Category Archives: Commentary

Shopping at the Farms

Posted on February 16, 2013 by AnnieRie

Last winter I had a CSA and we did Silver Spring, Dupont Circle and Tacoma Park markets to get my local items for my winter challenge. I thought nothing of driving into DC or the suburbs to get fresh foods locally grown. At the time, I was unaware of the year round farm stores that are actually closer to me, and are now where I get my meats, produce and locally produced items like bread, milk, eggs and honey.

Every other week I head out to England Acres to get dairy, meat, winter veggies and fresh greens. Also, apples and sometimes citrus. Judy gets high tunnel microgreens and winter greens from a farm in Damascus, East Rivendell Farm.

I will be heading over to check them out some day probably a Friday when they are open. For me to add a farm to my local resources list, I like to visit and see what they have. I love the greens from East Rivendell. Today I picked up some winter salad mix, and a bag of red chard at England Acres. I believe both of them were brought in from East Rivendell. Like these greens a few weeks back.

The mix I got today includes some lovely baby dinosaur kale. I also picked up the Baby Bellas again today. And, some carrots that Judy orders from Lancaster Farm Fresh, the coop that supplies my summer CSA. The carrots are so sweet in the winter. My favorite time to buy them.

This week I made lots of soups and the lasagna, so we are eating leftovers until tomorrow night. Then, I will be making my winter weekly Eat Local Dinner, using two little 5 oz. filets I got from Judy today. We were talking out at the farm about whether I should order a side of lamb. She will be selling sides and whole lamb packages. In March and in May. After that, no fresh lamb until the fall.

I find it interesting to get meat from the local farmers. Chickens available only from May until late fall. Lamb available winter and early spring. Seasonal influences based on when the animals are ready to process. If you have never bought or cooked with locally raised, farm fresh meats, you don’t know what you are missing. Just like local eggs and local produce, that freshness and taste are unmistakable.

Only three weeks to go until my Breezy Willow Early Bird CSA starts. Still happily eating from the freezer, the pantry and a couple of trips a month to the farmstands. Can’t believe how little I get from grocery stores these days. I asked my husband last week to stop at the store for the few items I can’t get at markets, like coffee creamer, extra light olive oil for cooking and dishwasher detergent. When your total gasoline points for the month are 39 from Giant Food, you know you have changed your buying habits.

As for CSAs, the local ones are filling up quickly. Look over at localharvest.org if you want to get the freshest produce and fruit weekly. There are all sorts of sizes and types now being delivered to pick up spots all over Howard County.

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Posted in Commentary, CSA, Farmer's Markets, Food, Howard County, Local Businesses, Locavore, West HoCo, Winter Eat Local and tagged CSA, farmer's markets, Food, foodie, Howard County, Locavore, real food, value of CSA, West HoCo. Bookmark the permalink.

Tackle Six Rightsizing Projects

Posted on February 13, 2013 by AnnieRie

Part of my Sixty@Sixty list. Back on my 60th birthday, I made a list. Ten different categories. Six things in each one. The last one. Rightsizing projects.

I finally culled down the list of all that needs to be done around here and came up with these items. Here is the list. And, below, the progress made in each one of them.

1. Books
2. Clothes
3. XMAS decorations
4. Pantry and Kitchen
5. Pictures and collectibles
6. Travel Souvenirs

Big items. Not something easily achieved, but after moving 42 years of things out of my MIL’s house when she went to a retirement apartment I know these are things we need to address. I mean, how many T shirts from other places do we really need in this house?

I have made some progress in each category, but there is a long way to go. Highlights.

Books — I have way too many cookbooks and magazines. I haven’t tackled that puppy yet, but I will get there. I mean, Great Dinners from Life? I don’t want to know how old that book is.

I did put together three grocery bags full of work reference books, old fiction, paperbacks and hiking books. They went off to the book bin. There used to be one at Glenwood but it is gone. My husband found another one, and it got a hefty deposit. Besides the donation to the bin, I gave my mom all sorts of old paperbacks, mostly Patricia Cornwell and Tom Clancy. She took them to her friends at church. They pass around books to read.

Clothes — this one started last fall and is still a priority. I put together two huge plastic bags full of work clothes and other things after Hurricane Sandy. Gave them to HoCoRising’s SO to take to Jersey on her trip to help hurricane victims.

After that great beginning, I have donated to the boxes at Kendall’s, four more bags of work clothes. After all, I now live in blue jeans or shorts and only need a few nice items in my wardrobe. Besides, getting rid of all my larger sized clothes is my incentive to keep losing weight. I am almost finished with my stuff. Time to tackle my better half’s closet full of things he won’t be wearing much anymore. Does he still need five suits? All those management suits and ties. Really. He could keep two, one summer weight and one winter. The rest. Need a good home for someone new to the workforce.

