Recent content by Paul Brubacher

During my broken leg rehab, i’ve been using a rollator. It won’t go into the bathroom. The old rollator was 25” and the new one is 25.5” width. Not getting the rollator into the bathroom is no big deal because there is a counter that runs the length of the bathroom. The bathroom door is 26”...

Posted recently about my broken leg. To date I've been using my wife's rollator set to the max height. The seat is 24" and the handles 36". The occupational therapist said that the handles should be at 39" for me. (I've got long legs). A medical devices shop said that the government will pay for...

On Feb 4 I slipped, broke both of the bones in my lower leg and fell. They did surgery and installed a rod in the big bone, but left the other bone. With the rod it is possible to support my weight on the broken leg, but there is lots of therapy required. Because the breaks were in the lower...

Roger, A couple of Fridays ago you posted about writing the words for a new hymn that was to be used in church. How was the hymn received? Was it sung by the congregation or only the choir? Would you be able to share the manuscript or a recording? Regards, Paul

The summer solstice is fast approaching. How many hours of sunlight will you get? I had wondered if there was an app that would accept latitude as an entry for the daylight hour calculations but found that the sites want the location by city and country. Two of the sites found by a DuckDuckGo...

Had a requirement for some 1/8" aluminium plate, so I started cutting some scrap angle stock that I had. The blade that was in the saw had very fine teeth and although they were still fairly sharp, the blade was binding. Being both stupid and stubborn, I kept on and eventually got the piece that...

Last Friday there was a wind storm with gusts up to 120 km/hr. It turns out that the rating of standard shingles is 100 km/hr. (60 mph). There were lots of shingles flying around. Fortunately, non were from my house. The shingles that I examined all had holes where they had been nailed, but it...

Ted, I noticed your Fri post about the micro greens. At the time I thought that they looked interesting but didn't know what they were. On Sat my wife bought a package of micro greens with sunflower, raikon radish and peas. They were very good. The radish gave just a hint of spice. How do you...

Living north of lake Ontario means that we have to take special care of our gardens over winter. The temperature can get below -20 C or 0 F for up to a week at a time. To protect the perennials, I rake the leaves over the flower beds in the fall. This has worked quite well. A couple of winters...

No I don't have a laser, but this knick knack holder that my wife's paternal grandfather made would be a good project for laser cutting. Probably 60 years ago when he retired, her grandfather was getting on grandmothers nerves so she told him to do something constructive. He made one of these...

A book by Robert Penn who selected an ash tree, had it cut down, milled, dried it and then had things made with the wood. He describes a lot of old methods of wood craft and describes how the craftsmen used his wood. The ash tree has probably been the most widely used species in history.

This weekend I heard an interesting talk on disruptive technology. It was all about artificial intelligence and automation with an emphasis on self-driving cars to reduce road congestion. Automation is becoming cheaper, look at the CNC machines and 3D printers. It now costs $3.10 per hour to...

Had an interesting day at Black Creek Pioneer Village at the North end of Toronto. My wife had suggested going into downtown TO, but when I suggested that Black Creek would be much easier, she agreed. It’s been quite a few years since we visited and there have been some improvements. Being off...

Just got back from a vacation to New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. On the way home we stopped at Masstown Market in NS close to NB. It is a must stop tourist trap on the Trans Canada Highway. It actually has a very good grocery store as well as lunch counter. There was a 1958 Austin pickup truck...

Had a rather bad day yesterday. Took my wife to a mall that we haven't been to in years to get some special shoes for her soon to be picked up orthotic inserts. She found shoes that should be able to accommodate the inserts and her toe that is swollen with arthritis. So got 2 pairs. After...