Gain Full Knowledge of Online-Based, Small Business Phones' Utilities

Nowadays the modern, technology-based

small business phone

is considered as an essential part of DIY culture. This upgraded culture has led to the discovery of amazing, technically skilled communication equipment that has created a great revelation in the commercial industry.

The improved phone system has facilitated the flexible and convenient modes of communication with overseas clients and branch offices. The DIY culture normally speaks about the introduction of this technically improved equipment, which adds a range of flexibility in the operation of different communication oriented equipment. This kind of improvement has also led to the development, prosperity and expansion of different business concerns.

This kind of advanced phone communication system has also upgraded the

conferencing system

of different commercial concerns. Now, the conduction of conference meetings and business discussions are highly possible with the help of newly developed communication facility which has taken birth from DIY culture. Those business concerns which have multiple offices in different locations of the world can utilize the modern video conferencing communication system for conducting uninterrupted conferencing sessions.

This kind of improved technology has highly facilitated especially to the small business concerns as the modern communication system is quite cost-effective and flexible in nature.

Moreover, DIY culture has led to the creation of such an innovative and improved communication technology which has ultimately resulted into the success and prospect of different commercial industries. The small business phone can help the concerns to held important business meetings at any point f timer from anywhere just with the help of internet connectivity. Therefore, in order to collect more and more info about the same, you can make thorough online research for finding more intricate details. Get into different online links or websites for learning the utilities and functionalities of the modern technology based communication system of business concerns or organizations

.

An Apple a Day...

It's a great year for apples. Whether you've got a tree or two in your yard, enjoy picking your own, or just love to load up at farmers' markets, we're coming up on a strong season of pies, fresh-pressed cider, turnovers, and any other apple-related dishes you can dream up.

After a tricky season last year when droughts caused a marked decrease in fruit production, apples have made a comeback with places like the local

Burrville Cider Mill bringing back gallon jugs of cider

and a marked drop in consumer cost for the fruit that did Adam and Eve in.

So however you go about acquiring this most wonderful fruit, consider between bites creating a delicious batch of apple sauce, pressing your own cider, or just utilizing one of the below recipes for a treat that's, well, sweet like apple pie on a Sunday afternoon.

Not for the faint of heart, here's a tutorial on constructing your very own cider press:

http://www.instructables.com/id/Small-Homebuilt-Cider-Press/

And for the rest of you, here are some great recipes being broadcast throughout the Internet in recent days:

Canned Apple Pie Filling

From Canning Homemade

Great as a gift, or for storing until you want a fresh-baked pie this winter!

10 pounds tart apples - peeled, cored and sliced (~20 cups sliced)

5 1/2 cups sugar

1 1/2 cup Clearjel

1 T. cinnamon

2-1/2 cups cold water (2 1/2 qts water if you omit apple juice)

5 cups apple juice

1 tsp. nutmeg

3/4 cup bottled lemon juice

Preparation -

For fresh apples, place 6 cups at a time into 1 gallon of boiling water and boil one minute when it comes back to a boil. Drain but keep fruit covered in a bowl.

In a stockpot, mix the sugar, Clearjel, cinnamon, nutmeg together. Add the water and apple juice, stir to mix well. Bring to a boil and cook until thick and bubbly, stirring frequently. Remove from heat. Add the lemon juice. Fold apples into mixture.

Pack the apples into hot, sterilized quart size canning jars. Best way to fill is in layers. Using the funnel ladle one large scoop and using the spatula press the apples down in the jar to remove the bubbles. Continue filling using this technique so that you work your way up the jar with as little air bubbles as possible. Fill the jars to 1" headspace. (Because of expansion you can go to 2")

Wipe the rims and place the hot lid/rings on the jars. Process in a water bath canner for 25 minutes at a full rolling boil. Wait 5 minutes, remove and place on dishtowel overnight undisturbed. The next day remove rings and clean jars and label with recipe name and date. Store in a cool, dry, and dark place.  This recipe will make 6 - 7 quarts.

Note:

For a great variation substitute brown sugar for the regular sugar and apple cider for the apple juice. This will make an amazing Caramel Apple Pie filling! 

If you need Clear Jel you can order it from the

SB Canning Store

!

