obviously went in the car, obviously my hair is wet. I do happen to know today, it's Sunday, May 6th, but don't get all excited. I only know that because I was already up today doing today's writing and postings on the different art and social media groups that I'm on that I have to do that for. So we, as you saw on last week's vlog got home pretty late last night from Portland, Oregon, and we were there for a wedding and to take care of some business and we were just exhausted. So anyway, we are home and we've got unpacked. I am headed out to Target and the grocery store to get a couple of things. It just seems like we haven't been home much. We were in Lake Tahoe for a week, then we came home, we were home for a few days and we went to Portland, like literally. My husband heard his back in Lake Tahoe for those of you who don't know. So we get things done up there that we wanted to. We were there for vacation and my husband had like a laundry list of things he wanted to do while he was there, which we didn't get to do them all because his back was hurt. Then we came home and he had to go right back to work and he was at work for a few days before we left for Portland. In the meantime, his back got better, although he's undergoing treatment to figure out what's wrong with it. His back got better, but then he caught a cold. So dude can't catch a break. So anyway, we are home now hopefully for a few days and not having to go anywhere. I'm headed to Target because I need to do some reorganizing and purging and stuff in my art room. We really need to paint that room and there's a bunch of holes in the wall that I've got a patch and I think the wire shelves have to come down for the painting part. So I need some place for all my stuff to go. And although I've done a significant amount of purging in the last year or two, I still feel like I have too much stuff. So I'm gonna be working on that this next week. In the meantime, I'm looking for some storage solutions to redo the closet. My idea is to get a lot of stuff in the closet and out of the room room for a few different reasons, one of which will make moving it and packing it if needed during the painting process easier because you can just grab the plastic drawers. If I can fill it up with drawers, you can wrap them in plastic packing like cling wrap stuff and just move them like out to the garage without unpacking all the drawers. Right now, everything's on shelf. So it's gonna be, it would be a pain in the neck. So anyway, that's my goal. So before I order anything, I am headed to Target to see what they have. I don't really wanna run all over town. Either Target has what I want or they don't. I have gotten plastic drawer units at the office supply store before in the past and they have a really good quality ones, but they're pricey. So I'm either gonna get them at Target or I'm gonna order them at Amazon and I'll keep you all posted. I also have to get groceries. May 7th, don't get excited. Catching up on, we are headed out 9.30, I think. I was done for the first half of what I need to do today. So I'm running over to the PO box to mail some Etsy orders that came in while I was in and out of town the last two weeks. And also pick up the mail because I haven't gotten the mail since Thursday. So I don't know, there might be nothing but there might be a big stack of stuff, I don't know. So I could wait until today's mail is in and sorted but I don't really wanna do that. I also need some flat rate boxes. So I will be making some more ply overstuck. I don't know what to call them. I really hate to use the mystery box word because although we've used that before, word has gotten some bad so to speak on YouTube and social media. My boxes aren't usually a mystery because as you will see right about here, this is footage of me cleaning the closet and I will make some footage of me actually filling the boxes. So although the box that you get is picked at random, you have an idea of what's in them. It's not a complete mystery. I will be, because I've been chatting with friends and doing stuff around the house to go get the mail because some of the new storage for my art room should be in today. I need to make some copies at so that I can work on a project in front of the TV tonight because I got some things together.  I just was stuffing stuff in the notebook and I didn't glue anything in or document anything or any of that. So I got it caught up, things are drying right now and I'm going to finish the journaling and any doodles or anything I want to do. See that cardboard box? Iris carts them in the description. I bought the ones with the larger drawers at the bottom. They do have one with all skinny drawers all the way up. So I'll link them both for you all. But they're a great storage solution for your art room. The only problem is like nobody's got them in stock anywhere you have to order them. So anyway, I got mine at Amazon. The boxes, they're not heavy, but they're huge. I think they're almost taller than me. So anyway, let's get home and let's unpack them. Hi guys, it's Wednesday morning. I only know this because I'm in my office by the computer. Whoops, where are we? And the calendar.  I need to go, you know, do the grocery store thing. It's time. Last night took some of these. I really like the new yo-play French style yogurt that comes in the glass containers and I do save the containers. And many things you can do with them including using them for your water for your brushes. But I thought I could turn some into tea light holders. I used a bunch of glitters and sequins that I had in stock and some decoupage and glue and yeah, it's super cute. So I'm gonna get some battery operated tea lights to go in there. Did that last night, let them dry. And I was going through my magazine stash and pulled out some articles. I wanna reference or reread and added them to my Tips and Inspiration notebook which is sort of like my own version of Arts and Crafts Idea Magazine. I've showed it before. It's getting really full. I'm gonna have to buy a new notebook soon. I've got things to mail to friends but I don't think I'm gonna do that today. I have goodwill donations stuff to get in the car and sort through and some stuff from the backyard that just needs to go away. It needs to be trashed or put at the curb for free. Some of it I can't lift though. So I need to wait until either Bob is home and or the kids can both come over and help. But that's all stuff on my to-do list this week and we have a business meeting. My husband and I later this evening here at the house and so we're gonna take care of that today. It's a busy, busy, busy day. So anyway, I'm gonna go get my day started and go get my chores done and I'll be back. But it's already 12th. Good afternoon, everybody. It is Thursday. I think I'm pretty sure it's the 10th. It's Thursday anyway. I have the phone and the computer all morning. I've gotten nothing else done. Well, I shouldn't say that. I did get the dishwasher started but I didn't get any filming done. I haven't gotten any art done. I haven't had lunch yet. I did get my coffee and breakfast but barely. It's just been nothing but business and phone conversations and paperwork. So anyway, I've got Etsy orders to go out and Mother's Day cards to send out. All of y'all out there have moms somewhere. So wish them a happy Mother's Day. They deserve it, I'm sure. We're sending cards out to ours. Well, I'm sending the cards out to our two mothers this morning. Well, it's afternoon. We ordered them flowers and things last night. So I think my mom gets hers on Friday and I think Bob's mom gets her order of stuff that we sent on a Sunday. Hey guys, how are you today? It's been a crazy day. It is Friday. We started off the day with some business meetings and contractors coming over for more estimates and we're gonna be getting the outside of the house painted and stuff like that in the next week or so. And then I'm gonna have some inside light work done, nothing major construction wise, but light work done next month. So we were taking care of all that and while I was showing the painter the leftover cans of paint we have, I jammed my thumb down here between the metal storage shelf and the top of the paint can. Like it's still tender and sore, it was bleeding. I hope my thumbnail doesn't come off that sort of thing, you know? So it's tender. I did get all of June filmed for my creative year. So that's all done. I just need to get it off the SD card and onto the computer and then edit it and get it loaded up to YouTube. I'm gonna get my other two commitments done for June which are my giant life and explorations of me before I do any of said downloading. I'm going to be trying over the next few weeks to actually film all my commitments for all of 2018. And what I usually do is do one month at a time. Film, download, edit, load to YouTube. Empty the SD card, repeat. So I'm gonna be doing that over the next few weeks and try to get all the rest of the year done. I have only my giant life and explorations to be left for June. So I don't know if I'm gonna get them done today but I might get them done Monday. I think there's too much stuff going on today but we'll see. What else, what else, what else? Just the normal chores laundry. We do have dinner with friends tonight, friends from the Masonic Club known as the Grotto.  