Home Kitchen

Five quality tests to apply before buying discount kitchen cabinets

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Before you buy discount kitchen cabinets, there are some quality tests you need to do. There are cabinet dealers who offer lower quality cabinets under the “discount” designation. But if you look around and shop carefully, you can find one of the dealers who offer high-quality cabinets at discount prices. Cabinets really aren’t the place to sacrifice quality for savings when remodeling a kitchen.

By spending some time looking at sample cabinets and asking key questions before deciding where to buy, you can ensure that you are buying high-quality cabinets (where only the price is lower) rather than cheap, low-quality cabinets.

Here are the five things to look for:

  1. See how the drawers are made. High-quality cabinet construction includes no staples or nails to hold drawers together. They’re not just glued on, either. A good build will dovetail drawers. A good drawer in discount kitchen cabinets will be able to hold about 75 pounds when open. In general, it is advisable to avoid building drawers from thin particle board.
  2. Look at the sides and back of discount kitchen cabinets. This is an important indication of quality. Cabinet Carcass: Sides, top, bottom, and back must be solid wood at least one-half inch thick. You will create a lot of heat and steam in your kitchen. Thin cabinet shells can warp. Particle board, which has a tendency to warp, is also not recommended.
  3. The finished interior surfaces are a true test of cabinetry of the highest quality. Some discount kitchen cabinets will leave these surfaces unfinished. Not only does this create an unattractive appearance, but it also leaves the wood subject to damage and splinters. This could be harmful and very inconvenient.
  4. Look for adjustable shelves. This is a definite indication of the quality of the cabinets. It doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with the construction of the cabinets, if they meet other quality tests, but it does create a lot of wasted space that you probably need for storage in your kitchen. Shelves can warp (just like bookcases) from weight and moisture. Insist on shelves that are at least 5/8 inch thick.

Check the quality of the hardware and the appearance of the hardware. Cabinet doors can be installed in two ways. A style of construction allows to see the hinges of the doors. In this case, you’ll want to check the finish on the hardware to make sure it’s not damaged by moisture and matches other metals used prominently in your kitchen.

If you pay close attention to these five discount kitchen cabinet tests, you can buy the quality you want at a discount price and not take the risk of buying inferior quality in the name of discount kitchen cabinets.

Digital Marketing

Tips for managing your workforce remotely

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Many people now work from home (WFH) 100% of the time. Hopefully, if this is the case for you, you can stay productive and stay positive during the COVID-19 pandemic.

While many of us are used to living business life from a home office, it’s still a big adjustment to have to isolate yourself and stop all face-to-face interactions with co-workers and clients.

I encourage you to use this time to take a closer look at your overall business goals, focus on your health (both physical and mental) and self-care, and enjoy some family time at home.

I think a lot of small business owners are having to change their marketing strategy, and what they do when coronavirus passes could look very different than what they did before.

I wanted to share some useful tech tools that can make your everyday work-from-home life so much easier.

Team communication tools

This is probably the biggest decision you will ever make about a WFH product. Your team needs a reliable and easy-to-use tool that allows them to instant message their co-workers. The one that’s right for you depends on your business needs and challenges, team size, and budget.

1. You may have heard of Slack. This tool gives you the ability to create channels on multiple topics and invite users. From marketing content ideas to social media tactics to photos of dogs in the office, your team can create relevant channels to make chatting and collaborating easy.

It also integrates with many helpful tools, like Outlook Calendar, Twitter, HubSpot, and Salesforce, so you can see what’s happening at all times right in the Slack app (no need to click in and out of your daily calendar or Twitter, etc.). for instance). example). There are also LOTS of fun and creative emojis you can use, which makes remote messaging in a challenging time like this a little more lighthearted.

2. Another popular platform is Discord. Popular with gamers, this voice, video, and text tool isn’t just for talking with co-workers, but also for finding like-minded communities and new friends. You can create “servers” and “channels” for specific topics, similar to how you do with Slack channels. While Slack has more business integrations, Discord has voice channels, so you can easily chat with team members. Discord also allows you to set user roles and permissions.

3. Flock is a cloud-based team communication tool with video and audio calls, screen sharing, text chat, integration with other business apps, and more. You can tag colleagues in comments and to-do lists, upload documents, images, and videos, and set reminders and due dates. Polls, code snippet sharing, and group discussions are available, and it integrates with other apps like Trello, Github, Google Drive, and Asana.

