That being said – David and I took advantage of this ‘summer’ break taking time to do some re-arranging in our storage. Our intent was not to re-arrange but rather look for something – a book – which of course is always in the last place you think to look. The only places left were the lofts and I’m not sure that book was important enough to tackle the lofts. And if you’re wondering – it was a stamp reference book we needed for someone else!

Gopher Alert!

Guess we’re not the only ones enjoying the warmer weather. The moles…gophers are having a field day in the hay field  and back yard. Huge piles of dirt everywhere – in fact I have to wonder why we don’t sink into the ground up to our ankles as we walk – there has to be a pretty involved lattice work of tunnels out there.   So far we’ve not been able to find anything that discourages their endless tunneling. 

Kind of reminds me of that scene in Paint Your Wagon at the end where the whole town (No Name City) totally collapses because the characters played by Clint Eastwood and Lee Marvin have tunneled everywhere under the town collecting the spilled gold dust. That’s an old movie – so you may or may not remember it. It was a fun movie with lots of beautiful scenery . . .

Pepparkakor!

Still working my way through my Christmas recipes. This week was cookie week. Have a good sugar cookie recipe that I add some almond flavoring  into – gives is a bakery flavor – or if you like, try adding in lemon.   I like to ice these cookies with cream cheese frosting   (almond or lemon flavor) – which of course you can color.

I got really ambitious one year and built a Christmas Tree out of them – started with large cookies at the bottom and worked my way up to small ones at the top. Iced the cookies green and then used sprinkles for decorations. It was very pretty – but loads of work.  That was one of those things  you do once in your life. 

One thing about these cookies, you need to have the dough cold and do not over-bake them (it took me a couple of times before I stopped over-baking them)  or they will loose that soft texture.

My other favorite cookie is a Ginger Thin. It is reminiscent of the pepparkakor cookies of Sweden. It is very dark, very spicy, and very crisp. Again with this dough you want to make sure it is cold when you work with it and watch the baking time closely. Once cooled – keep them in as air-tight container as possible to keep them crisp.

Recipes are on line here – Sugar ‘Almond’ Cookies . . . . Ginger Thins.

Scam Alert!

Had a phone call from an old acquaintance this week. She was looking for help with her web page. It would seem that she had ‘signed-up’ and paid for a program (Fortune Learning Systems) but was now having trouble getting them to deliver on services as promised. She wanted to know if we could help her get her website working (which we couldn’t) or help by giving her some questions to ask (which we did). 

I know that with times as they are, there are a lot of people looking for a way to stay home and earn a few extra dollars …. or maybe start a new career on the Internet. All I can say is PLEASE  investigate any program you may think you want to pursue. Look on line for scam reports, Better Business Bureau reports, blogs that monitor scams, etc. before investing any money. If it sounds too good to be true – it probably is.

If you want to learn how to put up a website or start your own blog, visit the Index page  of   http://powertoearnmoney.com/  where categories are broken down and you can see how to get started with either a website or blog.   Don’t see what you’re looking for – send us a question and we’ll try to help.

I try to keep the week days more computer work related – with a few house chores like cooking thrown in – and then have the weekends for ‘fun’ stuff. I found out a long time ago that when you have a home business – of any kind – you need to schedule regular work hours just as if you had an outside-the-home job. If you don’t, you’ll find yourself working 24/7 with no time off to rest – headed for a total burn-out.

And take time off this weekend is just what we did. Went to the monthly flea market in Jewett. It’s a local event – and we don’t go very often but the weekend was just too wonderful to stay inside. It was fun and we got our exercise walking up and down the rows displaying vegetables, assorted livestock, antiques, and just about anything else you can think of. Only purchase was a Halloween Snoopy figure – saving him for my Halloween post – he is just too cute.

