Survey for friend...Outer Circle Publications HOTSHEET, Your opinion valued...

Originally Posted by GordonJ

I still like to get mags and newsletters in the mail and perhaps people would enjoy these throw back type of personalized little hotsheets.

Gordon...I concur with you on receiving print. I garden for my fresh supply in summer and stored for winter and I only grow heirloom. When I decide to buy new seed (usually save my own) I only purchase from companies that send out catalog and then either visit web site or phone in to order.

I kind of miss the old Tyler Hicks monthly newsletter and the Business Opportunities Digest arriving in the mail and being able to carry them with me to read whenever I had a couple of minutes...much easier and more relaxing than toting electronics around.

I feel the printed hotsheets would be welcomed by the boomers more so than the young uns and probably should be targeted at them.

Incidentally ... the booklets report is forthcoming...you can't believe the nightmare (healthwise side effects) the tick infection has caused...vision, hand and finger disfunction, and more...I am only able to work at the computer less than 2 hours a day...so the delay is unavoidable.

Cornell

[GordonJ]

Health first, work last.

I've been chatting up some young moms who are into couponing...
and also getting into cooking. Unlike their grandmas, who had home ec in school, these younger career women are getting more and more into the domestic thing, especially after the first kid.

I think there is a whole NEW generation, as well as the oldies like us, who would like to see some printed hotsheets.

See, the nice thing is you can custom tailor, and so, gardeners might receive hotsheets from other gardeners with tips, and offers...and reports or whatever. I can do a HOTSHEET on Anasazi Beans, for example.

Share my pan cookie recipe one month and then the ice cream...build a whole hotsheet around legumes for example.

OLD timers might enjoy the look and feel of the old guys newsletters, I always liked Dean DuValls everymonth...

But I loved those little mom and pop rags, one came out of Lake Worth, FL from a woman living in a trailer, a senior community and she always was a hoot to read.

MAKE it interesting, as well as an opportunity...I remember running ads for a buck or two...classified ads. Quarter page ads ran about 25 and full pgs for 100. Ten cents a prospect is not bad testing.

NOW, I'd have Granny C mix in some dating hotsheets, some cheat sheets hotsheets for gamers, and grow the numbers as they niched out.

Maybe a hotsheet for single guys, how to get girls type thing...

I don't think it has to be strictly biz op, and as I think about it, since most are only one or two pieces of paper, I'd offer FREE classified ads in my Chatteling Hotsheet.

10 to 15 pages should keep a reader busy for awhile.

I like the concept, but, want to TEST, not yet sure how to do that.

Maybe, I'll do like Glenn did with the book and post up 5 hotsheets and have readers vote, and the winner gets published, that seems to work.

Thanks Cornell,

PS. We have a squirrel problem, any hints on that?

Originally Posted by Cornell

Gordon...I concur with you on receiving print. I garden for my fresh supply in summer and stored for winter and I only grow heirloom. When I decide to buy new seed (usually save my own) I only purchase from companies that send out catalog and then either visit web site or phone in to order.

I kind of miss the old Tyler Hicks monthly newsletter and the Business Opportunities Digest arriving in the mail and being able to carry them with me to read whenever I had a couple of minutes...much easier and more relaxing than toting electronics around.

I feel the printed hotsheets would be welcomed by the boomers more so than the young uns and probably should be targeted at them.

Incidentally ... the booklets report is forthcoming...you can't believe the nightmare (healthwise side effects) the tick infection has caused...vision, hand and finger disfunction, and more...I am only able to work at the computer less than 2 hours a day...so the delay is unavoidable.

Cornell

Originally Posted by GordonJ

Health first, work last.

I've been chatting up some young moms who are into couponing...
and also getting into cooking. Unlike their grandmas, who had home ec in school, these younger career women are getting more and more into the domestic thing, especially after the first kid.

I think there is a whole NEW generation, as well as the oldies like us, who would like to see some printed hotsheets.

See, the nice thing is you can custom tailor, and so, gardeners might receive hotsheets from other gardeners with tips, and offers...and reports or whatever. I can do a HOTSHEET on Anasazi Beans, for example.

Share my pan cookie recipe one month and then the ice cream...build a whole hotsheet around legumes for example.

OLD timers might enjoy the look and feel of the old guys newsletters, I always liked Dean DuValls everymonth...

But I loved those little mom and pop rags, one came out of Lake Worth, FL from a woman living in a trailer, a senior community and she always was a hoot to read.

