Hawksbill Cabin

Parts is...parts

2012-01-27T07:48:00.000-05:00

As folks took turns stirring the pudding,
there was quite a bit of socializing going on.

As Wikipedia has it:

Scrapple is traditionally a mush of pork scraps and trimmings combined with cornmeal and flour, often buckwheat flour, and spices. The mush is formed into a semi-solid congealed loaf, and slices of the scrapple are then pan-fried before serving. Scraps of meat left over from butchering, not used or sold elsewhere, were made into scrapple to avoid waste. Scrapple is best known as a rural American food of the Mid-Atlantic States…. Scrapple and pon haus (the Wikipedia article says this is a traditional Amish name for scrapple) are commonly considered an ethnic food of the Pennsylvania Dutch, including the Mennonites and Amish. Scrapple is found in supermarkets throughout the region in both fresh and frozen refrigerated cases.

Mark worked over the meat for the scrapple.
I turned down at least 3 invitations to try some.

The preparations for making scrapple began on Friday evening, as we were winding down from breaking the carcasses up into smaller roasts and other cuts. The organ meat, retrieved earlier during the day (after David’s short demonstration of how to rummage through the gut tub for the heart and liver, I did it myself) had been put aside for this purpose, as had some parts of the head. This was mixed with a bit of lard and other scraps to make the meat basis of the dish.

I was impressed that there was quite a bit of activity involved in making it; there was a very social aspect to it as you can see from the photos, and of course, the cooked organ meat was carefully handled and diced into appropriately sized morsels.

I politely declined tasting any of the “yummy bits” during the process, preferring to defer the pleasant surprise that surely awaits until the dish was fully prepared. Now, with a dozen or so tubs in the fridge, I’m still wondering whether we will eat any…although I have three or four neighbors signed up for tubs, and some friends in Luray are known partakers.

What's cooking? "I don't know the word for
it in English."

Why the hesitancy? I suppose it is because my family never really ate any of the foods – separately, or in a single recipe – that are part of this dish, so it’s something I’m not used to eating. Maybe salvation lies further on down in the Wikipedia article, though:

Scrapple is usually eaten as a breakfast food, and can be served plain or with apple butter, ketchup, jelly, maple syrup, honey, or even mustard, and accompanied by eggs, potatoes, or pancakes. In some regions, such as New England, scrapple is mixed with scrambled eggs and served with toast. In the Philadelphia area, scrapple is sometimes fried and then mashed with fried eggs, horseradish and ketchup.

Scrapple is a community food - this is only part of
the yield, which was shared amongst all of us.

With enough condiments, one could probably disguise the strong tastes and make it through the first time. After that, my butchering friends assure me, I’ll be hooked.

(Note: It was my plan to conclude the butchering posts today, but there have been a number of comments on Facebook that I think I will compile into a wrap-up. Plus, one of my colleagues from the experience has sent a link to his photos of the two days, and I’d like to share that. So look for that extra post on Monday.)

The Wikipedia article on scrapple is here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrapple

Sausage Wrangling

2012-01-26T07:37:00.001-05:00

Demonstrating that I can handle my
sausage (at least under close supervision).

“To retain respect for sausages and laws, one must not watch them in the making.”

There is some dispute about the author of that quote, but it’s one you hear quite a bit around here in Washington. The law making process especially has been particularly ugly these last two years, with this Congress and this President, so I figured the sausage making we planned for the second day of our butchering project was likely to be inspirational by comparison.

In some earlier posts, while preparing for the events I’ve been writing about these last few days, I mentioned the research I did before buying equipment, looking into processes, and talking over other aspects of butchering with David. He’d referred me to the Google for sausage recipes, and reassured me that I could figure that part out better once we got started. So I came prepared with the idea of doing some breakfast sausage, chorizo, and bratwursts, and with vague ideas of the recipes.

After we finished the big breaking down, there was a fairly long time that we worked on trimming down the sausage meat. My colleagues had brought along two copies of the sausage recipe book photographed below in this post, and all of them called for five pounds of meat. It appeared that I was going to have enough for four batches: 20 pounds.

Brats: Before.

Brats: After.

Still being down the steep part of the learning curve, I figured a quick adjustment of expectations was in order as well, so I decided to focus on the breakfast sausage and the brats. The breakfast sausage was chosen because it is a very basic recipe with only three ingredients besides the pork: salt, pepper, and sage; I chose the brats because I thought it might be interesting to figure out how to work with the casings. Also, the spices were a bit more exotic for this, including allspice and coriander, and the recipe called for some veal, which I didn’t think I’d find in the Valley on short notice.

I bought my spices after we knocked off the first day, fingers crossed (as they always are at the Food Lion) that I could find everything. Except for casings, I was successful; I made two stops on the way back to the butchering shed to find casings – at Fairview Market and Farmers Foods. They were sold out at Fairview, referring me to Gore’s (confirming for in-the-know readers that I was planning to use natural casings)…and inviting me for a chat; but I found what I needed with the helpful butcher at Farmers. Then it was off to the shed.

My first step was to weigh the meat and mix in the spices, which I did. By this time, there were a few more hands working around the shop to help with packaging. They also brought more food, so I’d go as far as to describe it as being altogether festive in the shed on Saturday morning. Breakfast sausage first; after finishing mixing the spices we went to the grinder, and after that I broke it down into one pound packs, ending up with 11 of them.

I had to regrind the brat meat from a course grind the night before to a fine grind, so I mixed in the spices first before feeding it into the machine. The one David was showing me how to use had a nozzle attachment that you could thread the casing onto. He did some practice runs to show me how it worked, and then had me sit down to finish the job.

Now, I could go into any number of euphemisms here, because in the butchering shed there is plenty of opportunity for them. Suffice it to say that at the end of this exercise, David made note of my expertise in handling my sausage. I thanked him for the complement…the literal one.

Getting back to that opening quote, I found the sausage making efforts quite enjoyable. Maybe I regret that I didn’t get to try any more recipes, but I think there’s a good start here with ten pounds each of the bulk breakfast and the linked brats, and Chris is happy with the haul as well.

But I recently found my mother-in-laws manual sausage grinder, and I’m thinking that this is something that I could practice on in preparation for next year. I fancy that it would surprise everyone if I showed up at the butchering shop a skilled “charcuterist”…

The recipe book: (Amazon link)
Sausage-Making Cookbook, The: Complete instructions and recipes for making 230 kinds of sausage easily in your own kitchen

Everything but the Oink

2012-01-25T07:48:00.000-05:00

Here's David on Saturday morning after
breaking the loin down into chops
on the band saw.

“We use everything but the oink” was what I was told on the day the pigs arrived back in August. At the time, I was still on that self-styled agribusiness internship working with David at Public House Produce. The pigs were a great addition to the farm, and he was clearly enjoying having them around – he told me about sitting out there near the barn with his daughter on a warm summer night as they thought about names for the pigs.

The experience of “hugging your food” had suddenly gotten very “hands on” for me, and this time it wasn’t just about picking up a two-pound chicken running loose in a pasture. We were turning the animals into pork, a process that would take two whole days.

As we processed the whole carcasses, I was learning how true “everything but the oink” would be. There are aficionados for the organ meat – the heart, kidneys and liver – and there are people who eat these on their own merit. For us, they were mainly destined for the “pudding pot,” where we collected various cuts for use in scrapple that would be prepared on the second day.

Me, holding the "oink."

The meat saw here, hard to see, is used
to break the larger cuts down.

Once the pigs had been moved down the line in the butchering shed, the carcasses end up, usually in halves, on a table down at the end. Here, the loin is cut out, the racks of ribs cut, and the shoulder, ham, and bacon cuts are made. As these large cuts are done, we carried them back across the room to store them out of the way on the big table, since we shared the workspace on the small table and needed to keep it clear.

Here are some of the parts waiting for the
"pudding pot" - a small tenderloin,
and sausage cuts.

Time permitting on the first day, and it did for us, you might take some of the larger cuts and break them down further into small cuts that could be ground up into sausage. I did this with one of the shoulders, but some of the other butchers were taking both shoulders for this purpose. I put together 20 pounds of meat this way so that I could make breakfast sausage and bratwursts.

These are the big cuts that we had at
the end of the first day. You can see a
ham or two, loins, shoulders, and ribs
in this photo.

So at the end of the first day, we no longer had pigs – we had pork – some of which was already recognizable as something to eat: the hams and shoulder roasts, for example. There was plenty to do the next day, although I was beginning to understand that the work would go fast now that the big physical part of the process was out of the way.

As our activities wrapped up and we were cleaning the shed, other family members began to show up to help with some organization for day 2, or to bring in some food and snacks. There was a good hour or two of socializing and catch up while things wound down. We planned for an 8:00 start the next morning, but I still had work to do, buying some spices and other goods for my sausage recipes.

I got home at 7:00 pm, grabbed a light dinner and some suds. I scrubbed myself down in a hot shower, and turned the lights out at 8:30. I woke up at 6:00 the next morning in the same position I went to sleep in, bone tired the night before, but refreshed and ready to go on a snowy Saturday morning.

Inside the Butchering Shed

2012-01-24T07:51:00.000-05:00

The scalding tub, with the big window above.
This is the first stop for the carcass as it
enters the shed. Note the heavy duty sawhorses
on the table here.

Looking down the line towards the big table.
Note the overhead railing, where the initial
steps in processing are done.

Call it a shop, a shed, or a shack, but the utilitarian little building we spent most of Friday and Saturday in matches all those definitions. From the outside, nestled in among some outbuildings behind a very recognizable house on the outskirts of Luray, it’s not much – just a 20x30 building simply constructed out of concrete masonry. Inside, it’s another story, as it is practically laid out for the business of processing animals into food.

These are the hooks that are used to suspend the carcass
from the rail - longer ones for the head, shorter for the carcass.
Also note the scale just visible in the upper left, it only had a 30
pound capacity...too small for our pigs!

The photos that accompany today’s post are a few that I took before any of the work had begun, even before most of our company had arrived to join us for the day’s work. Heck, the BS session hadn't even started!

I had a few minutes alone to look over the equipment, and with only the imagination of a greenhorn, to imagine what I was looking back. With the first time behind me now, I’m realizing that I don’t have the photographs to tell the whole thing – but there is plenty for the imagination.

Like so many process oriented buildings, this one is simply, linearly, laid out. The animal comes in at one end and moves down a line, progressively evolving from a carcass to a roast. That’s effectively what got done on the first day of our work as well. So here’s my layman’s version of the process.

At the front of the shed there is a large window with a barn door opening that slides the wooden covering out of the way. Below the window is the scalding tub, a large basin that the animal gets placed inside before anything else. The heat in the tub – the water is kept at 150 degrees – facilitates the removal of the hair.

After a “bath” of a few minutes, the carcass is raised up out of the water to the nearby table, and the team goes to work with some tools to take off as much hair as possible. While there was a bloody aspect to some of the work, this part of the job seemed the dirtiest to me: the pig, warmed from the water and with the hair loosened, needs to be cleaned. Along with all the hair, most of the dirt comes off, and is left behind over in this part of the shed. The cleanup begins immediately after, as this space is put back to use once the carcass is broken down.

Next, at the end of the heavy duty table there (it's supported on saw horses made from steel beams), the head is removed and hung on the steel overhead rail. The removal is a straightforward job that I didn’t do, but I did hang them up after the decapitation. Next, a little cut behind the ankle tendons on the rear legs, and the carcass is ready to hang from the rail, with the aid of more hooks and a winch. With the first one hung in this fashion, we moved back to the truck to do it over, until all four of the animals were hanging from the overhead, bodies next to heads.

Aprons and buckets for convenience.
We didn't use 'em.

In approximately the same area as these aprons and buckets, we began the process of cleaning the carcasses. (I do have photos of this activity, but I have decided not to post them yet…I think some readers will find them disturbing. So I may put them into a slide show that I can post as a video with an advisory note. That will take some time to put together.) I’ll talk about this in more detail in tomorrow’s post.

This is the little table - note the
wooden saw horses - where everything
is boken down into roasts
or smaller parts.

From there, the carcass is moved on down the line to a smaller table at the end of the building. Here is where the roasts are separated out – the hams, the ribs, the loins, and the shoulder. We seemed to be making pretty good time, as this activity was underway by late morning. Later the table was used for breaking some parts down further into sausage meat, and then it was used to prepare some of the parts for use in scrapple.

On a quiet and cold morning...

2012-01-23T07:43:00.000-05:00

There'd been a hard frost overnight and the world was as barely awake as I was when I hit the road from Hawksbill Cabin to meet up with David and friends in Egypt Bend, just west of Luray near the Shenandoah River. I was the last to arrive, and after some brief shooting the breeze, we were underway back to the farm, bringing destiny with us in the loaded rifle on the floorboard of David's truck - destiny, not for us, but for the four hogs that David had raised since August, and that I had been watching grow from little squealers into the nearly 400 pound young adults they'd now become.

I've been thinking for a few weeks how I might post about the experience of being familiar with these pigs, and then seeing them killed and butchered, with me doing some of the work. Would the shooting upset me? How much blood would there be? What would be more difficult - the deaths or the evisceration?

For all of my years, I've chosen my pork under the gleaming fluorescent lights of a grocery store, where it is very abstracted from the animal. True, some roasts retain the appearance of some body part, but generally, even in high-end stores, it's hard to connect the meat on display in those cases with the animal that was raised somewhere else and made it to your table after being handled by so many people. Raising a pig with David and friends was a clarifying experience.

When we got to the farm, I looked across at the cows grazing in the early light across the nearby pasture. They were far enough away that our activities wouldn't bother them, even if they could be distracted from the forage. And there lay the pigs, sleeping in a huddle against the cold.

We woke them, and they went out into the field to relieve themselves. Then it was their time.

It was quick work. First, the killing shot - smooth, except for the first one, and a quick correction was made. The rest went down instantly.

After the death, there is the bleeding. I wondered to myself why there didn't seem to be much blood, and then remembered there's only a gallon or so in a human, and logically, probably not much more in a pig. It was bloody, but not the gore fest you see in a bull fight or horror flick. It was quickly over also; I think everyone there shared my respect of these animals, wanting the quickest and most painless death for them.

So the answer to my questions had come by the time we were leaving the farm - via the new chicken coop where David has the new flock of layers getting started. I wasn't troubled by the deaths, nor the blood. I was coming around to how natural this all seemed, how innate it was.

I've included here the early video, shot back in August, of the arrival of the pigs on the farm. They were only 35 pounds or so back then, but would grow to at least ten times that by last Friday. I'll follow this post with a few more about the butchering experience.

News from Glen Highland Farm Border Collie Rescue

2012-01-18T07:12:00.000-05:00

I had news from Lillie at Glen Highland Farm that this is setting up to be a busy winter for border collie rescue - she has a record number at the farm and temporarily placed with fosters. That includes the seven week old female front and center here, "Hayle," pictured with some litter mates that have already been placed.

Puppies are often placed more easily than adult dogs, but if you are in the market for this breed, I encourage you to look at Glen Highland Farm (link: http://glenhighlandfarm.com/) or one in your area. There are plenty of dogs looking for a forever home.

I have to admit I was so smitten with the two pictures that Lillie sent me I changed my blogging schedule so I could post them. Just remember, these dogs are very cute puppies, but even at this age, in groups of three, they're smart enough to rob a bank!

Snead Farm: An Easy SNP Day Hike

2012-01-17T06:04:00.018-05:00

There are a couple of forks in the road -
mind the guide posts!

The old Snead Farm barn.

A few years ago, when I was making my way through the easy day hikes in the previous edition of the book I reviewed yesterday, I stopped by Snead Farm on a late spring morning with the intention of knocking this 1.4 mile out-and-back hike along a fire road, with an easy climb. The book also describes a longer, 3.2 mile loop - I've never done that one.

Exterior of the root cellar.

By the time of year I visited - mid May, if I remember correctly, parts of the homestead were already overgrown with waste-high grass and I imagined I could actually see the ticks in there waiting for me, so I postponed a close inspection of the ruins here for another day. I planned to come back during the winter, and I hoped I'd be able to talk Mary into it. So it happened that over the Christmas holiday we went out and did this hike, pairing it with the Lands Run Falls hike I reviewed last week - as it happens, that is the same way I did these two hikes the first time.

Root cellar interior.

The story goes that this 200-acre apple farm was acquired by the park in 1962. But unlike with many of the old farmsteads, the barn was not razed and you can see it when you visit, although you cannot get in. There's also an old root cellar; which for me conjures up a vision of onions, carrots, turnips and the like - and a healthy share of winter squash to boot.

Bunkhouse foundation wall.

The tall grass had kept me away from the foundation of the old bunkhouse, but we were able to get a closer look at it during December. In addition to the old concrete footers, there's an old cistern, and a couple of stairs where the old doorways were. There's a substantial foundation where an interior stairway once stood, as well, so I assume the bunkhouse was a two-story structure.

Bunkhouse cistern.

On the way in, there are piles of stones, hinting at old pasture walls, and a couple of little springs that you pass. It's a very pleasant and easy adventure, one I don't mind revisiting now and again.

Bunkhouse doorway steps, with the
old staircase in the background.

Book Review: Best Easy Day Hikes Shenandoah National Park

2012-01-16T17:00:00.000-05:00

I took a look at the Amazon page for the Easy Day Hikes book I use for some of my hikes - there wasn't a review. So I edited an old post into one and posted it there. It's reproduced in full below - also included is a link to the Amazon page for the book. Enjoy - and if you happen to visit that page, go ahead and check that my review was helpful if you found it was...
---
While planning a Shenandoah National Park day hike recently I found the new edition of a favorite guidebook, "Best Easy Day Hikes Shenandoah National Park," by Bert and Jane Gildart, which was published in 2011. This is the 4th edition. Since buying a country home in Luray, near the Park's headquarters, I had used the 3rd edition as a guide and hiked each of the 26 routes to familiarize myself with the park. I also kept copies of the little book in Luray and at home in the DC area.

On first review of the new edition, the major difference is the inclusion of 27 hikes, one more than were in the old edition. One of the old hikes was replaced, so there are two new routes in the book. A district by district comparison reveals that there are now 6 hikes in the North District, where there were five; there are 15 in the Central District, the same as before; and there are 6 in the South District, the same number as were in the 3rd edition.

The additional hike in the North District is Fort Windham Rocks, a 0.8 mile out-and-back without much climbing. In the Central District, a second route to the peak at Mary's Rock has been added: "Mary's Rock South," a shorter 2.6 mile out-and-back with less elevation gain than the traditional "Mary's Rock North" route. The entry that combined Betty's Rock and Crescent Rock was deleted from the Central District, and the South District list remains the same.

Shenandoah National Park used to be covered by farms. Nature's inevitable reclamation is one of the features of the Park experience, so the trails change. The Gildarts acknowledge this sometimes with a note that an old viewpoint might now be obscured by a new forest, or they mention unusual flora or fauna that has re-established itself, offering the visitor a chance at discovery in addition to the wonderful views from Skyline Drive.

One section that I enjoy referring to is the list that ranks the hikes from easiest to most challenging. I have my favorites on this list, and at the same time, if the choice were mine, there are a few I might exchange for others - I'm sure I'm not alone in this among those who know the Park well. Despite that exception, this guide has always proven useful to me when I am planning adventures in the Park, and I'm very happy to see that it has been updated.

Whether you are looking to experience an interpretive nature trail, to visit a waterfall or vista, or to check out some of the places where "the mountain people" used to live, you'll find this book a good place to start. It's a handy guidebook well worth the price. For myself, I'm looking forward to checking off the new routes that were added in the 4th edition.

---

Lands Run Falls: An Easy SNP Day Hike

2012-01-13T07:35:00.000-05:00

During the holidays, I talked Mary into getting out on two of the Easy Day Hikes. We actually did them one after another; Lands Run Falls was the second one of the day. I'll post on the other, Snead Farm, on Monday.

I found Lands Run Falls in the Best Easy Day Hikes (Amazon link below) book. It truly qualifies as an easy hike because it is only 1.2 miles round trip, descends about 300 feet total (remember, you'll be climbing on the way back), and it follows a paved fire road for some of the way before it transitions into packed gravel.

