, require more subdued illumination. Dimmer switches also allow you to adjust the light on a fan to fit your mood.

To create more relaxed lighting, consider the latest introduction — ceiling fans with indirect uplighting. “The uplight bounces ambient light off the ceiling to create a comfortable mood,” says Jeffrey. Emerson debuted uplighting last year, combining it with more traditional downlighting in several models this season.

Like garage doors and television sets, some ceiling fans utilize remote controls to not only adjust lights, but operate the fan itself. “Everything else has a remote, why not a ceiling fan?” says Casablanca’s Pearson.

Tall ceilings and aging Baby Boomers make remotes a good idea. “The older population and couch potatoes don’t want to jump up and down to pull a chain on a fan,” says Minka Aire’s Wilson. In addition to turning fans on and off, some remotes automatically adjust the fan based on changes in the room’s temperature, turn lights on and off when you’re not home and dim lights as you leave the room.

Ceiling fan prices are as diverse as the styles. Experts agree, however, that quality counts. “Customers are more educated than ever about the different grades of fans,” says Allan Margolin, president of M&M Lighting, Inc., a Houston retail establishment. “Fans can cost up to $600 for a quality, deluxe model at a lighting showroom. Customers seem to be turning to the lighting showrooms and trading up to better merchandise, replacing ceiling fans that wobble, make noise and don’t move air as well as top quality fans.”

In fact, independent research from the American Lighting Association (ALA) indicates that 70 percent of consumers do not mind paying more for a higher quality product. The ALA points out that consumers will have the ceiling fan for many years so quality and style should be key factors in the buying decision.

ALA-member retail showrooms offer expert advice on ceiling fans with the latest innovations in technology as well as style. Consumers can visit the ALA Web site at www.americanlightingassoc.com for the name of the nearest lighting/fan showroom or call the association’s hotline at (800) BRIGHT IDEAS (274-4484).

Courtesy of ARA Content

About the author:

Courtesy of ARA Content

Carnivorous plants native to the United States are accustomed to cold temperatures, frost and snow. That is what really makes these plants very unique. They may look tropical, but really they are as hardy as a black bear in the Rockies.

But, like the black bear, there is something that frost-tolerant plants do not like - dry freezing Arctic wind. This type of wind will pull moisture right out of your plant and cause your plant to wither away.

There are couple ways to protect your plants from the wind, while making sure they stay in hibernation.

Wind protection is only necessary if you live in zones 5 or below and temperatures routinely go below 20F for more than a week at a time.

Like the black bear, you can place your plants in a cave. If you do not have a cave in your backyard, place your plants in an unheated garage, tool shed or cold frame, which is essentially an unheated greenhouse.

Because the plants are dormant and has stopped growing for the winter, light is not much of an issue. Just make sure the soil is always moist. You can maintain its moisture by keeping the plant in no more than 1/4-inch of water.

Before placing your plants in your cave, so to speak, follow these important steps:

1. Cut off all dead leaves. With any of the Sweet Pitchers (Sarracenia rubra), trim all the leaves right down to the rhizome. This will help reduce moisture loss. There is no need to do this other species.

2. Give the plant a good spraying with a sulfur-based fungicide. (We use Safer brand.) Follow the instructions as directed by the manufacturer.

3. Place your plant in an unheated shelter, and keep the soil moist at all times.

This is perhaps the simplest method of protecting your plant from the dry freezing Arctic wind. Just remember that it is not frost that destroys outdoor container plants. It is dry freezing wind.

In April, it will be safe to bring your plants out of dormancy, which happes to be about the same time black bears come back out and begin foraging.

If you live in zones 6 and above, wind protection is necessary when there is a brief cold snap, bringing the temperature down below 20F. In this case, wind protection is usually temporary and covering your plants with a tarp or sheets of plastic will do the trick.

About the Author

Jacob Farin is co-owner of Sarracenia Northwest, a nursery specializing in the cultivation of carnivorous plants. More information about the cultivation of carnivorous plants can be found at http://www.cobraplant.com.

“I am a sundial, and I make a botch
Of what is done far better by a watch”

So wrote Hilaire Belloc, but is this really fair? Sundials are the earliest known form of time-keeping having been used for some five thousand years. The Greek historian Herodotus stated that sundials were first used by the Chaldeans and Sumerians in Babylonia which was part of the modern Iraq. They used vertical rods on their buildings and noted the position of the shadow to record the passing of the hours. The concept was developed by the Greeks and Romans who constructed various different shapes of dial to enable them to tell the time and the season of the year. Usually these were bowl-shaped dials with vertical or horizontal gnomons (shadow-casters) and hour lines marked in the hollow of the bowl. Over the years more elaborate designs were produced until the advent of accurate clocks when the function of the sundial became more decorative than as a reliable means of telling the time.

The question is often asked “Can a sundial really tell the correct time?” to which you will receive the Alice in Wonderland reply that it depends upon what you mean by “the correct time”. Our clocks and watches work on the basis of there being exactly twenty-four hours between one day and the next but, because of the eliptical nature of the earth’s orbit around the sun, the time shown on the sundial will vary according to the seasons. In February by the clock the sun is almost fifteen minutes slow, whereas during the spring and summer months it gains and loses between four and six minutes in two cycles. At the other extreme in November the sundial appears to be some seventeen minutes fast. In fact the sundial is accurate on only four days of the year, about April 15, June 14, September 2 and December 25. Some sundials include a table showing the deviation from “clock time” according to the date.

The time indicated by the sun will also vary with the location of the dial. The sun travels across the sky at the rate of fifteen degrees per hour so every degree of longditude represents a difference of four minutes from the standard meridian for the region. The angle of the gnomon also depends on the situation, so to set up your sundial correctly you need to know both the latitude and longditude of its location. For the United States and the United Kingdom this site can provide the information. The gnomon should be set at the angle in degrees which is equal to the latitude of your location. The sundial can then be fixed with the gnomon pointing to the Pole Star. There are various ways of achieving this, the easiest of which, is to use a compass adjusted for the magnetic variation. Further details are beyond the scope of this article, but for those interested look at this site.

If you have read this far you will have discovered that there is a great deal more to the sundial than a mere item of garden decoration. If this has piqued your interest in the subject, then you are not alone. There are Sundial Societies in countries around the world. The North American Sundial Society has details of its objects and activities on its website.

A number of sundial trails have been established. A good example is the Thames Sundial Trail in London, England. This site lists a number of other trails in countries all over the world but only two in the United States. However the North American Sundial Society has a complete list on its website.

Two rather different designs are shown here. The first, which is commonly referred to as a Human Sundial, uses the person’s shadow to indicate the time. By standing in the appropriate box for the date the shadow will show the correct time. The second is a Digital Sundial which sounds like a contradiction in terms but in reality is just a rather clever design.

Many sundials have a motto inscribed on the face. Often these are rather serious in tone and of the “Tempus fugit” variety but you also find some written in a lighter vein. Here are a few of my favourites:

The shadow of my finger cast
Divides the future from the past

The clock the time may wrongly tell,
I never if the sun shines well

I stand amid the summer flowers
To tell the passage of the hours

And finally again from Hilaire Belloc:

I am a sundial, turned the wrong way round.
I cost my foolish mistress fifty pounds!

About the Author

Hugh Harris-Evans is the owner of The Garden Supplies Advisor where you will find further articles, gardening tips and product reviews.