There is no better way to enjoy all the splendor of our Canadian wilderness than to go camping. Whether you are one of the many Canadians who make camping an annual family summer focus, or just enjoy getting back to nature whenever the opportunity presents itself, Canada has many different campgrounds, parks and trails to experience and explore.

Because of the many variables that can impact your enjoyment when camping, planning is key! In addition to preparing for a dip in the temps or a day-long deluge or those mosquito or black fly air raids, campers must be prepared for the inevitable; an animal encounter.

Bears are what most campers are concerned about, but in fact, the animals you should be more worried about are raccoons, mice, and squirrels. Black bears are extremely timid, and generally keep their distance. But bears and many other animals can smell food from miles away, and are quick to take advantage of opportunities created by careless campers.

Animal-Free Camping Tips

• Never bring any food into your tent at any time, which includes candy, gum or toothpaste. Bears go nuts over the smell of mint or peppermint, which is why park wardens always tell people to keep their toothpaste with their food.
• Keep all food in a cooler with a locking lid. Then wrap the cooler a couple of times with rope just for added protection. Then hang the cooler at least 7 feet off the ground.
• Always wash your pots, pans and dishes before and after you use them. At night, mice come into your camp to look for food. Their urine and feces can carry many forms of bacteria that can make you sick.
• All animals hate the smell of fabric softener. Bring lots of fabric softener sheets and put them everywhere; your knapsack, your tent, in your sleeping bag and even in your cooler to help mask the smell of food and keep curious animals away.
• Get your water at least 200 feet from shore whenever possible. Never drink water near a beaver hut or beaver dam. There is a flu-like sickness called Beaver Fever caused by a virus that lives in the urine of the beaver. If you must get water near the shore, boil it before drinking.

And please remember when camping to leave no trace - respect nature and leave your campsite clean.

“Earth laughs in flowers . . .”
 ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

It’s the start of a long summer, with many children having unfettered access to gaming systems and the wide range of ‘games’ available. Do you base your what’s-okay-to-play decisions on what other parents have decided for their children? It’s possible your children are being exposed to inappropriate content and situations.

The ratings on video games are there for a reason. It's also important to know what the ratings mean. The Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) is an industry organization that has developed a rating system for computer, Internet and video games. Most games sold in North America are rated using this system.

ESRB ratings have two parts: rating symbols suggest age appropriateness for the game, and content descriptors indicate elements in a game that may have triggered a particular rating and/or may be of interest or concern. To take full advantage of the ESRB rating system, it's important to check both the rating symbol (on the front of the game box) and the content descriptors (on the back of the game box).

Below you'll find the ratings and what they mean. For the most up to date list of content descriptors and definitions visit the ESRB Web site at: www.esrb.org. As effective as this system is, parents should always check out a game yourself before letting your kids play it.

Early Childhood (EC): Early Childhood rated games have content that may be suitable for persons ages 3 and older. Titles in this category contain no material that parents would find inappropriate.

Everyone (E): Everyone rated games have content that may be suitable for persons ages six and older. Titles in this category may contain minimal violence and some comic mischief and/or mild language.
 
Everyone 10+ (E10+): Titles rated E10+ have content that may be suitable for ages 10 and older. Titles in this category may contain more cartoon, fantasy or mild violence, mild language, and/or minimal suggestive themes.

Teen (T): Teen rated games have content that may be suitable for persons ages 13 and older. Titles in this category may contain violent content, mild or strong language, and/or suggestive themes.
 
Mature (M): Mature rated games have content that may be suitable for persons ages 17 and older. Titles in this category may contain mature sexual themes, more intense violence and/or strong language.
 
Adults Only (AO): Adults Only rated games have content suitable only for adults. Titles in this category may include graphic depictions of sex and/or violence. Adults Only products are not intended for persons under the age of 18.
 
Rating Pending: Used only for advertising and/or marketing materials created for titles that have been submitted to the ESRB and are awaiting a final rating.

Online games that include user-generated content (e.g., chat, maps, skins) carry the notice "Game Experience May Change During Online Play" to warn consumers that content created by players of the game has not been rated by the ESRB.

With summer, comes high water usage – and often water shortages to go along with it. Just turn the tap, and out it comes. It’s almost too easy.

But there is a cost to the water we use, both in terms of dollars and cents and in terms of the impact on our environment. Time for a little impromptu refresher about our ever precious H2O?

Did J’a Know...

• Water is part of a deeply interconnected system. What we pour on the ground ends up in our water, and what we spew into the sky ends up in our water.
• There is the same amount of water on Earth as there was when the Earth was formed. The water from your faucet could contain molecules that dinosaurs drank.
• Water regulates the Earth’s temperature. It also regulates the temperature of the human body, carries nutrients and oxygen to cells, cushions joints, protects organs and tissues, and removes wastes.
• Water expands by 9% when it freezes. Frozen water (ice) is lighter than water, which is why ice floats in water.
• Nearly 97% of the world’s water is salty or otherwise undrinkable. Another 2% is locked in ice caps and glaciers. That leaves just 1% for all of humanity’s needs — all its agricultural, residential, manufacturing, community, and personal needs.
• 75% of the human brain is water and 75% of a living tree is water.
• A person can live about a month without food, but only about a week without water.
• The average Canadian uses 329 litres (72 imp gal) per day, second only to the average American at 380 litres (84 imp gal) as the highest water consumers in the world.

Beat the Heat Tips – "We haven’t had any in our neck of the woods yet, but you can always count a few really sticky hot days. My mother-in-law is the one I worry about. But she seems to know most of these tips already. Share them with people you know have a tough time in hot weather." 

