Category Archives: For the home

Deer repellent tactics to protect your garden and plants

Spring and summer are characterized by lush leaves and budding flowers. However, they are also the seasons when hungry deer emerge from the woods to snack on delicacies found within the garden. Deer repellent tactics will keep deer out of the yard without causing them any permanent harm.

One way to deter deer is by installing a fence around the garden. The fence will need to be at least eight feet high because hungry deer will not hesitate to jump high in order to get some food. Thorny branches or netting should be interspersed with the fencing to provide further deterrent.

Fencing can be quite expensive, depending on the size of the fence and material used. Many homeowners will not have the necessary skills to install a fence themselves, so they will need to contact a professional. The labor charges in addition to the cost of materials can make this quite an investment. There is also no guarantee that a very hungry deer will not leap over this tall fence.

Try using repellent sprays in the garden as an alternative deterrent method. Sprays can be concocted at home using ingredients like soap or rotten eggs and water. There are many recipes on the Internet so try some of these or ask a local garden expert for recommendations.

The sprays sold online and in stores may contain chemicals or they may be entirely organic. Purchase one to treat the perimeter of the area or select the variety that is sprayed directly on the vegetables and flowers. Since these products are low-cost, test out some different brands to find the one most effective at deterring the deer in the area.

Incorporate deer repellent plants and flowers amongst the other items in the garden. Check online to see what shrubs and flowers will grow best in the garden’s climate. A deer may nibble on some of these but will then get a nauseous feeling in its stomach. The condition is temporary, but it will cause the deer to think twice before chewing on flowers and plants in the garden again.

There is a form of deer repellent for every budget and garden size. Fencing, sprays, and certain flowers and shrubs that deter deer are each effective in their own way. Find out what works best in your garden so you can rest easy that those prize roses will not be a deer’s next snack.

There are many ways you can protect your garden from deer. Visit our site and read about deer repellent recipes, deer resistant plants, studies and surveys about the variety of repellents and what others are doing. You can also post your questions and get answers.

Find the type of outdoor fire pit design that fits your needs

Outdoor fire pits has become a staple in ornamenting the backyard either for its function or aesthetic contributions or both. There are different types of outdoor fire pits one may choose from depending on his taste, lifestyle and financial capability. Gas fire pits are also one of the options to choose from these days.

Wok-shaped tray. This is the simplest design for outdoor fire pits. It is made of metal, usually copper, and shaped like a wok tray that sits in a metal stand. This is ideal for barbecues, roasting marshmallows and grill parties on a warm summer afternoon.

Chimenea. This is perhaps the most stylish and popular design for outdoor fire pits. Traditionally made from ceramic and looks like an old potbelly stove. It is also a simple design. The fire is made in its round body or belly and the fuel is fed trough an opening in the front. It is small but its recognizable round body makes it attractive to homeowners. Chimeneas, are usually used for decorative purposes and heating up a small room. Today, one can find chimeneas made from cast iron and other metals.

In-ground or Permanent fire pit. This type of out door fire pit is permanently dug hole in the ground. This type of outdoor fire pits is lined with stones or fire bricks or a combination of both which insulate the fire from the soil. The height of in-ground fire pits extends above ground. It can be made stylish to become a centric feature of the patio or used for grilling.

Portable fire pits. A good example of this design is a copper bowl or container that sits on metal supports and provides a dish making an open fire. This type of design is perfect for bringing along in the woods, beach, dessert or the backyard and is suitable for cooking.

The types of designs mentioned above come in different shapes, color, sizes, and design materials. Technology has also made an important contribution in the evolution and advancement of outdoor fire pit designs. Aside from the usual wood and gas fuels, fire pits can now be lit using electricity, glass or gel. Outdoor gas fire pit manufacturers have patented designs to fit the lifestyle of the affluent and pompous.

Whatever design, outdoor fire pits will continue to be part of the household design. They enliven outdoor living, entertain households and bring about a different feel and aura to the place they illuminate.

Creating a playground in your yard

Have you been trying to figure out a way to get your kids out of the house? Let’s face it—these days kids just aren’t as active as they used to be, and when we are so busy ourselves, it can be hard to get them out of the house and away from the TV, the Xbox, or any other of the gadgets that we’ve bought to distract them.