BEST Vegan Apple Pie

From

My Vegan Son

Ingredients:

Pie crust

(

make your own

or check out the “Wholly Wholesome” organic, traditional pie crust)

Filling:

• 4 large organic apple

• 1 tsp. ground cinnamon

• 1/2 tsp. nutmeg

• 1/2 c. sugar

• juice of one lime

• 2 Tbs. flour

Pie Top:

• 1 stick of butter or vegan replacement (~1/2 c.)

• 3/4 cup flour

• (1/3) cup sugar

Preheat your oven to 350F. Wash, peel, and chop your apples. Place them in a bowl. Add the cinnamon, nutmeg, sugar, flour, and lime juice. Mix well. Pour the apples on the pie crust.

In a separate bowl place the buttery stick, the flour, and the sugar. Using your hands, combine the ingredients until they form a dough. Make one big dough ball and break into four smaller dough balls. Each dough ball should cover about 1/4 of the pie. Using your hands, flatten the dough balls as if you were making tortillas and start covering up the pie until it is completely covered.

Bake for about 45 minutes or until slightly golden (see picture).

Let it cool before you dig in

*Note: Always bake the pie on top of a pizza pan in case of pie drippings. 

Cranberry and Apple Crumble

From 

Spoonful

This sweet-tart crumble is best served warm, topped with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream (or vegan alternative). To be sure you're using the freshest berries, you'll want to choose fruit that has bounce in it. Or you can put it to the water test. Small pockets of air trapped in fresh cranberries make them bounce—and float in water.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup flour

• 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar

• 1/4 cup packed brown sugar

• 1/4 cup chilled butter, cut into small pieces

• 6 cups peeled and sliced (about 1/2 inch thick) apples (we like Braeburn or Granny Smith)

• 1 cup fresh or frozen cranberries

• 1/3 cup fresh orange juice

• 1 tablespoon cornstarch

Directions

1. Heat the oven to 375°. Combine the flour, G cup of the sugar, the brown sugar, and the butter in a bowl. Mix the ingredients with your fingertips to create pea-size crumbs. (Alternatively, pulse the mixture in a food processor 10 times or so.)

2. Combine the apple slices and cranberries in a large bowl. Mix the juice, remaining 2 tablespoons of sugar, and cornstarch in a small bowl. Pour the mixture over the fruit and toss well.

3. Spoon the fruit into a 2-quart baking dish and sprinkle on the flour mixture. Bake the crumble until bubbly and golden brown, about 40 minutes. Serves 6 to 8.

'Food Safety' Act Hurts Small Farms

By Nicole Caldwell for JujuGood News

With the Food and Drug Administration on the verge of finally implementing the 2011 Food Safety Modernization Act, warning flags are being raised that certain elements of proposed regulations would put the kaibash on the Good Food Movement once and for all.

Continued on next page

Show Cold Season Who's Boss

We're coming into the time of year when runny noses, sneezes, and chest congestion are the norm and summer days are a thing of the past. While experts agree that

colds can't be cured

, they can certainly be shortened.

Click here for lots of amazing information about how colds fundamentally work

.

Studies suggest the majority of colds are "caught" not through the air, but by touching something (light switch, surfaces) and then touching the face. Keep that in mind, and wash your hands accordingly!  Also be sure, as always, to get plenty of sleep and keep your body fit with regular exercise. If you do end up with a bad case of the sniffles, here are our favorite immune-boosting recipes for scaring away all the germs of Autumn.

The Power of Water

From

Mother Earth News

When you come down with a cold or the flu, your respiratory tract works hard to expel the invading viruses along a veritable “Slip ’n Slide” of mucus. Rather than drying those mucus secretions with an over-the-counter antihistamine, it’s better to accelerate the healing process by thinning them, thus making it easier to expel them.

The best way to thin mucus secretions is to add water to your system by drinking warm liquids, especially herbal teas and soup broth. If you have access to a steam shower, use it. If not, bring a quart-size pot of water to a boil, remove it from the stove and place your face a comfortable distance from the steam, then cover your head with a towel. Inhale through your nose if you’re stuffy, or through your mouth for chest congestion.

