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Everybody worries about the security of their homes and families. The question is: how can you make your home secure without turning it into Fort Knox? The sad fact is that, if someone is resolute to get into your home, they can and will. Ten years ago, my home was ’secure’, but I was tricked into opening the door and I let my attackers in. No home security system can safeguard against situation like that.

Burglars look for homes that appear vulnerable. Most thieves are opportunistic. In other words, if they see an open door or window or if it is obvious that no one is at home and if there is no noticeable security, then it is worth them trying to get in. Open gates are also an invitation. So are valuable possessions displayed in windows.

It only takes minutes to steal something, you would be astonished. I let two armed robbers into my house and they timed 15 minutes to take everything of value in my house and then a car stopped outside to pick them up. It was night time and I was tied up. It could have been a taxi, which would not have aroused my neighbours’ suspicion.

It is important to show people (opportunistic thieves) that you have a home security system of some type. If you cannot afford a proper, working alarm system, get a dummy siren box with a flashing light. It is not as good as a real system, but it would take a brave or desolate burglar to find out, which means that you cannot tell anyone at all, in case it gets out.

A home security system is well-worth the money you will spend on it. The anxiety of being burgled or even held up, like I was, will make you wish that you were more security aware. But it does not stop when the burglars go away. Then the police come and I spent from midnight until 4AM at the police station. I had to go back at least a dozen times after that. My insurance company had dozens of queries and it took four months to get a payout.

I felt certain that the burglars knew me, and I felt threatened everywhere I went for months. I could not stop glaring into people’s eyes to see if I could recognize my intruders’ (they had masks on, but I saw one man’s eyes). My life has altered radically. I even moved out of my house the next day and never went back again.

As I said before, I had a good system in place, but I had turned it off as soon as I got home and opened the front door to my intruders. My suggestion is to get a wired or wireless home security system and, if you can afford it, get a monitored home security system with at least one surveillance camera, but preferably one on each external wall and one inside in the hall.

Get contact sensors for all external doors and vibration sensors for every windows. Put a personal panic button by all external doors and have garden lights that are switched on by motion or body heat outside. Keep your system activated and be very suspicious of who you open the door to.

Owen Jones, the writer of this article, writes on many subjects, but is currently involved with wired home security systems. If you are interested in Security Systems For Home Use, please click through to our site.

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Are you thinking of throwing a party in the near future, but are not sure whether to have a picnic in the park or a barbecue party at home? People do get pleasure from both kinds of party, although some may have a preference. One of the big differences between a picnic and a barbecue is often the food.

After all, you are usually allowed to have a barbecue and cook food in your own backyard, but there may be restrictions on cooking food on an open fire in a park or picnic site for fire safety purposes, so most people take pre-cooked meats and sandwiches.

There are advantages and disadvantages to both types of party, but we will begin by looking at the food aspect, as most parties centre around food. An advantage of having a picnic is that you will be able to muck in with your fellow revellers more, because you will have already cooked the chicken wings and legs and made the sandwiches the night before.

You will have bags of sausage rolls and small cakes and all you will have to do is put them out for people to help themselves. If you run out of sandwiches, people can do their own with the sliced bread that you will have brought just in case.

The disadvantages of a picnic are that you also have to tie your time up the day before making all the food and you will need transport to get there with your hampers, bottles, flasks, plates, beakers, tissues, flannels towels and whatever else you normally take with you. People may not even like your choice of sandwiches and if you let them make their own with what you provide, there could be a terrible mess. Your sandwiches could also curl up overnight of go off in the heat of the day or in the back of the car. This is a particular danger with pork, chicken and eggs.

You may have to put up a tent or rig up a shelter for those who can not stand strong sunlight. You may also have trouble with ants and wasps and the toilet amenities are often abysmal. Also if it begins to rain, you have little option but to pack up and depart for home or a pub

Barbecue food on the other hand is cooked there and then and cannot spoil. The only danger is under cooking, but it is not too difficult to get it right. There is not much likelihood of preparing vast quantities more than you require either as the chef will see when his food is not being taken away.

This is one of the disadvantages of barbecuing though, someone needs to stand there all day and cook, although this can be done in turns and there is usually a string of men willing to show off their expertise as a barbecue chef.

With a barbecue you have the advantage of cover if it rains and the toilets are better than in the park and if it gets chilly later on in the evening, you could use a patio heater to extend the party.

Owen Jones, the author of this article, writes on many topics, but is currently involved with the outdoor heat lamp. If you are interested in patio heaters too, please click through to Residential Patio Heaters.

