When deciding what size TV you should get, it is important to consider how big your wall is. If your wall is not that big then a 50 plasma inch TV is not really going to cut it. You should look at the 42 plasma inch TV or even below that. Of course you will have to consider your budget, too. But there is not all that huge a difference when it comes to size and price. They pretty much go hand in hand. I want everyone to own a big screen TV for themselves because they are so great. You will love it or I will be amazed. That is what is so great about this modern age we live in: the home entertainment systems are simply out of this world.

photo credit: David.R.Carroll

Toddlers aren’t necessarily hard to entertain, the problem comes because they need constant entertainment. While television and movies certainly seem like an easy solution, they aren’t the best option. However there are lots of activities for toddlers that can be a lot of fun.

Arts and crafts can be a lot of fun for toddlers. You can do them each and every day or mix them in with other activities. Some great things to do with your toddlers include coloring, painting, and playing with salt dough. While all of these things are fun and can entertain for hours you can get more creative with them. For example have projects that are specific to do with the coloring. Use corks, sponge painting, stamps, or even shapes cut out of potatoes to do stamping while you have the paints out. You can also make salt dough objects, paint them, and use them as toys for hours or days of play!

Indoor activities that don’t involve crafts include building forts, playing with balloons, or even playing sorting games. You can mix a variety of objects together and take time to count them, identify them, and sort them. Beans, pasta shapes and colors, dried peas, and lentils are all good choices. To this you can add buttons, safety pins (glue them with super glue for even more safety), and pebbles can also be mixed in!

Outdoor activities can include going to the park, walking, or splashing around in a kiddie pool. You can also include a variety of balls, sidewalk chalk, or a sand box as great options. If you need something simple that will tucker your child out take them for a walk. Have them push their own stroller (works well with an umbrella stroller and a toddler who walks fairly well). Have them push till they can’t go any farther and then push them home!

With all these activities for toddlers you are bound to find something to do. It is also a good idea to keep a notepad with ideas. As you come up with ideas that could be fun or things that you did that were fun, write them down. If you are feeling like you can’t come up with another idea then you can look up some great ones!

Horse Stalls by Amylee76 at flickr

Horses are a love of many people around the world. Investing time and money into the horses include providing suitable horse stalls. A great width for horse stalls is twelve feet by twelve feet. This 12′x12′ area is perfect for Quarter Horses, Warm Bloods, and everything in between. It is important when building a horse barn to be sure that the stall width is laid out as 12′ as this is something that is impossible to come back and change later. Many barns use a 10 foot width, but this can cause problems. The two biggest dangers in stabling a horse are, one injury to the handler, and two injury to the horse from getting cast. The smaller the area of the stall the less room the person has to work around the horse. One of the main purposes of a stall is to have an enclosed area for the horse so that it can be groomed and worked with. A narrow horse stall design makes it much easier to have your foot stepped on or pushed into the wall. The second reason, casting, is a big danger to the horses. “Casting” is when a horse rolls all the way over and gets its legs and hooves penned against the wall. In this locked position they are trapped. Sometimes they can roll back over and get out of trouble, but many times they get scraped up or even twist an intestine. A twisted intestine results in colic. Colic in turn many times can kill the horse. Even though horses are large, they are fragile. So play it smart and design your horse stalls with enough room to accommodate the gentle giants we simply dub “the horse”.