How To Build A Professional Pond And Waterfall

Who wouldn’t want to invest in a water feature that will last for decades? If you are going to spend several thousand dollars on a waterfall and pond, don’t you want it to be trouble free and add equity to your home? If so, then you do not want to cut corners by using a rubber liner, along with the accompanying cheap plastic biofalls, filter, skimmer and energy wasting sump pumps.

I have been building concrete and rebar reinforced rock waterfalls and ponds for over 25 years and have never had one crack or leak. Hundreds of “do-it-yourselfers” have professionally constructed their own water features with the help of my Construction Manual, and they will never have to worry about the high cost of maintenance that is a given when using a pond liner.

Pond liner contractors boast that their liners have twenty to thirty year warranties, depending on the manufacturer of the liner itself. What they don’t tell you is that the liner is warranted against factory defects only. They won’t tell you that twenty to thirty percent of ponds built with liners leak within the first year from causes such as rats, mice, ground squirrels, gophers, chipmunks, woodchucks, tree roots, stretching and punctures from heavy rocks placed on the liners, not to mention dogs, raccoons, and many other animals. The list goes on.

In addition, unlike the rocks that are secured with mortar in concrete constructions, pond liners are covered with loose rock, including the construction of the waterfall. Consequently, it presents a hazard for both children and adults who attempt to climb on the rocks. The loose rocks placed around the pond’s edge and in the waterfall attract burrowing rodents, snakes and other animals. Because the rocks are not well-secured with mortar, as in concrete construction, they can easily shift and reveal the unsightly liner underneath.

Liner ponds utilize gravity filters that require frequent cleaning; and this is a hard, messy and stinky job. Liner ponds also utilize sump pumps to circulate the water. Sump pumps use sixty percent more energy than the centrifugal pumps that are used in concrete construction and are normally installed close to the edge of the pond. Consequently, they do not properly circulate the water, so all the fish waste and debris ends up collecting and rotting on the bottom, causing serious problems to the aquatic life. In addition, sump pumps have a short life span and most have only one or two-year warranties.

With concrete construction, two anti-vortex drains are installed in the center of the pond; so fish waste and other particulates gravitate to the drains and are sucked up and collected in a pressurized bead filter. This type of filter only requires the turning of a handle once or twice a week to back-flush the water, which insures a clean, crystal-clear pond.

Concrete ponds use professional pool skimmers to remove leaves and debris before it has a chance to waterlog and settle to the bottom. Concrete construction costs only twenty percent more than liner ponds and they will last for decades. With the proper instructions, any “do-it-yourselfer” can build their own water feature by hiring professional subcontractors and ordering their own concrete company and rebar installers.

In as little as one to two weeks, you can have a pond and waterfall that will last for decades and cost only twenty percent more than a leak-prone rubber liner pond. Plus, you will experience a nearly maintenance-free water feature.

Heirloom Seeds to Save Agriculture and the Planet

Today we are facing environmental catastrophe unknown to our grandparents or great grandparents. People have not been more concerned about environmental effects in our known human history. And if we were to ask, to what do we owe this great rise in consciousness, we will have to look at our own actions and how they have damaged the earth.

Had it not been so greatly threatening to the survival of humankind, it would have provided amusement that the human species, always bragging about its own superiority over other animals, has destroyed their own habitat doing what they called manifestations of their superior intellect. In reality, they failed to understand the limitations of their knowledge. They failed to anticipate the consequences of their action. They failed to act responsibly towards the environment and even their own species, many of whom are living, even with an abundance of total production, without the bare necessities.

Let us look at agriculture and how human superiority complex worked to establish damaging agricultural practices. The world needs food, we are told. We were fed with the now debunked Malthusian theory that there were too many people to feed. And even though grains are stored, hoarded or simply dumped in the ocean, we were fixated with improving productivity, which led us to modern agriculture, when the distribution issue remained unfixed, as it still does.