Technorati Tags: decks, entertainment, garden, happiness, hobbies, Landscaping, other, outdoors, party, patios, recreation, relaxation, retirement, self help, Uncategorized

Would it not be lovely, at the end of a hard day’s work or on your day off, to relax outdoors on your patio deck? It is a daydream that many people have. But it does not have to be only a dream.You could be actually doing it within a few of weeks. You can either make the deck or patio yourself, if you are useful with your hands or you can hire someone in.

The best thing to do is talk with your contractor about your plans about size and materials. If you want to have a go at making it yourself, take the dimensions to your local builders’ merchant and get them to give you a price. If you need it, they can normally recommend a contractor to you. This can be a good idea, even if it is only to get an idea about price.

There are also plenty of ’standard’ designs available too. You could get a few gardening magazines, you will be able to tell the ones you want by their titles. You could also look on the Internet. There is also designing software for this kind of project, it just depends what you want your input to be.

You could just hand the whole task over to your builder, if that is what you want. However, I would go for a drink with my wife and take paper and pens. Over a drink or two, I would encourage us both to make a few sketchy plans of what we would like. Then you can chat about and amalgamate the designs.

You also have to come to a decision whether you want a raised deck or one at ground level. A raised, wooden deck might help keep the snakes at bay, but a stone patio puts you right in the middle of your garden and flowers.

A consideration, depending on where you live, could be the use of patio heaters. If you think that you may have to use patio heating at various times of the year because of the weather, you might not want your patio deck made of wood. After spending time and money on your new patio deck, you will want to make use of it whether it is a bit chilly or not, which is where the heaters come in.

Furthermore, patio heaters are not that expensive any more and not that dear to run. If you add a mosquito trap and some lighting, you will have a pleasure to enjoy for the rest of your life.

Owen Jones, the author of this piece, writes on many subjects, but is currently involved with commercial patio heaters. If you are interested in patio heaters too, please click through to Residential Patio Heaters.

Technorati Tags: decks, entertainment, garden, happiness, hobbies, Landscaping, other, outdoors, patios, real estate, recreation, relaxation, retirement, self help, Uncategorized

If you own a restaurant, pub or any business using outdoor amenities in a temperate climate zone, then you will know that custom is likely to drop off when the weather gets cooler. You know that you would not sit outside shivering yourself, so you do not count on anyone else to do it. The only answer is to modify the outdoor ambient temperature to an acceptable level.

I have seen this done to astonishing effect in Prague in October when there were heavy snow storms. People wanted to sit outside and enjoy the snow storm as long as they were pretty warm. A person’s primary heat comes from the body and is kept in with decent clothing, but it is nice to have a patio heater near-by just to add a glow to your face and hands.

If you have a business that only opens when it is warm enough, then you have an expensive business and these days expensive businesses do not last long. You need to wring every last cent out of your business real estate and if that means putting patio heaters in, then that is what you ought to do.

Patio heaters come in a range of guises, but they are not that expensive to buy. Sometimes you can rent them too. Most of these outdoor heaters run on bottles of propane or butane gas, but there are mains gas varieties too. There are also electric ones, but they tend to be costly to run, unless you can generate your own electricity.

I think that the best two types are the box type where the gas canister goes inside the apparatus and the heat is directed at foot to knee height and the street lantern style, where the heat comes down from about seven or eight feet in height. The gas cylinder also fits inside these models lowering their centre of gravity and making them more difficult to unintentionally knock over.

These heaters are very safe although patrons should be advised to exercise care if they have young children with them. A standard heater will keep up to two tables and eight people warm enough to enjoy themselves even while it is snowing.

The hire of a few of these patio heaters or even their purchase will soon be off-set by your augmented custom, especially if your competitors are not using them. My wife and I will never forget our time in Prague, when it was snowing, drinking coffee and eating cake outside, watching people go by while we were as warm as toast due to the restaurateur’s prudence in providing patio heaters.

Owen Jones, the writer of this article, writes on many subjects, but is currently involved with the propane outdoor heater. If you are interested in patio heaters too, please click through to Residential Patio Heaters.

Technorati Tags: decks, entertainment, garden, happiness, hobbies, Landscaping, other, outdoors, patios, real estate, recreation, relaxation, retirement, self help, Uncategorized

If you have more than a small town garden, then landscaping your garden will probably be one of your considerations. If you have just acquired the property, or you think that it is time for a garden make-over, there are methods of going about it. The easiest technique of going about planning a garden, is to first take a good look at the landscape of your garden. This can be difficult if the garden is established and in full bloom.

