Farmville Computer Game
February 14, 2012 | 
Author 
Farmville is a computer game that is integrated into Facebook. That game has addicted millions of people since the lunch. I do not know the exact number but I believe it’s close to fifty million. Everybody plays it or heard of it. You neighbors, parents or even family members. You may ask yourself well what’s so addictive in it? To be honest I am not sure maybe it’s the challenging aspect of it or perhaps cool future allowing you to play and keep in touch with your friends. Most users gets hooked on it very quickly. They soon realize that every day they spent certain amount of time in the game to cut their crops or do other Farmville related tasks. Game players take this virtual farm life very seriously. There is a lot to think about while playing Farmville one will never know if he/she is better to invest in land or trees.
At times it can become very frustrating to see your friends excel their farms farther over you. Since there is so many users that play each of them will eventually come up with their own strategy based an fail and success of the farm. I advise you to search Google for several Farmville strategies and see if any of them would fit your playing style. Here is one very successful and powerful Farmville strategy that I have found. Feel free to use it and excel you farm life to the new level.
Purchasing trees and animals may not be the best way to invest your money. You should first concentrate on crops and obtaining more land. Once you start making some serious money you can start decorating you farm to fit you needs. Remember it’s not how it looks but how it performs. The more crops you have the more money you should be able to make.
Hypothyroidism: Herbs to Take and Herbs to Avoid
Hypothyroidism is a condition where your thyroid gland is not producing as much hormone as it should. This causes metabolic activities to slow. Undiagnosed hypothyroidism can make you feel run down, depressed, cold or tired. It can slow down your heart rate, make your hair dry and brittle, give you itchy skin, muscle cramps, infertility or menstrual disorders.
Extreme hypothyroidism can cause goiter (a lump in the neck that is actually the inflamed thyroid gland), facial puffiness also known as myxedema, yellow skin, weight gain and mental impairment. The condition is commonly treated by replacing the thyroid hormone that your body is not producing.
The most common treatment involves supplementing thyroxin and monitoring thyroid levels for life… But there are herbs that can help with the side effects of hypothyroidism, even though it is not recommended that people try to go without the hormone. Left untreated, in addition to all the symptoms listed above, hypothyroidism can cause elevated cholesterol levels and increase the rate at which plaque builds up in your arteries.
Some health food stores sell what is billed as a natural replacement for thyroid hormone. Because herbal remedies are not regulated as drugs, it is not known if these medicines are helpful or even safe. The best bet is to consult with your doctor about the level of hormone you need to take and supplement with professional formulated herbal products to give you a better quality of life.
Valuable Herbs for Hypothyroidism
Black Cohosh is especially good for treating menstrual problems associated with hypothyroidism. It’s a popular treatment for menopausal women, treats symptoms of PMS and may help with infertility.
Kelp is sometimes given to people with hypothyroidism because iodine deficiency is linked to the disorder in some parts of the world.
St. John’s Wort could be helpful if you suffer from depression a symptom that often accompanies low thyroid function
Cayenne supplements can help with blood circulation and making the heartbeat stronger. An improvement in circulation can alleviate the cold extremities that are common with hypothyroidism.
Herbs to Avoid
Some studies indicate that there are certain herbs, foods and drugs that should be avoided if you have hypothyroidism. It is thought that stimulating the immune system in the early stages of the disorder can cause the thyroid to deteriorate at a faster rate, so avoiding those herbs can help you hang on to what thyroid function you have.
Which are these herbs?
Ginseng, astragalus, bamboo, burdock, echinacea, ginger and lemon balm are among the herbs that you should avoid in the early stages of hypothyroidism. There are other herbs that are recommended to be avoided as well as certain foods and medicine. Visit herbs for hypothyroidism to learn more.
Live Off Your Land – Fifteen Steps You Can Take to Get Out of the Cubicle and Onto Self-Reliance
Want to live off your land? More people are pursuing a lifestyle of self-reliance, depending upon themselves for their food and making a living by homesteading. If you long to get off the office treadmill and onto your own land, here are fifteen crucial steps you should take to pursue your life of freedom:
Get out of debt
As any farmer will tell you, unless you own a corporation with hundreds, if not thousands of acres, you won’t make a fabulous income living off the land. Those farmers who do own hundreds of acres and thousands of dollars worth of equipment (along with the mortgages to prove it) are struggling to get by. The secret is to live simply and downsize. Sell that newer car with those high car payments and buy a used model, preferably with no payments. Stop eating out as much and use that extra money to pay off your loans.
