Laura Kombrink

What Did I Find In The Woods?

In my last post, Kombrink Real Estate Group: The Green Experiment, I said that I would share with you what I found in my back yard to help my family through the cold and flu season.

It has long been suggested that taking vitamin C can help fight off colds. It is also credited with being an anti-oxidant. We are familiar with the many sources for adding vitamin C into our diets. Of course orange juice is one way of getting your vitamin C or you could go to your local drug store and purchase the tablet and swallow that horse pill on a daily basis.

I have also found that vitamin C is available in our skin care products as a way to fight the signs of aging.

Another source of vitamin C is rose hips. Rose hips are the fruit that roses make after the bloom has finished being beautiful. According to my reading, rose hips have a very high vitamin C content.

I notice every spring, in the woods on my property, the beautiful pink blooms of wild roses. So I got to wondering the other day, after reading about rose hips, if the roses that grow on my property made rose hips.

I did some more investigating and sought out pictures of rose hips so I would know what I was looking for and set off on a small hike. I knew exactly where those bushes were and sure enough....there they were. The little red berry-like fruit were all over those bushes.

Everything I've read about them tells me the best time to gather them is after the first frost, but I figured what the heck and began to pick the little treasures. They were already dried on the bushes, so that actually saved me the step of having to dry them in my dehydrator. I imagine if I had gone out after the first frost to gather them I would have found more of them as I'm pretty sure they are often eaten by wild birds and other of mother nature's little critters.

I brought them into my house and washed and dried them. I then broke out my coffee grinder to grind the little hard berries. I placed them in water and brought them to a slow boil, removed them from the heat and let them steep. Vitamin C breaks down in heat, so I wanted to be careful not to over heat them.

After steeping them, I poured the liquid through a coffee filter to retrieve the tea. I placed it in a mason jar with a lid and placed it in my refrigerator. I have read that I can also freeze the tea. I could have frozen the rose hips and only steeped them as I needed them, but there were so few berries that I chose to just go ahead and steep all of them.

This rose hip tea is full of vitamin C. And since I have it in a liquid form...I can add it to juices or use it in my home made skin care products. I have begun to use on a daily basis for my face and have noticed the texture of my skin is softer and improved over all. Of course vitamin C is an acid...so I may be basically giving myself an acid peel each time I use it.

In my research, I have found there are many other plants, trees, berries and flowers that grow wild in our area that have many wonderful uses. It is winter right now, so identifying some of these would be very difficult. I can't wait for spring to see what other useful things there are in my backyard.

I do know that we have a wild persimmon tree. The fruit from this tree can be made into sugar! Wow. I can't wait until the fall to try that experiment.

Stay tuned for more....I will be talking about the composting system that will be going into my basement. yes...I said my basement. Stay tuned!

I hate the word "Green". It is overused and too "Hollywood" for me. However, I've always loved the idea of being frugal and making the best use of my resources. My husband, who is an architect, is very fond of frugality as well. We both grew up in very practical homes. My husband's family were farmers and my parents came from farming cultures as well. However, being busy people working in the corporate world has caused us to stray from some of the lessons we learned from our ancestors.

In an attempt to simplify our lives and save money, we have decided to embark upon an experimental life change.

My husband and I have been spending some time going through books written by others who have lived frugally or "green" if you will for more than 30 years. We have also tapped into the knowledge of some of our older relatives to learn some skills that we had never before bothered to develop.

I have decided to start a series of blogs about what we are doing and the results.

In our planning for this...my husband felt that we needed to sell our home and our 2.5 acres of land in order to do what it is that we would like. However, I challenged him in that I would like to see if we can make the most of what we already have and go ahead with some of our plans. He, being a detail oriented person, sat down with his CAD program and drawings of our current property to see if it could be done efficiently with what we already own. He has developed the layout and we both believe we can implement some of the ideas we have developed.

The Garden

Kyle has developed a working plan and layout for a garden. So what's the big deal? Most people have gardens. I dare say, that not many have gardens like this one.

Rather than just plowing out a plot and throwing some seeds out, Kyle has done research on vertical gardening, 4 season gardening, and hydorponic gardening in order to maximize our crop in the least amount of space with the least amount of work. (We both hate to weed. It was obvious with our garden last year that weeding would not get done.)

Kyle has done much research on what plants produce the most yield for our area and what nutrient needs they have as well as what companion plants will help increase the crop.

His next task was to develop a hydroponic garden for certain vegetables we are hoping to produce. Hydroponic set ups can be quite expensive and we felt that the investment would go against what we were hoping to do...which is be frugal and efficient. So, he set out to see if he could develop a hydroponic system using common items from the hardware store that would require very little cost or energy to run.

I am so proud to say that he has done it and managed to make the system attractive to the eye!

I have begun starting seeds in the house, so that our plants will be ready to set out at the earliest possible time. He has also developed low cost cold frames, using items from the hardware store as well.

I in turn have researched plants for my kitchen garden that will grow in the light available in the house and provide fresh greens all year 'round!

Stay tuned....
In my next excerpt I will talk about how we plan on fertilizing our garden without purchasing fertilizer while cutting down on our garbage!

I will also talk about what I found when I took a walk through the woods behind my house that will help my family fight those pesky winter colds.

...and much more! Check us out and find out how this experiment turns out!

Have you ever called a customer service line? You usually wait on hold for 5 to 15 minutes, then explain your story to someone only to find out that:

A. You need to call another number or
B. You need to be transferred to someone else to explain your story and needs all over again?

