TCOBaG – kNow ThiNkIng AllOwEd

Thought this was pretty interesting. Hoped you would, too

http://americanbullion.org

These days everyone is on the hunt for ‘safe’ investments, and the S & P will drive you crazy. There’s a ton of so-called ‘advice’ out there about investing in general, and just about as much about investing in gold.

There’s also more than a fair share of crackpots out there recommending some pretty scary investments, particularly in gold.

Today I was pointed to a site that is the most sensible I’ve seen yet (ok, it’s really the first sensible one )

They’re not selling anything as far as I can see, but are providing some great information about investing in gold, and they have a free newsletter with some great info on the 7 Biggest Gold Investing Mistakes and more.

Some pretty interesting articles there, too.

Check out some of these titles:

What Your 401(k) Should NOT Invest in

Why Warren Buffet Is Wrong About Gold

What is the “Fair” Price for Gold Right Now?

Was There Really a Secret Message Inside President Lincoln’s Gold Watch?

Avoid These Myths About Gold Bullion Coins

Comparing Investing in Gold to the S&P 500

I thought the secret inscription inside Lincoln’s watch story was fascinating. But then again, I’m the ‘secret’ sort of guy, hehheh.

Lots of good, free information that is both informative and interesting.

Take a second and run over there and check it out. Sign up for the newsletter too while you’re there. Oh, and feel free to let me know what you think about that site, and about investing in gold as well.

Just head on over to American Bullion

Really, you don’t just want to have more money.

Really you just want to have more stuff, do more things, feel less pressure, give more, be able to do more for your family, friends, community.

So many times we just get caught up in the ‘more money, more money’ way of thinking, trapped in it actually, and lose sight of what we really want. Or worse, we never know what we really, truly, in our heart, at our core, want.

Do you know?

Frankly, I ask myself this question a lot, and still there are times when I cannot answer this for my own life, or cannot be specific in naming that desire.

Try this exercise some time, any time: stop and ask yourself if money, time, resources where not in question, what would you do for the day? Lay out your thoughts as clearly, and as specifically as possible.

Sounds simple, and for some it is, but for most people it won’t be easy, and it could take a little longer than you might think, so be sure to leave yourself some time to contemplate it.

After you have finished, then ask yourself the most important question: Why would this be so great?

Write down that answer as well. This is where that idea of ‘self motivation’ kicks itself in the hind-end.

What you want seldom matters. How you’ll get it is also of little importance, but answering that ‘why’ question is the absolute key, the only way to get motivated and stay motivated. If you don’t know why you want it, you will find it very, very difficult to follow through on any plan or idea.

So, don’t spend all of your time writing lists and goals of what you want. Spend the majority of your time focusing on why you want it.

Then you will find your mind will be put to work, even at a subconscious level, on how to get it.

A great way to get in the right mindset is to listen to audios specially designed to help you focus, concentrate, and teach you success methods and thinking. You can grab over 20 hours of those right here:

Focus On Success Now – Audio Club

Okay, I’m sure I’ve mentioned this before, but we’ve had a serious issue with crows coming in and treating our backyard garden fish like their own personal sushi restaurant.

We’ve tried several different things when we were using large ceramic bowls with mixed results. The birds are strong, and would pull the weights off, the cover screen, rip out the plants, and then feast away <sigh>

Now that we’ve gone to the pond, a simple screen was not going to be an option, so we decided to go with the green and blue netting. This netting is pretty popular for placing over trash bags to keep the birds out, and we thought it might work well here.

The problem is that you cannot just lay the net over the pond due to the plants and the size. The net would surely have fallen into the water and been a problem for the fish, and later for the plants as they start to sprout up through it.

So, I devised a simple frame constructed of garden stakes, 2 wooden and 2 metal with rubber covers.

koi pond bird protection net frame

Here’s what it looks like with the net over it:

koi pond bird protection net 1

koi pond bird protection net 2

You can see there’s an additional pole along the left side of the net. That makes it easier for one person to be able to place or remove the net, and it also adds a little weight on the edge to make it more difficult for the birds.

So far, this has worked perfectly and we’ve lost no fish, yet…

It’s not too difficult to take it off so you can enjoy it a bit better, and actually the net squares are big enough that you can see through it pretty well if you don’t really feel like peeling it off.

Okay, here’s a short video I shot to show what the koi pond looks like, and see the fish moving about.

They’re actually a little calmer now than when the video was shot, but you can see them fairly clearly and get an idea of the pond.

This pond holds 300 liters of water, and for now has 11 fish.

So we had a few issues with the earth settling on our first attempt, and decided that we would just about start over by removing the pond and doing a little re-shaping and digging, and then after it was finished, and level, we did some work on adding some colorful rocks around the edges.

It’s also nice now that the lily pads have gotten a bit bigger and look like they really could support a small frog

Here are couple shot of the finished pond with the stones around it. These stones are bricks, some colored gravel, and a variety of stones ranging from about golf ball -sized to a bit bigger than my fist.

Our koi pond now that it's reset to level and stones added

Second shot of the pond with the stones

Here are a few shots of the fish. Look hard, they’re small still!!

koi pond fish

koi pond fish 2

koi pond fish 3

koi pond fish 4

Koi pond fish 5