Photos This Week
Winter Flowers and For Sale Signs

Top left:  Primroses are blooming at Wren's Nest.  Top right: Butch and Cheryl Hodgkins have put a For Sale sign in front of their home and art gallery. Bottom: Snow drops are blooming in great profusion behind the Lindens.

 

“For the Love of Paws” Meeting Jan. 29

 From Donna Heffner

For all us animal lovers out there…

I’ve recently become aware through an article in the Independent Herald of a group called “For the Love of Paws” in Scott County.  I think they’ve been meeting for about a year.  I contacted the director, LaDawn Anderson, and I plan to attend the next meeting to see if this is a group that I want to be part of, but so far it sounds good.  If anyone out there would like to accompany me I’d be most happy for the company/support!  The meeting is Tuesday, Jan. 29, at 6:00 pm at the Scott County Office Building (the brick building that’s just past White Rock Baptist Church).  I’m attaching their mission statement, and think the last paragraph gives some hope for an affiliation with Rugby and Morgan County. 

Stray momma cat and babies in Rugby

For the Love of Paws

Mission Statement

•   "For the Love of Paws" mission is to humanely minimize the overpopulation and abandonment of domestic animals in our local community. By confronting this issue, we will offer assistance to animals, their keepers and the local community through education, awareness campaigns, and low cost or near free spaying and neutering to local community citizens with low incomes along with assisting the working class.

•   Our nonprofit organization will initially use a voucher program utilizing our local community veterinarians.

•   With volunteers we will promote a Spaying/Neutering and Pet responsibility Awareness Campaign to educate children.

•   A Pet Pantry and local vet assistance to animal foster parents in conjunction with a pet adoption program is our endeavor.
• Along with professional veterinarian services in our county, we strive to abolish animal abandonment through the associate with facilities in neighboring counties when possible.

 

 

Subaru For Sale

I have decided to sell my trusty 2006 Subaru. Before I take it to trade it in I thought I would let the neighbors know in case anyone is interested. It is a great car. All wheel drive which is great when roads are slippery or when on back roads. Sunroof. Leather interior. Lots of cargo space. Seat heaters!   Asking $11,500.  Contact Rick Murphy 423-319-7842

 BIRTHDAYS 

Jan. 23 - Sara Senft

Jan. 26 - Benita Howell

Jan. 27 - Jessica Erickson

Jan. 28 - Peter Keese

 CALENDAR       

Rugby is in the Eastern time zone, just barely   

Thurs. Jan. 24 – Thomas Hughes Philosophical Night #1 – 7 p.m. EST at Jessie Gully’s house.  Share views on life with your neighbors.

Sat. Jan. 26 - Karaoke at Grey Gables - (Bring your favorite songs and sing away.)  Dinner: 6 p.m. Singing at 7 Eastern Time.  $11 plus tax and gratuity for dinner. Reservations call 423=628-5252

Sat. Feb. 2 – Community Potluck – 7 p.m. at the Rugby Community Room followed by 70th Birthday Party for Jessie Gully

Sat. Feb. 2 - Bunco at Grey Gables - A game to enjoy and meet other people.  Dinner at 7 p.m. Eastern.  $11 plus tax and gratuity for dinner. Reservations call 423-628-5252

Sat. Feb. 9 - Casting meeting for the play about quilts called "Full Circle," from 2-4 p.m. Eastern/1-3 Central, at the Rebecca Johnson Theatre in Rugby's Visitor Centre on Hwy. 52. (Bad weather date is Feb. 10, same times.)

 

Sat. Feb. 9 -  Domino Night at Grey Gables - Bring your dominos and your friends to enjoy dinner and play your favorite game.  $11 plus tax and gratuity.  7 p.m. Eastern Time. Reservations call 423-628-5252

Thurs. Feb. 14 – Valentine’s Dinner at Harrow Road Café. Reservations 423-628-2441.