XMAS decorations — this was one royal pain to do. We really need to throw away things we no longer use. Since no charities want them, they go in the trash. I dumped quite a few tree decorations, and we went through all the lights and the wreaths and deer to only have good strings of lights left.

Besides fixing the lights, I also made a vow. No more Christmas card buying. There are more than enough all over the study. I consolidated everything this year and will not succumb to those post Christmas sales anymore. I have at least ten years worth of cards around here.

Travel Souvenirs — Besides the dozens of T shirts I have given away, there are the other things. How about volksmarching medals? We used to do volksmarching and collect medals. I donated them to the Conservancy for a geocaching event. There is another one in March and the rest of the medals will go there. The children loved getting medals when they finished the challenge. They also loved the foreign coins in one of the boxes on the trail. Both came from our souvenir stashes. In March, I am also contemplating donating all our postcards collected on travels. The children really have fun finding treasures in the boxes at the geocache sites.

Pantry and Kitchen — I have cleaned out the spice containers and made rubs, herb mixes and spice mixes. Some I gave away at Christmas. The rest I am plowing through in my cooking. No more industrial spice and herb purchases. Except for garlic powder, salt and oregano, which I use quite a bit.

Getting a cleaned up pantry is a priority, and I am nowhere near completion on this one.

As for my last item, pictures and collectibles, I haven’t done much other than organize. Now comes the hard part. Downsizing it. We have stamps from my husband’s dad. Dolls and pictures from his mom. Pictures from my mom. Depression glass. Doilies! Yes, a blanket sized plastic zip bag full of hand crocheted items from his mom. My grandmother’s china. All these things. Never used anymore. What to do with them. They have no real monetary value, just sentiment.

Beyond the fun things on my Sixty@sixty list, these are the hard ones.

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The Chesapeake Watershed

Posted on January 26, 2013 by AnnieRie

Two things this week reminded me of this amazing book by Ned Tillman.

The first is the wellness hike and lecture series for volunteers at the Howard County Conservancy. Ned is the speaker, speaking on the geology of Mt. Pleasant this Tuesday the 29th at 11 am. For all volunteers, or someone really interested in becoming a volunteer, this is the final walk and lecture. Next month volunteer naturalist training begins for the spring field trips.

This lecture, by Ned, will be followed by lunch. Each of us volunteers is bringing some sort of dessert. The Conservancy staff is making us lunch. Truly, this type of volunteering is good for me, and bad for my diet.

The second reminder with respect to the health of the Chesapeake was seeing the story about the proposed stormwater management fee, a bill to be introduced at the February county council session. I have mixed feelings about this approach. If the money collected is actually used to clean up problems created. Those caused by over development by residential and commercial developers with minimal requirements to be responsible stewards of the land. If so, it would be a good thing.

But, with all the reimbursements, credits, bureaucracy involved, it probably won’t have much of an impact. Yee haw, plant a tree. Get a reimbursement. Buy a rain barrel, get a reimbursement. Really?

Bandaids aren’t going to solve this problem. I lived thirty years in Columbia. Face it. They used the streams as the run off collectors. Our old development was built in the 80s. The storm ponds overflowed every hard rain, into an overflow system that went right down into the streams below Rock Coast Road. The ponds weren’t large enough. Trade offs. Large enough storm water collection, or more houses. Guess what won?

Some unintentional issues I saw while reading this bill. Issues from a west county (don’t live in a development) perspective. The GIS data they will be using to assess us for our impervious surfaces doesn’t appear to be very accurate out here. For example, this is a “driveway” on my property. The data base shows about a hundred feet of driveway behind our home.

Now, maybe twenty years ago it was a gravel drive back to the meadow but it has been reclaimed. And, the data doesn’t show my shed. Nor does it show most of the out buildings all over this part of the county. From a management standpoint, not having the data there means more labor to create it all, and to verify it. None of the homes in the new development up the road from us are even in the database. I know there are at least a dozen homes occupied up there. The database shows forest. It seems this could become a logistical nightmare.

Add to that the fact that all the runoff from my house and our driveway stays on our property. I use downspout extenders to water my flower gardens from roof runoff. The driveway drains into our back yard and is collected in a depressed area just past my vegetable garden surrounded by mature trees. The river runs there every time it rains or snow melts.