BBQ for the Kids – "We like to entertain in the summer – in the backyard whenever possible. But often the kids get sort of left out. The BBQ menu is almost always geared towards the adults. However, I found this site had some great tips to help make a more kid-focused BBQ."

Boredom Busters for Kids – "This site has some wonderful ideas to help the kids keep busy on rainy days – or when you just can’t let them stare at the video screen or TV anymore for fear they will go blind. Most of the games are easily set-up and are played with simple rules."

House Swapping Tips – "This year we’re going to do it! We’ve been talking about it forever and I think we’re finally ready to swap houses. I’ve been hesitant, not comfortable with someone else living in my house. But I’ll get over it to save the money we’ll save. The tips and info on this site helped me decide."

Water Games – Andrew, age 7, says, “I like inviting my friends Mike and Annie to play in the pool with me, but we were getting bored with the games we were playing. So Mo found this site for us. It has lots of games we can play. I really like the wet t-shirt relay. It’s really hard. You just can’t get the t-shirt on or off fast enough.”

Babysitting Tips – Martin, age 13, says, “I started babysitting last month and plan to do a lot over the summer. I usually can keep the kids occupied, but not always. This site has ideas, plus lots of other tips.”

Sidewalk Games – Jeannie, age 10, says, “We were tired of playing hopscotch all the time, so we found some new games here. I like a game called Skellzies. So do my friends. There are also some good bike race ideas, too.

Ways to Earn Money – Erin, age 12, says, “There are a lot of things that I would like to buy before school starts again, but my allowance just isn’t enough. So I tried to find something that I could do. This site has lots of ideas. I’m washing windows in our neighbourhood now and making all I need.”

Browsing the Internet without protection is just plain foolish! Most surfers know this and have had protection systems in place for some time now. Here is one more way to help protect you online that you may not have known.

Often times a user opens an innocent looking file attachment only to discover they have infected themselves. One favourite tactic these parasites use is a double-extension file where one or both file extensions are hidden. By default Microsoft hides the "registered" file types from view - to protect the user from opening protected system files. However this also prevents the user from seeing these extensions in their e-mail.

To allow yourself to view all file types in Explorer, open the Control Panel, then click on Folder Options. Once open, select View, then;
Scroll down to the Hidden Files and Folders section
Select Show hidden files and folders
Uncheck Hide file extensions for known file types
Uncheck Hide protected operating system files
Click the Ok box at the bottom of the window, then Apply, and you’re done.

Have a heavy duty cleaning project in the garage or workshop that requires the use of some bristles? Don’t push too hard!

Increasing the pressure when using a brush, doesn’t always improve the outcome or speed up the job. That’s because it’s the end of the bristle that is supposed to do the job. If you put too much pressure on a brush, the bristles bend to the point where it is the side of the bristle that is contacting the work surface, not the end anymore. Excessive pressure can even break the bristles, and with wire brushes, bent bristles may not return to their intended position, rendering them useless.

If you want to improve the performance of a brush, increase its speed or change the type you use – being careful not to overdo it and ruin the project.

There is no shortage of talk of energy conservation these days, with topics like solar energy and wind power dominating the headlines. Many of the articles tell us that conservation of energy is the first place we should start when it comes to putting forth an effort to live more eco-responsibly. If you own a swimming pool, Solar Blankets will help you achieve that goal.

1. Solar blankets perform two eco-friendly functions. They reduce evaporation, thereby reducing the amount of water needed to ‘top it up’ during the swimming season. Secondly, they insulate the pool, decreasing temperature loss and the amount of energy needed to heat your pool (if you use a fuel-based heating system). Both also save you money!

2. There are two types of blankets available; the bubble type solar blanket, which lets about 50% of the sunlight into the pool, and the foam type, which lets 0% of the sun into a pool. Both types of blanket work very well at preventing water from evaporating from the pool.

3. Bubble solar blankets have very little insulating value - they are best at preventing evaporation and evaporative cooling. The foam blankets reduce evaporative losses and actually provide a small amount of insulating value, plus they will also reduce the radiative losses better than bubble blankets.

4. Every solar blanket should have a roller to wind the blanket off the pool when not in use. If you have a roller, you’ll be more inclined to use it. Plus it makes the blanket easier to handle and will prolong its life. 

5. Take the time to fit the blanket properly. This is especially important for an irregularly shaped pool. Trimming it to fit as exactly as possible will increase its effectiveness and reduce the chance of wind displacing it.

6. After it rains, you should roll up the blanket and drain the water off of it, because with either type of blanket, its ability to keep heat in the pool will be significantly compromised if the top of the blanket is covered with water or has puddles on it. Water will evaporate from the puddles and pull heat right through the blanket, cooling the pool.

7. Solar blankets don’t cause algae growth, neglect does. But if you have an outbreak of algae while the pool blanket is on, the blanket must be cleaned before putting it back on the cleaned pool, to prevent reintroducing algae back into the water.

8. If you have a solar-heated pool, blankets need only be used on cooler days to maintain water temperature. Although the pool will lose a couple of degrees overnight, the solar system will recover that heat quickly the next day - for free!

9. If you heat your pool with a fuel you pay for, and you don’t use a solar blanket, you are paying to heat the air whenever the temperature of the pool is higher than that of the air.

"Baseball fans are junkies, and their heroin is the statistic." ~ Robert S. Wieder

"I failed to make the chess team because of my height." ~ Woody Allen

"Ever wonder if illiterate people get the full effect of alphabet soup?" ~ John Mendosa

"Deep summer is when laziness finds respectability." ~ Sam Keen