The Toro: an Intro to Buddhist Cosmology

For the last couple of days I have been noticing the lanterns that decorate the base, including these two Japanese toro lanterns that mark the parking lot to the PX. Of course, back at HC we have a corny little knock-off one that we got from Home Depot, but the ones I am seeing here are quite a bit more elaborate. I’m told they are often Eagle Scout projects for the kids around here, which is a nice bit of lore; but seeing these two inspired me to do some background reading on Wikipedia and what I found was quite interesting.


They are called toro, a word that has come to mean that the lantern is constructed of heavy, long-lasting material. Because of their traditional appearance, they often decorate Buddhist temples, Shinto shrines, and Japanese gardens. Learning about their traditional five-part construction was what I found most interesting, however: the five components represent the five elements of Buddhist cosmology.

They are:

• The base or foundation, the kiso, which touches the ground. It represents chi, the earth.

• The next section represents sui, or water. I guess this is the post, or legs – called the sao.

• Then we have ka, or fire, which is represented by the section where the light or flame is. The Hibukuro is the firebox where the flame is lit.

• The last two are fu and ku, air and spirit or void, respectively, which are represented by the last two sections – the kasa, and hoju. The kasa is the little roof or umbrella that covers the flame, and hoju is the finial, which is traditionally shaped like an onion. Apparently the word hoju means “jewel”.

Buddhism is a very practical and respectful system of beliefs. The segments of the lantern express the idea that after death our physical bodies will go back to their original, elemental form.

There are a couple of other toro on post, but these are the most elaborate I’ve seen so far. And Wikipedia adds a reassuring note that some or most of the five parts may be missing. Our little toro back at HC is only two-parts but incorporates four of the elements, with the exception of a base or foundation – it still touches the earth, however, so chi is represented.

More on-post Sightseeing

Continuing with my on-post sightseeing, I found the grounds where they display a number of the memorials to the old Imperial Academy that was here until the end of WW2. There are several that mark the graduation classes, including the ones that completed their studies during the war. The last class to graduate was either 59 or 60, and they finished up in August 1945.


Here is a little blurb from one of the base information sites:

“From 1937 until the school closed in 1945 with the surrender of Japan, 18,476 cadets were trained on this installation. Training curriculum included college-level general education courses, and military training that included traditional martial arts and horsemanship. After completing the Yoka or junior portion of training, the young men were assigned for three months to regimental duties to become familiar with Army weapons and platoon leadership before resuming studies in the senior or Honka program.”

I didn’t take any photos of the class monuments; instead I have the one of the cast torii that stands on the grounds. Apparently this marks the original wooden gateway that the cadets passed through on their way into the Academy. This one was put up in 1980 but alums and other interested parties, as a way to honor those who had passed, by acknowledging the place where they first entered the Academy.

Nearby is this little memorial to “the Peacekeeping Forces” – not much interpretive information about the marker to be found. Is it to UN forces, or acknowledging some postwar collaboration between the US and Japan? I doubt I will find out this trip.

On-post Sightseeing

The base I am visiting, Camp Zama, is not without its history, just as is the case with so many military installations.  According to the guide books and Wikipedia, Zama was the site of a military school whose construction was overseen by a past emperor.  Apparently, as one of the pictures below shows, there are a number of historical elements around, visible on a short walk.

Most of my business has taken place at the post gym, which is named after a Medal of Honor recipient.  The citation is framed at the entryway, and there is a bronze plaque of it outside by the doorway.  That is a very nice athletic facility they've built in honor of Sgt. Yano.

There's also this small Normandy memorial, the first photo with this post, which includes soil taken from those shores and placed here.  This one in along my walk to the gym, so I make a note of it each morning and evening.

The final one I will make a note of today is this red gate, which according to Wikipedia is a Hachiman Torii.  These torii are often used to mark shrines, and this one is near one of the post's main gates.  The building in the background is the base chapel, which is listed on the guide to base cultural structures as well.

If you are interested in a basic introduction to the base, there's one on Wikipedia at:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camp_Zama.  I'm pretty sure if I were stationed here I would have loved it (but nothing will take the place of my beloved second home town, Berlin).

"alt.coffee.jp"

Jet lag being what it is - I find myself waking up at 2:30 am here, I think that is about 12:30 pm on the east coast of the US - I have embraced the thought of buying something out of the vending machines that I see everywhere. 

Here in the hotel, there is a machine that has all sorts of beverages.  Well, let's correct that - it doesn't have any American softdrinks.  You've got a couple of photos of this device here, one showing the full range of the selections, and the second, zooming in on the item of interest.

