Keep the exterior of your house looking its best with these tips:

-- Illumination. Adding decorative lanterns to walkways or porches is an easy and inexpensive way to add charm and light. You can often find these pieces at yard sales, thrift stores or dollar stores and then simply paint them in a matching hammered or metallic finish for a bright and stylish look.

-- Quick color. The front door is a focal point of your home so be sure that your doors and shutters are a vivid shade. If yours have been dulled by years of sun and weather, it's time to update with paint. For metal doors and shutters, you can use a variety of spray or bucket paints in your favorite hue.

-- A tidy yard. A well-manicured lawn is important to boosting your curb appeal. Simple one-weekend tasks like edging, trimming bushes and removing unsightly weeds can make a huge difference without a lot of work or cost. To keep your efforts looking great, spray weed killer to maintain a polished look for the rest of the season.

-- ARA

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Boosting outdoor appeal

Just outside of Millersburg across Wiconisco Creek, Market Street bends off the main road and heads toward the mountains east of town.

Small homes line the two-lane road, buttressed by bright flower beds and front porches.

It was in one of these homes a white, older duplex, where 50-year-old Richard Blomgren was beaten nearly to death on the night of June 29.

When police arrived, they found Blomgren unconscious inside the house, and he was flown by helicopter to the Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center.

He died 14 days later from his injuries.

Another Millersburg man, 44-year-old Michael Smeltz, is in Dauphin County Prison, charged with his death.

The two men were acquaintances, if not friends.

When arrested, Smeltz told the state police he had been drinking on the night when Blomgren was beaten. Late that night he went to Blomgrens house, supposedly to visit his friend, police said.

But, according to documents, as he crossed the yard to Blomgrens house, someone told Smeltz his girlfriend was inside the home and she was naked.

According to the court documents, Smeltz went into Blomgrens home and grabbed the older man by his shirt. After punching him to the floor, Smeltz repeatedly kicked him before fleeing the home. Police did not disclose if the girlfriend was in Blomgrens house.

Link:
Man's beating death shocks tiny town of Millersburg

Rats, mice, squirrels, raccoons, opossums, skunks, deer, pigeons and more; it just never ends! There are so many other life forms who often enjoy our gardens more than we do. While I was visiting my colleague in Los Angeles, his garden became overrun by a swarm of bees! Fortunately, they did no damage and left the same day.

The worst problem in his garden is cats. His neighbor hoards unaltered feral cats that have proliferated into a substantial herd. Instead of exterminating rodents from the neighborhood, the overfed cats ignore the droves of rats that are drawn to the cat food left out on the porches. The rats attract opossums. Fleas are everywhere!

All this wildlife brings all sorts of other problems. The well kept domestic cats that live inside the home of my colleague are frequently afflicted with illness transmitted by the sickly feral cats. Flat roofs and basement crawl spaces of several adjacent homes have become litter boxes. The overpowering aroma is horrendous.

Fortunately, such proliferation of cats is rare. Most of us do not mind when a neighborhood cat, or even a few cats, visit the garden. However, when cats become a problem, they are nearly as difficult to remedy as vermin.

Although most municipalities have limited the number of domestic cats that can reside at individual residences, feral cats come and go freely, so are considered to be wild animals who are exempt from such limits. Besides, no

Flat roofs sometimes get used as litterboxes because they commonly have gravel on them and tend to accumulate a bit of other debris. If this is a problem, and if possible, access to flat roofs should be obstructed. Tree limbs and vines should be pruned back.

Basements and crawl spaces are easier to obstruct access to by simply repairing vent screens and exterior basement access. Cats like to use crawlspaces as litterboxes because the soil is always dry and dusty. Around the garden, dry spots are less attractive to cats if sometimes watered, even if there are no plants present. Adding spreading plants is even better. In a small dusty area behind the garage, I spread out a bit of firewood over the soil. By the time the firewood gets used, it will be raining and too muddy for cats.

Foliage of the Week: China Doll

It is hard to believe that the original variety of the familiar China doll, Radermachera sinica, that grows so slowly to reach an 8-foot high ceiling as a houseplant, can actually grow into a substantial 50-foot tall tree with a 3 foot wide trunk, where protected from frost. Modern varieties with more billowy foliage take even longer to reach the ceiling, and do not go much higher. The finely textured and very glossy foliage is bipinnately compound, which means that each of the half inch to 2- foot-long leaves is divided into smaller leaflets, which are also divided into even smaller leaflets that are about an inch or so long. Trusses of tubular white flowers that resemble big catalpa flowers are almost never seen among houseplants or modern varieties, but are quite showy on big old trees.

