Raising rabbits is the perfect complement to gardening. We already knew this but rediscovered it last year when our lionhead rabbits and our garden were right next to each other. As the rabbit cages were cleaned, all of those lovely and powerful pellets (otherwise known as manure) went straight into the garden beds. As a result we had the most prolific garden we have ever had.

Most people do not realize that rabbit manure is like little magic bullets that can be put directly onto the garden. They will not burn your plants, but instead will provide nutrients that will enrich your soil enabling plants to keep on producing and prolonging your garden’s production. Rabbit manure is even higher in nitrogen than poultry manures and it also contains a large amount of phosphorus that is important for flower and fruit formation. As a result our tomato crop last year was over the top. In all my years of gardening I have never seen one tomato plant produce so many tomatoes. When it looked like the crop was tapering off, we would just add a small trowel full of rabbit manure around the base of each tomato plant and within a few days more flowers would begin to form. We were still picking ripe tomatoes after our first frost here in North Texas. (We had covered the plants with tarps to give them some protection.)

Since rabbit manure does not really need to be composted, it saves on time and energy. However, we still do add generous amounts of rabbit manure to our compost pile to enable it to process and become good quality compost very quickly.

Another advantage of rabbits is their therapeutic nature. They are great stress relievers especially when you handle them and brush them and they make absolutely marvelous pets. So the double therapy of working in your garden and handling rabbits should help your stress level; unless of course, the rabbits manage to get loose and eat your garden!

So enjoy the benefits of rabbits along with your gardening. Rabbits + garden = greater productivity and wonderful synergy.

There are also many helpful e-books available if you are interested in learning more about raising rabbits. Check out the resource box for more information.

Gift cards are the best way to admire people you love and care for. Often people choose these cards as the last resort so that they can use it for gifting purpose. In recent past few years, the usage of cards has increased a lot. According to statistics, about 80% of people buy gift cards in the holiday season.

Following are few benefits that can be availed by buying gift cards:

No more time wastage on doing heavy shopping:

Buying cards is the smartest way to get rid of buying things in abundance. In case, you are looking something different and you just cannot able to locate, a card can save your time and efforts as well. Just buy a card and let the receiver decide what to get. It also helps when you are too confused to buy a perfect gift for your loved ones.

Rescues in last minute shopping:

So, you are at the last minutes of your shopping and yet to find gifts for your loved ones. Too much options and varied price tags, it becomes just impossible to pick up the right thing that suits your requirements. Just get a card and gift it to the person you want to give gifts and strengthen your bond with the person. Isn’t it a lovely idea to bring happiness in other’s lives?

Get variety in your life:

Gift cards come in different ranges. Just think of your budget and your friends & family and get the card that can make them more happy and satisfied as well. You can buy anything from an entertainment card to sports card and add a spice in your loved ones’ lives.

Blackburn v Newcastle

Blackburn rooted second from bottom entertain Newcastle at Ewood Park. This see’s Sam Allaydace former team come to Blackburn. Newcastle are in poor form this season. A number of players are rumoured to be leaving St James Park. Shay Given has been the one exception, his saves alone managed to keep Liverpool at bay, and for that Arsenal have been altered to his goal keeping prowess.

Blackburn have picked up a few points since Ince was sacked earlier on. With Santa Cruz rumoured as wanting to join Hughes at City, his goals will be needed this weekend if Blackburn are to get anything from the game.

Game Prediction: Draw 1:1

Bolton v Manchester United

Bolton Wanderers lost their previous league game away against Arsenal and only won once in their last six games. They have lost five games in the last six. They have only managed to score 4 times in this period.

Bolton have been linked to Jamie Bullard from Fulham but as yet have not been able to meet the asking price.

Manchester United won their last game 1-0 at home against Wigan, and are the leagues in form team. With Rooney out for a few weeks after scoring the winning goal against Wigan, Tevez should start the match.

Manchester United lost 1-0 to Bolton at the Reebok last season, but the champions are in top form and will be looking to take first place from Liverpool by 5pm. And with Bolton having been on a dreadful run, there can only be one team in this match.

Game Prediction: Man Win 1:0.

Does your home office look disorganized? Do you have a bunch of papers taking up space in your file cabinet you no longer need to refer to from last year? It’s time to get organized! You can follow these seven simple ideas to help you get the job done.

1. To begin, collect the papers you no longer routinely refer to and prepare them for storage. Your storage method can vary depending on the amount of papers that you have. You may decide to put different categories of papers in manila envelopes.