Now, the demitasse coffee that I chose (I welcome the change to unload some of these 10 Yen coins) came out refridgerated and in a little can that was about the size of tomato juice back stateside.  But it tasted like expresso that you might have served in Miami - a strong blend flavored with sweetened condensed milk.  That took me back a ways...but I couldn't do the thing cold, and had to microwave it.

I also wanted to put up this photo of a brand that was for sale near the train station - Suntory Boss Coffee.  I think it is served the same way.  The hoot about this one is the spokesperson:  Tommy Lee Jones.  My Japanese friends tell me that he is more famous for these commercials here than he is for any of the movie roles.

Here are links to a couple of the commercials, and if you are interested it looks like there are as many as nine (read the commentary below the videos for a hint of what is going on):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Cqz-S8Phv8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixux0Yp01rA&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHj4wcnUoMA&feature=related

I may go back down there and try one out if I don't get over the jet lag soon.

Konichiwa and all that

This week I am traveling on business to Japan.  Typical of my road trips in the past, I'll post updates as I am able.  I'm looking forward to a successful trip, but hope to have a bit of fun while I am here.

Today after taking a short walk around the area I'll be working in, I went off on an adventure to find the local train station.  It's about 15 minutes to get there, and it is called Soubudai-Mae.  My target was a little conveyer-sushi place they'd told me about in the hotel - my fallback, in case I didn't find it, was to be a Yoshinoya, a Japanese fast food chain that they also have in Los Angeles.  There was one near the USC campus...they had good soba as I recall.

On the way to the station I passed two items of interest.  First, there was this little bonsai garden in someone's front yard.  I only have 1/3 of the trees in this shot.  Notice that the plums are blooming...

Second one was this Domino's pizza joint.  Fitting I guess, there is an Army base nearby.  I don't think a week is long enough that I will build a craving for pizza, but now I know I can get one if I want it.  You can run but you cannot hide from American culture.

At last, I got to the main street, passing a grocery store and what seemed like a hundred barber shops.  There were quite a few other choices, including another sushi place right next door.  And then the very tempting Jakarta Midnight Noodles, but they weren't open - I mean, I was walking around mid-day in broad daylight, after all. 

Kitchen Updates, Weeks 6-7

While we were away during the holidays, progress was still being made on the Alexandria kitchen.  Here is a quick update, starting with the compass point photos:

This is the center back wall, where we are moving the refridgerator.  As a matter of fact, as I am writing this, the fridge is already installed in the return shown here, which was built for it, but that's a photo that will have to wait until the next update.

Here Is the window wall, where the sink was and will be.  The opening in the cabinets is where the dishwasher will be reinstalled.

Here is a photo of the wall where the doorway to the dining room was.  Now the cabinets are installed, the range hood is up, and the opening there is for the stove.  We've vastly improved the "triangle" and circulation in this room.

Final compass point, of the wall with the door to the basement.  This area will now serve as a ckind of hallway, a passageway from the dining room into the kitchen and sun room., with a doorway off to the basement.

Next two are of the pantry.  As you can see, we've greatly improved the storage possbilities in this room.  There will also be a counter top with work space, and you can see that the microwave will find a new home here.

Last photo is of the still crowded sun room.  But even as I write this, that area has more progress to report, which I will post on next week.

The Neighborhood

One of the things that we love about the Hawksbill Cabin’s neighborhood is the quality of the homes. They were built in a couple of generations, we guess starting in the 1920’s. The story goes that an old farm was broken up for summer homes, with standardized lots of about ½ acre for sale.


There were a couple of families who bought in and started up the neighborhood, and some of them still own the old family retreats they built. After the first wave, there was another wave that started in the 1940’s, our house was one of them; then a few more have been added since – as recently as 2007-but the homes aren’t being built in the same style anymore.

Over time the way the homes are used is changing as well. Where the concept was to build weekend homes here, there is now a mix of weekenders and full-timers. For the most part this seems to work, although it can have its challenges.

The photos above are a couple of examples of the little houses that have been built here-these two are contemporaries of the Hawksbill Cabin. The links below will take you to two posts about other houses that have been for sale in the neighborhood over the last few years. One, which the auction post talks about, was built in the 1940’s and was remodeled to incorporate a lot of outdoor living space; the second, built in 2007 in a “rustic cabin” style…its style is incongruous to the other stone houses, and coming on the market at the time it did has made it a difficult sale.

http://hawksbillcabin.blogspot.com/2010/08/at-auction-in-hawksbill-pines.html

http://hawksbillcabin.blogspot.com/2008/03/also-for-sale-in-hawksbill-pines.html

Before you get the impression that this is a gratuitous real estate post, there is one final item I wanted to note, which goes back to the outdoor living character of many of these homes. Visible through the hollow, one of the homes has this extended catwalk out to a covered and screened veranda. An older couple owned this house, and as one of the spouses grew less mobile, they built this as a way to still be able to get out and enjoy the environment. It’s a charming story actually, and one I can’t help but admire whenever it catches my eye.

