Home

A striking focal point for even the most landlocked yard or garden, this do-it-yourself lighthouse project features a working light, just like the real thing. With its dramatic paint scheme and cheerful glow, the project creates a welcoming beacon for any home port. The lighthouse requires just a single sheet of exterior plywood, plus a 3-foot piece of dimensional lumber and a hardwood dowel. Topped with a solar-powered garden light (available at most home and garden centers), the project requires no wiring or electricity.

Few flowers provide as much joy — and instant karma — as the homegrown sunflower. Simple, straight and very yellow, it shoots up quickly, tilting its massive self this way and that, following the sun like some lumbering coquette.

With warmer weather, more and more birds will be making pit stops in your backyard. Put out a few tasty morsels and they'll be flocking to you. The sun will continue to rise earlier each day – by one or two minutes – until summer solstice. According to Gary Blevins, president of the local Audubon chapter, and one of Spokane's local birding experts, "Near sunrise is the best time to watch birds in spring, and right now, that's between 6 and 7 a.m."

Remember how much fun it was when you were a child to buy a box of cereal knowing there was an extra treat inside? The cereal was sweet, but that toy or trinket or special little gift inside made it taste all the better. That's how it will feel this weekend when Custer's Spring Antique and Collector's Sale pulls into the Spokane County Fair and Expo Center.

Dear Collector, I gave my little sister this Santa bank many years ago, and would like to know if it has any value?

Patrick Cancilla had a pretty good setup. His three-bedroom, 1,900-square-foot Dalton Gardens, Idaho, ranch home sat on a two-acre lot and gave him plenty of room to live and work from home.

When Elizabeth Thompson returned to the Inland Northwest after eight years on the East Coast, she brought with her a love of urban living. The Coeur d'Alene native enjoyed the energy and excitement that accompanied life in New York and Washington, D.C., but Thompson says after nearly a decade away from home she missed her family and friends. Three years ago Thompson returned to her roots, and in January last year purchased a studio unit in the Jefferson Auto Lofts, a former warehouse converted into a residential development in downtown Spokane.

A lot of people want to be a veterinarian at some point during their childhood. Most of them get over it. I did. By the time I was 12 years old, I had decided, instead, to be a professional cellist as a cover for actually being an international spy. I returned to the idea of becoming a veterinarian during college. (A lack of musical talent was not the only reason.)

The last weekend in April, members of the Pacific Northwest Alpaca Association will join other alpaca breeders from the Northwest to exhibit their animals at the Kootenai County Fairgrounds. There will be 100 farms represented and more than 400 exquisite alpacas on display. Though they are becoming more common in our country, alpacas are quite unique animals. There are currently about 15 Alpaca farms in the Kootenai County area.

I'm still fairly new to this area and have a question about azalea plants that I received in February. They have bloomed beautifully and are just now fading, but new growth seems to be appearing. I have a shade bed with ferns and a rhododendron, can I safely plant these azalea plants there also? Can I do it now or is it too early? Dana Malone 

Nature – we're all a part of it. Spring is a fitting time of year to celebrate Earth Day. Seemingly overnight, green folds burst from moist earth and bare branches. Sunlight streams through rain clouds. Winds whip cold and fierce, then change to a gentle caress. Birds sing love ballads and dive after mates.

With our basic spring cleanup done, its time to celebrate spring by taking advantage of local gardening events, festivals and classes: Time for Garden of the Month

Used horseshoes, broken rakes, old saw blades and discarded transmission gears. Where most folks see junk, 14-year-old Cody Campbell sees art – and maybe a trip to Hawaii. The teen is the owner and operator of Junk by a Punk, a business his older brother, Trevor, started three years ago, and recently handed down to him. Campbell, his cousin Kyndra Paulson, and friend Joey Wallace create "repurposed metal yard art" in a shop behind the family's South Hill home.

Denel Lang, a bubbly Spokane teen, received a big surprise for her 16th birthday last week. The athletic, blond-haired, blue-eyed teenager couldn't believe it when she heard her parents' plan for her birthday gift. Lang was going to get a large, newly made-over bedroom for her birthday. When she heard the news, her excitement spilled over with an exclamation of "That is SO cool!"