2. For example, you would put your electric bill receipts in one envelope. On the outside of the envelope simply write the words electric bill receipts.

3. Remember to write the year as well in the event you need to get the receipts out for some reason. You would put your telephone bill receipts in another envelope. Get enough manila envelopes to collect and organize all of your bill receipts from last year. Remember to include a miscellaneous envelope for things that just seem to have no category.

4. In your file drawer where the last year’s receipts used to be, simply reuse those hanging files for this year. Make sure that you have a file for each bill category you have. Remember to include a miscellaneous file for things that just seem to have no category to them.

5. An alternate way to categorize your bills would be by month. If you categorize your bills by month, this will be a less detailed way to categorize your bills. If you’re the type of person who rarely goes back to look at bills, categorizing your bills by month may be the correct method for you.

6. Another home office area to organize is your writing area. This includes the materials that you use to mail out bills, cards, and letters. The materials you use for mailing out includes postage stamps, postage addressing labels, postage forms, envelopes, and tape. Sometimes a small plastic container can hold all of these things so you know exactly where they are. Envelopes usually come in their own boxes, so envelopes are usually excluded from your catchall postage supply box. You may choose to put stationery in this box as well so you know exactly where it is for easy access. You may also want to put a ruler in this box, a magnifying glass and a pair of scissors.

7. Whatever it takes for you to feel organized, do that. In the long run, you reduce stress and more efficiently work when you know where everything is.

There seems to be an alarming trend to have cats declawed…whether it’s due to personal convenience, apartment house rules and regulations, or simple lack of knowledge on the part of responsible pet owners.

There are many fine vets out there that actively discourage declawing, but there are also many who perform this surgery on a regular basis while never completely informing the pet owner what this really entails nor explaining the possible dangers of the procedure.

If people were more informed, perhaps this trend would reverse itself.

Declawing a cat is a major surgical procedure, performed under general anesthesia. It is actually amputation of the last joint on each toe, not a simple removal of the claw itself as many are led to believe. The following article explains the procedure of declawing.

Cats walk on their toes, unlike most mammals who walk on the soles of their feet. Their musculature, joints, tendons and ligaments are all designed to distribute their body weight to their toes.

The claw is not a nail like human fingernails or toenails. It is actually a part of the last bone in a cat’s toe. If you were to “declaw” a human in the same way a cat is declawed, you would be amputating all 10 fingers at the last joint!

I found this description of the surgery in a veterinary textbook: “The claw is extended by pushing up under the footpad or by grasping it with Allis tissue forceps. A scalpel blade is used to sharply dissect between the second and third phalanx over the top of the ungual crest . The distal interphalangeal joint is disarticulated (disjointed), and the deep digital flexor tendon is incised (severed). The digital footpad is not incised.” This clinical explanation sounds horrific, doesn’t it?

There is a real possibility of complications after any major surgery, and declawing is no exception. There is the possibility of hemorrhage, infection, extreme pain, bone chips, possible regrowth of deformed claw, back, muscle and joint problems, damage to nerves, abscess and possible lameness. If the claw does regrow, it is often deformed and yet another surgery must be performed to correct this problem.

In addition to the possible physical complications, often there are behavioral problems following this surgery. The cat can become withdrawn, distant, fearful and/or aggressive, and often start biting, as this is the only means of defense left to them. Occasionally the cat will stop using the litterbox, because immediately after surgery it was painful to scratch in the litter box, and now they associate that pain with the litter box. Because of the amount of stress the animal experiences after this procedure, they may become more prone to other diseases, as stress tends to compromise the immune system.

The animal is in extreme pain following the surgery, and rarely do veterinarians offer any sort of pain medication for the cat.

There are alternatives to having your cat declawed…such as claw covers, scratching posts, regular trimming of the claws and behavior modification.

Many countries have banned declawing as an abusive practice which causes unnecessary pain and trauma to the animal. A veterinary textbook by Turner and Bateson on the biology of cat behavior concludes a short section on scratching behavior with the following statement: “The operative removal of the claws, as is sometimes practiced to protect furniture and curtains, is an act of abuse and should be forbidden by law in all, not just a few countries.”

Unfortunately, declawing is not banned in the United States at this time. The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) says it is their policy to “recommend considering such surgery only if concerted behavior modification efforts have failed and euthanasia is pending.”

