Spring Into Organic Gardening

Spring Into Organic Gardening

Spring is here and that usually means gardening. Are you are gardener? There are all types of gardens: indoor gardening, pot or container gardens, raised beds, community gardens, and the regular garden plot.

Homesteading: After Ken and I were married, it felt like we were pioneers. He had bought a plot of land just outside of town in the bush and cleared it before building our house. We finished the house together as well as worked on taming the land. We were by a river, but down a huge bank. We decided to plant a garden and build a green house. Ken rigged a pump from the river to water them. This was not just a simple plant some seeds. We had to clear the trees and stumps first, till the soil, rake it smooth, and then plant. It was a huge pile of work.

Raised Beds: Eventually we built boxes and from then on have gardened with raised beds. We find you basically triple your garden. For example, you don’t need rows in between to walk through, so your rows end up being pretty much the same space you allow in between plants within a row. For example, if you plant your carrots 2 inches apart, then your rows are 2 inches apart. If you have very little space, I strongly encourage you to try a raised bed. It triples your garden, the soil is warmer which lengthens your gardening season, plus weeds are kept to a minimum.

Organic Gardening: We also started reading up on companion gardening as a way to control pests rather than using chemicals. Being young and new to gardening, my greatest resource was my subscription to Mother Earth News. Certain plants act like a repellent control to other plants or exchange some needed nourishment. For example, pole beans and corn. Beans contribute nitrogen while corn feeds heavily on nitrogen. Beans are also good company for carrots, peas, beets and potatoes. (Tip I just learned: I read to not allow beans to mature on the plant or they stop producing. Also do not pick or cultivate beans when they are wet or it spreads viral diseases.) Marigolds have a repellent effect for tomatoes and potatoes. Basil improves the growth and flavour of tomatoes and peppers. Plant onions with leafy greens, broccoli with radishes and lettuce, spinach with garlic. There are so many to list that go well together, but pretty much what you naturally eat together seems to be a common thread. A good site that has a list for companion planting is at Golden Harvest.

Preserving and Canning: So now you are harvesting the rewards of your garden, and there is more than you can eat. What do you do? You start learning how to preserve, and canning is very popular. Freezing is good, but the life of frozen food is not as long before it gets freezer burnt. Canned goods are good for years on your shelf. Fruit, meat and fish, vegetables, and desserts like carrot pudding are all candidates for canning.

Jars and more Jars: With canning comes jars, jars and more jars. It seemed when I started canning, I was continually spending money on jars. It wasn’t long before people were giving me their jars and then all of a sudden I had so many jars, you just don’t know where to store them. It was okay when we lived in the north because I had a cold room and shelves to store all my jars, full or empty. But when we moved to Yellowknife, it was time to purge. Another move 10 years later, and we purged again. Last year I purged even more. With just the 2 of us, I do not need to can as much.

Organizing and Storing Your Jars: So take time to purge your jars, keep only your best and the ones you will really use. I only kept my good mason jars and purged out recycled jars like mayonnaise, Cheez Whiz, jam jars. Some options for storing jars: Make use of the space under a stairway by building shelves or cubes, an old armoire. recuperate some old kitchen cabinets for storage, or free-standing shelves.…

Marketing Tactics for a Self Storage Business

Marketing Tactics for a Self Storage Business

There are several marketing tactics that can be employed when it comes to selling yours storage business. A self storage business owner can definitely be creative when it comes to on my in traditional marketing means of publicizing their business while looking for new tenants. Some of these methods include postcards, billboards, websites, and paid search.

Postcards

Postcards are a great way to advertise a seasonal special or promote a new self storage business in the area. A business owner can buy a mailing list of residents in the immediate area and then visit an online printing website, where they can have postcards designed with the self storage business’ logo, contact information, and special for new customers, if applicable.

Billboards

Billboards are sometimes expensive, depending on the geographical area where the business is located, however they may be a wise investment, especially if the self storage units or near a major street or highway that has billboards. Often times, potential customers will see a billboard on their way to work or home, and repeat exposure will eventually cause them to think of the business when they are looking for a self storage solution.

