Special to The Laker/Lutz News

By B.C. Manion

Melissa Ramacco didn’t set out to become a cake pop queen.
It just happened.

Now, the Land O’ Lakes woman who drives a van with a “Got Cake” license tag keeps busy creating her clever confections for customers of all ages.
When Ramacco, the owner of Island Girl Cakes, began her business she specialized in custom-designed and decorated cakes.
She got her start in the cake world before shows like Cake Boss, the Ace of Cakes and DC Cupcakes became the rage.
Her foray into the field, however, was not part of any grand design.
She began simply with a cake expressing a New York Yankees’ theme that she made for her dad for Father’s Day.
The response was so positive, she decided to begin taking orders to make cakes for family and friends.

As her business evolved, she became more and more immersed in all things cake – reading blogs, scouring the Internet for information and perfecting all sorts of techniques by following directions in how-to articles.
For awhile, her elaborate cakes were fetching anywhere from $100 to $250 each on a regular basis, and even up to $500 for a really big job.
But as the economy slowed, so did her orders.
Patrons loved the cakes, but either couldn’t or wouldn’t pay for them, she said.
So, she shifted to smaller cakes and matching cupcake tiers. That gave kids a chance to blow out candles and to hand out the coordinating cupcakes.
Then she read about cake pops.

She loved the idea. They looked fun and she wasn’t aware of anyone else in the area that was making them.
So, she focused her efforts making and marketing cake pops. She is totally sold on the value of social media, such as Twitter and Facebook, and relies heavily on word-of-mouth marketing.
The cake pops took off and she’s not looking back.
“Cakes are really labor intensive. I don’t think people realize how much labor goes into those cakes,” said Ramacco, noting she has no plans to return to custom cakes.
Making cake pops offers plenty of opportunities for creativity, she said.
They can be dipped and left to dry upright, like a traditional candy apple or can be air-dried by poking their stick into a plastic foam form.
The upright technique produces a pop with a flattened bottom; the air-drying approach produces a perfectly rounded pop.
The pops typically are wrapped individually, and can be presented on a tray, in a bud vase or as a bouquet.
They also can be put on longer sticks with a name card attached. These can serve double duty at weddings and other events: They’re a party favor and they let people know where to sit.
Brides seem to like that idea, Ramacco said.
There’s no end as to how the small cakes can be decorated, she said. They can be dipped into milk chocolate or white chocolate and then sprinkled with candies, or drizzled with another flavor of chocolate.
They can be made to look like tuxedos or baseballs or basketballs.
They can be made in various cake flavors, such as chocolate, red velvet, yellow or lemon.
“It’s limitless, what you can do with them,” she said.
Patrons buy them for all sorts of reasons including baby showers, birthday parties and graduations or as party favors and appreciation gifts.
The chocolate cake pops are the most popular.
They have a doughy consistency, Ramacco said.
“The cake is very moist because it is blended with the frosting. It’s just a traditional cake like you would use for cupcakes,” she said.
To make a batch of chocolate cake pops, she mixes up a chocolate cake from scratch and bakes it. After it cools, she breaks it into pieces and puts in a mixing bowl, where she blends it into crumbs with a mixer. Next, she adds frosting which sweetens the mixture and binds it together.
Finally, she forms it into balls for cake pops or truffles, or into squares for cake bites, and chills the small cakes.
After the cakes are thoroughly chilled, she melts a batch of chocolate. For cake pops, she dips a lollipop stick into the melted chocolate and inserts the stick into a cake ball. Then she coats the ball in melted chocolate.
The melted chocolate must be the proper temperature: Too hot and it runs right off; too cool and it won’t adhere.
If she wants to add candy, she sprinkles that on while the cake pop is wet.
If she wants to drizzle it with another flavor of chocolate, she lets the cake pop dry before she drizzles the chocolate.
Besides accepting private orders, which must be a minimum of 12 cake pops, the treats are sold at Rapscallions in Land O’ Lakes, at New York Times Square Pizzeria in Lutz, at the Carrollwood Deli in Carrollwood and at Oak Bars & Grill in Brandon.
They’re also available at Shampoo, a hair salon, at Bearss and Florida avenues.
Her husband had doubts that a hair salon would have a call for cake pops, Ramacco said.
It turns out, however, that they’ve been wildly popular.
“They have gone through six dozen in three days,” she said.
She theorizes it is because “they’re portion-controlled. All women are watching their weight.”
The ladies probably also enjoy eating something that is pretty, while they’re being pampered, Ramacco added.
Moms like to give them to their kids, too, because they are easier to eat and less messy than cupcakes, she said.
The cake treats can keep for up to a week at room temperature, for up to two weeks in the refrigerator and for up to a month in the freezer.
Besides the cakes she now sells, Ramacco is developing some recipes with tropical flavors to go along with her Island Girl Cakes’ name. When that happens, there will be a closer connection between her company name and her cakes.
When she launched the business, she said, she decided to stick with a theme that fit her personality rather than going for some kind of fancy cake name.
Eventually, Ramacco hopes to open a storefront, to set up permanent kiosks at malls and to have traveling carts at special events.
For now, she’s busy taking care of orders.
She had 200 cake pops, cake truffles and cake bites to deliver on Saturday.
To learn more about the business go to www.IslandGirlCakes.com or call (813) 699-9866.

