Posts Tagged ‘horticulture’

Ep 043: A Rant on Fear-Mongering Creeps Trying to Make a Buck on Your Fear

Ep 043_Rant On Fear-Mongering Creeps

I was checking the news today and came across an ad that really hacked me off.  It was an ad for a book about food items you won’t be able to get in an upcoming crisis.  I clicked on the ad and it was a powerpoint presentation that just kept repeating themes of apocalypse and starvation and neighbors becoming zombies.  IT MADE ME SICK.

Don’t buy into the fear, guys.  Anyone trying to use fear to sell you something is a creep and a scumbag.  It is simply a sales tool to provoke you to buy. 

Instead, head over to www.all-things-emergency-prepared.com.  The site is FULL of FREE, Wonderful Tips, to prepare a pantry for an emergency.

From his site:

Emergency Food Supply

If you’ve given any thought to emergency survival, you know that your water storage, emergency food supply, and disaster survival equipment are the three main foundations of any short or long term survival plan.

Start preparing a survival food system in advance for yourself and loved ones. By doing so, you will be farther ahead than probably 90 percent of the public.

 

Ep 040: What a Riot Over Tennis Shoes Can Teach Us.

Ep 040_ What a Riot Over Tennis Shoes Can Teach Us

So, Nike Came out with a new $190 pair of tennis shoes. They made them limited edition.  They released them two days before Christmas.  Then riots broke out.  No surprise here.

This story is SO WRONG on so many different levels, it makes me sick.  One, SHAME on these morons sleeping over outside malls to grab these shoes.  There was a report of a woman who left her child in the car to wait in line for the shoes  in freezing weather.  Disgusting.  Two, Shame on Nike for causing this riot.  They KNEW what would happen. And they are partly to blame.  But this is part of a bigger problem.  This happens every Thanksgiving all around the country as shoppers fight for “bait” items to lure them into the store.

Now for the big picture:

• This happened over a pair of shoes.  What happens when there is a shortage of food or other essential supplies?
• Most of us just shake our heads at the stupidity of the shoes story.  But when it’s food or medicine, who will be laughing?
• If ever there is a case for being a prepper and keeping a cache of supplies, this is it.
• Tennis shoes are nothing compared to a hungry crowd.
• That is why stockpiling food, medicine, and supplies is so VERY essential.
• That is why gardening and food production is so important
• That is why developing a defensible homestead is so important.
• That is why getting out of overpopulated areas, (in my opinion) is important.

 

Black Eye Friday: Shoppers throw punches over new Air Jordans

Race for New Air Jordan Sneakers Turns Ugly at a Metro Atlanta Mall

Rowdy shoppers eager to get the latest Air Jordans clash with police

New Air Jordans still incite shopper violence 9 years after player’s retirement

 

End-of-the-Year Episode Podcast

Dec 2011This episode will be short and sweet.

It’s the end of 2011 and we’re at the beginning of 2012.  Where are you?

Where are you financially?

Where are you career-wise?

Where are you with regard to your family?

Where are you spiritually?

Where are you preparedness-wise? ( i’m including here house, garden, preps, and plan-wise)

Remember that nobody plans to fail, but many fail to plan.

If you do nothing else over the Christmas break, assess where you are and PLAN for 2012 in every facet of your life.

 

Then, I want you to focus on your family and share a love and enjoy a warmth you haven’t felt in years.  Reach out to estranged family members.  Re-connect with friends and loved ones you haven’t talked to in years…and be a kid again.  Have fun and enjoy life.  You do NOT know whether 2012 or even the end of 2011 will be the last year you spend on earth.

 

With that, I bid you Peace, Happiness, and Prosperity.

Dan

How to add UNIQUENESS to a room without painting it a stupid color.

While analyzing my daughter’s bathroom, I realized I gave her a very soft, feminine, unique bathroom without painting it a color that would be a detractor to potential buyers.

In bathrooms: quirky fixtures (soap holders, toothbrush holders, etc), bathmats, towels and shower curtains give her bathroom a quriky, PINK, feminine touch, and the walls are still white.  If we were to move, the quirkiness comes with us  (the fixtures/towles/etc) and the Normal-ness of a standard bathroom remains (white walls, solid-surface countertops, standard hardware and faucet)

This can be accomplished in any room with with the same techniques.

