Heres Janie Parrish

Besides the heat and the humidity that we get to look forward to come July and August, the issue of mosquitoes is always a concern. I have a small fish pond in the backyard that I always have to be careful with so that these pesky critters don’t take over and make life miserable with all their biting,  the itching and the constant swatting of.

And of course there is always the concern of the West Nile virus that becomes an issue each summer as well. I’ve never known anyone to contact this disease that is spread by mosquitoes, but each year the news is full of cases being reported all over the country. What with the swine flu scare that we are still experiencing out breaks now and then and now we have to concern ourselves with the good old reliable West Nile virus that is expected to start hitting in the next couple of weeks, right along with the cicadas. I actually have seen a few of this 17 year old cycling cicadas. So far they have both been dead. I can hear them buzzing from a distance and just know that at any given moment the are going to be right on top of us and life will totally change and revolve all around these nasty critters.

I’ve been looking into purchasing some of the new and exciting mosquito magnets that I’ve been recently hearing and reading about. I went online and found some positive sounding mosquito magnet reviews, so it looks like I’ll be giving them a try this year and see what they can do for me back in the pond area this season.

I’m so glad that I live so close to my aging parents, we have a great relationship and I truly treasure them both very dearly. I’m also very grateful that my current boyfriend gets along with them both and doesn’t mind helping me with some of their needs and issues. Now that the weather is changing to springtime, I know that they will be needing a good amount of assistance with the house and yard work that is always inevitable, and we will be spending a lot of time over there doing what ever it takes to get the jobs done. Inside the house or outside, whatever it takes.

My parents are wanting to purchase some new exterior shutters for the house and have asked me to assist them with the process of locating the best deal, with taking in consideration their tight budget along with the desire of acquiring a good quality product that will look good on their home and last a good long time. They still are not all that comfortable using the Internet for such tasks and turn to me quite often for assistance with tasks like this. I don’t mind a bit, I’m online so much, it isn’t a big deal for me to handle it.

I’m so glad that spring really is here, although it’s disturbing that there are wildfires in California and snow storms in Colorado on May 2nd.

It amazes me that the majority of homes that I have the opportunity to visit do not have a backsplash installed behind the kitchen sink, especially the older homes that I see. I can’t imagine not having my backsplash tile in my kitchen, so much water get splashed from the faucet that everything would get soaking wet and the damage would be tremendous, not to mention the mold that could possibly grow from all of the moisture. That would be disastrous considering how allergic I am to mold. I found that out the hard way and I wouldn’t wish that on anyone. There is mold almost everywhere you turn now a days, it is a real problem for so many people and businesses.

My mother had a piece of see through plastic installed on the wall behind her kitchen sink and her stove in order to protect the paint and the wallpaper in her kitchen. It didn’t look all that great but it did the trick all right. Now a days there are a lot of choices for backsplash issues for home owners to pick from like the glass subway tiles at wholesalersusainc.com. Check them out some time and see what they are all about.

The temperatures hit the 80′s again today and there was little or no breeze all day. For some people, the best way to beat the heat is to put on a bathing suit and go down to the swimming pool for an hour or two. That’s a great plan for people who live in apartment complexes with swimming pools, and for people who own the big California mansions with swimming pools in every back yard. I am sure a lot of them use the jandy aqualink for a lot of their pool supplies. Take a look at some of the Google satellite maps for Southern California and you’ll Orange County swimming pools everywhere. The same is true for North San Diego swimming pools and half way up the California coast. It’s not until you get to Monterey where the weather start getting cool that the number of swimming pools per neighborhood drops off.

Looking at the satellite maps for Middle Tennessee, you see a number of homes in the upscale neighborhoods that have custom pools, such as Brentwood, Bellvue, and Franklin. In my neighborhood, there are not very many in ground pools, but a few of our neighbors have splurged and put a pool in their backyards. I have not had the opportunity to make friends with the pool owners, but I’m thinking the hot summer days that are right around the corner are a good motivation for getting to know them and making friends.

When all is said and done it really just comes down to making sure that we do what we can in order to save our precious energy (and there are numerous types of energy) in any way that we can. Not only is it a matter of periodic energy shortages, but the cost of the energy that we all are relying on is still sky rocketing and hitting us right in the wallet, right where it really hurts us the worst.

We have been talking about having a home energy audit at our house, much like the home energy auditors that came out to my in-laws house last year that turned out quite well for them utilizing one of the many federal grants for home improvement.  Once again we really have been blessed with an unusually warm winter so one has to think about the price we may have to pay for lower heating bills for the past 3 or 4 months. We could have a really cold summer or worse a really hot one, guess we will find out here in just a few short months.

Schedule Your Online Energy Audit

I’ve just recently found a home insulation contractors website that I’ve book marked that offers a home energy audit and will put it on top of the ever growing list of things to do for our home and our wallets. It’s a win, win situation all the way around. You may want to consider doing the same thing for your residence and/or business, it’s all good.