Get some land
You don’t need hundreds of acres, but if you want to live off your land, you will need at least five. You will want enough space for a good sized garden, along with some farm animals. Live in town? Consider selling or renting that house and buying a used manufactured home set on a small acreage instead. Many people do it and live quite comfortably – and debt free.
Learn to grow your own food
Put in a lot of raised beds and grow potatoes, carrots, tomatoes and other vegetables. Learn to preserve your food through canning, drying and freezing, so that you go to your pantry instead of the grocery store, cutting down on cost and time.
Raise chickens
These wonderful birds will supply you with eggs, meat, and even income if you raise enough of them. Fresh chicken eggs are easy to sell. These eggs are delicious, and if they come from chickens who have eaten mostly grass and insects – chickens who live in chicken tractors, for example – they are also far healthier and more valuable than the store-bought brand.
Get your goat
Goats will supply you with milk, meat and cheese. Control their diet – only hay and grains – and your goat’s milk will taste exactly like cow’s milk, only sweeter. Plus, many people are realizing the health benefits of raw goat’s milk, making it a marketable product. Get two or three female goats – or does – along with a billy goat, and you will have enough milk for your family and some extra to sell to cover your cost.
Diversify what you sell
Many people who try living off the land make the mistake of raising a single product in large supply and then selling it. But if the crop fails, then you are in trouble. Instead, raise a small supply of several items to sell. Sell chicken eggs and goat’s milk, honey and produce when it’s in season. That way if one item fails to produce, you have others to fall back on.
Avoid the exotic
A few years ago, raising ostriches were all the rage. At least they were until those raising them realized not many people are willing to eat ostrich meat. It is far wiser to stick with the standard fare – chickens, pigs, and beef, for example. Raising something unusual and hoping to get rich off it – like many get-rich-quick schemes -usually leaves you with an empty pocketbook and an animal nobody wants and you have to feed.
Raise only what you want to eat
This goes with the ostrich example above. If you don’t sell those hundreds of bushels of Swiss chard, then be prepared to eat them. If you don’t enjoy them that much, then don’t grow them.
Be prepared to learn a new trade
My grandfather was a plumber, and even during the depression, he prospered. During hard times, people might not need an insurance adjuster, but they will need someone who can fix their leaky pipes. Consider learning carpentry, electrical work or mechanics. Learn to make practical, useful items that you can sell or barter with.
Simplify
Do you really need three television sets? They use electricity even when they are not running. How about that 3,000 square foot home? Do you really need all that space, and all that clutter you accumulated to fill it? Learn to live on less. Cleaning and protecting all those things simply takes up precious time and money.
Give up driving
You won’t be able to homestead successfully if you are driving into town everyday for one thing or another. If you are a soccer mom and trying to homestead, you are going to become exhausted in a hurry. Caring for livestock is a full time job that requires you to spend a lot of time on your land. Plus, the gas and wear and tear on your car is expensive. If you don’t like staying at home, the homestead life may not be for you.
Don’t go it alone
Don’t try to homestead by yourself. Accidents can happen, and when you live in the country, there will be few neighbors who will hear you call for help. If you are single, consider finding one or two like-minded individuals who will room with you and share expenses.
Join a community
Find others in your area passionate about homesteading. Look for a local online group or start one. Go to your nearby feed store and see if they offer classes on animal husbandry. Sign up for an organic gardening class. All of these will get you in touch with people who can share information with you and who will encourage you.
Give back
Be willing to help those who are just starting out. There’s an old phrase that rings true: what goes around, comes around. Make certain that what goes around from you is positive, rather than negative.
Embrace hard work
The homestead life is wonderful, but it does involve a lot of hard, physical labor. You will be lifting hay bales, roping contrary critters and moving chicken tractors. I personally love the hard work (and the great sleep I get each night), but if you prefer a desk job, then naturally, the homesteading life probably isn’t for you.
Think you can do these fifteen things? Then start working on getting out of debt and go forward! A life of freedom and purpose awaits you.
The Most Absurd Laws of Different Countries
The newspaper The Times has published 25 strangest and most amusing laws of different countries. Inspired by the example of the British edition, here is another, more comprehensive, hit parade of the eccentric and frankly funny regulations from the world legislative practice.
The peculiarities of the national legislations.
One can study the traditions and the peculiarities of the mentality of the nations via the strange laws. In this regard a form of the statute is the same product of culture as a movie, a book or a picture. Australians have shown themselves to be very naive people in the alleged “mirror of laws: there is a law in Australia, which forbids to walk in the streets in black clothes, in felt shoes and with the face painted with blacking, because all the above-mentioned things constitute the costume of a night thief. Moreover, there is a law here, which orders the persons, who practice the carrier’s trade for money, to take hay with them. Admittedly, no one sees to it that modern taxi-drivers adhere to this rule – they are lucky not to have been transporting their passengers by means of a team of horses for a long time already.