Most of the route is through a mature forest with oaks and hickories - the book says that there was some significant damage to the woods here during a tropical storm in 1996, but you'd be hard pressed to notice during the summer when the leaves are up. There is also a lot of greenstone, one of the Park's ubiquitous igneous rock types, along the way.

The two photos are of the falls themselves, which you really can't get down to - they're observed from a safe spot at the top of the cascade, and it's really not advisable to climb down into the gorge. I also took a photo of the upstream view of the stream, which spills over little cascades on its way down to the plunge. To get to the falls, you walk to the spot where the stream crosses under the fire road, and take a little spru trail on the right about a 100 yards.

There are a couple of twists and turns in the route as you approach the falls, and I've found that disorienting before, since it makes the route seem longer than it really is. But you start hearing the falls from about a quarter mile away, which reassures that you are approaching your goal.

The book calls it "a nice leg stretcher"...I agree.

Pig Preparatory Period

2012-01-12T07:24:00.000-05:00

The new butcherin' knives - the name
'Dexter' is purely coincidental.

Yesterday I had a message from David:
"We are getting close, are you getting excited about the 'big butchering' - and by big I mean some big freaking hogs."

He told me that the folks stopping by Public House Produce to take a look at the pigs are guessing that they are now approaching 400 pounds, and even the smallest one is, well, not so small anymore.

Meanwhile, Chris and I continue our acquisition spree in preparation. Yesterday, my knives arrived, shown here in the photo. Chris went on-line to find a big cooler, and was successful at Sam's Club, where he found a 150 qt. cooler. I imagine it will be like this one I found on Amazon, and I am thinking of buying it...

Now, Chris made some calls to his in-laws in Chicago, who happen to work in the meat business. What he found out from them was helpful, even though Uncle Brian says that the pigs he sees going to market are [only] 280-290 pounds. To which I responded, "Is he dealing in piglets? Don't they have any master farmers raising pigs out there in the midwest, like we do in the Shenandoah Valley?"

Uncle Brian then tolled off some estimates of what we can expect here: "The head will weigh fifty pounds, each ham and loin about 26 pounds, and the shoulders will be about the same."

He also recommeded that we have the hams smoked along with the bacon. So I'll need to get back with David to see about coordinating this.

Uncle Brian's closing words?

"Yeah, you're going to have a lot of product."

At this point, I think that is an understatement. These are big freaking hogs.

Smokin'

2012-01-10T07:31:00.001-05:00

Once again, I must return to preparation for the pig as a topic. This time, I'm thinking about how I am going to cook some of the proceeds.

Last month I did a little post about a tenderloin recipe I did for Christmas dinner - something that turned out well enough that Mary said, "We could serve this to company." So for some of the roast cuts, smoking them is just what I have in mind for preparation.

In fact, here's a photo of my little smoker - I bought this on clearance from Tractor Supply last year and have done a few meals on it so far. I have more in mind, of course.

There's no shortage of inspiration on the topic. I get comments and suggestions all the time on things to try. I've even been given some excellent pieces of wood - in particular a big section of white oak - from friends. And we have a couple of hickories on the property that I use whenever I can.

The second photo is a small pile of red oak I gathered from a neighbor's tree-trimming effort back in Alexandria. Our friends at Rocklands use red oak exclusively for their ribs and pork.

Yes, that'll do.

Preparing for Pork

2012-01-09T07:27:00.001-05:00

I've mentioned the pigs. Not to be disrectful of them, but their time is going short. I've been spending some time thinking about what must be done to prepare for harvest.

David says he expects each of them to be larger than 325 pounds. It's pretty amazing to think that he's got the better part of a half ton of pork on his hands right now. But all will be settled soon.

Last night, I placed an order for some butchering knives with Cabela's...spending about $120 on a set of three: an 11-inch cimeter, a 108-inch straight butchering knife, and a 6-inch stiff boning knife (typical manly error that, adding two inches to the size of that knife). Looking at these knives (the white handled ones in the photo) I probably should have invested in the cut-proof glove as well...I still might do that. That was a bit of an investment - I suppose it means I will likely be part of this again sometime.

Turning from the practicalities of getting there to the ultimate goal of filling the freezer, David recently walked me through what I could expect as far as meat production goes. Here is a photo sampling some of the output:

loin roast
sausage (bulk)
bacon

This represents something like only 5% of the total output of the pig - which led to some further concerns on logistics. There will likely be 20 times this much food at the end of the day, and some of the cuts will be fairly difficult to handle - the hams, the shoulder roasts, and the ribs.

We are still in discussions about whether we'll buy casings and make link sausages. And given that there is going to be a lot of scrapple...a LOT of scrapple - maybe 25 pounds, I have been recruiting some Alexandria neighbors to take some. So far, three takers.

Mary and I have got to get started making room in the freezer. Fortunately, we're splitting the take with Chris.

Alter Ego, part 2: The New Blog

2012-01-06T07:53:00.000-05:00

Back in October, I started a new blog called "Rescue My IRA." It is linked in the blog roll to the right, or there is a reference link at the end of this post. As I posted in the profile section of that blog, which will cover an investment strategy I have been using for my IRA rollover account:

"I'm at the tail-end of that generation, but I'm still a baby-boomer. I've been saving and investing a long time, but am dissappointed at what I've achieved in that arena. So, with 2/3 of my work life behind me, I'm trying to turn this boat around. On another note: thank you for reading. If any of the trades I write about here interest you, that's great, but be sure to do your own due diligence - like me, you invest at your own risk."

In any case, here's a link if you'd like to check it out:
http://www.rescuemyira.blogspot.com/

I've got a queue of traditional Hawksbill Cabin posts, I'll catch up on those starting Monday!

Alter ego

2012-01-05T07:25:00.000-05:00

It may come as a shock to regular readers, but Cabin Jim has a day job. I guess I have posted about it from time to time, but I had a nice emailed reminder yesterday - actually it was a tweet - that referred me to a link of one of my tradeshow presentations.

There are four short clips here from a talk I gave last March in Baltimore (the "road trips" label includes a couple of these posts. As a matter of fact, I'll be up there again this March - and I've given a similar talk in Las Vegas a couple of times now. Here's the link, with a hat tip to my friend Dennis:

http://www.nfmt.com/online/education/details/Facility-Master-Plan-Helps-Prioritize-Investments--202

2011 Recap Part 2 - The "Top 5"

2012-01-03T04:20:00.002-05:00

After reviewing the 2011 posts, I selected a group that I consider the Top 5 events that I posted about last year. They’re not presented in any sort of ranking – just chronologically. Some were “once in a lifetime” events – and some were part of an ongoing process. All in all though, at the end of the day, they were just part of life’s rich pageant.

January 2011: Trip to Japan. This was a direct result of success at work. During the summer before, I worked with a colleague to identify and pursue a couple of government RFPs that required marketing, financial, and facility analysis to support construction projects, predominantly for recreational facilities on military bases. Although the celebration of that win didn’t last long (I was laid off in August – don’t worry, as you’ll see, I made the best of it), the Japan trip became a once in a lifetime kind of event.

I went to an Army base at Camp Zama, Japan. The travel experience–the long flight there, arrival at and navigating the airport, and the 90-minute bus ride to the base; and the trip back–with a clear day view of Mount Fuji, plenty of time for duty-free shopping at Narita, and comfortable seating to Seattle; these were great. Being on an Army base for the week was vaguely familiar, after all I was stationed for a year at the Presidio of Monterey…the real treat was the touring day I’d managed to build in at the end, and my trip to Kamakura – there I saw temples and shrines, and the giant Daibatsu Buddha.

I missed seeing any of my USC classmates during the trip…maybe next time. I definitely want to go back!

Here’s a link to the Japan posts: http://hawksbillcabin.blogspot.com/search/label/Japan

January-April 2011: The Alexandria Kitchen Remodel. Since moving here 8 years ago, in 2003, we’ve been talking about a kitchen remodel, updating the place after its last renovation in the 1980’s. Mary did extensive research on materials – cabinets, counter tops, backsplashes, and even wood flooring—and then she organized and designed the new layout. We moved the door from the dining room to the kitchen to improve the flow in there and provide more counter space, made the pantry more useable, and then changed the breakfast nook/sunroom area so that it is a welcoming place to hang out.

The kitchen project proceeded hastily, and it is a real showcase. We’ve been gratified by all the compliments, but even better – it’s been a great change. It went so well, in fact, that we took on a second set of projects upstairs…

We added a classic knee-wall closet up there, cedar-lined. And we updated the upstairs bathroom, including reglazing the tub from its old ‘80’s era mauve to a new glistening white. These are great changes, but I have to admit by the end of all the construction, I was ready for it to be over.

During this time, we adopted Tessie, our 3-year old Border Collie. She's visible in the picture that goes with this post, attending with interest to whatever it is that Mary is doing in the photo there.

Links: http://hawksbillcabin.blogspot.com/2011/04/kitchen-complete.html ; http://hawksbillcabin.blogspot.com/2011/05/remodel-that-goes-on-and-on.html

May 2011, and continuing: The 75 at 75 Project. Gradually, in early 2011, I became aware that Shenandoah National Park was observing the 75th anniversary of its founding beginning in June. I thought about some appropriate observance of my own for some time and finally came up with a project that entailed hiking 75 miles in the Park during the anniversary year.

The project builds on the success of having hiked the 26 “Best Easy Day Hikes” from the eponymous guidebook and was meant to celebrate the Park that I have really come to know, enjoy and love. I picked a preliminary list of hikes that share a common intermediate difficulty – they each are more than five miles long and include a net elevation change of 500 feet.

When I first made the plan, I had hoped to complete the 75 miles during 2011, but as off today’s post I’ve only completed about 50 miles. I have plans for three hikes to complete the remaining 25 miles, and I hope to finish them by May 2012.

Link to “75 at 75 Project” posts: http://hawksbillcabin.blogspot.com/search/label/75%20at%2075%20Project

August 2011: The Agribusiness Internship. I mentioned my layoff in the post about the Japan trip above – yesterday I was talking about it to a friend, and I realized I was still pretty angry about the whole thing. After winning those two contracts and leading six projects under them during the early part of the year, and receiving excellent feedback from the client, I was given about a week’s notice that I was to be part of a rather large company-wide downsizing to help make numbers. There was a chance I’d be called back to work, however, and I decided that I would wait for a couple of months before I began a serious job search. (Update: I began my formal job search in October, and had an offer in November. I started my new position in December.)

The layoff allowed some creativity – I’m very fortunate to have befriended so many great people in Page County, and I spoke with David Sours at Public House Produce about joining him for what we called an “internship.” Looking back at it now, I fancy that David really wanted somebody to ride with him over to the Shenandoah Valley Produce Auction in Dayton on Tuesdays, about an hour’s drive, and to enjoy a hot dog and some pie over there while he sold his tomatoes.

On Wednesdays, the work centered on his emerging pasture-raised chicken business, modeled on the Salatin book Pastured Poultry Profit$. The cycle for this part of the process was the chicken round-up on Tuesday nights (I participated in this a couple of times, but I think David often got help from more efficient chicken wranglers), then meeting at 5am on Wednesdays to drive to the processor in New Market. After the birds were “sent on their way” at the processor, we’d head back to the farm for some quick chores – moving the chicken tractors in the field and feeding the birds. Then at 9am, it was back to New Market to pick up the processed birds, and then to deliver them to a local restaurant in Luray.

After delivering the birds, there were more chores and assignments at the farm. Some of them were quite dirty…dirtier jobs than I’ve ever had. I learned a heck of a lot at the farm this summer from all of this, and only can hope that there is no lasting damage to the enterprise over there at Public House Produce from my efforts…

As I am writing this, I am also remembering now that it was because of the internship that I happened to be out at the Hawksbill Cabin for the big Virginia earthquake. That was quite a thing to experience and reminded me for a moment of some of the tremors I’d experience in Los Angeles. But that’s a topic for some future post.

Now, a side benefit of the internship was having an up-close view of the development of “Page County Grown” – a local effort to brand and promote family farms in Page County. It is a great organization that has already earned its share of success, including a big highlight of the summer, the first farm tour and a celebratory dinner at the Mimslyn. What a treat to watch this develop, and I am hoping that I can find a few effective ways to contribute to its growth and success in the future.

Here’s a link to the internship posts: http://hawksbillcabin.blogspot.com/search/label/Agribusiness

October 2011: Trip to Las Vegas. As a professional, I learned somewhere along the way that there is a responsibility for sharing what you know with your colleagues. Starting back in 2007, I have had a relationship with some folks who put on a couple of facilities tradeshows every year; the group had invited me to present in Las Vegas at their October event, which was held at the Mirage (I also present at their annual event in Baltimore, held every March).

Participating in the event is very rewarding and I really appreciate having the chance to share my experience with my colleagues in the field – and it’s doubly rewarding when we get the chance to discuss their own work, which we often do during the Q+A after my talks. Often, the next week brings a dozen or more requests for a copy of my slides, which I am happy to send along.

The Vegas conference also gives me a chance to do some sightseeing: certainly there is the Strip, and a chance to take a look at the casinos and those other things that made Vegas what it is. However, Las Vegas is in the middle of a couple of wonderful National Parks – including the Grand Canyon, which I visited in 2009, and Death Valley, which I made into this year’s destination. High Points, if you will, of that trip, included a fascinating desert landscape, and then recording the lowest elevation yet on my Casio Pathfinder altimeter at Badwater Flats. My watch records the elevation as -150 meters; corrected for measurement errors that is 110 meters. The official elevation was 282 feet below sea level, so my watch ended up being within 10 percent – I thought that was pretty good.

Here’s a link to the posts about Death Valley: http://hawksbillcabin.blogspot.com/search/label/Death%20Valley

So those are my Top 5 for 2011 – some of them have lingering effects and impacts heading into 2012, and there’ll be future posts that reference these events. Certainly, I’ve got some rich storytelling material out of these experiences. All of which leads me to look forward to keeping up the Hawksbill Cabin blog for 2012.

2011 Recap Part 1 - The Honorable Mentions

2012-01-02T10:24:00.001-05:00

A once in a lifetime 2011 moment - all 1s on digital clocks!
I know it's blurry. YOU try catching a once-in-a-century
shot like this!

Like any year, I suppose, the year that was 2011 had its ups and downs. There were the annual traditions, like the Berlin reunion in February; there were traditions that are trying to gain traction, like the vacation trip to Cape Cod last June; and there were one of a kind events that seemed to drag on an on, like the kitchen remodel in the Alexandria house that morphed into some renovations upstairs.

I thought I make take a few moments to look back through the posts here on the Hawksbill Cabin blog to do a year in review post. Last year I did a month-by-month review, this year I plan to summarize “Top 5” style – even so, this recap is going to have to be in two posts.

The Top 5 most significant stories were easy to choose, and I’ll go into more detail on them in a moment; before I get to that I’d like to make a note of three honorable mentions. I haven’t ranked any of these in any particular order – this is simply a summary of the items that seem most important after a brief review.

Honorable Mention 1: Fibrowatt. While it did not emerge as a community rallying point during 2011, the company Fibrowatt was on our minds, as the governor organized a working group to study how to reduce or eliminate pollution sources in the Chesapeake Bay. At first, it sounded like a victory for Fibrowatt as the working group seemed to embrace their solution for a time. The working group’s efforts ended with a determination that more study was needed and no firm recommendations were made as far as the approach Virginia would take is concerned. At year end, there was news that Fibrowatt was pitching a waste incinerator for Shenandoah County, over in the I-81 corridor. I’ll continue to post on this topic as I learn more.

Honorable Mention 2: Berlin Cold War Memories. Besides the annual reunion we've been having at Blob's Park in Jessup every February, in September, a colleague who was in Berlin for an extended period of time, working as a civilian at Tempelhof Air Base, began converting his old videos to digital format and posting them to YouTube on his own “channel.” Some other friends and I discovered them there – they included videos of the work site I was assigned to for 4.5 years, an underground tour of Tempelhof – which has a rich oral history of old Nazi hideouts and other WW2 lore, and a train trip to a similar site on the old East/West German border which overlooked a favorite ski resort that we used to make a couple of trips a year to. Good memories that, perusing the files he shared.

Honorable Mention 3: Do It Yourself Agriculture. While the topic has quite a bit in common with one of the Top 5 subjects, in this honorable mention post I want to touch on Dan’s Hops, Mary’s Container Garden, and the outdoor musical events over at our neighbor Wisteria Farm and Vineyards. In the first case, I was able to hook up with Dan a few times as he first harvested and then dried his crop of hops – the vines are maturing now in their third year, and Dan had a true bounty to show for it. Speaking of bounty, Mary’s crop of tomatoes wasn’t quite as good as it had been in past years, but it was a good year, and she had plenty success with her new squash and eggplant crops – enough to keep me busy grilling three-vegetable combos for a good part of the summer. And last but not least, we were able to join our friends at Wisteria a couple of times for great outdoor music events and wine tastings; a highlight was a midsummer show with local favorites The Eclectix – but also, the premier of a sparkling Traminette wine that Moussa and Sue are making now. That wine is one I should make a future post about, as a matter of fact!

When I started on this topic, I was hoping to keep my musings to one post, but it doesn’t appear I will be successful. In my next post I will do the Top 5 summary of other posts I’d like to highlight for 2011.

Bourbon-soaked, Hickory-smoked

2011-12-30T07:30:00.000-05:00

Well, here in Geezerville, the one thing we've learned is that practice makes perfect. Nearly so, that is, if you believe the human condition is holding you back. With that thought in mind I decided that I might try to do another smoked pork loin for Christmas dinner this year.

Using a 1.5 pound roast from Whole Foods, I considered a complex marinade to start with, but then thought that maybe going with something simple was a better plan. So once I'd let the meat rise to room temperature, all I did to prepare this was to brush it with olive oil, and season it with salt, pepper and garlic.

Then to seal in the flavor, I seared it in a frying pan - I used as couple of ounces of bourbon here for that step in the process. I'm not sure that I noticed a strong bourbon flavor later when we were eating...I used Maker's Mark, a blend, instead of a favorite like Elijah Craig or Snob Creek.

After the browning, I moved the loin to the grill, where the coals were already white and ready. While the grill temp said 450+ degrees, I used an indirect method, hoping I had the loins in an area where the temp was more like 350 or so. I let them roast unmolested for about 40 minutes, and used the meat thermometer to see how things were going at that point.

The only grill opening I did during this phase was to toss in some hickory chips, which I used this time instead of gathering up some sticks and twigs from around the Hawksbill Cabin property - we've got several hickories back in the wood lot, and I do hope to stockpile from them eventually.

Finally, the meat thermometer read 160, and I moved the loins over to the coal side. I wanted to get some grill marks on them and bring them up to 165 to finish them. Once they were done, we served them up with some asparagus, and a mix root vegetable side dish, both of which were prepared in foil packs on the grill.

Three photos below show various stages of cooking, and the finished product. I'll definitely do this again, maybe doing the finishing touches at around 155 and taking the loin off the grill at 160 - they weren't overdone at 165, but the meat does continue to cook for a few minutes after they come off the grill. So removing them from the heat a few minutes earlier isn't going to hurt anything.

Chores Inside and Out

2011-12-29T07:24:00.000-05:00

For the most part, the weather during this just passed holiday weekend was tremendous out at Hawksbill Cabin. We did get some rain, but we had several days of sunshine, like yesterday, when I climbed up on the terrace below the pool deck to take this photo looking up at the house.

For a good part of the fall, Mary had been talking about getting the curtains down and laundering them, so on Tuesday, our rainy day, she took this one on. One of the most challenging parts of this task is the fact that the windows are ten feet high, so you have to get up on a ladder to take them down (and to put them back up) - so I helped a bit on this part of the task. Then she went into town to take care of other errands while the curtains washed in a coin-op laundrymat.

With the curtains down, new light was shed on the modern bones of our place. Here are three photos I took during the chore - first, the view from the living room, unobstructed by curtains; and second and third, two views of the house looking from the outside - first the original, main house, and then, the addition.

Hitch is Dead

2011-12-23T07:53:00.000-05:00

“Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things.”
- Philippians 4:8 NKJV

When we had news that Christopher Hitchens had died earlier this month, I was reminded by the articles that his 2007 book, god is not Great, had long been on my reading list. So I quickly went out on iTunes and picked up the audiobook so that I could listen to it on my new Metro commute.