You can augment the power of steam by adding a handful of decongesting, antimicrobial herbs to the boiled water, then covering the pot and allowing them to steep for 10 to 15 minutes. Great herbs fort his are eucalyptus, thyme, rosemary and peppermint.

Homemade Decongestant

by Annette McEndarfer

, as posted at

Titus 2 Homemaker

This homemade decongestant is good for breaking up chest congestion so you can clear it out. Anyone old enough to eat honey can take it.

Ingredients

• 1 c. honey

• 1 c. lemon juice

• 5-7 radishes

• 1 sm. red onion

• 6 garlic cloves (If my cloves are super-small, I use a couple more.)

Instructions

1. Wash, peel, and trim the vegetables as appropriate, and cut the onion into 2-4 chunks.

2. Dump everything into the blender and blend until smooth.

3. Strain.

4. Refrigerate between uses, for up to a week or so.

5. TO USE:

6. Adults take 2 Tbsp. once a day, or more as needed/desired.

7. Children take 1 Tbsp. once a day, or more as needed/desired.

8. Should begin expelling within 24 hours. (We have typically noticed it kicking in within the first couple hours.)

Tomato Tea

This gem was

passed along to us from a neighbor

. We—and everyone else we've since recommended the recipe to—swear by it.

Instructions

1. Heat up a mug of tomato juice (with or without a bouillon cube) to boiling.

2. Add 1 fat clove of crushed garlic.

3. Stir.

4. Drink two a day (morning and late afternoon) for 10 days.

This concoction will supposedly start to work within three to five days. Can't stand tomato juice? Just use broth or water with bouillon in it. 

Three Words: Apple Cider Vinegar

From

Yahoo

A shot of apple cider vinegar will cut through your congestion. It does taste awful, but the benefits of swigging down a shot of vinegar are amazing. Vinegar kills bacteria, and cuts through the congestion helping you to breathe better. Do not over do it, just a small amount works wonders. Repeat this process every six to eight hours, not before, it will give you an upset stomach if you drink too much of it.

Spreading the Better Word

We're getting the word out about sustainable agriculture, organic food, and small-scale farming—and our reach is continuing to grow, with new media outlets scooping up our reporting on a daily basis.

As the popularity of

Better Farm

's mission grows, so too do the amount of visitors to our blog. Our DIY sections, educational information, and ever-growing cast of contributing authors have cast a wide net in the sustainability community, and word's leaked out.

So this year I started contributing blogs and homesteading blurbs to

Mother Earth News

. You can follow those pieces over at

www.motherearthnews.com

(just plug my name into their search engine).

Last week, I additionally started posting short blurbs about organic food and farming over at

JuJu Good News

, a new website focused on nutrition and food-centric issues. I'll be doing five short news blurbs a week, as well as one longer, feature piece a week. You can follow my posts at JuJu Good News by

clicking here

.

And it's not just me—former students in our education program have hit the pavement to contribute education and outreach in their own communities. This summer's

Fermentation Master Jacob Firman

went home in August,

bought a dish rack and some rags so his family could avoid running the dishwasher, and helped his mom hook up a rainwater barrel for irrigation. He also set his family up with a compost tumbler, and is now back at Oberlin where he's going to work with the student body to instate a compost system in the cafeteria and set up aquaponics in some student housing facilities. 

And

Kathryn Mollica

is back in New Jersey finishing up her last semester of school and working at Whole Foods; where she's been asked to teach classes on sustainability based on her work at Better Farm this summer. The list goes on—if you've got an update on how you're spreading the "better word", please get in touch!

Anyone who would like to contribute to our blog with a guest post about sustainability issues or green living can contact us at info@betterfarm.org. Oh—and be sure to tell your friends about year-round opportunities to become part of

Better Farm's Sustainability Education Program

(which, ahem, is

now listed by as a premier

educational program among major universities like Cornell, Columbia, and Boston

!).

DIY Three-Tier Compost Bin

Don't be fooled by all the greenwashing! Composting is the simplest, most natural thing in the world; and it doesn't require tumblers or bins that can cost you hundreds of dollars. With a few wood pallets, a drill, and outdoor decking screws, you can have a three-tier compost bin in less than 15 minutes that will last for years and provide you with a rotating supply of gorgeous, black dirt.


