View from Supinlick Ridge

Looking toward Orkney Springs and North Mountain

Clematis in bloom

The house on the cove

Looking at all our pleasant photos of Glebe Harbor makes me sad that we are trying to sell the house. But home is now in Shenandoah County, one of the prettiest areas anywhere.

I updated my Sunny Harbor - Shelter Cove page which has a number of photos of our waterfront home. It's on my javins.com site which is hosted with VirtualAvenue, an economical hosting service for websites.

Events near Harrisonburg

Blue Ridge Community College Folk Arts Festival is coming up May 6-7 near Exit 235 off Interstate 81.

Native Plant Sale at JMU's arboretum will take place tomorrow
April 29 in Harrisonburg, Virginia.

Virginia Community College Registration

Deadlines approach for summer registration for community college courses here in Virginia. The May 19-21 Civil War Tour in West Virginia carries three credits from NVCC. I've taken Professor Poland's Civil War Courses for many years, touring numerous battlefields and less-known sites and really enjoy them.

A list of community college websites in Virginia is at www.vccs.edu.

Fisher's Hill, Virginia

Someone who saw my pictures of Fisher's Hill Battlefield wrote to me looking for details of the battle.

I replied that the National Park Service has a detailed page which describes the area as well as the battle of Fisher's Hill, I recommend that one and also johnsmilitaryhistory.com/fishhill.html.

There are various Shenandoah history and genealogy links at http://csonner.net.

Fisher's Hill battlefield will undoubtedly be damaged if I-81 is widened. The Interstate runs through the battlefield and VDOT is looking at plans to increase capacity of the highway. But at least for now, Fisher's Hill is a scenic place to visit.

Marie's birthday

On Saturday we drove up to New Jersey for Marie's birthday. It was a rainy day and the turnpike was jammed with cars, barely moving for long stretches. After finding that the gas station and restrooms were intolerably busy, we decided to bail out. We drove to US 9 and found it uncrowded, with gas stations that had no cars in line and a ladies' room that also had no line. Route 9 took us almost to our destination with no further problems. Still, a supposed-to-be 6-hour trip took 9 hours.

It was good to see Marie again and meet some of her friends. They are really nice people and interesting to talk to.

We spent the night at the Hilton next to the Newark Airport, a very nice hotel. I had gotten a good deal on Priceline.

A few more pictures of the house we're selling

Rear View

The Cove

Side View of the Barn/Garage

Kitchen has ample cabinets, a dishwasher, and a disposal

Hall bathroom.



There's a ramp leading to the deck.

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This home is in the Glebe Harbor/Cabin Point area of Virginia's Northern Neck.

Note: If you reached this page via a search engine, click here for the rest of this blog.

More photos of Egret Court

Our waterfront home in Glebe Harbor is listed at $399K. It has 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, a garage-style storage building, and an open floor plan.

Glebe Harbor is a quiet community near Mount Holly in Virginia's Northern Neck. It has a beach on the lower Potomac and a clubhouse with swimming pool.

The master bedroom has a view of the creek. It also has it's own bathroom. The kitchen, dining area, and living room also have a water view. You can sit on the deck and watch the herons, swans, and ducks visit the cove.

It really is greener over the septic...

We arrived in Montross last week after some rainy weather which really encouraged the grass to grow. There were long dark stripes of grass which I realized must be following the lines of the drainfield.

(Note to urbanites: a septic system has both a tank and a series of drain lines, from which water percolates into the soil.)

Frank was able to cut the grass without too much trouble, although I assisted by removing large pine cones from the lawn. Later that same day he arranged to have Mount Holly Lawn Service keep the grass cut.

We are listing the house for sale. We really don't use it a lot because it is a fairly long drive from our primary home, which is also in a resort area. Since the primary home is in a beautiful and restful place, there is not much reason to leave it.

Glebe Harbor is a beautiful place also and since the house is on a pretty cove, I'm sure someone will appreciate it. The community is on the Potomac River in Westmoreland County, Virginia.

The house next door is still for sale at $410K. Here's part of their backyard view.

Guppy the Wonder Dog

Interstate 81 Expansion? Tolls?

VDOT is looking at plans to widen I-81 through the beautiful Shenandoah Valley and public meetings are being held this week. The Civil War Preservation Trust lists the Shenandoah Battlefields as endangered. Also, The National Parks Conservation Association says Virginia needs to work to further reduce its air pollutants not promote mega highway expansions.

I-81 on a bad day is better than I-95 on a good day. Yes, there is heavy truck traffic, but commuter traffic is mercifully light. VDOT has a useful system where you can dial 511 on your cell phone and find out where the traffic jams (if any) are. They can expand this system by putting up electronic signs so that we could switch to the alternate routes (US 11, Middle Road, Route 42).

Piedmont Environmental Council has some intelligent pages on the I 81 Issue. And don't miss the Shenandoah Valley Network's page: Speak Out Before VDOT Commits to
Massive Truckway, Bypass & Tolls.

Petition on benzene in juice and sodas

The Environmental Working Group has an online petition to the US FDA regarding benzene in beverages.

Also, you can read the letter that EWG already sent to the FDA on the benzene problem. It includes a chart showing test results. A quote:
"For example, between 1995 and 2001, FDA tested 24 samples of diet soda for benzene; 19 (79 percent) were contaminated with benzene above 5 parts per billion. The average benzene level was 19 ppb, nearly four times the 5 ppb tap water. The maximum detection was 55 ppb, 11 times the tap water limit."

Web Hero Hosting

Catalog.com has morphed into Webhero, offering Free and low-cost Web Hosting. I filled out a Web Hero Profile in the hope of getting a referral fee sometime.

