I read a lot. Usually somewhere between 45 and 55 books a year, which creates a problem I suspect most people don’t have. I am constantly running out of books I want to read. Most of my books now come from the public library and arrive on my Kindle. That works remarkably well and saves me a small fortune. But the library can’t solve the first problem: I still have to figure out what I want to read and request it. So, I am constantly looking. I scan BookBub. I look at Goodreads. Amazon recommends books based on what I have read before. There are newsletters with editors’ favorites, best books of the year, best mysteries, best thrillers and books everybody supposedly ought to be…

Every once in a while, you read a book that makes you stop and think, “I wish someone had handed me this years ago.” For me, that book is The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel. I’ve spent a lifetime around business, investing, technology, and finance. I’ve watched markets boom and crash. I’ve seen fortunes made and lost. Yet this book reminded me that success with money has surprisingly little to do with complicated formulas or finding the next great investment. It has much more to do with human behavior. That simple idea is what makes this book so valuable and something I should have paid attention to decades ago. Interestingly, there wasn’t much in the book that I hadn’t heard before. Most of us…

And What May Quietly Disappear Next The other day I realized there are a surprising number of things I simply don’t do anymore. Not because I made a conscious decision to stop doing them. They just quietly disappeared from my life as technology made them unnecessary. Some changes happened so gradually that I hardly noticed until I started making a list. I no longer buy printer cartridges. My printer keeps track of how much ink it uses and automatically orders replacements before I run out. I no longer have to remember when to refill most of my prescriptions. My online pharmacy knows what medications I take and how often I should need them. When it’s time for a refill, I receive a notice and, with…

May kicks garden season into high gear — nothing is really off-limits this month. Get out and dig into gardening before the summer heat arrives. Here  are a dozen suggestions you can start on if you haven’t already. Plant Warm-Season Veggies By month’s end, warm-season vegetables should be in the ground in all but the northern-most regions. This includes pepper, tomato, eggplant, squash, corn and cucumbers. Okra, black-eyed peas and melons are also on this list. Plant beans, too, growing several varieties so you have beans for fresh eating and drying. Direct sow seeds into the garden, or tuck in transplants. Once soil is warm, seeds quickly catch up with transplants. Look for Healthy Roots Healthy plant roots are white and fill the soil volume…

Gardening Tips We have had Spring all through March and now it is looking like we may be the last remnants of Winter for the start of April. So many of the garden tasks normally targeted for April may have already been completed. Successful gardening amounts to paying attention and following through with what needs to be done at any one time.  Regardless, here are some of the tasks for your garden which should be considered for April. Beware of insects and other pests in your garden. Keep an eye on your garden for aphids, spider mites, etc., and take action when necessary to eliminate the pests If you don’t have enough garden space, you can always create more by growing crops in pots! For example,…

I like to include some good alternative items among all of the supposed bigger topics. So here is October’s gardening to do list. Look for some other irrelevant items soon. This information is mostly complements of HGTV. I have tried to make this generally applicable to Northern Nevada but has good general information for most locations. If your area has unique issues to deal with, I suggest you contact HGTV or other gardening sites to get information that applies to your area. There are lots of other tasks that are not included here such repairing your raised bed planters, taking down and storing trellises used for vines or vertical vegetable gardens, getting the last of your tomatoes in before the first freeze, cleaning and storing…

Mostly borrowed from HGTV Plant Fall Annuals Watch for pansies at your favorite plant shopping spot and pick up enough to fill pots and planting beds. Fall-planted pansies stage a flower show all autumn long in most regions. In warmer zones, pansies deliver fresh-faced color through winter. Ideal temperatures for flower development are nights in the 40s F and days in the 60s F. In the landscape, avoid planting pansies where they’ll be exposed to road salt or standing water. A well-drained location is the secret to overwintering pansies, especially in regions where snow cover melts in spring. Pansies with medium-size flowers generally survive winter better than large-flowered varieties, a fact that’s most important in Zones 4 and 5. Replenish Mulch Give your landscape a refresh by…