Furthering FP’s historical squirrel research:
Delaware Weekly Advertiser and Farmer’s Journal; January 31, 1828; Issue 20; col B

Mr. A.S. Bugbee, of Northampton, has contrived a method of turning to account the natural activity of the common grey squirrel. “He has,” says the Northampton Post, “a common cylindrical cage with wire bars, about three feet in diameter, to the axis of which, (four feet long) are connected some small brass wheels which move the machinery of a coffee and pepper mill. Three squirrels are usually employed in the labor of this novel tread-mill, though we have seen a single one turn the wheel with apparent ease. The power of each squirrel in the wheel is estimated by Mr. B. at sixty-five pounds, and in an hour they grind a pound of coffee, pepper, allspice, &c. The expense of the machine was about $300, and the cost of the subsistence of each of the little laborers is about two cents a week.”

Sometimes, when you look at information on being prepared for emergencies, you notice a certain, shall we say, Utah flavor to some of the information. So if you want to go to the source, check out Provident Living. I think some of the tips may be based more on scripture than practicality, but I really can’t argue with the family home evening.

From the description of a propane space heater:
“30K BTU Blue Flame Prpane Space Heater makes supplemental heating fast and easy. Built in Oxygen Depletion Sensor for unparalleled safety. Can easily be operated during power failure. Cool touch cabinet keeps you far away from burnt concerns.”

Wow, I hate it when I burn my concerns.

Wow, this is a cool idea: assassination by socks. Though continuing your dead target’s knitting might be intimidating (or liberating, depending how far along they are).

Since we live in an area with a minimum of grisly murders and appalling scandals, local news has to make due with storms to whip themselves into a frenzy. I have yet to tune in to find out what this storm has been named.

Consumer Corner:
The recommended products for your several days without power are:
1. small radio with speaker and headphone jack, runs on AA batteries
2. small flashlights, run on AA batteries
3. novelty battery-operated white LED Xmas lights, run on AA batteries
4. Light Wedge white LED book illuminator, runs on AA batteries
5. a whole bunch of AA batteries

Your optional purchases:
iPod
Nintendo DS

Craft Corner!
You can make a hot water bottle out of an empty 2 liter soda container and some hot water! You can also make a tasteful and warm non-itchy hat from a pair of tights!

Recipe Corner!
It turns out you can fry Pilsbury Toaster Strudel when only your stove is working.

Another garbage house, but with rats instead of cats.

As hesitant as I would normally be to buy something from a “Mr. McGroovy,” his box rivets have riveted me. Now I want to build huge structures out of cardboard liberated from the recycle dumpster at work.

A while ago I upgraded my Portable Firefox (now called FirefoxPortable) and due to the name change and a significant brain fart, lost my bookmarks. (Annoyed Grunt).

So until I get over the psychic scarring, I’ll be posting a lot of links here. Feh.

Really useful free software for Windows.

Simple index of useful templates for Word.