One of the things a home owner can do this summer to touch-up the outside of the home; is to add one of these beautiful yard arbors. It would be perfect for a home that has a walk-way leading to the front yard or the driveway. It really isn’t too hard to install one of these arbors to your home’s front lawn and you can probably do it by yourself. This is just one of the simple ways a person could really improve the appearance of their home and not putting much effort into it.

An arbor can serve many different purposes. A nice vinyl arbor could be put up to simply give the home a better look for the neighbors and visitors to see. One of the wooden arbors could match up better to a home that was made out of wood or had a wooden fence outside. Have you been searching for an arbor this summer? Do you prefer an arbor that is made out of wood, vinyl, or some other material? Do you have any advice for someone who might be buying an arbor for the first time and is struggling between a wood arbor and a vinyl arbor?

Some of you out there may enjoy spending a lot of time in the yard. Perhaps you already have a nice vegetable garden or flower garden that is now in full bloom. For those folks with a green thumb and like to spend time in the garden, there are a variety of garden arbors you can buy too. I haven’t had the time to plant anything this year, but I do hope the prices will go down soon, as the planting season grows longer. If I can find a good deal on the vegetable plants and seeds, I may just get into the gardening mood later.

Those plants and flowers that grow on the fast-growing vines, would be perfect to plant next to a arbor for the garden. It wouldn’t take them long to run up the posts and sides of the arbor as they grew. For the vines that grow really fast, they could fill the archway up this year, if you had them planted by a garden or yard arbor. You just let them grow wild on the outside and only trim the vines that poke their way in the middle of the arbor. It doesn’t take much effort at all, for these types of flowers and vines to totally hide the arbors. I probably won’t have enough time this summer to get my garden arbor looking the way I would like it to be. I could get everything in place this summer, so I would be ahead of the game next spring, if I do decide to add an arbor to my garden or yard this year.

I sat out two tarby worm trees behind my house about 15 years ago. Each year they get a little bigger and that means a few more tarby worms on them. Today is the first day I have seen the white blooms on them flower out. A tarby worm tree isn’t that big and mine are probably about 18 feet tall. It’s a pretty sight to see the white blooms with a touch of brown color inside each bloom. It’s these flowers on the trees that will attract the moths to them. When the moths come in to eat the nectar from these white blooms (like the bees do), they will lay eggs on the leaves and branches of the tarby worm tree. Its these eggs that will hatch in a couple of weeks and become small worms. We call these worms “tarby worms” and they will spend their whole life eating off all of these leaves on the tarby worm trees.

These tarby worms make a great fish bait. They may not work as well as the white eagle does in catching its fish to eat each day, but I have had a lot of luck with catching fish from tarby worms. A tarby worm is a lot like a caterpillar, but without all of the prickly hairs like most caterpillars have. A tarby worm is smooth and they are black on their back side with little white dots. Their underside or the belly of the tarby worm is a bright lime green color. I believe this bright color sticks out well under water and fish can find them real easy in the lakes and rivers where you like to go fishing at. You can catch pretty much anything, if you use tarby worms as the bait. I mainly have caught bass, but bream, catfish, carp, and other fishes will go after the tarby worm. The white eagle is a beautiful bird that catches its fish with a lot of grace and ease. Or at least it appears that way to see them grab a fish from the waters like they do. I don’t think the tarby worm fishermen will make anyone’s fishing technique graceful-looking, but you should have a little luck catching fish, if you use tarby worms as the bait. The best part of all is the price for the tarby worms their self. Since they’re free, it makes owning a couple of tarby worm trees well-worth the price.

I should be having my first batch of tarby worms around the 4th of July. The worms are only around for about 1 week to 10 days. So you have to plan your fishing trips around Mother Nature, if you plan to use tarby worms in your bait tackle boxes. After the tarby worms have ate all the leaves from the trees, they disappear from sight. The trees then begin growing new leaves and will be full of leaves in no time at all. Once all the new leaves get fully grown, the tarby worms will hatch for a 2nd time and make one more seasonal appearance. This is your 2nd opportunity to get a few tarby worms to take fishing with you. I love to fish with them and I can’t wait until early July to go fishing with the tarby worms that will soon be appearing in my backyard. Let me know if you have seen or heard about tarby worms or the tarby worm trees? Also, please share your fishing stories on the success or lack of success you had; while using tarby worms as your bait.