Modern agriculture brought us high yield seeds, genetically modified. But not just high yields, these seeds which we have to buy from multinational giants have other conditions attached to them. These seeds need a controlled environment. An unexpected rain or drought can ruin the whole harvest. So at all points, farmers stand to lose a lot. Also, because extreme control is needed, water supply to the fields too needs to be controlled well and so such crops need a strong irrigation system. So dams are erected, which cause severe damage to the biodiversity of a region. Then such seeds are often genetically modified to be sterile, which does not allow a farmer to use the seeds from the yield for further cultivation and the pollen from such seeds, when it pollinates with plants of the same species, causes sterility in the offspring seeds as well. So this is a threat against which a farmer could resort to a seed bank for preservation of varieties which may soon be lost thanks to the assault from the multinationals on the grains.

There is more than one reason for preserving heirloom seeds against genetically modified seeds. An Heirloom seed is the result of generations of cultivation of farmers. Farmers have chosen the best varieties, interbred the varieties to produce a superior variety and cultivated them, and the genetic makeup of these seeds have survived long in this environment without causing damage to it. So there is an absolute necessity to preserve heirloom seed which may soon be lost. Growing your own food is a good decision that will keep you healthy and boost your confidence. With a seed kit you too can now grow your own food, eat healthy and also do a favor to the environment.

Energy Saving Tips You Need to Know

There are a lot of things you can do to save energy every day. Whether you’re looking to conserve energy at home, to help lower your heating bills, or interested in making a big environmental impact, there is a plethora of information available online to get you started.

After reviewing many of the resources available, it’s clear that you can easily get caught up in so much information. To help you sort it out and get you on the fast track to energy savings, we’ve created a list five tips to jump your conservation efforts.

Energy Saving Tip 1

Make sure you turn off all lights and appliances when they aren’t in use. ALWAYS. This is one of the main causes of energy waste and skyrocketing energy bills. Turning off lights and electronic devices both in your home and elsewhere will always help to improve energy conservation.

Energy Saving Tip 2

Turning down the temperature of your home by just one degree can drastically decrease your energy consumption while also helping to lower your home heating bill. You can also consider improving some of your home and window insulation to help you keep the warm air inside during winter and the cool air inside during summer.

Energy Saving Tip 3

If you have the option for choosing lightweight packaging when purchasing products, remember that the less packaging involved typically means there was less energy used to produce it. Making smart decisions is one of the best ways you can help improve energy conservation on a global scale.

Energy Saving Tip 4

Rethinking your travel schedule is another great way to save. Everyone has last minute (and late night) trips to the store, for example, but if you’re able to run 4 errands in one trip instead of spreading them out over multiple trips, you’ll use a lot less gas while saving money.

These energy saving tips are just the tip of the iceberg, but accomplishing even just a few will get you started saving in no time. What do you think are the most important ways to get started saving energy? Leave your ideas in the comments below!

Franchise Businesses And The Philippine Economy

The success of franchising business in the Philippines didnt only contribute to the growth of the sector, but also the growth of the Philippine economy due to its demand among the wealthy as well as the average Filipino.

Franchise Businesses Today
Unlike in the past in which most franchise business in the Philippines were large businesses such as convenient stores and fast-food restaurants, most franchise businesses in todays market are small businesses such as food-carts and food-stall businesses.

Other than its relatively smaller size compared to convenient stores and restaurants, food-cart and food-stall businesses can also offer a relatively lesser expensive franchising cost, in which according to many business experts in the Philippines today, can go as low as 20,000 Philippine Pesos a franchise.

Because of its affordability, food-cart and food-stall businesses quickly became popular and in-demand in the Philippine market, in which many business experts have said, had largely contributed to the growth and success of the franchise industry in the Philippines.

Contribution to the Economic Growth of the Philippines
The growth of the franchise industry had also contributed to the growth of the Philippine economy, according to the PFA or the Philippine Franchise Association which is the pioneer and biggest franchise association in the Philippines. It is the voluntary self-regulating governing body for franchising in the country with 180 franchisors and allied members nationwide.

