Features (Good Living)

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 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 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 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...

Article - Good Living; by screened by Diana Beechener - 2/3/11

Bay Weekly’s annual Groundhog’s Movie Review

Burrow down until spring with these classic flicks

Each year, when Bay Weekly’s resident rodent cinephile Chesapeake Chuck comes out of hibernation on Groundhog Day, he presents his movie picks, knowing we’re in for six more weeks of homebound winter. This year, Chuck found inspiration while watching the Academy Award nominations and decided to revisit the classics now — before the 2011 Oscars add more films to the pantheon. What makes a classic? Chuck selected two authoritative lists: The American Film Institute’s...

Article - Good Living; by Aries Matheos - 12/9/10

Lighting Up the Holidays

A little juice goes a long way for these Duffy Electric Boats

Where does the only Earth-friendly, $1-a-fill-up fuel in Annapolis come from? The nearest electrical outlet. As long as the power cord is long enough, Sally Koch, owner of SJ Koch Duffy Electric Boats, can run not only her boats but also as many electrical appliances as captain and crew can operate. Power like that comes in especially handy when the “living room on water” — Koch’s name for her quiet, comfortable fleet — glides through the 28th annual Eastport...

Article - Good Living; by Diana Beechener - 12/9/10

What Are You Doing Next Year?

12 calendars to spruce up the march of time

In the pages of this illustrious paper, I get credited only as staff writer occasionally. For the most part, I’m Bay Weekly’s Calendar Editor. I’m the one who tells you what’s happening in Bay Country every day of every week. It’s my job to rely on calendars, to get the dates right and to plan ahead. I look at a calendar every day. Every. Single. Day. To do my job, you really need a good calendar. John Wayne watches over my desk, a strong black-and-white image to...

Article - Good Living; by Roberta Safer - 12/2/10

Avoid the Christmas Crisis

This Jewish Jeweler sets gifting guys on the right road

No matter what people have told you, it is not just the thought that counts. It really is the gift. It should not be so, but it is. Christmas is beloved by children and by women who get the right gift. But the annual holiday of giving strikes fear in the heart of any man — husband, father or boyfriend — for he must choose gifts. Small matters he may delegate to his secretary — at least if he works in New York or Washington. He can ask his Significant Other to do the...

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...