Home Improvement

Types of Lighting

Lighting a room seems easy enough: Plug in a lamp, flip a switch, and voilà! What was once dark is now bright. But certain missteps can cause a comfy space to feel, well, off. Here some common mistakes to avoid:

Overhead lighting is a go-to option in many spaces, but it’s often not enough. If you omit task lighting, like floor lamps and table lamps, reading on your couch or writing at your desk could strain your eyes. And if you only install can lights in your bedroom, you won’t get the cozy quality that bedside lamps can provide.

Want to get super fancy? Accent lights that highlight art, cabinet interiors, or walls (think sconces) can add a luxe design element to a room.

Think about dimmer switches, they allow you to control your lighting from day to night, for various events, and depending on your mood. A quaint dinner party simply isn’t so quaint if your dining room is lit up like a stadium.

Fixtures add a personal touch to a room however too-small chandelier over a large dining table or an oversized lamp on a table next to a sofa will make the area look disproportionate.”

And don’t rely on eyeballing it when you get to the store. Fixtures often look smaller in lighting showrooms, so bring measurements.


The distance the lights hang is also important. The bottom of a pendant light should be 30 to 36 inches above a kitchen island, the bottom of a chandelier should be 66 inches from the floor in a dining room, and when you’re sitting next to a table lamp, the bottom of the shade should be at shoulder height. If the lamp is too tall, you’ll be blinded by the bulb!


No matter how many lights you place in a room, it just won’t have that light airy feeling if the walls are too dark. This seems obvious, but even slightly different hues in the same color family can make a difference. I painted my kitchen a green tone, and it caused the room to appear very dark. I painted the living a yellow which brighten the room up without lights.


OK, you do not want to put in new light fixtures, maybe just change the bulbs. Longer-lasting CFL and LED bubs can cost more up front, but can save you money over time. Of course, they won’t be perfect in every space; for instance, they often don’t work with dimmers. Bulbs come in daylight, soft light, and many other types. If you have a farmhouse design, you will want to use decorative bulbs like the Edison bulbs which are popular now.

Real Estate (Farm & Ranch Land), Rural life

Calf Catching (Today)

Calf catching, back in the day Rick and I used an old ’64 pickup to check calves and work them. Not many of our Hereford cows ever made it in the pickup, the trouble was with the Angus. As we sat inside trying to decide how best to get a tag in the ear while mamma pawed and blew snot. One of us suggest that the other simply sit a straddle the calf, and although she might get close, “mamma will never actually hit you.” Yeah, right.

Rick was the driver of the pickup and assumed that he could somehow keep the old pickup between me and a frothing cow. Without many hints, I’m certain most of you know how that turned out. It didn’t. His roaming around in the vehicle insured that I dared not crawl under for safety.

As times change from 4-wheelers to gators, then a 4-wheeler with a calf catching cage has definitely made the endeavor safer.

Gardening & Landscape, Pruning trees and shrubs

Pruning Shrubs this Spring

Pruning shrubs is easy, even to rejuvenate an old one that has lost its desire to bloom.

You want to thin out the stems of your shrubs each year, so they do not get raggy looking. Start by removing an entire stem or branch, either back to its point of origin on the main stem or to the point where it joins another branch. Remove the oldest canes first never removing over 1/3 of the shrub in one year. This allows the younger stems to grow and it is the younger canes that will grow

Heading mean shorting the height of the plant. Cut to a bud that faces to the outside of the plant, this prevent branches from growing into the plant. Usually done with hand-held pruners, heading stimulates the buds just below the cut, encouraging dense growth. Never remove over ½ of the growth. So, pruning shrubs is not that hard.