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Country music star Hank Williams Jr. isn’t about to go away quietly following controversial remarks last week that let to the end of his opening song gig on ESPN’s “Monday Night Football.”

Williams has made a new song available for free on his website Monday for 48 hours, which knocks ESPN and Fox News Channel for the uproar caused by an analogy he made on “Fox & Friends.”

“MNF’s” theme song, based on Williams’ hit “All My Rowdy Friends,” was yanked permanently from the opening of the sports telecast last week after he said the “golf summit” between President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner was like Adolf Hitler golfing with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

In the song “keep the Change,” Williams sings “so ‘Fox & Friends’ wanna put me down/Ask for my opinion/Twist it all around.”

In the chorus of the song, Williams sings, “this country sure as hell’s been going down the drain,” as well as “United Socialist States of America — how do you like that name?”

At the end of the song, Williams sings, “you can keep Fox and Friends and ESPN out of your home, too.”

Williams was set to hit the TV interview circuit Tuesday to talk about the controversy — first with Whoopi Goldberg and Joy Behar on ABC’s “The View” — who came to the country singer’s defense over the flap.

“Whoopi and Joy understood what I was saying,” said Williams in a statement on his website. “after watching the clip of their show, I knew I needed to talk to them first.  who knows Whoopi may run for President and I’ll be her Vice President…now that will really stir it up!”

The singer is also set to join Sean Hannity for an interview Tuesday night on the Fox News Channel’s “Hannity.”

Williams’ customary “are you Ready For some Football?” opening on “MNF” Monday night was replaced with an intro by Detroit Lions running back great Barry Sanders. ESPN reportedly plans on having a different personality do the opening for the show every week.

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I suspect I am predisposed to enjoying medical-themed exhibits, as I come from a medical family. My father, now retired, was a research professor on the subject of psychopharmacology, while my mother is a pharmacist. Dinner-table conversations would often revolve around various drugs, their effects on the brain, and their side-effects. I imagine this is also the sort of conversation you hear if you’re the child of junkies, albeit perhaps excluding my parents’ vocabulary, which included phrases like hippocampus and basal ganglia,.

But, then, perhaps medical-themed exhibits are just natively awesome. Many Minnesotans probably remember the Museum of Questionable Medical Devices, formerly housed at St. Anthony Main, now part of a larger collection at the Science Museum. The various devices are off-limits to questioning hands now, but when it was part of its own museum, you could touch and try out pretty much everything. these include orgone boxes, which were supposed to accumulate sexual energy, and phrenology helmets, which were supposed to measure the bumps on your head for clues to your character, including a score in something called “sexamity.”The only device that was truly off-limits was something that used to be common at shoe stores, a box that patrons could insert their feet into and then see their own foot bones. It was an X-ray machine, it actually worked, and it probably caused cancer.

In New Orleans they have a pharmacy museum, which used to obsess me, and I don’t think it is simply that I am the son of an apothecary. Victorian pharmacies were more like herbalists than contemporary drug dispensers, and almost everything they offered was a mixture of plant life, an alcoholic tincture, and liquid opium. The places smelled great, served cocktails and soft drinks (in fact, the creator of Dr Pepper was a pharmacist, and his soft drink was intended to taste the way his pharmacy smelled), and was probably as useless as much of what was on show at the Museum of Medical Questionable Devices, and sometimes as deadly as the X-ray shoe box. Museums of medicine are necessarily, to a large extent, museums of failed medicine — the New Orleans Pharmacy Museum had a pacifier created for Victorian children that was made of lead, because children, as anyone who has discovered them eating paint knows, like the taste of lead. Brilliant. Before the scientific method, medicine seemed about as likely to kill the patients as leave them be, and decidedly unlikely to cure them. It was a world of quackery and best guesses, and that’s what’s on display right now at the Owen H. Wangensteen Historical Library of Biology and Medicine on the University of Minnesota campus.