Think of it this way:  the walls are a blank canvas upon which you decorate and paint your masterpiece.

 

Have a great day!

Dan

Episode 037: Some Ways to Fix Our Country

Episode 037_ Some Ways to Fix This Country

My “US First” initiative. Everybody wants to play,”If I was in charge…” Today, I tell you what I’d do.

They include:

•  No foreign nationals from countries that hate us allowed in:esp in colleges studying engineering, chemistry and nuclear physics
• Profiling foreign nationals from countries that hate us = ok
• Prohibit lobbying
• Make all legislators volubteer/part-time
• Default on all US debt owned by China as a penalty for their continued piracy and copyright infringement
• All wars we fight in get a bill for whomever we help
• No children of illegal immigrants can become us citizens through birth
• Illegal aliens who are sick have their health issues stabilized, and are returned to their country for further treatment–enough abusing our health care system
• No illegals in schools.  all students must provide documentation for enrollment
• Make losers of lawsuits pay the legal fees of the winner–to discourage frivolous lawsuits
• Get rid or lawsuits against doctors (where only the lawyers benefit) and set up a system for victim compensation where only victims benefit.

 

 

 

Episode 036: 5 Home Improvements That Pay Off The Best

Today, I talk about some good renovation projects that pay you back.  Also, I am BLOWN AWAY with the response from my interview with Bob Mayne.  THANKS to all who listened and to all of of my new visitors.  Thanks for visiting and give me a try.

Remodeling Magazine published a list of the top Five Renovations that Pay off the Most are:

Improvement                 Cost                 Value            ROI (Return on Investment in %)

1. Steel Door                        1218             1243                 102

2. Garage Door                     1291             1083                 84

3. Minor Kitchen Remodel     21,695          15790               73

4. New Deck                          10,973           7986                73

5. Vinyl Siding                         11,357          8223                72

 

Episode 036_Five Renovations That Pay Off

I’ll Be Podcasting Over Christmas…

But only here on my blog.  I’ll be working with my hosting accounts and playing around with RSS feeds.  Stay here to keep up 2 date.  Be sure to follow me via whatever media tool you like.  Ithink there’s an app button to satisfy anyone.

Episode 038: Land, Corruption and Remodeling

Episode 038_Land, Corruption, and RemodelingI discuss the boom in farm land prices, next I make the connection to MF Global, and finally,I continue my previous talk on home improvement projects and the expected return on investment (ROI)

Insight: In Iowa, farmland boom means end of an era for many

IOWA FALLS, Iowa (Reuters) – It took just 31 minutes for Donald Ellingson’s family to end an agrarian tradition that had survived more than a half-century, by auctioning off 153 acres of rich Iowa farmland.

Five years after their father’s death, Ellingson’s three children had grown weary of the demands of running a farm. Their tenant farmer had retired, and finding a new one was tough. The youngest of them was 60 — too old, they agreed, to return to a life of risky finances and long work days.

Combines and corn were not part of the lives of Donald’s eight grandchildren or his 14 great-grandchildren. They live far from here. And given land prices these days, the family agreed it was the right time to let the past go.

“I think dad would be fine with us selling the land,” said Diane Guerrttman, 60, who lives in Wyoming and works with at-risk children.

Across the Midwest, the dizzying surge in rural land prices is accelerating a fundamental reshaping of the farm sector in the world’s biggest food exporter. Instead of digging in to benefit from the boom in grain prices, the next generation is opting to cash out of the small, family-owned farms that harbor centuries of rural wisdom and deep tradition.

The bidding wars that are now common at farm auctions and inside attorney offices, resulting in a 25 percent jump in land values last quarter, are bittersweet for heirs and aging farmers alike, whose children have fled to the city, leaving them unable or unwilling to shoulder the rising financial risk of a farm…

(Reporting by PJ Huffstutter; editing by Jonathan Leff and Marguerita Choy)

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Oops! MF Global loses 1.2 billion of customer money: 

Translation: Golly, we’re really rich and we’re really sorry, but you’ll NEVER see a cent of your stolen money.  We’re Wall Street and we’re criminals.