The inhabitants of Switzerland treat the repose of their associates overly respectfully. It occurred to the legislators of this very country to forbid discharging water down the toilet loudly after 10 p.m., because it may disturb the neighbours. However, the modern Swiss sanitary engineering makes the violation of this law almost impossible. The waste tanks are produced with the heightened soundproofing; moreover, they are constructed in such a way that water flows down the special pipes instead of coming tumbling down with a crash.
The city-state Singapore is world-famous for its neatness and high fines for the attempt to violate this neatness. Thus they fine for the garbage, tossed out in the street, in the sum equivalent to 600 dollars. Moreover, the sale of chewing gum had been forbidden for 12 years here – a radical measure of the struggle against the hooligans, who stick it anywhere. The prohibition was revoked only in 2004, when chewing gum appeared on the counters of the Singaporean drugstores.
The law, according to which women are prohibited from wearing pants, was passed in African Swaziland not long ago. The regulation was sanctioned by the local monarch, who proclaimed the return to the traditions, whereas pants represent the untraditional underwear for the women of Swaziland. The punishment for the wear of pants is rather humiliating: the soldiers snatch them off the women and tear them in small pieces. Admittedly, it remains unclear, how the arms of the law will see the lingerie, if according to the law, which was passed by the same monarch, the women of Swaziland more than 10 years old mustn’t wear the overknee skirts.
The contempt of the King (the Queen).
It is forbidden by law to trample on money in Thailand. At first sight the measure is absolutely senseless, however some details will make the situation clear. The matter is that the King of this country is represented on all the notes and coins of Thailand. Stepping on his image is a sign of disrespect for the monarch, for which the imprisonment is expected.
Finally, it is still prohibited to name the pigs after Napoleon in France. It must be noted that in this case the spread of George Orwell’s book “Animal farm” on the territory of the country should also be forbidden, because the hog a.k.a. Napoleon is one of the main characters of the work.
The survivals of the past.
Many strange laws, which are nominally currently in force, are nothing more than the survivals of the past, sometimes of quite a remote one.
Most often such regulations are found in Great Britain and in the USA, where the legislation hasn’t been reconsidered completely over the ages. There even exist the public groups in the USA, which fight for the abolition of the “foolish” laws. This occupation is not one of the easy ones: an absurd, long unused law needs to be found, after all, and it is also necessary to check the following fact up – what if it was already abolished?
Let’s consider, for example, the British law, mentioned by The Times, which prescribes two hours of archery exercises per day for every male subject, who is more than 14 years old. This decree was issued by King Edward III as far back as the 14-th century; he is also famous for the prohibition of the ball game, which is known as football nowadays. Football was finally allowed in 1603. The British were officially released from the obligation to practice
archery daily under Queen Victoria, in 1863. Admittedly, there is a suspicion that they had stopped practicing it considerably earlier.
The Times also reminds that any freeman is allowed to lead the herd of sheep across London Bridge duty-free in London. Moreover, a freeman has an opportunity to lead geese in Cheapside. But a plague-stricken person is prohibited from taking a taxi in the streets.
Moreover, there exists a law, according to which two men are forbidden to have sex with each other in a house, where the third person is present. This law was enacted at the end of the 16-th century as the struggle against the homosexual brothels, which appeared in the large cities of England.
Private life and public morals.
A gynecologist has the right to examine the genitals of a woman in Bahrain, however he (she) can’t look directly at them, but only at their reflection in the mirror. The sexual intercourse with animals is allowed by law in a number of Moslem countries, but exclusively with females. A person faces the prospect of the death penalty for the liaison with a mail animal in Lebanon. They can decapitate for masturbation in Indonesia.
Only the so-called missionary position is allowed in the State of Florida, and it is forbidden to kiss the woman’s breast during the intercourse. It is not allowed to have sex involving the “horsewoman” position in Massachusetts.
The legislators of countries and states also show a somewhat inappropriate eagerness in the matter of the defence of public morals. A man in skirt may be arrested in Italy, for example. Of course it is clear, what men in skirts are in question, but what should the Scotch, which revere their traditions, do in Italy?
Women are prohibited from wearing patent-leather shoes in the State of Ohio: it is considered that shoes can reflect underclothes. It is prohibited to have been kissing for a longer period of time than five minutes in Iowa.
The law of the State of Florida, according to which single women are prohibited from parachuting on Sundays, is the last one in this category. Perhaps it is also connected with public morals.
