I found the tax shelter in this posting when searching for a gift for my brother. He is a tax preparer and has everything. So I just had to share what I did for him. I took one of those woodcraft houses from Walmart- removed the two screws from the base. I cut a 1" block of wood that fit into the bottom of the house. I glued this block onto the base thus allowing the top of the house to be easily lifted off the base. I cut a 1/2" groove in the center of the block with the table saw so I could set a card of thumb tacks into it. This was hidden in the house until the top was lifted off. I wrote a poem for this & read it to him while my daughter did a Vanna White presentation of the house. Everyone got a good laugh out of this and I finally did a complete craft project! It's been a while. Hope you have as much fun with this as we did. Here's the poem: I drew your name for Christmas It's an honor, don't you know To get my brothers name for Christmas Ah! ashopping I will go. But then I started frettin After searching high and low Whatever will I get 'im (Twas wrong to worry so!) I went into an office shop Maybe something for your desk? I talked to the clerk a lot She tried to aid me in my quest. He could use a tax shelter Is what the lady said It seemed a bit off-kelter But there was nothing left instead. So here's your little shelter All painted so very nice The foundation has been mended The roofs' been polished thrice. The flowers are all blooming In the big pot by the door The bumblebees are buzzing And there's no sawdust on the floor. It seems to be the perfect place I do agree she's right It sure beats a plain old case And your tacks! They're finally safe at night!

I wonder where the car engine CD is? I know a whole slew of babies who would settle down as soon as they were in a running car. I'm another noise-hater. I have enough noise in my head already thanks to tinnitus and sometimes it makes my hearing hyperacute. I buy earplugs by the case. Seriously! I've always got a pair in my purse for when I go into stores and such, especially the supermarket and big dept. stores like Target, because it seems like there's always little kids doing what DH and I call "testing the acoustics" (which I would have gotten into some seriously deep trouble for when I was that age, but now everyone's expected to put up with it). White noise grates on my nerves, something about that monotonous sound drives me right up the wall. DH can't believe how low I keep the TV volume, I can hear it fine but he can't get more than a mumble at that level. I'm always asking him to turn down the tv, video game, or stereo. The default speaker setting on my computer is "mute", about the only time I turn the sound on is when watching a video clip. I don't mind hearing people talking though if they're doing so relatively quietly - I talk on my cell phone in public sometimes but I keep my voice down as much as possible. I do plug myself into my iPod at physical therapy because they play an annoying radio station most of the time and people I don't much like, such as one creepy old guy who always gawks at my boobs and never looks above my collarbone, always try to talk to me if I don't. The headphones do seem to do a good job of telling people I'm not interested in chitchat, so go away! Plus if I can get something with a good beat going or something funny (like standup comedy) it distracts me when my joints start to complain. We bought an electric lawnmower because they're so quiet (sounds a bit like a small vacuum cleaner) as well as far less polluting than gas mowers, so it's much more polite to the neighbors. I'm thinking about giving the guy next door a key to our shed so he can use our mower, because his is deafening as well as stinky! DH never works on any noisy projects before 9am or after 6pm because it's just rude to the people around us. I can understand the early-morning snowblowers because people have to get to work, but there's no need to mow the lawn that early. We've been here about 1 1/2 years and I'm just getting used to being back in a closely packed neighborhood (there's only about 15 feet between houses - we couldn't afford anything with a bigger lot) after being on a thickly wooded acre where the only noise was the motorcycle riders that loved the road behind us. WHY do those things have to be so d@mn loud??? Theoretically there's a noise ordinance in this city but it's pretty much rock bottom on the police priority list so motorcycles and muscle cars roar, car stereos blare and so on. A kindergarten-aged child who lives near me screams at the top of her lungs whenever she's playing outside. And I mean a piercing screech that penetrates through earplugs like an icepick. She'll get into screeching contests with another girl too, I guess to see who can get the highest pitch and the loudest. She ignores us if we ask her to keep it down and talking to her parents resulted in a snort, a sneer, and the moronic phrase "oh, she's just a kid, lighten up". How about teaching your kid some respect for other people when she's young enough to learn, ya dingbat? At least the family with the half a dozen kids and the basketball hoop moved away, so we don't have to listen to that ball all day and most of the night - we liked the parents fine but we could have done without the basketball hoop! (The parents would send the kids outside pretty much whenever it wasn't pouring or extremely cold because they lived in a house that was way too small for such a big family and everyone drove each other nuts. I can sympathize.)

