Tag Archives: commentary

Snow Days

Posted on December 26, 2012 by AnnieRie

I don’t mind snow days like these. We needed the rain, and we got almost an inch so far today. It is snow mixed with sleet and rain, so it will be gone soon. The birds are frantically looking for food. It’s junco and blue jay reunion out there. Although the blue jays flew away once the camera came out.

Today was one of those stay inside and do projects kind of days. I am cleaning out the bedside nightstand drawers and doing some shredding. I did put tuna and tomatoes, with a base of canellini beans, in the oven on slow cook. A good hearty cold weather dish. Using some of my oven dried tomatoes that I froze. Plus, that end of the Costco tuna loin. It looks so dark and meaty, you wouldn’t think it was a fish dish.

We are keeping a close eye on the trees to make sure they don’t get weighed down with wet snow. We lost too many branches during those storms a few years back. We were supposed to have the final high tree pruning today, but the weather forced a cancellation. Without leaves, though, the deciduous trees will do OK, it’s the coniferous trees that worry me. We have a wind advisory for tomorrow with a potential for downed power lines again. The big question always is, “Should we fill the tubs with water in case we lose power and can’t flush toilets?” With all the weakened trees after the hurricane, power losses are still possible.

I do have to admit that it is beautiful out there. All Christmasy with the twinkling lights. Glad we don’t commute anymore, but can enjoy the view.

hocoblogs@@@

4 Comments

Posted in Birds, Food, Howard County, Nature, Real Food, Retirement, Weather, West HoCo and tagged birds, commentary, community, cooking, Food, foodie, heirloom tomatoes, Howard County, Locavore, nature, real food, retirement, tomatoes, weather, West HoCo. Bookmark the permalink.

It’s Christmas Eve

Posted on December 24, 2012 by AnnieRie

And, we will have a white Christmas. Sort of. There is still snow on the ground although much of it is melting. To me it isn’t Christmas without snow. We went to my brother’s this evening. Like we always do.

All my cousins and their little ones were there. My brother did his thing, playing Santa Claus, just like he has for almost 30 years. It took my nephew years to figure out it was him on the porch leaving candy.

I did many home made items for the cousins. Pumpkin bread. Orange chocolate truffles. Dry rub mix. Herb mixes.

Plus, I also gave gifts from local farmers. Soaps from Breezy Willow. Honey. Popcorn for the little ones. What do you expect from me? A definitely locavore Christmas. Took local wines for the party. Linden Vidal Riesling. Rose too.

Then, home for a glass of pastis and a chance to chill out. Tomorrow a few open houses to attend, and some finger foods while watching a Christmas movie. A lovely laid back holiday. Wishing everyone a wonderful Christmas.

1 Comment

Posted in Family, Food, Locavore, People, Weather, Wine and tagged commentary, Food, Locavore, weather, wine. Bookmark the permalink.

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.

1 Comment

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.

hocoblogs@@@

The Geminids

Posted on December 11, 2012 by AnnieRie

With a bonus. A comet has left behind some debris. If you come out to the Howard County Conservancy Thursday night, you could find a rare treat.

The weather is supposed to cooperate. Clear, cold. Very little moon light.

Dr. Alex Storrs and Dr. Joel Goodman (stardoc) will be there. Starting at 9:30 pm until you can’t stay awake. After all, the site is nice and dark, and the astronomers are an awesome set of teachers about the night sky.

Don’t miss it.

hocoblogs@@@

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.

hocofood@@@

1 Comment

Posted in Commentary, Community, CSA, Food, Hobbies, Local Businesses, Locavore, Real Food, Retirement, Rightsizing, Volunteering and tagged amateur radio, commentary, community, cooking, CSA, farmer's markets, Food, foodie, gardening, Howard County, howard county conservancy, local businesses, Locavore, real food, retirement, volunteering. Bookmark the permalink.