Declawing a cat is an abusive practice. Being informed of a procedure and possible complications should be the goal of every responsible pet owner.

Considering the security clearance application process and the granting decision; let’s consider the following from the adjudicator’s point of view. Each of the following nine topics can be applied to identify which mitigations would be appropriate for each of the 13 Adjudicative topics from foreign influence to computer usage. For the sake of this writing, let’s apply to drug usage specifically. The reader can expand the application to whichever adjudicative topic(s) they need to cover.

• the frequency and recency of the conduct. Here is where the adjudicator views how often the drug use occurred and when the last time drugs was used. If enough time has passed since the last drug use (a year or more) the drug use risk could be mitigated.

• the individual’s age and maturity at the time of the conduct. This again points to reasons behind the drug use. If it occurred many years previously and while the applicant was younger and the result of a few bad decisions while in school, then it could be mitigated.

• the extent to which participation is voluntary. This extend could cover being a participant during a group experiment to actually supplying drugs to the party goers. The adjudicator will want to have a good understanding of the behavior that led to drug usage contrasted with your current potential to reengage.

• the presence or absence of rehabilitation and other permanent behavioral changes. Completing a rehabilitation program demonstrates a motivation toward positive change. Voluntary rehabilitation and completion is a positive endeavor. Quitting rehabilitation is going to be a concern. If you attended rehabilitation, you may want to explain the circumstances to include counselors’ notes, certificates, and letters of recommendation or other artifacts that support or demonstrate a permanent change in attitude or behavior.

• the motivation for the conduct. This is a direct request for information. The adjudicator much understand the mental attitude behind the behavior. Was the attitude cavalier, did it reflect entitlement, or was it a weak moment never to be repeated. The thought is that past motivation could reoccur if not mitigated. An applicant could provide statements from friends, co-workers, contemporaries or other influential people supporting a character change. This will help the adjudicator visualize a change in motivation or attitude.

• the potential for pressure, coercion, exploitation, or duress. If the applicant has an attitude in favor of drug use, a feeling of entitlement to use drugs, or has a drug positive ideal, this could be a huge factor. However, statement, letters of recommendation, or completion of rehabilitation programs could prove to mitigate this potential in the eyes of the adjudicator.

• the likelihood of continuation or recurrence. The adjudicator has to put all 8 points to the test. Once they consider the whole person concept, they’ve got to rule in favor of national security on this one. If the likelihood of recurrence or continuation exists, the clearance will be denied.

1. the nature, extent, and seriousness of the conduct. The adjudicator would want to know what type of drugs were being used, and the amount of drugs being used at each occurrence.
2. the circumstances surrounding the conduct, to include knowledgeable participation. This is where you can explain why you used drugs. Was it a one-time use after coercion from a peer group, or part of a religious practice? Was it a bad decision based on a drunken event or just something you wanted to do? The point is to paint a picture of the motivation behind the drug use so that later you can explain whether or not the circumstances still apply.

Regarding each of the 13 Adjudicative Criteria, the applicant should gather all information available to explain the behavior that could cause a denial of a security clearance. The information should be presented during follow up interviews or as requested for review. Being well prepared will help with the adjudicative process and may result in a favorable decision. However, a lack of preparation may not fare so well. Remember, the adjudicator makes decisions with the priority being on risk to national security.

Mobile homes are a great place to escape to from the hustle of everyday life, but is your mobile home safe to use?

When was the last time you had it checked over for safety?

I would take a guess, you had it checked when you purchased your home, but that is probably the first and last time it has been checked over for safety.

The majority of mobile homes have some sort of water heater or boiler installed, these normally run on bottled gas.

As for heating your mobile home, it may be fitted with a gas fire, even a central heating system.

When it comes to cooking, your mobile may be fitted with an oven and hob, which probably works by gas.

The gas supply to your home will normally be supplied by LPG gas bottles.

These bottles will be connected to a change over valve, which, as one bottle becomes empty automatically changes over to the full bottle.

All these gas appliances should have an annual safety check to ensure they are safe to use, but more importantly that they are not putting you and your family in danger.

So what could go wrong?

All these appliances produce a flame, which, when working, produces products of combustion, in other words, burnt gases, just like the exhaust on a car.

The products of combustion need to disperse safely to the outside, for boilers and fires this is normally by a flue or chimney.

For cooking appliances, this is by natural draft, in other word having the correct ventilation fitted.

So I ask again, is your mobile home safe?