Therefore, it can be better to delay until autumn or winter, so that you can see the true lie of the land. You could make a plan of the garden on graph paper and take a lot of photos too. Identify the photos on the back of them and relate them to the grid on your graph paper. There may be bumps and hollows, potholes, rocky areas and even a marsh or a pond to deal with.

These are probably natural features and if you want to alter them, you will have to tackle the fundamental cause. The feature is only the symptom. Like freckles or spots! If you look at the state of affairs in this way, it makes planning simpler.

For example, a rocky patch probably means that the Earth is throwing rocks up gradually and if you want to clean it up, you will be picking up rocks for the rest of your life. Similarly, if your wet patch is the result of natural drainage from higher ground, you will have to drain it and put in permanent drainage, because it is not going to stop raining for you.

So, you can either work with nature or you will be working against it for the rest of your life. Either that or paying someone else to do it for you. Another point is that the wildlife that uses your area does so because of how it is. If you change the landscape, your current range of wildlife might move on or just die. A lot depends on how much land we are talking about, but in general, I would say that the larger the plot, the more you should leave it alone.

On the other hand, you can put in features more easily than remove them. For instance, if you have an area with poor soil, you could enrich it with fertilizer or put a pond there. Shade and existing fences or sheds should also be marked on your graph paper, although being man-made, these are simpler to do away with or modify.

Next you should decide what type of garden you want, within the constraints of the existing landscape, how much work you are willing to put into it and how much money you want to spend on it. Improving the natural elements of the land is the simplest way of landscaping your garden.

If you have a marshy area, why not put a low wall around it and turn it into a pond? If you have a rocky patch, why not collect up the stones and create a rockery? If you have a few trees, try growing wisteria, honeysuckle or vines through them.

If you are in the shade, buy flowers that prefer the shade and vice-versa. It is a effort to go against nature and unless you have a good cause to do it, it is not really worthwhile. Then build a patio or deck and sit outside and enjoy all the landscaping that you have saved yourself in your garden.

Owen Jones, the author of this piece, writes on many subjects, but is currently involved with outdoor heat lamp. If you are interested in patio heaters too, please click through to Residential Patio Heaters.

Technorati Tags: decks, entertainment, garden, happiness, herbs, hobbies, Landscaping, other, outdoors, patios, recreation, relaxation, retirement, self help, Uncategorized

There are many things that families and businesses do in order to safeguard their property. One technique that is often taken in the name of security is the adding of security bars to doors and windows. In spite of the inherent benefits of securing property, these bars often present risks of endangering the people inside.

One thing remains accurate, most burglars will keep moving rather than attempt entering into a home that has security bars on doors and windows. Home protection is the only security that these bars supply however for many, the risks involved in having these bars on windows is not worth the small measure of security that is provided. In other words, the good of these bars is really outweighed by the negatives.

A lot of people do not purchase new security bars but rather rely on the same bars that have covered the windows of the home or business for many years. Some of these are rusted and nearly impossible to remove. In emergency situations, every second counts and these bars can be the very things that trap people inside a burning or flooding building.

Security bars are no longer the cheap alternative to traditional alarm systems and monitoring services that they were touted to be in the past. In fact, more often than not the pose a greater risk than they are a benefit to business and homeowners. Many larger businesses offer free fitting of alarm systems and alarms as well as monthly monitoring services at reasonable rates. More significantly not only are these monitoring services available for breaks-in, but also for fire and smoke as well as panic button services.

Security bars may have had a time and place, but they have been replaced by something that is much more effectual at deterring criminals as well as something that offers a greater degree of protection for the most precious assets of any home or business – the people inside. The costs concerned in monthly monitoring seem great but most will find that the value this service provides if and when it is ever called upon is well worth every penny.

Options to burglar bars that are not terribly expensive include planting thorny bushes below windows and keeping them trimmed back just enough that they do not block a view of the windows. Most burglars do not want a difficult entry point and they certainly do not want to be wounded during the process by prickly plants. Lighting is another option that is essentially less expensive than it would be to install burglar bars. Intruders do not want to be seen. If the area surrounding your home and business is well lit, it will serve as a deterrent. Investigate options such as this before resorting to security bars.

To answer the question of whether or not security bars are worth the risks for home or business protection the answer would be a loud “No!”. There are other preventative measures that can be taken in order to deter intruders that pose far less risk to family members and employees. These options should be implemented rather than those that create further risks to those you are trying to look after.

Owen Jones, the author of this article, writes on many subjects, but is currently involved with home security systems comparison. If you are interested in Security Systems For Home Use, please click through to our site.