I don't know about you, but I don't like to have to explain my needs to 3 or 4 people before I can be helped. It's a waste of my time and the time of the 3 other people I had to go through this with.

When shopping for a home, we often go through the same thing. We find a home on line or in the newspaper or home magazine, call the number and go through our story with the agent that picks up the phone. That agent will answer our questions, then we hang up and move to the next one, only to have to answer all the same questions all over again.

This can be a huge waste of time for everyone involved.

This is why I offer a Preferred Buyer Program. When you contact me, I will find out what your needs are on the first phone call or visit. I write your needs down on my buyer information form and create a file just for you. Then I go to work looking for resources and properties to meet your needs.

You only have to explain your needs once. I will be in constant communication with you to let you know what is available on the market and I will make all the necessary phone calls to gather the details and set up schedules. One phone call is all it takes to get your questions answered and schedule the showings.

If you don't have a lot of free time and are looking for a home, give me a call and get into my Preferred Buyer Program. Let me take care of the details and help you get into your next home.

You can visit me at:
RE/MAX Alliance at 531 Belt Line Rd
Collinsville, IL

or call my office at 618-345-2111
or on my cell phone which is 618-363-2452.

In the last couple of months, I've met with many people who are thinking about selling their homes. Many of them have recently gotten appraisals on their homes and feel confident as to what the price of their homes should be. Then I come along and tell them they should list for less.

Some have laughed at me and others have looked at me like I don't have a clue as to what I'm talking about. Why would they ever list their home for less than what the appraiser told them it was worth?

When an appraisal is done on your home, the appraiser takes a look at what has sold in your area over the last 3 to 6 months. They look for homes that are as similar as possible to your home. They add and subtract from the total based on square footage, age, and other features in order to adjust for any differences from your home and the others. They then come up with the figure that gives you the appraised value. This is absolutely the best way to determine the value of your home for mortgage and insurance purposes.

However, not for resale purposes. But why....you ask?

For a real estate agent, this is only the first step of the process for assessing what someone is willing to pay for your home. What your home appraises out to and what someone is willing to pay for it can often be two different things.

The next step in the process is take a look at how long those homes took to sell and what concessions did the seller have to make to get it sold.

Let's say that your neighbor has a home exactly like yours which sold a month ago at x price. This home would be used to help assess the value of your home. Let's say your neighbor also paid $1500 in closing costs for the buyer and the home was on the market for 6 months.

If you were to price your home at the exact same price...then you could expect that your home will also sit on the market 6 months (at least) and you could end up paying closing costs in order to attract a buyer.

So now that we've looked at homes in your neighborhood and what they sold for in the last 3 months...we also need to take a look at your competition.

In other words...what is currently available for sale right now. These are homes in your area that have not sold yet. What are they asking for these homes and how long have they been on the market? What extras are they offering to get them sold?

Let's say you have another neighbor down the street that has a home exactly like yours. He's asking x for his home and throwing in a home warranty and is offering to pay some of the closing costs for the buyer. Let's say your neighbor is pricing his home $4,000 under the appraised value. This means that as the buyer sees it...he's walking in with some equity already in the home. That could be pretty attractive to buyers right now....especially now where everyone is looking for the most bang for their buck!

So, a good agent will come in...quite often...under the appraised value of your home as a selling price. I say a good agent because there are also agents who will price your home wherever you would like just to get your contract. Then you can expect them to start asking you to whittle down the price as time goes by.

There are many components involved in getting a home sold. The number one component will be the price. Your home has to be priced more attractively than anything else out there. There are, of course, other factors involved. However, the biggest is price and the appraised value is only the first step of the process for determining what your home will sell for.

A couple of years ago, my daughter, who was at that time living with me, called with a request. She and her fiance were at the animal shelter and they had found a german sheppard named Schultz. She wanted to know if they could bring him home.

We already had a wonderful dog named Teddy. He was 12 years old at the time and I was concerned that they might not get along. Also, I didn't necessarily want another pet.

Here's a picture of my Teddy.

I told my daughter she had to talk to my husband, her step dad. (I wanted him to be the bad guy...I just knew that he would say no.) Well....lo and behold....I came home that evening to be introduced to Schultz.

Schultz had more paperwork than any newborn child...He was a purebreed. I asked my daughter how he had ended up at the animal shelter. Who would give up such a beautiful animal? It turns out that Schultzie (as I like to call him...amongst many other not so endearing names at times) was purchased by a military person who ended up being shipped overseas. She had decided it was best to let someone else have him...so off to the shelter he went. The next owner worked long hours and left Schultz alone quite a bit, which didn't do much for his socialization.

Schultz has a very active mind and body. When he is not kept occupied, he finds his own fun!!!

Schult proved to be too much for the new owner and back to the shelter he went.

German Sheppards are very loyal animals. They tend to bond closely with one or two people and don't like change very much. So, as you can imagine he was lacking in some social graces. When my daughter found him, he was on his 3rd and final chance. If he were to come back to the shelter, he would be euthanized and probably not ever be a fit pet.

here's a picture of our Schultzie.

He is a challenge some days. He is full of energy and very intelligent. He can open doors, get ice from the fridge and leap 7 ft. kennel fences in a single bound! Some days, he demands my attention and will do anything to get me off the computer. He also enjoys scaring strangers that dare to come into his territory....we're still working on that one.

Shortly after we got Schultz...my beloved Teddy passed away.

There's really no moral to the story...no commentary on pet owner responsibilities. I just thought I'd share our story and its happy ending. Teddy and Schultzie have definitely enriched our lives and kept it from being anything but boring.