Free Tax Assistance Thru April 15

Taxes are complicated. Do you need help? Tax Assistance begins the first week of February and will go right up to April 15th.

Here is your chance to get a rain barrel! Buncombe County Extension Master Gardeners are selling them.

Amigo and Corky need your help. Do you have room in your pasture and your heart for either of these special horses?

When your income or personal situation changes, you should review your insurance coverage.

Calling all bird-watchers -- amateurs and experts, young and old, we need your help!

African violets (Saintpaulia) may well be the most popular of house plants. Which of us has not grown, and probably killed, them at some point?

Buncombe County Parks, Greenways and Recreation Services is pleased to announce the reinstatement of the Community Grants program. The application deadline is March 2, 2009.

It’s one of the maddening ironies of aging: Hair gets thinner where we want it -- on our heads -- and starts sprouting up in places we don’t.

Please bring us your stories and pictures between February 14 and March 21 to be included in our library Story Quilt.

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 Judith Meredith for her Grandma's Old Fashioned Creamy Tomato Soup recipe!

Most of us have experienced back pain at some time in our lives. In fact, back pain is one of the most common reasons people go to the doctor. Visit the Quick Guide to Healthy Living to learn how you can help protect your back. It’s much easier to prevent a back injury than to live with back pain.

• The Basics—The best way to protect your back is to keep your back muscles strong. Try doing back-strengthening exercises a few times a week. Standing and sitting up straight can also help protect your back.
• The Benefits—Strengthening and protecting your back can help you avoid painful back injuries. Back injuries can limit your daily activities—like sitting, standing, and walking.
• Take Action—Start by sitting and standing up straight. Avoid heavy lifting. If you do lift something heavy, bend your legs and keep your back straight. Visit the Quick Guide to find more tips for a healthier back.

This is the time of year when the flu season begins to take its toll. It is also the time of year for carbon monoxide poisoning which can mimic the flu. Carbon monoxide (CO) is especially dangerous for children, older adults and people who have heart or respiratory conditions. It can cause headaches, nausea, fatigue, dizziness, drowsiness, and burning eyes. Prolonged exposure causes more severe symptoms, including confusion, disorientation, convulsions, and unconsciousness. In very severe cases it can be fatal. CO is responsible for half of the fatal poisonings in the US each year.

Carbon Monoxide is produced by incomplete combustion of fuels such as oil, propane, coal, wood, natural gas, gasoline, diesel fuel, charcoal, and kerosene. Faulty or inadequately vented vehicles and appliances that use these fuels - furnaces, fireplaces, woodstoves, charcoal grills, kerosene heaters, gas hot water heaters, gas dryers, etc. can produce deadly amounts of carbon monoxide. During power outages or if cut off from utilities, individuals have resorted to dangerous measures, including bringing generators indoors for power and firing up everything from barbecue grills to portable patio warmers for heat. DO NOT MAKE THIS DEADLY MISTAKE!

If you use combustion appliances in your home, have them inspected annually. Install at least one carbon monoxide detector and check it regularly to make sure it is working properly.

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

Most of us start off the New Year with a handful of resolutions and the hope for making changes in our lives during the next year. If your hands are full with worries instead of resolutions, try problem solving to get a handle on your worries and to move yourself forward towards solutions.

Take these steps with your worries or problems to help you come up with actions to take to make changes.

• Step 1: Write down a specific problem on a piece of paper and then write down all the worries you have about it underneath. Cross off all of the unrealistic worries or dangers.
• Step 2: Write down all the information you have about the problem and remaining list of worries.
• Step 3: Under each worry write down all the solutions to try. For each of the solutions that you come up with, include the consequences, both positive and negative, of choosing that solution.
• Step 4: Decide to do one of the solutions and follow through with it. If it does not work, choose one of the other solutions.

If it seems too overwhelming to try and find solutions to your worries, find a close friend or professional to talk to about them. The perspective of others can sometimes help us deal with problems and worries that appear too big to solve.

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

Consumers need to be vigilant when seeking employment on-line. The Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) continues to receive numerous complaints from individuals who have fallen victim to work-at-home scams.

Victims are often hired to "process payments", "transfer funds" or "reship products." These job scams involve the victims receiving and cashing fraudulent checks, transferring illegally obtained funds for the criminals, or receiving stolen merchandise and shipping it to the criminals.

Other victims sign up to be a "mystery shopper", receiving fraudulent checks with instructions to cash the checks and wire the funds to "test" a company's services. Victims are told they will be compensated with a portion of the merchandise or funds.

Work-at-home schemes attract otherwise innocent individuals, causing them to become part of criminal schemes without realizing they are engaging in illegal behavior.

Job scams often provide criminals the opportunity to commit identity theft when victims provide their personal information, sometimes even bank account information to their potential "employer." The criminal/employer can then use the victim's information to open credit cards, post on-line auctions, register Web sites, etc., in the victim's name to commit additional crimes.

If you have been a victim of Internet crime, please file a complaint at www.IC3.gov.

Planning for the Future of Your Farm Workshop to be held in the Leicester and Sandy Mush Communities. Learn about:

• Maximizing wealth and harmony in the family farm.
• Keeping your land profitable and sustainable for the next generation.
• Strengthening local support for farming and forestry.

February 17, 2009
6 - 9 pm
Newfound Community Center
1346 Newfound Road
Leicester, NC

This program is hosted by Buncombe County Soil and Water Conservation District, American Farmland Trust, and NC Farm Transition Network. For more information, call Buncombe County Soil and Water at 250-4785.