Tomorrow I think we just have a chill day. We can sleep in, we don't have to be anywhere or do anything and we can just relax, maybe go for a walk.  In case you haven't noticed in the last few vlogs there's been like no walking on the treadmill. Right? So I need to get back to that. So I'm hoping like tomorrow I can walk on the treadmill or my husband and I can go for a walk around the neighborhood or something. So I'm hoping cross your fingers that starting tomorrow going forward we get back into a good routine for that. And we are gonna head over to Goodwill right now because you know, as if things weren't busy enough thank you my friend, Shannon Green. Now I have this itching to make avocado skin and seed ink, I know right. So I've decided that I don't really want to use one of my cooking pots for this. I'm gonna actually go buy a cheap little pot from the Goodwill that I can just keep in the art room for when I want to do stuff like this. Like my cookie sheets and my other things that are normally cooking equipment but I use them for crafting. So I'm gonna go in and see what we can find and do that. And then I'm going to make some ink this afternoon using just skins and water and then I have the avocado seeds which I smashed with a hammer and then I'm gonna make ink out of that. I'm gonna film it for you all and we'll see what happens. All right, I'll be back. Okay, we got our pot cost me just a couple of bucks at the Goodwill. Ironically enough, the very first pots and pans we had after we got married were this exact same brand and I had this exact same pot till the handle fell off. So this one seems to be in pretty good condition and so we are gonna go home and try to make some ink but first I'm gonna go see if the mail's ready so I'll be back. All right guys, we've got our pot. I've got a bag of smashed avocado seeds which I think we're gonna do first and then I've got some avocado skins. Now I can tell you right away before I even get started with this I have this sneaking suspicion which is why I bought a pot rather than used one. One of the reasons anyway that this is gonna lead me down a path of boiling all sorts of things from nature, food things, plant material to see what kind of ink colors we get. I just have this feeling. I don't necessarily wanna do that in my cooking pots because I don't know what I'm boiling may make an interesting color but it's probably not food safe. So yeah, I would recommend getting a pot from the Goodwill and once you do it for something crafty like this it's not good for food, just FYI, there's my disclaimer. So I'm going to dump my seeds in the pot and they've already oxidized a bit. You can see some of it here on the bag. There you go. So that's interesting. And then we're gonna fill the pot up with some water not all the way, a good halfway. Then I'm going to do like I generally do. So you're not talking to my chance. So I generally do when I'm making, okay, gravy.  I add a good slug of dry sherry to it and then I bring it to a boil and then once it comes to a boil I turn it down very low and simmer it low and slow for a long time until it gets thick and syrupy. So we're gonna do something similar with these avocado seeds and then when that's done with the skins and once I don't think we're gonna quite try to get to the syrup stage but we are gonna reduce it greatly and thicken it. So let's see what happens. I'll let you know and let's get started. I'm gonna start off on high. When it comes to a boil I'm gonna turn it down to low and then just let it simmer low and slow. Usually takes 30 to 45 minutes. So I'll be back. Boiling seeds. They look such an interesting color like a dark purpley fuchsia. At least from here they do. So we're gonna just let it simmer away for a few more minutes. We're moving on to avocado skin ink but I got this much seed ink out of just two avocado seeds and look at the color that it is. So to preserve this ink like I've done in the past with coffee and tea ink, I'm gonna put a little bit of glycerin in it and that should prevent it from not only evaporating but getting moldy. And now we are boiling avocado skins. Got my timer going. So we'll see what we get. Okay so this is the avocado skin color and this is the seed color. This is significantly more red than this one. It's more brown. Interesting though. All right. I wasn't gonna boil some rusty metal and see what color of water I got but I just am not comfortable doing that and it's probably fine and safe but I don't know that for sure. Yeah, so I'm not gonna do that one but I am happy with the two that I make.  And yeah, pretty interesting. I can't wait to try different things from around the yard and garden and see what happens. Let me know if you have any things that you make interesting ink or paint colors out of in the comments below. All right, I'm gonna go clean up and finish the explorations of me for June that I'm working on right now and then get ready to go out to dinner with our friends. I'll be back. Good morning, everybody. It is Saturday morning, March. March, holy cow. I was doing so well. May 12th. I only know that much because I've already been up doing my daily posting and writing. Yes, my hair is wet again. We are getting dressed and getting ready to go out and run some errands. We've got another purge load in the back of my car for Goodwill. So we're gonna go drop that off and the kids are coming over tomorrow for Mother's Day and they're gonna help me get rid of some more stuff out in the backyard and the shed and the garage. Purge, purge, purge. I'm on a kick. What else? I don't know, we have stuff to do but we're in no rush to do it. I have Etsy orders to drop off in the mail today and I have some daily drawings to catch up on if I have time today which I probably will. But first I need to make a trip to Costco with the husband and we need to get dog food and stuff like that. So exciting, I know, right? Anyway, if anything funny happens or interesting, you know I'll film it for you all. All right, I'll be back. Lunchtime Sunday. I forgot to film the outro for last week's vlog so here we are. We did another episode of Cooking with Fred. I will include a still shot of the meal here somewhere. It'll be a separate episode taken out not in the vlog anymore. So it's episode three, episode two is airing soon. If it hasn't already, I don't know the date off the top of my head right now. Anyway, it's been an interesting week, a long week, a lot of stuff to take care of and do but I look forward to spending Mother's Day with the family and doing some things around the house that I've been wanting to do and need help with and having a couple of good meals with them and all that. So anyway, I hope you've all enjoyed the vlog and that you have a great week and have a great day and don't forget to do something nice for yourself because you deserve it and I'll see you later. Bye guys.


The Department of Justice claims that Google has maintained its dominance unlawfully, making deals with Apple, Mozilla, so that it was the default on nearly every search bar that a US user might see inside a browser. It has been compared to kind of what Microsoft went through back in the 1990s. I don't think it's necessarily illegal, especially when you have other large companies partnering with Google, so it's not something that's, you know, being forced for other companies to use. It's like, okay, we realize that this search engine is the most popular. We know we're not likely going to topple it, so let's see how we can work in that partnership. And companies that don't wanna work in that partnership, they're kind of left on the bubble, so I think they're, you know, maybe the ones that are kind of pushing the song along a little bit.


