Category Archives: Community

Fiddlers and Fireflies

Posted on June 25, 2013 by AnnieRie

This Thursday night.

Description from the Conservancy Web Site.

JUN 27- Thursday 6-9pm Fiddlers and Fireflies- Bring your family and picnic dinner to the Conservancy as Fiddlers and Fireflies, one of our most popular programs, returns this summer. As the fireflies begin to flicker in the tall grasses around the property at Mt. Pleasant, listen to great performers of fiddle music, Steve Hickman’s band, who have electrified audiences for close to thirty years. Children and adults alike will join in the dancing with the fiddles and the fireflies. Kids will also learn interesting facts about fireflies and are invited to make a firefly craft. Bring your own picnic blanket or chairs $10/car

Last year the crafts tables were really popular. Making fireflies, coloring activities, other crafts. Along with the picnicing and dancing.

As you can see, the little ones were the first ones up enjoying the music. And, last year a surprise visit from one of the two goats who are part of the Conservancy “family”, being friendly and getting fed leaves by the children.

Lots to do. Great music. A bargain for a family at $10 a car to cover the musicians’ fee. Even a bargain for a couple, or a group of friends, who could set up their picnic anywhere on the hillside and listen to the music while watching the sunset and look for the fireflies to come out. Or, maybe play a game of catch. This is one of my favorite summer traditions.

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Posted in Community, Food, Howard County, Volunteering, West HoCo and tagged community, Food, hoco loco, Howard County, howard county conservancy, West HoCo. Bookmark the permalink.

Wrapping Up Another Year … W3AO

Posted on June 23, 2013 by AnnieRie

Every year the list gets longer as more and more people support the two local radio clubs, CARA and PVRC, in making the annual Field Day bigger and better.

Watching W3LPL roll up his cables, this year with the help of KD4D, I think to myself, they are walking two miles combined. After operating their radios for most of the 24 hour contest period.

They, along with about a dozen other very tired, but elated, participants, took down all the towers, all the wires, all the computers, a half dozen tents, and all those other little jobs that would leave the school field looking just like it did when they arrived.

Earlier today, it was cooler, a little overcast, but then the wind kicked up, the flags showed the weather changing, and everyone thought we would be tearing down the setup in bad weather.

Jim, N3KTV was prepared for a rainy tear down, but thankfully after an hour of drizzle and some heavy rain, it did clear up in time for the grilled lunch. Unfortunately, hot, humid weather made it a bit uncomfortable to work out there. I think we went through dozens of bottles of water, and lots of watermelon, bananas, and grapes.

At one point, I was driving around the fields giving out water bottles and offering more sun screen. We had multiple teams pulling down antennas, cranking down towers along with the dismantling of the operating tents.

Here I do want to pay tribute to the sometimes unsung heroes in any endeavor, like this weekend event. Those members of the clubs and their friends and families who spend hours after the end of the event cleaning up and putting it all away until next time. Even after long hours. And, to KE3Q, for making the Get On The Air (GOTA) station a much used and appreciated station for young and old alike to be introduced to the magic of contacting someone anywhere in the US and Canada.

Without the dedicated team players, any organization, non profit or otherwise, can’t succeed. I think W3AO succeeds because of all of those dedicated people. Glad that they are our neighbors and friends. It was another great event. Safely conducted. Can’t wait to see the final results and looking forward to next year, our fifteenth anniversary of operating here in Howard County.

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Back On the Air Again … W3AO

Posted on June 21, 2013 by AnnieRie

Field Day Weekend. What is it? Why are all these people out in a field putting up antennas? Two local Howard County based clubs join forces every year to put on an amateur radio extravaganza. Exhibiting a “Can Do” attitude with respect to creating and operating a major emergency communications capability.

Think amateur radio isn’t necessary anymore? Ask those who need help after major disasters when cell towers are down, or inoperable due to damage, or overloaded. Ask after Katrina and other natural disasters. It is a good thing to have people capable of erecting temporary towers to assist local emergency teams.