Giving the Gift of Time

Posted on November 27, 2012 by AnnieRie

It’s Giving Tuesday. Another new one I never heard of before. A number of posts around about philanthropy, nonprofits, giving to local charities and such.

Me, I think the best gift we can give is our time. If we can’t always give money, or if the cause needs volunteers more than money, what is the value of your time? Even something so simple as signing up to tutor, or mentor, or chaperon a field trip, or put your name on the list to bring nurses and aides to work during snow storms. These and other types of volunteering opportunities are all around us.

I volunteer at the Conservancy now that I am retired. We just got our year end newsletter and mailing. Volunteers worked last Monday to put the mailing together. Volunteers lead the hikes with those 3955 school children. Volunteers pour wine at Wine in the Garden. Volunteers help children make critters at the crafts fair, park cars at the Transit of Venus, and the Fall Fest. There are only a half dozen employees there, almost all of them part time.

For me, it would be simpler to write a check. Leading a dozen or more hikes a year and running four or five programs takes way more effort than writing the check.

How about other opportunities in the county? The County Rec and Park department is always looking for volunteers. Whenever we did the county trail hikes on the AT or C&O canal, the leaders were volunteers. Robinson Nature Center? Needs docents and other volunteers.

Sometimes writing a check is a good thing to do. Sometimes it directly benefits you, or indirectly. We like to keep our donations of money to local efforts. Even being good citizens and supporting our volunteer firefighters.

Or, we can always support a fundraiser. Even if it is volunteering to work at an event. But, there are simple ways to give. Like this one. Not the $100 a plate fundraisers. Something as simple as the firefighters’ event on the 8th of December.

Giving is easy. Just pick up the phone and invite yourself to support something you believe in. Now, I need to go get those cookies made to take to the Conservancy for the crafts fair.

hocoblogs@@@

2 Comments

Posted in Commentary, Community, Howard County, Retirement, Volunteering and tagged commentary, community, hoco loco, Howard County, howard county conservancy, retirement, volunteering. Bookmark the permalink.

Over the River and Through the Woods …

Posted on November 22, 2012 by AnnieRie

… one thing I don’t miss these days. The long trips over the holidays. On clogged highways. My husband’s family lived out of state. It always meant traveling in the winter on snow covered roads. We tried avoiding bad weather, following forecasts and working our schedules around the best travel days.

I-70 at noon Wednesday

One Easter we got trapped by a late ice storm and didn’t get home to get back to work. Having relatives in the highlands of northeastern PA meant treacherous trips on I-81 and I-83. I feel for those who have those same dilemmas and who face the clogged roads to make it home to visit. But, I would be happy to have his family still with us, and take those trips to see them. We miss our families most during the holidays. My mom is still active and we cherish the years we have by sharing holidays with her.

Today we get to leisurely drive about 30 miles to share Thanksgiving with my brother and his extended family. Since the 1990’s he has always sponsored midshipmen at his home, first in Catonsville and now south of Annapolis. It means quite a bit to the families of these young men that they have a safe place to come and share a day or two, or a meal or two, with someone who looks out for them. Many of them still keep in touch.

We go to his home for Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter and Fourth of July, usually. Plus, birthdays, weddings, graduations, Mother’s Day, and just sometimes to see old friends, having a base for get togethers is comforting and familiar. It does mean we have made our own personal traditions, that dovetail with the family visits.

I don’t know how many years we never had a Christmas tree. Lately, we do get one since we are home on Christmas day. The first few times we got one when we married more than 30 years ago, they would dry out and drop needles all over the place, since we went to PA for four or five days. I have yet to succumb and buy an artificial tree. We now buy ours locally at either TLV or Pine Valley

Around our current home, all the trees grouped by the driveway were former Christmas trees from the previous owner. Bought with the root ball, they were planted and some of them are 25 years old. If we were younger, we would do that, but at least we recycle our tree into mulch with the county. I do love the grouping of trees at our home, though. They make me think of the memories of the family whose children grew up here 20 years ago.