According to the PFA, due to the popularity of food-cart and food-stall businesses, the number of Franchising business Philippines in the country had significantly grown from 50 in the 1990s to over a thousand today.

This growth had also reflected on the growth of the Philippine economy. According to them, the massive growth of the franchise industry had created thousands of enterprises and generation of hundreds of thousands of jobs, making franchising an important tool in the countrys economic growth.

Other contribution include the entry into the international market of Filipino brands and concepts, development of the Fair Franchising Standards, which ensures just and mutually beneficial business dealings between franchisor and franchisee, and the growth of the Philippines as the franchise hub of Asia when it comes to the development of franchise concepts.

Franchise businesses, according to many business experts, had also become a popular solution to poverty, in which many Filipinos had invested in acquiring a franchise of a small food-cart business so as to secure their future and the future of their family.

The government had also used franchise businesses as their solution for OFWs or Overseas Filipino Workers who chose to stay in the Philippines with their family rather than to work abroad.

Rent A Car With Your Prepaid Debit Card

It is more convenient to rent a car when taking a vacation or traveling to a new place. Most rent-a -car companies accept a credit card for payment. However, what if you don’t own a credit card? Is there another way to pay the rent-a-car company aside from using cash?

The truth is, prepaid debit cards can be used for car rentals. Below are practical tips on how you can use a prepaid debit card for renting:

Explore your options. Some auto rental companies impose more restrictions than others. By doing your own research, you can find a company that has more lenient policies to non-credit-cardholders. It is to be expected that each branches of the same company has different sets of requirements and rules. The best way to know your options is to call up the company and make inquiries.

Be prepared to wait in line. While paying with a credit card allows instant approval, using a debit prepaid card can mean more waiting time. A credit check may be required and you will be subjected through verification procedures such as checking your ID, driver’s license, auto insurance etc. Be sure to allow some time when arriving or leaving your destination. You don’t want to miss a flight just because you had to stand in line at the car rental counter.

Load up your debit account. See to it that you have sufficient funds in your account. Aside from the cost of the rent, you will need to make a certain amount of deposit ($200 to $500) linked to your checking or savings account. This is known as the “hold” or a “block”. Take note that you will not have access to that portion of your account for 24 hours to 14 days, depending on the car rental company.

Visa or MasterCard. Most merchants who accept prepaid debit card payments require either a Visa or MasterCard logo. If your debit card is not supported by any of these two leading credit card processors, you may have a hard time finding a car rental company who will accept your transaction.

Check your credit rating. Rental car companies usually do a credit check before approving a renter. This is especially true if you do not have a credit card. This will give the company the impression that the reason why you don’t have a credit card is because you have bad credit history.

Since a car is valuable and an expensive property, rental companies will make sure that they are dealing with a trust-worthy customer. If you have bad credit or a poor score, you can get rejected. You can ask a friend or family member with good credit to rent the car and accompany you to the trip.

Prepare necessary documents. Be prepared to submit supporting documents such as a utility bill, proof of auto insurance, return airline ticket, itinerary, driver’s license, and valid IDs. The names and signatures on the documents presented must match with the name and signature on your debit card.

Copyright (c) 2009 Tara Tiemann

Custom Photo Greeting Cards and Relationship Marketing

Have you ever thought of going out on a limb for your customers? Well, congratulations! That is relationship marketing. Simply put, relationship marketing is putting that -human touch- amidst the professional relationship you have with your clients. It is going out an extra mile to give them the satisfaction they want.

Nurturing and maintaining your customer base can mean repeat sales. Customers feel they are king if they know that your service is personalized. I would rather spend a couple of additional bucks if I know that the store where I am purchasing from gives me the kind of special service that most consumers like.

