Jeremy Herndon

I’m glad to hear that rain harvesting has once again becoming commonplace for a good amount of people. With our drought conditions that we have been experiencing these past years we really need to take advantage of any type of water conservation that we possibly can. There are plenty of rain barrels for sale these days. You can find tons of them online and from what I hear these wonderful rain barrels are selling like hot cakes.

My father used rain water barrels when we lived at the old home stead back in the day. I really never gave it much thought back then, but I do appreciate all of his efforts now a days. I plan on ordering some rain barrels for my own place come next pay day. If it will help with keeping our garden producing, I’m all for it. There has been a big effort to get this garden up and running and I look forward to a good harvest coming in soon.

I love this time of the year when folks are harvesting their gardens and giving away all of the extras that they have no need or use for. It’s all good!

If you asked me ten years ago with Mesothelioma was I wouldn’t have been able to give you even a clue.  I remember a co worker talking about her uncle dealing with Mesothelioma Cancer, about ten years ago and she clued me into a good amount about this ever increasing cancer that we are seeing so much about on TV these days. There are several local attorneys that are specializing in Mesothelioma and are advertising heavily these past couple of years on the local channels on cable and satellite alike.

I’ve even seen a few daytime talk show that have discussed this as well as Surviving Mesothelioma and I always remember that particular co worker whose family was morning heavily back then and it makes me wonder what ever happened to her and/or her uncle. All I know is that he had served in the Navy and somehow was exposed to this cancer in the sub that he spend a good amount of time in. I understand that a good amount of men that served on those submarines are now suffering from this same type of Mesothelioma Cancer. That really sucks, serving your country and then dying slowly from it for years and decades long after your service time is up.

I have really enjoyed the new show on The Animal Planet called Whale Wars. It is amazing what these people will do in order to save these creatures that are disappearing due to the hunters that are killing them in the name of science. These folks are totally 100% committed to doing all that they can to save the whales, they have all of my respect.

I’m not saying that the Gulf oil spill is funny. Not at all. But this video that is poking fun at the company who was involved is really funny! I hope you enjoy it too!

The house that I grew up in had the best looking Window Box Planters in the neighborhood. My mother worked hard keeping those Decorative Planters in their best shape and condition possible. She had colorful flowers planted in them most of the year, they just seemed to grow well and keep their shape and color right up to the end of the season.

I have a few Indoor Planters around my place that seem to do pretty well. But I can’t seem to have much luck with an Outdoor Planter no matter how hard I try. I’ve seen some real nice High End Planters online that I’d really like to try and use to have here and the prices are pretty decent right now as well.

I’ll keep looking around a bit longer and see what I can come up with. I’ve got plenty of time to find the right one(s) for the right price. With this heat wave and drought going on there are a lot of sad looking yards out there.

I’ve noticed that the fireflies are out. When I am driving after dark, at least one firefly ends up dead on my windshield. Believe it or not, I feel badly about that because I’ve read that fireflies are dying off in large numbers. I can remember as a child, running around the back yard and catching fireflies and putting them in a jar. We would punch holes in the lid of the jar and watching the fireflies blink on and off. We were always careful to release the fireflies after a short time; we didn’t want to kill them.

That is one of my fonder memories of summers past, seeing the fireflies at night. It always made the summer nights a magical time. I hope that the fireflies continue to exist and fuel the imaginations of children for all time.

My next door neighbor came knocking on my door today, asking my permission to pick dandelion greens from my lawn. She said that I had the most beautiful dandelion greens. I laughed and asked her what does she use them for. She eats them in salads, she said. She said that if you pick them when they are very young they taste delicious. Well, I decided to try one for myself, and I thought it was very bitter. I told her to help herself to all the dandelions she wanted!

Can you even imagine that the English settlers brought dandelions here on purpose! They were afraid that their honeybees wouldn’t have enough flowers to survive so they brought dandelion seeds! Well, we have plenty of them now! I wonder what dandelion wine tastes like!

