July, 2009

general — No Comments
27
Jul 09

Home Security Tips For Holidays – Don't Make Your Home Burglar Friendly

Considering a family vacation? Imagine returning home from a relaxing holiday to find you have been robbed, vandalized or in some cases totally cleaned out by burglars.

Australian crime statistics clearly show that the rate of burglary, vandalism and break and enters increases during holiday periods, with crimes against the family home at their peak during the Christmas period.

One reason for these peaks is the number of homes left vacant during holiday periods. Your home security is most vulnerable while it is unoccupied and there are several things that indicate to the would be burglar that no one is home.

Before you take that well earned vacation protect your most valuable asset, the family home by taking these simple home security measures.

Firstly you need to harden the target (your home) against potential intruders by securing all doors and windows with quality locks. Make sure you even close small bathroom and laundry windows. You would be surprised at some burglars ability to squeeze through small spaces.

Have someone collect your mail. A letterbox full of mail indicates to the would be burglar that your home is currently unoccupied or unattended.

Cancel any local subscriptions or deliveries, ( papers, milk etc) while you are away

Install timer switches to key lights and audiovisual equipment and program these to turn on in the evenings and on the weekend. Professional burglars are not stupid so program different lights and audiovisual equipment to come on at different times. Try to simulate a normal living pattern.

Improve the quality of outdoor lighting by installing globes with greater luminosity. A well-lit exterior is a great deterrent.

Let a trusted neighbor know you are going on holidays and inform them of any arrangements you have with other people regarding your property. For example someone feeding the pets, scheduled pool cleaning or lawn mowing.

If you have a monitored alarm system contact the security company and advise them of the dates you will be away. Do an alarm test to make sure it is working and put new batteries in your smoke alarms.

Finally clean up the yard and mow the lawn if you have one. A well-kept house is a strong sign that it is occupied.

Happy and a safe return.

general — No Comments
17
Jul 09

Printable Saint Patrick's Day Bingo Cards

The majority of people have played bingo at some point or other in their lives. The game is fun, and so simple that even young children can quickly learn to play. The standard rules for the game involving playing using bingo cards with a grid 5 of 5 fields, with each of these fields containing a number between 1 and 75. Custom versions of the game, played with bingo cards printed with the words, phrases or even mathematics problems, are increasingly popular. These variants of the game are now quite common not only in social and community events, but also in schools and colleges, where teachers are increasingly applying the game to education.

Although various versions of bingo are popular in education, including for teaching English and other languages, practicing reading skills, and of course math, perhaps the most popular variants are those with holiday themes. In holiday versions of bingo, the bingo cards are printed with words or phrases relating to the particular holiday. Thus, in a Christmas game, the cards might be printed with things like “Bethlehem” or “Santa Claus”, in a Saint Valentine’s game with words, like “love” and “romance”, and in the case of Saint Patrick’s Day bingo (marking the Irish National Day which falls on March 17th), words or phrases relating to Ireland, such as “Blarney Stone”, “Dublin”, “Guinness” or “shamrock” would be used.

Saint Patrick’s Day bingo is suitable for people of all ages groups to play together, although it does require that the game organizer does do a bit of preparation work in advance of the game. The preparation work is not that difficult – the organizer simply needs to obtain some suitably themed bingo cards.

There are really three options for doing so. The first option, is to prepare the bingo cards by hand, but this is very time consuming. The second options it to buy some preprinted bingo cards with a Saint Patrick’s Day theme – this is definitely possible but can be expensive. The third, and for most people the best option, is for the organizer to create the bingo cards using their computer and some bingo card maker software. Using a computer, saves time and money, plus has the advantage that the software can be used again and again for producing custom bingo cards for other events and holidays throughout the year.

general — No Comments
7
Jul 09

Arizona Dry River Water Fountain

Out here in the Southwest with its dry desert climate we have limited precipitation. This prevents large amounts of water from accumulating and creating ponds or rivers. But, we can still enjoy the water. Instead we have what are called “dry rivers” that is; river beds that once had water in them and occasionally get water from the storms we do get. These dry river beds consist of mostly sand, smooth rocks, plant matter, and man made debris.

Creating one for the home takes some time and money but is not overly expensive or major hard work. It is more important to take your time and be creative. The idea here is to create realistic looking river beds that converge on a water feature such as a water fountain or pond.

Here is the step by step process.

1. Plan your project first: Look at the area of land you want to use and study the terrain. Then ask yourself these questions.

* Does it have varying height and how can you use that height? (rivers flow downhill).

* What kind of dirt do you have and is it easy or hard to work with?

* Are there trees or other plants around with surface roots?

* Can the trees or other plants become part of the scene?

* Do you want the water feature in the shade?

* What other natural materials are around that you can use (rocks, wood limbs etc…)

* Read the material guide below and let the cost of materials help you lay out the project.

2. Materials list: After you have laid out the project on paper it is time to determine what you will need. Here is a list of the basics.

* Enough 4-mil thickness ground cover plastic to cover the area you wish to dig out. This is available at any home center like Home Depot, Lowes, Ace hardware etc… and comes in rolls.

* Depending on how many and what kind of rocks you have on hand you will need some river rocks delivered. If you can specify a size range then middle size (8 to 12 inches) will work the best. They cover a decent area and are not too heavy. If you are given no choice, then work with what they give you.

* The water feature can be a store bought fountain of whatever style, type, and material you like or a pond with a submersible pump in it. The pond can be one constructed like we are going to make the river or a plastic one blended in to the scene.

* A submersible outdoor pump if you go with the fountain.

* An outdoor extension cord for the pump. You can also go with permanent wiring but that will take us out of the scope of this article.

3. Now for construction:

A. Go out and hammer some stakes in the ground corresponding to the pattern on the paper. Stake the future river in its center so you can measure off the stakes evenly on both sides for the river width. This serves as a visual guide for accurate width and depth. You will have to layout stakes for the water feature depending on which one you are using.

B. Dig out the river using the stakes as a guide. Vary the width as you go to mimic a real river but follow your layout. The wider it is the deeper it should be. Keep that in mind if the digging is not easy.

C. After digging is complete and you are happy with the look unroll, cut, and layout the plastic along the river.

D. Carefully place the river rocks on the plastic making a fairly smooth uniform surface. A surface that looks like water has smoothed it out over the years. Put the odder shaped ones along the edge. Try to fit them together like a puzzle to minimize space in between. Integrate the rocks with any of the other materials you have found.

E. Finally set up you water feature and lead the river (s) to it.

F. Cleanup any mess, put water in the feature, and away you go.

If you think the water will freeze in the winter then drain the pond or water fountain during that time. What you will have created is an entire scene which can be added to and changed. We put a large bridge over ours and used creative colored lighting to illuminate the river, bridge, and certain trees. It also provides an excellent backdrop to take pictures and decorate for Christmas. We call it the “Candy Cane River!”