This leads me to Monday. Monday, of course – was Columbus Day. It seems not as many businesses celebrate or give employees that holiday off anymore – but it was so tempting  to take the day off . . . that  take it off I did. To understand the significance of this – you should know that Monday is without a doubt my busiest day on the computer and for some reason, I always find it hard to ‘make up’ the lost hours if I skip Monday’s work.  But I threw caution to the wind and played hooky.    Worked out in the yard, replaced the flowers on the back porch and outside the kitchen window with fall ones. Even planted some snapdragons I had purchased the previous week. All in all everything looks very fall-ish.

Call the Plumber!!

‘They’ say you shouldn’t have a food disposal if you have a septic system. I’m not exactly sure why not – but it doesn’t matter – I have one anyway.   Guess I should know why since  every once in a while the line gets stopped up even though I really, really try not to run excessive amounts of food bits down the disposal.

Such was the case Tuesday. While rinsing and putting dishes in the washer after lunch – guess what?  The water in the sink wasn’t draining. Thankfully, David was able to use the roto-rooter gizmo to get it working again – in probably less than 1/2 hour – and I was ready to go.

While relaying my inconvenience to Nancy, she mentioned to me that a plumber a long time ago told her that if she were to run the hottest water from the faucet down the sink for about 5 minutes, pour some soap into the drain, and then run the hot water again, she would never have any problems with her sink stopping up. I am definitely going to give this a try. Plan on putting it into my schedule to do the first of each month. If it works, it would be great and certainly can’t hurt. I do know enough about septic systems to know not to use Drano or any of the other caustic products . . . but hot water and dish soap – sounds good to me.

Don’t Miss the Fall Vitamin Sale !! 

You know David and I  like taking vitamins and other supplements – I couldn’t even begin to tell you how many different vitamin and herb supplements we take.   But I can tell you we got the mother load delivered today! Guess we won’t have to worry about buying anything for about a year. Super good deal from Puritan’s Pride going on right now -   Fall Savings – Buy 2 Get 3 Free or Buy 1 Get 1 Free at Puritan’s Pride Vitamins! 

We’re even trying out a new supplement . . . chia seed oil.    Yup! Just like the seeds you see advertised on TV to grow those green, hairy little critters – except ours are the oil in softgels. FYI – chia is loaded with omega 3 – and according to the literature good for your heart, immune and nerve health.  If you haven’t heard of Puritan’s Pride - they are the #1 Direct-to-You Manufacturer of over 1,400 high-quality, value-priced vitamins, minerals, herbs, diet and specialty supplements and more. Satisfying customers for over 40 years, Puritan’s Pride is a trusted online source for quality vitamins and supplements delivered right to your doorstep.

This program just went live this week and looks like it is just the thing for those that might be looking for a way to earn a few extra dollars from home on their computer - and want to do it automatically (only takes 18 clicks of the mouse).

If you’ve been looking for a way to earn a few $$ on the Internet -  check out my new post on PowerToEarnMoney.com.  The CBPredators program is RISK FREE – for 60 days !!  To read more on my blog –  click here - or to go directly to the ClickBank Predators page – click the dinosaur banner above.

Thanks & Good Luck if you decide to give it a try!

Of course, it’s tax time …..again – so most of the weekend was dedicated to getting papers together. Just about have it all sorted out – so it’s off to the CPA next.

After reviewing last year’s numbers and this year’s numbers it would seem that everything is getting more expensive. What else is new??!!  And, what with the way the overall economy is going, looks like we’re all going to need to find a way to earn a few extra $$$. That being said, we’ve been really busy working on our outside Internet projects trying to see what works best for generating some additional income. We’re rarely not doing something on the computer – but have found that monetizing our websites seems to be working…. slowly. We’re definitely not getting rich – but if we continue to build on what we’re doing – we can at least help offset some of the rising prices.

