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Why my shower leaks and what to do. Have you ever had a shower pan that leaks? This can be a nightmare for a homeowner! This can ruin walls and floors and cause mildew and fungus, which can be a health hazard.

Some background information:

Some older homes, built 20 years ago,or more had “composition” shower pans. They were made of kind of a tar paper. When a shower base filled up with water from a leak the cement work under the tile got wet and so did the shower pan, after a while it deteriorated and the pan no longer was a receptor to hold the leaking water. The water just ran out of the bottom and onto your bathroom floor.

Newer bathrooms use a vinyl shower pan material that does not deteriorate. So unless there is a serious hole in the vinyl pan from construction nails or screws the pan does it’s job, which is to retain water from a shower floor leak from flooding your bathroom. So with the new vinyl pans, or if you had a soldered copper pan, you have a great receptor to hold leaking water.

But…Even with a good shower pan you can still have problems! When the cement in the shower pan is completely saturated there is no place for the water to go except, through capillary action, up the wall and down into the bathroom. If you have cementatious sub walls it’s not to bad if fixed in time. The walls will dry out and loose tile or marble , can be replaced.

If you have green board (treated drywall) your walls if not fixed will rot out and

then its time for a major overhaul.

Why do showers leak?

The biggest cause of shower floor that leaks is a bad installation:

1. Which could be the tile or marble not cut tight to the wall.

2. Low areas in the cement work under the tile. Water sits in the depression and does not

flow to the drain. On some materials it can migrate into the pan.

3. Tile not cut tight to the drain itself that can crack and open up an entrance for water.

4. The most common reason is the shower floor was installed after the finish walls were!

In this case when the shower moves from expansion and contraction due to

temperature changes, or the house settling. A crack or separation occurs between the

finished shower wall and finished shower floor. “This is the entrance for water”.

The shower floor should be built the other way around that is the wall material lands

On top of the finished shower floor and forms kind of a water barrier and it is much harder for water to get in. There is a second set of holes in the drain where water is suppose to go if the cement under the floor gets wet, but this, in my experience seldom works.

5. Sometimes it is not the shower floor letting the water in, it is the diverter leaking behind the wall. This is easy to determine.Take off the faucet handles and eschucheon (cover plate) Put the handles back on and turn on the water .Look in the open hole with a flashlight if necesary and see if there is water leaking out of the diverter, once in awhile that’s the problem. If it is you need a new divereter.

More next article : How to keep your shower from leaking and preventive maintenance

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Do you still like to tie your hair up with cute hair bows, but with the recent change in the economy you are finding it hard to want to spend any money on them. Why not make them yourself. There are thousands of free hair bow patterns 5 all over the internet. It just takes a little time to find them.

To start there are lots of free easy crochet patterns on the net. One site that shows a variety of not only free hair bow patterns 5 is a site called Free Patterns. This site has been around for a significant amount of time. Not only will you find crochet, but you will also find sewing patterns, arts and crafts. These patterns come in hundreds of downloads from this site.

Here are some examples of what you might find on the site; hat patterns, free hair bow patterns 5, doll clothes, tissue box covers and so much more.

You can spend hours getting lost in each of the different sections of this wonderful site looking up different patterns. The site has gone through some great changes. If you want to find great free hair bow patterns 5. Then this is your site to look.

Here is an example of one. Plastic canvas hair bows are easy and quick to make you will need the following materials for this pattern. Standard size 7-mesh plastic canvas, yarn any color you choose, a tapestry needle, an octagon shaped rhinestone, 3″ hair clip and heavy duty craft glue.

You will want to make sure you download the free hair bows pattern 5 from the site so that you can get the full diagram of the bow. Once you have gotten the pattern you will want to use a marker, to mark out the pattern onto plastic canvas. Cut out the bow, then start stitching away. This will take about an hour or longer depending on how quickly you sew. If this is your first time, make sure be patient. You will get it.

There is another great free hair bows pattern 5 that you can crochet. This pattern is for someone that has been crocheting for a little while, but if you are a fast learner, you may be able to make the bow in no time.

Hair bows can be made of so many different materials it is amazing. You can let your imagination run while.

There are many sites on the web that also contain free hair bows pattern 5. A good example would be; All crafts.net. This site also has many patterns that you can download or print out.