han are available. Is that still the same situation, Ethna? Yes, sadly, there is still an urgent need for foster carers. There are more and more children being received into care. And I suppose for a number of reasons, maybe just people aging out of fostering there are less foster carers available. So certainly we are making an urgent call this morning to any of your listeners in Donegal who might think that it is something they could consider. We would love to talk to them and see if it's for them. Why else might there be a reluctance? I presume this is something you've looked into, because obviously those who would have fostered in the past are no longer fostering, but there's not necessarily the same amount of people coming through. Have you done any research or what do you believe anecdotally might be the reason for that? I think there's probably a number of reasons, Greg. I suppose maybe parents, families, they have more things going on. I suppose traditionally there was always maybe one parent at home and it was possibly easier to care for another child that wasn't a member of your family. Obviously the cost of living crisis now is certainly impacting and more and more people have to work full-time jobs maybe. And there's no doubt about it, fostering no more than parenting your own birth children is becoming more challenging. So I suppose people might be a little bit anxious or a little bit hesitant maybe to take on the care of somebody else's child, but I suppose we would just like to reassure them that our agents are here to support you. We offer 24 hours support. But you do have to go into something like this with your eyes wide open and that's why you have these conversations and they're always frank and realistic as well. Do you find that you would get a certain amount of people, let's say 10 people that might come forward and in the process then decide that maybe it's something that's not for them? Oh, yeah, absolutely. We get lots of inquiries, people just making general inquiry. And what we say to people is, Greg, if you have a thought about fostering at all, it's a really good thing to explore. Lots of people explore it and decide for different reasons. It's not for them and then you know. But if you don't explore it and you keep thinking about it and think, oh, I must look that up. I must do it next week, next month. There could be some child out there who is missing out on a really amazing parents. There could be people out there who could be amazing foster carers and have ruled themselves out maybe without even exploring it. It certainly is challenging, but people think sometimes they might be wasting their time contacting us in case it's not for them. We say, no, have a chat with us, an informal chat, and we can decide together whether it's for you or not. Yeah, and I imagine every case is different and every need is different. So it's not easy for you if possible to give a typical situation, but maybe I could break it down like this. You know, if someone comes forward for fostering now, do they have a choice whether it's short-term, medium-long-term? Do they have to prepare themselves for different scenarios? Do they know what age the children might be? What their background might be? They could be a 14-year-old coming from a difficult home, or they could be an eight-month baby, like all very different sort of propositions. So what can you tell us about that side of things? Yeah, absolutely. There's no case, one case fits all. Every child is coming into care, I suppose is coming from different circumstances and they would have different needs. A huge part of the assessment that we do with potential foster care is looking what they have to offer, looking what age of a child could they potentially care for. You know, having a look at their current time schedule, their commitments, maybe if they've done birth children. So we look at what everybody has to offer, so whether it's somebody's work at home full-time, maybe they're working part-time. We look at all of their individual scenarios, what skills they have, in terms of matching, the matching foster care with the child being received into care is hugely important. So again, we look at, some people want to foster teenagers, they feel that's where their expertise is. Other people would like to foster much younger child. The one rule that we have is that if you have your own birth children, there must always be two years between your birth child and a child being received into care. Within two years or a two-year gap? A two-year gap. So for example, if you have a six-year-old child, then you would look at fostering zero to four or eight plus. Can you ask what the logic of that is? So that your child maintains their position within the family. So they're not displaced. They will always be the only child, say for example, in fourth class, making the confirmation, moving on to first year. Our children generally, do you try and foster them? So say, for instance, if there's school going aids, that they go to the same school, or do you try and avoid that? Or again, is it on a case-by-case basis? It's a case-by-case basis. The ideal situation, Greg, is that children are not taken out of their own communities. You know, that as much of their life can continue as possible. Sometimes, for safety reasons, the men need to be moved from their local community to a different community. And sometimes, sadly, just because we don't have foster cares within that community, they may be moved. And then the huge part of fostering is maintaining contact for once it's in the best interest of the child with the birth family. And again, that's case-by-case. Sometimes it could be a number of times a week. It might be once a month. It might be only maybe once a year, depending on the circumstance of the child coming into care. But knowledge of the birth family is hugely important as to go through foster care. Is there an average time a child might spend with a foster family? Now I'm sure there are going to be occasions and changing circumstances where it could be for a very long time. Other situations may be much shorter than there's a medium. Like generally speaking, as much as we can, how often might you have, for how long might you have a foster child with you? I suppose, again, that's case-by-case. Children come into care sometimes for short-term. And that might be only maybe when maybe a parent is going for treatment or some might be a very short, specified length of time. Other times children come into care short-term and then as they kind of settle into care, maybe more and more information is shared and they end up in care long-term. I can give you, in my own circumstances, I'm a foster care and we have a young man with us now who came to us when he was five for a month and he's about to turn 20 next month and he's still here and he's just started university. He comes home at the weekends. So there's no, I suppose, definite times that a child comes into care. And that's why I asked the question because I suspected that was the answer. We'll focus on all the positives and some with what we've been talking about is positive. That's a beautiful positive story of yours but I want to talk through the challenges as well because then the people that contact you perhaps are even more likely to go on to become foster parents and we're going to speak to Erin in a moment for her experience. But how do you support people to deal with attachment and detachment? Because that's the thing I think I would struggle with that I would become attached and then something would be taken from my life that would be very important to me and not like a possession on something that your heart is connected to. Yeah, that's a huge part of the training is preparing you for endings and beginnings and the reality is when a child does move from you it is a loss, it is grief and you need to acknowledge that and go through that period of grieving and that's I suppose where our support workers our social workers come in to support you and your family and just help you work through that loss and eventually you'll come to the time and for some people it can be a week, month, two months when they feel they're ready okay a little part of me is gone but I'm ready to share it again. I'm sure all our audience are finding this interesting but I think we're talking about very special people that this will resonate with and they'll want to do this people like yourself and people like Erin, Erin, thank you for joining us and good morning to you. Thanks for having me Greg.  