Features (All)

Article - Good Living; by Capt. Allen Delaney - 10/14/10

Trailer Tips

Avoiding water-logged bulbs

Anyone who has launched a boat via a trailer soon realizes that the lights on the trailer function correctly right up to the first submersion. After that, it’s anyone’s guess. The left turn signal will function, but not the left brake light; only the brake lights work, but not the signals; signals work at random and the running lights have disappeared. Each spring brings a trip to the auto store to buy new trailer lights. The hermetically sealed package clearly states that...

Article - People; by Dr. Frank Gouin - 10/14/10

Confessions of a Secret Boatbuilder

When not getting his hands dirty in the soil, the Bay Gardener keeps busy restoring old boats and making new ones

Wife Clara claims that my desire to build and restore boats can be traced to Viking genes in my blood. I remind her I am of French Canadian descent with Algonquin heritage. Her rebuttal is that Vikings invaded northern Europe where my French ancestors lived. In the 20 years we’ve lived on Rockhold Creek in Deale, I have built two boats, with a third under way, and restored two more — plus a 1949 John Deere B tractor and, now, a 1939 Allis Chalmers B tractor. Clara is still...

Article - People; by Aries Matheos - 10/14/10

Sir Barchan of the Joust

For the honorable knights of the Maryland Renaissance Festival, every charge is aimed for the win — knocking the other rider off his horse

“A piece of armor may fly into the crowd. If this happens, please do not be harmed,” says Sir Barchan of Dinglebury, who comes armed with a sense of humor and over 90 pounds of 14-gauge stainless steel to introduce his fellow jousters. As champion of the Maryland Renaissance Festival’s home field, Rebel Grove, the 60-year-old knight loves this contact sport. The self-taught champion leads the Ren Fest knights into battle against the new era. With no high-tech gadgets,...

Article - Green Living; by Margaret Tearman - 10/14/10

From Vine to Wine

2010 was a very good year for Maryland grapes

It’s been a wild weather year — record winter snowfall followed by record summer heat followed by record daily rainfall. Weather that’s been inconvenient for most us has been terrible for Maryland farmers who grow conventional crops like corn and soybeans. But for Maryland grape growers in all corners of the state, 2010 has been a very good year. “A good year is an understatement,” Rob Deford, president of Boordy Vineyards in Hydes, Maryland, told...

Article - News; by Aries Matheos - 10/7/10

Sailboat Show Sideline

There’s a lot of life in those old sails yet

The Haughwouth sisters’ parents had passed away, and the boat was long gone, but when their childhood sail resurfaced, Penny and Pixie couldn’t bear throwing it away. Instead they turned it into two jackets. Then they turned it into a business, Sea Fever Gear. Sailors don’t have many options for worn-out sails other than throwing them away. “So many hold onto them,” says Haughwouth, “because they carry an emotional tie. Who owned it before? Where has it been...

Article - Creature Feature; by Diana Beechener - 10/7/10

Doggie Distractions

AAA finds that careful driving has gone to the dogs

It’s now illegal for Marylanders to drive with their hands on their phone, but according to a AAA study, we’re still likely to fall victim to another driving distraction: our animal companions. The study — a joint effort between AAA and Kurgo Pet Dog Products — polled 1,000 dog owners who have driven with their dogs over the past year. Fifty-nine percent of pet owners admit that travel with their pets distracts them from the job at hand. The trouble arises because...

Article - People; by Amy Russell - 10/7/10

Double Dipping

Sailing is Collin Linehan’s sport. It’s also his career

On a clear Saturday morning with just enough breeze, skipper Collin Linehan sits at the stern of his J22, listening to the calls of his crew. Water splashes against the hull of the racer, Funhouse Mirror, and the cool moisture from the Chesapeake relieves the temperatures of the crew on board. Linehan and his crew are competing for the J22 East Coast championship title in Annapolis, and as the sailors trim and hike, sweat beads across their foreheads. An avid sailor from Manchester,...

Article - Creature Feature; by Diana Beechener - 9/30/10

Bug Off

Life stinks for Marylanders

The brown marmorated stink bug has made itself Maryland’s least welcome invader of 2010. Fat from feasting on orchard and soybean crops, flocks of the Asian alien have invaded homes and gardens, causing more than a foul odor. “The populations this year have been astronomical when compared with years past,” says Dr. Joe Fiola, specialist in viticulture and small fruit for the University of Maryland Extension. “Multiple bugs per fruit, whereas with green stink bugs [the...

Article - Places; by Katie Dodd - 9/30/10

Rock the Casbah

This weekend’s final First Sunday is your last chance to join the fusion of community and arts

From May through October, the First Sunday Arts Festival transforms inner West Street into an Annapolitan Casbah. Wandering down West Street, you find the normally high-traffic thoroughfare empty of cars, replaced by dozens of artisans’ tents. Despite the weather — rain to swelter to who knows what — swarms of people stroll the brick road, admiring the treasures on display. From earrings made of bottlenecks to children’s storybooks to paintings to decorative shutters,...

Article - News; by Margaret Tearman - 9/30/10

The Tall Price of Power

For SMECO, it’s a big job feeding our demand for electricity

Something alien is growing in Calvert County. The aliens have sprouted up in the front yards of homes along quiet, winding Bowie Shop Road. Still more are appearing on Route 4. They are big, very big, towering over the landscape. Eventually there will be 23 of them. These aliens are behemoth power poles, erected by Southern Maryland Electric Cooperative in the name of progress. The new metal poles bear little resemblance to the old wooden poles they are replacing, and they don’t exist...