Another site to check out is craft town, this site has thousands of patterns to choose from.

What ever you do, make sure you don’t overwhelm yourself down load one or two patterns to begin with then, go from there.

Good luck!

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These days kitchen décor comes in all colors, sizes and eras. One fun way to decorate your kitchen is with a bit of 1940’s nostalgia. Painted cabinets, glass knobs, and vintage linens combined with new appliances that have a retro look can give you a unique and functional kitchen.

You can get a great 1940’s look without spending a bundle and still be able to fill your kitchen with some nice collectibles. Here’s some ideas on how you can get a 1940’s look in your kitchen.

Colors

Some popular colors from this era include jadeite and a red and white theme. You can find plenty of vintage accents to fill your kitchen for either one of these color schemes. Why not start a collection of jadeite that you can display in open cabinets as well as use for dishware? You can jazz the place up with vintage wooden handle gadgets that are painted jadite and cream. If you are going for the red and white theme, there are plenty of red vintage kitchen ware gadgets out there and vintage linens can really perk up the place. Another advantage of the red and white theme is you can also add in a fruit theme on top of it like apples or strawberries.

I would leave the walls a neutral color – white of off white so that it does not detract from all

your great accessories. Linoleum flooring in a checkerboard pattern would be perfect.

Some color coordinated throw rugs can add a bit of color to the floor and pull it all together.

Lighting

Simple lighting is best. You can buy vintage ceiling lights and wall sconces if you want a

really authentic look. Of course you’ll want to make sure you have enough task

lighting so some modern lights will have to be worked in. I suggest you make them as subtle as possible so they don’t look out of place.

Window Treatments

Use vintage curtains for your windows. You can buy them with complimentary colors and great patterns.

If you can’t find curtains make some out of vintage dish towels or tablecloths – you can buy tablecloths that have stains in 1 area pretty cheaply and then just use the good area for the curtains! If you are going with a red and white 1940’s kitchen decorating theme, you might want to pick either cherries or apples as a secondary theme and look for curtains with those fruits in the motif.

Furniture

Glass knobs will really jazz up your furniture and cabinets and add an authentic vintage look. If you have painted cabinets in either white or cream, try the green glass knobs. Your table and chairs should either be a chrome vintage style dinette (you can buy these new and you can still get vintage ones as well), or a vintage wooden style table with enamel top. If you can’t find either of these, you can buy any type table and hide it with a vintage tablecloth.

Accessories

Accessories for 1940’s style kitchens can be found in antique malls as well as bought brand new.

Soften up the room by hanging vintage tablecloths and tea towels around. Chrome appliances go well with this look as do the retro style appliances you can buy brand new these days. And don’t forget the vintage

breadbox and canisters – every kitchen had them on the counter and you can choose from chrome

or enamel in cream and green, or red and white to complete your look.

Housecost

Hop on the Safari Bus. We are going on a Jungle Tour in the Preschool Classroom. It’s going to be so much fun for the children, and I guarantee you are going to enjoy yourself.

Here are some ideas on how to get your jungle theme lesson plan started and some ideas to keep it going for as long as your preschoolers are interested in the activity.

Here’s how to introduce the theme:

Day 1. Ask the children if they know what the word ‘jungle’ means. Explain what a jungle is for those who may not know, and have a picture of a jungle so they can associate your description with the picture.

Day 2. Have books* in the library on jungles and animals that live in the jungle. They can be a mix of cartoon type kids books and real-to-life kids books. (Your local library should be able to help you out with finding books.)

Day 3. Find pictures* of jungle animals from magazines, books, the internet, calendars, or anywhere you can find them, laminate them, and post them on the walls around the classroom.

Day 4. Place jungle themed toys on the toy shelf and place a few jungle themed puzzles in the puzzle area

Day 5. Find a CD with jungle themed music and play that throughout playtime after you talk about the jungle.

*If any pictures or books you have, show any sort of tribal people, you could make tribal masks for a creative art activity and the children can wear them in the dramatic play centre.

You can also place some paper towel tubes, pipe cleaners, markers, googly eyes, etc., on the art shelf and see which animals they create.

