Features (Good Living)

Article - Good Living; by Leigh Glenn - 11/10/11

Who Needs Grass?

The Kniskerns’ yard is a sustainable smorgasbord

The fifth of an acre where James and Mary Kniskern live in Arnold was about what you’d expect for a suburban dwelling: grass, azaleas, daffodils in the spring, pachysandras year-round. As you’d expect, it required the drone of a mower and sweat non-equity to keep it in shape. “I didn’t like to mow,” says James. But what was the alternative? Less than a decade later, the Kniskerns are living the alternative...

Article - Good Living; by Karen Rust - 11/3/11

Bring on the Grapes

If you’ve got five acres, you’ve got a ready market and help starting out

Southern Maryland takes a step closer to becoming the California — at least the Virginia — of the Atlantic Coast, this fall, with a new grant encouraging farmers to plant vineyards. While Maryland wineries have burgeoned, Maryland grapes have lagged behind. In the first decade of the new millennium, Maryland wineries grew from a handful to 42. Eleven of those new wineries have grown up in Southern Maryland. Calvert County, one of the fastest-...

Article - Good Living; by Margaret Tearman - 7/28/11

One Grand Gala

One family’s crusade to cure cancer puts the fun — and feast — into fund-raising

If you haven’t made an appointment to have your hair done, or if your favorite Tommy Bahama shirt or little black dress needs to go to the laundry, you had better hurry. There’s just one week left before the biggest party of the year: Rod ’n’ Reel’s annual Celebration of Life Gala. On Thursday, August 4, the Gala celebrates 30 years of bringing the community together for good food and good times for the good cause of raising...

Article - Good Living; by Sandra Olivetti Martin - 6/23/11

Love the Bay?

Southern High School artists will paint you a wall to proclaim it

When it comes to wearing your heart on your sleeve, Muddy Creek Animal Hospital, in the rural crossroads known as West River, has reached a new high. The artists of Southern High School have splashed a celebration of the Southern Anne Arundel environment — from Bay to wetlands to farm fields — onto the vet clinic’s 25-foot-high exterior wall. The evocative mural realizes a long-held dream for Grant Nisson, whose veterinarian “family practice”...

Article - Good Living; by Dr. Francis Gouin - 6/9/11

More Confessions of a Secret Boatbuilder

Even the Bay Gardener doesn’t thrive on vegetables alone

The latest addition to my fleet of boats I’ve built or restored is a 16-foot strip sea kayak. This was a two-winter project requiring some of the skills I learned when building my 16-foot strip canoe. However, this project required having to scarf all strips for added strength and building a deck to fit snugly over the hull. The deck was built on the same form as the hull, but the trick was maintaining the shape so that when attached to the hull, it could be glued and sealed. ...

Article - Good Living; by Margaret Tearman - 6/2/11

Breeding Local

Dale and Debbie Jones want you to know what you eat, where it came from and how it was raised

What are you eating and where did it come from? That’s Dale and Debbie Jones’ mantra. On Windy Willow Farm in Sunderland, the Joneses raise pastured, grass-fed beef, lamb and goat. Theirs is a relatively new business venture: they’ve been selling meat for only two years. Spend just a while talking with them, and you know what they do is more than a business. It’s a mission. “This was my grandparents’ farm, and it is...

Article - Good Living; by Heather Boughey - 6/2/11

Treasure Hunting

X marks the spot on the Captain John Smith Trail

Once upon a time, seeking treasure meant following the dubious guidance of a hand-drawn map through grave dangers. Scurvy, mutiny, greed and confusion — not to mention blood-thirsty competitors and territory-conscious wild animals — were perils treasure hunters faced in seeking the spot on the map marked by X. The Global Positioning System changed all that. Modern treasure hunters have more in common with Captain Kirk than Captain Sparrow....

Article - Good Living; by Matt Driscoll - 4/28/11

Ditching Bottled Water

Opening the tap can save you big bucks while helping the environment, too.

Come close because I have a secret to tell you. It’s not a secret you need to keep. It’s a secret you need to spread. Want me to spill it? Listen up. That water that comes out of your kitchen sink or bathroom faucet, you know the stuff. The same water you use to brush your teeth or wash your dishes. The same water you fill your dogs’ bowls with. Yeah, that water. Well, that water is drinkable. I...

Article - Good Living; by Sandra Olivetti Martin - 4/21/11

The Carnivore’s Conundrum

Locally grown and ethically treated livestock brings meat you can trust to your table

Growing your own veggies is one thing; raising your own livestock is entirely another. That’s the lesson of my friends’ rabbits. Back when Earth Day was a bright new idea, green pioneers Janice and Phil turned their mildly urban garage into a high-rise rabbit warren. Chemical-intensive factory farming had scared the health-minded couple away from grocery meat. Home-raised rabbit seemed the sustainable solution. ...

Article - Good Living; by Heather Boughey - 4/14/11

Park Quest Took My Family Back to Nature

Now It's Your Turn!

In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks. -John Muir On a hot day in early summer 2010, Team Bay Bougheys went seeking Isabella at Cunningham Falls State Park in Western Maryland’s Catoctin Mountains. A swim in Little Hunting Creek — our second stop along the trail to find Isabella — was inviting. But we were on a mission, and our sweaty three-person team persisted in our mile-and-a-half quest. We Bay Bougheys — husband Jon...