One way to inspire your children is to start putting together a homemade playground in your backyard. Look outside and think about it. A lot of us have nothing more in the yard but a flat, pristine stretch of lawn or some gravel and a broken down car. Not exactly inspiring for play, so unless you want them wandering off who knows where. It’s time to make something in the direct vicinity of your home that will drag them outdoors.

Here are some simple things to get you started.

Trampolines

A trampoline is probably the simplest way to immediately make your yard a kid’s heaven, and even if you didn’t add anything else, they will be tempted to run out and use it for years, even far into their teens. Trampolines are an amazing source of physical activity that have proven to be even more beneficial than a cardio routine, and kids like to do all sorts of stunts on them, making them lot of fun.

Just be sure to consider safety first when choosing the model for your yard. A lot of the older ones have proven to be quite dangerous, so look for a newer design, like the springless trampoline.

Slides

What kid doesn’t love a slide? This is a rather cheap addition to your background playground. If you’ve already got a pool installed, this can be a way to really make it that much more of a blast.

Swing sets

While certainly not as versatile or captivating as a trampoline, swing sets will always hold their allure for children. A moment in your backyard giving them a push can be the simplest of bonding experiences, and you will likely find yourself sitting in the seat for a little rocking back and forth as well. If you’ve got a big back yard and some sturdy trees, save some money by putting up a strong rope or tire swing.

Pools

I realize not everyone can afford an Olympic size swimming pool in the backyard, but all you need is something that can hold some water. There are plenty of above-ground pools that provide plenty of fun for kids who just want to get wet in the heat and splash around a little bit.

Those are just a few simple ideas. The point is to start thinking about how you can make your backyard more inviting to kids, and then you won’t have to nag on them to get them outside—they’ll go all on their own. Sure, they’ll still spend some time playing games on the Xbox, but their lives will begin to alternate between the inside and outside world rather than resembling the life of a couch cushion.

Start adding components like these one at a time as money allows—trampoline, swing, pool—and before you know it, your backyard will be the most exciting place in town.

Nature wallpaper

As expressed in an earlier guest post, having the ability to change out your computer’s wallpaper is a way to express yourself, and to maybe have a window to another world while you are stuck being a desk jockey.

There are many sites to find quality nature wallpaper images for your computer, especially some fantastic pictures of animals, so I thought I would visit many and see what I liked, and what I did not like, about the different sites out there. This is far from a comprehensive list, but is an overview of several, and I did find significant differences between them.

For me, the best sites for nature wallpaper need to have (or not have) several things. First, the site needs to offer good quality images. This is generally something that they all do as there are many great nature photographers out there. However, it is not always clear where the sites get their images that they offer to you.

In addition to good images, there should be diversity. Does the site live up to its promise of offering diversity in the images? For example, at least one of the sites I looked at had long lists of categories of images, with several categories having no pictures. No doubt a work in progress, but if they don’t have the images, maybe they are ahead of themselves in having the category posted.

Finally, are they luring me to their site with the promise of great images only to bombard me with tons of ads and pop-ups? I really hate that and will never suggest a site to you if they look “spamy.”

Using these general guidelines, I created a subjective rating scale of 1-5, with five being the best quality sites, and 1 being the worst (sites with a 0 triggered my McAfee warning, and so are worse than not-recommended). Here are the sites and my rankings (in no particular order):

National Geographic
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/wallpaper/download
Overall rating: 5
How can you do better than the photography at National Geographic? Amazing photographs made available to you without a lot of outside ads. You do get lots of NG ads, but that is understandable. In addition to photographs from the magazines, users can upload and share their photos too. You can create an account and collect images that you like. A great photographic resource.

Flickr.com/explore/
Overall rating: 5
Flickr (by Yahoo) is a photography-lover’s site where people can post and share their images. This site is a goldmine if you are looking for great, high quality, and diverse images for your desktop. Because it contains images of people who just love photographs, there are no annoying ads to wade through. However, many of the images are for sale, and you should respect the copyright policies that are listed there. But for getting unusual images for free to spice up your desktop and workspace, this site and Picasa web, get the highest rating.

Picasaweb.google.com
Overall rating: 5
Picasa web is Google’s version of photography sharing, and all of the same can be said for it as was said for Flickr–great images available to you for free for your enjoyment. The same caveats apply, respect the copyright wishes of the photographers and do not use for commercial purposes without permission. But both sites have fantastic images, with more added all the time.