Roadside Flowers

This picture was taken along a stretch of U.S. Highway 421. I was curious when I seen this photo, because in my state of Georgia, they grow these flowers along the Interstate too. I never knew what kind of flowers these were. According to a person that replied to this picture on another website, they said these are poppies. Is this correct? Are the flowers in this picture mainly made up of poppies?

I think these “poppies” or the flowers in the photo would look great around the home. They must be pretty easy to grow, since the road crews just dump out the seeds and these beautiful flowers just start growing up toward the skies. It doesn’t appear no real care or maintenance is needed for these types of flowers. I think homes that have long driveways, could grow these along the sides of their driveways.

All flower gardens don’t have to be put in a box-like shape and weeded every few days. A few rows of these flowers out grow the weeds and probably help to control their growth. The colors are awesome looking in this photo, but to see these flowers growing in person, it’s a much more scenic view than any camera can really show or relay to our eyes. I would like to start a flower garden around my home, but I want the flowers that are easiest to maintain.

It was the Juniper bonsai tree that was featured in a big Hollywood movie most of us have seen. There are many other types of bonsai trees that exist in the garden area in stores or can be found online for sale. I didn’t know what a bonsai tree was, before I seen this one certain movie that featured this beautiful and unique tree. Do you know the movie I am talking about? You may remember how to paint a fence, wash a car, or catch a fly with chop sticks better than the bonsai tree part of this movie. Now do you know the famous movie that featured a bonsai tree? If you’re thinking about standing on one leg and doing a “crane kick“; then I believe you know which movie has the bonsai tree. It was a movie our school librarian showed to us in the 6th grade and the first time I ever seen it. So it’s not a recent movie, but still comes on TV a lot. The bonsai tree movie was the Karate Kid and it’s still one of my top 10 movies of all time. Anytime I see or hear about a bonsai tree, I quickly think about actor Pat Morita teaching Ralph Macchio, the art of clipping and shaping a bonsai tree. A lot of the bonsai trees don’t look like the one in the movie, but they’re still a part of the bonsai tree family.

ProFlowers - Juniper Bonsai Tree

If you have any trouble locating a bonsai tree in the garden department at a hardware, home supply, or other retail store that sells trees, flowers, and other plants. You can look online and find a large variety of bonsai trees at ProFlowers.com. This is where I will probably go; when I decide to get my own bonsai tree. I really like the Indian Hawthorn Bonsai tree. Be sure to check this one out, before you buy any other kinds of bonsai trees. I first want to own a Juniper bonsai tree (like the one in the Karate Kid movie), but the Indian Hawthorn Bonsai would be my 2nd choice. Overall, all of these bonsai trees are beautiful and you can’t go wrong with any selection.

Did you come online today to learn more about asbestos, how to recognize it, and want to see if any is in your home now? Well you’re not alone and I came to my computer on April 10th with the same intentions too. I found it a little difficult and time consuming to work through different search terms for asbestos in the big 3 search engines. A lot of the information that was coming up, was dealing with attorneys for mesothelioma or a health care provider or system for someone that has meso from being exposed to asbestos products. I found that quiet shocking; since mesothelioma is a terminal illness and people don’t survive or beat meso. We have more information online for dealing with the awful after effects of mesothelioma; than we do for asbestos awareness and prevention. If we could get more people aware of products and structures that are likely to contain asbestos, we can prevent and stop this form of cancer from spreading.

A professional crew of workers that are asbestos removers can look a little scary to the average home owner. It is a good idea for people that work in the construction industry or have a job with an asbestos removal company; that they should take precautions and limit their exposure to asbestos. I found out at: http://www.asbestosregisters.co.uk/ that being exposed to asbestos does not result in cancer. It’s actually the small fibers that break down and often these very tiny asbestos fibers get inhaled. The people that breathe in too much or get exposed to these small fibers while they’re breaking down, will be in the high risk category. Just in the UK alone, they’re expecting 2,000 deaths from just the people at work inhaling these tiny fibers. How many others living in the United Kingdom will contract mesothelioma through other contacts or from their own home? What about the countries that are not as developed, prepared, or versed in asbestos dangers as the UK currently is?

