Mountain climbing is a great way to escape the rat race and be
one with nature. Alas, your mountain climbing experiences can
fade with time. The best way to prevent this is to keep a
mountain climbing journal for your adventures.
Mountain Climbing Journals
Take a minute to give some consideration to your most recent
mountain climbing experience. What sticks out in your mind? Now
think about the first time you ever went mountain climbing.
Undoubtedly, you remember few things about the geography, people
you went with, particular mountain climbing routes and
spectacular views. The experiences you’ve forgotten are lost to
time. If you keep a mountain climbing journal, this won’t be the
case.
There are famous instances of people keeping journals throughout
time. Of course, Anne Frank’s Diary is the best example. In her
diary, Anne kept a running commentary of the two years her
family spent hiding from the Nazis. While your mountain climbing
experiences better be more lighthearted, keeping a journal will
let you remember them as the years pass.
A good mountain climbing journal combines a number of
characteristics. First, it should be compact so you don’t have
to take up unnecessary space for other things. Second, it should
have a case to protect it from rain, spills and so on. Third,
the journal should contain blank areas to write your notes.
Fourth, the journal should contain cue spaces to remind you to
keep notes on specific things. Cues should include:
1. Who you went mountain climbing with,
2. Where you camped and if you enjoyed it,
3. Who you met and contact information for them,
4. The geographic and weather conditions, and
5. Any unique things that occurred while mountain climbing.
6. The routes you took up the mountain and alternatives.
7. Any inside information provided by experienced locals.
At the end of the mountain climbing trip, you should be able to
get the following from your journal:
1. Contact information for other climbers you met,
2. Enough detail to provide you or a friend with a guide if you
climb the location a second time.
3. Memories to reflect upon years later, and
4. Something to pass on to your friends, children and
grandchildren.
To get the most out of your mountain climbing journal, you
should write in it just before you climb, as you summit and when
you return. Doing so will give you an accurate picture of your
thoughts throughout the climb.
Mountain climbing is a great way to commune with nature. Make
sure to preserve the experience.
Saving money can be quite hard to do if you are on a tight budget, but all of us can do it very simply by selling the things that are cluttering up our homes and which we no longer need. I am fairly sure that most of us, if asked, would like some extra cash to help pay off a loan or other debt, or to put towards something nice like a holiday or something else that you would like to save up for.
What Can I Sell to Save?
The answer to this question is almost anything. You would be surprised what people are willing to buy if they like one particular thing you own or if they are interested in collecting certain things. Below is a list of things that you might find in your home and could sell, but this is by no means a complete list. Use your imagination and have a good look around the cupboard under the stairs and the garage! You can also have a look on the Internet at sites specialising in collectables and memorabilia - these will give you an idea of what people are interested in buying and most importantly for you, how much you can charge.
Advertising and packaging - This can be much sought after by collectors if they are in good condition. Certain types are more popular than other for example cigarettes, food and cosmetics products. They do not always necessarily have to be old - I recently sold a tin that contained candies, which I bought about a month ago. I sold it to a woman who paid 10 dollars for it because she was collecting tins from this particular brand of candy and my one had a famous cartoon character on the side of it.
Autographs - Do have an old autograph hanging around from someone you admired when you were a child? These could bring in anything from around 10 dollars to 7000 dollars if it is from someone really famous and there are few others around.
Baby care accessories - these can be incredibly expensive to buy new these days and many first-time parents look for second-hand items that they can pick up at a reduced price.
Books - Rare books and first editions can bring in significant sums of money. We’ve all checked our kid’s Harry Potter books to see if they are a first edition haven’t we!
Bottles - Yes bottles! Old and rare bottles are extremely collectable and can earn you anything from 5 dollars to 5000 dollars. These could include stoneware beer bottles or 19th Century poison bottles.
Records - Old and rare records in good condition can earn you a few dollars, if you are old enough to remember what records are!
Toys and games - Old and rare toys and games are a particular collector’s favorite, as are newer ones that are connected with popular films and TV series. The latter need to be in really good condition. 20 years ago, as a kid in his mid-teens, my cousin was buying Star Wars figures and keeping them sealed in their packets. They are now worth up to 250 dollars each! You can still get around 20 dollars for figures that are no longer boxed but are in good condition.
As you can see, the phrase “in good condition” keeps coming up and this is the key to making money from your unwanted belongings. A damaged item will sell for far less than one that is in good condition and may not even make you any money at all.
How and where can I sell?
Once you have something that you want to sell, there are many ways of doing it. The following are just a few ideas. To start with you could ask your friends, neighbours and work colleagues if they are interested in what you have. Many companies have an internal newsletter or Intranet where “items for sale” can be advertised for free. You could use classified ads in local newspapers and on the Internet - many of these are also free. Garage sales and car boot sales are other options if you have quite a few things to sell. You may also wish to consider using Internet auction web sites such as Ebay. These are now hugely popular with millions of items being bought and sold at any one time, all over the world. You are certain to find that items similar to that which you intend to sell are already being sold by someone else on the Internet, so you can see what sort of purchase values they attract. This will help you decide on a suitable starting price for your own items. Sites like Ebay make their money by charging you a small listing fee and by taking a small percentage of the final selling price.