Websites

websites may have a higher initial cost to build and publish, but almost every business (including self storage business) needs to have one. Occasionally freelancers or smaller website design businesses could provide a more affordable website been a big agency. Check Craigslist or ask around to find an affordable website designer. If possible and the budget allows, allowing new customers to reserve a storage unit and pay their rent online can be a good option.

Paid Search

Paid search engine campaigns, also called PPC or pay-per-click, are a great way to advertise to customers that are looking for self storage exactly when they are searching for it online. PPC specialists can create and maintain the campaigns for you, often for a set monthly cost. They are PPC campaigns available on Bing, Yahoo, Google, ask, and Facebook, just to name a few. Paid search engine campaigns are also available at a cost per impression basis, or CPM. However, this means that the business owner is paying for people who see the ad, even though they may not click on it.

Obviously there are several different marketing methods available online and off-line to self storage owners. Along with the methods mentioned above, offering fair rates and bonuses for referrals can also help garner new business.…

Plastic Storage File Boxes

Plastic Storage File Boxes

For any kind of business office environment, one of the main issues is generally how you can manage office files. Arranging files is not going to involve placing almost all documents collectively without classifying all of them and after that keeping them instantly in the document room or storage place.

Actually, in many offices, they have to help make all files active for approximately ten years well before they are able to stash them away in the cool and dark stockroom. Because of this, you have to possess organizer containers in your business office with regards to the organization of files and some other crucial documents.

Currently, with all the numerous files and records necessary to be kept by a lot of companies, it is rather hard to locate dependable document safe-keeping bins that may cope with all of your requirements in terms of organization of the files. The majority of record storage bins are manufactured from metals even though some are made of solid wood or plastic material.

Nonetheless, in this instance, steel file storage containers can be regarded as one of the best storage choices for your workplace particularly if your office deals with many documents. And listed below are the things that you should find out about these kinds of organizer containers:

They are able to keep as much as a number of hundreds of files at once. Heavy-duty storage containers will often be large and also have three to four big dividers to carry numerous number of different documents per every partition.

Because it can keep various documents for each partition, in typical circumstances, opening a specific cabinet could be pushing. Nevertheless, the majority of steel storage containers choices possess dropping compartments which could easily assist you to pull the whole drawer out without placing any kind of stress in your arm muscle tissue.

You are able to easily arrange the files from A to Z or even in any category that you simply select. However, many of these files are put in the connected folders which permit you to quickly slide a content from the other.

Nowadays, storage containers selections for business office documents have become a lot more ergonomic since many companies discover the requirement for these types of storage vessels to enhance. This makes your corporation of any file, and also its access, an extremely simple process.

Furthermore, you might also need an additional space to keep office things since many cabinets possess even surfaces at the top.…

Planning a Lumber Storage Rack

Planning a Lumber Storage Rack

Small and large woodworking shops alike have to deal with what type of lumber storage they need for their shops. The ideal lumber storage for each shop will be different due to the layout of the shop, the type of materials used, and the size of the shop.

One of the keys to an efficient shop storage system is how you run your shop. If you have a production shop that depends on material flowing through smoothly then you should have lumber and plywood stored in different places along the production line. Full size plywood and lumber should be in the rough cut area, cut to size parts in the production area and prefinished parts in the assembly area.

A small shop, making one or two items at a time, would be better served by mobile storage so parts already cut to size can be moved around the shop as needed.

In my shop I’ve found that I must stay on top of the days storage needs or I soon find myself continually moving cutoffs and parts out of my way in order to get my work done.

Lumber storage can take a lot of space. I store it on horizontal racks with cut off pieces going back on the same pile. Ideally, horizontal racks should have a stiff bottom board to stack your lumber on. This keeps lumber from

bowing due to long spans being unsupported. It also allows short pieces to be put back without falling between supports.

I like to store plywood vertically on edge. Normally in my shop I keep several sheets on hand. By storing these vertically I can pull one piece without having to move half a dozen sheets or more to get to it. This saves a lot of work and helps save the plywood surface from scratches. If you decide to try vertical storage make sure the sheets are vertical and not leaning. Unsupported sheets that are leaning will bow.

After cutting a sheet into pieces I also store the unused pieces vertically on shelves. Again, this allows me to grab the piece I want without moving a lot of other pieces.