Fungus and a Very Old Rock

Today is the last post I’ll make about the walk we took on Sunday exploring the Hawksbill Cabin’s backyard, as well as that of our neighbors, Sally and Dan. The beaver dam and that old foundation were pretty interesting, but there were several other finds to make for an exciting day of discovery:  an abandoned fox or coyote den, some Turkey Tail fungus, and a rock from the Shenandoah region’s “basement comoplex.”

The first of these three items we found was the little den. Sally and Dan’s dog Latte was very curious and wanted to go in to investigate, but we called him off. We thought it was abandoned, but in this area, when a home is emptied, somebody else will just move in, and that could just be a timber rattler or copperhead in this area as easily as it could be anything else.

As we moved along towards the hollow and the beaver dam, we stepped across a felled log that was encrusted with Turkey Tail fungus – that’s the photo at the top of the post. This is very common, no doubt readers will have seen it before. What I learned about Trametes Versicolor, the formal name of this fungus, is that not only is it edible (if you decide to eat some, be sure to do your own research first...I have no idea how you need to prepare it, etc.), it also has cancer treatment potential as a boosting agent for other therapies.

There is a wide variation in the colors the fungus will produce. It is the natural food product for moth larvae and maggots - again, a word to the wise if you decide to eat some of this stuff in the wild...be prepared!)  Wikipedia has a short article showing some older samples that are encrusted with wide green bands of algae, which leads me to assume the ones were found weren’t very old.

The next find was in some scattered rocks around the old foundation on one of the HC back lots. Sally, whom readers may recognize from ranger programs at Big Meadows and Skyland, scanned the rocks lying around the excavation, identifying limestone and granites. But when she spotted this particular rock, she noted the striations and told me that the rock could be from the basement comoplex in the Shenandoah region.

If it is, it started out as common granite, but over the course of eons it was changed, under pressure, so that the crystals formed stripes. What kind of pressure? If you are familiar with the geology of this region, the theory is that the Blue Ridge and the Appalachians behind it were formed during continental collisions (in this case, the Congo region of Africa colliding with North America), so this was pretty extreme pressure.

This theory is partly based on what scientist are observing today in the Horn of Africa region, part of Ethiopia, where the continent of Africa is literally tearing itself apart.

Back to the Shenandoah region.  This granite layer was previously known as the Pedlar Formation, and has been dated as approximately one billion years old. Granite on Old Rag and elsewhere in the region is younger than this stuff, and of course, we have all the sedimentary rocks from the old ocean floor that was here over the ages. There is a good article on the basement comoplex on Wikipedia for those who want to do some following up, and scientists at NVCC and JMU have also written extensively (and enthusiatically) about it.

When we started exploring the excavation back there the other day, we knew we’d be looking at old stuff. Speaking for myself, I never expected to find a billion year old rock – that’s nearly one quarter the age of the planet itself!

Relocating the Beaver

Back in 2008 and 2009, Mary and I watched as a pair of beavers built a dam in the hollow across the road from us at this confluence in Beaver Run.  The pond filled the area and reached depths of ten feet, and the stream was diverted creating new cascades that serenaded us with the sound of falling water that whole summer; at dusk we could here the animals splashing around at play. 

From time to time you could see mallards, Canada geese, and swans in the water, and I once saw a bear getting a drink over there. 

In the fall and winter, the pond froze over.  One of the best parts was the reflection of the sky and mountains that filled the view.  Eventually a spring storm (or VDOT, since the dam was very close to a state road) tore the dam down - exposing the whole infrastructure for analysis and learning, which you can follow if you like by clicking on the "beaver dam" label below.   

On Sunday, Sally and Dan invited us over for a walk through the woods around their place.  From the patio, you could see the familar reflection of a growing beaver pond back there - and as we went down the hillside to the hollow, sure enough, gnawed saplings was a sign of the beavers at work.

Closer to the pond, there are more of these stumps - some of them quite large.

The hollow opens up back here - it's maybe 400 feet to the south of where the old pond was and around a bend in the woods.  The dam itself is about 80 feet across and the pond extends behind it at least that far. 

It was partially frozen over, so Latte, the black lab with us, went out to explore, bounding from ice floe to floe and skipping through the shallow water tracking whatever scent came to him.  He was a happy dog and fun to watch.

