Water is Life Especially in an Emergency Situation

It seems to be happening more and more. The floods, fires, mudslides, tornadoes, hurricanes and sundry other natural disasters that make living through the aftermath a frightening challenge.

Food, water, fuel, power, everything we count on and take for granted in daily living becomes difficult or impossible to get.

While some items can be stored against an emergency, this article will address why you need a portable water filter to use in disasters. Our water supply systems are more fragile than you’d imagine when you turn on the tap and get fresh, clean water every time.

A natural disaster can compromise water delivery pipes fouling the water so that it is unsafe. If supply is cut entirely, you can make standing or rainwater safe to drink if you have an appropriate filter. A family with limited food rations can survive for some time. Without water, life expectancy is short.

There are a number of cost effective purification options that you can have at home to hedge against the loss of potable water.

berkey filtersLet Gravity Do the Work

One option is a gravity-powered filter. Water from whatever source available can be used.  Gravity systems operate by, yes, gravity. The user pours the source water into the top portion of the unit, and as gravity does its job and the water makes its way down through a system of nets and filters that remove smaller and smaller pieces of debris and sediment. Finally, there is a filter that looks similar to those found in filtrating water pitchers that removes the microscopic nasty stuff we can’t see. These systems can deliver enough clean water—one gallon per person per day—to survive nicely.  berkey water filtersBerkey water filters are gravity based and portable enough to take anywhere.

Gravity operated systems come in a variety of materials; plastic, ceramic lined metal, even canvas. Prices and sizes vary, so do some research before you make a purchase. The basic operation is the same across all types, its mostly the capacity and portability that vary.

Solar Powered

Another option is a solar powered filter. Obviously, it uses the sun as its power source, but can also be powered by a vehicle’s cigarette lighter or a 12 volt battery. It produces one gallon per minute when electrically powered.

As with most filters discussed here, the solar powered filters have three stages of filtration, which takes out bacteria and virus sized nasties.

These units are far more expensive than the gravity fed variety, but they are fast and reliable as long as the sun is shining. If planning for emergency water supply, it seems wise to rely on gravity or the sun as they are likely to be operational. Batteries don’t last that long and if you have no fuel for the car, the cigarette lighter isn’t likely to work long either.

 

Hand Pump Filters

Again, there are many varieties of the hand pump filter on the market, and all operate on the same principle. The choice of designs is extensive, and the price range is from around $10 to over $200 based on material and capacity.

The basic premise is the same for all hand pumps. You have the filtration unit with all the good stuff in it that takes the impurities out of the water. You put one hose, dedicated to going into unfiltered water, into the water source. There’s an output hose on the unit that goes into whatever receptacle you have chosen for your clean water.

When all this is in place, you pump. By hand. No power source needed other than a little elbow grease. Some models have a plunger, another a lever. Either way, as fast as you pump, you’ll get clean water as soon as it has passed through the filtration layers.

Storing Your Hard Earned Clean Water

Now that you’ve guaranteed that you have drinkable water, how you store it matters. Many plastics off-gas harmful chemicals and can disintegrate over time.

Purchase food grade plastic containers. These are best for long term storage. If you plan to filter your water as needed and not store it, you can use any high quality water bottle. The Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, does not recommend re-using milk or juice containers to store water for long periods. Even with scrupulous cleaning the plastic will still harbor proteins and sugars that may prove harmful.

We never want to think about it, and have often left the planning to the “wack-o” survivalists, but after Hurricane Sandy, I’ve taken a new look at being ready.  Also you can find multiple healthy living products at HEAMotivation.com.

Choose your filtration system and scope out the swimming pools in your neighborhood; they are a great source of water that you can filter and drink until help arrives.

Berkey Water Filter Coupon Codes

We located some deals on berkey water filters for June 2013. These deals are for up to 15% off. Berkey sells what are known as gravity filtration systems. Essentially you poor the water into the top of the filtration system and it flows downward. The water flows down through the filters and comes out the bottom fully filtered. There are a couple of benefits to this. First of all the water pushes down and forces itself through the system as quickly as possible. Secondly, and my favorite, is that electricity is not needed. You do not need to plug in a berkey system. This means that it is portable and you can take it with you. There are stainless steel Berkeys and highly durable plastic versions as well. Use them indoors or outdoors. No onto the coupons!