My parents actually fostered in England before we moved back over here so it was always something that I'd been kind of involved with but in terms of how long I've been fostering here is for about two years now and it was just basically as simple as that you can constantly hear the appeals for foster families when you look at the statistics the amount of children being looked after by the state and so many of them waiting for to be in a family I think there's a few hundred in residential centres and I'm sure a lot of them would want to be in a family some of them are better their needs are better served in a residential set but there's many children that would ideally need families to develop the best way they can and we me and my partner we were in a stable situation we had our own little boy we bought our house with a few spare rooms in the house it just felt like the right time so we thought we'd explore it and we phoned up and the people that was assessing us agreed with us and this is where we are now and as you say there's many reasons why you decided to do this but one of them I think you mentioned it there is that you know the difference it can make to the children I think when growing up in a household with your parents I had a unique bit of insight into lots of different types of situations that children can be in and then when I went on to study myself I ended up studying that kind of avenue of trauma and psychology so you can when you've had that insight you know what you're able to do and what you're going to be best suited to do but even if I haven't had that kind of experience the assessor and work workers and support you get from a team like Origins they really explore that for you anyway and your approach and I presume it's the general approach is that the aim obviously and you can hear from your motivation to get involved in this and from your experiences to care for the child but it's always with the viewers when it is safe and if it is safe for the child it's a guardianship almost until such time as they can be returned to their family and accept a child in that knowledge is that the explain that correctly I think that's a reasonable description of the situation with fostering obviously most of the time the ultimate goal is reunification with families but there are a large number of children including children that I'm looking after that reunification just is not going to be possible and they need to even if you're not their relatives so to speak they need to know where they're going to be next year where the next Christmas is going to be spent they're coming home each day to the same person they're not going to be moved to school again before you know whilst they're in secondary or whether they're in national school it doesn't really matter you know everybody needs that level of security and when you have children one of the biggest sort of things to be thinking on is whilst you might be obviously helping other children you don't want to do that at the detriment to your own child or children as well and I presume that's all part of the process of seeing if this is a fit for you because it's absolutely individual is it absolutely yeah and obviously that was an absolute paramount of importance for me when we were going through the assessment was to explore what age background and any kind of demographic of what was going to affect my little boy as well so had you asked me at the beginning I would have said that maybe somebody close in age to him would have been the right way to go and as it happens we've ended up with teenagers and they absolutely adore him there's no competition between them they're just at a different point in their lives and they're actually able to explore maybe earlier areas of their life that they missed out on by kind of being with him you know so this actually ended up in a blessing but that only came about because of exploring the matching process you know with origins in the first place so and it couldn't have worked out better and I think it's quite interesting my comments were quite interesting really on reflection in my chat with Ethna who will return to in a moment in that when I was talking about it and when I was sort of going through my head what might be difficult I spoke about me I spoke about my feelings about how I might feel what happens if I get attached how will I feel if I have to say goodbye to someone that I've grown close to but really I suppose you have to think on the child obviously you have to have space for your own emotions but it's what will the benefit to this child be how will it improve their life how will they go on from that position you know so rather than me thinking of myself really it's the child that should be first and foremost in my thoughts yeah that I mean it is a fear for anybody going into you know looking at foster you know if you do get attached and that they would possibly have to you know move on to either go back and say the birth families or if you're just doing this on a short term basis that they would go on to a permanent place and yeah of course you've got to think about yourself because you know if you don't have your own emotions you can't look after anybody else's but I think what I would say to people when they are worried about that is what is worse at the end of the day we as adults can take a burn am I going into this and that's why I called out my own selfishness in my thought process you know I did because I was putting what I might feel ahead of what the child might feel as I was processing this conversation um ethna in terms of the supports that you offer um foster parents actually before I get to that ethna a few questions coming in lower age and opera age and what other assessment in terms of people's background or income is done through this process okay really good question we do have a lower age you must be over 25 we don't have an opera age when it comes to the opera age what we look at is we look at each individual applicant at their circumstances I suppose for people at the opera age their health and fitness is a huge part of it their fitness to foster but we don't have an opera age because really important there's a lot of people you know older people who have a lot to give they have the possibly the advantage of time and they have a life experience and they could be amazing foster parents obviously if somebody was say 60 or 62 we wouldn't be placing a baby coming into long-term care you know because obviously you don't want to be minding a teenager in your late 70s um but other than that you know they could older people could have a lot to offer some of the other criteria the biggest criteria we have probably is that you must have a spare room every child do you have to own the home you can rent or you can own a home if you rent a home we just need a letter from your landlord that it's okay with them that you are considering fostering but we have lots of people who are renting the home you were going on to mention spare room sorry go ahead then yes you need to have a spare room for a child coming into care and that's just to give them a sense of ownership a sense of privacy they have their own space it's important to remember these children are coming from all kinds of backgrounds and have had sadly experienced lots of things of adults don't experience but regardless as to what they come from just the whole idea of being taken away from the births family is traumatic in the south so that is a big criteria to have a spare room we need you to be able to drive because you may have to drive a child to appointments therapeutic appointments family visits um you need to be open to guard the vetting um and if you've lived outside Ireland for more than six months police checks for any area you've lived in if you smoke if I drink if I dabble in drugs you know like how do you how would you now not all that's going to be picked up through vetting for example but how do you filter that out that would be all part of the assessment we ask people to be honest in terms of smoking if you do smoke we ask that you smoke outside your house as where it affects you is that you cannot have obviously a child with a new respiratory issues or a child under five in and all of the others you know the level of alcohol use that's all discussed under you know as part of your assessment and obviously you can't see so in terms then of financial support because again as you mentioned quite rightly so no more so here in Donegal people are struggling at the moment financially and I don't want this this is not transactional either and I don't want to break down to that but it's a practical reality so what financial supports do you offer people the statutory fostering allowance is three hundred and twenty five euro for a child under twelve and three hundred and fifty two euro for a child over twelve per week per week yes so it needs to be clear that it's not to replace an income for a person a couple or a single applicant applying to foster they need to be financially independent the allowance is there for the child's school uniforms, activities all of the general day to day expenses that are involved in the child and we encourage our foster care to put something away for the child so that when they are coming out of care that they do have some little savings account there it's not mandatory but we do encourage it I suppose we need to be clear Greg you know if you break down three hundred and fifty three hundred and fifty two euro a week sounds like a lot of money and maybe people are saying well I don't get that for my own child but it's not as a payment for the foster care it's there to support the child and it's not to replace an income need to be financially stable bringing another human into a house changes many things it's you know what I mean it's not simply saying right well a five for a day for food it's not like that because it could be extended school runs it could be there's lots of lots of things and with the money that's being thrown around at the moment that seems like good value for a week to keep one of our young people safe yes that's how I would view it and it's the impact that a foster care can have on the lives of a child they could foster parents I suppose what research shows you know this trauma obviously we cannot undo the trauma children have experienced but research shows that a stable secure environment can repair trauma for a child and foster parents have the potential to do that more information I presume from origins fostercare.ie absolutely or if somebody wants to call me if I can share my number with you yes it's<PHONE_NUMBER> and we'll retain any of our social media accounts we'll retain that number here Erin do you want the last word I suppose the only thing to say is just if anybody is thinking about it at all you know really do consider just making the call or just attending one of the information sessions online there's no harm in pulling out at any point if you think it's not for you or if somebody else brings something forward that shows that it might just not be the right time you can come back to it later but better to regret something that you've tried than not tried I always think Erin thank you so very much for your time I really appreciate it take care Ethna Larkin also thank you very much for your time as I say maybe we can connect a child that needs support and care with someone