Maybe twenty years ago, we laid ceramic tiles on our kitchen and bathroom floors, and foolishly put them on our counters. Foolishly because ceramic isn’t like granite. It is porous and stuff gets inside. Our floors and counters looked awful. It was impossible to clean them, and the grout was dirty as well. I called Grout & Carpet Wizards. I had done a business article on them years … [Read more...]
Targeting Winter Saugeyes
By Alex McCrickard/DWR My swimbait landed a couple inches off the rocky bank. A few fast cranks on the reel brought my presentation away from the danger zone of a snag and into the desirable deeper, swifter water. I stopped retrieving to let my 1/8-ounce jig head settle into the deeper drop-off. Moments later, I gave two twitches with the rod tip, and I slowly came tight. It wasn’t … [Read more...]
Super Duper Sea Bass
The early winter sea bass season has been nothing less than sensational. When weather allows, boats are returning with limits on each trip – and nice bass at that. Tautog are plentiful on nearshore ocean wrecks and reefs. Their feeding activity is based on water temperature. When the water is above 44 degrees, they should be available. Now that Bay water has hit 50 degrees look for the bite to … [Read more...]
George Washington’s Real Birthday
George Washington was born on February 22, not the entire fourth week of February. His birthday was also not clustered among the birthdays of other presidents. His birthday was unique and once a special event. I moved to Charlottesville on Feb. 1, 1967. I had accepted a position as Men’s Buyer at Leggett Barracks Road. The new store was trying to get a foothold in selling better … [Read more...]
Buying the First Seeds
With the arrival of this spring-like weather in February, I am chomping at the bit to get in my garden, but patience must prevail. I will wait until March to begin planting, but that doesn’t mean I can’t start buying seeds - which I did. I stopped by Blue Ridge Farmers Co-op (formerly Southern States) and filled a small paper bag with onion bulbs and bought two packages each of Black … [Read more...]
Back To Nature with Home Lighting
Occasionally our vendors surprise us with some fun pieces with lots of character and interesting materials. And the January Market did just that. This year expect to see fixtures with natural fibers and materials. Some of the chandeliers, sconces, and pendants are made of hand-wrapped rattan, smooth bamboo, woven string, handcrafted of mango wood, cork, handcrafted of Eucalyptus, and many in … [Read more...]
Cooking the Perfect Steak
It’s hard to screw up a good steak. Unless you cook it until every drop of juice is gone and it’s as dry as shoe leather or if you serve it so rare that it crawls off your plate before you can kill it with a steak knife, most any steak will be good. And well it should, because steaks come from the choice parts of a steer, generally the loin or rib area. Steaks are one of the first things … [Read more...]
Signs of our Times
Grackles Beware
I am in full-grackle mode. They showed up last week and I am prepared for the confrontation. For the past several years, grackles have attacked my yard and birdfeeders like the Russians going after Ukraine real estate. It wouldn’t be so bad if there were 6 or 8, but they come in swarms, as many as 50 or more in a gang. I cannot afford to feed 50 grackles. In order to continue to feed my … [Read more...]
Al Carbon: Worth a Visit
The Woodbrook Shopping Center is where restaurants go to die. It’s tucked away and hidden for the most part, and there aren’t enough Woodbrook families to keep a restaurant going – with one exception. Al Carbon, an authentic Mexican/Peru restaurant specializing in charcoal rotisserie chicken. Early this week, the grout people were working on our kitchen, and it was off limits, so I … [Read more...]
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