MAKE it interesting, as well as an opportunity...I remember running ads for a buck or two...classified ads. Quarter page ads ran about 25 and full pgs for 100. Ten cents a prospect is not bad testing.

NOW, I'd have Granny C mix in some dating hotsheets, some cheat sheets hotsheets for gamers, and grow the numbers as they niched out.

Maybe a hotsheet for single guys, how to get girls type thing...

I don't think it has to be strictly biz op, and as I think about it, since most are only one or two pieces of paper, I'd offer FREE classified ads in my Chatteling Hotsheet.

10 to 15 pages should keep a reader busy for awhile.

I like the concept, but, want to TEST, not yet sure how to do that.

Maybe, I'll do like Glenn did with the book and post up 5 hotsheets and have readers vote, and the winner gets published, that seems to work.

Thanks Cornell,

PS. We have a squirrel problem, any hints on that?

Hi Gordon,

Thanks for asking.

Don't know about the rest but as far as the squireel problem there is only one solution. MOVE!

Best of success,

Skip Rosell

Gordon.

Back in the old days, .22 was the solution. It also helped we liked squirrel especially with curry and rice.

Just a thought...

Tom

Originally Posted by GordonJ

PS. We have a squirrel problem, any hints on that?

Before I go there...perhaps consider antiques for a hotsheet...I used to do a newsletter for them...great for paid classifieds and small display ads.

Funny you should ask....I mentioned about feeding the critters in another post....that's how it started when I moved to this location 18 years ago.

I had squirrel, raccoon, skunk, and opossum problems.

Squirrels chewing into everything looking for food , the other three would constantly find a way to get into the garbage and scatter it everywhere....and all of them liked the garden....not to mention a deer that liked parts of the garden (right now I am having a problem with a flock of wild turkeys).

My solution was if I couldn't beat them ...feed them

I feed them and they leave the garden and garbage alone (actually we had a verbal agreement - at least me talking and presumably them listening)...and when they try to take up a residence where I don't want them I scatter a few mothballs (have to be careful though as not good for kids or pets).

However having said that I caught a young squirrel (not yet a regular at feeding time and may not be any time soon) last week plucking small green tomatoes from the plant and chowing down...shooed him away. Spotted him a second time only with a baby cucumber....walked silently into the house and back to the deck...lit the fuse and let her fly....firecracker went off about 6 feet above him...he hasn't been back.

I use the firecrackers for stray cats also...they like to hover at feeding times for the birds and rabbits. I just launch the firecracker to go off about 3 feet behind them...usually only takes one or two of these episodes and they look elsewhere for an easy meal. I know they have a right to eat, and I will feed them if they come to the deck...but to prey on the other critters eating - that's a no-no around here....everybody gets along or they aren't welcome. Regular rabbits and squirrels have become accustomed to me and the firecrackers and when they go off they just check me out to make sure that's all it is and continue munching. Birds scatter every time.

I don't use feeders...the food is scattered on the ground in the same 10 x10 area every day....and all eat harmoniously together (birds, squirrels, rabbits)...raccoons get hand fed on the deck and there is a small supply left for during the night (every once in a while I have to step out in the wee hours and settle an argument between a couple of them fighting over the peanuts...and it is always the same two). Skunk is fed in a different section and the opossums have a green garbage bag that their food goes in on another corner of the deck....it seems they like to think they are stealing it.

Snakes I am not very fond of, but the non aggressive ones I exist in harmony with...the aggressive ones I attempt to discourage and send on their way...however if they persist it usually means their demise....I don't take any chances with them.

And a new welcome guest arrived 4 weeks ago and has been added....built and put up a house for him....a bat....now I don't have to spray my garlic spray weekly for the mosquitoes...the bat is just merrily gobbling them up every night.

Gotta love Nature.

Cornell

Originally Posted by Cornell

Gotta love Nature.

Cornell

Not all Nature is lovable. Here the skunks and bats carry rabies. My county is in a rabies epidemic right now. They've put down over thirty dogs at the last count I saw. I had to kill one that chased me into my house, and invited me to come back out and play. That was a scary encounter.

The cottontail rabbits came in the yard and ate the wife's flowers, so I got her a Daisy Bunny Discourager for her birthday. They're just smart enough to start running when they hear the lever **** after they've been popped a time or two.