Over at: http://www.asbestosregisters.co.uk/, I was able to see a way to breakdown asbestos in 4 ways. You have to start somewhere and I think these 4 classifications will answer or fit-in to most people’s concerns about asbestos.

*Analyze Materials You Feel Contain Asbestos

*Removing Asbestos Contaminated Materials When You Know They Are Present

*Take Asbestos Surveys To See What You Know and What You Didn’t Know

*Asbestos Awareness Training For Everyone

This is only a starting point and guidelines for someone that can’t find any prevention or asbestos facts online. Any information that you do find and discover online. Please try to verify the information from a 2nd source or website. We are all going to have to learn this stuff together as we go forward and wait for better prevention and removal efforts to develop. The best advice I can give my readers, is to check out the forum over at: http://www.asbestosregisters.co.uk/ and ask your asbestos questions there. They have a guy that will answer your questions. If he can’t answer your specific question right away, he will go in search for the correct answers. His knowledge and expertise in this very frightening field, will give homeowners and workers more knowledge, so they can avoid any long term exposures that could result in death. 

Now, going back to the title of my blog post: “How Do I Know If Its Asbestos?”. You don’t! Stay away from any material or building structures that you see as something that could contain asbestos. The good news is that being exposed to asbestos doesn’t result in mesothelioma. It’s being exposed to these tiny fibers that are breaking down, that will cause the health problems. No way for us concerned citizens to know which asbestos are safe and which asbestos are harmful. Just keep away and stay as far from this material as possible. If asbestos is in your way and keeping you from living a normal life, be sure to hire an asbestos removal company, so no one will get hurt in the process.

There are numerous designers of fixtures for your home. Murray Feiss is one such designer who works to create a flow and calmness throughout the home with his various lights and fixtures. Homes today are more functional for a growing family and actually getting smaller. The AMerican economy has seen it’s share of over priced large homes and now the trend is more minimal and lower in cost.

Adding a few window boxes around the home can be a nice touch. These stylish boxes can really make a home look nice and especially when there is flowers blooming from them. Do you currently have a window box under one of your windows? Adding one of these window boxes really isn’t that costly or hard to do either. Many homeowners would be surprise to see how easy it is to install one of these beautiful boxes under one of their windows. These boxes will work with any home and you can determine what flowers or plants to put in them later. A lot of that will depend on the amount of sunlight your window gets each day.

Some green thumbs out there may want to grow vegetables in their window plant boxes. Placing these boxes in a good spot around your home and keeping them watered regularly can provide some good homegrown vegetables for you and your family. A lot of people will turn these window boxes into garden window boxes. Some may even have more luck growing food from these plant containers; than they would if they used a piece of ground at in the yard.

For those that already own window boxes, do you prefer to grow plants, flowers, or vegetables? If you prefer to not grow anything in your new window boxes, you could always use artificial plants and flowers to decorate them. I’m sure there is a lot of homeowners that do that already with their window boxes planters. I personally think adding flowers is the best way to go. You can select one kind or one color of flowers or you can get creative and use a variety of different colored flowers in your window flower boxes.  Either way these boxes will be an upgrade for your windows and the overall looks of your house. Now is a good time to start thinking about adding one or a few of these to your home. If you start now, you will have plenty of time to get them up and installed, before the flowers start blooming this spring.

Is the man of your house planning to do some touch-ups on and around the home this year? These home repairs are a bit more easier when he has help. It’s great to see families working together and the man of the house doesn’t always need someone with muscles or another man to help him. The wife or daughter could roll up their sleeves this year and give the hubby or dad an extra pair of hands to work with. For households that are larger than just 2 or 3 family members; these home improvement jobs can be a snap if everyone participates. After all, each family member has all the benefits living in a good home, so everyone living under the same roof should get out and help with these home repairs.