Here's a last view looking across the pond to the little lodge, there on the other side of the water in the center of this view.  Some of the trees here will die after being water logged - or because of damage from the beavers trying to take them down. 

Come spring, the thaws and rains will probably wash this structure away. 

Exploring the back .40

On New Year's Day we took a walk out into one of the three lots we bought in back of the house.  These were previously owned by Kevin T., whose father Bill T. built our house.  We got in touch with Kevin shortly after moving in and acquired these lots, he had bought them mainly to provide a buffer for Bill's property.

For a long time we've known that there was a large hole in the closest lot - the others are characterized by second growth woods, a cliff, and Beaver Run - and that's what we spent some time on Saturday checking out.

The first photo here showns the dugout area - it's about 20x40, and very much a rectangle.  The sides slope down and into the hole, as the excavation has given way over the years.  We figure it is a foundation for an old house or barn.

The stuff we found in the foundation included this can of asphalt roof patch, "Fix-a-leak" - it came from the Munson Company in Philadelphia.  You can still find the company listing on the web, and it is is still in Pennsylvania.  The address on the can predates zip codes, putting it in the '50's or '60's time frame, my guess.

In the foundation there were also a couple of jars for sour cream, and then juice cans.  We are guessing all this stuff came from our house at one point or another.  Maybe we should have let it be, but now it's sitting out there on the old stump in the middle of the foundation.

Adding to our impression that this is a homestead of some kind are the piles of rock nearby, as if a yard was cleared, or perhaps for the foundation excavation.  And nearby, there is a clearing that looks like an old driveway or road, just slightly downhill and possible still on our property.

If you continue on down the other two lots, you eventually get to Beaver Run - it runs through our lots and a neighbors.  Along the property line, there is the remnant of an old concrete bridge, some culverts, and a little bit of masonry that looks like it might have been gate posts or a chimney.  It's hard to assess, so we'll just keep it in the back of our minds until we find out more.

The house itself is sited at the crest of the little hill here, facing east - so before the woods grew up, there would be a beautiful view of Hawksbill mountain.  In my own thinking, I figure the house had been taken down by the 1920's or 1930's, when a golf course was built through here before the neighboring Jordan Hollow Farm Inn was developed.  Maybe it was simply never built before all the development got started.  

There is other debris back there, including this pile of old 40's, mixed in with some juice cans and cremora bottles.  We figure these probably date from the 70's era or later.

In the old foundation, there is a big gas grill - the cylinder has been removed, fortunately - rusting away, and part of an old bed frame.  Mary found one of the butterfly chairs in here also.

Nearby is a pile of scrap woods from some renovation job.  Scraps of paint color on the wood suggests it came from our house, and the materials are very modern.  They've decayed extensively sense we first found them.  We will leave them to it.

Hawksbill Cabin 2010: Year-end Retrospective, part 3

Today’s post is the third and final of the Hawksbill Cabin 2010 retrospective. We’ll review the posts from September 2010 to December in this one.


September 2010 – Besides the end of my grand experiment with container gardens (Mary’s containers were still producing tomatoes on into October), we took a wonderful short vacation on Cape Cod. We enjoyed meeting up with another Berlin friend, John, while we were there, and have vowed to go back from time to time. One other major highlight during September was my hiking group’s “expedition” to West Virginia, where we finally did our introductory Dolly Sods Wilderness hike.

We selected this destination after repeated and emphatic recommendations from Howard at AOA that the Sods is a “must do.” Thanks to him and also to Gary for some advice on gear must haves. The group was itching for a hike in overnighter…but since this was going to be a first effort at this distance from home, with a long route, and other new complexity, I convinced them to make it into more of an endurance shake down.

We booked rooms at the state park lodge there, and shuttled over to the trailhead. Our hike went well, a bit longer than most of the ones we had undertaken to date, like the Jones Run Doyle River route in the spring or Duncan Know last year. The group enjoyed the scenery – it is everything that the reviews (and Howard) promised – and I think we all enjoyed the rigor of this hike. Sightseeing the next day – Blackwater Falls and Seneca Rocks – convinced us that we’ll have to try it again soon.

October 2010 – The seasons transitioned into fall, and the Farmers’ Market came to an end for the year. We picked up some winter squash at the last market – I’ve made curried squash soup, and a sausage stuffed acorn squash dish so far with these – along with a couple of briskets. I roasted one in the oven; the second is destined for the smoker later this winter.

During October we also enjoyed a couple of fall visits to Wisteria Vineyards with friends, the Page County Heritage Festival, and Mary and I returned to Seneca Rocks in West Virginia for a day trip – all good stuff that kept our minds off the saturation coverage of the pending elections in November.