If your answer is yes, then I congratulate you on keeping your home safe, you are only one in tens of people who understand about gas safety.

If your answer is, I am not sure, I understand, but surely safety comes first in anything for you and family.

Let me explain a couple of main safety issues, that if left unresolved could be potentially life-threatening.

Carbon monoxide as we all know kills, you cannot smell or even see it, but it could be in your mobile home due to lack of maintenance.

Gas leaks are another main problem that seems to go unnoticed, I have come across this many times before.

One reason I hear for not having a safety check is, I only use my mobile home for a short space time throughout the year, again I understand.

All gas appliances should have an annual inspection, even if they are only used for a short time throughout the year.

Overtime LPG gas hoses perish and can cause a gas leak, the regulations state they should be replaced every five years.

By having a gas safety inspection, you can be sure that if something is wrong, it can be addressed, repaired or made safe.

So is your mobile home safe?

BBQ grill manufactures are not going to make a gas grill or charcoal grill that doesn’t have a nice curb appeal. Why would they when that’s pretty much all they have going for them other than the cheap BBQ grill price. While curb appeal goes along way you need to open the lid and take a look at the most important parts like the cooking grids, burners, the device that’s in between the burner and cooking grids and what material the inside of the BBQ is made of. Most of all gas grills, even the cheap ones, will have a decent set of cooking grids made of stainless or cast iron but try to stay away from the porcelain grids because the porcelain coating will eventually wear off and rust.

Cast iron grids require a little more maintenance like seasoning and keeping them oiled but they hold their heat and sear meat better than any other grids. Stainless steel is the easiest to maintain and will still make nice sear marks. Burners are the most important part of a BBQ so take a magnet with you to see if the burners are made of steel. If a magnet will stick to the burner do not expect it to last more than one season because they will rust through quickly due to the heat, salts and grease. Some cast iron burners are alright if made from quality iron but the burner ports will still have to be cleaned out every so often because cast iron will rust causing the port to not allow gas through resulting in lower temperature and hot spots on the grilling area. Stainless steel tube style burners are used in the majority of BBQ grills manufactured and if made of high quality 304 stainless they will last 5 to 7 years depending on how often you cookout. The best is a cast stainless steel burner found in Fire Magic Grills and a few other brands.

Cast stainless will never rust and the heat, salts and grease will not affect the performance. The device between the burner and cooking grids sometimes called a rock rack, lava coals, flame tamer, flavor grid, heat diffuser and so on will take the most wear and tear because it has high heat from the burners below it and salts and grease dripping from the food above. If this device is made of porcelain coated steel do not expect it to last over a year at best. Look for a high quality thick stainless steel product that has at least a 2 year warranty. Back to curb appeal, if you see an all stainless steel gas grill that does not mean that the inside of the grill is stainless. Most all inexpensive stainless models will have a porcelain coated steel lining inside the BBQ and will only last about a year and then rust through. That will leave you with a pretty grill on the outside and not so functional on the inside.

Being in the BBQ industry for many years I have carried a large number of BBQ grill brands including the inexpensive big box curb appeal grills. I now only carry brands that are made in the USA and that I’ll be able to get parts for and parts that are under warranty when the time comes. There is no worse feeling to have a customer come back to buy parts for their inexpensive BBQ that they had purchased just a year ago and me finding out that the manufacture doesn’t offer the parts anymore. So the question is, is it the cost or the price? If it’s the cost you will pay more for the inexpensive BBQ Grill over time because you will have to replace parts or the whole unit annually. If it’s the initial price of a high quality expensive gas grill you do not like you should keep in mind that you will only have a onetime price and will not have to spend money every year keeping it up. And the most important part to me is keeping the same grill for years because I already know how it cooks.

Last year, I read Elizabeth M. Gilbert’s quest story Eat, Pray, Love. Taglined as ‘One woman’s search for everything’, and based on Gilbert’s own experiences, the book is the kind of popularised self-help/spiritual crossover that appeals to the specific female market that made Chicken Soup for the Soul a global phenomenon over a decade earlier.

Structurally, it’s pretty basic. As she cries on her bathroom floor, ruminating on the dissolution of her marriage, Liz decides to pray. And then (being a travel writer), she decides to travel and write about her experiences – firstly in Italy (where she falls in love with eating), then an Ashram in India (where she throws herself into praying to find her ‘balance’), and finally Bali (where she accidentally falls off balance and finds love again – both with herself, and with an older Brazilian gentleman). Formulaic and twee – or at least it would be, if it were fiction.