A communication system can be handy with the outdoor chores that need to get done this year. Using your cell phones is one way to keep everyone in contact, so the outdoor jobs can get done faster. If everyone doesn’t have cell phones; perhaps these bright yellow 2 way radios could work just as good. If dad is up on the roof and needs something handed to him or thrown up to him on the roof, he could make a simple call to a cell phone or a walkie talkie to a member that is down on the ground. If you ever did any work on the roof before, you know how aggravating it can be to forget something or have to keep climbing up and down the ladder to retrieve tools, material, or other items that are needed on top of the house. A cell phone or a pair of two way radios would save a lot of steps in situations like these.

Obviously if you’re dong these fix-up jobs, you do want to put most of your money in the home improvement tasks. Spending money for the neighbor, an extended relative, or someone else outside the household, to help dad, isn’t the smartest way to go. If others in the home will help, that will leave more money for getting these touch-ups done cheaper. Purchasing the walkie talkies isn’t that big of a deal and I found these at Buy.com for under $20. They usually have a sale on various items a family could use to fix up the home. Any homeowner that has a tight budget on the home improvements, will do the most good by getting others in the home to help with the labor and seeking out some of these cheap tools that are available online.

I wish all the husbands and dads good luck this year on finding that help. The rest of you can roll up your sleeves and make this year’s home repairs a family project. Have fun everyone and don’t forget to communicate a little in between the hammering and sawing that will take place at your house this year. The family that works together is the family that stays together!

You can buy patio cushions that are made from all weather material.

How nice it would it be to have your own pond? It really isn’t that expensive to create your own pond in your front yard. It’s a great way to give your home a little spunk and it’s a worthy home improvement touch-up that any home owner could do. None of the pond materials or supplies are that expensive. That goes for the pond pumps too. It’s just a matter of finding a good place in the front or back yard to have your very own pond. The kids will love it and you will too. Once you get your pond set up with the pumps, lining, and clean water in place; it will be time to go fish shopping then. I think this would be the best part and choosing which fish to put in your own personal pond. The fish aquariums inside the home are not that big and you can’t really buy the larger fish for them. That’s the beauty of these outdoor ponds, you can select the bigger fish, that you normally couldn’t do with the typical fish aquariums. I’m surprised more people don’t have ponds and most people probably think they’re hard to maintain. Once you get them set up properly, they pretty much take care of their self with very little maintenance needed. The water recycles through the pumps, so you’re not spending a fortune on the water bill each month. We don’t have a pond at my house yet, but I think it’s something we will consider doing this spring.

There are various Direct TV to help with your TV

A brand new television that is 40 inches or larger cries for the best sports and movies you can find on the tube. If you keep your current cable plan; then you’re probably missing out on some quality TV programs. You will get all the movies and sports you could imagine if you select DirectTV to carry your television programming for your new TV. A new television isn’t going to be anything that great, no matter how large it is, if you don’t have a ton of channels to choose from. It’s the TV provider that can make the biggest splash on Christmas morning and choosing Direct TV would be a smart choice for that splash this year!

A nice lawn decoration that all home owners can choose to add in their yards right now is one of these stone benches that is a nice centerpiece in the front yard. One of these nice looking benches is perfect for those that have big yard to work with. Some people will use one of these garden benches to sit by their backyard gardens, so they can have a place to sit and watch the gardens grow in the evening time. These benches offer a great place for you or company to sit on; while you’re doing activities out in the yard.

One of the memorial benches you can purchase online or at a nearby store are perfect for placing next to grave sites of the family and friends we have lost in life. I have a good friend that past away about 10 years ago and his family decided to get one of these nice memorial benches to place by his grave site. You do need to check with the people running the cemetery first, to see if a memorial bench is acceptable under their terms and conditions. Most cemeteries will allow family members to place one of these benches in the general area of where their loved ones are laid to rest. You can even get something inscribed on one of these memorial benches, so others can see who the bench is being dedicated to.

The stone garden benches or a bench you can get placed next to a loved one at a graveyard is a nice touch. These benches are great just from a “looks” standpoint, but they also offer the benefit of giving people a chance to sit down and relax. I wouldn’t mind having one of these nice stone benches in my front yard and I think I would like to plant a few flowers and plants around my bench at home.

It’s true, you can buy furniture online and it’s not as hard as you think it might be. Online furniture companies are ready to ship their furniture to your door in a quick and safe way, so no damage gets done in the shipping process. Even after you calculate the extra costs for shipping; you may still be able to find furniture online cheaper than going to a furniture store in your local area. Don’t over look the places online when you get ready to buy some new furniture for your home.