First, there is an exhibit called, cleverly, “Take two Lyllie Rootes and Call me in the Morning,” which is a collection of botanicals and medical receipt books, the latter phrase containing a bit of outdated English. “Receipt book” in this instance means “recipe book,” and that’s precisely what’s on hand: a collection of herbal cures for illnesses belonging to one Mary Pewe, who lived in England sometime between 1630 and 1690. Who was Mary Pewe? nobody seems to know, although she was likely the wife of a relatively well-off landowner, and she served as a sort of combination small-town doctor and one the witches that gathers around a bubbling cauldron in “Macbeth.” The books are genuinely glorious, many handwritten in a crabbed, careful script, others containing exquisite illustrations of plants, and some containing lists of people who died from the bubonic plague.

On the subject of the plague, a lot of Mary’s recipes seemed to be advice on how to “break a pestilent sore,” which is something I hope never to have to attempt, although, thanks to Mary Pewe, I now know how to do it. Simply take the brains of a boar, combine it with the poor creature’s stones, stamp it all together and place the mixture on the sore. “In the manner of plaster,” the book tells us, “it will break incontinent.” Marvelous. 

But there are all sorts of cures on hand at the library, including one for syphilis that includes white wine, cayenne pepper, mutton, fennel and mustard. perhaps you’ll excuse me for saying so, but, with the right setup, I could whip these exact ingredients into a romantic meal that’s more likely to cause the transmission of a social disease than cure it.

And there is some handy advice on how to discover if a child has worms, although perhaps it only works on a childe who has wyrms. It involves, basically, covering a feather with spices and then putting it on the babby’s bellybutton. If the feather falls, the wee bantling is parasite free. If the feather sticks, you have a mite with mites of his own.

Mary Pewe’s books also offer some advice for dealing with melancholy, one which suggests that maybe a cocktail before bedtime would help. another combines rare insects, stones, amber and ambergris, the latter of which is intestinal waste from a sperm whale. Then you add borage and gold to the liquid and there you have it, an expensive and impossible to procure drink that will help nothing at all. At least the ambergris is unlikely to be toxic — it’s been used to flavor food and cocktails for ages, and Charles II loved to eat eggs and ambergris. he lived to be 54, but back in the mid-1600s, when he lived (and when this collection of books dates from), the average life span was about 35, so he was relatively aged.

Melancholy, of course, was an early word for what we now diagnose as depression, and there is a second exhibit at the library on just that subject. Specifically, it details one Charlotte Perkins Gilman, who not only had the misfortune to suffer from depression but also the misfortune to suffer it at the end of the 19th century. Worse still, she consulted with a fellow named Dr. S. Weir Mitchell, who has his good qualities — he was a patron of the arts — and his bad qualities — the way he treated depression. he conceived of something called the “rest cure,” which involved, well, locking the afflicted person away and treating them like an invalid for months and months and months. As Wikipedia dryly notes, “It was not effective and caused many to go insane or die.” Weir primarily prescribed the rest cure to women, whom he saw as being inherently hysterical; he was working at a time when women were seen as having especially delicate emotions and feverish brains, and something as simple as an education could set them off.

Gilman was educated, and she was bright enough to know the rest cure wasn’t doing her any good, so she rejected it, along with her entire life at the time — she separated from her husband in 1888, feeling that doing so was necessary for her mental health. She then wrote a short story about the rest cure called “The Yellow Wallpaper,” which can be found online here. It’s a first-person account of a descent into madness as the result of Dr. Weir’s cure, and ends with a scene that is genuinely demented, in the literal sense of the term. 

The story is considered an early feminist classic, and Gilman became an activist for women’s causes, which this exhibit addresses. It glosses over some of Gilman’s sketchier qualities — her views on immigration, as an example, would have made her a popular speaker at a contemporary Tea Party rally. but, then, this is a museum of medicine, not of politics, and Gilman was among the first people to offer both an insider’s look at severe depression and the failings of medicine, which, in her time, was less a science than a fiction, invented out of whole cloth and then never tested for effectiveness, and the best one could hope for from a doctor was at least a halfway decent cocktail he had invented while seeking a cure for ennui.