Here are some examples of animals you can introduce through books and pictures:

Panthers

Snakes

Bears

Monkeys

Zebras

Giraffes

Elephants

Cheetahs

Alligators

Rhinoceros

Birds

Hippopotamus

Feel free to have an open discussion with the children. Talk about the colors of the animals, their teeth, their eyes, which animal does each child like best, etc.

If you want, you can also touch on what the animals eat but make sure you keep it simple. The children at this stage in life don’t need to start learning about the words carnivores, herbivores, etc. Just keep things simple like saying, a panther eats meat, a monkey eats fruit, a giraffe eats leave from tall trees, etc.

The children will probably want to know where the animals homes are in the jungle. This information should be easy to find through the books and pictures you have. If not, the library will have books on the individual animals you are talking about which will give you the information you need.

Here are some examples to get you started:

The animals will find homes within their habitat (the jungle) which they make into a home for them and their animal families.

Animals homes in the jungle could be a nest, a den, a burrow, under a rock, in a hollow tree trunk, up high in trees, etc.

You can then talk about which animal might live in a tree, which one would live under a rock, etc.

To incorporate this theme into the different programming areas of the classroom, some examples could be:

Creating a jungle themed dramatic play center:

Make a jungle jeep, safari jeep or car out of a box or, place 4 chairs together with a stand up steering wheel in front of one chair.

Get some safari looking hats.

Children’s binoculars.

Pretend cameras.

Post jungle animal pictures on the wall and watch your preschool children go wild over this theme.

Here is a sandy sensory idea:

Place some sand in the sensory bin.

Find some small rubber or plastic sand animals* you would find in the jungle. (Snakes, beetles, insects, etc.)

Place these items in the sensory bin and your done.

*I have had great success finding almost everything I need at dollar stores. Search them out, I am sure you will find what you are looking for.

Just be as creative as you can with this theme. The possibilities are endless if you put your mind to it. When you are listening to the jungle music you can incorporate creative movement into this. Ask the children to pick an animal they would like to pretend to be and move to the music like that animal. There is no right or wrong movement, the children will have so much fun.

You could also move this theme into outdoor gross motor play. You could bring some of the dramatic play items outside like the hats, binoculars, cameras etc. Place some stuffed toys here and there around the play yard (make sure they get washed when you bring them in for the day) and go on an outdoor safari hunt.

The children can ride their bikes and go on their own tour, they can go on a “lion/bear hunt,” you can run from animals ’scare’ you, you can tip toe and walk around animals that are ’sleeping’.

Remember to use your imagination and expand on what the children are doing and saying.

Have a wonderful Jungle Themed Lesson and go wild with adventure.

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It’s tax time – are you ready? Chances are, if you started a home based child care business in 2007 you are feeling very overwhelmed about your taxes. I know that feeling! I ran a home daycare for nine years and tax season can be intimidating! Whether you are having a professional complete your taxes or you are doing them yourself, there are several things you need to know to help the process go more smoothly.

First let’s talk about the issue of professional tax preparers versus doing it yourself. Which method is better? I personally have used both methods. The first year I needed to file taxes for my home child care business, I attended a workshop put on by a local community college that dealt specifically with taxes for child care businesses. It was extremely helpful. I would suggest asking around to find out if there is something like that available in your area. You can check with other daycare providers, local community colleges, or child care organizations to see if someone can point you in the right direction. After attending the seminar, I decided to do the taxes myself that first year. I felt like I had a pretty good handle on the situation and professional tax preparers can be costly. I was able to get help from the IRS through their website http://www.irs.gov, and over the phone (see website for phone numbers). It takes some patience to get through to them because sometimes the hold time is lengthy, but when you do get through the help is outstanding! That first year I did my taxes the old fashioned way…on paper! I completed them on paper for a couple of years actually.

A few years into my daycare business I chose to have a professional complete my taxes, mostly because of some items to be addressed in our personal taxes that we weren’t sure how to handle. I was relieved to find out that I had been doing a pretty good job with my business taxes! The accountant was able to find a few more deductions that I hadn’t been claiming that proved to be very helpful. After that year, I chose to go back to doing my own taxes, but I decided to use one of the tax software programs. They turned out to be easier than I thought they would be and the online question center was very helpful. I loved that I was able to file my taxes electronically, which significantly reduced my wait time to receive my refund. I continued to complete my taxes using computer software for the duration of my child care business years. Personally, I think that you can successfully complete your business taxes yourself, especially using tax software, and save yourself significant money. It might be beneficial to have a professional do it the first year so you are certain that you are taking all of the deductions you should take. After that, you can look back on the first year taxes as you complete them yourself to ensure that you are completing them correctly.

