Below is a letter to the Editor of our local paper my wife wrote about our commissioners and the trying to block the vote for the sell of beer and Alcohol in our county. We are one in 3 counties left in the state of North Carolina that does not benefit from the taxes gained in the sell of alcohol. Five miles away at the state line, sells are available thus the consumption of alcohol is occurring regardless.... We get the trash They get the cash! As of yesterday we were lacking only 100 signatures to force a vote in September. This letter helped to push the vote forward. It was published in the Clay County Progress May 14,2009

Officials Could Save tax Dollars by Supporting Vote

I used to go to the commissioners meetings every month. Last Thursday, I was reminded why I stopped going, as two of our commissioners once again proved to the people of Clay County that they only believe in their own personal agendas and give no consideration to the will of the people. Over two years ago I pointed out to the commissioners that there was a gap in their subdivision ordinance that they have no protection for private roads that lead to subdivisions. They gave their usual canned statement. “We’ll look into it” Nothing has been done.

Now fast forward to last Thursday. They were asked by a packed room of citizens to allow a vote for alcohol and Mr. Hub Cheeks and Mr. Doc Sellers both said no matter what, they will not allow the people of this county to vote on the alcohol ordinance unless they are forced by the people. If they so chose to allow the people to vote we could avoid the expense of a special election. The question could be put on the ballot next fall in the general election but since they refuse to do so, we now will have to have a special election, paid for by YOUR tax dollars. And the vote WILL occur if not this fall, eventually. Because we will not give up on our rights until we have them.

Between these two commissioners, and certain business and churches that have forbid their employees or congregations to sign a petition for the right to vote; our constitutional rights have been thwarted. And it is no fault but those citizens who refuse to sign, not because of some personal conviction, but out of fear of retaliation from their church or employer.

Those who know me know I have no trouble speaking my mind, which is why I have such a difficult time understanding how anyone would allow another person to take their rights, as an American, away from them. It is beyond my comprehension. We are nearing the deadline to get the signatures. I have spoken to enough citizens in this county who have not signed due to fear. Their signatures would push this effort through.

The fact is: while the communities around us are flourishing, our county is dying. Except for an increase of property taxes and a substandard school for my children. It makes no difference to me financially if this passes or not.

It is quite clear that education is low on the agenda for the commissioners of this county. But for those of you who are allowing for someone or something to influence your own beliefs, SHAME ON YOU! The future of this county really does lie in your hands.

Keep in mind the main people in opposition of this vote. One is a pastor who does not even live in this county and whose church takes up at least 6 square blocks of our downtown area, which also does not pay taxes in our community. The other, owns a piece of property on our scenic highway overflowing with junky trailers open for all to see. Are these really the influences you want to speak for our community? I’d think twice about that.

Our problems as a country are far from over. And if you ask me I think there are even harder times ahead. But for me, business wise, things are picking up. I have had several closings in the past few months. And more under contract.

The downside is banks still aren't loaning, only those with cash seem to close. And it is taking me about four times the amount of milage and time to get something under contract. It is a buyers market yet some sellers still refuse to come down off their price, making it hard to come to an agreement.

But those of us in the market for any amount of time know that there are ebbs and flows in this business. Folks move, folks need homes. we just have to be grateful for the good times and hang on until they return again. How are things for the rest of you?

One of the up sides of the down economy is the slow down of development in rural areas like ours. In our area, growth was so rapid and greed so rampant, that beautiful family farms were being chopped up into 3/4 acre lots in an attempt to extract as much profit as possible from the land. This practice was destroying the beauty of our area at an alarming rate, and many developers found themselves holding properties no one wanted, after all most people move here to get away from the crowed city, why would you want a neighbor so close you could practically shake hands from your bathroom windows?

So, for here anyway, the downturn has been good in the sense that we can hopefully save some of our beautiful farm land and horse farms from being a causality of a growing economy. With that in mind if we could now go one step further and turn those farms into green farms we could become a Mecca for organics. Centrally located 2 hours from 5 major cities, we can offer freshly grown produce that is normally shipped across the county from places like California and Oregon.

So how exactly do you turn your farm or garden into a green one? Let me offer a few pointers.

Contolling Pest

One of the number one issues you have to deal with when going green is controlling all kinds of insects without insecticide. Did you know that when you use pesticides that you kill off the beneficial insects too? And that the bad insects can reproduce 3 times quicker than beneficials? So it is a vicious cycle... meaning you have to use more and more insecticide to keep the bad bugs at bay as less beneficials are around to eat the bad bugs.

Each year North American homes use approximately 136 million pounds of pesticides on lawns and gardens, and in the home. In fact, homeowners use about three times the amount of pesticides as farmers. Most wildlife pest poisonings, and most surface water contamination from pesticides, come from single-family homes. Natural pest control is less expensive than buying and applying pesticides, and it's safer for your garden, your family, the natural wildlife and the environment.

