Hey - just what I've been looking for. I have one of the feeders and managed to break one of the tubes. I had forgotten where I got the feeder from and was just thinking the other day that I should google it (I wasn't at a computer at that time) - and now here is the answer. Thanks!

This argument comes up too often, and it's silly that people (on both sides of the argument) get their noses out of joint. Here's an analogy: I make wedding cakes -- not many, just a few every year. I make incredible, custom-designed cakes. I use only my own unique recipes (and if you'd tasted the last cake I made -- Key Lime with raspberry filling and lime cream cheese frosting ... or the chocolate truffle cake with salted caramel filling that I'm developing for my own daughter's wedding, you'd understand), and people often come back for seconds or thirds. I deliver, set up, serve, package the bride's top layer for the freezer, and clean. My cakes are always a big topic of conversation at the reception, and former brides often tell me that years later their friends still remember their cakes. Every single time I do a cake, a few people quietly ask me for my card, saying they or a friend absolutely must come talk to me about a cake for a future wedding. HOWEVER, when people see my prices (all that quality and service doesn't come cheaply), about half of them suddenly decide that Harris Teeter's sheet cakes are pretty good after all, or doughnuts stacked up like they do on Pinterest is witty and different. Am I insulted? Nope. Everyone doesn't value the same things. Houses are the same. Not everyone has the same expectations, not everyone cares at the same level, and not everyone has the same resources. Thus, different choices. In my own life, here's what I know to be true: When my grandparents married back in the 1930s, my grandmother (a teacher and business owner, not connected to design in any way) spent two years drawing a sketch ... they built it, raised their family in it, my mother raised her family in it, and now my brother's raising his family in it. It's a GREAT house -- a mixture of farmhouse and bungalow. The public rooms are oriented to take in the best light (through very classic windows). The closets and pantry are all pushed to the interior of the house, and the house has wonderful flow. My very forward-thinking grandmother planned ahead for a living room extension (she couldn't afford to build it as big as she wanted), and she planned for extra bedrooms and a second bathroom to be added to the back. Over the years, it's had three kitchen remodels and a couple new roofs. The back porch was taken in to become a laundry room, and two new porches have been added to opposite sides of the house. Could it have been designed better? Maybe, but it's evolved over the years and has served our family well. On the other hand, my aunt was an architect. She and my uncle bought a simple ranch house -- I didn't think much of it. She really had "an eye" that other people don't. She opened up the family room and the living room into one area, and she added a master bedroom /bath towards the front of the house. It now looks NOTHING like that little ranch in which they started. It's now something of an eclectic contemporary, and I love it. It flows so well and is unique -- completely different from anything else I've ever seen. She cut "windows" between some rooms to let light flow through. She added a super cute flagstone patio out back. But does it function any better than the house my grandmother designed? No. And a final thought: Not everyone approaches this task with the same level of ability. Clearly trained architects have ability, or they wouldn't have made it through school. But among the rest of us, some have a better sense of space, etc. than others. The important thing is to be honest with yourself about your own abilities.

I wondered about flow impedence, I can't remember what the rules are here for distance of run but the flow seems pretty decent and when I get the whole thing cleaned, it'll be better, I don't think the damper will impede it *too* much but a booster may be something to think about, but on the downside, more power consumption, and also more negative pressure, I think eventually I'll need some sort of supplementary air intake to the house to avoid sucking back products of combustion from furnace/HWH, especially if we get a gas cooktop and vent our range hood outside, currently it's just recirculating and fairly useless. Our smoke detector goes off frequently when we're cooking. My furnace has the air intake that runs from outside to the cold air return (I'm in BC Canada btw) and combustion air is drawn from surrounds via louvred doors, if more "make up" air is required, how is it usually supplied? I don't imaging a heat recovery/fresh air exchanger does this job as I assume it intake/exhausts equal amounts of air? I love the idea of drawing the warm air from the attic (provided it's not humid) in some climates provided you're not sucking up fibreglass dust from the insulation; in my old house when I lived in Australia this would have worked well, having said that, there is no code to enforce dryers being vented outside, I chose to do so with mine and had to look hard for a ventable model (no gas dryers there, everything's 240v anyway) - and this in a country with usually very high humidity. Not sure what's up with that. In winter, the heat's good but we could certainly have done without any extra humidity

You don't really need a pattern for this unless you want a fancy one that looks like a snake or wiener dog. I'm sure there are patterns on line or in pattern books for those. To make just a roll---=Measure your door and add 5 or 6 inches to the total. Cut a piece of sturdy fabric 8 inches x your measured length+ the extra. Sew the long end and reinforce it. You now have a 4 " tube. Sew one end closed again reinforcing it. Turn to the right side and push out the corners. Fill with non-clumping kitty litter to 1 inch of the top. Don't tamp it down. You don't want a solid lump so it won't conform to the door. Turn under 1/2 inch on remaining end and top stitch closed