We are open this week through New Year's Eve at Toledo Market Fresh and Sunbirds in Chehalis.
From the website: The Toledo Lions Club sells firewood and fireworks to help fund college scholarships, school supplies for students and food for special school events. Last November, we gave away 75 frozen turkeys at our annual Turkey Bingo and at Christmas we distributed more than 20 food baskets to area families in need…
Toledo Lions also established the Veterans Wall of Honor to recognize and honor service members current, retired, and passed on. Download form here to order your personalized brick to install on the memorial.
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Tom Boone shared Restore The Cowlitz's video: Project Cowlitz is a documentary we are making about the decline of the hatchery program on the Cowlitz river. We are working with a few conservation groups and State Sen. Pearson on the negative impact eliminating a healthy hatchery program has on the local economy.
Like the page to stay up to date on the movement and be sure to sign the petition to the state that you want hatchery steelhead in the Cowlitz river.
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Educator Andrea Jones, known locally for her popular MAPS after-school focus programs, posted this review yesterday on a TED podcast :
This is SO good. So many great ideas for rethinking education, including attracting excellent teachers, using storytelling and hands-on problem solving vs. feeding information to teach science, engineering and other subjects. The 3rd talk about flipping the classroom mindset (by the founder of Kahn academy) and having global non-grade-level lessons/classes on demand (more accessible, child directed, individualized) is especially interesting.
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Adult Page Turners January 2018 selection:
Available in print, ebook, MP3 audio and CD.
Order or download your copy online from Timberland Regional Library kiosk.
Adult Page Turners welcomes new members. Meets 1:30 p.m. last Wednesday monthly at Toledo Community Library.
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Author/Speaker/Teacher Ben Maestas of Permaculture Homestead shared this post last May on “lasagna gardening” to create productive, nearly weed-free crops:
This particular style of bedding reduces the opportunity for invasive plants to take over the garden,almost completely! All the while holding in moisture for weeks, which is important even in Washington, where it rains all year EXCEPT during the growing season…
The Permaculture Student offers the video series Grow An Incredible & Easy Garden With Permaculture - free.
Don’t forget - Toledo Library has a seed “library” to swap your local all-natural homegrown plant and veggie seeds with your neighbors. BYO envelope or container, take what you need and share the rest.
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Health Corner: For Pets - Surviving New Years Eve Fireworks & Noise
Our hound blend Zu dropped to her belly once while leashed to the John Deere Plott Walker* when a thunderclap sounded overhead, so I followed advice to recover quickly, carry on normally with the exercise while offering encouragement in a calm voice.
Brought home as a 2 year old, Zu reacted strongly to any staccato report with hysterical baying and lunging uncontrollably, from the metal gate latch to bubble wrap to firewood popping, nearby gunfire triggering the worst response outside of thunder.
And fireworks.
That Mutt blogger, foster dog caregiver & professional dog runner Lindsay Stordahl addresses sensitive & reactive dog responses, stating: A dog that is extremely anxious around fireworks can learn there is no reason to be afraid. It just takes a lot of creativity, time and patience. The more fearful your dog is, the more important it is for you to be a calm, relaxed leader.
Three primary methods:
- Benadryl, or a prescribed sedative from your vet, or Bach Rescue Remedy herbal.
- Thundershirt, a compression vest for anxiety, or tight-fitting T shirt
- Behavior modification, requiring time, patience and persistence
Tonya Wilhelm, a professional dog trainer, recommends for extreme thunder or fireworks anxiety:
- Through A Dog’s Ear: Music To Calm Your Canine Companion
- Thundershirt
- Earmuffs for dogs
- Storm Stress, a natural calming product
- A white noise machine or a box fan
- Comfort Zone, dog appeasing pheromones
If family & friends will be over, take precautions in case your pet bolts out the door:
- Provide plenty of exercise before dusk (fireworks)
- Assure collar & current ID tags are in place. Reflective collars recommended.
- Microchip your pet.
What methods have worked for you?
*Zu is a Plott-Walker, a hound blend sweet and stubborn by turns, possessing an unquenchable need to run herself (and anyone foolish enough to grab the other end of the leash) to exhaustion.
A once fine John Deere lawn mower, hacked into a motorized “sled” of sorts for exercising Zu, was dubbed the John Deere Plott-Walker.
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