Article From SubmitYOURArticle: French Country House Plan: How to Get It Right and How to Screw It Up

Hi Richard

Please accept the following article for possible
publication in 'http://aboutdoghealth.blogspot.com/',
or wherever you feel may be appropriate.

Title: French Country House Plan: How to Get It Right and How to Screw It Up
Word Count: 938
Author: Ralph Pressel
Category: Home & Family
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You have permission to publish this article electronically
or in print, free of charge, as long as the bylines are
included. A courtesy copy of your publication would be
appreciated - send to jrp2h2000@yahoo.com.

Best regards

Ralph Pressel
http://www.beforethearchitect.com

French Country House Plan: How to Get It Right and How to Screw It Up
INTRODUCTION

French Country is a popular home design style nowadays,
both exterior and interior.

This article addresses the French Country home design style
on the exterior.

WHAT'S IT ALL ABOUT?

Do you think that French Country, or the effected Country
French, is a home design style? We'd say, "Not exactly."

French Country is a range of home design styles –

1. From an early French farmhouse to not quite a French
embassy

2. From residential design styles, including but not
limited to Rustic French, Rural French, French Provincial,
French Eclectic, Chateau (French version of the English
Manor House), and the namesake French Country

3. From in-between Cajun style and Louisiana Plantation
style

4. From the time period in America bracketed roughly by
WWI and WWII

Comment: There is a stylistic kinship of sorts with other
home home styles that are casually (and incorrectly) taken
as singular and not as a set. For example, American
Victorian is a/k/a (Victorian, in each instance) 2nd
Empire, Gothic, Italianate, Queen Anne, Folk, Stick,
Shingle, and Richardsonian (Romanesque). Or for example,
Southern Colonial ranges from Warburton House (1680) in
James City County, VA or Christ's Cross (a/k/a Cris Cross)
(circa 1690) in New Kent County, VA and simpler, all the
way up to Bacon's Castle (1650) in Surry County, VA and
Stratford Hall (1725) in Stratford, VA [noting that other
examples abound either standing, or artistically captured
earlier-on or reproduced, the author having chosen these
for their geographical and temporal proximity,
Post-Medieval English roots, and breadth of character].

You'll find beaucoups publications about French Country on
Amazon.com and at your local bookstore. To wit, along with
a slew of other design-oriented books, a while back we
ordered Provencal Inspiration: Living The French Country
Spirit by Home Planners, and immediately received a notice
that Amazon's out of stock. French Country is back bigtime.
As another, more recent example, our just completed custom
house plans in French Country Style for a property in
Asheville, NC will be offered later this year at $4+
million [and the facades really do have a rural sense to
them].

French Country style reminds us more than most of Craftsman
style – multiple roof slopes; windows of different sizes
and heights; broad overhangs and soffits; knee braces and
other exposures of construction structure; front-facing
gables; a mix of gable, clipped gable, shed, and hip roofs;
natural materials; masonry exterior, especially stone; a
mix of finish clads; restraint in exterior accessories and
adornments. French Country style can be comfortable and
inviting in its more relaxed presentations.

However, French Country home design departs from the Arts &
Crafts Movement in several respects: high-peaked, steeply
sloped roofs at pitches way above Craftsman's; a refinement
in exterior trim particularly in rakes; an understatement
of observable structure; gutter systems sometimes with
gussied-up copper appointments; curved rooflines to
accommodate steep slopes, larger windows, unpierced
ceilings and interior walls; broad soffits; arches and
curve-topped dormers, elaborated ironwork; balconies;
turrets; Classic columns; masonry accessories in relief,
some interest in symmetry, etc. Simplicity and elegance.

There are ways to botch French Country home design, e.g.,
hold rooflines to one pitch to assure consistent soffit
depth and single-level eaves – in the name of cheap, easy,
and stylistically insensitive; apply Corinthian columns in
lieu of, say, Tuscan, or flute the Tuscan columns; confuse
French styling with English, unbalance vertical and
horizontal to favor horizontal; not mullion grouped
windows, not apply true French casement windows; use
plastic shutters, S-dog the shutters, not apply true French
doors, asphalt shingle the roof, insist on broad facia and
frieze boards, etc.