Husqvarna Discontinues Yazoo-Kees Brand Sep 21, 2011  Printable format  Email this Article  Search

Outdoor power equipment maker Husqvarna Professional Products will discontinue manufacturing and selling products under the Yazoo|Kees brand name by the end of 2011. “The decision to discontinue the Yazoo|Kees brand is part of our brand rationalization strategy within the Husqvarna Group,” says John Marchionda, vice president of Marketing, Husqvarna. Husqvarna will continue to produce similar products under both the Dixon and Husqvarna brands. Husqvarna will continue to process warranty claims and make available service parts for an extended period of time. History of Yazoo-Kees Frederick Daniel Kees began producing husking hooks and pegs on Nov. 23, 1874 and did good business with settlers to the U.S. West, Kees also repaired firearms, sewing machines, and mowers while manufacturing his own products in a back room workshop. Kees opened a manufacturing plant in 1910. by 1963 the company was producing Kees Lawn and Garden Equipment. Its product line included the Kees Krawler

Many of the Oak Park Farmers’ Market vendors now are accepting Link cards that allow individuals receiving food assistance to purchase nutritious, locally grown fruits and vegetables. as an added benefit for all patrons, most vendors that accept Link cards also will accept credit cards.

“Poor nutrition is a major problem among our country’s lower income, a situation that is complicated by the lack of access to fresh fruits and vegetables,” said Oak Park Health Director Margaret Provost-Fyfe. “now, area residents who rely on food assistance programs will have access to nutritious items at one of the region’s best farmers’ markets right here in Oak Park.”

Provost-Fyfe called the acceptance of the Link card a major addition to the market, noting that the steps necessary to set up the program offered the added benefit of allowing patrons to use a credit card at most of the same vendor stalls that accept Link.

“beyond the obvious benefit to Link card holders is the convenience of a new payment option for other patrons as well,” she said. “Paying by credit card seems to be the trend for many shoppers, so it makes sense to be able to offer this option at our Farmers’ Market as well.”

Currently, 17 market vendors accept Link cards, which allow individuals participating in the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) to access their benefits with a card, rather than cash or food stamps. Oak Park is one of only 26 of the estimated 300-plus farmers’ markets in Illinois to offer the Link payment option.

Patrons who use a Link or credit card will choose their items and receive a receipt from the vendor that must be taken to the administration tent by the market’s main entrance where the actual transaction is completed. Purchasers then take the proof of payment back to the vendor and pick up their items.

The Oak Park Farmers’ Market is held from 7 a.m. – 1 p.m. every Saturday from mid-May through October in the Pilgrim Congregational Church parking lot, 460 Lake St., one block west of Ridgeland Avenue. more information on the market is posted at oak-park.us/farmersmarket.

Builder rescued from scaffolding after electric saw accident in Bushey

10:30am Wednesday 28th September 2011

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a builder had to be rescued from scaffolding after his leg was lacerated by an electric saw in Bushey.

Firefighters from Watford station were called to the house on Herkomer Close after the accident happened at around 10.25am on Monday.

the builder, who was said to be in his 30s, was injured while carrying out work on a house in the close.

Crew Commander Paul Seear, said: “He was cutting with a fast cutter, one with a circular blade that cuts metal, when it jumped back and went into his upper thigh.

“He was about 25ft up the scaffolding and had serious bleeding.”

He said the paramedics were unable to reach the builder so firefighters used a raised platform to get to him.

Mr Seear added: “We went up in an aerial platform, put him in that and brought him down.

“He was quite calm.”

the builder was then taken to Watford General Hospital.

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As Harrah’s Cherokee Casino closes on the final year of a massive $633 million expansion, the hum of construction that’s been a backdrop to life in Cherokee will give way to a luxury resort positioning the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians for unparalleled economic dominance in the region.

“It is unlike anything else that has ever been attempted,” said Erik Sneed, the tribe’s construction oversight manager for the expansion. “You’ve seen projects like this in Vegas or Atlantic City. Rarely have you ever seen it in Indian Country.”

The project had 1,100 construction workers at its peak and 43 architects and interior designers.

Anecdotes depicting the sheer size of the project are limitless. Sneed traveled to Korea to negotiate directly with Samsung for televisions. Nothing quite says purchasing power like an order for 800, 42-inch flat screens.