Students will head home so teachers can plan

By Elizabeth Gwilt

Despite some backlash, the Hillsborough County School Board decided last week to continue the practice of early release days.
Students will head home early on 15 days this year so teachers will have more time to plan. They will be dismissed two hours early on 14 Wednesdays throughout the year, starting Sept. 15. On the final day of school, now set for June 13, students will leave 2½ hours before regular dismissal.
The agreement makes other tweaks to the calendar. All schools will be closed the week of Thanksgiving and a four-day weekend is now slated for March 18-21. And in a surprise some board members say they didn’t realize they had approved, the new calendar bumped the final day of school to a Monday, June 13.
The board approved the changes 6-1, with Jennifer Faliero voting against, saying “14 early release days is too disruptive for all.”
Faliero, who said 40 percent of elementary school students don’t even attend school on early release days, was not alone in her opinion. Several parents attended the meeting in an attempt to convince the board that children will be missing too much instructional time if early days appeared on the calendar.
Though she voted in favor of the contract, board member Candy Olson sympathized with parent concerns about an erratic calendar
“I do have a problem with the number of weeks that are not normal,” she said.
The contract also includes a 2 percent increase in teachers’ salary, up to $1000. The vast majority of teaching and non-teaching staff members supported the contract, with 96 percent and 97 percent voting in favor, respectively.
There are mixed emotions about the new calendar among students and parents.
Noah Keene, a freshman at Steinbrenner High School, is content with the approved changes.
“I was hoping there would be ‘half days’ this year,” Keene said. “Sometimes I need the break.”
When Keene attended Martinez Middle School, he thought teachers took early release days seriously.
“It depends on the class, but for the most part there was a new lesson those days,” he said.
Classmate Stephanie Morris didn’t see it that way. She recalls early release days as pointless.
“We didn’t learn anything on early release days. I skipped school for most of them,” she said.
Now that she’s in high school, Morris said she might consider going to class on early release days.
Students in Janice Heiden’s classes should do the same thing. The fourth-grade teacher at McKitrick Elementary School said early release days are business as usual in her classroom.
“We never show movies; we do regular class work like any other day. We still teach and don’t do any less of what the norm is. We can’t sacrifice any time,” she said.
As a former teacher, Denyce DiCaprio of Lutz said the 2 percent raise is well deserved. “Being a teacher myself and knowing how little they get paid, I believe it is a good idea,” she said.
But she didn’t like the calendar that pushes spring break until the final week of April.
She would have preferred spring break at the end of March because “the kids get so burned out and need that long break.”
Board members rejected pleas to move spring break earlier, citing the need for more time to prepare students following the state’s decision to push FCAT testing from March and into April. But they still may have one more tweak on the calendar.
To close Thanksgiving week and add an extra off day in March, the district bumped the final day of school into a new week. Following Tuesday’s meeting, some board members said it was an oversight that needed to be fixed.

Scheduled early release days:
Sept. 15, Sept. 29, Oct. 13, Oct. 27, Nov. 10, Dec. 8, Jan. 12, Jan. 26, Feb. 9, Feb. 23, March 9, May 11, May 25, June 8, June 13*
All two hours early except the final day, which is 2½ hours early.

By B.C. Manion

While many businesses remain frozen in place, or are continuing to cut back, ClassB, a custom T-shirt shop in Zephyrhills, is continuing to expand – and is hiring.

