Budget Blinds of Binghamton, located in Marathon NY, has been serving the area for over 18 years.  Our franchise is backed by the largest suppliers of window treatments in the US. We market our window treatments based on our free in home consultations and personalize hands on, no pressure style sales calls and expert installations.  All of our window treatments are backed by our exclusive no questions asked and limited lifetime warranty.

Our widow treatments include, Roller Shades, Cellular Shades, Draperies, Wood and faux wood blinds, Mini blinds, Plantation Shutters, Zebra (Traditional) Shades, Solar Shades, Mini Blinds, and Roman shades.

All of our treatments are custom measured and made to fit your window perfectly. You won’t be disappointed with our system and hands on attention to detail.  “Style and Service for Every Budget”

Visit budgetblinds.com/binghamton to take a look at our business. You won’t be disappointed.

Have a Great Spring/Summer,
Dale and Debbie Betts

Are you interested in walking through history? Our four-component museum offers something for everyone. During this year of the 250th celebration of our country, a visit to the Central New York Living History Center’s four museums can help you learn about the past years of our local area.

The Brockway Truck Museum is devoted to the Brockway Company history including their furniture, carriages, and the trucks. Initially incorporated in 1875, Brockway was in business until 1977. The dependable, heavy-duty diesel trucks put this area on the map as Huskietown, USA.

The Homeville Museum and the Ken Eaton Collection of Military Memorabilia dating back to the Civil War will not disappoint. Model train layouts, railroading history, industrial memories, and local history, including famous musicians from the area round out this one of a kind museum. A new display featuring the Revolutionary War is underway to celebrate our Nation’s birthday.

The newest museum is the Antique Firehouse and First Responders Exhibit. The entire building features classic firefighting apparatus and artifacts used in firefighting from days gone by. The upstairs displays include exhibits from the police, sheriff, troopers, and EMS units from the Central NY area. 

The Big Red Barn is the center of our Agricultural Heritage Displays. Learn about our areas agricultural roots. Hear about cutting ice, milking cows, honey production, and tractor history. Grandma’s kitchen rounds out the displays with early examples of farm life.

Our line-up of Summer events* includes something for everyone!  Food will be available at many of the events and as always, vendors and exhibitors are welcome with prior arrangements.

Summer Cruise In’s:  All Makes – All Models – All Years are welcome!
2nd Thursday of each month – May–September – 5:00 PM – ‘til ?

FLBCA Bottle Show & Sale featuring Table-Top Antiques
Sunday, June 28th – 9:00 AM – 3:00 PM

Treasure’s from Grandma’s Attic Fundraising Sale
May 22nd -23rd & May 29th & 30th 

Watch for additional dates

*Events & dates are subject to change

Intrigued?  Come walk through history with us:  Tuesday – Saturday, 10 AM – 5 PM; last admission is at 3:30 PM.

Do you have children?  Do you spend time doing activities with them that they enjoy? Microding is a sport where the whole family can be involved, parents put the motor on, check tire pressures, and get things ready for hot laps, The driver gets their proper driving gear on and gets belted in. Other Parents and in some cases, Grand-Parents help with scoring, and working behind the counter at the concession stand. Soon it’s pit meeting time, where club issues, and rules are gone over a final time, before racing begins.  A race day consists of: a time trial, a heat race, a second race called an elimination race and a feature race for each driver. The race season lasts from May until September when School starts up again. 

A different type of Racing Club – While many racing clubs have their focus on Racing to win and beating others, our focus here at Finger Lakes is more about clean driving, Spending time with our kids, building that bond between children and parents, and helping others. One of our director’s goals is to keep the racing affordable, so parents can afford to do this for their children. Another Goal is to foster a Positive atmosphere and encourage each child as they progress and improve throughout the race season.

Why Microds? – We’ve already explained part of the reason in the last paragraph, but in addition “You don’t have to own a Microd to race with Us!” Microd rentals are available for the season, all motors are owned by the club and drivers draw for motors each week. Microds have full roll cages and 5 point seat belts and drivers wear full-face helmets while racing for safety.  Another thing our club offers are free Try-outs in April each Spring, Parents can observe how their little ones can handle a Microd before committing to a full Season. 

How do we get Started? – Microd racing is open to Girls & Boys ages 5 to 17 The Finger Lakes Microd Club Track is located just off the corners of Routes 38 & 34B. Another nice feature of the club, they are inclusive meaning they have Special Microds to accommodate children with disabilities or other special needs. We Welcome Special Needs Children! Read more about our Club Goals and costs on our club’s web pages www.littlewheels.org. It’s free to come and watch races, directions to the track, see our Web Site: www.littlewheels.org. & The club Race Schedule is posted on our facebook page at the top!  Facebook – Finger Lakes Microd Club.