I have two sites hosted on Catalog.com: Civil War Field Trip Photos and Virginia Photo. So far I have been happy with their service.

Squirrel in the bird feeder

"Nice Picnic Shelter"

A pleasant Easter Sunday

There's cute photos of Ryley and Josie at the RySuDoJo blog.

Meanwhile back in Virginia, we met Lynn for lunch at Ryan's Buffet in Staunton and then enjoyed a leisurely ride through the countryside on our way home.

Pet photo contest disallows nudity

I entered my cocker spaniel in a pet photo contest at 1800petmeds.com.

The actual rules for "Cutest Pet" Photo Contest state "No nudity." Fortunately, Ben was wearing his fur coat.

Photos: A Farm in the Spring

Evidence that whiny people are conservative?

News Article: Remember the whiny, insecure kid in nursery school, the one who always thought everyone was out to get him, and was always running to the teacher with complaints? Chances are he grew up to be a conservative.

At least, he did if he was one of 95 kids from the Berkeley area that social scientists have been tracking for the last 20 years. The confident, resilient, self-reliant kids mostly grew up to be liberals.

See Jack and Jeanne Block's scholarly report as a PDF here.

We've been looking at farms

We love our chalet but it's a little bit small so we've been looking at other homes in Bryce and also at farmhouses in the Shenandoah Valley. On Tuesday we looked at a farmette near Quicksburg and soon found these neighbors staring at us.

I'll share some more farm pictures as soon as I get them resized - my original files are huge.

If you prefer cartoon cows, visit Marie's Wall of Cows as drawn by comic book artists. Just click on the artist's name to see the pictures.

Birds of Virginia's Mountains

I found the book Birds of Shenandoah National Park: A Naturalist's View at the library. This book by Terry and Patressa Lindsay features photos by Rob Simpson who teaches wildlife photography at Lord Fairfax Community College in Middletown, Virginia. (The actual book cover is in color, as are the many photos inside.)

I took one of Professor Simpson's courses last year and found it challenging, even though I have taken numerous photography courses at Northern Virginia Community College. Simpson's classes require some sophisticated equipment and extensive field work. But they are worthwhile if you have the time and energy and want to take better pictures of wildlife.

Benny embarrasses us (again)

Our grumpy little cocker spaniel got kicked out of the grooming salon today. We had left him there for a shampoo and haircut but before too long they called us and said to come get him! He tried to bite the groomer (or at least pretended to try in a convincing manner) so they didn't even bathe him.

He hates being bathed. He doesn't like the electric grooming shears either.

The photo shows him in the car a week ago. I was so pleased because he was able to ride peacefully without his crate. He used to be terrified of riding without the security of the plastic-walled crate so I thought he was making progress. He's been a very slow learner!

Marie is home

Marie is back from her travels. I am always relieved when I hear that she is safely home.

I guess she will put the finishing touches on her book on her solo travels in Africa and prepare for her next adventure.

Don't tell her I told you this, but one of her coworkers in Kuwait wrote a complimentary piece about her.

Update on Vacation Property

The waterfront house that our friends in Glebe Harbor are selling has been reduced to $410K. It's listed through a Northern Neck Realtor. The Northern Neck is the Virginia peninsula between the Potomac and Rappahannock Rivers.

Stone House on Senedo Road

Near Hudson's Crossroads stands the old stone Hudson House, built in the 1700's and designed to withstand an Indian attack. This is in the Shenandoah Valley southwest of Woodstock along Route 42, called Senedo Road. Senedo is from the same Native American name as Shenandoah, said to mean "daughter of the stars."

Local author Andrea Sutcliffe wrote a guidebook to places like this called Touring the Shenandoah Valley Backroads. I've found it useful and we spend a lot of time driving through the Shenandoah Valley and it's surrounding mountains.

Critters outside our door

The squirrel is standing on his front paws.

Lovely butterflies

If you haven't already seen the photos of butterflies with transparent wings, click and look.

Goodbye Kuwait, Hello Spain.

Marie Javins has made it to Barcelona. See her blog for her fond farewell to Kuwait.

She'll return to the USA soon.

Cute Dog Picture

Benny

Vampires at Work

I liked the book Emotional Vampires: Dealing With People Who Drain You Dry enough to review it on Amazon. Psychologist Albert Bernstein writes that The following activities may have little to do with doing a good job but they WILL lead to advancement:

1. Bringing in new business.


2. Cutting costs.


3. Doing anything with people of higher rank.


4. Taking management's side on controversial issues.


5. Generating paper with your name on it (other than memos criticizing management)


6. Socializing.

Well, it's a bit cynical but it makes sense.

Fire on the Mountain

On the way back from Greenville yesterday we saw this forest fire to the east of Port Republic. It was in Shenandoah National Park and we saw helicopters flying back and forth to fight the fire.
See the WHSV story about the fire.

Ranch Hand

Yours Truly at the Deer Roundup

The Deer Roundup

We helped with the deer roundup at Deauville Farm. Here Gail Rose raises fallow deer for venison and also as a tourist attraction.
Our first duty was to line up with the other "ranch hands" and herd the deer into a raceway which took them to the barn. This took a while because the herd charges off into whatever direction they feel is safe, galloping and gliding through the woods. Once in the barn they are tested by a veterinarian to make sure no serious diseases are present.

They are released one at a time through a small door which Frank had the job of opening and closing. Sometimes they hesitate to come out but as soon as they know freedom they leap and run off. Quickly they found their companions and reformed the herd.

The deer farm will reopen to the public this weekend. It is on Crooked Run Road near Basye. The deer are wild creatures but they will approach people who offer corn.