The company doubled its downtown space about three years ago and now operates out of roughly 10,000 square.
In coming weeks, it plans to add about 1,500 square feet of office space in Tampa, where it plans to run its marketing operations, said Gregg Hilferding, the company’s vice president.
This is yet another milestone in a company that began in 1982 with Terry Hilferding, Gregg’s mom, operating the business out of her kitchen.
Recently, ClassB was ranked as the 32nd fastest-growing company in Tampa Bay by the Tampa Bay Business Journal.
While the company does not release its actual sales figures, Gregg estimates it in the millions of dollars annually.
The company’s primary customers are Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, 4-H Clubs and families who are having reunions.
The business comes in from all over the country.
On a recent day, the company was filling orders from Cub Scout packs, Boy Scout troops and Girl Scout troops in Texas, Florida, Georgia, New Mexico and Tennessee; for 4-H Clubs in Ohio and Wisconsin; and for family reunions in Illinois, Wisconsin, Texas and Florida.

And those were just a few of the orders waiting for completion.
The work keeps the company’s 39 employees busy, which is why it is looking to hire more employees, Gregg says. The company expects to fill at least six positions in coming months and he encourages anyone who is interested to fill out an application. Training is provided, he said.
The name of the company stems from a slang term often used by Boy Scouts to describe the T-shirts they wear when they’re not wearing their khaki dress uniforms. The company has decided to adopt the term to describe the shirts it sells to all of its customers.
It also refers to a broader class of people who switch from formal shirts to more casual shirts for activities.
When the company was founded, it was called Shirts & Caps, and it kept that name from 1982 to 2003.
But it used ClassB as the name for its website and changed its name for consistency, as it continued to gain more customers nationwide, Hilferding said.
He credits the company’s surge into the national market to the popularity of the Internet. Before it arrived, there was no way to reach out to a national customer base, he said.
“We do a lot of online marketing,” he said, with an emphasis on search engine marketing.
The company doesn’t do direct sales, but has customer service representatives to answer questions that online customers may have about the products.
Class B receives blank T-shirts from warehouses, decorates them and sends them straight to the customer. It can screen print as many as 500 T-shirts in an hour, depending upon the design.
Terry Hilferding traces the company’s beginning back to when the family lived on Florida’s Space Coast and her oldest son wanted to go for a Boy Scout printing merit badge.
The Scout Master didn’t have someone to teach the skill, so Terry volunteered.
After the family moved to Zephyrhills, she continued volunteering to teach children how to do screen prints and that evolved into the business.
It began in the family’s kitchen but outgrew that space and moved into a carport, which they enclosed. Next, it took over the garage.
“Once Gregg started kindergarten, I got a storefront and we just ballooned from there,” Terry said.
“Our first website was in 1997 and we did get an order that year,” Gregg said. “It took quite a few years after that to take off,” he added.
Terry and her husband, Robert, decided to shift the business to their sons’ control. Eric became the president and Gregg, the vice president. Their sister, Carin Fletcher, owns the same kind of business in South Carolina.
Terry thinks it’s cool that the company’s beginnings have come to play such a major role in its success.
“We have a great deal of respect for the Boy Scouts of America program,” she said.
Gregg and Eric, who both achieved Eagle Scout, try to run the business according to the philosophy of the Boy Scout law, Gregg said.
Apparently, it’s working.
For more information about ClassB, go to www.classb.com or call (800) 851-4020.

By Kyle LoJacono

Many from Tampa and other large places might describe Zephyrhills as a “sleepy little town” and a couple medical ventures are working to keep it that way.
Pasco Regional Medical Center’s Sleep Center has been treating multiple types of sleep disorders since it opened in 1998 and Florida Hospital Zephyrhills Sleep Center saw its first patients on Sept. 8.