Remote storage, if available, is the best option if you have a small crowded shop. Having a place to store full sheets of plywood or long lengths of lumber until needed can be ideal. This allows the small shop more working

room. It also allows the option of buying in larger quantities to get a better price.…

Should You Buy a New Home Or Should You Remodel What You Have?

Should You Buy a New Home Or Should You Remodel What You Have?

Have you been pondering for a long time on doing something about that kitchen or bathroom; there just is not enough room for anything anymore. Things are getting so cluttered, even in the bathroom there is not enough room for any towels and the toiletries are all piling up; it is starting to look like one of the through all drawers. What to do, and which room should we start on first is a big question mark. Step back and take a good assessment on where your priorities are with your needs and the extremes of the situation; every home is different. Do you need to consider extending a room because it is just a little too small or do you need to add a shelf storage cabinet to give yourself a little more space? Moving the bath tub or shower differently or combing them into one is a possibility, or installing a bathroom wall cabinet is a thought or similar would be bath storage cabinets. There are so many choices now days with all of the home improvement options available for the average person; you need to step back and take a look and start making some logical decisions.

Some people make a decision that they do not like their home and start playing with the idea to sell it and look into buying a new home; and with the prices of the market and mortgage rates it would be almost foolish when there are so many other options. Consider the amount of a new home could average with a wide range but for example let us play with $100,000 to $900,000 and this is going to turn into a 30 to 40 year mortgage payment. These are some pretty steep decisions to consider.

A person should consider other venues such as the possibilities to remodel; it would much more logical to determine what you do not like about your present home and fix it or change it totally so that you are happy and enjoy living there. A few things to consider would be is it just the inside or outside that you are not happy with, or a landscaping issue; and of course there is the decision that it is a little bit of both and something in all of the rooms. And, that is OK at least you know now what you do not like about your home; and now you have a place to begin.

Take each room and start making notes and diagrams of everything that you want to change; adding shelving, knocking out a wall and extending a room, flooring and painting. Some beautiful vibrant colors can change a room entirely. Re-varnishing some existing closets or woodwork even change drapery and some furniture; you would be surprised how bad the furniture can make a house look. Then move onto the landscaping and decide the colors and areas you would like to see in your front and back yard.

Now that you have decided on renovation you can apply for a simple home improvement loan for maybe $50,000 instead of a 40 year mortgage and fix your home up the way that you want it to be and not having to accept things the way they are even when buying a new home. Hire a contractor to do the heavy duty things and do the rest yourself; you will be surprised how much the family themselves can do going to a home improvement store and shop for good bargains.…

Review of Carbonite Online Synchronization Tool

Review of Carbonite Online Synchronization Tool

Overview and History

Carbonite is based in Boston, MA and they first offered their online backup service in the first half of 2006. At the time of writing they backup and protect in excess of over 2 billion files for most modern countries. They were founded in 2005 by David Friend and Jeff Flowers. Carbonite is a simple, secure online backup service for casual home users, students, home office users, business travelers, etc. For

Feature Set

Security

Carbonite security is satisfyingly reliable. Transfers back and forth from your Desktop and their servers is encrypted with 3DES – which is very strong – and once on their servers your files are encrypted using Blowfish 448bit – it gets no better than that. Physically your data is held on 2 latest technology facilities in Massachusetts that provide carefully temperature- controlled rooms, reserve generators, restricted personnel access, and many other features to protect the security and integrity of your information.

Backup Features

When initially setup Carbonite backs up the ‘My Documents and Settings’ folders but this can simply be amended with the desktop software. There is no maximum to the amount of data that can be saved, therefore you can manage as many or as few files as you want. Archiving will start when your computer is not busy, thus preventing drain on resources or bandwidth. Alternatively, you can set the backup scheduler to archive when you want. Carbonite does not support backup of network or external drives. In our tests it needed thirty seven minutes to save 2Gb of files with a standard 8mbps internet line whilst sending and receiving other traffic on the internet. Carbonite offers a continuous backup facility which means that files are archived as soon as they are changed. Therefore you do not need to rely on scheduling archiving and making sure your desktop is on when the scheduled time comes.