How a Three-Tier Compost Bin Works
All your dead leaves, grass clippings, twigs, hay, and kitchen food scraps (yes, even meat scraps and bones are fine, as you'll be working on a one-year system with your dirt)  get tossed into the first section of your compost bin until it's a full, big pile. When that bin is full, you shovel it all into the second bin (top-to-bottom). Then you go back to filling the first section of your compost bin. When it fills up again, you move everything from compartment 2 to 3, and from 1 to 2. Then you start over. When all three compartments are full (this should take the average household a full year or even longer), the third bin should be ready to be shoveled out into your garden.

How it works is that over time, the materials in each bin will be decomposing. The process is sped up by your twice-yearly aeration (manually shoveling the pile into the next bin), rainwater falling from overhead, and the natural aeration that will occur by oxygen reaching your pile from the nice big spaces between the wood of the pallets. Also, because you're leaving a bare earth floor, worms and other bugs have easy access to your compost heap.

Click here for tons of really great compost information.

If you're worried about backyard pests like raccoons or coyotes, be sure to install a hinged door on the front three sections of your compost bin. And of course, if you live in suburbs or the city, you may be subject to zoning or community board laws that would require a closed compost container such as a tumbler. For the rest of you, here's how to have your own three-tier compost bin in fewer than 15 minutes and for just the cost of screws.

What You'll Need:

• Pallets (12 feet of pallets for back wall, four 4-foot pallets for the walls. Check with your local hardware store, contractors, big box stores, or your local transfer station. Free pallets are in abundance!)
• Galvanized Decking Screws (longer is better)
• Optional: Three "front doors" for your compost sections with hinges (each door should measure 4x4)

Directions:

1. Screw the far left wall into the back wall with screws every six inches or so, driven from back to front.
2. Repeat with the second wall (if pallet is wide enough, screw it into both sections of back wall. If not, you may need some additional pieces of wood to create a solid back to screw into. We were fortunate enough to find a very long pallet to have one continuous back wall). Continue until you have four walls and one solid back wall. Refer to photo at top of this post. 

Better Farm offers private and group instruction on composting basics and many other sustainability topics. Email info@betterfarm.org for further information or to schedule a visit. 

Menu for Sept. 26 Farm-To-Table Fundraiser

New York State wines paired with an organic menu will  make up

Better Farm's First Annual Farm-to-Table Fundraiser Dinner Party

at 6 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 26. The dinner, which includes four courses, hors d'oeuvres, and locally paired wines, is only $22 per person. Space is limited, so please email info@betterfarm.org to reserve a seat (payments can be made via Paypal). Our menu is as follows:

Hors D'oeuvres

Select local cheeses

Fruit compotes

Breaded Zucchini Medallions

Local breads and crackers

Local Wines

First Course

Russian Kale and Buttercrunch Lettuce Salad

Pickled Beets, multi-colored string beans, shaved cheese (vegan available), homemade dressing

Second Course

Butternut Squash Soup

With roast pumpkin, leeks, sesame seed, truffle oil

Main Dish

Bacon-Wrapped, Wild-Caught Goose

or

Swiss Chard-Wrapped, Vegetarian Dolmades

Sides

Roasted Vegetables

Cherry Tomatoes, Carrots, Cabbage, Squash with Pesto Glaze

Vegetable Casserole

Beans, Artichoke Hearts, Broccoli

Dessert

Apple Pie

Teas: Lemon Balm, Mint

Farm-Fresh Greens all Winter Long

With all these greens coming in, preserving will ensure a steady supply throughout the winter.

There's nothing like walking outside at Better Farm to pick beautiful, leafy greens for salads, smoothies, main dishes, and delicious sides. We're big consumers of kale, Swiss chard, lettuce, arugula, mustard greens, and spinach—and we're awfully spoiled by all the fresh, organic produce we've got from April through November. So, we're hesitant to give that up during winter months. Thankfully, there are plenty of ways to ensure a steady supply of super greens throughout November, December, and beyond. Below are some simple methods for keeping a cache of greens suitable for stir fries, smoothies, soups, casseroles, and much much more.