And there are ways to develop French Country home plans by
using - contemporary technologies, among them, e.g.,
cost-efficient cultured stone, particularly in its
fieldstone representations – perhaps by Owens Corning; and
by using artistry, e.g., the half-round copper gutter
systems of A. B. Raingutters, Inc., Classic Gutter Systems,
L.L.C., the gas or electric luminaires of Charleston
Lighting Company or the aluminum wrought-like railing of
Southeaster Architectural Metals, the garage doors of the
Carriage House Door Company, and the like.

French Country style encourages applying design principles
of excellent residential design, such as, Russell Versaci's
Creating a NEW OLD HOUSE: Yesterday's Character For Today's
Home, The Taunton Press, 2003, and Jacobson, Silverstein,
and Winslow's Patterns of Home: The Ten Essentials of
Enduring Design, The Taunton Press, orig. 1941, reprint
2002; and, separately, sacred geometry. Here again, you can
embrace and succeed or disregard and fail in the design
effort.

Take, for example, the layering and other arrangement of
finish clad, notably in steeply sloped gable ends. In
Versaci's realm of signaled, or suggested, age, it is the
wise designer who specifies supposedly older, heavier
(looking) materials – fieldstone and the like – from grade
up to, say, L1, and then some lighter material higher up.
Such arrangement and layering would be particularly
in-keeping with more steeply sloped roof gable ends which
would most unlikely be originally run up 2 stories under
high, hard to support roof pitches. That is, L2 should and
would appear to be of more recent vintage than L1, and
presenting a story of age without such attention to detail
is to send the gift horse packing.

Finally, in the vernacular of Patterns of Home, again for
example, the French Country style readily lends itself to
creating a courtyard, or "Creating Rooms, Outside", and to
dormered space demonstrating design keystones of "Refuge
and Outlook" under a "Sheltering Roof," particularly if the
rooflines are low-profiled and trimmed more simply on L2
than on L1.

----------------------------------------------------
Before The Architect designs and drafts custom home plans
nationwide. Its principals Ralph and Jean Pressel have
worked hands-on together since the '60s in custom home
design, drafting, consulting, plus building and repair in
every major trade. The e-book Home Design Standards - Home
Building Standards and the website
http://www.beforethearchitect.com are enterprises of Before
The Architect's principals.

Article From SubmitYOURArticle: Dispelling Some Common Hydroponics Myths

Hi Richard

Please accept the following article for possible
publication in 'http://aboutdoghealth.blogspot.com/',
or wherever you feel may be appropriate.

Title: Dispelling Some Common Hydroponics Myths
Word Count: 847
Author: Katie Brown
Category: Home & Family
EasyPublish: http://submityourarticle.com/articles/easypublish.php?art_id=16762

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You have permission to publish this article electronically
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included. A courtesy copy of your publication would be
appreciated - send to sotiris@greenlightsearch.com.

Best regards

Katie Brown
http://www.cnidr.org

Dispelling Some Common Hydroponics Myths
Hydroponics growing is riddled with myths and false
statements which get spread around the growing community in
the ever elusive quest for extra yield. Some of them stem
from lack of growing knowledge whilst others are created by
unscrupulous companies attempting to sell products which
don't actually work.

Water temperature – Your nutrient solution should feel COLD
at 21oC NOT WARM. 21 degrees centigrade is the ideal
temperature, it's warm enough to stimulate good growth
while cold enough to be able to carry the maximum amount of
oxygen (O2) for our purposes. As the water rises above this
temperature the water can carry less and less oxygen.

Timers on NFT systems – Once the roots are out of your 3"
cubes or baskets, you should run your nutrient pump 24
hours a day, certainly never have it off for more than 15
minutes at a time, even during lights off. Otherwise brown
coloured cell damage may occur on the root surface as the
cooling caused by evaporation of moisture off the roots
damage it's surface. It's often better to run the solution
all the time, this also helps maintain constant root zone
temperature.

CO2 and Carbon in your nutrient solution – The vegetative
leafy part of the plant above the surface feeds on Carbon
dioxide. The roots feed on and in association with Oxygen.
There is no benefit to putting carbon or carbon dioxide
into the nutrient solution on it's own. However some of the
additives do contain some carbon based compounds in
association with other ingredients.

