Indian Creek Newsletter

January, 2007

on the web at frontiernet.net/~indiancreek

compiled by Helen Mogill, hmogill@frontiernet.net, 728-2048

Annual Indian Creek Association Meeting The annual Indian Creek Homeowners’ Association meeting will be 7:00 pm, Tuesday, January 23, 2007, at the Towanda Community Building.     The agenda will include, but is not limited to: Introduction of new board members Treasurer’s report Water report Ground chairman report Appropriate use of common areas Please contact association president, Brian Krause (email briankrause@frontiernet.net), with additional items you would like discussed at the annual meeting.
		Towanda Scouting Organization’s Pancake and Sausage Breakfast Saturday, February 10 - 8:00am to 2:30pm, at the school Advance tickets: Adults: $4.50, K-12: $2:50, pre-school: free At the door: Adults: $5, K-12: $3, pre-school: free Contact Scouts, Read's, Grain Co., 728-2631 or any scout for tickets, Advance Meat Orders may be made through Mike Potts, 728-2384, or any Cub or Boy Scout. · Whole hog, 2.95/lb: o bulk sausage, 2 lb packages; o links, 5 lb; back ribs, 5 lb; o bacon, 1 lb packages · Italian sausage, 2.95/lb: o bulk, 2 lb packages; o links, 5 lb packages · Chicken breasts, boneless/skinless, 5 lb packages, 4.00 / lb
Girl Scout Cookies Be on the lookout for your local girl scouts! Cookie sales have begun and will run through Jan.20. Cookies will be delivered Feb. 22 through Mar.9. If you would like cookies and don't know a girl scout, you may contact Becky Domkuski, troop leader at 728-2964. Girl Scouts will be having a bake sale at the Boy Scout Pancake and Sausage Supper on Feb.10. However, cookies will not be available for sale on that day.
Nature Club The next Nature Club meeting will be “Inspired by Nature”. Linda and Terry Garbe have used colors, shapes, and images from Nature as inspiration for their art work. Nature shows up in Terry stained glass work, in Linda's beadwork and wall hangings, and in the extreme cakes they have made. On February 15th, they will demonstrate how they created this Forest Floor Cake. We will meet at their home at 15 Bent Tree Lane at 7:00 pm.
Library News 301 S Taylor St 309-728-2176 Towanda, IL 61776 http://towandalibrary.org/ Learn how to develop your own website: Library volunteer and computer advocate Helen Mogill will offer a "how to develop a website" class during the month of February, which is computer instruction month at the library. Helen will show you how to create your own website using Microsoft Word. Please call the library at 728-2176 and ask to speak to Mary Williams. Class times will be arranged after people register. Classes will be held at the Towanda District Library on the library's public Internet computers. Familiarity with Microsoft Word is required. Learn Microsoft Word: Library director Mary Williams will also offer a beginning and intermediate word processing class using Microsoft Word (Office 2003) at the library during the month of February. Classes will be held: Tues., Feb. 13, 2-3:00pm, Thurs., Feb. 15, 5-6pm for beginning word processing and Tues., Feb. 20, 2-3:00pm or Thurs., Feb.22, 5-6:00pm for intermediate word processing. Participants must register by calling 728-2176. Class size is limited to four each day. Towanda Reads The next book for Towanda Reads is The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck. The book discussion will be held in March – date and time to be announced in the next newsletter. From amazon.com: “One of the greatest and most socially significant novels of the twentieth century, Steinbeck's controversial masterpiece indelibly captured America during the Great Depression through the story of one Oklahoma farm family, the Joads. Intensely human yet majestic in its scale and moral vision, tragic but ultimately stirring in its insistence on human dignity, The Grapes of Wrath (1939) is not only a landmark American novel, but it is as well an extraordinary moment in the history of our national conscience.”… “ For this marvel of observation and perception, [Steinbeck] won the Pulitzer in 1940.”
Unit 5 Public Meetings Planning for Growth Progress Report Wednesday, January 10, 2007 at Normal Community High School – 7:00 pm Tuesday, January 16, 2006 at Normal West High School – 7:00 pm.
Towanda Area Historical Society Entering information about historical items into a database is a major effort at this time. Volunteers who have as little as an hour or two a week and some computer knowledge are needed to enter data provided on description forms; training will be provided. Additionally, assistance in sorting the accumulated artifacts and scanned materials is being sought. PLEASE contact Gail Ann Briggs, 728.2187 rgbriggs@frontiernet.net - or - Mary Pasek Williams 728.2176 Audio interviews will be conducted beginning in January. Suggestions of people to interview are welcome! We also continue to need any historical items you have that document our area's history, which includes Indian Creek and Lamp Lighter subdivisions, Merna and of course, all of Towanda