Don’t mess with life jacket safety. Kids are wriggly little critters and you must ensure they are properly protected at all times. Don’t buy so “they’ll grow into it” and don’t squeeze them into a jacket that’s too small. Follow the US Coastguard’s guidelines at all times. And remember, the best way to get a kid to wear a life jacket — lead by example.
It’s tornado season. Got a plan?
New Safety Update from the Sooners – No, not that sort!
Oklahoma’s Gary England and The University of Oklahoma have teamed up to create this informative new series designed to help residents prepare for Oklahoma’s severe weather. This Sooner Series consists of short videos that will give people of all ages a better understanding of Oklahoma’s weather patterns and how to stay safe when severe weather strikes.
Of course, it’s not just Oklahoma that experiences tornados, there were warnings across Virginia this week. So check out the videos.
Gary England’s Tornado Alley – Advanced Storm Precautions & Preparing Your Tornado Safe Bag
We’re being battered by a solar storm!
Those amazingly far South Northern Lights? The fantastic red skies? Blame the Sun.
Right now, the Earth is being battered by a huge solar storm, which while providing some spectacular fireworks, could also disrupt the nation’s power grid, computers, air traffic control, your GPS, your cellphone and pretty much any electrical equipment.
A huge blast of magnetic plasma (solar flare) shot out of the sun on Sunday, travelling faster than usual, according to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). It brought with it the biggest solar storm at least since March, and maybe since September 2005.
A solar flare is a sudden flash of brightness observed over the Sun’s surface, which is equivalent to 160,000,000,000 megatons of TNT! They are often, but not always (and no one knows why not), followed by a colossal coronal mass ejection (CME).The flare ejects clouds of electrons, ions, and atoms through the corona of the sun into space. These clouds typically reach Earth a day or two after the event.
When the ejection is directed towards Earth and reaches it as an interplanetary CME, the shock wave of this traveling mass of solar energetic particles causes a geomagnetic storm. This can disrupt Earth’s magnetosphere, compressing it on the day side (where the sun is shining) and extending the night-side magnetic tail.
When the magnetosphere reconnects on the nightside, it releases terawatts of energy back towards the Earth’s upper atmosphere. X-rays and UV radiation emitted by solar flares can affect Earth’s ionosphere and disrupt long-range radio communications.
The frequency of occurrence of solar flares varies, from several per day when the Sun is particularly “active” (now) to less than one every week when the Sun is “quiet”, following the 11-year cycle called the solar cycle. Large flares are less frequent than smaller ones.
Humans at high altitudes, as in airplanes or space stations, risk exposure to relatively intense cosmic rays. Cosmic rays are potentially lethal in high quantities. The energy absorbed by astronauts is not reduced by a typical spacecraft shield design and, if any protection is provided, it would result from changes in the microscopic inhomogeneity of the energy absorption events. Which makes this photo taken from the International Space Station both very beautiful — and very scary.
Risks to you?
America’s power grid is decrepit, huge and wholly inter-connected. It’s like that domino game, one goes and it has a knock on effect throughout a large section of the grid.
An overload, a cascading problem is more than the U.S. Grid can deal with. So you have to be prepared for an outage that could continue for many days, even weeks. And you also need to prepare for voltage surges that could not only fry the grid, but take your personal electronics and many national communications systems with it.
So, think about unplugging your phone and computer from the mains – and definitely plug them into a surge strip for the next few days. Or charge up your battery chargers – they’ll be easier to replace than your computer or cellphone. And you may have to forget the internet, those communication satellites are in atmosphere could be zapped. So print off your phone numbers, and find an old-fashioned hard wired phone if you can still use one in your house. (I’m the last hold out on the block against fiber optic and have been taking lessons from an old telecoms engineer in how to fix the last bit of copper cable between me and the street. That’s the bit the big guys don’t want you to have anymore and refuse to maintain.) Also you can build a special Faraday Cage to protect against the pulse or use this everyday household item as an emergency measure.
You’re going to have to plan for a long-term knock out power event!
Food: Think about it. Everyone needs power to get food through the food chain to the stores. It’s going to be a shambles and you can forget coolers. You’d need to get used to dealing with food like they do in Third World countries. Less meat (and much less clean with all the stomach issues that go with that.) Food will be scarce and very expensive. You ALWAYS need a food reserve on hand that can feed you until whenever the chaos event has passed. You should have AT LEAST a month’s supply. Six months would be better. Cans, dried foods, especially beans, pulses and fruits, clean water, salt, sugar, oil, flour. Stick to the basics. Add flavors with dried herbs and spices. But have a lot of it.
Money: Banks are online nowadays. Don’t even think about using your ATM. Keep cash and keep items to barter like booze, food, batteries and tobacco products.
Work: If your job is office based you have a problem. You won’t be working and the company won’t be able to pay you. It’s time to dust off a barter skill like fishing or hunting, cooking or water purifying. And dig out that old bike – you’re going to need it. Or get an old pre-electronic car that doesn’t rely on circuitry to function.
Power: Batteries, lots of them. Go get them NOW! Pick them up every time you go to Costco or the Dollar Shop. Get more. And barbecue propane gas tanks. Have as many as you can afford. You can cook anything on your grill if you need to. Get a camping stove with refill canisters. Got a fireplace? You’re golden. Make sure it’s swept and start collecting firewood. Candles for nighttime (Jars are a great way to hold them, they’re safer and the glass magnifies the glow)
15 steps to real homemade jelly
This is how to make proper jelly with all the steps. It’s a good thing to know how to do. Canning fruit jelly can be done on a stove top and this is a very easy way to learn the basics of canning before you move on to pressure cooker canning which is used for meats and vegetables.
Ingredients for fruit jelly
- 8 cups (4 pints) sweet fresh fruit (such as strawberries, blueberries, or apricots)
- One packet MCP pectin powder (optional)
- 4 cups sugar (use 5 1/3 cups for bitter fruits like oranges)
- 1/4 cup lemon juice
- 1/2 tsp. butter or margarine
Decision One. Pectin or no Pectin. You don’t have to use pectin to make jelly; however, it will help the jelly have a jelly-like consistency and can keep it from being runny. You can find it in most supermarkets, in the canning or baking aisles, and it can be bought as a liquid or a powder. However, if you do use pectin, then you should read the instructions on the packet for the exact sugar-to-fruit ratio of ingredients you should use. This will make the recipe vary slightly.
Sterilize a dozen canning jars. You can’t use any old jars — you’ll need to get jars that are specifically meant for canning like Ball or Mason. To do this, boil the jars in water for 10 minutes. Then, place them upside-down on a clean towel and drape another towel over them until you are ready to use them. You may not need all 12 jars, especially if you are using larger jars, like pints, but it is much easier to prepare too many than too few.
- It’s crucial that you sterilize the jars correctly because the basic principle of canning is to kill all the microorganisms that spoil food, then to seal the jar tight to keep them out.
Prepare the fruit. First, wash the fruit under running water and then do whatever you have to do to get it to be ready to eat. Peel it, remove the pits, the stems, or whatever else you need to remove. Then, cut the fruit into small manageable chunks. If you’re using raspberries or blueberries, you don’t need to cut them, but if you’re using apricots or strawberries or other fruit larger than berries, then you should cut them into 1/2-inch (1.25 cm) chunks; each strawberry should be cut in half or even quartered, for example.
Crush the fruit. Once you’ve washed and prepared the fruit and have given it a little bit of time to dry, then you should crush the fruit with a potato masher or a wooden spoon. You don’t have to go crazy with this — the fruit will naturally soften and will become more malleable as you boil it. How long you spend crushing the fruit depends on what kind of jelly you’d like — if you’d like thicker jelly with larger chunks of fruit, crush the fruit for 1-2 minutes; for smoother jelly, go for 3 minutes.
Prepare the fruit in a stock pot or large saucepan. First, place the 8 cups of fruit in the pot or pan, and then add the lemon juice and butter to the mixture. Add 1/4 cup of lemon juice and 1/2 teaspoon of butter and margarine. Gently stir in the ingredients. You can warm the butter up to make it easier to stir in. The lemon juice will cut some of the sweetness of the jelly.
Bring the fruit mixture to a full rolling boil. A full, rolling boil is one where the bubbles do not stop or lessen when you stir it. Stir constantly and all the way to the bottom to avoid burning the fruit. Boiling the fruit mixture will make the juice come out of the fruit and will keep the pot from burning.
Pour in the sugar. Pour in the sugar, with the heat still on, and stir it in until it dissolves completely. You will notice that the fruit becomes clearer and brighter when you add the sugar. Continue stirring constantly. For this recipe, you should use 4 cups of sugar for 8 cups of fruit a (1:2 sugar to fruit ratio), but know that ratios can vary. If you’re using a more bitter fruit, like orange, then the ratio should be more like 2:3 (two cups sugar for every three cups fruit).
- Don’t skimp out on the sugar. You may think that this will make the jelly healthier, but it will actually ruin the consistency of the jelly.
Let the fruit mixture simmer for 5-20 minutes until it reaches a thicker, syrupy consistency. Heat the mixture under low heat until it reaches the right consistency; the time this takes varies by the type of fruit you’re using, since some fruit takes longer to soften. If you’re using pectin, check out the time required for boiling on the package. Continue stirring constantly.
- You can test the consistency of the jelly with a chilled spoon.
Remove from heat. When the mixture is ready, turn off the heat and remove the pot from the burner.
Use a spoon to skim any foam or bubbles off the top surface. It will be whitish, and some batches will have more than others. You don’t have to get every speck, but if you leave it in the jelly, it will change the consistency and not taste very good.
Ladle the jelly or jelly into the prepared jars. Use a canning funnel to guide the jelly into the jar. Make sure to leave 1/8 inch of empty space, or “head space”, at the top of each jar. Wipe the rims and threads of the jars with a clean, damp cloth to remove any residue or drips. Make especially sure to clean the top surface where the seal will go.
Prepare the seals of the jars. Boil about an inch of water in the bottom of a medium saucepan and remove it from the heat. Place the seals into the water. Push them down so that they sink, and try not to stack them on each other, so that they heat evenly. Allow them to soften for a minute or two. You can do this step while you ladle and wipe rims, if you time it right.
- Place a softened seal on each jar. A magnetic lid wand will help you get them safely out of the boiling water. To release the seal, set it on a jar and tilt the wand. If you don’t have a lid wand, you can use a small pair of tongs.
- Screw a clean ring down over the seal and tighten it with snug hand pressure. Don’t tighten so much that you press all the seal material off of the rim.
Boil the jars with the jelly in them for 10 minutes. To do this, lower the jars onto a rack in a water-bath canner or large stock pot. If you use a large stock pot, place a rack or other spacer on the bottom so that the jars do not rest directly on the bottom of the pot. Add enough hot water to cover them by 1-2 inches. You can measure it to the first knuckle, as shown. Then, cover the canner and bring the water to a gentle boil.
Cool the jars. Remove the jars from the boiling water. Jar tongs are a secure and safe way to do this, or you may be able to raise the entire rack in a water-bath canner. Place the jars on a clean towel to cool. Allow the full jars to cool for 24 hours in a place free from drafts. You may hear the metal lids make a loud plinking sound. That is simply the contents cooling and creating a partial vacuum in the jar.
Make sure that the jars have sealed. The vacuum created when the contents cooled should have pulled the “dome” lid down very tightly. If you can press the center of the lid down, it did not seal. It should not spring back. If any jars have not sealed, you can place a fresh lid on them and process them again or refrigerate those jars and use the contents soon.
- Wash the jars in cool, soapy water to remove any sticky residue on the outsides. You can remove the rings at this point, since the seals should be holding themselves on securely. Allow the rings and jars to dry thoroughly before replacing the rings, to prevent rust.
If you aren’t sure about any of these steps click here to go to Wiki-How How to Make Jam where there are some super helpful videos.
WARNING: Heat risks and how to beat them
Temperatures in the upper 90s – over 100 perhaps? When the National Weather Service issues an excessive heat watch you need to wise up and take some basic precautions.
An excessive heat watch means that a prolonged period of hot temperatures is expected. The combination of hot temperatures and high humidity will create a dangerous situation in which heat illnesses are possible for you, your family and your coworkers.
Take precautions from the heat:
• It’s obvious. But drink plenty of water or other non-alcohol or decaffeinated fluids. Your body needs water to keep cool. Drink plenty of fluids even if you don’t feel thirsty. Do not drink alcoholic beverages and limit caffeinated beverages.
• Stay in an air-conditioned room. Air conditioning in homes and other buildings markedly reduces danger from the heat. Consider spending the warmest part of the day in public buildings such as libraries, schools, movie theaters, shopping malls and other community facilities.
• Circulating air can cool the body by increasing the perspiration rate of evaporation. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), electric fans may provide comfort, but when the temperature is in the high 90s, fans will not prevent heat-related illness. Taking a cool shower or bath, or moving to an air-conditioned place is a much better way to cool off.
• Stay out of the sun and don’t get too much sun. Sunburn reduces your body’s ability to dissipate heat.
• Avoid strenuous work during the warmest part of the day. Use a buddy system when working in extreme heat, and take frequent breaks.
• Dress for summer. Wear lightweight, light-colored clothing to reflect heat and sunlight.
• Make sure your child’s safety seat and safety belt buckles aren’t too hot before securing your child in a safety restraint system, especially when your car has been parked in the heat.
• Never leave your child or pet unattended in a vehicle, even with the windows down.
• Make sure pets have plenty of fresh water and are not left outside for long periods.
• Those at greatest risk for heat-related illness include infants and children up to four years of age, people 65 years of age and older, people who are overweight, and people who are ill or on certain medications. Visit adults at risk at least twice a day and closely watch them for signs of heat exhaustion or heat stroke. Infants and young children, of course, need much more frequent watching.
Learn the difference between heat disorders – sunburn, heat cramps, heat exhaustion and heat stroke. Details and other summer safety tips can be found at this local county’s resources page: http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/emergency/prepare/summer/heat-safety.htm.
Weather.com has a cool app which will alert you to your local weather and pollen conditions. It will squawk at you if there is a weather-related risk to life or limb.
How to make perfect stock
So many recipes require a good stock. Remember, you can add in vegetable scraps for extra flavor. Save scraps from trimming and scraping vegetables in a freezer bag and just keep adding. When you have a pound or so, boil them up and strain the liquid. Presto! Vegetable stock.
Here’s how to make meat stock.
It’s simple and rewarding to keep a supply of homemade beef and chicken stock in the freezer and once you have tasted it, you’ll never buy those bland cans of readymade broth or nasty bouillon cubes, again. And at this time of year, there’s nothing nicer than curling up on the sofa with a thick, homemade soup.
First: get the right equipment. The basics are a stockpot – a large covered pot, five or six quarts or larger, and preferably enamel on steel, although aluminum will do – and three or four large icecube trays, holding at least one ounce of fluid each. Chicken stock is the most versatile as it can be used in fish chowder and other fish dishes.
This method is the super deluxe way to make chicken stock. Most good cooks boil up the carcass after eating chicken, or freeze and save bones until there’s enough to use for a good amount of useable stock. That’s thrifty and smart. This way is the chef’s way – and it also yields a goodly amount of chicken meat for salads and pies.
Take two chickens. Toss the first chicken in the pot, including all the pieces that came stuffed inside – the liver, kidney, neckbone. The second also goes in the pot, but you might want to cut it up first, yielding two wings, two thighs, two drumsticks and two breasts, to broil or fry as a separate dish. The remainder – the rest of the carcass – goes in the soup pot.