What sort of deductions should you be claiming? One of the biggest deductions you should be logging is your mileage. This is actually one of the deductions that I wasn’t claiming until I had a professional complete my taxes. I found out that I had been missing out on a huge tax savings by not keeping track of my mileage. I didn’t fully understand what mileage I could claim for my child care business. I thought I could only claim mileage for field trips or training classes. How very wrong I was! A home daycare provider can claim mileage for ANY trip in which child care business is conducted. This means that every trip to the grocery store to buy food for daycare, every trip to buy art supplies or toys, every trip to the bank to deposit child care income, is a business trip and you should be keeping track of your mileage!

Mileage is deductible from your home to the location and back again. That being said, you need to be honest with your mileage calculations. If in one day you first travel to the bank to deposit checks and then you head to the grocery store to buy food before heading home, you can’t count mileage from home to the bank and from home to the grocery store. You need to calculate mileage from home to the bank, from the bank to the grocery store, and from the grocery store to your home to be fair. Just to give you an example of how large a deduction mileage can be…I live in a rural area, so a trip to the grocery store and back for me is about 30 miles. The bank is even further. In an average year, I was able to claim approximately 10,000 miles for a deduction for my child care business! This comes out to be a $3000-$4000 deduction! I know you are wondering what to do if you make a trip to the grocery store to buy both food for your business and food for your family.

Can you claim that mileage? Absolutely! You are still there conducting daycare business, so that mileage is deductible! I know your next question is, “I didn’t keep track of my mileage for 2007, so do I lose out on that deduction?” Not necessarily. One method I use to calculate mileage is the receipt method. I am sure that you have been saving your receipts from trips to the store. You need them for tax purposes anyway (see next paragraph). You need to go back through your receipts and create a mileage log based on them. Count up how many times you went to each store and write it up, including the name, address, and reason for going to each store. Then you will need to logon to a website such as http://www.mapquest.com and choose the option for finding directions. Put in your starting address (usually your home) and the address of the store you went to. Then click on find directions. When the program lists the driving directions, it will also list the mileage. You will need to double the mileage, since the program only gives you mileage for the trip to the location, not for the return trip.

Once you have the roundtrip mileage for a certain store, multiply the mileage by the number of times you went to that store for daycare business in 2007. Voila…you have a mileage log! You will need to calculate the number of times you went to the bank for childcare also, and use the same method as above for calculating the mileage. If you don’t save all of your deposit receipts, go back through your checkbook registers to find all of your deposits. Remember to include things like field trip mileage, or trips back and forth from the school if you pick up child care children from preschool or kindergarten. Using this method will give you a fairly accurate calculation of your mileage and can provide you with a huge tax deduction!

Another deduction that you should be claiming is the cost of food and supplies for child care. This is another huge tax deduction! There are two ways to handle food for child care. You can either shop separately for your daycare food than for food for your family, or you can shop for both at the same time and separate items for daycare later on your receipt. Personally, I didn’t shop separately for two reasons. First, if you shop for food that is to be used for your home daycare business, then that food can ONLY be used for your home child care business! That means that if your son or daughter wants to take a granola bar to school for snack and you purchased those for daycare, you are going to have to say no. I know that sounds extreme, but if you are claiming those items as strictly child care items, you need to keep them separated from food for your family. Secondly, it is really a pain in the neck to do separate shopping for your family and your business! It means either separate trips to the store, or at least separate shopping carts in the store! The advantage to shopping separately is that you can claim every penny spent on food for child care on your taxes.

I chose to shop for my family and my business together and not to keep the food separated. It made things a lot easier in my house. However, it did make my record keeping for my business a little trickier. Once a month I had to go through my grocery receipts and mark off items that I knew were not used for child care, such as coffee or soda pop. Once I had eliminated those items from my receipt total, I then had to calculate which items on the receipt were food items, which were consumable items (like toilet paper) and which were non-consumable (like toys). I then calculated a total amount for that receipt of each of these categories and wrote it at the top of the receipt. Come tax time, I calculated a total amount spent for the year for each of these categories. Then, in order to fairly calculate a deduction for each of these categories based on how much was used for child care and how much was used for my family, I had to apply the time-space formula to each category.