Dr. Juan Cevallos, medical director at Pasco Regional’s Sleep Center, has been treating the problems since 1993 in east Pasco County.
“The technology for diagnosis has changed a lot,” Cevallos said. “When I started we did paper tracings of people’s sleep which were hundreds of pages long. Each page was 30 seconds of the eight hours someone slept. Then we had to review everything. Today it’s all on the computers and we can analyze it better.”
Cevallos said the center moved to its new location in Zephyrhills three years ago because it is a better facility to treat sleep disorders. He also worked with another sleep center affiliated with Florida Hospital Zephyrhills for about 4 years before joining Pasco Regional. It currently sees about 1,000 patients each year.
Dr. Amir Quefatieh is the medical director for Florida Hospital Zephyrhills new facility. He’s been treating sleep disorders for eight years and came to Zephyrhills from Delaware.
“You hear incredible stories about how problems sleeping were destroying people’s lives,” Quefatieh said. “People overlook sleep, but it’s very important to overall health to get quality sleep every day.”
Both doctors started their training in pulmonary medicine and Quefatieh’s pulmonary critical care facility is attached to the Florida Hospital Zephyrhills Sleep Center.
“Problems with sleep usually lead to problems with the lungs, heart and circulation,” Quefatieh said. “It was a natural thing to progress to because the two problems are so closely related.”
Quefatieh said many other conditions, like fibromyalgia and decreased immune systems are likely associated with poor quality of sleep.
Cevallos said about 30 and 40 percent of people have some kind of sleep disorder, of which there are many types. The three most common treated are sleep apnea, random leg movement and disrupted sleep caused by chronic pain. The latter two are treated with medications, while apnea is the most common and requires other techniques.
“Sleep apnea means people stop breathing while sleeping because the airway is blocked from the tongue or back of the throat, which wakes them up but can also cause death in rare cases,” Cevallos said.
Quefatieh said death from sleep apnea is not possible, but the strain on the heart from years of the problem can cause fatal heart attacks or strokes.
Other major problems associated with not getting enough sleep are not being able to remember things or concentrate, making more mistakes on normal tasks and falling asleep during daily activities.
Steve Conomy, technical director for Pasco Regional’s center, said some of the more scary stories he hears from people are when they fall asleep while driving. He said it most happens while stopped at traffic lights and usually lasts only a few seconds, but people can also nod off while actively driving.
“It’s really scary to think about.” Conomy said. “You can be driving and the next minute get into an accident without even knowing what happened.”
There are three ways to treat sleep apnea. Both doctors said the one they believe in the most is continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP). A device goes over the nose and/or mouth and blows air into the openings to keep the airway open. The testing and calibration of the CPAP can usually be done in one-two stays.
Other methods include surgery to remove unnecessary parts of the esophagus like the uvula and tonsils to open the airway. The last option is to use a mouthguard-like device to hold the jaw forward, which can also open the airway.
Both doctors said CPAP’s are the most effective method of treatment. Quefatieh said younger people also opt for surgery so they do not have to wear the device their whole life.
Both sleep facilities are set up to diagnose four people at a time, including rooms for handicapped and/or larger patients. Spouses can also stay with the patient to keep them calm at Pasco Regional’s lab.
“We’ve learned a lot of people can’t sleep without their spouse or partner with them, so we let them stay together to make them more comfortable,” Conomy said. “Also the rooms are set up so when the lights are off it is so dark you can’t see your hand in front of your face. That lets people fall asleep quickly.”
Things like wires that might scare some people are also hidden from the patient’s view. Cindy Higgins, administrator for Florida Hospital Zephyrhills’ center, said every step was taken to make the room feel like a hotel. They even fold towels in the shape of a swan and leave it on the patient’s bed.
“Anyone can have a sleep disorder, but it is a definitely a disease for people in their 40s or later,” Cevallos said. “We have an older population here in Zephyrhills and east Pasco, so it’s something that can really help people in the area.
Quefatieh said the kind of disorder common in younger people usually are caused by poor sleep hygiene, such as consuming caffeine or alcohol, exercising or working to late in the evening. For more information on sleep disorders or how to get a more restful night’s sleep, visit www.sleepfoundation.org.

Florida Hospital Zephyrhills’ Sleep Center
Opened Sept. 8
7209 Green Slope Drive in Zephyrhills
(813) 788-0705
www.fhzeph.com

Pasco Regional’s Sleep Center
6233 Abbott Station Drive in Zephyrhills
(813) 783-1866
www.pascoregionalmc.com

By Kyle LoJacono

At the start of the new school year Girl Scout and Boy Scout organizations actively recruit new members at all levels of the programs.

The organizations take new scouts throughout the year, but make a push during the start of the school year.
Both organizations have been around for some time. Girl Scouts was founded in the United States in 1912, while Boys Scouts of America was established 100 years ago this year. Despite that age, the two groups are finding ways to stay as relevant as ever.

