Cheryl Beckham » Environment/Recycling/GREEN

Solar powered Cell Phones

Cheryl — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 01:54:44 +0000

Seems that Motorola has applied for a patent for a solar powered cellphone and although it will probably not be enough to fully recharge the phone it will help for those days when you just can not plug in to the wall.

I’m very interested to see just how good it works and how much it charges for I certainly would consider buying one when it I can hear a bit more about it and see if it really is worth getting into. Anything I can do in order to keep thing as GREEN as I can in my little world.

Boy Are We Gonna Pay For This Weather

Cheryl — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 22:34:38 +0000

With the weather just being so wacky this winter, the past couple of days have been in the high 70′s, there are plenty of people taking advantage of the nice weather to get a good amount of outside projects done that normally don’t get done until spring. And if they aren’t busying doing outside work they are busy having outside fun. Heck my neighbor is just itching to start getting his swimming pool cleaned up and ready for water fun in the sun.

He was looking at swimming pool liners back last summer and but actually purchased a new pool cover so he is excited at the prospect of enjoying all that having a swimming pool in your back yard has to offer. His close friends, family and neighbors are looking forward to it as well, I can tell you that.

I have a feeling that we are going to pay dearly for having such a mild winter by having an extremely hot summer, so having a neighbor with a pool might possibly be one of the ways to help beat the heat that we are in store for real soon here.

Time To Order Flowers

Cheryl — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 02:15:44 +0000

Now is the time of the year that I start looking at getting my hands all in the dirt and thinking more and more about Gardening. Today it was so nice outside that I was so tempted to start doing some digging and tilling, but of course that would have been a waste of my time and energy since we will most likely be dealing with “Old Man Winter” for a few more months and anything could happen with this crazy weather we have been experiencing this winter.

I’ve been finding seed and plant catalogues in the mailbox lately and I’m enjoying looking at all of the varieties of plants, trees, bushes, flowers and shrubs that you can order these days. I can’t wait to order flowers for my new window box planters which I bought at the end of the season last deal. Man did I get a sweat deal on those babies. My mother used to have some of the most beautiful window boxes that she always took such pride in. So I’ve always wanted to give them a try and now that time has come. I just hope I can do them justice by looking even half as good as my mother’s did. I’m excited.

Simple Decorations

Cheryl — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 21:04:13 +0000

This year my tree only has strings of popcorn and cranberries wrapped and draped around it. Wasn’t into doing the whole kit and kaboodle this year. This way when it is done and over with I can simple undo them and put them out back for the birds and other animals that will enjoy eating them for a few days.

Oh Baby it’s Cold Outside

Cheryl — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 17:32:11 +0000

The snow is bad enough, but the wind is totally out of control today. I’ve had to go outside numerous times so far today to retrieve several things that have been blown out of their proper place. So far, two box tops, one trash can, one lawn chair and just now I picked up several plastic trash can liners that blew in from somewhere in the neighborhood along with some other trashy items. The wind about blew me away, and I had to come running inside quickly and calm myself down a bit.

It will be a good day to stay by the blazing fireplace that I just started a nice fire in and watch all the football games that are being aired today. I have a good sized flat screen T.V. that makes watching the games so much more enjoyable.

What a cold and nasty Saturday, and the bad news is that tomorrow is supposed to be worse, oh what a wonderful Monday that will be.

Frogs Are Every Where

Cheryl — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 01:07:47 +0000

Years ago I must have expressed out loud in front of someone, somewhere, something about the cuteness of a frog lawn ornament, that had caught my eye, for some reason. I didn’t even buy the frog, but some how that was to be the start of the many, many frogs that have now seemingly taken over my house and lawn. Word got out and frogs are a constant, but welcomed gesture from folks, as a gift, a token, a present, a tip (after all, I am a bar tender, and we receive quite a variety of tips now and then) from virtually everywhere from all types of people that I have/had a relationship with over the years. I must have a frog made out of any and every type of material that is known to man, in all kinds of sizes, and stances.

For Christmas I was given a frog aquarium kit, which requires a check to be sent in with the order for the frogs to come in the mail, or I could go down to one of the many pet stores that have popped up all over the place in the past few years. I’m sure at least one will have baby frogs for sale, it seems like the more humane way to receive new members of the family. But going to the pet stores, any of them like PetCo, Puppy Palace, and Petsmart always leaves me with me wallet emptied out and my heart broken from not being able to take home more of the critters that are all there, just waiting for a home, and knowing that their chances of being purchased and treated adequately highly reduces most of their survival rates.

One of the places that I try not to go in to are the A.S.P.C.A. and Animal Shelters, I have never left one yet with out crying like a baby and feeling like a piece of scum, and dirty. Not something that I enjoy or look forward to doing, ever.