Add enough water to come within three or four inches of the top of the pot. Throw in an onion or two, roughly chopped. Add one or two carrots and a couple stalks of broken-up celery, including the celery leaves, and three or four cloves of garlic you’ve mashed, but not peeled, with the flat part of a knife blade. A bay leaf, thyme, rosemary, a couple of shots of Italian seasoning – it’s your call. And remember a thrifty person saves all the vegetable scraps from previous meal preparations and freezes them in preparation of the stock-making process. That way there’s a big bag of “free” vegetables to add to the stock pot at this point.
Be ruthless with scum…
Turn the heat on high and watch carefully as the pot approaches the boil. At that point scum will start to rise to the top. Skim the scum. Be ruthless. You can always replace the water you’re taking out, as well as the flakes of seasoning. Fat will also begin to rise — skim it along with the scum. Eventually, once a smooth rolling boil is achieved, the rise of scum will stop. What you’ve removed also removes a source of a bitter aftertaste. The scum would have been reabsorbed into the stock if you had not begun skimming it the moment it began to rise.
Next, add more water and spices to replace what you skimmed. This is optional. Then maintain at a low simmer for about 45 minutes.
At this point remove the one or two chickens, or the whole chicken and the chicken back. Set aside until they are cool enough to handle, and then strip off the skin, tossing it back in the pot, and pulling all meat off the bone. Put the bones back in the pot and simmer everything for another hour.
In the meantime, portion out the meat you stripped. It’s boiled chicken, sure, but it’s delicious in sliced chicken sandwiches, chicken salad, or in chicken pies or chicken soups. What you cannot use immediately may be frozen. The stock should be ready. Get as many more pots as you need and pour off the liquid through a strainer into the new pots. Throw away the stuff in the strainer, and if you use the solids in the stockpot watch out for small bones.
To reduce it further, rinse out the stock pot, return the strained liquid to it, bring to a rolling boil and reduce by half (by boiling until the liquid is half as deep as it is now). This final reduction is optional. Either way, straight or reduced, a good way to preserve stock is to pour it into those ice cube trays and freeze them solid. Then transfer the stock cubes to freezer bags. Larger quantities of stock can be frozen in half-pint or pint containers. Now, when a recipe calls for one cup of stock, you can gather four stock cubes out of the freezer, add four ounces of water if it’s reduced stock, and there you have it. Instant broth!
Bully for you!
All of the above goes for beef stock, too. The major difference is that beef bones are harder to come by. Boiled beef is just not as tasty as boiled chicken. One thing to do is to save up beef bones whenever you have a steak or a roast, freeze them, and make a pot of stock when you have enough. Butchers at the supermarket will also sell you beef bones, which are not a bad investment if you use a lot of beef stock. Bon appetit!
School lunch program tracks students via thumbprint scans and sends info to Feds
File this under Give Them an Inch and They’ll Take a Mile.
Another move from the Surveillance State
A Pennsylvania school district is biometrically tracking students who receive free or reduced-cost lunches via thumbprint scans and sending the information to the federal government.
By September, all students in the Hazleton Area School District will receive federally subsidized free lunches regardless of economic background:
In order to receive free or reduced priced lunches, parents must fill out an eligibility form. Because in some homes, parents cannot read materials sent home in English, and in other households, parents may choose not to read the materials or just plain ignore them, the USDA concluded that millions of children eligible and in need of free lunches, simply were not getting them.
The agency’s conclusion was that is better to provide free lunches to all children, since this approach would assure that every needy child gets a lunch.
However, prior to considering the free lunch for all initiative, the school district invested in the aforementioned biometric tracking software:
Last year, the Hazleton Area School District invested in biometric software to track the usage of the program by students who receive free or reduced-cost lunches. Students’ thumbprints were scanned each time they received a lunch. This data provided by the biometrics was made available to the district and federal government for tracking purposes.
EAG News notes that there’s no indication as to “how the data was being protected, if it was identifiable to an individual student or how long the federal government would retain it.” Unsurprisingly, this has several parents irate. Parents of students in Massachusetts’ North Adams Public Schools, another district that adopted a thumbprint scanning program, sounded off when they found out what was going on:
“No child should have to have a body part scanned to get a meal! There was no problem with those swipe cards that we were never made aware of,” wrote one parent on Facebook, who said she’d send her child with bag lunch before allowing a fingerprint scan, according to the news site.
“Let us not allow our children to allow privacy to become a thing of the past. Our duty is to educate and protect them, not to catalog them like merchandise,” parent Cara Roberts writes in a letter to the mayor and the news site.
“Our duty is to teach them to protect and care for their bodies. What message are we sending when we tell them their body is a means of identification, a tool for others to use to track them?”
Of course we’re not surprised. The state will not rest until it has us all under surveillance. Currently we are spied upon when we travel, shop, take a shower, drive, attend school, and now, eat.
Power rationing, the spy in the shower and the neighborhood snitch
The reason we are suspicious of smart meters goes back a ways. At the start of the Obama Administration, we predicted that his obsession with leftist supply control and commitment to spurious green energy theories would lead to federally mandated power rationing for America’s homes. We predicted it would start with smart meters. These nifty devices help you monitor your water usage and can be a useful tool for household budgeting. The problem is that water usage data is also shared with the water company. It turns out we were right to worry about the government. As usual, we look to California to see how the erosion of civil liberties will unfold. Its governor has declared an emergency and requires the water information to be used to control water usage. Your needs are not considered, an arbitrary amount has been declared, it is not subjected the regular laws of supply or demand, and to crown the insults, the California government is to blame for the shortage in the first place. Want to learn more about drought, spying, snitching and the Californian drought? Read on.
Some background
When Obama entered office, just 3% of the country had been fitted with smart meters. Now, it’s in the region of 40%. It’s estimated that 57 million of them have been installed in the US, and 250 million worldwide. In the US, it’s a huge lobbyist-controlled stimulus-fed business, with billions of dollars flowing from the Department of Energy into Big Energy players like GE, Cisco, and a battalion of local power companies.
So what’s bad about them? Haven’t electric meters enhanced communication capabilities? Advocates suggest that electric systems will become more reliable and efficient, allowing customers to be aware of their usage and adjust their usage accordingly. In reality, the government, through the agency of the power companies, can now spy on your energy use and name and shame you if it considers your use to be excessive.
The technology involves advanced meters that can use one-way communication (known as Automated Meter Reading, or AMR), which enables the utility to do remote meter reading, or two-way communication (Advanced Metering Infrastructure, or AMI. These two-way meters are often referred to as “smart meters.”
Utilities have an incentive to install advanced meters for residential customers because automated meter reading lowers usage. Most power utilities don’t have enough power in their systems to deal with real demand so they have come up with a way to self-ration, which they like to refer to as “saving,”
AMI technology provides usage data to both the utility and the consumer. This capability, when combined with real-time prices, time-of-day, or other pricing options, gives consumers the information they need to alter their usage and lower their bills, should they be on such a tariff option. Customers who can manage their energy use can save money and conserve energy, all of which can potentially contribute to reduced need for additional power plants (and the significant capital costs associated with new generating capacity). While this sounds innocent on the surface, the threat of the government IMPOSING rationing is all too real a threat. If it decides you use too much power it won’t care if you have four small kids or bed-ridden parents and a lot of laundry – it’ll just set your limit. If you like your house at a constant 72 degrees and the government decides that’s too high, or low, they can stop you. Is this American? No, it is not!
The rollout of AMI has been somewhat controversial, with some groups, like us at Self-Reliance Central arguing that the net benefits of this technology to consumers remain unproven.
How many smart meters are installed in the U.S. and who has them?
In 2012 (most recent data available), 533 U.S. electric utilities had 43,165,185 advanced (“smart”) metering infrastructure (AMI) installations. About 89% were residential customer installations.
Advanced metering infrastructure includes meters that measure and record electricity usage at a minimum of hourly intervals and provide the data to both the utility and the utility customer at least once daily. They range from basic hourly interval meters to real-time meters with built-in two-way communication capable of recording and transmitting instantaneous data.
Number of AMI Installations by Sector Type
Residential Commercial Industrial Transportation Total
38,524,639 4,461,350 179,159 35 43,165,183
Fear becomes Fact in California
California’s water storage and transportation system designed by federal and state governments includes 1,200 miles of canals and nearly 50 reservoirs that provide water to about 22 million people and irrigate about four million acres of land throughout the state. In May 2007, a Federal District Court Judge ruled that increased amounts of water had to be re-allocated towards protecting the Delta smelt – a three-inch fish on the Endangered Species List.
Because of this ruling, in 2009 and 2010 more than 300 billion gallons (or 1 million acre-feet) of water were diverted away from farmers in the Central Valley and into the San Francisco Bay – eventually going out into the Pacific Ocean. This man-made drought cost thousands of farm workers their jobs, inflicted up to 40 percent unemployment in certain communities, and fallowed hundreds of thousands of acres of fertile farmland. Unemployment remains at a regional average of 17%. With current precipitation at near-record lows, the same regulations will be imposed pushing unemployment even higher. The Pelosi-led Congress did nothing to reverse the plight of the San Joaquin Valley and even obstructed repeated Republican actions to reverse the situation.
Deadlock. Nothing happened. The drought worsened, Thenin April 2015, California Governor Jerry “Moonbeam” Brown instituted draconian restrictions on water use by California residents in response to a severe drought.
On ABC’s This Week, Brown laid down his diktat in no uncertain terms.
Brown said, “This executive order is done under emergency power. It has the force of law. Very unusual. It’s requiring action and changes in behavior from the Oregon border all the way to the Mexican border. It affects lawns. It affects people’s — how long they stay in the shower. How businesses use water.”
Brown said to enforce his order, “Each water district that actually delivers waters — water to homes and businesses, they carry it out. We have a state water board that overseas the relationships with the districts. Hundreds of them. If they don’t comply, people can be fined $500 a day. Districts can go to court to get a cease and desist order. The enforcement mechanism is powerful. In a drought of this magnitude, you have to change that behavior and you have to change it substantially.”
In fact, Californians may face heavy fines for taking too long in the shower. In one town, the state has just turned off their water, despite the community having hundred-year old water rights. (see our story)
Now, in a chilling turn, sources in Sacramento report that the state is creating ways for neighbors to turn in neighbors for leaving the faucet running while brushing their teeth.
California is currently creating a program for neighbors to turn-in other neighbors who are deemed to be in violation of the State Water use emergency laws.
Visits to the toilet, tooth brushing, laundry and shower time will be monitored by the community apparatchik. Be A Good Citizen Comrade – It Is Your Duty !
The government is not there to help
California cuts off only water source for town of 15,000
A planned community in California’s Central Valley is just days away from running out of water after the state cut off the only water source relied upon by the town’s 15,000 residents:
The upscale community of Mountain House, west of Tracy, is days away from having no water. It’s not just about lawns—there may not be a drop for the 15,000 residents to drink.
“We’re out there looking for water supplies as we speak,” said Mountain House general manager Ed Pattison. “We have storage tanks, but those are basically just to ensure the correct pressurization of the distribution system. No more than 2 days are in those storage tanks.”
The community’s sole source of water, the Byron-Bethany Irrigation District, was one of 114 senior water rights holders cut off by a curtailment notice from the state on Friday.
That means Mountain House leaders must find someone to sell them water, hopefully, the GM says, to have enough until the end of the year.
“We don’t want this town to become a ghost town, it was a beautiful master-planned community,” he said.
Farmers who rely on the Byron-Bethany Irrigation District are worried they could lose their livelihoods due to the cuts:
“It’s gonna be a devastating thing,” said farmer Paul Simoni with Simoni and Massoni Farms. “We got 125 employees who work for us. They’re all gonna be out of work. We’ve got crops that are in the ground growing right now. If they cut off the water, they’re gonna die.”
He says with no water, he could lose everything he’s worked so hard and so many decades to do.
“We’ve never had to rely on wells because we have pre-1914 rights that we were told could never be taken from us and here,” he said. “This is a day from Hell.”
The Byron-Bethany Irrigation District serves 160 farmers and 10,000 acres of farmland.
Self-reliant answer – Never trust the government and plan for the worst
The government has welshed on its promise and just thrown a lever to reroute the water. As a Self-Reliance Central reader I’m sure you’re not surprised. And some residents of Mountain House are now stockpiling water:
Anthony Gordon saves drinking water just in case, even though he never thought it would come to this.
“My wife thinks I’m nuts. I have like 500 gallons of drinking water stored in my home,” he said.
He’s right. Now’s the time to stock water for these California residents. Last week we introduced the WaterBob a quick way to save 100 gallons by filling a sealed
bath liner. But if you get to the camping, boating or tools department at your local box store you can pick up something like this for a few bucks. It’s got 6 gallons capacity and you can drive it easily to refill in places without a restriction. You’re going to need a couple of gallons per person per day. And remember, wash everything in plastic bowls so you can reuse the ‘gray’ water on plants.
It’s not just these California communities. Many people suffer drought or water shortages through the summer months and they use lots of ‘tricks’ to reduce water use.
The lets-shut-the-door-after-the-horse-has-bolted EPA has a few conserving water tips that mostly involve expenditure on your part.
Conserving Water
Communities across the country are starting to face challenges in maintaining healthy and affordable water supplies; that’s why it’s more important than ever to use our water wisely and not waste it. In addition, it takes large amounts of energy to produce and transport clean water and to process waste water.
A typical household uses approximately 260 gallons of water every day. We can reduce this amount and save money by using water more efficiently — detecting and fixing leaky faucets, installing high efficiency clothes washers and toilets, and watering the lawn and garden with the minimum amount of water needed.
Water-Efficient Appliances and Fixtures
Most of us know we can save water if we turn off the tap while brushing our teeth (as much as 3,000 gallons per year!), but did you know that there are products that will help save water when the tap is on? WaterSense and ENERGYSTAR®, programs sponsored by EPA, have identified high-performance, water-efficient appliances, fixtures, water systems, and accessories that reduce water use in the home and help preserve the nation’s water resources. By saving water, you also save energy; the link is discussed in detail here.
Look for the WaterSense Label
WaterSense, a partnership program sponsored by EPA, seeks to protect the future of our nation’s water supply by promoting water efficiency and enhancing the market for water-efficient products, programs, and practices.
As communities across the country begin facing challenges regarding water supply and water infrastructure, WaterSense can help consumers identify water-efficient products and programs. The WaterSense label tells the consumer that products and programs that carry the label meet water efficiency and performance criteria, and will help save water, money, and energy.
For more information on EPA’s WaterSense program, as well as water saving tips, go to:
http://www.epa.gov/watersense/
Toilets
Toilets are by far the main source of water use in the home, accounting for nearly 30 percent of residential indoor water consumption. Toilets also happen to be a major source of wasted water due to leaks and inefficiency.
We place a brick into the toilet cistern to reduce the flow. Make sure it fits and isn’t messing with the flapper operation. And don’t drop it in or hit the side, you can break or crack the vitreous china. Kelly
Older toilets, manufactured before 1992 when the Energy Policy Act mandated water efficient toilets, use up to 3.5 gallons per flush. Replacing these toilets with WaterSense labeled toilets could save nearly 2 billion gallons per day across the country. Switching to high-efficiency toilets can save a family of four, on average, $2,000 in water bills over the lifetime of the toilets.
There are a number of high-efficiency toilet options, including dual flush technology (seen everywhere in Europe). Dual flush toilets have two flush volumes-a full flush for solids and a reduced flush for liquids only. Whether you’re remodeling a bathroom, building a new home, or simply replacing an old, leaky toilet, a WaterSense labeled toilet is a high-performing, water-efficient option worth considering.
