About Rakes

Lee Landers asked:


So, you are about to foray into your favorite woodland, and enjoy another wild berry picking experience. Did you know - if the crop is moderate to heavy - you could pick four to ten times as many wild huckleberries in an hour, with an inexpensive tool known as a “huckleberry rake”?

How to get more berries in your bucket!

The actual berries on most species of huckleberry plants, grow ONLY on the current year’s growth. So don’t try to “bull” your way through the plant. Since the tines of a rake are usually metal, and quite sturdy, there is a high risk of damaging the wild plant if you try to rake more than absolutely necessary. Plus you will hang up, and get more leaves in your bucket, which are time consuming to pick out.

If the berries are really sparse, you are best to hand pick. However, the heavier the huckleberry crop, the more a rake increases yields above handpicking … for obvious reasons!

Think small!

Huckleberry rakes work best with a small, manageable clump of berries. Short, quick, relaxed strokes, with just the right amount of berries and branchlets as a target, will net you the greatest yield. Until you get the hang of the wrist action, chase the smallest branchlets first, at the tips of the main branches. Slide the tines in just under the lowest huckleberry in a clump of maybe three to five berries, to start, then pull the tines up and through the loose bunch of wild huckleberries.

Your first swipe: “What just happened?”

Probably one of two things. Either you went too slow, and the huckleberries were pinched and squeezed, while your rake hung up a bit on the tiny branchlets. Or, you went too fast, and most of the berries flew OVER THE TOP of your rake, peppering the surrounding vegetation. Just like the rookie shrimp fishermen in the movie Forrest Gump, who only got old boots and a toilet seat in their first catch, your first raking efforts may net you more leaves than berries.

Not as easy as it looks, but you will get better, fast! If you are a fisherman or fisherwoman, you know what I’m talking about when I describe “setting the hook”. You get the line semi-taut, and then at just the right moment, you feel a tug, give a little snap of the wrist and “fish on!”. You can describe and explain how to do the wrist motion all you want, but until you experience the sensation a few dozen - or even a few hundred - times, you just won’t know how to set the hook, and catch that lunker.

Round 2!

So, lets try again. As you slide the tines under the huckleberries, maybe six to ten berries this time, you want to bring up the rake against the slight “pressure” of the attached berries — just like taking the slack out of a fish line. Note that if you try to take in too many branchlets with one swipe, the pressure turns your rake into a snarl among the twigs, reducing the effectiveness of your efforts, and increasing the risk of damage to the plant.

The instant you feel the slightest hint of back pressure, you will do a short, gentle “snap” of your wrist, upward or outward. Too slow, and you snag the branches and bruise the berries, taking in lots of leaves. (This happens because you are pulling the berries off, instead of popping them off.) Too fast, and more berries fly over the rake, than into the rake.

Practice, practice, practice!

Don’t give up! At first you may feel like it would be faster to pick by hand. And it would be! But hang in there, things will change, and once they change, you will rack up gallon after gallon of huckleberries with a rake much faster than you ever thought possible. Once you get comfortable, each wrist movement will bring in up to a dozen (or more) beautiful purple berries in the blink of an eye.

Using both hands with a huckleberry rake:

As you get the hang of the basic stroke, and get a feel for how many branchlets and berries you can really rake in with one stroke, without snagging, you develop a sort of rhythm. Now it’s time to add your other hand as a feeder to the huckleberry picking production line. In fact, you probably were already doing this by now, instinctively.

A huckleberry bush often displays berries across a span of ten or twenty inches (or more) around the top and outside of the plant, while your rake might only be six inches wide. You can really only rake a swath four inches wide or so, cleanly. But by using your hands in tandem, you can cover a lot more of the plant in less time.

Your free hand gathers branchlets together, between the thumb and fingers. You pinch the twigs; either together to make a larger clump of berries, or away from the main plant so they are easier to rake cleanly without snagging. And try to avoid as many leaves as possible.

Then in comes the rake. Swish. Repeat. (You will always get a little snagging, so don’t worry about it, just work to avoid pulling off branches when you do hang up. Better to back out, and take a smaller stroke, than damage the plant.)

Feel the rhythm!

Again, you will get a rhythm going, this time with both hands. Some strokes will not need the second hand… a branchlet with nice berries is hanging out there, all by its lonesome, and a swish with the rake will do the trick. In “heavy” huckleberry bushes your second hand will get a workout.

