Can you feel it? I love this time of year in Texas, not too hot and not too cold! Most of us began digging in

our yards, planting flowers and taking long walks to mark the beginning of Spring and that’s why this quarter’s

newsletter is dedicated to all things OUTDOOR. Look inside for outstanding articles on composting, ways to

celebrate “Earth Day”, spring cleaning tips and great summer recipes. My personal ritual each year at this time

is rifling through closets to evaluate what needs to stay and what needs to go. There is so no easy way to han-

dle this task and I feel overwhelmed as I sit and stare at numerous boxes piled high and stuffed with dare I say,

“junk”. My advice? Stay grounded, focused and stick to the plan! Prepare three boxes or baskets and label

each TO KEEP, TO SELL OR GIVE AWAY and THROW AWAY. Do your best to determine what really

needs to stay, the rule is anything you do not use or wear, get rid of it. It is a daunting but necessary task and I

like to think that I am preparing the way for new clothes and items to replace the old, a way for all of us to con-

trol inventory. I suggest you do the same since we are planning a COMMUNITY GARAGE SALE for the

3rd weekend in MAY. Don’t you think it’s a great idea to take pictures of your big ticket items and place them

on Craig’s List? BTW, Thanks Amanda Sears! I will also place our Community Garage Sale Information on

Craig’s List as well. So sort it out, get it priced and prepare for our First Community Garage Sale, Saturday

May 22nd and Sunday May 23rd from 8-3pm.

Your Neighbor,

Deana Barns

Spring is Here!

Northcrest Village News and Views A P R I L — J U N E 2 0 1 0 V O L U M E 1 I S S U E 2

P A G E 2

Mueller Update

Northcrest Village Directory

May

Chick-fil-A Spirit Night

May 6th 3-8pm

last one of the year

Memorial Day

Holiday

Monday, May 31st

Papa John’s Pizza

Night – May 27th

last one of the year

June

Last Day of School

Thursday, June 3rd

April

Easter Holiday /Good

Friday

April 2nd no school

Staff Development Day

Monday, April 5th – kids

out

Chick-fil-A Spirit Night

April 8th – 3-8pm

Science Carnival Night

April 16th 4-8pm

Papa John’s Pizza

Night

April 29th

N O R T H C R E S T V I L L A G E N E W S A N D V I E W S

A community directory is a great way to stay connected with neighbors. Oftentimes, emergencies arise and we need to communicate to ensure a speedy response.

Recently, my neighbor called me when my front door was wide open and my dogs were running the neighborhood!

You may provide me with all contact information including Name and Address, Home Number, Cell Numbers and Email Addresses. Also, there will be a Business Section in the

Directory. If you own or operate a business and would like the information in this section, just provide the Business Name, Contact Number and Website, if applicable.

Please send information to:

Deana Barns

dbarns@cbunited.com

(281) 300.1118 Cell

Deadline for Deadline for Deadline for Deadline for

Directory is:Directory is:Directory is:Directory is:

April 31st!April 31st!April 31st!April 31st!

CONNECT WITH US on i-neighbors.org

P A G E 3 V O L U M E 1 I S S U E 2

Don’t forget that i-neighbors.org is the place to connect and

communicate with your neighbors at Northcrest Village.

There are currently 63 members! Get information about

Northcrest Village quickly through email queries and responses.

Sign Up Today!

Please contact Meredith Ellender at m.ellender@yahoo.com for

more information.

EARTH DAY APRIL 22nd, 2010

Disney’s “Oceans” opens on Earth Day.

CELEBRATE WITH THESE FUN PROJECTS!

• Painted rocks make cute garden ornaments or paperweights. • Large leaves that are covered in paint make interesting prints on paper or fabric. • Collect natural materials to make a wreath or twigs for an interesting table display. • One favorite natural craft is to take a large pinecone, smear it with peanut butter and roll it in birdseed. When the bird feeder is hung on a tree, feathered friends will come from miles around to have a snack.

Let us know how you celebrate Earth Day! Send us pics of your artwork and we will publish!

