Old topic, but need new ideas

[mom-from-missouri]

:How is the cell phone reception in your area? Perhaps you could allow a cell tower to be put on your land?"

Actually we checked into that a couple months ago. At the other farm
no companies were interested-its too close to the KCI airport, so they said. At the farm we live on, our land is too low. Cingular, Sprint Nextel and the local phone company all came out and did a survey of our land. All said not enough elevation. We thought we would stand a chance here, because we sit higher than our neighbors.

Sprint said even if it did meet the height requirements, they only pay around $800 a year. Now, they tend to want to rent tower space from existing towers, or put their equipment on existing things, such as water towers, hidden in church stepels.... A neighbor told us that Nextel is looking at putting one on the water tower (she is on the water board) 3 miles down from us. But, with us being so low, it may not help us with our cell, even if Cingular uses it also.

Thats neat that some electric companies are doing it. We are on a small rural coop. They have no website, and no computers in their office. Its all done by hand.

[Scanner]

This could take some time to build a clientele but I had a patient who had a very ill husband to take care of (Lou Gehrig's Disease) and she did medical transcription at home.

There are services that will contract for you (employ you) or you can try to build your own business. Sometimes your local hospital will refer you to the company they outsource their transcription to.

I doubt it's something you'll be able to do this summer but it can be a good part-time home based business for the long run.

I can see the poster's point about loosening the grip on the economy. It's easy for DisneySteve and I to get depressed about NJ taxes. . .however, I always remember there is at least an economy and plenty of work here, especially during the summer with tourist season.

That's the trade-off.