Since we have horses, one of our major issues is flies. I can not stand the thought of rubbing insecticide on my animals. You might as well just inject poison into their veins. For over five years we have used Spalding Fly Predators. These are tiny beneficial insects that eat the fly larva in the manure and prevent flies from ever starting to build up. You add additional Fly Predators on a monthly basis throughout the spring and summer months, you can keep the pest fly population suppressed to the point they're never any sort of nuisance. The fly predators come by mail and you sprinkle the eggs on fresh manure piles. They do a great job and best of all there are NO flies! .... Well very few. No longer do our horses feel miserable with their eyes covered in flies. And we can sit out on the patio with a meal and not spend the time swatting at our food, it is truly a pleasant experience. We have enjoyed a fly free farm for years.

Another pest for horses and people alike are horse flies. I could not stand to see huge welts on my animals from being bitten. That's when I came across the Epps Biting Fly trap (Ironically this is my wife's maiden name but no relation) This is the most incredible non pesticide trap I have ever seen. When we first bought it I thought, what a waste of money, then two days later when I checked the trap I saw (not kidding here) 1000's of horse flies! It is simple to use, can be used year after year and only uses soap and water.

Natural Garden Pest Control

The easiest way to prevent insect damage in your garden is to discourage them from coming in the first place. A healthy garden is the best defense. It does take more of your time but if you remind yourself that you, your family and the environment will be better for it consider it time well spent. So how do you do this? First minimize insect habitat by clearing the garden area of debris and weeds which are breeding places for insects. Build healthy, organic soil by using natural composting methods such as compost from fall leaves, glass clippings aged horse or chicken manure (from an organically kept source).Till your garden early before the last frost, that will bring up the grubs from the soil and the last frost will kill them. Then cover the tilled soil with black plastic for two weeks. This will heat the soil, killing more insects and weed seeds in the process.

When planting inter-plant and rotate crops. Insect pests are often plant specific. When plantings are mixed, pests are less likely to spread throughout a crop. Rotating crops each year is a common method to avoid re-infestation of pests which have over-wintered in the bed. As your crops matures inspect your plants daily and pick off any bad bugs you see. Get a good bug book to be sure you identify your bugs and eggs. Sometimes a potato beetle larva can be confused with a lady bug larva. Know the difference and check under the leaves wiping out the eggs of the beetle but leaving the lady bugs. I put bad bugs I find in a jar, once I have collected enough I add soapy water and make a spray out of them to spray around the plants. It keeps the other bugs away. There are many natural sprays and recipes you can find online Jerry Baker's website is a great place to start.

Have a Japaneese Beatle problem or moles?

Use Milky spores. Milky Spores are a naturally occurring host specific bacterium. It targets and discriminately works to attack the white grubs of Japanese Beetles. Moles come to your yard to eat the grubs, no grubs the moles will move on to find a food source.

Other pesticide methods work well too.

Get some bat boxes to put around, Bats can eat more than 1,000 mosquito‐sized insect in one hour. Bird houses are good too, but keep in mind birds also will eat your crop.

When planting a garden I also plant extra, which allows for some crop loss due to animals or insects. That way I feel I am contributing to nature and getting plenty for my family.

So there are just a few tips to be green while growing your greens this summer.

Happy Gardening!!!!!!!

I know a lot of chatter today will be about the Oscars! Personally I've never been one to be star struck. The kind of stars I care about are of the astronomy kind like Sirius, Pollux and Castor.

For the first time ever, Clay County North Carolina is having to deal with a problem they never saw coming, light pollution. Having only one grocery store and one fast food restaurant for many years, excessive lights had never been a problem. Our skies were as dark as they could get and we enjoyed viewing the stars anywhere in town. Then much to my dismay our town thought allowing a McDonalds in our community was good thing. So good in fact they waved every sign ordinance in place to protect our community from the very thing I am talking about, turning our community into an eyesore of unregulated signage.

With the McDonalds came a huge gas station with blinding canopy lights that can be seen from miles away. My wife fought to keep this from happening but like most small towns, the locals were too afraid to speak up about what was happening to their community. People would verbally tell me that they agreed with my wife's letters to the paper but still no one would help in the fight. Since this has happened a brave few have spoken up about how serious light pollution can be and that our community needs to wake up now before the glow becomes so large that we, like many communities would no longer be able to see the stars. So far this uproar has seemed to fall on deaf ears.

