Printing A5 on to A4 sheets of paper

When we prepare letters for parents the information is enough to fit in one single sided A5.

Using Microsoft word which has the A4 size as standard makes many people re-size and configure their document dimensions and page breaks to get 2 copies of A5 printed on one A4. It's best to not care about the size of the virtual paper you type to in word and instruct the printer to do the job for you.

This is the trick to print a normal word document in A5 size, 2 copies on one A4 paper.

First prepare you letter as per usual, don't worry about size or anything, this is handled automatically.

When you are ready to print bring up the print dialogue and use these settings:

Pages: 1,1 (this means you want to print page 1 twice)
Pages per sheet: 2 pages (this means you want to include 2 pages on one sheet)
Number of copies: half as much (if you have 20 letters to go out you will only need 10 copies!)

The magic is the combination of those settings. Scaling and size is left on the printer, i.e. the paper type in the tray. That's usualy A4 size, so selecting 2 pages on one sheet gets it scaled down to A5. However if you do not type 1,1 as a page range then page 1 will be printed alone next to page nothing, i.e. you'll have a half empty A5.

Once you get the printout all you got to do is cut the copies in half, saving ink and paper.

More sticks than you can shake a stick at...

It worked out well with the gardener next door, I got 12 more sticks from him, at least 3 or 4 are good candidates for staves.

Saturday I'll set them straight and hang'em up to dry with more pictures for the blog!

Only thing is that this requires some heavy sorting out in the garage but hey, needs to be done!

A small Scouting Project

Staves; no need to buy them, best to make them yourself... or so they say.

Finding the wood is another matter and sometimes they appear when you chat to the right person.

A few days ago I had a chat with the gardener from the property next door and mentioned "staves for my scouting group" making sure specifying them as 6' tall sticks of hazel or white ash; if he happen to come across such things when he is coppicing saplings in gardens, I can have them.

He said, he has a good piece of hazel with him and I can have it if I like it. It was a straight stick almost perfect. He also said that he might have more for me when he goes to his client on Thursday! It cost him money to dispose of them in the refuse center, as they charge him by the weight entering the site.

I asked for 20 and he said that wouldn't be a problem... Fingers crossed!

Hazel Uncut (about 9 feet tall)

Let's Make It!

So here goes. This is my first attempt to make a scouting stave.

Starting with a 9+ feet tall stick, bit on the thin side but it will dry faster, hazel so should be strong enough. I also want to have a go and carve it, so it's a good project to learn from.

I am 6 feet tall, 7 feet is enough to make do so  I decided to cut it to just above my head, the end product will be 5' 6'' tall according to this site
Scouting Staff

Next I tackled the bends; easy to find them but not sure what I was sopoused to do so I applied the reverse bend (locked under my foot and pulling it) to straighten it out, feeling it giving and trying not to overdo it, if it snapped then that was that!

Thin end, hanging

It seemed like it went quite straight; will it stay like that or will go even straighter while it dries hanging and weighted? Who knows...

I decided to hang it thin end up in my shed, the thin end will also be the bottom end of the finished stave. Some say that hanging it up to dry in the winter is the best time to avoid splits as it dries from cold to warm gradualy.

Thick end, BRICKS!

I made a small loop lacing on the thin side and on the other I had enough string to tie 2 bricks for weight. The idea is to hang it for 4-6 months to dry with enough weight will keep it straight and even encourage it to get even straighter.

I don't expect to have many entries about this little project till the time comes to unhang it. I honestly did not think it would take so many decisions for a piece of stick!

Best thing about this project is that you don't need to fuss about it for months till you decide what to do with it!