Horticulturist Tony Tomeo can be contacted at 408.551.9931 or lghorticulture@aol.com.

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When neighbors feed feral cats, the whole neighborhood can suffer

BY CHUCK FIELDMAN cfieldman@pioneerlocal.com July 10, 2012 11:52AM

In 1937, Hinsdale Theatre manager George Kruger installed an air-conditioning system. Krugers wife, Olga, stands in front of the the marquee. | Doings file photo

storyidforme: 33346884 tmspicid: 12178550 fileheaderid: 5563283

Updated: July 10, 2012 11:58AM

Many aspects of life have changed over the past 50 years. And while it would be difficult to find many people who arent happy about the advancement of air conditioning, being able to keep cool indoors has had a sociological impact.

The once common picture of people sitting on their front porches in an effort to stay relatively cool on a hot summer day or night has all but vanished in many areas. While its still not uncommon in some areas of Chicago to see many people outside when temperatures get into the 90s and higher, many suburban areas look more like ghosts towns during such conditions.

Its changed so much, said Carolyn Lukes, an 85-year-old Oak Brook resident who grew up in Cicero. It was nice. We talked to our neighbors; people knew their neighbors a lot more back then. Its sad now because in so many cases people really dont know their neighbors at all.

Ron Reiner, 77, of Clarendon Hills, also recalls the days when people spent considerably more time outside, interacting with neighbors.

Neighboring is so much different now, he said. We dont even have porches. I sit outside sometimes in my back yard. Ive seen a few people sit out in front in chairs, but people arent outside like they used to be.

Before air conditioning became commonplace in homes, many headed to movie theaters not only to watch a film, but also to cool off. Theaters were one of the few public places offering the comfort of air conditioning before the cooling units began to appear more regularly in the late 1960s/early 70s.

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Did cooler air bring less neighborhood interaction?

By Lori Kurtzman and Rita Price

Friday July 6, 2012 7:50 AM

NEWARK, Ohio As houses and businesses in most central Ohio neighborhoods regain power, those without electricity continue to crowd their porches and watch for utility trucks, hoping their homes are next. Some are growing used to nights in the dark and days in the oppressive heat. Others are getting angry.

Oh, its building, said Gabriel Burgoon, who spent another day without power in Newark. Meanwhile, the neon signs glowed at the drive-through beer store just down the road. Im mad.

Who are you mad at, Dad? asked his 16-year-old son, Bradley, sitting beside him on their porch.

Everybody, at the moment, Burgoon said.

Storms dont have to be lethal to pack an emotional wallop, experts say. When daily routines are knocked out of whack, when comforts slip maddeningly beyond reach and when danger lurks, many of us cant maintain an even keel.

Our anxiety level goes up, our irritability level goes up, our stress level goes up and we sort of lose our sense of predictability, said Dr. Alan Levy, a Columbus psychiatrist.

The fact that we know what to anticipate means a lot to our psyche.

Naturally, some people manage better than others, and Levy said that probably has a lot to do with basic personality.

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Storm’s damage can be mental

Its a pretty safe bet that Barn Swallows have always had a place on the front and back porches of the Dinsmore Homestead in Boone County. Built in 1842 by patriarch James Dinsmore, family members and more recently, employees of the homestead have been cohabitating with the swallows for 170 years now.

The Barn Swallows were obviously special to the Dinsmores, said Cathy Callopy, education coordinator for the Dinsmore Homestead. Julia Dinsmore (daughter of James) loved nature and all of the girls spent a lot of time outdoors and paid attention to nature. The back porch, also referred to as the back gallery, was really just another room in the house.

The swallows were so meaningful to Julias niece Patty Flandrau, whom Julia raised, that Patty painted five of them on her bedroom wall. In a letter dated Nov. 14, 1882, Julia wrote Pattys sister Sally Flandrau: Patty has been trying her hand at decorative art there swoops a flight of swallows five in all and named for all of you children according to age. By lamplight they are very pretty. You and Patty are the only ones with the bill turned towards each other and though I dont believe swallows coo, it makes you look affectionate and glad to see each other. The swallows tell me life is short but love is long

Those same swallows, still that original artwork, adorn Pattys bedroom wall to this day at the Dinsmore Homestead.

