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Community Dinner, April 21, 2012

At our last community dinner, Cili gave us some invaluable info on nutrition and George, on Chinese gardens– pdf below on the Chinese gardens.

 

George Chinese Gardens 4-27-12

 

For our next dinner–sometime over the summer– we’re contemplating the topic of wild edibles.   Soooo….. if you have any expertise in that particular realm, then by all means, please contact me, Pat at pduttster@gmail.com

Bird-Friendly Landscapes and Community Dinner Feb. 24,2012

Hello West Hill,

At the last community dinner we talked about bird-friendly landscapes and hydrilla–the hydrilla e-mail went out, so below you will find, from Regi (thanks for the hospitality!) hints on attracting birds.

Also, if you have a topic on resources or sustainability that interests you, let us know about it.

From Regi:

The key is native plants:  birds need food, cover and water.   These are books I have found most helpful: Continue reading ‘Bird-Friendly Landscapes and Community Dinner Feb. 24,2012’ »

Termites on West Hill

Termite tunnel at the top of the cellar wall, continuing up to the sill

We were having some work done on our house and had to move around some shelving in the basement. Thus, by pure chance, we noticed some curious strips or lines like little tubes running up the wall — we thought maybe they were made by water running down the wall, but nothing really fit. Scraping the lines showed that they had a  hollow center tube in them.  I dimly recalled seeing somewhere pictures of structures that termites built in order to get from the ground, where they nest, to the wood that they eat. We couldn’t see any signs of life in the tubes but decided to investigate. As it turns out, the Cooperative Extension’s expert in these things said my guess of termites was very likely to be correct. A visit from Pat Cozzarin Pest Management gave the decisive diagnosis — Pat even was able to find some actual termites in one of the tubes. Continue reading ‘Termites on West Hill’ »

Youth Survey

Dear Tompkins County Youth,

The Tompkins County Youth Services Department (www.tompkins-co.org/youth) is collecting information about the State of Youth in Tompkins County. As part of this needs assessment we would like to hear directly from YOU about the needs, gaps and strengths of young people in Tompkins County.

SURVEY LINK: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/tompkinsyouth
This is a link that will allow you to reply to less than twenty brief questions about what’s happening in Tompkins County. Please share freely with your friends and classmates. The survey will close on February 20th. Continue reading ‘Youth Survey’ »

Raised Bed Discussion

For those of you unable to attend the community dinner last night, see below for a  susmmary of  our three  mini-presentations on raised beds.  Continue reading ‘Raised Bed Discussion’ »

Community Dinner

Saturday Jan. 28, 6:00 pm — Community Dinner / Dish-to-Pass sponsored by the Resource People (Pat, Regi, Cili, Margot) of Ithacawest. Newcomers are always welcome! 135 Westhaven Rd

We’ll share food and conversation then, at 7:00, there will be extremely brief presentations on Raised Bed Veggie Gardening: where to buy materials, costs, how to set up the beds, fencing, ideas on what to grow, success stories and problems to investigate. Come just for the dinner, the three short presentations or both! E-mail pduttster@gmail.com for more information.

Tompkins County Transitioner Meeting

Sunday, Jan. 15, 3:00 p.m., at The Yoga School (in the Old Bryne Dairy Building on the Commons, above the Maté Factor)

Greetings Tompkins County Transitioners,

Welcome to 2012, a year many expect to manifest great changes in the world we live in. In the next two months, we are looking forward to completing the last two discussion of the Transition Town Discussion series and then seeing where the Transition Tompkins movement goes from there. And we are excited to announce the date of the next discussion. Continue reading ‘Tompkins County Transitioner Meeting’ »

First Ward Report

Greetings fellow First Warders,

I don’t recall ever having been accused of rushing into things.  So here, on my last day in power, is a farewell First Ward Report.  I hope it finds you all in good health and optimistic about the upcoming new year.

AROUND THE WARD

On South Hill, the City’s appeal of the recent local ruling in favor of a Hudson Street landlord, who put in a backyard parking lot in violation of the City’s building regulations, is going forward.  This appeal will not be cheap, and success for the city is by no means a certainty, but it is thought  Continue reading ‘First Ward Report’ »

Cliff Street changes

The sauna sitting on the Thompson Tree truck bed.

A delightful bit of excitement on Cliff Street this morning — a sauna that had been resting unused behind a lower-Cliff Street house got under way on its move to its new home in Wilseyville. A sauna isn’t very big compared to a house, but it’s a really huge thing to transport from one point in the city to another location! The first chore was to get it out from between the houses, and that was accomplished by a crane operated by Continue reading ‘Cliff Street changes’ »

Redesigning Floral/Hector

Coming up Monday (November 21, 7:00 pm in LACS) is a public meeting regarding the redesign/rebuild of the intersection of Hector and Floral (that’s for short; actually, it’s Hector, Floral, Elm, and State/MLKing). That’s a corner that has bothered a lot of people ever since it emerged from the belly of the octopus — motorists have trouble getting out of Elm, turning left from Floral, turning left into Floral, and generally getting backed up when cars pile up; pedestrians say they feel they’re taking their lives in their hands when trying to cross Hector or Floral; and bicyclists feel there is no way to get from westbound Continue reading ‘Redesigning Floral/Hector’ »