Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharpon demand from KFI A M six forty
k f I Dean Sharp. Thehouse was We're welcome home. Thank you
for joining us on our Saturday program. It is just a few minutes after
seven. The sun is up.It's going to be a glorious, glorious,
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lovely day here in southern California.If you are here in southern California
with us as opposed to somewhere elsesweltering across the nation, then make sure
you get out and enjoy the daytoday because we will be sweltering again very
soon. According to Brian, thetemperatures are going up, going up this
week. We're gonna have, Ihope maybe the last big heat spell before
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we settle into autumn. Maybe pleaseplease, yes, all right, we're
talking about wood today, all ofits uh component usefulness to you. I
want to continue that conversation with younow. The usefulness of wood is unquestioned
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as far as everything that we havedone with it as a civilization. But
here's the thing, the reason westill build with wood, and this is
the key here. It's lightweight,it's got high tensile strength, it has
outstanding strength to weight ratio. Itis workable, and workable is key.
Okay, I discuss the fact thatsteel is totally an option. You could
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build your entire house out of steelstuds, not the ones on the shelf
at the big box store. Thoseare not structural studs, but real structural
steel studs. And we've we've seenhouses built and have built out of structural
steel. It is expensive, veryvery expensive, and in an age where
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for relatively inexpensively, and let's sayat the beginning of a new construction project,
a new house build, you canactually treat, treat your lumber that
arrives your wood lumber for termites andmold and mildew ahead of time before you
actually use them in the home.Then the question of the fact that,
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well, you know, a steelhouseis a termite free house, Well,
yeah, that's true, but weall know that a good treatment and good
pest control can keep that stuff undercontrol. And so therefore would continues on
because of its affordability and its workability. Workability also means it's easy to cut,
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it's easy to shape, bend,smooth, stain it, paint it.
It has excellent attachability. Attachable iskey to keeping your labor costs down
on a project. Attachability simply means, you know, you can take out
a hammer and a nail and youcan nail two pieces of wood together very
easily. Right, It's not soeasy to connect two pieces of steel to
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each other nail screws, dowels,glue. Okay. Wood is also an
excellent insulator, and this is wheresteel really falls short. It is an
excellent insulator. Steel is by definition, a conductor of energy. It moves
energy from one end of it tothe other, both electrical energy, heat,
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cold, you know, so itis an energy movers. Wood is
an insulator. It resists transferring heatand cold and electricity and sound as well.
It's renewable, it's biodegradable. Andthis is the most important thing that
I want you to understand right nowbefore we move on to some of its
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dimensional aspects. I know there's alot of carryover of wood devastation in the
lumber industry in the Pacific Northwest herein California and Washington and Oregon and so
on. We've all heard the storiesand seen I've personally seen the devastation of
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whole forests being clear cut for thesake of lumber and industrialization and the move
west and all of that, andit's not good. None of it was
good. Old growth trees, right, four or five hundred year old redwood
trees falling down. Some of youhere in southern California are living in homes
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with wood from four or five hundredyear old redwood trees, and very very
stable wood, no doubt, butnonetheless part of that, part of that
problem. Wood lumber is now acultivated crop. You need to understand that
that it is a crop. Itis essentially an agricultural element now, no
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different ultimately than you know, broccoliand carrots, except for the length of
time that it takes to grow thewood on wood farms. For cultivation of
lumber. We complain these days thatwood is young and that it's you that
doesn't have the same structural integrity.Well, it's true in one sense,
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because these are younger trees that wereharvesting instead of old growth trees. But
believe me, they are more thanadequate to the task. And so the
fact of the matter is that woodis a renewable resource. It's biodegradable,
and the entire industry now is acarbon cap you know, because it's it's
kind of like the argument that Imake every year for Christmas tree farms.
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Christmas trees are not cut out ofyou know, old growth trees in the
forest. They're grown on farms,and while they're growing, just like every
other agricultural crop, you know,they are capturing carbon and sequestering it into
the soil and adding all sorts ofgoodness to the world before they're cut down
and end up you know in yourliving room. Wood is essentially the same
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process, a little bit different,but essentially the same process. Now the
question is are there better biodegradable andfaster growing products like, for instance,
bamboo, is that poised to becomethe replacement for lumber, structural bamboo or
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other things like it. Well,we'll talk about that when we return.