As I observe all of the events surrounding the big oil spill in the Gulf, I have to wonder if “we” will learn anything from this. Will we ever be able to stop the leak? Can the oil that is gushing out into the ocean be contained and used? How much damage to the fishing industry, and the wildlife will happen? What’s going to happen to the people who depend on the tourism trade and fishing trade? This is such a disaster on so many levels! I hope that until this is resolved that no new drilling permits are issued!  I think making fuel from algae is sounding better and better every day!

I have to say that I’m apalled at what is going on with the big oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico!  This so-called state of the art oil platform filled with fail-safe measured blew up.  Millions of gallons of oil leaking into the Gulf.  The environmental damage that is going to result is mind-boggling!  Although I’ve been too busy to follow all the news carefully, I am aware that this is a big disaster, and I have to wonder just how much damage is actually going to happen.  Notwithstanding the environmental damage, I have to wonder exactly how much money this is going to cost the taxpayers and the consumers in the end.   Although the environment seems to be recovering, this could be a major setback to the recovery.  And all most of us can do is sit and wait, watch and hope.

I didn’t believe the weatherman yesterday when he said that we were going to get a snowstorm today. He has been wrong about our weather so much over the past couple of years! There have been so many times that school has been cancelled because the weatherman said it might snow (and it didn’t) that I just laughed when I heard yesterday that we were going to get at least an inch of snow today. Well, the joke is on me because we really are getting the first snow of the season today! And it is a beautiful storm; the flakes are very large and fluffy. It has been snowing for at least the last four or five hours now, which is very unusual for around here. We usually only a dusting. And yes, we have over an inch of snow. It is very pretty, and it IS making me think about Christmas being right around the corner!

On the way home I noticed a wagon and young boy sitting under an umbrella at the side of the road. In the wagon were piles of fresh corn on the cob, cantalopes, and tomatoes. I pulled over and took a look. they seemed fresh and plump and reasonably priced, so I bought a few of each. I like supporting a local farmer and I like fresh vegetables, so it was a good thing all around.

My wife is always fretting about paying our bills.  She keeps reminding me that we need to cut costs because the cost of living is going up but our income is NOT going up.  She is still upset about the price of gas having gone up so much in the recent past, and she is NOT happy about that at all!

So, she is constantly moving about the house, turning off lights and televisions and radios when there aren’t any people in the room.  I can’t even leave the living room for ten minutes to use the “facilities” without coming back to a darkened silent family room!  It drives me nuts!  When I complain to her about it, she says “well I didn’t know how long you were going to be gone, and lots of times you just go to bed or off to work or off running errands and don’t even tell me and don’t turn anything off, and I’m trying to save money and make ends meet.”

I hate that.

Today I was driving around and noticing that spring really seems to have arrived. The grass is greening up; the daffodils, forsythias, tulip trees are in full bloom. It won’t be long before everyone I see is sneezing and blowing their noses and complaining about their spring allergies! It really is a shame that so many people suffer from the pollen floating in the air from the trees and flowers. This would be a good time, though to own stock in allergy products and facial tissue!

Last summer I was disheartened to find Japanese beetles on our crape myrtle shrubs that we had just planted the year before.  I knew Japanese beetles were problematic with roses, but I did not know that they liked crape myrtles too!  There were only a few beetles on the shrubs, so I left them alone but I am thinking that might have been a mistake.  Leave a few alone now, and you are likely to have hundreds the next year!

I really don’t like those Japanese beetle traps that you see in people’s yards.  To be honest I have used them in the past and they work okay, but I think they are a pain in the neck to use.  I’d rather use an organic pest spray.  I went on the Internet this morning to look for some organic pest control info and found a website that sells organic pest spray that is supposed to kill on contact, and it kills a variety of garden pests, including aphids, cinch bugs and beetles.

