Master Gardener Plant Sale.

The Ozark Gateway Master Gardeners, University of Missouri Extension announced that their annual plant sale is scheduled for May 8th from 8 a.m. until 2 p.m. at Powers Museum. According to a media release, a variety of plants will be offered including annuals, shrubs, trees, houseplants, vegetables and perennials. There will also be garden crafts and garden books.

Area master gardeners donate healthy plants for the sale as a fund-raiser for their projects. Projects include the Garden and Grow program for children to learn more about gardening. More projects can be found at the Carthage Public Library Gardens, Joplin’s Schifferdecker Park, Lafayette House, Joplin Community Clinic, Earth Day, Webb City Environmental Day and the George Washington Carver Monument.

Master Gardeners are also scheduled to work the hotline at the University of Missouri Extension Office in Carthage to answer gardening questions from area residents, 358-2158.

Volunteers from the local group donated over 2,160 hours of work during the year 2003.

Well, I can tell that summer is almost here, the guy down the street finally put out his Christmas tree to be picked up. I’m not sayin’ he’s cheap, but this is the same guy who is tryin’ to sue because he got injured while watchin’ a professional ball game. He fell out of a tree. This is the same fella that complains that Christmas cards are made of such cheap material. Says they only last a few seasons now-a-days.

His kid came by the other day and told me his dad could do tricks. I asked him what kind of tricks. He said his ma says he can drink like a fish.

‘Course this is the same guy that thinks an autobiography has something to do with the history of cars and that Daniel Boone was born in a log cabin he built himself. If this in any way resembles one a your neighbors, it was strictly coincidental.

This is some fact, but mostly,

Just Jake Talkin’.

by

Carthage Printing

THIS IS A HAMMER

By Samantha Mazzotta

Q: I have a two-socket standing lamp, and a three-socket table lamp. Can you walk me through directions so that I can rewire them myself? — Florence J., via e-mail

A: Rewiring a lamp with multiple sockets is a fairly simple task that can be accomplished in less than an hour. It’s also a great method of rehabilitating old lamps at low cost. The equipment is simple, too: You’ll need a screwdriver, scissors, needle-nose pliers, a 120-volt lamp cord with plug (long enough for the lamp you’re fixing), 2 feet of additional lamp wire (with no plug) and 2-3 electrical wire caps.

Most instructions for this repair focus on single-socket table lamps. Multi-socket lamps are slightly more complicated; you’re just working with additional wires at the sockets, and attaching them to the wires of the plug cord. More on that below.

Let’s start with the simplest rewiring job, the single socket:

• Unplug the lamp.

• Remove the shade and harp, and disassemble the socket. Detach the old wires from the screw terminals and leave them sticking out of the base.

• Remove the old cord and feed the new cord through the bottom of the lamp.

• When the new cord pokes through the top of the lamp, split it down the middle about 3 inches and tie a half-knot at the base of the split.

• Strip 1/2-inch of insulation from the end of each wire and twist the metal strands tight. Use needle-nose pliers to bend the bare wire into hooks. Wrap each hook clockwise around a terminal screw and tighten.

• Reassemble the socket.

Multiple sockets follow the same path as above, but need to be wired individually and then spliced to the main power cord:

• In both the standing and table lamps, you may have to completely disassemble them from base to socket. Lay the parts out in order as you do this to eliminate confusion later.

• Disassemble the sockets.

• Feed the new power cord through, split, tie and strip as above.

• From the top of the lamp, feed a 6-inch piece of electrical wiring through each socket hole (one piece per socket).

• Split each end of the short wires and strip 3/4-inch from the separated ends. (Don’t worry about tying knots.)

• This is important: each cord has a "neutral" wire and a "hot" wire; this includes the main power cord in the center. Locate and mark the hot wires with a small piece of tape.