BOTTLED MICE
Catch A Mouse is a cheese-shaped portal that screws onto an empty water bottle. A mouse enters through a trap door in search of bait you've placed in the bottle, and it can't get back out. The bottle holds the live mouse until you release it outdoors. $6.99 plus shipping at greenbottleusa.com.
PRACTICAL AND PORTABLE
Looking for a gift and want to find something novel?
Fold-A-Cart is a line of multipurpose utility carts that function like wheelbarrows. Carts come in four models and fold down to 20 percent of their original size, making them easy to transport in a car, van, truck or RV. They can be used to move things around the home, garden, RV, boat, cottage or horse trailer.
The cart's handle height and ergonomic two-wheeled design create a balance point that provides stability and maneuverability. Its tub, which is backed by a 10-year replacement warranty, is resistant to ultraviolet rays, punctures, water and tears, and is flat-bottomed and nonstick.
The 10-or 15-inch wheels roll over any terrain and can carry up to 400 pounds, depending on the model. Carts come with a wall-hanging bracket for storage.
Cost ranges from $99 for the light-duty cart to $299 for the heavy-duty contractor grade. Details: foldacart.com.
You can purchase a Fold-A-Cart from foldacart.com or order by phone at (866) 977-3653.
– MCT NEWS SERVICE
BUNK-BED SAFETY
It's 3 a.m. Do you know whether your child is safe on his bunk bed? The American Home Furnishings Alliance offers this safety checklist:
Children younger than 6 shouldn't sleep on a bunk bed or play unattended in a room with one.
The top bunk should have guard rails, with no more than 15 inches open at one end for entering and exiting.
Rails should be secure and sturdy and should extend at least 5 inches above the top surface of the mattress.
The mattress should be the proper size for the platform, as stated by the manufacturer.
Use a sturdy ladder to enter and exit the top bunk. Only one person should be on the top bunk at a time, and never position a bunk bed under or near a ceiling fan or ceiling light fixture.
Bunk beds manufactured after March should not have any type of “finial” or corner post on the headboard or footboard. This helps prevent accidental strangulation caused by something the child is wearing or carrying catching on the bed as the child exits the upper bunk.
– MCT NEWS SERVICE
TOUCH WOOD
People come from all over the United States to see and participate in the San Diego Fine Woodworkers Association's Design in Wood show at the San Diego County Fair.
And with good reason.
It's been described as “the biggest and best woodworking exhibition in the country” by the editor of Fine Woodworking magazine and is now averaging over 300 entries annually.
The show has become one of the main attractions at the fair, according to master woodworker Bob Stevenson, event coordinator. “It gets better and better every year, people tell us,” he said.
Entries this year ranged from furniture to models to animal figures, like Judith G. Farley's “Atlantic Puffin with Arctic Poppies,” which won a first place in wood carving/birds, and “Giraffe Baby: Basel, 705 Pieces” by Kathy Wise, a first-place winner in the scroll saw/intarsia category.
Best of Show, awarded by Fine Woodworking magazine, went to Nathan Anderson, who created a guitar from Indian rosewood and Sitka spruce. The piece is “a very unusual Best of Show, but a phenomenal piece of work,” Stevenson said.
To see all the prize winners, go to sdfwa.org (click on the Design in Wood icon).
In addition to the juried show, the woodworkers group continued its charity work by making small oak chairs for preschoolers using only 19th-century hand tools. The annual project yields 50 chairs that are donated to preschools, hospital waiting rooms, health clinics, shelters and other organization. To date, over 1,500 chairs have been donated.
– CATHY LUBENSKI