Did you know? The toilet flush on many public toilet and urinal now works in two ways? Pull up for fluid waste and push down for solid.
Composting toilets are another option for those who want to be very green and live someplace where it’s an option. Composting toilets have been an established technology for more than 30 years, and recent advances have made them easy to use and similar in look and feel to regular toilets. As they require little to no water, composting toilet systems can provide a solution to sanitation and environmental problems in unsewered, rural, and suburban areas.
Although they take a bit more attention than ordinary toilets, composting toilets can help conserve water and energy, reduce water pollution, and may generate useful garden compost. Check to see if composting toilets are allowed under your local building codes.
For more information on water efficient toilets for your home, go to:
http://www.epa.gov/watersense/pp/het.htm
http://www.epa.gov/owmitnet/pdfs/comp.pdf
Faucets and Showerheads
Faucets
Faucets account for more than 15 percent of indoor household water use-more than 1 trillion gallons of water across the United States each year. WaterSense labeled bathroom sink faucets and accessories can reduce a sink’s water flow by 30 percent or more without sacrificing performance. If every household in the United States installed WaterSense labeled bathroom sink faucets or faucet accessories, we could save more than $350 million in water utility bills and more than 60 billion gallons of water annually-enough to meet public water demand in a city the size of Miami for more than 150 days!
If you are not in the market for a new faucet, consider replacing the aerator in your older faucet with a more efficient one. The aerator-the screw-on tip of the faucet-ultimately determines the maximum flow rate of a faucet. Aerators are inexpensive to replace and are an effective water-efficiency measure. See our article here.
Also keep in mind that you can significantly reduce water use by simply repairing leaks in fixtures-toilets, faucets, and showerheads-or pipes.
Showerheads
Showering accounts for approximately 17 percent of residential indoor water use in the United States-more than 1.2 trillion gallons of water consumed each year. You can purchase quality, high-efficiency shower fixtures for around $10 to $20 a piece and achieve water savings of 25-60 percent. Select a high-efficiency showerhead with a flow rate of less than 2.5 gpm (gallons per minute) for maximum water efficiency. Before 1992, some showerheads had flow rates of 5.5 gpm, so you might want to replace older models if you’re not sure of the flow rate.
For more information on water-efficient faucets, showerheads, and accessories, got to:
http://www.epa.gov/watersense/products/bathroom_sink_faucets.html
http://www.epa.gov/WaterSense/pp/showerheads.htm
Appliances
If all U.S. households installed water-efficient appliances, the country would save more than 3 trillion gallons of water and more than $18 billion dollars per year! For instance, the average washing machine uses about 41 gallons of water per load, and is the second largest water user in your home. High-efficiency washing machines use 35 to 50 percent less water, as well as 50 percent less energy per load. If you are in the market for a new dishwasher or clothes washer, consider buying an efficient, water-saving ENERGY STAR® model to reduce water and energy use. To save more water, look for a clothes washer with a low water factor. A water factor is the number of gallons per cycle per cubic foot that a clothes washer uses. So, if a washer uses 18 gallons per cycle and has a tub volume of 3.0 cubic feet, then the water factor is 6.0. The lower the water factor, the more efficient the washer is.
For more information on water- and energy-efficient appliances, go to:
http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=appliances.pr_appliances
http://apps1.eere.energy.gov/consumer/your_home/water_heating/index.cfm/mytopic=13050
Hot Water Systems
Water heating is the third largest energy expense in your home. It typically accounts for about 13% of your utility bill, and can account for 14%-25% of the energy consumed in your home. You can reduce your monthly water heating bills by selecting the appropriate water heater for your home or pool-such as tankless, heat pump, or solar hot water heaters-and by using some energy-efficient water heating strategies.
If your water heater’s tank leaks, you may need a new water heater. If you are not in the market for a new hot water heater, consider installing an insulation blanket on your water heater tank, and insulate at least the first 3 to 6 feet of the hot and cold water pipes connected to the water heater. When installing a hot water heater insulation blanket:
- For electric hot-water storage tanks, be careful not to cover the thermostat.
- For natural gas or oil hot-water storage tanks, be careful not to cover the water heater’s top, bottom, thermostat, or burner compartment.
- Always make sure to follow the manufacturer’s recommendations
These strategies will help get hot water to you faster, saving thousands of gallons of water per year in each household.
For more information on energy efficient hot water heaters, go to:
Efficient Hot Water Systems and Strategies
Going abroad? Survival tips from savvy travelers
A trip requires careful planning. Listed below are important steps you can take to prepare for a safe trip anywhere outside the United States.
In addition, you can search for your destination to view more specific information about that country or area.
Getting There
Be Aware of Any Travel Alerts and Warnings for Your Destination
The State Department issues Travel Warnings to recommend postponing travel to a country because of widespread civil unrest, dangerous conditions, terrorist activity or, in some cases, because the U.S. has no diplomatic relations with the country and may have great difficulty in assisting U.S. citizens in distress. Travel Alerts disseminate information quickly about terrorist threats or other relatively short-term or transnational conditions that could pose significant risks to you and affect your travel plans. U.S. embassies and consulates send out security or emergency messages to alert U.S. citizens to fast-breaking events, such as demonstrations, coups, approaching storms, and crime.
The Department of State urges U.S. citizens living overseas or planning to travel abroad to enroll in the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP). When you enroll in STEP, they can update you with important safety and security announcements. Enrolling will also make it easier for the embassy or consulate to contact you in the event of an emergency. You should remember to keep all of your information in STEP up to date; it is particularly important when you enroll or update your information to include a current phone number and e-mail address.
Do You Have All Required Travel Documents?
Most U.S. citizens must use a U.S. passport to travel overseas and reenter the United States. A passport is an internationally recognized travel document that verifies your identity and citizenship. Only the U.S. Department of State has the authority to issue U.S. passports.
Most foreign countries require a valid passport to enter and leave. Some countries may allow you to enter with only a birth certificate, or with a birth certificate and a driver’s license, but all persons, including U.S. citizens, traveling by air, must present a valid passport to reenter the United States.
If you are traveling by land or sea, you must provide evidence of both your U.S. citizenship and your identity when you reenter the United States. For many land or sea trips this means you can travel using the new U.S. passport card instead of the normal passport book. Read more about U.S. passport requirements.
What about your children? Some countries have instituted requirements to help prevent child abductions and may require travelers to present proof of relationship to the children and evidence of consent from any non-accompanying parent(s).
When does your passport expire? Some countries require that a traveler’s passport be valid for at least six months beyond the dates of the trip. Contact the embassy of your foreign destination for more information. Foreign embassy and consulate contact information can also be found the Country Specific Information pages at the State Department.
Are You Prepared for an Emergency?
Make sure you have the contact information for the nearest U.S. Embassy or Consulate where you are going. Consular duty personnel are available for emergency assistance 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, at U.S. embassies, consulates, and consular agencies overseas and in Washington, D.C. Contact information for U.S. embassies, consulates, and consular agencies overseas may be found in our Country Specific Information pages.
If your family needs to reach you because of an emergency at home or if they are worried about your welfare, they should call the Office of Overseas Citizens Services in Washington, D.C. at 1-888-407-4747 (during business hours) or 202-647-5225 (after hours). The State Department will relay the message to the consular officers in the country where you are. The consular officers will then try to locate you, pass on any urgent messages, and, if you wish, report back to your family on your welfare.
You can read more about what the Department of State can and can’t do for you in an emergency here.
Do You Plan to Drive Overseas?
If you plan to drive overseas, you may need to obtain an International Driving Permit (IDP). Many countries do not recognize U.S. driver’s licenses without an accompanying IDP, and it is illegal to drive without a valid license and insurance in most places. You should check with the embassy of the country where you plan to travel to find out more about driver’s license and car insurance requirements.
If you will be residing overseas for an extended time, it is a good idea to obtain a local driver’s license as soon as possible, since IDPs have a limited validity.
Foreign countries may also require that persons considered resident obtain a local driver’s license if they are going to drive. To renew a U.S. driver’s license while abroad, contact the Department of Motor Vehicles in your home state.
For more information, please review the page on Driving Abroad.
Pack Smart!
- Pack light so you can move more quickly and have a free hand when you need it.
- Carry a minimum number of valuables and plan places to conceal them.
- Check your bags, clothing, and vehicle to make sure you are not carrying any banned items or substances, such as weapons or ammunition, into your destination country. Use covered luggage tags to avoid casual observation of your identity and nationality.
- Avoid packing IDs, tickets and other vital documents in backpacks or other locations you won’t be able to see at all times.
Do you have a phone?
Not all cell phones will work in every country and the USA tends to make international phone use very difficult. In fact, it took a new law to get our carriers to loosen up.
Check before you go abroad whether your phone will work in the places you’re traveling. Remember it’s going to be expensive. Talk to your carrier and have them explain the costs in full before you go. Tell them which countries you are going to and have them approve your phone for use in those regions.
If you have a smartphone or tablet you might consider turning off roaming and cellular data and just using your phone on wi-fi for communicating with people back home. Use Facebook Messenger or download the free Group Me app.
If it’s essential you have a phone and not a mini-computer, I can recommend buying a spare, cheap unlocked phone. I have a cheap Samsung Galaxy that I bought overseas and use with a locally-sourced SIM card in European and Middle Eastern countries. This does not hold my Contacts so I have a notebook with essential numbers, and use the Contacts from my US phone as a directory. As it’s a smartphone I can also use it for email when I get wifi and if I buy data from the local carrier. It also acts as a hotspot for my US phone if I want to contact people by email from my usual phone or laptop.
You can buy and install a local SIM (subscriber identification module) memory chip that will work in the country you’re visiting. There are ads for them everywhere, and they can be very cheap depending upon what service you buy. “Topping up” your account is generally done through a #Text code that links to an online account linked to your credit card. This is password protected so you don’t lose out if you lose your phone.
A SIM card stores information like your identity, local cell phone number, address book information, and other bits of data. SIMs must be activated. Most retailers will do this for you when you purchase the SIM, or you can activate it online.
When you put a local SIM chip in your phone, it’s like getting a brand new phone, so it won;t have any stored data. It will remember any numbers and email addresses you add to it. To avoid identity theft issues, don’t enter too much personal information if you purchased an off-brand SIM card!
Many phones are locked (the latest iPhone 6s are not, that’s what the slot on the side is for) meaning you cannot remove the SIM card. Contact your service carrier about getting your phone unlocked. Once it’s unlocked you’ll be able to access other mobile carrier networks around the world.
Not all phone companies will unlock all types of phones. There may be rules about length of service or balance of account.
If you’ve tried to unlock your phone in the past but were told by your carrier that you couldn’t, try again. A new Consumer Code for Wireless Service came into effect in 2014. Learn more about unlocking a phone or tablet from the Federal Communications Commission.
Do you have a power adaptor
Electrical outlets in the U.S. output between 100-120V, while many other countries output between 200-240V. Not all gadgets require a voltage converter, though—you may be able to get by with just a simple plug adapter.
A plug adapter will allow you to use your device without the need to convert electricity, but the charger has to be rated at both voltages. If your device doesn’t support dual voltages, you’ll need a converter. The plug for your charger should tell you if it’s able to work at both voltages. The charger on my phone, for example, reads “Input: 100-240V AC.” That means I can use it in practically any country without a voltage adapter.
Get one that’s good for everywhere. It’s only about $12 off Amazon. Get one that:
- contains 4 international plugs to cover: United States, Canada, Europe, Middle East, South America, Asia, The Carribean, Great Britain, Ireland, Africa, Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia, Fiji, New Zealand, China, Japan, and more than 150 countries.
- has a built-in surge protector that accommodates grounded and ungrounded plugs
- modifies the electrical outlet, it does not change the voltage, supports universal voltage 110V-240V
Do You Have Photocopies of Your Itinerary and Travel Documents?
Make two photocopies of all your travel documents in case of emergency or if your documents are 
lost or stolen. Leave one copy with a friend or relative at home. It is always a great idea to let at least one person know exactly where you will be staying and how to contact you in an emergency. Carry the other copy with you stored separately from the originals. Documents to make copies of include:
- Passport ID page
- Foreign visa (if applicable)
- Itinerary
- Hotel confirmation
- Airline ticket
- Driver’s license
- Credit cards brought on the trip
- Traveler’s check serial numbers
Global Entry
Your time is valuable. As a pre-screened Global Entry member, you arrive in the United States, check-in at the Global Entry kiosk and you’re on your way.
Why You Should Join
No processing lines
No paperwork
Access to expedited entry benefits in other countries
Available at major U.S. airports
Reduced wait times
TSA Pre✓® Eligibility
Global Entry is a U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) program that allows expedited clearance for pre-approved, low-risk travelers upon arrival in the United States. Members enter the United States through automatic kiosks at select airports. It costs $100.
At airports, program members proceed to Global Entry kiosks, present their machine-readable passport or U.S. permanent resident card, place their fingerprints on the scanner for fingerprint verification and complete a customs declaration. The kiosk issues the traveler a transaction receipt and directs the traveler to baggage claim and the exit.
Travelers must be pre-approved for the Global Entry program. All applicants undergo a rigorous background check and in-person interview before enrollment. (It’s a quick interview.)
While Global Entry’s goal is to speed travelers through the process, members may still be selected for further examination when entering the United States. Any violation of the program’s terms and conditions will result in the appropriate enforcement action and termination of the traveler’s membership privileges.
Prepare to Handle Money Overseas
Check and understand the exchange rate before you travel.
- Before you leave, notify your bank, credit card company, or other financial institutions that you are going overseas.
- Avoid carrying cash and consider using traveler’s checks or major credit cards instead (but make sure they are accepted at your destination before departing on your trip).
- Change traveler’s checks only as you need them.
- Do not flash large amounts of money when paying a bill.
Learn about local laws and customs
While traveling, you are subject to the local laws even if you are a U.S. Citizen. Foreign laws and legal systems can be vastly different from our own and it is very important to know what’s legal and what’s not. If you break local laws while abroad, your U.S. passport won’t help you avoid arrest or prosecution, and the U.S. Embassy cannot get you out of jail.
Your Health
Do You Need Any New Vaccinations? Vaccinations Are Required for Entry to Some Countries
Some countries require foreign visitors to carry an International Certificate of Vaccination (aka Yellow Card) or other proof that they have had certain inoculations or medical tests before entering or transiting their country. Before you travel, check the Country Specific Information and contact the foreign embassy of the country to be visited or transited through for currenty entry requirements.
Health Experts Recommend Vaccinations for Travel to Some Countries
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) can provide you their recommendations for vaccinations and other travel health precautions for your trip abroad.
Do You Know How to Find Medical Help Abroad?
Get Help With a Medical Emergency Abroad:
View ALL information about Your Health Abroad
Does Your Health Insurance Cover You Outside the U.S.?
Learn what medical services your health insurance provider will cover overseas. Although some health insurance companies will pay “customary and reasonable” hospital costs abroad, very few will pay for a medical evacuation back to the United States, which can easily cost up to $100,000, or even more, depending on your condition and location. Regardless of whether your insurance is valid overseas, you may be required to pay for care when you receive it.
If your insurance policy does not cover you abroad, consider purchasing a short-term policy that does. Many travel agents and private companies offer insurance plans that will cover health care expenses incurred overseas including emergency services such as medical evacuations.
NOTE: Social Security and Medicare do not provide coverage outside of the U.S.
Are You Taking Any Prescriptions or Other Medications?
If you take prescription medication:
- Pack enough to last your entire trip, including some extra in case you are unexpectedly delayed.
- Carry your medications in their original labeled containers, and pack them in your carry-on bag since checked baggage is occasionally lost or delayed.