Team collaboration tools

Your employees need to be able to share their work, whether they’re creating a marketing strategy or editing a press release. Here are a few that might fit your small business needs.

1. G Suite is a Google product comprised of cloud computing, productivity, and collaboration tools, software, and products. In one set of tools, it offers email, word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, shared calendars, cloud storage, and more.

You can comment and make suggestions on specific documents through Google Sheets and Docs, simultaneously edit documents online, and collaborate on projects and documents. It’s easy to give users permission to specific files.

2. Evernote: This is more than just a note-taking app. Evernote helps you capture, prioritize and share ideas, track projects and to-do lists. I find it very useful for taking notes, obviously, but also as a kind of “digital filing cabinet” that simplifies organization. There is a free, basic and enterprise package available.

CRM tools

CRM stands for “customer relationship management,” and CRM tools help you with things like managing inbound leads, tracking sales, social following, and delivering email newsletters. Here are three to consider:

1. MailChimp is an all-in-one marketing platform with tools to create everything from emails to postcards. They have a huge selection of templates to choose from that can then be modified to fit your brand. Its intuitive interface and comprehensive reporting are great, but things can get expensive as your subscriber list or number of emails grow. You can compare their different plans on their website.

2. Constant Contact has always been a great rival to MailChimp for being the brand name in email marketing. It’s a great company and a great option if Facebook is an important part of your online marketing strategy. Constant Contact has an email option designed to make it easy for users to share your newsletter on Facebook.

This option can be considered the most friendly with social networks and has all the main features of the others mentioned. If your online marketing involves Hootsuite (you can integrate it into Hootsuite) and you focus your efforts on gaining social media traction, then this is a great newsletter tool for you.

3. AWeber is an extremely popular choice and recommended by many professional marketing companies. It gives you five plans to choose from and a long list of features like unlimited email marketing campaigns, follow-ups, lists, and autoresponders.

Many people believe that their autoresponder platform is superior to other companies, allowing businesses to automate the process of delivering personalized emails to customers on a schedule.

Project management tools

A collaborative task management tool allows everyone to track and manage all of their projects. Think of it as an online scheduler, foreman, and collaboration tool to manage your team’s workflows.

1. Asana is one of the leading tools and gets a lot of positive feedback. Let everyone on your team follow the entire workflow of a project in one easy visual tool. You will always know where your team is and who is responsible for what and when.

From daily reminders about a task that’s due, to the ability to easily add collaborators or assign teammates to a project subtask, Asana makes it easy to see what everyone’s day, week, and month looks like (but you can easily move things around). if plans change).

2. Monday.com is a fairly simple and intuitive visual team management tool (it’s actually a project management platform). Run processes, workflows, and projects in a digital workspace. Visually, it looks like a collection of highly personalized spreadsheets, where each team member can record their tasks and update them with status reports and other relevant information.

That means each person can see all active tasks and count on their progress. Team members can work on multiple projects without getting lost using the weekly summary on Mondays. The workflow can be customized in any way you want to communicate priority, what was done, what was not done, etc. Colorful designs and big buttons don’t hurt either!

Social media management tools

Many small businesses will already have a social media management tool set up. A social media management tool lets you manage all your accounts from one dashboard, saving you time and frustration. These tools share your content at the best possible times throughout the day, so your followers and fans see your updates more often. It’s a smarter and more efficient way to schedule and share your posts on social media.

The best part of these tools is the built-in analytics system, which will give you insight into what’s working well and when your social media posts are having the most impact.

Here are two social media management tools that I use personally:

1. Buffer shows your scheduled posts and analytics (the depth of those analytics depends on the plan you choose). Many small business owners choose Buffer because of its sleek and clean interface that is easy for beginners to understand.

2. I find that while Buffer is great for less demanding social media needs, Hootsuite is where it’s at if you want to see your timelines, replies, and more across all your social networks.

Both Buffer and Hootsuite offer free and paid plans, so you can always try them out and see which one suits your small business best.

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And while it’s not a tool your entire workforce can use, I like MoneyMinderOnline during these uncertain times. Not only does it give you a place to track your spending, but you also get insight into your spending habits and can look ahead to improve your cash flow, pay off your debt, and start saving for your big goals.