Naturewallpaper.net
Overall rating: 3
This site would have rated higher except for the annoying pop-up ad when you first enter, and the flashing ads throughout. If you can ignore them, some of the images here are very good. They offer images in different resolutions for different sized monitors, which is nice. If you look hard enough (around the big banner ad at the top) you can find links to see the highest rated images and most popular, but you do have to navigate around ads.

http://www.free-naturewallpaper.com/
Overall rating: 4
This site came to myattention based upon a comment below, and I am glad it did. This is a good quality site for images. The image quality is variable, but there are many categories well defined and organized, and while there are ads on the site, they are not too distracting. I note that they also have a donate button, and given that we all need to make a bit to cover the daily coffee bill, I would rather give a small donation that way than have more ads. So, by all means, if you take a little, leave a little.

naturewallpaper.eu
Overall rating: 3
About 13 broad categories of images. The site is clean without too many ads, however some of the linked sites are a bit more spamy, so you might avoid them. I really like that they offer images in different resolutions for different sized monitors. Images nice quality, but not a huge number available.

http://freewallpapers.to/
Overall rating: 3
Another clean-looking site. This site has fewer categories overall, but more diversity. For example, this site has space images, fine art, and digital art. However, their overall collection of nature-themed images is not huge. And, the images are broken into “animal wallpapers” and “nature wallpapers,” so it is a bit harder to navigate I think.

thewallpapers.org/nature/index.php
Overall rating: 1
This site crashed my browser several times. There are multiple pop-up ads. It is not always clear when you click on something in the site that you are going to get re-directed to another site. In short, stay away.

natureondesktop.com
Overall rating: 2
Nice images, but navigation in the site is difficult. Could not find easy categories for sorting of images.

natureswallpaper.blogspot.com
Overall rating: 4
This site has more of a “home-grown” feel, like the person putting up the images shot most of them personally. While they are all nice, many do not have that “professional” look, which is actually nice. There are just a few categories of images listed across the top of the home page. Spending a bit of time digging through the site will likely result in finding some treasures. I personally found the number of flashing ads and scrolling images when you first open the site a bit annoying, and it almost cost the site a rating point from me (that will teach ‘em).

animalwallpaper.info
Overall rating: 4
Nice clean site with quality images of wildlife. Many categories listed, but there are often few, or even no, images in each one. For example, there is one image in the “Gerenuk” category (I had to look that up, it is a species of antelope found in East Africa).But there are no images in the Beetles category, a subject that several of the other sites cover well. The site gets a rating of 4 for ease of navigation, but almost got a 3 for such problems.

jeffreymunro.com/amazingpics/main.php
Overall rating: 5
The author of this site states that he was tired of visitng wallpaper sites and being bombarded by ads (amen), so he created this site. It is clean and ad-free which is refreshing. There are several main categories of images, with the dominate style being landscapes. I found few images of animals, and those were underwater shots. Some very nice pictures and a great place for landscapes.

Elitesavers.com
Overall rating: 0
This site triggered my McAfee warning. Avoid.

So, there you have it. Hope this is useful to you.

Outdoor shower enclosures for a unique bathing experience

Naturally, most people prefer to take showers in the privacy of their own home. However, outdoor shower enclosures are increasing in popularity, especially in warm locales. Though most don’t take their usual shower outdoors, these enclosures have a number of helpful uses.

Often, these types of showers do not utilize the typical shower wall panels. Still, it is important to make sure that the enclosure is protected from water damage, with a lining or painted seal. It is important that the shower has the ability to drain properly and that the floor is water sealed or built from a non-permeable material like concrete.

An outdoor shower can be built by the handy homeowner, or can be created by one’s favorite contractor. Before starting, it is important that one decide what type of features they would like their shower to have and to plan out their design. There are several things to consider when designing a shower, including whether or not it will be enclosed, where the water source is, where the shower should be located, and what it will be used for. Some outdoor showers are not enclosed, but many people prefer them to be for privacy. One must be sure that they can access water in their preferred location and that they can easily install a shower head without too much piping and reconfiguring of their home water system.

These showers can be used for a number of things, but they are especially popular with homeowners near a beach. An outdoor shower can help one get rid of the sand on their feet and body before they enter the house. A shower like this can also be great for a pet owner to use for giving Fido a bath without making a mess of the house. The shower can be used for children who are dirty after spending the day outside, or for dirty shoes to prevent tracking into the home.

Boneblogger: Science and the outdoors

Exploring the natural world