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Where do my tax dollars go? Who do I call about a junk car? Find the answers to these questions and more in Buncombe Life - available in the Asheville Citizen-Times on October 22 and online NOW.

If you need an ambulance, you should call 911. Could they find you? You can make sure!

This year’s garden school, presented by Extension Master Gardener volunteers of Buncombe County, will be held at the Folk Art Center, near Asheville.

Make sure your pet is up to date on its shots! Don't miss out on these low-cost shot clinics! Rabies is just $6!

Come to any of the three daily sessions to hear local tellers and library staff spin yarns and share stories.

The signs of the season are not just the cooler days, but also the multicolored Asian Lady beetles congregating on the sides of the house, porch or garage in search of a location to overwinter.

Learn more about the City of Asheville’s plans to use EPA Brownfields funding to help revitalize the River District.

Please consider giving a home to one of these wonderful pets! The shelter is okay, but I would love to have a home of my own!

Congratulations to Jessie Austin of Asheville for her Mummy Cupcakes recipe!

Goblins and ghosties and ghoulies, oh my! In a few weeks, scary, cute, creative, and comical creatures of all kinds will take to the streets threatening tricks and demanding treats.

While it is tempting to give out treats as sweet as the children behind those cute masks, consider this. The average child under 12 eats almost 50 pounds of sugar a year! Imagine just how much of that is carried around in a plastic pumpkin on October 31st.

This year, consider handing out one of these non-food treats. You'll be surprised at how many of those pirates, fairy princesses, and super heroes smile when they see what they have received!

• Temporary Tattoos - you can buy sheets of these and cut them apart for an inexpensive treat
• Small containers of Play-Doh
• Small bottles of bubbles
• Colorful pens or pencils
• Stickers (you can also cut apart sticker sheets)
• Erasers
• Plastic rings
• Small boxes of crayons
• Pencil toppers
• Halloween balloons - be sure not to give these to unsupervised small children who may choke on them
• Glow bracelets

Larger, less expensive non-food treats often are not found with the candy, but with party supplies. Another place to look is with school or art supplies. Check your local warehouse or discount store to find other cool treats you can buy in bulk.

Early voting locations for the 2008 General Election will be open from October 16 through November 1.

Early Voting Locations

If you know a section of the river - be it a creek, a stream or a tributary or the main stem of any river in the French Broad River watershed that is in need of care and attention - and litter pick up - call RiverLink at 252-8474, ext 118 or ext 110.

If you would like to adopt a creek stream, or part of a river...

RiverLink will put up a sign with your name or the name of your family, neighborhood, business or club letting everyone know that YOU ADOPTED THIS SECTION OF STREAM!

All you have to do is pledge to do 2 clean-ups a year. We will provide, bags, gloves, pickup sticks - all the equipment you and your Adopt-a-Stream Team will need.

For more details visit www.riverlink.org or call Rachel Doebber at 828-252-8474, ext 118 or RiverLink the first Wednesday of every month at 170 Lyman Street at the Warehouse Studios, at 5:30 pm for an overview of all of our volunteer projects. Get River Linked and help your community to stay clean.

How does maintaining a healthy lawn contribute to protecting water quality? Turf grass is the best material for controlling erosion, filtering runoff water and slowing water movement. The grass can do its job better if it has a good healthy root system. And the lawn will come through drought without irrigating much better if it has healthy roots.

Fall is a good time to give the lawn some attention. If soil is compacted, using a core aerator (not a spiker) in the fall will loosen the soil, allowing better penetration of rainfall and enabling the root system to expand during the winter and spring growing seasons. After aerating is an excellent time to apply lime and phosphate according to soil test recommendations, as well as the application of slow release nitrogen. Materials will enter the soil more readily and risk of runoff is reduced.

For more information, contact Buncombe County Cooperative Extension at 255-5522.

It may be October, but you still need to keep and eye on your plants.  Make sure to check your plants for unwanted insects:

• Ornamentals: Check evergreens for bagworms. Half of those bags contain eggs which will hatch in the spring, so remove and destroy them. Spruce mites are cool weather mites that become active now. Shake a branch vigorously over white paper to check for them.
• Vegetables: Aphids and several species of caterpillars can be a problem on broccoli, cabbage, collards and other cabbage family plants.

For more information, call Buncombe County Cooperative Extension at 255-5522.