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Fining Your Own Path By JiJi Russell I want to offer you a “story starter.” The idea comes from kindergarten classrooms, where teachers ask newly reading and writing students to continue a given sentence or fragment. The starter might be something like, “When I am really hungry . . . .” The student creates the […]
By Jennifer Lee The old axiom “It takes a village to raise a child” could be the impetus for a group of Clarke County parents dedicated to supporting students and teachers in Clarke County Public Schools. The Academic Boosters of Clarke (ABC) has its roots in Concerned Citizens of Clarke County for Education, which was […]
Education In Focus by Amy Stone & David Lillard The first in a series of reports on dialogues and issues pertaining to Clarke County Public Schools. In this dispatch, The Observer is merely laying out the issue and the dialogue it spurred among a group of parents and school administrators. The homepage of the […]
Joe Boyd: Doin’ Good Through Good Music By Dominic Valentine Clarke County blues lovers know the Blues House Festival in Winchester, where headliners who often appear at the Barns of Rose Hill play for a good cause. But they might not know Joe Boyd, the guy who brings it all together. Joe Boyd is a […]
By Annie Young Living off of ingenuity and creativity, Travis and Joyce Miller have always valued being self reliant. They lived simply, gardened, canned, and cut sustainable firewood before it was a trend to “go green.” Their newest venture is bringing sweetness to people across the country—even around the world. Falling Bark Hickory Syrups, formally […]
Turning Salvage Timber Into Quality Lumber By David Lillard It all started when building contractor Charlie Beach couldn’t find someone to take trees removed from a site where he was building a house for a customer. He couldn’t stand the thought that a natural resource like good timber might be scrapped for want of a […]
net Plus Energy School For Builders A new energy-efficiency educational program for builders gets launched April 22 and 23 at the Inn at Charles Town, with the first 20 builders who sign up receiving free admission. The net Plus Energy program has been assembled by Professor Andrew McCoy of Virginia Tech and Al Cobb, who […]
by Jeff Feldman The first egg of the season came as a surprise. In sync with the shorter days of winter, our chickens tend to “lay off” for a while. I wasn’t expecting (eggspecting?) any eggs until late January or so. Yet there, on the 15th of December, tucked into the straw of the nesting […]
The Mysterious Bloodroot By Doug Pifer If you tramp the woods in early spring while it’s still freezing at night but the days start to warm up, you might run across a colony of one of my favorite spring wildflowers. Your timing has to be just right, because the milk-white flowers of the bloodroot last […]