A Four-Hour Tour

“Sit right back” and ride with me through rural WV. See for yourself just how “clean” the natural gas drilling process called “fracking” really is. We got a up-close, four-hour tour of this Wetzel County hydrofracturing operation (a large Chesapeake Energy project) two weeks ago by some local West Virginia residents, and want to share what we saw and heard.

To be informed about what’s going on with fracking, and everything that’s at stake, is the first step to slowing down the process until citizen interests are considered first - before corporate profits, and before the land in the United States (including WV and VA) is polluted possibly beyond repair – just like the Gulf.

With hydrofracking we’re really talking about hundreds of “ground zeros,” instead of one.

This article is an example of the power of electronic journalism. Whether you’re a child, a teen, or an adult, whatever your station in life, citizens can use technology and the Internet – blogs, videos, photos, writing, social networking, cell phones, electronic devices, etc. – to tell the stories that must be told, the stories of the people, of democracy and freedom.

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What You See Is What You Get

I had heard about the hydrofracking process, had researched it, and had written a number of articles on fracking, but what I saw when I visited the Wetzel County, WV site surprised me.  I left somber.

In the Northeast U.S., natural gas is generally found in the Marcelleus shale rock formation, which extends from New York – and as many people don’t realize, down into Virginia.

In Rockingham County, VA, Carrizo Oil & Gas (a Houston firm) has applied for the first application to hydrofrack in the state of Virginia – in tiny Bergton, to be exact.

Bergton is a rural area, outside of Harrisonburg, not far from James Madison University and Eastern Mennonite University.

There are no Federal regulations against hydrofracking. Nor does Virginia have any – yet. So, the special use permit to drill a natural gas test well in Bergton is the first time hydrofracking has become a possibility in Virginia, and in the Shenandoah Valley. This is significant because once the “floodgates are open,” there will be no turning back. The water supply for the Valley, and by extension, Washington D.C., is at risk.

The situation is being studied and weighed by the local Rockingham County, VA,  Board of Supervisors (BOS) as you read this.

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Showing the Reality of Hydrofracking – Case Study: Wetzel County, West Virginia

Here’s what I learned about the process before I went on the tour… Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, involves the injection of between 3 to 8 million gallons of water, sand, and undisclosed chemicals at very high pressure down vertical pipes and then across into horizontal drilled wells as far down as 10,000 below the Earth’s surface.

The pressurized mixture causes the rock layer – in this case Marcellus shale – to crack. These fissures are held open by the sand particles so that natural gas from the shale can collect and then be pumped into holding tanks, or piped out directly to market.

The used-up fracking liquid is stored in open pits (below) and then either taken to a waste water treatment plant, or covered up by sand/dirt on site.

This is especially dangerous when a project is built on or by a floodplain.

During the process, about 200 large tanker trucks are needed to deliver the millions of gallons of water for the fracturing process for each single derrick/well.

Alternatively, although rarely disclosed in the permit and application, gas companies – can actually suck the water out of nearby streams to use for their own purposes.

What I was not prepared for was that with each step of the natural gas drilling process, there is machinery, construction, dust, invasion of the Earth’s crust – and yet another chopped-off hill – literally in every direction one looks.

There are water pipes along the side of almost every road, and up and down the hills.

There are compressor stations and storage tanks, dozens of heavy trucks, moving back and forth on small roads, and there are staging areas, where barrels of chemicals (with toxic signs on them) are just sitting outside on the ground (below).

The scale is big. It’s hard to show here. The “pads” that the derricks sit on, for example, can be as large as four or five acres. In Wetzel County, during the construction process, silt fences are not being used on any type of a regular basis. Thus, whatever is disturbed can spread to another area.

Here are some more pictures I snapped in Wetzel County, WV:

Not too far from Wheeling, the striking terrain of this remote West Virginia land (near Maud, WV on Route 7) used to be open, rolling, green-covered hills, with trees everywhere.

These are not your Old Grand Dad’s small oil derricks, ala Beverly Hillbillies style, dotting the landscape here and there, like fairy castles. No, hydrofracking is indeed an industrial undertaking.

Below are the small rural roads in Wetzel County that were never meant for dozens of 80,000 pound trucks rolling by, reducing some of the paved roads to dirt.

There is so much activity and wear & tear that the roads must be watered throughout the day just to control the dust it’s so thick (right).

The nearby streams in Wetzel County used to be freely flowing with clean water, and fish in them – and a habitat for other wildlife and plants (below).

Chesapeake Energy is taking hundreds of thousands of water a day from the local watershed to use in the fracking process. They siphon as much water from the streams as they need. Why is this permissible, when taking the water affects the whole region, not just the property that has been leased?

Quality of Life Must Trump Profiteering

Here’s the deal: The energy companies lay out their industrial operation like a grid, deciding where best to situate the wells to make the most money. If someone’s land is in that path, regardless of whether he/she has signed a lease, the oil company can still run pipes under his/her land.

That’s eminent domain in action; it takes power away from citizens, and places it into corporate hands – hands that most often have profit as a motivation, rather than quality of life.

You can see here how the water looks. It’s a red/rust color, about the consistency of chocolate milk.

One day, our “tour guide” said that he actually saw workers pulling out water from a stream as the minnows lay there dying. Many of the plants in the area are also gone. Barren land is what’s left behind.

Taking all of this water from the environment is happening even as some areas in the region have declared an emergency situation because of drought conditions.

There are other ramifications that affect the quality of life, too.

The Wetzel County residents used to be able to leave their homes at anytime without being delayed for hours because of the double-wide compressor machines that the large trucks trek up the country roads to the fracking sites three times a week. Now, citizen schedules must be built around Chesapeake’s corporate schedule.

These large trucks on the small roads also cause safety issues.

Our tour guide said that this past year EMT personnel had to use a Kybota to get an elderly woman from her home in order to take her to the hospital when the Chesapeake trucks were blocking the roads. Accidents, too, are common and have increased. A lifeline helicopter now circles above the area.

Know too…  Since 2005, the energy companies that run hydraulic fracturing operations have been exempt from compliance with The Clean Air Act and the Federal Safe Drinking Water Act.

Right now, in essence, we’re living in an unregulated fracking free-for-all. That kind of “environment” has been demonstrated all too well in the Gulf of Mexico.

As one of the residents in Wetzel County, WV, remarked to me when we first arrived: “They do what they want.”

Here is what the residents told us. In Wetzel County, WV, before Chesapeake Energy came in, there were weight limit signs on the small roads and bridges near the soon-to-be fracking site , but a few days before their arrival, the locals said that these weight limit signs “miraculously disappeared.” There was a obstacle; it was eliminated.

Omission of pertinent information is also an issue. For example, a complete listing of the specific chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing operations are not made available to landowners, neighbors, local officials, or health care providers, nor is it required by any government entity.

There have been reports just this month in PA where energy companies have finally been pressured to release their list of 80-plus fracking chemicals. Why is it not required of these companies upfront – to state what they plan to inject into the ground? That’s only sensible and reasonable. (Cattle in PA have also been quarantined because of runoff fracking liquid.)

Fracking Divides People and Towns

Another observation: Perhaps, the most significant harm fracking brings to a community is a social one. Suffice it to say that division occurs when a fracking operation comes to town. The issue seems to intrinsically split the community into those who are financially benefiting from the drilling (and look the other way to the environmental harms), and those who have not leased land (or, who have decided to stand up for peoples’ health and the environment – on principle.)

If you’re interested, the technical aspects of how hydrofracking works are illustrated in this ABC News video.