You're home, Dean Sharp the HouseWhisper KFI, Dean Sharp, the House
Whisper at your service, thanks forjoining us on the program. We're having
a casual, calm, relaxing Saturdaymorning conversation about wood, one of my
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favorite building my favorite all time buildingmaterial. Not just a you know,
an ephemeral conversation about the wood intheory, but the practicalities of would because
you know, a lot of youhave asked questions over the years and continue
to about, well, all right, we're looking to reduce the cost of
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our construction. We're interested, we'reexploring new options. Are there better ways,
less expensive ways, more environmentally soundways? Are there? Just you
know, when I'm looking to buildmy home, is bottom line, would
still the best thing to build myhome from? Okay, that's the big
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question, and it's a very verypractical question because it's your home, and
so when you need to ask thesekinds of questions along the way. Now
we've talked about all the benefits ofwood and why it has taken the ascendant
seat that it has in construction becauseof its strength and its workability and its
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attachability and so on. Now thequestion becomes, are there options other than
would Well, steel is an option, but currently the idea of building a
house out of structural steel and steelstuds, even though there would be lots
of benefits for that perfectly straight wallsand you know, no worry about termites
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or things like that from steel.Nevertheless, you probably don't want to spend
three to four times as much forthe rough framing of your house out of
structural steel as you would out ofwood. I would guess most people don't,
and that's why houses are not beingrampidtly built out of steel. Then
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we have to ask the question,well, then is there another natural alternative?
Is there another biological alternative to wood? Right now? There is one?
Okay, there is one, butit comes with caveats, and that
would be bamboo. Bamboo is notwood. It is not a tree.
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It is grass. Bamboo is thelargest species of grass on the planet,
and it's big advantage is, asmost of us know, the fact that
it grows like grass, like crazyfast. Okay, Bamboo, like the
Moso bamboo from southern China that isresponsible for so much of the hype these
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days, that finds its way intovarious building products for us. Giant bamboo.
I'm talking about bamboo, you know, in four plus inch diameter stalks,
I mean big, big bamboo.It's used all throughout Southeast Asia and
in Asia as a scaffolding material,all sorts of building applications for bamboo.
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But here we're talking about the ideaof building you know, studs in a
house. Okay, Well, bamboofalls short in that sense because it comes
basically in one shape and one formin the giant tubular shape, not always
the straightest and certainly not the smoothest, you know, the knuckling on bamboo.
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So even though it grows incredibly fastand as that you know from that
perspective, is a fully renewable anda much quicker renewable resource than trees.
Okay, so much faster than trees. But processing has to happen. Now,
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have I seen bamboo studs? Yes, I have. What it is.
It's very much like bamboo flooring.What we want from the bamboo is
not the stock itself, but wewant to take the stock and we want
to strip it down, basically shredit down into its long, powerful fibers,
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and then take those fibers with someform of bonding resin or glue or
adhesive the medium, press them alltogether at high pressure and form a stud
out of bamboo fibers. Now,once that happens, now you've got something
that is very much like a woodstud. It's cutable, it's attachable,
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it's easy to work with, lightweightand very very very very strong, continuous
fibers from top to bottom, fromend to end make a very high tensile
strength stud However, the processing costsof getting from the bamboo shaft all the
way to the workable sud is waydifferent and right now more expensive than just
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taking a tree trunk and milling itinto pieces of lumbers. So high cost.
Also, once you've got the bamboostud in place, is it more
water resistant than would No? Isit more termite resistant than would? Well?
Right now, no? And sowhat are the upsides to it?
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Also, another downside to this froma North American perspective is bamboo. Now,
there are a lot of bamboo farmersentrepreneurs who are working various species of
bamboo growing in North America. Butlet's face it, bamboo prefers heat and
humidity over cold winters. It doesn't. It absolutely does not put up with
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freezing temperatures. And so bamboo isnot, let's say, an ideal North
American crop for us to farm ourselves. Therefore, if the building industry in
North America became dependent upon bamboo,we would be fully dependent upon imports.
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In fact, right now, asfar as I know, and somebody correct
me if this has been updated,but as far as I know, the
only structurally approved bamboo for structural purposesthat's being grown in the world right now,
is actually that is certified is comingout of Vietnam. Okay, So
the idea of importing all of ourbuilding materials so you can see, you
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can see that that becomes an issuewhen it comes to structural framing. Now,
I have absolutely no issues with bambooin flooring materials and decking materials.
And that's where we're going to gonext in our conversation. We're going to
talk about what where we have foundsome of these would alternatives. Okay,
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All I want you to understand isthat would alternatives in building in the building
industry are all for on structural applicationsdecking and siding and esthetics and so on.
Anyway, we'll go there next.They're not the studs, the beams
and the frame that are holding yourhouse together. Understood, all right,
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So much more when we return.You're Home with Dean Sharp, the House
Whisper. You're listening to Home withDean Sharp on demand from KFI AM six
forty KFI AM six forty live everywhereon the iHeart Radio app. You are
Home with Dean Sharp, the HouseWhisper. That's me, Thanks for joining
(14:37):
me on this Saturday morning. It'sgoing to be a beautiful day today.
