I usually don’t introduce a new product at Christmas time. To be honest with you I am not really looking at new products. But there was this product that we found last May at the International Hardware Show in Las Vegas and I was just blown away by it. It was such a simple idea, but so useful that we ordered it right then. And then that was it! It never showed and I forgot about it. Then Trudy reminded me about it. She bought and remodeled a older garden home and needed new gate hardware. AjustLock is a adjustable barrel bolt. A barrel bolt can be used on outside gates, security on inside doors and windows. And what usually happens is they get out of alignment. What starts out working perfectly will little by little get harder and harder to close just because of the weather and shifting. So one morning you go to close the door and lock and bingo the bolt will not go through the strike. So you have to remove the strike and move it up or down. So AjustLock comes with a adjustable strike so that when you have a little movement, it just moves up or down to accommodate for that. It’s really the simplest of ideas that I wish I had thought of. They are on our website and retail for under $8 for the 4” size. Enough about that what I really wanted say to you is Merry Christmas . My wish is that you are celebrating with family and friends and having a wonderful time. I love this time of the year. I have so many memories of past Christmases that I really can get sentimental about. I love all the food, the fun of the gifts and especially my family. May the true love of Christmas touch you this day and be with you this year. Talk to you in the New Year.

Now to the email…..

Question: Johnnie, I want to clean my oak floors. I am worried about how to take care of them. I don’t want to do any damage. Do you have any product safe enough for wood?

Answer: We sure do! It’s called No Bucket . Just squirt, mop and rinse. Then your wood floor will be clean and you will not harm any shine that is on the floors. The No Bucket is neutral and completely safe. Now if you need to provide a shine use their sister product called Quick Shine. Quick Shine is the best way to quickly provide a high shine for your floors. And Quick Shine can be used on tile, laminate and those No Wax Floors that have lost the shine.

Question: How do you get rid of bats hanging on the porch eves in the summer? I have tried mothballs and garlic. Garlic works best, but loses its smell after a while. This is a summer home in Leakey.

Answer: Use the Bye Bye Birdie (or Bird B Gone). It comes in a caulking tube and feels sticky on their feet. They don’t like that and so they find another place to hang out. It’s a clear product so it won’t show up on the porch, and neither will the bats.

Question: I like to burn candles in my home. And recently I noticed that there are soot stains on the ceiling. I am having guests for the New Year and would quickly like to take care of that. What do you suggest? I have white ceilings with a popcorn acoustic finish.

Answer: Just use a white acrylic ceiling paint and a brush. Lightly dab the stained areas being careful not to knock off the acoustic. If you try and roll the paint on you will get more acoustic on the roller than paint on the ceiling. I asked Trudy about this and she gave me the reason the candles leave soot marks. You need to keep your candle wicks trimmed to ¼ of a inch. If you want to burn candles for a long time during the day you will need to extinguish the candle every couple of hours and trim the wick. She says that if the wick gets a little mushroom look to it you will not get the most fragrance from the candle. And so why burn the candle and not get the most fragrance for the money? She loves Tyler Candles.