The problem remains how do you create ordinances that don't take away private property rights but protects an area from thoughtless development? One such ordinance that is being passed by many North Carolina mountain communities is ridgetop laws. A well placed homesite should blend into the existing area. This is especially important with ridgetop homesite's, which can either be unobtrusive or eyesores. Some counties have adopted a local ridgetop ordinance. Contact your county planning department to verify if your county has one. North Carolina's "Ridgetop Law" restricts development of buildings 40 feet or greater in height on identified, protected ridges. Each county has maps identifying which ridgetops are protected. Counties that have their own ridge top ordinance regulate, rather than prohibit, building on ridge tops. These structures must receive prior approval from city or county officials.

The beauty of the stars over our Blue Ridge mountains is something we need to consider when introducing outdoor lighting into the environment. The spread of light pollution from our towns into the countryside is of growing concern not only to astronomers but to all of us who inherit this precious view. In the considerations for a mountain home you should check out the view of a prospective piece of property at night as well as daytime. If you have neighbors with security lights that glare into your homesite, you may wish to consider if this will bother you. A friendly inquiry to the neighbors may reveal that they would be willing to shield them or may not. If they are not willing to do so, then you may be out of luck. Most counties and towns have no lighting ordinance. Also, if the light is above you on the hillside there may be little that can be done short of turning it off. If you are fortunate enough to have a dark sky site you should plan to do your part to keep it that way for you and your neighbors. If you want outdoor lighting you should consider whether the security light from the utility company really is a good idea or not. In most rural areas of the Blue Ridge Mountains it is difficult for a vandal or thief to even figure out that your home is there, much less how to get to it. So why put up a beacon to attract them in the first place?

Recent federal research has shown no correlation between increased lighting and crime prevention. it is more perception than reality. If you want some lighting it is best to put in your own fixtures, with switches so that they can be turned off. Lighting that is controlled by motions sensors that only turn it on when it is needed are even better. The lights should be pointed down from the sky, toward the ground, and not point to your neighbors. If you or your neighbors do have a standard "dusk to dawn" light, supplied by the utility company, it can be fitted with a shield to direct the light so that none goes above its horizon a so called "full cut off" fix. There are aluminum "sky caps" that replace the plastic refractors and direct all the light you are paying for downward. They are manufactured by the Hubbell Electric Company and by GE Lighting Systems, and are attached by clips to the standard light fixture. The capped fixture actually puts more light on the ground at all distances from the pole than the uncapped lamp. If it looks dimmer directly, consider that this is good! When you see the bulb directly it causes your eye to shut down and you are left with reduced visual capability to see the lighted scene. Sadly, many people incorrectly associate such glare with good lighting- exactly opposite of what it is.

For more background on the subject of good, shy friendly lighting check out the web site for International Dark Sky Association or North Carolina IDA.

Finally, remember to go outside and enjoy what you have protected: the wonderful starry Blue Ridge Mountain skies!

Today Obama will explain the details of the plan to help troubled homeowners. The question remains will it help? And what does it mean for those who pay their mortgages? Or is this just a mad tea party in a fantasy land?

It seems the plan will only assist certain people and leave out others like families in danger of losing their homes because of job loss. Such families will not be able to qualify because they wont earn enough income to pay even lower mortgage payments.

For those that do qualify here's how it would work. For a $250,000 mortgage at 7.5% interest, the borrower is currently making a payment of $1,750 per month. If the rate is brought down to 5%, the new payment would be $1,350 per month -- a savings of $400 per month. The cost to the federal government, (the tax payer) assuming a 50% match by the servicer: $200. For $1 million, the federal government could reduce the rate for 50,000 borrowers. By comparison, the same $1 million might purchase a handful of mortgages, or guarantee a few hundred.

Other remedies in the plan could include incentives for lenders and investors to reduce the principal on a mortgage though homeowners could be required to repay the reduction or interest rate subsidies at the end of the term of the loan or when they sell their home. In theory, the back-end payments would be covered by a rise in the homes value over time.

The question remains just who would qualify for this service and would it really make a difference? As nearly half of all struggling homeowners who have already received mortgage modifications from their lenders have fallen back into the foreclosure process. Would it not make more sense to allow lower interest loans to everyone? Or a fast track, low fee refinance method to free up cash in the middle income families so they could get out and spend again thus stimulating the economy?

Maybe it's just me but it seems the congress is using spoons to bail a sinking ship. Our industry needs some REAL incentives to get people to buy. We need to reward those who have been responsible in their loans, and yes help those who have had hardship such as illness, death of spouse, or lost their job, they are the ones who should be given the chance to stay in their homes not those who had no business buying a home in the first place.

The Foreclosure fiasco is just that, a failure that was created by congress in 1977, Called the Community Reinvestment Act. The bill was intended to help first time home buyers. What it did after riskier, unwise amendments and regulatory rulings added to the bill in the Clinton era, was create subprime mortgages that put people in homes that could not afford them. Today, congress is just adding fuel to the fire. And it is our industry that will suffer.

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