Daily Archives: June 12, 2017

Don’t Give Winter The Colder Shoulder: Act Now

by

Winter is both a wonderful and terrible time of the year. As a result, it’s easier to discuss the negative impacts of the winter time once we’re away from it! While you might be thinking of the snow painting white landscapes and the snowmen appearing gradually in each front garden, there is also another side to winter. Winter is a cold season that endangers the safety of your home, the survival of the wildlife, and – even worse – human survival too. It would be unfair and irresponsible to only think of hot chocolate, a battle of snowballs and Christmas decoration when too many lives are fighting to go through winter. As a result, it is now time to consider what you can do to prepare for the colder months and to improve your home, the wildlife’s chances and the life of the many people who don’t have a roof over their heads.

Homeless and cold

What Are You Doing At Home?

The problem with winter is that it is a season of high natural risks that can damage your home, or simply infiltrate through a weak structure. For instance, water is not only about snow. Rain too can join the party and cause serious damages to your home, especially if your roof is holey. Unfortunately, a holey roof is noticed only when the first winter rain creates a drip inside the home. In other words, it’s best to get your roof checked in advance! Additionally, if you live in a region that is renowned for its cold winter, you might want to ensure that your pipes don’t freeze. This could destroy your water system, and cause your home to be cut off from the water supply until the repairs can be done. So if you are looking for ways to avoid such issues, Heat-Line is a good name to bear in mind. It is a Canadian company that has developed freeze-protection solutions to withstand the coldest climates. It’s not the kind of expertise you want to live without if your home is in a cold region.

What Are You Doing For The Wildlife?

Even the wildlife has a hard time in winter. Therefore it is important to give it the best help you can. This starts by letting your garden go wild so that animals can hide and hibernate safely. Additionally, if you have a water feature, remember to break the ice so that the fish or frogs that hibernate at the bottom can survive. Additionally, make sure to leave food for the animals. Birds, especially find it difficult to feed themselves in winter, so providing a range of peanuts, seeds, and table scraps will prove very useful. If you have a big garden, feel free to leave food for other visitors, such as bread and boiled potatoes for foxes, nuts for squirrels and even cheese for badgers.

Rodent Animal Garden Squirrel Winter Parus Major

Squirrel in winter

What Are You Doing For Others?

Helping others

Members from the Charleston Elks Lodge 242 pass out hygiene products to homeless veterans and civilians at the 11th annual Stand Down Against Homelessness Oct. 29, 2010, at North Charleston Armory Park, S.C. The Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks is an American fraternal order and social club founded in 1868. (U.S. Air Force photo/Senior Airman Timothy Taylor)

There are hundreds of thousands homeless people in every country. Too many die during the winter; they freeze to death. It is a horrible way to go. While you can’t find them a home, you can certainly help them to survive dire winter months. You could choose to distribute food, toiletry supplies, and warmer clothes to help those who sleep outdoors to survive. Often warm socks, sleeping bags, and blankets can make a huge difference when the weather is cold. So what can you give to save another life next winter?

Contributed Post.

If you like what you’ve read here, please let others know of this post, blog, and site.

And thanks for reading!  🙂

Dealing With Squeaky Brakes Without Panicking

by

When you have a car, it’s natural to want to keep it running smoothly for as long as possible. Indeed, a well-maintained vehicle means that it will cost less in emergency repair and unexpected failures. More importantly, a maintained car is safer for the driver and the passengers. Consequently, it’s recommended to keep on top of your service appointments and checkups if you want to enjoy your car for longer. However, it’s not always easy. One of the most common complaints about cars is when they are making noises that shouldn’t be there in the first place. Picture the scene, you are coming back home, parking on the drive, and as you hit the brake pedal, you hear a distinctive squeak from the front wheel. The car stops. But it does with an agonizing cry. Before you begin to panic and worry about your safety, here’s a little guide about what to do when your brakes squeak unexpectedly.

What Can Cause A Squeak?

