http://www.gtherald.com en-us Copyright CNHI All Rights Reserved. 5 Mon, 21 Jul 2008 20:00:55 +0000 http://www.gtherald.com/columns/local_story_204185842.html http://www.gtherald.com/columns/local_story_204185842.html Author Thomas Wolfe famously stated you can't go home again. However, home can return to you in the form of a baby blue sleeper sofa. There comes a time in life when parents and children start to shift roles: caregiver, financial advisor, rent free storage locker. Thankfully, power of attorney matters are way down the road for our families. However, parental purging of closets has just begun. Mon, 21 Jul 2008 20:00:54 +0000 http://www.gtherald.com/columns/local_story_204185856.html http://www.gtherald.com/columns/local_story_204185856.html Each of five major child injury hazards -- motor vehicles, drowning, burns, falls and poison -- can be found in the backyard during the summer. Riding mowers, inflatable pools, home playground equipment and even natural vegetation and sunlight require a few simple precautions. All of the safety guidelines you apply to sports, playgrounds and swimming apply to those activities in your own backyard. Tue, 01 Apr 2008 19:33:00 +0000 http://www.gtherald.com/columns/local_story_092193119.html http://www.gtherald.com/columns/local_story_092193119.html Mon, 14 Jul 2008 20:00:56 +0000 http://www.gtherald.com/columns/local_story_197191748.html http://www.gtherald.com/columns/local_story_197191748.html As parasitic annelids go, leeches are a bit unlovable. Unlike their earthworm cousins, a bloodsucking leech will never be the protagonist in a cutesy children's book. Leeches rank near Donald Trump and West Nile-carrying mosquitoes on the personality scale. However, there is one creature that loves leeches: the fisherman. Mon, 14 Jul 2008 20:00:55 +0000 http://www.gtherald.com/columns/local_story_197191754.html http://www.gtherald.com/columns/local_story_197191754.html Everyone should be eating more fruits and vegetables, that is undisputed. Getting kids excited about eating them while they are young is a great way to help ensure that they will want to eat them as adults. How many vegetables and fruits should I eat every day? Tue, 08 Jul 2008 18:20:00 +0000 http://www.gtherald.com/columns/local_story_190180735.html http://www.gtherald.com/columns/local_story_190180735.html I'm trolling the kitchen store for gadgets to send home with my Pakistani exchange daughter when I come across Ice Kabobs, kabob-shaped molds you fill with your favorite drink to create frozen swizzle sticks. I buy them, but not before I wonder, "Who came up with these, anyway?" Mon, 07 Jul 2008 20:00:55 +0000 http://www.gtherald.com/columns/local_story_190180739.html http://www.gtherald.com/columns/local_story_190180739.html The Michigan Groundwater Stewardship Program is again able to offer free water screening to everyone with a drinking water well. Testing will be done for nitrates, nitrites and triazine pesticides. Even if you have tested your well water in previous years, we suggest that you do it again since groundwater moves. Mon, 30 Jun 2008 20:00:53 +0000 http://www.gtherald.com/columns/local_story_183190258.html http://www.gtherald.com/columns/local_story_183190258.html While others wear their local status on T-shirts or bumper stickers, I'm not that presumptuous. A preferential treatment salad perhaps, but only after a decade with the same zip code. Just because you know shortcuts to get around town during Cherry Festival doesn't make you a local. At least not by definition of those that remember angle parking on Front Street. Mon, 30 Jun 2008 20:00:52 +0000 http://www.gtherald.com/columns/local_story_183190302.html http://www.gtherald.com/columns/local_story_183190302.html The National Cherry Festival and Michigan State University Extension invite you to escape to a 100-acre research farm in the heart of "Cherry Country." Mon, 23 Jun 2008 20:00:54 +0000 http://www.gtherald.com/columns/local_story_176191246.html http://www.gtherald.com/columns/local_story_176191246.html Brought into our lives two weeks ago, the latest member of the Leiva family is a little bundle of joy. Although the hook jaw doesn't exactly exude happiness. Rather than a sibling, our 6-year-old daughter now shares her room with Betta splendins. Which I think is Latin for he who must swim in circles all day. In other words, her roommate is a fish. Mon, 23 Jun 2008 20:00:52 +0000 http://www.gtherald.com/columns/local_story_176191255.html http://www.gtherald.com/columns/local_story_176191255.html What is that orange gunk in my water? That orange slimy stuff (biofilm) is formed by iron bacteria. Iron bacteria may also cause orange, red or yellow water; slime on the inner walls of the toilet tank or an unpleasant odor to your water. Is it dangerous? Mon, 16 Jun 2008 20:00:56 +0000 http://www.gtherald.com/columns/local_story_169184243.html http://www.gtherald.com/columns/local_story_169184243.html With June in bloom and school out until September, now is the time to pack up the suitcases for summer vacation. Perhaps a holiday across several time zones, or a little closer to home -- as in your living room. In a sign of the depressed economy, or plain depressing times we live in, comes the latest pop culture catch phrase: staycation. Mon, 16 Jun 2008 20:00:51 +0000 http://www.gtherald.com/columns/local_story_169184305.html http://www.gtherald.com/columns/local_story_169184305.html Reports of, and queries about, unusual numbers of dead and dying trees have been making their way to conservation offices for several weeks this spring. The short explanation involves the past three dry growing seasons, but there are many contributing factors. Tue, 10 Jun 2008 18:53:00 +0000 http://www.gtherald.com/columns/local_story_162185339.html http://www.gtherald.com/columns/local_story_162185339.html This Sunday millions of men will receive a tie, gadget or gizmo destined for the back of the closet. For most men, it is the greatest gift in the world -- fatherhood that is. So to every dad, daddy, daddy-o, pops, pa, sir and Old Man, I raise my #1 Dad coffee mug in solidarity. Father's Day is that one calendar holiday when men are forbidden to mow the lawn, encouraged to play golf, and given TV remote carte blanche. Tue, 10 Jun 2008 18:53:00 +0000 http://www.gtherald.com/columns/local_story_162185345.html http://www.gtherald.com/columns/local_story_162185345.html If there ever was a group who appreciates the value and often the luxury of buying fresh vegetables, it is low-income seniors. They have a wealth of wisdom, humor, life experiences and ailments but not a wealth of money. They value Project FRESH.