Currently, millions of Americans have their finances wrecked up by downsizing, job loss, foreclosure and other financial setbacks and are compelled to file for bankruptcy. After bankruptcy things are even worsened and if you are looking forward to buy a home, you face certain financial hurdles which are quite difficult to overcome.

It is relatively easier to get financing after filing for chapter 13 bankruptcy than Chapter 7 bankruptcy as chapter 13 filing stays on your credit report only for 7 years whereas chapter 7 for a longer 10 years. In chapter 13 you follow a repayment plan, the banks and lenders see you as less of a risk in comparison to chapter 7 where you have to liquidate all your nonexempt properties to mitigate the losses.

The good news is bankruptcy is no longer considered a lifelong taboo any more. There are plenty of ways to rebuild your financial position after the bankruptcy debacle. Read on to know more in this regard and learn how to finance a home after insolvency.

Build your credit score

This is a no brainer. After filing bankruptcy, your first and foremost duty is to build your credit rating once again. Put forth sincere efforts to pay all your due bills on time. It will certainly help you to minimize the damage a bankruptcy filing has on your credit score. Take special care of your student loans as paying them down might help you to boost your credit score even more.

Hints:

1. Pay off your bills within the stipulated period of time.
2. Handle student loans with extra care as it can damage your credit worthiness and purchasing power for the rest of your life.

Get a Secured Credit Card

With a blemished credit history it would be difficult for you to qualify for any regular credit card. Its best for you to opt for a secured credit card which is comparatively easier to avail. For a secured credit card you have to deposit a certain amount at the bank which is $500 or less, and you have to use the credit account based on that amount. To qualify for the standard membership procedure of any secured credit card you have to be an adult citizen of the country and should have the ability to supply a deposit to secure your new line of credit. Make sure you pay the balance each month and evade late payment in order to maximize your credit score.

Hints:

1. Apply for a secured credit card from a reputable bansk like Citibank, Bank of America, US Bank, Wells Fargo and the Orchard Bank.
2. To avail a current list of secured credit cards, take online help from www.bankrate.com , www.cardlocator.com, www.badcreditoffers.

Change your spending habits, start saving

Save as much as possible for your down payment. The more you deposit as the down payment the less risk you are, in creditors’ eyes. The banks will be willing to finance you and provide you with viable interest rate and loan terms only if you offer a substantial amount in down payment.

Hits:

1. Be creative to explore different money making ideas which can generate more income for down payment.
2. Curtail expenses where you tend overspend and save some more bucks for your down payment.

Don’t wait too long

Apply for a mortgage right away. Several High-interest mortgages are available just six months after filing for bankruptcy. Hard-money lenders such as commercial, residential, industrial and raw land property types are usually willing to offer loans six months after filing bankruptcy or a foreclosure but will require 20 to 35% down payment. Several banks are out there which are willing to lend a hand to finance homes after filing for bankruptcy.

Hints:

1. To attain a blemish less credit history, Make sure that your payment history is being reported to the three major credit bureaus: Equifax, Trans Union, and Experian regularly.
2. You can review what is being reported by getting your free credit report from this website: https://www.annualcreditreport.com. This is a government mandated FREE credit reporting service supported by the three major credit reporting bureaus mentioned above.
3. Stay away from hard money lenders as much as possible. Be alert while applying for a loan from hard money lenders as they charge quite a high interest rate and the loan terms are not very favorable to consumers.

Try an FHA loan

If you can manage to await two years after filing bankruptcy, you can apply for a loan insured by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA). To qualify for a FHA loan, you need to prove your creditworthiness and illustrate a good credit history after filing for bankruptcy. FHA loans are quite a smart choice and Banks are ready to offer FHA loans as it is usually just a half-point higher than regular loans and are insured by the federal government.

Hints:

1. If you qualify, then apply for a FHA loan right away; you can incorporate the costs of energy improvements into an FHA Energy-Efficient Mortgage as well.
2. FHA has financing for mobile homes and factory-built housing as well, therefore, attempt to make the most of this funding offer.

To conclude, consistency, discipline and self-control are the essential keys to solve this problem. Make sure you make your mortgage payments on time and continue to lift your credit rating.

After a year of regular payment you can propose a new repayment plan to your lenders and ask them to lower their interest rate based on your increasingly good credit.

Thanks for reading. If you liked this article, please rate the article by clicking the stars below.

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To get the context, please click this link to read the original article on bitter melon growing.

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1. I am trying to grow Bitter Melon in Sydney, Australia as have got type 2 diabetes. Any suggestions as per temp changes from your zone?

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Since Sydney has a warmer climate than the North-East of U.S (my location), you should be able to grow bitter melons quite successfully in Sydney. It may be much easier to grow there than here since we get only about 5 months of summer season, so we couldn’t make use of the full potential of the plant.  

Also, you may be able to harvest at least two crops in Sydney, If you like to preserve bitter melons for year round use, my wife recommends vacuum sealing and freezing. She preserves several vegetables we grow this way. 

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2. I have been buying and eating bitter melon and it has greatly helped with my type 2 diabetes. I am a mother of 2 young kids so want to preserve my health for them. I buy fresh bitter melon and cut and fry and eat daily as a BM sandwich! This is just a comment on how I use bitter melon.

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It is great to know that you are benefited by bitter melon. You may get more effect if you use the fresh juice of bitter melon, or use it without too much cooking such as frying.


Young Bitter Melon Plant (Indian Bitter Melon)

As I have previously mentioned in my blog post, bitter melon has been used in various Asian traditional medicine systems for a long time. Like most bitter-tasting foods, bitter melons can stimulate digestion. Bitter melons have been used by Asians for centuries and is a popular medicine in Chinese Medicine for diabetes mellitus type 2.

Teams from the Garvan Institute of Medical Research and the Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica pulped roughly a tonne of fresh bitter melon and extracted four very promising bioactive components. These four compounds all appear to activate the enzyme AMPK, a protein well known for regulating fuel metabolism and enabling glucose uptake. This is clearly an indication that bitter melon can potentially help by lowering blood sugar or can lower blood glucose levels.

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3. Any tips on germinating bitter melons in Sydney, Australia?

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I have given two approaches on my blog post. However it is more applicable to locations where the summer is very short so that we need to save as much time as possible. Since your summer is much hotter than here, you can sow the seeds directly in soil. 

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4. I have collected some seeds, which had been red inside some of the bitter melon I bought from the grocery store. I removed the red fleshy part and kept the brown seeds to dry. Can I use these seeds to grow bitter melon?

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Regarding the seeds, I recommend that you try to find good quality seeds, instead of trying your luck on the seeds you scooped out from the BM you got from the vegetable store. This is because seeds will be of good quality only when the fruit is allowed to ripen naturally after its full maturity. 

The store bought BM is harvested before full maturity; so the seeds you collected from them may not be of the best quality. 

Why using good quality seeds are important: Because, buying seeds costs too little compared to the overall effort involved in raising the crop. Considering that it will take almost a month to know if you have seeds that will germinate or not. So, if your seeds fail to germinate, you would have lost one month of harvest. 

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5. Regarding pruning bitter melon, I do not really understand which branches to prune off or how tall should I allow the branches to grow. Do you have any recommendations?

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Pruning the vines is not very critical for bitter melon, especially so if you are just starting to grow bitter melon.

 Here are the more important steps I would recommend: 

1. Get good quality seeds.

2. Find the sunniest location in your garden where you can also put a trellis.

3. Dig up soil 1.5 ft width to 1 ft depth. Add a lot of dried, powdered organic matter or manure - cow dung. In USA, you can buy cow dung (cow manure) from Lowes and Home Depot. Wet manure is not good and you need to the mix manure well with soil. It is better if you can do this a few weeks before your seed or plant your bitter melon.

4. Sow the seeds. You can put about 6 to 8 seeds in a pit. Separate the seeds about 6 inches apart.

5. Water at least twice a week, depending on soil and weather conditions.

6. Once the plant starts to climb, provide a trellis big enough for the plant to spread around. For my 4 pits, I provide an 8×8 feet trellis. The height of the trellis can be as low as 4 ft, however if you can make them above your own height, then it will be easy for you to walk underneath and harvest them.

7. Add a tablespoon full of 6:6:6 or 10:10:10 fertilizer to each pit in every 2 to 3 weeks. Put the fertilizer not touching the plant stem and mix it with soil. 

8. When the fruits are ready, enjoy your harvest. 



Bitter Melon fruit (Indian Bitter Melon)

Once you are able to grow them successfully for a season, then you can think about the advanced management aspects such as pruning etc. Until then don’t worry about those things. 

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6. I did the wet paper towel method you mentioned for germinating bitter melon seeds, but the seeds got moulds on them? What did I do wrong?

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When you use the paper towel method, some mould is OK. I get them especially for snake gourd. But after the first week, the mould will go away. With the bitter gourd, by using the paper towel method and providing some heat (I have a very small oven for this purpose) I generally get almost 100% germination. Heat and moisture are the two determining factors for germination success for bitter melon.

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7. Do you use string/rope to have the plant climb up to the trellis?

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Yes, we do hang two jute strings per plant for the small plants to climb up to the trellis. Once they reach the trellis, they are own their own. But by the time they are so eager that they will spread and cover the trellis in no time. 

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8. I have three bitter melon plants. It gets lots of flowers, but no bitter melon. What steps do I need to take in order to produce bitter melon?

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In the initial flowering stage of bitter melon only male flowers would appear. After about 2 to 4 weeks of initial flowering that you will see the female flowers. Only the female flowers produce the bitter melon. If your plant is growing well and is of decent size then I wouldn’t worry about it. In a few weeks’ time you will start seeing female flowers. 

However if your growing conditions are sub-par (less sunlight and the plant is really small) then it may take longer for the female flowers to appear and their numbers would also be fewer. 

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9. I have a question regarding types of bitter melon. I have been planting and growing bitter melon for the past 2 yrs. The first year a larger variety (less bitter) and the following year a smaller melon (a bit more bitter) and both were excellent. This year I am growing both types of melon. Would these two types of bitter melon cross-pollinate and result in a hybridized fruit? 

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Yes, It is potentially possible that the bitter melon varieties cross-pollinate in your garden and may result in hybrid seeds. 

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10. I would like to know is there a way to protect the old Bitter Melon plant from frost/cold so that they can continue to survive to the following season. I tried to cover them with plastic sheeting but not successful. Would the hothouse (more expensive way) do the tricks? I live in Melbourne, Australia.

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Bitter Melon is not a perennial plant. It will die after every season and should be started from seeds again in the next season. Even under tropical conditions this is the cycle for this seasonal plant. 

So unfortunately building a green house will not keep this plant alive season after season. 

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11. In your blog post you mentioned that, “After about two weeks, the seeds will germinate. At this time you can transfer them to your small containers”  I did exactly as suggested, and the seed are germinated between two pieces of wet paper towels, but I am not sure which way you put the germinated seed into the soil, the little root that came out of the seed, I put that section into the soil (or is it the other way?).

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It doesn’t matter which direction you put the seeds, especially when they are really tiny. Remember, in nature nobody is going to place the seeds in a particular direction. As long as you don’t damage the seeds while you transfer them to small containers, the roots and the plant will grow properly. Nature has its own way to correct things. Good luck. 

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12. I was wondering how high do you make the trellis from the ground? I dont want it too high but then again not too low!?! Thanks

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As far as the bitter melon plant is concerned, the height doesn’t matter much as long as it is a few feet above the ground. However as a matter of convenience I prefer them to be about 6 feet high, so that I can walk underneath the trellis to inspect the plant as well as harvest the melons when they are ready for picking. 

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13. I have a very successful year for my bitter melon, I have collected many seeds from a very ripe (red) melon, can you advise what is the best way to store them so that i can grow them again next summer. Can I store them (after drying) in the fridge?

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You shouldn’t store your bitter melon seeds inside a fridge. These are tropical plants and cold temperature is not natural for them. 

You can successfully store these seeds for the next year by keeping them inside a paper bag (I use brown paper bags) in a cool, dry place. Basements or the top shelf of a cupboard are good places to keep them.

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Biological solutions are basically cultivated bacteria and other microorganisms or enzymes to improve the ecosystem of your pond.

What? Bacteria? Won’t that make my children or me sick? No. Of course you should not directly drink the biological solutions, but there are bad bacteria and good bacteria. It is the bad bacteria that make you sick. In fact as human beings, we have bacteria inside our bodies, which help with digestion. Without these bacteria, we would have problems digesting what we eat.

The same thing applies to your koi pond, for fish there are good and bad bacteria. The good bacteria can benefit you pond and your fish in many different ways. This article will cover the biological solutions available for your koi pond and explain what each strain benefits.

Biological treatments versus chemical treatments

In the water garden/pond industry there are a whole variety of both biological and chemical solutions for your pond. Many of these solutions claim to do the same things that the biological solutions do.

What’s the difference?

Well, chemical solutions only provide a band-aid solution to the various problems that ail your pond. For example, murky water is a problem that many people with fish or koi ponds have experienced from time to time. Murky water is caused by a number of factors. The main culprit is fish waste that decays in the water and the filtration not being adequate may also contribute to murky water. There is no chemical solution that can solve that problem.

