Category: General

Do You Clean Your Stone Floors

Natural stone floors can give a wonderfully unique feel to any home. Every house owner has their wish list for their flooring, countertops, and all other stones or the marble areas that always have a unique look. They can make a house look beautiful in different ways, but as easy as it is to get your home looking beautiful just by adding natural stone floors or countertops, keeping them clean and in good condition might just be another story entirely. Over time, these surfaces, as a result of wear and tear, begin to fade and lose the shine which appealed to so many householders when they were new.

If you have natural stone flooring then you already know that it isn’t as eye catching when it’s not clean. Here are some tips to help you avoid dirty stone flooring. They may seem simple, and they are, but they’re also very effective and will undoubtedly make it easier for you to keep your floors in good condition.

Daily Sweeping – Dust and dirt are probably the biggest factors that contribute damage to natural stone floors. These particles may be extremely tiny but they can do a lot of destruction to your flooring over time. These small particles can cause abrasions and scratches on the surface of your stone and, after time, reduce the natural luster. This is why daily sweeping is so important. It really doesn’t take but a few minutes of your time and a small amount of your energy. Use a micro-fiber broom rather than a traditional straw broom. On stone, the traditional broom may leave scratches. Micro-fiber is much gentler and less abrasive. Plus they pick up more particles.

Damp Mopping – Using a damp mop to clean your natural stone flooring is an effective way to remove any dust and dirt and make it shine in the process. A damp mop will remove the dust and dirt particles that sweeping couldn’t. Try using a string mop or one made of micro-fiber for your stone flooring. This type of mop is less abrasive and will reduce the potential for scratching. Warm water is really all you need for a good mopping but if you do choose to use a chemical cleaner make sure that it is safe for your type of stone.

Avoid Using Acidic Cleaning Agents – Cleaning agents that contain any form of acid are very bad for your stone. Any acidic or even citrus based cleaning agents can etch into the surface of your stone and leave scarring and scratches that will require professional polishing to remove. If you feel the need to use anything other than water on your natural stone then opt for a neutral pH cleaner or a stone soap.

Maintaining your natural stone flooring is not as difficult as it may seem. Following these tips will maximize your cleaning efforts and ensure that your natural stone floors will remain beautiful and healthy for years to come.

When it comes time for professional cleaning of your natural stone or marble, it is vital to understand the benefits which are available when you make investments in the expertise and experiences of marble and natural stone cleaning experts.

To find a qualified tile and natural stone cleaner visit your Local Tile & Stone Cleaning Experts

Hunting in the Texas Hill Country

Just another Day in Paradise

It was hot, with the drought still in full swing. It was also only my third visit to the new lease, and the first day to hunt. My husband knew the property better than I at this point. After looking around things on my previous visits, I decided to hunt by the only tank with water still in it.

I had fished the tank before and liked the terrain, and figured that would be a good place, it was loaded with deer tracks, turkey tracks and scat. Considering the drought, I thought how can I go wrong here? We didn’t have a stand set up yet, but there was a good tree that I could use for cover, sitting in a small chair surrounded by natural brush. I settled in about 2pm and was glad for the shade from the tree. I watched everything, listening and wishing the birds in the nearby brush weren’t so loud, noting the family of cardinals that reminded me of Missouri. I watched turtles in the tank, and almost wished I had my rod as the bass chomped bugs on the surface. The tank was so low they were feeding even in the heat. I could hear turkey in the distance, I called and even got a couple of responses, but they came no closer. I was getting a bit drowsy, so carefully opened my water bottle and poured some to wipe on my face. While I was doing that I heard loud racket in the brush to the left across the tank and my heart started to beat faster, then I had to laugh at myself and the fat little covey of quail that came out for a drink and to peck around for food. I watched them for the longest time, trying to stay awake. My thoughts weren’t very positive at this point, I hadn’t seen any deer at all. I watched a hawk fly over and birds dive for cover……

I kept thinking ‘just a few minutes and I’ll open my eyes. Those darn quail sure are noisy.’ Something made me realize that the noise I was hearing was the crunch of dead leaves that littered the whole area, produced early by the drought, and it was from the wrong direction. I opened my eyes, and there was a beauty (to me) of an 8 point buck coming around from behind the hill only 25 or so feet away from me! Well my heart went into overdrive at that, and I could have cried when I realized My gun was leaning against a big limb next to me. I had forgotten to lay it back across my lap when I got water. That buck was very nervous, looking and sniffing, but at least the wind was in my favor! I was trembling as I moved ever so slowly, reaching for my Ruger .223 ranch rifle. The buck made it to the tank, and when he moved, I moved. When he stopped and looked up, I froze. He drank. I gripped my rifle. He looked up and I had to freeze, he was looking straight at me. He lowered his head to drink, long slurping pulls of water and I was able to get my rifle to me and start to raise it. Another freeze as he looked up; I thought I was going to explode! He again drank, and I got my rifle to my shoulder. I was sighting through the scope, just getting my bead, when he had had enough and jumped so abruptly that I could do nothing. He was gone behind that hill like I’d never even seen him.

Was it a bad day? I thought so then, but not now. He was beautiful, and I’d never been so close to such an animal before. I could see his nostrils when he took a breath, see the muscles under his hide, the rack that crowned his head, and see the depth of dark eyes.
Nope, not a bad day at all.

Custom T-Shirt Design and Printing

If you have seen someone wearing a very unique t-shirt and kept on wondering to yourself where that person might have got that t-shirt from, you have no idea the treat that you are in for because with the huge boom in the t-shirts printing industry, you can easily get an apparel that is stylized according to your wishes, specifications as well as designs and you can put just about anything and everything on your t-shirt, starting from a quote that you may have liked or a picture of your hero, or anything and everything that you might want and these t-shirts printing can help you achieve a certain level of uniqueness and help you stand out from a crowd of a hundred people as well, these are just so special.

The t-shirts printing designs are hugely unique regardless of where these are coming from, be it an idea that you had in your mind and are getting it printed or whether you are choosing one from the huge selection of hugely unique t-shirts that the different companies have brought to the market. The prints can be put on any and every kind of t-shirt or garment that you might want and regardless of what type of garment that you opt for; the quality of print will be the same and will not differ depending on the quality of the t-shirt or the garment that you might get. You might get the opportunity of browsing through the entire catalogue of designs that the company might have and if you like any one of these designs, you will be able to get them printed on the t-shirt that you want.

Moreover, you will also be able to choose the fonts and designs of the t-shirts printing that you want, depending on your design and taste and moreover, the fonts can be made to be bold as well as made to be of any and every size that you want. Moreover, the prices of these t-shirts are also very much within the limits of affordability of each and every person, particularly the youth who are the biggest consumers of these printed t-shirts and who always seem to have very small amounts of money in their pockets. You will be able to get the bondage going even stronger in your group by getting the same prints on each and every t-shirt that you get.

The numbers of companies that are specializing in these t-shirts printing have grown like mushrooms with one or many t-shirts printing shops almost in each and every corner of each and every street all over the country. Moreover, these represent very decent opportunities or people to earn some extra money as well. Moreover, you yourself can get a t-shirt printing machine at home because these are not too expensive and you can get prints on your t-shirts whenever you might choose to. So, if you are one of those people who are intrigued about t-shirts printing, then get yourself one.