- Ask your pharmacy or physician for the generic equivalent name of your prescriptions in case you need to purchase additional medication abroad.
- Get a letter from your physician in case you are questioned about your carry-on medication; some countries have strict restrictions on bringing prescription or even non-prescription medications into the country without proper medical documentation.
Make this cute mat from corks
Whether you’re a wine drinker or not, here’s a great cork mat idea. You can use it on the floor or on a wall. Remember, it’s hot glue so it’s not indestructible so keep your glue gun close by for quick fixes.
Things You’ll Need
150 to 200 clean wine corks
Hot glue sticks and gun
Non-adhesive plastic shelf liner or a standard shower mat
Sharp knife or box cutter
Silicon mat or similar to provide non-slip surface to work on
Cutting board, self-healing craft/cutting mat or a very strong piece of cardboard (if using cardboard, you might need several replacement pieces as you’re working through the cork cutting)
Measuring tape
Sandpaper
Steps
Gather the corks. If you’ve been collecting corks, check that you’ve got enough, as you’ll need around 150 to 200. If not, additional corks can be purchased from brewing or wine-making suppliers, craft stores or through online retailers. Also check your local thrift store as sometimes they get people’s collections of old corks. If using used corks, check that they’re clean. They should be free of dust, wax or any build-up. Warm soapy water is best for cleaning them––just ensure they’re thoroughly dry before beginning the craft project.For wine-stained corks, simply soak them overnight in a bowl of water to which you’ve added a touch of bleach. This should remove the wine. Rinse clean, and allow to dry thoroughly before using.
2
Slice each cork in half, lengthwise. Be especially careful not to slice your fingers when doing this. It helps to wear work gloves during this part of the process and lay down a non-slip surface for the cutting board to sit on, such as a silicon map, before beginning. Take plenty of breaks, as there are a lot of corks to get through––grab a friend to help if possible. To slice the corks in half:Stand the cork up on the cutting board or cardboard, then cut downward. Hold the top of the cork with your finger and slice it neatly in half.
Sand the sides of the cork if they become too jagged. Gently run the sandpaper down the sides and along the middle to ensure a smooth, clean surface.
Create the bathmat base. Use a plastic shelf liner or shower mat to serve as the base––a previously designed rubber shower mat may be the best option, as it will provide structure. However, your mat will be more flexible if you choose to use a plastic shelf liner. A more solid alternative can be to use a piece of water-resistant wood, like marine-ply (or wrap the wood in plastic or oil it––the latter option may make gluing hard though).Determine the size by either using another shower mat as the guide or measuring the custom size you desire. Consider your bathroom dimensions when determining size.
Cut the liner using either the box cutter or the sharp knife. If you need to size the base, use a ruler or straight edge to mark areas to cut.
Lay the shower mat or cut shelf liner down flat on the floor or on another flat surface. Cut the liner or mat either on a work table or on an outside patio so you don’t slash your floor or any furniture. Placing a self-healing cutting mat underneath can be helpful.
Arrange the cork halves around the perimeter of the line or mat. Begin by creating a border with cork halves lining up vertically along the edges of the mat:Line the corks up so the bottom of each cork (end) butts up to the sides of the mat or liner.
Complete the entire perimeter of the mat with corks until the entire mat/liner has been lined with corks. If you don’t achieve a perfect fit, cut some of the corks to fit.
Apply hot glue to the flat half of each cork and press the cork into the liner or mat. Use a dab of glue at the top and bottom of each cork and press firmly into the mat. Use a rag to wipe any excess glue that may ooze out from beneath the corks.
Add the remaining corks to the mat. Create a pattern or design with the cork layout, working your way from the outside inward with the remaining cork halves. Continue either with the vertical pattern or consider laying corks in a horizontal fashion and then alternating for each surrounding row.It’s probably a good idea to lay out the cork halves first to determine a pattern and then glue the corks to the mat after you’re sure they will all fit. That way, you won’t start your mat and then get stuck if your pattern doesn’t work out or if you don’t like they way it looks.
Trim corks if needed to accommodate the size of the mat/liner. Keep your knife/scissors handy in case you need to customize cork size.
Allow to dry completely before using. It might be a good idea to apply a coat of protective sealant such as polyurethane or cork sealant across the top of the cork bathmat, to waterproof it. However, corks can withstand small brushes with liquid (after all, they are in wine bottles a lot of the time), provided they’re not constantly soaked. You might find the mat lasts okay if you don’t end up with a floor awash with water each use and if you drop a small hand towel over the top of it before stepping on it from the shower. On the other hand, as with all bathroom items, there is a risk of mildew growth over time. This can possibly be avoided by placing the mat up somewhere that allows air circulation to dry it, and leaving it in the sun once a month or so, to ensure it dries out well. Whether or not you add a sealant is really a personal choice, and you might like to ask your local eco-hardware supplier if there are some eco-friendly choices for sealants available.
Tips
Not a big drinker? Inquire about leftover corks at restaurants and catering companies––friends and relatives may be happy to provide you with materials as well.
Paint and “weather” the cork mat using crackle paint. You can achieve that rustic, “shabby chic” appearance using natural colors like white or tan.
Keep the glue gun handy for corks that pop off during use. It’s likely to happen now and then but it’s easily remedied.
Warnings
An unsealed cork mat may grow mildew and crumble in a short period of time.
Always take great care when using sharp instruments.
Make your own! Summertime relishes
Corn Relish
Food And Recipes Of The Smokies – Rose Houk
Great Smokey Mountains Natural History Association
- 4 cups fresh corn kernels
- 5 cups chopped green peppers
- 2 cups chopped onion
- 2 cups cucumbers, sliced — unpeeled
- 4 cups ripe tomatoes — chopped
- 4 cups vinegar
- 2 cups sugar
- 1/4 cup salt
- 1 tablespoon turmeric
- 1 tablespoon mustard seed
Combine vegetables. Add vinegar, sugar, salt, turmeric, and mustard seed.
Heat to boiling, simmer 25 minutes or until the vegetables are tender.
Seal in hot, sterilized jars.
Makes six pints.
Dilled Green Beans
Home Canning – Cooperative Extension Service – MSU
- 4 pounds green beans — whole (4 qts)
- hot red pepper, crushed — 1/4 tsp per pint jar
- mustard seed — 1/2 tsp per pint jar
- dill seed — 1/2 tsp per pint jar
- garlic — 1 clove per pint jar
- 5 cups vinegar
- 5 cups water
- 1/2 cup salt
Wash beans thoroughly; drain and cut into lengths to fill pint jars. Pack beans into clean, hot jars; add pepper, mustard seed, dill seed, and garlic.
Combine vinegar, water, and salt; heat to boiling. Pour boiling liquid over beans, filling to 1/2 inch of top of jar. Adjust jar lids.
Process in boiling water for 5 minutes. (Start to count processing time as soon as water in canner returns to boiling.) Remove jars. Set jars upright, several inches apart, on a wire rack to cool.
Grape and Green Tomato Chutney
America’s Best Recipes (1992)
Oxmoor
- 2 pounds green tomatoes — sliced
- 4 medium Granny Smith apple — peeled & diced
- 2 3/4 cups dark brown sugar — firmly packed
- 2 cups cider vinegar
- 1 cup raisins
- 2/3 cup chopped onion
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 3 cups green grapes — seedless
- 1 tablespoon mustard seeds
- 2 teaspoons ground ginger
- 1 teaspoon dry mustard
- 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
Combine first 7 ingredients in a large Dutch oven; stir well. Bring to a boil; reduce heat, and simmer, uncovered, 30 minutes. Add grapes and seasonings; stir well. Cook, uncovered, over medium heat 1 hour or until mixture is thickened.
Spoon chutney into hot sterilized jars, leaving 1/4-inch head space; wipe jar rims. Cover at once with metal lids, and screw on bands. Process in boiling-water bath 15 minutes. Serve chutney with curried dishes or cheese.
Yield: 2 1/2 pints
Green Tomato Chow-Chow
Too Many Tomatoes, Beans, Squash and Other Good Things
Harper Perennial
- 16 cups green tomatoes
- 1 large head of cabbage
- 8 onions
- 6 green peppers
- 6 sweet red peppers
- 1/2 cup salt
- 15 cups vinegar
- 5 cups sugar
- 3 tablespoons dry mustard
- 1 tablespoon powdered ginger
- 1 tablespoon turmeric
- 4 tablespoons mustard seed
- 3 tablespoons celery seed
- 2 tablespoons pickling spice
Chop and combine all vegetables in a large kettle. Stir in salt and let stand at room temperature overnight. Drain.
Combine vinegar, sugar, dry mustard, ginger, and turmeric in a large kettle. Put mustard seed, celery seed, and pickling spices in a 6-inch square of cheese-cloth. Tie with a string and add to the kettle. Bring the liquid to a boil and then simmer 30 minutes. Add vegetables and return to simmer for 30 minutes. Discard spice bag. Spoon into hot sterilized jars and seal.
Pear Relish
Southern Sideboards
Junior League of Jackson, MS
- 12 pounds hard pears — about 40
- peeled, cored, and quartered
- 4 green peppers — seeded & quartered
- 2 pounds onions — peeled & quartered
- 5 cups white vinegar
- 4 cups sugar
- 2 1/2 tablespoons salt
- 2 tablespoons whole mixed pickling spice
- 2 tablespoons turmeric
Run pears, onions and peppers through food grinder. Drain off all liquid.
Combine vinegar, sugar, salt, pickling spice and turmeric. Boil 10 minutes. Add pears, onions, and peppers. Boil 15 minutes. Spoon into hot sterilized jars and seal quickly. This is very good with meats or vegetables.
Yield: 8 or 9 pints.
Pickled Crab Apples
Food And Recipes Of The Smokies – Rose Houk
Great Smokey Mountains Natural History Association
- 6 cups vinegar
- 8 cups brown sugar
- 2 teaspoons cloves
- 1 stick cinnamon
- 8 pounds crab apples
Boil vinegar, brown sugar, cloves, and cinnamon together. Leave stems on crab apples. Add to syrup and boil until fruit is tender. Remove the fruit and pack into jars. Pour in syrup. Seal.
Tomato Ketchup
The Foxfire Book Of Appalachian Cookery – Edited by Linda Garland Page & Eliot Wigginton
Chapel Hill
- 1 gallon cooked tomatoes — about 1 peck
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 2 tablespoons dry mustard
- 1 tablespoon ground allspice
- 1 pint cider vinegar
- 3 tablespoons salt
- 1 tablespoon black pepper
- 1/2 tablespoon ground cloves
Select good, ripe tomatoes. Scald and strain through a coarse sieve to remove seed and skin. When the tomatoes become cold add the remaining ingredients. Let simmer slowly for 3 hours. Pour in bottles or jars. Process for 15 minutes in boiling water bath.
Sauerkraut
Home Canning – Cooperative Extension Service – MSU
- 50 pounds cabbage
- 1 pound salt, pure granulated — 1 1/2 cups
Remove outer leaves and any undesirable portions from firm, mature, heads of cabbage; wash and drain. Cut into halves or quarters; remove the core. Use a shredder or sharp knife to cut the cabbage into thin shreds about the thickness of a dime.
In a large container, thoroughly mix 3 tablespoons salt with 5 pounds shredded cabbage. Let the salted cabbage stand for several minutes to wilt slightly; this allows packing without excessive breaking or bruising of the shreds.
Pack the salted cabbage firmly and evenly into a large clean crock or jar. Using a wooden spoon or tamper or the hands, press down firmly until the juice comes to the surface. Repeat the shredding, salting, and packing of the cabbage until the crock is filled to within 3 to 4 inches of the top.
Cover the cabbage with a clean, thin, white cloth (such as muslin) and tuck the edges down against the inside of the container. Cover with a plate or round paraffined board that just fits inside the container so that the cabbage is not exposed to the air. Put a weight on top of the cover so the brine comes to the cover but not over it. A glass jar filled with water makes a good weight.
A newer method of covering cabbage during fermentation consists of placing a plastic bag filled with water on top of the fermenting cabbage. The water-filled bag seals the surface from exposure to air and prevents the growth of film yeast or molds. It also serves as a weight. For extra protection the bag with the water in it can be placed inside another plastic bag.
Any bag used should be of heavyweight, watertight plastic and intended for use with foods.
The amount of water in the plastic bag can be adjusted to give just enough pressure to keep the fermenting cabbage covered with brine.
Formation of gas bubbles indicates fermentation is taking place. A room temperature of 68 to 72 degrees is best for fermenting cabbage. Fermentation is usually completed in 5 to 6 weeks.
Fully fermented kraut may be kept tightly covered in the refrigerator for several months, or it may be canned as follows: Hot Pack: Bring kraut and liquid slowly to a boil in a large kettle, stirring frequently. Remove from heat and fill jars rather firmly with kraut and juices, leaving 1/2-inch headspace.
Raw Pack: Fill jars firmly with kraut, and cover with juices, leaving 1/2-inch headspace. Adjust jar lids and process.
Hot Pack:
- Pint jars………..10 minutes
- Quart jars……..15 minutes
Raw Pack:
- Pint jars………20 minutes
- Quart jars…….25 minutes
103 Handy household uses for baking soda
Although much 
more expensive products have been developed over the years to do the same jobs, baking soda can work for you just as well, if not better, in a variety of cleansing, deodorizing and maintenance situations.
Baking soda, also known as sodium bicarbonate, is a naturally occurring substance found in all living things, that helps regulate their pH balance. Baking soda is made from soda ash (sodium carbonate). To produce baking soda, the soda ash is mined and then dissolved into a solution through which carbon dioxide gas is bubbled. The sodium bicarbonate is dried out of this solution.
Baking soda helps regulate pH— keeping a substance neither too acidic, nor too alkaline. When baking soda comes in contact with either an acidic or an alkaline substance, its natural effect is to neutralize that extreme pH and to resist further changes in the pH balance. This means it combats lots of different types of smells created by chemical reactions which occur with sweat, mold, fungus, etc.
It’s fantastic for many uses around the house. Be careful not to make your baking soda solutions too concentrated as you will leave a residue behind which can be more difficult to get rid of than the original complaint !
103 Fabulous Uses
- Use baking soda in baking to make things rise. It is used when an acidic ingredient, such as buttermilk or yogurt, is included in the recipe as this triggers off the chemical reaction to release carbon dioxide. It is used instead of yeast, usually because yeast takes too long to rise (leaven ).
- Baking powder contains its own acidic component. It is used in recipes for biscui
ts, muffins, cookies and cakes. It provides instant bubbles of carbon dioxide. To make your own baking powder, stir and sift together 2 parts of cream of tartar to 1 part baking soda and 1 part cornstarch. Make sure to mix all of the dry ingredients together and then add the liquid. That keeps the baking powder from reacting until the end of the mixing process.
- Keep an extra box of baking soda by your stove in case of grease or electrical fire. Scatter the powder by the handful to safely put it out. The baking soda produces a suffocating gas, carbon dioxide, which deprives the flames of oxygen and extinguishes the fire. Since carbon dioxide is heavier than air and does not support combustion like oxygen does, it smothers the fire while the water that is formed cools the fire to below the ignition temperature. Don’t use it on deepfat fryers — it can splatter.
- Keep a container of baking soda in your garage as well, perhaps in your car, to put out a fire. It’s good because it won’t damage anything it touches.
- Baking soda will also put out fires in clothing, fuel, wood, upholstery and rugs.
- Clean vegetables and fruit with baking soda. Either sprinkle the soda into water, soak and rinse the produce, or sprinkle the powder on a cloth and scrub the produce. Finish by rinsing.