There are many ways where you can implement or practice relationship marketing. One of this is through custom photo greeting cards. Greeting card printing is affordable and creates a personalized approach in dealing with your customers. They feel special if you remember them. You can send your custom photo greeting cards to your customers on their birthdays, anniversaries or on special occasions like Christmas, Halloween or Thanksgiving. Additionally, you can also send them one when there are announcements your company has to say or special events your company has to offer.

Greeting card printing is flexible. You can choose from the wide variety of designs from the ready-made templates online printing companies have in their websites. Though their templates are ready-made, it can easily be customized to suit the specifications you want. They even give free paper sample kits so you would know what paper to choose. Additionally, you can choose to engage the services of their in-house designer to assist you in the conceptualization of your design.

With your custom photo greeting cards, your relationship marketing would give you that edge from competition. And that single quality of your company makes the big difference.

Navigating Asx Stock Screener

One of the most common stock exchanges is the Australia Stock Exchange denoted as ASX. This exchange provides people with several opportunities for investing in stocks in Australia. There are several stock screeners in this stock exchange. ASX came to be in July 2006 after the merger of Sydney Futures Exchange and Australian Stock Exchange and it is today the primary stock market group in Australia. This market can be regarded as a multi asset class and at the same time a vertically integrated exchange group. It is also one of the best ranked exchanges in the world in terms of market capitalization.

The Australian Stock Exchange spans a variety of activities including primary and secondary market services that will include trading and investing, volume and price discovery through Australian Securities Exchange, raising, hedging and allocation of capital flows, transaction settlement for fixed income markets and equities through ASX Settlement corporation subsidiaries and central counter party risk transfer through ASX clearing corporation subsidiaries.

The Australian Stock Exchange functions as a clearing house, market operators, central securities depository and payments system facilitator. It also promotes corporate governance standards among the listed Australian companies, helps in educating retail investors and oversees operating rules compliance. The Australia Stock Screener has a diverse domestic and international customer base and this will include fund managers, market data vendors, retail investors, trading and investment banks, trust and corporate issuers of financial products and listed securities, hedge funds, proprietary traders and brokers, commodity trading advisers and other trading and listing venues.

Australian Stock Exchange seeks to promote confidence in the markets by providing processes, systems as well as services in a fair and reliable manner. This is the most important thing in ASXs success in the long term. The ASX compliance which is a fully owned subsidiary provides the enforcement and monitoring of compliance with the operating rules and this underpins the exchanges activities as an operator in this market. ASX Stock screener is capable of providing users with a variety of stock options to invest in that are listed in the Australian market. These stocks can be viewed in different categories namely stock prices, their history as well as their future among others. The screeners should be able to provide users with many types of options for searching n order to make it easier for them to find the ideal stocks for investing in given their requirements.

Drive Your Dream Shelby Rental Car Around Dream City Las Vegas

Do you have a great love and passion for cars? Do you like to explore new places and do things differently? Here is a unique combination for you: the scintillating entertainment capital of the world, Las Vegas, Nevada in a dream car that is the icon of American muscle and performance! Do not have a Shelby car? No problem! You do not even have to shell out a lot of money for your dream Shelby car, all you need to do is rent one from the rental car companies in Las Vegas. You can pick and choose from a wide choice of exotic, sports and luxury cars from any of the luxury and exotic car rental companies in Las Vegas.

Drive your fantasy Shelby Cobra classic rental car on the Las Vegas strip and capture the hearts of everyone with its amazing performance and sex-appeal. The Serpent as it was called managed to create an impression on car lovers throughout the 1960s and has not lost its appeal till today! Its history dates back to 1949, an Italian design and a great Texas race car driver Carroll Shelby. His dream was to create an affordable sports car combining European looks with American muscle. The AC Shelby Cobra which was in production from 1962 to 1967 is respected as a collector’s item today.

The Shelby Mustang which was manufactured by Ford from 1968 to 1970 was a high performance variant of the Ford Mustang. The 1965, 1966 and 1967 Shelbys were a series of Ford Mustangs specially altered by Carroll Shelby’s company and sold under the marque Shelby Cobra. After the Fifth generation Ford Mustang was introduced in 2007, the Shelby nameplate was revived for new high performance models.