The book opens with the quote above, from Philippians in the New Testament of the Bible. As I heard the words – Hitchens read the book himself for this audio version – I immediately realized the treat that I was in for, as the many descriptions of the man’s work in the obituaries I read shared a common praise of his wit, his intellect, his turn of a phrase, and the irony he could command.

I’ve come to share some points of view with him, although this realization was a long time in the making. I’ve been a fan of Eric Alterman, having read several books, followed his blog, and even had a letter to him posted on MSNBC back in 2003 (my dad also had a letter posted on the Altercation blog in that timeframe).

At that time, Alterman and Hitchens, who had apparently worked together at The Nation, had fallen out with each other…while I am not refreshing my memory with an internet search on this, I seem to recall that it had something to do with a disagreement about whether the Iraq war was justified, with Hitchens coming down in favor and attracting a lot of media attention for, what was for him, a Vanity Fair writer, a surprising position.

At the time, it seemed to me that the emergent Fox News cable channel was exploiting the fear of the post 9-11 era as a way to divide all of us in a time when we should be united in choosing a way forward to confront the new geopolitical situation. Seeing Hitchens on that network from time to time, seemingly arguing for the Fox News point of view (which was essentially a marketing ploy to segment and capture conservative viewers) left a foul taste in my mouth.

So I have to admit that as I picked up god is not Great, I expected that I would find some challenging positions that I did not agree with. But I resolved to read with an open mind.

So, once I made it into chapter four, I came across a summary, a list of three points in the argument that religion poisons everything, more or less transcribed here:

“Religion and the churches are manufactured…
“Ethics and morality are quite independent of faith and cannot be derived from it…
“Religion, because is claims a special divine exemption for its practices and beliefs, is not just amoral, but immoral.”

The book is polemical and, as such, makes a strong argument against not just any single religion, but all religions. True to Hitchens’ style, they are well reasoned arguments and backed up with examples from his research and experience. The force of his argument has the effect of encouraging the reader to look within, to see where these thoughts resonate in one’s own soul – for lack of a better expression.

Most of all, god is not Great is a good read. Hitchens is not at all overbearing as he appeared on those Fox News interviews in the early part of this decade, when he was arguing in favor of the war in Iraq. In fact, he is every bit as well reasoned and well spoken as his reputation makes him out to be. It’s a sad thought that this is a voice and intellect that we have lost, but let’s celebrate his life and legacy as if it were a beautiful daisy emerging from the dust of his grave.

I’m still making my way through the book. But so far, I feel as though I am enjoying a long delayed gourmet meal – and we’ve just sat down, with the palate cleanser arriving to the table.

Here’s an Amazon link to the book:

Love a Tree

2011-12-21T07:25:00.000-05:00

See, Mary and I weren't going to have a tree this year. I started my new job during the first week of December with a road trip, and we thought that our schedules this year just weren't going to allow us this little diversion.

A few years ago our neighbor told us that he had a family property in Wisconsin that he'd managed to keep in agricultural use - growing Christmas trees. He's what my friend David calls a "weekend warrior" - he runs the farm absentee-style, doing everything during periodic visits. In his case, that involves week-long trips at various times of the year, culminating with a two-week trip around Thanksgiving when the trees are harvested and distributed to his various local retail outlets out yonder.

Except that as a favor he brings back about a dozen for the neighbors here on our street. I figure that this small reserve actually pays for the road trip back and forth, which I have to admit I admire. As often as not, at this time of year, his trip is made that much more difficult by early winter storms.

So as I mentioned, we weren't getting a tree. When our neighbor came calling for tree orders, we declined. When he got back, he found that he had an extra...and he offered us another chance. Beset by second thoughts, we made room for it - an 8.5 footer, which is esconced in the dining room. It's shown here behind the dining room table, set for Mary's annual holiday tea for her Wellesley alumni friends.

Yep, we are sure enjoying it.

The Solar Marines

2011-12-20T08:03:00.000-05:00

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:3rd_Battalion_3rd_Marines_dawn_patrol.jpg

The Natural Intelligence column in Outside magazine's December 2011 edition, entitled "Charge!" and written by David Roberts, outlines some successes the Marine Corps has had in adapting solar technology to battle. I did some further research and this has been a hot topic this year, with many articles available on-line, I've also included a link to an NPR article at the end of this post for easy reference.

Roberts' article begins with the lead paragraph:

"The Solyndra solar debacle has some in Congress arguing that government needs to get out of the renewable-power business. Don't tell that to the Marine Corps, the bravest new recruit in the clean-energy revolution."

After watching the movie Restrepo this year - and visiting a couple of USMC bases - I've grown attuned to how this tactical force operates: fast moving and overwhelming force, usually at the expense of having to carry a lot of petroleum-based fuels with them, especially as generator power hungry communications and information gear become more and more essential to the success of their missions.

The Marines have established the Expeditionary Energy Office to come up with ways to address power needs. In the Outside article, the example given was India Company 3rd Battalion 5th Marine Regiment's deployment to the Sangin District in Afghanistan's Helmand province. India 3/5 had four portable modules that fold out in two large solar panels each, all connected to power cells to store the energy overnight. They also have pack stowable gear that the Marines can carry - only 2.5 pounds each - instead of the 25-35 pounds of batteries they usually have to haul on their backs.

Another highlight, from the NPR article I linked, also featuring India 3/5, is this:

"By using solar power and placing an emphasis on energy conservation, Marines and sailors of 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment say they cut diesel consumption in their generators from 20 gallons a day to 2.5 gallons a day."

Three more bullets that argue for more solar power rather than less, at least in the case of the Marines:

Fewer Supply Convoys — With less need for fuel and batteries, fewer trucks are exposed to possible attacks on the road.
Quieter Is Safer — Units that rely on diesel generators to keep equipment running at night could go quiet while running on batteries, making them harder for the enemy to find.
Efficiency — The foldable solar blankets are light and don't take up much space. That should help patrols' mobility, and save space for other supplies — like ammunition, as one sergeant says.

This is the kind of development that is going to help build a mass civilian market for these technologies.

Here's a link to the NPR article:
http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2011/01/17/133006575/solar-powered-marines-see-gains-in-afghanistan

Page County Grown: Stuffed "Festival" Acorn Squash

2011-12-19T07:24:00.001-05:00

This year I picked up quite a few of the "Festival" acorn squash from Public House Produce. It's a winter squash and when I buy it in October, it typically has been cured (David walked me through the process once, it involves a period of constant temperature once it comes off of the vine) and can keep through most of the winter. We've had squash as late as February.

I tried a stuffed squash recipe last year, just a savory sausage version, which came from the Simply in Season cookbook, Amazon link below, and again - another tip from Public House Produce. I wasn't too thrilled with those results so this time I decided to try the apple and sausage stuffed squash. I was probably a bit more careful with the cooking and preparation process this time too, and felt like I had good results: Mary said, "This is good enough for company."

Basically, I baked the squash at 350 for about 45 minutes to soften the flesh. I also sauteed the sausage, apples, onions (I added celery and carrots, although they weren't in the recipe) until they were soft, cooking them with the sausage after it was browned. I also tossed in chopped walnuts and golden raisins, and a tablespoon of bread crumbs (the recipe actually called for bread cubes).

Once this was cooked, I stuffed it into the squash and baked at 375 for 20 minutes. I should have covered the squash but forgot too - it was getting late. In any case, we enjoyed this very much...I will continue to tweak the recipe as I have two squashes left.

The Berlin Airlift Exhibit

2011-12-16T07:44:00.000-05:00

Last month, as I was cruising around the Smithsonian Museum of American History, I came across the Berlin Airlift exhibit. There's a panel in there with a number of readily recognizable, even iconic, images of this event that happened in the early part of the Cold War.

I saw iconic, because when I arrived in Berlin in October 1981 (just occured to me that it has been 30 years!), one of my first impressions during those ever shorter and colder fall days was that the Berlin Airlift was a signature event for the USAF's presence. It formed such a strong impression that as I walked around for those first few months the memories that I still hold translate many of the buildings and experiences into grainy black and white images.

This exhibit has 15 or so of some of the more well known photographs from the original reporting, along with some maps and a diagram showing how the Airlift worked. There is some interpretive material that shows what the whole point of the enterprise was: to feed the blockaded city of about 2 million people.

In rediscovering the photos I took at the exhibit, I had a moment of nostalgia (as I always do at the mere mention of the city) that has inspired me to make yet another list in my life - the significant events of my nearly five years there. At some point I'll have that compiled in a way it's suitable for publication here on the blog.

The Luray Caverns CX "Cyclo-Cross"

2011-12-15T07:46:00.001-05:00

Photo by John "Major" Nelson.

Last weekend saw the Luray Caverns CX cyclo-cross race return to Luray. Unfortunately, Mary and I had some last minute work and alumni things to take care of in the city, otherwise I would have attended as I’d planned. As far as I know, this is the second of these annual races, which are held on the grounds of the Luray Valley Museum at the Caverns.

Last October I had a few minutes to talk about this event with Chris Gould, the promoter and owner of Hawksbill Bicycles in Luray. He told me that this was a European discipline in cycling that originated in Belgium, involving riding on multiple surfaces, such as grass, asphalt, gravel and mud. There are typically various kinds of barriers that require the riders to dismount and carry their bikes.

Photo by John "Major" Nelson

Also attractive about the sport is the fact that the course is usually designed to wind around a central viewing area, so it’s spectator friendly. At Luray there was a beer garden, and Wisteria Vineyards sponsored a wine tasting. This thing sounds like my kind of event and I really regretted not being able to attend.

As I followed the events on Facebook, I saw that there was a drum line duel between Page County High School and Luray High School. How cool is that?

There were 150 competitors in the event, which is one of four cycling events in Page County now. It’s another great example of the kind of active tourism that our beautiful setting can attract. Kudos to Chris and the other organizers and sponsors for bringing something new and exciting to the community!

Note: I have copied photos here from the Luray CX Facebook Page – the photographer is John "Major" Nelson, who documents most Page County Cycling events in his capacity as the official race photographer!
A web link to the Luray Caverns event page is here: http://luraycaverns.com/PlanyourVisit/Events/tabid/512/Default.aspx

Video from Kennedy Peak Summit

2011-12-13T07:14:00.000-05:00

When Chris and I did the hike up to Kennedy Peak a few weeks back, I thought I might try to make a video from the observation tower. Here is the result: it's about three minutes long, done off-the-cuff as I talk about the items you can see from the summit.

Return to Massanutten's Kennedy Peak

2011-12-12T07:25:00.000-05:00

A couple of weeks back, when Chris came out for a hike, we intended to get out for one of the “75 at 75” hikes. Both of us ended up having some work chores to take care of first thing in the morning, via email, and that put us behind schedule enough that we ditched the plan for a hike in Shenandoah National Park. As a Plan B, we went to Kennedy Peak on the Massanutten Ridge in the George Washington National Forest.

See, during this time of year, Shenandoah National Park closes the entries on Skyline Drive at 5pm, reopening them at 8am, to prevent poaching during deer hunting season. If you expect that you need more than 9 hours for transit to your trailhead and to complete your hike, you run the risk of being locked in the Park. Although there are procedures for letting you out after hours, NPS cannot guarantee how promptly someone will arrive to open the gates for you.

After Chris and I took care of the emails and on-line business matters, we made our stop to check on the pigs, which I posted on last week. Then it was off to GWNF and the Edith Gap trailhead. We arrived at just about noon for the hike.

I used both the Casio Pathfinder and the “Map my Hike” app on my iPhone on this one. I calculated approximately 698 feet of elevation gain over the 5.4 mile course, which took us about three and a half hours. As with most of the GWNF hikes, the route was well marked, actually following the orange-blazed Massanutten loop for most of the distance before merging with the Stephens Trail to the summit of Kennedy Peak.

Back in January, I hiked the Stephens Trail with the AOA guys. I was stunned at the views from the old observation tower at the summit. I’ve posted three photos here of the views, looking in easterly directions to Page Valley: first to the north, in the direction of Rileyville and Bentonville; then due east across the north stretches of Luray to the Blue Ridge and Thornton Gap; and then to the south, towards Stanley and Big Meadows, where Hawksbill Cabin lies along this line.

I have a video to share, a narrated panorama that I took while on the observation tower, and I will post that tomorrow as I conclude the review of this hike.

...about that Chanticleer

2011-12-10T17:26:00.000-05:00

Funny thing, I exchanged messages with my friend David after last week’s post, “Chanticleer in the Morning.” Turns out, they have a new Barred Rock rooster over there at Public House Produce, and they named him Chanticleer.

Among several meanings of the word, Wikipedia has ‘chanticleer” as meaning “any rooster.” So the Thoreau quote included in that last post includes a pretty spectacular imagery:

"I do not propose to write an ode to dejection, but to brag as lustily as chanticleer in the morning, standing on his roost, if only to wake my neighbors up."

I've just started learning about heritage poultry breeds, so when David told me about the barred rock rooster I dug in a bit to find out more about the breed. From a hatchery website (linked below), I found the picture I included with this post, and the description below:

The Barred Rock is one of the all time popular favorites in this country. Developed in New England in the early 1800's by crossing Dominiques and Black Javas, it has spread to every part of the U.S. and is an ideal American chicken. Prolific layers of brown eggs, the hens are not discouraged by cold weather. Their solid plumpness and yellow skin make a beautiful heavy roasting fowl. Our strain has the narrow, clean barring so desirable in appearance. Their bodies are long, broad, and deep with bred-in strength and vitality. These chickens are often called Plymouth Rocks, but this title correctly belongs to the entire breed, not just the Barred variety. Whatever you call them, you can't beat them for steady, reliable chickens. Baby chicks are dark gray to black with some white patches on head and body.

http://www.mcmurrayhatchery.com/barred_rocks.html
I’ll be keeping an eye out for Chanticleer next time I’m over. I hear the breed is pretty friendly to people and other animals…but at the same time, I’ve also heard about some ornery ones.

Chanticleer in the Morning

2011-12-09T07:23:00.001-05:00

Late in the summer, as I was making a stop by to check on the Yum Yums - they were much smaller back then - I came across a curious construction project under the shelter of the barn over there at Public House Produce. It was a very interesting little building that reminded me of the pool cabana at Hawksbill Cabin, but since the proprieter was away I didn't have a chance to ask what it was designed for...I thought he might be building a little fruit stand to sit out there by the side of the road and vend his sweet corn from.

In the waning weeks of the Luray Page Farmers Market I finally had a chance to ask about it. David told me it was the "Huntin' Shack" - a small shelter that would serve as a deer blind once the season finally got started. Thereafter, I wanted to touch base for construction updates, and there were plenty.

Then last week, when Chris and I stopped by for our Yum Yums progress visit, we encountered David freshly returned from the Huntin' Shack, where he'd had a successful morning hunt. He was in the middle of butchering a buck, but once he finished the chore he offered to take us for a walk to see the Huntin' Shack in the field.

And so we did. It looks to be a fairly comfortable perch for a hunter to watch and wait from. It's got good sight lines, and adequate shelter from the cold wind and rain. There's a rumor of a heater in there, but I didn't see it when I went inside.

No TV in there either, but there were some good choices of reading materials. Right on top lay a Thoreau tome, a combined volume with Civil Disobedience and Walden. As David talked about the shack, and some of the events that had taken place there, it was almost as if I could hear him quoting Thoreau - hey, the shack has its similarities to that little place by the pond!

"I do not propose to write an ode to dejection, but to brag as lustily as chanticleer in the morning, standing on his roost, if only to wake my neighbors up."

The Yum Yums

2011-12-08T09:09:00.000-05:00

On Friday, as Chris and I were preparing to go on our hike, I thought it might be good to take him over to introduce him to the Yum Yums at the Sours' place. Chris is "co-sponsoring" one of the animals with me.

It was a crisp fall morning and the group wasn't quite up and about yet - they were snoozing gleefully in a tight little nest to stay warm. The pigs always wake up with a start as we approach, and there was plenty of squealing and hopping around the stall and then out into the barnyard.

David was there and walked out with us, explaining what to expect next month (they are growing fast enough we may move the schedule for harvest up to January), and pointing out which pig belongs to whom.

Our pig is up to about 200 pounds, maybe 220, he said, and the largest of the group is up to 250-260. I understand that the target weight on the big girl is 350, and that is the metric that will determine what day is the right one for some "next steps."

"Next steps" in this case means "makin' bacon."

Catching up with...Page County Grown

2011-12-05T22:58:00.000-05:00

Page County Grown is having a producers forum tonight at the Luray-Page County Chamber of Commerce Boardroom. The meeting starts at 6:30 pm, and is aimed at current and potential members, so call the Chamber at 540-743-3915 if you would like more information.

PCG leadership said this meeting is for "...anyone interested in producing goods locally, whether a backyard farmer or a grower looking for additional markets."

Jared Burner of Skyline Premium Meats will present on the benefits of buying local, and there will likely be some discussion of the organization's results last year - highlighted by the Farm Tour and Dinner last August.

I'm just sorry I won't be able to join - Page County Grown is already having an impact on the local ag sector in the county, and I expect that the benefits will only increase in the future!

Best Easy Day Hikes Shenandoah - New Edition

2011-12-01T07:28:00.000-05:00

When I posted about our little day hike to Bear Fence Mountain last weekend, among the things I noticed while writing was that the new edition of "Best Easy Day Hikes Shenandoah National Park" has been published. This book, compiled and written by Bert and Jane Gildart, is the 4th edition, and was published earlier this year. It updates the 3rd edition that was published in 2006; I have an Amazon link at the end of the post if you'd like to check it out.

When Mary and I bought Hawksbill Cabin in 2007, I figured that since Shenandoah National Park was so close - Hawksbill Mountain looms over the drive into our place, nearby Hawksbill Creek draws its source from a spring near Big Meadows, and we can see Tanners Ridge from our brick terrace - that I should make a point of getting to know the Park best I could. I used the 3rd edition as a guide, setting a goal to complete all of the hikes in the book, an objective I fulfilled in 2010.

On first review the major difference is the inclusion of 27 hikes in the 4th edition, as opposed to 26 in the 3rd. Not only are there additional hikes, but some of the old ones have been deleted or replaced. A district by district review shows that there are now 6 hikes in the North District, where there were five; there are 15 in the Central District, the same as before; and there are 6 in the South District, the same number as were in the 3rd edition.

The additional hike in the North District is Fort Windham Rocks, a 0.8 mile out-and-back with negligible elevation gain. In the Central District, a second route to the peak at Mary's Rock has been added: "Mary's Rock South," a 2.6 mile out-and-back that is shorter and has less elevation gain than the traditional "Mary's Rock North" route. The entry for Betty's Rock and Crescent Rock has been deleted from the Central District list. The South District list remains the same.

Generally, I'll be interested to get into the individual hike reviews in more detail to check out the updates. Our Park is dynamic in that it used to be settled and covered by farms; while the establishment of the Park retains some controversy in the surrounding areas, the inevitable progress of nature's reclamation is one of the features of the experience, and that means that the trails are constantly changing. Where there was a view in the past, there may be a new forest obscuring it now, for example...or some unusual flora or fauna may have re-established itself somewhere, causing the visitor to focus more on the micro-landscape as opposed to the wonderful views from Skyline Drive.

I have my favorites on this list, and at the same time, if the choice were mine, there are a few I would leave off. But this guide has been very useful to me during my adventures in the Park, and generally I'm very happy to see that it has been updated. Once I found out it had finally been published I couldn't wait to get a copy for myself.

Amazon link:

Bear Fence Mountain: An Easy SNP Day Hike

2011-11-29T07:49:00.000-05:00

It being Thanksgiving weekend and all, Mary thought it might be fun to take a little walk in the Park. Since she had never been before, I suggested we might go over to Bear Fence Mountain and explore it a bit.

This relatively short trail - the Easy Day Hikes book (Amazon link at the end of the post) has it as a 1.2 mile loop with less than 400 feet of elevation gain, showcases the essential geologic history of the Blue Ridge. The central portion of the hike, and its highlight, is a rock scramble along the ridge pictured here that is about a third of a mile in length. The mountain's summit is about 3,470 feet above sea level.

The trail to the scramble passes through the Park's signature greenstone and sandstone formations, and transitions to Catoctin basalt at the scramble itself. I prefer to take the loop trail for the opportunity it provides to have a good look at the stony layer from below, and then from being up close and personal during the scramble.