Nutrient meter reading – Because everybody has tap water
with a different start cF and the fact that plant needs
vary from room to room, it's hard to just give people
optimum readings to aim for. cF meters are more useful for
maintaining the correct strength on a day to day basis in
re-circulating hydroponics systems once the optimum has
already been determined. After evaluation of the plants
reaction to the strength, small adjustments can also be
made using the meter.

Feed strength – Not all plants feed the same amount, not
even close relatives of the same varieties so don't believe
anyone who tells you otherwise! Environmental conditions
also affect feeding, more light = more food. As a general
guide use 1/4 to 1/2 strength hydroponics nutrient solution
for young plants, and ½ to ¾ strength for larger plants.
Most manufacturers full strength is equivalent to about
1200ppm or cF17 (with water cF 0), this is good for most
species and varieties of plants. Some tomatoes may need a
bit more, and lettuces would require a chunk less but you
realy need to experiment with the specific variety of plant
you are using to determine the optimum feed strength.

Leaf colour loss and associated rusty spots – These two
things, particularly when associated together are usually
caused by some environmental factor and NOT a nutrient
deficiency. Unless you are seriously underfeeding or
overfeeding, the feed strength you use will generally not
be the cause. It is more likely to be the light too close,
nutrient too warm, not enough air exchange, too cold
nights, wind burn, grow room too dry or another
environmental factor. Don't always believe the worst and
assume that your feed strength is wrong.

Stretching – Plants can stretch or elongate. They may do
this if there is not enough light, they may also do this if
they have too much light or heat because the light is too
close. Or it may be just genetics. There is no single
reason that can be pinpointed as the cause of your plants
stretching – don't believe anyone who tells you there is!

Input Air – As a hobby grower, for the best results,
ideally use indoor air as input air for your grow room and
expel to the outside. Outdoor fresh air inputted into the
grow room can cause temperature, humidity and bug problems.
Indoor air from a house has a better temperature and higher
CO2 content, the extracted air should then ideally leave
the building or be extracted to another room or area. Don't
assume that input air from outside will be "cleaner" or
better for your plants – it's simply not the case!

Air Cooled Shades – In line fans attached cool shades/
Jetstreams/ air cooled lights must blow through the shade.
Sucking air through the shade will NOT work as well at
cooling your lamp.

pH Adjustment in re-circulating systems – in re-circulating
hydroponics systems including gro-tanks and particularly
when using systems with rockwool slabs and hard water, the
pH will often rise on a daily basis. Don't adjust it right
down every day or you may end up with nutrient lock out
from excess phosphoric acid. Instead don't be afraid to let
it drift up for a day or two, this may be the lesser of the
two evils. Constant adjustment will damage your plants, not
help them!

Cold – Too cold a nutrient solution or air temperature at
night (lights Off) can seriously affect your yield. Try to
keep water and air temperature up to 21 degrees centigrade
to avoid damaging your yield.

----------------------------------------------------
Hopefully this will destroy some of the more common
misconceptions, but if you have any questions or aren't
sure if you've fallen for a growing myth then please call
Growell, Hydroponics and Plant lighting, by visit our
website at http://www.growell.co.uk .

Article From SubmitYOURArticle: Stop The Bullies

Hi Richard

Please accept the following article for possible
publication in 'http://aboutdoghealth.blogspot.com/',
or wherever you feel may be appropriate.

Title: Stop The Bullies
Word Count: 991
Author: Gary Crow
Category: Home & Family
EasyPublish: http://submityourarticle.com/articles/easypublish.php?art_id=16725

It is preformatted to 60 CPL.

You have permission to publish this article electronically
or in print, free of charge, as long as the bylines are
included. A courtesy copy of your publication would be
appreciated - send to gcrow@alltel.net.

Best regards

Gary Crow
http://www.leadershipvillage.com

Stop The Bullies
"I just want the bullying to stop. That is all I ever
wanted. I used to love going to school. Now I hate it." --
Verity Ward

What is a bully? When does the typical behavior of children
(younger and older) stop being normal and expected and
transcend to bullying? Those seem like fairly easy
questions and they used to have fairly easy answers. We
used to know which children were bullies and were
reasonably clear about when normal behavior crossed the
line into bullying, but no more.

What is a bully? That is a child who frightens or tries to
dominate other children by threatening or intimidating
them. Bullies use threats or implied threats to compel or
deter behavior, compliance, or whatever else the bully
wants.

