Articles by Margaret Tearman

Taking the Leap

The greatest risk would be to pass up the chance to do something that will make you happy

You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. You can’t get there by bus, only by hard work and risk and by not quite knowing what you’re doing. What you’ll discover will be wonderful. What you’ll discover will be yourself. –Alan Alda Brian Wrabley stands at the edge of a cliff. Below the Gunnison river churns through a deep canyon. The river is almost impossible to reach, accessible only by a few billy goat trails:...

Article - Good Living; by Margaret Tearman; 1/3/13

The Sierra Club’s Big Stick

A 40-year-old treaty stands in the way of local LNG export

The biggest news in Chesapeake Country is hidden in plain sight at a bump on Calvert County’s long, otherwise smooth Bay shoreline. Travel by water in the vicinity of 38 degrees 23 minutes north latitude and 76 degrees 23 minutes west longitude and, right off of Cove Point, you’ll see the tip of the iceberg. A mile and a quarter from shore is an enormous loading platform, mostly waiting nowadays for any 800-plus-foot tanker’s load of 30 million gallons of...

Article - News; by Margaret Tearman; 5/3/12

This Week’s Creature Feature ... Roll Out the Bark-o...

Fido has a TV channel

It’s tough being a dog. As we rush out the door for work, they get a quick pat on the head. Then you’re gone and Fido is home alone. Fido now has his own TV channel to watch while you’re away. That’s right. A television station, broadcast 24/7, just for the dogs. Premiering in San Diego, California, in March, DOGTV was designed to keep dogs from being stressed and anxious when home alone. “DOGTV is the...

Article - Creature Feature; by Margaret Tearman; 4/5/12

The Cure for Spring Fever

Color chases away winter blues

Mother Nature is busting out. Leaves are unfurling, buds are bursting and grass is growing. Winter is history, and with it dull brown and gray landscapes. Spring has sprung, and its bright greens, sunny yellows and cool purples leave us hungering for more. We want — no, make that need — color. The fever has infected us. There is no escaping it. Looking Sharp Longer days and warm sun have lured us outside. Yet it’s going to take a lot of labor before we love...

Article - Gardening; by Margaret Tearman; 3/29/12

If Walls Could Talk

At historic Linden House, the buildings have a lot to say

Once upon a time, just about everything on the table was home-grown. To eat, you needed to keep chickens for meat and eggs. Cows for milk, butter and cheese. Livestock was raised, butchered and preserved. So old homesteads included not just a home but also chicken coops, animal stalls, meat houses, smoke houses. The outbuildings where food was raised and preserved are as much a part of the story as the old house. At Historic Linden House, home to Calvert...

Article - History & Lore; by Margaret Tearman; 1/19/12

Platinum Living

One family proves that an environmentally progressive home doesn't have to look like a science project

Martha and Bill Sykora’s 1951 house looks like a conventional, home. Nothing sci-fi about it. Behind the façade, it’s anything but conventional. It will be Anne Arundel County’s first LEED Platinum-certified home. The Sykora home proves that an environmentally progressive building doesn’t have to look like a science project. Dreaming Green When Bill and Martha...

Article - Green Living; by Margaret Tearman; 1/5/12

7 Easy Steps to Energy Efficiency

Simple steps to lower your utility bills and ease the pressure on Mother Earth.

Upgrade to a Programmable Thermostat Keeping your home warm in the winter, or cool in the summer, requires a lot of energy. Control these costs with an energy-saving programmable thermostat. This thermostat is programmed by time and temp so that your heating or central air-conditioning is on when you want it to be and at the temperature you choose. About $65 at local home improvement centers, it will pay for itself in heating and cooling savings in a year...

Article - Green Living; by Margaret Tearman; 1/5/12

Digging the Information Highway

Road by road, broadband Internet is snaking your way

What are they doing on the side of the road? They’re cutting trees and bush-hogging to clear a path. They’re trenching a couple of feet into the earth along roadways. They’re feeding bright orange conduit into those trenches. They’re threading fiber optic cable into the conduit. They’re bringing the world to your door, those men and women working inches from your speeding car. The peripatetic roadwork up...

Article - News; by Margaret Tearman; 11/10/11

This Week’s Creature Feature ... Can You Identify...

Neither nutria nor porcupine, it’s a stumper

Bill and Martha Sykora have a regular visitor to their yard on Broad Creek in Annapolis, but who it is they don’t know. New to the neighborhood — they moved in May — they aren’t familiar with local wildlife. Martha had never seen anything like this visitor, so she grabbed her camera. “The fuzzy photos taken thru my second-story window are of the critter in question,” she tells Bay Weekly. “It is the size of a very short-legged cat....

Article - Creature Feature; by Margaret Tearman; 11/3/11

Working the Land for a 21st Century Market

At Spider Hall, education and old-fashioned fun help keep the family farm in business

Squeals rise from deep inside the eight-acre corn maze. Families hitch a ride atop bales of hay. Kids scour the pumpkin patch in search of the perfect gourd. Shoppers mull over crisp apples and Maryland meat, cheese and ice cream in the farm market. Susan and Catherine Cox — mother and daughter proprietors of Calvert County’s Spider Hall Farm — lure people to their fields with fun — hoping they leave with good memories and newfound respect for farming...

Article - Green Living; by Margaret Tearman; 10/20/11