On a recent drive across the east end of the county, my wife and I took roads we’d traveled often, before we moved to Goose Creek. (more…)
On a recent drive across the east end of the county, my wife and I took roads we’d traveled often, before we moved to Goose Creek. (more…)
Four years ago, March, the old field across from the house was choked with 13-year-old White Pine trees. (You can count the number of whirls of branches and age them in this way.) They had been planted, we were told, to harvest as Christmas trees. Paid for ‘by the tree’ they were planted way too close together, then neglected and growing tall and spindly in long dreary rows. Each anemic tree wore bare branches almost to the top, starved of light by its nearest neighbors. Rank and file, they grew in monotonous congestion on the only level land in this small mountain valley within our boundaries. (more…)
It amazes me how a leaf knows when its time has come to fall. Perhaps some combination of day length and temperature gives the signal. But maybe it’s just the good taste to abort, an inner sensitivity to the needs of the whole, giving its parent tree a chance to hibernate with its blood gone underground for the winter, safe from freezing. Whatever reason and whatever the trigger for the moment of leaf launch, I’m glad they don’t all get the same idea on the same day. (more…)
The former Dulaney’s Store in Alum Ridge, has recently been transformed into an exciting musical venue, now known as The Old Store.
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It is said that there are now over one million weblogs, or ‘blogs’ maintained and published around the world. I am coming to appreciate my place in a minority in that population, since I am among a very small number who write from the Appalachians. (more…)
Black powder is a type of gunpowder invented in the 9th century and was practically the only known propellant and explosive until the middle of the 19th century. It is still manufactured today but primarily for use in fireworks, model rocket engines, and reproductions of muzzleloading weapons. (more…)
My name is Randall Weddle. I recently learned that my ancestors arrived in the New World well before the Revolution and settled in Virginia. Through the assistance of the Montgomery-Floyd Regional Library, (Charlotte Atkins, Library Assistant), I was able to identify my GGGGreat Grandfather, Benjamin Weddle, who was an early settler in the Floyd County area. I have also learned that my GGGreat Grandfather, Andrew Weddle, and his son, John B. Weddle, lived and died in Floyd County, and that my Great Grandfather, Callahill Weddle, moved on to Ohio. (more…)
A fella I don’t know all that well called back in October. Said he and his wife wouldn’t be burning wood any more, now that they had the heat pump and all. Why didn’t I come pick up the wood that came down in that last hurricane. He had stacked it back up the holler.
And so I did, and while he was helping me load it, he mentioned that the old road there goes back up the valley to the waterfall. (more…)
by Rajal Cohen, AmSat Certified teacher of the Alexander Technique
Beyond Ergonomics
As our society becomes increasingly mechanized, more and more people are suffering from repetitive strain injuries. From debilitating carpal tunnel syndrome and tendonitis, to the chronic neck pain that everyone who works at a computer takes for granted, we are all showing the effects. (more…)
Are you puzzled by the tax law and which credits and deductions you still take? Free help is available through the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program, sponsored by New River Community Action, Inc. Floyd office. (more…)