The hotchpotch.
It is prohibited to conceal anything from the tax officer in case you don’t want him to know it in the British regulations concerning the tax evasion (issued in 2006). For all that in case you don’t mind if the tax officer gets to know of some data, you are not obliged to report them to him.
It is prohibited to lead being blindfolded in the State of Alabama. It is strictly forbidden to water fish with alcohol in Ohio. It is not allowed to kill birds in the City of Boulder, Colorado. Moreover, it is unlawful to own domestic animals there. Thus everyone who keeps a cat or a dog is officially called “the attendant of the animal”.
A wife must get the written consent of her husband to have the dentures made in the State of Vermont. The head of any dead whale found ashore in London belongs to the King. The tail of such a whale belongs to the Queen in case if she needs the baleen for the corset.
The laws, which may be called absurd quite unambiguously, are also enacted in the post-Soviet region. Thus holding not less than three contraceptive devices in the medicine chest is prescribed for motorcar enthusiasts in Byelorussia. Not only women, but also men and even priests were mercilessly fined for the absence of contraceptive devices. Admittedly, according to recent data, the Byelorussian authorities have abolished this rule in 2007.
Advantages of Playing Online Games
The disadvantages of the internet in general and online gaming in particular are known to everyone. However, when it comes to development and improvement of thinking abilities, it turns out that playing online games has many benefits.
We all know that playing computer and online games is fun. Therefore, we cannot take our eyes off our PC screens even if the phone is ringing, our favorite TV show is about to begin or our dinner is burned on the stove.
All of us have already heard bad things about this amusing pastime. We all know that online games are addictive; they can cause you and your children to spend valuable time in front of the computer on the expense of work, school and family obligations. Playing video and internet games on a regular basis can isolate you from human companionships, distort your sense of reality, shorten your sight, damage your back and basically mess up your life.
Let’s put it this way: if you or someone you know is doing nothing but playing online games, it is something to worry about. However, most online gamers tend to adopt a less radical approach towards their habit. Then, when talking about milder cases of addiction, online gaming is less harmful habit than watching Dr. Phil, for example.
Actually, the habit of playing online games has many advantages that the habit watching bad TV is lacking. Recent research has shown that playing puzzle and word games decreases the risk of Alzheimer disease while watching daytime television increases the risk.
Many other researches have proved the positive effect of playing online games on the youngsters’ mind. Word, puzzle and trivia games enriches the children’s speech; classic computer games such as Tetris benefits the kids’ ability to focus, analyze shapes, think and plan ahead; board games like backgammon and chess can help in the area of thinking skill and so on.
While watching TV is completely passive, you are required to do nothing but stare, overhear and open bags of chips, playing computer games, still not an Olympic sport, require you more often to recall that grey substance inside your head.
Additionally, playing online games is less solitary act than most people think. First, many types of games, including shooting games, sports games, backgammon, billiard and chess, are two or multi player games in which players can compete against each other. Additionally, most gaming sites add several features that encourage interaction between gamers including forums, chats, multiplayer games and tournaments, etc.
The bottom line is that online gaming, if taken in a reasonable dosage, is the opposite of harmful. Thanks to many of the online games advantages and their contribution to thinking skill development, parents can allow their children to play them, and play them themselves.
Make a Home Made Kid Race Car
Get ready for racing fun with this Home Made Kid Race Car!
MATERIALS
Rectangular Boxes – apple boxes, xerox paper boxes or similar
Colorful plastic or paper plates
Spray paint
Construction paper in assorted colors
Heavy ribbon
Staple gun
Brad fasteners
Craft knife
Glue and Masking tape
Markers
Foam letters and numbers to decorate
INSTRUCTIONS:
Prepare the Box – Start with one rectangular box for each party guest. If the box has flaps, cut them off with the craft knife. Turn the box upside down and cut out a square area on one side of the bottom (now the top of your race car) big enough to accommodate a child.
Paint Your Race Car - Spray paint your box a bright color – red, blue, green, yellow, or orange.
Attach “Suspenders” - Using the staple gun, staple heavy ribbon from end to end on either side of the box as “suspenders” to allow kids to wear their cars.
Add Wheels – Choose four plastic plates to make two wheels on either side of the box. Use a contrasting color to the color of the race car box itself. Fasten the plates with brads so the wheels will turn. Add another plate on top of the box to make a functioning steering wheel.
Add Headlights and Tail Lights - Cut two circles of yellow construction paper and glue to the front of the car for headlights. Cut two smaller circles of red construction paper and glue to the rear end of the car for tail lights.