Koi Pond

There are flocculants (special chemicals), which cause the particles that make the water murky get bigger. This, however, adds another problem. When flocculants are used and particles floc together, your filters will clog faster and will need to be changed more often.

Bacteria as the savior of your Koi Pond

Here comes the role of the bacteria, which is a biological problem solver.

There are several companies that have biological solutions to deal with murky water. My personal favorites are the biological solutions out of the Microbelift line.

Whatever brand you choose, biological solutions do a far better job in making your water clear than any chemical solution would. Further more, there are biological solutions that can deal with other problems that chemicals cannot deal with.

Various problems that ail your pond and the biological solutions that solve the problems

There are various problems that can ail your pond. Some of these problems can get out of hand and turn your pond into a smelly mosquito farm if you do not pay attention to them.

Look at a wild pond. Notice that a natural pond or lake always has clear water. Have you wondered why? Well the bacteria in those wild ponds are already there and the wild plants provide the filtration.

Your koi pond may look natural but it is still man-made. These biological solutions are developed from those natural bacteria in wild ponds and lakes to improve your ponds. The various problems that ail your pond and the right biological solutions to solve these problems are listed below in greater detail.

1. Preventing Murky Water in your Koi Pond

Murky water is a problem that most people complain about. It is quite understandable to want clear water when you have over $300 worth of beautiful koi in your pond, however, the larger the fish and the more fish you have, the more waste will be produced.

Your mechanical filters can only do so much. Bacteria are the best solution to take care of this problem.

Further more, when you have a new pond, it is quite common for the water to become murky for the first month as the water cycles itself. The best bacteria that I have used to keep the water clear are Microbelift PL. This is a basic strain of bacteria that is found in wild ponds. This bacterium consumes all the particles that cause the water to be murky.

These bacteria will also colonize in your filters. Which is also good because as these bacteria colonize the filter medium, it will consume the waste particles that collect in your filter. This is a very good benefit because you do not need to change the filters as often.



Water Lili (Koi Pond Plants)

2. Preventing Muck and Sludge in your Koi Pond

Muck and sludge is that nasty smelly black stuff that collects at the bottom of your pond.

Decaying plant matter, leaf litter, fish waste, and falling pollens make muck or sludge. This especially applies to older ponds that have been around for a couple of years or more.

You normally notice the muck and the odor of the muck in the spring as you get the pond clean and ready for the summer. The best solution for muck or sludge is a product called Sludge Away. This is also part of the Microbelift line. This strain of bacteria is a strong bacterium that consumes a lot of oxygen, so use it only in early spring or late in the fall.

This bacterium has a rancid odor when you open the jar, but it does clean your pond up very fast. The solution that holds this bacterium is very black and when you add it to your pond, it will turn your water black for a couple of days. It will clear up and your water will return to its normal color after a while. This is a great cleaner.

3. Take care of Leaf Litter and Dead Plant Materials in your Koi Pond

It is a struggle to manually remove leaf litter from your pond, especially if you live in the Midwest with continental deciduous trees. Fall can be a nightmare for your pond in that region.

It is always good to net freshly fallen leaves out of your pond in the fall as they come down, but some will still stay and over the winter leaves from other properties can also blow over into your pond.

Microbelift provides a whole line of solutions with bacteria and enzymes that decompose the leaves. The enzymes are a powder in a water-soluble packet. These enzymes are very easy to dispense. Just take a water-soluble packet and throw it into the pond.



Koi Fish

I have noticed that in the spring using a combination of the Microbelift Sludge Away and the enzyme packets, also manufactured by Microbelift work best in getting the leaf litter and muck simultaneously. I usually start the treatments in late March or early April, when the weather starts to get warmer. I let the bacteria and enzymes do their work and by Memorial Day I have a clean pond.

Sludge Away is a fast-acting bacterium that can clean up the muck in your pond in a couple of months.

4. Preventing Mosquitoes in your Koi Pond

In the summer, mosquitoes are always a major problem around ponds.

There are many chemical solutions available to make your pond mosquito free, but does it do any harm the fish too? No body is sure about any long-term adverse consequence of using these chemicals.

A much safer and more effective approach to the mosquito problem is Microbelift Biological Mosquito Control. Mosquitoes are also a problem because of the diseases they can spread. This biological solution is a strain of a bacillus variety of bacterium that will attack the mosquito larvae. This bacterium is safe for your fish, pets and you.



Water Iris (Koi Pond Plant)

The best part is that it will cause the larvae to bleed internally and not fully develop into full fledged mosquito. This bacterium is also very strong, so use only 5 ml per 1000 gallons of pond water.

5. Biological solutions for your Koi Pond for the autumn season

In autumn, when it starts getting colder, you will notice your fish start to become more lethargic and hug the bottom of your pond.

You will also notice the leaves will start to fall — especially into your pond (Oh no…). Leaves can be a serious problem for your pond, especially in the spring when they congregate around the filter box and impair water flow as you turn on your pumps for the first time.

Netting out your leaves on a regular basis in the fall is very necessary; to keep the leaves from choking your pond, but a good windstorm can choke your pond with leaves within hours. Netting your leaves should be done at least two or three times a day during the peak times when the most leaves falling.

However, Microbelift has a product called “Fall/Winter Prep.” This is a combination of a special strain of PL bacteria that can handle near freezing temperatures along with the water-soluble enzyme packets.

The bacteria will help decay leaves that have already been moistened and the enzymes will break down the celluloid material that makes up the leaf matter. This will help keep the leaf litter under control during the winter months.

Do not treat your pond with biological solutions in the dead of winter. The freezing temperatures will kill the bacteria.

More information on Microbelift biological solutions can be found at www.microbelift.com. This website shows the availability of all the biological solutions available. You can look at PondCare products by looking up www.pondcare.com.

Biological solutions are the best for your pond, simply because it is natural. Bacteria appear naturally and are the best addition to your pond’s echo system.

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Tips for Buying and Maintaining a Pond Fountain

Author: Davis Marco

A pond fountain adds a lot of aesthetic appeal to your pond. The sight and sound of falling water are very soothing to the senses. A fountain in the pond also attracts birds. You can enjoy the beauty of nature while sitting close to your pond. It is one of the good ways to unwind after a hectic day at work. Besides adding beauty to your pond, fountains also help in aeration. This reduces the occurrence of algae in your pond. There are no foul odours that normally occur due to stagnation of water in the pond.

There are few things that you should remember before buying a pond fountain. These are as follows:

• Location of the fountain: The fountain should be strategically placed so that it can augment the charisma of your pond. Always choose your fountain place carefully.
• Height of the fountain spray: The height of the fountain spray should be in proportion to the size of your pond. The height of the spray should not exceed half the diameter of the pond; otherwise the water will spill out. You should carefully choose the height of the spray to prevent any wastage of the water.
  
• Type of fountain: A large variety of fountains of different shapes, sizes and materials are available in the market these days. You can select the material and style of your fountain depending upon your budget and outdoor ambience. You can also use a decorative statue to enhance the beauty of your fountain.
  
• Type of spray pattern: There is a wide variety of jets available that give different kinds of spray patterns. You can choose one depending on your taste and theme like umbrella, foam etc.

• Pump: You can select the pump depending upon the volume of the water that has to be pumped by the fountain. Nowadays, solar pumps are also available that are environment friendly. You can buy them and save on your electricity bills too.
  


• Lights and music: You can add lights and music to your pond water fountain. This kind of fountain looks mesmerising at night. You can also make a provision to add such features later.

  Once you have installed your pond fountain, you should regularly maintain it. A few maintenance tips are as below:

• Clean your pond regularly: You should regularly clean your pond to remove algae and other vegetation. This will keep your pond and fountain in good health and odour free.
  
• 
  Clean the pump: For maximum efficiency and long life of the pump, it is necessary that you should check the maintenance of your pond pump regularly. Never operate your pump on low water levels as that causes damage to the pump.
  


• 
  Clean the statues: If you have decorative statues, you should regularly clean them of mineral deposits and dust. Depending on the type of the material of the statue, you should use the appropriate cleaning agent.
  



• Maintaining electrical: Regularly replace the burnt-out bulbs, if you have lighting in your pond fountain. This will make it appear fantastic at all times.
  

About the Author:

Apurva writes for Soothing Walls, a leading retailer of pond fountain and garden fountains. For more information about different types of fountains visit www.soothingwalls.com.

Article Source: ArticlesBase.com - Tips for Buying and Maintaining a Pond Fountain

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Pruning is one of the very effective methods by which you can increase the yield of your tomato plants.

How to Prune Tomato Plants the Right Way
By Pawel Kalkus

Pruning tomato plants is yet another important task that must be tended to when growing tomatoes in your garden. Pruning tomato plants will also help the plant to thrive and it will minimize the possibility of disease. Left to fend for itself the tomato plant would end up taking up about 4 square feet of space, it will probably have about 10 stems, and it will ultimately be hounded with disease. Using a device such as a tomato stake or even a tomato cage will help you to take proper care of your plants.

tomatoes - Before you plant, cut the lower leaves for deep planting

Next you will want to tie them in the case you are using stakes with a soft string such as soft yarn or something like that. Then you will want to prune them by removing all of the leaves below the first flower cluster on the plants. You also want to make sure that each leave section has plenty of room to grow, and capture the sunshine. In order to produce the sugars that are necessary for the plant to live it needs the light.

When you see a plant that has yellowing leaves, the leaves have turned yellow because that section is using more sugar than it is producing. This is due to lack of sunshine in the case of outdoor plants, and still not enough light on those growing indoors. If you are taking proper care of your outdoor plants, you will get larger fruit from it, and it will steadily produce until the first frost occurs. That can turn into a LOT of tomatoes!

Some little things you need to consider too are:

1. The plants and leaves can’t touch the ground.
2. Avoid having too many stems branch out from the plant. Keeping them tied will take care of this.
3. When the leaves are wet you can not tie the plant off.
4. Give your plants plenty of room to prosper! It’s far better to have 50 plants that are thriving than to try to have a hundred plants that are cramped for space!
5. Keep the plants pruned. It is far better for the plant to remove some of the leaves so that others can prosper.

It is widely accepted that the best tomatoes are the ones grown in our home gardens! Of that there is little doubt. That is why home gardeners so often decide to grow their own tomato plants. You need to know that the effort put into growing tomatoes is relatively minimal in compared to other fruits and vegetables. There’s absolutely nothing better than walking out to the garden to gather the makings of the freshest salad in the world!

Pawel Kalkus is an internet writer and a hobbyist gardener with 15 years of experience in organic vegetables gardening. If you liked this article on pruning tomato plants go get your free copy of the “7 Best Tomato Growing Tips” ebook by visiting => http://www.startgrowingtomatoes.com

Article Source: How to Prune Tomato Plants the Right Way

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Credit Card Charge-Off - What Does It Mean and What Should You Do About It?
By Charles Phelan

Have you been told by a creditor that your debt is about to “charge-off”? Did the bill collector make it sound like you will be ruined financially if you allow this catastrophe to happen? If you’re behind on your bills, unable to keep up with payments on your credit cards and other debts, sooner or later you will hear a creditor representative threaten you with the dreaded “charge-off.” So what is a charge-off anyway? Should you be worried? What are the consequences of this mysterious event?

I’ll start by explaining what a charge-off is NOT. Because the term includes the word “charge,” many people mistakenly think it has to do with cancellation of the account by the creditor. In other words, you can’t “charge” anything on your credit card anymore. But it’s not the same thing at all, and most banks will revoke charging privileges around 2-3 months before the deadline we’re talking about here.

What banks and bill collectors call a “charge-off” is the point at which the creditor writes off the account balance as a “bad debt.” It usually happens after six months of non-payment. After that, they no longer count it on their books as an asset. You still owe the money, of course. And they will certainly make continued attempts to collect it from you. But the creditor has been forced by the rules of accounting to zero out the debt on their financial ledgers. For causing this loss, they will punish you by placing a derogatory mark on your credit report. A “charge-off” is a serious negative mark, to be sure, but it is not the financial ruination that debt collectors would like to have you believe it is.

Should charge-offs be avoided if possible? Certainly. Does the prospect of a charge-off mean you should panic if you have no way to pay the bill? No! Is it the end of the world if the account has already charged off? No! Too often, bill collectors make a charge-off sound so bad, and they apply so much pressure, that people cave in and make payment commitments they cannot keep. Collectors usually demand payment via post-dated checks, and this frequently leads to bounced checks and even worse financial problems. Most of us are brainwashed by the banks and media on the subject of credit. Sure, good credit is important. But committing to payments you really can’t afford just to preserve your credit is like watering the lawn while your house is burning down.

Here are a few simple rules to follow when trying to avoid a charge-off that hasn’t happened yet:

* Don’t be intimidated or threatened by pre-charge-off collection tactics. Keep a cool head and don’t take it personally when collectors try to get under your skin.

* Call your creditor to find out the minimum payment necessary to avoid the charge-off, and subsequent payments to keep the account current going forward. Don’t commit to this payment (or series of payments) unless you’re sure you can follow through.

* Negotiate a lump-sum settlement at 50% or less if you have the resources, or a workout plan for monthly payments that you can live with.