GIRL SCOUTS
Girl Scouts of the USA was founded by Juliette Gordon and her organization has grown to include 3.4 million girls and adults. Each year the Suncatchers Service Unit in East Pasco County celebrates the founder’s birthday, which is on Halloween.
“It’s one of the fun things we do each year,” said Michelle Barbour, the unit’s manager. “We also go camping trips, have dances and other fun trips. We also participate in the Dade City Christmas Parade each year.”
Suncatchers has 20 troops within it that are from mostly Wesley Chapel and San Antonio, but also extreme east Land O’ Lakes and west Zephyrhills. Barbour’s three girls — Deysha, Sadye and Lyric — are in the program. She was also a member of Girl Scouts as a child.

“It definitely gets them involved with things other than themselves,” Barbour said. “They volunteer at the Joshua House, the pregnancy centers and domestic violence shelters. It teaches them everything isn’t about them.”
The Suncatchers also collect books to donate to the Academy at the Farm in Dade City and participate in the Coastal Cleanup. Barbour said doing so helps the girls take ownership and builds pride in the area.
The service unit is going to the various area schools to let parents and children know more about the program and will also have an ice-cream social in October for the public to further explain what girl scouting is about. For more information about the unit or for the date of the event, call Barbour at (813) 215-3287 or e-mail her at .
Suncatchers are part of Girls Scouts of West Central Florida (GSWCF) that includes all service units in the Tampa Bay area including Pasco and Hillsborough counties. Susan Barnes, spokesperson for the organization, was also in the program as a child.
“As an Army brat, Girl Scouts helped me adjust to the places I’d move every three years or so,” Barnes said. “In addition to making friends, some of whom I’m still in contact with today, I believe being a part of Girl Scouts helped me discover the sense that I can do whatever I set out to. There are no barriers that I can’t overcome.”
Barnes also said Girl Scouts is reaching out to the growing Hispanic population in the area by increasing the number of staff members who can speak Spanish while looking at ways of embracing the culture with traditional programs.
For more information on GSWCF, visit www.gswcf.org or call (813) 281-4475.

BOY SCOUTS
Boy Scouts of America (BSA) has three types of organizations: Cub Scouts for children in first to fifth grade, Boy Scouts for those 11 to 17 years old and Venture Crews for boys and young men ages 14 to 20.
It is the Cub Scout packs that do much of the recruiting of new members.
“Getting them into the program at a young age I think helps keep their interest in the program,” said Bryan Gifford, Cub Scout roundtable commissioner for the Allohak District covering east and central Pasco County. There are 30 BSA groups of all levels in the district.
The district is part of the Gulf Ridge Council, which is the BSA organization that covers all of the Tampa Bay area including Pasco and Hillsborough counties.
As the roundtable commissioner, Gifford helps get information from the district and council to the various Cub Scout packs in the area.
Gifford is also the Scout Master for Pack 323, which meets at Myrtle Lake Baptist Church, 2017 Reigler Road off SR 54 in Land O’ Lakes, each Monday at 7 p.m. The group has children from both Lutz and Land O’ Lakes. His two boys, Skyler and Dakota, are in the pack and he also was in the scouts.
Pack 323 will have a recruiting night at Lake Myrtle Elementary at 6:30 p.m. Sept. 9. Anyone interested in joining should attend.

Also in Land O’ Lakes, Tom Harrison, assistant scout master for Pack 3, is planning a day to teach the community about scouting at Tibbetts Lumber. He said children from all areas a welcome and is not specifically for Pack 3. It is only to spread the word about scouting, including Girl Scouts.

“For me scouting is a great way to teach kids the right values,” Gifford said. “It also shows them they can accomplish anything they want to if they put their minds to it and lastly it’s a great way for parents to spend constructive time with their kids.”
Gifford said the younger age for the kids in Cub Scouts means parents have a more direct role in the meetings, but when they move on to Boy Scouts the boys take more control.
The next step in the program is Venture Crews, which was added in 1998 to the program to keep older kids interested. Scouts do not have to join a crew to progress in the program.
The crews tend to go on more high-adventure trips like mountain hiking, white-water rafting and scuba diving. Also, unlike other levels of boy scouting, girls are allowed in the crews.
“The venture program is really interesting and I wish we had it when I was in scouts,” Gifford said. “It’s part of how Boys Scouts is staying new and interesting as time changes.”
For more information about Boy Scouts in Pasco and Hillsborough, visit www.boysouting.com.

By B.C. Manion

There’s a place off the beaten path in Lutz where patrons can check out enormous beets, fresh leaf lettuce, avocados, sugar cane and other organic fruits and vegetables.