The time-space formula is an invaluable equation that allows you to fairly claim child care expenses based on how many hours out of the year you spend being a daycare provider. The equation is fairly simple. First, you need to calculate the approximate amount of space in your home that you use for your child care business. You need to include every space that is ever used for daycare. You need to include your primary child care room of course and your kitchen. But you also need to include the bathrooms that the kids use, the dining area if they eat or do crafts there, the laundry room since you will invariably be washing blankets, sheets, towels, etc. that were used for daycare, any rooms in which children nap, your home office if you use it to create forms and file business paperwork, and any other place the kids use. You need to exclude any rooms that the children in your care never use. Be fair in calculating the approximate percentage of your home that is used in your business.

Once you have this percentage, you need to figure out the approximate number of hours you spent in 2007 performing duties related to your business. You, of course, need to figure out the number of hours per day that you actually care for children. You also need to take into consideration the approximate amount of time per day that you spend cleaning up from child care or getting ready for child care. Then you need to figure out exactly how many days you provided these services in 2007. You then multiply the number of hours per day by the number of days you provided care. That gives you the number of hours you spent in your business in 2007. Now you need to figure out the percentage of hours you spent in your business compared to the number of hours in a year. There are 8760 hours in a year. So, take the number of hours you spent doing daycare and divide it by 8760 and this will give you the percentage of time you spent doing child care in 2007. Finally, you need to multiply the percentage of time you spent doing daycare by the percentage of your home used for business to find a final percentage that you can claim for costs shared by your business and your family.

This gives you your time-space percentage. Here is an example: Let’s say you decide that you use 80% of your home for your business. Now, you spend on average 10 hours per day on your business and you calculate that you spent 200 days being a child care provider in 2007. Multiply the 10 hours per day by the 200 days (10 X 200), to find that you spent 2000 hours providing child care services in 2007. Since there were a total of 8760 hours available in 2007, you will now divide your 2000 hours by 8760 hours (2000 divided by 8760) to find that you spent about 22.8% of your time being a daycare provider in 2007. You can round that up to 23%. For your final calculation, you need to multiply the amount of space used in your home by the amount of time spent doing daycare to find a final percentage that you can claim. In this case, you would multiply the percent usage of your home (80%) by the percent of time spent (23%) (80% X 23%) to get a final percentage of 18.4% or 18% since we would round down. This is the percentage of food, consumable items, utilities, and mortgage interest you will be able to claim for your child care business. The calculation takes a few minutes, but it saves a lot of headache in the end. Non-consumable items like toys or cookware are 100% deductible for your business.

If you have a professional complete your taxes, you will want to make sure to have all of your information with you at the initial meeting. This will save you from having to get information to him/her later and can actually save you money in tax preparation fees. My accountant charged me less because she had less work to do since I had done most of the information preparation done before I met with her. You will want to bring a sheet that shows the total amount of income for your business for 2007, a calculation of your time-space formula, a list of expenses (include a note about which ones should be multiplied by the time-space formula), a mileage log, and any other information relevant to the business (such as a tax id if you have one). Be prepared to back up all of this information with receipts if your accountant wants to see them. Don’t stress if you don’t have everything the accountant wants. You can get it to them later if necessary. If you don’t have everything in order the accountant will let you know, but it will cost you more since the accountant will have to spend more time in preparing your taxes. Be as prepared as you can and you will have much better, and cheaper, results!

This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to tax preparation for home child care businesses. This seems like an overwhelming amount of information, but there is actually a lot more. Don’t give up yet. There are a lot of resources for you to get more information, such as the IRS, an accountant, or a local organization. The best advice I can give a home daycare provider is to be incredibly organized. Keep all of your receipts, keep an accurate mileage log, keep an accurate receipt book recording income, and keep all of it readily available. If you follow this advice filing your taxes will be much easier!

Massage Chair

How to clean wood tables all depends on how dirty the table is and what type of finish it has. If your tables are natural, stained wood you’ll need to use a bit more work to care for them than one that’s been sealed with a polyurethane coating. We’ll work through the cleaning options for both from light dusting to a full deep cleaning.

