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Just about everyone is ready once spring arrives to break out and get outdoors. Most are either looking forward to some recreation and fun or to start the cleaning process for projects such as gardening and other home hobbies and activities. These are all wonderful things to look forward to as long as you remember that, as you go, there are some things you will want to think about.

If your activity has any type of fire or burning activity, there are precautions you will want to take to protect yourself as well as the surrounding natural environments. Many are surprised at how little it takes to start a raging fire that can damage acres of land and millions of dollars in property. It’s always good to review fire safety and prevention guidelines and adhere to them.

Being careless around a campfire, vegetation burn or in your home are the number one reason for wildfires each year. By taking the time to learn how to prevent a fire spreading during a controlled burn or fireproofing just might stop this trend from spreading.

We can do a lot to help you buy keeping your chimneys clean and safe as well as making sure your dryer vents are free from debris but we can’t be there for everything. Please take a minute and read about fire prevention and help us keep Oregon and the entire Northeast safe in 2011 and beyond.

If you have additional information that you would like for us to share with your neighbors, please send it to me through our contact form. We are your neighbors and live in your community and together we can do more than we can alone.

A few Christmas thoughts from others….

Have you any old grudges you would like to pay,
Any wrongs laid up from a bygone day?
Gather them now and lay them away
When Christmas comes.
Hard thoughts are heavy to carry, my friend,
And life is short from beginning to end;
Be kind to yourself, leave nothing to mend
When Christmas comes.–William Lytle (“When Christmas Comes”)

As long as we know in our hearts what Christmas ought to be, Christmas is.–Eric Sevareid

“At this festive season of the year, Mr Scrooge,” said the gentleman, taking up a pen, “it is more than usually desirable that we should make some slight provision for the poor and destitute, who suffer greatly at the present time. … We choose this time, because it is a time, of all others, when Want is keenly felt, and Abundance rejoices.”–Charles Dickens (A Christmas Carol)

Christmas is not just a time for festivity and merry making. It is more than that. It is a time for the contemplation of eternal things. The Christmas spirit is a spirit of giving and forgiving.–J. C. Penney (“Christmas Thoughts”)

…God’s visit to earth took place in an animal shelter with no attendants present and nowhere to lay the newborn king but a feed trough. … For just an instant the sky grew luminous with angels, yet who saw the spectacle? Illiterate hirelings who watched the flocks of others, “nobodies” who failed to leave their names…–Philip Yancy (“The Glory of Humility” in Christmas Stories for the Heart)

My idea of Christmas, whether old-fashioned or modern, is very simple: loving others. Come to think of it, why do we have to wait for Christmas to do that?–Bob Hope

I sometimes think we expect too much of Christmas Day. We try to crowd into it the long arrears of kindliness and humanity of the whole year. As for me, I like to take my Christmas a little at a time, all through the year. And thus I drift along into the holidays–let them overtake me unexpectedly–waking up some fine morning and suddenly saying to myself: “Why this is Christmas Day!”–David Grayson

“I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year.”–Charles Dickens (A Christmas Carol)

There’s nothing sadder in this world than to awake Christmas morning and not be a child.–Erma Bombeck

A lovely thing about Christmas is that it’s compulsory, like a thunderstorm, and we all go through it together.–Garrison Keillor

Then Bob proposed: “A Merry Christmas to us all, my dears. God bless us!” Which all his family re-echoed. “God bless us every one!” said Tiny Tim, the last of all.–Charles Dickens (A Christmas Carol)