The expansion was a monumental attempt to change the face of Cherokee’s casino into a resort destination and draw a new demographic of gamer.

It was pursued at great cost, and perhaps risk. It’s the largest construction project in the Southeast, no small feat in recession times. But the tribe simply could not continue to sit on its laurels, said Darold Londo, general manager of Harrah’s Cherokee.

“There were people who were happy with what they had, the whole ‘one in the hand worth two in the bush thing,’” Londo said. “We don’t have that luxury because our customers play elsewhere. they go to all the other gaming markets in the country. there is an incentive to keep pace with them.”

When the expansion is finished next year, the casino will have pulled off a five-year construction project while remaining one of the most profitable Harrah’s casino properties in the nation.

“My boss never wanted to hear construction used as an excuse. He said ‘Don’t tell me your revenues are off or your services scores are down because you’re building something new. I just don’t want to hear it,’” Londo said.

Londo’s boss at corporate headquarters wasn’t the only one unwilling to give the Cherokee casino a pass on making revenue goals while in the throes of construction.

There were 13,900 other people — the enrolled members of the Eastern Band — counting on profits holding steady. Casino profits flowing to the tribe hovered around $225 million the past two years, with half funding tribal programs and the other half paid out directly to the Cherokee people in the form of twice-annual checks.

The tribe relies on casino money for many of its services, from subsidizing the hospital and the school system to native language programs for children. Families rely on their individual cut to make car payments, buy medicine and put their kids through college.

“One of the primary goals was to not affect the tribe’s distribution,” Sneed said.

The expansion won’t only double the number of games to a total of 4,600, but includes a complete renovation of the existing gaming floor.

The biggest challenge: maintain players’ experience and never, ever, go off line. Keeping the casino’s 3.6 million annual guests isolated from the construction zone around them was a feat in itself. False walls created a bubble around the operable areas of the casino while hundreds of construction workers toiled just on the other side.

“I call it the ticking dominoes,” Sneed said. “We’re cascading through a construction sequence.”

Matt Pegg, executive director of the Cherokee Chamber of Commerce, has been a doting spectator of the expansion.

“It has been impressive just to watch it,” Pegg said. “One day you walk around the corner and there is a big wall. the next day they have taken that wall away and there are 500 more machines or a food court.”

One work-around to keep the casino running amidst the construction — quite literally — stemmed from the unfortunate location of the main electrical room. it sat smack dab in the middle of the old motor coach lounge, destined for demolition to make way for an upscale steak house.

Contractors ruled out moving the main electrical room, which houses all the power panels that run the casino. instead, they decided to demolish the building around it. Crews couldn’t mess up. Knock out the casino’s electrical power, and the lost revenue per minute was unthinkable.

“They were nervous as cats,” Sneed said of the demo crews.

Electrical crews couldn’t exactly kill the power either when it came time to move or add circuits, so specialized teams donning full-body rubber suits and helmets to work with the high-voltage live circuits.

While the guests are oblivious to the construction zone surrounding them, it’s hard to miss once you’re back-of-house.

Drill-slinging construction workers clad in blue jeans and work boots, tool belts clanging about their waists, scurry up and down the employee corridors. Drafting tables, spilling over with blueprints, are tucked into every corner of the hallways. the noise of saws and sledgehammers, somehow imperceptible on the gaming floor, is pervasive.

Even in the administrative wing, hardhats are never far from reach, looped over coat racks and stowed on bookshelves behind nearly everyone’s desk.

Taskmaster of great proportions

On a construction tour of the casino last week, Sneed made a stop over in the new 600-seat buffet, stepping around paint buckets and drop cloths, dodging men on ladders and weaving through a mine field of flying sawdust from table saws.

He excitedly started talking about the grand opening of the buffet just two weeks away without a hint of hesitation or flicker of doubt. it would all come together quite quickly, he said, not at all bothered that the flooring still wasn’t down, dining room tables were no where in sight, let alone finishing touches like napkin dispensers.

“We haven’t delivered anything late so far,” Sneed said.