An experienced “raker” is a joy to behold, as he or she works around the plant, no wasted motion, short and easy wrist movements, gleaning most of the plant, while standing in one spot. Maybe a short step to the side of the wild huckleberry plants to change the angle, and get any remaining berries. Then he or she works right on through the patch in a semi-systematic fashion, with short interruptions where a stray berry gets popped into a mouth, or the picker takes a swat at an insect.

A final plea.

NOTHING damages a wild huckleberry plant more than clipping or breaking off a branch, or even the entire plant, which I have seen people do. Wild huckleberries take 5 to 15 years to reach a productive stage, and when you cut them back - even though it might make picking easier - something else is likely to grow back where that huckleberry plant once stood.

Huckleberry rakes are the best tactic for getting four, six, even ten times as many berries in your bucket in an hour, without damaging the wild resource. But even a rake, just like a hammer or screwdriver, can be misused, and cause damage. Operate your huckleberry rake ethically, and all of us will enjoy our wild huckleberry resource for many generations to come!

(C) 2008 - Lee Landers



Auto Touch Up Paint

Sen Ze asked:


Photography is a hobby that is loved by many, but very few people actually turn to it as a full-time career, as it is often considered to be a hard field in which to become successful. But much like any other path you take in life, if you’re willing to work hard to make it work and you’re willing to take the necessary steps to ensure your triumph, you can’t go wrong.

And when it comes to photography, one of the very necessary steps you should take is to give your business an online presence. With so many advancements in recent technology, people are going online for almost everything these days - and photography is no exception.

In fact, as a photographer, you stand the most to gain from the progression of the Internet! Never before has it been so easy to share your photos with millions of people around the world - and with something as simple as starting your own domain and blog on photography, you can greatly boost your financial and career prospects!

1. Share, Comment And Learn

One of the most important benefits you will gain with your own domain and blog is the chance to share your photographs with the rest of world in an easy and effective manner that you simply cannot do any other way. You literally reach out to millions of people - a big jump from being able only to share them with your friends, family and peers.

And by sharing your photos with people, you also have the chance for them to comment and give their views, much like they would comment on a blog post. By creating a network of like-minded individuals who visit your blog to see your photographs (and you visit theirs too, of course), you can hone and perfect your skill based on their input.

2.Make Money Selling Photos

Of course, you also want to make money, and that is another big aspect of getting yourself a website. By displaying smaller sized (and watermarked, for added security) photos on your website, you can give people the opportunity to purchase high-quality images that they like simply by setting up a shopping cart and merchant credit account. Thus, your visitors can buy directly from you using their credit cards, and you can make money in your sleep!

3. Make Money Selling Your Expertise

Another way for you to make money is to sell your expertise in photography. After many years in the business and with a lot of experience under your belt, you will no doubt have many jewels of knowledge to share with other budding photographers. With your own domain, you have the opportunity to turn this knowledge into cash, and here are two easy ways to do it.

Firstly, you can sell information via e-mail. In return for a monthly membership fee (to join your mailing list), you can send weekly or daily e-mails to your customers outlining photography tips and tricks that you have picked up. This is a useful way of earning recurring income for a minimal amount of work, since your e-mails can be pre-written and stored to be sent our automatically.

Another way to sell your information is to write short electronic books (in PDF format, for example, as you save a lot of money on printing and distribution) that cover a certain aspect of photography that you are an expert in. Since people who visit your website are clearly interested in photography, they are the best prospects for you to market your book to, again saving you money on marketing and advertising costs!

4. Build A Reputation

In any business, the more people that know you, the better it will be for you career. Photography is certainly no different, and one of the best ways to get people to notice you is to get a domain that is your own name. Thus, anyone that visits your website will know who you are and all about your expertise in photography. Over time, this prominence on the Internet will turn into greater opportunities in the physical world.

As you can see from the benefits above, turning to the Internet is an indispensable option for all photographers. Most importantly, however, since budding photographers often don’t make much money, it is important to note that getting a domain and blog is incredibly easy and cheap to start up and maintain.

With so many benefits at such a small price, it’s no wonder that many photographers have already turned to the Internet. Isn’t it about time that you, too, jump on the bandwagon?



Painted Kitchen Cabinets

Candi asked:


I have everything else, but the rake and I don’t want to spend 10 dollars on something I can make.

