Spring Cleaning

Viruses, worms and trojan horses can wreak havoc on a computer, making it perform painfully slow and nearly unuseable. If your system begins to behave like this, the first thing you should do is run a virus scan followed by a spyware scan. If your virus or spyware scan reports more than a few compromises, perhaps your system may be in need of a good ol' spring cleaning - reformat your hard drive. After many uninstalls of software, virus compromises, etc., your system gets bogged down.

HARRODSBURG - Spring cleaning includes cleanup week for residents of Harrodsburg. City Commissioner Kevin Perkins announced cleanup week will be next week, April 17-21. Garbage customers are asked to put the items to be picked up during cleanup week at the curb of their homes. Not all household garbage will be picked up, Perkins said Monday at the Harrodsburg City Commission meeting. They include appliances with Freon, wire, tires, paint and batteries. Tree limbs must be cut in sections no longer than 3 feet.

Spring cleaning will take on a whole new meaning in Boyle County during the week of March 23-29. Two major events in the local war on litter will occur. One is Commonwealth Cleanup Week, an annual statewide program, and the other is the beginning of a new year-round local litter pickup program called HELP - Health Environment Litter Patrol. Boyle Countians will be able to participate in the statewide cleanup next week and the local HELP program year-round on a family and neighborhood basis.

One man's trash is not always another man's treasure. At least it isn't for Chuck Rowe, interim corps administrator for the Danville Salvation Army. To Rowe, trash is trash, and it has become a real problem at the army's drop boxes for donated items. "Some people are using our drop boxes like they use the (solid waste) convenience centers or Dumpsters," Rowe says. "They are dumping their trash from their kitchens and other places in the home into those boxes. "When I tell people that we're finding trash in our drop boxes, they think I'm referring to trashy sofas or trashy clothes," he says.

Our farmers, growers and gardeners are getting ready for the 2012 season. It's nice to see the gardens and fields being turned in preparation for planting. Only four more weeks remaining until the farmers market opens.  Daylight Savings Time is here. Time to come out of winter dormancy and re-energize. Spring cleaning, household repairs, readying decks and porches for outdoor get-togethers as well as mowing the lawn are now the focus.  Our vineyard has been pruned but there are remaining chores to do up there.

It all came about with my first viewing of a red-breasted robin slurping up a worm out of my garden. This happened on Saturday, Feb. 19, and I was excited because I knew there would be other signs before long.   Sure enough, the tulips were well above the ground and letting me know it wouldn’t be long before they would be in full bloom of beautiful pink, purple, yellow and white along my sidewalk in the backyard. Just the thought of this sight made me decide to change the wreath on my front door and sit a spring flowerpot on my front doorstop.

Nice weekend! There is still a little chill in the air but the trees, grass and flowers know it’s time to grow. Everything is leafing out and many of the fruit trees are in blossom. The birds are nesting and our bees have been out in force gathering pollen everywhere they could for the past few days. We are trying to finish up household projects before we get too busy with gardening and the Farmers Market. I need to finish painting inside and do some spring cleaning. I don’t mind painting walls and trim but moving everything in order to do it is a chore.

The Leeds Center for the Arts is preparing for a gala event in June, and is having a spring cleaning sale. The center will have costumes, props, furniture, fixtures and “a little bit of everything” at the sale, according to a press release. The sale is cash only, and will be 9 to 11 a.m. inside the theater at 37 N. Main St. Saturday, April 30.

Volunteers with Asbury College's Creation Care Group put on their gloves and got to work last week cleaning one of Wilmore's most littered creek beds. After several three-hour sessions, the group removed eight truck loads of trash, 43 tires and several bags of recyclable materials. Included in the trash items were rusted pipes, mattress springs and other metal debris. Kayla Stephens, a student at Asbury College, joined four other people Saturday morning to participate in the final day of trash pick-up.

Volunteers will be out in force next week to spring clean District 7 highways. The Transportation Cabinet announces that Adopt-a-Highway Spring Clean Week will be March 18-24. “The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet appreciates the efforts of our Adopt-a-Highway volunteers who help keep our highways and communities beautiful and litter-free,” Transportation Secretary Mike Hancock said. Nearly 800 groups participate in Kentucky's Adopt-a-Highway program, which was established in 1988.