who wants to offer that and if we do one I think that's where I'll throw out the 20 minutes designer collections include Lazy Boy Sky Italian and Calia Italia now is the perfect chance to get that furniture you've had your eye on at Foyze the North West's leading interior's paint curtain blind and interior design specialist farm entitlements values slashed for more in your farmers journal is Paul Mooney new cap changes are fueling the sale of entitlements shock new cow quota for young farmers fears of a new suckler scheme payment clawback hopes grow for sheep crisis support payment solar farm expansion squeezing land availability plus find out if you're paying over the odds in the latest fertilizer price survey all inside this week's Irish Farmers Journal you cannot afford to miss it Mary here from the cosmetics department at McGee scams to let you know that long come have a great beauty gift available here this week by two long come products one of them to be skin care and you will get a free eight piece gift containing a full size rose sugar scrub absolute day and night travel size creams and more iconic long come products this is available until Saturday 18th of March or while stocks last for any skin care advice you can always talk to Gemma or myself here at McGee's chemist main street letter Kenny hello thanks for raising could you hold a line yeah no problem now how can I help you I'm looking to make some updates to my insurance 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with no hidden fees or transaction charges letter Kenny credit union 9102127 the perfect mother's day give to see the one and only Tom Jones in Belfast join us as Highland radio had the road to see the timeless legend at the headlines Belfast 2023 Friday 16th of June your trip includes luxury transfers bed and breakfast in the four star Belfast and your standing ticket to the outdoor event contact us today on 0749125 thousand to see Tom Jones at Ormo Park Belfast Friday 16th of June new football boots for the season ahead at Brian McCormick sports classic triple black boots in soft ground adidas predator accuracy with improved texture across the strike zone in classic soft ground sole unit try the classic Puma King top SG with a sleek soft leather in classic six stock for extra grip get back to training with all your essentials shorts socks gum shield and kit bag Brian McCormick sports main street Larry Kenny click BMC sports.ie Clarence gift of beauty promotion is now on Macklehenny's 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counselor and education columnist with the Irish Times is with us now Brian well I can give you a weather forecast for Dublin airport because I'm here waiting for a flight for Lanzarote it's a bit west but other than that there's another side of the snow but Brian I knew because Caroline mentioned to me that you're waiting on a plane to go to Lanzarote and I was not going to say it I was going to stick it to you because I'm so bloody jealous but anyway I'm delighted for you we know now everything's grand hopefully your flight opens soon primary school students will soon be learning foreign languages, science and technology it's been described as the biggest shakeup of the primary curriculum in a quarter of a century do you see it that way Brian do you see this as a positive move forward absolutely well I mean 1999 was the last huge change in the primary school curriculum and now you know we're looking at making a number of changes now I mean obviously as you say technology science languages they're all going to have to find a place in the primary school curriculum because we can't be waiting for students to enter into second level before we introduce them you know to the concept of doing foreign language although they're doing the Irish and the English already but you know the opportunity to do content languages or other languages the opportunity to experience science for the first time or technology obviously there is going to be a change in terms of the amount of time that's going to be dedicated to religious education it's coming down from two and a half hours to two and within that there will also be some changes in relation to you know the curriculum would be more orientated towards teaching children about religion as such about morality about ethics and not necessarily about faith formation all the time and obviously a lot of the Catholic diocese particularly in Dublin and in other regions are looking to maybe bring that faith formation aspect back into parish life more and maybe away from the school system we were speaking by coincidence in this hour to students from Straball national school who are finalists in the biggest robot competition to head into Dallas shortly and it's amazing what's happening there but that's one school and there are many others that are doing the science stuff and technology really really well I suppose we need to go ahead we've been waiting to children are 12 years of age now to introduce them to the concepts of science and technology and they're all absolute wizards on phones and all sorts of stuff and yes we're not allowing them to explore that in an educational context so this is really positive the problem of course with the primary school curriculum is what we're trying to shove into it there's so much we're trying to achieve we're also trying to achieve that children stay fit and we're talking about nutrition and we're talking about sport and keeping them healthy and all that stuff it's really you're trying to ram so much into it so the problem of course is you only have a limited period of time within the school day but taking on board all of the new ideas in terms of technology and development and introducing it to science and giving them the option of foreign languages element way back about 10 years ago and then with the crash it was taken out which was a really retrograde step and it's great that it's coming back in again yeah and we don't know what the consequences are you know every action has a reaction I presume we can draw on best practice from other countries and even in learning a language it's not just that language you're learning I presume it's you're learning a new way of learning as well so this can only be good and the fact that they say that when you learn a language the earlier you learn it the greater the ease at which you're learning it and obviously waiting on the second level to introduce languages other than Irish and English to children is really really wrong because ultimately their skills and their ability are so much greater at a younger age to learn a language is almost effortlessly as babies and yet at the same time you know we're up to now we've only really introduced into the concept of 13 years of age so I think it's a really positive step yeah okay listen Brian enjoy your little trip I'm not at all jealous we'll talk to you soon yeah alright go on you'll not be worrying about Austin Ireland in about five and a half hours but enjoy it anyway there's some space somewhere and it seems that focus on religion will be reduced I don't know what you think about that maybe parents might prefer for that element to be taught in a different environment I don't know good morning Greg I hear the advert for transport for Ireland rural now asking to book the day before you travel not good as some people might only decide on the day of travel to do so thanks Charlie of course Charlie you know well maybe it's like the if they have free transport maybe they don't want you to travel too much maybe we'll exploit it maybe we can travel on the day we'll travel excessively or maybe if it's cheaper we'll travel excessively I don't know you just you just don't know what's going through people's heads sometimes right okay we are joined on the program now by Carolyn Al and Wilson good morning to you thank you so much for joining us good morning can you hear me hello is Carolyn Ann there no okay not there just at the moment we'll come back to that might have to leave that till tomorrow because we're very short on time I'm the carer for my husband since he took sick 18 years ago when he's got his contributory pension my carer allowance was halved he worked all his life for that pension I mean that the arrival of that pension should have your life shouldn't it instead it was chopped off the carer's allowance I don't see how that makes any sense let me see where else are we going here a lot of people will be homeless because there's no money for new houses 250,000 houses we're short at the moment apparently hi Greg you were listing all the doll members this morning that were landlords maybe you should list the local councillors as well and ones that we will be wishing to stand in local elections also so we need to know the wealthy ones that want to become richer I think everyone wants to become richer don't they the is there's a I think there also has to be a declaration doesn't there from people who who are standing for local election as well hi Greg for three years during Covid we were told to follow the science to adjust we still use this narrative there is only two genders as the science tells us that's what one person thinks a lot of people who agreed with Billy yesterday motivated to text Berks are being treated like criminals bring those spare guards to Donegal Berks need to go to the European court for what though why are they being treated like criminals I would like you to know maybe and if you want to come on and explain that to us as a grandmother I've advised my children to just take their children out of classes I don't think religion has anything to do with it why take we children's childhood from them the world has gone mad and Leo me Hall have joined them if it's about sex education I think we have to have a bit of balance in this and how we think words and educate this is this is just what I haven't decided my view right but I'm putting to you like this look at the amount of children whose livelihoods like childhoods