Technorati Tags: alarm systems, business, consumer electronics, elderly care, family, happiness, home, home accessories, home business, interior design, other, retirement, security, Uncategorized

People have always tried to protect themselves and their families, just like most animals do. In very early days, cavemen protected their caves by setting fires outside the entrance to deter interlopers and wild animals. Later on, man learned how to increase his security by training dogs to guard him and his family. Later still, houses and then doors were invented; bars and locks arrived soon after that.

However, until a few decades ago in the west, people lived in extended large families. A family might consist of six-to-ten children and the mother and the grandmother would often live there too. This made home security systems irrelevant from the early 18th Century to the 1930’s, which were quite peaceful times. After the Second World War, families were not so big and new families got their own house away from their parents.

Nowadays, both parents are likely to be working and the children are probably at school. This means that many houses are left unoccupied during the day, making them easy plunder for burglars. In fact, the number of household burglaries has increased by almost 10% in the last five years according to American government statistics. Furthermore, according to a survey, forty percent of home burglaries were carried out due to insecure locks and doors.

ANSI (American National Standard Institute) produced a standard for deadbolt locks for external doors which is very hard to beat. If you are worried about your external doors, you should seek these ANSI deadbolts out, but beware, there are many copies. However, regardless of the sort of lock, the quality of the door is just as crucial. Its thickness and composition can also be a disincentive. After all, why put an expensive deadbolt on a door made of cardboard?

There are about 14,000,000 home burglaries every year in the United States and many of them are avoidable. The first stage that you should attain in home security is strong doors and sturdy locks. Deadbolts on exit doors is a good idea.

Once you have completed that, get some exterior security lighting that reacts to either motion or body heat. The former sort are microwave and the latter passive infra red sensors. These sensors will also contain a daylight sensor so that they will only become active at night. The sensors will also save you money by activating the powerful halogen floodlights only when someone enters the range of the sensor’s beam.

Once you have done that, you should think about a home security alarm system. This should include contact sensors on all exterior doors and windows, vibration sensors on all widows to alarm you in case of breakage and PIR or microwave motion sensors in the corridors and hallways.

Then, if you want to go even further in your home security system, you can install surveillance cameras on each exposed wall of the house and maybe one in the interior too. You do not have to take all these precautionary measures at once, if you are short of cash, but they should be taken in that order.

Owen Jones, the writer of this writer, writes on many topics, but is currently involved with home security systems comparison. If you are interested in Security Systems For Home Use, please click through to our site.

Technorati Tags: alarm systems, business, consumer electronics, elderly care, family, happiness, home, home accessories, home business, interior design, other, retirement, security, Uncategorized

Every professional chef and every household cook recognizes the importance of fresh herbs to their culinary creations. No diner would quarrel over this either. However, whether you buy your herbs fresh or dried, there are problems. When you buy fresh, you usually have to buy more than you require and they are comparatively expensive, whereas, if you buy them dried, they could be old and dried herbs lose their strength over time.

Why then is it that most home cooks use fresh or dried herbs from the supermarket? Ease, probably. We lead busy lives and it is easier to get a few boxes of dried herbs at the supermarket along with your groceries than it is to grow your own.

Not that it is difficult to grow your own herbs and even spices, but you have to purchase the seeds, plant them and remember to water them. You can minimize the problem of trying to remember to water them very easily, by growing your herbs in a window box or in trays on your patio or deck, so that you notice them every time you take a break on your patio. You will also remember to bring them in if frost looks likely.

If you have children, growing herbs and spices in window boxes or trays can be a good induction to gardening for them. Herbs take very little looking after really, just needing watering every day. They are pretty tough and fertilizer is not necessary as most herbs have a fairly short life. Maybe only a month or two in some cases. Others last a lot longer.

First come to a decision how many varieties you want to cultivate. How much room do you have for instance? The best way to start is look in your cupboard and see which herbs you use most frequently. Are any of them seeds? You could have a try at sowing these. Look them up in a book or on the Internet.

Sometimes it is better to soak the seeds first before planting them, others do not need this treatment. Second, which herbs have you read about that you would like to use but never seem to have in the house? Try planting those too.

If all that does not sound like fun, then you can buy small herb plants in the garden nurseries. Most of them stock the most common herbs in Spring. Whichever way you go, read up on how to cultivate the herbs you have selected. I promise you, it will not be a long read, as they really do take care of themselves except for the watering. if you buy seeds rather than seedlings, all the details you need will be on the seed packet and such packets are very cheap to buy.

The benefits of having your own herb garden are diverse, but you will be teaching gardening to your kids or grandkids, you will have fresh herbs for cooking and you will have beautiful aromas wafting around your patio or deck.

