Safe Animal Shelter’s Giving Tuesday keeps pets off death row

For Clay Today

MIDDLEBURG – Safe Animal Shelter rescues unwanted dogs and cats. We often save them from death row. We provide the medical care they need and do our best to keep them warm and comfy until we can find them a forever home. This year we will reach more than 1,500 adoptions!
That's what we do, but it's expensive and the shelter needs your help to meet its goal of $,5000. Please donate and share our Giving Tuesday campaign and become a critical and loving part of the shelter’s services.
To help, go to safeanimalshelter.com.

SJRWMD: Cut winter watering schedule in half

CLAY COUNTY – The St. Johns River Water Management District is asking homeowners across its 18-county region help save a billion gallons of water this winter by joining in the annual statewide “Skip a Week” campaign. During the cooler months of December, January and February, lawns and landscapes typically need less water.
“Skipping every other week of outdoor watering this winter is a simple way to invest in our future while promoting healthier lawns and landscapes,” said St. Johns River Water Management District Executive Director Dr. Ann Shortelle. “If you usually irrigate but will voluntarily skip every other week of watering this winter, together we could save more than a billion gallons of water. That’s enough water to fill 1,600 Olympic-sized swimming pools.”
While current irrigation restrictions do allow watering up to once a week during Eastern Standard Time, weekly irrigation isn’t always needed this time of year. Watering too often makes lawns less able to survive Florida’s inevitable droughts and encourages pests, disease and root rot. Watering less encourages deeper grass and plant roots, which makes them more drought-tolerant and less susceptible to pests and disease.
Skipping every other week is as easy as manually turning off your irrigation system. Be sure that if you do irrigate, you water on your assigned day for outdoor irrigation, and always before 10 a.m. or after 4 p.m. Your day is based on your street address: during Eastern Standard Time, odd addresses water on Saturday, and even addresses water on Sunday.
The Skip a Week message is an important part of the district’s yearlong Water Less outdoor water conservation campaign, which promotes smart homeowner irrigation practices at seasonally appropriate times of the year:
• Fall back to no more than once-a-week irrigation during Eastern Standard Time;
• Skip A Week when lawns go dormant and need less water in winter;
• In springtime, take control of your irrigation system timer — Did you set it and forget it?
• “Watch the weather, wait to water” in summertime because Mother Nature may do the lawn watering for you with typical summer rainfall.
To learn more about the district’s “Skip a Week” message and the Water Less campaign, visit www.WaterLessFlorida.com.

Melissa Etheridge coming to Thrasher-Horne Center in April

ORANGE PARK – Melissa Etheridge will bring her tour, The Medicine Show, to the Thrasher-Horne Center on April 30 at 7:30 p.m.
The singer will be performing a variety of fan favorites but will also perform songs from her latest album The Medicine Show. Released on April 12 via Concord Records, The Medicine Show reunited with celebrated producer John Shanks for the album which has her sounding as rousing as ever, bringing a new level of artistry to her 15th studio recording. The album deals with universal themes of renewal, reconciliation, reckoning, compassion and, most profoundly, healing.
Through the songs she processed the deep fears and hurting she saw in the nation on collective and personal levels; “Shaking” about national anxiety, “Here Comes the Pain,” personalizing the opioid crisis, the unifying “Human Chain” about the hope for healing, and the rocking, anthemic “Love Will Live.” More highlights include the album-closer, “Last Hello” drawing on the incredible strengths and courage shown by the survivors of the Parkland school shootings, and the infectious “Wild and Lonely,” and “Faded By Design,” exploring themes of her past with a new perspective.
Tickets for Melissa Etheridge are currently on sale at Thrasher-Horne Center. Prices range from at $39-$90 with all fees included. VIP Packages range from $199-$379. Tickets and more information are available at (904) 276-6815 or online at THcenter.org.
The Thrasher-Horne Center is a performing arts venue and conference center owned and operated by St. Johns River State College. It is located on the Orange Park campus at 283 College Dr.