were taken from them because the adults was doing something to them and they didn't know it was wrong they didn't they trusted them when they said that this was natural this is our secret how many in our in our history and we can look back at our history how many children's lives were robbed from them and not just their childhoods sorry their adulthoods as well because I've spoken to them 60 70 years after they were abused as children should we not at the very least be informing children of certain amounts of stuff to protect them so that they can identify to us to us if something is happening that shouldn't be happening and it's most often someone close to the child as well by the way if it's done in a certain way without too much detail is that not better than the ignorance and that ignorance being exploited and I'm talking about ignorance in terms of a lack of knowledge fair play to Billy trans people are allowed to have their opinion but the rest of us have to shut up and not have an opinion at all except Billy was on the radio having an opinion and he didn't actually have any commentary about trans people at all what Billy actually said was that live and let live and he talked as someone who was treated as a minority because of his religion he made no commentary that I can recall on the trans people to be honest with you the man is correct in what he says and the truth is the majority are putting up and shutting up because they're afraid of those who are promoting the narrative to the point of losing their jobs particularly those involved in education good man Billy next they'll be wanting Christians to say Mohammed was equal to Jesus face the consequences very emotive topic this one isn't kind of why I avoid it not on the radio in my personal life to be honest with you I agree with that man it was and is this in the way they're treating that family and yesterday the way they threw that woman on the footpath you wouldn't treat your dog like that right okay that's some views out there as well and look this I don't mind reading something not that I don't mind but there's I'm reading an awful lot of anti stuff cheering stuff and what have you so maybe this offers offers a little bit of balance and all of them okay thanks for all your calls your comments and texts thanks for listening to the show thanks to those of you who watched the show we're back tomorrow morning from 9 we have our Friday panel and we're going to be discussing all the big stories of the week a little later a little later on we'll be announcing on the radio how you can vote for your winner of the Irish Music Month competition we had the four acts they were brilliant weren't they but stay tuned John Bres and David Ivan and the rest of the crews will remind you how you can vote as I will tomorrow when I come on air alright have a great day be safe and if you're out and about this evening and tonight hopefully the weather's not as bad as they were forecast but we're all going to have to take just that little bit of extra time to make sure we get home or get out or get out to work safely chat to you at 9 some sports demand resilience great power Sheltonham demands it all and this is William Hill Racing


Hi, I'm General Frank McKenzie, Commander of the United States Central Command. Happy birthday to the United States Coast Guard. For 231 years, the men and women of the United States Coast Guard have safeguarded the American people and they have promoted national security. The United States Coast Guard serves as a law enforcement organization, a regulatory agency, a member of the U.S. intelligence community, a first responder, and a branch of the U.S. Armed Forces. And they do all of this to save those in peril and to protect the United States. To our Coast Guardsmen's deploy to the U.S. SENTCOM region, and to their families as well. Happy birthday, Semper Paratus.


All right, check this out the best tool generally speaking for resistance training or strength training is free weights Generally speaking again. It's better than machines. It's better than bands better than cables better than body weight All right guys, let's talk about this. How's that comedian say it? Here's your sign. Here's your sign over that one Yeah, blue blue collar comedy guys. I know that that's yeah, you don't know that one Yeah, that's when you like when you say something like obvious. I think that's pretty obvious. It's you know It's not it's controversial. It's really in our space. I've seen people debate this before I think we should talk about why Machine people yeah typically yeah cable machine people and it by the way I said generally because definitely there are situations in cases where Machines and cables are superior But overall when you're looking at and when you have to consider the overall right the whole picture function Performance strength muscle building versatility versatility Free weights are just they're remarkably effective and even it's even when you compare them towards machines that are almost identical in terms of the movement pattern like a hack squat is Similar to a barbell squat, but a barbell squat is just so much more effective at all those other things that I well And do you think that is mainly because of just the instability that it causes because when you're doing dumbbells or free barbell Like you have to balance the weight versus something being on a track. Yeah, you know I would say so, but you know what the problem with that is is that? You know when I was training people in the early 2000s or you guys were to the instability You know crowd went crazy, right? It was like standing on wobble discs and physicals and dyna discs and So there's definitely a diminishing returns with that kind of stuff And we haven't really been able to identify specifically why this anecdote is so common like if you talk to top coaches trainers If you if you like just took a survey of a hundred of really really good coaches and trainers a Majority of them would would agree now some of them would disagree But a majority would agree Studies can show that there's evidence to kind of support what we're talking about like a barbell squat tends to translate more on The field than like a leg press for example Muscle building. I don't know if there's really any studies that show what we're talking about But there's a lot of anecdote and it's hard to explain why my theory is that Obviously our bodies evolved in the real world in nature. And so our bodies evolved lifting Free things, you know, so I think it mimics or at least it it sets in motion adaptation processes That evolved lifting things that were more similar to free weights than to machines and so my theory is that it's It's a lot more difficult. So the the learning curve is longer So the the gains and or potential gains that you could get from it just our extent So I think if we were to graph this and let's say you had like a free motion machine or let's just or whatever your hammer strength Favorite machine for like chest, right and then you had like a dumbbell present I think at the beginning they would look pretty close and then I think that you would get adapted to the machine Relatively quicker and then you would see kind of this plateau where the free weights would kind of continue There's less range of motion to consider in terms of having to stabilize and control, right? And so I I honestly look at it as a if we're looking at like a signal perspective of how many Muscles we need to incorporate for different tasks in each movement each exercise So in terms of like me doing say an overhead press on a track Like I can I can extend and press This weight overhead, but at the same time it's not putting as much demand laterally rotationally and also Stabilizing completely on the way down as well, which is the eccentric portion I think there's more demand too with the free weights with gravitational force Yeah, I'm so okay So I'm gonna get to that because I love what you said and I got some thoughts around that But here's something that a lot of people don't realize that's obvious I remember learning this when I went to go buy an open my own gym And I you talked to machine manufacturers and you know hammer strength and all that stuff and Nautilus and all these you know Cybex Most machines are designed around some a male who's about five ten five nine five ten Then they have adjustable seats and arms to kind of accommodate people outside of that But what happens when you work out with a machine is that you have to? Follow the machine's path and track and range of motion essentially free weights follow your body So if I'm doing an overhead press with someone who's with a kid who's you know four foot ten or a man That's you know six foot eight the free weights will follow them They're not following the machine and how many times have you guys had a client that was outside of the average you go in a machine And it just doesn't work very well for their body, right? So there's that and then what you said Justin Here's what's interesting about the central nervous system because that's what right That's what sends the signal for the muscles to work, right? We've used the amplifier versus recruitment process Yeah, when you activate the central nervous system When you activate more of it then it fires harder and more effectively in specific ways So for example, if I want to press one dumbbell overhead But maintain a relaxed body I'm only going to be able to press so much weight if I tense up my entire body I can use typically I can lift 10% or more Power lifters know this when power lifters bench press they talk about using leg drive like what the hell do legs have to do with The bench press you're just putting your legs on the ground not lifting the bar But they notice a long time ago when that when they activate their lower body they could press more weight and Freeweights tends to encourage that because of that product if I'm doing a standing overhead press I have to tense my whole body