Conclusion – Are you spending time with your children that will create memories for both you and them that will last a lifetime?

During a springtime kayak outing a few years back, I was startled by what I initially thought were otters rolling and splashing near the pond’s surface but was actually the rough and tumble mating behavior of two very large snapping turtles. Typically snapping turtles don’t begin breeding until around 11-12 years of age, and they usually mate in shallow water. 

Male snappers can be highly active and aggressive during mating season, as they battle one another for dominance and access to females. While mating, male turtles clasp the females from behind, grabbing onto their shells with all four feet. Sometimes, the male bites the neck of his mate, inflicting wounds that, despite their minor nature, may provoke thrashing rolls (this behavior is what I witnessed from my kayak). Female snapping turtles that are reluctant to mate will attempt to swim away. 

Those females that breed, however, soon leave the water to dig nests in sandy or loamy soils or on roadsides. The nests may be a surprising distance from the nearest body of water. A single clutch contains anywhere from 8 to 80 spherical eggs that resemble ping pong balls. The eggs hatch around 90 days later, often in late summer. Whether the nest produces male or female hatchlings is dependent on the surrounding temperature: warmer temps produce nearly 100% males, while cooler temps result in mostly females. Wild!

Another neat fact: after mating, female snapping turtles possess the ability to store viable sperm for up to three years for delayed fertilization. Because of this capability, female snappers don’t need to mate each year to produce fertile eggs. This special adaptation helps ensure reproductive success even if male turtles are scarce or when environmental conditions are unfavorable for mating.

As snapping turtles meander to and from the water in search of mates, nesting locations, or – as summer ends – places to spend the winter, they are at high risk of being run over by cars. Kindly take extra care while driving during their peak travel times (May through June and again from late August through October) when they are most likely to be crossing roadways. If you encounter a snapper in the road, you can safely help it cross in the direction it was originally heading by using a car mat to drag them on or by firmly grasping them at the back of the shell on either side of the tail and carrying them. Never pick up a turtle by its tail, and avoid straddling snappers with your car, which can cause serious, even fatal, injuries to the turtle. 

There are many helpful videos online demonstrating how to properly move snapping turtles across the road — and although the turtles can’t thank you, you will have the gratitude of countless folks who recognize the tremendous worth of every turtle to its local population!

Article & photo by Margie Manthey

Spring is in the air and Tully Lakes Hardware has extended their store hours! The store will open earlier and close later on Saturdays and Sundays to allow customers to get an earlier start on weekend projects and accommodate for more shopping time during the longer Spring days. New hours are Monday-Friday 8am-7pm, Saturdays 8am-6pm and Sundays 8am-5pm. And with their seasonal plant tent going up in early May, customers can find all the best brands for every project—from pressure washing the deck to planting a garden, or repainting the house—Nightingale’s can help you get started.

And while of course you can find everything from hardware, paint, grills, pool supplies, electrical and plumbing at Nightingale’s — Some of the most common projects in May start in the Lawn and Garden Department. The week before Mother’s Day is the official start of the gardening season at the store—the plant tent goes up, and the racks are filled with hanging baskets, annual flowers, vegetable and herb seedlings, patio pots, bedding plants and more. Nightingale’s is a proud supplier of flowers and vegetables grown at Dickman Farms (Auburn, NY) and in early Spring it’s common to see their delivery trucks being unloaded into Nightingale’s plant tent. The garden center is also overflowing inside the store with colorful planters, seeds packets, onion sets, seed potatoes, garden tools, specialty soils & fertilizers, and decorative garden art. Find high quality garden soils like Coast of Maine, Happy Frog and Miracle Gro. Along the front of the store, customers will find bagged landscaping goods- including top soil, a variety of potting and garden soils, various colors of cedar mulch, and landscaping stones.

Mothers Day Weekend also includes a special event that has become an annual tradition at Nightingale’s: The Mother’s Day Weekend Hanging Flower Basket Benefit. Choose a flowering hanging basket for Mom (or bring her down and let her choose her own!) and all purchases of hanging baskets will benefit The Tully Action Group.

Located in the Village Plaza, next to the Tully Post Office. Nightingale’s is open seven days a week.

HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY!

Poem & photo by Margie Manthey

Let Valley View Gardens Retail NURSERY help you make this Mother’s Day special!  Treat Mom or your wife to a fruit tree or perhaps a flowering shrub or gorgeous hanging basket!