This is the “river” passing the herb garden on its way to my vegetable garden. All the water from our driveway heads back to that depressed area in the meadow. It is a natural bowl. We have another one in the front corner of the property. Everything from the shared driveway ends up down there. More than half the time you can’t run the tractor there as the water collects under the 100 year old trees. Sixty feet tall. Permanent shade down there. Sometimes a real wetland.

There are no curbs. There are no drains. We live on a well. The nearest stream is over a half mile down the road, with eight homes, meadows and pine forests between us and the stream. But, if it makes a difference, I won’t squawk about paying $69.20 a year. That amount is based on our impervious footprint, with no credits or reimbursements, because our mitigation efforts to keep precious water on our land were already done.

We need to change lots of things we do to keep the Bay healthy. Stop pretending we live on the 18th green at Pebble Beach, and keep the chemicals off the grass. Take care of our cars and trucks so they don’t leak oil and fluids all over the streets where rain washes the debris right into the storm drains. Ultimately into the Bay.

Read Ned’s book sometime. It is really enlightening. But, can we do better when it comes to solving the stormwater management problem?

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Posted in Commentary, Community, Howard County, Nature, Volunteering, West HoCo and tagged commentary, community, hoco loco, Howard County, howard county conservancy, nature, volunteering, West HoCo. Bookmark the permalink.

Heard Around the Water Cooler

Posted on January 21, 2013 by AnnieRie

aka The Bird Bath. I think that my neighborhood birds are all excited that the Ravens won.

They were gathering in earnest today at the bird bath. They also decided the buffet in my yard must have been worth the visit.

These are just the robins and starlings that descended upon us this morning. And, only a fraction of them. There were more out back and in the meadow. My neighbor’s crab apple trees are the big draw along with my heated bird bath. I think this “discussion” is about why the Cardinals didn’t do so well this year, and what they think of the 49ers.

Add to all these new visitors, the red bellied woodpecker decided to chase away the finch from his favorite feeder.

But then he got all introspective and went off to contemplate whatever.

Just another day in West Howard County. Lunchtime entertainment.

hocoblogs@@@

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Posted in Birds, Commentary, Howard County, Nature, West HoCo and tagged birds, commentary, Howard County, nature, photography, West HoCo. Bookmark the permalink.

Bittersweet

Posted on January 6, 2013 by AnnieRie

Remember when. When I was a child and the Colts came to town. They were our team then. Joined two years later by the Orioles.

It was strange today, for some reason. Watching them. In their blue and white uniforms. Remembering Memorial Stadium. Johnny U.

My family had season tickets. We grieved the loss of the Colts. Still hate Robert Irsay. But respect the Colts.

Thankfully, we move on to the next round.

Watching the Redskins was hard. Before we got the Colts, our families cheered for the Redskins.

It would have been fun to see a Ravens and Redskins Super Bowl.

The Colts came here the year I was born. Left when I had season tickets. I have mixed feelings about them, but they are now a class act. I am glad we won.

Here’s to next week.

Looking Forward to the New Year

Posted on December 31, 2012 by AnnieRie

I think my husband said it best coming home today from a visit to my mom. It is so nice not to have to go back to work Wednesday. The fact that we are retired has really finally sunk in. This is his second year of retirement. I will hit three years in April. Last year there was much upheaval, with my impending surgery, and uncertainty. We both are grateful I came through it, and slowly am mending, but mending nonetheless.

sunrise new year’s eve

The sunrise today was impressive. It inspires me to look forward to the coming year, a new beginning, and full of choices. I already came up with those sixty things I want to accomplish. They are my resolutions.

I will still plan projects for the year, just not calling them resolutions. Projects like decluttering. Home improvements.

And, I want to be more focused in my volunteering. Expanding what I do.

And, get back into walking and hiking again. Maybe do some county hikes. So many things. I just need to focus.

Here’s to 2013, the blank slate we write upon, the 33rd year of marriage, and the 38th year in Howard County. I think it’s time to watch a few bowl games. Even though they now have stupid names. Like the Autozone Bowl? Really??

A few more nights, then the decorations will come down. I leave our decorations up until the Epiphany. It still feels like the holidays until I have to put them away.

They survived the wind, rain and snow, even though I had to batten down the deer more than once. And, I just noticed one string of lights on the tall tree shaped stakes burnt out. I suppose we will be restringing those before they get stored away.

Random thoughts, these are. Random thoughts in our corner of the world. A corner where both the Ravens and Redskins made the playoffs. Water cooler conversations should be fun all around DC and Baltimore this week. Let’s also not forget that the Orioles and Nationals both exceeded our expectations last summer. Here’s to continued success for our local teams. May they meet in a Super Bowl or World Series sometime soon!