Sat. Feb. 16 – Dinner and Movie Night at Historic Rugby – Meet John Doe with Gary Cooper and Barbara Stanwyck. Movie starts at 7:30 p.m. EST at Visitor Centre Theatre. Stop in at the Café for dinner before the movie!

Sat. Feb. 16 - Valentine Dinner at Grey Gables.  Bring your sweetie and have dinner.  $20 plus tax and gratuity.  7 p.m. Eastern Time. Reservations call 423-628-5252

Sat. Feb. 23 – State Natural Area Volunteer Project - Japanese spiraea removal – Volunteers should meet at the Massengale Trail parking area at 1 p.m. EST. Gather at noon for lunch at meet at Harrow Road Cafe before the work session. Wear boots suitable for wet areas and bring work gloves.  

 

Thurs. Feb. 28 – Thomas Hughes Philosophical Night #2 – 7 p.m. EST at Amy Barnes’ house.  Share views on life with your neighbors.

Sat. March 9 - Powerpoint talk in Johnson Theatre on Historic Vegetation and Restoration Opportunities on the Cumberland Plateau, followed by an instructed walk to the Massengale Homesite, which is "almost a perfect representation of what is being proposed in many quarters for savannah and open woodlands on the Cumberland Plateau." Talk at 3 p.m. EST, walk at 4.

Sat. March 9 – Dinner and Movie Night – Movie starts at 7:30 p.m. EST at Visitor Centre Theatre. Visit the Café for dinner before the movie!

Ongoing Activities Quilters’ Group - Wednesdays and Saturdays, 2–4 p.m. Eastern, at the Friendly House behind Christ Church Episcopal. Rugby Yoga –Mondays at 8:30 a.m. Eastern, at the Friendly House behind Christ Church Episcopal. Christ Church Episcopal -- Sunday morning services, 11 a.m. Eastern, year round; all are welcomed

Nature Notes

To the Bat Cave, Robin!

I found some disappointing news on the WEB last night.  I learned that the new man-made concrete cave near Bellamy Cave in Montgomery County, TN failed to attract any bats last fall.  This was officially announced on Dec. 12, 2012.  The  cave, the first of its kind to be built anywhere in an effort to save bats from contracting White Nose Syndrome, had been built last year near Bellamy Cave which ordinarily has a population of approximately 256,000 bats over the winter. 

The advantage of the new concrete cave, which had received $300,000 from the Nature Conservancy for the experimental project, would have been that it's free of White Nose Syndrome fungus.  Then after the bats flew outside in spring, the concrete cave could be thoroughly cleaned and disinfected.  Great pains had been taken to make the man-made cave welcoming to bats.  The cave had rough inner surfaces, ledges, and mesh nets that approximately 160,000 bats could cling to, hanging upside down to sleep.  The temperatures were carefully controlled.  Air flow was monitored.  Video cameras would have kept an eye on the bats, and UT and Southern Illinois University students would have collected important data in the cave.  Recordings of ultrasonic bat calls had been played near the artificial cave's entrance to try to attract the bats.  Bat experts conjecture that perhaps the new bat cave was finished too late in the season.  Their hope is that the bats may begin to hibernate in it next fall.

So why are so many people so concerned over the plight of bats in the U.S.?  One reason is that farmers will have to shell out billions of dollars more each year on pesticides if half or more of all our bats become extinct.  I used to think that insect-eating bats mostly ate mosquitoes, but I was wrong.  They mostly eat beetles and other plant-eating insects.  I've recently read that 1000 bats will typically eat 4 tons of insects in one year.  So calculating from that fact, 160,000 bats, the number that the new cave could potentially protect, could eat 640 tons of insects in one year!

The statistics don't sound encouraging for our bats.  Approximately 5 ½ million bats have died of White Nose Syndrome in the U.S. so far.  For some fascinating information and beautiful photographs of bats, try www.batsaboutourtown.com/pages/BatBasics.htm.

 

This Week’s Editors: Rick Murphy and George Zepp