Or, view this earlier article on the health effects of hydrofracking, as researched by Dr. Theo Colburn.

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The Regional Backdrop: Virginia is Next on the Radar Screen

Commentary: The Wetzel County, WV, Chesapeake Energy hydrofracking operation that you’ve just seen has been going on for four years now. It’s a great case study for us in Virginia, as we decide how we’ll handle our natural gas challenge.

We have a window of opportunity here in Virginia; for how long is unclear. We have a unique chance to make a difference for the Commonwealth, and also to set an example for the rest of the country as to what we’ll put up with, and what we won’t.

Will we act swiftly and decisively to hold energy companies accountable, or will allow big business interests and the clout of those who are making big bucks from the drilling to set the stage?

Here is a picture (right) of the Cowfer #1 natural gas (fracking) operation in Osceola Mills, Pennsylvania that Carrizo Oil & Gas built.

Here are other pictures of rural Bergton, VA, where a fracking operation is now being  proposed by Carrizo Oil & Gas:

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This is the first time any area of Virginia has had to deal with these fracking  issues. As part of their due diligence, members of the Rockingham County VA Board of Supervisors recently drove up to Wetzel County, WV, and took a similar tour of the Chesapeake Energy fracking operation. They also took video and still photos.

The people must know what is going on.

Let’s see which Virginia politician – local or otherwise - stands up first and sponsors legislation in the Virginia Assembly next session to regulate this first precedent-setting fracking operation in Virginia.

Whoever does take the lead will surely be lauded.

Proposed Bergton Drill Site is Next to the Watershed that Supplies D.C. with Drinking Water

It’s important to note that the Bergton drilling site is on a flood plain. And, it’s between two tributaries of the North Fork of the Shenandoah River (Rader Run and Bennett Run.) . Just this week, Governor McDonnell declared Rockingham County, Virginia, a disaster area due to current drought conditions.   After reading the Carrizo Oil & Gas application, the source of the millions of gallons of water needed for fracking in Bergton is a mystery. They only have budgeted $11,500 for “drilling and potable water” in the application.

We are all connected

If Carrizo does the same as Chesapeake Energy and siphons water from the local streams here in VA, the water situation will worsen. And, what will fracking so close to the watershed do to the water supply for the Valley – and by extension for the Washington DC area? Will we end up with water that looks and smells like Wetzel County’s  streams?

Without strong leadership soon, it’s likely that the Bergton, VA area will become much like the industrial scene that you’ve witnessed in the pictures from West Virginia.

The People Taking A Stand, Joining Together

Let’s hope that enough people get involved to have us learn from the experience of our neighbors in NY, PA, and WV. Virginia needs to enact a moratorium until regulations can be put into place to protect Virginia citizens, Virginia land, and our regional water supply. A natural gas severance tax of some sort would be advantageous for Virginia coffers, as well.

What can you do?

1) Watch for news on 7Bends.com about an upcoming citizen dialogue meeting to be held here in Virginia in the Fall. It will use the innovative Open Space Technology (OST) format which encourages open conversation among all of the people and parties involved, most prominently involving the citizens themselves.

2) Contact your elected officials today to ask what they plan to do about the situation. Be aware that there are 24 counties in Virginia that do have Marcellus shale, so your area could be next. The Bergton decision affects all Virginians.

What about the “Energy Independence” Argument?

Before I close this article, I want to lay the energy independence issue out on the table. The powerful energy industry – with its mega bucks, mega lobbyists, hefty community contributions and media buys – are touting natural gas drilling as “a clean source of energy” that will be one of nation’s answers to energy independence for the U.S.

Many Americans, when they first hear about “natural gas drilling,” react “Way to go! We want energy independence. We won’t have to rely on just coal, or on foreign suppliers.” That is a great aim. But, the reality is … to not object to the hydrofracking process – as it now exists in its unregulated state – is just not possible once you’ve witnessed it.

Without these regulations, it’s not a decision of the heart – or any type of logic – to want hydrofracking “in your own backyard.” That is, unless you’re one of the folks getting monthly checks, and you’ve abandoned your now-polluted piece of property, and bought a nice big house somewhere else. What about the land? What about your neighbors?

The race is on

As legislators try and play “catch up,” the natural gas drilling companies are racing “to get it while the getting is good” – that is, before the process is slowed down and handled responsibly.

A scene near Bergton now (pre-frack).

Imagine a sign reading: “Welcome visitors to the once beautiful Shenandoah Valley – that is, before hydrofracking.”

The streams, vegetation, water supply, and air for many thousands of people – just one degree of separation from the “ground zeros” that are being erected all across the countryside – are being threatened.

Responsible business is one thing; we welcome that. But, this unregulated, free-for-all is unacceptable. If Virginians do not take notice and enact regulations before the energy companies come into “frack” Virginia land, it will be difficult to stop the tide, as our neighboring states can definitely agree.

I always learned: leave whatever land or property you use better than the way you found it. We must make it so.

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“In general I esteem it a good maxim, that the best way to preserve the confidence of the people durably is to promote their true interest.”                 ~ George Washington

Here is the Official Summary of Senate Bill S 510 – from OpenCongress.org:

12/18/2009–Reported to Senate amended. FDA Food Safety Modernization Act – Title I: Improving Capacity to Prevent Food Safety Problems -

(Sec. 101)
Amends the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FFDCA) to expand the authority of the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) to inspect records related to food, including to:

(1) allow the inspection of records of food that the Secretary reasonably believes is likely to be affected in a similar manner as an adulterated food; and
(2) require that each person (excluding farms and restaurants) who manufactures, processes, packs, distributes, receives, holds, or imports an article of food permit inspection of his or her records if the Secretary believes that there is a reasonable probability that the use of or exposure to such food will cause serious adverse health consequences or death.

(Sec. 102)
Authorizes the Secretary to suspend the registration of a food facility if the food manufactured, processed, packed, or held by a facility has a reasonable probability of causing serious adverse health consequences or death to humans or animals.

The Bill also requires parents to provide documentation of their child’s food allergy to schools.

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When they speak about “adulterated food,” they are, in part, referring to genetically-modified food.

Wikipedia defines GM food as such:

Genetically modified (GM) foods are foods derived from genetically modified organisms. Genetically modified organisms have had specific changes introduced into their DNA by genetic engineering techniques. These techniques are much more precise than mutagenesis (mutation breeding) where an organism is exposed to radiation or chemicals to create a non-specific but stable change. Other techniques by which humans modify food organisms include selective breeding (plant breeding and animal breeding), and somaclonal variation.

GM foods were first put on the market in the early 1990s. Typically, genetically modified foods are transgenic plant products: soybean, corn, canola, and cotton seed oil. But animal products have also been developed. In 2006, a pig was controversially engineered to produce omega-3 fatty acids through the expression of a roundworm gene. Researchers have also developed a genetically-modified breed of pigs that are able to absorb plant phosphorus more efficiently, and as a consequence the phosphorus content of their manure is reduced by as much as 60 percent.

Critics have objected to GM foods on several grounds, including possible safety issues, ecological concerns, and economic concerns raised by the fact that these organisms are subject to intellectual property law.

Read more here about Monsanto and GM food, and the control of the world seed market.

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“Is freedom anything else than the right to live as we wish?  Nothing else.” ~ Epictetus

FoodFredom.Wordpress.com list the following effects if the US citizens do not stop the passage of  S 510:

1.  It puts all US food and all US farms under Homeland Security and the Department of Defense, in the event of contamination or an ill-defined emergency.

