Favorite Christmas Presents

A desire to move away from the gloomy weather common in Northern Oregon brought a major change in life and new business to Curt Gebers.

Bob Pearce has been woodworking for most of his life, but it wasn’t until about two decades ago that he started using it to encourage others.

This is the time of year when you can take large amounts of wood from trees, shrubs and many of our flowering and nonflowering plants. Break out your loppers or handsaw and make sure it’s sharp, adjusted and sanitized before you start pruning. Remember, you can remove small amounts from trees and shrubs any time during the year using hand pruners but now is the time for removing stuff using the “big guns.”

Don’t be fooled because when compost is warm, it produces steam. It may look like it’s hot, but during this cold weather steam is very commonly found with warm compost. The temperature of compost when it’s cooling is only about 105 F. In the center of the pile it might be hotter but it’s not hot enough to damage plants.

I went outside very early in the morning to put something in the recycling bins when I noticed frost on the lids. I thought, “We must’ve had a light freeze last night.” I checked my phone weather app for the low temperature. It said the low was 45 F. “No, that can’t be right.” I checked other sources for the low temperature and it varied from upward of 36 F. My trash lids won’t lie. Phone apps are good for predicting a possible freeze and needed protection, but nothing replaces verification that an actual freeze happened.

A passion for pets and their well-being is what keeps the staff at Professional Pet Room &Groom in Boulder City motivated each day.

Recently, I characterized mesic landscape plants, the types of plants that don’t like to be kept overly dry or overly wet but grow most rapidly and healthier in “moist soils.” Mesic plants run a gamut from those that can handle very wet soils to those that can tolerate somewhat dry soils. But as I mentioned before, mesic plants tolerate lawn irrigations.

Celia Shortt Goodyear/Boulder City Review

Boulder City continues to have some colorful characters — or rather characters who like to color.