Here's a recipe which I have worked up for my dehydrator; it makes terrific jerky. Please note that it is used to dry and flavor the beef, and it is NOT cured; that is, I don't know if it will be safe to store this stuff at room temperature or not. I keep the product in the freezer anyway. I've never used an oven to dry the stuff, although I suppose you could if it came down to a low temp. At any rate, this recipe is a good starting point: Guinness Beef Jerky Marinade (This amount of marinade is sufficient for about 5 to 6 pounds of beef, which I find fill my eight dehydrator trays fairly full.) 6 lbs lean beef, sliced thinly--see Note 1 2 bottles (12-14 oz each) Guinness Stout 2 tablespoons kosher salt 2 tablespoons garlic powder 2-4 tablespoons hot stuff (see Notes 2 and 3) optional: liquid smoke, 1 to 2 tbsp In a large bowl pour stout and add salt, whisking to dissolve salt and decarbonate the stout. Add the garlic powder and hot stuff and mix well. Put the beef strips in the marinade by handfuls, swirling around to make sure all surfaces have come in contact with the marinade. Place the beef in a nonreactive container (a stainless stockpot works fine, pour the remaining marinade over the beef and refrigerate for at least an hour (more is better, mixing the beef strips every so often in the pot) Place the strips flat on the trays and dry until done. Note 1: I like to use round roast because it's very lean; eye of round is very easy to slice across the grain, and that yields a less stringy product. Don't use a fatty cut because it won't dry as thoroughly and won't have the storage properties of a leaner cut. Note 2: I have used chipotle powder with good results; 4 tablespoons in this recipe makes a quite hot product, and 2 tbsp makes a pleasantly zingy one. If you want something quite mild, use sweet paprika which would make a product not at all hot but with pleasant flavor. Note 3: The last batch I made, I used a can of chipotle peppers in adobo sauce instead of the tablespoons of hot stuff, blended in the blender until smooth, then I added the other ingredients and blended until mixed. Worked great, although next time I will cut back a little on the salt. I prefer to dry it fairly dry and store it in several small (1 qt) ziploc bags in the freezer, transferring one bag at a time to the fridge from which I take a piece or two at a time to snack on. None of it has ever gone bad storing it that way.

More Stuff: 1. Clothes lines (Ever run under one while riding your bicycle? Gives a real meaning to the term, "clothes lined.) 2. Monday laundry day with the Maytag Washer powered by a small gasoline engine. (The engine could be cantankerous.) The washer sat outside with very little protection from the weather. 3. Introduction of the safety wringer. The safety wringer became necessary once the wringer became powered by a motor. Too many horror stories happened when the lady of the house got her hair or sleeve caught in the wringer. This safety feature came in two styles: 1) When an object got between the rollers that spread those beyond the normal diatance, the mechanism was tripped and literally came apart to disengage drive power to the roller. 2) A trip bar was placed in front to the wringers. When something got drawn into the trip bar, the mechanism came apart. In an emergency, a person could hit the trip bar to stop the wringer. 4. Fence stretchers. Used to intall barbed wire fencing. 5. Home made kites using weed stems for light weight sticks and newspaper for covering. (We had access to big, woody weeds called horseweed.) The paper was held by home made paste made of flour or corn starch. We raided the 'rag bag' for material to make the tail. 6. Rubber band powered model airplanes. (Not very effective.) 7. Cap pistols and Roy Rogers and LOne Ranger outfits. 8. Hand and foot operated air pumps for inflating tires. 9. Daisy BB guns. 10. Manual shifters and clutches - no automatic transmissions. 11. Hill holders - Kept the car from rolling backward while stopped at a traffic light on a hill. Ever try to go from keeping the car from rolling backard and shifting into gear to go forward on a hill? And do it smoothly? You needed an extra foot. 12. Brake light swithces were pressure switches plumbed to the hydraulic brake lines. Occasionaly, one would leak badly or the diaphram failed and caused loss of brakes. That's when the manual 'parking brake' became an emergency brake. In fact, in Model-A Fords with mechanical brakes, that little lever was called the emergency brake and it as needed. I know from personal experience. 13. Before combines, there were mowing machines, hay rakes, binders, and threshing machines. 14. Autos running without air cleaners could expect to need new rings every 20,000 to 30,000 miles. 15. Road draft tubes. Fumes from the crankcase was vented underneath the engine through an open tube. The end of the tube was cut on an angle. The air flow over the end of the tube induced a weak draft to help purge the crankcase. Where did the stuff go? On the road and the underside of the car. Look at photos of highways from the 1940s and you can obvserve an oil streak in the center of the lane unless the concrete was very new. This oil streak was a peril to motorcyclist when they leaned into a turn and happened to creep into this oil slick especailly if it was bit wet. 16. Steam engines on railroads. I remember the phase out of the last of these on the Balitmore and Ohio railway. 17. Hobos. 18. Huckster Trucks. During WW2 when everything was rationed, county grocery stores ran a panel truck route to their customers homes bringing basic items like bread, canned goods, sugar, spices, salt, etc. The made two runs per week. If an item was not on the truck on Monday, you could place an order and it would be delivered 2 to 3 days later on their next run. The huckester truck was given a gasoline alowance, but most farmers had only enough gasoline for their tractors and very little 'ration stamps' for tires. Autos remained parked for days on end. The national speed limit was 45 mph for private vehicles. 19. Bell bottomed trousers. 20. Pant leg clips - to keep pant legs out of the bicycle chain. - very necessary with bell bottoms. 21. Schwinn was a big name in bicycles. It no longer exists. I beleive that the tradename is still emplyed.