The Elk Konnected (EK) {cool name} Community improvement group is getting a contest together. We need your help. We are going to see who can spruce up there yard the grandest and the cleanest. You don't have to have a green thumb to win. Judging will be on artful use of nature in all its outdoor forms. Please remove all old car bodies, dead bodies, and other unsightly images to help us become more Konnected to our town. Show some pride.
Each of the different cities will have a winner. Severy, Elk Falls, Longton, Grenola, Moline, and Howard. Judging will be done by the first of next month. Judging will be done by secret paid assassins that will kill your pets if you don't mow your yard. Houses need to be painted. Shrubs need to be trimmed. Grass needs to be clipped. Flowers will take water if you haven't got the drift. Unsightly dog houses and old trailer-houses need to be removed if you need help just call. The yard that has the most improved vision will be declared the winner. The winner will have the opportunity to be famous. You will need armed security to keep the media hounds at bay. Better start memorizing the genius and species of the flowers you are going to need to buy to win.... There might be a tie and then we will have an oral presentation with slides and speeches.
Just kidding..... Just a cool prize to state to the world that your yard is the best of the city is what you will receive.
Maybe even a sign with your new title.
ELK CONNECTED
CHAMPIONSHIP YARD
Great idea! Maybe Rudy would put a photo of each yard in the appropriate paper.
Diane - that is why PEP is buttering Rudy up with the RUDY RULZ on one of the other threads... Rudy, please...
Are you going to call it the EK Best Energized yard award... with the Elk guy mowing... that was too cute... anyways - lets hope people get motiviated to clean up... maybe the Lions should get an award after the clean up the school yard... GO LIONS...
Heck, I haven't even seen the RUDY RULZ post.
I haven't ruled anything for so long that I've probably forgotten how.
When I was young, I "thought" I ruled a few things. But now that I'm an old guy, I realize that most of those who rule are know-it-all preachers, waspy women and loud men in the coffee shop.
And, for the record --- all Impalas do not pull to the right.
Just crusty old Republicans do that.
Hey, what about us country folk? I didn't become a master skid-loader and rock-mover this spring for nothing! ;) I want a sign so that the mailman and Janet's husband can see it! ;D
Tobina, I agree! I have a beautiful yard that's kept mowed and an awesome collection of flowers. No junk cars or dead animals in my yard either! There are quite a few beautiful houses out in the country.
The Chamber of Commerce here in Moline used to do that every month. I am not sure why they quit, I thought it was a great program even though my yard never won. :'( :'(
Devyn; hey! Where ya been? Glad you're back. Maybe you've just been on those other locations where I stay away from (politics... pretty much anything outside of Coffee Shop!)
Anyway, I do have to confess I have some dead things in my yard... the dog is finally getting good at catching squirrels and rabbits! But he displays them with such pride! :laugh:
Tobina, I have been working my fanny off. I work as a home health aide and I've been busy. However, I am off now because school starts for me on the 18th.
Our dogs bring up animals also, but I get them out of the yard before they stink up the place. The only things I think that are unsightly in our yard are the hay rakes and the flatbed trailers. It's such a pain to move everything out and around to mow. Billy says I should just mow around it all but that's tacky!! :-[
Devynn and Tobina. I always look forward to your posts along with a few others. Elk County is lucky to have people like you. Tobina maybe I can get your husband to make me a pair of boots? I think I could sell many pairs of them (and a few saddles) here in my part of California. There is a sizable Horse community and Big Hats no cattle folks with Slicon Valley\Dot com money that would pay big dollars? Maybe we can work out a deal? If you look at my picture of my dog "Kansas" you will see him in a field just a 8 miles from my house. Those few Acres go for about $8 million.
David
Devyn; well, glad you have a little break before you get busy again!
Biscuit does actually go and bury everything before they start to stink. I have no idea where, but at least not in the yard!
Maybe you and I can start the country-version of the Greatest Yard contest! Ha! I'll vote for you and you can vote for me!
This is a really good idea, though, to help promote pride in a community, and to start to get everyone involved in cleaning up their yards! I think that the monthly winners should be eligible for the yearly prize of something like a gift certificate to Cookson's or something like that.
David; I'll have to talk to Chuck about the boots. His mom owns a shoe store in Florida, so he could start a business on each side of the country! But tack and saddles are his passion.
Too bad we don't have a greenhouse here. A gift certificate could be awarded from there as well. I think the awards (whatever they are) should be yard oriented.
Tobina, you have my vote! Now I just need to drive out west of Howard to see your yard.
Quote from: sixdogsmom on August 05, 2008, 01:30:14 PM
The Chamber of Commerce here in Moline used to do that every month. I am not sure why they quit, I thought it was a great program even though my yard never won. :'( :'(
I think the sign is in my carport in Moline. David Brace stuck in my yard one day around the time he cleaned out his law office, I kept trying to give it back to David, but somehow it would always wind up back on my porch. I started placing it in various yards around town, with no input from anyone else on the Chamber. And several weeks later it would be back on my porch. So here it is two and a half years later and the sign is just leaning up against the side of my house in the carport. If it turned up in someone else's yard . . . . ;) ;)
(just don't take my other signs, I have plans for those)
Well there you go! The thing got kidnapped and nobody paid the ransom! Oh well! :D
Chuck - David mentioned your sign... I think he has it - we accused him of having the self-proclaimed yard of the year...
Thanks Liz, it's always nice to know what is or isn't in ones carport. By the way, is there still a 90 Olds Regency with a shot transmission in there, or has it been relocated to someone else's yard also? :'( :-\ ;D
You have to be present to win and the olds has to be hauled off.