LOL...sowpub doesn't allow one to move the lever on a rifle that charges the chamber for firing. See the **** above. Wonder what happens when the **** crows at dawn...can anybody hear him?

No offense intended but glad I live where I do.

Skunks and bats also carry rabies here, as do the odd raccoon, fox, and coyote.

I am always vigilant of animals acting out of the norm. Any nocturnal animal out in the daylight spells trouble and a call to the authorities.

Had a rooster camping out under cedar bushes by house 2 years ago ( a bylaw officer cracked down on a property owner a couple of roads over so he just turned them all loose)....you would swear the little sucker was sitting on the bed. Tried everything to deter him...hot water, cold water, firecrackers....he would flee but would be back the next morning.

Finally had enough. Took my trusty puppy dog (Siberian Husky/Chow) out the back entrance and to the front corner of the house...at the first ****-a-doodle-do I turned her loose...last I saw of him he was making like Wylie Coyote (the road runner cartoon) heading off into the bush.

[GordonJ]

As an old Bill Myers customer, you know people buy magazines, books and reports to fuel their DREAM...not to make the dream come true.

And there is a huge niche of people who want to get back to the land and nature...heck, your post is an article...

So, be glad to publish it and mail it out for our test.

Opossum, turkeys and skunks...OH MY.

G.

Originally Posted by Cornell

No offense intended but glad I live where I do.

Skunks and bats also carry rabies here, as do the odd raccoon, fox, and coyote.

I am always vigilant of animals acting out of the norm. Any nocturnal animal out in the daylight spells trouble and a call to the authorities.

Had a rooster camping out under cedar bushes by house 2 years ago ( a bylaw officer cracked down on a property owner a couple of roads over so he just turned them all loose)....you would swear the little sucker was sitting on the bed. Tried everything to deter him...hot water, cold water, firecrackers....he would flee but would be back the next morning.

Finally had enough. Took my trusty puppy dog (Siberian Husky/Chow) out the back entrance and to the front corner of the house...at the first ****-a-doodle-do I turned her loose...last I saw of him he was making like Wylie Coyote (the road runner cartoon) heading off into the bush.

Originally Posted by GordonJ

So, be glad to publish it and mail it out for our test.

G.

Hi Gordon:

Yes you can use it as you see fit and no need to credit me with it.

Here is another little one.

I recycle as much as possible and as such I reuse the plastic grocery bags for kitchen garbage.

A few winters ago I got lazy one night because it was frigid outside and snowing like a banshee. Instead of walking across the deck to put the garbage in the bin I just set it outside the door on the deck.

The next morning when I went to pick up the bag I noticed little tracks in the snow going to the bag and a small 1 inch hole chewed in the bag....so out of curiosity I just left it there and checked the next morning.

More tracks. So set out a soda cracker and piece of cheese that evening.

Next morning food was gone with tracks leading back to the bag....that was mid January.

For the next 2 months I put out food every night to feed the little mouse that had made the garbage bag his castle for the winter.

By the end of March the weather had started warming. The garbage having sat there all winter was getting pretty ripe with the thawing temperatures. Also, the food put out the night before had not been eaten so figuring the mouse had moved on I disposed of the bag.

Stepping backwards for a minute...the night before I removed the bag of garbage I had gone out to check the property along with my puppy dog - aptly named Snowy - a pure white 85 pounds of terror when allowed to be. While out noticed she was tracking a scent.

Back to day of the garbage bag removal....after putting the bag in the bin I walked around the deck to the side of the house and there in a pretty mangled mess was a plump little mouse.

Presumed it to be the deck guest of the winter due to its well fed size.

I had fed it and fattened it most of the winter...and then my dog had used it as a throw toy....kind of ironic, sad, and yet a little funny.

She is allowed to defend herself with dogs (hasn't lost a fight yet) but I had trained her to - leave the rabbits and birds alone, retreat from skunks (this one was absolutely necessary as she got sprayed as a puppy), opossums, raccoons...and chase the cats. But I never thought about mice.

C.

Pertaining to the antique hotsheet in a previous post....the hotsheet grew too large just to be a hotsheet...the result is shown in the attached image.

The following is for SOWPubbers only...it is something that just came to thought.

If any SowPub member is interested in starting an antiques web site I have put up a little page about it so as not to turn this post into something that is banned on the forum.... http://zsell.com/antiques/sowpubbers.html ....but as I said it is just for SowPub members to view and only one to have.

Hopefully I am not violating any rules here with this.

Cornell