- Wash out garbage cans with baking soda.¼ cup to a quart of warm water to clean and reduce odor. Rinse and air dry.
- Soak and wash diapers with baking soda. Soak in solution of ½ cup to ½ gallon of water. It’s effective and gentle on sensitive skin.
- To remove oil and grease from stained clothing add baking soda to the washing water. It will “fizz” off some of the oils.
- Cleaning your fridge and freezer with dry soda sprinkled on a damp cloth neutralizes the acidic odors created by rotting veggies and the alkali, or base, odors from rotting meat. Rinse with clear water. Baking soda has no fragrance or odor to taint your food.
- Deodorize your fridge and freezer by putting in an open container of baking soda to absorb odors. Stir and turn over the soda from time to time. Replace every 2 months. Arm and Hammer ® does a special fridge / freezer deodorizing box with fabric panels but punching holes in a regular box works just as well.
- Baking soda absorbs kitty litter odors. Cover the bottom of the kitty box with 1 part baking soda and add a layer of 3 parts kitty litter on top.
- Always add ½ cup soda to your washing machine load. Get softness and freshness without chemical fragrances.
- Wash plastic food and drink containers with soda and water to take away the stale “plastic” smell.
- Wash marble-topped furniture with a solution of 3 tablespoons of soda in 1 quart of warm water. Let stand awhile, then rinse.
- Clean Formica counter tops with baking soda on a damp sponge. It won’t scratch the surface.
- Soak and wash thermos bottles and cooling containers with soda and water to get rid of stale smells.
- To remove stubborn stains from marble or plastic surfaces, scour with a paste of soda and water.
- Wash glass or stainless steel coffee pots (but not aluminum ) in a soda solution ( 3 tbsp soda to 1 quart water ).
- Run your coffee maker through its cycle with a soda solution. Rinse away the residue that floats off.
- Give baby bottles a good cleaning with soda and hot water.
- To de-grease and clean barbecue grills, make a paste by mixing equal parts baking soda and water. Apply with a wire brush, wipe clean, and dry with a cloth.
- Polish silverware with dry soda on a damp cloth. Rub, rinse and dry. Buff to a high polish with soft, dry, clean cloth such as an old t-shirt.
- For silver pieces without raised patterns or cemented-on handles : place the silver on aluminum foil in an enamel pot. Add boiling water and 4 tbsp baking soda. Let stand, rinse and dry. This causes a chemical reaction, which will remove the tarnish on the silverware.
- Reduce odor build-up in your dishwasher by sprinkling some soda on the bottom.
- Run your dishwasher through its cycle with soda in it instead of soap to give it a good cleaning.
- To remove burned-on food from a pan : let the pan soak in soda and water for 10 minutes before washing. Or scrub the pot with dry soda and a moist scouring pad.
- For a badly-burned pan with a thick layer of burned-on food : pour a thick layer of soda directly onto the bottom of the pan, then sprinkle on just enough water so as to moisten the soda. Leave the pot overnight, then scrub it clean next day.
- Rub stainless steel and chrome with a moist cloth and dry bakingsoda to shine it up. Rinse and dry. On stainless steel, scrub in the direction of the grain.
- Clean crystal, porcelain and glass with dry soda on a damp cloth. Rinse and dry.
- Remove that bad smell from ashtrays with soda and water.
- Sprinkle a bit of dry soda in your ashtrays to prevent smoldering and reduce odor.
- Clean your whole bathroom with dry soda on a moist sponge— sink, tub, tiles, shower stall, etc.
- Keep your drains clean and free flowing by putting 4 tablespoons of soda in them each week. Flush the soda down with hot water.
- Soak your shower curtains in water and soda to clean them of that nasty bathroom mold.
- To remove strong odors such as onions, garlic and herbs from your hands, wet them and rub them hard with soda, then rinse.
- Sprinkle baking soda on your wet toothbrush and brush your dentures with it.
- Sprinkle soda in tennis shoes, socks, boots and slippers to eliminate odor.
- Add ½ cup or more of baking soda to your bath water to soften your skin.
- Putting 2 tbsp of baking soda in your baby’s bath water will help relieve diaper rash irritations.
- Apply soda directly to rashes and poison ivy to relieve discomfort. Make a paste with water and apply to the red areas.
- Take a soda bath to relieve general skin irritations such as measles and chicken pox.
- Take ½ teaspoon of baking soda in ½ glass of water to relieve acid indigestion or heartburn. Not too often if you’re watching your sodium levels. This solution predates Tums by hundreds of years.
- Gargle with ½ tsp baking soda in ½ glass of water. It freshens and cleans your mouth.
- Used as a mouthwash, baking soda will also relieve canker sore pain.
- To relieve sunburn : use a paste of baking soda and water and apply to burnt areas.
- Bug bites : make a paste of baking soda and vinegar — it will fizz so apply on a piece of gauze.
- Relieve bee stings and insect bites. Prepare a poultice of baking soda and water and apply directly to the sting or bite. Hold in place with a gauze pad.
- Windburns: moisten some baking soda and apply directly for comfort.
- To make Play Clay with baking soda just combine 1¼ cups water, 2 cups soda, 1 cup cornstarch.
- Use soda as an underarm deodorant by rubbing it under your arms after showering. Make sure you dry yourself off really well first !
- If you get baby spit on your shirt ( or baby’s ), moisten a cloth, dip it in baking soda and dab at the dribbled shirt. The odor will go away.
- When scalding a chicken, add 1 tsp of soda to the boiling water. The feathers will come off easier and flesh will be clean and white.
- Repel rain from windshield. Put lumps of baking soda on a dampened cloth and wipe windows inside and out.
- Add to water when soaking dried beans. It will make them more digestible.
- Add to water when washing game. It will reduce the “gamey” taste from wild game.
- Use to freshen up old, sour dishcloths.
- Use dry on a small brush to rub canvas handbags clean.
- Use to remove melted plastic bread wrapper from toaster. Dampen a cloth and make a mild abrasive with baking soda. Scrub and wipe clean.
- Drain cleaner. To clean your drain, make up a solution of 8 fl oz ( 200 ml ) vinegar with 3 oz ( 75 g ) of baking soda. Pour directly into the drain. Leave for 10 minutes. Then run clean hot water down the drain to clear the grease and debris.
- To remove ballpoint ink mark from cloth, rub a paste of baking soda and milk over it. Rinse and then wash in your normal way.
- When stripping wallpaper, add a good tablespoonful of baking soda to each bucketful of water and it should make the job easier.
- Make a paste by mixing a small amount of baking soda with a little bit of water in your hands for an excellent skin exfoliator. Great for dry skin on face, feet and elbows.
- To clean your microwave, place a ( microwave safe ) cup of water with a teaspoon of baking soda in it. Run microwave for 2 — 3 minutes. Remove cup and wipe down the inside of the microwave with a damp cloth.
- To aid in washing dishes, add a tablespoon of baking soda to your soapy water — it softens hands while cutting through grease.
- Remove grease from the stove, back splash etc. by wiping dry baking soda on a damp cloth.
- For carpet deodorizing, just sprinkle onto carpet before going to bed and vacuum in the morning.
- Baking soda discourages insects. Try sprinkling it around cabinets and cupboards and other places the insects might frequent.
- Flush 1 cup of baking soda down the toilet once a week to maintain your septic tank. Baking soda helps preserve proper pH and alkalinity, controlling sulfide odors.
- Deodorize a disposable diaper pail by sprinkling liberally with baking soda.
- Pour 2 tablespoons baking soda down the garbage disposal every week to keep it clean.
- Boost the strength of dishwashing liquid — add 2 full tablespoons baking soda to the usual amount of detergent you use.
- Clean and deodorize a cutting board by sprinkling baking soda on a damp sponge, rubbing the cutting board, and rinsing it clean.
- Deodorize kitchen garbage by sprinkling a handful of baking soda in the garbage pail each time you add garbage.
- To maintain the proper alkalinity in a swimming pool, add 1· 5 pounds of baking soda for every 10,000 gallons of water in the pool to raise total alkalinity by 10 ppm (parts per million parts of pool water), keeping the total alkalinity of the pool within the range of 80 to 150 ppm of alkalinity. Maintaining a proper level of total alkalinity minimizes changes in pH when acidic or basic pool chemicals or contaminants enter the water, reducing chloramine formation and the corrosiveness of water, consequently reducing eye irritation and unpleasant odors while improving bactericidal effectiveness.
- To soothe sunburn, windburn, and prickly heat, dissolve ½ cup baking soda in a tepid bath and soak in it for 15 minutes.
- Plain baking soda is a gentle abrasive that cleans like the strongest toothpaste. Apply baking soda to a damp toothbrush, brush as usual, and rinse. Note : Baking soda does not contain fluoride.
- To neutralize vomit odor ( animals or humans ), sprinkle baking soda generously to cover the stained area, let sit for an hour, then vacuum up.
- Soothe tired feet by adding 3 tablespoons to a basin of warm water and soak feet in the solution.
- To clean dirt, grime, and scuff marks from doors, linoleum floors and tile, sprinkle baking soda on a damp sponge, wipe clean, and dry.
- To minimize the smell of dirty laundry, just sprinkle some baking soda into your hamper or laundry bag.
- Use baking soda to boost your bleach. Just add ½ cup of baking soda with your usual amount of liquid bleach.
- One of the reasons that stores sell so many plastic bowls and dishes is because after use and re-use, the plastic tends to retain stains and odor, and often be covered with an oily film. With plastic bowls, bacteria can also grow in the cracks, crevices and pores of the plastic and, over time, become stained, cracked, and discolored. If the stain is stubborn you need to create a special cleanser :
1 tablespoon of baking soda | 1 quart of warm water
Stir well. Then scrub the mixture on your bowls and dishes several times and set the bowl overnight in the sink, in hot water. Soaking coffee grounds in a plastic bowl can also deodorize it, and the baking soda /water concoction is also useful to clean refrigerator space.
- Deodorize a closet by placing an open box of baking soda on a shelf.
- To deodorize garment storage bags, sprinkle baking soda into the bottom of the bag.
- To remove wax crayon marks from walls or wallpaper, sprinkle baking soda on a damp sponge, rub gently in circular movements from the inside out to avoid mussing the paint or wallpaper, then wipe
clean.
- To clean dirt and grime from hands, mix baking soda in wet hands with liquid soap, rub vigorously, rinse, and dry.
- To remove conditioner and styling gel build-up from hair, wash hair once a week with a tablespoon of baking soda mixed with your regular shampoo; rinse thoroughly, then condition and style as usual.
- Refresh stuffed animals by sprinkling baking soda on the stuffed animal. Let sit for 15 minutes, and then brush off.
- To clean high chairs, car seats, strollers, and plastic mattress protectors, sprinkle baking soda on a damp sponge, wipe clean, and dry.
- Clean baby bottles, nipples, and bottlebrushes by soaking in a solution of warm water and baking soda. Then sterilize before use.
- Whiten socks and dirty clothes by adding ½ cup baking soda to regular liquid laundry detergent.
- To clean up pet accidents, clean with club soda and let dry thoroughly. Then sprinkle on baking soda, allow to sit for 15 minutes and vacuum up.
- To clean chrome bumpers and hubcaps, sprinkle baking soda on a damp sponge, rub surface, and wipe clean with a dry cloth.
- Remove dead insects from a car or truck windshield by sprinkling baking soda on a damp sponge, cleaning glass and wiping clean with a dry cloth.
- To deodorize carpeting in a car, sprinkle baking soda on the carpet, let sit for 15 minutes, and then vacuum up.
- To make your own spray air freshener, place 1 teaspoon baking soda in a spray bottle and add 2 tablespoons of white vinegar and 2 cups of clean water. After the foaming has stopped replace the spray top and shake well.
- Clean golf irons with 3 parts of baking soda to 1 part water and a brush. Rinse thoroughly.
- Take baking soda on your next camping trip. It’s a dishwasher, pot scrubber, hand cleanser, deodorant, toothpaste, fire extinguisher, grill-cleaner, cooler refresher and much more.
- Clean away corrosion on car and lawn mower batteries. Baking soda will neutralize battery acid corrosion because it’s a mild alkali. Disconnect battery terminals before cleaning. Make a paste of 3 parts baking soda to 1 part water, apply with a damp cloth and scrub off the corrosion from the battery terminal. After cleaning and re-connecting the terminals, wipe them with petroleum jelly to prevent future corrosion. Remember, batteries contain a strong acid.
- Clean car lights, chrome, windows, tires, vinyl seats and floor mats with a solution of ¼ cup baking soda in 1 quart of warm water. Apply with a sponge or soft cloth to remove road grime, tree sap, bugs and
tar. For stubborn stains sprinkle baking soda on a damp sponge or soft brush.
- Use baking soda to clean up light-duty oil and grease spills on your garage floor or in your driveway. Sprinkle baking soda on the spot and scrub with a wet brush. (For heavy duty stains, try using washing soda, which is available in hardware stores and the cleaning aisle of large supermarkets. )
The Science Fair standby! Build your own volcano. Please remember to supervise your children. One it’s safer ; two it’s quality grandparent time! The baking soda reacts with the vinegar (or citric acid ) in the mixture and produces a carbon dioxide gas ( CO2 ). As the gas is released it bubbles through the dishwashing liquid, creating the bubbly, red lava. According to the Arm and Hammer ® website you’ll need :
cardboard | plaster-of-Paris | 4 oz plastic cups |
red food coloring | water | baking soda |
hand dishwashing liquid | vinegar or citric acid ( sour salt )
Directions
On a baking sheet shape cardboard into a volcano cone shape. Place a 4 oz bathroom cup to make the “crater” at the top of the volcano. Apply the plaster-of-Paris over the cone to form the volcano. Do not get plaster in the crater. Allow volcano to dry completely. Paint or decorate volcano as desired. For frequent usage, use non-water soluble paints.
Make the lava flow!
- Mix ¼ cup vinegar (or 1 teaspoon citric acid ) with dishwashing liquid, water and red coloring in a plastic cup
- Two • Put 1 teaspoon baking soda in an empty plastic cup. Place this cup inside the volcano crater.
Three • Pour vinegar/dishwashing liquid / water mixture into the Baking soda cup in the the crater. Enjoy the lava as the volcano erupts!
(c) Copyright Self-Reliance Central
Terrorists plunge 140 million into dark. Next time it could be us.
A recent terrorist attack that blew up a major transmission line connected to the Pakistani national grid plunged more than 140 million people into darkness before power was restored.
The blackout affected more than 80 percent of the country’s population and all public services in all the major cities, including the capital, Islamabad. It was the third such attack in two weeks.
The success of the attack was due largely to strain on Pakistan’s antiquated grid. Like ours, the network was operating at or near maximum capacity and was very vulnerable to collapse and attack.
It’s believed that the attack will prompt more attacks on the grid as other groups attempt to replicate the success.
“When an attack this simple and inexpensive yields outsized result, said a local source, “other groups will copy it.”
US attacks – EMP and Black Hat Hackers
The attack prompted U.S. experts to warn that terrorist cells and “lone wolves” in the United States could cause similar damage to our vulnerable national electric-grid system.
Experts and lawmakers are increasingly warning that terrorists or enemy states could wage that exact type of attack, idling electricity grids and disrupting everything from communications networks to military defenses.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is pushing Congress for authority to require power companies to take protective steps, which could include building metal shields around sensitive computer equipment.
And an expert panel that Congress created to study such an attack says it would halt banking, transportation, food, water and emergency services and “might result in defeat of our military forces.”