It seems silly, especially because it is so small.

I am willing to make one, but I don’t have accessibility to tools like a drill.

I will take creative alternatives as well.
I want it to only be 3-4 inches long.

Bamboo Steamers

Joseph Plazo asked:


Admit it. Everyone loves backlinks. With each new inbound link to your site, Google smiles at the vote of confidence. Your reputation subsequently increases, your search rankings skyrocket– and with it, the number of web visitors to your site.

More visitors translate to more clinking in the empty piggy bank. Sounds good? Let’s get down to business.

For the average Joe, there are three boring ways to create inbound links.

The first is the most common: reciprocal linking. You fire an email to a related site and request an exchange of votes. It’s tideous and webmasters tend to tell you to buzz off. Google doesn’t give much value to such backlinks either-they deem such behavior self-serving. Expect to do months of reciprocal link building before reaping decent returns. It is simply not worth it.

The second way is to spam. Spamming quickly blasts hundreds of your links into many forums, blogs and directories. You can create almost 2000 backlinks with this method in a week. Ever got those viagra ads posted on your Honda fansite? The spammers probably thought a triangular blue pill spins up your twinturbos more rapidly. You’ve just been spammed.

Finally, the third way is to create linkbait articles. Linkbait is a controversial writeup that compells other webmasters to link to your article. If the article is inflammatory, debatable or insulting, you can rake in nearly 10,000 backlinks a week after every Tom Dick and Harry dissect your atricle on their blogs. It’s not always healthy for the ego. And besides, you dash your reputation to the rocks with spamming.

These days, I no longer use such tired methods to rake in backlinks. I go for a lazier, faster way. I call it PDF Marketing.

FYI, a PDF is a document created by adobe acrobat. Link building using this method requires that you write a truly snazzy 3-4 page article that people would love.

Some themes you’d consider:

1) SEO tips and tactics

2) Dating and romance

3) Conspiracy theories bordering on the unbelievable

4) PC optimization

5) Online business techniques

6) Offline business ideas

7) Adsense marketing

Affiliate marketing

9) Hobbies

When choosing a theme, make sure you’re knowledgeable and passionate about it. Then write! Spend at least 30 minutes drafting and polishing. Review the final document then impregnate every page of your article with links to your site. Compile it into a PDF document and upload it to free download sites. Take a glass of lemonade and sit back. That was the hard part. Pretty soon, freeloaders would pick up on the document. They’d enjoy it and post it on their sites. They’d buzz about it. More people would download it. Half of them will stick it into their webs. Then guess what? In a fortnight, you’d have thousands of sites hosting your PDF that links back to your web!

Here’s the best part: Google would love you to bits from all that link love. The reward is often more green pixie dust on your pagerank toolbar.

Can you already imagine your site tap dancing all the way to loftier search engine rankings? Now go get em!



Bamboo Water Fountains

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Monorail Track Lighting

Peter Bosch asked:


Trade the right way, and entering the stock market will doubtless be the best and most profitable investment you will ever make. Even into the millions. But trade stocks the wrong way, and you will simply be giving your hard earned cash away. Read on to see the right way to trade, top 5 must know tips for new comers, and deadly traps to watch out for.

1. Forget your gut feeling. Too many new traders are finding a stock they think will be good, invest too much with it, and wave it all goodbye. Your gut feeling is no substitute for coaching from a professional.

2. Careful who you listen to. Most market analysts are outright guessing. And don’t fall for all this ‘holy grail’ nonsense. Many traders waste the best years of their life searching for it when it really doesn’t exist.

3. Start small. Invest sums like $50 to $100 to start out with. This can save you tons of money while you’re gaining valuable experience for big trades in the future.

4. Don’t invest what you can’t afford to lose. Though you may be exited, this isn’t the time for rushing in blindly. The recent stock market fall shouldn’t be anything to scare you, but you will want to trade with only spare money.

5. Get a good trading system, and stick with it. Amature traders waste a ton of time and money hopping from method to method. You need the patience to persist with a system, instead of leaving after the first few losses like most losing traders.

Trading the stock market will have it’s ups and downs, but with a solid trading system, good money management principles, and the patience to research and stick at it, you could eventually be trading by the millions. A million’s less than it used to be, it’s not that far out of reach with an ideal trading system. Happens every day.

