Ridgeview Valley Blog

Are You Sure It's NOT Summer in Deep Creek Lake???

The weather here in the mountains of Maryland is really too good to be true.  Temps in the mid-70's to 80's has everyone saying, "Are you sure it's not summer?"  You would think it is.  When I came by the Aquatic Center this morning they already have their docks in.  I love this weather and I can work on my farmer's tan LOL!!!

Although along with these wonderful temperatures come the creatures I really don't like.  Today, Michelle and I were trekking around the top meadows when I happened to look down and my right foot was just about ready to plant right on top of this little fellow.  Needless to say I screamed at the top of my lungs.  Ewww!  Ick!!!!  Yuck!!!!  I have never liked snakes.

I know, I know it's just a little harmless garter snake, but I don't like 'em!!!  That is actually the 4th snake that we have seen here so far this year.  We saw a snake, possibly the same one in the same spot last week.  There is a tiny hole in the ground that it slithered right into.  I really didn't know that snakes lived in a hole in the ground.  And I call myself "Country"!!  Yeah right!!

On with our walk we came across this cute little pansy that has found it's home in the middle of the meadow.  Much cuter than the snake!!

Then on around the meadow and down the new trail that brings you out below the barn we found this in a mud puddle.  You're probably getting tired of hearing about frogs.  But again I have never seen them lay eggs quite like this.  So, I googled!  I found out that this is likely the eggs from the American Toad. They are laid in a long tube that can hold as many as 15,000 eggs.  These should take 3-12 days to hatch and become tadpoles.  Michelled went to check on the spring peepers and the wood frogs this morning. The wood frog tadpoles are growing quite quickly.  They might just sprout legs next week.

We had a purpose to our walk today, not just an aimless trek around the entire property.  I was jotting down coordinates for new Geo Caches.  Stay tuned for that.

Cardboard Box Derby 2012

This past weekend was the Annual Cardboard Box Derby sponsored by the Deep Creek Lion's Club held at Wisp Resort.  First let me say that my heart pours out to those folks and families that were affected by the crash.  I continue to hold all of you in my thoughts and prayers.  With that being said I still wanted to share pictures of the creativity that folks put into their crafts. 

Saturday was a picture perfect day with not a cloud in the sky.  It was hard to believe that it was the middle of March rather than a beautiful summer day on the mountain top.  I was ask to judge this year's derby so here are some pictures I took of the event and of some of my favorite sleds.

This is Pete, one of the developers here at Ridgeview

Pete's wife Rosie

The bathtub complete with bubbles

A green man.  I don't remember which sled he was on but he was funny looking!  LOL!!

Brrr!  Even with the beautiful sun that water had to be cold!

Selling T-shirts.

Dressed for the bathtub sled.

Punch Buggy green!  Double points because it's a painted bus!!  LOL!!

Everyone's addicted to Angry Birds!

This was my favorite!!

Hippies were popular this year!

 

Spring Peeper Update

Michelle and I hiked to the water tower again today to check on the status of wood frog and spring peeper eggs.  To my surprise this is what we found.  They have hatched and now we have tons of little tadpoles.  I hope the weather stays warm so they can continue to thrive.

Maple Sugar in Garrett County

I was reading my friend Becky's blog, Deep Creek Blog, this morning and she had this wonderful post from the Maryland Life Magazine about Maple Sugar Camps in Garrett County.  Sugaring has always intrigued me.  When I was a child my neighbor and my uncle would treck out on the farms every February to start tapping trees and hanging buckets.  I don't remember much about my uncle boiling the water but my neighbor, Glen, would cook that sweet,sweet water in an open kettle over and open fire in his yard.  It was our Christmas gift from him every year.  I loved hanging out with my neighbor, Glen, when we were kids he was like a Grandfater.  I remember seeing him in the cold early spring getting the fire going and watching the kettle when we would go by on the school bus.  That started my interest in Maple Sugar.  