I hope I’ve given you an overview of some tools that will help increase your team’s productivity and morale while working from home. You can also benefit from our article on how to boost business efficiency on our website.

Relationship

Make a guy fall in love with you – Turn lust into love

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Making a guy want you is pretty simple, but how do you make him fall in love with you? For most women, making a guy want them is a simple matter of dressing provocatively and flirting outrageously. But making them fall in love is a completely different matter.

Most men have trouble distinguishing between lust and love. They fall in and out of lust quite easily. But how does a woman attract a man so that he goes beyond her initial physical attraction to her and gives her heart to him?

There are a couple of pretty simple ways that really work to get the relationship from the stage of lust to real love.

1 – Make him feel good

Encourage him to talk about his interests. If you can make him feel good about himself by sharing his enthusiasms, he will respond by associating those good feelings with you. All you have to do is show interest in the things he’s passionate about (sports, for example) and it won’t take long for him to pass on his passion for his favorite team. You don’t have to know much about the subject, just listen and respect their knowledge and interest.

2 – Don’t try to rush it

Even if you’ve fallen deeply in love with him, don’t try to pressure him into expressing his love for you before he’s ready. Men tend to take longer than women to develop and express their feelings. It can seem like he’s taking forever to “get to know you” before committing to strong feelings for you. But if he still wants to be with you, it is a sign that you are really falling for him and you need to be patient and let his feelings develop. So it’s up to you to try to relax, have fun and wait for him to catch up.

If you follow these two simple rules, chances are he’ll fall in love with you at his own pace, and that’s the kind of love that lasts!

Health Fitness

How to Flavor and Prepare Black-Eyed Peas

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Black-eyed peas, also called cowpeas and cousins ​​to the smaller field peas, probably came to the Americas through the slave trade. They had more use as animal feed before reaching the table of bipeds. The beans themselves are beige in color, but have a black “eye” that gives them their name. You can buy them canned, fresh (frozen), or dried.

Although they’re more popular in the South, make these high-fiber, high-potassium, high-protein peas unique to your own diet by seasoning them with your favorite flavors. As with many vegetables, they are neutral in flavor and easy to enhance with seasonings. In the South, people like to add the flavor of crispy crumbled bacon, along with red or green bell peppers, chopped onions, chili powder, and black pepper. To be authentic, you should use ham hocks (or a ham bone) or bacon to help flavor. It is the fat and salt of the pork that give it that special flavor.

There are many recipes for the famous Hoppin’ John dish that is served to celebrate a Happy New Year. Here are some ideas and things to consider for you to experiment with no matter the season. If you want to avoid salty canned peas and avoid pre-soaking, frozen is the way to go. Otherwise, try the easy-to-store dry variety.

If you buy dry peas, you can speed up the cooking time by using a pressure cooker. They can take one to one and a half hours of simmering on the stove (just like frozen peas) compared to ten to eleven minutes in the pot. Don’t forget to soak the dried peas overnight, but use fresh water before simmering. Cooked peas should be tender enough to mash with a fork. Check them after forty minutes, as some have thinner skin than others and you don’t want musky peas.

Mix them with rice (half as much rice as peas) for a complete meal and serve with ham. Cook rice separately fifteen minutes before adding to beans if simmering. Or you can cook the rice in a different pan while using a pressure cooker for the peas. Either way, let the combined rice and peas simmer and blend their flavors for an additional five minutes.

Other spices to try with black-eyed peas include thyme, oregano, cayenne pepper, or red pepper flakes. Diced tomatoes and celery are often added. A Cajun or Creole spice mix is ​​a great way to heat things up. Paprika or Liquid Smoke will give you that smoky flavor just like a tablespoon of molasses. Or add spices that you know you like, either for their flavor or nutritional value, like cinnamon or cloves.

Many spices are supposed to reduce gas, including bay leaves, thyme, cumin, ginger, caraway, and mint. Some swear that throwing a carrot in the pot will reduce side effects, others drink orange juice with a meal. If you eat beans often enough, your body creates the enzymes that aid in digestion and thus reduce gas. The good news is that black-eyed beans are one of the least problematic vegetables when it comes to “producing gas.”