Low on patience? Shortcut to the profit stage.

Impatience can be good, if it drives you in the right direction. Believe it or not, this is a legitimate choice. Some new traders have saved loads of time, and made loads of money by simply duplicating the success of someone else. Newbie traders have shaved years off the learning stage by taking full advantage of someone elses experience.

This is highly recommended, depending on who you listen to. There’s a lot of junk out there - if it sounds too good to be true, it’s usually best to walk away. But not in every case. Choose an expert with proof such as examples and testimonials, and checkout and free trial or preview first.

You can’t afford all this trial and error like most amature traders. Who would want to start from scratch and figure it all out on their own, when you can have all the trading tools and resources handed to you from one who knows, and is already making millions from the stock market.



See just how easy it can be to duplicate someone else’s success, and download a free consumer guide - 4 simple steps successful traders know that you don’t. This is an excellent tool for traders of all experience levels. Even complete newbies.



Decorate Fireplace Mantel

justplainscary asked:


I’m in Central Florida, and I have a big job coming up. A friend of mine wants me to rake his backyard once the leaves are done falling, when is the best time ( Month ) to start raking and bagging, so that the leaves won’t fall off and I will have to do the job again?

Outdoor Solar Lighting

testing asked:


Redstarpoker: Is On the ever popular CakePoker Network with a now huge following, This USA friendly site has become one of the best options for players worldwide andat any stakes.

It is also known as the redstarpoker rakeback.

Software: Red Star Poker uses the very original Cake Poker software and generally runs well, although slower networks can have some problems with disconnections from time to time. Fixes have been made over recent months which have dramatically improved the softwares performance.



Playability: Very easy to understand and use at the table with buttons and actions clearly marked. The lobby at is clean and unfussy with a nice design.

Summary: Red Star Poker is an interesting mix that runs on the Cake Network software, is based in Malta but is primarily aimed at the Russian and east European market. It is quite entertaining when receiving e-mails and tournament results, as these are sent in both Russian and English, which certainly give the site an atmosphere all of it’s own. The Cake Poker Network of players is growing fast, and this looks to be another site with a bright future.

The site is currently running daily freerolls without restrictions which should attract plenty of visitors and their guaranteed tournaments offer great value and sometimes large overlays

Customer Support: Generally friendly and fast. Often, e-mails are replied to in both Russian and English. They also offer online and telephone support. Cashing out is normally problem free but can be a little slow at times. All the major standard deposit and withdrawal methods are available.



Pine Scented Candles

Franck Silvestre asked:


The Internet is quickly becoming the best platform for new entrepreneurs because of its nature and the low cost associated. Anyone can getting started in affiliate Internet marketing from the comfort of his own home without even spending a single dollar on advertising.

In fact, experts said that in a near future, the Internet will become the major marketplace in the world.

While millions of people use the Internet just to play their favorite game, kids make millions of dollars every single year. I’ve even seen kids earning money on the Internet. Not a couple of hundreds, but thousands of dollars a month.

That kid owns a blog and a website that he called it “earn money with a 13 year old”. And you know what? There are many kids earning money while they are playing!

Generally, those smart kids start with affiliate marketing because they don’t have the resources to create their own products. It’s good for them because they just need to create a blog (it takes less than 5 minutes), and they can drive traffic to it the same day.

All they need to do is to add a link in the sidebar, another within the blog post and another in their sig file. Then, they post and get traffic.

If a 13 year old kid can earn thousands of dollars from his own computer while all these adults are failing miserably?

One of the reason is that they over complicate a simple process. Just get things done and don’t think too much about them. Those kids act fast and without analyzing too much, that’s the secret of their success.

It’s insane… All these kids earning money while they play World of Warcraft!

What are you wanting for? Just go to blogger.com and start your own blog on any subject that you like. Learn while you act an learn from your mistakes. It’s the quickest way to earn from affiliate Internet marketing: take action now.



Outdoor Bamboo Fountain

Patrick Murray asked:


The sun breaks through and the majority of the leaves finally fallen from the tree out front. In a few hours I’ll be out there cursing mother nature for not just blowing them away. On the upside the sun will be out and the skies are clear. It’s a Sunday and after all the things I have to do for others the remainder of the time will be spent aimlessly meandering around, putting away some pots, trimming back some plants and cutting down the morning glories that took for ever to turn brown and go to seed.. That is that is until the game comes on or so I thought.