November 2010 – We took a business trip to Lynchburg to start the month – this time as part of Mary’s faculty job at the University of Maryland. We saw an inspirational adaptive reuse/historic preservation project there, which resulted in the development of the Craddock Terry Hotel.

I say the visit was inspirational because after talking with the development team there, I had some new ideas about the Jordan Hollow Inn, which had foreclosed earlier in the year. We’d taken a look at the property as a potential investment back in March (thanks to Tom, Kelly, and Anthony for the architectural and engineering review!), and with the new information decided to take another look. The timing is just not right for us on this one – we hope the right owner comes along eventually with a successful approach.

December 2010 – As I am writing and posting this, the month’s not quite over. Some highlights include the beginning, and major progress, on our Alexandria kitchen remodel. There’ll be more to come on this one, of course. Also, I transitioned to an iPhone after losing my Moto RAZR early this month, and that is going to mean some changes to the blog in the coming months (hint: the minibogs video I posted gives an idea of the new capabilities that are coming online for humble bloggers such as myself).

The big news coming out of Page County as the year winds down are the announcement of changes at the EDA, and the news that the long-planned data center may be just getting ready to launch. The value of the past EDA chairman’s long tenure can’t be forgotten, even if one doesn’t agree with everything the organization has done over the last few years, but the change will be a good thing. As far as the data center goes, I’ve been around these projects enough to know they carry great risk – on the one hand, that is what entrepreneurs do, to take risks – but on the other, I do worry that there could be longer-term negative impacts to the economy of the County, whether this project succeeds, and especially if it fails.

Maybe the result of all this will be a revisited, revamped, strategic plan for economic growth in Page County. I’d like to see that – and I hope the posts here, when I turn to that topic, have helped foster and will contribute to clarifying that new direction.

Closing out the year, I’d like to say that we get a strong sense of community here. The contributions we made as part of the Fibrowatt efforts was very rewarding, not to mention the new friendships that resulted from that endeavor. We have great neighbors that we enjoy getting together with when we can, and there are good friends in town among the businesses there. So I end the year with thoughts of wanting to find other contributions to make to this community – finding a way that we can help make it a better place. I hope the blog is a small part of that.

Hawksbill Cabin 2010: Year-end Retrospective, part 2

Here is post 2 of the Hawksbill Cabin year end retrospective. I’m writing from a comfy perch on the brick terrace next to the fire pit – today’s post covers May through August, 2010.


May 2010 – As Spring continued, on the blog we dug further into the details of past EDA strategic plans, in a series called “EDA Action Spectacular.” There had been a number of requests for additional information about the EDA, so here on the blog we republished the material that we had found and analyzed during 2009 and early 2010. While it was becoming clear that new leadership on EDA should be part of an ultimate turnaround, what I learned from the community that there is generally a commitment to responsible growth that creates good jobs in the County (after experiencing unemployment of 18% in February 2009 – fourth worst in the state) – and the goal of my blog posts on this topic is simply to support that kind of growth.

With spring in full bloom, the Farmers’ Market was back on, and Mary and I decided to try our hands at container gardens – her usual (and prolific) tomatoes and peppers, and my experiment with summer squash and eggplant. Let’s just call my experiments a learning experience; I eventually got some zucchini but they were too far developed to use for anything except to feed the gopher that lives out in back of the cabin.

June 2010 – We delayed opening the Hawksbill Cabin pool in 2010 to get some tree work done. It’s unfortunate, but there was one very large pine tree in the front yard that had been weakened during the snow and had started to lean. It hung over the pool and was always the source of a lot of pine needles in the filters, but the danger it now presented meant removing it was inevitable. Fortunately, the hawks that nested there in the past had chosen another nearby tree in the past or we might not have even opened the pool this year!

July 2010 – Hanging in the hallway here at Hawksbill Cabin is a little plaque, given to me by a coworker back in 2000. It commemorates a consulting business trip to Seattle, calling it the “Best Business Trip Ever.” In July, that honor – at least in my case – moved on to a business trip I had to Yosemite National Park. We worked very hard during that week, upwards of ten hour days, with an hour commute each way – but in that environment, it was pure enjoyment.

I was able to bracket the work portion of the trip with a too short visit with Cathy and Amelie, highlighted by a trip to the Farmers’ Market in Mountain View, and an afternoon visit with Dave (who was stationed with me in Berlin) down in Gilroy on my way out to Yosemite. I had two days on the backside of the trip in San Francisco, checking off a life-list item of walking across the Golden Gate Bridge, enjoying a spectacular evening in the Mission District watching the fog roll in from a roof top café (thanks to coworker Arne), and then spent a day with another friend from Berlin, Brian.