Fundamentally, bullying is a psychological strategy used to
exercise power and control over other children. The bully
may need to occasionally follow through with the implied
threat to maintain credibility but only does that when the
victim is clearly weaker. For the most part, though, the
threat remains implied.

There are, of course, children who are violent and whose
aggression is not mediated by social norms, values, and
interpersonal influences. Their interest is not in
intimidating and controlling. Rather they attack anything
or anyone who stands between them and what they want,
whenever they want it. They are truly dangerous but the
behavior is not bullying. It may be a product of severe
emotional disturbance, socialization and life experience,
or a myriad of other factors. Whatever the cause, to call
it bullying is to miss its significance. These children are
a very real menace to other children and to the community.

Bullies may use physical threats or intimidation as in, "If
you don't comply with my wishes, I will hurt you."

They may use positional intimidation as in, "If you don't
comply with my wishes, I will tell on you, get you in
trouble, get other people to reject you… and I can do that
because I am in a position to be more credible than you."

They may use personal intimidation as in, "If you don't
comply with my wishes, I won't like you, won't hang around
with you, won't be your boyfriend/girlfriend..."

Bullying ranges from mild and occasional to serious and
chronic and for some children, it may evolve into more
violent behavior. For most children who bully, though, the
tendency may continue into adolescence and adult adjustment
but does not go beyond bullying and persisting use of
intimidation strategies and approaches with people who are
not in a position to do much about it.

That was the easy answer to the "What is a bully?"
question. The more difficult answer is to the secondary
question, "Which children are bullies?" It would seem that
we would only need to identify those children who frighten
or try to dominate other children by threatening or
intimidating them but it is no longer that simple.

Within society in general and schools in particular,
bullying has become a major focus for concern, discussion,
educational emphasis, and disciplinary intervention. This
is likely prompted by much more attention to youth
violence, well-publicized tragedies in schools and
communities, and an insidious discomfort with and fear of
young people. Whatever the origin of the increased emphasis
and whether it is warranted or unwarranted, there is an
unintended but nonetheless unfortunate outcome. The use of
the bullying concept is expanding to include more and more
children. Behavior that was previously seen as normal and
as part of the typical development and socialization of
children is being redefined as bullying and thus as
deviant. Normal children who are struggling with normal
social and emotional issues are being reclassified as
having behavior and adjustment problems that require a
variety of adult interventions.

The problem with this expanding inclusion of more and more
children into the bully circle is twofold. First, children
whose development and adjustment are quite normal and
healthy as they struggle along the often confusing and
conflicting path to adulthood are confronted with the added
pressure of being classified as bullies and being treated
as if there is something wrong with them. They need
support, guidance, and direction but do not need or benefit
from being grouped with children who do need corrective
intervention.

Second, by expanding the definition and concept, children
who do frighten or try to dominate other children by
threatening or intimidating them and who need corrective
intervention get less attention and focus. Additionally,
their behavior is interpreted as more deviant than when the
bully concept was understood more narrowly. When large
numbers of children who do not frighten or try to dominate
other children by threatening or intimidating them are
included, those who do are immediately more deviant than
most members of the group. Instead of being bullies, they
are now the "worst case" bullies. In that position, they
are likely to be punished more severely and treated less
sympathetically than they would have been before the bully
concept expanded.

The result of this is that far too many children are being
counseled and subjected to interventions they do not need
and find confusing. At the same time, children who do need
thoughtful and careful evaluation and intervention are
being treated with a punitive and harmful degree of
insensitivity that may exacerbate their adjustment problems
instead of correcting them.

Everyone would do well to refer to a child as a bully only
if he (or she) repeatedly frightens or dominates other
children by threatening or intimidating them. The majority
of children who occasionally are insensitive,
inconsiderate, rood, inappropriate, socially and
emotionally hurtful, negatively impulsive, and who
sometimes have bad judgment and are not very nice need to
stay in the "normal kid" classification where they receive
the firm and understanding support and guidance they need
and deserve, without being seen either by adults or by
themselves or other children as deviant.

----------------------------------------------------
For more articles by Gary Crow, visit
http://www.LeadershipVillage.com
or http://www.ParentsLead.com

Article From SubmitYOURArticle: Keep Your Kids Learning All Summer

Hi Richard

Please accept the following article for possible
publication in 'http://aboutdoghealth.blogspot.com/',
or wherever you feel may be appropriate.