If both types of table just have a little bit of dust on them you can clean them off with a static cloth. These cloths attract dust to them leaving a nice clean surface without any chemical residues.

If you want to shine the table up at the same time; then use a commercial furniture polish to shine everything up. Grab a can of spray wax and lightly mist the table surface. Let it sit for a minute then wipe it off with a paper towel. The wax will pull up any light dirt and dust and leave the table shining.

If your table is really dirty then you’ll want to use a gentle wood soap. Mix up a bucket of soap and water. Scrub down the top of the table with a soft nylon brush. Be careful with brushing. Too stiff a brush can scratch the table surface. The scrubbing action plus soap will pull up any dirt as well as strip off any built up furniture polish. Next use a bucket of clean water to rinse all the suds off. For non sealed tables you’ll want to dry the table off with a dry rag. Poly coated tables can air dry.

That’s about the heaviest work you’ll have to do for sealed tables. After everything is dry you’ll just apply another coat of polish to it to bring back the shine.

Non-sealed tables require a couple additional steps after the cleaning. You’ll want to oil the wood. Lemon oil is a good choice. It will help protect the table from water rings and leave a nice fresh scent. Be sure that the oil won’t change the color of the wood before you go applying it to the table. Try applying a little bit of oil to the underside of the table first and let it set. If it looks good then you can go ahead with oiling the table top.

Put on a pair of gloves then soak a rag in lemon oil. Work the lemon oil into the table finish. You want to keep applying oil until the table won’t absorb any more oil.

Once the wood stops taking up oil, wipe the surface down with some paper towels to absorb any wet spots. Don’t set anything on the table for a few hours. The table will still be a little bit oily so you don’t want to put a cloth place setting back down on the table until it dries out a bit.

How to clean wood tables is pretty straight forward. From a simple dusting job through a full deep cleaning it only takes a little bit of time and a couple supplies you can pick up at any store.

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Towels, we all have them. Some of them are taking up space or some are just old and dingy. Ever wonder how to fold your towels so they don’t take up much space, or how about towels as a gift? Well here are some useful tips and tricks for your everyday item, your towels.

Common Towel Fold

Use a flat surface to lay the towel out lengthwise.

Fold the towel in thirds lengthwise. Make sure to keep the edges as even as possible.

Fold the towel in half lengthwise.

Fold the towel in half again.

Now to make this into a gift, tie a nice satin ribbon around the stack and tie a nice bow.

Have older towels? Well, use these to mop your floors. All you need to do is fold your towel in half, place it in a clamp handle mop and cut the cloth into strips, and tada you have a good mop.

Make a baby towel by sewing a washcloth onto a bath towel. What you do is fold the washcloth in half, then tuck the folded section in to make a “V”. Sew the bottom of the cloth at the edge of the length of your bath towel.

Have a decorative suitcase, why not display your guest towels in them? Roll up your guest’s hand towels, wash- cloths, and large bath towels and arrange them in the suitcase and leave it open in the guest room where they can find them easily.

For a large mixing bowel that slips on your counter top, to prevent it, place a damp towel under it.

Fancy folded hand towels

Lay your hand towel out with the tag facing down. Fold the bottom about a third of the way up. Turn your towel over and fold one side a third of the way over, fold the other side on top and tuck in the ends. Flip the towel over and hang on your towel rack. For a finishing touch add a fan folded wash cloth. For a fan folded wash cloth, lay it down tag side down and flip about an inch of the side over and repeat all the way to the end of your wash cloth. When finished tuck this fan into the pocket of your hanging hand towel. This can also be done to large bath towels, so instead of a washcloth you fan fold a hand towel and place it in the pocket.

Fancy Roll For Towels

To create a roll for a fancy touch, turn a wash cloth (also works for bath towels and hand towels), tag side down, fold one corner into the center, then overlap the other side. Start from the bottom and flip the end over, roll your towel tightly all the way up. Arrange in your closet, your decorative suitcase, or on display in a nice basket on your bathroom sink.

Keep your towels fresh and plush by adding a cup of white vinegar while washing them. There you have it, from a common fold to a fancy fold, for baby or your floors, you can find many things to do with your towels (not just taking up space anymore).