FREEZING: Kale, Spinach, Collard Greens, and Swiss Chard
If you like using any of these super greens in soups, smoothies, casseroles, or stir fries, the good news is that they're extremely easy to blanch and store in the freezer. This is by far the best method for preserving your dark, leafy greens. Here's all you have to do:

1. Thoroughly clean the greens.
2. Chop into small pieces. Remove stems and stalks.
3. Toss into boiling water, leave for three minutes.
4. Immediately drain the greens and toss into a bowl of ice water. Leave for three minutes.
5. Drain again and pat dry or use salad spinner.
6. Put greens into freezer bags. Remove air by using a drinking straw with most of the bag sealed.

DEHYDRATING GREENS
If you're a fan of, say, sprinkling seaweed flakes over rice, you might enjoy dehydrated greens. We find they lose some flavor this way, but it can't hurt to add a nutritional boost to any dish you're preparing. All you have to do (information found at Doris and Jilly Cook): Steam your greens just until they’re wilted. Transfer them to dehydrator trays and dry at a low temperature (say, 110ºF) just until they’re crispy (approximately two hours). Cut them up and add to a spice jar. This is a particularly great technique if you have family members who are loathe to eat greens and you're looking for a way to sneak health food into their meals. The flakes can even be ground into powder to make them completely imperceptible.

A Few Lines About Lettuce
Lettuce is basically impossible to freeze, but is extremely easy to grow all winter long indoors with a fish tank and grow light. Click here for more information on aquaponics. If you've got a good stream of lettuce growing, follow these tips from Pinch My Salt to keep your harvested lettuce crispy for up to two weeks:

1. Fill a sink with cold water, separate all the leaves of lettuce, place them in the water and swirl them around. If the lettuce is a bit limp, let it soak in the water for 30 minutes and it will miraculously come back to life.
2. Drain the water, turn on the faucet, and briefly rinse each piece of lettuce as you remove it from sink and place in the basket of your salad spinner. If you use organic lettuce, just give each piece a quick once-over to check for clinging bugs and dirt. As you put the lettuce in the spinner, you can tear the leaves in half if they are large (such as full-size romaine).
3. When the spinner is full but not tightly packed, spin the lettuce until dry.
4. Spread two paper towels (still connected) on the counter and pile the dry lettuce in the middle. Wrap the paper towels around the lettuce and slide into a gallon-size zippered plastic bag. Squeeze the air out and close the bag.
5. The lettuce can now be stored in the fridge and should stay fresh for at least a couple of weeks. You can take out what you need whenever you want to make a salad or sandwich and then just reseal the bag. The plastic bags can also be reused!

Better Farm's Bats Make a Comeback

In spite of continued reports that bat populations throughout the Northeast continue to dwindle, it appears the bats at

Better Farm

are making a comeback.

The sharp decline in bat population is due largely to a bat fungus, called "White-Nose Syndrome". The fungus was first detected in New York State in 2006 and is thought to have originated in Europe, where bats seem to have immunity to it,

according to many articles on the topic

. The fungus appears as powdery white on a bat’s face, wings and skin, typically appearing as a white ring around the nose. It causes the bat to wake up in the middle of winter hibernation and therefore use up its reserve energy and die.

Since 2006, the fungus has

spread to 20 states

, mostly in the eastern United States. An estimated 6 million bats have been lost in North America so far due to the fungus, with some agencies asking that bat species once considered common now be considered endangered.

But why all the fuss? Simple: Bats are important predators of agricultural pests. One estimate suggests that North American bats help avoid more than $3.7 billion in lost crops and pesticide costs every year — and the number may be as high as

$53 billion a year

.

Bats also are predators of night flying insects such as moths and mosquitoes which I'm sure we can all appreciate—especially if you live in the North Country!

One of the residents chased a bat out of the Art Barn several weeks ago, which we all took as a great sign some bats had come back to the farm. Then a few days ago, one of the dogs here took interest in something on the wraparound deck. When I walked over to the spot, I saw a bunch of what appeared to be mouse droppings:

Seemed strange for there to be mouse droppings collected in one outdoors spot. Then I looked up and saw our two bathouses, which have been unoccupied since 2008:

Some basic searches online showed that what I mistook as mouse droppings were actually bat droppings—proof-positive the bats have returned to take up lodging at Better Farm.