Emmanuel Mendonca is the webmaster and publisher of Debt Genius at http://www.debtgenius.com - a free source of information and advice on debt consolidation, getting out of debt and on saving money. Submit articles free.
A Rainbow vacuum is different than almost all vacuum cleaners that you may be familiar with. If you are like most people, you have been using a vacuum cleaner to clean your house with that uses a paper bag to catch the dust in. Your mother probably uses the same type of cleaner, as well as your grandmother. Hey, your great grandfather may even have used one.
The Rainbow vacuum gathers its’ uniqueness from the fact that it doesn’t have a bag to collect the dirt and dust from your floor or carpet. It uses water. Imagine that you are outside on a hot and dusty July day. It hasn’t rained for weeks and every little wind that comes by carries a dusty smell with it.
All of a sudden it begins to rain. You are overjoyed, finally, a reprieve from the heat and dust. The first thing you notice is the smell. A clean, fresh, water washed aroma that can only be replicated with clean water. If it seemed hazy at first, the air now looks clear. That’s because the rain has flushed the air. Like the Rainbow vacuum, the water has filtered out the dust particles that were floating around in the air. These particles can be a factor in hay fever.
The bottom line is that the Rainbow vacuum is vacuum cleaner that mimics nature in using water to clean your home. You see, it not only vacuums the carpet and takes all the nasty stuff and filters it through the water, it water washes the air at the same time.
Steve McArthur
Rainbow Vacuum Parts
[Episode Five]
Arizona BlueGunfighter
The Wolves Nestin the North
[Episode Five]
Northern Minnesota Area-
Winter of 1877
Chapter One of Seven: The North
The area was known as Pigs Eye [St. Paul, Minnesota]; Northfield was a little more notorious since Jessie James robbed the 1st National Bank, in September of last year, and more to the West. But that was neither here nor there for Arizona-Blue. He didn’t like this part of the country for no other reason than it was cold, unpredictable weather, and he didn’t seem to offer enough freedom, it wasn’t bad thirty years ago, but it had become too tame, Even Mark Twain thought so. His conclusion of why he was here was: ‘Sometimes you just keep on riding and riding and end up where you don’t care to be.’
As his rode through the thick of the snow, he had come to a cabin, up in an area where the deer was running as wildto and froas the mavericks were down in Arizona, Texas and Wyoming. He smelt the smoke from a nearby chimney. He was a hundred and fifty plus miles North of St. Paul, but it seemed like he was in the Artic.
As Arizona came to a cabin, a man came out of the front door onto his porch. Two wolves stood by his side, a rifle in his hands. He noticed in the back of his house about thirty-more wolves tied to the fence; ‘…strange…’ thought Blue.
“Can I help yaw stranger?” asked the man on the porch.
Blue knew most everyone in this area did not know his name, and that was one unconscious reason he chose the Midwest I suppose, a time for a rest of wondering whom was going to shoot you in the back, or who you had to tangle with next. His reputation out West was preceding him wherever he’d go, but here, up here in the Midwest who could know his name? No one he speculated. Northfield was to hot for anyone like him, after the James Gang shoot out, and St. Paul looked like St. Louis, a conservative little city on the banks of the Mississippi, not enough get up and go for him, plus they sold little books on him: “The Fast Gun of the West: Arizona-Blue.” They did on all the gunfighters such as: Billy the Kid, Jessie James, Wild Bill, and so forth.
“I need a place to lodge for a day or two. I’m half frozen.”
The man laughed and motioned for Blue to tie his horse up out side and come in.
As Blue descended his horse, a young boy came out and took his horse saying,
“I’ll bed him down a spell, feed him for you sir.”
Blue heard the Midwest was quite hospital to strangers, they had to be, because sooner or later you ‘all ended-up needing the others help. ‘This kind of gives yaw a nice feeling,’ he told himself.
As Blue entered the house, he noticed a slim middle aged woman, boiling some stew (about thirty-six years old he’d guess).
“Some hot cider Mister?” she asked.
Blue was not sure what that was, but he knew it wasn’t whiskey.
“Sounds warming, I guess that’ll be just fine Miss…,” unsure how to address her.
She smiled, and commented:
“You’re not from around here I gather, you got a Southwestern accent?”
“I’m called Arizona; I guess because that is where I am from.”
“Arizona what? She asked.
“That’s it Miss, just Arizona, that’s what my pop called me, no more no less.”
She smiled again, the man came back in from the backdoor of the house, stomping the snow off his feet.
“Hi yaw, my names Harry,” he extended his hand to shake Arizona’s, “and this is my wife Feba, she’s Spanish, and a little cute wife at that.”
“Harry! stop making me blush.”
