What you see above is one of the best new products I’ve tried in a long time, the Edge Brownie Pan. Finally someone got the great idea of making a pan that bakes brownies with more edges than the traditional pans do. I happen to be a major brownie connoisseur, ask my wife she’ll verify this, and I love the edge pieces. Always have, ever since I was a kid. You could tell if I had been to the brownie pan, because all four corner pieces were cut out first. Well with the Edge Brownie Pan, I don’t have to do that anymore, because every piece has an edge! I tried it for the first time last night and the brownies came out wonderfully. Very easy to use, nice non-stick coating to serve from and the brownies baked much more evenly than a rectangular pan. No more crispy edges and gooey middles pieces with this pan. You can guarantee that my Brownie Edge Pan will be getting lots of use from now on.

We have them in stock and they make a great gift for the brownie lover on your list. My brother-in-law also loves the edges, and he’ll be getting one this Christmas. You’ll like our price as well; I haven’t seen them anywhere else for less.

-Clark

We have new exciting light bulbs in stock. They are LED accent bulbs. We have them with candelabra base for chandelier type bulbs, with a medium base for standard type bulbs or with a GU10 base. Gu10 is the two prong base that many halogen fixtures take. What is so great about these LED bulbs? Well, they use virtually no electricity. The manufactures claim that the medium base bulb pictured below replaces a 40watt bulb, while using only 1.5 watts of electricity. Yes, 1.5 watts. Wow! Now that’s a huge energy savings. They also run cool, creating almost no heat. LED bulbs have a very long life as well. The bulb pictured below has a 30,000 hour rating.

I will admit the 40 watt replacement may be a bit optimistic. Possibly because the light is a little different in color and quality, it does look different from a standard, soft-white 40 watt bulb. These would be great in fixtures where the bulbs are covered and would be especially good for accent lighting.

The best thing about these LED bulbs is that this is just the tip of the Iceberg, so to say. We have been talking to several bulb companies about LED bulbs for some time. The technology is just hitting the consumer market now, and will only get better and cheaper in the years to come. This is much like the CFL market was ten years ago. I predict that someday, before too long, if you’re not buying a CFL bulb, you’ll be buying an LED bulb. Between the two we’ll all be able to save a huge amount of electricity used in our homes every day. Keep watching for new and innovative bulbs, they’re coming soon.

Another new product in our paint department: Soy Guard. Soy Guard is a wonderful new exterior wood finish product that is bio-based, ultra-low V.O.C. and safe for kids and pets. Soy Guard is made by Bio Preserve. Soy Guard really penetrates the surface of wood and soaks in deep for protection. Water beads on the surface very well after Soy Guard is applied.

Soy Guard stain comes in four colors (which match Superdeck colors almost exactly). Soy Guard may be used on decks, fences, spa enclosures, anywhere you’d use any exterior stain. It is especially nice to use on kids playsets or playhouses. Since it is very safe for kids and pets, you’ll have no worries with the kids playing around it. Soy Guard clear sealant will give you premium protection against water damage to your wood. Soy Guard is simple to apply, even simpler to clean up, since you can use soap and water to clean up with.

There’s a LOT more information at the Bio Preserve website www.soyguard.com . I highly recommend that you read through their information. If you’re staining your deck or fence, this is a great new green alternative to the old standard stains.

Our newest and one of the most fun products we have is on the shelf, Team Lights! What are Team Lights? Well, Team Lights are strings of mini lights in team colors. You may think they’re Christmas lights at first, but they come in two colors for teams. For instance, we have black & red, green & gold, gold & black, white & purple and orange & blue. Dress up your TV room, your house, your school or your party with these lights and add more fun while you watch your favorite team.

To get a better idea of what these are go to www.teamlights.com. You’ll like our prices, too as they’re a little better than what you see there.

Come in and check ‘em out. They’re unique, they’re fun and they’re great for any time of the year!

It has been about five weeks since I applied Get Growing to my lawn. If you recall I only got about half of my lawn covered, so I thought it would be good to compare the two halves later on. It’s now later on and when I compare the two halves there is a difference. I can tell just looking at the lawn that the half that received the Get Growing spray does indeed look better. It’s greener, stays greener between waterings and feels much nicer to walk on. I cannot say that I can physically see a huge amount of difference when I really get down and look at / feel the ground. I thought it might clear up more of the thatch and mulch to the naked eye. It must be doing something right, though. It must indeed be breaking up the thatch at the ground level and really helping it to get back in to the soil somehow.

I’d give Get Growing a thumbs up. I plan on covering my entire yard again in a few weeks to keep the good part looking good, and help the bad part catch up. Should make an even bigger difference in the hot months to come.

