Fireplace Pleasers without the Price

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With Christmas quickly approaching, give a gift from the heart. This is one present that you will spend time on making wonderful. Fire starters are very useful and much desired gifts. If you can commit to an afternoon of gathering twigs and lots of pine cones, your guaranteed a low-cost and eye-catching present for the one you love. Gather up kindling of any kind that you can find outside. Try to find twigs or branches big enough that you can cut into uniform pieces. Take them and place in a bucket of water to clean off debris and bugs. Remove the pieces and put 2/3rd's of the pine cones aside. Put remaining pieces on a baking pan and place in the oven at 200 degrees for at least 30 minutes or until dry. When pine cones open their petals, then remove them from the heat and set aside. You can take a third of the pine cones and place in a 1/2 gallon of water and add 1 cup of borax or Allum. Take the other third and place in 1/2 gallon of water and add 1 cup of boric acid and let these soak for 8 hours, remove, and allow them to dry in a warm place until Christmas. When these are dry place them in a cellophane bag and tie with raffia. They will burn red and green when placed in a fire for a beautiful effect. If you don't have fragrance oils, then go to your local florist and ask for any lavender and rosemary stems. You can add bayleaves, lemongrass and mint. Bundle this together in two to three arrangement and add some cinnamon sticks to each and tie with raffia and set aside. Buy some paraffin wax, candle coloring, and candle fragrance and melt in an old tin can big enough to dip cones. Place tin cans in a double broiler to heat. Use Christmas colors of red and green or your color theme can be blue and white. Submerge pine cones with tongs and set on wax paper to dry. Place in a cellophane bag and tie with raffia. Assemble twigs and branches in separate bundles and tie together with raffia. Arrange bags and bundles in a basket or empty cardboard box decorated with wrapping paper. I like to give this with a Christmas popcorn tin so they can use the tin to put cool ashes in during the holidays. Don't forget to include a box of kitchen matches and your set to provide the lucky recipient with some wonderful nights in front of the hearth.

Help with the Water Bill is Harder to Find

With some diligent searching, I was able to find a few sites that offer assistance. Most of my queries turn up suggestion on ways to decrease future water bills, which I will get back to later in this article. First, you could check with the Water Company and see if they offer a hardship plan or a payment plan for arrears. Some states offer assistance, but it is very limited. Next, you should contact your church,, or churches in your area, to see if they have a benevolence fund to assist with utilities. You can also contact the United Way and they can direct you toward organizations that can help. If you are not on a federal assistance program and you can usually meet your monthly payment, you can go to http://www.modestneeds.org/ and fill out an application. They are an organization that helps out those who by unforeseeable circumstances have fallen behind in their bills and just needs a little help to get back on their feet. That have grants up to 1,000.00 available. You can also receive assistance from American Water in the form of hardship grants, monthly service discount, and complimentary water-saving devices along with education on conserving this valuable asset. You can go to there website at http://www.amwater.com/ to see if your in one of the participating states or you can contact their Customer Service Center at 1-866-736-6420 for more information. To learn more about water conservation go to www.epa.gov/watersense. Watersense, which is a partner assistance program sponsored by the EPA, encourages water efficient products bearing the Water Sense label that can save you up to 20% on your water bill. You can also visit http://www.greenerchoices.org/ to get the Green Ratings for the most water efficient appliances.

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