Berkey Coupon Codes
berkey coupon codesThese codes allow you to save 5% to 15% depending on the number of systems you purchase. It does not matter which system you purchase. If you purchase 2 you receive 5% and over 6 you save 15%, here are the deals as found here: http://www.heamotivation.com/info/Coupon_Codes

Code: JUNE1305
Coupon Details: Save 5% when you purchase 2 or more

Code: JUNE1310
Coupon Details: Save 10% when you purchase 4 or more

Code: JUNE1315
Coupon Details: Save 15% when you purchase 6 or more

Quick math: 15% ends up being $15 on every hundred, one $300 system will save you $45, and if purchasing 6 you will save $270. That is a decent savings.

Water Filters

Water filtration is one of those things that you do not want to get wrong but you also do not want to spend a lot of time on. What I mean is that I would like to have filtered water that I can use, and a system I no longer have to worry about once I obtain it. Therefore I do not want to have to worry about whether or not I choose the right type of filtration. There are systems to filter water throughout your entire home. There were also systems that will just filter the water at one particular point. In other words when the water source enters your home you could start filtering it there for the entire house. Or you could simply add a water filtration system under one sink. Those systems take a little more time to implement and may take more time to keep running properly as time passes. There are other systems that you can use on a tabletop or desktop.

You can get a great deal without a coupon on Berkey filtration systems. What is nice about these systems is that you do not have to plug them in, they are what is known as gravity filtration systems. You simply pour the water in the top and it comes out the bottom filtered. The water flows from the top of the unit to the bottom through the purification elements. They have black Berkey purification elements that are more powerful than any other gravity filter currently available. They can remove an impressive amount of unwanted contaminants. They have been tested state by state in EPA accredited laboratories and exceed the standards.

How powerful are they?
black berkey filterWith these black Burkey water filters http://www.heamotivation.com/Black-Berkey-Replacement-Water-Filters/ you could actually pour food coloring into water and watch it be removed. You can test it yourself, just put in some red food coloring. Then pour in the additional water and watch it go through the system. When it is done you will have clean pure water.

Filters Out the Bad Stuff
It also removes viruses, bacteria’s, parasites, cysts, and many other harmful or unwanted chemicals. It can remove herbicides, pesticides, detergents, and much much more. It leaves only what your body needs and only what you would want to be in your drinking water. It still tastes great and is much better for you. They have plastic versions and multiple stainless steel versions of various sizes. You can also add a second type of filter which reduces the amount of fluoride in the water as well. Both of the systems whether plastic or stainless steel can travel with you. They come apart and you can place the top within the bottom to reduce the height in half. The plastic filter system is perfect for travel or outings. You can also purchase a base that has a light in it, an LED light. The LED light provides light for a long period of time at very low cost. It also runs on batteries so nothing has to be plugged in. I suggest you take a look at these Berkey filters.

Simple Steps to Find the Best Deal

I think I have found the best way to find the best possible price online for an item. There were two different scenarios. One scenario is when you’re looking for an item that can only be purchased by a particular company. In that case you cannot purchase it from another company so there is no reason to look at other stores online. For my example I was looking to obtain a domain discount I already knew I was going to use GoDaddy.com. So in that case I just wanted the best possible price at their store. Therefore I look for discounts I could find from them and I came across this squidoo.com lens. So in this case you would use step two and three below and not need step one. Now let me explain why there are three steps below. The reason is because in this example we are going to find the best price for an item we want to buy and we can search stores as well as discounts. To obtain the best deal you need a combination of both, let me explain.

Step 1 : Store Comparison
The first thing you would do is compare stores. In his example you would start by searching for the best price at each store. Going to a lot of stores is quite difficult and time-consuming. Therefore we use what is called a comparison engine. So open your favorite search engine and look for comparison shopping engines, by using that as your search term. Once you find an engine you simply type in the item you are looking for. Let’s say we were looking for a 50 pound bag of Purina chicken and rice dog food. Then you click the search button and it will show you a list of stores and the best prices at each store. Normally you would think you are done because you found the best price of each store. But you can still obtain a better price. So now I want you to write down, and keep that window open, the top 10 stores with the top best prices. Now onto step two.

Step 2 : Coupon Searching
The second thing you do is find the best deal for each store. Typically online you will not find discount for particular products such as our peer arena dog food. What you will find is a discount for the store that is selling the dog food. So in this case go to your favorite search engine again and use the name of the store that you just found such as Petco and then also tack on to your search query one of the following words: coupon, source code, promo code, discount, voucher. Do a search for each of those and try to find, like I did in the Go Daddy example above, a list of coupon codes. Find the best possible discount you can get at that store and write that down next of the store on your list. Do that for each store’s you have the best possible discount for each.