2.  It would end US sovereignty over its own food supply by insisting on compliance with the World Trade Organziation (WTO), thus threatening national security.  It would end the Uruguay Round Agreement Act of 1994, which put US sovereignty and US law under perfect protection.  Instead, S 510 states:

“COMPLIANCE WITH INTERNATIONAL AGREEMENTS.
Nothing in this Act (or an amendment made by this Act) shall be construed in a manner inconsistent with the agreement establishing the World Trade Organization or any other treaty or international agreement to which the United States is a party.”

3.  It would allow the government, under Maritime Law, to define the introduction of any food into commerce (even direct sales between individuals) as smuggling into “the United States.”  Since under that law, the US is a corporate entity and not a location, “entry of food into the US” covers food produced anywhere within the land mass of this country and “entering into” it by virtue of being produced.

4.  It imposes Codex Alimentarius on the US, a global system of control over food.  It allows the United Nations (UN), World Health Organization (WHO), UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and the WTO to take control of every food on earth and remove access to natural food supplements.

Its bizarre history and its expected impact in limiting access to adequate nutrition (while mandating GM food, GM animals, pesticides, hormones, irradiation of food, etc.) threatens all safe and organic food and health itself, since the world knows now it needs vitamins to survive, not just to treat illnesses.

5.  It would remove the right to clean, store and thus own seed in the US, putting control of seeds in the hands of Monsanto and other multinationals, threatening US security. Seeds are the basis of all plants, and controlling them controls the food supply.

6.  It includes NAIS, an animal traceability program that threatens all small farmers and ranchers raising animals.  The UN is participating through the WHO, FAO, WTO, and World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) in allowing mass slaughter of even heritage breeds of animals and without proof of disease.

Biodiversity in farm animals is being wiped out to substitute genetically- engineered animals on which corporations hold patents. Animal diseases can be falsely declared.  S 510 includes the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), despite its involvement in the H1N1 vaccine campaign.

7.  It extends the policy – Hazard Analysis & Critical Control Points (HACCP) -  to all food, thus threatening to do to all local food production and farming what HACCP did to meat production – put it in corporate hands and worsen food safety.

8.  It deconstructs what is left of the American economy.  It takes agriculture and food, which are the cornerstone of all economies, out of the hands of the citizenry, and puts them under the control of multinational corporations influencing the UN, WHO, FAO and WTO, with HHS, and CDC, acting as agents, with Homeland Security as the enforcer. The chance to rebuild the economy based on farming, ranching, gardens, food production, natural health, and all the jobs, tools and connected occupations would be eliminated.

9.  It would allow the government to mandate antibiotics, hormones, slaughterhouse waste, pesticides and GMOs.  This would industrialize every farm in the US, eliminate local organic farming, greatly increase global warming from increased use of oil-based products and long-distance delivery of foods, and make food even more unsafe.  The five items listed — the Five Pillars of Food Safety — are precisely the items in the food supply which are the primary source of its danger.

10. It uses food crimes as the entry into police state power and control.  The bill postpones defining all the regulations to be imposed; postpones defining crimes to be punished, postpones defining penalties to be applied.  It removes fundamental constitutional protections from all citizens in the country, making them subject to a corporate tribunal with unlimited power and penalties, and without judicial review. It is (similar to C-6 in Canada) the end of Rule of Law in the US.

[If you have some information you want to pass on, send it to Editor@7Bends.com. Feel free to add a Comment on the bottom of this article.]

Here is who is confirmed to perform on the Grandstand this year in Woodstock, VA:

2010 Grandstand Entertainment Line-up

- Gloriana – Sunday, August 29, 2010
Amid the soaring four-part harmonies and electric stage presence, it’s clear that Gloriana represents an exciting new and vibrant force in country music. The group–Tom Gossin, Mike Gossin, Rachel Reinert and Cheyenne Kimball – consists of four uniquely talented and enthusiastic young musicians joining forces to create a fresh, one-of-a-kind sound that reflects the best of today’s Nashville.

- Eden’s Edge -Sunday, August 29, 2010

Generating much excitement after their performance at the Nashville Songwriters Association Hall Of Fame Honors event, Edens Edge is enjoying major attention from Nashville’s music row. Hook-laded pop country songwriting, flawless three part harmony and locked rhythm, coupled with a deep connection to their bluegrass roots, Edens Edge is the future of country music.

- Josh Turner – Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Whether it’s with his deep, soulful voice, his South Carolina accent or his philosophy on life, Josh Turner has never been one to hurry. But a memorable country song recently convinced him to pick up his pace.

The singer-songwriter was months away from scheduled recording sessions when he first heard “Why Don’t We Just Dance,” which became the debut single from his fourth studio album, Haywire. Josh placed the song “on hold” with the music publisher so they wouldn’t allow anyone else to record it. But when another artist expressed interest in the song, the publisher asked Josh to record the song to see if he liked it enough to keep it, and he did.

- Randy Houser  – Thursday, September 2, 2010

The passion, enthusiasm and conviction in Randy Houser’s music is utterly irresistible. One listen to his soul-drenched singing is enough to convince you that you are in the presence of a masterful performer. One scan of his deeply felt lyrics is all the proof you need to see that this is a major songwriting talent. And one meeting with this smiling, endearing, open-hearted personality is all it takes to make you believe he deserves to be a star.

- Uncle Kracker – Friday, September 3, 2010

Though many know him from his early years as the DJ in Kid Rock’s Twisted Brown Trucker Band, Uncle Kracker (whose real name is Matt Shafer) has had impressive success as a songwriter, racking up co-writing credits on Kid Rock’s blockbuster hits “Bawitdaba,” “Cowboy,” “Forever,” “Only God Knows Why,” and 2008’s No. 1 “All Summer Long,” as well as his own Adult Top 40 No. 1 “Follow Me.”

Horse Lovers get ready!

For all you horse lovers, The Shenandoah Silver Spurs 38th 4-H Annual Horse Show (for ages 9 and up) will be held at the Fairgrounds on Sunday, August 29, 2010 at 8 a.m. (rain or shine). The show judge this year is Leslie Prillaman.

Honoring Veterans at the Fair on September 2

A planning committee consisting of Veteran’s of WWII, Korea, Vietnam and the Gulf Wars has already met with board members and members of the community to plan the Veteran’s Day agenda and activities for the 2010 Shenandoah County Fair.

Thursday, September 2 is confirmed as this year’s Veterans Day at the Fair date. The Activities Tent will open at 10:00 a.m., with a Grandstand Ceremony starting at 11:00 am to honor Veterans.

The guest speaker this year is Major General Walter L Davis. Major General Davis is the Deputy Director of the Army Capabilities Integration Center at Fort Monroe, Virginia. The chair of the organizing committee for Veteran’s Day at the 2010 Shenandoah County Fair is Raymond F. Powell. Mr. Powell is the President of Chapter 936 of Vietnam Veterans of America. For more information, contact Mr. Powell at rfpowell ~at~ aol.com, or (540) 333-0823.

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Adults and kids alike – many in 4-H and FFA – have been raising animals all year to show at the 2010 Shenandoah County Fair. Come and see for yourself!  There’s also a Demolition Derby car show and NTA wrestling.

Map and Directions to the Shenandoah County Fairgrounds

From Winchester and points north:
Take I-81 South to Exit 283. At the top of the offramp, turn left onto Route 42. At the first traffic light, turn left. The fairgrounds will be directly ahead on the left.