That day started with a visit to Dottie’s True Blue Café (Brian keeps the Breakfast at Epiphany blog, linked in the blogroll to the right). The place is everything Brian says it is…we also took in sights over in Tiburon and then the Sutro Bath ruins over on the west side. That was a great day – thanks again, Brian!

August 2010 – August is when the annual Luray triathlons occur, and this time Mary joined me as a volunteer. We really enjoyed being part of this event for the great feeling of community it offers, and also look forward to next year.

August also was the occasion of another excellent visit to Shenandoah National Park. During my June vacation, I had discovered the Lewis Falls hike, and I invited Mary to join me in taking another look. The day we chose couldn’t have been better – all kinds of butterflies were out in the Big Meadow area where this trail starts. There was still enough water on the falls to make them worth the visit…remember, this is the headwaters for Hawksbill Creek, which eventually flows through Luray before flowing into the Shenandoah. We also took in the view from Blackrock Summit (the one near Big Meadow Lodge), where we learned that the view from there takes in Jordan Hollow Farm Inn and Wisteria Vineyards, both in the neighborhood of Hawksbill Cabin.

Hawksbill Cabin 2010: Year-end Retrospective, part 1

While I assumed my normal spot this week, out on the Hawksbill Cabin’s brick terrace next to the fire pit, I considered this blog’s year 2010. Eventually, just as the idea must have occurred to staff of the Page News and Courier last week – and to so many other publications, it seemed like a retrospective post would be interesting. And so, here is the result of a review of posts, month by month, for the year.


As I was writing, the word count was getting up there, so I split the post into three. There will be one post today, New Years Eve, with the other two to come on Saturday January 1 and Sunday January 2.

Let me start by saying thanks again to the gang at Appalachian Outdoors Adventures for lending me their internet! Shout out to Gary, Linda, Howard and Andy!



January 2010 – On the blog, the major topics were the “Snowpocalypse” that most of the mid-Atlantic area experienced. It’s one thing to deal with weather like this in Alexandria, where the dense urban environment generally means that services will be promptly restored, streets plowed to allow public safety vehicles to patrol, etc. – but quite another for remote areas here in Page County.

We had a little roofing problem that we had been planning to deal with – water, whether driven rain or melting snow, was creeping down the chimney around the flashing of our new roof. With snow depths being reported in excess of three feet, we were also worried about the loads on our roof, and had our roofer come out to clear snow and improve the flashing. He ventured out on a tracked vehicle and took care of both problems for us.

And when we finally got back out, I went up to finish clearing the snow – I suspect ice dams were part of the problem that eventually led to termites in the old days, and I wasn’t going to let that kind of problem get started…

February 2010 – At the very end of January a little noticed press release appeared in one of the Valley papers, describing the potential location of a Fibrowatt plant in Page County. Fibrowatt generates electricity by burning chicken waste, and some in the County believed that having a plant here at the Project Clover site would have a very positive impact on industrial development. Once the word got out, a wide range of citizen stakeholder groups began to let County leadership know their thoughts on the issue.

On the blog, we invested a lot of time doing extensive background research on Fibrowatt, learning about the technology, the process for building a plant (the company is very proud of the community work it does surrounding this process, evidenced in the Fibrominn plant, in Benson, Minnesota). An outreach group formed, providing information for the broader community about the impacts of a plant – and this group’s work led to a broader dialog about whether the investment the county would ultimately make was worthwhile in exchange for what appeared to be few jobs and potential negative environmental impacts. Ultimately, in March, the Board of Supervisors determined that a Fibrowatt plant wasn’t in Page County’s best interest.

March 2010 – This month featured a very interesting cultural activity in Luray – the 24-hour Marathon of One Act Plays. Folks volunteer to be part of this – dividing into writers and actors, ultimately putting together 4 plays over the course of one day. The writing takes place overnight, then rehearsals in the morning, and the plays done in the evening. I’m looking forward to this again next March.

Following up on the Fibrowatt question from February, I went back into the old Page County EDA materials to try and come to an understanding of how that proposal got to the table when there was so much public opposition to it. What I found was that over the course of several strategic plan updates, the mission of EDA had evolved from one that sought economic development and job creation to one that seemed to favor a very speculative approach to real estate – pretty far off track from what you’d expect.

The Board of Supervisors and new EDA members are still coming to terms with how to correct this situation, and it’s clear that more time and planning are needed for a full resolution. For my part, I think the answer is in the not very old strategic plans – the ones that predate all the Project Clover ballyhoo. There are some basic and practical planning steps enumerated in those plans that have simply been ignored…a back to basics approach that reconsiders these seemed in order then and still does today.