MF Global missing funds may hit $1.2 billion

By James O’Toole@CNNMoneyNovember 21, 2011: 7:18 PM ET

MF Global (MFGLQ) was forced to file for bankruptcy last month after it disclosed $6.3 billion in exposure to troubled sovereign debt from weak European countries, sparking panic among investors.

Government regulators later said that roughly $633 million out of the $5.4 billion in customer funds at the firm were unaccounted for.

On Monday, however, that figure was revised significantly higher.

“[T]he apparent shortfall in what MF Global management should have segregated at U.S. depositories may be as much as $1.2 billion or more,” the office of trustee James Giddens said in a statement…

 

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Remodeling Magazine has a great article on ROI on 50 Projects:

        2011-12        National Averages

Midrange Projects

Project	Job Cost	Resale Value	Cost Recouped	Change vs.                            2010-11
Attic Bedroom	$50,148	$36,346	72.5%
Backup Power Generator	$14,760	$7,009	47.5%
Basement Remodel	$63,378	$42,338	66.8%
Bathroom Addition	$40,096	$20,455	51.0%
Bathroom Remodel	$16,552	$10,293	62.2%
Deck Addition (composite)	$15,579	$9,780	62.8%
Deck Addition (wood)	$10,350	$7,259	70.1%
Entry Door Replacement (fiberglass)	$3,536	$1,990	56.3%
Entry Door Replacement (steel)	$1,238	$903	73.0%
Family Room Addition	$83,118	$50,004	60.2%
Garage Addition	$57,824	$33,089	57.2%
Garage Door Replacement	$1,512	$1,087	71.9%
Home Office Remodel	$27,963	$11,983	42.9%
Major Kitchen Remodel	$57,494	$37,785	65.7%
Master Suite Addition	$106,196	$62,874	59.2%
Minor Kitchen Remodel	$19,588	$14,120	72.1%
Roofing Replacement	$21,204	$12,257	57.8%
Siding Replacement (vinyl)	$11,729	$8,155	69.5%
Sunroom Addition	$74,310	$34,133	45.9%
Two-Story Addition	$165,796	$103,391	62.4%
Window Replacement (vinyl)	$11,319	$7,692	68.0%
Window Replacement (wood)	$12,229	$8,258	67.5%

Upscale Projects

Project	Job Cost	Resale Value	Cost Recouped	Change vs.                            2010-11
Bathroom Addition	$76,209	$40,061	52.6%
Bathroom Remodel	$52,249	$28,972	55.5%
Deck Addition (composite)	$37,829	$20,637	54.6%
Garage Addition	$86,347	$44,987	52.1%
Garage Door Replacement	$2,994	$2,129	71.1%
Grand Entrance (fiberglass)	$7,488	$4,554	60.8%
Major Kitchen Remodel	$110,938	$63,731	57.4%
Master Suite Addition	$227,178	$114,822	50.5%
Roofing Replacement	$37,481	$20,435	54.5%
Siding Replacement (fiber-cement)	$13,461	$10,493	78.0%
Siding Replacement (foam-backed vinyl)	$14,274	$9,937	69.6%
Window Replacement (vinyl)	$14,328	$9,898	69.1%
Window Replacement (wood)	$18,999	$12,175	64.1%

 

 

Episode 034: When Stuff Changes

Whatever your goals are, they will change. Life is what happens in between the plans you make.

You need to re-evaluate your short and long-term plans and be flexible for what tomorrow holds.

Things that affect life for both the good and bad:

• Crop suitability
• job changes/demands
• move
• health issues
• change in direction/motivations/goals
• New dreams, new horizon

Episode 034_ When Stuff Changes

Episode 033: The Vegas Episode: Gambling is Dumb

 

Gambling profits in casinos are more than $30 billion while lotteries are about 17 billion annually

“Players” with household incomes under $10,000 bet nearly three times as much on lotteries as those with incomes over $50,000

 

In 1973 state lotteries had $2 billion in sales.  By 1997, the revenues reached $34 billion

Gambling among young people is on the increase: 42 percent of  14-year-olds, 49 percent of 15-year-olds, 63 percent of 16-year-olds, 76 percent of 18-year-olds.