You can surprise her by fine-tuning her landscape or garden with plants from our nursery! Gorgeous perennials, annuals, herbs, veggie plants, flowering shrubs & trees will bring a big smile to her face and joy to her grateful heart!

Plants from Valley View Gardens Retail Nursery will help that wonderful woman in your life do what she loves best: sprucing up the outside of her home just in time for the Spring/Summer season. Locally grown, superior quality edible fruiting plants, hanging baskets, annuals and vegetables are our specialty!

Valley View Gardens can provide the expertise to ensure your complete satisfaction. After over forty years’ experience designing beautiful landscapes, we are able to advise those who need help planning their own projects. Finding the right plant for a particular environment is what we have done for decades. Let us help you!

Why not give mom a GIFT CERTIFICATE that can be used in the Cinnamon Apple Gift Shop, the nursery or toward a landscaping project? Going on a shopping spree, exploring our unique, quaint 10 room shop or investigating the vast collection of plant choices in our landscape nursery will delight the lovely lady or ladies in your life!

Truckloads arrive each week, delivering new items and plant varieties! Come and check out Valley View Gardens and the Cinnamon Apple Cottage! Or give us a call 607-749-3130 and we will arrange a time for us to meet with you to determine your landscape needs.

Valley View Gardens Retail Nursery and the Cinnamon Apple Cottage is located at 3797 Luker Road in Cortland, opposite the Builder’s Best Do-It Center! May hours are: Monday through Friday 9 to 5; Saturday 9 to 4. OPEN Mother’s Day Sunday, 10 to 3; Memorial Day Weekend Sunday: 10 to 3. Closed Memorial Day Monday. Come on down! We are looking forward to seeing you soon!

279 Rte. 13, Cortland
(607) 344-3900
tskwarehouse.com
shana@tskwarehouse.com

This is, by far, the most frequent question we are asked here at TSK Warehouse followed closely by, “Maybe one of your vendors would like to buy my stuff?”

TSK Warehouse is indeed a vendor mall but our vendor contracts strictly prohibit vendors in our mall from purchasing items from customers at the Warehouse. There are reasons for this! “TSK” stands for The Second Knob [Gifts & Antiques, LLC] which is the TSK Warehouse’s “parent company.” The Second Knob, in addition to being an “anchor shop” at the warehouse, is an online auction service— which helps pay for the majority of TSK Warehouse staff, advertising and utilities. Therefore, any consigning or purchasing of items from walk in customers has to be done thru The Second Knob; it is what will keep our vendor mall open. Additionally, The Second Knob’s online auction will, more often than not, recognize higher prices for vintage, antique and collectible pieces than purchasing outright from a reselling vendor will. The online auctions have participants and viewers from across the world, creating a much broader, more competitive “market” for selling. 

The Second Knob rarely purchases outright—for much the same reason we don’t allow vendors to do so: we can recognize higher sale prices in the auction than we can afford to pay outright (as a reseller). Instead of purchasing, we take items on consignment. Consignment is a business arrangement where an owner (consignor) delivers goods to a third party (consignee) to sell on their behalf, with the owner retaining ownership until items are sold.

The process of consignment does take longer, but the higher profit makes it worth it. When customers consign, we review our expected timeline with our customers. Depending on our schedule and how many consignments we have for any given auction, the timeline does vary.

Customers may consign any number of items; The Second Knob has no minimum or maximum requirements. We run full estate auctions, where thousands of items are “consigned” and we, also, welcome customers to consign just one or two items to our onsite consignment auctions.  Consigning to our auctions is easy but does require a contract—to protect both the Consignor and the Consignee.  

We do have an auction “no-no” list because the market for antiques, vintage and collectible pieces is cyclical and taking items that have little chance of selling creates more work for both consignors and consignees. Currently, we accept very little cut glass, depression glass, fine china and crystal—but this of course will change as those markets change.

To find our auctions, anyone may register via our site: www.thesecondknob.com. Local auction participants may pick up their lots at TSK Warehouse (or, if it was an estate auction, at the [local] estate). Winners from around the world, who are unable to pick up their lots, pay for shipping and items are shipped to them.

Have questions about consigning to our auctions? Email shana@tskwarehouse.com or call (607) 844-5662.

Does your home need a ‘touch of spring’ on the inside—or a fresh new landscape on the outside? Look no further for unique home décor, distinctive gifts and quality plant material for your garden! A fantastic a shopping experience awaits you at Valley View Gardens Retail

Nursery and The Cinnamon Apple Cottage Gift Shoppe located at 3797 Luker Road in Cortland! Truckloads of new gift items and stunning plants are arriving weekly!