Think of black-eyed beans as you would any bean and consider using them in salads, with Mexican dishes, on nachos, or in any hearty stew or chili. Who knows? Yours could be the winning entry in this summer’s chili cooking competition.

Legal Law

Build your business with a free tutorial

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People love free information, so using a free tutorial to share your knowledge is a great way to promote yourself and your business. By doing this, you will establish yourself as an expert and build your reputation. So when people need products and/or services, you will be the one they trust and believe in.

Divide your tutorial into lessons, one for each day of the tutorial or e-course. Once you’ve written your lessons, you’ll want to set them up individually in an autoresponder. There are many autoresponders available for free and for a fee. Some hosts may also have autoresponders available. WordPress also has autoresponder plugins.

Let’s say you have a home furnishings and decor website store. You can organize an e-course on how to successfully paint a piece of furniture. Your lessons would look something like this:

Lesson 1: Choosing the right paint

Lesson 2: Preparation of the part to be painted

Lesson 3: Paint the piece

Lesson 4: Maintain the final look

Once you have completed your lessons, you can set them to go out every day in a row or separate them by a day or two. It will depend on how many lessons you have and how long you want the tutorial to be.

Separating the information into lessons works better than sending all the information in one email because it keeps your name and business fresh in the prospect’s mind.

When writing your lessons, add information about your business and what you offer, but try to fit it into the tutorial so it doesn’t appear too much. Offer special discounts for enrolling in your e-course/tutorial.

Be sure to put your contact email in each and every lesson and let the reader know that you are available if they have any questions or comments.

Another good idea is to have a thank you note above with an introduction of you and your business along with a summary of the tutorial. This would precede the first lesson. And then once the course is over, you’ll have another thank you encouraging them to visit your site for much more information and contact you if they have any questions.

You can also tell them about your special offer or the discount they receive for taking the course. Be sure to add your social media links so they can easily follow you.

Make them fun by adding trivia or little games along with the lesson. Keeping people interested can sometimes take work, but it’s worth the time and effort.

If you have other tutorials, please include them as well and be sure to ask them to sign up for your mailing list. These details will go a long way in building the foundation and relationship necessary to earn the customer’s trust and patronage.

Once your tutorial is complete, you want to start promoting it so people can start signing up.

Add it to your email and networking group signatures:

FREE 4 day tutorial on how to paint furniture

put your url here

Promote it on your social media pages and promote it often.

Offer it to your newsletter subscribers and post it on your website/blog.

Advertise it with ad exchanges.

Put it on your business card and/or brochures.

Integrate it into your resource box when you guest post or submit content.

Tutorials can be educational and fun, so use them to your advantage and let them help you increase sales and build your business.

Lifestyle Fashion

Are you dating a narcissist? Seven infallible clues to know if your boyfriend is narcissistic

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Sometimes your intuition tells you something isn’t right, but you’re not quite sure what it is. Are you in a relationship that causes you some concern? Are you afraid that this person has some “issues” that could cause a lot of trouble? Does your instinct tell you that something is not right? Do a fact check and answer these questions:

1. Does he get mad and then apologize and promise it will never happen again? How many times do you need to see this before you recognize it as an abuser’s tactic? Once is enough. Twice is too much. Let’s go.

2. Is it “too good to be true”? Is he your soulmate? Knight in shining armor? And do you know this on the second or third date? Better step back and give this one some time. No one is perfect, and abusers are often charming and manipulative.

3. Does he ask you for money? Does he never take you out to a nice place for dinner? Being thrifty is fine, but being pathological with money is not. Watch for clues like someone with a good job who never spends money. Narcissists do not have a normal relationship with money.

4. Do you spend money recklessly? The other pathology that surrounds money is that of bragging. The man with the big roll of bills who is always buying drinks for the bar, but he doesn’t know how to save for the house.

5. Is he insensitive to your needs and often makes fun of you? Don’t stay with someone who makes you feel bad!

6. Do you have a need to control situations? To control you? While this may seem comforting, it is childish and you are now an adult who needs to make your own decisions.

7. Do you have a good image in front of others? Do you think it’s “just great”? while you know better?

You have the right to be treated with respect. The narcissist is unable to do so. Narcissistic personality disorder is just that: a personality disorder. Women in these relationships find that over time things get worse, not better. Don’t marry a narcissist. Don’t think you can change it. you can not

You can change yourself. More self-confidence will lead to less need. It is better to be alone than with an abuser.