Today I will eat my brother’s turkey and fixings. He cooks most of the dinner, just as my dad loved to cook. We will come home tonight and brine our turkey and have our dinner tomorrow or Saturday. This is also a big radio contest weekend, and luckily, my husband now contests from home. It means we can have that dinner, and make our own memories in our home. Now, off to find the brining supplies for the turkey and put together the cooler to take to my brother’s.

Then, I need to figure out where I am putting the tree, and go up in the attic and get the Christmas lights out. And, do Christmas cookies and cards. Ah, the beginning of the busy season. Don’t forget about Small Business Saturday! Go out and buy something, presents, food, trees, whatever, from the small local businesses in Howard County.

Happy Thanksgiving!

hocoblogs@@@

Things to Be Thankful For

Posted on November 20, 2012 by AnnieRie

Two days left before the holiday season kicks off with Thanksgiving. For us, a little bit hectic but not like it was when we had two sets of families to juggle with visits. Now, we are pretty much all residing in Maryland and my brother hosts many of the holidays.

My mom lives about 30 miles east of us, and my brother about 30 miles southeast near Annapolis. Both are easy rides. I am thankful we can avoid the holiday traffic on the highways. I remember when I was still going to Hopkins at night to study electrical engineering and we had class the night before Thanksgiving. We worked in Silver Spring. I never made it to class. Sat for three hours trying to get up the highway to Baltimore. So, I am very thankful I still have family locally.

I am thankful they found my collapsing discs before I had permanent nerve damage, and that I had a great neurosurgeon repair it. Health is something we take for granted when we are young, and don’t know how hard it is to recover from injuries or illnesses as we get older. I still have bad days after doing things for the first time since the operation. A little Tylenol and I cope. It could have been life changing if I hadn’t found out in time.

I am thankful my husband and I could retire and enjoy it. Enjoying our hobbies, our friends, the local events and get togethers. Finding my niche at the Conservancy to still feel useful.

Him connecting with the radio clubs and getting to do something he loved as a teenager. Something he gave up when we lived in Columbia in a town house. Having fun at field day every year.

Putting up the antennas and getting on the air is his hobby. No, he doesn’t play golf. He never wanted a boat. All those hobbies that many people have, he wasn’t into those things. His hobby is practiced right in the rec room, on his radios. Maybe I do get a little tired of “CQ contest, CQ contest” for up to 48 hours. I like the CW (Morse Code) contests better. I can’t hear him using the keyer. Phone contests I get to hear him call stations and give the proper exchanges to validate a contact.

I am thankful we went through the derecho and the hurricane with minimal damage. We were counted among the lucky ones. For that, we are making sure we help those who still need help. Giving clothing, non perishable foods, toiletries, and contributions where we can. We lost a few trees. We lost some food after the derecho. Nothing earth shattering for us. We know we were very fortunate. The largest ones were caught in others and missed our home.

I am thankful we live in such a pleasant and relatively safe environment. Even with all its warts, this country and, personally for us, this area are peaceful. Civil unrest, riots, financial crises like those across the pond, we are relatively insulated here. I am thankful I got my degree, thanks largely to encouragement from the good nuns in my high school. They insisted I take math and science. From thinking I would do a business curriculum and get a job in Baltimore at 18, to getting to go to college and major in math. Without that push, I would have had a vastly different life. Instead, I got to experience amazing things.

young and adventurous, my month at an ice research station

I am glad the Dream Act passed. Education is key to making a life better. Any type of education. I learned that. So did my husband. Both of us worked our way through college, and made better lives for ourselves. Without that education, we wouldn’t be retired and enjoying life. I am so eternally grateful to our parents for helping us, even though they struggled. My dad was a policeman. His dad a coal miner, then a factory worker. We know that our education, his in engineering, mine in math and computers made us marketable and employable, even during the recession in the seventies when we graduated.