Whether you long for gorgeous, healthy plants to enhance your garden or professional expertise to help your landscape dreams come true, Valley View Gardens can provide both to your complete satisfaction. In addition to forty years’ experience designing beautiful landscapes, we are able to advise those who need a professional point of view when planning their own projects. Finding the right plant for a particular environment is our specialty!

We have operated our landscape design and nursery business for over thirty years in Central New York, including our twentieth year at 3797 Luker Road. It has been a labor of love to transform our business from its origin as to vacant parcel and pole barn to the current eye-catching display and picturesque New England gift shop. From the very beginning, it has been our goal to provide a diverse variety of quality shrubbery, shade trees, fruit trees, ornamental trees, perennials, annual flowers and much more! Valley View Gardens provides strong, healthy plants at our convenient location eliminating costly trips out of town, ensuring a savings to you!

For that splash of color in your garden, you can choose from any number of gorgeous flowering shrubs, annuals and hanging baskets that will fill our five greenhouses shortly. Our perennials are a sight to behold! If you want to fill a niche in that sunny or shady corner of your garden, we have an impressive assortment of perennials located in our perennial houses and outdoor displays that will do just that. Looking for that unique ornamental grass that caught your eye? We have many varieties from which you can choose to bring texture and motion to your landscape!

The Cinnamon Apple cottage is a unique gift shop located adjacent to Valley View Gardens and landscaping retail nursery. Repeatedly, we have been told by our customers that they love to shop in our charming ten-room gift shop. Each room has its own ambience and related product lines. Come see our floral decorations, fragrant candles and potpourri, whimsical figurines, children’s books and toys; outdoor décor and gift items; Amish jams and cookie mixes; soup, and much more! If you need a pick-me-up for yourself or your friends and loved ones, you are sure to find it at The Cinnamon Apple Cottage.

Valley View Gardens Retail Nursery and The Cinnamon Apple Cottage Gift Shop are located just around the corner on Luker Road opposite Builder’s Best Do-It Center.  We are open April 13-30: M-F 10-5, Sat 10-4; Closed Sundays. May 1-31: M-F 9-5, Sat 9-4; Closed Sundays & Memorial Day 5/25. EXCEPT Sunday, Mother’s Day: 10-3; & Memoria Day weekend Sunday, 5/24: 10-3.

Stop in and shop at our retail nursery and gift shop. Call Andrew and Pat Mones at 607-749-3130 to set up a consultation to help your landscaping dreams come true! You will be glad you came to Valley View Gardens on Luker Road! We look forward to meeting and serving you!

Looking to update your home for the season but don’t have time or budget for a major renovation? Do it right with these three easy DIY paint projects that can each be done in just a day. And to kick off your Spring painting projects- visit Nightingale’s Tully Lakes Hardware, where you’ll find quality Benjamin Moore Paints, a wide range of paint supplies and friendly staff ready to help you get started!

The seasonal transition from winter to spring is the perfect time to freshen up your home.  If you’re like most people,  and you don’t have unlimited time to devote to working on your home, small weekend projects are perfect because they’re quick, easy and affordable. And from April 15th-28th you can save more during the Spring Sale on gallons of Benjamin Moore Regal Select Interior paint. If you are planning a full room makeover this spring, you can achieve the best results with the help of a residential remodeling contractor.

#1 Hit refresh with paint. Nothing says “refresh” quite like bringing new life to a tired piece of furniture. A fresh coat of paint is the perfect solution to make old, dated furniture seem trendy and new. Look for pieces that have solid construction and interesting shapes. Headboards, wardrobes, chairs and side tables are all great pieces to transform. If you are unsure of the condition of the furniture or how to paint it, just ask – Nightingale’s paint center can ensure you get the product that is right for your project.

#2 Amaze with an accent wall. Feature walls are a great way to make an impactful change to a space. Many people think accent walls need to be very bold and vibrant hues, when they can also be neutral to create a more cohesive and harmonious feel. Explore painting the fifth wall, otherwise known as the ceiling, for a unique and modern look that can add dimension to a space.

#3 Front door décor. The front door has the ability to instantly create an inviting impression before guests enter your home. Applying a fresh coat of paint to your front door is a great DIY project that can be done quickly and can invigorate the look and feel of your home.  Because it’s so easy, you can even change your door colour seasonally.

For more information or idea inspiration, visit benjaminmoore.com or stop by Nightingale’s Tully Lakes Hardware. 6 Elm Street in the Village of Tully. Open 7 days a week.