Funny thing along the way - after the initial photo above, my iPhone told me it was out of memory and it wouldn't allow any more photos. I'll get that checked out, but in the meantime we fell back on Mary's good old fashioned RAZR, which is what I used to use for the blog. These small format photos are taken with that camera.

This absolutely stunning view looking north towards Tanners Ridge and New Market gap was taken from a view point on the AT a couple of hundred yards south of the scramble.

Full disclosure: Mary and I didn't do the full rock scramble. This trail is one of the better visited ones in the Park - there is even a Ranger Program that comes here (one I'd like to join sometime), so there is a lot of traffic on the mountain. While the challenges of this scramble don't compare to Old Rag due to its length and the lack of significant elevation change, it does give a good preview of the experience you can expect on that landmark, and the transitions through the geologic layers are the same as what you'll see there.

Here are a couple of mountain portraits of your faithful blogger and his loving wife.

And here is the Amazon link to the Easy Day Hikes book, if you are interested (hey! Fourth Edition!)

She Brakes for Wisconsin Chickens

2011-11-28T18:57:00.000-05:00

Our neighbors own a Christmas Tree farm in Wisconsin, and every year they travel to it for final chores and marketing right about Thanksgiving. They are there right now, as a matter of fact.

Now, I spent a lot of time hatching some thoughts with these neighbors about the prospect of getting a Page County Grown CSA going here in Alexandria. There seems to be a consensus (among some of the neighbors, as well as my "farmer friend" in Luray, that a chicken CSA is very feasible. Still work to do on this account, but that is the set up for the photo.

Saturday afternoon, sitting out on the brick porch for a short while, the iPhone buzzed that I had received a text message from my neighbor. She sent this iPhone photo, very nice image (she is a professional photographer after all!).

The message said that they were making good progress on the farm chores, and were wrapping up early for the day since the weather was getting worse. On the way home, they'd stopped by the neighbor's, who took them in for a look at the henhouse.

The Winter Flock and Other Visitors

2011-11-28T08:10:00.000-05:00

Raccoon prints on the brick terrace.

With the change of seasons, I went out and bought a new set up of bird feeders and ten pounds of bird seed. The old ones had facded and worn out so much I thought it would be a good idea to just replace them, and I've let the old hummingbird feeders hang out for too long.

Our winter flock at Hawksbill Cabin includes a mix of titmice, chickadees, nuthatches, and downy woodpeckers - they are the regulars. On some mornings, I'll see a bunch of junkos mixing in, and there is a crowd of sparrows off someplace in the woods that will get word of the feeders being refilled, so they'll show up. Less regularly featured are some cardinals, blue jays, and flickers.

Red berries popular with the cardinals.

As I was taking care of the chore with the feeders, I noticed some paw prints on the deck railing that surrounds our brick terrace. On closer inspection, these are raccoon prints - we have had a few over on that side of the house closest to the stream; I've seen one once or twice scampering off into the woods as I approached.

But that's not the worst of it...at least these critters were outside.

When we arrived at the cabin Friday, as I was unloading the car and making the last haul into the house, I met Mary out on the brick terrace. She said, "There is a snake skin on the sink in the kitchen. Of course, the next step for me was to go in to investigate, and then figure out how to get the reptile back outside.

The first thing I noticed was that this skin was just a piece of a whole shed, and it was brittle and yellowed. So, not fresh - I've seen them keep a grayish tint for a whole season. Still I carefully opened every cabinet door and every drawer in the kitchen - no sign of a snake. What I did find was a mouse nest in one of the lower drawers near the stove.

We pulled that out - it was sitting in a little box that we used to store candles - and proceeded to clean and disinfect everything that the mouse might have scampered over. We replaced all of the D-con. And while we did this, we analyzed the construction of the mouse nest we'd found.

Included with the usual materials, such as paper towels and other scrap materials gathered from around the house, were more pieces of snake skin. I found this very interesting, as the snakes usually hunt the mice...asking around, people gave me varying opinions about this, including the very creative "it's a kind of mojo to keep other snakes away" explanation.

Here's what I figure. Hawksbill Cabin had been infested with snakes for several years before we bought it. The elderly fellow who lived there at first wasn't able to keep up with things, and so the termites got out of hand and then the other "pests" moved in. The folks who bought it from his estate were in over their heads on basic maintenance chores, and so the snakes and termites continued to live amongst them.

It wasn't until we moved there that the wildlife was given notice to move along (for a hint at the extent of our repairs, take a look at the "Big Projects" label). There was some big time clean up to do along with the repairs.

Still, there are a couple of nooks and crannies in the house where an old snake skin or two might lay hidden, and that is what I figured happened here. In the mouse-frenzy associated with building winter quarters, the snake skin was just another material going into the creation of a cozy den.

We didn't see any other traces over the weekend. Hopefully Mary is all settled down by now, too.

From the Archives...another "Marilyn Mix"

2011-11-25T06:08:00.011-05:00

I was messing around in the basement and found a box of mixed tapes. Included were about a dozen Maxell UD and UR 90 cassettes, still in cellophane wrap. The great surprise was the discovery of the box for another "Marilyn Mix" - this one dated 2/93...unfortunately, the tape is missing. Here's the playlist.

Playlist Name: Marilyn Mix 2/93
Tape: Maxell UR 90
Noise Reduction: Not Indicated

Side A
Townes Blues - Cowboy Junkies
This is the Sea - Waterboys
Rags - Waterboys
Zimbabwe - Toni Childs
Catch My Fall - Billy Idol
Live for Today - Lords of the New Church
South of the Border - Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass
Church of the Poison Mind - Culture Club
Safety Dance - Men Without Hats
Memphis - Joe Jackson
The Stand - The Alarm

Side B
Kill Joy - Mary's Danish
Hippy Shakes - Swingin Blue Jeans
Medicine Bow - Waterboys
Waitin' for the Man - VU
Black Money - The Fall
Promise - Violent Femmes
Message of Love - The Pretenders
Night Boat to Cairo - Madness
Alex Chilton - The Replacements
Happy Boy - The Beat Farmers
Me and the Farmer - House Martins
U Mass - The Pixies
Crazy - Pylon
Bus Stop - The Hollies

The Urban Trout Stream

2011-11-23T09:38:00.000-05:00

About mid-October, during the walks that Tessie and I take, I started to notice more and more folks along the banks of Hawksbill Creek, some doing traditional flyfishing and others simply casting along with rod and reel. Then I realized that we'd entered the season where that stream is stocked - from about October 15 through June 15. The water is not really cold enough for trout for the rest of the year and so it's not stocked then.

(A schedule of stream stocking dates is maintained by the state of Virginia here: http://www.dgif.virginia.gov/fishing/stock/)

Small fish are nearly always visible in the stream along the Hawksbill Greenway, and some of the murals illustrate the species you can find there, namely sunfish, bass and trout. On the day I took these photos, apparently the stream had just been stocked, and obviously the leaves were still up - it was early in the fall. But I saw a number of keepers in the creels.

On a walk a few weeks back Mary and I ran into our friends from Appalachian Outdoors Adventures working over the creek on a Sunday morning. They weren't having any luck this morning, but Howard broke out his phone to show us a couple of recent catches - big ones, each one easily filling the pan for two people!

I guess it's time to break out my copy of A River Runs Through It again to have a look. And maybe to be on the lookout for a trout dinner somewhere soon!

Tech-Watch Geek: Casio Protrek and Pathfinder

2011-11-21T09:13:00.001-05:00

Half Dome from Glacier Point, Yosemite - highest altimeter
reading on my Pathfinder was here: 2,315 meters...
(give or take)

As I was departing Japan last January, I saw a display of Casio “Tech-watches” in Narita Airport. Since they were branded “Protrek” – as opposed to the Pathfinder I wear – I was interested in learning more about them, with the idea of eventually getting a post up here on the blog about my new discovery…unfortunately, I did not save the photo I took in the airport (but I’ll liberally sprinkle in some archived action shots of my Pathfinder!).

What I’ve learned, and I’ll stand corrected if anyone comments with more information, is that the differences between the watches is essentially a marketing issue; namely, there was a copyright in the US on the brand name Protrek so this label was reserved for other markets. The brand for markets where the Protrek copyright was in place became Pathfinder.

Taking a Pathfinder reading in Death Valley -
later that day I recorded the lowest reading
on the Casio of -110 meters.

Now, although my discovery of this brand was recently, in January 2011, apparently the marketing extends back as early as 2008. My experience in Japan had been that the technical features, such as the triple sensor altimeter/barometer/thermometer feature, time and tide info, and even solar charging, were similar, but there was a distinct fashion emphasis on the Protrek line that I don’t associate with the Pathfinder – and that led to a bit of a price point difference, with the Protrek being a little more expensive. Again, this is my impression, glad to post differing views on this one.

I did a little further research on the differences, and found a YouTube video that demonstrated one of the Protreks – embedded below; there was also a post on the “Poor Man’s Watch Forum” that compared the experience of using the two brands on hunting expeditions (black bear and white tail deer, for the record!) The link to this review is here, and the YouTube embed follows.
http://www.pmwf.com/Phorum/read.php?26,23482

Okay, here's another:

Now, I got my Pathfinder (similar to the ad over there in the right column ) as a holiday gift from Mary a few years back. I am delighted with it and use it all the time, especially for altitude readings and a quick check of bearings with the compass. Click the Tech-watch Geek label at the end of the post for reviews of it and other watches with these features.

But the thing that sold me on the Pathfinder was a soldier’s review…the link to the post where I discussed that review is here:
http://hawksbillcabin.blogspot.com/2009/12/tech-watch-geek-maybe-winner.html

I’m not going to pull punches. I love this watch. Still, I thought with the holidays nearly upon us (“Respect the bird!”) that I might break into a quick survey of the popular Tech-watch brands to see what’s happening with the lines this year. There’ll be a few more posts on the topic…!

Bon Appetit!

2011-11-18T09:06:00.000-05:00

When Mom and Jeff visited a few weeks ago, besides the quick visit I made over to #OccupyDC, we visited the American History museum downtown. There were two big highlights for me there: the restored American flag exhibit, which I remember from grade school trips to the Smithsonian, but also the exhibit of Julia Child’s kitchen.

I’ve got a couple of photos of it here. Like many people my age, when I think of Julia, the first cultural reference that comes to mind is the classic Dan Ackroyd skit on Saturday Night Live, where he impersonates her and has a bloody accident with a kitchen knife. Then there is the movie from a few years back, Julia and Me, which offered a range of inspirational topics for a blogger and a person who just wants to learn how to cook better.

I do remember two of Julia’s PBS series from late in her career – there was the one with Jacques Pepin, where he practically orbited her in the kitchen preparing French cuisine, then another where she invited celebrities in to cook their own specialties. That’s the one I kept thinking of while I checked out the kitchen exhibit.

Getting to the point, I still have one of my “red birds” from the summer, courtesy of Public House Produce – I just took it out of the freezer in fact, and plan to do Julia Child’s Roast Chicken for dinner tomorrow. Here’s a link:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/emeril-live/roast-chicken-recipe/index.html

The Pumpkin Ritual at Valley Star Farm

2011-11-16T09:45:00.000-05:00

I can't believe pumpkin season got by without my annual post about our visit to Page County Grown member Valley Star Farm.

Soon as farmers market season begins to taper off, the folks at Valley Star open their pumpkin patch - it's a fall highlight in the Valley, as far as I'm concerned.

Among the activities are a corn maze, some old fashioned games (duck races, corn hole - bean bag toss, etc.) and hay rides into the pumpkin patch. Then of course, the pumpkins and other farm products, including honey, for sale, and the display of some goats and a young Holstein calf.

Moving on into the holiday season, one of this farm's main crops is Christmas trees, where you can go out and choose your own.

Mary and I are still enjoying the honey and other treats we picked up at Valley Star. Here's a link, by the way, to the "pumpkin tableau" Mary created last year.

http://hawksbillcabin.blogspot.com/2010/10/are-you-gonna-eat-that.html

Beaver Run in the Fall

2011-11-14T12:59:00.000-05:00

As a follow-up to the Fall Romp post earlier today, I wanted to put up some additional images of Beaver Run. These are part of the stream that passes through our property at the bottom of the hill - the image on the right below is ours, on the left, where the stream flows out into one of the neighbor's lots.

I mentioned in the earlier post that the deer follow the course of the stream from some nearby pastures into the woods to the south of us. The namesake beavers also generally build their dams over there, although when Mary and I were walking around yesterday we found freshly gnawed stumps.

Having the little stream around is a nice feature of the Hawksbill Cabin. Especially during the fall, after the leaves have come down, you can hear the water flowing over the cascade here and there in the hollow.

Fall Romp

2011-11-14T12:52:00.000-05:00

When the underbrush finally dies off down the hill at Beaver Run, we take the opportunity to go and explore the little stream as soon as we can. We got to do that this weekend.

Early in the morning I took Tessie down there with me. Beside the general stimulation of being outside in the woods, she caught wind of many of her favorite critters. The hollow that surrounds the stream is a deer migration route through the area.

In fact, the environment was such an inspiration for her that she took off on one of those puppy runs - here's a photo of the third pass. She kept up the full gallop for three passes, maybe 200 yards all totaled; there were three or four new fallen trees, and she vaulted all of those.

We had a good time!

Faces of the Fallen

2011-11-11T09:11:00.000-05:00

There are many who'll find better ways of expressing their gratitude to our veterans today than I will, but I wanted to take a moment to honor those who serve, and those who have served, and especially, those who have died while serving.

Appropriately today, the Washington Post included its regularly published Faces of the Fallen feature, the photographs of service members who've made the ultimate sacrifice in Afghanistan and Iraq. Today there are only 99 photographs, at times over the past ten years, there have been many more. Most news of the war moved off the front page as early as 2002, now it's usually in the back half of the A section, which is where this feature can be found today.

Today the section is dominated by 30 people who died when their helicopter was shot down in Afghanistan. There are no women on the list today, although there often were in the past, but the faces of America are here, Latin American, African American, Asian American, Native American, and those whose ancestors came here from Europe. The youngest was a teenager, and the oldest was 50. They hailed from all regions of the United States.

Causes of death - most were combat related; there is at least one heart attack; and there is one that portends another great tragedy of this conflict: found dead in his room...suicide has plagued this generation of veterans, as it has those of previous conflicts.

I cannot pass over this section without pausing to read about each of these veterans and to think of their families. These will not have the opportunity to come home to the quiet and peaceful life we all desire.

And to the others who have served and continue to serve, thank you.

Civil War History Moment

2011-11-10T09:54:00.000-05:00

It is hard to get away from the topic of the US Civil War in the Shenandoah Valley: there is a weekly column in our own Page News and Courier newspaper that features some aspect of the action; along the Hawksbill Greeway in Luray there are two markers commemorating nearby battles; and nearby at New Port there is the Catherine Furnace, a supplier of Confederate pig iron during the war. Those are just a few reminders - they are truly all over, up and down the Valley.

A few months ago a colleague at work told me he'd had a project a few years ago to do market analysis for a museum on the Civil War located in the Valley - I don't recall which one or even where the museum was to be located. Among the items he referred to during the research stage was a book by Michael G. Mahon, entitled The Shenandoah Valley 1861-1865: The Destruction of the Granary of the Confederacy. (Amazon link below).

There is plenty of lore about the agricultural wealth of this region - and I was fortunate enough to see the modern status of this reputation during my agribusiness internship this summer. That experience, coupled with the Civil War anecdote that I heard at Skyline Premium Meats during the Page County Grown farm tour only made me more interested in the topic.

In the anecdote, Mr. Burner shared the story of how the current barn was saved after Sheridan's calvary marched through the Valley in 1864, with the mission to destroy every element of agricultural production that could be useful to the Confederate war effort. He told us that the men had fled in advance of the cavalry's march and went into hiding in the mountains, with the women and other family members left behind. In this case, the family offered a "Sunday dinner" to the raiders, who spared the barn in gratitude.

Mahon's book is well researched, drawing from anecdotes like this that he was able to discover in letters and other documentation in various Virginia libraries. His version of the story contradicts the traditional view of the Valley as the Conferderate breadbasket, based on the argument that while there was a strong agricultural tradition as the war began, by 1864, the years of conflict had taken their toll on the Valley so that there was barely enough food to support the local population. There are plenty of tables and charts with data that help make the point.

Having read a few books on the impact of World War II on Eastern Europe, I'm not surprised by these findings and find them easy enough to accept. Still there seems to be some discussion about Mahon's findings, they are disputed in the literature and anecdotally.

I'll close with a short passage from the book, which is actually part of the back cover material:

"Sheridan has been credited with burning out the Valley and denying the Conferderates the use of its resources, and his statements of what he destroyed have been readily accepted as fact and have never truly been challenged. But on closer examination, it is clear that he grossly magnified - and in numerous instances invented - the figures of what his forces captured or destroyed during the campaign....The prevailing vie of the campaign has been that...Sheridan dispersed his three divisions of cavalry across the width of the Valley with orders to destroy anything that could support the enemy....But the reports of his officers disclose that Sheridan's three divisions of horsement actually spent very little of their time savaging the countryside."

Here's the Amazon link to the book if you would like to check it out:

Revisiting Mary's Rock: An Easy SNP Day Hike

2011-11-09T09:13:00.000-05:00

"It's a right nice walk!" - Jesse, our contractor

With my mother and brother in town, we decided to head out to Hawksbill Cabin for part of the weekend. I'd wanted to get a hike in with my brother, to share with him some of my favorites from Shenandoah National Park.

Our logistics made it a late start, so choices like Blackrock down in the South District, or Hawksbill and Stonyman, here in the Central, were out. Those destinations would have taken a painfully long time to get to - still a ton of leaf peepers up in the Park.

Mary's Rock, with it's proximity to the Thornton Gap entry, seemed perfect, especially since there were two lines of more than 10 cars waiting to get in when we arrived. An added benefit is my familiarity with the trail, having done it a half dozen times or so - minimal outfitting.

I've reviewed Mary's Rock here a number of times - it's a great hike to an excellent vista. Depending on the source you are using, it is listed as a 3.7 mile round trip with more than 1,200 feet of elevation; another attraction is that most of the route follows the Appalachian Trail. A portion of this route hugs the mountain side through two coves, and the trail has been built over masonry shoring walls - it is probably my favorite feature of the AT in the Park so far...I'm still discovering though, so don't hold me to this.

For Jeff, I think this was the highest altitude he'd ever self-propelled himself to. He told me he was enjoying the views and the fall colors. And there was still snow up there at altitude along the trail on the north face of the mountain - added bonus!

Check the "easy day hikes" label at the end of this post to find other reviews of Mary's Rock, as well as other easy day hikes in the Park.

A great outing for us. Mary's Rock is now officially a go-to option for visitors who want to put in a hike while they are staying with us.

Visiting #OccupyDC - part 2

2011-11-08T08:40:00.000-05:00

Today, the second part of my visit to the #occupyDC locations last Friday. There are actually three sites, I'm told - but I only made it to two of them.

In the post yesterday I mentioned that I'd found the message by these protesters to be fairly consistent. Hearkening back to the 1992 election for a good way to sum it up: "It's about the economy, stupid!" The protests and demonstrations are focused on industries and policies that the occupiers believe are part of the reason we're in the sluggish economic state we're in.

When I came back from McPherson Square, the location featured in today's post, I walked back by Freedom Plaza, the site I posted on yesterday. My breath was taken away by the sight of the Capitol Building rising from the Hill down Pennsylvania Avenue, so I stopped to compose another photo.

As I did, another person made a stop for a photograph also. After he said, "That's quite a view, isn't it?" We struck up a conversation.

The first topic for me was one of irony - at McPherson Square, I'd seen the signs below, which lay in the grass. One hit home in particular, which said, "over educated, under employed." I'd just been informed I would be laid off last week, effective this week, and that sign was positioned approximately 20 feet from a park bench where I negotiated my first post-MBA job after returning to Washington from Los Angeles.

My next remark to my fellow traveler there was to discuss the fact that at least with this group, I'd found a consistent message. He was skeptical, and even gave me the stink eye.