Owen Jones, the writer of this article, writes on many subjects, but is currently involved with outdoor heat lamp. If you are interested in patio heaters too, please click through to Residential Patio Heaters.

Technorati Tags: decks, entertainment, garden, happiness, herbs, hobbies, Landscaping, other, outdoors, patios, recreation, relaxation, retirement, self help, Uncategorized

There is a commonly held belief that golf is the pastime-cum-sport of rich entrepreneurs and businessmen. It is also perceived as being an elite sport and not easily accessible to regular blue collared employees. However, this is not really true as modernization and commercialization have brought these so-called exclusive sports into the reach of ordinary workers.

This is because there is no need to acquire sophisticated equipment to have a game. Unlike big game fishing and polo which need a lot of resources eg a boat or a horse respectively, golfers just need a set of golf clubs, which are reasonably affordable. With this in mind, retirement gifts for golfers and aspiring golfers are easily thought of.

Making personalized retirement gifts for golfers is quite an easy task as you could easily personalize golfing equipment with things such as home made golf club pouches, and caddy covers. These can be made by knitting (that is if you are into knitting) or any other handicraft requiring other materials.

Another good idea is to think about golfing fashion by focusing on the attire worn by golfers. You may even end up starting a new trend in golfing clothing by the use of your imagination regarding the design of the apparel for your retiree.

The most common way of getting a retirement gift for golfers is to go to the local sports shop and get your retiree something they sell there. It may sound a little impersonal, but then this may prove really useful, if the retiree is still a novice golfer. Perhaps you could get a book on golfing, a subscription to a golfing magazine or a box of personalized golf balls.

However, you could find out what your retiree golfer still needs, and perhaps also use your imagination to think about what methods you could use to enhance the golfing equipment the retiree may already have.

Professionally made golfing equipment is always a safe bet. If you want to make your retiree feel great, get him or her a famous-name set of golf clubs, thereby making him feel like a pro.

You could even go to a joke shop and ask if they have any joke items for the golfer there. They probably do, as golf is such a popular sport.

The gag gifts should be chosen very carefully as it may be a sensitive matter for the retiree, especially those who are still novice players. Gags as gifts in relation to golfing might be taken the wrong way and hinder their progress if they are upset by the idea emphasized by the gag or joke given to them.

As for veteran players who are already well adapted to the game, the gift of a good gag on their retirement day would be quite funny since they would already see golfing not only as a way to relieve stress, but also to actually have some fun in a competitive environment.

Retirement gifts for golfers are just a simple way to make your golfer friend enjoy life after his career is over.

If you are interested in golf or retirement gifts for golfers, please go to our website on Golfing Tips for Novices. Unique version for reprint here: Retirement Gifts For Golfers.

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These days people are becoming more anxious about their home security, mainly because of the increasing crime rate. Even homes that have an older security system should be checked to see whether their security system is out of date or acceptable.

It is not so much that an older system may stop working, but technology progresses very quickly and your sensors may not be the best variety or even the type that suit your home the best.

The type of security system that you should be using can change as the component members of your family changes. For example, if you have just had a baby, you could hook up a surveillance camera to the nursery or put a motion sensor pointing along side a toddler’s bed so that you know if he or she gets up out of bed.

There are many varieties of security systems, including wired, wireless, monitored and Internet. The Internet wireless system is or at least can be fully automated.

That means that you can operate it through the hand set or any online device like a laptop or desktop computer. This means that you can check up on your home from your place of work or when you are away on holiday.

If surveillance cameras are part of your home security system, then you will be able to see and check up on your home on your computer monitor from anywhere in the world. If you connect sensors to some table lamps around your house, you will even be able to switch lights on and off to make it look as if you are at home when you are in fact hundreds of miles away. Put the TV on such a sensor and you can even switch that on and off as well.

If you put a surveillance camera in your children’s bedrooms and the living room, you could check up on the baby sitter or your business cash register on your WAP enabled mobile phone or PDA. This kind of automated can be fitted by a competent DIYer, but is designed to be installed by professionals.

This type of automated system is very reassuring. Imagine being able to check up on your home, children or business by watching live video footage on any computer or Internet phone anywhere in the world!

An automated security system is not cheap, but is worth the peace of mind that it brings. You could get near complete automated home or business security by the end of next week. Pay for it over time, if you have too, but they are not as expensive as you may think

Owen Jones, the writer of this writer, writes on many topics, but is currently involved with home security systems comparison. If you are interested in Security Systems For Home Use, please click through to our site.

Technorati Tags: alarm systems, business, consumer electronics, elderly care, family, happiness, home, home accessories, home business, interior design, other, retirement, security, Uncategorized