* Do not allow bill collectors to talk you into using post-dated checks, or providing your checking account details over the telephone. Instead, make payments via cashier’s check or money order.

* Do not make payments based on a verbal arrangement. Get the deal in writing and signed by a creditor representative who has authority to approve the workout plan.

What should you do if you simply don’t have the money to rescue the account from charge-off, or if the account has already been charged off by the creditor?

* Take a deep breath and relax; the sky won’t fall on your head just because you had a charge-off.

* Realize that you still have an opportunity to resolve the matter by dealing with the original creditor or the collection agency assigned to the account.

* Negotiate a lump-sum settlement with the creditor or collection agency. Again, aim for 50% or less, and ask for the charge-off to be deleted from your credit report as a condition of the settlement. (Most creditors will not agree to this, but it’s worth asking anyway. Do be sure that they will update your credit report to show that the matter has been resolved and the account has been satisfied.)

* If you can’t work out a deal with the collection agency assigned to your account, then wait until it goes to another agency! Eventually, it will either be assigned or sold to an outfit that you can deal with to get the matter cleared up.

To sum up, a charge-off is not the end of the world. It should certainly be avoided if possible, but not at the risk of making things worse by committing to payments you’re not sure you can keep up with. Just remember that the creditor doesn’t want to see a charge-off any more than you do, so use that knowledge to your advantage in working out a mutually acceptable arrangement. Get everything in writing, don’t disclose your checking account details, and follow up to make sure the creditor reports the matter correctly on your credit report. You’ll find that it’s easier than you think to resolve a charge-off situation before it happens, or clean it up if it’s already taken place.

Charles J. Phelan has been helping consumers become debt-free without bankruptcy since 1997. A former senior executive with one of the nation’s largest debt settlement firms, he is the author of the Debt Elimination Success Seminar™, a five-hour audio-CD course that teaches consumers how to choose between debt program options based on their financial situation. The course focuses on comprehensive instruction in do-it-yourself debt negotiation & settlement designed to save $1,000s. Personal coaching and follow-up support is included. Achieves the same results as professional firms for a tiny fraction of the cost. http://www.zipdebt.com

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How to Start a House Cleaning Business on a Tight Budget
By Patti Page

“If you use Emotion and Love to drive your sales and your business, you will create Loyalty Beyond Reason. And I promise you, you will build relationships and enjoy a business that exceeds beyond your wildest expectations”

First of all, before you decide to start your cleaning business, make sure this kind of work is right for you. You will need to be in good physical condition. Cleaning is very hard strenuous work. You will need to have good customer relation skills. You will need to have basic office skills and some accounting skills.

If you are planning on leaving your full time position to start a cleaning business, make sure you have at least six months of savings. Or keep your full time job and start out part time.

Research all the aspects of the cleaning service business. From customer service to advertising, taxes, employees, insurance and bonding, what to charge and how to clean a home professionally. Cleaning your own home and cleaning professionally is totally different. Learning how to clean professionally takes a lot of time. When a client pays for your services they expect to come home and find their home spotless.

Getting those first clients takes time, persistence and patience. You will not get a hundred clients overnight.

Obtaining Those First Clients The hardest part of starting your own cleaning service is obtaining those first clients. Most clients want to know how long you have been in business and want references. The best thing to do is let clients know that, yes, you are new to the business but that you have thoroughly researched all aspects of the cleaning business and assure them that you know what you are doing and that you are quit capable of cleaning their home to their specifications. Be confident. I can’t stress this enough. Clients love to see confidence. It relieves their worries and lets them know that their home is in good hands.

References: To get a few good references when starting out, ask some friends or family members if you can clean their home for free or at a discounted rate. The sound of working for free may not be appealing but it will be worth it to get some good testimonials.

When cleaning those first homes, go for quality, not how fast you can clean the home. Cleaning efficiently takes a long time, but you will get to the point where you can do a thorough cleaning in a short time. After cleaning make sure you go back and double check all rooms to make sure you didn’t miss anything. Impress those first clients and word of mouth will spread soon.

Advertising Your company image is everything. Before you start advertising, decide what image you want to portray on your advertising material. Your image is very important. Be consistent with all your advertising. If you have a logo be sure to use it on all your advertising materials. I think it is best to have a website developed before you start advertising. When advertising, stick with the same logo and colors.

Advertise in Local Paper: Start by running a text ad in your local newspaper. Try to come up with an eye catching ad. Do not sell your services on low rates, sell your services on your quality of work and what you can do for the client that other companies don’t. There is a lot of competition in the cleaning service. You have to stand out from the rest.

Magnetic Signs or Lettering for your Vehicle: Having your business name and contact information on your vehicle is a great way to advertise. We use the vinyl lettering. The lettering looks much more professional than the magnetic signs.

Flyers: You can print nice flyers on your home computer, but I would suggest investing in some professional flyers. Hang flyers at Hair Dressers, Laundromats, Restaurants, Bakeries, Grocery Stores, etc. Put flyers on car windows at local groceries stores and businesses. You can even go door to door in neighborhoods you would like to work in. You cannot put them in mailboxes. but you can put them in the front door.

Door Hangers: Door hangers are a great way to get new clients. Pick the neighborhood you would like to work in and hang the door hangers on the doors. When people get flyers or ads in their mailbox they usually throw them away with the junk mail. But if there is a door hanger on the door they will take the time to look at it.

Business Cards: Start passing out your business cards to friends and family members. You can also ask your local businesses if you can leave some cards on their counters.

Referral Program: A great way to obtain new clients is through a referral program. Offer existing clients a discount when they refer a friend. You can give your existing clients a discount when the friend uses your services three times.

Website: These days people live very busy lives so they use the convenience of the internet to shop for the services they need. A lot of working women will shop for services while at work. Everyone that has a business should have a website. It shows clients that you are serious about your business and allows them research your business in their own time.

Cleaning Products: By using all natrual products, you can offer your clients a healthy cleaning experience and protect ourselves against harsh chemicals. Clients love the natural cleaning products with essential oils. They come home to a healthy clean home filled with the wonderful scents of aromatherapy essential oils.

Tip: Always carry hand sanitizer and wash your hands often while cleaning homes. Wear gloves when cleaning bathrooms. You will be exposed to a lot of different germs in clients homes.

Remember most customers prefer that you bring your own cleaning supplies. That way they do not have to worry about going to the store for cleaning supplies before you clean. Some customers have special cleaners for certain appliances or floors in their houses. These customers usually will have these cleaners on hand for you to use. We almost always use the customers vacuum cleaner. That way you do not have to carry a heavy vacuum from house to house.

What to Charge I mentioned earlier that you should sell your services on your quality of work and not your low rates. If your rates are too low, clients will think that your work is sub-standard and that you are not experienced. Also you want to attract the clients that can afford your services. I made the mistake of pricing my work too low when I first started out. Cleaning is hard work, charge what you are worth. As the old saying goes “You get what you pay for.”

Some companies charge by the hour, some charge by the room, some charge a flat rate per home and some charge by the square foot. I think it is better to charge by the home, not by the hour. If a client knows they have to pay one set fee, they don’t care if you take 2 hours or 5 hours. Also your clients will know what they are paying up front and won’t have to worry about added expenses.

No two houses are the same. And there is no set charge for all homes. You have to clean for awhile yourself to get some experience and to work out a system to clean efficiently. Only you know what you want and need to make. Decide what you need to make hourly to cover all expenses and still make a good profit.

A word of advise: Make sure when you start your company that you charge what you would charge if you had employees. Some people make the mistake of under charging when they start out just to get customers and then later on when they grow and need to hire help they aren’t making enough money on their houses to pay help. Don’t under price your work. Cleaning homes is very hard physical work and you didn’t get into this business to work for nothing.

New Construction Cleaning If you decide to do this type of work you will need more equipment. You will need ladders, window cleaning kits with long extensions, a shop vac, etc. These types of jobs are usually 2 to 3 person jobs. New construction cleaning requires a lot more cleaning. You may have to remove stickers and labels from windows and bathroom showers, sinks and toilets. Some require that you clean the vents to remove dust from construction work. There will be ceiling fans to clean, scrubbing floors, and cleaning woodwork to remove dust. New construction cleaning rates depend on the area you live in. Normally they run from .12 cents per sq .ft. to .25 cents per sq .ft. depending on where you are located. Insurance and Bonding

Insurance and Bonding. You need to be an honest person and somewhat personable. People will need to trust you to be in their homes. Most clients are concerned about having someone new in their house, with good reason. You should be bonded and fully insured. Liability insurance rates depend on your insurance carrier and where you are located. Each person you hire will increase your liability insurance. It’s well worth the cost. You can pay quarterly or yearly. You can purchase your bond through your local insurance company. You will need to renew the bond every year. *Note: if you hire employees and cover them under your insurance, they must be an employee on payroll and not a sub-contractor. If you employ them as a sub-contractor your insurance will not cover them. If they are a sub-contractor they are required to carry their own insurance. You

Hiring Help If you start out cleaning the homes by yourself, you will eventually get to the point where you need to expand your business. Start out with one part time employee. Train her and let her take your place one day a week. Then have her take your place 2 days a week and so on. This will give you the free time that you need to market your business and obtain more clients. After you get more clients you will be able to hire more part time help. Eventually you will be able to stop doing the cleaning yourself and just run the business end, which is the only way you will be able to grow your business. When training new employees, always, either train them yourself or have a lead person train them. Make sure there is a lead person on each and every cleaning job. Employees have a tendency to slack off when they are on their own.

Growing Your Business You will eventually get to the point where you have enough employees and lead people and you will be able to stop working in your business and start running your business. You will find that after awhile it will get to be too much trying to clean everyday and at the same time giving estimates, answering calls, scheduling, doing book work, obtaining new clients, etc.

Remember one of the most important qualifications for a cleaning service is TRUST. A client has to know they can trust you alone in their home. After you acquire a few cleaning positions ask the clients if you can use them for a reference. Most of the time they are more than willing to let you use them for a reference. This is how you build your business and acquire new clients is through referrals. Be dependable. Most clients will want to be set up on an every week or every other week schedule on the same day of the week. Try to always keep this same schedule unless the client asks you to switch to another day. If you have to cancel a cleaning date, make sure you try to reschedule at the earliest possible date to make up the cleaning.

You are free to use this article in part or full provided you include the bio below.

Patti Page is the owner of Page’s Personal Cleaning in Cincinnati OH.
Website: http://www.pagespersonalcleaning.net/cleaningarticles.htm

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10 Things You Must Teach Your Puppy Before They Are a Year Old
By Diane Ellis

Have you ever come across a dog at the dog park, or had to look after a dog for a friend, and found that they had absolutely no doggie manners at all? That’s because they haven’t been trained properly. Here are the 10 things you MUST teach your puppy before they are a year old, so you can have the best behaved dog on the street!

OK - we’ll start with the basics….

Toilet Training
We all know it’s important to teach your puppy where to go to the toilet, but it’s equally important to teach them to alert you WHEN they need to go to the toilet. You might think it’s easier to teach the puppy to go at pre-arranged times (after meals and just before bed), and this is true. However, there may be times in your dog’s life (such as when they are unwell) when they might just need an extra pit stop.

It’s a great idea to teach your dog to alert you when they need to go outside. Or, you can teach your dog to answer your question “do you need to go pee?”. No seriously - if you ask this question each time they go out to do their business, they will eventually associate that phrase with going to the toilet. So when you ask the question, they will either be disinterested, or jump up ready to go. Trust me - this comes in very handy later on in your dog’s life.

Sit, Stay, Drop
It seems to me I shouldn’t have to mention this, but it amazes me the number of dogs who won’t sit on command! The earlier you teach your puppy, the better. Drop can be particularly hard for puppies, but it’s worth persevering with. The Drop command is quite a submissive action for a dog, and can be very useful when there are young children about, putting the dog below them in terms of height.

Walk on Leash & Off Leash With You
Going for a walk should be fun, but not out of control. Teach your puppy from an early age to stand still while you put on their leash (and collar if they don’t wear one indoors). When walking, your dog should walk beside you - not in front, and not wandering all over the place sniffing and peeing. Your dog can have some “free time” (see later on in this article), but most of the walk should be by your side and calm.

It’s also a good idea to teach your dog to walk beside you off leash (once you have mastered on leash of course). It’s best to start this off in your own fenced yard before you move outdoors. And always take the lead with you as back up. However, this is very handy if your dog somehow gets out or off leash when you are outdoors. You should be able to call them to you and then put them on leash or walk them home without one.

Fetch & Release
Throwing a ball or Frisbee and having them retrieve it is a great game for a puppy. It’s great exercise, it’s fun, and they are with you! However, it is just as important to teach your puppy to release the ball or Frisbee when they return to you. It is more important actually - they need to acknowledge that you are in charge of the game, and that the ball always gets given back to you.

Do NOT wrestle with the dog for the ball or Frisbee, and don’t allow them to “play growl”. Tug is a separate game played with a tug toy. In Fetch they must always release the ball back to you. If they won’t - stop playing.