April 2010 –With the arrival of spring, posts on the blog return to outdoors topics, even while the Project Clover, EDA, and Fibrowatt controversies continued to churn. During 2010, I estimate I was up in Shenandoah National Park more than 20 times, but one of the highlights of the year was the Jones Run-Doyles River loop that my hiking group took on in April.

This hike follows two streams through their respective ravines until their confluence. In the spring, the streams are full and there’s a spectacular view of a waterfall every quarter of a mile or so here. It’s a very worthwhile outing, and one my group used as inspiration for our Dolly Sods outing later in the year.  We would return to the Park for another challenging loop at Corbin Cabin - and then there were all my other trips to the Park and the eventual completion of all the hikes in the Best Easy Day Hikes book.

Clarendon Construction - Final for 2010

A quick update on the construction progress around my office.  With the two main buildings I have been observing go up, construction is very nearly finished.  It's hard to believe that when I started with AECOM in January 2008, demolition had just begun, clearing the way for the two big buildings across the street.  Click the Clarendon Construction label for a look - I have a couple of photos of the demolition in progress from way back then!

The mid-block building, which I've learned is called the north building in this three building development, is also nearly complete.  Landscaping and sidewalks, and street trees are in.  The retail curtain walls are up - I haven't seen any interior work started on these, which will mostly be restaurants.

Here is the current view as of 12/23 of the church building.  The core areas have begun and we are seeing concrete trucks come and go.  At the moment the progress is visible every day on this project.

Minibogs Video!!!

This is a first try at this, a video taken with the iPhone.  Special note of thanks to my niece Rosie for putting the four or five takes together in one piece!

Happy 2011!

Yardbirds

Taking a cue from Marty, who made a list of the birds that show up in his Manassas yard when he puts the feeder out, I thought I would make a list of what we see out in the yard at Hawksbill Cabin. 

Now, I should make a note that we have three feeders going during the winter, especially when there is snow on the ground.  As soon as it starts to warm up in the spring, I take the feeders down since we'll start seeing young bears around.  No need to invite them up into the yard.

I use the National Audubon Society Field Guide to Birds Eastern Edition, to identify the birds we see.  Even so, there is one bird in the area I have not conclusively identified, and that is the type of hawk that we have in the hollow.  At times, I've thought this was either a sharpshinned or Coopers hawk - but the two species are very similar and even the experts have trouble with them.  For more on our experience with the hawks, check out the Hawks label at the end of this post - we had a pair that nested in the yard a couple of years running.

Starting with the perching birds, we get:

• Juncoes, eastern form
• House sparrows (a large and noisy flock shows up early in the day)
• House finches
• Gold finches (an intrepid, small flock of three or four)
• Cardinals (we have at least two pair)
• Blue jays (upwards of a dozen live in the hollow; they like the ground beneath the large feeder)
• Black-capped chickadee
• Tufted titmouse (there are quite a few of these, as there are with the chickadees)

Then with the tree clinging birds:

• Downy woodpeckers (there are at least two)
• Northern flickers (I've seen three around at once.  During the summer, they hang out on some of the dead trees over by the old beaver pond)
• White breasted nuthatch

Special guests - birds that don't visit the feeders, but I often see passing through the yard when I am outside:

• Pileated woodpeckers (there is at least a pair living in the hollow)
• Carolina wrens (there is a pair of these; I really love the song on those days when ours are out and about and have something to tweet about)

Someday I'll participate in the annual bird count.  I'd love to get a catalog on the population we're serving up all these black oil sunflower seeds to...

Alexandria Kitchen Week 5, Part 2

Here are the compass points photos.  As usual, here is the wall where there was a base and wall cabinet - should note, the fridge will go here when we are done.  Then the kitchen sink wall with the window, the new wall - cabinets are mounted here, and we've moved the stove out a bit to the middle of this wall.  Finally, the wall with the doorway to the basement. 

 

Obviously, still a ways to go.  But this is clear progress.

Alexandria Kitchen Week 5, Part 1

A couple of things are starting to come into focus.  The new kitchen floor is in, and the walls that will be exposed when all is said and done have their coats of paint.  But there is still plenty of work going on...this will be the first of two posts this week. 

Here is the landing on the stairway to the basement, showing the new oak floor.  Most of the kitchen floor has been laid, but it is covered with boxes and cabinetry.

Here are the pantry and the sun room.  As you can see, very crowded, pressed into service as storage for the Christmas weekend, and because snow is forecast and we don't want anything left outside.