Charm is a facade, manipulation will wear you down and one day you will find that dreams have turned into a nightmare if you stay with a toxic guy.

Pets

Pediatric Spay-Neuter: The Basics

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If you recently adopted a new puppy or kitten, you may have been presented with the option of “pediatric spay/neuter surgery” and may not be familiar with the process, or even comfortable with the concept . We have all become accustomed to the standard 6 to 9 month standard for spaying or neutering, and the idea of ​​operating on a small animal, as young as 4 to 6 weeks of age, sounds quite experimental, possibly ineffective, and even dangerous.

Here are some facts about spay/neuter procedures at an early age: In the 1940s and 1950s, veterinarians had much more primitive anesthetics, equipment, and tools. Anesthetics weren’t always safe, especially for young animals, and the sophisticated surgical instruments veterinarians use today to find a tiny uterus didn’t even exist yet. Since a uterus is larger and easier to find after an estrus, or after having a litter, the advice used by veterinarians in the past was to wait until after the first estrus or after the animal had had a litter. litter. Waiting facilitated the procedure for to them.

For many years, animal shelters and humane organizations have had policies requiring new pet owners to neuter the animal “as soon as possible,” but realistically, there has never been a way to enforce this requirement, and too many animals They have left the shelter. unspayed, only to end up contributing to our already overwhelming pet overpopulation problem, despite the shelter’s good intentions.

From the standpoint of effective control of pet populations, the best time to neuter dogs and cats (the optimal time) is before puberty, eliminating none chance that the animal will produce offspring. It is important to remember that the leading cause of death for companion animals is homelessness due to overpopulation.

The arguments in favor of spaying/neutering at an early age:

* Overpopulation and resulting neglect, suffering and euthanasia: early spaying/neutering completely eliminates the possibility of unwanted litters.

* Avoid heat cycles altogether: unwanted ‘visitors’ fighting on the lawn, females howling and howling!

* Neutered males are less likely to roam and fight, which prevents injuries, the spread of disease, and expensive veterinary expenses. It has been estimated that 80% of dogs killed by cars and 80% of feline AIDS cases are unneutered males.

* Better-Behaved Pets: Neutered pets rarely mark, roam, and fight. 85% of bites involve unneutered dogs.

* Healthier pets: Neutered males do not have the testicular cancer or prostate problems common in intact dogs. Females spayed before their first heat cycle have 96% less breast cancer. Your risk of uterine infection is drastically reduced, not to mention the many complications associated with pregnancy, childbirth, or raising a litter.

* It is safe: the mortality rate is lower than that of the standard sterilization procedure of 6 to 9 months.

* It is less traumatic for the pet: young animals heal faster and have fewer surgical risks than older animals who may be obese, in heat, pregnant or sick. Young animals generally wake up faster after anesthesia.

Many humane shelters across the country now support spaying and neutering at the time of adoption. If yours didn’t, ask your veterinarian to perform a pediatric or early-age spay/neuter (sometimes also called a juvenile spay/neuter) on your new pet. They should be able to address any questions or concerns you may have. For more information, you can also visit http://www.spayusa.org.

Every day 10,000 humans are born in the United States, while every day 70,000 puppies and kittens are born. As long as these birth rates exist, there will never be enough homes for all the animals. Early spay/neuter is one of the easiest and most obvious solutions to the problem.

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1. “A Case for Neutering Puppies and Kittens at Two Months of Age” by Leo L. Lieberman DVM, a special comment in the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, Volume 191.

2. “Early Spaying and Neutering Help Solve Overpopulation Problem” by Greg A. Lewis DVM, in Veterinary Forum.

3. “Should dogs in animal shelters be neutered early?” a peer-reviewed article by Walter E. Crenshaw DVM and Craig N. Carter MS, DVM, PhD, ACVPM Dipl. in Veterinary Medicine.

Real Estate

The difference between a check and a check stub

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The difference between a check and a check stub can sometimes become confusing, especially if you’re just starting out in banking or working for the first time. In most cases, employers who write or print checks will send a check and pay stub to the employee to explain how the final pay was calculated. However, there are cases where a payment is made by check and no stub is attached, which is usually the case for contractors or freelancers. Vice versa, those who are paid through direct deposits can only receive the check stub as proof of payment.