Brakes can squeak for a variety of reasons. Most commonly, brakes begin to squeak when the brake pads have gone so thin that they are setting off a brake wear indicator, aka a squeak. This isn’t the only reason. Sometimes, the squeak occurs as the result of a condensation phenomenon, after a rainy day or as a morning dew sets for example. Additionally, if the brake rotor is covered in rust, it’s likely to emit a squeaky noise too. Sometimes, your brakes squeak as a result of dirt, or a small gravel that has found its way between your caliper – the part that holds the brake pads together – and the disk. This is especially common if you’ve been driving on a freshly gravelled road, for instance.

How To Check Your Brakes

Brake pads, caliper and disk

 

It’s therefore important to understand how to check your brakes, as seen on dummies.com. You will need to jack up the car to remove the wheel that hides the squeaky brakes. This will expose the rotor – or disk –, the caliper and the brake pads. You can see the thinness of the brake pads through an inspection hole on top of the caliper. Be carefully though, as parts will be hot if you’ve just been driving the car. This inspection will show if the disk is damaged, or if the pads need replacing. If any of these is damaged, it’s time to act.

 

Changing Your Brakes Or Asking For Help

You’d be glad to know that you can change your brakes pads or disk by yourself if you’ve got the right tools. You can order the relevant parts online; partsengine.ca is a good address if you’re not sure of the type of pads or disk you need as you can customize the search filter to your car make and model. Besides, you get a one-year return policy, so there’s no need to worry if you accidentally order the wrong part. If you don’t feel confident, you can still book an appointment in your local garage to get it done.

The Danger Of Driving With Bad Brakes

Bad or damaged brake parts need to be replaced as soon as possible. Driving with them can damage your car. There’s a risk of cracking the rotor, or even the caliper, which can stop the wheel from turning. You could also break the suspension system out of alignment if you continuously use poor brakes. Finally, you could wear down the rubber of your tyres as the car tries to stop.

Contributed Post.

If you like what you’ve read here, please let others know of this post, blog, and site.

And thanks for reading!  🙂

From House Hunting To Moving In: A Countdown

by

https://pixabay.com/en/home-for-sale-house-estate-sale-1745377/

 

Whether you are a first-time buyer or are planning to move into a larger family home, buying a new house can be very confusing. There are lots of steps to go through, and once you start the whole house-hunting process, you might feel like you will never make it to a new home! To help simplify this entire process, here is my countdown that covers everything from the house hunt to moving into your new home!

Six Months Before Moving Day: House Hunting

 

As finding a suitable house and sealing the deal can take a long time, it’s a good idea to start looking for a new house at least six months before you need to move out of your current one. This will give you plenty of time to go through with all the legal things that need to be sorted out. In order to find the best home, it’s necessary to widen your search as much as possible. For instance, you should look online, speak to local real estate agents, and look through property listings in local newspapers. That way, you are increasing the number of properties that you see in your search.

 

As Soon As You Find A Great House: Get A Survey

 

Once you have found a dream property, it is important to get a survey done as soon as possible. You don’t have to get one done, but it is very much in your interest that you do so as it will flag up any potential problems with the property’s structure. Building experts will take a look around the house, especially at any problem areas. The kinds of things that surveys often flag up include damp and weakened foundations.

 

Once Your Offer Has Been Accepted: Prepare For Moving

 

Many people rely on a moving company to help them move house. These companies can be especially useful if you are moving a long distance away, as they reduce the possibility of you needing to go back and forth between each property numerous times. But before you can move, you will need to pick up the keys for your new house. More often than not, the real estate agent will call you when you can collect the keys; it’s necessary to get these in plenty of time before moving day so that you can move some items before if necessary.

 

Moving Day: Get Organized

 

When moving day arrives, you should be as organized as possible so that everything goes without a hitch. Think about writing down a plan for the day, which splits up jobs between everyone involved so that they know exactly what they are responsible for on the day. The plan should also include times for each job so that you manage to stick to your schedule and don’t overrun. Failing to stick to your schedule could mean that the moving company is with you for longer than planned, which could lead to extra charges.

 

Now that you have this countdown, there’s no need to panic in the run up to moving day!

Contributed Post.

If you like what you’ve read here, please let others know of this post, blog, and site.

And thanks for reading!  🙂