From Harrisonburg and points south:
Take I-81 North to Exit 283. At the top of the offramp, turn right onto Route 42. At the first traffic light, turn left. The fairgrounds will be directly ahead on the left.

Hotel Information:

For a more scenic route, take Historic US Route 11 that runs parallel to Interstate-81 into Woodstock, VA.

There are a number of hotels in nearby Shenandoah National Park.
Shenandoah National Park Hotels offers great rates on over 50 hotels.

Other nearby accommodations include:

In Woodstock, VA: Holiday Inn Express, Comfort Inn, Hampton Inn & Suites

In Edinburg, VA: Renaissance B&B

For all of the latest Shenandoah County Fair information, stay tuned to their web site. Tickets go on sale on Monday, June 14, 2010.

Contact Information:

Phone: (540) 459-3867
E-mail: shenfair@shentel.net

Mailing Address:
Shenandoah County Fair Association, Inc.
Shenandoah County Fairgrounds
P.O. Box 264
300 Fairground Road
Woodstock, VA 22664

Office Hours:
Monday – Friday – from 9 a.m. to noon, and from 1 to 5 p.m.

]]> http://7bends.com/2010/06/10/tickets-go-on-sale-for-shenandoah-fair-concerts/feed/ 0 http://7bends.com/2010/05/30/author-jan-neuharth-returns-to-edinburg-va/ http://7bends.com/2010/05/30/author-jan-neuharth-returns-to-edinburg-va/#comments Sun, 30 May 2010 12:11:56 +0000 Press_Release http://7bends.com/2010/05/29/author-jan-neuharth-returns-to-edinburg-va/ Edinburg, VA -  The Kill, the newest murder mystery book to evolve from the rich fox hunting tradition of Virginia’s hunt country will be discussed at Fran Romeo & Company, 212 North Main Street in Edinburg, Virginia, on Sunday, June 6, 2010 from 2 to 4 p.m.

This special event, is in celebration of Jan Neuharth’s release of the third in her series of books, and second book signing to be hosted at Fran Romeo and Company.

Set in the historic foxhunting community of Middleburg, Virginia, “The Kill” begins when globe-trotting photojournalist Abigale Portmann gets word in war-torn Afghanistan that her beloved uncle, the 70-year-old Master of the Middleburg Foxhounds, has been brutally murdered.

Abigale returns to the rocky relationships of her past in the close-knit equestrian community – a place she has deliberately avoided for seventeen years. As the gripping plot unfolds, friends become suspects and family ties are tested. Events for Abigale – and the hunt club – spin out of control as this riveting tale races to a terrifying finish.

When Neuharth last appeared at Fran Romeo & Company, she was working on the “The Kill.” Now it’s complete. Jan will also be signing “The Hunt” and “The Chase,” the first two books in the series. Any or all of her books are excellent gifts, especially when they are personally autographed.

Jan Neuharth, an attorney and avid equestrian, practiced law in Los Angeles before moving to the Virginia hunt country to establish Paper Chase Farms, one of the premier equestrian facilities of its kind.

Jan’s debut novel, The Hunt, was a Benjamin Franklin Award finalist and was nominated for a Library of Virginia Literary Award. The Chase won the IPPY Gold Medal for best Regional Fiction and was a Notable Winner of the Eric Hoffer Award. A graduate of the University of Florida and Vanderbilt Law School, Jan Neuharth lives in Middleburg, Virginia with her husband, Joseph Keusch, a former Joint Master of the Fairfax Hunt, and their children.

The Kill, the third novel in her Hunt Country Suspense series, will be released May 27, 2010. Keusch will also be greeting attendees to the book signing on June 6 – to add a touch of hunt flavor. (Hint: Joseph often comes dressed in full hunt regalia.)

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Opened in Fall 2009, Fran Romeo & Company is a unique gift and wedding boutique on Main Street (Route 11, Old Valley Pike) in the small, historic town of Edinburg, Virginia, the heart of the Shenandoah Valley. The boutique carries a wonderful array of unique items, including jewelry, which its proprietor, Ms. Fran Romeo, personally selects from all over the United States. Fran is a wedding and event planner, specializing in arranging personalized unforgettable days to remember in the Valley, and the region.

For more information about Fran Romeo & Company, visit here.

For more information about author Jan Neuharth, and her new book, The Kill, visit here.

Gasland, an International WOW Company Production, gives an up-close look at a newer method of drilling known as “Hydraulic Fracturing.”

Hydrofracking (for short) has opened up new territory in 34 U.S. states to extensive drilling, including the Marcellus Shale, a vast formation that underlies most of Pennsylvania and New York, including the New York watershed and the Catskills/Poconos.

A Cross Country Journey – Water on Fire from Pennsylvania to Colorado

When filmmaker Josh Fox discovers that Natural Gas drilling is coming to his area – the Catskills/Poconos region of Upstate New York and Pennsylvania – sets off on a 24-state journey to uncover the deep consequences of the United States’ natural gas drilling boom.

What he uncovers is truly shocking  – water that can be lit on fire right out of the sink, chronically ill residents of drilling areas from disparate locations in the U.S., all with the same mysterious symptoms, huge pools of toxic waste that kill cattle and vegetation well blowouts and huge gas explosions consistently covered up by state and federal regulatory agencies.

Part verite travelogue, part expose, part mystery, part bluegrass banjo meltdown, part showdown, Josh and his banjo encounter EPA whistleblowers, congressmen, world recognized scientists, and some of the most incredibly inspiring and heart-wrenching stories of ordinary Americans fighting against fossil fuel giants for environmental justice.

BACKGROUND

From the film’s web site:
“A major upswing in production took place in 2005 when the Congress and the Bush Administration exempted the industry and its new process of drilling, “Hydraulic Fracturing” from the Safe Drinking Water Act and many of our primary environmental protection laws.

While the PR campaign for the Natural Gas industry promotes its product as “clean burning,” it hides the fact that the new form of drilling, pioneered by Halliburton, is incredibly harmful to the environment and threatens to permanently contaminate a huge amount of the country’s water supply, create drastic air pollution conditions, and despoil huge areas.

Despite overwhelming evidence of contamination, mismanagement and corruption, the general public remains unaware of the extreme effect the
drilling may have on their lives.”

Gasland features:

Josh Fox – Dr. Theo Colborn – EPA Whistleblower Weston Wilson – Congressman Maurice Hinchey (D-NY) – Congresswoman Diana DeGette (D-CO) – Congressman Louie Gohmert (R-TX) – Al Appleton, (Former NYC DEP Commissioner) – Scott Stringer, Manhattan Borough President – Lisa Bracken, Colorado Resident – Dr. Al Armendariz, EPA Administrator for Region 6 – Wilma Subra, MacArthur Genius Award recipient in the field of Water/Soil contamination – John Fenton, Wyoming Rancher – Shirley McNall, New Mexico Resident – Rick Roles, Colorado Resident – James Gennaro, NYC Council Environmental Board Chair – Residents from Dimock, PA, Booneville, AR, Dallas/Ft. Worth and other areas.

A Little About Josh Fox

JOSH FOX (Director/Writer) GASLAND is the first documentary feature film by celebrated filmmaker and theater artist Josh Fox. It is his second feature film in two years, following the narrative feature Memorial Day released in 2009.  Josh Fox grew up in Milanville, PA and New York City and his work is known for its mix of gripping narrative, heightened imagery and its commitment to socially conscious themes and subjects.