Make an Exhaust Pipe - Make an exhaust pipe from a toilet paper tube with crepe paper streamers. Attach the tube to the car by making a series of cuts around one end of the tube, flaring it out against the back of the car, and securing with masking tape.
Personalize Your Race Car - using colored construction paper shapes, markers, foam numbers and letters.
Now make a race track in your yard using caution tape, old tires, hay bales, or whatever. For great ideas on incorporating this craft into a party, visit our Race Car Birthday Party page.
Start a Small Farm or Make Money From Your Garden
Have you wanted to start a small farm? Interested in organic farming? Want to start a country Bed & Breakfast? Would you like to produce a nature-related home business income stream and make money from your garden? Any or all of these are more attainable now than ever.
Their size can range from an urban rooftop to a small town backyard to small acreage in the country. It’s wonderful to have the sunlight and birdsong be your “office surroundings,” and to tend the earth’s life force while high class restaurants, world travelers, or your local community eagerly pay premium prices for your organic, heirloom and sustainable products.
You can grow many crops: Vintage cutting or edible flowers, rare ethnic and culinary herbs, medicinal herbs, heirloom and gourmet vegetables. There’s a growing trend among those from urbanites to small town dwellers to those with small rural acreage (or in the process of buying it), who are starting sustainable home businesses that are earth and family friendly, or living the country life as real farmers again with rural traditions and the sound of birds and crickets from their porches. The huge demand for local, sustainable, and heirloom and gourmet foods, plus the growing demand for hand-made artisan foods and sustainably produced unique flowers and other unusual ornamentals is fueling this trend.
Farm examples include one who grows the crop used to make brooms, and sells hand-made ornamental or vintage brooms from his own crop. Or the spa mini-farmer who grows fresh ingredients for the facials for her local spas and estheticians, such as lavender, cucumber, and even pumpkin now proven to benefit the skin. Or the couple who raise tiny Shetland sheep that produce wool in many natural colors, and make hand-woven blankets sold for high prices online and to tourists who visit their area.
Whether you’re planning to start a small farm, begin organic farming, start a country Bed & Breakfast, or earn money from your garden, to begin making this dream come true, start with the concept of the “Micro Eco-Farm” that brings them all together. It’s the 21st century version of sustainably producing from the land in larger quantities in smaller space than anytime in history, because with technology and world travel, humans have now discovered and blended the best growing techniques that combine ancient discoveries (such as Chinese or French intensive growing methods) with cutting edge research on creating living soils and sustainable food supplies in smaller spaces than ever before understood.
To start a small farm, use micro eco-farming techniques to begin from as small as a half acre, and even stop there, or grow into a few more acres if you have the land. Start in your spare time until your business has built up enough to let you quit your office job. Micro eco-farming involves organic farming techniques, but adds beyond organics to make your mini-farm more productive than any farm in humankind’s history.
To start a country Bed & Breakfast, plan your B&B’s breakfast menus first, then design the small farm to grow the menu’s products, the organic farm that will wrap around your B&B from the information gleaned from your menu. You may want to raise laying hens, blueberries, strawberries, a few antique apple and pear trees, an herbal tea garden, and a couple dairy goats. Your B&B customers will love this small farming demonstration and setting, and it all “synergizes.” The goats and hens will provide organic fertilizer along with ingredients for breakfast omelets and yogurt, the chickens and goats can eat prunings from the plant crops, which will provide your customers with freshly baked blueberry muffins, strawberry jam and pear butter (which can also be sold as a product to your customers) and spicy apple bread and apple cider.
To make money from your garden, the possibilities are endless. You can grow a cutting garden with a flower stand out front to earn money from your garden, or sell the flower bouquets to in-town B&Bs that don’t grow their own, or to restaurants and hotels; sell high priced rare gourmet food crops to nearby five star restaurants, such as rare edible flowers or fresh ethnic food crops.
Whether you plan to start a small farm, earn money in organic farming, make money from your garden, or open a country Bed & Breakfast, your livelihood will be helping restore the planet by maintaining green life and living soil to your outdoor “office.”
Posted in Farm Life Articles | 
Tags: Calling, Garden, Script, Spectacular, Structure | 
No Comments »
The Business of Horses – Depreciation
I have said many times that if you are a breeder, you need to be a business. One of the reasons is that a business can deduct the expenses of raising horses including feed, vet care, stud fees, marketing costs, training fees and all the other necessary expenses of raising and selling your horses. The most important reason though is that you can buy and depreciate your stallion and mares over a period of time. And that is why even in a down market, you can make a profit even if it is marginal.