We’re very much encouraged with a new program we’ve found out of New Zealand. The guy that runs it (Mark) – so far seems to be the most realistic about what to expect, and very up front about how and what to do. We’ve dealt with a lot of these guys in our search for the ‘silver bullet’ – and unfortunately not all have their member’s best interests at heart. Mark’s got loads of free tools to download for use and always good info. If any of you think you might like to try Internet Marketing – give a look at www.powertoearnmoney.com – and from that page click on the Affilorama link (right side bar). If you’d like to see a website that’s been built based on what we’ve learned from Mark – visit BodyBuildingFitnessProgram.com

For those that may be interested in doing some sort of on line business – or have questions and want to know how to go about getting up online either with a business or blog, we’ve developed PowerToEarnMoney.com as a learning tool. You’ll pretty much find everything you need to get know to get you started  – including a lot of the basic do’s and don’ts of having a website. Best thing – the information is Free and in very simple to understand language.   Fact is I’ve put this blog on line based on everything I wanted and needed to know when I first got started but had a hard time finding and understanding.   PowerToEarnMoney is my way of  trying to help  others find the information they need  – without it taking them as long as it did me to ferret out all the info and explanations.  

And for those of you that may not be into building websites or blogs - but still want to try earning a few dollars, check out www.oodle.com. It’s a ‘classified ad site’ where you can sell just about anything for free. I haven’t tried it so can’t offer any help – but I’d be sure and read all the Terms before listing anything.  And while you’re at it – if you have something to sell, a service to offer, etc. check out the FREE listings on www.txantiquemall.com. Look for the Marketplace on the home page – right side towards the ‘bottom’.

visit www.powertoearnmoney.com

As my first step in this direction, I tackled the pantry last weekend with a thought to re-arranging it.  Moving out all non-essentials to what we call the ‘red barn’ – really David’s workshop where he had cleared 3 large shelves for me.  I started by moving out dusty cookbooks, shoe boxes of duplicate kitchen utensils, too large for the cabinet pots and pans – and anything else I hadn’t used since we moved in 10 years ago.  Who would have thought I could have crammed so much junk into such a small space?!

It took me 2 days (working off and on) to get the pantry cleaned out and re-arranged.  Confession:  As an avid Snoopy collector I couldn’t bring myself to move Snoopy out – banish him to the barn! – no matter what I thought I might be able to store in the space he now occupies on the top shelf in the corner next to the 5 cans of coffee. He stays!!

I plan on filling up the empty spaces buying extra necessities on each trip to the store.  This may take a little while as we only do ‘major’ shopping about once every 3 weeks. I went to the store at least 3 times a week when we were in town. But yes, I have learned to survive without fresh milk, bread and eggs for breakfast.  Powdered creamer works wonders in anything needing milk (especially sauces);  frozen flour tortillas make excellent wrap-up sandwiches in lieu of bread and well eggs – there’s always a few kolaches in the freezer we suffer through when eggs aren’t on the menu for breakfast. 

We’ve learned a lot about ‘making do’ here in the country in a lot of different ways. One we’re mildly excited about is a new business venture we’ve just found for earning money on the Internet and if it works as promised – in about 2-3 months I’ll tell you all about it.

We have found over the years that there are many ways to make extra money.  We’d been in the antique business  in Houston for over 20 years - so opening an antique booth in one of the surrounding towns seemed the thing to do.  And, until the economy took a turn – it was well worth our time and effort.  (Love those country auctions.)   However, we now find we need to move in another direction.  And,  we’ve chosen the Internet.   After all, what can you not find on the Net?  We’d already had our antique website – Texas Antique Mall - up and running for over 10 years, so why not just move into another Internet market?   We decided to try our hand at  affiliate, PPC and email marketing.

We’ve done our homework and continue to learn how to make these markets work for us.  We’ve had a lot of  people along the way say they would like to do something similar but didn’t know where to start – so David and I sat down and put together the 7 ‘easy’ steps necessary to get someone started with an online business.  Right from registering a domain through the how-to’s of making money. You can find all this information – for FREE –  at Power To Earn Money.  

We’ve lot’s of  ideas and plans for providing more information in the future and will have a FREE Newsletter registration within the next week so you sign up to get good, helpful information delivered right to your Inbox!   After all, who would say ‘No’ to an extra few hundred a month?