right just to support myself and balance And so I'm able to probably fire more muscle fibers as a result like you could probably intensify your machine workouts by intentionally bracing really hard and trying to add more You know muscle tension to contribute however, yeah free weights are just more They just place that demand naturally on your body in order to be able to even maintain the certain posture and control of your body Yeah, and I again I say generally because I know there's gonna be cases where someone's like I got better results using a machine Or you know this leg exercise But one example of when that would happen is when someone's when someone's form and technique is so bad on an exercise then Having a machine where you it helps you with that could accelerate their there and you can Right, right. So there there are cases where that will make sense But I again I go I go back to I think where the real benefits kick in it's the learning curve I think it's that if you were to look head-to-head with the point you guys are making with the machine and free weights I think it would be like a little bit better at first If you zero zero no one you've never done anything you're just starting someone they're brand new yeah And they but one's doing machine exercise the other one's doing freeway Let's compare a hack squat to a barbell squat, right, right? So and I think at initially the the gains and results Would be pretty close. I still think free weights would be a little bit better, but it would be pretty close I think it's where it really kicks in is over time Yeah, because if you put it if you put a new client on a hack squat machine in a Relatively short period of time in comparison to the barbell squat. They'll be able to push with maximal force. Yeah with a barbell squat They can take a while to year. Yeah They could be doing that movement for years before they can even really truly max maximize it because it it's so challenging Yeah, that doesn't mean you're not getting results the whole time, right? But yeah, I agree with you 100% I mean of all the people that I trained I never saw well I don't want to say never of course there's always exceptions But again generally speaking nothing came close and I didn't care what exercise it was You know, even if it was a cable curl versus a dumbbell curl as silly as it sounds very simple basic exercise Yeah, by the way, this I had a as a kid. This is my own anecdote. I Was I had a dislocated my knee as a kid and long story short I finally decided I'm just gonna go work out so I can rehab it and and then I was training my legs really hard I was doing the leg press the hack squat the leg extension leg curl I was doing different varieties of leg presses and hack squats in the Smith machine and I developed my legs built They definitely built and I was pushing weight and I was pretty strong or I was 16 year old kid pretty strong Then I met those power lifters and they're like dude just barbell squat and I swear to God I barbell squatted and I gained 10 pounds that summer and I'd never seen my lower body respond the way it did With all those other exercise that was my own personal experience well, it's interesting because I I remember talking to one of my clients who was always focused on Smith machine bench press and Just Was like discussing like what's the difference? Why because they they tried like a regular barbell Bench press and could only do half the weight and they were just like mystified by that And I was a new trainer and I had a hard time kind of describing all that But like just all those little nuanced variables of you know The ability for the barbell to kind of travel away from you behind you tilt You know all these types of you know things that don't seem like a lot But when you add weight to it and you keep stacking that that's a lot more for your body to account for by way If you ever see me and I rarely ever work out in commercial gyms. Usually it's a hotel gym if I'm traveling I will use lots of machines and cables mainly because I never do so I work out I'd say probably 90% of my workouts revolve around free weights So the novelty effect is great with machines and cables So if you see me in a commercial gym Well, you'll probably see me doing or a lot of things that I don't normally do and there's value there There's also value in certain cases of rehab There's certain exercises that just don't work well with free weights like if I'm do a cable chop obviously I can't gravity doesn't work sideways, you know tricep press down. There's certain exercises that are More suited for you know cables and machines cables by the way are my favorite machine They're the most versatile form of machine what I said earlier about free weights mirroring the body and or the body having to come You know follow the track of the machine. Yeah moves with you at least with cables, right? You can really adjust that for the individual. I mean when I had my wellness studio I had a I had a cage. So I had a squat rack. I had dumbbells I had bands and I had cables and that was it I didn't have a single machine in there and I trained everybody that way and it was great And I worked out that way and it's still to this day and if you see me working out That's pretty much what I'll what I'll be using now There are some studies that actually counter the point that we're trying to make right now And I'm you know people tend to jump on especially if you're a big machine or cable person And that's the you know There's these short periods where they they they track people for like six weeks and they're talking about muscle activation Yeah, so you'll make this case sometimes that oh Well hack squat fires the quads way more than the muscles are more active, right? Yeah with the the entire time, right? And so they'll take that on this and they'll study the two groups and compare and compare them and make the case that hey if you Want to develop your quads This machine is actually superior and so that's why I think there is a lot of debate around this conversation Even though I think initially we teased you in saying that this is obvious, but you're right There's some contention around it or some debate I think that's one of the reasons why there's debate is because you see these Muscle activation studies that show that these muscles are firing way more on this machine But that doesn't tell the whole story. No the the there's a huge limitation with studies on this like A real world like our experience is based off of training people for long periods of time So like you'll talk you'll hear us talk about the value of you know 15 to 20 rep range or the value of 1 to 5 rep range Well when they do studies on rep ranges For eight weeks, you know 8 to 10 or 8 to 12 builds more muscle than both of those rep ranges However, what they don't consider in their short period their short studies is over time your body tends to get used to a particular rep range And switching will get your body to move again and all of them build muscle So although one might be a little better in the short term all of them still build muscle They all have value and so i'm talking about I trained people for years. I know you guys did too. And so that's what this is based off This is not like I trained 15 people for three months and I found in three months that machines were as effective as free weights It's like no, I trained people for I had clients for me for 10 years And when you start training people for long, you know extended period times or you work out yourself for long extended periods of time That's when these things start to reveal themselves and you start to see oh, I can see now The value in this way of training because although this one was great for the first six months I started to develop some joint pain or I started to lose mobility or really stop working after a short period of time Whereas this other method, you know, give me these long term, you know benefits and then the We can't dismiss the functional aspect, right? How well does the strength that you build in the gym Translate into the real world. Yeah, we need that's very I think a lot of people who are just interested in changing how they look Dismiss that but I'm gonna tell you right now if your function is good The odds that you'll look good for longer periods of time are higher So you can't dismiss that now. You don't have to become the super functional Athlete but don't dismiss the functional aspect because losing function will eventually take away From the aesthetics that you're trying to build it'll definitely take away from your physique And I look I tell you what fine you can see this sometimes in gyms these old You know x bodybuilders that really never learned how to train that way and you can tell like they're so limited with their exercises I used to squat I used to and then I heard and I can't do anymore because it hurts my back and they're very limited and you could Tell that their their bodies start to suffer as a result of it So, you know, keep that in mind that includes mobility right keep that in mind because if that goes down Then your you know repertoire of effective exercise has become smaller and smaller and smaller What you could do to get your body to feel good and look good become smaller and smaller and smaller And then your appearance in your aesthetics start to suffer as a result this application of You know advice and training is so important. Um, and By the way, this is one of the reasons why one of the only certifications we work with is nci It's not because they they communicate the best nutrition information They do have great nutrition talk all about the application. It's about the application I've seen other courses and they're really great for education. So they're going to make you really smart But if you can't apply it, it means nothing as a trainer I don't care how much you know if you can't coach someone or train someone It's not going to get them closer to their desired results. It's not