The message here is definitely consistent when you compare it to the Tea Party message of a couple of years back (you pick the one you think they stood for):

Don't socialize my Medicare
No need to pay taxes to upkeep the institutions we all rely on
God hates fags
Oh no, our president is a black man

Although I didn't start on this bit of politics with my colleague, these were part of my thoughts for the day. There are so many criticisms of this movement...one of which concerns a perceived lack of focus, again, something I didn't see during my visit. As we parted ways, he said, "Good luck."

Another observation I had - the number of Vietnam references I found among the "artifacts" in the two encampments. In fact, there were quite a few Vietnam-era veterans amongst the crowd.

There is one thing that does bother me about the OWS movement - and that's only because so far I don't understand why it's happening - and that is the violence that is being reported at some of the demonstrations, especially in Oakland.

I hope to take another look at that in a future post.

Visiting #OccupyDC

2011-11-07T14:39:00.000-05:00

We had relatives in town over the weekend. On Friday, they wanted to head downtown to check out museums, so I decided that I would accompany them, and figure out how to break away for an hour or so to take a look at the OccupyDC sites that are set up in the area.

The first one I visited was at Freedom Plaza on Pennsylvania avenue - a couple of blocks from the White House and maybe 15 from the Capitol Building.

As you can see from the photos, this location is pretty tidy. There were even six rental toilets off to one side of the demonstration area. Nothing like the squalor I'd been lead to believe I might encounter there.

There was even a schedule posted for events, an ampitheatre area for speeches and such, and a "soap box" meant to invite people to speak their minds.

Another impression I get from some media coverage is that these groups don't have a focused message. I came away with the distinct impression that at least here, in DC, the focus was on economic issues. At Freedom Plaza, there was a big display related to the wars of the last ten years...the "War Economy" to be specific.

I do have some comparisons to draw about the Tea Party movement and this one, but those thoughts aren't ready for posting just yet.

At Freedom Plaza, they had a collection of shoes and boots; I supposed this was a reference to some of the American lives lost overseas these last ten years. I didn't encounter anyone to explain this display to me, or to tell me how some of the soldiers' names became attached to the boots I was seeing there - so I'll hold off on publishing those photos for now.

As I understand it, the city is not reacting as aggressively as has been done elsewhere. This appears to be a recognition of the fact that Washington, DC is place where people come to make statements, in a long tradition. And to some extent, maybe there is the thought that, if the demonstrations are ignored here, they'll just go away.

I found some irony in the encounter with the demonstration. One thought that comes to mind this morning - Congress also occupies this city. Residents of DC are not represented in Congress as the rest of the country is - yet they pay the same income taxes. They don't have a direct say in how those taxes are spent either - Congress frequently interferes with the local government in a way that you'd witness no where else.

So Eric Cantor, think twice before you use the word "thug" to describe these American citizens. Seriously, they could say the same thing about you. Perhaps a better path would be to begin to listen to these voices rather than those deep pocketed donors of yours in the financial industry.

Finding Inner Peace as an Agribusiness Intern

2011-11-04T09:58:00.002-04:00

Among the topics this month is to revisit my internship over at Public House Produce during August. Now, as I begin to describe the activities, I am going to periodically refer to them as "work." There are those who may have other opinions about this, and they are welcome to them. But as Herman Cain says, "hear me out"...

After discussing the possibility of working with him during August, David finally acquiesced to my queries and offered that I could join him on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. I can only begin to imagine the decision making paradigm he used, to first say yes, and second, to settle on these times, since as a prosperous local farmer getting by without intern help, he was bound to be taking on a lot of risk to the operation.

And then, what about the future? He knows I am a blogger. What if, through my posts, the word gets out that unpaid agribusiness internships are available there and he is flooded with requests from other laid-off, city-dwelling baby-boomers next year? It was quite challenging enough for him to manage one intern - the logistics are exponentially more difficult with two or more.

Nevertheless, so it was that we settled on Tuesdays and Wednesdays for the internship. The work schedule roughly followed this schedule:

Tuesdays:

Confirmed Activities - Meet at the farm at 7am for the drive to the Shenandoah Valley Produce Auction. Arrive at the auction 8:30am. Unload the produce (after pee break* - yes, I washed my hands after). Walk around and visit the other farmers, and check out the offerings. At 9:20am, head over for some pie. 9:30am, more farmer visits and auction action. 10:00am, head back to Luray, arriving by 11:00am. 11:30am, discuss optional Tuesday activities and potential Wednesday schedule. 1:00pm, arrive back at Hawksbill Cabin for lunch and nap.

Optional Activities - Since Wednesdays were a major activity day for the pasture-based poultry business, there was work to be done on Tuesday evening. And in this case, I mean actual work of a different type than heading over to the auction house for some pie. The chickens needed to be collected from the pasture and readied for transport on Wednesday - I helped with this twice during the internship; it was an activity that might take place anytime Tuesday afternoon from about 4:00pm to 6:00pm. There was the opportunity for authentic farm-style refreshment afterwords, but I will write more about that later.

Wednesdays:

Confirmed Activities - 5:00am, meet at the farm. There was the potential for getting very uptight about this schedule, but when I arrived, David would have already loaded the chickens on the pickup for transport, and we would promptly head over to George's in New Market. So my work for this first activity consisted of getting safely into the truck without injury due to darkness. 5:30am, arrive at George's, coordinate the work to be done there. 5:30 to 5:59am, more coordination**, along with certain poultry processing related activities taking place. 6:05am, back to Luray, arrive 6:30am. Head to the pasture to move chicken tractors and feed and water the birds. Complete by 7:15am. Perform chores at the farm until approximately 8:45am. Head to New Market to pick up the processed birds, arrive at 9:10am, and deliver to customers in Luray by 9:30am. The back to the farm for work and chores, which continued until noon or 1pm.

There is more to follow, but for now I wanted to lay out the basic schedule for my dedicated readers.

* Over the years, I've developed a core set of rules for keeping my life simple in these increasingly complex times. There are good reference materials available if you should decide to set out on a similar quest for your own rules to live by and achieving the resulting inner peace. My only advice in this case is to keep the list of rules small, and keep them simple as you can. Here are my basic rules, which I was able to refine only through the enforced rigor of my life as an intern this summer:

Rule 1: If there is free food, eat some.
Rule 2: If you find you have a spare 5 minutes, take a nap.
Rule 3: If there is a place to take a leak, you should. You never know when the next chance will be.

** Some readers will be more familiar with the alternative, technical nomenclature for this second round of coordination. They call it "bullshitting" -

The Agribusiness Intern - Revisited

2011-11-01T09:15:00.000-04:00

I was doing some fall tidying up at Hawksbill Cabin last weekend. Between the wistful glances at the picture window, where the October Nor'easter was blanketing us with about four inches of snow back in the hollow, I kept thinking about the little internship I did at Public House Produce in August. There was the weather, there was being outside, there was getting the chance to be "hands on" in the local food movement...all great experiences.

Then, yesterday, there were also all the observations about the fact that the world's population is estimated to have passed 7 billion yesterday - this is a topic David and I revisited a couple of times while I was there on the farm, especially in light of the forecast that the population will surpass 9 billion by 2045, which might just be in my lifetime, albeit the tail end of it.

David made a note on Facebook about the news of the day: "Food for thought. 7 billion pepole in the world today and an estimated 9 billion by 2045, just a small reminder that you should know your farmer!" That's really what it is all about, I guess.

What I found as I was tidying up was a small collection of notes I had made about the internship, materials about the Shenandoah Valley Produce Auction in Dayton, and of course, materials about the Page County Grown farmers who participated in that excellent first farm tour.

Over the course of November, I'll put these resources together in a couple of posts that summarize what I learned working as the agribusiness intern at Public House Produce. My previous posts on this topic can be found by clicking on the "Agribusiness" label at the end of this one.

October Nor'easter

2011-10-31T09:39:00.000-04:00

All week long there was that looming forecast of a winter storm coming, predicted to hit the mid-Atlantic region by Halloween weekend. And so it did.

This was an early snow, mixed with sleet - it was very wet, and quickly adherred to the remaining leaves on the trees. As Tessie and I were hanging around in the cabin Saturday morning, we were constantly interrupted by the burst and crack of trees branches coming down in the wood lot under the weight of the snow.

Tessie and I took a little walk to check things out. She was very excited to be out in the snow, so much so it distracted her from her business - we went out no less than three times before we had "results."

All the shrubs were weighed down from the snow. They survived the "Snowpocalypse" in 2010, though, so hopefully there isn't much permanent damage or loss. Also, we found that you can finally see Beaver Run again with the leaves down.

Weather like this sets up a very beautiful scene, despite the cold and inconvenience - our power went off at 9:00 am; I didn't expect it to be restored until at least Sunday. Fortunately, the gas heat works without electricity, so I turned it up a little higher than usual and the two of us bailed for Alexandria on Saturday afternoon.

We made a quick stop in town at Hawksbill Bicycles, where Chris and Rob were setting up for the Chambers downtown Trick or Treat event.

Luray was abuzz with all the festivities, between Darkwood Manor just behind there, and a metal music fest that was also scheduled for the evening. There's always a lot going on, maybe surprisingly so, for such a small town!

Door Chore

2011-10-28T08:56:00.000-04:00

During my furlough, I had resolved to take care of a few small maintenance projects around Hawksbill Cabin - as if, because I'm so handy, all that I really needed was the time - one that I am really good at though, is painting. So I've begun to get some much needed touch ups done.

We have this fabulous door at the entry to HC - it has an elaborate, heavy duty hinge assembly on dutch panels. An additional layer of wood planks was installed on the interior part, so it's double thick. No bear is getting in while we are away, and I think the door would survive a tree falling on it...knock on wood that that doesn't happen.

The door faces south, so it gets the sun year round, and lately, I've begun to notice that the paint was fading. Worse yet, apparently, somewhere along the way, someone had used spray paint for touch ups, and now the traces of two finishes were beginning to show, a glossy finish from the spray paint and something more of a matte on the undercoat.

Off to Lowes for a gallon of exterior latex in color Merlot. This is the same color we've used on the hand rail that surrounds the brick terrace. I've got a picture here of Tessie supervising me painting those.

There are also some color panels on the addition (I hope to get these taken care of during the fall). Although the front door needed painting, these are the real motivator for the project...the frames for these was painted in an oil-based black enamel, which is peeling. That is what I am really trying to get to, but I thought I would start with the red paint first, and do the detail after.

Finally, there is a mistake that I made a few years ago, that needed to be corrected, and now finally has been. I painted the doors on the barn with an idea of tying the outbuilding thematically to the house. Unfortunately, the paint I chose was in the color "terra cotta"...which gave a distinctly Harley Davidson appearance - there used to be a Harley in there, but not any more these days. Here's a link to a blog post back when I painted them the first time. http://hawksbillcabin.blogspot.com/2008/06/catching-up-on-few-small-projects.html

All good now though. Those doors are the color of a fine wine!

Meet the Yum Yums

2011-10-27T11:07:00.000-04:00

Well, I stand corrected. In a recent post, I referred to these guys as:

Ham,
Bacon,
Pork Chop, and
Chorizo

But I have been reminded that those aren't their real names. They are the Yum Yums.

Last week I stopped by for a check-in at David's suggestion. Our red oak acorn crop back in Alexandria has been so bodacious that I brought along a couple of pounds of them in a sack.

See, David told me about how the pigs behaved when they got the white oak acorns a few weeks ago - I had collected them from the yard in Stanley.

Pigs earn their reputation from how they are when it comes to eating. They are aggressive. They are sloppy. They are loud.

But give them an acorn, and they recognize it as a delicacy to be savored. They sniff around to find it on the ground, pick it up gently in the mouth, purse their lips and gently chew with the teeth in the front of their mouth. The facial expression is almost a pucker.

It was every bit as entertaining as he promised it would be.

So maybe the pigs are growing on me. Okay, we can call them the Yum Yums.

But come February, they are Ham, Bacon, Pork Chop, and Chorizo, as far as I am concerned.

The Whip It Meme

2011-10-26T09:32:00.000-04:00

Some pretty good Facebook posts of late playing off of the old Devo song.

And here's a link if you need a reminder.

http://youtu.be/IIEVqFB4WUo

Page County Crop Relief

2011-10-25T04:45:00.000-04:00

Here's a quick video story from WHSV on the feed corn crop in Page County this year. Yields have been very low and potentially qualify our farmers for federal and state disaster relief support.

Page County Crop Relief

One of our Page County Grown farmers, Jared Burner, of Skyline Premium Meats, is interviewed in the piece.

National Geographic on America's Most Popular National Parks

2011-10-24T14:23:00.007-04:00

Hot off of a series of posts on Death Valley, I found a series of articles on the National Geographic site today that profile America’s most popular national parks. These include four of the parks that I have posted on here on Hawksbill Cabin since 2009:

Shenandoah National Park
Yosemite National Park
Grand Canyon National Park
Death Valley National Park

Links are below, and if you want to read my posts on my visits, just click on one of the labels at the end of the post!

http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/travel/national-parks/shenandoah-national-park/

http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/travel/national-parks/yosemite-national-park/

http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/travel/national-parks/grand-canyon-national-park/

http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/travel/national-parks/death-valley-national-park/

Leaving Las Vegas

2011-10-24T08:36:00.002-04:00

Well, I surprised myself at the number of posts that I was able to pull together about my recent trip to Las Vegas and the side trip to Death Valley. But all good things must end, and today will be the last post on that topic. By the way, press play on the video above while you read this post, if you'd like some ambience.

These days, and dating back to the early '90's, it's my preference to get an aisle seat on a plane. I'll go to great lengths for that position; mind you, it doesn't offset legroom, but the liberty for just one of my shoulders in the confined space of a flight is worth it. But I put aside that objective for part of the return home from Vegas - the relatively short flight from Las Vegas to Denver - and took the window seat I was assigned. That decision turned out to offer something of a treat.

My view was to the northwest of our flight path, and since we were flying in the late afternoon the sun's rays were not so bright in the cabin. I opened the shade periodically to check progress - I guess I snapped an iPhone photo every 15 to 20 minutes - they are shown here in order. The first is of part of Lake Mead, just outside of Vegas, then they track Nevada and Utah, ending with the snowcapped 14-er in Colorado.

(Note - the blogspot photo interface is giving me fits today. Sorry about the disjointed text layout!)

In particular, as I was flying over Utah, I realized that I was seeing landscapes I drove through once, down I-15 from the Rockies to the Los Angeles basin. It was amazing, the sense of recognition I had for the views and geology.

On that trip, I had stayed overnight at a Motel 6 in Green River, Utah, with the plan to drive all the way in to Los Angeles the next day. I had car trouble in the southwest corner of that state - after six years of weekends only use the radiator coolant in my Oldsmobile had calcified, and the car was not up to the heat of desert driving. After consulting with AAA (and giving Mary a healthy scare back in DC), they referred me to a 24-hour service station on the Strip in Las Vegas, so for the rest of that Sunday afternoon I limped into the Bright Lights City, driving until the red light came on and then pulling over until it went off.

I got a room in the Motel Six just off the Strip, as it happens only a block away from where I stayed this time. The service station replaced my radiator overnight (I spent most of the day in the MGM Grand sports bookwatching the ponies); my car was ready by 11am, and I was on the road at noon. The charge was around $400, very reasonable for what they had to do and for my my circumstances. They even called Mary a week later to check in and make sure I had gotten where I was going.

By the way, that service station is long gone now, it stood approximately where the Bellagio fountains are now. But I do remember that experience as among the best adventures I've had, not to mention one of the best customer service experiences I've ever witnessed.

A few years later as I was visiting my grandparents, I had occasion to remember all this when I saw the postcard I had sent them from Green River, Utah on their refridgerator. Grandma said that when they first retired, about 15 years earlier, they had also stopped for a while in Green River - they were car camping though. That campground was only two blocks from the Motel 6, so it's very likely we saw the same things.

Well, with the photo of the 14-er coming up here, I'm reaching the end of my tale. I had a great trip to Las Vegas and out west. If you've never been, it's well worth it.

Death Valley: Badwater Salt Flats

2011-10-21T06:54:00.008-04:00

Visiting here, the baby boomer of my generation feels some vague connection to that old television show Death Valley Days, and the Borax commercials with the twenty mule teams – all of them part of the history of the place, but it is the glowing white stretch of old sea bed, the Badwater Salt Flats, that first comes to mind when I think of when I think of Death Valley.

I arrived here and realized that I had caught up with the tour buses I’d seen earlier over at Zebriskie Point. I recognized one group as Germans, both from the language and because of the naturalist behaviors they immediately fell into once they got out into the salt flat proper – wearing shorts and sandals with wool socks, the men immediately took their shirts off for their walks.

After leaving the parking lot, there is a boardwalk to start the visit. This part of the area needs that protection – there was standing water in the pools, clearly building those little salt formations I’d seen earlier at Devil’s Golf Course.

After getting my picture taken for the Tech-watch Geek post I made last Friday, I decided to walk on out into the desert on the trail surface. However it was done, there is a salt layer that is a couple of inches thick that is smoothed out from the traffic – either the footsteps of thousands of tourists or some kind of construction vehicle had prepared the surface for hiking. There was residual moisture on the surface, making a sort of greasy solution that left footprints, belying what appears to be a glassy smooth area from a distance.

Back to the German tourists for a moment: the salt flats are very much like a snow-covered ski slope, with all the glare. Fortunately the trek out is only a mile each way, maybe less, and I’m sure the bus kept a tight schedule, so sunburn was minimized, even with shirts doffed. Considering this, there was another point of amusement for me with the Germans encountering this environment – so much curiosity and exploration – one fellow knelt on the boardwalk to reach down into the salt water, and brought his hand back to his mouth for a taste!

This is an area where the drama of the extremes is truly evident. As I mentioned in the earlier post, this is the lowest elevation on the continent of North America, officially 280 feet or so below sea level. The sheer cliffs that rise from just beyond the parking lot reach to more than 5,700 feet; across the valley, they reach 11,000 feet, and they are still rising from geologic forces.

I was in the park on a fall day. I’m reading in my guidebook that during the summer, when air temperatures exceed 100 degrees, the ground temperature – those salt flats underfoot – can exceed 180 degrees. And those Germans were wearing wool socks!

The visit to Badwater was my final stop in the valley, as I needed to begin heading back to Las Vegas to return the car. I guess I walked four miles or so all totaled, but the elevation changes were negligible and I’d kept hydrated, so I didn’t feel tired. Quite stimulated by the new environment, one I’d never seen before. There’s quite a list of sights I didn’t make it to – perhaps next time I’m in Vegas.

Death Valley: Natural Bridge and Devil’s Golf Course

2011-10-20T06:48:00.010-04:00

These were my next two stops during my drive through Death Valley. There is a hike in the Best Easy Day Hikes book for the Natural Bridge stop; for Devil’s Golf Course, it’s simply a two mile drive out into the Salt Flats where you can look across a landscape like no other I’ve ever seen: desolate and treacherous, totally uninviting.

The book describes the hike to Natural Bridge as a walk through a gently sloped canyon with a climb totaling 520 feet. It’s listed as a two mile hike round trip, but I probably only did half of that, and I certainly didn’t partake of the whole climb. The bridge appears early in the canyon; there are quite a few other geologic features here to explore, culminating in a “dryfall,” which marks an area that turns into a waterfall when it rains enough.

The kiosk at the trailhead explains all of the geologic phenomena that hikers encounter here, including different kinds of faults and arches, and mud drips. The view over the salt flats from the parking lot is awesome and intimidating at the same time…I found that I was amazed enough at the view and experience that I was more exuberant than some of the other tourists could take. I wonder whether they would enjoy a hike with me on my home turf in Shenandoah National Park.

These mud drips were particularly interesting. Bigger flash floods have done the bulk of the work carving out the canyon and the natural bridge, but the mud drips emphasize the ceaseless erosion that is happening here. When there is enough rain above, it drains from the higher surfaces into the canyon, leaving tracks of sediment on the walls as the water evaporates to a trickle – and frequently doesn’t even reach the canyon floor. I took a close look and touched one of them – the mud tracings are like wax, shiny and translucent – and then stepping back, you see that the whole canyon wall is etched with them. Beautiful.