Brave Combo - Must Be Santa

Byrds Nest Summit and Byrds Nest Shelter Number 4 - An Easy SNP Day Hike

This trail ended up being my final hike out of the Best Easy Day Hikes book, number 26 of the 26 that are reviewed there. Both the Easy Day Hikes book and Heatwole describe the Byrds Nest Summit and Shelter Number 4 as an easy hike through pleasant forest scenery, and I couldn’t argue with that. Although the Easy Day Hikes book outlines a circuit of 3.2 miles and climb of nearly 500 feet, I added in a little section of the AT that passes through here, freelancing off of the trail map I picked up at the entry station – so my hike was probably a little longer and had more altitude variation than their review had.


I should note that I had some photos taken in June 2010 to accompany this post, but failed to upload them…when I dropped the Moto RAZR last week I lost them. Maybe sometime I’ll revisit Byrds Nest Shelter Number 4, and if I do, I’ll post photos at that time.

Interestingly, looking at the Heatwole guide (my copy is the 1988 fourth edition), Henry describes the facilities at the shelter as having a pit toilet and a water faucet, but I either didn’t see or didn’t notice these during my visit…Heatwole also mentions a couple of nearby viewpoints that should be only a couple of hundred yards away, but I think they are overgrown now, and Henry goes as far as to qualify the description of them with the remark, “if they are still there.”

For a few minutes I considered the quality of this location, and then I chuckled to myself remembering a couple of passages in Bill Bryson’s “A Walk in the Woods.” In one place, he mentions a shelter somewhere south of Byrds Nest Shelter 4 where some Boy Scouts arrive shortly after he and hiking buddy Katz arrive. The Boy Scouts set to work, are cheerfully incompetent, and are “better than TV.”

In another passage Bryson describes coming to Gravel Springs Hut, which is north of Byrds Nest 4, again with Katz, but this time arriving in the rain. They are joined there by a group of six day hikers who have decided to “rough it” in overnight in the shelter, complete with libations.

Upon encountering Katz and Bryson in the shelter, one of the women says, “Ooh, do we have to share?” and things rapidly go downhill from there. Katz gets a form of revenge at the end of the story as they part ways – and that’s what gave me a laugh as I looked out on the meadow in front of the shelter. Gravel Springs Hut is probably another dozen miles north of Byrds Nest 4, but still, I was happy for the little memory.

Things were going nicely for a short while, and the shelter was a very nice facility, looking out over a little meadow. The weather was changing, it was growing overcast, and then I heard some thunder rumbling off in the distance. Growing concerned, I sped off into the woods.

With so many trails coming into the shelter area, I must have made a wrong turn somewhere along the way, and found myself on a side tail that I could not find on the map in the Easy Day Hikes book (I keep it in my pocket for reference when I do these hikes). I decided to put that book away and exclusively use the Park Service map, combined with the trusty compass on my Pathfinder watch, in order to navigate back to Skyline Drive.

It was very dark in the woods for the remainder of the hike, and my anxiety about the wrong turn made the walk seem very long – even though it really wasn’t. I remember that this was quite a beautiful part of the forest, as a matter of fact, in a hollow on the west side of the ridge, and not yet fully leafed out. At those times where I could put the worries out of my mind I enjoyed the views, and thought that a car shuttle hike doing a few miles of the AT through this area could be nice.

For all the anxiety, this pleasant memory of a book well read and the glimpses of natural beauty made up this into a not-so-bad experience. I exited the woods at Skyline Drive, and quickly assessed that I was south of where I had parked the car. I hiked a couple of hundred yards along the Drive back to the parking lot.

The moral of this story is simple – while it is relatively difficult to get lost in Shenandoah National Park, since you are always only a few miles away from Skyline Drive if you are on a blue or white blazed trail, you should always take the precaution of having a map, a compass, and some extra drinking water with you. Given the terrain, there are still a lot of areas where cell service doesn’t reach. Even so, it shouldn’t be too difficult to survive here with these things, and being without them will probably more likely mean you are in for some discomfort rather than in an actual life-threatening situation.

So that’s a lesson I’ve taken to heart – even though I will scamper off on many of the Easy Day Hikes book’s hikes sans backpack, I will typically have extra water, a couple of maps, and my trusty Casio Pathfinder with compass on hand. Since I use my cell phone for photographs, I always have it with me, too, although I don’t expect to have service much of the time on the hikes.

To close the post, here are Amazon links to the Easy Day Hikes book and the Bryson book, both mentioned above. Appalachian Outdoors Adventures in Luray often has them in stock.  You can also find a link to the Casio Pathfinder over there - - > in the right hand column!