The scenario involves a phenomenon we at Self-Reliance Central have been warning you about for months. It’s called an “electromagnetic pulse,” or EMP, which is essentially a huge energy wave that’s powerful enough to knock out the grid systems that control electrical flow across the country.
A nuclear explosion 25 to 250 miles above the Earth’s surface would be high enough that the blast wouldn’t damage buildings or spread a lethal radioactive cloud. But, at that height, the pulse would fan out hundreds of miles. And it’s reach would be devastating.
The immediate effect would resemble a blackout. Although blackouts can be restored relatively quickly they don’t usually destroy electrical products, however an EMP will damage or destroy power systems, leaving them inoperable for months, or in all probability much, much longer.
In addition, we have the risk of Black Hat Hackers. Not just bad kids in their parents’ basement, but hostile foreign governments are hell-bent on hacking into our power grid and shutting it down. In fiscal year 2014, there were 79 hacking incidents at energy companies that were investigated by the Computer Emergency Readiness Team, a division of the Department of Homeland Security. There were 145 incidents the previous year.
The bad news? The defenses aren’t holding up. Their guys are outsmarting our guys. Between April 2013 and 2014, hackers managed to break into 37% of energy companies, according to a survey by ThreatTrack Security.
It’s a real threat and you need to prepare for it.
Other attacks
April 2013: Unknown assailants attacked the grid system in San Jose, California. In the attack, 17 transformers that supply electricity to the Silicon Valley were knocked out by firing 100 rounds of AK-47 rounds into 17 transformers, and cutting emergency 911 fiber optic lines.
October 2013: The Mexican drug cartel, the Knights Templar, blacked out an entire Mexican state of 11 towns to enable drug lords to send a message to law enforcement that they were in charge.
June 2014: Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, (AQAP), attacked power lines in the central province of Marib in Yemen, knocking out the country’s entire national power grid and leaving services such as gas stations and other services without power.
You need an alternative power source. Wherever you live. If it’s in a high-rise or condo, you’re looking at battery-powered everything. If you have a yard, roof or wall, you should consider a solar-powered generator. For absolute emergencies solar is the one resource you can depend upon. I have a gas generator for regular power outages because I know my neighbors, I’m not worried about looters and I figure it’s only for a couple of days. So long as somewhere within driving range can pump gas, I’m good to go. But for the longer haul, it’s solar all the way.
Vitamin Supplements: A handy guide
Because factory-packaged foods tend to have lower nutritional content than fresh foods, it’s a good idea to have multivitamin supplements available for stressful times. Usually, if you eat right, you should consume the right quantities of minerals and vitamins. But during stressful times when fresh food is difficult to obtain, you might need a top up. Be sure to check the expiration date on your vitamin bottle and keep a fresh, unused bottle on hand at all times.
And let’s face it, we don’t always eat right. Recent studies have shown that the vast majority of us get insufficient levels of key vitamins and minerals in our diets. The consequences range from weakened immune systems to low bone density to diminished mental capacity.
Vitamin D: For instance, researchers found that 70 percent of Americans under age 21 have low levels of vitamin D. Dr. Juhi Kumar of Children’s Hospital at Montefiore Medical Center said, “The magnitude of the problem nationwide was shocking.” Although the first of its kind nationwide study didn’t focus on older Americans, experts believe most adults aren’t getting enough vitamin D, either. In the past few years, numerous studies have shown that optimizing your vitamin D levels may actually help prevent as many as 16 different types of cancer including pancreatic, lung, breast, ovarian, prostate and colon cancers. And the best way to optimize Vitamin D levels is through safe, smart and limited sunscreen-free exposure to the sun. Never let yourself burn, but getting 10-15 minutes of sunscreen-free exposure to the sun should set up your Vitamin D levels. To make sure, get your Vitamin D levels measured and regulate your sun exposure, or vitamin-supplement regimen accordingly.
Vitamin D tablets are also available that will significantly boost your levels of this key nutrient. Foods like cheese, butter, and margarine are high in Vitamin D. (Just watch how much you eat since all contain significant cholesterol.) Certain “fortified” cereals can also keep your Vitamin D levels high. Salmon, fatty fish, and fish oil can also help.
Vitamin A: is also crucial to your immune system, particularly if you’re a smoker. Vitamin A has been found to fight lung cancer and result in healthier lung. It helps boost white cell growth and fortify your immune system. It’s also crucial to keeping your eyes healthy. Consuming high amounts of Vitamin A can improve your vision, and help offset macular degeneration and blindness in old age.
Without supplements, the best way to get Vitamin A is through vegetables, especially carrots. Carrots are bursting with Vitamin A and the best source if you’re suffering from a deficiency. Green leaf vegetables, such as spinach and romaine lettuce, are also high in Vitamin A. Certain herbs are also helpful. Parsley is fantastic for boosting your Vitamin A. Cayenne pepper, basil, oregano, and chili pepper are also useful.
Vitamin B: is absolutely essential to your immune system. There are very few things about your health that the B vitamins won’t improve. Vitamin B will give you more energy, brighten your mood, keep your weight in check, and bring about healthier nerves, skin, hair, and eyes. If you aren’t taking a daily Vitamin B supplement now, you should be – something like a “Super B-Complex” that contains all the B vitamins. You should consider stocking up on these in case of a national emergency. A single supplement of Vitamin B can go a long way toward making you healthier.
But in the event that you can’t get supplements, the B vitamins can be taken in through a healthy diet. For B-1, try eating anything with whole grains. Whole grains are also a good source of B-3, as are peanut butter, salmon, and chicken. B-6 is available through soy, brown rice, whole grains, and leafy green vegetables. B-12 can be found in most meat and dairy products. (Vegans are best off taking a B-12 supplement.) Generally, the best way to consume Vitamin B is through leafy green vegetables and whole grains.
Vitamin C: is necessary for your body to manufacture collagen, which helps grow and repair tissue and skin in your body. It’s an antioxidant, which means it can help reduce your likelihood of contracting a deadly disease, such as heart disease or cancer. It’s particularly important if you’ve been injured and are looking to quickly heal a wound. Scurvy is caused by a severe deficiency of Vitamin C.
As such, it will be crucial for your health during a national emergency. Fruits and vegetables all contain a good amount of Vitamin C. Leafy greens are again a great source, as are citrus, green peppers, strawberries, tomatoes, potatoes, and cantaloupes. Eating these fruits and vegetables raw will ensure maximum Vitamin C content. A salad once a day – especially a fruit salad – is a great way to build up Vitamin C. Drinking a glass of orange juice every morning is another solution.
Vitamin K: is a less common supplement, but particularly necessary for the elderly in the event of an emergency. Consumption of Vitamin K helps fortify your tissue and bones, and is a very effective way to prevent osteoporosis. It also helps prevent blood clotting. Fortunately Vitamin K deficiencies are very uncommon. But if you’re at particular risk from either osteoporosis or blood clotting, you should consider increasing both your Vitamin K and Vitamin D. Vitamin K can be found in most green vegetables, including spinach, green beans, broccoli, and asparagus. Egg yolks and liver also contain Vitamin K.
Pregnant women will be at particular risk during a national emergency. Without doctors or any medical infrastructure, a pregnancy can be far more difficult. One thing pregnant women can do to ensure that their pregnancy goes smoothly and their child emerges without birth defects is to increase consumption of folic acid. This is a bit repetitive since folic acid is one of the many B vitamins, but it is extremely important for pregnant women. Folic acid is also essential for another key reason: It helps manufacture red blood cells and guard against heart disease, which is the number one killer in America today. Eat leafy green vegetables, fruits, liver, and beans for more folic acid.
When most people think of fat, they think of greasy McDonald’s cheeseburgers or onion rings – delicious in small amounts, but deadly as a part of your everyday diet. But there are certain fatty acids that your body needs to function. These will be needed during a national emergency, especially for your children. Essential fatty acids support the cardiovascular, immune, nervous, and reproductive systems. There are two types of essential fatty acids: Omega-3 and Omega-6.
Omega-3 deficiencies are far more common in America than most people might think. Omega-3 is derived from linolenic acids, which are particularly common in nuts such as flaxseeds, hempseeds, and sesame seeds. A silver bullet against Omega-3 deficiencies is to take one tablespoon of flaxseed oil per day. Keeping flaxseed oil in the event of an emergency is a good idea, especially if you have children.
Omega-6 comes from linoleic acid. Your body usually contains an excess of this, but it isn’t always processed properly if your diet is high in sugar and alcohol, or if you’re a smoker. The best source of Omega-6 is also a spoonful of flaxseed oil, as well as nuts.
There are several other essential vitamins and minerals that you should keep in mind during an emergency.
- Calcium. You’ll need this for strong bones and teeth. It’s particularly necessary if you’re suffering from a bone condition. Try orange juice, milk, cheese, yogurt, broccoli, and green beans.
- Iron. Iron keeps your blood high in oxygen. Go for soybeans, asparagus or spinach.
- Potassium. This will keep all the acids in your body balanced and functioning properly. Pick up bananas, spinach, mushrooms, tomatoes, or potatoes.
- Zinc. Zinc is essential for healing any wounds that might be inflicted on you. Try lima beans, legumes, dairy products, and seafood.
Unfortunately, you won’t have access to a grocery store during a national emergency and can’t simply go buy all these foods. The best way to stay healthy is to make sure you have a balanced pantry. Don’t just stock up potato chips and energy bars. Make sure you have fruits, vegetables, meats, cheeses, and everything else needed for a proper diet.
Which foods should you make a point of stocking up on? You can mix and match any of the foods recommended above. But certain foods will keep your body overflowing with good vitamins and minerals. Stock up on spinach, asparagus, eggs, liver, tomatoes, mushrooms, orange juice, carrots, and flaxseed oil. Maybe put them together in a small “survival refrigerator” – your food kit in the event of an emergency.
Vitamin supplements can help keep your energy up and your immune system strong during an emergency. It’s also a good idea to have separate vitamin C and selenium supplements. Vitamin C boosts the immune system and can safely be taken in large quantities to help ward off disease. The mineral selenium, also available separately in supplement form, is a good companion to vitamin C. It stimulates antioxidant enzymes and can be particularly beneficial to the elderly. Take no more than 500 mcg of selenium per day.
Stocking up on supplements is great but expensive. Instead of blowing hundreds of dollars on different supplements, shift your diet so you consume more vitamins and minerals.
Spice up your meals and rev up your immune system with turmeric! This staple of Indian cuisine acts as a cleanser and energizer of your body’s systems. It kills germs, relieves pain, protects the liver and heart, guards against cancer, and bolsters immunity. The pigment that gives turmeric its distinctive yellow color, called curcumin, is the herb’s most medicinally potent compound. Turmeric also contains cell-protecting antioxidant chemicals. Turmeric powder can be sprinkled on foods or mixed with warm water and taken as a therapeutic drink. Turmeric can also be applied topically to treat minor wounds. Like most health-boosting herbs, turmeric is available in supplement form. |
Renewable Energy – Recycling human waste
As the Chinese population moved from the countryside to towns in search of prosperity a lot of things happened. The demand for energy increased and so too did the amount of human waste. Enter Heinz Peter Mang, a German engineer who connected these two events and came up with biogas.
In 2013, China’s urban population had overtaken its rural population when the former breached the 731 million mark, resulting in urban headcount higher by 100 million, Bloomberg reports.
In Beijing alone, city residents’ excrement treated every day is about 6,800 tons, which is enough to fill three Olympic-size swimming pools. Many of the people coming in from the countryside are unused to lavatories and there has been a big cultural push to have urban dwellers use them correctly. The fecal matter is collected and treated using methods familiar to many farmers who use animal manure to created biogas.
Human waste is collected in trucks, which drive to a depot and channel the human waste through a pipe into a machine, where unrecyclable solid material like tissue paper is separated out.
The rest then goes for separation: the solid waste is propelled into a compost wing to ferment at 140° for 10 days. The process kills harmful bacteria and roundworm eggs and turns the excrement into rich fertilizers for trees and vegetables. The liquid material is routed into tanks to generate biogas, and eventually pumped to bigger water-treatment plants.
Human waste recycling is moving from the Third World into developed economies. The UK operates a smaller version of this scheme, which also operates in African countries and Cuba. It seems that where there’s muck there’s money and Credit Suisse estimates this market will grow 200%-400% over the next five years.
Handling your own biowaste
A composting toilet is a type of dry toilet that uses a predominantly aerobic processing system to treat human excreta, by composting or managed aerobic decomposition. These toilets generally use little to no water and may be used as an alternative to flush toilets. They have found use in situations where no suitable water supply or sewer system and sewage treatment plant is available to capture the nutrients in human excreta. They are in use in many roadside facilities and national parks.
The human excreta is usually mixed with sawdust, coconut coir or peat moss to facilitate aerobic processing, liquid absorption, and odor mitigation. Most composting toilets use slow, cold composting conditions, sometimes connected to a secondary external composting step.
Composting toilets produce a compost that may be used for horticultural or agricultural soil enrichment if the local regulations allow this. A curing stage is often needed to allow mesophilic composting to reduce potential phytotoxins.
Rules on Sewage Treatment
Disposal of composted material depends on location and local, regional, or National unit policy, as well as State requirements. The compost must be treated as domestic septage for further treatment, unless it is documented to meet 40 CFR 503 requirements as a Class A or Class B sludge. Some States require a permit or permit waiver for surface application. The material may be burned, buried, removed from the site for further treatment, or (with a permit or permit waiver) used as a fertilizer or soil amendment.
Composted material is not as unpleasant to remove as vault waste. It is shoveled into triple heavy-duty plastic or heavy rubber bags for transport by pack animal or maintenance personnel, or into barrels for transport by helicopter.
Composted material can achieve a Class A sludge rating, depending on level of maintenance, level of use, and climate. A permit or permit waiver may be needed from the governing U.S. Environmental Protection Agency office to incorporate the material into the soil as a soil amendment or for reclamation projects. Compost may be used to reclaim rock quarries, slide areas, or mine sites. Maintenance records may be required. Contact the appropriate State office for permit requirements.
A liquid waste disposal method should be incorporated into the system. This may be a subsurface leach line, holding tank, or evaporation trays. The amount of liquid waste depends on type of use (day or overnight use), humidity, and temperature.
Charge your car for free.
We all like getting stuff for free, right? And if you have an electric car you’re already in the market for bargain transportation costs.
So you’re going to love this new deal from Volta Industries out of California and Hawaii. You can charge your car for free! They are going to make their money from advertising at the charging station.
So if you live in the California San Francisco-San Diego area, there are now 100 stations across five cities for free electric car charging service underwritten by ‘socially responsible’ brands like Macy’s, Whole Foods Market, and Sungevity.
Of course, we’re always a glass half full when it comes to electricity. Our aging power grid is not reliable enough for even free electricity. So be sure to have a back-up. Solar-powered generators are a great option. Watch this space for more on them!
File this under: “Why didn’t I think of that?”
In Hong Kong, Pizza Hut thinks it can do more than just bring food to your front door. It wants to deliver your entertainment for the evening, too. Look at these amazingly simple pizza boxes. They convert into pseudo movie projectors.
Designed by Ogilvy Hong Kong, the advertising stunt uses boxes with a perforated, pop-out hole in the side of the box. A very unique pizza table (also called a pizza protector) then serves as the projector’s lens.
Slip the plastic lens into the hole, and then use the pizza table’s legs to prop up your smartphone inside the box. The contraption then blows up your smartphone’s display onto any nearby wall.
I’m sure we don’t need to go to Hong Kong to reverse engineer a pizza box and a lens. Especially as a Dollar Shop magnifying lens will do the trick. Remember you probably need your speaker attachment and don’t really use a pizzabox unless you’re good with wiping grease off your phone for a few weeks! And the quality won’t be great. But it’s a neat no-mains power solution that could be fun on a camping trip.