I think that this year I am going to give it a try this year.  If it works well, I might even buy a couple of rose bushes for the next year!

Well, it is March 1st, and it certainly is coming in like a lion around here!  We are getting what appears to be the worst snowstorm of the winter so far.  Since winter is almost over, it is a bit of a surprise!  We haven’t even had a full inch of snow around here so far, and now the weather man is predicting about six to nine inches.  It has snowed off and on most of the day; it will be interesting to see what the ground looks like in the morning!  I imagine that the schools will be closed tomorrow, and the kids will have a great time making snowmen; it is a good wet snow – perfect for snowmen and snowball fights!

I have a very old floor lamp that I was given by a dear aunt. She tells me that she bought it over thirty years ago. I love it dearly, but it has finally given up the ghost. The socket died, and I decided it was appropriate to rewire the entire thing because the plug was the old fashioned kind that just was not as safe as the newer ones. So I went to the hardware store and bought what I needed to rewire the lamp. It took a couple of hours to take it all apart and rewire it, but I did it myself and it turned out fine. I had called an electrician and asked him how much he would charge to re-wire it and he had told me it would cost over $100! The rewiring supplies cost me less than $20, so I’m thrilled that I saved $80 by re-wiring it myself! And I’m thrilled that I kept the lamp from going to the junkyard, so I did my part to save the environment today!

I think that it is great that so many car manufacturers are developing, manufacturing, and selling a variety of hybrid vehicles.  Finally they are starting to respond to what the consumers actually want and need!  I’d like to buy a new vehicle in the next couple of years, once the economy settles down a little bit and we are a little bit more confident with our financial status.  For now, we are looking at cars like the honda civic hybrid 
and the toyota camry hybrid as the frontrunners for our car search.

My brother has been telling me that he wants to buy the new audi a3.  I was reading about that car on the website thecarconnection.com and think that it is a nice looking car.  I was surprised to read in that review that they seem to think that Americans in general don’t like hatch-backs and wagons.  I love them!

As you may have noticed in the recent thread of posts, I’m trying to find ways to stretch our budget. It would be a good idea to try to find ways to increase our income, too! My brother-in-law tells me that he has been making extra money web hosting. I asked him how he managed to do that, and he told me to read the article on the web hosting webpage published by the webhostinggeeks.com.

So I’ve been reading their website, and found that they have a lot of interesting articles about web hosting, and that they rate and review a lot of web hosting providers.  I was surprised and impressed that they have even created a web page that rates and reviews “green” web hosting providers!  I was comparing their rates with the other web hosting providers and saw that their prices were very competitive!  I’ll have to give some thought as to whether or not this type of business would be a good fit for our family.

On my campaign to make our house more energy-efficient (for the environment AND our shrinking electric budget) I have decided that it is also a good idea to get pipe insulation for our hot water pipes.  I’m going to  go to Home Depot or Lowe’s and buy some pipe insulation and install it in the basement.

I’ve seen some little insulated boxes that fit over top of the outside water spigots to help protect them from freezing. I think that is a good idea, too. It would be awful to have one freeze and burst – especially during the day while we are not home to deal with an emergency like that.

I do try to conserve water and have always turned out the lights when I leave a room and other prudent habits. But I’m always on the lookout for more ideas on how to save money and also help the environment.

I’ve been taking a look at how to save some money lately.  In these shaky times, I think it is important to save every penny we can!

We recently received the electric bill, and that was motivation for me to start looking at ways to reduce our electricity usage, even now without the added extra expense of running a central air conditioner.

First thing I’m going to do is install a thermal insulated blanket for the water heater.  I bought one at the hardware store for about $20.00  Our family takes a lot of showers, and we run the dishwasher every day (yes, it is full when we run it, and we have it set on air drying!) and we do a LOT of laundry,  so I think insulating the water heater better will help reduce our electricity usage.  I’ve read that doing this will save 4-9% in water heating costs!  And that will be good for the environment, too!