Clark

Haven’t written for awhile. Been too busy working in my bathrooms. Good news is they’re done, or at least for now they are. I must say that all turned out well, very well. The process was quite tough at times. It all was much more difficult than it looks from a book or a TV show. But I did learn some new things, dealt with some good companies, some bad ones, and get some experience with new products.

The shower door I bought from our store was junk. I was really disappointed in it. We don’t stock them, but I special ordered one in. It was a Sterling and was very poorly designed and did not ever seal the way it should have. I looked all over northern Colorado for another shower door. Nobody, I mean nobody had a good door on-hand or to order. I finally ended up at Handy Glass in Loveland. Why I didn’t go there in the first place is beyond me. Handy Glass was very helpful and had expert installation of a wonderful shower door. It looks great, didn’t cost too much and works just right. I should have known to go to a good old Loveland locally owned business in the first place.

It took awhile to get and was a bit confusing to order but our vanity turned out really nice. We had it custom made at Tharp Cabinets in Loveland. Tharp does really nice work. The quality of the vanity is much, much better than anything else we looked at, and the price was almost equal to the big box stores. Again the locally owned business comes through. The granite top done by BC Granite is really nice. They also did a top notch job installing it, with really easy and friendly service.

Tim Clark did a great job with the tile work. We used 12″ square tiles on the wall on his suggestion and boy do they look nice. They were cheaper than 4″ quicker and easier to install and should be easier to maintain. Yes we had a few problems in the installation, but Tim and his buddy Alex did a terrific job of following up and fixing everything. They had a few areas where they used Loctite’s Power Grab adhesive and boy it did a great job of holding the tile, and solving their problems where regular tile adhesive fell short.

We used Benjamin Moore semi-gloss for the main bathroom walls and ceilings. Took awhile to pick a color, but when my wife finally did, the paint came out great. The semi-gloss over existing semi-gloss did take two coats, and did have more odor than I thought it would. The fully dried finish is so smooth and silky looking it’s something else. We went with a medium dark color and the walls just look a thousand times better than before. The Benjamin Moore colors really are amazing.

Put up a Moen curved shower rod. They should outlaw straight shower curtain rods. These curved ones are really nice when your inside the shower, and they look nicer from outside as well. The Moen rod installed quickly and easily as well.

The newest item I used was Frog Tape. Frog Tape is a new masking tape that we’ve had for a few month. It has polymers embedded in the edge of the tape that lays a barrier down when the liquid of the paint comes in contact with it. I had two areas right along the new counter top that needed absolutely clean and crisp edges between them and the paint. Regular making tape could have worked, but may have had some leakage, which would have really ruined the look. The Frog Tape worked really well. I put it down just like regular tape and just painted like normal, not trying to be extra careful while painting. Pulled it off in just a few minutes and wow! A perfect straight edge! Much easier and nice than regular tape. I highly recommend Frog tape!

So that’s what I know about remodeling a bathroom. A project that many of us do. Well worth it in the long run. Well worth the peace of mind of new plumbing and new walls. A lot of mess during the process, but what isn’t? Much harder than it looks on TV, but most things in life are.

-Clark

We got quite a few trades in this week and I picked up a distributor exclusive that is interesting. Used guns that came in this week were a 4 inch 500 S&W, Cimmaron 1866 in 45 Colt, HK USP in 45, Glock 23, Stoeger Luger in 22lr, a Ruger Single Six 22 mag, Savage 340C in 30-30, a Beretta 92s, and a Winchester 94 in 30-30. New guns this week were an ADL Laminated Remington 700 in 270, a couple of Bersa 380’s, Taurus 94 in 22lr, Remington 700 SPS Tactical in 308 and a Ruger Vaquero in 44 mag. Ruger had dropped the 44 mags when they went to the smaller frame New Vaquaros but one of my distributors got a hold of some and they have been good sellers. Mt Sports is offering and Remington 700 SPS in stainless in 257 Weatherby Mag. I have a couple those showing up this week sometime.
I did get out Thursday and shot my Rem SPS Tactical in 223 and was really happy with how it shot. I put together 10 different test loads with 55gr Ballistic Tip, 50gr TNT’s and 60gr Sierra Varminters. It really liked the 60gr Varminters with 2015br powder. My best group was around 3/8’s so Im going to load some of those this week and head for Wyoming Thursday and see how they do on Dawg’s. I guess Im not surprised it liked the heavier bullets better with the 1 in 9 twist but I’ve never shot dawgs with that heavy of a bullet. Im curious to see the results. Im not happy with the new Remington trigger though. It adjusted down ok, but I think the old one was better. Now that I know the gun shoots well I’ll end up replacing it. I’ll let you know how it does in the field this week. Go check out all the new stuff on our site at www.orchardshardware.com