Step 3 : Calculate the Best Price
Now the third step is to calculate the best possible pricing store. So you take the best price you receive for store one and use a calculator to determine the price after applying the discount you found the store one. Continued down the list of all 10 stores until you now have the price you have written for each. Then you actually have the best possible price you can get at each store. Now you choose the store along with her discount that has the lowest price. Quite often you will find that a store that had a high price when you were looking in the comparison-shopping engine may have the best price after applying their online coupon. Wild as does take time it will yield you the best price.

Good luck in your online shopping and getting the best deal you can.

Ten Great reasons to Use GoDaddy Hosting

Here is my post on godaddy hosting and why to consider them, the top 10 reasons are below.  First why did I decide to even concentrate on this company at all?  Mainly because of all of the marketing hype around them butabove all because of the many accomplishments they have made in the domain registrar arena.  With Go Daddy hosting you’ll get the following features in this list.

Top 10 Factors to Use GoDaddy Hosting:

1. accounts with 500 email addresses, or even more ; chances are you will not need that many or even close, but 500 is sufficient for most small businesses.  Not only will you want to provide an email address for everyone in the company but it is not uncommon to have generic addresses also such as pr@yoursite.com, help@yoursite.com, and others;

2. 25 MySQL databases with 1 GB each, or even more ;  why would you want this?  If you install a CMS (content management system) such as WordPress it will use 1 database, therefore you could install 25 wordpress websites if you so desired;

3. unlimited Websites (host as many sites as you want); this means that you can register multiple domain names and host every one of them with on web hosting account.  Many people think that you need to purchase a new hosting account every time you would like to setup a new website and that is not the case.  You can setup 25 with their plans.

4. auto-install your favorite apps; which means you can install systems like WordPress with the push of a button from your control center.  That may sound obvious but let me tell you it is a time saver as I used to install WordPress by having to FTP into a hosting account, create a database, upload files, manually edit configuration files on the server and hope that the scripts would then install the system for me.  Those days have ended with Go Daddy.

5. daily backup; this is key to keeping your site up and running and not losing your work. Imagine if your site was destroyed, just gone, and you could not get it back . With their daily backups they wil always have a copy of your site in case you or someone else did something to destroy your website. This is piece of mind.

 

6. hosted across multiple servers; what this means is your website is on more than one computer.  When you get a hosting account you are essentially renting a slice of a computer, a piece of it.  Others are also on the same computer. It is possible that if your website is only on one computer (as other companies do) and your neighbors on the same computer do something to crash the computer, then your website will crash also.  With GoDaddy hosting they make copies of your website onto multiple computers so if there is an issue with one computer your site will not likely crash as it is already on other computers.  Replicating your site across multiple computers for you is an incredible feature for them to offer, in the past you’d probably of had to do it yourself with hardware and it was time consuming as well as expensive.

7. load balancing; this is an amazing feature at the current price point; Imagine if you had a cafe or restaurant and one door, you have plenty of space inside but people cannot get through the door, then they leave.  That can happen with your website if a lot of people visit at once.  Load balancing instantly creates another door or two at your restaurant and then funnels some people through each door so you do not lose the customers.  That is a perfect analogy for load balancing. Essentially as your website is replicated on multiple servers they route your site visitors to different computers to assure everyone can view your site.

8. security; if you’re like me you have no idea the best way to keep people out of your website and from doing harm.  Luckily they protect you from problems such as Dos (denial of service) and other malicious attacks, don’t worry if you have no idea what it means just know that it’s good

9. malware scanning; you don’t want someone to upload bad software to your website or others may download it and your site can loose credibility as well as have problems with search engines.

10. price; surprisingly the prices which include the above are well below $10 a month, many times in the $5 range and you can use a of the discount promo code to acquire it even cheaper.

So there you have it.  My top 10 list of why you may want to givegodaddy hosting a chance.  I could go into more detail but you will find from their site many other positive features that I did not even cover.

 

 

Top Domain Sales

I personally like to use coupons to save money but I also like to look at it as though I am making money. If I did not spend it then I made it. At least that is my reasoning. Also some things you buy you can resell like domain names. They are assets. You can get them for around $10 give or take and potentially sell them later for a nice price. Would you believe that some domains have sold for millions of dollars. I saw a list on this site of the top domain sales and here are a few.