The Great Outdoors

Cheryl — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 23:29:08 +0000

There are many benefits to working the night time hours that I generally work. One is that I’ve always been a night owl to being able to sleep in until noon works well with me. Getting up at noon leaves me with 6 hours to get things done before heading into work. During the nice weather months I am able to enjoy the day, while most people are all ready behind their desks waiting for 5:00pm to arrive so that they can at least enjoy a few hours before the darkness comes.

My Dad and I made up a real nice section of the back yard with some real nice patio furniture (wrought iron chairs and tables) that was picked up for next to nothing at a yard sale, a fire pit, hanging and potted plants here and there along with several nice looking bird houses and feeders.It is a place for me to go and relax day or night. It can rain or snow, what ever Mother Nature throws at me I can stay out there and enjoy myself.

I just picked up an electronic bug zapper, now I need Dad to run some electric out there. I’ve wanted him to but didn’t want to bother him with it, but now I think he will do it without question when he sees the bug zapper that I found, dirt cheap at the flea market over the weekend. There are a few more things that I want to get, but not in a big hurry about it. I’d love to find some of those cool rain chains that I’ve been seeing here and there. My sister-in-law received a japanese rain chain for Mother’s Day and I finally got the website from my brother that he ordered it from and took a look at it today and boy oh boy I had no idea that there were so many garden rain chains to choose from. I could go crazy at this site – rainchainlink.com.

Everything You Need In A Nut Shell at Local.com

Cheryl — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 05:32:43 +0000

So far I have found local.com to be the best online local yellowpages for my wants and needs. I have tossed out (placed in the recycling bin) all (and I do mean all) of my paper telephone books, the white pages, the yellow pages, and all but one of the local and surrounding counties book. I can’t believe how many I rounded up when I set my mind to it. There were eleven of them in all, several were way out of date and should have been gotten rid of years ago and a couple were still in the wrappers for heaven’s sake! Now I have more room on my book shelve and a kitchen drawer now has room for more kitchen items instead of all of the phone books that have lived there for so very long.

Now a days if I want to find one of our local restaurants I head straight for my computer to find everything I need there in a nutshell. Not only can I find the typical name, phone and address information at local.com, but I can find the businesses hours, driving directions, ratings and reviews, menu samples, heck you can even make your dinner reservations right online as well. So anytime I need to do a local search for anything I start at local.com, so far they haven’t let me down yet and I’ve found some pretty interesting and useful information along the way, just by entering my zip code I become privy to a ton of opportunities for online consumers as myself. It’s all good folks!

Chocolate Vine – No Photo Attached, arggg……

Cheryl — Sat, 09 Jul 2011 15:00:50 +0000

I’m always for new, unusual, unique plants and flowers. It’s been great looking around online at all the hundreds of websites with pictures, descriptions, and prices of all the wonderful plants out there that I’d love to get my hands on and have planted all around my yards. I’ve been looking for some unusual vines to grow in a particular area in the back and I stumbled onto the “Chocolate Vine” that I tried to post a picture of it here ’cause it’s just too cool not to share. But for some reason my d#@&* computer isn’t allowing any of the picture to be downloaded here today. But if you want to see some flicks of them you can click here!

Darn computer, makes me wonder what is going on now, arggg…..

Remember The Long Sunday Afternoon Drives (back when gas was affordable)

Cheryl — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 04:56:41 +0000

I have seen many fine looking lawns and gardens in the most beautiful yards in my day. I have always enjoyed driving around looking at houses and taking in the beauty of the fabulous landscaping that a lot of people are sporting these days. Once or twice a month my parents would gather up all of us kids in the station wagon and off we would go out for a nice long Sunday drive,gazing at all of the new houses that were being built along with the landscapers working their magic. So I got this interest and appreciation honestly. One of things that was a total turn off to us was seeing those bright blue tarps that are seen so often being used to cover what ever items they want to protect them from being seen as well as being kept from all the elements that Mother Nature throws at us through out the various seasons.

If I was to need a tarp for such purposes I think that I would purchase and use one that blended in with it’s surroundings so as not to bring attention to is as the bright blue ones do. I mean it is as if they are screaming “Look at me, look at me” when there is so much more that your eyes should be looking at and appreciating considering how much time and money a good landscaping job takes. There are many other tarps out there that can do the job nicely that don’t cost an arm and a leg. And I would never buy any tarp at the dollar store or at the local flea market that we frequent where there are dealers that have dozens of bins lined up filled with $1 items. That really irks me as well. When I go to the flea market I don’t want to see the same items that I can buy at the Dollar Store. Most of the $1 merchandise is crap and if I wanted to shop for crap I’d just go to one of the many stores around here that advertise their crap for only one dollar. And there is nothing worse that going into one of those stores and finding a good amount of their jump is more than one dollar.