Doggie etiquette
When your puppy meets another dog or cat, it needs to know the right etiquette for introducing itself. Puppies usually learn this from their litter mates, but I have seen many cases where puppies were obviously taken away from their litter too soon, and they have no idea at all how to behave around other animals.

You’ll know if your puppy has a problem by how it behaves when guests arrive. A well behaved puppy will approach the visitors and want a pat or some attention, but not demand it. Badly behaved puppies demand attention by pushing their noses at people, or jumping. If your puppy does either of these, chances are it won’t behave very well around new animals either. And that could spell trouble at the dog park! Nip it in the bud now.

No jumping
Following on from our point on etiquette, you may think it’s cute now that your puppy jumps at your legs to get attention or tries to jump on your lap. But wait until they are a fully grown dog, or when they try it on a frail elderly person and knock them over. No jumping on people - ever.

Sharing Food and Toys
This is a very important lesson to teach if you have, or plan on having, other animals or children in the house. Some dogs can be very possessive, especially with their food and/or toys. Puppies need to be taught at a young age that nothing is theirs alone - not their food nor their toys. You need to start this training when they are young. Take the toy or food away from the dog and give it to your child to give back to the dog. This teaches the dog that things come back - they won’t necessarily lose them forever.

If you have another animal, especially another dog, then make sure that both (or all) dogs play with all toys. No toys belong to any one dog.

Go to your bed
Your dog needs a “safe” zone - somewhere they can go to get some time out, sleep, or eat their food. This can be their bed, a rug, or even their crate. Teach them from an early age to go there on command. This way, if puppy misbehaves you can send them for some time out with this command.

“Free” time
OK - I mentioned this when we talked about walking on leash. It is important that your dog is allowed some free time to run and play and be silly and sniff things and pee on things. Teaching your dog early by using the word “free” said loudly and happily will train your dog that now he can be himself! This is a great command to use at the dog park. You also need to have an “off” word so they come back to you when it’s time to go home or back on the leash. Whether that’s calling their name, or “come”, or another word you use.

Who’s in charge
If you have been able to teach your puppy all of the above behaviours, then you have also taught your dog who’s in charge - you!

If you teach your puppy to be a well behaved, well mannered puppy, then you’ll have a dog you can be proud of later in life.

Di Ellis is an avid dog lover, and co-author of the where you can get loads of useful tips and information about our four legged friends including free recipes, dog cartoons (updated weekly) and links to the best free dog stuff on the Net. And when you sign up for our free newsletter, we’ll send you a copy of our Dog Recipe Book.

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The most important factor in curing constipation is a natural and simple diet. This should consist of unrefined foods such as wholegrain cereals, bran, honey, lentils, green and leafy vegetables, fresh and dry fruits, and milk products in the form of butter, clarified butter, and cream. You should also chew food properly; avoid hurried meals and irregular meals and not mix too many kinds of foods in one meal. For people prone to constipation, limiting foods that have little or no fiber, such as ice cream, cheese, meat, and processed foods, is also important.

Constipation Home Remedies
By Maverick Jensen

Nothing’s moving, even though you know you have to move your bowels. Everything in your body is sending you that signal. You feel bloated and uncomfortable pressure, but when you try to go, nothing happens. Or, if you do finally go, it hurts. All signs prove that you are getting constipation. Constipation isn’t an illness; it’s simply what happens when bowel movements are delayed, compacted, and difficult to pass. Once you understand the basics of constipation, it’s possible to treat it. Depending on the severity of the case, it may respond to simple home remedies or it may require medical intervention.

The most important factor in curing constipation is a natural and simple diet. This should consist of unrefined foods such as wholegrain cereals, bran, honey, lentils, green and leafy vegetables, fresh and dry fruits, and milk products in the form of butter, clarified butter, and cream. You should also chew food properly; avoid hurried meals and irregular meals and not mix too many kinds of foods in one meal. For people prone to constipation, limiting foods that have little or no fiber, such as ice cream, cheese, meat, and processed foods, is also important.

However, dieting alone is not enough. Drinking water is one of the most important remedies to remove constipation. Making sure you drink enough water and other liquids, such as fruit and vegetable juices and clear soups which may help some people with constipation. To eliminate constipation you can drink a glass of warm milk before going to bed helps in easy evacuation in the morning, or drink one liter of warm water and walk around for a few minutes immediately after waking up early in the morning, as well drink lemon juice mixed with warm water two to three times a day eases constipation.

A long with dieting and drinking enough water, exercising two to three times each week will help to promote healthy intestinal contractions and keep constipation at bay. Regular physical exercise is also important for maintaining proper bowel movements. To sum up, we feel that regular exercise tends to combat constipation by moving food through the bowel faster. So, you can walk, swim, and exercise because all of them play an important role in strengthening the muscles, and thereby preventing constipation.

You cannot risk the negative effects that a malfunctioning colon can cause. If you’re seriously interested in becoming healthier, having more energy and helping your body lose weight check out these colon cleansing remedies at colon cleanse remedies. Or for the sure way to cleanse your colon the best way visit the best colon cleansing product on the market Visit the Colon Cleanse Phenomenon.

Article Source: Constipation Home Remedies

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How Much Does it Cost to Replace Windows in a House?
By John Mannas Jr

When one of my members asked me this question - how much does it cost to replace windows in a house? I told him this is such a broad question it would take me to consider a few issues instead of just providing a one word answer. Below I will provide a very broad but helpful view of this subject - hopefully you will find information that will be helpful to you.

1. For a price of about 9 windows you are likely to be quoted something like $5500. You can even get about that much for 6 or 8 windows especially from places like Home Depot.
2. There are some companies that will give you a quote of about $8000. I know Sears quoted one of my subscribers about that much.
3. You can get one replacement window installed in your house for about $250. You can then multiply from there to total the number of windows in your home. This charge applies to windows that are double pane and you can get some from Andersons.
4. The last time I checked ComfortWorld 4000 replacement windows will cost you about $260 to install any size.
5. I know that Xact quotes about $6000 for about 12 average siz double hung windows. Xact also gave another member a quote of $1900 for 7 DH windows.
6. Estimated prices for wood windows costs between $13000 and 19000 and vinyl will cost you between $6000 and $8000. Of course this varies per number of windows needed.
7. It is not unusual to be quoted about $450 per window. I know that some think this price is rather too high.

So I hope I have answered your question on how much does it cost to replace windows in a home. Of course you still need to get your own custom made quote before you start budgeting.

Click Here Cost to Replace Windows For more.

If you found this page interesting then you will also like: http://www.findreplacementwindowcompanies.com

Article Source: How Much Does it Cost to Replace Windows in a House?

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9 Steps How to Build a DIY Greenhouse
By Whitney Segura

Why build a greenhouse?
Let’s face it you most likely have dreamed about owning a greenhouse, at least once in your life. They are fun, extremely relaxing, healthy, and have many other benefits. Well, the time to turn those thoughts into reality is now. The fact is our environment is in trouble, everyone knows it. It needs people like you to help give back the gift of life.

You may not have ever thought about building your own greenhouse, most likely because you thought it would be extremely difficult. Well, I am here to tell you that it is easier than you think. Building a greenhouse from scratch is not rocket science, it is actually very simple and is something to be proud of. I have compiled this list of 9 simple and key steps to take when building your own greenhouse. Don’t worry or think you can’t do this, because you can! With that said, lets get into it.

The 9 Steps:
Use Salvaged Materials In Greenhouse Construction
Step #1 Think about using salvaged materials if you want to build a large greenhouse - this will keep costs lower, so more resources can go into heating and irrigation systems.

Greenhouse Temperature and Shade
Step #2. Take your climate into account. If you live in a temperate or cold region, then you’ll want to build an insulated greenhouse. If you live in a warmer climate, then you’ll want to have shade control as well - and in a desert region, you’ll need both!

Ventilation Greenhouse Plans
Step #3. Be sure to plan for adequate ventilation and air circulation as well as heat and humidity control. Think about the plants you plan to grow in your greenhouse and design a climate accordingly. Greenhouse ventilation is easy to do and something that is truly necessary, or your plants may suffer.

Choosing Greenhouse Location
Step #4. Build your greenhouse is a spot where it will receive plenty of sunlight. You’ll want to give your greenhouse eastern and western exposure, especially if you plan to grow vegetables and fruits. This will provide ample sunlight to ensure fruiting in these plants. Semi-shaded areas won’t hurt anything, if that is your only option.

Greenhouse Construction Materials
Step #5. Decide on a siding for your greenhouse. The best materials are glass (which can be expensive) or fiberglass. Both of these materials offer greater durability, since they do not break down as quickly as plastic siding. These materials will also make for a warmer, more humid greenhouse. You could also pick out greenhouse polycarbonate panels, which are shatter proof and nearly impossible to break. They are extremely safe and can withstand some pretty strong winds.

Picking Your Greenhouse Base
Step #6. Choose your foundation. You can use concrete, which offers a stable foundation. You can also go for a simpler foundation using salvaged materials such as railroad ties. Your foundation will affect the cost of your greenhouse, so keep your budget in mind when deciding on this.

Additional Greenhouse Heating And Greenhouse Irrigation
Step #7. If there’s room in your budget, add elements which will make your greenhouse more convenient and comfortable for you as a gardener. Heating and irrigation systems are a great addition and are in fact essential in some climates. Adding benches so you can relax and enjoy your greenhouse is also a great idea - you can even have a garden party in the dead of winter!

Using Greenhouse Pest Control
Step #8. Use organic pest control methods such as introducing natural predators which can keep the population of problematic insects down. Also, quarantining a plant which is infested with pests can control the spread of damage from these pests.

Plan Greenhouse Construction Space For Storage
Step #9. Be sure to plan some space for storage. You’ll want somewhere to keep your tools, fertilizer and potting soil. Consider placing a tool rack and a bin to keep soil and fertilizer near your potting bench for convenience. You could also use buckets or specially designed tool holders to keep your equipment handy for when you’re puttering around the greenhouse. Small greenhouse grow racks work awesome in situations where people are tight on space, I highly recommend looking into those.

Why a do it yourself greenhouse?
There are so many reasons but it is cheaper than buying one, environmentally friendly, relaxing, and really it is something you can take pride in. Wouldn’t you like to brag to your neighbors about your awesome hand build greenhouse? Also will be jealous of your garden in no time, its a fact!

Why should you follow these 9 steps?
These steps are the 9 most important and biggest problems people face when a building DIY greenhouse. Not taking these steps into account could very turn into a huge inconvenience. All you have to do is stick to these guidelines and you will be GROW ing wild in no time!

Whitney Segura is a expert at building, buying, and using Mini Greenhouse Kits and Rion Hobby Greenhouses.

Feel free to send a message if you have any need some help or have any questions at all. You can never have enough friends, that’s for sure!

Article Source: 9 Steps How to Build a DIY Greenhouse

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Outdoor Shower Enclosures

By Jamie Rackenthaler

Shower enclosures can be portable or stationary. Stationary enclosures, surprisingly, add a level of excitement to your landscape. There are many ways to design them. Here are a few design tips.

Fence Enclosures

Most shower enclosures are just a fence with a gate. It is the most economical way to build an enclosure. You can expect to pay around $35.00 per linear foot to a contractor to build the enclosure.

Wood Enclosures

Wood is one of the best choices. It is elegant, but more importantly it connects you with nature. Avoid any products made of plastic; like vinyl. Vinyl and plastic enclosures scream man made. The purpose of landscaping is to rejuvenate your emotions. The way to do this is to connect with nature. So, please, avoid vinyl and plastic products.

Don’t choose pressure treated wood. It will not only contaminate the surroundings, but it doesn’t look natural. Pick cedar or redwood. Make the fence stand out by using elegant post caps, larger than average posts (6*6), and trim work.

Don’t stain the fence any color, but clear. Natural high quality wood is more beautiful than any stain you can buy.

Stone Base

Use stone for the shower base. Probably, the best choices are select pieces of flagstone. Select pieces are larger than normal. They look much nicer and stay in place better. In addition, there are less cracks to deal with. Another secret to flagstone is the use of polmeric sand. It’s a specially formulated sand that dries hard like concrete. It’s a good product to use between the flagstone pieces because water can’t water can’t wash it away and it looks like real sand.

Again, if you are thinking about concrete; think again. To connect with nature, it must be natural.

Shower Drainage

You will need to install a drain in your shower base. To do so, simply dig a trench two feet deep and slope it so the water goes away from the shower into a safe place. Determine where the end of the water should drain. You have some options here. You could have it drain into a hole filled with gravel, hook it into the sewer line, or just have the pipe lay in the ground. It all depends on the frequency of your shower use and the costs you are willing to incur.

Final Tips

Outdoor showers have three purposes. To help you connect with nature and people and, of course, to get clean. Any design you pick should blend in with the landscape. The shower should be close enough to your home that you will use it often. Finally, there is a romantic element to outdoor showers. The enclosure should promote nature, romance, and fun.

For further information on outdoor showers, please visit Outdoor Showers

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Trout Fishing Tips

By Trevor Kugler

Trout are a very enjoyable species of fish to spend your time trying to catch. In this article, I’m going to discuss some tips that should help you catch more trout. When I speak of trout, I’m referring to the basic trout species that can be found throughout the United States. These species would include: Rainbow, Brown, Brook, Cutthroat, and Bull Trout. Although there are variations in temperament, colors, and size within these groups of trout, the methods for trying to catch them are similar. Below are some general trout fishing tips to help you catch more of any or all of the species listed above, especially in river and stream situations.