What is a check?

According to the Princeton.edu website, a check is “a written order directing a bank to pay money.” When a person receives a check as payment, he provides a bank authorization for him to receive the full amount of the check, which is taken from the check provider’s account. If there are no funds available (insufficient), then no funds are distributed. As a legally binding document, checks can be used in court as a contract between the issuer and the recipient.

What information does a check contain?

Three types of information are found on checks: recipient information, supplier information, and bank information. Recipients will find their full legal name, the amount being paid to them on the check in standard numeric and numeric form. Traditionally, the writer’s contact information is also found on the check, to include her name (or company name), address, and contact phone number. Banking information including the bank routing number and issuer account number. Also, some banks may have a prominent logo.

What are the most common uses of checks?

Checks are most commonly used in exchange for a good or service. They represent legal tender and have the same functionality as currency.

What is a check stub?

A check stub is a record that details the information contained on a check. Since checks are sent to the bank for their cash value, the person(s) cashing the check does not retain any proof of the transaction. Therefore, the check recipient traditionally retains the stubs as a receipt.

What information does a check stub contain?

Paycheck stubs come in a variety of forms, such as paycheck stubs used on payroll or business stubs given to contractors. The most common information contained on the check stub includes the recipient’s name and account identification information (employee number, last four digits of social security number, etc.), the check issuer’s business information (name , address, etc.), the amount of the check, and a breakdown of how the final value of the check was calculated (withholdings, fees, etc.). On some check stubs (especially payroll records), a history of payments over a period of time may be present.

WWhat are the most common uses of check stubs?

Most of the time, check stubs are used as proof of income by the recipient. As a legal record of payment, these documents verify the amount received and are most often used to report proof of income.

Shopping Product Reviews

Is a soybean chlorine plant killing animals, people and children in Jefferson Iowa?

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On October 28, 2005, more than 250 residents of Jefferson, Iowa, represented by attorneys at LaMarca & Landry, PC, filed a lawsuit against West Central Cooperative in the Iowa District Court for Greene County. The parties to this lawsuit include homeowners, business owners, and people who work at nearby job sites, such as MicroSoy, Electrolux, and American Concrete.

Causes of action include nuisance, negligence, trespassing, res ipsa loquitur, and strict liability for abnormally dangerous activity. The claims stem from numerous environmental and health changes that have occurred since West Central Cooperative’s soybean bleach plant in Jefferson, Iowa, began operations on February 14, 2005. These problems stem essentially from the release of hydrogen chloride, hydrochloric acid, and particulate matter from the soybean chlorine plant. containing one or both of these chemicals. Soy Chlor is a proprietary feed supplement for dairy cattle that combines hydrochloric acid with soy products.
The lawsuit also alleges violation of West Central Cooperative’s IDNR operating permit for this facility, as well as violations of the Hazardous Chemicals Hazard Act and other applicable environmental laws and standards of care.

West Central opened the business, SoyChlor, in February. Since then, emissions from the plant have corroded metal buildings and other property within a mile of the plant, alleviating demand. The emissions also killed grass and other vegetation, killed wildlife, ruined windows and discolored surrounding structures and roadside rocks, the plaintiffs contend.

The plaintiffs allege that the plant has exceeded legal emission limits for both hydrogen chloride and “particles” or dust. When combined with moisture, the chemical turns into hydrochloric acid, a highly corrosive substance known to be toxic to humans and animals.

“It’s crystal clear, right from my front window,” said Jeb Ball, owner of a used car business west of the SoyChlor plant on the north side of Jefferson. “I have to look at it every day.”

“We think we’re compliant now,” said Nile Ramsbottom, vice president of soybean and nutrition operations at Ralston-based West Central, but added that the company plans to increase the height of SoyChlor’s emissions tower to 94 feet to further disperse emissions. emissions and dilute their presence in the soil. West Central also plans to install an additional scrubbing system, Ramsbottom said, adding that those steps combined would be more than enough to ensure the plant’s emissions meet legal limits.

The company has asked the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, which monitors emissions from manufacturing plants, to allow the changes.

Dave Phelps, who oversees the DNR section that oversees such permits, said the department was prepared to grant the company’s request, but also expects a public comment period and public hearing on the matter this month. He also said recent tests showed the plant’s dust emission rate exceeded the limit allowed by state law.