Once a year, the fourth weekend in June, clubs all across the United States participate in this exercise. It allows club members to practice their skill at antenna erecting, generator based operating, and it builds a sense of community across the clubs and their respective local authorities.

The clubs that put this effort together are the Columbia Amateur Radio Association (CARA) and the Potomac Valley Radio Club (PVRC). My husband is a member of both clubs. CARA focuses quite a bit on community service, supporting biking and running events and assisting at the Office of Emergency Management (OEM) during severe weather events.

PVRC is a contest club, mainly. A group of very dedicated seriously competitive members spanning a few states with the center of the club radius here in central Maryland. Put the contesters and the community service supporters together and you get one huge effort to be the biggest and best station on the air this weekend.

The clubs put up eleven crank up 50 foot high portable towers. String wire antennas between them as well as put up some monstrous beams to transmit on single frequency bands.

Bring in generators, tents, and we will go on the air tomorrow at 2 pm, for 24 hours of seeking and contacting other clubs and individuals across all 50 states. You want the Taj Mahal of radio stations, how about an air conditioned tent?

When you bring all the generators and most of the VHF/UHF gear, you can also bring your own A/C unit.

As for the antennas out there, most of them come from one member. How about one huge 20 meter beam?

Besides the antennas, the club uses miles of coaxial cable to tie all these stations to their operating tent. All of the towers must exist within a set radius. The club is operating 28 Alpha this year. Twenty eight simultaneous stations on the air. Alpha means powered by generators. Twenty eight times hundreds of feet of cable. Twenty eight beams, dipoles, wires and other types of antennas at all frequencies available to the amateur community.

We know they have finished set up of the towers when the flags are raised.

Tomorrow morning is computer and radio set up morning, and all must be done for start at 2 PM. If you want to see something awesome, head out to Triadelphia Ridge Elementary School and visit. You can even operate one of the stations dedicated to getting new people on the air.

See you tomorrow?

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Posted in Community, Howard County and tagged amateur radio, community, Howard County. Bookmark the permalink.

Think Small

Posted on June 19, 2013 by AnnieRie

Small business, that is. This week is National Small Business Week. Established 50 years ago by President Kennedy. According to statistics (I believe they are from the SBA), 2 out of 3 jobs in the USA are in the small business sector.

As a locavore and locapour, most people know that I enthusiastically support small businesses. An article I just read today published by Forbes suggests things to do in your community to support your small businesses. I am going to piggyback on that list and generate my own.

For small business week, pick one of the following and resolve to do it.

1. Go to a local restaurant or bar, instead of a chain. Like the Rumor Mill, where Tom Coale announced his candidacy last night. A local restaurant owned and operated by local people.

2. Go to one of the Howard County Farmers Markets this week, or buy something from a local farm stand.

3. If you are going to grill for 4th of July, buy your grilling meats from Treuth, Boarman’s, Clark’s, Mt. Airy Meat, Breezy Willow, TLV Tree Farm, or one of the other local farms, like Copper Penny in Hanover.

4. Buy or order something from a local business, like Crunch Daddy, Cosmic Bean, Pfefferkorn, Thai Spices, Bowling Green, Breadery, Great Harvest.

5. Support your local wine and beer suppliers, buying MD or VA wines or beers.

6. Use your local hardware stores, like Clark’s, Kendall’s, or Burtonsville Ace.

Next month is the Buy Local Challenge, for MD. This week is a good warm up to participate in that 9 day long challenge. And, for that challenge, you can come out to the Conservancy with your local picnic and be eligible for prizes for the best picnic.

Details —

JUL 20-28- Buy Local Challenge- Join the Conservancy as we support local farmers and celebrate the Maryland”Buy Local” Challenge when local produce is booming at the end of July. Participate two ways –

First Way — Enter individually to join the statewide program, attempting to eat at least one local item every day during the challenge period of July 20-28 2013.

This year’s challenge-theme is a “Take Local Outdoors” contest to win $200 by taking pictures of your outdoor meals and submitting them on the Buy Local Challenge page.

