Backyard News, 04.30.09

This last day of April finds my inbox busting at the seams, so here are a few tidbits to begin the process of clearing out my pile of stuff:

* Gazette congrats go out to the Harrisburg Christian School boys’ track and field team for winning a record-breaking fifth straight Commonwealth Christian Athletic Conference title Tuesday at Messiah College. The team is coached by Bob King of Linglestown.

* The house fire in the Colonial Road corridor near I-81 that made big news Tuesday evening has been ruled accidental.

* Earlier this week I mentioned that I wasn’t going to comment on the county judicial race because it's nothing more than a beauty contest. Well, another Lower Paxton resident seems to have the same opinion, and he used some humor to make his point in a letter-to-the-editor that appeared in The Patriot-News.

* Jeff Rodgers of Linglestown, a junior at Dickinson College, is spending this semester studying in Australia. He recently was the subject of a feature article in the college’s newspaper. Jeff is the son of loyal Gazette readers Bob and Jane Rodgers.

* Harrisburg at Home publisher Rob Nease of Colonial Park has had a rash off close encounters with critters, including a dead raccoon and a skunk that was out and about during the daytime. He took the latest one – a deceased baby possum in his yard – to the Pennsylvania Veterinary Laboratory in Harrisburg to see if it was rabid. Fortunately, it wasn’t. Rob told me via e-mail that Gazette readers can get dead animals tested at the lab that is located across from the Farm Show Complex at 2305 North Cameron Street.

* Don't forget about tonight's BIG event.