My Love for the “L” Sofas

You can find furniture for your home

We are lucky that buying and selling things online is legal. Shopping from your computer or just browsing at items you would like to buy is really convenient. People that are picky with their taste, can shop online and look at as many things as they want to; until they find the right item they want to buy. Furniture is a perfect example of this. How much driving and walking would you have to do, if you were in the market for a new living room suit or bedroom suit for your home? Browsing through the 1000′s of items online for your home furnishings; insures you will find the exact piece of furniture you want and at the best price possible. There is no doubt I will be getting me an “L” couch or corner sofa one day and I will find the exact one I want online before I buy it.

An indoor planter or outoor planter is a nice touch for a home owner and plants are a good way to decorate a house. Everyone will have to do touch-ups around the home at one point in their lives. These can range from very simple things to fix and replace or other things that can be very costly and time consuming. For the ones that are just looking to make the home look better for neighbors and guests should consider some of these High End Planters you can buy in stores or online.

The Window Box Planters(like in the picture) do add that extra special touch. I love the way these box planters set off a window or home. They give the appearance of someone that has did some serious home improvements around the house; when in fact they are relatively cheap and easy to install. If you and your family are thinking about some home modeling improvements; then don’t forget these nice looking Planters you can add to your checklist of items.

You don’t have to be in the process of home improvements to buy one of these Decorative Planters. There are lots of other good reasons to add a couple of these around your home. Usually there is someone in the household that has that green thumb. Perhaps you’re the person that likes to grow plants and vegetables around your home. I love growing tomatoes and green beans at my house. These are two items that you just can’t buy in the store that have that good, home grown taste. We have a big yard, so it’s easy for me to find ground space for my garden. Those that live in tight spaces with little yard room or if you live in an apartment, you may have to grow some of your veggies in pots. I know people that grow real nice tomatoes in garden pots or Garden Planters and it works out well for them. Especially for people that just want a tomato for a sandwich or a couple of green tomatoes to make fried green tomatoes. If you haven’t ever tried to eat fried green tomatoes before; then you’re missing out. It’s a bit of an acquired taste, but once you get hooked on them, you will crave them every winter. You don’t find green tomatoes for sale much at the market or at a produce stand, so growing them yourself is the only way to obtain them sometimes. I must go now, I suddenly have a craving for some fried green tomatoes and need to see if there is any around.

How many rooms in your home do you have a Ceiling Fan rotating around in? I hope your answer isn’t too high, because for each one of those fans you have hanging in your house, there is some cleaning work that has to be done on them. I’m not sure how it does it, but the top of those ceiling fan blades is a magnet for dirt and dust. Anyone that owns a ceiling fan knows exactly what I am talking about and it’s incredible to see the amount of dust that can collect on them. You would think that dust would just fly off when the fan was on or in action, but for some reason it just stays glued up there.

you can easily clean your Ceiling Fans .

I do like the stores that sell ceiling fans and when they have a nice selection they have took out of the box and hung up for customers to see in action. Normally you can walk down an aisle and be under several ceiling fans at one time. It just looks like a place you could lay down and take a nap; when you see these stores that display them like this. I’m sure there is an employee that has to climb up on a ladder and keep them looking so clean for the customers. As nice as they look in stores, you can find better selections and prices if you do your buying online or check out the ones Hansen Wholesale Ceiling Fans has to offer. Just remember the more fans you have and the more blades each one has; means that much more cleaning you will have to do. If you need to make a tough decision on two fans that you like and one has 5 blades and one has 4 blades; then by all means go with the 4 blade fan! I have seen some with 3 blades, so don’t over look them either.

Do you have any good tips on cleaning them? Is there a product we can spray or wipe on to prevent the collection of dirt and dust on the blades? I would certainly be interested in a product that helped my ceiling fan to stay clean. Maybe someone could just invent one that has special fan blades that would not collect dust as much. I think the dirt-free ceiling fan would be a good seller and I would take mine down and replace it; if there was such a thing. Please be sure to reply back with any helpful tips or advice on how to prevent or clean them dusty blades that are 8 feet from the floor.