Easily identified by their deeply forked tail feathers, Barn Swallows are the most widespread swallow species in the world. They breed throughout the Northern Hemisphere and winter across the Southern Hemisphere. Before man-made structures became common, they nested on cliff faces or in caves. Now however, they live hand in hand with humans, nesting in barns, stables, under bridges and, as at the Dinsmore Homestead, on porches small and large.

Humans have always thought highly of Barn Swallows. They are voracious insectivores and a joy to watch. Famed naturalist and artist John James Audubon wrote, In the spring the Barn Swallow is welcomed by all and is looked upon as the harbinger of summer. As she never commits depredations on anything that men consider as their own, everybody loves her, and, as the child was taught by his parents, so the man teaches his offspring, to cherish her.

Gayle Pille is a Burlington resident. Visit the Dinsmore Homestead to see Barn Swallows inside the homestead and outside. The homestead is open every Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday from 1 to 5 p.m. with tours hourly through 4 p.m.

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Column: Barn Swallows part of Dinsmore Homestead

The Philipsburg-Osceola Summer Band marches through Osceola Mills during the Columbia Fire Company's annual Fourth of July parade. Lori Falce

Osceola Mills dripped with patriotism and tradition on Wednesday.

The porches, the children, the firetrucks, even the folding chairs looked like they had been hosed down with red, white and blue for the annual Columbia Fire Company Fire-mens Parade, a Fourth of July celebration 90 years in the making. Todd Jeffries, of Philipsburg, has been pulling up a chair for the festivities for 60 years.

Its a wholesome fun time for the whole community, he said. And family is always a part of that, as he pulled up chairs beside three generations of his clan.

The Calon family, of State College, found its way back to an old holiday haunt. Megan and Paul and their kids, Natalie, 10, Hannah, 8, Blake, 5, and Abbey, 6 months, had never been to the festivities, but Megans mother, Kathy Cady, of Chester Hill, has been coming all her life. Mother, daughter and grandkids gathered on Lingle Street to relive old memories and make new ones.

This is our first time. Its great for families, said Megan Calon.

Families were everywhere. From proud grandmas like Betsy Mignot, of Osceola Mills, showing of her brood of patriotic beauties (Sian, 9, Jada, 8, and Sage, 5) at their usual spot in front of the United Methodist church, to indulgent parents willing to brave a household sugar high after their kids collected bags full of Tootsie Rolls and root beer barrels. Noah Anderson, 7, was quite clear that the candy was what brought him to the parade with sisters Leigha and Annabeth and dad Chris, of Smithmill, was just as clear: I want to see the look on their faces, he said.

For some, however, the passing marching bands and floats were incidental. The real tradition was sharing the good time with friends.

I drove 584 miles from Knoxville, Tenn., for this, said Michael Turner as he held court on Curtin Street. His old friends knew just where to find him, the same place hes been every year since he stopped marching in the parade in high school.

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Holiday tradition runs deep in Osceola Mills

Mike Madel hasn't stopped moving since the grizzlies woke up. They're getting onto porches and into bird seed and cattle feed. The bears have been pushing east out of the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem for years. But Madel, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks' bear management specialist in Choteau, hasn't seen this many human-griz conflicts in more than two decades. "We're repeating the types of conflicts we experienced in the mid '80s," he says. "We had lots of sheep depredation and beehive damage early on. Now, it's porches, human food and livestock food."

Madel thinks the bears are showing up and getting in trouble at least in part due to a mild winter with a low level of livestock deaths along the Rocky Mountain Front. Without those early carcasses to feed on, he says, dispersing sub-adult males began traveling east much earlier. This spring, Madel captured a male preying on calves on the east side of the Continental Divide. The bear had become habituated to the food source; only after the agency euthanized it did they realize the bear had made his way over all the way from the Blackfoot River.

