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Attracting Hummingbirds to Your Home.

June 5th, 2009 Trevor Sam 1 comment

You can do various things to your garden to make it hummingbird friendly and attract more of these birds. Even if you stay in the city’s middle and didn’t have any luck getting these birds in the past, you can soon have them around your garden by following some simple steps.

The diet of hummingbirds consists of insects, flower nectar or artificial sugar water. Thus, artificial sugar water solution can be kept in your garden to attract them. The hummingbirds do not have any sense of smell and they rely on sites to find their source of food. If you are making a first attempt to feed the birds, you can hang or plant some red flowers near the feeder. The hummingbirds will be attracted to these red flowers and will easily find the feeders.

When using your own hummingbird nectar for the feeders you must never add artificial red coloring to them. The red colors of the feeders are enough to attract them. Also, use of honey or artificial sweeteners has to be avoided. Artificial sweeteners do not have any food value and honey ferments easily which can cause sores in the mouth of the birds. The hummingbird feeders in your garden have to be cleaned every 3-4 days and the nectar changed to keep on attracting the birds.

Setting up hummingbird feeders is a very popular method to attract hummingbirds to the garden. You can use the homemade nectar solution of sugar water in the feeders to feed the birds. Hanging some red flowers or planting them near the feeders will make the hummingbirds easily find the feeders.

Hummingbirds are habitual creatures and will be discouraged from returning to the feeders in your garden if the nectar is bad. Thus, it is important to keep the feeders clean as sugar water ferments in hot weather. The feeders have to be cleaned every 2-3 days using hot water with a little amount of white vinegar instead of soap. The hummingbirds don’t like soap traces left in the nectar. You should also remember to clean not only the bottle, but also the bottom and ports of the feeder.

The feeder of the hummingbirds can be invaded by insects like bees and ants, driving away the birds. To avoid this you can use the feeders with built-in bee guards and use moats or nectar protectors to control ant invasion. When the moats are attached above the feeders filled with water, they block the ant’s pathway.

Insects like ants and bees may invade your garden and feeders and drive away the hummingbirds. You have to use the feeders with built-in bee guards and attach moats or nectar protectors on the feeders to control their invasion. These steps will ensure that your garden continues attracting the hummingbirds.

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Chair Review: Sanyo HEC-DR6700K Massage Chair

June 5th, 2009 James Knolan No comments

Sanyo massage chairs boast some of the most advanced electronic features to compliment their massage therapy. One of their higher end models is the DR 6700. This model is the subject of this review. We will analyze the DR6700K and point out its relevant features. We evaluate massage chairs in five key areas where up to 20 points can be earned in each area. Here is our evaluation of the HEC-DR6700K Sanyo massage chair.

Warranty & Customer Service: Warranty is your protection from defects due to materials and workmanship. However, these warranties vary substantially from manufacturer and also by model. Here is the breakdown for the HEC-DR6700K massage chair: 3 years on the roller mechanism. The rollers give you the massage in the chair back. 1 year parts. 1 year labor. 1 year technician field service. We like the 1 year field service, but the parts and labor is rather short. Customer service is pretty good for Sanyo. Overall, the DR 6700 earns an 18.

Comfort & Ergonomics: Believe it or not some massage chairs are only comfortable to sit in when they are running. A massage chair needs to double as a recliner in our humble opinion. The DR-6700 cradles the body when you sit in it. The padding makes for a plush seat. The adjustable head pillow can be positioned to support your head well. The main functions of the chair are ran from the remote and it is in an accessible location. We give the DR6700 an 18 for comfort and ergonomics.

Ease of Use: This category takes a look at how easy the chair is to use for the average person. We have seen some overly complicated remotes which require too many steps to get the chair to do what you want. The remote control has 4 automatic programs which operate off one touch. Manual programs are a little bit more involved which requires a few steps to get the chair where you want. The intensity and width adjustments have a nice phased LED to show the power levels. Overall, we rate the Sanyo DR6700 a 17 in ease of use.

Key Features: There are many interesting features in the DR6700 massage recliner. The two that stand out the most are the Grip massage technique and the physical shape sensor. The Grip massage is a manual massage technique included in the 6700. The Grip makes use of the specialized GK rollers used by Sanyo. The Grip massage can come over the shoulders and provide a gripping action to soothe the tops of the shoulders. The physical shape sensor detects if your body shifts in the chair. When a shift is detected, it adjusts the massage to better target your body in its new position. Talk about massaging a moving target! We give the DR-6700 an 18 in this category.

Massage Therapy: There is a number of effective massage therapies integrated into the DR-6700. There are the four auto-programs which include Fine, Relax, Recovery and Stiffness. You can also select from five manual massage techniques. The manual techniques are Shiatsu, Tapping, Kneading, Combo and Grip. Grip is perhaps a unique massage to the Sanyo line. The intensity of the massage can be adjusted based on your needs. There are manual massage course which provide focus on specific areas of the back, neck and shoulders. These massages are both effective and relieving. We give this massage chair 19 out of 20 points for massage therapy.

So how did the DR6700 do overall in our review? We give it an overall rating of 90 points. This is an advanced massage chair with some thorough and invigorating massage therapies. The warranty for the parts and labor is a bit cheap for the high end range. The chair does deliver with some interesting electronic features and the Grip massage is a soothing relief. If you get a chance, check out more about the HEC-DR6700 massage chair.

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