First Annual Farm to Table Dinner Party Sept. 26

Better Farm's First Annual Farm-to-Table Dinner Party is slated for 6 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 26.

The four-course meal (salad, soup, main course, and dessert) will utilize 100-percent locally sourced ingredients. All produce will be from Better Farm's garden, with locally caught game. Guests may choose vegan, vegetarian, or omnivorous plates. Seating will be outdoors, weather permitting.

As this is our first farm-to-table event, attendance is limited to the first 20 RSVPs we receive. Menu choices will be sent out to guests, who can then choose their plates. Cost for this dinner is $22, payable via Paypal.

To RSVP, please email info@betterfarm.org. Better Farm is located at 31060 Cottage Hill Road, Redwood, N.Y. 13679.

Better Radio: Update

Better Radio is a step closer to becoming a reality.

We

reported back in 2010

that the Senate approved the

Local Community Radio Act

,

a bill that expanded radio stations for Low Power FM and which mandated the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to license virtually thousands of new stations.

Since then,

betterArts

achieved its 501(c)3 status as an non-profit educational organization. This characterization allows the Redwood-based, arts outreach group to apply for grants and conduct fundraising efforts that fuel free and low-cost arts education, outreach, events, and much much more. The group's latest effort is "Better Radio"; a radio station and educational program based out of

Better Farm

that

works in multiple ways

to increase access to the arts for all while simultaneously providing the community's youth with New Media education.

The proposed station will work in two ways

:

ONE:

Better Radio will help advance betterArts' mission of increasing access to the arts and culture in the North Country and beyond by offering the following broadcasts:

• An eclectic mix of musical broadcasts (vintage vinyl, new music, pop, jazz, funk, rock, and classical tracs, and the promotion of local bands through interviews, live performances, and tracks off new albums)

• Storytelling segments with different members of the community

• "Art of Gardening" podcasts with tips on how to have a green thumb

• Art and events calendar items punctuated by interviews with musicians, bands, painters, and gallery curators

• Feature segments on sustainability issues, DIY projects, instructables, and green living

• Interviews with prominent members of the community

• Live music and spoken-word performances

TWO:

Better Ra

dio will provide educational outreach to high school students in and around the

North Country region with an interest in New Media, Journalism, Production, Editing Software, Music Mi

xing, and Broadcast.

Better Radio will function as a lab for high school students to learn how to do the following:

• Create podcasts

• Mix and record music digitally

• Record interviews digitally, use editing software to polish the interviews, and play on-air

• Create radio programming

• Create setlists of music

• Conduct on-air interviews, performances, and other programming

• Report local news and weather

In conjunction with betterArts' application to create a radio station, the group has

also

applied for a

Best Buy Community Grant

that would afford much of the necessary equipment to be utilized in this project. Better Radio will work with teachers, parents, community members, and high school faculty to find students interested in new media, journalism, music, and performance work; and will create an after-school and summer program in which students help to run Better Radio. Better Radio would allow for the creative expression of people within the community of Redwood and surrounding areas (storytellers, farmers, others who would be the focus of business and feature pieces); as well as allowing for young students in the community to learn technological skills that will help them be more competitive as college applicants and new members of the job force.

The

application will b

e filed with the FCC on

our around Oct. 15, and the Be

st Buy Grant will be announced later this mon

th. Better

Arts hopes to have the station up and running by Summer 2014. Oh, and did we mention we'll be including

all the podcasts and interviews online as well through the

blog

and

website

for all

to enjoy?

More updates to come!

To get involved with this project, please cont

act betterArts at info@betterarts.org. For more informatio

n about the work betterArts does, please visit

www.betterarts.org

.

Enjoy the Multiple Benefits of Using Green Printing for Commercial Purposes

The present commercial world is highly dependent on different kinds of useful online printing, which includes absolutely attractive and eco-friendly images or graphics. 