Size Matters

When it comes to trout fishing, the size of your gear and bait matter. In most trout fishing situations, ultra light to light gear and bait is the way to go. Unless of course you happen to be fishing for the monster Great Lakes visiting Brown Trout of the Midwest, in which case heavier gear will be necessary. I personally use a 5 foot ultra light rod and ultra light reel spooled with four for almost all of my trout fishing, and catch very large trout on a setup just like this. As far as hooks, the biggest I use for trout fishing with live bait is size 10. When it comes to lures, small lures are what you want to use as well. I personally don’t normally fish for trout with spinners and spoons that are bigger than ¼ ounce. And minnow-type plugs shouldn’t exceed four inches long, in my opinion when fishing for trout.

Clothing Matters

In river and stream situations when the angler is wading in an attempt to catch fish, the color of your clothing matters. Loud colors or even plain white, stand out and the fish will be able to see you. I always wear drab colors to blend in with the background as much as possible. Trout in rivers and streams can become vary wary of anglers, so not standing out works to the anglers’ advantage. Simply pick a t-shirt that’s brown or grey. As apposed to bright red or bright white.

Smell Matters

I’m not talking about the kind of deodorant you use. I’m speaking of the scent on your hands. All varieties of trout have a very sensitive sense of smell and can detect unnatural odors. For example, if you smoke, when you’re done with a cigarette your hands smell like an ashtray. This smell then transfers to whatever you touch (if you don’t believe me, just ask a non smoker if this is the case.) Therefore, when you touch the bait or lure to attach it to your hook or line, that scent gets on your bait! This will cost you a ton of bites. In most situations a trout will “sniff” the bait before biting it. If it stinks like an ashtray, there will be no biting. I suggest both grabbing a handful of weeds or dirt and rubbing it in your hands periodically, just in case any unnatural scants are on your hands. This simple tip will result in more bites.

Presentation Matters

Trout are a very intelligent species of fish. Whatever bait you chose to use must be presented in the most natural way possible. This is especially true with live bait. You want your bait to look as natural as possible. This is why I use a set of pre-tied gang hooks, because they enable me to present my live bait in an amazingly natural way. With trout in a river or stream situation, presentation matters as much as any other single aspect.

If you begin using these tips, you will start catching more trout. Actually, all I can promise is that you will get more bites, the setting of the hook, and actually fighting the trout, are in your hands. These tips will definitely help you get more bites, which is really what we’re all in search of, right?

Trevor Kugler is co-founder of JRWfishing.com and an avid angler. He has more than 20 years experience fishing for all types of fish, and 15 years of business and internet experience. He currently raises his three year old daughter in the heart of trout fishing country…..Montana!

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The Best Bait For Trout Fishing
By Trevor Kugler

In this article I’m going to discuss some of the most effective baits to use while fishing for trout in order to determine the best bait for trout fishing. Is this possible? Is it possible that there’s a “best” bait for trout fishing? I’m not entirely sure, but after fishing for these wonderful fish for more than 25 years I can honestly say that some are certainly better than others, and one in particular is certainly my favorite.

Before I get into the trout baits themselves, it’s important to know the type of trout that you’re attempting to catch. Not the species of fish, but the kind of trout. There are two basic kinds. Stocked (or planted) and native. Stocked trout are placed into the river or lake by the governments’ fish & game department. Native trout on the other hand were born and live in the water in which they reside. Actually stocked trout can become native after living in said body of water for an extended period of time (2 or more years).

Why do I mention stocked and native? Simply because both manners of trout tend to eat different kinds of bait, and as an angler you should be aware of this fact. Stocked trout eat baits such as corn, marshmallows, dough baits, and cheese. Native trout, on the other hand, tend to shy away from such baits, and tend to eat “live” baits such as worms, minnows, and crayfish. Basically, native trout are much more savvy (and more challenging) to catch than stocked trout.

One of the most popular (and effective) baits for trout fishing are synthetic baits that are shaped into live bait shapes. These baits are shaped like worms, minnows and crayfish (to name a few) and are impregnated with fish catching scents. The most popular manufacturers of these trout baits is Berkley, and are named Powerbait and Gulp. These baits, rigged on a set of gang hooks can be extremely effective.

Another popular bait is small spinners and spoons, such as Rooster Tails and Phoebe Minnows. Both native and stocked trout will bite these lures. These baits are effective in both the flowing water of rivers and streams and still the water of lakes. The important thing to remember in regards to these types of lures is to keep them small. 1/8 to 1/3 ounce will usually suffice.

The last bait that I want to touch on for trout fishing is the old standby live bait. This may indeed be the best bait for trout fishing. Live crayfish, for example, are probably the best bait for large trout. I live crayfish that’s allowed to flow naturally with the current of a small trout river is a great large trout bait. Live worms are extremely effective for trout fishing as well. As a matter of fact a live worm rigged on a set of gang hooks and allowed to flow naturally with the current of a small river or stream is a great “all around” trout bait, and could very well be the best.

Does this article give you an answer to the best bait for trout fishing? Not one single answer, but it certainly gives you the best options that are available. Now you can go out, give these baits a try, and determine for yourself which is the best.

In my experience live worms are hard to beat when trout fishing (especially in rivers and streams), but for you it may be different? The cool thing about fishing is that there’s only one way to find out. Get out on the water and figure out your best bait for trout fishing.

Gang Hooks Tied & Ready To Fish: http://www.jrwfishing.com/gang_hooks.asp

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Simple Tips to Go Green and Save Cash at the Same Time - Part 2
By Mitchell Earwood

Here are six simple tips to help you to Go Green and save money at the same time. In part two of this series we will focus primarily on saving energy using our transportation resources.

1. Walk whenever possible

First, the most obvious tip. Walk whenever possible, ride public transportation, carpool, and as a last resort drive your car. Can you walk to work? Can you walk to the bus or train? Maybe you will need to allow a few minutes of additional time in the morning to walk to the train or bus, but think of the savings if everyone else does the same. If you happen to be relocating, consider moving close to where you work. Suburban sprawl has made it difficult to walk anywhere. Of course property costs more in the city or nearby, but you also must consider your transportation costs. Recently as the cost of gasoline hit record levels, many people began questioning their long commute to work, and the wisdom of living so far away.

2. Consider moving to a smaller house or apartment

Consider moving to a smaller house or apartment. One of the big advantages to moving further away from the city is being able to afford a larger dwelling for the same amount of money. What many people did not consider was the rising costs for heating and air conditioning for these mansions. As energy costs will likely continue to rise for the foreseeable future, these properties will become less desirable with buyers looking for more energy efficient homes.

3. Keep your car tires inflated properly

Keep your car tires inflated properly according to pressure setting in the owner’s manual. Most automobiles have a sticker on the door frame that lists the correct inflation pressure for the tires. Do not use the pressure setting found on the sidewall of the tires as this is the maximum pressure and not the recommended value. The recommended value is set by the automobile designer based on the weight of the vehicle and should be followed closely. Under inflated tires cause more rolling resistance and waste fuel. Over inflated tires wear out more quickly and result in a rougher ride. Having the tires balanced and rotated regularly will prolong the life of the tires and save you money at the same time.

4. Consider purchasing a scooter or motorcycle

Consider purchasing a scooter or motorcycle if you make most of your trips alone. Some regions of the country work better than others for this, particularly the warmer climates. The fuel savings will be amazing. A special license may be required in your area. If you are new to riding, please take one of the weekend safety courses. The course will enhance your enjoyment of riding and might even save your life.

5. Buy in bulk as much as possible

Buy in bulk as much as possible to help avoid unnecessary packaging and smaller containers. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, Americans generate some 80 million tons of waste from packaging, labeling and empty containers. That’s about one third of the country’s overall total for solid waste! When you buy in bulk you save considerably in packaging, labeling and containers. And guess what - by buying in bulk you saving money at the same time.

6. Recycle your printer ink cartridges

Recycle your printer ink cartridges wherever possible. Some printer manufacturers have schemes to help with this. Use them! Over 200 million used printer ink cartridges end up in landfills in the US alone. When you consider Europe, Canada, Australia, Japan, China, and any number of other countries, then you can see why recycling YOUR used printer ink cartridges makes sense. Some drug stores and office supply houses have their own program for refilling the cartridges at a fraction of the price of new ones.

In summary, these six tips only scratch the surface. Brainstorm and try to think on ways that you can save energy and money. Together we can make a difference in the world today. More ideas are available at How To Go Green.

Mitchell Earwood invites you to visit his website at Forex Trading Easy.

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Camping Essentials - A List to Help You Keep in Mind the Items You Need to Pack
By Jo Alelsto

Save for those who are obsessive-compulsive who double or triple check their camping checklist, most of us end up forgetting something. It’s so frustrating when you realize you have forgotten something and there’s nothing you can do about it because you’re in the middle of nowhere. Okay, maybe not in the middle of nowhere but far enough from the nearest store.

What do you need to include in your checklist?

Camping essentials are those items which you can not simply do without in the campsite and these are shelter and bedding, cooking and eating, food and drink, first aid kit, personal hygiene, clothes, and cleaning items. There are also articles which are not necessary for camping set up but you’ll be glad you brought them along such as binoculars, a deck of cards, a hammock, sewing kit, and of course, a camera or camcorder though some people would consider these as camping essentials.

Here is your list:

1. Shelter and bedding

• Tent, poles, stakes
• Sleeping bags
• Sleeping pad
• Headrest
• Tarp

2. Cooking and eating

• Cooler
• Camp stone/burner
• Can opener
• Matches
• Charcoal
• Knife
• Eating utensils
• Cooking wares
• Water container

3. Food and drink

• Water (at least 600mL per person per day)
• Food (as much as needed and then some for emergency)

4. First aid kit

• Personal medication
• Bandages, gauze, medical tape, tweezers
• Antiseptic, alcohol
• Aspirin, sinus tablets, antacid
• Bug repellant
• Sunburn ointment
• Band aids
• Eye drops

5. Personal hygiene

• Toothbrush, toothpaste, dental floss
• Soap, shampoo, shaving cream, razor
• Comb, hair brush
• Deodorant
• Toilet paper
• Towel

6. Clothes

• Jacket (depending on the weather)
• Shirts, pants, underwear
• Shoes, hiking boots
• Hat/cap
• Socks
• Gloves/mittens

7. Cleaning items

• Detergent soap (biodegradable is preferred)
• Dish rags
• Dish pans
• Broom, dust pan, garbage bag (separate biodegradable from non-biodegradable)

There may be some items you’d like to add to the above list and please do add what you think you will need. However, don’t pack too many unnecessary articles, bring only what you need. You may be taking some time off from work to enjoy the great outdoors but you’re not going to have a luxury vacation so please leave that linen blanket behind.

Another important thing you should remember is to be a responsible camper. Therefore the cleaning items listed above are essentials. Separate your wastes into biodegradable and non-biodegradable, and as mush as possible use only biodegradable detergent and soaps.

One more thing you shouldn’t forget to bring with you is the digital camera or a camcorder. Some very unforgettable moments are bound to happen and you better be ready to capture them. The great outdoors is also a wonderful venue to put those hidden photographic talents to work.

The most famous line among campers, hikers, and mountain climbers is: “Take nothing but pictures leave nothing but footprints, kill nothing but time.” So do you part, gather all your garbage, even those which are not yours, separate them accordingly and throw them at the designated area. Be sure you put out the fire when you leave the campsite; many a bushfire begin from a forgotten camp fire.

Armed with the checklist and some tips, you’ll be all set for that long-awaited time off, away from the bustles of the city life. So enjoy the sunshine, the fresh air, the bird songs, cicada symphony, and the clear, starry night sky. But remember, be a responsible camper so that others today and in the years to come can also take pleasure in the great outdoors.

Jo is an author and publisher for ‘Great Outdoors’ (http://www.greatoutdoorsdirect.co.uk), a major retailer of the best camping and outdoor equipment in UK. If you are planning to go on an outdoor escapade and are looking for a high quality branded tent like the Coleman tents or some outdoor outfits and footwear and other outdoor equipment that are sold at reasonable costs then have a look at Great Outdoors.

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Finally, all these tips are of very general in nature. To find the suitablity of these tips in your personal tax scenario, please consult your tax advisor.

25 Easily Overlooked Tax Deductions - A Simple List You Can Refer to When Preparing Your Tax Filing
By Jesse Slome

If you are one of the millions of Americans who throws all their receipts, credit card and bank statements into a box, you are likely to overlook hundreds of dollars in tax deductions when preparing your tax filings.

May I suggest that you print out these often overlooked tax deductions onto a single piece of paper for easy reference as you start the annual process of looking for every possible tax-savings opportunity?

Here are 25 deductible expenses you don’t want to overlook.

1. Medical transportation expenses including tolls, parking, and mileage for trips to doctor’s, health facilities, laboratories.

