Category: Lifestyle

Kids do like toys. But isn’t that a gift everyone in the party would get for the little one? Now you might be thinking what else could you gift if not for toys? Well, let’s go eco-friendly for a change. How about a gift that can teach them to love Mother Nature and be thankful to her? Gifting a plant will be an excellent idea for starters. Teaching a kid gardening will not only be amusing for the munchkin but will also render a beautiful edge to your garden.

However, there are certain points to remember when you go to select plants for kids. The ideal plants for children are those that are low in maintenance hassle free, and grow quickly in a short time. Good news is there are many such plants that fit these criteria and here are some of them.

Sunflowers

These flowers are must for a kid’s garden. The seeds of the plants take a week’s time to germinate and are found in a variety. If you want you can also give kids the ones which will even grow as tall as them.

Pumpkins

These might not be the ones that grow in a less span of time but these have been the favourite one amongst the kids. What is more amazing than to see them grow up only to be ready to grow up big enough for the Halloween?

Marigolds

These are perfect for young gardeners thanks to their low maintenance perks. In fact, marigolds can go on for long even with rough handling.

Potatoes

Potatoes are one thing that almost every kid loves. It is easy to grow as well. New potatoes stem from the eyes of an already existing potato only. And, it will be definitely amazing for you little one to see multiple potatoes growing from just one single potato.

Cherry Tomatoes

These crimson round sweet potatoes add a pop of colour to your kid’s garden with their bright colour. These grow easily and hence will definitely be an amusement for kids to see them grow.

Mint

It is one of the most commonly grown herbs with fresh aroma and a great one for your kid’s first garden. You will find mint plants in numerous varieties and also with very unique scents. And oh yes, Mint is a fantastic idea for mannen verjaardagscadeau as well. Your man would love to have garden-fresh mojito on his parties.

Cucumbers

These are fast growers and also reliable. Cucumbers are a breeze to harvest as well. It’s because once the seeds are placed properly, these don’t really need much attention. Your little one will have a great time picking them with their friends for garden fresh salad.

Snapdragon

Snapdragons are vibrant and add splash of colours to your kid’s garden. It’s fun to pinch open or close the plant’s mouth and your munchkin will love it.

So, you have quite a list here. All these plants are excellent for a kid’s gift and will help him to grow into a sensible and caring person.

I have four kids, which means I have four distinct little personalities that are growing in my home. Each is unique in the way they approach life, especially trying out new things. My oldest boy is disabled, so he is, of course, different than the norm, but the others fall into more typically known categories.

The second boy is all boy. He is aggressive, loud, physical and charges into things head-on, resulting in many bumps and bruises along the way. I consider this part of life and figure I just need to be ready for whatever may happen. I just cross my fingers and hope we avoid any major breaks or cuts. This is how kids learn their capabilities, where they end, and why boundaries can be important. This is hard for some parents to realize, and some never learn, preferring to isolate their kids from ever experiencing consequences.
Last year he was drawn into the Heely craze big time. He wanted them more than anything and really could not think of much else. Fortunately for him, Christmas came around, and a pair of Heely’s were under the tree. He has loved those things, and from our perspective, the scrapes and bruises he has gained while learning to use them are par for the course.

I came across an AP article today published our local rag talking about the safety concerns related to Heelys. Some doctors are advising that Heely’s are more dangerous than you might at first think, and several stats are quoted of Heely related injuries. Even one death occurred.

The part that sparked this rant though was the mother quoted that threw her kid’s Heelys after the kid got hurt on them. Oh my, are these things really dangerous? I better not let my kid use them. She also mentions previously throwing out the trampoline after reading about all the related safety hazards. Gee, you think bouncing high in the air in a small defined space with the hard ground around that space would be dangerous? You might have predicted that problem prior to making the initial purchase with perhaps even a little forethought.
Give me a break! Kids can get hurt walking down the street! Their growing bodies cause all kinds of coordination problems that make the old cliche of walking chewing gum at the same time a real difficulty. If I took away every possible recreational activity that my kids could possibly harm themselves doing, they would do nothing at all. But then, doing nothing would make them fat and lazy, so I guess they will get hurt if I do that too. I can’t win!

Think back to all the things we did as kids, some we got hurt doing, others we managed to avoid injury by the skin of our teeth. What you remember most though was…it was fun! We may not all be daredevils, but as kids, we all need some amount of physical activity every day as part of our physical growth and development. Everything physical we do carries a level of risk. Remember the old skates we had that you could strap on to your shoes? Now those were safe… Those old metal wheels would launch you through the air with even the smallest pebble or crack in the sidewalk.

Even baseball is one of the highest injury-related sports, but we’re not giving that up! Kids gotta live life to enjoy it, and they gotta live life to get good at it. Protect your kids from the really dangerous stuff, and do your best to advise them on the rest. They’ll listen sometimes, and other times it will take experiencing the consequences to learn to listen in the future. That’s life. Those are some powerful lessons to learn as a kid so you can be a somewhat intelligent adult. Look around and tell me you can’t identify the adults that didn’t learn their life lessons as kids. If you can’t, you may just be one of them!

After that oh-so-serious last post, I felt like I needed to follow up with a little more lighthearted one for the day. Can’t have too much serious in one day without a little humor to counter and maintain some balance in life.