Execution of the construction project was critical, and the tribe wasn’t leaving it to chance. true to form, the tribe once again proved its capacity for foresight by hiring two of its own contractor liaisons. their job: ride herd on the construction crews, make punch lists, double check work against blueprints, even scout for the best pricing on interior fixtures.

Harrah’s corporate, with a lot riding on the expansion as well, sent two of its own experts in construction oversight.

“Because of the size and the scale, we wanted to make sure the interest of the tribe was represented in the performance of the work,” Sneed said.

There were 50 to 60 subcontractors working on the job at any given time. Sneed set up shop smack in the middle of the contractor’s encampment, a field of 20 trailers across the street from the casino that served as the central nervous system of the expansion.

As Sneed strolled through the buffet still under construction last week, he pointed to newly installed light fixtures that were the wrong kind and need replacing.

“We saw those and thought, ‘Those don’t blend very well with the architecture. is that right?’” Sneed said. “So we had to go back and compare it to the drawings.”

The tribe switched contractors part way into the project, parting ways with the crew initially hired for the job over what Sneed referred to as “some mix-ups along the way.” Turner Construction, a century-old company and one of the largest in the country, was brought on. it was a good move, Sneed said.

“You are hiring that company because of their resources, but also their credibility. they have a reputation to protect in the industry and so they aren’t going to screw something up and leave it,” Sneed said.

A maze of construction

Most people would need a road map, if not a handheld GPS, to find their way through the maze of construction corridors and work zones, accessed to those in the know by slipping behind black curtains or ducking through the many “no-entry” doors pocking false walls on the gaming floor.

“It’s confusing. you could easily get lost on this project,” Sneed said.

But not Sneed. He knows the project like the back of his hand, a three-dimensional map of the blueprints seared into his mind.

For the directionally challenged, the casino has maps for hotel guests. Navigating the gaming floors, eateries and retail concourse is tricky enough without adding in the complexity of trekking there from one of the hotel towers and back.

But to steer the majority of guests, way-finding signs are mounted overhead, designed by an expert in such signage brought in a consultant.

“When you have a building this size, you have to make sure way finding is clear cut,” said Sneed. “It is so enormous, people have to understand clearly how to get out of this building in case something ever happened.”

At regular intervals on the casino floor, there are large interactive signboards, akin to a digital version of a shopping mall key, for resort guests to find what they are looking for and how to get there.

Getting lost isn’t the only problem. getting around is too, especially for the older population of gamblers who make up the large part of Harrah’s customer base. they don’t have the mobility to make long treks.

“If you’re staying in hotel tower one and your favorite game is in Mountain Breeze, you are going to walk about a mile,” Sneed said. “It is a challenge.”

The solution: layover points to stop and rest and visually pleasing elements along the way.

“We designed it with a sense of journey so that as people make their way through, you have this or that to catch your eye and look at,” Sneed said.

It might be a group of sofas by a fireplace, artwork inlayed into the tile floor or balconies overlooking the gaming floor. A collection of sky bridges means players never have to go outdoors.

Londo said the casino is breaking industry norms with the lounging areas. For years, consumer psychology experts preached against places to loiter, warning that it is best to keep people on their feet browsing and shopping.

But Darold Londo, Harrah’s Cherokee general manager didn’t subscribe to that school. the casino was just too big for older guests not to stop and rest.

“It’s a haul for anybody, but if you are challenged getting around …” Londo said.

Londo also cited insight from his current bedside reading, why we Buy: the Science of Shopping. the author’s studies of consumer habits found lounging areas are not, in fact, detrimental to sales.

In coming weeks, the casino plans to deploy a fleet of golf carts to shuttle people back and forth to the hotel towers similar to those used in an airport. it also rents electric scooters.

Going vertical

Harrah’s hotel towers are the only structures west of Asheville in the state that are equipped with seismograph detectors. Hemmed in by mountains on a landlocked reservation, Cherokee had little choice but to build up.

“We shoehorned it all in,” Sneed said. “We couldn’t take a horizontal site and expand out. we had to think vertical.”