  • fund.com : $9,999,950
  • diamond.com : $7,500,000
  • korea.com : $5,000,000
  • shop.com : $3,500,000

and many many more domains have sold for over one million and others for hundreds of thousands. The list on that page shows 500 domains that sold for over $100,000.

So you can obtain a domain at a registrar and hold it until you may want to sell it. Here is how it works. You never truly own the domain you just get the right to control it. Every year you have to pay a fee. You can get a domain at a great price using a godaddy coupon at checkout to save some money. Then you have a one year registration and no one else can register that exact domain. You have to pay a yearly fee or you lose control of it.

Be Sure Not to Lose It
There are a couple ways to assure you do not lose the domain. You can pay multiple years up front, so you could pay for 10 years (as an example). If you do not want to pay all at once you could decide to setup an auto-renew function that will automatically bill your credit card each year. You can also set it up to bill a pay pal address. You will just receive a notice in your email once a year telling you that you paid your yearly fee. Setting up the auto-renew is probably a wise thing to do.

How to Sell Your Domain
Since you do not truly own the domain, this is what you do. You can offer your domain for sale and you can even put it on a site like godaddy.com for sale or for auction. You can set a minimum price much like you would on an ebay or similar site. When someone buys the domain you transfer the ownership of the domain to them. It is very easy to transfer from one person, or one account, to another. That is all there is to it. The purchaser now has the domain and you now have the cash.

Deals at GoDaddy

One of the most interesting companies to me is GoDaddy. They started back in the 90’s as a software and services company under another name. The CEO Bob Parsons is a fascinating man that has built quite an impressive business in a very difficult and competitive industry. The company was not originally named Go Daddy but eventually that is the name they changed to. As one of the first domain registrars they have grown to be the biggest.

Marketing to Push the Company Forward
GoDaddy has always been a pioneer by marketing their company during the Superbowl with provocative advertisements. As we all know many brands, large established brands, shell out the millions of dollars to have an advertisement during the Superbowl. These companies never know if there is any true benefit to them at all, other than bragging rights at the expense of shareholders. However Godaddy used that platform as their launch pad for offline advertising and had incredible growth. They also have godaddy promo codes available online to push their growth with online marketing strategies also.

Expansion of Services
As many successful companies they chose not to stick only to one product offering. They also chose not to only offer products but expand into services as well. When it comes to products they added domains of different extension and also items such as web hosting and SSL certificates. An online auction was created for domains as well. They expanded with search services and more than just product offerings.

Buy Electric Fireplaces

When you are looking to buy an electric fireplace it is hard to know which to pick. The main reason is due to the fact that there are so many types now. Not only do you have multiple brands making them but you have multiple looks. The fireplace shown below is a traditional looking wood with a mantel.

Types of Electric Fireplaces

An electric fireplace comes with one heat source, electricity. You simply plug it in. It is essentially an electric heater. When I was looking to buy an electric fireplace it felt a little overwhelming. The first thing I did was study the various types to determine the look of what I wanted. Here is an image of various types.

electric fireplaces

In the image above from left to right you will notice 6 different electric fireplaces.

Electric Fireplace Insert
Starting on the far left we have what is known as an electric fireplace insert. An insert allows you to turn an existing fireplace into an electric one by placing the insert inside, it is that that easy.

Wall Mounted Fireplace
The second from the left is an example of a wall mounted electric fireplace. You do not need to cut into the wall and it typically does not sit on the floor. A wall mounted fireplace can be placed anywhere on a wall at any height, much like a flat panel television or a painting.

Traditional Fireplace with Mantel
The image in the center has the look of a traditional wood exterior and mantel. This allows you to place it in any room of your house as long as their is an electrical outlet. Imagine adding a fireplace to a bedroom, guest room, play room, anywhere you would like cost efficient heat.

Wood Stove
The second from the right looks like a wood stove from years ago. This is a great way to heat a room with style. Depending on your decor this may fit right in.

Varying Materials
The fireplace on the far right has a stone look to the exterior and a marble or granite look to the mantel. There are many different materials that can be used to match the decor of any room you may be looking to place it in.

A Guide to Electric Fireplaces Here: Buy Electric Fireplaces

Where to Buy Electric Fireplaces

traditional electric fireplaceIf you are like me you want to be sure you are methodical in your process of picking the right one.

Type of Fireplace
First take a look at the type of fireplace you are interested in. From the image above you can narrow down to the type you need. You may want a traditional looking fireplace with a mantel.