2. Prescribed medical aids such as crutches, canes, and orthopedic shoes

3. Hearing aids, eye glasses, and contact lenses

4. The cost of alcohol and drug abuse programs, and certain smoking-cessation treatments

5. Education expenses you paid to maintain or improve job skills (including professional books)

6. Professional journals, magazines, and newspapers that are job-related

7. Cost of safe deposit box used for to store investments or investment information

8. Required uniforms and work clothes not suitable for street wear

9. Union dues.

10. Job-seeking expenses within your present field of employment - from printing resumes to phone charges.

11. Dues to professional organizations and business gifts up to $25 per customer or client

12. Cellular phones required for business

13. If you are self-employed, half of the self-employment tax paid

14. Self-employed health insurance premiums and long-term care insurance premiums up to the annual limits.

15. Fees for tax preparation or advice, including software like TurboTax if you meet limits

16. Services of a housekeeper, maid, or cook needed to run your home for the benefit of a qualifying dependent while you work

17. Penalties paid on early withdrawal of savings

18. State income taxes owed from a prior year and paid in the tax year-with your last return

19. Mileage incurred in performing charitable activities

20. Gambling losses to the extent of your gambling winnings - but be prepared to document this

21. The cost of employment agency fees or commissions in certain cases

22. Home office expenses, if your home is your primary place of business

23. Cash and non-cash contributions to qualified charities

24. Reservist and National Guard overnight travel expenses

25. Worthless stock or securities - but you must follow the prescribed rules.

If you are not familiar with the rules that make long-term care insurance potentially tax deductible for individuals and business owners, visit the Consumer Information Center of the American Association for Long-Term Care Insurance and click on the box marked Tax Deductibility. You’ll find the rules as well as the 2008 and new 2009 tax limits.

Jesse Slome is Executive Director of the American Association for Long-Term Care Insurance. The industry trade organization does not sell insurance products but maintains an excellent website for consumers seeking additional information on the subject. If you would like to receive a no-obligation free quote from a member of the Association, visit our Consumer Information Center.

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When it is summer time many women ask the same question, how to get rid of sweat stains and sweat odor from clothes? Many a times conventional washing fails to completely remove the sweat stain or odor or both.

Are you one of those women who discard white tee shirts like disposable gloves due to excessive underarm sweating? Then this article is for you.

There are a number of tried and tested home based approaches to remove sweat stain and odor from your summer clothes.

Baking Soda ‘Paste’ to remove Sweat Stains

Make a paste of six Tablespoons of baking soda and 1/2 cup of warm water. Rub it onto the stained area. Let it sit for about 30 minutes before laundering. Wash as usual. If you are washing brand new clothes, be sure to check for colorfastness first.

White Vinegar to remove Sweat Stains and Odor

Perspiration or sweat is not what is causing the odor but the bacteria that grows on it after the fact. You can use white vinegar to remove the sweat odor from your clothing. Just add a cup of white vinegar to the wash load along with your regular laundry soap.

If you have an expensive white dress, which you really want to keep without sweat stains, you can try this more effective approach. As with any cloth stain, the newer it is, the easier it to remove.



Right after taking off the garment, rub white vinegar into the affected area (arm pits). The white vinegar is acidic which can directly neutralize the alkaline components of your sweat. You can let the garment dry and wash at a later time or wash it immediately. Once you apply the vinegar it doesn’t matter much whether you wash right away or not.

Using liquid dishwashing detergent to remove Sweat Stains

Before doing your laundry, rub some dishwashing detergent on the stain. You can use Palmolive or any other quality brand. You should soak the area with the detergent. Let the cloth sit for an hour and then wash it as usual.

Hydrogen Peroxide (H2O2) to remove Sweat Stains

Use of Hydrogen Peroxide to Remove Sweat Stains

This inexpensive chemical does a wonderful job at our home. You can buy it from Wal-Mart or Costco for a couple of dollars, which can last for several months. We use it for cleaning several articles starting from laundry to dentures.

For white fabrics, hydrogen peroxide is one of the best possible solutions for sweat stain removal. Hydrogen peroxide can also remove blood stains very effectively. You can soak the stained portion in hydrogen peroxide. After thirty minutes, wash your garment as usual using regular detergent.

For colored clothes, before you use hydrogen peroxide, test it on a small hidden area of your clothing to make sure that it does not damage the color.

Using Shampoo for removing sweat stains

Soak the affected area of your garment with hot water. The shampoo prescribed for oily hair is the best for this treatment. Rub the shampoo into the stain. Scrub the area with an old toothbrush. Wash the cloth normally.

Preventing Sweat Stains

Some anti-perspirants can stain your cloth when reacting with your sweat. Each person’s sweat can differ slightly in their chemical composition. Hence an anti-perspirant that work well for person A may not work for person B.

Try switching to a plain deodorant if you suspect your anti-perspirant as the culprit.

Preventing Sweat Odor

Clean Habits

Wash your body regularly. Pay special attention to underarms, groin and feet. Change and wash your clothes often especially during summer months. Use cotton instead of synthetic socks. Change your socks daily.

Watch what you eat and drink

Alcohol and tobacco are well known to contribute to foul body odor - cut back on these if you drink or smoke. Garlic and certain spices are also known to cause extreme body odor for some people.

Thanks for reading. Please rate this article if you found it useful.

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How to Kill Ants Naturally
By JamieLynn P

When you see an ant (or any bug) it is natural to reach for a can of insect spray. While this will kill the ants on contact,they may come back in the next day or two. What if you don’t have any insect spray? There are a lot of things you may have laying around the house that will kill them- and keep them away for good!

It is always good to try several different things to get rid of these pesty creatures. Ants can invade the cleanest of homes. If there is a fire in your home, where would you extinguish it? At its source. It is the same with ants. You can do everything in your power to kill these pests, but until you find the source they will keep coming back. If you see ants don’t freak out and kill them right away. Stop and observe where they are coming from. In doing this, you can trace them back to their anthill. Also make note of where they are going in your home. There may be small traces of food you are not aware of.

Tips for preventing Ants from Coming into your Home

• Keep your home clean. Make sure your counters and stove are wiped down immediately after every meal. Do not leave dishes in the sink over night.
• Put your crackers, cereals, sugar and pastas in a zip lock baggie or sealed container.
• During the day, if you can see the sunlight shining from under your door, ants (and other unwanted pests) can get in. Take the necessary steps to seal this opening.
• Put your pet’s food dish in a pan with water. Ants will not go through the water to enter your pet’s food dish.

If you have taken all of these steps and still have an ant problem, it is not your fault. You can help elimiate your ant problem by following the steps below.

1. Pipe Tobacco - Soak tobacco in warm water overnight. In the morning, throw the soggy tobacco away and pour the tobacco waterover the ant hill.
2. Locate the anthill(s). Destroy it by using boiling water with a teaspoon of salt. The Boiling water will collapse the tunnels in the ant hill and the salt will make the ants lose their sense of direction.
3. Boric Acid and Sugar water. This mixture lures the ants with the sugar water. They eat this and take it back to the nest and wipe out the rest of the colony. If you make it too strong, it will kill the ants on contact. If you make it too weak, it will not work. The best tested ratio is as follows; Mix 1 cup water, 2 cups sugar, and 2 tablespoons boric acid. You can make a larger amount than this, but keep the proportions the same. Place this mixture where you have seen the ants crawling around. It can either be placed directly on the spot or you can put this mixture in an opened jar and lay it on its side. Although this mixture is not as toxic as commercial pestisides, make sure you keep pets or children out of reach. After you put the boric acid mixture down, you will see them gathering around eating it. (It may take 24 to 48 hours for them to clear. While it may look like something out of a horror movie, resist the urge to kill them. If they come back in a few days, you may want to put a little more boric acid into the mix (making sure it does not kill them on contact)
4. Sprinkle corn meal or grits on the ant hill. They will take it to the queen. Ants can not digest this and will die.
5. Pour 1 liter of club soda on each ant hill you see. This will suffocate the whole colony, including the queen. In about two days, and you will notice their abscense.

If you have a lot of ants in your home, you may want to try a combination of these methods. It may take few weeks, even a month to see an improvement. Be patient and don’t give up.

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Do you like to watch and feel the serenity and beauty of nature throughout the year? Sunrooms gives you the outdoor experience within the indoor comfort of your home.

Moreover, with modern sunroom enclosures, you no longer have to worry about rain, snow and the scorching heat of the summer sun. With the latest sunroom structures, the glasses of the sunroom can have double panes filled with inert gas to provide enhanced energy efficiency and increased visibility.

Build your own sunroom addition and increase the resale value of your home

Sunroom is an important value added feature to a house in the realty market. Homebuyers love sunrooms, which will allow them to enjoy the outdoors while remaining indoors

If you consider the quality of life aspect of a sunroom, among various home improvement projects, a sunroom is a good investment to upgrade your home and to improve your standard of living.

According to The National Association of the Remodeling Industry (NARI), sunrooms can repay more than 70% of their investment through the appreciation in your home value. The Remodeling Magazine, estimates that the resale value of a sunroom can average from 89% - 115% of its original cost

Can I build the sunroom by myself? Are there DIY kits available?

Yes there are DIY kits available for the sunrooms. In fact it is a viable option for a homeowner who has economy in mind.

If you have average handyman skills, you have plenty of options available for a do-it-yourself (DIY) kit from leading manufacturing companies and then install the sunroom by yourself.

When you order, all the necessary components for the sunroom are shipped to your doorsteps. Since these kits are developed for DIY homeowners, assembling and installing them require just above average handyman skills.

Please scroll below to see the additional links for the DIY kit suppliers for sunrooms.

Things to consider if you take the DIY approach to build your Sunroom

Before purchasing the do-it-yourself sunroom kits, please understand that these kits are designed for those sunrooms that are not going to be connected to your Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) system. If you want your sunroom to be connected to your HVAC system then you should opt for a professional installation.

How to decide the best location for my sunroom?

This depends on the area you live in and what exactly your intended use of your sunroom.

Southern Exposure
A southern exposure allows the most sunlight, which is best if you live in the northern parts of US. This is also the most popular choice if your house’s orientation would allow it. Southern exposure may be a good option if you are planning to use your sunroom as a Solarium to put tropical plants year-round. The south exposure will also generate free passive heat during the colder months.

However, if you live in the south it can also get very hot during the summer months requiring a cooling system.

When we say southern exposure, it is actually the solar south direction. Solar south is slightly different from the compass south. You can contact your local weather service to figure out the solar south direction for your house. If your home’s position does not allow your sunroom to face the perfect solar south, then an orientation within 15 degrees of compass south is a perfectly acceptable compromise.

Northern Exposure
A northern exposure will allow lower level and be partially shaded most of the day. If you live in a colder climate then a heating system may be required. But if you live in the south, this is good for the hot season.

Gable Sunroom

Eastern Exposure
An eastern exposure provides just enough sun in the morning and shade in the afternoon. This is perfect for a morning breakfast room or as a morning exercise room. With eastern exposure, you can build a beautiful breakfast room to enjoy the morning sunlight. Most ferns and partial shade plants will thrive while being shaded during the warmest part of the day.

Western Exposure
A western exposure will provide plenty of afternoon sunshine. Sometimes you may even require some movable shading to control the amount of light coming in. This location is best as an evening tea-room or an ideal place to watch the sunset.

How to finalize the design for my DIY sunroom?

Your ideal starting point would be the sunroom catalogues (internet or paper) provided by the DIY kit companies. You can search online or you can order sunroom catalogues from manufacturers. There are a wide variety of designs available when it comes to sunrooms, so it’s important that you explore various design options before deciding to buy a particular design. When you review the catalogues, note down the features that are most important to you and then include those features in your design.

You should also keep the purpose of the room in mind while you’re designing it. Pick the design and features according to the intended use of your sunroom.

Remember that a lean-to sunroom with a slanted front is the easiest design to build a sunroom by your self.

Other considerations

A DIY sunroom may not be the most energy efficient structure. That means you will require balancing the energy inefficiency by maximizing the thermal mass of the sunroom. This way your sunroom will absorb more heat during the day and release it slowly during the night. To achieve increased thermal mass you may want to use brick, stone or concrete as your sunroom floor.

Suppliers of DIY kits for sunrooms

http://www.roomkits.com/sunrooms.html
http://www.kkits.com/
http://www.sunroomskit.com/
http://www.screen-house.com/do_it_yourself_sun_rooms.htm
http://www.sunroomkitsdirect.com/
http://www.sunroomkitsdiy.com/index.html
http://www.diy-sunrooms.com/

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Home Equity Loans - There’s Gold In That There House
By Lillian Fuller

To paraphrase an old familiar quote that goes “there’s gold in them there hills, you could say, there’s gold in that house. As Martha Stewart would say, “it’s a good thing”.

A home equity loan can be a very good thing if you formulate a plan and stick to it. Home equity loans are becoming much more common and most banking companies have specific re-financing plans available for today’s consumer.

Read on and you will see that a home equity loan used for the proper purpose and managed correctly can indeed be a “good thing”.

A Home Equity Loan - Just what is it? Types Of Home Equity Loans HEL or HELOC?