How can such a small tree produce so many leaves? I wonder all the while knowing what’s really lurking around the corner.

The invasion is not my parents who are coming from back east to spend the first Thanksgiving with us in years. Admittedly I don’t go back east to see them on the Holiday either. Still the invasion is coming and there is nothing I can do to deter it but it’s not my nephews who will run through the house like screaming maniacs wrestling, playing Star Wars, and just being boys. In all fairness they’re really good well behaved kids thanks to my sister but Grand Pa and Uncle Patty think its funny to wind them up, encourage the rowdy behavior so they rip and tear and yell like savages. It keeps me entertained.

The Doom of the holidays is less obvious than that. Drinking down about the 12th cup of coffee the insane ritual of black Friday creeps in. So as the day winds on my little one who is now 10 and eating me out of house and home as she hits yet another growth spurt decides to “help”. Seriously she’s on her 3rd shoe size since school started back in August. She comes up to me “when can we do the Christmas lights?”

This is the invasion, the impending sense of doom that I knew was coming. “It’s not even Thanksgiving yet.” I tell her in my most understanding and paternal voice as I go back to the task at hand of planting bulbs where earlier in the day I opted to rip out some distressed shrubs. Good spring colors, different blooms, it will be great if and when winter finally passes and things start to grow again.

Around the same time the neighbors started getting out ladders, Across the street the kids were already on the damn roof wearing Santa hats and turning their property into something that would have made Clark Griswald so very proud. I was tempted to call OSHA but thought better of it. As the last leaves hit the bio bags and compost pile here she comes with a sorry string of lights and the timer she managed to dig out of the holiday decorations in the basement all by herself.

How could I say no? So it began as we placed the first string over the rose tree and its last fleeting blooms of the season I thought how they should have cut it back some earlier in the fall but secretly wanted those last flowers. Still she seemed thrilled as we strung the lights up across the porch roof, around the posts, finally lining one side of the walk with a series of two foot high light up Candy Canes. On the other side the phlox had taken over and were encroaching on the concrete. For the sake of sanity, and international relations in my own home I stayed with the task at hand of decorating and left them there to be cut back another day. For me leaving plants to be cut back another day is a day that rarely comes because I see a few buds and who needs a clear concrete path if they can have a few more blooms. If you don’t like having to dodge my own semi manicured version of nature don’t come over.

My Little One was ecstatic beyond words and bouncing like it was actually Christmas morning. I felt like Scrooge but gave in like I always do on the little things. She was excited and youthful, a trait that is not found quite as often in kids these days. I enjoyed it, a kid who was just that a kid. No social pressure, no what am I missing on TV or a favorite website. Just a few hours of puttering and playing and telling me how things should be and how weird they boys at school are.

Somewhere in the back of my mind as we placed a few strings over the enormous and still blooming Mums and picking the last of the Halloween cobwebs of the now barren maple tree I wondered if I hadn’t become as bad as the retail world who put up their decorations, Santa and Reindeer statues, wreaths and Holly right after Halloween.

As we debated, but mostly she talked and I listened to how we should have lights on the back porch “since no one else does” and how I’m not Nearly as cool as Kay up the street with an ice skating frosty decoration surrounded by a blue strings of lights to make a pretend pond we came across what had been a struggling cabbage plant that was given to her to “grow” at the end of the last school year. To say it hadn’t thrived but until now had just survived would be accurate but now it was large and thriving.

It was enough of a distraction to forget about her ambition to make me festive and excited about putting lights up on the back porch…for now. However like the cold winds that are starting to blow, the hordes of family members making their way to holiday meals, and the insane crowds gathered outside of retailers over night going into Friday (but I still love you Honey) the doom of the holidays is here. So I’ll put on a good face, sit quietly with my books, spend too much time watching football to make up for all the games I’ve missed this fall and wait for the first green blades of grass. The first crocus to push through the spring snow, followed by the daffodils and tulips.

By then chances are my little one will be another shoe size or so bigger and someday not all that far away I’ll look back and miss all the help I had putting up the lights too early. She’ll be off doing more important things, wearing out the key pad texting on a new cell phone and I’ll still be outside hanging off a ladder

Have a safe and Happy Holiday Season.



Heat Pump Ratings