Second Way — Double your fun! Join the “Conservancy Team”, in a parallel event on the last afternoon of the challenge on Sunday, July 28th from 2-5 PM. Prepare your favorite LOCAL picnic foods for your own picnic, and enjoy them in the Conservancy’s picnic grove with many of our local farmers and producers. We will be giving 2 prizes: one for the best local picnic spread (meal and/or snacks), and the other for the best picnic dessert. Local farmers and producers are the judges. And, of course, if you want to come picnic with all of us without entering the state contest, just bring your best locally made dishes and join the party. Register for the date at www.hcconservancy.org.

Or, in other words, get out there and support your neighbors!

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Posted in Community, Farmer's Markets, Farms, Food, Howard County, Local Businesses, Locavore, Restaurants, Wine and tagged community, farmer's markets, farms, Food, hoco loco, Howard County, howard county conservancy, local businesses, Locavore, wine. Bookmark the permalink.

My First Political Fundraiser

Posted on June 18, 2013 by AnnieRie

For thirty years working in acquisition for the Feds, I wasn’t really encouraged, or inclined, to get into the local political scene. Mainly because it was frowned upon, and because I spent so much time out of the area, i.e., in DC, that I didn’t pay much attention to it.

Now that I am retired and pay way too much attention to local politics 😉 I was interested in attending a fellow blogger’s kickoff party for his political campaign.

Tom Coale. HoCoRising for those who follow the local blogs. Tom picked the Rumor Mill in Ellicott City to make his announcement. Thankfully Claire from ukdesperatehousewifeusa, another local blogger took some pics and posted them. I didn’t drag my camera out in the rain, and my better half had the smart phone with him.

Tom is running for state delegate in a newly redistricted 9B.

I first met Tom when he hosted a get together after a fundraiser to pay security deposits for Living in Recovery homes. I also took quite a bit of stuff over to their house when they were putting together a truckload of items to deliver to New Jersey after Hurricane Sandy.

We see each other at HoCoBlogs events, and like most of us involved in writing about life in Howard County, exchange comments and emails regularly.

I think Tom is one of those dedicated, inspired, head and heart in the right place individuals who truly cares about his home state. He would be a very good choice to go to Annapolis.

Best of Luck, Tom, even though you aren’t running in my district.

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Lost and Found Sounds

Posted on June 16, 2013 by AnnieRie

Last month a local blogger, commenting on the NPR series about lost sounds lamented those sounds from our past that have disappeared from our lives. Interestingly enough, many of the sounds she noted were ones still very much present in our lives.

Like radio static. You want radio static? Come to our house. Between the scanner and my husband’s radios, I get to hear all sorts of static.

One of his old receivers, that he will still mess around with occasionally. As for the scanner, it is how we know what is happening, even more current than twitter or facebook, the scanner frequencies for fire and police, and the local Columbia repeater for 2 meters yield us instant info about fires, accidents, and just general stuff. The repeaters are manned by amateurs doing Skywarn during storms like we had Thursday.

Children playing. Out here we always hear our neighbor’s little ones outside, laughing and running around, or riding their bikes. There are always wiffle balls or tennis balls in our field. Errant tosses while they are enjoying the sunny days.

We left behind the sirens and helicopters of Columbia, and gained tractors, birds, roosters and SILENCE. Sometimes here it is the silence that amazes us the most. Dark, quiet evenings.

Full moon. Some evenings I would wait outside looking at the stars and hearing nothing, waiting for my husband to get home from a meeting. Looking for the deer. Or watching a satellite in the sky. No sounds. Just complete silence, and a car every three or four minutes.

Who knew what noise squirrels make? We have learned. Between the squirrels, the rabbits and the birds, I have been serenaded while having morning coffee on the patio. Of course, my all time favorite is the hawk.

He likes to make his presence known. He and my other neighbor’s rooster. I don’t have a picture of him but you heard him all day, thankfully somewhat muted as they were about a 1/4 mile away. They have moved on, so the rooster sound has disappeared.