Getting back to the car, I took a break for some refreshment and then headed to Devil’s Golf Course. That involves a drive along a gravel road out to a cul de sac, where there are some interpretive signs about the landscape, which begins abruptly off the shoulders of the road. Thankfully, few people walk out into the area here, so the landscape is close enough to natural for all to enjoy.

The salt flats periodically fill with water after heavier rains, so the runoff pools in basins and then soaks into an ancient lake bed. It becomes a solution with the residual mineral salts, carrying them to the surface when the water evaporates. There the minerals adhere to sand and rocks, crystallize, and then build rough, irregular formations.

It would be difficult to walk very far here because the structures are fragile and would quickly take their toll on ankles and knees. A fall would leave you bruised and bleeding, stinging from the salt that would grind into the scrape wounds.

Yet, wildlife flourishes here, with specially adapted species (1,000 of them, according to the NPS handout) living here and elsewhere. I figured that was another good reason not to venture far out into this area. Taking a look from the safety of that little cul de sac in the desert was enough for me!

Death Valley's Golden Canyon Interpretive Trail

2011-10-19T06:14:00.009-04:00

As advertised in the Best Easy Day Hikes book (Amazon link at the end of the post) the route for this hike follows a sand and rocky wash trail through a canyon for about a mile, and covers about 250 feet of elevation change. There is an option for a longer hike of about 6.5 miles, with 960 feet of elevation change, which goes back into the Zabriskie Point area. I chose the short route, since I knew I had a couple of additional stops to make while I was visiting Death Valley.

There is a story about the rocky wash. Apparently there was a road up into this canyon at one point, but a sustained rain in the ‘70’s dropped more than two inches of precip here, and the old road washed out. Now the route is restricted to ped’s, but it is a very interesting route.

A key point of interest is what’s happening here, in a canyon that is estimated to be only 3 million or so years old. That’s young by geologic standards (during my trip to the Grand Canyon, I recall that the exposed rocks near the river are billions of years old – half the age of the earth). You can see the rock layers, also called the Furnace Creek Formation, that have been carved out by wind and water, and then traces of seismic activity, so it’s almost like the earth is changing right in front of you.

I was particular struck by the one at the beginning of the post, it is a peak of bleached out sandstone. All along the face of it climbing out of the canyon are chimney like gulleys that have been carved into its face. There were several of them, the photo I have is the one that showed the contrasts best – the images didn’t capture the depth of these very well due to the bright sunlight.

I spent an hour up in the canyon, walking probably about a mile. Ahead there was a rock formation called the Red Cathedral, which can just be seen in one of the photos. It was right about this point that I started noticing that the polarization in my sunglasses was highlighting colors I hadn’t noticed when I took my shades off – particularly greens and violets, so I stopped for a few to examine these features more closely.

The angle of these rocks, tilting upwards to the west, is a testament to the ongoing changes. Apparently, the western mountains continue to be thrust upwards, while the valley itself continues to gradually sink.

Coming to terms with the scale of the changes and the relatively short timeframes of the events brought home the fact that human activity can have a profound impact on the planet and our environment. That’s nothing that hasn’t been said before, I know, but for me, it only served to reinforce thoughts about my own responsibilities with respect to the environment.

Here’s a link to the Best Easy Day Hikes book:

Death Valley: This is a Dangerous Place

2011-10-18T07:08:00.005-04:00

“1904: Gold—found just east of what is now the park—sparks the last great American gold rush. The gold rush draws 10,000 people, three railroads, and a masonry, three-story bank to the district of Rhyolite.”

– From the NPS Death Valley Brochure

The photo here is of the Ashford Mill ruin, which is in the south part of the road-accessible portion of the park. Rhyolite is just out of the park to the northeast, it's a little town surrounded by several ghost towns. The sign accompanying this ruin explained that it was built as a mill, where ore containing gold was taken to be processed during these gold rushes (there were a couple, and Death Valley even has a connection to the 1849 California gold rush).

Seeing it standing there in this condition was a final reminder of how harsh this environment is. I stood there for a moment contemplating how 10,000 people could live in this heat, without ready access to potable water or food. Yet before them, essentially since the Ice Age, there has been a population of Native Americans living in this area…granted, it hasn’t always been this way – more on that when I post about Badwater.

When I bought the little Best Easy Day Hikes book at the start of my visit, I took a few minutes to leaf through as I chose my itinerary. There are three pages full of warnings in a section entitled “Play it Safe.”

Seriously, among the dangers in this park are:

• Dehydration
• Weather
• Hypothermia/Hyperthermia
• Vegetation
• Flash Floods
• Rattlesnakes, Scorpion and Tarantulas
• Mine Hazards
• Unstable Rocky Slopes

I thumbed through this section in the parking lot at Zebriskie Point. Even though I’d stopped at Target back in Las Vegas to prepare and had two liters of water handy, these warnings were enough to convince me to go to the camp store at the visitor center and pick up another gallon of water (which I gave, unopened, to the attendant when I returned the car – two liters was enough).

As far as animals and wildlife go, I did see a gecko. And there was the periodic buzzing of some insect circling me as a blood meal prospect.

But once I got back in the car after visiting the Ashford Mill ruin, I reflected on a pretty fulfilling experience. One that I survived.

Tomorrow I’ll start the posts about the day hikes.

Easy Day Hikes book link (Amazon):

Death Valley Intro

2011-10-17T14:05:00.002-04:00

As a person who was born and raised on the east coast, and who has lived there pretty much all of my life, with the exception of a couple of years of school in Monterey and Los Angeles – and my enlistment, which was spent in Berlin, I’ve always been fascinated by North America’s western land and seascapes. So with found time on my hands in Las Vegas last week, I sought out a suitable daytrip.

Mind you, this time I wasn’t looking for anything as dramatic as the helicopter ride into the Grand Canyon, which I did in 2009 – there are posts under the “Las Vegas” label below. But I did hope to check the box on yet another national park. Preliminary research told me that Death Valley was a two hour drive away, so I rented a car (on Priceline) and took the daytrip up.

I’d seen all the pictures of the desert emptiness. Most of the photos I had seen were focused on the Badwater salt flats, definitely a highlight as the lowest point in North America. But I wasn’t prepared for so much else that you can see in this park.

The NPS brochure that you receive after paying your visitor fees summarizes the contrasts that you can experience here:

“Great extremes haunt this hottest, driest, lowest national park. Extremes in temperature and elevation create scenic vistas and ecological niches that host startling biological diversity. This desert supports nearly 1,000 native plant species and harbors fish, snails, and other aquatic animals found nowhere else….The colorful and rugged terrain shouts tales of cataclysmic forces that thrust rock layers upward and of opposing erosional forces battling to tear them down….”

With that in mind, I have a series of five posts that I’ll put up about this visit this week, accompanied by some photos from my drive along Badwater Road in the park. I picked up a copy of Best Easy Day Hikes: Death Valley National Park at the visitor center to use as a guide (Amazon link below, for convenience), and picked out some accessible spots that I could easily reach (and survive!).

The photos above were taken from a view point called Zabriskie Point, which I drove right past on the way into the park via Furnace Creek Wash – there were three tour busses there and I wasn’t having any part of that. Once I got into the park and paid my entry fee at the visitor center, I decided to go back for a look (the tour busses had followed me to the visitor center, it turned out). It was a great intro to the landscape…and it turns out that one of the day hikes I took later on runs through a canyon in the field of view there.

Since the three photos form something of a panorama, I decided to string them together in that format, given that a BlogSpot blog isn’t the best format for that kind of photography.

More from Death Valley to follow – here’s the Amazon link to the Best Easy Day Hikes book.

The Tech-watch Geek Visits Death Valley

2011-10-14T06:35:00.066-04:00

I've been in Las Vegas this week, and since I found some time on my hands I decided to make a day trip up to Death Valley National Park. Among the things that the Park is famous for is Badwater Basin, officially the lowest point in North America, at 282 feet below sea level.

In addition to the sightseeing - I'll put up photos over the next few posts - this fact gave me the opportunity to geek out a bit with the altimeter function on my Casio Pathfinder watch.

Plug here: You can check out the Pathfinder on Amazon.com by clicking the add on the right. :-) Thank you.

Last year, during my work trip to Yosemite, the Pathfinder took an altitude reading of 2,315 meters, or approximately 7,177 feet. I took the reading at Glacier Point on one of our drives back to the hotel; the original post with spectacular photos is at http://hawksbillcabin.blogspot.com/2010/07/yosemite-second-day-post-3.html. By the way, looking back at that post, the margin of error for that altimeter reading wasn't bad - less than 10%, which I find very tolerable for my use of the altimeter function. I typically expect an error of up to 20%.

So with that in mind, I was looking forward to the prospect of recording a new low reading on the altimeter, and for that, Death Valley didn't disappoint.

One of the first steps I take when geeking out with the altimeter is to find a reference altitude, which was very easy to do in Death Valley National Park. As you come over a final ridge before arriving at the Furnace Creek Visitor Center, there is a big sign designating Sea Level - and from that spot, elevated as it is from much of the surrounding landscape, it's pretty clear you'll be spending a lot of the time during the visit to the Park at altitudes below sea level.

So I took my first reading near the sign, and recorded -45 meters, which I noted would mean an altitude of "0" for most of the day.

Driving on downhill to the visitor center, there's another sign marking 100 feet below sea level; I hastily took another reading and got -70 meters. Adjusting that by 45 meters gives -25 meters, or -78 feet. That's a pretty big error, but I did take the reading while driving using the auto function, so that reading could have been a few seconds old when it was recorded...

I kept the watch on the altimeter function for most of my time in the Park. I enjoyed observing the readings from time to time and watching them alternate between above sea level and below. Finally, I arrived at Badwater Basin, my objective, as shown in the photo at the beginning of the post.

My Pathfinder altimeter reading at this spot was -150 meters; as I mentioned, the watch has recorded this as the lowest altitude I've taken a reading at so far. Adjusting for the -45 meters margin of error, we get -105 meters, or roughly -326 feet. The reading was about 44 feet off, indicating that I was further below sea level than the actual elevation, and the margin of effor was off by around 15%.

That is usually good enough for me - I mainly use the altimeter to give myself an idea of my progress on a climb or descent while hiking. I don't expect or require precision on these readings, just need an idea of how much elevation is left to the particular effort I'm involved in. There are other instruments to use if better precision is needed.

(I should mention that the mountains that surround Death Valley are quite high - to the west, they reach to just more than 11,000 feet above sea level.)

So, for the record, the established high and low points for my watch are:

High Point: Glacier Point, Yosemite National Park, 2,315 meters (approximately 7,177 feet) recorded July 20, 2010.
Low Point: Badwater Basin, Death Valley National Park, -150 meters (adjusted for errors, 105 meters; translating to -326 feet), recorded October 12, 2011.

These are nominal readings, as I discussed above. And between the highs and lows, we have all those readings in my beloved stomping grounds back at Shenandoah National Park.

Las Vegas Guilty Pleasures

2011-10-13T11:24:00.000-04:00

When I posted about the Bud in a Bag yesterday, I had no idea that I was making one of those “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas” types of confessions.

There was quite a bit of commentary on my disclosure, some of it simply sarcastic, as in this case:

“Classy!!” wrote Chris, and later Mary.

Then there is the discussion from my friend Brian, who is my mentor on the use of the Glen Bacon Scale (GBS), which I used to rate the Bud in a Bag experience – and I was pretty generous, giving a rating of 8 off a 10-scale system.

Brian said, “I don't know where to begin to tell you how wrong it is to rate stupid B*dweiser an 8 on the GBS!!! It's not even a real Beer! It's made with rice, #fercryinoutloud! That's Sake in my book, not Beer!!! You have lost your GBS privileges! Glen Bacon's lawyers will be contacting you in the morning!!!”

I am still waiting for the attorneys to call, but in the meantime, we had a couple of follow-up conversations on the topic. I mentioned how I was impressed by the presentation and how the beer accompanied the Hash House’s “farm food with at twist” cuisine. Then we went into some discussion about the subjective nature of the GBS, ending up with thoughts of how a Cuban judge might have rated the experience in a way that was dissonant with the rest of a given panel.

To which Brian responded, “Fine! Give 4.9 points for presentation and zero for that swill that pretends to be Beer! Even if the Beer had been a Guinness® wrapped in a silk kimono, the 8.0 GBS is very hard to give out willy-nilly. I really doubt a Cuban Judge would be stupid enough to order a B*dweiser.”

Okay, so here we are the morning after, and in light of the clarifying lesson I am ready to reconsider my GBS for the Bud in a Bag. I’m giving it a 6.5. That’s 4.9 for presentation, .5 for size (22 oz.), .5 for icy cold temperature (we’re out here in a desert, for kriminees sake), and .6 for price ($4.95 – that’s like 1988 prices!).

But you know, the comment that hurt the most came from neighbor Dan, the homebrewer who also grows his own organic hops, as reported in my posts with the Beaver Run Brewery label.

Dan said, “I can't believe you'd admit to that one!”

He also offered some further clarifications and a sort of consolation. “Just bottled 58 pints of FlatTail IPA this past week. Used 8 ounces of homegrown Cascade for the finish. Better hurry back to the pines for a tasting. It should be acceptable to serve the week of October 24th.”

So I’ve got that going for me. In the meantime, since my departure isn’t until 7pm this evening, I think I am going to mosey on over to the Strip and have lunch at the Hash House again. All this talk about Bud in a Bag is making me thirsty.

Las Vegas Eats (and Drinks)

2011-10-12T10:22:00.001-04:00

Let's get this straight from the beginning. I am not here for the gourmet treatment. This is a road trip where I luckily can mix business with pleasure. On a 30/70 ratio.

This photo is from Hash House a Go Go, linked at the end of the post. It wasn't long afterwards that the entree followed up, a big ol' grilled ham and cheese with a slice of tomato and house romaine salad on the side. And I was out of there for $18, including the beer and tip!

I'd found a couple of reviews about the place that settled me on this choice...keywords "locals" and "farm-fresh."

First, from the "Las Vegas" mag in the hotel room-

A locals hot spot, the eatery is known for its oversize portions of creative breakfast, lunch and dinner dishes like the HH famous roasted chicken pot pie and crispy Indiana-style hand-hammered pork tenderloin.

And from another hotel rag "Where"-

Hearty portions of award-winning, farm-fresh food that are comforting day or night.

I guess it has shown up in a few travel shows by now. Hearty is an understatement, that's why I tried to tone it down with the grilled cheese and salad. But who knew it would show up on Texas toast?

For lunch yesterday, one of the folks from the trade show organizer sat down next to me in the speaker ready room with a plate of BBQ. Turns out, there was a B.B. King restaurant in the Mirage, and I wouldn't have to walk through the casino to get to it. So after I concluded my business with my little talk, and then a walk around the exhibition, I headed off to lunch.

These days I worry about diet when I'm traveling. Well, perhaps worry conveys the wrong impression. Revised, that should be, "These days, I consider my diet when I am traveling." Restaurant food is usually pretty good, but it is rich and often as not loaded with cheap calories from ingredients you don't know about.

But I can often rationalize these things, as I did yesterday, when I recalled that the walk from my hotel up the strip to the Mirage was just about 3 miles, per my GPS.

And so I thought about that a moment in B.B. King's, while I read about the pulled pork and the brisket. I settled on a blackened mahi sandwich, proud of making the fish choice. It came with fries AND cole slaw. And a Flat Tire pint. My table had a tribute to Elvis.

"Bright lights city gonna set my soul on fire." Not to mention the potential for heartburn.

Final one, only because of the siren call of the neon sign across the street from the hotel. And because of its prominence in that one scene in The Big Lebowski. We've got your In-n-Out right over there...when I was in Barstow last May I made a stop, and since I can walk to this one...well, let's just say I knew what's for dinner on the first night.

For my friend Brian, I'll do the Glen Bacon scale for the Hash House meal:

Bud in a Bag: 8 6.5 - this unique treatment for a beer that is an ideal refreshment in this heat with all the walking probably could get a higher rating, but I don't want to inflate these things. Seriously, I'd had a Flat Tire earlier in the day already!

***Editor's Note. I need to explain the revised rating above, which is reported extensively in the next day's post. As discussed there: "Okay, so here we are the morning after, and in light of the clarifying lesson I am ready to reconsider my GBS for the Bud in a Bag. I’m giving it a 6.5. That’s 4.9 for presentation, .5 for size (22 oz.), .5 for icy cold temperature (we’re out here in a desert, for kriminees sake), and .6 for price ($4.95 – that’s like 1988 prices!). Now back to the original post...

Grilled Ham and Cheese: 7 - I liked it. But on Texas toast, it was kinda big and over the top.

Here's the link to Hash House - turns out its a growing chain: http://www.hashhouseagogo.com/

...more than just a pretty picture...

2011-10-11T06:28:00.006-04:00

A few months ago, after hearing for a few years about the road that climbs Balkamore Hill near Stanley, I decided to take the drive up there. This view appears suddenly after you round one of the bends. It's become one of my favorites.

After discovering it, I met Chris Gould, who organizes the bike races in Page County. He told me that this was also one of his favorites, only that when the riders pass it, it's at their backs - they may never even see it.

He explained some technical matters about the race course and its requisite climbs and recoveries, and how the descent and eventual turn down into Kite Hollow make this route the way it has to be for the bike race.

Their loss, but there's no shortage of great scenery for those riders!

I'm in Las Vegas this week and brought along a book for in flight reading. I've been holding onto this one for some time: The Shenandoah Valley, 1861-1865: The Destruction of the Granary of the Confederacy , by Michael G. Mahon (Amazon link below). My refreshed view from Balkamore Hill over the weekend made a passage in Chapter 1, "The Daughter of the Stars - History of the Valley" strike a chord.

Quoting from Mahon-

In early times, the Valley was primarily a vast prairie of bluegrass and clover. Forest and dense stands of timber were found only along the banks of rivers and streams in the mountain hollows. Buffalo, deer, elk, bears, wolves, beavers, and other wildlife roamed the low, rolling countryside.

Before the arrival of Europeans, the Valley was the domain of the Cinela, Susquehanough, Senedo, and Tuscarora tribes, which resided along the rivers and streams. Catawba, Cherokees, Shawnees, and Delawares, who lived in neighboring regions, oftgen visited the Valley.

Every year bands of young braves stalked the migrating herds up and down the Valley, always mindful to take only what they needed, thus assuring an amply supply for the future. The Indians routinely set fire to the dry grasses every fall, preventing the forests and thick underbrush from overtaking the open prairie and ensuring that fresh grass would be plentiful in the spring. The richness and fertility of the Valley awed the Indians; believing that it was a gift from the heavens, they named it the "Daughter of the Stars."

Of course the book moves on into the Civil War history of the Valley - from Lexington on up to Harpers Ferry. But I found this historical description compelling.

Amazon Link:

The Norton Harvest at Wisteria

2011-10-10T05:55:00.000-04:00

It has been grape harvesting season at our neighbors Wisteria Farm and Vineyard in Stanley, VA over the last six weeks or so. With all the rain, despite several periods of consecutive sunny days, it's been a challenging process, but they did get the white varieties in during September. When I checked in with Moussa a few weeks ago, he told me the reds would probably be ready about mid-month in October, so here you go - on Sunday, a team of volunteers was out picking Norton.

The Carmine was supposed to come in next week, but with the forecast, Moussa says they'll move up that to Tuesday morning. I've got a second photo here of some of the volunteers working in the rows.

Tessie and I made a stop by to say hi to everybody and check in for the plan next Sunday, which is how I found out about the revised plan for the Carmine. I'm traveling this week, so I'll miss the chance to get out in the vines to help.

Good luck Wisteria, I hope the harvest is bountiful!

Deer Vigilance

2011-10-07T09:00:00.000-04:00

Tessie has been with us for just a bit more than six months now, and her personality has really begun to show. She's still a bit shy around other dogs, but she has shown a real talent for training Mary and me to do what she wants.

Consider this morning routine: at 6:30, my alarm sounds. Immediately, a dog face rises from the floor and gets into my face. A few quick flicks of the tongue, then some pawing, until finally I sit up. Then its a charge downstairs to wait for me to put on my shoes, and we're off for our walk at 6:35. I haven't moved that fast in the morning since those training instructors at Lackland AFB charged into the room throwing the big trash cans around.

Once we are on the walk, we have two main routes in the morning, and there are favorite stops along the way. At around 6:45 these days, the daylight is beginning, and the squirrels come into view, so we have our excitement.