Trying to get interest in cleaning up Elk County is like pushing a log chain. Every one thinks the chain needs to be pushed but there is no one who is willing to pull it along. The worst offenders of trashed, abandoned, neglected property are the most hard to get a finger on. Why is pride so hard when you have property setting around is the worlds view? If your stock is in the toilet, your land is your best asset. If your neighbor cleans up their yard your valuation goes up? If you paint your house you are automatically put in the next higher tax bracket?
It must be environmental, the weed eater fumes might be carcinogenic. Snapper exhaust kills mosquitoes. My hummingbirds need food. There is a noise ordinance so I can't run my lawnmower. The goats won't eat the grass untill all the brush is scrubbed down.
I just don't have time.
Image. If you display good positive aspects to the area then hopefully others will be attracted to the county.
If you portray a bad neglected image you will get ignored.
There are 24 hours in a day. Turn off the TV, log off, and go mow the yard.
I challenge anyone to mow their yard and one other before the first of October.
It is called stewardship. Pick up some trash on your walk. See a big boulder in the middle of the road stop and save someone from a slashed tire. If your lawnmower is already started it takes no time to mow just one more swipe down the road ditch. It will save in the long run.
Quote from: pepelect on September 27, 2008, 07:13:29 PM
Trying to get interest in cleaning up Elk County is like pushing a log chain. Every one thinks the chain needs to be pushed but there is no one who is willing to pull it along. The worst offenders of trashed, abandoned, neglected property are the most hard to get a finger on. Why is pride so hard when you have property setting around is the worlds view? If your stock is in the toilet, your land is your best asset. If your neighbor cleans up their yard your valuation goes up? If you paint your house you are automatically put in the next higher tax bracket?
It must be environmental, the weed eater fumes might be carcinogenic. Snapper exhaust kills mosquitoes. My hummingbirds need food. There is a noise ordinance so I can't run my lawnmower. The goats won't eat the grass untill all the brush is scrubbed down.
I just don't have time.
Image. If you display good positive aspects to the area then hopefully others will be attracted to the county.
If you portray a bad neglected image you will get ignored.
There are 24 hours in a day. Turn off the TV, log off, and go mow the yard.
I challenge anyone to mow their yard and one other before the first of October.
It is called stewardship. Pick up some trash on your walk. See a big boulder in the middle of the road stop and save someone from a slashed tire. If your lawnmower is already started it takes no time to mow just one more swipe down the road ditch. It will save in the long run.
Its not too environmental, look next to the museum, and look at the big oil spot on the street from the old kerosene tractor running there during the parade, Everyone is so concerned about environment, for the livestock sake, We burn fields, thats pollution, leaf burning is some of the most toxic pollution there is. Every car in Elk county leaks oil, Why dont we oil the dirt roads to keep dust down.
how the air conditioner hot tub working out for you pepelect.
"If you portray a bad neglected image you will get ignored." I have to disagree, Cookson neglected his school, and he got alot of attention, the lions club even cleaned it up for him.
On the other hand, take a ride east on Randolph, All the neglected house on both sides ready to fall down, those are being ignored.
And how do we clean up the 4 Junk stores in town, when did that one burn down....
It is a redneck whirlpool. You have to add your own bubbles. It lowers my air conditioner bill to less than the GNP of most Latin American countries.
Farmers are very efficient. The fields don't get burned for livestock. Fields get burned to remove residue. Which saves on diesel and chemical that would have to be used to prepare the seed bed for the next crop.
Pastures get burned for the same reason. Ranchers raise cattle... Cattle eat grass.....Grass has a nemisis...Weeds....Fire properly used the spring kills the weeds and promotes certain plant growth. Cattle like the new stuff better than the weedy stuff. They get fat and die a honorable death to be apart of your Break Today.......Ranchers did not invent range burning......God did.....It has been apart of the High Plains Prairie since the ocean dried up.
The oil market is softening.... I am sure we can get some dozer operators really cheap... What are the address of the homes in question? Are they worth tearing down? Can they be used for a better purpose than a parking lot? Do you need a place to build? If you find a need for the real estate than the structures are just an incidental cost. If they are your neighbor it is an eyesore. If you are the city it is part of the 30 structures that have a 80k budget next year to address.
Relatively speaking when did that other store burn down? Why does it take so long for so few council members to act. There is an open pit within 4 feet of a public sidewalk and there isn't even a piece of yellow tape surrounding it. We raise holy hell about the 2 feet of water in the bottom of the school building but do nothing about a open pit with burn commercial building and contents smoldering for 6 months. Clean it and add it to the tax burden of the property owner.
Why do you hide behind your IDEAS? scared to play with the big sand box with out your ananimity?
:D
Thank you PEP for explaining horticulture to IDEAS. Good grief.
Quote from: pepelect on September 29, 2008, 08:26:23 PM
Why do you hide behind your IDEAS? scared to play with the big sand box with out your ananimity?
I think there is a new fad in the forum business, which is making two accounts and having one being anonymous so one can be a bit more bold.
Why Danny... you should have been a :police:
Of course..........as I tell people when they pm me and ask who is this person or who is that person........I say the same thing.
" I am ( by my own rules) under a contract as owner of this site..to not divulge anyone's personal information. And I will NEVER do that."
So all I can say to your comment is ...................... ;)
QuoteI think there is a new fad in the forum business, which is making two accounts and having one being anonymous so one can be a bit more bold.
Lol, and then there are those of us who let ya know who we are, where we live and tell it like we feel it anyway :P
And as a wise ole' boy once said --- "Do your best and when the fan is blowing and the s--- flies ~`` "DUCK"
Quote from: Jo McDonald on October 01, 2008, 12:14:05 PM
And as a wise ole' boy once said --- "Do your best and when the fan is blowing and the s--- flies ~`` "DUCK"
(http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj216/marshalette/thThatwasagoodone.gif)