Last, the tractors. Not lawn mowers. Real hay baling equipment or massive tractors with drag behind cutters. These kinds of tractors. Across the street. Next door. A few times every year. Cutting hay.

I have traded city sounds for country sounds. A slower pace. Sounds of people cutting fire wood. Muzzle loaders during deer season. Fireworks (yes, we know they aren’t supposed to have them, but believe me, there are some serious fireworks out here on New Year’s Eve and 4th of July).

I can hear the cows mooing on some mornings, from the farms across the “hollow”.

I don’t miss all the traffic noise, the Medevac helicopters heading over the house many nights every week, the police helicopters occasionally. Sounds of the city.

I am much happier and less stressed even when the pileated woodpeckers get noisy.

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Posted in Birds, Community, Howard County, Nature, West HoCo and tagged birds, commentary, community, hoco loco, Howard County, nature, photography, West HoCo. Bookmark the permalink.

Another Lovely Day in Our Neighborhood

Posted on June 15, 2013 by AnnieRie

The ham radio neighborhood. The annual open house out in Glenwood at W3LPL. My husband goes every year. This is my first visit, although we have been to the house many times as they are neighbors and friends, I usually avoided the alpha male picnic where they all come out and wish they had the time and land and resources to assemble Amateur Radio Utopia.

There are ten towers. The basement has enough room, and power, to handle all the major frequency bands and modes simultaneously. This is a major radio contest site, owned by a fellow amateur radio operator in the same local club as my husband.

A local catering company specializing in pit beef, pulled pork and turkey sandwiches sets up shop. The club donates water, soda, iced tea, and beer. “Hams” from all over the country (and overseas) come every year. This year the guest book had 105 entries. Some were couples and some, like us, forgot to sign. So, probably 125-150 people there. The caterer sold over 100 sandwiches and platters.

Members of Potomac Valley Radio Club, Columbia Amateur Radio Club, National Capitol DX Association and who knows how many other clubs, all came together to eat, drink, socialize and take a tour of the towers and station.

Now that we are retired, and my husband attends many functions, dinners, luncheons, contests, meetings, field day, whatever, we know quite a few people. I talked to dozens of spouses and some of the operators from field day.

Field Day is next weekend. Planning going like crazy. I will be cooking again for the 80-100 operators and support staff that make this contest one of the largest supported efforts in the USA. This year the club is trying to be rated 28Alpha. That means 28 simultaneous transmitting stations all operating on generator power.

Field Day is an annual event that allows radio amateurs to train and operate using methods that might be needed during disasters. Disasters such as Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy. Cell towers get overloaded, or come down.

The local clubs can put up crank up towers and relay info to Emergency Operations Centers, or help with non-emergency communications between support efforts at disasters. Keeping the emergency communication channels uncluttered.

Columbia Amateur Radio Association supports Howard County’s EOC. They get reports from hams, on the road and at home, during and after events like the derecho last year, and the hurricanes.

This year, again, Howard County is sending one of their really cool emergency vehicles out for people to tour during our Field Day Weekend. When the club puts up ten crank up towers in the fields, and operates.

If you want to see something really fascinating, head out to Triadelphia Ridge Elementary School next Saturday or Sunday, the 22nd and 23rd. You can even have your little ones operate the radios on our Get On The Air (GOTA) station. They could talk to someone in Alaska or Hawaii.

All in all, today was a fun reunion. The kick off to our summer season of radio contests and our social events. Can’t wait for the fowl fest, the crab feast and the other picnics. Oh, and nothing like a day with towers and tractors.

73 de AnnieRieXYL

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The Wild Wild West #HoCoMD

Posted on June 14, 2013 by AnnieRie

At least sometimes it feels wild, but isn’t so.

Yesterday, we had storms, wind, sun, fire, and life just is interesting here in the western part of the county. We did agonize a bit about whether to take the tower down, in anticipation of the storms.

Without five people, this wasn’t happening, so we just decided to ride it out. In the morning, the major storms passed us by to the north. We could see them coming but they were just above us. A good thing, so far. Then, we heard massive amounts of sirens just as I was going out for gas and ice. I figured if I bought ice, nothing would happen.