Back at the house by 7:00. I take the leash off outside on the porch and open the door. Tessie leaps inside, then gallops to the back of the house, where Mary has gotten the breakfast prepared. Nothing else happens during the 18.4 seconds it takes to eat that Taste of the Wild goodness.

Another interesting trait of hers is about the deer we often see in the yard at Hawksbill Cabin. I'm not sure if she knows what they are, but she is intensely curious about them.

At the moment, there is a herd of about 3 does with fawns, and a young four-point buck that are feasting on this years acorn crop. They're out in the yard in the morning and evening, and sometimes they'll make a stop by at mid-day.

Tessie has been lucky to see them quite a few times, and when she does, she puts on the "border collie eye" and settles in to watch them. There's no movement on her part, and there's no distracting her if you talk to her during this time.

On Saturday night, as I sat out on the brick terrace with the fire pit going, we heard some rustling in the woods on the east side of the house, where they come to within 20 feet or so. As you can see in the picture, Tessie padded silently, cat-like, over to a vantage point to see if she was going to be able to spy on the passing deer. She sat there are good five minutes in the crouch.

It was the buck - he did his huff-and-puff sound when he caught wind of us. Tessie only settled more firmly into the crouch, to watch.

Teufelsberg - Berlin's "Devil's Mountain"

2011-10-06T11:07:00.001-04:00

By coincidence, right on the tail of all those posts last week about Cold War sites in Berlin, Wired magazine's website has a post about another one.

This location is on another rubble heap on the west side of Berlin; the heap is known as Teufelsberg (literally, the Devil's Mountain) (thanks to Werner for the spell check! I corrected the spelling in the post title), or T-berg, as we affectionately called it. The photo is a web image from back in the day, I think this is from the '80's - by the way, say what you want about the funny shapes (I didn't save the source - please let me know if you recognize it as yours and I will credit you). A link to the Wired post is as follows:

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/tag/teufelsberg/

I never worked there, but I had friends who did - both Air Force and Army. My cousin, who was in the Army, actually worked here and overlapped with my time in Berlin, as a matter of fact. The story goes that there were British Army folks working here, too.

In 1983 I was assigned to an R&D project that involved a two day orientation on what my friends were working on, but I'd be hard pressed to remember any of that now - but I do remember that their jobs were as fun as mine was at Marienfelde, and the camaraderie was every bit as strong.

Thinking about the presence of the Brits here reminds me of an anecdote. The British Exchange sent a daily "tea wagon" up to the hill in the morning. If I remember correctly, it was called the ~~NAFI~~ NAAFI Truck ~~(if anyone has the correct spelling, please leave a comment!)~~ (for Navy, Army and Air Force Institutes - thanks Brian!), and twice a day it offered tea and uniquely British snack foods, like crumpets and biscuits...although with an American clientele, they added donuts and the like. In the American vernacular, we'd more likely call the vehicle a "roach coach" - except we didn't out of our vast respect for our British friends.

As ~~NAFI~~ NAAFI Truck time approached, work at T-berg pretty much came to a halt, while everyone organized orders and assigned who would go down to stand in line. This usually meant two or three people would go together so they could share the load carrying back the stash. You can imagine the long lines - even during the winter - for that truck, when it would pull in to the area just left of center where the two driveways are in the photo above.

We had no such luxuries at Marienfelde. However, we had a prank for new people on their first midnight shift. During the first night's work for the unsuspecting newbie, the rusty old timers would talk about the donut truck that would be around in the morning down the hill. There would be a big deal about making an order and assigning a newbie or two to collect the list and then go down to wait.

Needless to say, the groups that were lucky enough to have newbies during the winter midnight shifts, who could send those folks out into the cold, dark mornings...well, good times.

It's interesting that this building has been left standing in this skeletal condition. I recall that it is visible up on that ridge from the new dome at the Reichstag. Friends and acquaintances have actually made the trip back from time to time, so the Wired article wasn't the first of the images I'd seen.

I like adding a video of these old sites - here's one from earlier this year (2011)...you may prefer to turn the sound off if you don't like the accompanying music. As I watched this, I remembered a little bit more about my day inside the building in 1983: it was a technical building, and there were raised floors over all those now bare concrete slabs.

Pending Bacon

2011-10-04T10:33:00.001-04:00

When I ran into David the other day, our second topic of conversation was the pigs. Mary and I are sponsoring one of these guys, and David said I really needed to get over there and check on how they were doing. "They've really grown!" he said.

So while I was tooling around checking out the last pickings for the final famers market, I also strolled over for a look at the pigs.

They have grown. They are easily twice the size they were back in August (check out the new "Pigs" label below, that will be how I tag the past and future posts on them).

Now, there are three little anecdotes I need to share to completely catch my readers up on the status of the pigs.

First, the title of this post, "Pending Bacon," is one I would like to ascribe to Michael Perry, author of Coop - there's an Amazon link to the right. In the book he describes raising some pigs, and on his blog he tagged an entry with the trending topic "#pendingbacon" once - so I've adopted that as a way to refer to the pigs, too.

Next, I want to write about the pigs first few days on the farm. They were quite small then, actually about 50 pounds each (on their way to 300 or more by February). They spent the first night in the accessible goat pen. The pigs were comfortable, but the goats didn't much care for the arrangement.

I have a video of the pigs emerging from the goat pen the next morning in a previous "Pigs" post. During those adventures, they figured out they could get into the brooding house if the little door was open.. They were small pigs after all, and they didn't know they'd outgrow that space in short order. Eventually they took to sleeping on the floor of the brooding house, all in a comfy porcine cluster below the roosting hens.

The pigs liked it, the hens didn't mind, and most of all, the goats were happy and all the barnyard conflicts were smoothed over. Of course, now that they are too big to get into the brooding house, they're sleeping with the goats again. The goats are over the inconvenience of all of this, however.

Finally, the naming of the pigs. These guys had a fluid identity going on for the first couple of weeks. Readers may recall that I wanted to name the one (whichever it is, or ends up being) that we have adopted "Pork Chop," which should be pronounced "Poke Chop." However, I was informed by an authority at the farm that names like that are not appropriate at this stage of the game.

In fact, this authority, David and Heather's daughter, told me about how carefully the names were to be decided, and that she was working on it. Candidate names included:

Pinky
Frankie
Seven (for the unique shape that one of the tails maintained)
Stevie

These are all good names. But things weren't quite settled yet - I think there is a zen element to the process, but I haven't confirmed that.

The next week when I stopped by, there was progress to report. The name "Stevie" had been selected.

"Which one is Stevie, then?" I asked.
"All of them are named Stevie," she said. "And the last name is 'Yum-yum.'"

So there you have it. Four little Stevie Yum-yum's in a pen.

February's comin' though.

Farmers Market Season Comes to an End

2011-10-03T09:09:00.000-04:00

After heading out to Luray on Thursday, hoping for good weather so I could do some painting (I’m still waiting for three days of sunshine to do some touch-ups on the exterior), I ended up running errands on Friday. I happened to run into David from Public House Produce during that, and he invited me over to check out the pickings for the last Luray-Page Farmers Market, and the pigs.

The last Saturday of the Luray-Page market was this weekend, October 1.

Here are a couple of photos of the produce, taken at the farm. There is plenty of butternut squash here, and still some tomatoes. There were some green ones, which I understand the canning folk will use for chow chow and other winter comestibles.

Later during the weekend, after the market was closed, David sent a little wrap-up note about this year’s production. I’ve copied and reproduced the info below – I’m still impressed that all of this, except for the chickens, is coming off of 6 acres.

---

Since the season is officially over I have some harvest totals for the year, check'em out.

Tomaotes 9,960 lbs
Winter Squash 10,100 lbs
Sweet Corn 1,875 dozen ears
Cukes 9,000 lbs
Onions 900 lbs
Broc 600 lbs
Potatoes 500 lbs
Pasture Based Chicken - 6,500 lbs
Eggs - not enough!

I am already thinking about what to grow next season and what crops to increase. I am pretty sure that we are going to shoot for 15,000 lbs + of tomatoes next year and many more dozen eggs!

---

It’s a shame to see the season come to an end. We’ll have to look forward to next year, although we can have some fun with traditional fall and winter cooking in the meantime - I picked up a couple of those "festival" acorn squash with that in mind.

Brocken - the Stasi site in the Harz

2011-09-30T06:51:00.001-04:00

Torfhaus Ski Resort in Germany's Harz Mountains. Brocken in the background.

As a final review, for now, of Manfred's trove of old videos from the end of the Cold War, this one was of interest because it puts to rest some speculation many of my friends and I had shared over the years. Here's the caption he wrote for this video:

"This is the highest hill in the former east Germany. A small exhibition exists to their State Security monitoring station at the top."

Now, the speculation I mentioned is based on the postcard scan above - you can see the antenna masts in the background from this ski resort in the Harz Mountains. It was a place we used to go as often as we could during season, despite the 4-hour drive and two border crossings from Berlin. We figured it was either a spy station, or maybe, but not likely, a television broadcast station.

Much of the video tracks the very interesting train ride up the mountain and back down,. There is a first glimpse of the old Stasi site at around 6:45-50 and another begins at around 7:30. A tour of the site begins in the 11th minute.

Manfred continues with some video of hiking in the Harz. We exchanged a couple of messages about that, it's something that I'd be interested in, if the chance ever comes up. Definitely beautiful countryside. And excellent memories.

The Tunnels of Tempelhof - another video

2011-09-29T06:27:00.015-04:00

Here is a video my friend Manfred posted of a tour of the tunnels under Tempelhof Central Airport (TCA, as we called it), taken during August 1991. I'm hoping a number of my friends will get a chance to take a look at this one - it is quite a point of interest about old building.

The accompanying photos include a plan of the building from the '80's, pointing out some of the features on the side the USAF used. Also, there is a photo from the annual Open House below, dated 1984, which would have been one I participated in. (I've lost the source info for this photo...if you recognize it, please leave a comment.)

Here's a plan of Tempelhof Airport from the late '80s.

The tunnels are legendary; there are any number of stories of adventures of people exploring down there. I often heard stories of people going long distances in them until they found a guard at a desk or came out above ground over in Potsdamer Platz. What we do know for sure is that the tunnels were used during World War II for communications, and aircraft manufacturing actually took place here later in the War.

An aerial of the airport during the 1984 Open House.

The "modern" infrastructure of the building figures prominently in Manfred's clip, but starting at around 6:50, there are areas that still show a connection to the War history. The area was burned - the fires went on for weeks - and there are a bunch of initials scratched into the burned areas. It looks like there are years marked there in some cases - I saw some from the '50's all the way to the '80's.

I'll close out this post with a reference to my colleague Dale Lindemann's book "Last Flight from Tempelhof" - Amazon link below. The tunnels figure prominently in this thriller that weaves a story connecting the Cold War and today's geopolitical terrorists. A good read! It's on Kindle now too!

Last Flight from Tempelhof

"Last" Video of Marienfelde

2011-09-28T14:14:00.001-04:00

Since the posts this week have featured a video or two and some photos of old haunts in Berlin, I wanted to post this video as a follow-up to yesterday's and this morning's. I should note I am planning a couple of additional posts using Manfred's videos during the remainder of this week.

This afternoon's clip is done in drive-by style and it dates from August 1991. It documents the demolition-in-progress of the Marienfelde installation, prior to its turnover, which was featured in the post yesterday.

Also of interest, Manfred notes the refugee and asylum housing that was nearby. Also prominent is the IBM plant. There is some noise from wind in the microphone of his video camera, so be advised you may want to turn the volume down - but tune in carefully for his remarks.

Selected Berlin Photos: Marienfelde

2011-09-28T09:12:00.000-04:00

After viewing the video that Manfred shared on YouTube - the one I posted yesterday - I got to thinking about the images I've found on the web of the Marienfelde facility over the last few years. I've managed to collect an image from each decade, the 1960's, 1970's, 1980's, and 1990's; these would be bookended by the video yesterday and two more that I will share later today.

Here is a web link that supplements the unit history Colonel Leech provided in his speech at Marienfelde: http://berlinerphil.tripod.com/inactmemebishop.htm - this is the program and other materials from the unit's deactivization in 1992, the link is part of the "Berlin Island Association" organization.

I should clarify that there was also a refugee center in Marienfelde at the time - many folks settled there
Without much further detail about the images, here are some the photos I've found over years. I've long ago lost the source data about them, if you find something here that you can identify, please leave a comment. It's not my intention to profit from these, only to make them available for sharing historical information with my friends.

Mari in the early days, the '60's. The installation was built on a rubble heap of war debris.

Later in the 1960's, after a "permanent" building was located there.

My notes date this as 1971. I was always amused by the design of the apartment block in the lower right as our shift bus passed on the way into work.

Here is a mid '80's image - my era.

I have this as late '80's. Obviously taken during some kind of celebration nearby.

Final one, an aerial taken during the winter, dated 1990.

Even during my short tenure - 1981-1986 - there were plenty of changes, not only to the facilities at Marienfelde. This district of Berlin included a canal and significant rail lines, as well as a highway connecting the city to the rest of the country, so there was plenty of industry here. Beginning in the early '80's, a large IBM installation had sprung up across the street from the Marienfelde facility.

As I'm thinking about how to close this post, it occurs to me that I should include a more current image. This one is from Google Earth, current as of this writing in September 2011: nothing remains of the old site. It's fairly typical of Berlin these days, as the scars of the Cold War heal over and are increasingly hidden from view.

The thumb tack marks the spot...the old rubble heap and one to the southeast have been turned into nature parks.

Tapping into some old Cold War era videos

2011-09-27T09:54:00.000-04:00

Recently, a friend of mine found a link to the video embedded below and posted it on Facebook. After I took a look, I went onto Youtube and checked out a number of videos from this user, Manfred...my tour in Berlin, 1981 through 1986 overlapped his career at Tempelhof, which began in the '70's and continued into the '90's.

Manfred and I have started a correspondence as well, he told me about his work for the Air Base Group as a German civilian (and native Berliner) - I'm sure that there are plenty of stories he could tell!

This video takes an inside tour of the building I worked in those five years - as opposed to the one I lived in, which was Tempelhof Central Airport, or TCA, as we called it. Throughout the history of this building, it was constantly receiving upgrades. For example, the second floor was added after I left Berlin in 1986.

There is a speech by a Colonel Leech starting at about 8:30 that includes a site and unit history; that was particularly interesting.

I have a couple of additional videos from Manfred I would like to upload over the next few days...

Honey, What's a "Skolithos"?

2011-09-26T09:38:00.000-04:00

In my travels throughout the Park, I'll sometimes hear a reference to the geology of the areas I'm visiting - I've even posted on that topic from time to time when I learn something new. I'd often heard about this variety of "trace fossil" - the skolithos, and finally had a chance during the Wildcat/RipRap hike to learn how to identify them.

Referring to the website for Shenandoah National Park, there is a good article on Park geology at this link:
http://www.nps.gov/shen/naturescience/chilhowee.htm. Quoting from that, here is the reference to skolithos:

"...the one observable fossil can be seen in the Erwin Formation, a preserved worm burrow known as skolithos, which appears as long, straight tubes within the white quartzite."

The quartzite, shown in the two photos, is a sedimentary rock that dates from 500 million years ago, an era before any of Earth's complex life forms had appeared. Wikipedia (search on skolithos) goes on to describe this particular type of fossil as being "usually associated with high-energy environments close to the shoreline."

As we walked through these areas, Dan mentioned that we were walking along an ancient beach, adding to the adventure of that day's hike.

Wildcat Ridge/RipRap Hollow: A "75 at 75" Hike

2011-09-23T10:45:00.001-04:00

The famous swimming hole.

For the sixth hike in my “75 at 75” project (check that label below for more details on the project), I chose the big loop at RipRap Hollow and Wildcat Ridge. In the introductory post on the project, I summarized the trail, drawing from Henry Heatwole’s guide, as follows:

Rocky formations in the hollow.

“Riprap Hollow and Wildcat Ridge: mile post 90.0, 9.8 miles and 2,400 feet; includes the two Civil War lookout points Chimney Rock and Cavalry Rock, 3 miles of AT section, cascades and a falls.”

Early on, as I began thinking about the project itself, I mentioned it to my neighbors Dan and Sally, who both thought it was a great idea. They both work at the Park, and they’ve been generous with insights and inspiration about the place over the years. When I mentioned this trail, Dan was particularly interested and he ended up joining me.

Apparently, in his job as a GIS specialist, there were some details of the trail he wanted to check out better on his own – he’d done the one-way trail from the RipRap trailhead to Wildcat before, without the AT section; some colleagues had subsequently done the whole thing and given him some hints on things to look for. In any case, Dan being the only person I know who has walked every foot of Skyline Drive, I knew I was in for some interesting insights on this trail, and I hope that he (and Sally too) might be able to join me again on another of the hikes.

Here's a Google Earth view of the trail, with a fine blue line marking our GPS trace.

We left our neighborhood at 8am and made our way via the Elkton entry to the Park, arriving at the trailhead at around 9am. This was something new for me…even though the Heatwole guide lists the route as taking 8.5 hours, it was very likely that we would complete the trail before darkness (for my regular hiking buddies, I kid because I love). We began the steady descent on Wildcat Ridge by 9:15.

Neighbor Dan down in the hollow.

I’d hypothesized that the name of this trail section had something to do with earlier residents seeing bobcats, or even pumas, here; or else, it was a reference to mining activities that had taken place nearby at Crimora (there are a couple of lakes there that were associated with manganese mining in the late 1800s). Shortly we came upon a series of small pits just off the trail, about 10 feet by 10 feet each, and up to six feet deep. The holes were enough to convince me that name’s origin referenced the mining industry, that the “wildcats” were people doing exploratory digs up here hoping to strike it rich; Dan has subsequently confirmed that there are some records of this type of activity in the area.

We went onward, finally reaching the hollow, where our destination was the swimming hole down here. Heatwole calls this the largest in the Park. The swimming hole is 50 feet or so in diameter, and during our visit, it probably reached depths of six feet. The water is crystal clear and spring fed, so too cold for a dip in mid-September. Instead we settled in for lunch.

While a couple of other hiking parties came and went, we broke out our lunches…Dan’s was much better than mine: moose sausage snack sticks and smoked salmon that he had acquired from an Alaskan friend during a recent trip out west. He invited me to share, supplementing my Clif Bar and raisins; I did pass along a Honey Stinger Waffle in exchange for his generosity.

There are a couple of mentions of an old picnic shelter near the pool. It’s been taken down, but the areas around the pool show a lot of wear and tear – this is a popular place during the summer, and it is near the Park boundary, so there is a convenient hike-in route.

Old beams in the stream.

Old masonry and more beams.

Making our way through the hollow, Dan finally gave me a little more insight as to why he was so interested in this trail. While the popular references I had drawn from for the hike have very limited information about the cultural aspects of the area, mainly because of few indications of post-Columbian activity here (the exploratory pits on Wildcat Ridge aren’t even well documented), a colleague of his had identified a trace in the stream where there are remnants of what appears to be an old sawmill.

We found the spot and made a short detour down to the stream edge. I have some photos of old beams in the streambed, and some masonry joined to the rocky cliffs that line the stream. As we looked, I tried to imagine what the work here would have been like, a few miles into the woods, a long track to the nearby mining activities. Not much of a challenge to hardworking mountain people, but pretty difficult for my “chairborne” lifestyle!

Me at a less crowded view point.

As we got back to the trail we headed next for Calvary and Chimney Rocks, two quartzite outcroppings that offer wonderful views of the Shenandoah Valley. The walk along this section of our route was interesting; Dan told me that during the summer of his arrival at Shenandoah National Park, this area had been in a fire and it was his first ever support of that kind of an effort. The hillside is still recovering with low, scrubby vegetation and numerous young pines (the variety in this area produces serotinous cones, which release the seeds after a fire).

Upon reaching the two viewpoints we found them crowded with visitors sitting on ledges and enjoying the look out over Paine Run Hollow and Horsehead Mountain, so we didn’t stay long. We continued on to the AT connection and did that 3 mile stretch back to our parking area; we were passed on the way by a south bound thru hiker, who’d been held up in the rains and tropical storms of late. “Beautiful day, much better than last week!” he offered as he passed us by.