He is the founder and Artistic Director of International WOW Company, a film and theater company that works closely with actors and non actors from diverse cultural backgrounds, including members of the US Military, activist communities in sustainable energy and design and actors, dancers, designers and filmmakers from around the world to create new work
that addresses current national and global social and political crises.

The company has premiered new work in eight countries with a rotating network over 100 actors, dancers, musicians, technical, and visual artists spanning 35 countries on five continents. With International WOW Company, Josh has received a Drama Desk Nomination, an Otto Award, five grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and five prestigious MAP
Fund Grants, A Ford Foundation grant, an Asian Cultural Council Fellowship among many other awards and honors.

In 2008,  Josh completed his first feature film, Memorial Day, produced by Artists Public Domain, Journeyman Pictures and C-Hundred Film Corp. Memorial Day is a genre-bending examination of American culture and the atrocities of Abu Ghraib, where war is a party and partying is a war. The film premiered at CineVegas Film festival in 2008 and was hailed as “Unforgettable” by Variety and “Uniquley fascinating” by Indiewire, thus garnering a reputation as “the most controversial film at the festival” (according to Spoutblog).

As the Artistic Director of International WOW, Josh has established himself as a significant force New York theatre. In 2004, the New York Times hailed him as “one of the most adventurous impresarios of the New York avant-garde,” and Time Out NY has called him “one of downtown’s most audacious auteurs,” citing his “brilliantly resourceful mastery of stagecraft.”

On stage with International WOW Company Josh has conceived, written, directed, and/or produced over 30 productions in Thailand, Indonesia, The Philippines, Japan, Germany, France and New York City, which have included SURRENDER (2009 Drama Desk Nomination) You Belong To Me, Death of Nations Part V, “Heimwehen”, The Comfort & Safety of
Your Own Home (Top Ten of 2004, NY Theatre Wire), Limitless Joy, The Expense of Spirit; Death of Nations, parts 1-4 and The Trailer; Orphan On God’s Highway; The BOMB; HyperReal America (Top Ten Shows of 2001, Time Out NY); Soon My Work; This is Not the Ramakian; The Sleeping and the Dead; Stairway to the Stars; and American Interference (Best in the Fringe Festival, Village Voice).

For more information, you can visit the Gasland web site and blog, which has a list of the upcoming cities where Josh Fox will be speaking and showing his film, Gasland.  There are also video clips on the web site above.

Come out to the Shenandoah Valley and hike with mom for Mother’s Day. It will be fun for the whole family!

Visitors will have a chance to meet woodland beauties such as wild geranium, trillium, jack-in-the-pulpit, and many others on a variety of naturalist-led hikes.

Virginia O'Keefe's painting of a Jack-in-the-Pulpit

Participants will search for wildflowers along the Millers Head, Mill
Prong, Lewis Mountain, Upper Rose River, Appalachian, and Gravel
Springs-Bluff trails.  There will be a Big Meadows stroll, and a new hike called “Cultural Connections,” focusing on historical uses of plants.

Additional activities include bird walks, a children’s program, and
journaling.  The complete schedule is posted on the park’s website.

There will be several special programs this year.  J. Christopher Ludwig, Executive Director and co-author of the “Flora of Virginia Project,” will present an update on the soon-to-be-published manual of Virginia’s 3,500 native and naturalized plants.  The comprehensive guide will include the latest information, detailed illustrations, identification keys, descriptions, range and habitat for every plant. 
The program will be at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, May 8, at Byrd Visitor Center auditorium, milepost 51 on Skyline Drive.

Naturalist and author C. Colston Burrell will present “More Than a Pretty Face:  Native Alternatives to Exotic Invasives” at 10 a.m. Sunday, May 9, in Byrd Visitor Center auditorium.  He will explain how to replace exotic plants in home gardens with native trees, shrubs and perennials, providing food for butterflies, birds and other wildlife.  At 1:30 p.m., he will present “Obsession and Exploitation:  A Cultural History of Trilliums.” Mr. Burrell will also lead a wildflower hike to South River Falls on Saturday.

Programs are free, and no registration is required.  There is a $15-per-car
entrance fee to the park, good for seven days.  For more information about
Wildflower Weekend, call the park at 540-999-3500, at extension 3283.

Shenandoah Valley, Va. – April showers brings May flowers. The Valley is beginning to bloom. And, don’t miss out on the strawberries! On May 29 and 30, in Delaplane, enjoy the “Strawberry Festival” at Sky Meadows State Park.

Celebrate Spring,and the region’s strawberry season, with live music, arts and crafts, old-fashioned kids’ games, a petting zoo, hay rides, historical exhibits, a silent auction, lots of great food … and fresh strawberries and strawberry sundaes. Treat yourself to good old country fun. (Admission is $15 per car in advance or $20 per car at the gate. Details: 540-592-3556.)

Other May 2010 events in the Valley

Here’s what’s in store for visitors – and Valley residents – during May 2010:

May 1 – Roanoke

31st Annual Virginia State Championship Chili Cook-off, from 11 a.m.-5 p.m., at Railside Plaza, 19 Salem Avenue. Live entertainment and music all day, including headliner band “The Kings”. A free childrens’ crafts and entertainment area. Also a Jalepeno eating/chili slurp contest. There will be a beer garden adjacent to the stage. Admission fee is $4.00 in advance, or $5.00 at the gate, kids 10 and under are free. 540-342-4716, or visit their web site.

May 2 – Harrisonburg

Model Train Show at the Rockingham County Fairgrounds. Over 100 tables of everything to do with railroads. Admission fee. 540-434-0005.

May 8 – Middletown

14th Annual “Of Ale and History” at Belle Grove Plantation. Celebrate our German and English heritage by tasting more than 35 specialty micro-brewed and imported beers. Food and music. For more information, call 540-869-2028.

May 8 – Verona

Shenandoah Valley Blues Festival, 845 Quick’s Mill Road, Rt 612. Enjoy a variety of regional blues offerings from the Nicholson Brothers, Lisa Miller and the Allstars, The Biscuit Rollers, Bryan Elijah Smith, Stephen Michael Smith, with headliner “Steady Rollin” Bob Margolin from the late Muddy Waters Band.

Second stage will feature more local blues artists. Enjoy food and beverages from local vendors. Tailgating is allowed. Admission fee 540-245-0609.

May 14-16 – Strasburg

The annual MayFest celebration will be held the weekend of May 14-16, 2010 in downtown Strasburg, VA. This year’s theme is “Racing To Mayfest.” It’s small town fun for the whole family!

For more information call (540) 465-3187. To download a form to be a food or arts & craft vendor, visit this web site.

May 15 – Waynesboro

“XtremeFest” will be held at Ridgeview Park.Climb the rock wall, kayak the South River or watch the BMX Stunt Show. Food and giveways. 540-942-6735.

May 15 – Luray

Wildflower Spring Celebration at Skyland Resort, milepost 42.5 on Skyline Drive. Music, food and more. Children and pets are welcome. 540-843-2100.

May 15 – Front Royal

The 24th Annual Virginia Wine and Craft Festival will be held on Main and Chester Streets from 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Enjoy wine tasting from 18+ Virginia wineries. Also crafts, art, food, and childrens area. 540-635-3185.

May 15 – Harrisonburg

7th Annual Herb and Garden Festival at James Madison University (JMU). Over 30 plus vendors, and artists. 540-568-3194.

May 15 – Roanoke

Amazing Treasure Hunt and Geocaching at Garst Mill Park, 2599 Willowlawn Street. Registration required. 540-387-6078,  extension 251.