There are two types of home equity loans. A regular home equity loan and the home equity line of credit or HELOC. A regular home equity loan is a fixed sum borrowed at a fixed rate over a period of time. A HELOC allows the client to borrow various sums up to a fixed amount over a period of time. A line of credit works in a similar way as a credit card; you use it when you need it. Different States set their own laws on limits you can borrow against your house.

The Financial Plan - Making your home equity work for you

For a home equity loan to work best for you, it’s a good idea to have a budget and a financial plan. Having a budget will help you decide how big a loan you need and a financial plan will be the map to accomplish your goals within that budget. Here are a few suggestions on ways to use a home equity loan.

1. Home Improvements
You may want to build up the equity in your house by making home improvements. The first and best place to visit is a home improvement warehouse store. These stores, especially the large ones have whole rooms set up and priced. Use caution however, husbands and wives have been known to have gone into these rooms for days and when they came out they were muttering “but I liked the blue room best.”

2. Debt Consolidation
Pay off all the nagging little balances that seem to have accumulated on various store and gas cards in your wallet.

3. A holiday in the sun or snow!
It’s a matter of interest, if you shop around; you may find a couple of percentage points on a home equity loan that can make a world of difference. Consider a holiday South of the border or North to Canada.

Mexican or Caribbean destinations are very attractive during the winter months but if skiing and winter activities is more to your liking then consider Vancouver, Canada. Whistler, British Columbia is one of the locations that will host the 2010 Winter Olympics. Shop around for the best rates and dream on.

4. A retirement Savings plan
It’s not an easy fact to accept but one day we will all need to retire. Planning for retirement requires good financial decision making. Many banking and financial companies offer free retirement planning advice. Some home equity loans are designed to be used for investment purposes. Talk to a trusted Financial Planner before signing the dotted line on this idea.

Loan Terms – Points To Ponder

Now you have a plan and are ready to talk with a lending company. You may want to do this on the Internet to save time and maybe a few dollars. If that is the case then it is a must to know these terms. Before you proceed to do some serious web surfing here are a few you will want to become familiar with before you consider a home equity loan. These points to ponder are:

Equity
Equity is the appraised value or Fair Market Value of your home less the outstanding mortgage balance.

Mortgage Broker
A mortgage broker is the “go between” whom you pay to negotiate the best deal. This person has access to current financial information and can be very important if financial savvy is not your strong suit.

HELOC
A HELOC is a Home Equity Line Of Credit. This term is discussed under types of home equity loans.

Debt Consolidation Loan
Over the years as you have paid off your home, you may have also acquired a few credit cards along the line. These credit cards include gas cards, store credit cards, and some bank credit cards. The interest rates on these cards vary and you may find that you are paying through the nose for the convenience of a store credit card. That is where a home equity loan can be very handy. You can borrow the amount you need to pay off each card and make one payment each month. With current financing plans, one payment at the end of the month is less than the minimum payment that was required on each card. Once you have done this, get out your scissors and cut up all of the cards except one bank credit card for emergencies. Remember the plan!

Balloon Loan
This type of loan can be difficult. The first few payments are low with low interest rates. The last payment however is exactly as the name describes; a balloon. It is a very large payment at the end of the repayment period. It is essential to stick to your financial plan because in this case you may need another loan to pay off the balloon amount.

Interest Rate
The periodic fee charged for a loan. This is expressed as a percentage point and some financial institutions are offering approximately 5.6% on a thirty year fixed $150,000.00 home equity loan. The lower the interest rate the better the deal, just make sure you aren’t negotiating a balloon loan though.

Transaction Fee
Unfortunately no matter how good the deal on the loan you get, there is no free ride. In the business of credit management someone has to make money in order for home equity loans to exist. There will be some type of transaction fee built into the loan application. Lenders have costs and these costs are passed along to the consumer as a transaction fee. Depending on the loan company you decide to use, a transaction fee can be lower or higher, so make sure you shop around.

FICO Score
A sliding scale based on a point score created by the Fair Isaac Corporation. This score is used to determine a borrower’s behavior and potential risk factor.

Credit Rating
Using the point system based on the FICO score, a credit rating can be anywhere from poor to excellent. With a good to excellent FICO score, a person’s credit rating can determine how much money can be borrowed and what interest rate will be charged.

Re-Financing - Finding A Gold Mine In Your Home

Many people consider their home to be their castle but few consider that they could be living on a potential gold mine. If you have lived in your house for 10 years and have been making payments, especially bi-monthly payments, you have built up a considerable amount of equity. Pair that with a good FICO score and there is indeed gold in that there house.

What’s Your Fico?

Mortgage Brokers use a FICO scale to determine the amount of money you can borrow against your home and at what interest rate you can borrow this money. This number is between 300 – 850 points and showcases a person’s credit history.
This scale was developed in California by the Fair Isaac Corporation, a global decision management company. A credit rating of 700 points is considered “good” and based on a $150,000.00 fixed thirty year mortgage, your rate of interest would be 5.7 percent VS 9.3% if your FICO score was below 600 points. Having a high FICO entitles you to borrow more money at a better rate.

Improving Your Fico

You’ve taken the test, (which is available at most lenders websites), and your score is not as stellar as you had hopped it would be. There are a couple of ways to improve this score:

1. Pay all your bills on time.
2. Keep a small balance on one credit card to keep it “active”.

The FICO website gives you all the “who, what, where, when and why” of the two above suggestions. You can read about the rationale in great detail at that site.

Buyers Beware

With today’s credit options and a good credit rating, you can borrow a lot of money against your home. This ability if not used responsibly and with a good solid financial plan can be ruinous. Some borrowers have gotten over their head and ultimately had to file for bankruptcy. So beware of potential risks.

Home Equity Loans - A Golden Opportunity

As you can see, a home equity loan is a great way to improve your living space, go on a holiday, plan for retirement or pay off some debts. With the right combination of a good FICO score and proper planning, there really is gold in that there house.

© 2005 http://www.home-loans-101.com

About the Author
Lillian Fuller is a talented and successful freelance writer for hire providing tips and advice for consumers about personal finances including mortgages, home equity loans, credit reports, and more. Her numerous articles offer valuable insight and informative views on many different topics.

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The Difficulties, Challenges and Problems Of Teleworking, Telecommuting and Working at Home
By Mr Jody Hudson

Working at home, from home, in your pajamas, in the nude, at the beach, working from bed or the easy chair - these are all the images and joys of home working that Kate and I enjoy and many others too. Kate and I sell Real Estate; that is perhaps the most popular telecommuting, work at home; pick your own hours job, in the country.

There are some difficulties that go with working at home. Perhaps half of the people who start working from home don’t succeed, mostly due to lack of personal discipline or family discipline.

There are freedoms of working from home and along with freedoms go responsibilities. Those freedoms of working at home can also be challenges to responsibility which will lower your production and moral as you fail to meet deadlines and quotas.

I have been telecommuting or teleworking; since we imported the term teleworking from the Brits and it’s now used by our Federal Government; and believe me I would rather work from home and my car than from a cubical. Since I entered the work force, I prefer me as my boss and get more done that way. I get to decide importances and have seldom found a boss that is not prone to wanting sillier busy-work than I’m willing to do.

One boss I had, my brother, had over 150 pieces of paper to fill out for selling a mobile home. On my own, I used two - the sales contract and the certificate of title. In the 8 hours it took me to fill out the 150 pieces of paper, I’d get “interrupted” by sales calls and showings of homes, so the paperwork of one sale took a week at times.

As a home-worker I get to determine what works and what doesn’t. One boss I had, a client who bought about 50 properties from me, was convinced that I should advertise her properties for sale with no price - so I would get calls. That was, and is, stupid. I did not want calls. I wanted prospective purchasers.

One of my clients wanted me to run these blind ads, ads with no price and I wouldn’t do it. So, he placed an ad in the New York Times and another in The Wall Street Journal. “Waterfront home, 3 BR, 2BA, Fireplace, Boat Dock, Scrn Prch, at the Beach — $39,000″ and put my phone number on the ad. I got several hundred phone calls and not one, that’s right not one, was a prospective purchaser. Why? Because it was a trailer on a rented lot in a trailer park and it was 500 miles from New York City. His idea was to make the phone ring; an altered priority. Now, when you go to my web site you will find properties for sale that tell everything about the property and usually with a map.

You see I don’t want calls that are not interested in what I have to sell at the price I need to get. As my own boss I do the ads my way and not based on somebody else’s “idea” of what is right or workable. These freedoms, chief among them the freedom FROM idiocy of bosses, are precious. However, I also have to find out what works and take chances without a boss to blame the errors on.

Working at home is great, but not easy. To excel; to make it even, you must have exceptional personal discipline, organizing skills and persistence. Those who work less at home than in the office will certainly make far less working at home than working in the office. In the office you may take a thirty minute coffee break and not get caught. At home, with that sort of discipline, your coffee break may go on for hours or even days. Or you may just sleep in and not even get up to make the coffee. for hours, days or weeks. And there goes the rent or mortgage payment and there goes the house.

Working at home is freeing. There is no dress code. You can work in your pajamas, your shorts, or even work at home in the buff - naked. However, we all know that when we dress up, at least some of us act more professional. And with no bosses slipping by the cubical to check over your shoulder - what are you working on?

I will tell you this: when I did some work as a business consultant for a large consulting firm - the PRIMARY CAUSE OF BUSINESS FAILURE WAS COMPUTER GAMES. Believe it or not, almost every one of the businesses that was going under and had to hire us had one or more people playing Solitaire or some other computer game dozens of hours a month. Most of the time it was the boss, his wife, his girlfriend, or all three that were bankrupting the business with solitaire or Doom. When no one else is forcing you to produce - some people won’t. Here are some reasons that those who have failed at telecommuting have failed.

Lack of Family Discipline: When you work at home you can also tend to family and that is great. I love it. However, it also allows for magnified interruptions. Child care can easily consume more than an entire day, if you don’t learn to discipline your children in an effective and nurturing way. If you just yell “Be quiet I’m working.” They will find a way to get your attention - no matter what - and it will often be at just the wrong time - like when Mr. Big is on the phone, or when you have procrastinated and the deadline is NOW.

If you must fix dinner for your husband, change the baby, take the other three kids to all those dozens of lessons, meet them at the bus, do the dishes, vacuum the floors, do the laundry, wax the floors, oil the antiques, sweep the driveway and talk to your several unemployed friends on the phone. then you won’t likely succeed as a telecommuter.

Older kids are even more of a challenge if you are not willing to raise disciplined kids - and there are very few of those these days. If you have no kids, but have dogs, parrots, hobbies, books, TV shows, and all sorts of other interests that take you away from production - you won’t make it either. How would you like to employ someone who could only work when there was nothing else taking a senior priority in attention?

Food: Snacking, gourmet cooking, coffee making, refrigerator door swinging and ice-cream eating can take a huge amount of time in a day. And, then you either must set aside twice as much time for exercise, or set aside money for the new and larger wardrobe. Many people, who work at home, could be said to be working Chip-Side. Chips, dips, sodas, candy, a few extra snacks beside the computer and soon you will need a larger, wider, more powerful chair and reinforcing slats under the mattress. The upside is that your social life will die and you’ll have more time to work and pay for the food and larger clothing. Can we say Tent Clothing?

Sloth: Laziness, slow motion, procrastination and self-interruption are killers of the home worker. If one of your motivations is to sleep in, you had better be similarly motivated to work late. You will need to learn to produce, to promote yourself, do market yourself and your product and procrastination is self-destructive. Snooze and loose. One of my very productive friends sleeps until 2:30 pm every day. He calls me on his way to his first cup of coffee and I welcome him to the day with “Good morning Lee!” he chuckles but in about 7 minutes he is off the phone and planning his day over his next cup of coffee. He allows no interruptions from any phones until 5:30 pm and works every night through until about 3 am when he answers his e-mail and then goes to bed a little after 4 am. He is a home designer and his clients are builders who take care of building during the day and talk with him from their home to his, at night. He is not sloth. He just works the night shift and does it well.

My youngest son is an artist, a very successful one: http://www.AbraxasArt.com He works best from afternoon to early morning as well. There are many who work at home that work the graveyard shift and find that working when others sleep, allows them to be more productive and creative. So sleep in if you will or take off early if you will, but doing both will knock you out of business. When you work at home, you work from to-do lists, appointments scheduled, and goals set. But, if you don’t get enough work done in a unit of time, you won’t get paid well. You must learn to plan your work and work your plan, or else.

Communication Sins: If you spend any time on frivolous e-mail, phone calls, faxes, meetings, stops at the coffee shop, golf, tennis, poker - and they are not planned to produce income - you will soon chat, gossip, play and fritter your income, savings and life away.

Yes, I WORK at a coffee shop nearby. They have high speed network lines for my laptop. I also wear my Logo hat, my business name pin on my chest, and have a large name and business card taped to my computer lid, so that it can be easily read from a distance as I work. I also make a couple of phone calls a day to those in related businesses, such as my friend the home designer.

I do a lot of e-mail and anyone who sends me forwarded junk is chastised, every time. Anyone who sends me hoaxes is sent back the hoax reference and I send it to “Reply All” as the sort of people who send that stuff send with everyone’s address visible about 99% of the time.