Hope all our friends and family stay safe tonight, and stay healthy for 2013. Happy New Year, Howard County!

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Posted in Commentary, Community, Family, Howard County, Retirement and tagged commentary, community, hoco loco, hocoblogging, holidays, Howard County, traditions. Bookmark the permalink.

The Year 2012 In Review, from the Blog

Posted on December 30, 2012 by AnnieRie

I was going to do a highlights post. Lo and Behold, WordPress did a year in review for me. Weird that I clicked on my dashboard and found the year summary just as I was sitting down to write about the most popular posts.

In my summary page, it showed many views of the local resource page, and my About page. I decided this afternoon to update them to make sure they were current. Including more detail and a few more pictures.

As for my most popular posts, the top five came out this way.

Number Five — Baby Chicks at Tractor Supply — people still click on this one. It is from last April. I suppose this year I need to take pictures of the chicks. I only did a superficial summary last year without finding out how many people buy chicks from them every year. They certainly had a nice variety, and they sold out quickly.

Number Four — CQ Field Day, CQ Field Day — my account of the amateur radio weekend at the local school yard, with the local clubs. I cook for them, and I blogged about it. It got picked up on a national radio club feed and it still gets views, when people search on their call sign, W3AO, or Whiskey Three Atlantic Ocean. We won this past year. We are used to winning. A large group of very competitive hams.

W3AO Field Day 2012 Class 27A

Number Three — Brighton Dam Azalea Gardens — I shouldn’t be surprised by this one. Lots of people want to know when the azaleas peak. This year, again, I will be monitoring them and taking pictures, and posting them. We live right up the road from the gardens and visit them frequently. We also have been all over the property doing bird counts with the local club. One of my favorite places in Howard County.

Brighton dam azaleas

Number Two — The YEMMies are Coming — Why? I have no idea, but lately every time I look at the sidebar where it lists most recent popular posts, the YEMMie post is there. It has over 200 views, most of them recent. Obviously, there is adequate discussion on the media about the Young Educated Millennial Mothers. I discussed in my post about mothers in my CSA making baby food themselves from the organic veggies and fruits, and of former coworkers looking for pasture fed, and/or free range meat and eggs and dairy. We certainly see an increase in younger patrons at the farm stands and markets we frequent.

And, the Number One post for the year, my personal view after the fatal accident that closed rte.32 in November, that was picked up by the Preserve Woodmont facebook page, was My View from West County. That was one of the crazier days out here, with people we know stranded, or rerouted, or lost trying to get through the clogged roads.

Our visit that night to Bistro Blanc included conversations with a number of people who had real problems getting anywhere that day. If we had medical emergencies, or a fire out here, the gridlock would have made it next to impossible to get emergency vehicles in. It took people three or four hours to get through west county that day. I lamented the fact that our infrastructure upgrades that were in process when we moved here in 2005, have pretty much not materialized.

They are only now working on the second interchange up near us, with the Rte. 144/Rte. 32 one still in the planning stages. Even then, the two lane road is still overcrowded, and has been overwhelmed by commuters traveling from north and west of Howard County.

It will be interesting to see what happens once they finish the Linden Church interchange next fall. Will the clogged up area move north to 144? Will they see the bailing out of traffic on roads like Pfeffercorn? We see it now on Triadelphia, Linthicum, Burnt Woods, Ten Oaks and Howard. I think it will just make the funnel move further north, but still create hazards for those living here.

I really wish they would just at least do something about the mailboxes, trash collection and recycling. Having only one way delivery for mail, and one way pick up for trash and recycling has made driving even more dangerous due to the sheer number of cars, trucks and buses on our roads.

I find it interesting that my most viewed post had to do with west county infrastructure. I have noticed, reading the local blogs, that most of them focus on Columbia and Ellicott City. I am not sure how many of my fellow local bloggers have been out here other than to pick strawberries at Larriland. At eight years in, we have seen many changes, but also have seen much that keeps us rural and disconnected. Not a bad thing, most of the time. It still is a lovely place to live. And, to blog.

Have a safe New Year’s Eve. We are staying in, eating well and popping the cork on a split of champagne, if we can stay up until midnight. A few people will shoot off fireworks at some of the more remote properties not far from us, if the weather cooperates. We hear them and see them every year.

hocoblogs@@@

Eight Years In

Posted on December 15, 2012 by AnnieRie

December 2004. The first time we saw our house. After months of frustrating searching and one bad experience with misrepresentation on a disclosure form. We drove by at night to check it out. It is dark out here. Really dark. But, the house was decorated and looked great. On the 16th we came back to tour it.