May 15-16 – New Market

146th Anniversary of the Battle of New Market will be held at the New Market Battlefield State Historical Park – which is part of the original 1864 battle site. There will be food, music, and more. Call 866-515-1864.

May 27 – Staunton
Shenandoah Harley-Davidson/Buell, at 213 Rolling Thunder Lane, will host their annual “Carry the Flame” event. Motorcycle riders ride across the nation will be on hand to honor, remember, and support our POW/MIAs ,and the brave men and women of the Armed Forces. (May is also Womens Ridrers month at Harley-Davidson.) Call 540-213-7433.

May 29-30 – Stephens City

“Newtown Heritage Festival” on Main Street. There will be a variety of activities and food throughout both days. Pets are welcome. 540-869-3087.

May 31 – Harrisonburg

24th  Annual Memorial Day Horse Fair and Auction at the Rockingham County Fair Grounds. 540-434-0005.

Afton, Va – Here’s something a little different. So many kids today, and for that matter so many adults, can tell you just about everything about technology, but when it comes to living in the wild, or building a camp fire, or good old fashioned survival, they would readily admit that they are clueless.

The time is ripe for the Return to Nature

In our push to have – and be – the latest PC’s, has our connection with Nature slowly dissolved from our lives? Have basic outdoor skills evaporated in thin air? Here’s one chance to drag your kids away from their smart (???) phones and gadgets, and go back to the Source, and re-connect yourself, as well. It’s “Scouting” taken to a new level.

May 7 to 9, 2010, The Living Earth School, at 101 Rocky Bottom Lane in Afton, Virginia, is hosting Family Survival Weekend. It begins Friday evening and lasts through Sunday  at 4 p.m.

Join the Living Earth School for a relaxing, adventurous weekend in the woods with your family. No cell phone. No laptops. No interruptions – except for  the calls from the wild. This workshop will teach the four essential elements of surviving in the woods, so your family can go on in confidence, and will change your relationship with the natural world. This class will lay the foundation for survival and give you the practical tools needed to live closely with the land.

The workshop will discuss: 1) shelter, 2) water, 3) fire and 4) food. Participants will make a debris shelter that will keep you dry and warm without a sleeping bag. Also, carve your own friction fire set, and learn the many crucial skills of survival like wild edible plants, safe water collection, awareness and more.

This class is a fun, hands-on way to learn to live more closely with the Earth and to walk with greater awareness of the beauty the world of nature holds. Participants will also cook over the open fire, tell stories and roam the beautiful forests of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

About The Living Earth School

The Living Earth School is located in the Blue Ridge Mountains of central Virginia, outside of Charlottesville. Kate and Hub Knott are co-founders and owners of the The Living Earth School.

Their web site explains: “We are in the Chesapeake Bay, James River, and Rockfish River watershed. The Blue Ridge are some of the oldest mountains in the world, once as tall as the Himalayans, and now the rounded tops and ridgelines around us rise about 4000’ above sea level.

The mountains are rich with medicinal plants, wildlife (including bobcat, bear, coyote, deer, owls, etc) and some of the highest diversity of amphibians in the world. There are rock outcrops to explore, creeks to follow, and mysteries that keep pulling ones curiosity further. We use two sites, a camp facility in Sugar Hollow for our summer camp programs and our base camp in Afton.”

Down time is so important these days. Henry David Thoreau would be proud.

Details: Admission for the weekend is $225 (1 adult, 1 child) +$75 for each additional person.

For more information on the Family Survival Weekend, call (540) 456-7339, or visit the Living Earth School website, which illuminates their unique “coyote mentoring” philosophy.

*****

Here are some of the other meaningful, “connective” programs that they offer:

- Father/Son Weekend of Fire -  May 15 – 16

Come spend this special weekend together, diving into the world of fire. Learn the ancient art of fire making, carve your own bowdrill fire set, tell stories, wander the mountains and cook on an open fire under a star lit sky.  Besides a great weekend of fun, leave with new skills you can utilize together into the future.  Sat 9 am- Sun 11am $175 (includes father and son age 6+, each additional child, $65. (Instructors: Hub Knott and Kyle Scaggs)

- Hide Tanning- The Brain Tan Method – May 21 – 23

Learn to tan in a completely non-toxic traditional way. In this class, you will transform a deer hide into a soft, supple, wearable buckskin. Learn to scrape the hair, grain and membrane, brain, wring, soften and smoke the hide. Walk away with a finished braintan buckskin, and an 8 page handout to review when you tan in the future. Hides and materials provided. $200 – Friday- Sunday (majority of 3 days will be necessary, as well as some down time between.) Some camping options possible.

- Mother/Daughter Weekend – May 22 – 23

Come spend a magical weekend with your daughter immersed in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains! We will connect with the natural world, cook over the fire, make wild edible teas, weave stories of mother-hood, daughter-hood throughout our day and weave our tales into a basket.  Mothers and daughters will make their own basket to go home with together.  For participants that attended last year we have advanced basket options to weave into the weekend. Sat 9 am – Sun 11am. $175 – includes mother and daughter age 6+, each additional child, $65. (Instructor: Kate Knott)

Martinsburg, West Virginia – Twenty percent of West Virginians can’t read. This sobering fact helped inspire the West Virginia Book Faire at various locations in Olde Towne Martinsburg.

What is a Book Faire?
The Fourth Annual WV Book Faire on April 16 and 17, 2010 is a gathering of readers, authors and aspiring writers. You will have a chance to meet some of your favorite authors and find some new ones. The WV Book Faire will have many special activities, including: kickoff for The Big Read, a community-wide reading event; childrens programs; and contests.

Featured Authors include:
- Cokie Roberts, Emmy-award winning journalist and bestselling author;
- Dave Pelzer, author of A Child Called “It” and other inspirational books and memoirs;
- Barbara Fredrickson, award-winning researcher and teacher who authored Positivity;
- Chef Roland Mesnier, former White House Chef and author of All the Presidents Pastries;
- Walter Dean Myers, young adult author of over eighty books, including Monsters and Scorpions;
- Jeff Shaara, author of Gods and Generals and other historic fiction;
- Nancy Shaw, author of Sheep in a Jeep and other children’s books; and
- Michael Shoulders, author of D is for Drum and other children’s books

Here is the schedule for the jam-packed weekend. The events with asterisks require tickets; all of the other events are free:

On Friday, April 16, 2010

Authors in area schools throughout the day
- 11 am: Lunch with Cokie Roberts at Holiday Inn*
- 7 pm: Dinner with Dave Pelzer at Holiday Inn*

On Saturday, April 17, 2010
- 8 am – noon: Dreams and Positivity workshops at Holiday Inn
- 9 am: Set up begins for the Edible Books Contest at Blue Ridge Community and Technical College
- 10 am to 4 pm: Book signings, children’s programs and activities, and other special events at the Martinsburg-Berkeley County Public Library
- Time (to be announced): Historic activities at Boydville

For book lovers of all ages!
Book lovers can talk to authors in numerous categories, including fiction, non-fiction, West Virginia, political, sports and a special children’s book section. Event highlights will include the Luncheon with Cokie Roberts and Meet the Authors Dinner Reception featuring Dave Pelzer on Friday, April 16, and Pastries & Positivity wtih Barbara Fredrickson and the Edible Book Contest with special guest judge Roland Mesnier on Saturday, April 17. Other great activities will be held at the Martinsburg-Berkeley County Public Library and Boydville.

One of the 2009 Edible Book creations.

Chefs, whether old or young, new to the kitchen or seasoned professionals, will enjoy the first ever Edible Book Contest. To participate, create a piece of edible art related to a book, depicting a title scene, character, or cover.