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Do you always find yourself camping somewhere in the outdoors? If so, you’d probably need the help of good chuck box plans to help you build your own personal kitchen organizer. It’ll be dandy to have just this kind of kitchen organizer to carry with you whenever you go camping.

Chuck boxes are those neat things which keeps all your kitchen needs organized while you are camping. It keeps all your utensils, pots, pans, paper towels and spices all in one place so you can easily load all you camp kitchen while you’re on the go.

In order to build a portable organizer in a box that is suitable for you, you need to consider these things:

SIZE

How big do you want your chuck box to be? To answer this, you need to determine the purpose of your box. If it is mainly used for carrying all your kitchen needs for camping purposes, then you’ll want to build something that’s big enough to carry all your cooking gears but small enough to make it very portable. These two aspects are very important if you wish to build a box for camping purposes.

On the other hand, if you want a box you can take with you on your fishing trips, then a work board might be very handy to give you that space for you to cut your fish. Also take note of the different supplies and cooking gears you’ll need to store in your box as this will also determine its size.

MATERIALS

If it’s a simple box you plan to build, then you can simply go to a local lumberjack and find for yourself all the wood that you need to build a simple box for all your portable kitchen gears. However, if you want the surface of your chuck box used as a work board, you can attach a metal laminate on it using screws.

CHUCK BOX PLANS

To keep everything as organized as possible, you will need a design for your chuck box. The design should maximize whatever space there is to accommodate all your portable cooking gears. It has to be a well thought design and very suitable for your personal needs and preferences.

For this purpose, you should look for good chuck box plans. Not only will it help you with the design, it will also serve as your guide during the building process. It will provide you with a step by step instruction to guide you in the project’s completion so you don’t have to deal with confusion. This is an imperative especially if you are a novice builder so you don’t have to go through the process of making your own blueprints which could very well be a test of patience for the most part.

European Stock

Buying a wok

Why a wok?

I’m not a good cook. However my family and I do love Chinese food and we’ve been inspired by Ken Hom to use woks for oriental recipes.

Although stir frys are the most common use for them, they can also be used for boiling, braising, steaming, and stewing.

Their unique advantage is that they use less oil – a small hot area at the bottom allows food to be seared. The oil remains in a small pool at the very bottom. The rest of the wok is cooler, with curved sides, allowing the food to tumble back to the hottest area when tossed or scraped.

Woks also have a much greater usable cooking area than traditional pans.

Healthy food – and lots of it – great!

Materials

I was given my first wok around 25 years ago as a wedding present (I say “around”, but I do know the exact date, honest!)

It is a very large, traditional cast iron one – good looking and probably very expensive. It distributes the heat really evenly. However it is very heavy. And takes a long time to cool so food needs to be taken out once ready, or it will continue to cook. If you’re feeling strong the best looking one I’ve found is here from the Wok Shop at Amazon.

We were finding it too heavy as middle age crept up on us.

So, in the 90’s I cast my eye around for a replacement. Non-stick seemed like a good idea. These woks are usually made from steel with a Teflon non-stick coating. A bad move! Although they may be non-stick, they’re not non-scratch – and some members of the household (maybe me included, I’m not telling!) damaged the surface fairly soon after we bought it. Not only that, but these woks cannot cook at the high heat necessary for stir frying. Once the temperature gets close to the right temperature the coating can breaks down. Also, the surface doesn’t allow the juices to stick to the pan and brown – losing much of the traditional stir-fry taste.

The wok became virtually unusable, so, last year I started looking around for a replacement.

I saw that some woks are now made with the latest non-stick materials including Xylan and Excalibur and I’m told by friends that they work very well.

Joyce Chen endorses this latest 12 inch non-stick wok here. And this smaller (11 inch) one here and larger (14 inch) one here are very good value from money from Amazon.

However non-stick wasn’t for me again.

Aluminum seems like a good material – light and an excellent conductor of heat. However it doesn’t retain heat well – an important requirement. And, although anodized aluminum alloys can stand up to constant use, plain aluminium woks are too soft and damage easily. Also, they won’t work on induction hobs. Good for wok lids, but not for the wok itself, in my opinion. The best looking one I’ve seen is here

Woks are traditionally made from carbon steel. They are relatively inexpensive and lightweight, have quick heat conduction and reasonable durability. However they need seasoning (see below), which, if not carried out, makes the food stick. Lower quality ones are single ply and can deform and misshape. You need to pay a fair amount more to get one made of two sheets of carbon steel. Carbon steel woks should only be washed in warm water to avoid damaging the seasoning. But they need to then be dried thoroughly as they can rust relatively easily. The best looking 14 inch one I’ve seen is available here from Amazon.