The 1966 model differed in body color (colors included blue, red, green, black and the original white) and trim. The “Le Mans” stripes were continued and other features included special quarter-panel windows and rear air scoops on each side and an optional automatic transmission.

Shelby made a deal with the Hertz Corporation to produce a special line of GT350s for rent which were later sold to the public after their rental-car lives were over. These GT350H cars are quite rare and sought-after today, with some selling for more than $120,000. 1000 such cars were produced: 800 in Raven Black, and 50 each in Candy Apple Red, Wimbledon White, Sapphire Blue and Ivy Green. Each one of them featured gold LeMans stripes and rocker panel stripes.

The new 1967 Mustang was followed by a new Shelby. It featured a 1967 Mercury Cougar tail light panel without the chrome trim, a flip-up spoiler and two sets of air scoops on each side. It was also the first American car to have a factory roll bar.

So have a dream trip to Las Vegas in a Shelby Cobra rental, a fun car with a fascinating history and a distinctive but simple design and make your fantasy come alive!

Freelance Writing Write An Article A Day To Boost Your Career

The Termination

The ending of the article.

In the case of the article about the computer program, it could be how many people have bought the program, when the next version will be available, or where you can buy it. In your personality profile, the ending could be a final quote from the subject.

A circular ending, when you manage to refer to the bait or the explanation in the ending, is satisfying, and is an easy way to wrap the article up without working too hard. Although the BAIT formula seems like a simple formula, it will release your creativity. It gives you a structure, which is always the hardest task in writing an article.

So go ahead. Write an article a day for the next seven days. This simple exercise will do amazing things for your freelance writing career.

Sustainable Agriculture Farmers Going Greener

Sustainable agriculture refers to the creation of a system whereby farmers can farm their land indefinitely. Sort of like a battery that could provide power and be recharged simultaneously. Sustainable agriculture depends upon the ability of farmers to anticipate problems caused both naturally and unnaturally, i.e. as a result of farming, and overcome them.

An example of a natural problem would be drought; an unnatural problem would be nitrogen depletion in the soils as a result of harvesting crops. While man cannot directly control natural occurrences like drought or other extreme forms of weather, they can control their own impact on the land and that’s where the practices of sustainable agriculture are focused.

The common problem of nutrient depletion in the soil can be addressed in a few different ways, some of which are actually feasible right now, some of which are only proposed and depend upon the further development of technology in order to be viable. One possibility is to recycle crop waste and livestock or human manure. Another is to grow legume crops that engage in a symbiotic relationship with nitrogen-fixing bacteria.

A modification of the Haber Process (which produces nitrogen industrially with hydrogen gas) could be sustainable if the hydrogen were obtained from electrolysis powered by wind mills or solar cells instead of getting the hydrogen from natural gas as the Haber Process currently calls for. The last solution, while ideal in many respects, requires greater advancement in the field of genetic engineering.

That solution would be to engineer non-legume crops that produce nitrogen either through symbiosis or without it. Like nutrient depletion problems, the ability to irrigate crops without using up water supplies also demands attention.

Unfortunately for farmers, rainfall does not supply an adequate amount of water for crops in many areas of the world. Irrigation addresses this problem, but when a resource of water is tapped for irrigation and the rate of water use from the resource is greater than rate of water renewal at the source of water, then the water will be depleted. In such situations the sources of water cannot be considered renewable and therefore do not qualify as viable options in creating a sustainable farm.

However, when water can be used at a rate lesser than or equal to the rate of recharge at the source, a farm can be sustainable. Sustainable farms can support those who desire to produce natural products.

Natural products are ones that have not been influenced with inorganic compounds like pesticide or growth hormones in animals. Farmers wishing to market natural meat as a product raise their livestock on sustainable farms in order to be self-sufficient. Some successful farmers, catering to a growing organically inclined market, even sell steaks online.