George LaMarca, a Des Moines attorney representing the plaintiffs in the case, said a public hearing and opportunity for public comment are good steps, but should have been taken before the plant opened.

Ball, the owner of the used car business, said Monday that his son, Colton Conroy, 15, has become ill from SoyChlor emissions. A month ago, the high school sophomore collapsed at a football game, and an attending physician blamed SoyChlor emissions for health problems that first emerged after the plant opened.

Since his collapse, the teen has lived with his maternal grandparents south of town and his symptoms have subsided, Ball and his wife, Diane Conroy, said.

“I could run track and play football and everything a year ago, and I didn’t have a problem,” Ball said.

SoyChlor uses hazardous materials, including hydrogen chloride, to make a proprietary product that is added to dairy cow feed. Hydrogen chloride is a harmful gas that can be toxic to humans and animals.

When mixed with moisture, it turns into hydrochloric acid, a highly corrosive substance capable of corroding the finish on motor vehicles, chipping glass and killing wildlife and vegetation, all of which have occurred, residents say, in the “radioactive fallout zone,” an area extending a mile or more in each direction from the plant. The gas, acid, and particulates contaminated by the gas or acid are emitted through a stack that sits atop a concrete tower at the north end of the plant.

“In Iowa, when you live in a community this size, you embrace it because it’s agriculture,” said Jeff Ostendorf, a Jefferson cattle farmer who works at MicroSoy Corp., a soy-based feed ingredient maker located across the street. from SoyChlor Street. “This is different.”

Bonnie Burkhardt lives south of SoyChlor, across the street. One day last week, she flipped through notebooks and three-ring binders in which she has kept a detailed record of communication about the dispute with public officials, company officials and others in the community.

A notebook detailed the potentially harmful effects of the toxic substances used by SoyChlor, along with reports from doctors treating Burkhardt and others who say they have suffered health problems this year.

Once-vibrant children now sleep too much and quickly run out of energy, families say. Colton Conroy, a 15-year-old who was over 6 feet tall, caught his breath easily and began to lose weight, his mother said. Adults with respiratory illnesses, including Norma Gross and Ron Lawton, said they had improved with the help of medical treatments, but now say they have gotten worse.

Last year, Gross was doing well, despite his chronic lung disease. But after he opened SoyChlor, he quickly lost ground, gasping for breath. Her doctors at Iowa City University Hospitals, where she has been participating in a research project, urged her to move, she said. But she is a lifelong resident, and she and her husband raised 10 children here. Gross doesn’t want to live anywhere else.

Also alarming to Gross and Burkhardt is the loss of wildlife. Gone are the pigeons that used to perch on tall grain storage structures north of the SoyChlor plant, they said. Gone are the blue jays, cardinals, goldfinches and other birds that used to perch at the many feeders in Gross’s backyard. He hasn’t seen a bird in weeks.

“It was like all of a sudden there were no birds anymore, not even sparrows,” said Gross, who lives in a tidy trailer park about a mile from the plant.

In addition, stains have appeared on the finish of vehicles and on the siding of houses and other buildings, including mailboxes.

Jefferson residents said the West Central insurer had contracted with a Florida company to clean the vehicles affected by the emissions. They also said the insurer had offered checks of up to several hundred dollars to residents claiming property damage, though recipients had to sign a form releasing the cooperative and its affiliates from further claims.

Burkhardt said he first noticed something was wrong when his skin burned while working in the flower garden. Eventually he took her inside, where she showered to stop the burning. That was last spring, after spending several months in Florida with her husband, Chuck.

At the same time, Arletta Tasler and her husband were returning from a winter in Texas. Both developed a cough that has lasted for months, they said. At times, Tasler said, she has coughed so hard that she has vomited.

Like Burkhardt, the Taslers had no idea of ​​the cause.

Burkhardt and her friend Diane Conroy spoke with neighbors and people who work at nearby businesses. Less than a mile from Burkhardt’s home, they found dozens of people with similar symptoms. They first noticed a strange odor, like the scent of a bag of empty beer cans left out in the sun for a day, Conroy said.

Then came the health problems. Then the stains on vehicles and buildings. Then the film on the windows and windshields could not be removed by scrubbing. And some noticed that their glasses had chipped.