“Well,” said Arizona, “it looks like you got enough wolves around here.”
“I raise them. They can come in handy.” That was all that was said about the nest of wolves. Arizona got the drift of things, it was private, and he wasn’t about to step in on a man’s privacy.
“Mr. Arizona, please give your jacket to my boy, Tony.” He was standing in the back of Arizona. He hadn’t heard him come in. As Arizona took off his jacket, Harry, Tony and Feba noticed the guns. Arizona had one tight against his thigh, and one tucked into his belt.
“You won’t need them here sir,” said Harry with a little concern.
Arizona smiled. He was not a wanted man in Minnesota, or for that matter anyplace, just a notorious man, and seldom heard of way up in the North Country; and this was new country for him; if this was Wyoming, or Texas, or for that matter Tombstone, or Deadwood, the guns would stay. But he started to unbuckle them; then handed them to Harry to put away for safe keeping.
“How are the Indian problems up here?” Blue asked.
“Sometimes it ok, other times you just don’t know. We had several cabins up here a year ago, and the Chippewa’s burned three of them down. Rapped the women, after getting drunk, and took off. The Indians are all over the place. You just never know. I hunt bear and fox and sell the furs down at Fort Smelling. And yaw, some of the Wolves you see, end up being furs. Yaw got to eat. I hate killing them though.”
Harry noticed Arizona watch where he hung the guns up; right on the coat rack that lead to the front door.
“If you need them mister, they’re right there for the grabbing.”
“I got the picture, Harry.”
“Now for the dinner, it’s about 11-below zero out there, not too bad for the dead of winter. You’d think it was 10:00 PM, but it gets dark quick up here, its only 6:00 PM. Not much daylight in the heart of winter. Tonight it will get down to 20 + below. It’s like the cold knocks the sun out early I swear. It’s going to be a cold, cold winter, stranger, I mean Arizona.”
As they all four sat down to eat, Harry said grace, thanking God for his wife, son, and that the stranger did not get frozen like an ice cycle before he found his cabin.
“Let’s eat,” says Harry, and plunged into the hot stew.
The stew was great, though Arizona, as he took his third helping.
“My name is Alex, Mr. Arizona. Are you a gunfighter? You know, like Jessie James, and Billy the Kid?”
“Hush,” said Feba, “Mr. Arizona is a gentleman, not a killer.”
Said Harry, a bit uncomfortable with the guns hanging where the coats and hats hung:
“Mater-of-fact, if you don’t mind, what is your line of work?”
“Well, that’s a good question. I’ve been a soldier, fought at the Battle of Chickamauga, and I was sheriff for a while, and a deputy. And I guess you could say a cowboy of sorts. Not sure what a gunslinger is, but maybe that to.”
“Jack of many trades I see,” commented Harry.
Feba looked at Blues eyes; she was almost frozen by them. But her husband was the jealous type, and said nothing, just smiled and continued to eat her stew.
Dennis Siluk is finishing up his most recent book, “Peruvian Poems” it shold been done shortly, and published in the following months [29-poems in English and Spanish] look for it. You can see his other works at http://www.bn.com or http://www.amazon.com
Holiday seasons should be about sharing so here are two simple recipes
I would like to give to you like they were given to me.
Roasted Pumpkin Seeds
Ingredients you need:
Pumpkin seeds
Cooking spray
Seasonings of your choice (salt,garlic powder, onion powder…)
Preheat oven to 250. Pull seeds of the strings and put them in a bowl.
No need to wash them but let the seeds dry. Spray cookie sheet with oil.
Spread seeds on cookiesheet, spray seeds with oil then season them to
your liking. Roast about an hour(until crisp). Stir every 15-20 minutes
(until golden brown) Watch so they do not burn. Let them cool down
before eating. Keep airtight at room temperature for 3 months or in fridge
for 1 year.
Enjoy.
Pumpkin Pie
You need:
1 7-pound-pumpkin,
teaspoon nutmeg,
6 eggs,
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 cups whipping cream,
teaspoon ginger,
cup brown sugar,
1 tablespoon maple syrup,
2 table spoons butter
Cut the lid of the pumpkin(save it). Clean out fibers and seeds.
Mix all ingredients together exept butter: pour into pumpkin. The
custard will expand while baking so do not fill to the top. Top the mixture
with butter. Cover with pumpkin lid, using wood toothpicks to keep
lid from falling into custard as it bakes. Bake at 350 for 1-1 hours, or
until mixture inside pumpkins has set like custard. If mixture has not set
after 1 hour, try removing the lid for the last 30 minutes of baking.
Serve from the pumpkin, scraping some meat from the pumpkin sides
With each serving. Serves 8.
Hege Crowton is establishing herself as an expert copywriter.
She is known for doing in-depth research before writing her articles.
Many of her articles are posted on http://www.EzineCrow.com
and she also does a lot of writing for http://www.Crowsites.com
Copyright 2005 HalloweenCrow.com
