“Go Local!”

“Go Local!” is GWN's motto, starting from May 27, 2008, a motto started by GWN Founder Diane Zhou's dad. “So many big chain companies, like McDonald's, own newspapers that turned from local to national or worldwide. That loses the meaning of 'local news', so I support GWN,” Diane's dad told GWN. GWN is being motivated by this motto. Without it, GWN would have disappeared long ago in November, 2007!

Cover Story

Yard Work
“I've been working on the backyard,
All the afternoon.
I've been working so very hard,
Until I cannot move.”

Alex Zhou sung that while working on the backyard on Saturday, March 8th. “It doesn't rhyme, but it's cool!” says Diane Zhou, his brother. “He [Alex] sung it in the 'I've been working on the railroad' tune. It made the yard work fun!” Diane hates yard work, but also dislikes playing piano inside the house. Her family has been picking grass, flipping the soil, and all that stuff to get new grass since the Sunday before. Yard work was much more fun with Alex singing on that Saturday.

Diane's neighbor changed grass before, so her family asked them for advice. “Just flip the soil and get the grass loose with a machine on one day, pick out all the roots the second day, and put the new grass on the third day!” they had said. Well, their yard was tons of times smaller, so instead of three days, it took a whole week! The job finally got done on March 8th and surprise! A “new” back yard.

Everyone had jobs that day. The new soil came in big bags so it was Diane's dad's job to get the soil onto the wheelbarrow. Then Diane's mom pushed the wheelbarrow to the backyard. Diane took a big bucket of soil to the backyard to help get all the soil there. Alex had the spread the soil with a rake. When the soil was done, Diane and her mom carried the new grass to the sidewalk of their backyard while Alex put water into a manual lawn roller and Diane's dad finished smoothing out the soil. Halfway through getting all the grass, Diane and Alex flattened the soil for good together with the heavy lawn roller. Diane's parents took a break. Later on, Diane's dad used the roller to flatten the rest of the soil while the females continued getting the grass. Alex went in the house to rest awhile. Diane went in ten minutes later. The rest of the work was done by their parents. “It was sooooooo tiring,” Diane told GWN. “I saw how exhausted my parents were, but I was also really exhausted.”

The job's not done yet! Something should be done with the extra grass. Diane's family put it by the gate to the backyard. More work! Well, this was much easier and done in one hour on Sunday, March 9th.

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