The shop, called Cheyenne’s Country Thangs, 19319 Holly Lane, is open only on Saturdays and represents a love of gardening that dates back to when Lisa Hunt was just 5 and was learning how to grow things from her Native American grandfather.
“He knew the natural way to fertilize. He didn’t call it organic, but he knew the natural way,” said Lisa, who is now passing along her love of cultivating fruits and vegetables to her 5-year-old granddaughter, Cheyenne.
The little girl was at the shop last weekend, nibbling boiled peanuts, drinking lemonade and eating a nectarine. After she finished the fruit, she planted its pit beneath a pile of mulch.
That’s just like her, her grandmother said. Cheyenne was just a year old when she started scattering seeds. She was growing flowers by herself by the age of 4. Now, she’s a big fan of the garden – especially of the many treats that grow there.
Over decades of organic gardening, Lisa has given away many of the fruits and veggies she’s grown to family and friends.
The Lutz woman decided to turn her passion into a business earlier this year, however, after the family’s other business Suncoast Directional Inc. fell into hard times.

The slump in construction hurt the directional boring company, which, at one point had 16 employees and is now down to five, said Darrel Hunt, the company’s president.

“We take care of both of our parents,” Lisa said. “We had to find some other means to try to continue to help them. This helps some.”
The garden shop is a family affair. Lisa and Darrel are there every week, and Cedric – who is Cheyenne’s dad – pitches in twice a month.
Besides helping the family’s income, the shop also provides Lisa a venue for sharing her love of organic gardening with others.
As she walks around her outdoor shop, she points out some of the organic herbs she’s grown – including lemon grass, garlic chives, lemon basil, oregano, thyme and dill. The herbs sell for $3.
She also brags about the shop’s produce. She grows some herself and buys the rest from a certified organic supplier based in Sarasota.
At her place, buyers need not beware of the fruits and vegetables she sells: If they want to taste something, she’ll gladly rinse it, slice it and give them a sample.
She also stands ready to offer advice for planting success and to suggest natural ways to battle bugs in the garden. She plans to begin offering gardening classes soon.
When potting a plant, Lisa recommends a potting mixture of two-thirds potting soil and one-third peat moss.
She also offers a recipe for natural pesticide and encourages the use of ladybugs to combat unwanted pests in the garden.
Although her shop is not visible from any main road, patrons seem to be finding it and seem to like it, too.
“It’s really cute,” said Melissa Grantham of Odessa, who was visiting the shop for the second time.
Ruth Riggins of Lutz was there looking for herb plants and produce.
She was impressed by the selection and prices of the veggies, and by the condition of the plants at the shop.
Ginger gold apples go for 50 cents each; green leaf lettuce is $2.75 a head; garnet yams go for $1.25 each and blood red beets go for $2.50 for a bunch of three.
The plants are very healthy, especially for being grown organically, Riggins said. “It is real hard to do organic here in our state,” she said, adding she knows because she’s tried. “I failed many times,” Riggins said.
Aside from the shop, which is at the front of the property, there are fruit trees galore growing on the 2.5-acre tract. There’s also a shade house and a garden out back, as well as a place where Lisa nurses sick plants back to good health.
Fruits grown on the property include tangerines, kiwis, figs, peaches, pears, mangos, kumquats and bananas.
Darrel said his wife has been crazy about gardening for decades.
“We’ve been married going on 29 years. We dated five years. Ever since I’ve known her, she’s liked plants,” he said.
He recalls frequent shopping trips with Lisa and her mom, and the women’s enthusiastic purchase of plants on nearly every trip.
“We’d come home with a back seat full of plants. I hardly had room to sit,” he said.
The couple wants to pass along that same love of gardening to their granddaughter, Cheyenne.
“Who knows what good it could do for her,” Darrel said.
For more information, go to www.cheyennescountrythangsinc.com.
Lisa’s recipe for organic pesticide

Ingredients
1 small piece of soap
1 dried chili, crushed
1 tablespoon garlic, crushed
12 cups of hot water

Directions
Mix all ingredients into a spray container, then let stand for two weeks – except for an occasional shaking of the container. Once the concoction is ready, spray it on your plants once they reach about 8 inches to 10 inches, as a preventative.

By Shannon Edinger

Area residents see more in the sky than just the sunrise in the morning.  Hot air balloons are a common sight, especially on clear, calm mornings.

