Making Ripples: post-corporate adventures in Floyd County Virginia

Is this a preview of the climate change to come?

Our family has been so preoccupied with the insanity of the global warmists that we have not taken a good look at the oncoming threat of 20 years of global cooling until very recently.

The latest series of snow storms have dumped several feet of snow on our property in Floyd VA and we have been fortunate to have our neighbor Rodger Bower to dig us out each time we became snowbound.

Because we have been getting mixed snow and rain, the snow becomes so heavy that it is very difficult to shovel. If we did not have access to someone like Rodger and his tractor, we would have been confined to the house for weeks at a time. The snow was deep enough that the usually reliable all wheel drive Subaru could not get us out to the plowed road.

We have been very fortunate this year, but I am beginning to wonder what will happen when the winters are significantly longer and colder. Are we going to be able to handle months and months of deep snow drifts and 10 degree weather?

We have been able, with the help of friends and family, to amass a store of firewood that was many times larger than what we gathered in previous years, but we have burned our supply faster than in any previous year.

We will need to cut and split another few cords of wood to make it through to warmer weather. Fortunately, we have a supply of standing dead trees that can be easily dropped and rendered into usable firewood. I can see several years supply, but I wonder what will happen when the several years of colder weather turn into a decade or two?

Our backup heating is electrical baseboards which work like a charm but are quite expensive and are used as a last resort. I shudder to think what out heating bills would look like if we had propane or electrical heat.

Global cooling will seriously impact our growing seasons. Our micro garden (foot square gardening) was barely satisfactory because of the short growing season. Local farmers were also affected and did not have the crop yields they had last year. If we are in for a long siege of shorter growing seasons, I am sure that we will soon be constructing greenhouses to make the most of the cooler summers to come.

People are resourceful when pressed to the wall and I think we will see many changes in how we heat our homes, how we grow food, and how we live during the colder years to come.

 Our clothing styles may even change as time goes on. In May, we will change from our winter mukluks to lightweight summer mukluks. You read it here first...

A handy point and shoot camera for capturing blog images

Some years ago I realized that my camera needs would be satisfied by a reasonably capable point and shoot camera and I discarded my cameras with multiple lenses for this Sony F828 which has been a reliable workhorse for about six years.

All good things come to an end and my Sony started failing intermittently. When I discovered how expensive the repairs were and how poor the official Sony service centers were, I decided it was time to change camera brands.

Doug Thompson, a professional photographer, spoke highly of Canon service and reliability and my wife Gretchen has had excellent results with her Canon cameras, so I decided that I would find a Canon model that would give me good low light performance and would provide a zoom lens with at least 10X magnification.

There are so many models that it was hard to choose between them, but I ended up with a Canon PowerShot SX20 IS which has all the features I need for less than $400.

I won't bore you with specifications, but this is like having a camera attached to a 20X spotting scope. The magnification can be pushed to 80X with 20X optical and 4X electronic.

I discovered that I can shoot photos that look almost like macro shots except these are shot at distant targets.

Here are two views of our ice-covered gravel driveway and both shots were taken from the shelter of the front porch. The ice-covered gravel in the right hand image is from the center of the frame of the driveway image. You are seeing what ice covered pea-sized gravel looks like from 25 feet away.

In the two images below, you can see two views of an ice-covered tree about 20 feet away, both shot from the shelter of the front porch. The branch detail is from the upper left quadrant of the tree picture.

 

Camera evolution is proceeding at such a pace that I fully expect that this camera will be obsolete in a year or so. I can't imagine what the next few generation of consumer cameras will look like, but I can guess that they will provide a Bluetooth connection so that one will be able to shoot and post the image online in one operation and they will capture images in much lower light levels.

Mickey G's Italian Restaurant is a big hit with Floyd diners

When you walk in to Micky G's, the first thing you see is an immaculate kitchen with highly professional staff turning out authentic Italian dishes. The next thing you notice is that every seat in the place is filled with your neighbors who got there first.

Fortunately, the kitchen and wait staff are true professionals and food keeps coming out of the kitchen on a steady stream of steaming platters. The fragrance makes your mouth water in anticipation of the feast to come. When you finally get seated and your food arrives, you find that it is every bit as good as you imagined. The wait to be seated is soon forgotten.

Gretchen and I have already decided that we are going to eat our way through the menu this year. After we ordered, we spotted our next few choices being delivered to neighboring tables.
 
The restaurant has been experiencing overflow crowds and it will be a relief for all concerned when warmer weather comes and the outside tables come into play.