Which leaves stainless steel. This is the type I bought. Chromium is added to carbon steel to prevent rusting. They have a hard surface which will not chip, flake, peel or break. Some have much improved surfaces that can withstand much higher temperatures. They heat and cool quickly. And can be scoured with steel wool to restore the shine after each use. Here is the one I’d recommend – a great contemporary look to it.

Shape

Traditionally, woks are round-bottomed. This makes food easier to toss, and minimises splatters.

It is slightly more difficult to move the food around in a flat bottomed wok, although most woks are flat as they can be used in more places.

If you have a gas stove, you’re lucky – you could go for either a round bottomed or flat bottomed wok. However a wok ring is desirable for a round bottomed one on a gas stove. It will help stabilise it and also directs the heat to the very bottom of the wok, where it’s needed.

Money Saving Tip – an upside-down grid on a gas stove is sometimes the right shape to act as a wok ring.

For an electric stove you need a flat bottomed wok. These need to be cleaned well after each use to avoid small food particles getting stuck on the pan.

An alternative, if you have an electric stove, is to get an electric wok. These are stand-alone appliances with good heat conductance properties. They are, however difficult to use if you want to flamboyantly toss your creation around, so perhaps lose some of the magic? The best one I saw is here.

Size

Sizes range from 10″ that would be large enough for a meal for 3, up to 16″, enough for 12 people, or much larger for commercial use.

Accessories

Consider getting a wok lid, spatula and a ladle – all useful for several recipes.

Handles

There are two types of handles – loop and stick.

Loop handles are the most common and are usually made of bare metal, although some have wooden or plastic covers. Cooks need to hold the wok with a thick towel or oven gloves. A fair amount of hand, arm and wrist dexterity is needed for tossing the food.

Stick handles are long and usually made of steel, although, again, sometimes covered. Sometimes called Peking Pans, these are easier to toss if the wok is not too large. Larger woks often have a loop handle as well.

Seasoning

Carbon steel and cast iron woks need to be seasoned before their first use. This involves rubbing the inside of the wok with oil, placing it over a gentle heat so that it begins to smoke, and then removing and allowing to cool. After removing excess oil with kitchen paper, the process needs to be repeated two or three times.

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Some people think that it might be harmful to consume the artificial wax sprayed onto the apples hence they will try to remove the wax off the apples. There are a few options on how to get wax off the apples.

The easiest way is to peel off the apples’ skins. You may use a potato peeler or a small knife. Although there are other ways to remove the wax from the skins, some claim that the skins have unusual tastes and textures. Hence they prefer the skin to be removed.

One of the popular ways is to use the apple cider vinegar. You can pour a small amount in a container and wipe the apple with the vinegar using a paper towel or clean cloth. Wash the apples after wiping and they are safe to be eaten. You can replace the apple cider vinegar with normal white vinegar and apply the similar wiping method. If you wish to use water, you can dip the apples in lukewarm water and gently rub the skins if necessary. Another way is to use mild detergent. Use a brush to clean off the artificial wax. You should mix equal amount of water when using the vinegar or detergent to avoid harmful effects of the mixture. You will know if the method you use is working when the waxing in the liquid is visible.

Besides that, you can also spray the apples. Fill a spray bottle with water or vinegar and spray it onto the apples. Leave them for five minutes and rinse each of them with water thoroughly. If the apples are not cleaned well with water, the taste of the vinegar will linger.

Another recipe on how to get wax off apples is using the baking soda. Get few tablespoons of soda powder and mix it with a bowl of water. Add a tablespoon of lemon juice and mix well. You can wipe the apples with the mixture. If it is not strong enough, you can add more lemon juice.

An additional alternative is to wipe of the wax using vodka. However you will need to wash the apples thoroughly using water after wiping as the vodka may leave a distinct taste on the apples. You can also choose to use the microwave. Set your microwave to defrost mode and leave the apples in the microwave for half a minute. Then clean the apple using a paper towel.

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