Luckily, the book is a closer examination of how depression can engulf you, how eating is still one of the most primitive and stimulating pleasures, how praying is basically just telling yourself to get a grip, and how achieving satisfaction is actually quite simple. And pain. There’s a lot of pain. You get the impression that Liz is a bit of a masochist – going from one dysfunctional relationship to another, until she literally has to run away from herself to find her place in the world again.

Last night, I saw the film version in the cinema. OK, so it’s a chick flick; with its self-help demographic it was never going to be anything else. But it’s enjoyable. Julia Roberts plays the self-centred, whiny American lead very well. Which is fine, because that’s exactly the character of Liz: she’s annoying at first, then relatable, then vulnerable. She isn’t someone you’re supposed to love, or want to emulate; she’s just an ordinary woman (described by one lover as “slender from afar, squishy up-close”), looking for something more within her already privileged existence.

This issue of therapeutic self-indulgence is something that we’re often made to feel guilty about, and something that Gilbert received criticism for when the book first came out. But if you take it for what it is – a selfish, relatively pointless quest – you can begin to understand why the book appeals to people who travel to get away from the reality of their problems. Which is basically everyone.

The film boasts beautiful cinematography – particularly the wedding scene in India, and the sweeping shots across the rice paddies in Bali (one of my favourite countries). It would also be rude not to mention the gloriously indulgent restaurant scenes in Italy – something that made my friend Yona (who’s also a big fan of the book and who I went to see the film with last night) send me Easyjet flight details for a weekend in Italy at 9am this morning.

When I finished the book last year, I felt happy. When I left the cinema last night, I felt happy. Because actually, hearing the story of somebody else’s relationship with themselves made me feel better about my relationship with myself. Yes, the book is raw and selfish and emotional, but I’m all of these things too. And anything that holds up a mirror in this way is worthy of praise – whether it belongs in the self-help aisle, or otherwise.

Last January my mother finally admitted that I was the real problem in her life. She made this declaration passionately as she extended her arm and pointed dramatically at me. She told me that I had turned the family and even her doctors against her by telling things that were not true. She went on to say that she had never been able to make me love her.

I decided that was the last time I would accept her attempt to blame and punish me for the problems she had created in her life. I also decided that I would stop trying to earn the love that I had always sought from her, the love of a mother for a daughter.

For a long time I had felt that she was a narcissist, but her behavior didn’t quite fit the normal description of a narcissist. She had some of the characteristics such as needing extreme amounts of attention, only being able to see a situation as it affected her and believing that she was always right. But a lot of what she did was more behind the scenes than what you typically see in the common description of a narcissist.

So, I began to read and watch videos about narcissistic parents. From the blogs and books and videos I learned that there are two types of narcissists. The grandiose, or overt, is the one that most people know about. But then there is the covert, or, as some say, the vulnerable, narcissist. As I began to learn about covert narcissists it was as if my world had always been slightly tilted and suddenly it was upright.

From all the reading and listening I did, I learned that writing helped with recovery. That seemed like the perfect prescription for me because I am a writer. The therapists and coaches advised that victims of narcissistic abuse should tell, in writing or verbally, the narcissist about the abuse and how it had impacted them. However, the advice was not to mail the letter or confront the abuser. The suggested method was to tell an empty chair or keep a journal or write and then burn a letter. Another suggestion from some of the therapists and coaches was to describe what the abuse victim would have liked to receive from a parent. So, I began to write a fictional story. As a writer this was natural for me and provided the best way to express the pain, frustration and longing. I used some of my experiences and some I had observed. Soon I realized that what I was writing might help other victims of parental narcissistic abuse acknowledge their torture. And so, what began as therapeutic writing morphed into a book –Torture or Nurture, A Tale of Growing Up. It is a comparison of the torture of having a narcissistic mother and enabler father and the validation and support that comes from nurturing parents.

You can certainly buy my book, and of course I would like for you to, but in order to recover, you will have to do your own work. I strongly recommend you write. It does not matter what you write – a letter, a story, a stream of consciousness, a prayer, whatever works for you. You see there is a unique connection between your brain and your hand. If you write about your experiences it helps you acknowledge the torture you have experienced. The hand brain connection forces the monsters out of the darkness into the light where they can be dealt with. I am not a therapist or coach, I am a story teller. I am not a therapist or life coach so I do not counsel or coach anyone, except to encourage the use of writing as part of recovery.