Home Security Checklist
With summer just around the corner and the warmer weather setting in, you’re going to be spending a lot of time outdoors leaving doors and windows open to get fresh, cool breezes through your home. But leaving your home open may increase the risk of break-ins and create an easy way for intruders to gain entry into your home.
Exceed is here to help you with 10 top tips to improve your home security:
1 - Use key-operated locks on doors and windows – and don’t hide spare keys under doormats or in obvious places for burglars to find them easily
2 - Install security screens on all doors to keep your family safe
3 - Install window security stays to increase security, natural safe ventilation and prevent children falling from high windows
4 - Install hinge bolts to stop doors from being lifted out of their frames
5 - Upgrade beads and rubbers to hold any glass in place
6 - Install digital deadlocks so you no longer need to remember your keys when you leave your home and grant short term access to friends or Airbnb guests
7 - If you have an alarm system, make sure it is working properly
8 - Keep plants trimmed around doors and windows and install sensor lights or CCTV cameras
9 - Don’t leave valuable items like keys out in easy view for opportunistic thieves
10 - If you’re going away on holidays, make your home look occupied – leave the TV or radio playing, set lights to come on with a timer and ask a neighbour to collect your mail and take care of bins
Being aware of potential security risks and taking action early is the best way to keep your home and loved ones safe.
Click the link below to learn how Exceed we fix windows & doors specialists in your area can help you improve your home security!
Poll: If we want to reduce speeding, what do you think actually changes driver behaviour? 🛻🚨🚓
In the Post's article on speeding penalties, the question is asked whether speeding fines are truly about road safety, or are they just a way to boost revenue for the Crown?
What do you think? Should speeding motorists receive speeding fines or demerit points?
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32.1% The sting of a fine (Money talks!)
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67.9% The threat of demerit points (Nobody wants to lose their license!)
SLASH BESIDE THE TRACK UP TO TRIG
I question the wisdom and the morality of an industry which creates so much waste, waste which is also a cause of widespread and devastating damage. So, I searched the internet for potential uses of slash. It was easy to find.
I recommend a visit to nzbioforestry.co.nz. I quote from the website:
OUR SOLUTION:
NZ Bio Forestry proposes to develop a sustainable renewable forestry model that increases the economic value of the NZ- Aotearoa forestry sector, simply by integrating bio-technologies augmenting the forestry, wood manufacturing, and petrochemistry industries into one model.
Specifically, our strategy is to utilise the whole tree and convert the tree’s sugars into bioenergy, biomaterials, and biochemicals. This means using slash, off cuts, pruning, and wood waste to produce biofuel via bio pellets and biochemicals. It means optimising logs through the whole process….logging, manufacturing freighting, and refining process to serve the many Asia-Pacific markets with high-value products….not just exporting raw logs to one or two large dominant markets! (End of quote)
NZ Bio Forestry then contrasts the financial return from the present exports of raw logs with the potential return from utilising the WHOLE TREE.
In US dollars, the return from exporting logs is between $50 - $140 per log.
Using the whole tree including the slash and other waste for wood processing would return $200 - $800 per tree, and,
Using the bio-refinery process to convert the wood waste into fossil-free biochemicals would return $2,500 - $11,200 per tree.
I can’t help but conclude that our current focus on exporting logs is a pitiful failure of industry and government policy compared with the potential benefits of processing THE WHOLE TREE. And to complete the argument, this not just theory. In Scandinavia, SCA, which owns Europe’s largest private forest with 2.7 million hectares, has built a well-invested value chain that maximises the value of each individual tree and all of the forestry’s resources.
A SUMMARY OF POTENTIAL ADDITIONAL PRODUCTS:
Wood Pellets and Chips: Slash can be collected, dried, and processed into hog fuel or wood pellets for use in industrial boilers, as a replacement for coal, to generate heat and electricity.
Biofuel Production: Research is underway to convert forest residues into marine biofuel to help decarbonize the shipping sector.
Gasification: Advanced, small-scale, on-site processing plants can turn slash into renewable energy products like bio-oil, ethanol, and hydrogen.
Biochemicals: Specialized refineries can convert woody waste into sustainable alternatives to plastics, chemicals, and industrial products.
WAKE UP Aotearoa, New Zealand!!!
Share your favourite main crop potato recipe and win a copy of our mag!
Love potatoes? We will give away free copies of the May 2026 issue to readers whose potato recipes are used in our magazine. To be in the running, make sure you email your family's favourite way to enjoy potatoes: mailbox@nzgardener.co.nz, by March 1, 2026.
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