P A G E 4

N O R T H C R E S T V I L L A G E N E W S A N D V I E W S

Compost Happens, part 1 by Darla Gaylor Maybe you’ve seen a t-shirt or bumper sticker to this effect, and it’s true. Com-post does, indeed, happen...eventually. Besides recycling, one of the best things you can do to reduce the size of your weekly garbage output is to compost your kitchen and yard scraps. Unlike recycling, however, that costs you money- either directly or indirectly - composting is free and its a great step towards creating your own sustainable backyard. Having attended a Master Composter Class with Nashville Metro Public Works in 2008, I found out there was quite a bit about composting I didn’t already know. One of the major things was that rapid composting takes a bit of work. You can do the “forest floor” method of composting, just dumping your leaves, grass clip-pings and kitchen scraps all over your yard. Stomp on them every few weeks maybe, let the rain fall when it does, and at some point you’ll have useable com-post. But, if you want the good stuff more quickly, you’re going to have to be a little more sophisticated and measured in your approach than that. Done prop-erly and in earnest, compost can be a valuable addition to your houseplants, land-scape, and vegetable gardens. With few extra additions, you’ll have a great fertil-izer, and with none at all, a top-notch top dressing for your lawn and garden, which will help enrich even the poorest of soils. Making It Work in Weeks, Not Months * Successful composting requires oxygen. While you can technically bag up all of your leaves in black plastic & line your back fence with them, it is going to take some time (read: all winter and then some) for these leaves to break down without oxygen, and anaerobic composting doesn’t smell too lovely ei-ther. If you will commit to turning your leaf pile every week or two, or even just jabbing holes into it with some frequency to allow oxygen into the pile, na-ture will takes its course more rapidly.

* Successful composting also requires balance. I once thought JUST kitchen scraps, a handful of soil, and a few leaves was all I needed. A few very small, rotty, maggoty blobs later, I found out nature needs a balance of nitrogen (or green stuffs) and a much, much bigger load of carbon (or brown stuffs) to de-compose in the way you want it to - into good, useable, non-disgusting com-

Darla GaylorDarla GaylorDarla GaylorDarla Gaylor

P A G E 5 V O L U M E 1 I S S U E 2

Compost Happens Part 1 Continued: useable, non-disgusting compost. Instead, I should have been mixing an entire big black bag of leaves to a week’s worth of a kitchen scraps, mixing well, then mixing more. Also, the smaller the materials, the faster they will compost. So, mulching the leaves or chopping up the kitchen waste is very helpful to the process, though not necessary.

* Don’t forget the water if you want compost in good time. This little omission will slow down your de-comp process in a hurry. You want your pile to stay about as damp as a wrung out sponge, not too wet, not too dry. If Mother Nature doesn’t help out, you must do so with a water hose. Just like you, all the wonderful microbes that help in breaking down those leaves and other “waste” need water.

* For the fastest decomposition rate, bring on the heat. Most commercial composting units are black or dark green in color, to better absorb heat. If you opt for a do-it-yourself type of pile, that’s perfectly fine, but like the commercial bins, you want to place it in an area with some sunshine, though not necessarily direct sun, which can quickly dry out your pile. I have personally used the Earth Machine with good suc-cess, but there are pros and cons to all of them.

Composting No- No’s There are a few items that should never be put in your compost pile. At the top of that list is dog and cat waste. Next on the list would be meat, bones, or anything that is greasy, like salad covered in dressing, as they WILL attract “critters.” With the exception of a mostly emptied, but not yet washed yogurt container that has been filled with water & emptied on to your pile, no dairy either. The very little bit of dairy the above yogurt carton contains is ok, because it also has some great little active bacteria cultures which will help activate your pile. You’ll want to keep grass clippings with lots of weeds out, too. Few piles will get hot enough to kill those weed seeds, and the last thing you want is to transplant that evil nut grass or bindweed (which we DO have in our subdivision) around your yard or veggie garden. Those go in the trash, preferably in a paper yard bag. Weeds are fine in the landfill. Well, those are the basics, folks. It is really fairly simple, but like your lawn, a successful compost pile does take a bit of weekly effort. You probably need the exercise, so hop to it!

P A G E 6

N O R T H C R E S T V I L L A G E N E W S A N D V I E W S

“Good Neighbor” Spotlight with Christina Huffman I recently spent some time with a neighbor and learned we are from the same part of town, went to rivaling

High Schools and both have daughters born in the same month and year! The Huffman’s are entrepreneurs

with many goals and ambitions to succeed in today’s market. They’ve started an online dating website where

users can register for free and they require an introductory video to bring traditional dating to today’s technol-

ogy ravished society. If you are looking for love, you can visit loveglance.com. Christina is also involved with

“Cherry House Moving “, a family owned operation since 1952 and the largest structural relocation company on

the Texas Gulf Coast. If you have a house you want to move, then call “Cherry House Moving”! Pretty interest-

ing process and if you want to check this site out, visit cherryhousemoving.com. After spending some time

together learning about her family’s business ambitions, I asked Christina, “if you had the single power to change

anything about Northcrest Village what would you change”? Interestingly, Christina would love to see an expan-

sion of our recreation center. She would like to see a basketball and tennis court coupled with a clubhouse to

host showers and birthday parties. I think that is a great future project for our HOA, don’t you?

713-941-2924

P A G E 7 V O L U M E 1 I S S U E 2

Kick off the Pool’s Pre-Opening with our next MOVIE NIGHT!

Bring your family and friends!

The pool closes at 8pm but the movie will begin promptly at 7:30 pm.

Come early to receive door prizes before the movie

begins!

Brought to you by:

Deana Barns

Your “neighbor”hood

REALTOR

Thank you to everyone who made our Spring Break Movie Night a success! We had so much fun, the stars were out that night!