I also get quite a little bit of email, unsolicited, from some of my contacts about things which I’m not interested in. I thank them and let them know what I AM interested in and that I only want that, in a nice way. I get a few hundred SPAM a day. My filters handle all but a few. The rest; I speed read most of it and often find something I can use for my own marketing, not often, so I spend an average of about 2 seconds on each mailing.

I stopped by another home-worker a few months ago and he was playing solitaire, taking calls about jokes and gossip, and was constantly involved in frivolous e-mail. Last week he got a salaried job, at just about minimum wage, he made almost nothing working at home.

Communication sins include incoming and outgoing communications. Television, talk radio, music, telephone, entertaining web sites, porno, dating sites and chat, social calls coming or going, are all time stealers and production killers.

Slovenliness: When you work in a multi-tiered, hyper managed, upper-management, middle-management, worker bee, hierarchy and each level checks and double checks all the levels below and edits everything on the way up the line or out the door - you may find much of that missing when you work at home. You must learn to be your own editor. You must learn to be your own manager. You must learn to be your own Quality Control and Efficiency Expert. If you let slovenly work out your door, off your desk, in the mail or e-mail; you certainly and simultaneously send a bad message about your worth and professionalism. Doing slovenly work will result in slovenly pay.

Home Sweet Home Syndrome: If you are accustomed to turning off the productivity switch when you arrive home, it may be nearly impossible to learn that home is where the job is. If you are used to kicking off your heels, slipping on your robe, lounging in a hot tub with a book and candles, lying on the couch with the paper or any of the myriad activities of a leisure home life; you may not be able to work at home productively. And we get right back to the crux of it all - self-discipline.

Drugs, Alcohol, Tobacco, Sex and Even Music: A glass of wine at home, after work, can be wonderful. A glass of wine while you work at home can be horribly anti-productive. A smoke break at work is at worst embarrassing, at home, you can easily develop a two, three or four pack a day habit and you slide into chain smoking and larger and larger ashtrays. If you are a “recreational” drug user and work at home, you can easily get “hooked on that feeling” and that feeling is not one of accomplishment.

And, oh the wonders of staying in bed with your lover, of afternoon delight and hot nights - but it can soon eat up the day. Many, many folks enjoy relaxing to music, dancing to a tune or otherwise letting good music of their choice take their mind into the sublime. That is not where work gets done. If your mind is on the music, it is not on the job. Concentration is a primary requirement of working at home and without it you will soon be incompetent and unpaid.

Workaholism: Workaholics are often stressed out and need to go home once in a while for a break, or perhaps a break-down. If you are driven to work day and night, as I am, make certain that you love your work so much that you’d do it as recreation. Fortunately I love my work so much that it is not work to me at all. Part of the reason is that I only do the kind of work I love and not any other kind; there are a few things that other Realtors do that I don’t do. But, I take the energy that I could use doing those things I don’t like and put that much more energy into the other 99% of my profession that I love.

Yes, I’m up before dawn and work often past midnight - today is one of those days - but there is no part of today or many other days that I do anything I don’t love. Yes, I was out with a prospective client from 5 pm to 9 pm, came home to 83 e-mails and now I’m pounding out another article and NOT ONE SECOND of that time was I unhappy about what I was doing. I love it all. Darned good thing!!!

If you are a workaholic and don’t like what you are doing - you are doomed to ulcers, early death and perhaps a sad family. Don’t work at home if you’re not qualified. OR, get qualified on someone else’s time and then when you’ve got the drive, determination and discipline - stay home and get more done, more happily.

And, if you’ve got what it takes, do it. Perhaps you will choose this area, Southern Delaware, and perhaps you’ll choose me to help you find a place to buy and live and work at home. I hope so. If you already work at home and would like to write an article or a response to this one - please do and send it to me - I’d possibly like to publish it on my site.

Copyright 2000-2005 by www.JodyHudson.com

Source of article: http://www.kate-jody.com/essays/workathome.html

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Natural Dandruff Cure
By Juliet Cohen

Dandruff also known seborrhea. Dandruff is a chronic scalp condition that causes scaling and flaking of the skin. The skin on our scalp sheds more than any other area. Flakes get trapped in the hair and mix with oil, causing dandruff. Dandruff is a global phenomenon and many people find that dandruff can cause social or self-esteem problems.

Dry scalp is caused by a lack of moisture or natural oils on the scalp, which results in small, dry flakes, and itchiness. Dandruff is caused by the shedding of skin, which results in medium-to-large size, white, oily flakes. Dandruff has been shown to be the result of three factors First is skin oil commonly referred to as sebum or sebaceous secretions. Second is the metabolic by-products of skin micro-organisms and Third individual susceptibility. Severe cases of dandruff are caused by a disease called seborrhoeic eczema or seborrhoeic dermatitis.

Common symptoms of dandruff include white, oily-looking flakes of dead skin in your hair and on your shoulders and an itchy, scaling scalp. Dandruff is not an organism like lice. Dandruff mostly occurs after puberty, usually between the ages of 20 and 30, and affects males more than females. 50% of adults are affected by dandruff at some time or the other in their lives.

Hormones may also be involved, because dandruff usually starts after puberty and is more common in men than women. Other factors contributing to this disorder are emotional tension, harsh shampoos, exposure to cold and general exhaustion. There are a lot of ways to treat dandruff. It can be controlled and prevented from increasing. External treatment includes using anti-dandruff shampoos or using anti-fungal shampoos. Nutritional dandruff treatment: Nutritional treatment includes eating good nutritious food. An intake of lot of liquids to keep your skin supple helps.

Beat two eggs and add two tablespoons of water to it. Wet the hair and apply the egg mixture over the hair. Now massage your scalp and let the mixture on for 10-15 minutes. Olive oil contains vitamin E and other essential vitamins which is good for the skin as well. Apply them to your hair and slowly massage the scalp with your fingers. Boil a handful of neem leaves in 4 teacups of water.

After cooling and filtering, use for rinsing hair. Hair washed with fenugreek (methi) seed paste prevents dandruff, falling hair, baldness and dandruff keeping the hair long, healthy and black. Apply warmed coconut oil with the juice of two lemons, and leave in hair for two hours before shampooing out. Meats, sugar, strong tea or coffee, processed fruits, candies, soft drinks, pickles should be avoided.

Home Remedies For Dandruff Tips

1. Use of fenugreek seeds is one of the most important remedies in the treatment of dandruff. Two tablespoons of these seeds should be soaked overnight in water and ground into a fine paste in the morning.

2. Use of a teaspoon of fresh lime juice for the last rinse, while washing the hair, is another useful remedy.

3. The juice of snake gourd has been found beneficial in the prevention and treatment of dandruff.

4. Aloe vera dandruff cure About 10-15 minutes before you wash your hair, rub a lot of aloe vera gel into your scalp. leave it on for 10 minutes.

5. Using lime juice to wash hair.

6. Soak 2 tablespoons fenugreek seeds in water overnight. In the morning grind into a fine paste. Apply all over scalp and leave for ½ an hour. Wash with mild shampoo.

7. Mix the olive oil with the almond oil. Leave it on about 5 min.s after it starts to burn. Rinse well to clear dandruff.

8. Massage your hair with warm coconut oil and apply the juice of 2 lemons, steam your hair and leave the oil on for about 2 hours.

9. Boil a handful of neem leaves in 4 teacups of water. After cooling and filtering, use for rinsing hair.

10. Mix 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar with 1/4 cup water. Pour this mixture into a spray bottle and spritz it on to your hair and scalp, being careful to avoid the eye and ear area.

Juliet Cohen writes articles for http://www.beauty-makeup-skincare.com and http://www.makeup-care.info

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The Benefits of a Water Garden or Pond

Why do people like to have a water garden or a pond in their backyard? The answer is quite simple. Water gardens and ponds provide a nice tranquil way of relaxing and relieving the stress of everyday life. Whether you have a small water garden with a few plants and a small waterfall or a large Koi pond where you can watch the Koi and goldfish dart back and forth, it allows you to rest and enjoy the relaxing sound of the water running down the waterfall or other feature.

Building Your Pond

Building your pond can be a daunting task. The first thing you need to do is to layout your back yard and dig the hole, which will be the pond. Note that the hole needs to be dug according to the size of the pond. You can also use the sand from the hole to mound up a higher-level base for a waterfall.

The hole and the sand mound should be the shape of your pond and water feature.

Basic Materials

Once you have your hole dug, you should get a rubber liner. Do not get a rubber liner from Lowe’s or Home Depot that is for the average homeowner. Yes, it is cheaper, but you get what you pay for. It is too thin and can puncture easily. Tips about rubber are as follows:

A. Roofing rubber:

Many contractors use roofing rubber for flat roofs to line ponds. The only problem is that some believe that the roofing rubber may release polymers that are toxic to fish.

B. Professional-grade pond rubber:

Professional-grade rubber is what I use. This is a thick high quality rubber that is at least 3/4 mm thick. This is a good thick rubber. It is thick enough that you could even use it to make an inflatable raft.

Choosing Stones:

Quite naturally, having the rubber exposed is quite unsightly. The medium for beautifying your pond is stone. There is a whole variety of stones available out there for you to choose. If you use limestone in your pond that is intended to be a fishpond, follow the directions below about neutralizing the causticity of mortar. Avoid stone that have a lot of iron oxide in it. This can actually leach into the water and make your water turn red or rusty. The best stones are discussed below.

Flagstone
Flagstone is great for the edge of your pond and to set tiers for the water to flow over in a waterfall or cascade. Different kinds of flagstone are listed below.

1. Bluestone:

Bluestone is actually native to Pennsylvania and New York Mountains. Bluestone is a variety of shale that has a blue, green or a blue-green-grayish hue to it. Some bluestone varieties even have different mineral veins in it that can add some beauty.

2. Red Stone:

Red stone is a variety of sandstone that is usually mined in either Colorado or Arizona. Red stone has a beautiful reddish orange color. Some varieties of red stone also have a lighter terra cotta color to it. This can add some wonderful color to your pond surroundings.

3. Limestone:

Limestone flagstone is usually white or gray. Some limestone will have minerals in it that can give a rust color or brownish color.

There are other varieties of flagstone available also. Check your local stone yards.

Field Stone, Boulders and River Rock:

Along with the flagstone, that you choose for your pond, you will need some other kind of stone to finish it off and make your pond the envy of the neighborhood. There are many stone yards around all over the United States which get stone quarried from all over the lower 48, some of which have a variety of color, form and shape. The types of stones available in most American stone yards are listed below.

1. Fieldstone is your basic stone:

Fieldstone is basically stone that is dug up by farmers in the fields when they plow the fields. Fieldstone usually appears in the Midwest where there is the glacier moraine, where the ice from the glaciers has moved boulders a great distance from their origin. The main characteristic of fieldstone is that the boulders are round and smooth due to the glacier ice grinding them down as it pushed southward. Fieldstone adds a wonderful subtle look to your pond.

2. Coral crunch:

Despite the name it is not coral. It is volcanic rock with minerals and crystals in it. This stone is called coral crunch by the stone yards that carry it due to its bright red-orange color and white translucent quartz like crystals. This type of stone is also very corse and has some sharp edges. This should be kept in mind by those of you who have children, however, this stone can add some stunning color to your pond structure.

3. Lava Rock is also volcanic rock:

This rock is actually lava that spewed from an erupting volcano into the ocean, being cooled very quickly, causing it to be very porous. This is excellent rock for those of you who want to grow moss around your pond. The pores of the lava rock hold the moss spores very well and along with the moisture around the pond’s water, the moss will take off, giving you a lush green mossy look around the pond. Lava rock usually comes in two different colors, black and red. The red lava rock has oxidized iron minerals in it, which is what gives it its red color.

4. Rugged Granite:

It is another common variety of stone found in many US stone yards. Most of the granite is quarried either in Wisconsin or in the Rocky Mountain states, where the granite is readily available. Granite is igneous rock, meaning that is has slowly cooled after being melted by volcanic activity. Granite can come in a variety of different colors from reds, blacks, grays to the classic “salt & pepper” granite, which is the white granite with the large black speckles in it. This nice for those of you who like the rugged mountainous look.

5. Quartz:

It is not just the transparent obelisk-shaped crystals found in the Southwest. Other forms of quartz come as large translucent white boulders which sometimes have colors that vary from greens to rose to even a Smokey brownish color depending on the veins of minerals in these stones. This stone is commonly quarried in the dessert southwest.

6. River Rock:

It is mainly used for bedding. River rock is basically pebbles from a river bottom. No. 5 river rock is the largest in pebble size and No. 8 is smaller. Pea gravel is the smallest of the river rock. This is great with a mixture with sand for your marginal plants or for bedding in your streams or the bottom of the pond itself.

These are just some of the different varieties of stone around. You can also use a variety of the above mentioned stones to give your pond an eclectic and colorful look. If you look at Figures Two and Three, you can see how using a variety stone can give an eclectic look that will make your pond the talk of the neighborhood. These photos are taken of one of my ponds while under construction. Though I built my ponds in my front yard to advertise my landscaping business, the neighbors enjoy looking at it and hearing the sound of the water. People also use it as a reference point for directions because the use of different stone makes it unique and stand out.

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