going to help That's the entire point why they're there. I think we lose sight of that all the time How often do you guys read comments on like youtube and our reviews and stuff like that of people that say that they've Learned more from the show than they have from any of their certification They have because we speak more to the application of the science Then we actually talk about the science itself because you have to factor in behavioral stuff If you're not factoring that in you're crazy because it's one of the biggest pieces to their success It's if not the biggest piece and you know and ironically certifications leave that out They do they don't teach here's two things that certifications leave out that nci tackled, which is why I think they're growing so fast They leave out application like I've done certifications. I know you guys have too They rarely ever talk about Like they'll tell you here's the science, but then they won't tell you but here's what actually happens And here's how it affects your clients and here's an example of a client that has all these conditions And here's how I would appropriately kind of take them through and get them, you know on a better path Yeah, they don't they don't do that. They just they leave that out. Here's the science and then figure it out Yeah, and then they also leave out the here's how you become a successful trainer Nobody teaches you that like you go get certified None of them teach you because here's the deal if you're a not successful trainer If you don't know how to build your clientele, you don't know how to organize it manage it You don't know how to charge the right rates.  Oh, I tell you what look we all manage trainers What how what percentage of your time was spent teaching your trainers? Biomechanics and science and what percentage of your time was spent teaching trainers Application and how to build their business. Yeah 80 20. Yeah. It was mostly application and how to build your business. Yeah Hey, if you enjoyed that clip you can find the full episode here or you can find other clips over here and be sure to subscribe


Installation of electrical floor boxes. An understanding of floor box installation options. Before installing an electrical system in your workplace, you need to know all your options. Electrical floor boxes are a practical choice for floor installations. However, a floor box installation needs to be designed and planned accordingly to get the best results. Stainless steel and plastic are the most common materials for the construction of electrical floor boxes. The requirements of different floors led to the creation of a diverse variety of floor boxes. This is why they are available in a variety of sizes and depths. Furthermore, they have a variety of finishes. Floor box installation finishes can include 1. Standard plastic 2. Steel 3. Brushed stainless steel 4. Chrome 5. Brass 6. Bronze Several factors influence the type of office floor box used. One of them is the width of the false floor gap. If there is a floorboard, the floor box must be placed in it. However, you can have a wide range of floor box finishes to choose from by elevating the floor. Certain circumstances can also permit the use of the above floor boxes. Let's get to know everything about floor boxes and the options you have. Where are electrical floor boxes installed? There are many places where electrical floor boxes can be used. These include 1. Airports 2. Houses 3. Schools 4. Offices 5. Hospitals 6. Public places In essence, they can be installed anywhere where power, data, or services are required to be accessed from the floor. The type will depend on the foot traffic and exposure to the elements. What are the different types of floor boxes? The majority of electrical boxes on the market are very similar in terms of features, thickness and general functionality. Generally, galvanized or stainless steel is used to construct floor boxes. You might also find bronze or brass floor boxes. However, they are usually made to order or purchased from a bespoke manufacturer. Sometimes combinations of certain woods and brass floor boxes are used to give it attractive architectural features. Materials and accessories Floor boxes have unique designs which allow the quick installation and removal. In terms of frame shape, they could be either round or rectangle. Metal, plastic, and porcelain plates are also available to be used with floor boxes. However, solid metal plates are preferred due to their durability and resistance to wear and tear in high traffic areas. It offers a tidy, stylish, and uniform look for offices and other false floor environments. Moreover, when not in use, it gives the option to seal floor boxes with metal lids containing spring-loaded covers. This stops them from becoming a trip hazard. In most boxes, there will also be a separate cutout on the cover deck. A matching carpet or floor sample is used to mask the floor box. Pieces of tile or wood are also used. The cutout then helps to blend the covers into the floor. Recommendations and installation Our electrical team can provide recommendations for electrical equipment suitable for your needs. We also guarantee a safe and professional installation. The floor box can contain a variety of services, such as 1. Electrical sockets 2. Data cabling 3. Audio visual links 4. Control cabling Water and dustproof For specialized areas, both waterproof and dustproof heavy-duty floor boxes are available. For protection from the external environment, they're in built boxes also have IP66 water and dust protection. Specialist areas such as shopping malls, airports, convention centers, etc., are also home to those high-specification floor boxes. These heavy-duty floor boxes are beneficial in those high-traffic areas. How to install a floor box? Of course, the best and safest way is to employ a professional to undertake these works. Our team can of course undertake a range of floor box installation requirements. However, they're also able to design the best layout for the floor box locations. These locations should suit your present requirements, and in addition, allow for future growth and relocations. However, below is an outline of what's required when we undertake a floor box installation. First step, select a location and make an opening. After you've decided on a spot for the floor box, you'll need to cut a hole in the floor. You can first cut the floor box into the floor tile if you have a false tile floor. To maintain the tile's structural integrity, keep the floor box close to the tile's center. If we cut too close to the edge, the tile's strength will be compromised. To balance the floor box in the tile, we can make further adjustments when putting the tiles into place to accommodate different desk layouts. If the floor is made up of concrete, it must be cut and chased out to fit the floor box. This will be a difficult task and require extra effort. Professional service provider. A qualified professional with the necessary equipment and training is required to cut into a floor properly. Thus, ensuring a correct and safe installation. Our skilled professionals know which tools to use and how to cut into your floor. For example, suppose you require floor boxes to be inserted into wood or tile floors. In that case, our professional will arrive with the required jigsaw, chasing equipment, and any other items is required. In the case of concrete floors, a circular saw or concrete saw would be used. The floor boxes will be installed after the opening has been created. The cutouts then require the correct filling and making good. Second step, preparation and placement of floor box. Check the position of the ground cables before installing the floor box. When you've determined this, you should remove the correct knockouts from the floor box units. These are round entry points in the box where electrical and data cables join. When detached, they are often covered with rubber grommets in case a sharp edge is left behind. When you're done, put the floor box in the correct location on the floor to receive the electrical and data cabling connections. Third step, pressing the box into the floor. Once the floor box is correctly positioned, lower it and gently click on both ends of the floor box. Lock the latches and the box itself. Securing the latches on each side of the floor box ensures that it is simple to install and eject is required. Switch the screws to tighten the box and ensure it is securely in place until the floor box has been inserted into the floor. Fourth step, fitting the floor box lid and then trimming them. Many quick model floor boxes come with metallic, reusable lids. Metallic covers ensure that it remains in place throughout the installation or removal process. The lid could be fitted with matching carpet, tile or wooden panels to match the flooring material. Removal of floor box installations. In the case of removal, the process will vary according to the model. However, for most models, you can follow the following steps. 1. If they are on your floor box model, detach the floor box lock handles. It ensures that the floor box is no longer locked. 2. Pull the lid to open an area. 3. Insert a flat blade screwdriver into the metal clips on either side of the box. Then, slide it out until the hook meets the molded stem. 4. At last, lift the box down using a lid handle. If the floor boxes are in concrete floors, removing them would necessitate major floor upheaval. Be sure to hire a trained specialist to assist you with your floor box removal needs. If you have any queries or are looking to undertake some floor box installation work in your offices, our professional team is here to help we offer free surveys, and therefore can discuss options at your location and provide the necessary budgets for your floor box installation requirements. For further assistance or a free survey please email or call on the details below, and click like and subscribe if you have enjoyed this video.