Jason Simonson Menomonie WI, Realty Executives

The Greenest of the Green, Cellulose Insulation

While people may debate the causes of global warming, it is just common sense to use products that have the minimum impact on the environment.

Insulation, by reducing the amount of energy required to heat or cool a building, is environmentally friendly. But don't be fooled into thinking all insulating materials are equal. There is plenty of greenwashing taking place to make products look more beneficial, or less harmful, to the environment than they really are.

Cellulose Insulation is one of the greenest products in the world. Cellulose insulation is made from recycled newsprint and other paper sources, paper that might otherwise end up in landfills, releasing greenhouse gases as it decomposed.

If all the paper currently being put into landfills each year were converted to cellulose insulation, it would save approximately eight million tons of CO2 emissions. That's the equivalent of taking every car off the road in New Mexico and Nevada.

Forget what you saw in the 1970s: These days, indoor-outdoor carpet is more than just green turf. A large selection of colors and textures is available, and an intermediate-level do-it-yourselfer can tackle the installation in one day. You might have to rent a carpet-roller, but the tight seal it will provide will make it worth the minor expense.

Outdoor Carpets are designed for use on boats, decks, patios, porches, and any other outdoor area where you want something other than wood or concrete flooring. The yarn is specially treated to resist fading in direct sunlight, and the backing materials are formulated to resist damage from moisture.

Homebuyers $8,000 Tax Credit Extended through April 30, 2010

On November 6, 2009, President Obama signed into law an extension of the $8,000 first-time homebuyers tax credit until April 30, 2010. Binding contracts for the purchase of a principal residence signed by April 30 must close by June 30 to qualify in order for the first-time homebuyer to qualify for the credit. For qualifying purchases in 2010, taxpayers will have the option of claiming the credit on either their 2009 or 2010 return.

The new law added several new provisions that apply to persons purchasing homes on or after November 7, 2009:

• Homebuyers with higher incomes can now qualify for the credit for homes purchased after November 6, 2009. Income limits have been increased to $125,000 for individuals and $225,000 for couples filing jointly. These income limits were formerly $75,000 and $150,000, respectively. The credit phases out for individual taxpayers with a modified adjusted gross income between $125,000 and $145,000 or between $225,000 and $245,000 for joint filers.
  
• The new law adds a $6,500 credit for long-time homeowners who want to trade up, that is, current home owners who have lived in their home for five of the past eight years and who buy a replacement principal residence by April 30, 2010.
  
• Qualifying home purchase prices must not exceed $800,000.
  
• The extended tax credit for first-time homebuyers remains at $8,000 and requires that the buyer have not owned a home in the past three years, as before.
  
• Purchasers claiming the credit will need to attach documentation of the transaction to their tax returns in order to help combat the tax credit fraud that has been experienced by the IRS to date.

Maple syrup

The process of making maple syrup is an age-old tradition of the North American Indians, who used it both as a food and as a medicine. They would make incisions into trees with their tomohawks and use birch barks to collect the sap. The sap would be condensed into syrup by evaporating the excess water using one of two methods: plunging hot stones into the sap or the nightly freezing of the sap, following by the morning removal of the frozen water layer.

When the settlers came to North America, they were fascinated by this traditional process and in awe of the delicious, natural sweetener it produced. They developed other methods to reduce the syrup, using iron drill bits to tap the trees and then boiling the sap in the metal kettles in which it was collected.

Maple syrup was the main sweetener used by the colonists since sugar from the West Indies was highly taxed and very expensive. As sugar became cheaper to produce, it began to replace maple syrup as a relied upon sweetener. In fact, maple syrup production is approximately one-fifth of what it was in the beginning of the 20th century.

Maple syrup-producing trees are only found in select regions of North America. Producers of maple syrup include the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Quebec, as well as the states of Vermont and New York in the U.S.

A Few Quick Serving Ideas:

Maple syrup, used in place of table sugar as a sweetener, gives tea and coffee a unique taste.

Pour some maple syrup on oatmeal topped with walnuts and raisins.

Add maple syrup and cinnamon to puréed cooked sweet potatoes.

Combine maple syrup with orange juice and tamari and use as a marinade for baked tofu or tempeh.

Spread peanut butter on a piece of whole wheat toast, top with sliced bananas and then drizzle maple syrup on top for a sweet, gooey treat.

Fall Turkey Hunting.

The first item a hunter has to keep in mind is that a fall bird is not a spring bird. Turkeys behave differently in the fall than they do in the spring. In the spring the focus is breeding. Gobblers are seeking hens and hens are nesting. In the fall the focus is on flocking and feeding. So, while a spring hunter looks for places such as strutting zones a fall hunter should be concerned with feeding areas. As with any wild critter, turkeys are where you find them, however, looking for mast producing trees along ridge tops, and agricultural fields close to roosting areas will greatly increase a hunter's chances of locating a fall flock.

The second item that a hunter needs to keep in mind is that, where it is legal, it is acceptable to shoot a hen. In most states that have a fall turkey season, harvesting hens is legal whereas, with a few exceptions, shooting hens in the spring is unlawful. Harvesting a young hen or even a jake in the fall will provide excellent table fare so go ahead and take revenge on the hen that lured the gobbler away in the spring!