Horses that are used for breeding or racing can be depreciated over 3 to 7 years depending on their age when put into service. If they are a horse that you have raised and then decide to breed, you can only deduct the expenses of the horse. If you buy super stallion or mare, you can deduct, not only the expenses associated with their care, but also depreciate the cost of the animal and improve the bottom line of your business.
Depreciation is a deduction from expenses that lowers those expenses and increases the gross profit of your operation. To illustrate this, I am going to give you an example. It may or may not work in your particular case and you need to consult with a qualified accountant to verify if it does.
Having done some research and finding that a certain bloodline or discipline is doing very well on the national scene and there being an absence of that particular bloodline or discipline in my area, I decide to introduce it to my region. I attend sales that feature stock of those bloodlines and end up purchasing a proven stallion and several producing mares as well as one or two younger horses that I believe to have the potential of being superior horses.
The stallion is 10 years old, has produced some foals that have gone on to a certain amount of fame and returned some money to their owners. His purchase price is $30,000. Of the mares that I have purchased and all of which are bred; one is 14 years old and the dam of offspring that have accumulated many points in their field; one is eight years old and her offspring are just starting out and one is a five year old bred to a World Champion. Of the two young horses, one is a yearling and one is a two year old. The yearling is a gelding and the two year old is a started mare by the stallion I purchased.
Since I have mortgaged everything I own in order to assemble this group, I want to make a profit as soon as possible and keep the IRS at bay. And this is how I am going to accomplish this.
My expenses for the year is $1800 per horse and that includes feed, farrier, vet, advertising and a share of the mortgage, lights, water, electricity, etc. The stallion is used on my mares and he breeds 10 outside mares for $500 apiece plus mare care. The mares produce three foals that sell for a little money but not as well as I expected. The W/C sired colt goes for $2500 but the others only gross $2500 for the two.
My income looks like this for the year. Breeding fees bring in $5000 plus $1000 in mare care. Sales bring in $5000. So my gross income is $11,000. My outlay in expenses is $12,600 for the year. So I am in the hole, and the IRS is going to lay this one aside and want more documentation on whether I am a business or a hobby.
Using the MACRS (Modified Accelerated Cost Recovery System) depreciation schedule, I can lower my costs and increase my net profit. The stallion can depreciated over seven years utilizing the MACRS depreciation tables so his first year’s depreciation is 14.29% of his purchase price, or $4,287. The fourteen year old mare can be depreciated over three years. Her purchase price was $10,000 and her first year depreciation in 33.33% or $3,333. The others can be depreciated over a seven year period including the two-year old with one exception. The yearling gelding can only be expensed; he can not be depreciated unless I make a race horse out of him because he is not capable of reproducing.
As you can see, I have turned my loss into a profitable year, at least on paper and I can keep the IRS and the banker happy. That is why I urge you to be a business.
Let me share with you the percentages that you can depreciate each year and the age limits of the horse. Three year depreciation is applied to horses that are 12 years of age or older when they are put into service unless they are a racehorse. Then they can be two and over. The rate of depreciation is set at this. First year is 33.33%; second year is 44.45%; third year is 14.81% and fourth year is 7.41%.
Seven year depreciation applies to horses that are a least two years of age when they are put into service unless they are racehorses. Racehorses have to be under two. The seven year schedule is: First year, 14.29%; 2nd year, 24.99%; 3rd year, 17.49%; 4th year, 12.49%; 5th year, 8.93%; 6th year, 8.92%; 7th year, 8.93%; 8th year, 4.46%.
It does not matter that someone else may have depreciated the horse before you bought it. When you buy that animal, you can start to depreciate the horse again at the cost that you bought it for. And down the road, you can resell the horse and start over with a new horse(s).
An important point to remember. If you sell a horse that you have depreciated for more that the depreciated value, you must use it to recover the depreciation. In other words, the true selling price is what it sold for plus the depreciation and that must be reported as income. And as such is subjected to taxation. You should consult with a qualified accountant and tax authority before starting any business venture to be sure that you are doing it right.
Another point to consider. If you manage to produce a super individual, think about syndicating or at least create a partnership for that horse, so you can expense and depreciate that horse. You will spread the costs among several people as well as the liability.