What is the Big Read?
The Big Read is an initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts, in partnership with the Institute of Museum and Library Services and Arts Midwest, designed to revitalize the role of literary reading in American popular culture. Reading at Risk: A Survey of Literary Reading in America, a 2004 NEA report, identified a critical decline in reading for pleasure among American adults.

The Big Read addresses this issue by bringing communities together to read, discuss, and celebrate books and writers from American and world literature.

The WV Book Faire, in conjunction with the Martinsburg-Berkeley County Public Libraries, is pleased to announce the 2010 book selection for our local The Big Read event is The Call of the Wild by Jack London. The Library staff encourages people to visit the Library to reserve a copy or to purchase a copy for yourself.

The Call of the Wild
Jack London’s The Call of the Wild is a singular classic. It is a great novel that can be appreciated by readers of all ages, as well as a philosophical book that provides an action-packed adventure. Oddest of all, it is an experimental novel (half of the characters are canine, including the hero) that is a thrilling pleasure to read. No wonder this American novel has never lacked readers — both here and abroad.

Abducted from his comfortable home and sold as a sled dog, Buck battles the elements to become leader of the pack. This struggle for survival is an unforgettable adventure.

The WV Book Faire Edible Book Contest

Let your imagination and culinary talents go wild with the WV Book Faire Edible Book Contest. To participate, create a piece of edible art related to books – whether be fiction, nonfiction, plays, poetry, or any genre you choose. Entries must have something to do with the book, such as a scene, character, or cover.

The Special Guest Judge for the Edible Book Contest is Chef Roland Mesnier, the former White House Pastry Chef. The Edible Book Contest is being held on Saturday, April 17, 2010 at Blue Ridge Community & Technical College, 400 W. Stephen St. in downtown Martinsburg. Set-up begins at 9 am; judging is at 11 a.m. Voting for the “People’s Choice” award will be at noon and prizes will be awarded and Chef Roland will speak at 1 p.m..

Edible Book Contest Categories and Registration Fees
- Professional – $15 per entry
- Culinary Student – $10
- Home Chef – $5
- Students (Grades 7-12) – $5
– Children (Grades K-6) – $5

All proceeds from the Edible Book competition will benefit a scholarship fund for students in the Blue Ridge Community and Technical College Academy of Culinary Arts.

Supporting Literacy – Special Events
In conjunction with the West Virginia Book Faire, The Authors’ Literacy Benefit Dinner is a celebration of all of the authors involved to help raise funds to combat illiteracy in the Mountain State.

Scheduled for Saturday, April 18, 2010, the evening will begin with a plated dinner at the Holiday Inn Ballroom. Advance ticket purchases are required for this event. Tickets may be purchased at the Martinsburg-Berkeley County Public Library at 101 W. King Street for $40 per seat (student tickets are $20). Tables of seven may be purchased for $300, with the final seat being reserved for a Book Faire author. Credit card purchases can be made over the phone by calling (304) 267-8933 or (304) 267-8933.

If you are interested in donating an item for the Silent Auction for Literacy, please contact the Martinsburg-Berkeley County Public Library at the above numbers. (You or your business will be recognized for your generosity in our promotional materials and Book Faire guide.)

To learn more about these activities, visit the WV Book Faire web site.

Shenandoah Valley, VA – This Spring, the Shenandoah County Parks and Recreation Department is featuring some activities for dog owners and dog lovers, as well as courses in basic computing.

Here’s the scoop on the classes, as well as some crazy, fun, cute photos of dogs doing their thing on the Internet and in front (and on!) the computer screen. Enjoy!

ABSOLUTE BEGINNER’S GUIDE TO COMPUTERS
(Ages 18 and over)  Your new PC just arrived.  You open the box, excited to hook it up, start surfing the web, send emails, and then you see all of the cords, CDs, and parts that need to be connected and installed and suddenly it doesn’t seem like so much fun anymore.  Don’t panic!  Absolute Beginner’s Guide to Computer Basics can help; learn how to use Windows and a word processor, connect to the Internet and surf the web, read and write email, view and edit digital photos, and new devices, such as printers, and perform basic maintenance and security tasks.

This class will be held on Tuesdays and Thursdays, March 23 to April 1, from 6:00 to 9:00 pm, at the Shenandoah County Government Center in Woodstock, VA.   The cost is $95; please register with Lord Fairfax Community College (LFCC) on their web site, or call LFCC at 800-906-5322, extension x7021.

SECURITY AND MAINTENANCE FOR YOUR HOME COMPUTER
(Ages 18 and over)  Keep your computer secure!  This class is designed for the home user.  Understand the security risks you can encounter and the actions needed to overcome these risks.  Become skilled with user account types and management; how to install, update, and uninstall software and hardware and hard drive maintenance.  Discover what email spam and phishing are and how to protect your computer from them.  Also covered are topics on installing and using firewall and Internet Explore settings.

This class will be held on Thursday, April 22, 6:00 to 9:00pm, at the Shenandoah County Government Center in Woodstock, VA.  The cost is $35. (See registration information in the entry above.)

BEGINNING DOG OBEDIENCE
(For dogs, 4 months +)  This class will provide you with the instruction to train and control your dog.  Through a logical class progression, you’ll train your dog to sit on command, stand, lie down, stay, come, and heel at your side on a loose leash.  You will also be introduced to play scent work, retrieve, hand signals, teaching some tricks and begin teaching your dog to go to a run and stay there.

The first class is orientation for dog owners; no dogs, please.  All dogs must have their second series of immunizations (including Bordatella) before the first class.  Class will run on Mondays, April 5 to May 10 or May 17 to June 28, from 6:30 to 7:30pm at the Old Edinburg School in Edinburg, VA.  The cost is $103/dog, and the deadline to register is the Friday before each class.

INTERMEDIATE DOG OBEDIENCE
(For dogs, 5 months +)  This class is intended for dogs and handlers who have completed any basic dog obedience class and wish to refine their dog’s performance and reliability.  Focus is placed on individual problems, leadership, and communication with your dog.  Classes will be active with lots of practice during the class hour.  Basic commands will be improved and training for reliable responses to both voice commands and silent signals will be reviewed.

The first class is orientation for dog owners; no dogs, please.  All dogs must have their second series of immunizations (including Bordatella) before the first class.  Class will run on Mondays, April 5- to May 10 or May 17 to June 28, from 7:30 – 8:30 pm at the Old Edinburg School in Edinburg, VA.  The cost is $103/dog, and the deadline to register is the Friday before each class.

Call the Shenandoah County Parks and Recreation Department at (540) 984-3030, or visit their web site.

On a web site dedicated to transcendentalism, a commentator writes: “Thoreau definitely liked to see the world as microcosm, as here he finds the pattern of seasons both in the small (every day in the pond) and the large, as reflecting the great archetypal pattern of death and rebirth. Note that he spent two years, two months and two days at the pond, beginning on July 4th. However, he chose to structure the last part of the book clearly in terms of the seasons – fall, winter (reconsidering the pond and its animals in the winter), and now, triumphantly, spring and the bursting out of life.’)”

As we in the Shenandoah Valley await Spring, here are some words of wisdom and hope from Thoreau, a great observer of Nature and Life Itself:

“Spring” – From Chapter XVII – “The opening of large tracts by the ice-cutters commonly causes a pond to break up earlier; for the water, agitated by the wind, even in cold weather, wears away the surrounding ice. But such was not the effect on Walden that year, for she had soon got a thick new garment to take the place of the old. This pond never breaks up so soon as the others in this neighborhood, on account both of its greater depth and its having no stream passing through it to melt or wear away the ice.

