Prep your garden, pick up trash, then have redneck fun
The days feel like spring is here, but the nights are still a little frigid. That scenario makes it a little tough to get the garden and plants under way.
My seed plantings are doing well inside, as there has been adequate sunshine for them. Around our place, we have been pruning and getting rid of some of last year’s leftovers. The bulb plants are popping up all over Elk and Chattaroy. It’s time to get out the liquid fence so our deer friends don’t munch the buds before we get a chance to enjoy them.
•The Master Gardeners meet at Camden Grange on the second Tuesday of the month at 7 p.m. They offer a lot of good information and garden item bartering. Two members, Jim McGinty and Lauri Chamberlin, will be teaching a series of classes on growing and harvesting backyard food at the Newport College Center in Newport, Wash. Classes will be from 6 to 8 p.m. at a cost of $6 each. For further information, call the center at (509) 447-3835.
•April is also the time when Elk-Chattaroy residents go into high gear to clean up all the litter that appears each spring. The 16th annual Litter Round Up takes place April 1 to April 30. Every year, Boy Scout troops, 4-H clubs, church youth groups and many other local organizations and individuals take to our rural roads with white litter bags in hand. The Department of Ecology picks up the bags on designated roads after the Round Up.
The Round Up loop starts at Highway 2 and Elk-to-Highway Road from Miller’s One Stop, east on Elk-to-Highway Road, through downtown Elk to Elk-Chattaroy Road, past Reflection Lake following Elk-Chattaroy Road south to Five Corners, then down Chattaroy Road back to Highway 2. You can also clean up in front of your own place on other roads – just be sure to take the full bags for pick up to one of the roads located on the loop.
To pick up bags for the Chattaroy end of the loop, call Pam Denton at (509) 292-8381. If you need bags for litter pickup on the north end of the loop, call Andrea Culp at the Elk Sentinel at (509) 292-8250.
•After you get some of your yard and garden chores done and the litter is all rounded up, it’s time for a little fun. The Redneck Olympics, sponsored by the Elk Community Park Association and the Elk Music Association, takes place at the Elk VFW Post on April 10. The competition begins at 4 p.m. with three events – the Hillbilly Hare Hurl (stuffed bunnies tossed at a bean bag board); the Redneck Ring Toss (canning jar lids over Deer Antlers); and the BB Beer Can Shoot. There will be prizes and trophies awarded in each event, as well as the Triathlon winner and the “best-dressed” redneck. There will be a taco-nacho bar offering soft- and hard-shell tacos, nachos or taco salad makings.
The park and music associations would like to thank the VFW for hosting the event and April, at Trophies, Unlimited on Market Street in Spokane, for always helping them out with the trophies.