Get out today, get out thisweekend before we start blazing again. Just
enjoy the weekend. Breathe in,take one day at a time, everybody.
Don't freak out just because it's gonnaget hot later this week. Enjoy
today. Yeah, live in themoment a little bit. It's important make
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plans for tomorrow, but live inthis moment today because who knows, you
know, who knows today maybe allwe have. Let's enjoy it for what
it is. We are talking aboutthe properties, the quality, the secret
life of wood. That's what Icalled it, very intriguing title. Really,
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I'm just talking about wood in yourhome as a building material and answering
some of the questions that we oftenget here. These are kinds of things
that you know, I kind ofhold on to and I save up and
so that we can just do,you know, have a conversation like this
once a year or so, becausepeople are, you know, understandably curious
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about in the twenty first century,really, are we still just cutting down
trees and building our houses with woodlike they did, you know, thirty
thousand years ago? And the answeris yes, yes we are, and
for good reason. Still, sowe were talking about bamboo and the fact
that bamboo as a natural alternative stillhas quite a ways to go and present
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some problems for us in North Americaas well because we don't grow it really
well here. I'm not saying bamboodoesn't grow in North America. There's bamboo.
I can see bamboo out my windowhere right now. But structurally rated
bamboo for that kind of process,and that's really the key, okay.
And this is what I promised thatI would talk to you about on this
side of the break, and thatis the use of wood alternatives in the
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construction industry by and large is fornon structural elements. Okay. So structural
meaning the kind of stuff that holdsthat your house is doing the heavy work
holding up your house. Everything nonstructural in your house. It has an
esthetic quality to it, okay,as another purpose to it as well,
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siting on the outside of your house, decking that you walk on when you
walk outside, you know, stairbanisters, stair railing. I'm not saying
that they aren't important. They are, but you know, so coming up
with an alternative for wood for theactual frame of your home that is doing
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the job of making your home.Okay, right now, there are no
other great alternatives for us. Okay, there just aren't. Synthetic materials absolutely
not. Steal way more expensive,bamboo also more expensive. After all,
the processing also has to be importedand so on and so forth. So
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we're just not there yet now.I would. I want to be proven
wrong one day, I really do. That'll be a lovely day when that
arrives. But right now, realisticallyit's wood. And by the way,
I've talked about processing bamboo, takingall of the fibers and compressing them together
so that we're not actually dealing withthe bamboo pole itself, right but an
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actual like two by four stud madeout of bamboo. They exist, it's
true, and they're great. Buthere's the thing. Also, we have
that with wood you can order rightnow, and this is a realistic thing.
Okay. So again we're coming backto wood, but now we're talking
about using wood, the wood thatwe have in more and more efficient ways,
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which as a country, we havebeen doing a better and better job
of as the years and decades haverolled on here. And so yea for
us, Okay, as far asI'm concerned, yea for us. Let
me pull up this info for you. You can go right now to Boise
Cascade. They're a major lumber supplierin the Western United States. Boise Cascade.
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Look for the VERSA Stud v RSA DASH Stud versus stud from Boise
Cascade. Or you can go tothe Warehouser Warehouse Warehouser website, another major
lumber producer, maybe the largest inNorth America, and look for timber strand.
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Okay, so if you know anythingabout wood and you've been down to
the lumber yard, you know,in recent days you'll notice that there's less
and less plywood on the shelves andmore and more OSB or osciuated strand board
in other words, chips like chipsof wood that have been compressed together.
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OSB has almost completely replaced plywood asa structural element in home building, and
for good reason. And what's coolabout OSB is that it's basically made out
of particulates of wood, which meansthat we can take a tree and process
the entire tree. We're not justlooking for usable parts of the larger trunks,
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but we can process by and largemost of the tree and get way
way more product per tree out ofevery tree. And that is good for
the environment, it's good for theindustry, it's just good. Plus OSB
as a structural equivalent to plywood issuperior in almost every way to old fashioned
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plywood. And so the same hasbecome true with engineered studs. And that's
the point of my little speech here. You right now, if you're looking
for a better stud, you canorder them for your home. Now.
They are timber strand and versus studin which again the strands of the wood
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have been processed and compressed together,and we're talking perfectly perfectly dimensioned studs as
long as you want them to be. You can order them in ridiculous lengths,
totally workable, totally wood screwable,nailble cuttable, bendable, but perfectly
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straight as well, no bows,no warps, I mean, as good
as building with a steel stud ina home. And yet still would Now
is there a cost, yeah,right now, about three times more expensive
than a regular Douglas fur number tworated stud that you find at the lumber
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yard. But if you're up forthat cost and you want perfectly straight,
or if it's just a small projectand you want perfectly straight, then you
know you should look into it becausethey are reality. We have figured out
how to work with wood better andreally in the near future, okay,
the disk the near future, that'sreally where the industry is going. It's
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not so much turning away from woodin North America to other products as much
as it is learning how to workwith the wood that we've got in better
and better and more efficient ways toget better products out of it. Along
the way, all right, whenwe come back, I'm going to answer
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some really really common questions that Iget again and again and again and again
here. Why are two by fouris not two by four? Actually?