-Mike

For those of you that dont get to visit our store we have alot of interesting trades going in and out of here. We recently bought 2 Churchill “One of One Thousand” rifles. Both have 3 leaf Express Sights, beautiful walnut stocks, case hardened grip caps and have Redfield scopes on them. From all I have been able to gather these we made for Interarms by Churchill for their 20th Anniversary in 1973. The 2 we have are serial numbers 31 and 32 and are engraved on the top of the barrel “Churchill (Gunmakers) Ltd 7 Bury Street, St James, London, England” The side of the barrels are engraved “Custom Made For Craig Fox Huber” I did a search on his name and there is, or was, a gun writter by that name. I have no idea if they have any connection, but these are beautiful rifles and there isnt alot of information about them out there. According to the Blue Book they only produced 100 total. If anyone has any more information about these guns please email me at mike@orchardshardware.com
We got some other trades in this week. A Browning BLR Stalker with the Boss, a Sig P239 and P229, both in 40 S&W. A perfect Ruger #1 in 338 Win Mag. Chuck’s (the owner) Remington 700 XCR in 375 H&H fresh back from Africa where him, his son Dan (Jr) and daughter Shannon made short work of everything they aimed at. A Remington 700 BDL in 25-06, Walther G22, and Springfield 1911 all came in this week too. Go check our website for all the new guns www.orchardshardware.com
I did get out and shoot some Dawgs a few weeks ago and put the High Wall Winchester in 223 and the Barnes Varmint Grenades through the test. Both worked well, but Im thinking the Grenades still need more speed. They seem to perform just slightly less at 223 velocities then the Nosler Ballistic Tips. I actually sold the High Wall after the trip and bought one of Remingtons 700 SPS Tactical’s. I get bored pretty easy and this is a very sad (and expensive) hobby to have when you do…haha I havent shot the SPS yet, but I have test loads ready and am just waiting for some good weather on my days off, which doesnt seem to be in the plans this Spring so far! Im hoping to go back up to Wyoming and get some pups next week so it better be nice Thursday! haha I’ll let you know what happens and how this new gun performs
-Mike

So I must apologize sincerely on behalf of the store for the lack of updates on the new guns page over the last several weeks. The excuse is this… I am currently the only one who posts the updates. I (along with my dad, Chuck, the owner) were out of the country on hunting trip in South Africa. We had an AMAZING trip!! But… in the meantime all of you got screwed out of new gun updates (http://www.orchardshardware.com/new.html).

Well, I have updated the site today, and there is a lot to see! More importantly, so that I don’t have to make excuses like this in the future, we are currently working on developing a system that automatically updates the guns based on our electronic inventory records. I hope to have that completed in the next couple of months if all goes according to plan. In the meantime, the manual weekly updates will continue and I am not going anywhere so expect to see them every Tuesday.

Oh yeah, and the hunting trip was EXCELLENT. Come by the store and chat with Chuck or Mike if you are interested in stories or pictures! See you all next time.

     We’ve recently added the product Get Growing from Get Microsolutions out of Fort Collins, CO. I was very happy to have this product because I have just the lawn it is designed for. My lawn is full of thatch. The grass isn’t all bad, but is far from wonderful. I water a lot and it looks great. I water sparingly and it looks terrible. I fertilize, I mulch when I mow (which I love, I’ll never bag again!) so I thought that Get Growing would help me out.

    Get growing is, well, allow me to quote from the Get Microsolutions website:

GET Growingâ„¢’s benefical microbes recycle grass clippings and other plant materials, helping your lawn, garden, and flower beds feed themselves.GET Growingâ„¢ works in all geographies, all soil types, and with all plant species or your money back.

GET Growingâ„¢’s family friendly product technology is safe for kids and pets. Unlike fertilizers, it:
builds soil structure
leaves virtually no carbon footprint
does not harm wildlife or contribute to nitrate pollution of ground water, rivers, and lakes

    That pretty well sums up just what I need. So I applied it on May 12. I’ll keep you updated as to how well it works in the coming weeks. I did find one downside right away: It doesn’t cover very much area. I have a 5000sq ft (roughly) lawn. The bottle says that’s just what it covers. However as I was applying from the end of my hose I was only about one-third done when the bottle was about empty. I didn’t quite get half of my lawn covered. It really comes out quickly, so be prepared to walk fast and spray it around quickly to get all your lawn covered. Good & Bad with this, at least I should be able to compare the two halves of my lawn and see how well it really works.

-Clark