It’s obvious from the outside — with the soaring hotel towers and parking decks. But it also influenced the basic layout inside. A giant 600-seat buffet overlooks the gaming floor from a mezzanine, while a large 3,000-seat concert venue sits above it on the second floor. the stacked layout called for dozens of elevators and escalators.

The site limitations came at a price.

“We spent millions developing the site to accommodate an expansion this large,” Sneed said. “We went through literally months of blasting everyday getting through solid rock.”

Ultimately, construction called for nine retaining walls, including a 75-foot “soil nail” wall, the largest in the South. there was $1 million on a dewatering system for the parking garage. another $2 million for federal stream mitigation to work around a creek that courses through the middle of the sprawling casino property.

Site work was the only portion of the construction that faced delays or cost overruns, a nasty side-effect when dealing in the unknowns of what lies below ground.

The project, once finished, will undoubtedly be a towering symbol of the tribe’s progress, a fitting monument to how a once persecuted people have bootstrapped themselves into the single largest player in the region’s economy through foresight and vision.

“It is going to attract an entirely different clientele. This isn’t just a daytrip casino any more,” Sneed said. “There’s a legacy in this also. we want to build something the community is proud of.”

Innovative tool design and special-grade carbide help users avoid chip out in furniture-making, cabinetry and closet manufacturing applications

September 07, 2011 09:18 AM Eastern Daylight Time 

FARMINGDALE, N.Y.–(EON: Enhanced Online News)–Amana Tool, manufacturer of industrial-quality carbide-tipped, solid carbide and replacement carbide cutting tools, today announced its solid carbide CNC compression spiral router bits produce smooth, clean cuts in double-sided melamine, laminated materials and MDF. the bits are designed for CNC applications that require high feed rates and clean finishes, such as furniture, cabinetry and closet manufacturing.

“Chip out is a common problem when working with laminated MDF, melamine and other abrasive materials. Amana’s compression spiral router bits help furniture makers and other manufacturers overcome this obstacle through innovative tool design and our special-grade carbide that deliver superior performance while saving time and materials.”

Amana’s unique compression router bit geometry helps prevent chip out on the top and bottom of the material by pushing chips down and ejecting them up during the same cutting pass. Made from a special carbide grade, the bits last longer than standard router bits, especially when working with abrasive materials such as laminated MDF and melamine, and deliver an optimal edge finish. the superior performance also ensures CNC users the most yield from each sheet of material. each compression router bit is manufactured to Amana’s stringent quality standards.

Frank Misiti, technical director at Amana Tool, said, “Chip out is a common problem when working with laminated MDF, melamine and other abrasive materials. Amana’s compression spiral router bits help furniture makers and other manufacturers overcome this obstacle through innovative tool design and our special-grade carbide that deliver superior performance while saving time and materials.”

Amana’s solid carbide CNC compression spiral router bits are available in diameters ranging from 1/4” to 3/4”. the 1/4” diameter bits (item #46170) start at $40.20 USD; the 1/2” diameter bits (items #46188 and #46190) start at $80.74 USD. For more information, including a list of authorized dealers, visit amanatool.com. Follow Amana Tool on Twitter (twitter.com/amanatool) and Facebook (facebook.com/AmanaTool).

About Amana Tool

An industry leader for nearly 40 years, Amana Tool specializes in solid carbide and carbide-tipped cutting tools for the woodworking, plastics and aluminum industries. Amana Tool’s full line of industrial-quality woodworking tools includes saw blades, router bits, shaping cutters, boring bits and more for wood, plastics and aluminum. the company was founded in 1972 and has corporate headquarters in Farmingdale, N.Y. and a West Coast distribution center in El Cajon, Calif. For a complete listing of Amana Tool’s products, visit amanatool.com.

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with the right type of sword with the right talent for it then yes

Yes you can but some swords are polished.

ok in my home network i have to routers one that came with my verizon fios but for me just one doesn't cut it my other one is a linksys router i went to 192.168.1.1 the default gateway and told my linksys router to not give out ips and just basically at like a swich with wireless capabilities of course but now my problem is that when i go to 192.168.1.1 it goes right to my verizon fios defalt gatway i want to be able to program my linksys router but can't seem to get in could any one help me did any one understand this lol thanks!

disconnect the verison router and connect to linksys router thru 192.168.1.1 then change the ip to 192.168.1.2. and connect again the verison router and re start the computer.