There are a few hot air balloon businesses in the area, but American Balloons is the only one with a storefront location.  Jessica Warren and her husband, Tom Warren, have owned the business for 12 years, but just recently opened the location because it gives customers a place to meet. American Balloons is located at 4906 Land O’ Lakes Blvd., just north of Hale Road.
“Typically we will meet the passengers at 6:15 in the morning and be off the ground by 7:15,” Jessica Warren said.  “The flights last about an hour, then we land and passengers can head back to our office location for brunch and champagne mimosa.”
American Balloons hosts a dozen weddings a year.  Custom wedding flights start at $500.  Other popular flight occasions include birthdays, anniversaries and sweetheart flights.  Sweetheart flights cost $475.  All other flights cost $189 for adults over 12 and $125 for children 4-12. Children 3 and under ride free.
“The longest flight I ever took was two and a half hours with a couple,” Tom Warren said.  “We were at the point where fuel was low and it was time to land.”  He has landed on many different properties. Most people welcome the landings, especially the kids.  “No one realizes how massive these balloons are until they see them up close,” Tom Warren said.  The balloons reach eight stories high.
Tom Warren said that his company is unique because most others do not allow children to fly. The Warrens request that kids come in before the flight to experience the sights and sounds of the balloons and ensure that they feel comfortable enough to fly.  The Warrens have three children who have all flown before their first birthdays.
“I wouldn’t allow kids to fly if I thought it was dangerous,” Tom Warren said.  “I wouldn’t put my own children at risk if I thought it wasn’t safe.”
The baskets are made from wicker and can carry four to five passengers, including the pilot.  “It’s the most durable material for a basket,” Tom Warren said.  The baskets are inspected once a year to ensure safety.
There have been no incidents of injury since the Warrens opened the business 12 years ago.  “I remember I had a man go into diabetic shock during a flight, so I had to land on 54 to get him on the ground and get him the help he needed,” Tom Warren said.  “You have to take the same emergency precautions you would on any other form of air travel.”
Wind is an important factor in determining the overall flight experience.  The Warrens have cancelled scheduled flights due to high winds and inclement weather.  “Early mornings in the summer are the best times to fly,” Jessica Warren said.  “The winds are calmest in the morning.”  Tom Warren says the clear mornings allow passengers to see for 30 miles.  Balloons reach altitudes of 3,000 feet in Central Pasco but the view from above is the same whether it is 1,000 feet or 3,000 feet.
American Balloons was featured on the local news for granting the dying wish of a woman in hospice care to take flight in a hot air balloon.  The Warrens are happy to give people the ability to float away from the stress of everyday life.
American Balloons can be reached at (813) 243-9507.

By Tom Chang

After a busy summer, the Xtreme Adventures Family Fun Center in Lutz is adjusting to changing schedules that accompany the return of students to school.

“Summer was great,” said regional manager Leila Kroll.  “September seems to be a little slower with the start of school.  So we try to let people know about our fundraisers that we do for the schools, youth group, athletic club and still have fun.”
Opened in June 2009, Xtreme Adventures features a state-of-the art, 6000-square-foot, two-level laser tag arena where customers can play up to three games. Pricing for a single game is $8, two for $14 and three for $19. Wednesday and Thursday special features unlimited play from 4-10 p.m. for $15.  Friday’s special includes unlimited play from 4-11 p.m. for $25.
According to Kroll, laser tag is the most popular among the adults during corporate events. The facility also offers an array of food and drinks (including a bar) similar to other franchises like Gameworks and Dave & Busters.  Complementing laser tag is laser frenzy, a unique timed obstacle course where score is rewarded on speed and precision. The attraction costs $3 a game.
Kroll describes the experience like Mission: Impossible.
“When you go into the room, lasers pop up everywhere and you kind of have to crawl, duck and dive in between them,” Kroll said.

Other prominent attractions at the facility include Hwy 66 Bowling for younger kids with smaller lanes and smaller/lighter balls, which Kroll describes as “miniature bowling.” There’s also the Rock, where people can take the challenge of scaling up a wall. Both are $3 a game.
Xtreme Adventures also boasts a huge arcade facility full of parlor games, shooters and classics.
“We have a lot of amenities,” Kroll said. “There are a lot of different things around.  I think people need variety.”
Xtreme Adventures Family Fun Center is located on 24810 SR 54 in Lutz. For more information call (813) 949-3866 or go to http://www.xtremeadventures4fun.com.