Title: Keep Your Kids Learning All Summer
Word Count: 780
Author: Sheryl Wood
Category: Home & Family
EasyPublish: http://submityourarticle.com/articles/easypublish.php?art_id=16702

It is preformatted to 60 CPL.

You have permission to publish this article electronically
or in print, free of charge, as long as the bylines are
included. A courtesy copy of your publication would be
appreciated - send to admin@alleducationalsoftware.com.

Best regards

Sheryl Wood
http://www.alleducationalsoftware.com

Keep Your Kids Learning All Summer
School may be out for summer, but the learning doesn't have
to stop there. In fact, the real challenge of summer is to
let your kids relax, enjoy their leisure time with friends
and family and still keep their minds sharp and their
curiosity piqued. How can a parent help make that happen?
Read the tips below and find all kinds of activities, some
that the entire family can enjoy, that will keep your child
learning all summer.

1. Encourage daily reading. Kids don't have to read
textbooks or the classics to maintain reading skills over
the summer. Summer is for fun. Take them to the library
or the bookstore and let them choose anything that
interests them. If you are going to the beach or to visit
relatives for vacation, somewhere you know they won't have
the distractions of home, they might even welcome reading.
Give them a fun novel about kids their own age. Young
girls still love the Nancy Drew Mystery series. It builds
curiosity, problem-solving and strategy skills. If comic
books are all they will read, indulge them.

2. Summer is the perfect time to visit a museum with your
kids. Build a family outing around a favorite theme, such
as space and visit a local museum, space or science center.
If you need to be more subtle, stop by a museum
spontaneously on the road to somewhere else! If your young
child is enraptured by dinosaurs, scour the web for special
showings that you could make a trip to. Prepare for the
trip by reviewing all the different dinosaurs and facts
about them. Discuss with your child what they might see,
learn and get to do at the museum.

3. Help your child to learn about their surroundings. Do
you pass a historical marker on the road every day, but
have never stopped? Stop and read it with your family. Go
home and look up more about it. Is there a famous
homestead near you; maybe a president's birthplace. Take
the tour and learn more about it.

4. Visit a working farm, cheese, soap or candle factory.
Feed their curiosity in how things are made and how they
run. If your child has a special interest, check the web
and yellow pages and see if they can stop by for a tour or
a work shadow day.

5. Choose day or overnight camps with learning in mind.
Camps that teach about nature, wildlife and conservation do
double duty. NASA runs a space camp and there are numerous
others. Again, your web is the best place to look. You
may have missed out for this summer, but plant the seeds of
interest in your child for next year. Make it a goal for
next year. Plan, read and discuss what the experience will
be like.

6. Catch fireflies and look up with your child what makes
them light up. If your kids catch frogs, encourage them to
look up how to care and feed them. Build a fort and teach
your kids about angles and construction. Create the habit
of using reference materials to learn more about everything
around them.

7. Encourage activities that broaden your child's
perspective of the world. Ask them to volunteer to help an
elderly neighbor with their lawn or garden. Clean up your
town's park or your own roadway. Clean their room and make
a trip with them to donate their good used clothing to a
family shelter. Caring about others and spending time in
service to others is one of the best lessons your child
will ever learn.

8. If your kids spend hours with video games, barter with
them. And the younger they are when you start this, the
better. Provide them with educational software and require
that some of their computer time is spent using any of the
learning software that's now available. Not all
educational software is going to put your kids through the
rigors of learning algebra, although if they need the extra
help, that is certainly an easy source. There are numerous
computer learning games out there that teach
problem-solving, critical thinking and strategy building
that are disguised as fun, adventure games. Search some
sites with your kids and let them choose what they'd like.
They will be learning without even realizing it. There are
even clever educational software games that use cartoon
characters like Spongebob to teach kids to type.

It is by exposing your child to sights, sounds and smells
that they don't get in school that their horizons and
interests are broadened. Creating and feeding a healthy
curiosity in your child will give them a thirst they will
never outgrow.

----------------------------------------------------
Sheryl Wood is co-owner of All Educational Software, an
online store with a wide selection of software for learners
of all ages. Find software the entire family can use to
learn to type, learn a language, help with homework and
more at All Educational Software.com.
http://www.alleducationalsoftware.com