And, fell in love. It was probably the kitchen that did it for me.

450 square feet. OK, so we have replaced the refrigerator and ovens. They were 18 years old when we moved in. I still love this room. The heart of our home.

My husband fell in love with the family room. The paneling. That manly thing. The fireplace. The entire back of this house is kitchen and family room.

We had no idea how different things are, in west county. Learning to be self sufficient. Thankfully, with a gas fireplace, and a wood stove in the basement. With snow throwers, tractors, pick up truck. Way different than living in Columbia. Things really are different out here. And so worth it. Nights are dark, yes. No glow from lights anywhere. Amazing sunsets.

Peace and quiet. Privacy. I can’t think of any better place to live. Far from the noise and light. Even when it is crazy with the snow.

So glad we made the leap into living here.

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Posted in Adventures, Commentary, Howard County, Nature, Weather, West HoCo and tagged commentary, community, Howard County, nature, weather, West HoCo. Bookmark the permalink.

Words Fail Me

Posted on December 14, 2012 by AnnieRie

Sometimes it is just too much. Today was one of those days. The loss of innocence. My heart goes out to the families. I can’t think of much else. I take little ones on hikes. Teach them the wonders of nature. Today, hundreds of them were subject to horrors that boggle my mind.

We live in Howard County. An upscale county, like Newtown CT. The unthinkable occurred there today. Watching the news, I also saw the lovely poinsettia, given to us yesterday by the boisterous exuberant school children who are my neighbor’s boys. Little ones, not unlike the little ones in Sandy Hook. This could happen anywhere. Sad, but true, and oh so scary.

Our prayers for the families.

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Round Up Those Resolutions

Posted on December 3, 2012 by AnnieRie

Having a blog means getting to see what you said you were going to do in your New Year’s Resolutions. And then, when you revisit them, see if you made any progress, or just forgot about them. I did revisit in April.

Then, I did forget to see if I did anything. It’s been almost eight months, and I think before I make any resolutions for 2013, I should see if I accomplished any of the 2012 ones. Why make resolutions just to ignore them, or shelve them?

I did get that freezer. It is full. I am using it. Garlic scape pesto, chicken and turkey broth, chunky tomato sauce, all being used. CSA veggies being preserved in it and nothing going to waste. I think I can call this one a win.

pesto, fruit, veggies, broth ready for winter

We didn’t bid on a 4H animal this year, but I am getting venison tomorrow. Changing into almost 100% locally supplied beef, pork, chicken, turkey, lamb and now, venison. Not buying from grocery stores. That is a huge change in our consumption. I think that is another win. I even started buying bones from the Mt. Airy butcher to make my own stocks.

beef bones for stock

I did lose weight, even with the set back of surgery. Not very much, but down from a year ago. That will be another major goal next year. Make it a double digit loss, though, instead of a cumulative single digit loss. Still, six pounds down from a year ago isn’t bad.

Didn’t do chickens, or a cold frame. We think we will pass on the chickens, until we find a better place for my garden and get the radio towers positioned. Still want to do the cold frame.

As for baking and cooking. Didn’t bake that much, but did get cookies done for the Holiday Mart. Decided baking and losing weight are a problem, unless you bake to give away.

Cooking, on the other hand. Doing lots more and getting creative. Pumpkin hummus. Ajvar, now a staple in my recipe file. More cinnamon, garlic and other Mediterranean flavors. The venison will become many stews and chilis. I want to use tomatillos in it. I have branched out to new items.

ajvar and hummus

All in all, I am pleased with this year’s changes. And, yes, we did a bit of decluttering. The boxes in our garage from my husband’s office are gone. The shed has been cleaned to remove all leftovers from the roof, gutter and siding replacement jobs. Now, to get the tractor out of the garage so my car can go back in it. Before we get SNOW! That is one of my final big goals. But, at the moment tower parts, cable, rotors, antenna parts, all are still in the shed and the tractor needs just a bit more floor space than we have there. Hope that getting this crank up done this week will get me back in the garage. Keeping my fingers crossed.

making progress on the first tower

I guess I will make public resolutions for 2013. I seem to have done OK this year. Still loving the CSA and knowing I can eat locally year round in Howard County was a very pleasant surprise and motivates me to keep doing it. I need to update the local resources page to keep it current and show where things can be bought in the winter.

Oh, almost forgot. Still volunteering and loving it. In 2013, I will be helping with programs at the Conservancy to showcase local farmers and artisans. Can’t give up that precious gift of time.

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