When he’s not on the road, smooth jazz trumpeter Rick Braun grabs any opportunity he can to tackle the garden behind his family’s Woodland Hills home.

Sweat, blood and backbreaking labor have all gone into attaining the luxurious Mediterranean-inspired terraced slope — a look many people turn to landscape designers for. But as the 56-year-old Braun puts it, “I’m just a trumpet player.

“We never could have been able to do this if I didn’t do it myself.”

Putting green. Xeriscape beds. Pergola.

Short of the infinity pool and basketball court, Braun has had a hand in designing and building most everything in the double-lot yard, during breaks in his tireless touring schedule with Jazz Attack — his smooth jazz trio with saxman Gerald Albright and guitarist Peter White — and studio work.

Braun just released his first solo vocal album of jazz standards, “Sings With Strings,” but more on that later.

Right now, he’s showing off handiwork of a different kind, including the curved deck he built off the flagstone patio of the outdoor living room.

“I wanted it curved because everything about the yard is curved,” says Braun, a tall, slender man with brow-skimming bangs who is dressed in a white embroidered shirt and black jeans on a hot summer evening.

In fact, curves shape the hot tub, opposite ends of the long, narrow solar-heated pool, and putting green (with artificial lawn) reflecting the arches of the red tile roof, and white stucco house he shares with his decorator wife, Christiane, and their two children, Emma, 11, and Kyle, 9.

But curving the front of the deck was a challenge for Braun, who hails from a family of Pennsylvania carpenters.

“It was learn as you go,” he admits. “I cut the board and then soaked it in the pool so I could bend it.”

From the deck, steps lead to a gravel walkway where fruit trees mingle with a variety of California native and succulent plants and figurative garden sculptures, which dot the landscape. There are railroad tie steps between levels.

And along the path, a small bridge crosses a river.

The river was Kyle’s idea.

“Dad, Dad, Dad, let’s build a river on the hill,” Braun remembers his son saying one day. “So I said, `OK, we’ll do this project together.’

“About an hour into digging I realize he’s gone,” he says. “He’s inside the house watching Nickelodeon. I went in and brought him back three times before I finally let it go.”

After all, Braun says, the garden is his hobby.

He often spends entire afternoons maintaining the area.

One of his favorite spots is a shady nook at the bottom of the yard, underneath a lush California pepper tree near a waterfall he chipped out of bedrock.

Across the way is another seating area that features a built-in wall fountain and pergola, which Braun built with help from hired muscle.

The finishing touch was creating the decorative ends.

“Because it was so thick, I couldn’t use a jigsaw,” Braun says. “There’s not a blade that will go through it so I had to use the Sawzall — and it worked.

“I kind of figure stuff out as I go,” he says. “I’m not afraid to try things, which is probably why I decided to sing and change my whole direction with this new CD.”

The jazz vocal album is a departure from his other work as a lyrical trumpet player who’s also provided background vocals in years past for Rod Stewart and Sade. “Sings With Strings” was produced, arranged and orchestrated by Philippe Saisse and features familiar and not-so-familiar songs, including “I Didn’t know what Time it Was,” “The Things We Did last Summer” and “Say it (Over and over Again).”

Most of the vocals were recorded in Braun’s home studio, which takes up half of what was a four-car garage.

He also recorded his flugelhorn here.

“We wanted to make a very romantic, understated record and thought that the dark, warm sound of the flugelhorn as opposed to the brashness of trumpet would pull people in,” he says.

Braun drew vocal inspiration from Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett and Mel Torme, as well as Anita O’Day.  

“She was out of her mind good,” he says, recalling an insomniac night he stumbled on her “Sweet Georgia Brown” performance at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1958.

It revived him.

“Whenever we just wanted to get re-inspired we’d watch that,” he says.

When asked if he plans to keep on singing, Braun doesn’t hesitate.

“This is not a side project,” he says. “This is like the hillside. this is my therapy.” to find out more about Rick Braun’s music, visit rickbraun.com.