 

There are now approximately 260 casinos on Indian reservations (in 31 states and with $6.7 billion in revenue)

Internet gambling has nearly doubled every year since 1997 – in 2001 it exceed $2 billion

 

The Internet boasts 110 sport-related gambling sites

According to the American Psychological Association the Internet could be as addictive as alcohol, drugs, and gambling

 

After casinos opened in Atlantic City, the total number of crimes within a thirty-mile radius increased 100 percent

The average debt incurred by a male pathological gambler in the U.S. is between $55,000 and $90,000 (it is $15,000 for female gamblers)

 

The average rate of divorce for problem gamblers is nearly double that of non-gamblers

The suicide rate for pathological gamblers is twenty times higher than for non-gamblers (one in five attempts suicide)

 

Sixty-five percent of pathological gamblers commit crimes to support their gambling habit

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(Courtesy of vegasclick.com)

Expected LossExpected Loss is somewhat of a misnomer.  It’s not the value you actually expect to lose.  It’s the mathematical average loss.  So whoever came up with the term “expected loss” did a bad job.  They should have called it “average loss”.
An example illustrates the difference.  The house edge in roulette is 5.26%.  So for every $5 bet the casino will keep $0.26 on average.  So your “expected loss” on a $5 roulette bet is $0.26.
But if you bet $5 on roulette you can’t lose exactly $0.26.  If you bet on red or black, you’ll either win another $5 or lose the whole thing.  So you don’t really expect to lose $0.26, it’s just your mathematical average loss on each $5 bet, if you played the game forever.
So why do we even talk about expected loss if you can’t lose exactly the amount it predicts on one play?  Because the longer you play, the closer your actual loss will be to the expected loss.  Let’s say you play 1,000 spins on roulette, at $1 a spin, betting on red every time. You win 475 times and lose 525 times.  So you got back $950 (475 wins, plus you get your original wager back), and you risked $1,000.  That means you lost $50. The percentage you lost was $50 / 1000 = 5%, which is pretty close to the 5.26% mathematical average.
Expected loss is good for comparing the risk of various games.  Your expected loss depends on three factors:

1. How much you’re betting (the amount per hand)
2. How fast you’re playing (hands per hour)
3. The house edge (the average casino profit per bet)

In formula form, it’s:

Wager x House Edge x Number of Hands = Expected Loss

As a practical example we’ll use blackjack at $5/hand for two hours, assuming you use the proper strategy:

$5 x 0.5% x 60 hands/hr x 2 hrs. = $3

Below is a table showing your expected loss after 16 hours of play, using common house edges and common rates of play

Game	Hands Per Hour (HPH)	House Edge	Expected Loss for 16 hours of play
Slots, 0.05 Slots, 0.25 Slots, 1.00	800	8.0% (5 coins) 6.0% (3 coins) 5.0% (2 coins)	$256 $576 $1,280
Roulette, $5/spin	40	5.26% (American) 2.7% (European)	$168 (American) $86 (European)
Baccarat, $25/hand MiniBaccarat, $5/h.	60 150	1.06% (betting on Banker)	$254 $127
Blackjack, $5/hand	100	0.50% (with perfect play)	$40
Craps, $10/round ($5 Pass, $5 odds)	30 (Pass Line Bets)	1.41% pass line bet	$34

 

Episode 032: The Thanksgiving Special

Episode 031: Luxury DIY Projects: Thoughts

Episode 030: 3-Ring Binder Organization Revisited

Episode 029: A Veteran’s Day Tribute

Episode 028: Camping Equipment for Emergencies

Episode 027: How to Have a Pick-up Truck without buying

Episode 025: Organizing and De-Cluttering

Episode 026: Personal reflection and a Hospital Rant

Episode 024: Maximizing your podplayer for entertainment

Episode 023: Clutter, the Economy, And the Middle East