Turns out there was a grease fire at Ten Oaks Tavern. All sorts of fire trucks everywhere at the Glenelg/Dayton circle. I picked up what I needed and came home to find a tornado warning. OK, this is way too much excitement for one day. This time, the severe weather passed ten miles south of us, below Olney.

We never lost power, had about an inch of rain, no real wind or damage. Compared to last year, this year’s derecho was a no show. Well, at least the flowers are loving all the rain.

I have to admit, living out here in the rural districts has its advantages and disadvantages. Still, that “lure of the land”, the reason we moved here, still makes it all worth while, to fill the tubs with water, bring in the furniture, get ready to possibly bail out the sump pump when the power goes off, and all those other little things to weather the storms.

And, my tomatoes are loving the weather. Should have tomatoes in a few weeks. Cucumbers, too.

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Posted in Community, Howard County, Weather, West HoCo and tagged community, Food, heirloom tomatoes, Howard County, spring flowers, tomatoes, weather, West HoCo. Bookmark the permalink.

I Need to Build an Ark!

Posted on June 10, 2013 by AnnieRie

Seriously. Before we all wash away out here. RIMPO weather, the definitive source of information about the weather in this neck of the woods, says 1.7″ of rain in the last 24 hours.

Precipitation
Today: 1.70in
Hi Rain Rate: 0.209in/hr at 8:18pm
Current Hour: 0.38in
Last 24 Hours: 1.70in
This Month: 4.86in
Year-to-Date: 19.45in
Official MTD Rainfall @ BWI: 3.11in
Official YTD Rainfall @ BWI: 16.97in

Yep, almost twenty inches of rain this year out here. Real rain.

Oh, and those really cool underground drains. They work quite well.

Pulling the rain away from the foundation and watering my trees out front. Here is the construction picture.

I wonder if this qualifies for a credit from the county for stormwater management. After all, I need to get something back for the $165 I will be paying to the county. For all that water that never leaves my property, and all the water that ends up in my front yard from the county road. Maybe I should tax them? It will probably be July before it is safe to take the tractor down into the depressed area in our southwest corner. Where all the run off from the road and our shared driveways ends up.

Interesting times ahead in Howard County. I have the lowest fee in my area, since my neighbor owns the shared driveway. I don’t mind saving the Bay, but paying so others will fix their problems sort of rubs me the wrong way.

Yes, my fee of $165 is by far the lowest of all my neighbors. The worst. $1230, for a neighbor who bought 20 acres behind another farm. Want to know what your fee is?

Click here.

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

A Lovely Day in the Neighborhood

Posted on June 4, 2013 by AnnieRie

Springtime weather. Seventy five degrees. No humidity. Sunny. Blue skies.

As we learned today at Dennis Lane’s Memorial service at Merriweather from his family, his favorite season.

Hundreds of friends, family, old college buddies, people from all over Howard County and beyond, came together. Our local area lost a huge promoter of living here. Someone whose motto was “I Live Here. I Work Here. I Love This Place.”

I saw so many old friends of ours. Friends who also knew Dennis. I ran into Claire and JK Lea on the way out. JK was an old neighbor, for I don’t know how many years he was a fixture in Columbia. Saw Tori Marriner. Mike and Nichole Hickey. Countless other friends and blogging compatriots who knew Dennis.

We shared the same barber (at least he and my husband did, Wayne only cut my hair when my regular stylist was on medical leave). For a while the same doctors. Knew many of the same people from the old days. Dennis came to Columbia seven years before me, and we both originally lived in Wilde Lake.

You found them in the collective community that came together to celebrate Dennis’ life.

People like Dennis have many gifts. He could write well, speak well, and related well to everyone. He loved what he did, who he met, and just was one of the county’s biggest cheerleaders.

There is a void here now. I feel for his family and closest friends. I knew him just a few years. He still made a huge impression.

Thank you to all his family and friends, who stood up and shared their memories. It was a lovely day in the neighborhood.

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