How long does it take wood todry? What's the difference between kiln dried
and wet wood? And you knowa few other things along the way.
We'll cap off our conversation on thesecret life of wood right here on Home
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with Dean Sharp the house whisper kif I Dean Sharp the house whisper Welcome
home, Hey, thanks for joiningus on the program on this lovely Saturday
morning. The time just flies by. Here we are at the last little
bit before your Saturday gets rolled.And here it's always a privilege and a
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pleasure to spend time with you.We'll be back tomorrow, by the way,
for our real, actual show onhedges and walls and fences in your
yard. We intended to do thatlast Sunday, but we spent a lot
of time doing storm coverage and answeringstorm related questions, so we postponed it
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and moved it. We will behitting that topic with full force, the
full force of a tropical storm tomorrowon the program, and I promise we'll
get We'll get through all that weneed to get through tomorrow. That's tomorrow.
As for today, we've been havinga lovely conversation about wood and answering
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questions that we get a lot hereat the program about are there alternatives to
wood and so on? And isit still the right thing to build my
house with? And the answer isgenerally speaking, yes, yes it is.
Now. I love a good woodalternative, like for instance, you
know, I flip out over ModernMill, this company that I absolutely love
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down South that is producing decking boardsand siding out of up cycled rice hulls.
Fantastic, fantastic product, actually usingit on two projects simultaneously right now.
Fantastic product. But it's not,as of yet a structural product,
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right so as is the case withall wood alternative products these days. There,
you know, it's for decking,it's for citing. It's not for
building the studs and beams that holdup our house. When it comes to
wood. A couple other questions.You know, this is a I don't
even know what to call this.It's it's just a it's a thing that
people like to talk about. Builderssometimes like to talk. Old grandpas like
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to talk. I remember when twoby fours were actually two by four.
Not this not just puny stuff thesedays. Okay, yes, a two
by four, that nomenclature is nottechnically accurate. Okay, A two by
four stud is actually an inch anda half, not two by three and
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a half. Right, so it'sa half inch shy in both directions of
a two by four, as iswith all dimensional lumber these days. A
two by six is an inch anda half by five and a half.
A two by eight is you know, a four by eight is three and
a half by seven and a half. All right, So okay, now,
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why did that happen? Well,it happened as a result of some
economic forces taking place at the endof World War Two, when we were
short on lumber. During the war, houses started getting built out of the
materials. The lumber industry found itselfin need of pushing itself forward again,
and as a result, they increasetheir profit margins at the time by shaving
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down the size of their nominal lumber. Nevertheless, okay, let's just put
this to bed. The engineering communityhad no issues with it, because an
inch and a half by three anda half inch two by four stud does
just as well as a two byfour inch stud in almost every application.
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And therefore, what we've really doneis shaved off the parts of the wood
not used, unnecessarily, the partsof the wood that we just didn't need
to be using in the first place. All right, So just you know,
cool your jets. When it comesto the whole criticism of lumber isn't
even Actually the most confusing thing aboutlumber, by the way, is that
this is what we call finished lumber. When you go to the lumber yard,
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you're looking at finished lumber, meaningit's been milled into very specific dimensions.
The irony is finished lumber like thatis what we use for rough framing,
the rough frame of your house.Unfinished lumber, lumber that has not
been milled into any particular precise dimensionis what we use for finished goods like
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furniture. Does that make sense,Well, it's true. So yeah,
there are a lot of contradictions orseeming contradictions in the world of wood.
That's why it has a secret life. But nevertheless it is still the thing
to use for your house, yourproject, whatever dy thing you're thinking about
this weekend. And you know what, it's just a beautiful material to work
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with. So my point is useit wisely, respect it, learn how
to shape it properly, use itaccording to code, and you know what,
it's not going to disappoint you inthe end. And we of course
will always always always have for youevery upgrade, update and change in this
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industry as we roll along. Allright, that's it for me today.
Thanks for joining us this morning.We're back here tomorrow from nine to noon
talking about fences made of wood andwalls and hedges for your property. We'll
do that then. Until then,get out there, be kind and get
busy building yourself a beautiful life.This has been Home with Dean Sharp,
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the House Whisper. Tune into thelive broadcast on k f I AM six
forty every Saturday morning from six toeight Pacific time, and every Sunday morning
from nine to noon Pacific time,or anytime on demand on the iHeart Radio app