The women searched the Internet for information about SoyChlor and the chemicals it used.

The more they learned, the more they became convinced that SoyChlor was the culprit.

“If you have this on your lining, if it’s stung, think about what it’s doing to your lungs,” said Tasler, who lives with her husband of 49 years, Shorty, on a farm directly east of the plant where they raised eight children.

Burkhardt, Conroy and others contacted the city’s sanitation chief, the public health nurse and the editor of the local newspaper. They began contacting the government: safety and environmental regulators, US senators from Iowa, even the White House.

Conroy and her husband, Jeb Ball, contacted their attorney in Des Moines. She referred them to George LaMarca, another Des Moines attorney. LaMarca knew how deadly hydrogen chloride could be. The gas had incapacitated some of the victims in the deadliest fire in Des Moines history, which swept through the Younkers store at Merle Hay Mall on November 5, 1978. LaMarca represented the victims’ survivors in litigation that lasted years and ultimately resulted in an undisclosed settlement for the plaintiffs.

He only has five words for the cooperative: “We want the plant to be closed.”

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7 tips for learning languages

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Learning a foreign language can be a daunting task. But when we break it down, it’s really a numbers game. How much time do you spend on it and how many words do you know? In most cases, you’ll need a few hundred hours of study time and generally 2000-3000 words of active vocabulary to converse with in the hope of someday becoming truly fluent.

Once you learn it at that point, it pretty much becomes self-sufficient, if you stick with it and keep using it.

This sounds like too much of a task for someone who casually says “Hey, I’d like to learn Spanish!” but the reality is that you can learn to speak a language at an everyday conversation level much faster if you apply some additional techniques to

complement your language method or class. It can be functional with far fewer words and can significantly reduce the number of hours needed to learn the basics of the language.

teaching cards Pound for pound, the best and most efficient use of your time when learning a language. Ten

Seconds of free time turn into a quick quiz: pull card number one out of your pocket “what’s the Spanish word for…food? food? Flip the card over…correct!” Two minutes is an important review session. Look at it this way: if you spent ten seconds on one word, for two minutes, that’s twelve words in two minutes. Twelve words a day for five days a week is 3,000 words in a year. All the words you need to converse in just two minutes a day. That doesn’t take grammar and pronunciation into account, but still, a year to learn all the vocabulary you need. Don’t say you don’t have time to learn a language. Remember this the next time you’re in line at the bank or grocery store, at the doctor’s office, waiting at a red light, etc.

Read Once you have a basic understanding of the language, get some reading material. Here’s the important part: something that interests you. If you like gardening, get a magazine or print an online gardening article in your target language. You will learn vocabulary and phrases that really interest you and that will help you learn it much faster.

Audio If your language method doesn’t have an audio component, get one. If it does then get another

in any case. Hearing the language is the most important aspect of learning if you intend to speak it. give yourself chances

for use during otherwise unproductive times, such as while driving or just relaxing.

internet radio By following the tips above, give yourself more (and for free!) opportunities to listen to your new language. Radio can expose you to new vocabulary and fresh content every day. Don’t go overboard with your single audio CD. Mix your audio with other sources and constantly change, such as music and Internet news broadcasts from other countries. The more sources you have to listen to, the better.

daily contact This is probably the cardinal rule when it comes to learning languages. You should expose yourself to the language every day if possible. Studying ten minutes a day is better than studying for an hour once or twice a week. Frequent review, even for a few minutes, is essential. This is true for maintaining a language after you have learned it as well. Long periods of rest are deadly.

sanctions Use the power of the Internet to connect with other people around the world who speak the language you’re learning. They can help you immensely. You can help them with English and they can help you with your target language. There are many free sites and forums to find people who will be happy to work with you.

study with others Studying and practicing with other people can give you instant feedback and interactivity that

you just can’t get it from a book or even audio or software. Even if you only know very little, you will absorb it faster and with more pleasure than just studying alone. Ultimately, that is the purpose of learning a foreign language anyway:

Comunicate with other people.

So try applying a few different techniques to your language learning regimen. You will probably find that you can add some

techniques without requiring more time from your already overloaded schedule. You may find that you can actually use

less time studying as you streamline your learning process. Learn to learn more effectively and remember to be attentive

on the goal whether you put a number on it or not.