Even sows have proven unusually problematic this year. Last month, a four-year-old female griz caused the deaths of roughly 70 sheep on three Great Falls area ranches in a two-week span. FWP trapped the female, who was in poor shape, along with her cub and relocated the two to northwestern Montana in accordance with interagency grizzly management guidelines.

The sow was an extreme case, Madel says. She was one of the youngest sows with a cub on Montana record, and she was likely stressed as a result.

Females have been establishing home ranges beyond the mountains for years, infringing on agricultural land and teaching their offspring how to live outside state and federally owned tracts. In fact, grizzlies are spending much more time on the high plains these days as they begin to repopulate their native habitat. It's this development that has FWP and other agencies switching focus to areas outside the grizzlies' recovery zone, and working to strengthen the level of acceptance for bears they've been fostering along the Front for decades.

"The pulse this year is something we could see year after year after year now," Madel says. "And we may have to become more creative about how we handle grizzlies on private property."

Link:
Grizzly bears take to Montana's plains

LEWISTON Firefighters worked for hours Tuesday to put out a fire that involved three buildings in the area of the city known as Little Canada.

The fire involved a 12-unit, four-story apartment building at 32-34 River St., a 1-story, single-family structure next door at 46 River St., and a third building that also appeared to house apartments.

Police said no injuries were reported. One firefighter was treated for heat exhaustion and then released.

By late Tuesday, no cause had been determined, fire investigator Paul Ouellette said. He said he did not know how many people had been displaced.

The fire broke out shortly before 11 a.m. By 2 p.m., firefighters were focused on the four-story building whose roof had collapsed. Flames continued to appear at the roofline and hidden hot spots under the debris continued to smolder.

Fire Chief Paul LeClair said at 2 p.m. that fire investigators from his department and six investigators from the state fire marshals office were on scene and planned to complete investigations into the cause and area of origin of the fire once the buildings were safe. At that time, officials would determine whether any of the buildings would have to be demolished. The four-story building was heavily damaged, he said.

He said firefighters worked hard to keep the fire from spreading to neighboring buildings.

Crews likely would monitor the buildings overnight, he said.

At 2:30 p.m., radio traffic indicated firefighters were entering 32-34 River St. They checked all of the floors, going from apartment to apartment. They recovered valuables of the tenants and several pets that survived the ordeal.

By 3:30 p.m., crews began to clean up the scene, rolling up hoses and clearing debris from the streets and sidewalk. The fire was declared to be out just before 5:30 p.m.

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Fire in Lewiston’s Little Canada burns three buildings, displaces tenants

Patti Slobogin drove slowly so that her mother could take in all the changes to the neighborhood she hadnt seen in more than 75 years.

Some things had changed--others hadnt. But to just be there againto see the porches where she would sleep on warm summer nights--was enough for 88-year-old Becky Slobogin, who grew up in The Deserted Village, in the heart of Union Countys 2,000-acre Watchung Reservation.

Slobogin is the oldest person known to have lived in the small enclave, once known as Feltville, a small mill community founded by David Felt in 1845. So when County parks officials learned that she wanted to visit, they were thrilled.

"It was wonderful to hear Mrs. Slobogin's recollections of her childhood in the Deserted Village," said Union County Freeholder Bette Jane Kowalski, who met Slobogin and her family at the Deserted Village's restored church/general store.

"She came a long way -- in distance and in time -- to share her memories with us," Kowalski said, noting that Slobogin, her daughter, and granddaughter, Cassie Spodak, drove all the way from Ossining, N.Y.

"She is a living link to a past that few people remember, and we are very grateful to her for taking the trouble to come and visit us," Kowalski said.

Slobogin, who was five years-old when her family moved to The Deserted Village in 1928, was interviewed by Daniel Bernier, who oversees historic settlement as part of his responsibilities with the Union County Parks department. The interview was videotaped and will become part of the growing online archive about The Deserted Village on the Countys website, ucnj.org/desertedvillage.

(Anyone wishing to participate in the oral history project can send an email to dv@ucnj.org or call 908-789-3682.)

After the interview, Bernier led a tour of the village. While Slobogins home was destroyed in a fire in the 1950s, just to finally return and see her childhood neighborhood brought her close to tears.

While she would later live all over the world because her husband was with the CIA, Slobogins greatest wish in recent years, her daughter said, was to see the Deserted Village again.

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The Deserted Village: In the heart of Watchung Reservation