Nevertheless, if scheduling is what you wish, the PC client does have that option also. The backup progress can be monitored by an included progress bar. You can also add files and folders to the archive schedule by right-clicking. The Carbonite service gives a ‘virtual drive letter’ where you can see which files have been backed up and which are waiting for archive. The client also adds colored dots on files to show whether they are archived, awaiting backup or not included in the archive set. The PC version allows unlimited ‘file versioning’ for three months. There are as well no limits on the size of individual files or the amount of data that you can archive. However, it is important to remember that the initial archive time required is more than that required after you are up and running and your first backup is complete.

Restore Features

Information recovery can be started from either the software or the web site and can be recovered to either their original location, another location on the laptop they were originally backup up on or to the web site. On the PC edition, file recovery can also be managed by right-clicking a file or folder. In addition there is a search option so you can locate files to restore that match a specific filename or filename pattern.

Control and Analysis

The web site Allows central administration for all clients being archived. The CPU and bandwidth usage can be throttled between high and low. Reports are generated to show what is backed up.

Interface

To use Carbonite you will need to setup the Carbonite Client Software on each device that is to be archived. But, once setup, all backups can be controlled from a central admin portal. Multiple devices can be managed with a single account, however, multi-account administration isn’t supported. After the client is up and running, it permits access to a virtual drive letter that is used to view the status of archived folders and to restore folders. The system tray icon starts off yellow – this indicates that the initial backup is being performed. Once the initial backup is done, the tray icon turns green. The client software is clear and great to use. The internet portal is similarly straightforward. The program is intended to be set-and-forget so the options are not filled with lots of options but rather are set up to allow you to choose what and when you want to archive and then leave the program to just do it.

Device Support

There is support for PC and MAC. There is an iPhone, iTouch, iPad and BlackBerry apps but these only allow you to view archived files, not actually archive your device. You can attach files from the backup set in emails. An unlimited amount of devices – MAC or PC – can be backed up.

Limitations

Network drives …

Why the Need For Climate Controlled Self Storage Units?

Why the Need For Climate Controlled Self Storage Units?

So many people and businesses today are in need of self storage units. As their personal possessions and stocks accumulate and their available space for storage purposes decreases, they have no other choice but turn to the rental units. At least with these storage facilities, they can rest assure that their items will be kept safely whether for the short term or for a longer period.

If you’re one of these people requiring storage space, then it’s important to determine first the type of items you’re going to be keeping inside those units. In this way, you will know which type of units to rent whether a regular one or a temperature controlled unit.

For individuals, ask yourself if you’re going to store appliances and delicate items for a long time. For businesses, find out if you’ll be keeping stocks of dry products or vital documents and perishable items.

If delicate items including those that can easily rot comprise a major part of the things you will be storing in rental units, then a climate controlled self storage facility is what you need. These units have heating and air conditioning systems to protect the items and keep them in the same condition as they were first brought by the owners there. Climate control is an important consideration for many people especially homeowners who plan to eventually dispose of their personal belongings such as after six months to a year of safekeeping. This is also a vital factor considering that in western countries, climate and weather differ from one area to another.

With a climate controlled self storage facility, the temperature and humidity in the unit is well maintained therefore preventing the occurrence of molds, mildew and warping. What this means is that temperature is steady not going beyond 80 degrees or going lower than 60 degrees Fahrenheit depending on the location and the climate in the area.

Self storage providers may vary as well in the climate control they apply in their units. Some may offer individual temperature control for each unit while the others may implement a centralized thermostat control through the property manager. The advantage of having just one control is lower electricity costs and energy efficiency which is beneficial to the environment. Additionally, this type of rental unit is better at protecting your valuable items from infestation of pests such as mice and termites.

Ideal belongings that can be securely stored in these rental units with climate control are oil paintings, documents, electronic appliances, photos, antiques, leather, clothing, mattresses, musical instruments and fine furniture. Perishable items such as food also require a temperature controlled room. Documents stored for a long time tend to turn yellowish in color but when kept in a climate control room, this natural process of deterioration can be prevented.

Sizes of climate controlled self storage can vary from small, medium to the large ones. It all depends on the volume of items you need to store.

While these units may command a higher price compared to the standard ones, the benefits you can get are far greater. If sensitive items are what you need to keep, then price shouldn’t really matter.…