and surrounding farms. We would like to borrow these items for digital scanning and identification. These items will be accessible on the Internet in a couple of months for people doing historical research. Thank you from all of us interested in local history! Development of the website - www.towandahistory.org - is in the planning stages. Towanda PTO Annual Chili Supper and Basket Raffle Thursday, February 15 – 5:00-7:30pm, at the school Chili, hot dog, dessert and drink: Mark your calendars for Towanda Elementary's Annual Chili Supper and Basket Raffle. Ticket sales are scheduled to begin 2/1/07. Tickets for the supper and basket raffle can be purchased from any student, at the school office or at the door that night. PTO is hard at work to make this a great community event. We hope to see you there!
	Subdivision Tractor Usage After the last snow, a couple of residents of Indian Creek asked if they could use the subdivision tractor to plow out their drives. While the tractor is very good for mowing and the occasional light use of the end loader for moving gravel or dirt; in its current configuration, it cannot move snow around much less move itself. With the turf tires and light weight differential, it is just not heavy enough for snow removal. At this time the tractor is being stored in Jim Kellenberger's shed. It will be parked back in its usual place in late March or early April, weather permitting.
Towanda 4th of July Planning Monday, January 22, 2007 at Community Building - 7:00 p.m. Open to everyone.
HCE The February meeting of the Towanda Home & Community Education (HCE) will be held at the Towanda Community Building at 7:30 p.m. on Monday, February 12. Colleen Hepner will be giving the program on Environmental Friendly Cleaning Tips. The Fact Find will be a local update on "What do you do with stuff?" Robin Pearson and Judy Rollins will be hostesses for the evening. To learn more about this meeting or the Towanda HCE, call Cindy Kelley, 663-4796. The McLean County HCE is sponsoring a Cultural Enrichment contest. See more details at the HCE website at www.mcleanhce.org. Bring entries to the Extension office on January 22 at 8:30 am. On Saturday, February 24, there will be a quilt workshop at the McLean County Extension Office Auditorium at 402 N. Hershey Road, Bloomington. You will be making a patriotic wall hanging or pillow top. Carmen Schnitker and Marjorie Martin will be leading the workshop, 9 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Bring a sack lunch. Call Carmen, 379-3141 or Marjorie, 452-5734 to register and/or receive more details.
Red Carpet Corridor Weekend Event - and Spring Area Garage Sales A coalition of communities and private business have developed the "Red Carpet 90 Mile Family Fun Experience" to be held May 5 and 6, 2007. From Towanda to Joliet the weekend will feature a self-guided driving tour of towns and rural areas along the "Mother Road" - Route 66. Historic sites, flea markets, hand-crafted items, museums, displays and demonstrations, car shows, good country cooking, antiques, hospitality, entertainment and garage sales are just some of the activities. Usually our Towanda Area Spring Garage Sales are held in April. In 2007, Easter is April 8. PLEASE LET ME KNOW whether you want to hold your garage sale with this larger event, or, if Thu-Sat April 12-14 or April 19-21 is desired. If I don't hear that an April date is preferred I will plan on coordinating sales for May 5-6. Thank you! Gail Ann Briggs 728.2187 or rgbriggs@frontiernet.net.
Hedgeapple (Osage Orange) Most of this information is from http://hedgeapple.com/ If you have been walking in the woods, along the streets of the subdivision – or even your own yard, you have seen the ubiquitous hedgeapple or osage-orange. When Lewis and Clark set off to explore the Louisiana Territory, the first tree they sent back east from St. Louis was the osage-orange. Native to a relatively small area in eastern Oklahoma and portions of Missouri, Texas, and Arkansas, it had been used for centuries by Native Americans for war clubs and bows. The name Osage comes from the Osage tribe, who lived near - and used - the trees. During the 19th and early 20th centuries the tree was planted throughout the United States probably more than any other tree species in North America. Before the invention of barbed wire in the 1880s, settlers in the Plains states planted the tress in rows around their properties to make living fences. The tree's fruits contain a chemical that has been proven to repel many insects that get into homes: cockroaches, crickets, spiders, fleas, box elder bugs, and ants. The chemical does not kill the insects but for some reason effectively repels them from the area where the fruit is located. Whole ripened fruit left sitting on the floor in places where insects are a problem will usually repel pests for up to two months. Squirrels and deer find the fruit hard to resist in their natural habitat Squirrels spend considerable time working their way into the pithy core to consume the seeds contained inside.