We have much to be thankful for. Thursday we are off to visit my family and celebrate the traditional turkey day the way we have for many years. Dinner, a nice long walk, then some football.

Today is CSA day. We are getting good things for my dinner. Tomorrow I pick up my Maple Lawn turkey. Then, off to England Acres to get a centerpiece and some things that won’t be in my CSA box today.

This weekend our little private personal Thanksgiving, a tradition we started years ago when I wanted to learn how to cook a turkey, we will give thanks again for what we have.

Happy Thanksgiving to all my cyber readers, and my cyber circle of locavores.

3 Comments

Posted in Family, Food, Hobbies, Local Businesses, Locavore, People, Retirement, Travel, Volunteering and tagged amateur radio, commentary, cooking, family, Food, hobbies, howard county conservancy, local businesses, Locavore, real food, retirement, volunteering. Bookmark the permalink.

Costco Revisited

Posted on November 19, 2012 by AnnieRie

I have to admit, with all the new stores, and the changes I have made to cooking from scratch, I seem to have abandoned Costco. Not that it is such a bad thing. But, it surely shows that bulk buying is no longer part of my food budget.

We got our rebate check last week. It was roughly half of last year’s check, and didn’t cover the difference between basic membership, and the more expensive rebate membership. It looks like we will be changing our level when I renew.

From a produce standpoint, they have never been a good deal for me. Too many times, produce went bad far quicker than what we bought in the grocery stores, and now that we have almost year round CSA membership, I definitely can tell the difference. Everything we get from our CSA lasts longer, since it was picked one or two days before we receive it. Greens stored in our spinner can last up to two weeks, without turning or going all slimy on me.

I was there on Friday. We needed batteries and printer cartridges. I also wanted to pick up a few baking supplies to make Christmas cookies. I did end up finding one of the best deals for me there. The ends of wild ahi. They don’t always have it.

I like to buy it this way, then portion it out into meal sized medallions and one long strip suitable for slow cooking in tomato sauce in the oven. I get four or five meals from one of these. I use Costco’s cling wrap to put the individual portions into, and then put it all in a freezer bag. It does minimize any sort of drying out, and freezer burn.

The other staple in my pantry that I still buy in bulk there is the Pacific brand low sodium organic chicken stock. I use it often. It is the base for some of my couscous dishes. For risotto. A little in the bottom of a pan when I am deglazing it after sauteeing something. It is always in my fridge. My good homemade stocks are reserved for soups. These soups are 6 for $12 at Costco. Way less expensive than Roots. As for other grocery stores, they don’t all carry the low sodium one.

This last visit, I went in and checked out the produce. A good deal is only a good deal when it doesn’t get rotten. I can’t see buying a dozen cucumbers, or a huge bag of fruit.

We now have CSA pickups 42 weeks of the year. It will be interesting to see what I find around here from New Years until the beginning of March when we start up with Breezy Willow. I may be doing quite a bit of shopping at Roots, or head over to Wegmans to check out their winter organic produce. Thankfully, Olney will have their Sunday market starting in January, and weekly visits to Breezy Willow and TLV will keep me in eggs and meat.

Now that I have made the switch to minimize processed foods, unless we need to put tires on my husband’s car, it makes no sense to keep the more expensive membership at Costco. I suppose we have finally gone beyond the acquiring stage of our lives, and are moving into divesting ourselves of things. It was nice to get my camera, and my husband’s laptop there. As for food and clothes, we have cut back the purchases there. Books. Nope. Software, too. Christmas. We all made a pact. No more gifting. We are rightsizing these days.

I do still go there for vitamins, allergy pills and basic drug store stuff like Tylenol. Toothbrush heads. Toothpaste. Things we use daily and that make sense to buy at their better prices.

This is such a change from how I shopped ten years ago. I have to admit I didn’t think I could be so different when it comes to finding those “bargains”. Nowadays, to me, this is the bargain. A box full of just picked goodness. Can’t wait to see what we get tomorrow.