Use the latest technology of online printing to create outstanding colorful pictures within a few seconds. Some of the most essential printing products—manufactured with the help of this kind of printing—include posters, greeting cards, brochures, business cards, poster cards, rack cards, booklets, letterheads, labels, stickers, vinyl banners and lots more. These printed products are made in the most efficient manner providing the maximum satisfaction to the clients. Online Printing Services at 4over4.com can give you the better view of the most useful effects of this kind of advanced printing and will provide you with the necessary details about the significance of online printing in the modern commercial world. 

This kind of printing is majorly conducted by some expert professionals like creative photographers and graphic designers. Outdoor banners are considered as one of the most encouraging and influencing means of modern advertisements. These colorful and printed banners are mostly required for dragging the attention of maximum people from the targeted community. These banners are normally created by means of digital printing which is created by the use of animation oriented graphics and designs. The ink cartridges which are used in online printing can be easily recycled and contain petroleum bases, fluorescent and metallic inks, vegetable and soy based inks and others. 

Check out the Outdoor Banners and that will give you a proper view on how printed commercial banners can be made with the help of effective online printing. You can create different patterns and sizes of printed banners for using them in different commercial purposes like product promotion, event management and many more. The banner materials must be selected properly in order to increase the longevity and durability of these banners.

Save the Honey Bees!

A world without bees?! Bees have been around for years pollinating all the plants and vegetables we eat; but now the bees are dying off because farmers are using chemicals on the plants bees take pollen from. There have been reports about hives just disappearing, a travesty called colony-collapse disorder (CCD). CCD can be caused by pesticides or increased losses due to the invasive varroa mite (a pest of honeybees).
For the last 16 years, thousands of scientists have struggled to figure out why more than a third of commercial beehives have disappeared at a rate of more than 1 million colonies annually. Seemingly healthy communities fly off never to return. The queen bee and mother of the hive is abandoned to starve and die. “This is the biggest general threat to our food supply,” said Kevin Hackett, the national program leader for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s bee and pollination program, in a 2012 interview with Reuters.

From Reuters:

But three new studies point an accusing finger at a culprit that many have suspected all along, a class of pesticides known as neonicotinoids. In the U.S. alone, these pesticides, produced primarily by the German chemical giant Bayer and known as “neonics” for short, coat a massive 142 million acres of corn, wheat, soy and cotton seeds. They are also a common ingredient in home gardening products. Research published last year in  Science shows that neonics are absorbed by plants’ vascular system and contaminate the pollen and nectar that bees encounter on their rounds. They are a nerve poison that disorient their insect victims and appear to damage the homing ability of bees, which may help to account for their mysterious failure to make it back to the hive.

Another study, published in the American Chemical Society’s Environmental Science and Technology journal, implicated neonic-containing dust released into the air at planting time with “lethal effects compatible with colony losses phenomena observed by beekeepers.”

Purdue University entomologists observed bees at infected hives exhibiting tremors, uncoordinated movement and convulsions, all signs of acute insecticide poisoning. And yet another study conducted by scientists at the Harvard School of Public Health actually re-created colony collapse disorder in several honeybee hives simply by administering small doses of a popular neonic, imidacloprid.

But scientists believe that exposure to toxic pesticides is only one factor that has led to the decline of honey bees in recent years. The destruction and fragmentation of bee habitats, as a result of land development and the spread of monoculture agriculture, deprives pollinators of their diverse natural food supply. This has already led to the extinction of a number of wild bee species. The planting of genetically modified organism (GMO) crops – some of which now contain toxic insecticides within their genetic structure – may also be responsible for poisoning bees and weakening their immune systems.

Farmers put chemicals all over their plants without giving a thought to the fact local honey bees are going to pollinate them and take on the sprayed chemicals. 

Honey bees pollinate a lot of the food we grow at Better Farm, like apples, asparagus, and onions. We're going to take the bee issue on head-first by constructing some honey bee boxes to attract these beneficial insects and encourage them to make a comeback. By keeping a healthy community of bees in our own backyard, we can help to repopulate the insects in this neck of the woods—and ensure them a healthy food supply with organic plants that won't hurt them. We'll start constructing bee houses this fall in the hopes that by spring there will be some additional buzzing around the garden.

If this sort of thing interests you, there are plenty of very simple designs for buliding honey bee boxes that will attract these critters to your gardens and yards.

Here's the design we're considering, courtesy of Wikihow:

Click here for more ideas.