The Squirrel says: When light passes though a lens, it gets flipped, which means the picture from your projector will come out upside down. So, if you’re using an iPhone go to Settings > General > Accessibility and turn on AssistiveTouch. Once activated, a little white orb will pop that you can drag around the screen. Click on the orb and go to Device > Rotate Screen. This lets you flip applications like the Photos app which would normally rotate itself right side up. Andriod users can download the app Ultimate Rotation Control.
Aerators. Save water. Save money.
We’ve written before about the water snoops. As America faces a water shortage issue across most of the country, the state, federal and local authorities involved in the delivery of water to your house will distance themselves from the parlous state of the water-bearing infrastructure and immediately blame you, the consumer, for excess usage. They’ll charge you extra through smart water meters, and name and shame you on highway message boards so your neighbors can exert peer pressure.
So without sacrificing too much by way of comfort, here’s a quick fix to reduce your water usage – the high-efficiency faucet aerator. Here are a few tips to get the most from them.
- Flow Rate: If you already have a low-flow aerator, it may not be effective to replace it. Check this by reading the side of the aerator (the metal ring where the water comes out). If your flow rate is more than 1.5 gallons per minute (gpm), you should replace it.
- Maintenance: Aerators occasionally need to be rinsed out since sand and particulate can build up, restricting the flow. Plan to replace them periodically to maintain good performance.
- Task: Aerators may or may not be a good idea, depending what you’re using water for. This guide gives a general rule to gauge your needs:
- Volume-based tasks: If water is used to fill a container (e.g. pasta pots or dish-washing sinks) aerators will not save water or energy. Instead they will increase the amount of time it takes to complete the task. In this case, don’t use an aerator.
- Flow-based tasks: If running water is used for washing (e.g. hands, dishes or food) then an aerator is the perfect solution. In this case, use a 0.5 gpm aerator.
- Combination of tasks: If water is used both for flow- and volume-based tasks (e.g. household kitchen sink) then you need to find a happy medium. A higher-flow aerator will save energy and water without hindering volume-based tasks. In this case, use a 1.0 gpm aerator.
- Hot Water Supply: A common complaint with low-flow aerators is that it takes too long to get hot water. This is because the pipe from the water heater to that sink is a “dead head” — it goes only to that sink and nowhere else, requiring cold water to be dispelled first. With a 0.5 gpm aerator, it takes 2 minutes to purge 1 gallon of cold water from the pipe. While this is longer than most people take to wash their hands, if you are not in a food service business (or other sanitary business) where a specific water temp is regulated by law, then this is not a significant concern. Clean hands are achieved with soap & water, vigorous rubbing and running clean rinse water over them.
Plus, most people are willing to wash their hands in cool water. You should also consider the following:
- Insulating pipes: This cheap fix will keep the water in your pipes hot until it’s ready for use.
- Piping design: Larger buildings are often piped with a closed-loop system that has a pump to keep hot water recirculating throughout the building at all times. Hot water supply is not typically an issue with this design. Newer buildings might also have an electric booster heater by sinks that are located far away from the water heater, so hot water supply shouldn’t be a concern.
- Food service: Many Food Codes require that the water temperature at hand sinks reach 110 degrees. Some inspectors and jurisdictions may require that the water reach that temperature within a certain time limit. Typically, in high use situations, the length of time to reach temperature won’t be an issue (especially with insulated pipes).
Savings from these devices can run at over $100 per year for each 0.5 gpm aerator.
This faucet was printed with a 3-D printer
3D printing (or additive manufacturing, AM) is any of various processes used to make a three-dimensional object. In 3D printing, additive processes are used, in which successive layers of material are laid down under computer control. These objects can be of almost any shape or geometry, and are produced from a 3D model or other electronic data source. A 3D printer is a type of industrial robot that is now available for domestic use from under $500 for a printer that uses a polymer (plastic) filament to create light, small objects. 3-D printing is creating a revolution in manufacturing and most industries are now implementing AM into their production line process.
By example, American Standard Brands has launched the first commercially available faucets created with 3D printing. The DXV faucets are the first ready-for-market working faucets to be printed in metal. All three DXV faucets have received NSF certification. The faucets meet the water-saving standards of the WaterSense label.
Two of the new faucets are focused on reinventing the way that water is brought to the user. In this faucet, the incredibly high strength of the alloy enables fine structures of concealed waterways that converge at the top, shortly before reaching the water- and cost-reducing aerator.
And for bigger projects? Check out this proposed bridge in Amsterdam.
Investing in education – Your 529 questions answered
If you withdraw money from a 529 savings plan without using it for education, you’ll pay a 10 percent penalty. But that one-time levy is small compared with the cumulative drain of years of taxes on capital gains and dividends an ordinary investment sees, making the plans an attractive vehicle for anyone.
What is a 529 plan?
Answer. A plan operated by a state or educational institution, with tax advantages and potentially other incentives to make it easier to save for college and other post-secondary training for a designated beneficiary, such as a child or grandchild.
What is the main advantage of a typical 529 plan?
Earnings are not subject to federal tax and generally not subject to state tax when used for the qualified education expenses of the designated beneficiary, such as tuition, fees, books, as well as room and board. Contributions to a 529 plan, however, are not deductible.
What is new this year with 529 plans?
A qualified, nontaxable distribution from a 529 plan during 2009 or 2010 now includes the cost of the purchase of any computer technology, related equipment and/or related services such as Internet access. The technology, equipment or services qualify if they are used by the beneficiary of the plan and the beneficiary’s family during any of the years the beneficiary is enrolled at an eligible educational institution.
What does “computer technology or equipment” mean?
This means any computer and related peripheral equipment. Related peripheral equipment is defined as any auxiliary machine (whether on-line or off-line) which is designed to be placed under the control of the central processing unit of a computer, such as a printer. This does not include equipment of a kind used primarily for amusement or entertainment. “Computer technology” also includes computer software used for educational purposes.
Is this “cost of the purchase of any computer technology or equipment or Internet access and related services” available for any other education benefit under the tax laws?
No, it is only for 529 plan withdrawals. Such costs are generally not qualifying expenses for the American opportunity credit, Hope credit, lifetime learning credit or the tuition and fees deduction.
How long have 529 plans been around?
Congress created them in 1996 and they are named after section 529 of the Internal Revenue code. “Qualified tuition program” is the legal name.
Can anyone set up a 529 plan?
Yes. You can set one up and name anyone as a beneficiary — a relative, a friend, even yourself. There are no income restrictions on on either you, as the contributor, or the beneficiary. There is also no limit to the number of plans you set up.
Are there contribution limits?
Yes. Contributions can not exceed the amount necessary to provide for the qualified education expenses of the beneficiary. If you contribute to a 529 plan, however, be aware that there may be gift tax consequences if your contributions, plus any other gifts, to a particular beneficiary exceed $14,000 during the year. For information on a special rule that applies to contributions to 529 plans, see the instructions for Form 709, United States Gift (and Generation-Skipping Transfer) Tax Return.
Are there different types of 529 plans?
There are two basic types: prepaid tuition plans and savings plans. And each state has its own plan. Each is somewhat unique. States are permitted to offer both types. A qualified education institution can only offer a prepaid tuition type 529 plan.
Am I restricted to my own state’s 529 plan?
No. Your state’s 529 plan may offer incentives to win your business. But the market is competitive and you may find another plan you like more. Be sure to compare the various features of different plans.
Who controls the funds in a 529 plan?
Whoever purchases the 529 plan is the custodian and controls the funds until they are withdrawn.
Each 529 plan account has one designated beneficiary. What does that mean?
A designated beneficiary is usually the student or future student for whom the plan is intended to provide benefits. The beneficiary is generally not limited to attending schools in the state that sponsors their 529 plan. But to be sure, check with a plan before setting up an account.
Can I change the beneficiary of a 529 plan I have set up?
Yes. There are no tax consequences if you change the designated beneficiary to another member of the family. Also, any funds distributed from a 529 plan are not taxable if rolled over to another plan for the benefit of the same beneficiary or for the benefit of a member of the beneficiary’s family. So, for example, you can roll funds from the 529 for one of your children into a sibling’s plan without penalty.
What is an eligible educational institution?
An eligible educational institution is generally any college, university, vocational school, or other postsecondary educational institution eligible to participate in a student aid program administered by the U.S. Department of Education.
I have not set up a 529 plan for my child. Can I start one now and take advantage of this new computer benefit?
Answer: You can start one anytime. But the benefit of a 529 plan comes with the tax-free withdrawal of earnings that build up in the plan based on the contributions made. Like other types of savings accounts, earnings are usually a function of time. A 529 plan which is set up while the student is already enrolled in college or in other postsecondary education may not accrue enough earnings to be of immediate benefit. However, that doesn’t mean that such a student wouldn’t benefit from a 529 plan as his or her postsecondary education continues.
Where can I find more information about 529 plans?
A good source is IRS Publication 970, Tax Benefits for Education.
Is setting up a 529 plan for my child right for me?
Only you can figure that out. 529 plans are not for everyone, and are also not the only option available for paying for college. Setting up a 529 plan is an investment decision, which means both the benefits and drawbacks must be considered, along with alternative ways of accomplishing the same thing. There are many independent sources of information on 529 plans. Also, you may want to consider consulting a trusted tax professional or financial planner.
Related Items:
- Fact Sheet 2009-12, How 529 Plans Help Families Save for College; and How the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 Expanded 529 Plan Features
- IR-2009-78, Special IRS Web Section Highlights Back-to-School Tax Breaks; Popular 529 Plans Expanded, New $2,500 College Credit Available
Ready For Anything: The business suit wetsuit!
We’re all about cutting corners to a more efficient life so how about this versatile neoprene number? New from Quicksilver, the edgy snow’n’surf shop for manboys comes the True Suit, complete with dress shirt and tie. Check it out. It costs $2500 and immediately sold out in Quiksilver’s Japanese outlets.
From beach to board room and no need to change. Very James Bond!
Hurricane defenses you need to make NOW!
There are hurricanes bearing down on the East coast right now. It’s time to prep. (More advice here.)
Wind damage must be prepped for in advance. You absolutely must check out your property.
Houses are vulnerable. During a windstorm, wind forces are carried from the roof down to the exterior walls, down to the foundation. Homes can be damaged when these forces are not properly transferred to the ground. Roof sheathing (the boards or plywood nailed to the roof rafters or trusses) can fail during a hurricane if not properly installed. Or the side walls of the roof (end gables) can take a real beating and can collapse. But there are precautions you can take to fight the force of nature and keep your walls standing and your roof secure.
Doors and windows are also at risk. The exterior walls, doors and windows form a protective shell for your home. If the shell is broken during a storm, high winds can enter the home and put pressure on the roof and walls, causing serious damage. Doors and windows can blow out and the house can even collapse in on itself.
Check out our guide
Floods
If you’ve lived in your neighborhood for a while you probably know your flood risk – and you would have been made to purchase flood insurance if and when you bought your property. However, FEDM has created a neat new guide at the Flood Map Service Center. Just type in your address and you can see how close you are to the flood zone. Here’s one I made for a place I know floods. Just look at where the predicted flood waters go.
You spilled coffee on your laptop. A step-by-step fix.
One of our guys just dumped a cup of coffee over his laptop. Huge panic. But our tech guy sent him a list of things to do immediately. Here they are. You might not feel brave enough to do these things. You might worry any warranty on your computer would be voided. But as usual, The Squirrel, wants to prepare you for life on your own without tech departments and warranties.
Turn the laptop off. Immediately remove the AC adapter and the battery. If the liquid touches the circuits on the laptop, then it will short out.
Unplug all peripherals that’s things like your mouse, a hard drive and wireless cards.
Turn it upside down immediately. The liquid will stop going deeper into the laptop.
Clean the spilled liquid. Use a lint-free paper towel or cloth to clean.
Examine the keyboard. Some laptops have spill-resistant keyboards.
- Pour out the liquid contained in the keyboard enclosure.
- Remove and clean an easily removable keyboard.
Clean the sticky residue. The screen, the keyboard and the buttons may be dirty. Use a lint-free cloth that is clean and slightly wet.
Insulate yourself from static discharge. Static electricity can damage any computer. Learn how to ground yourself to avoid destroying a computer with electrostatic discharge.
Take apart the case. You may need to take apart the case if you cannot clean the whole spill. Some spills can damage the circuit boards.
- If you don’t feel like taking your laptop apart, then have someone else do it.
- Remove all cards and drives as possible.
Remove dry residue. Use a lint-free cloth to gently remove non-water stains. Use compressed air or a vacuum cleaner to blow away the residue.
Rinse off the residue. If you spilled anything that is not water, then rinse it clean. There are several ways to rinse your machine, depending on the kind of spill, and how much risk you are willing to endure:
- Think about what has been spilled on/in your computer, and determine whether it is water soluble or not. Use deionized water for water-soluble stains such as cola. Otherwise, rinse with alcohol then water.
- Rinse with water. Take any components that have residue and rinse them under water. Most circuit boards handle water as long as they are not powered. Moving parts such as CD drives and fans may not handle water well.
- Rinse with deionized or distilled water. Many people choose deionized water over tap water. Regular water will leave deposits that can cause electrical shorts, but deionized water will not.
- Rinse as much as possible and carefully remove excess water.
Let it dry. Make sure that the parts are dry. As with rinsing, there are different theories on drying:
- Dry naturally. Prop the machine up, away from surfaces, so that air can circulate in and around the entire unit. Leave the machine to dry for 24 to 48 hours. While it is drying, place the laptop battery in uncooked rice.
- Dry with light heat. Use moderately warm sources of heat. Let it dry for approximately 12 hours. A dehumidifier may improve drying time.
- Never use a hair dryer, as this will cause static problems and contaminate your laptop. A hair dryer at a high setting could also melt some of the plastic components. In extreme cases the hair dryer will drive moisture deeper into the circuits and components and that moisture will oxidize and create capacitive load connections under and inside of integrated circuits and connectors, eventually failing the laptop. The best way to remove all residual moisture is to patiently draw it away with a vacuum cleaner held over the affected areas for up to 20 minutes in each accessible area, having already removed the majority of liquids and moisture manually and dried all visible moisture by hand, so that none enters the vacuum cleaner. This method is preferable to leaving it to dry naturally as it halts any oxidation from occurring deep inside small surface mount components and connections, that can result in issues later on.
Clean with a solvent. Some people like solvent-based cleaners as a second rinse. It is recommended if the unit has been sitting long enough to be subject to corrosion and oxidation before repair and cleaning is attempted. Always use gloves and ensure good room ventilation when handling any solvent or alcohol based cleaners as some are known carcinogens.
- If you suspect that your first rinse did not remove all of the residue, a chemical rinse of this kind may be worth the risk. The advantages of such a rinse are: there is only one substance to apply and remove; that substance, typically, evaporates; long drying times are not required. The disadvantage is that, if you use the wrong solvents, you can literally dissolve your computer.
- Buy and use 99% isopropyl alcohol. Never use gasoline or acetone to clean computer parts, as the plastic will dissolve in the gasoline or acetone.
- Use a cotton swab to carefully wipe each component of the board, until it is clean.
- You can also use flux remover from an electronics store.
- The damage occurs when the current from the battery short circuits due to the water, which is costly. Make sure the laptop is completely dry before turning it back on.
Reassemble and test the laptop. If the laptop doesn’t turn on, contact customer service.
How would you react to a snake in your spice cabinet?