Types of Materials
Secondly decide on the materials. Once you have decided on the type, how exactly do you want it to look. This may greatly depend on the room you are placing it in. So now decide on whether it should be a wood, stone, marble, or other material. After narrowing down the type of material, you will realize that each of those materials have a multitude of types. Wood for example can be many different types and just from that image above you can see a dark smooth wood on the wall mounted unit and a lighter more ornate wood on the traditional fireplace.

Features
There are a variety of features that each can have. Some you merely turn on and off, while other electric fireplaces allow for greater control. As an example you can obtain a fireplace with a remote control and the ability to set the temperature at a specific degree. Also a nice feature is to have the fireplace on without having the heat. Some will cost just a couple cents an hour to run the fireplace without generating heat. This way you can have the look without the heat.

As you can imagine there are many different types so take your time when you buy electric heaters and electric fireplaces.

Where to Buy Skylanders Game and Figures

The craze to buy skylanders is on. This took me by surprise when my kids started playing it. The game itself is brilliant and fun. By saying it is ‘fun’ I mean it is enjoyable to play at all ages. But my comment about it being brilliant goes to the game itself and how the creators are bridging the online and offline gaming. They took the best of games such as Pokeman with cards, online virtual worlds, figurines to collect and use, and somehow mashed it all together into an incredible experience.

How to Play Skylanders
skylandersSkylanders are characters that you can be in the Skylander game called Skylanders Spyro’s Adventure. You start with the game itself on either the Nintendo Wii, Sony PS3 or Xbox. You then utilize what is known as the “Portal of Power” shown in the figure to the right. The portal connects to your game system. When you place a Skylander Character on the Portal that character appears in the game.

The game is either 1 or 2 players so you can have two Skylander figures on the portal at once. You can also add additional items onto the portal to use. These characters will work on a friends game as well so you can take them with you. If your Skylander figure has increased its abilities then those abilities are saved in a chip inside the character. When you use that person with a friends game system and place it on their portal it will remember what level it is and what powers it has. Each character comes with a code that you can enter into Spyro’s online game over the internet. However the online version of the game will not know your characters ability level that you achieved online, not a big deal – just a note.


Where to Buy Skylanders

Amazon: See Skylanders Inventory at Amazon Here
At Amazon you can view what is in stock from Amazon and other companies, yielding the largest selection.
skylanders at amazon
eBay: See Skylanders Inventory at eBay Here
At eBay you can find items from many sellers.
skylanders at ebay
Best Buy: See Skylanders Inventory at Best Buy Here
You can buy online and have it shipped or you can buy online and pickup at your local Best Buy store.
skylanders at bestbuy
Wal-Mart: See Skylanders Inventory at Walmart Here
You can buy online and pickup in store or you can choose to have it shipped to you, often they have free shipping.
skylanders at walmart



Where to Buy Skylanders
buy skylandersYou can purchase the game and characters at stores and online. It is hard to find the characters in stores, many are either sold out or only carry a few characters. Online you can check the inventory of each store, the characters, have them shipped to you and in some instances pick them up online. Here is where we suggest you look to begin looking to buy skylanders. This site lists the online stores to purchase the Skylanders and explains the difference between the Mega Pack, Adventure Pack, Character Pack, individual Characters and more.

Rolex Repair

Got a nice watch and need a rolex repair? I say watch because he can repair anything but particularly Rolex watches.

Rolex Repair Considerations

Are you looking for a certified and authentic watchmaker that has been trained by Rolex? So you happen to be one of those stylish and trendy guys who are looking for an opulent who prefer owning a genuine Rolex watch. I should be congratulating you on this that you not only own a superior quality timepiece but a collectible that is going to hold its worth for numerous years to come.

While you have a Rolex watch caring and preserving for it is extremely essential which is going to help it maintain its worth and accuracy. It has been recommended by Rolex that you should be getting your watch overhauled every three to five years and best to use a rolex repair person that knows what they are doing. You would not be aware of the fact but the Rolex watches comprise of more than 200 parts that should be working together within tolerances that are basically measured in thousandths of a millimeter or microns.

As all of these parts work on a daily basis, the greases and oils that are useful to keep those running smoothly also begin to dry up and break down. With the passage of time, it is going to cause the parts to reduce the accuracy along with being hard. In a worst-case scenario, if such kind of conditions persists, the tiny segments could even get damaged permanently. You can find more about rolex watch repair on that site. Be sure to use a qualified rolex repair technician when working on your fine time piece.