Then growing up there was a rather large sugar camp just across the state line in West Virginia.  They made maple sugar candy in shape of maple leaves.  Now if you have a sweet tooth that is some yummy stuff!  I like it better than the syrup.  

Several years ago I talked my husband, then boyfriend, and his mother into tapping trees on our farm and boiling the water.  Our farm is just up the road from Enlow's farm who is mentioned in the article.  It is realy neat to see all of the blue tubing hooked to trees on their farm.  I am really glad they are keeping the history alive.  Oh and by the way they have fresh honey too!!!  YUM!!!!  I digress.  I had no idea what I was getting myself into with the whole maple sugar thing.  The year we did it the trees were running really fast and we were collecting lots of water.  It was up to my mother in law to boil it because I had to work. LOL!!! I can't believe she agreed to it because throughout the process she ended up cracking her glass top stove.  Ooops!!!  And then she decided to go the propane route.  Well just let me say that we ate that maple syrup like it was gold with the amount of propane that it took to boil the water to syrup stage.  And I never did get any candy!  She finally told us "NO MORE WATER!!!!!"  It was fun while it lasted!!

Then I started working here at Ridgeview Valley and you have heard me talk about Mr. Earl many times.  He told me stories of maple sugar in Garrett County in his day and his family making maple sugar right here on the farm.  Earl told me Ridgeview Valley was one of the top producing farms in Garrett County if not the top producer of maple syrup.  I found this interesting article sometime back from The Frederick News stating that in 1928 according to the USDA Garrett County was the top producer of maple syrup in the country.  It would be really fun to have someone tap our trees here again.  Maybe I will have to talk to the Enlow's.  

Last week KG and Ann were up for the weekend and coincidentally the Enlow farm was one of their planned stops for the weekend.  I have to send Ann an email and see if they got their syrup and the tour they were looking for.

 

Spring In Garrett County - My Favorite Time

I just love the rebirth of spring and everything that comes with it.  The new spring flowers pushing throught the ground, the swarms of robins making their way back north and my favorite sound of all the spring peepers.  I love everything about spring, the fresh clean smell of the air, the bright green of the grass long covered by snow (not this year, but the grass is still greening quite rapidly), the morning song of the spring birds, the lovely yellow of the coltsfoot, the first wild flower to pop out its perfect little smile.  Oh I could just go on and on and on!  This is why I live in Garrett County because I really do have, dare I say, "Hillbilly" roots and I just love the magic of the goodness of spring.  I can't wait for morel mushrooms and yes ramps.

Colts Foot

This week, Michelle has become just as excited about spring as I am.  Michelle and Chris went hiking around Ridgeview on Sunday and she actually heard spring frogs before me.  I got her email and then my hubby and I went out walking on our farm and we heard them too!!!  Yay!!!!  It is finally here, glorious SPRING!!!!

Michelle sent me a picture becasue not only did she hear the frogs but she saw the eggs as well!  

Of course I had to break out one of my many "Old Timer" sayings.  So I told Michelle that the frogs now have to look throught the ice three more times before the warm weather is here to stay.  Of course she asked me why?  I have no idea it's an old timer's saying that I have heard for years in Garrett County.  And of course Michelle went in search of the answer.  This is what she found on the Missouri Folk Lore Society website:  " Frogs will look through the ice, twice." It is supposed to remind you that there will be two more frosts after you hear frogs in the spring.  I always heard three times but the rhyme of twice and ice is quite clever.  

So as soon as I got to work on Wednesday Michelle and I quickly planned our daily hike.  We would meet at 1 and head to the water puddles up by the water tower so that I could also witness these beautiful frog eggs.  To my surprise when we got to the top of the hill we did not hear what I am used to hearing out of these precious frogs.  I always hear a peep or a squeak out of the "Spring Peepers'  hence their name.  But no these frogs were "clucking"????  I have never heard that, I was so confused.  I did not have a grand country answer to this.  I have never heard a frog cluck or quack.  Well I learned something new this week.  