Daylight Savings time on the surface seems to be a good thing. Supposedly we save some energy by having the daylight hours best fitting our normal day. At least that is the logic we are given. I am beginning to wonder if their energy savings are merited when considering the loss of productivity due to the nationwide period of sleep deprivation as we all make the change to our schedules to accommodate this time change. Some years have been fairly seamless for me, but this year so far “spring forward” has been doing me in!

I know it is not just me either, my whole family is struggling with it. Perhaps it is because they have extended the program to happen earlier in the year now, but because it is so dark in the morning it sure doesn’t seem like the time to get up with that alarm sounds. This morning I had to literally extricate my kids from their beds and threaten dunking in a cold bath to get them to get moving. I did take a little sadistic enjoyment in exercising my fatherly role doing that this morning, but that is beside the point.

There has to be an impact on the national job productivity for at least the week following the time change. People getting in late to work, not performing their tasks as well and generally having a difficult time getting going in the morning. Then, of course, there is that week of dread prior to the time change where everyone talks about how much they are going to miss that hour of sleep they are losing for a while. Then there is the truth out of it folks that are an hour late because they still have not changed their clocks on Monday, forgetting two days in a row. If you have coworkers using that excuse on Tuesday, you might want to warn them of an impending employee review if they don’t figure out how to switch their clocks, and soon.

I have family that lives in Arizona, land of the blazing hot sun. As a state, they have thumbed their collective noses at the daylight savings program. “We don’t need no stinkin’ time change. We have all the sun we need, and then some.” From the temperatures I hear them experience in the thick of summer, I wouldn’t be surprised to hear them as a state decide to switch to daylight losing program where everyone agrees to work nights and sleep all day in the cool of air conditioning.

Then, of course, there are places like northern Alaska that could do with a little extra nighttime for a good part of the year. Blackout curtains must be a required installation in homes up there.

Whatever your feelings on the program may be, if you live in a state that follows it, you really don’t have any choice. Not like you can stage a personal rebellion and stick with the “actual” time throughout the spring, summer and into fall. It would be kind of fun to try though. I can see providing people with meeting times in your personal time zone and requiring them to make the adjustment. “Yes, we will be meeting at 9 am MNDST…that is Mountain with No Daylight Savings Time zone.” Be sure to note the time difference…that is all.

Between October and January, fishing boats set out from Alaskan ports to catch various kinds of king crab. Although the industry is no longer what it once was, it is still a king crab fishing in Alaska is a profession that can earn a lucky and skilled captain and crew huge paychecks. It also stands as one of the most dangerous occupations in the country.

Crab Fishing

Commercial crab fishing involves sending a boat out into Alaskan or Aleutian coastal waters, or into the Bering Sea. There fisherman drop “pots,” or large crab traps made out of steel tubing and lined with nylon or wire netting. It is normal for a pot to weigh as much as 700 pounds. The interior of these pots are baited with chopped up herring or other small fish, and left on the sea bottom. Tied to each pot is a line topped with a marker float, so that the pot can be retrieved later. Each pot has an opening shaped and sized to the crab type to be caught. These openings admit crabs, but deny them escape. Smaller crabs can both get in and out. Alaskan crab pots usually have a bio-degradable section in their netting. If a pot is lost at sea, it will not go on catching and killing crabs to the detriment of the fishery.

Crab Grounds

Red king crab is caught in Bristol Bay, Norton Sound and along the northern coastal waters of the Aleutian Islands. Blue king crabs are found in a band of open sea stretching from the Pribilof Islands in the south to the Bering Strait in the north. Golden king crabs are found in an “E” shaped space of sea. While this “E” covers a vast area, the parts of sea where crabs can be found are relatively narrow. The stem of the E is made up of the entire Aleutian Island chain, including Dutch Harbor, setting for the Discovery Channel’s “Deadliest Catch” series.

Pay

Everyone on a crab boat is paid a share of the boat’s net earnings. Therefore, a commercial crab fisherman’s earnings are directly related to the size of the catch and the prevailing market price at the time the crabs are brought in. The captain and the owner of the boat will take a share of the net profit of at least 50 percent, and often more. The crew divides the remainder, usually apportioned on the basis of experience. A new fisherman’s share may be anywhere from between 1.5 to 5 percent of the net profit. In practice, this could range from zero for a failed outing to tens of thousands of dollars for a very successful one.

History

Crab fishing in Alaskan waters peaked in 1980, with a catch of 100,000 tons. A typical crewman was bringing earning $80,000 (worth over $175,000 in 2009 dollars). Then the fishery suddenly collapsed in 1983. While it has recovered, that recovery has been only partial. The 2006-2007 season saw a catch of 9,150 tons.

Dangerous Work

According to CNN, fishing is ranked as the second most dangerous profession in America, and Alaskan crab fishing is in turn thought to be one of the most dangerous forms of fishing. All crab fishing takes place in Fall or Winter, when the Bering Sea is at its roughest and iciest. Crab fishermen pull long, grueling shifts, surrounded by heavy and dangerous equipment. The conditions combine to create a very dangerous profession indeed. More than 80 percent of Alaskan crab fishermen who are killed die by drowning.