We finished the route in about 7.5 hours, making better time than Heatwole’s estimate. After a quick chat with the ranger at the Elkton gateway, we headed on to Mamma Mia’s in Shenandoah for dinner, before heading home.

Doyles River/Jones Run: A "75 @ 75" Hike

2011-09-21T10:48:00.000-04:00

Jones Run Waterfall - 42 feet.

Knowing that I had a big hike planned for the upcoming Saturday, and because I’d planned to take that hike with neighbor Dan, who not only recently had completed a half marathon and is a GIS specialist at the Park, but also is one of the few people on the planet who has walked every footstep of Skyline Drive, I went looking for a warm-up hike on Wednesday, September 7. I chose the Doyles River/Jones Run combination because of its length and elevation, and because all of the waterfalls on that trail would give an interesting destination. Incidentally, I’ve hike the entire circuit of this trail before, you can find it under the “Day Hikes: Moderate” label.

Google Earth route for this hike.

When I do warm-up hikes like this, they don’t necessarily have to meet the rigorous qualifications I’ve set for “75 @ 75” hikes, although this one, at 5.8 miles and 1,120 total elevation gain, certainly met the requirement (a combination of at least five miles in length and 500 feet of net elevation gain). I thought that two days of rest between the warm-up and the actual hike would be enough, but my legs still stung from the lactic acid on Saturday morning as we made our way to the Wildcat Ridge trailhead for the main hike – which I’ll review later this week.

Before getting to the details of this one, I want to make a note about how I calculated elevation on this one. Normally, I’ll just take an altimeter reading on my Casio Pathfinder along the way of any given hike, catching the highest and the lowest point s. When I make the blog post about that hike, I simply subtract the lowest from the highest for net elevation, and that’s what I report – which typically will vary, for several reasons, including barometric pressure variations or the fact I don’t count “pointless ups and downs,” or PUDS, in my calculations.

Casio Pathfinder check point.

Elevation reference point.

In this case, I knew I was in for a descent from the trailhead down to the confluence of Doyles River and Jones Run, and then another climb to the Jones Run falls. As shown on the photos of the park markers, the altitude of these three locations were 2,200 feet, 1,480 feet, and 1,880 feet, respectively, giving a total climb of 1,120 feet. For reference, the 580 meters read out on my Casio translates to 1,798 feet, 400 or so feet off of actual, which is a typical variance due to the barometric method used by the watch – by the way, the operator’s manual suggests taking this kind of reading for reference early in the hike.

On to the hike: I decided to start from the Doyles River side, since that was a section of the trail I had not been on, since Chris, Tom and I had cut back along the fire road on our previous hike. This meant my route would follow Doyles River most of the way to the confluence with Jones Run, then make a southwesterly turn to begin the climb up to the trail alongside that watercourse.

Doyles River lower falls.

Doyles River upper falls.

Three waterfalls are the feature of this trail, two on Doyles River and one on Jones Run – the Jones Run waterfall is among the ten highest in the Park, at 42 feet. Both streams flow down steep gorges, and there had been some strong rains recently, so the sound of many smaller waterfalls and cascades accompanied me on the walk on those trails. Both waterways are designated trout streams, so with your license you can enjoy catch-and-release and harvest fishing.

There is a PATC cabin not far down the route on the Doyles River side, there is a nice stream there also. I met a couple who were staying the Labor Day week at the cabin; their two lab mixes could not stay out of the water during the hikes. Later, coming back, there were three does drinking from the stream at this same place, I was downhill and downwind from them so they were surprised when I suddenly appeared only 10 feet away!

One of the plentiful cascades along this route.

“Shenandoah Secrets”, a PATC publication by Carolyn and Jack Reeder (Amazon link at the end of the post), mentions that there was a lot going on in this area before the Park was founded – lumber mills, two distilleries, and farms. There was even a dedicated rail line here to support the timber industry, but today it would be challenging to even find a trace of these, even though they are reported to have been located near the spring.

The Heatwole book speculates that Confederate General Jubal Early used this area for a strategic retreat to regroup and reinforce, since there were probably pastures in the area and the steep rocks cliffs would have made Union General Sheridan’s pursuit difficult. Heatwole acknowledges that this is conjecture, there’s no record at these locations; only the reporting that the events took place nearby.

While, this hike wasn’t one of the planned efforts from my “75 @ 75” project, it turns out that it qualifies, so I’ll count it; as of the last status report I still have about 25 miles to go before Thanksgiving to meet my goal…which I hope to exceed. The next hike I’ll review is the Wildcat Ridge/RipRap Hollow Trail; this trail was a warm-up for that one.

Amazon link to the PATC Shenandoah Secrets book:

Old Rag Saddle Trail and Weekly Hollow: A 75 @ 75 Hike

2011-09-16T11:04:00.001-04:00

Old Rag as seen from Skyline Drive.

When I set out on the “75 @ 75” project, I didn’t include the Old Rag hike on my list, even though it is one of the most popular moderately difficult hikes in Shenandoah National Park, and in the greater Mid-Atlantic region. That popularity is exactly the reason I kept it off the list; besides, I enjoy a weekly update on that beautiful trail from Bob Look’s blog (see the blog roll to the right for “Old Rag Patrols”) and I did the hike four years ago (check the label “old Rag”).

Still, hiking buddy Tom asked if I wouldn’t mind doing this one again with him, since he hadn’t done it before, and I thought we could make a go of it as long as we didn’t try it on the weekend. Tom had an August reservation for a campsite at Big Meadows that ran Thursday – Saturday, so we chose that Friday to make a go of the trail. It was a good choice, as we only encountered about a half dozen hiking parties coming our way on the trail.

(Time is running out for Tom, as it has for my other hiking buddy Chris: Tom and his wife are expecting twins in November, so this may have been our last hike together for a while; Chris and his wife had a son in July, so he won’t be able to join us for the time being either.)

My request was that we do the trail in reverse direction from how it is usually done. Both of us are desk jockeys and I wanted to be sure we had a great experience, especially since I had some trouble on the hike the first time. I figured that we could summit Old Rag as an accomplishment and not be disappointed if we had to turn back on the rock scramble.

Google Earth image of the hike.

Old Rag parking, about a mile from the old small lot, which is not used anymore.

Old Rag fits into the “75 @ 75” plan because of its length and elevation change: Heatwole has it as a 7.2 mile circuit with 2,380 feet of climbing. The out-and-back route we took along the Weekly Hollow and Old Rag Fire Roads and Saddle Trail is 4.2 miles each way, but adding the nearly one-mile trek from the parking area to the trailhead makes the hike about 10.3 miles, as I have tracked it in my logbook. The trusty Casio Pathfinder indicated that we had climbed 2,249 feet net – which was remarkably close to Heatwole’s calculation.

The hard cores among my readers are going to ask, “What’s so interesting about Old Rag if you leave out the rock scramble?” It’s a good question, and one I’ll answer by quoting from Heawole, specifically regarding the Weekly Hollow Road section:

“The former village of Old Rag was near here, and the Old Rag Post Office was at the road junction…Originally, the Park intended to preserve some or all of the mountaineer homes in this area. But maintenance proved too difficult, and the houses were torn down shortly after the end of World War II.”

Tom on a rock.

Me at the summit.

Heatwole notes that the road has been relocated a few feet, but as we were hiking with good light, you could plainly see the old road trace, and there were a few scattered stones around that appeared to have been shaped for use as building materials. Also, if you check out the Google Earth image, there is a little envelope icon at the location of the old post office...

So in addition to the summit, distance, and elevation, a final attraction of this version of Old Rag is the cultural reference of the area, before the Park was formed. That is definitely an item on the checklist for “75 @ 75” hikes.

Summit photo, with view and "buzzard baths."

I’ve got a few photos I took from the area around the summit of Old Rag, which is listed as 3,291 feet. The geology is very interesting, and there are resources that explain why the rock scramble was formed and help interpret why these large boulders occur at altitudes on top of the mountain. They are beautiful, and exceptional weather the day of our hike gave us some spectacular views.

Another view near the summit.

As we made our way back to parking, we encountered four men in military style boots carrying heavy packs on the trail – then I saw a pick-up with a crew cab in the lot with a Quantico sticker. For Marines looking for a training workout, this hike accommodates.

On a final note, Tom and I bookended the hike with a morning stop at Central Coffee Roasters in Sperryville and an evening stop at the little burger joint at the crossroads of US 211 and 522. The folks at the coffee shop were very cordial, and allowed me to park the car in their lot for the day so we could carpool down to the mountain – thanks and a tip of the hat!

The 75 @ 75 Project: An Update

2011-09-15T10:14:00.000-04:00

It has been a while since I posted an update on my “75 @ 75” project, which is a series of hikes I’ll be taking this year in celebration of the 75th anniversary of the founding of Shenandoah National Park. Honestly, the reason for the lack of posts was the summer: it’s too hot to take on these hikes, which by design are moderately strenuous, since each hike on the list must be five miles or longer, with a net elevation change of at least 500 feet.

However, over the last three weeks or so, I have managed to get three new hikes in, and so I will review those over the next few posts. There are Google Earth images for each of these three hikes, which were:

Old Rag Google Earth Image

Old Rag (we reached the summit off of the fire road and saddle trail) completed with hiking team mate Tom;

Doyles River/Jones Run Google Earth Image

Doyles River/Jones Run, which I completed solo as a warm-up for the next one; and

Wildcat Ridge/RipRap Hollow Google Earth Image

Wildcat Ridge/RipRap Hollow, completed with my neighbor Dan.

As shown in the table at the beginning of this post, with the completion of these three hikes, I have nearly reached 50 miles in the project, or two-thirds of the goal of 75 miles. From the project’s intro post, listed below are the hikes left on the candidate list that I hope to take on before the end of the season, which I count as Thanksgiving weekend, when the lodges in the Park are closed for the winter.

Bluff Trail/AT, mile post 17.6, distance 12.8 miles, altitude change 2,400. Includes two summits and some views, and about 5 miles on the AT.
Knob Mountain/Jeremy’s Run, mile post 24.1 (at the Elk Wallow Wayside), two versions either 11.7 or 14.0 miles, elevation from 2,600 to 2,800 feet. There’s a stream with cascades and a falls, and a summit.
Hazel Mountain, mile post 33.5, distance 5.3 miles and elevation change 1,070 feet (the easiest on this list!). No summit here, but it is interesting for a combination of a falls, cascade, and a small cave. Depending on when we go, maybe no spelunking – the snake scene in True Grit still creeps me out.
Pocosin Mission and South River Falls, mile post 59.5, distance 8.5 miles and elevation 1,800 feet. This combines the ruin of an old cabin and mission, and then takes in the South River Falls, which was one of Chris’s and my main training hikes for the Half Dome a few years ago.
Black Rock/Trayfoot Mountain Loop, mile post 84.8 or 87.4, distance approximately 10.0 miles and unestimated altitude change. This trail is shown on one of the Park’s maps, which include distances but not altitudes, and I cannot find a review in any guide. This will take in the rock scramble at Black Rock, an old fire observation point at the summit of Trayfoot Mountain, and the hollow where the Black Rock Springs Hotel was located in the late 1800’s.

The trail review posts will begin tomorrow, starting with the Old Rag hike I did with Tom.

Page County Grown Farm Tour: Public House Produce

2011-09-09T05:21:00.001-04:00

Arriving at Public House Produce.

The tour assembles.

Today’s post is about a visit to Public House Produce, and is the final post reprising the inaugural Page County Grown Farm Tour, which took place on Saturday, August 27, 2011. There were more than 40 of us on the tour, always looking cautiously at darkening skies, threatening rain, as hurricane Irene was bearing down on the East Coast. We visited several of our local farms: Khimaira Farm, Skyline Premium Meats, Willow Grove Farm Market, Wisteria Farm and Vineyard, Paw Paw’s Honey, and Public House Produce, and luckily the hurricane held off until after the Farm-to-Table Dinner at the Mimslyn on Saturday evening. All of the posts on this topic include the label “2011 Farm Tour” at the end, so a simple click will pull them all up, including some posts I put up in advance of the tour, and the one I made about the Farm-to-Table Dinner.

Here is the short description of Public House Produce from the Farm Tour overview:

This is a family owned and operated farm located about one mile north of Luray. The farm’s produce is available at the Luray-Page Farmers Market and via their CSA. Over 80 varieties of fresh produce are offered, along with pasture based, heritage chicken and fresh farm eggs. Public House’s goal is high quality produce and poultry from a local source you can trust.

Some of the fields, with the new brooder hens in the distance.

I made this my fourth stop before heading over to Wisteria as I’ve mentioned in the previous posts; while we visited this farm we also had the chance to meet up with Paul from Paw Paw’s Honey. Soon after I arrived at Public House Produce, quite a few of the other tour members joined us – whereupon, David took us on a tour of the operation.

More Public House Produce Fields. And a nice tractor.

Reaching the fields, David pointed out where the farm actually started – the first plots, and then the progress through his property as more and more of the fields were put into production, so that they now total six acres. He also showed the irrigation systems and some of the in-ground connectors, discussing the well and its capacity.

Back under the barn, the crowd had the chance to look at some of the produce. I’ve included a photo of that day as the opening photo, supplemented by some more recent ones.

"Japanese Pumpkins" curing in the barn, a few weeks after the tour.

Pie pumpkins.

At the time of the tour, Public House Produce was doing direct sales from the farm for the day, as opposed to their normal selling from the Luray-Page Farmers Market. In the first photo, some of the produce of the day is shown, including sweet corn, tomatoes, festival squash (a variety of winter/acorn squash), and some peppers. The more recent ones show the green “Japanese Pumpkins” – a variety of winter squash, and pie pumpkins. Most of these are contracted and will soon be on their way to markets elsewhere.

The next stop for the tour was to go inside the cooler – that was a big hit with a couple of folks, even though the day was overcast and rainy. I understand their interest was more in the technical details of how the system worked, as opposed to getting into the cool temps!

There was a lot of discussion about the farm and its produce. I overheard a lively discussion of the heirloom tomatoes (I’m guessing this was about the pineapple variety – one of the tour members said that he knew from tomatoes, being from New Jersey, and that “this was the best tomato I ever tasted!"). David also talked about the pasture based chicken operation, using the “Red Bird” or poulet rouge, another heritage breed that is hardy in the pasture and yields a very tasty chicken.

That very chicken was served in the second course at the Farm-to-Table Dinner at the Mimslyn that evening.

And David tells me that he’s already seen a couple of folks from the tour back at the farm to talk about next year’s Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program.

The Page County Grown vision statement is, “Page County Grown is thriving family farms driving local food economies and promoting healthy communities where quality farming is a valued heritage and a staple for growth.” That said, I’d have to say that the tour helped meet the expectation of the mission statement…not only that, but it appeared to be successful beyond expectations, with more than 40 participants – where the organizers thought there might be 20. At the Mimslyn, there were more than 70 diners, again, only 50 were expected.

That goes a long way to describe how interested people are in knowing their farmers, and in knowing where their food comes from!

Page County Grown Farm Tour: Wisteria Farm and Vineyard

2011-09-08T06:47:00.003-04:00

Wisteria's sign on Marksville Road.

Winemaking equipment.

Today’s post is the fifth in my series of six reprising the inaugural Page County Grown Farm Tour, which took place on Saturday, August 27, 2011. There were more than 40 folks who joined the tour despite hurricane Irene bearing down on the East Coast. We visited several of our local farms: Khimaira Farm, Skyline Premium Meats, Willow Grove Farm Market, Wisteria Farm and Vineyard, Paw Paw’s Honey, and Public House Produce. All of the posts on this topic include the label “2011 Farm Tour” at the end, so a simple click will pull them all up, including some posts I put up in advance of the tour, and the one I made about the Farm-to-Table Dinner.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I had connected with my neighbors John and Nina at Skyline Premium Meats. While we proceeded to Willow Grove Farm Market and Public House Produce from there, we made a plan to visit Wisteria at the end because it is very close to where we all live. Due to some note taking issues I’ve moved up the post about our Wisteria stop to fifth, and will round out the series with a post on Public House on Friday.

Here’s the write-up on Wisteria from the farm tour program:

Patti (Patchwork Pastures) talks about the sheep to a guest.

"Wisteria is a local vineyard located near Stanley; it is also a working farm with a colorful flock of Romney sheep and free-ranging chickens. Wisteria’s current wine offerings include Pinot Gris, Chardonnay, Viognier, Traminette, Seyval, Merlot, and Norton, as well as a semi-sweet rose blend – Velvet, and a dessert wine – Sweet Daisy."

By the time the three of us arrived at Wisteria, many of our fellow tourists had already been there – and since we live nearby, we were familiar with some aspects of the operation. Winemaking equipment was on display – mainly the grape crushers that are used after the harvest to start the process.

I should note that Wisteria has an annual “stomp,” a celebration that includes a blessing of the vines, volunteer workers helping to harvest - and then, in a throwback to a beloved “I Love Lucy” episode, folks can climb into the vats and stomp the grapes with their bare feet! The event was originally scheduled for the same weekend as the Page County Grown Farm Tour, but they rescheduled it for the following weekend due to the storm. (They kept the time the same: 7am. Let’s just say Mary and I missed it again this year!)

Raw and washed wool from the Romney sheep.

Other farm goods at Wisteria.

In addition to the winemaking equipment, Sue had arranged to display some of the raw wool from the flock of Romney sheep they keep at the farm, along with some farther along in the process of being spun and then woven. The Wisteria crew was joined at their farm by Patti, whose Patchwork Pastures is also one of the Page County Grown family farms. One of the photos has Patti talking to another farm tourist about the Romney flock.

The plums Nina picked and shared.

Acoustic Thunder provided accompani - accompani - music.

There were two more treats in store for us at Wisteria. The farm has a wide variety of fruit trees planted all over it, and Nina knew where there were some plums just ripening – I have a photo of them, highlighting their beautiful color. The second treat: while we were there, Mokey and Hector of Acoustic Thunder were preparing for a “Music under the Arbor” event, so we had musical accompaniment!

The final post in the 2011 Farm Tour series will be about Public House Produce, and it will appear Friday morning.

Page County Grown Farm Tour: Paw Paw's Honey

2011-09-07T12:44:00.001-04:00

Honey and beeswax from Paw Paw's.

Paw Paw's bees.

This is the fourth of six posts that will reprise the inaugural Page County Grown Farm Tour, which took place on Saturday, August 27, 2011. There were more than 40 of us on the tour, always looking cautiously at darkening skies, threatening rain, as hurricane Irene bearing down on the East Coast. We visited several of our local farms: Khimaira Farm, Skyline Premium Meats, Willow Grove Farm Market, Wisteria Farm and Vineyard, Paw Paw’s Honey, and Public House Produce, and luckily the hurricane held off until after the Farm-to-Table Dinner at the Mimslyn on Saturday evening. All of the posts on this topic include the label “2011 Farm Tour” at the end, so a simple click will pull them all up, including some posts I put up in advance of the tour, and the one I made about the Farm-to-Table Dinner.

While the tour made its stop at Public House Produce, we were able to take in a visit with Paw Paw’s Honey, where the proprietor, Paul Kinsler, keeps a few hives on the property, as well as other locations around Page County. Here’s the write-up on Paw Paw’s from the tour handout:

This visit also takes place at Public House Produce. Paw Paw’s Honey is a blend of what is naturally available to the bees in Page County, so there are slight variations in taste and color from bottle to bottle – but the honey is always sweet and good. Paw Paw’s also raises and sells queen bees and beeswax.

Paul took some time with me looking at the hive he had brought with him, pointing out the queen, who was very busy on this morning laying eggs in the honeycomb. He pointed out that since the honey he sells is raw and unprocessed, it can actually be helpful to people with allergies (the Hawksbill Cabin recommends that readers check with their allergists first on this one!).

We’ve spoken before at the Farmers Market, and at the Page County Heritage Festival, about the bees. The industrious insects have to cover impressive territory to gather the pollen they need for just a pound of honey – it’s hard to fathom how far they must have flown to gather the goods that Paul had on display. Another point of interest, for me at least, was the news that from his home base along Business 340, Paw Paw’s bees may actually range as far as my place in Stanley to gather pollen!

Friday’s post will be about Public House Produce, and that will be my final post about the Page County Grown Farm Tour event.