Nevada County Life

Now that the heat of summer is abating in California, it’s definitely time to get out on foot and enjoy some of the sights in Nevada County.  Grass Valley is lucky to have some excellent walking trails in the Empire Mine State Historic park, just to the east of the city.

There are 3 main entrances to the park:

• Visitor center, with ample parking and access to the main exhibits in the park, including the mining museum and Bourne cottage
• The Union Hill trail area, with parking at the end of Gold Hill Drive
• Penn Gate, on East Empire St, which has parking for cars and a separate area for horse trailers

From Penn Gate the well maintained gravel Hardrock trail (more…)

Ok, so it’s not a real zoo, but judging by the oohs and aaahs I hear when i walk around Muttley’s Pet Emporium it might as well be.  The other day i heard a child shouting Nemo and Dorie over and over, saw a child transfixed by the large eel in a tank, and witnessed another child asking his parents if he could put his hand in the tank with the ray (the parents seemed horrified by the prospect). (more…)

As the temperatures cool in Nevada County its time to do some basic lawn care tasks to help your lawn weather the winter and thrive next year.  Tasks you may want to undertake now include:

• Applying herbicides to broadleaf weeds.
• Correct soil pH.  If your lawn is acidic then apply lime, if alkaline then apply sulphur.
• Remove the thatch from your lawn by raking.
• If the soil is badly compacted then perform core aeration on your lawn.  If need be aerators can be bought or rented.  If you are aerating your lawn you may want to wait to apply lime to it until you have performed the aeration as some studies have shown that lime applied after aeration is 3 times more effective than lime applied before aeration.
• Rake up or vacuum leaves from the lawn so that the lawn does not get smothered over winter.
• Drain the gas tank in the lawn mower after the final mowing of the lawn.  This prevents the gasoline in the tank from turning into a varnish like substance.

NCAOR (Nevada County Association of Realtors) statistics for Residential Real Estate sales in Nevada County show 393 units sold, at an average sales price of $391,489 and a median sales price of $350,000.  For comparison the average and median prices in 2007 were $452,337 and $410,000 respectively.  Check what’s currently for sale on the Nevada County MLS.

From May until November (with the exception of maybe one or two rain events) the sun shines and light breezes blow in Grass Valley and the foothills.  Close on perfect weather to use a clothesline to dry your washing instead of a dryer and help save energy and money too!

Ah yes you say, but when i run the dryer it only costs me 11c a Kilowatt hour so it would cost me more in terms of time and money if I had to hang clothes and wait for them to dry.  Well maybe you do manage to keep your electricity usage within the PGE baseline rate, but what if you don’t?  You can be paying up to 35c a Kilowatt hour if your electricity usage is over 300% of the baseline (check your bill and see!).  That gets expensive in a hurry.

One way to reduce that electricity usage is to dry clothes on a clothesline.  Easy to put up and use, such lines used to be a common sight in many a yard.  Just look around yards in Grass Valley and Nevada City for poles with wheels at the top, wheels that used to carry clotheslines.  Even if your yard does not seem big enough for a line, consider a rotary clothes dryer.  These take up less space and can easily be put up or taken down depending on need.

So save the planet by using less energy, and save some money too, at least for another couple of months in 2008.