Posted in Farm Life Articles | Tags: Building, Business, Depreciation, Enclosure, Horses, Speaker, Subwoofer | No Comments »
Petroleum – Its Uses And Benefits
Petroleum or crude oil is a naturally occurring liquid found in formations in the Earth consisting of a complex mixture of hydrocarbons (mostly alkanes) of various lengths. Petroleum literally means rock oil; oil that comes from rock. Petroleum or Crude Oil is a naturally occurring hydrocarbon-based liquid which is sometimes present in porous rocks beneath the earth’s surface. Petroleum is formed by the slow alteration of organic remains over time. It consists of a mixture of liquid hydrocarbon compounds and varies widely in composition, color, density, and viscosity. This liquid after distillation yields a range of combustible fuels, petrochemicals, and lubricants. Compounds and mixtures of compounds separated from crude petroleum by distillation include gasoline, diesel fuel, kerosene, fuel oil, some types of alcohol, benzene, heavy naphtha, different grades of lubricating oils and residuum. Petroleum is usually classified according to the predominance of paraffin or asphalted compounds and accordingly is said to have a paraffin base, an intermediate base, or an asphalt base.
Oil wells are drilled as deep as six miles into the Earth to search for petroleum. These wells can cost millions of dollars to drill, yet drilling is done because petroleum is a valuable natural resource. Although the major use of petroleum is as a fuel (gasoline, jet fuel, heating oil) and petroleum and natural gas are often used to generate electricity, there are many other uses as well.
Here are some of the ways petroleum is used in our every day lives. All plastic is made from petroleum and plastic is used almost everywhere, in cars, houses, toys, computers and clothing. Asphalt used in road construction is a petroleum product as is the synthetic rubber in the tires. Paraffin wax comes from petroleum, as do fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, detergents, phonograph records, photographic film, furniture, packaging materials, surfboards, paints and artificial fibers used in clothing, upholstery, and carpet backing. Helium, sulfur and other valuable materials are produced from oil wells along with petroleum itself. Petroleum is used principally as a source of fuel and lubricating oils. Only when these supplies are restricted or threatened does the average person begin to realize their importance.
The top three oil producing countries are Saudi Arabia, Russia, and the United States. About 80% of the world’s readily accessible reserves are located in the Middle East, with 62.5% coming from the five Arab countries: Saudi Arabia (12.5%), U.A.E., Iraq, Qatar and Kuwait. Millions of people around the world are employed to find or produce petroleum, ship and refine it and manufacture and market the many oils and waxes made from it.
Although there are many alternatives to petroleum fuels, an analysis of costs and benefits shows that petroleum is superior in most every area. Hydrogen, ethanol, hybrid, and biomass technologies are promising for automobiles and may soon increase efficiency and reduce emissions; but many of these technologies have not yet proven sufficiently profitable to providers or attractive to consumers. Petroleum retains a key advantage because the price of oil remains low compared to forms of energy with lower environmental impacts, like wind and solar power. Unlike hydrogen or even natural gas, oil is easily transportable and there is a vast infrastructure in place to support its use.
There are many factors due to which oil prices are rising but still petroleum is a necessity. These reasons are lack of available capacity across the oil supply chain in production, refinery upgrading and transportation infrastructure; surging demand in emerging economies; apparent insensitivity of consumers to the price signal; uncertainties related to the weather (hurricanes) or to politics (Iran, Iraq, Venezuela, Nigeria); and increasing activity in the commodities markets. It is not very useful to blame any single player in the game. This could pose danger to the economy and business of the world.
Therefore, benefits of petroleum have brought enumerable benefits to human civilization: quality of life, dynamic prosperity and a source of income to energy traders.
Children At Work: Looking at Child Labor in the Victorian Age
Today, it isn’t that uncommon for some children and teenagers to work. They may earn extra money by baby-sitting, doing yard work, or maybe even walking dogs. Others, once they go on to high school, may go to work in their local grocery store, malls, or food chains. However, in the Victorian Age, it wouldn’t seem at all strange to see children as young as five or six, go to work full-time (sometimes sixteen hours a day!) in often dangerous conditions.
As you read, ask yourself questions. Why do you think children so young were working? What type of jobs do you do for extra money? What types of jobs did the Victorian Age children have to do? What would you do to help stop child labor? How do you think your life would be different if instead of getting an education, you had to go to work in a paper mill, or on an assembly line?
Why Did it Happen?
During the first United States Census it was reported that the number of children working in 1870, equalled nearly 750,000. This only included children under the age of fifteen, and didn’t count those children who were working on their family farms, or in the family’s business. The number of children working continued to increase as new technology and the Industry grew. What were some of the things that caused families to send their children to work? What about the employers that hired them?
Poverty
One mother in the Victorian Age, Mrs. Smith, was quoted as saying:
“I have three children working in Wilson’s mill; one 11, one 13, and the other 14. They work regular hours there. We don’t complain. If they go to drop the hours, I don’t know what poor people will do. We have hard work to live as it is…..My Husband is one of the same mind about it…last summer my husband was 6 weeks ill; we pledged almost all our things to live; the things are not all out of pawn yet… We complain of nothing but short wages…My children have been in the mill three years. I have no complaint to make of their being beaten…I would rather they were beaten than fined.”