When we got to the puddles there were lots and lots of froggy eggs, there are going to be a ton of tadpoles!!!  

These eggs were found in a glorified mud puddle, I hope they hatch before it dries up.  We ventured on over to the small pond where we heard more clucking and actually caught a glimpse of a couple frogs, salamanders and tadpoles!!  I was shocked to see that there were actually tadpoles already hatched and swimming around.  Of course I couldn't get a picture because I was using my iPhone.  I did attempt a picture of a wood frog the frog known for it's clucking rather than chirping.  It's hard to see so I drew a circle around it.

We finished the hike by following the logging trail on the next property to the beginning of Gravelly Run. These are just a couple of pictures I took along the way.

View of the Barn at Ridgeivew Valley with Wisp Resort off in the background.

Deep Creek Lake a little spec off in the distance.

 

 

Deep Creek Lake History

I didn't get to go out for a walk today. UGH!!  Michelle was busy and I was just to lazy to go by myself and then it started raining.  Well how could today's walk be more exciting that yesterday anyway and how could today's blog be more interesting than finding that little black lamb lost in the woods yesterday.  It was like Michelle and I were put there to find that little guy???  

Today I have an interesting map that Pete shared with me.  This is an old topographic map of the McHenry area from 1893.  That's pretty old and certainly before the existence of Deep Creek Lake.  Deep Creek was not flooded until 1925.  So Pete has deteremined that the Ridgeview Valley Farmhouse is depicted on this map.  Looks like the correct vicinity to me and certainly Mr. Earl always told me the house and barn were older than even that.  According to Mr. Earl this house and barn should have been built in the early 1800's. I would love to know for certain.  My next quest is to do some deed research.  I will keep you updated on my findings.  In the mean time enjoy this piece of Deep Creek History.

Mary Had a Little Lamb....

Well I don't know if Mary did, but we did at Ridgeview today.  Michelle and I went on our daily hiking trip around the farm today and we decided to walk to the water tower.  We were almost there and Michelle said "I just heard a goat!!"  I thought she was crazy until we started looking around and found this little 2 week old black lamb.  Holy Cow how did that get here!  I got to thinking and some friends of mine own the farm next to Ridgeview and I figured they had lambs so I gave a call to their son in-law, Jake, and sure enough we found the little guys family.  Jake called Pete and Connie and they quickly came over to gather up the baby. It was good that they thought to bring the Momma along because as soon as that baby heard its Momma he took off running right to her.  Here is a pic of trying to get the both of them back in the truck and a pic of Michelle and Pete with the cute little guy.

Along our walk today we found a new trail that we are going to try to keep open for hiking this summer. It runs parallel to the water tower and is just beautiful and has great views of the Wisp.

And when I got back to the farmhouse I was greeted by "Chuck".  Spring is actually here, I guess because the groundhogs are out in full force today.  Of course it is 60 degrees and gorgeous!

 

What's Been Going On

Well everytime this week I have gone to Typepad to start to write a blog I have been interrupted.  Wednesday, we were going to go for a walk around Ridgeview but the torrential downpours put an quick end to that and I was going to write on the blog about the torrential downpours but the lightning that zapped the transformer outside of my office put an end to that.  Anyway, Wow, Wednesday had some really crazy weather.  There was flooding all over Garrett County.  This is my driveway at home.

And this was hardly anything compared to the pictures I have seen on Facebook.  So then yesterday Michelle and I went for a walk but there really wasn't anything interesting to take a picture of and we were so busy talking.  Imagine that, me, talking HAHAHA!!  Today we were able to get out before the weather turned sour, but I thought it was supposed to be 63 degrees today, what happened to that.  It was bitter up on the hill and by the time we got back to the office it was a very cold rain.  Brrrr!  We had company today though.  Judy Schiff brought her friend Susanne to join us on the Ridgeview Valley hike.  Michelle has dubbed us the Trail Blazers LOL!!!