Congratulations to Abel and Christina Huffman along with their daughter they won the Raffle for the movie ‘UP”.

Ingredients Best Ever BBQ Burgers

Cooking Instructions

1. Preheat an outdoor grill for high heat and lightly oil grate.

2. In a blender or food processor, gradually place sweet onion. green bell pepper, garlic and tomato. Blend into a thick

liquid. Mix steak sauce into the mixture.

3. Pour the blended mixture into a large bowl. Place ground beef into the bowl, and thoroughly mix together. Set aside

approximately 15 minutes.

4. Mix again if liquid is present, then gradually introduce dry bread crumbs until the ground beef mixture is firm enough to

form hamburger patties. Salt and pepper to taste.

Form the ground beef mixture into hamburger patties. Cook on the prepared grill to desired doneness.

• 1 sweet onion, chopped

• 1 green bell pepper, chopped

• 4 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed

• 1 tomato, chopped

• 2 tablespoons steak sauce

• 2 pounds ground beef

• 1/4 cup dry bread crumbs

• salt and pepper to taste

P A G E 8

Mondays

Santa Fe Flats 21542 Hwy 249 281-655-1400 The County Line BBQ 13850 Cutten Rd Houston TX 77069 281-537-2454 Double Daves Pizza 7312 Louetta 281-370-3283 Denny's 7720 Louetta Rd Spring, TX 281-376-3800

Tuesdays The Black-eyed Pea 2005 Fm 1960 W, Houston, TX 77090 281-444-6873

Maui Tacos 12719 FM 1960 Rd W,

Houston, TX 77065

281-955-8533 Cici's Pizza-Specials 18416 Kuykendahl Rd,

Spring, TX

281-350-0011 Joe's Crab Shack-Specials 14901 North Freeway I-45, Houston, TX 77090 281-875-5400

Wednesdays Godfathers' Pizza 1491 Spring Cypress Rd. Spring, TX 77373 281-353-3900

Buffalo Wild Wings 21322 Kuykendahl Rd, Spring, TX 77379 281-288-7300

James Coney Island 101 fm 1960 W (1960 & I-45) 281-893-8455

Backyard Grill 9453 Jones Rd., Houston, TX 77065 281-897-9200

Please visit

http://www.springkleinkidseatfree.com/

For more participating Restaurants!

Enjoy!

Sundays Texadelphia 12914 FM 1960 W, Houston,

TX 77065

832-912-7772

Los Arcos Mexican 3040 FM 1960 Rd E # 163,

Houston, TX 77073

281-443-8844

Cliff's Hamburgers 3333 FM 1960 Rd W, Hous-

ton, TX 77068

281-580-0126

Fridays C & C Restaurant 22426 Kuykendahl Spring, TX 77389 281-376-3832 Chin Tao 13251 Jones Rd, Houston,

TX 77070

281-469-0103 Kabab Kahani - Specials 21542 Tomball Pkwy, Hwy 249 #2, Houston, TX 77070 281-251-2500 Denny's 7720 Louetta Rd, Spring, TX 281-376-3800

Saturdays Texas Land & Cattle 8015 FM 1960 Rd W, Houston, TX 77070 281-469-3838 Skeeter's Mesquite Grill 19710 Northwest Frwy,

Houston, TX 77065

281-970-8235 Quizno's Subs-Specials Jones at 24921519 State Highway 249, Houston, TX 77070 281-370-3999 Marco's Mexican Restaurant Specials 18419 Kuykendahl Rd, Spring, TX 77379

Thursdays Cruzn' Cafe 19790 I-45,

Spring, TX 77373

281-288-1111 Cici's Pizza-Specials 18416 Kuykendahl Rd,

Spring, TX

281-350-0011 Aviator's Grill 20803 Stuebner Airline Rd

Spring, Texas 77379

281-370-6279 Double Daves Pizza Louetta & Stuebner Airline 7312 Louetta 281-370-3283

N O R T H C R E S T V I L L A G E N E W S A N D

We want to hear from you! Any interesting articles you want to write, pass on or if you’d like to be a regular contributor

for gardening tips or great recipes, let us know.

Also, I like to “BE GREEN”! Going forward, everyone should sign-up for i-neighbors. org and pass on your email address so I

can publish the newsletter online. There is a great site called ISSUU.com where I will post this newsletter. Those of you

who’ve already sent me your contact information will see this quarter’s newsletter online now.

Northcrest Village Newsletter

brought to you by:

Deana Barns

REALTOR, Coldwell Banker United

18425 Champion Forest Dr. #100

Spring, TX 77379

dbarns@cbunited.com

(281) 300.1118 Cell

Northcrest Village News and Views

Deadline for Submissions

3rd quarter Newsletter

June 5, 2010 (All articles subject to editorial Review)

Special thanks to the following

contributors:

Meredith Ellender

Darla Gaylor

Hilleary Hatchett