Mickey G's Italian Restaurant is located next to the Floyd Fitness Center on Parkview Road. It offers a cheerful ambiance, fantastic food and the prices seem to be pretty reasonable. Check Mickey G's website for menu details. You have to use the links at the top of the menu page to navigate. There is an extensive menu, but the website only shows a page at a time.

For a mouthwatering description of the food and some history of the restaurant's owner, check out Colleen Redman's article, Michael Gucciardo is Back!

YOUR VOIP PHONES CAN BE LISTED IN THE CITIZENS TELEPHONE DIRECTORY

This is a great deal for a growing number of Internet Phone users.

If you have switched from a traditional landline telephone to one of the new Internet telephones (VOIP), you can still have your telephone number listed in the Citizens 2010 Telephone Directory.

Some of you may say, "Are you crazy? Why would I want to have a listed number?"

Those of you who have friends and potential customers trying to reach you probably know the value of being listed in the Telephone Directory White Pages and Yellow pages. You also know how much money you save using a VOIP telephone.

When I discontinued my land line phones and went to VOIP last year, I talked to Steve Mack of the Citizens Directory and discovered that I could have my new VOIP home phone listed in the Citizens Telephone Directory just as if it were a regular telephone and the listing cost me only $35 a year! Since my VOIP phone with unlimited calling cost only $24.95 a month plus tax,etc. this was just what I needed.

Steve called me today to renew my listing and I asked if this was open to everyone in the Citizens area or was I getting a special break. He said that it was open to those who wanted it and the only hitch was that the 2010 telephone book signups are closing as of February 5th.

If you want to be listed in the Citizens Telephone Directory and you are not now in there, call Steve Mack at 540-556-5003 to add personal and business VOIP listings to the new 2010 telephone directory for area codes 540 and 276. Business listings cost more than personal listings but I find them both to be reasonable.

I get nothing from this referral except a great sense of satisfaction sharing a real bargain for the small business owner.

I think the same opportunity must exist in other areas. Contact the people who publish your telephone directory, not your phone company.

Early morning thoughts about life in Floyd

The small hours of the morning are a good time to reflect on how lucky we are to have arrived here in this community. I am on the computer as usual while Gretchen and assorted cats sleep soundly.

We are experiencing a torrential downpour here in the mountains and power has been flickering on and off for the past few hours. The weather map seems to say that we will have more of the same with a snow storm coming by late tomorrow.

The rain has washed away the last of the ice that has covered our yard and we'll have time to replenish the supply of firewood on the porch before the next snow storm.

Weeks of temperatures in the teens has given the wood stove an insatiable appetite. We are pleased that our supply of firewood has held out this long. We have good neighbors who helped us when I was not in shape to cut and stack wood for the stove.

Gretchen and I have been fortunate in many ways. Our involvement with art and artists gives us opportunities for continued personal and professional expansion even though we are decades beyond our corporate careers.. We continue to support grassroots efforts at sustainable economic development and see that as a long term vital activity.

My custom framing business continues to attract appreciative customers and that is a wonderful thing indeed. I am finding opportunities to donate framing and photographic services to local organizations and am still helping others with web pages.

Gretchen continues to paint in pastels and mixed media and she is holding small classes on pet portraits for other artists. She is displaying her art in more venues every month thanks to her involvement with a network of local artists who share ideas and resources..

We support local merchants and buy from local sources unless the products are only available elsewhere. We are practicing economies in all areas and find that our quality of life has not suffered because of this.

I feel that businesses in this area of the country has always been struggling to survive and that this struggle will continue for the foreseeable future. On the positive side, there are those who still have money to invest and their continuing investments in this county make a huge difference in our ability to continue and attract tourists and new settlers.

Some have their attention stuck on the fact that businesses are closing, but I see that as a normal part of winnowing out enterprises that have failed to meet the needs of the local community. The positive signs are the continuing appearance of new businesses and home-based enterprises which bring money into the county from outside.

We have a high percentage of very creative people in this county but they are like seeds from which an attractive community will emerge. It takes innovative business people with investment money and resources to enable our creative potential to flourish and pay dividends. Fortunately we are blessed with creative and business people who work together in many ways.

People with small businesses are attracted to communities with great creative potential. A community cannot survive by standing still. They either grow because they are interesting places to live and work or go into decline because they have no future to offer their children.

We are struggling to make ends meet like the rest of the world, but we feel there is promise for a better life and it stems from the creativity that is encouraged here.