Watch this rat snake (non-venomous) that got in through a hole in a laundry room floor swallow an egg. The YouTube note says that the owners of the home let it finish the egg and then encouraged it to leave by gently pushing it out with brooms. The rat snake is considered a beneficial species as it eats rodents. This one came up through a hole in the laundry room floor that now has a concrete block sitting on it!
.
Health insurance rates set to go up half as much again in some states
Occasionally we post news items from reputable sources. This article comes from the Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C. This look forward at your possible costs for health insurance next year is presented so that you can prepare for the outcome. Of course, you may already have by-passed the system or supplemented it with a concierge doctor. But in case you are affected by these changes, we suggest you start preparing now for the implications of what will be for many states, a massive price hike.
How ‘Affordable’ Will Health Insurance Be in 2016?
For consumers purchasing health insurance under the Affordable Care Act next year, plans may no longer be quite as “affordable” as they were in the past.
Health insurance companies around the country are providing states with their proposed premium rates for 2016, and changes include rate hikes of up to 51 percent in New Mexico and more than 30 percent in Maryland and Tennessee.
The proposed rate changes come as the Supreme Court prepares to deliver its ruling on the case King v. Burwell, which will determine if consumers purchasing insurance on the federal exchange are eligible for subsidies, and as Republicans continue to push for a full repeal of the health care law.
“This is going to be a phenomenon of insurers that priced more optimi
stically instead of defensively,” Ed Haislmaier, a senior research fellow in health policy studies at The Heritage Foundation, told The Daily Signal of providers with hefty rate increases.
In Maryland, according to the state’s Insurance Administration, CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield proposed premium rate increases of up to 30 percent in the individual market for 2016.
“CareFirst has predicted for some time that rates would need to climb from artificially lower levels due to the characteristics and needs of the population that has actually enrolled,” the company said in a statement.
By contrast, Cigna proposed a 2.9 percent reduction in rates.
In Tennessee, BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee, the state’s largest insurance provider, requested to raise premiums by an average of 36.3 percent. The rate hike is the most significant in the state.
According to The Tennessean, Community Health Alliance Mutual Insurance, a nonprofit health insurance co-op, is looking to raise its rates by an average of 32.6 percent. The co-op, which started under Obamacare and received more than $73.3 million in federal grants and loans, offered the cheapest plans for Tennessee consumers in 2015 and froze enrollment after it saw an influx of customers, eventually pulling its plans from the federal marketplace.
Meanwhile, Connecticut’s HealthyCT, another co-op started under Obamacare, asked to raise its rates by 14 percent, according to the state’s insurance department. UnitedHealthcare, a private insurance company selling plans on Connecticut’s state exchange, requested an average rate increase of 12.4 percent.
Haislmaier said local and nonprofit insurance providers, including many co-ops, kept premium prices low in 2015, but are now increasing their rates after seeing an influx of enrollees. Insurance companies with cheaper plans were unsure of how expensive new customers were going to be, and now, Haislmaier said, those companies are trying to play “catch up.”
By contrast, larger, for-profit providers such as Aetna, priced more defensively and are either reducing their rates or increasing them slightly.
“Insurers that were more optimistic in setting their premiums wound up having to play catch up,” Haislmaier said. “On one level, it’s completely Obamacare. It’s catch-up by the ones who underpriced. The ones who had higher rates had realistic responses to Obamacare, and the others are playing catch up.”
Some states have already published insurance providers’ proposed premium changes. The deadline for filing requests for rate changes is today. Insurance companies asking for increases of more than 10 percent must explain the reasons for the rate hikes.
States must approve the rate changes.
DIY making a compost pile
Saving money on fertilizer, AND finding a use for plant waste? Sign me up!
How to make a compost pile
Making compost is an excellent, self-reliant way to improve your lawn or garden. It also helps reduce the amount of waste you throw out.
In a compost pile, fungi and bacteria break down organic material. You can compost almost anything that comes from a plant, but animal products can produce odors and attract pests. In general, your compost pile should have two types of components: “greens” and “browns.” Greens are moist, fresh materials like grass clippings and kitchen waste. They are high in nitrogen. Browns are dry, older plants like dried hay and dead leaves. These add carbon to the compost pile.
Location and container
The first thing to consider when making a compost pile is where to put it. Choose a sunny spot that is out of the way, but still close enough to reach with the hose. For smaller compost piles, use a metal trash can with holes punched in the bottom for drainage. For a larger project, you can make your own compost enclosure. You will need:
- Four corner posts: 5ft long, l ft of which is to be inserted in the ground, and 2-5in square.
- Side pieces: 4ft long, 3in wide and at least 1in thick. Six will be needed for each side, for a total of 24 pieces.
The sides should be spaced approximately 4in apart and screwed or nailed into the corner posts. Use wood sealer on all timber to protect against rot.
Making the pile
Once you have your enclosure, start layering in composting materials. Start with about 3in of old twigs or hay to facilitate drainage and ventilation. Then, add 3-6in of green ingredients followed by 3in of brown. Whenever you add a green layer, cover it with 1/2in of either rich soil or manure. This will both add nutrients to the pile and increase the amounts of bacteria and fungi. Continue alternating layers of green and brown until the pile is about 4ft high or until your garbage can is full.
Keep your compost heap damp, but not soaking wet. It should contain about as much moisture as a used sponge. The pile will heat up and decomposition will happen fastest at the middle of the heap, so you will need to turn your heap every couple of weeks to encourage all of the waste to break down at the same rate. Just push the compost from the sides into the middle of the pile using a hoe or shovel.
You know your compost is ready for use when it breaks down into fine particles and is dark in color, resembling rich soil.
What NOT to compost
| Animal fatAnimal manures, especially the droppings of cats and dogsBread or cake (these may attract mice) Bones Diseased plants Large branches | MagazinesMeat and dairy productsMetals, plastics, glass. Sawdust from treated timber Weeds that have seeds or underground stems. |
What patients gain by reading their doctors’ notes
During a recent physical, Jeff Gordon’s doctor told him he may be pre-diabetic. It was a quick mention, mixed in with a review of blood pressure numbers, other vital statistics like his heart rate, height and weight, and details about his prescription for cholesterol medication. Normally, Gordon, 70, a food broker who lives in Washington, D.C., would have paid it little attention.
But his physician, who recently joined MedStar Health, uses the system’s online portal that allowed him to share his office notes with patients. For Gordon, seeing the word “pre-diabetic” in writing made it difficult to ignore, and he took action.
He contacted MedStar about joining a pre-diabetes clinical study. In the course of taking the tests required to participate, the otherwise healthy septuagenarian found out his blood sugar wasn’t elevated enough to qualify.
Still, the experience of seeing the term in his doctor’s notes was a “wake-up call,” inspiring him to pay more attention to his diet and exercise. “It’s harder to ignore when it’s in your face,” he said.
This kind of note-sharing got a kick-start five years ago when researchers from Harvard Medical School joined forces with the Pennsylvania-based Geisinger Health System and Harborview Medical Center in Seattle to launch a high-profile pilot program called Open Notes. The initiative focused on encouraging health care providers to give patients access to doctors’ office notes and then tracked what happened when patients read them. Even before the project, some providers had independently shared notes, but since the organized effort began, interest has grown.
Now, Open Notes estimates about 5 million people see physicians who share notes as part of the initiative, said Tom Delbanco, a professor at Harvard Medical School who has been with the project since it launched. That includes doctors from more than 20 institutions across the country, consisting of major academic medical centers and health systems ranging from the Cleveland Clinic to the Veterans Health Administration to Wellspan, in Maryland and Pennsylvania. And even beyond the project’s participants, there is a trend among physicians — such as Gordon’s doctor — to move in this direction, too.
It’s part of the health system’s growing focus on patient engagement – the idea that more informed people will take better care of themselves, improving their health while lowering costs. This emphasis is driven in part by the federal health law, which links Medicare payments to how well hospitals and doctors do at getting and keeping patients healthy.
The trend is also fueled, experts suggest, by components in the health law and the earlier financial stimulus law that set out financial incentives for doctors to use electronic health records and better connect with patients online.
Advocates say open notes could fundamentally shift the doctor-patient relationship by making it less paternalistic, putting patients in a position to catch mistakes and have more informed conversations with their physicians. But others worry the practice could curb honesty in what doctors write about their patients, or cause confusion if patients misinterpret what’s written.
What doctors write is hardly the stuff of state secrets. Some portions are technical to the point of dullness. Other portions offer clear, valuable advice.
In one note, shared by a patient who requested his name be withheld due to privacy reasons, a doctor wrote, in the context of a potential diagnosis of a hand deformity condition called Dupuytren’s contracture, that the patient’s “sensation is intact in the medial, ulnar and radial nerve distribution.” Hard to understand, yes, but still helpful to the patient for tracking the condition. Even more helpful, perhaps, is the physician’s summary of the condition: “It is very early, so we just need to monitor it.”
Some health care providers, though, worry patients might misuse the information – attempting to diagnose themselves or declining beneficial treatment because they misunderstand what’s written. That isn’t out of the question, said Jan Walker, a research associate at Harvard and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, who also worked on the Open Notes project. “We certainly believe so far, the good far outweighs the bad,” she said.
Kenneth Burman, director of endocrinology at MedStar Washington Hospital Center, said he independently began sharing his notes with patients years ago, mailing them a private copy. When patients read their notes, he said, they can actually “understand the diagnosis and the recommendations.” Patients will look things up, he added, and occasionally correct references to things like family history, or add relevant details he might have missed.
Though he can’t document it, he said patients are generally better about following through with treatment if they get to read their notes. “It helps the patient understand the disease process and what the course of action should be,” Burman said.
How patients respond to this disclosure varies. Some use notes as helpful reminders while others use the information to challenge a physician’s recommendation and help rule out a diagnoses.
For Kent Snyder, 63, a lawyer from Portland, Ore., note-sharing was particularly helpful when he developed arthritis-like symptoms and vision trouble – part of an autoimmune condition doctors still haven’t been able to figure out.
Reading what his doctors had written, Snyder said, helped him focus conversations on “key salient issues” – for instance, correcting physicians about symptoms he’d actually experienced, which in turn allowed them to rule out potential diagnoses.
Looking at his notes, Snyder added, meant he better understood why doctors ordered certain procedures or treatments.
“It’s not just money – I don’t want to take an antibiotic unless I absolutely have to,” he said. “I don’t want to have a test if I don’t need it.”
Patients’ abilities to fix errors in their records could encourage providers to adopt note-sharing, especially if it could reduce the odds of doctor mistakes, said Steven Weinberger, CEO of the American College of Physicians, which represents internal medicine doctors.
But while doctors and patients said they knew anecdotally of patients finding and fixing mistakes when looking at their notes, Walker said there’s no research measuring how common it is and what effect it could have on patient outcomes or satisfaction.
Some physicians worry sharing notes could require them to change what they write so it’s easier for patients to understand, Weinberger said. Peter Elias, an Auburn, Maine-based doctor, said colleagues often worry they might have to omit things for fear of confusing or upsetting patients. But, he added, sharing notes makes him have important conversations he might otherwise have skipped.
When patients see what doctors write, he said, “it makes the difficult conversations essential. You can’t skip them anymore.”
How to make your own soap
Homemade Soap
This is a nice body and face soap and it is also luxurious and gentle. It’s a lot of work to make, but it is also a lot of fun. It is a good use for huge quantities of fat left over from cooking. One of the main ingredients in soap is lye (sodium hydroxide, or NaOH). Lye is extremely caustic even at room temperature, and in this recipe it is heated. Because of this, you need to exercise extreme care when you make soap. You should always wear shoes (not sandals), long pants, a long-sleeved top, and gloves (rubber dishwashing gloves work best). Also, be sure to wear eye protection. If you get lye on your skin, you can quickly run to the sink and wash it off with LOTS of cold water; if you get lye in your eyes, rinsing it off may involve going to the emergency room. You should make certain that children and pets are somewhere else and will not interrupt you. There is no room for mistakes when dealing with lye.
You will need:
9 lbs. suet (this is also called tallow or beef fat)
1 container lye
3 c. water
2 c. lemon juice
1/4 oz. volatile fragrance oil (optional)
You will need a large pot (metal or ceramic), deep enough to hold at least 2 gallons, with a lid. This is for rendering the fat. One long wooden spoon (at least 10″) is required as well. This should be a spoon that you can sacrifice, because the lye will eat away the wood. You will need a large ceramic or glass bowl. This must be capable of holding all the water, lemon juice, and fat with some room to spare. We use a ceramic tub that is about 6 inches high and 24 inches in diameter. Do not use metal, as it will corrode. Even stainless steel will be damaged. Finally, you will need some glass, ceramic, and/or wooden molds to pour the soap into. We use glass baking dishes; two 8 1/2″ × 14″ glass pans will make bars of soap that are about 1″ to 1 1/2″ thick Again, DO NOT USE METAL CONTAINERS, as they will corrode.
Make the soap:
Render the fat. To do this, cut the fat into hand-sized pieces and place in a large pot and cover it. Heat on a medium heat until all the fat is melted.
You should stir it occasionally. You should probably plan to turn the fan on high or open your kitchen windows while you are doing this. Cool the fat so that it is below the boiling point of water. Add an equal volume of water to the fat, and bring the mixture to a boil. Cover and let cool over night. Take the fat out of the pot. The easiest way to do this is to slice the fat in half with a knife and then cut wedges. You can push the first wedge down into the water and then lift its neighboring wedge out. Scrape all the non-fat gunk off the bottom of the fat (the side of the fat that was at the fat-water interface).
Measure out six pounds of rendered fat (be accurate with this measurement). Cut the fat into small pieces (about the size of a tennis ball, but square-ish, not round) and place in a bowl. Set up your soap-making work area. It should be outside, in a very well ventilated area. Also, clear your stove top and open the window in the kitchen before you start making the soap.
On a table, put your ceramic tub, the bowl of fat, the opened container of lye, a container with the water, and a container with the lemon juice. If you will be adding scent, keep its container nearby. Also place your soap mold containers nearby. Put on all your safety gear.
Pour the water into the ceramic tub. Very carefully pour the lye into the tub. This is an exothermic reaction: it gives off heat, which is used to melt the fat. It also gives off odors which you don’t want to breathe in, so keep your head back. Stir the lye to dissolve it in the water. Then start adding the fat to the water/lye mixture, stirring with the long wooden spoon. Add the fat a bit at a time and stir until it’s all melted. Then stir in the lemon juice, scent (if you are using it), and pour into molds.
When the soap is firmer but not yet hard, cut into bars with a knife. It should be hard in an hour or so; you can test it with your finger. Wrap in clean cotton rags and store in a cool, airy place for 3-6 months.
When you clean up the pan that you made the soap in, be somewhat careful as there is probably still some non-reacted lye in the pan. The only time this has proved to be a problem is when trying to scrape the dry soap that lines the pan off with my fingernail and then a few minutes later noticing that the skin under the fingernail is burning. The easiest solution is just to wear gloves when you’re cleaning the pan. It probably also helps to wash with extremely hot water so that the remaining soap (and fat if there is any) melts and dissolves in the water.
Makes 6 pounds of soap.
Got Cellulite? Use this home remedy
Here’s a wacky way to make dimply fat less noticeable for a short time: Use coffee grounds.
Rubbing warm grounds on areas affected by cellulite can make skin noticeably smoother in a matter of moments. The coffee grounds work by loosening the toxins that trap fat in cells inside your body and also by tightening skin. To try it, rub about half a cup of warm used grounds onto areas with cellulite and then use plastic wrap to keep the coffee against your skin for ten minutes. The smoothing affect should last for up to 12 hours.