Another roadblock to change was that most people thought that by letting children have jobs, it would serve to help the poor families to make more money.
There were many ways that children entered the workforce. Orphaned children were often sent to a distant mill or factory owner to be fed and cared for while working to earn their keep. Others were indentured, or sold to a business owner by their parents for a certain number of years. Other, more fortunate working children lived with their families while working full-time.
Industrial Needs
While some factory owners and leaders of the industries spoke out against putting children to work so young, others hired children because they didn’t have to be paid as much as adults did. Children were also hired for factory and mill jobs because many of the machines that they used were very small. Children were seen as the ideal candidates to work the machines, and to fix them when they were broken.
It’s also important to remember that children were raised and treated differently in the Victorian Age. There were some employers who didn’t think that there was anything wrong with hiring young children to work. They believed that by hiring these children, the children would eventually grow-up as responsible, hard workers.
However, as you will see in the next section, many of the jobs that children were hired for were often very hard, at times even dangerous.
Working for a Living
When teenagers go to work today, they can choose from many types of work. They can be cashiers, fry cooks, baby-sitters, front desk clerks, stockers or create their own lawn service. Children of the Victorian area didn’t have these options.
So, what did these kids do for a living?
The most fortunate working children were hired on as apprentices for the major trades of the era. Some of these trades would include:
*Blacksmith
*Tinsmith
*Cooper
*Iron foundry
*Cobbler
*Lace making
*Leatherworking
While the children were still required to work, and sometimes required to work long hours, they were at least lucky enough to be learning a profitable trade, which offered hope to them for their future.
Younger children might have started out working as street sweepers, “scavengers” or by selling newspapers. Scavengers were children who searched through trash, rubbish and refuse for items they could sell to junk stores, or even to their neighbors. Some of these items might have included pieces of rope, or metal scraps.
Still other children were put to work in more dangerous conditions.
Glass factories
Textile mills
Coal fields/mines
Cotton mills
Shipyards
These are only a few examples of the hard work children would face, sometimes working up to ninety hours a week!!
Sometimes the children who went to work and were often away from adult supervision would fall into criminal activity. They would wind up involved in things like gambling, stealing, and sometimes even prostitution.
Making a Difference!!
Many people worked very lard and hard to help protect children from being taken advantage of by the industries. Some key people who fought to control child labor were:
Charles Loring Brace – created the Children’s Aid Society
Lewis Wikes Hine – photographer who exposed the child labor problem to the public at large
President Woodrow Wilson – created the Keating-Owen Act (see below)
Lord Ashley – created the Children’s Employment Commission in 1842
Charles Dickens – wrote and spoke out against child labor. For more information, read Oliver Twist
Karl Marx – helped incite public opinion
Michael Sadler – worked on the “Ten-Hour Movement”
Organizations that were involved in gathering support from individuals and law makers to control child labor include:
“Short Time Committees”
The Children’s Aid Society
The National Child Labor Committee
Progress was sometimes slow, but always encouraging. Several Factory Acts (1819-1878) were created in England, which increased the minimum age of children who were able to work. Along with the Factory Acts, there was the “Ten-Hour Movement” which limited shifts to ten hours, with a weekly limit of fifty-eight hours. Other laws in England that influenced the change of child labor laws included Lord Ashley’s Children’s Employment Commission (1842), which was followed by the Coal Mines Act in 1843. This Act stopped the Coal Mines from hiring women, or boys under the age of ten.
In America, activists joined together in groups and coalitions to work for labor law and reform, or change. They received a small victory in 1916, when President Woodrow Wilson created the Keating-Owen Act, which banned the interstate (between two or more states) sale of any items produced by child labor. However, this Act was later found to be unconstitutional. The real victory came in the year 1938, with the Fair Labor Standards Act. This Act created a national minimum wage and set the national working age to sixteen (eighteen if the job was dangerous). Children aged 14 and 15 were allowed to work under certain conditions and fields of work, but only after school hours.
Because of the efforts of the Victorian people and the new laws it created for the children of England and America, child labor isn’t as large of a problem….for us. But child labor hasn’t disappeared! According to some recent surveys and studies done by the International Labor Office, it was estimated that there are about 250,000,000 kids between five and fourteen working. Of these children, 120,000,000 are working full-time, often in dangerous conditions. Take some time to think of ways that you can help with the modern day global child labor reform!!