I never knew it to open in the course of a winter, not excepting that of ‘52-3, which gave the ponds so severe a trial. It commonly opens about the first of April, a week or ten days later than Flint’s Pond and Fair-Haven, beginning to melt on the north side and in the shallower parts where it began to freeze.

It indicates better than any water hereabouts the absolute progress of the season, being least affected by transient changes of temperature. A severe cold of a few days duration in March may very much retard the opening of the former ponds, while the temperature of Walden increases almost uninterruptedly. A thrust into the middle of Walden on the 6th of March, 1847, stood at 32°, or freezing point; near the shore at 33°; in the middle of Flint’s Pond, the same day, at 32½°; at a dozen rods from the shore, in shallow water, under ice a foot thick, at 36°.

This difference of three and a half degrees between the temperature of the deep water and the shallow in the latter pond, and the fact that a great proportion of it is comparatively shallow, show why it should break up so much sooner than Walden. The ice in the shallowest part was at this time several inches thinner than in the middle. In mid-winter the middle had been the warmest and the ice thinnest there.

So, also, every one who has waded about the shores of the pond in summer must have perceived how much warmer the water is close to the shore, where only three or four inches deep, than a little distance out, and on the surface where it is deep, than near the bottom.

In spring the sun not only exerts an influence through the increased temperature of the air and earth, but its heat passes through ice a foot or more thick, and is reflected from the bottom in shallow water, and so also warms the water and melts the under side of the ice, at the same time that it is melting it more directly above, making it uneven, and causing the air bubbles which it contains to extend themselves upward and downward until it is completely honey-combed, and at last disappears suddenly in a single spring rain.

Ice has its grain as well as wood, and when a cake begins to rot or “comb,” that is, assume the appearance of honey-comb, whatever may be its position, the air cells are at right angles with what was the water surface.

Where there is a rock or a log rising near to the surface the ice over it is much thinner, and is frequently quite dissolved by this reflected heat; and I have been told that in the experiment at Cambridge to freeze water in a shallow wooden pond, though the cold air circulated underneath, and so had access to both sides, the reflection of the sun from the bottom more than counterbalanced this advantage.

When a warm rain in the middle of the winter melts off the snow-ice from Walden, and leaves a hard dark or transparent ice on the middle, there will be a strip of rotten though thicker white ice, a rod or more wide, about the shores, created by this reflected heat. Also, as I have said, the bubbles themselves within the ice operate as burning-glasses to melt the ice beneath.

Every morning, generally speaking, the shallow water is being warmed more rapidly than the deep, though it may not be made so warm after all, and every evening it is being cooled more rapidly until the morning. The day is an epitome of the year. The night is the winter, the morning and evening are the spring and fall, and the noon is the summer.

The cracking and booming of the ice indicate a change of temperature. One pleasant morning after a cold night, February 24th, 1850, having gone to Flint’s Pond to spend the day, I noticed with surprise, that when I struck the ice with the head of my axe, it resounded like a gong for many rods around, or as if I had struck on a tight drum-head.

The pond began to boom about an hour after sunrise, when it felt the influence of the sun’s rays slanted upon it from over the hills; it stretched itself and yawned like a waking man with a gradually increasing tumult, which was kept up three or four hours. It took a short siesta at noon, and boomed once more toward night, as the sun was withdrawing his influence.

In the right stage of the weather a pond fires its evening gun with great regularity. But in the middle of the day, being full of cracks, and the air also being less elastic, it had completely lost its resonance, and probably fishes and muskrats could not then have been stunned by a blow on it. The fishermen say that the “thundering of the pond” scares the fishes and prevents their biting.

The pond does not thunder every evening, and I cannot tell surely when to expect its thundering; but though I may perceive no difference in the weather, it does. Who would have suspected so large and cold and thick-skinned a thing to be so sensitive? Yet it has its law to which it thunders obedience when it should as surely as the buds expand in the spring. The earth is all alive and covered with papillæ. The largest pond is as sensitive to atmospheric changes as the globule of mercury in its tube.

One attraction in coming to the woods to live was that I should have leisure and opportunity to see the Spring come in. The ice in the pond at length begins to be honey-combed, and I can set my heel in it as I walk. Fogs and rains and warmer suns are gradually melting the snow; the days have grown sensibly longer; and I see how I shall get through the winter without adding to my wood-pile, for large fires are no longer necessary.

I am on the alert for the first signs of spring, to hear the chance note of some arriving bird, or the striped squirrel’s chirp, for his stores must be now nearly exhausted, or see the woodchuck venture out of his winter quarters. On the 13th of March, after I had heard the bluebird, song sparrow, and red-wing, the ice was still nearly a foot thick.

As the weather grew warmer it was not sensibly worn away by the water, nor broken up and floated off as in rivers, but, though it was completely melted for half a rod in width about the shore, the middle was merely honey-combed and saturated with water, so that you could put your foot through it when six inches thick; but by the next day evening, perhaps, after a warm rain followed by fog, it would have wholly disappeared, all gone off with the fog, spirited away.

One year I went across the middle only five days before it disappeared entirely. In 1845 Walden was first completely open on the 1st of April; in ‘46, the 25th of March; in ‘47, the 8th of April; in ‘51, the 28th of March; in ‘52, the 18th of April; in ‘53, the 23d of March; in ‘54, about the 7th of April.

Every incident connected with the breaking up of the rivers and ponds and the settling of the weather is particularly interesting to us who live in a climate of so great extremes. When the warmer days come, they who dwell near the river hear the ice crack at night with a startling whoop as loud as artillery, as if its icy fetters were rent from end to end, and within a few days see it rapidly going out.

So the alligator comes out of the mud with quakings of the earth. One old man, who has been a close observer of Nature, and seems as thoroughly wise in regard to all her operations as if she had been put upon the stocks when he was a boy, and he had helped to lay her keel, — who has come to his growth, and can hardly acquire more of natural lore if he should live to the age of Methuselah, — told me, and I was surprised to hear him express wonder at any of Nature’s operations, for I thought that there were no secrets between them — that one spring day he took his gun and boat, and thought that he would have a little sport with the ducks.

There was ice still on the meadows, but it was all gone out of the river, and he dropped down without obstruction from Sudbury, where he lived, to Fair-Haven Pond, which he found, unexpectedly, covered for the most part with a firm field of ice. It was a warm day, and he was surprised to see so great a body of ice remaining.

Not seeing any ducks, he hid his boat on the north or back side of an island in the pond, and then concealed himself in the bushes on the south side, to await them. The ice was melted for three or four rods from the shore, and there was a smooth and warm sheet of water, with a muddy bottom, such as the ducks love, within, and he thought it likely that some would be along pretty soon.

After he had lain still there about an hour he heard a low and seemingly very distant sound, but singularly grand and impressive, unlike anything he had ever heard, gradually swelling and increasing as if it would have a universal and memorable ending, a sullen rush and roar, which seemed to him all at once like the sound of a vast body of fowl coming in to settle there, and, seizing his gun, he started up in haste and excited; but he found, to his surprise, that the whole body of the ice had started while he lay there, and drifted in to the shore, and the sound he had heard was made by its edge grating on the shore, — at first gently nibbled and crumbled off, but at length heaving up and scattering its wrecks along the island to a considerable height before it came to a standstill.

At length the sun’s rays have attained the right angle, and warm winds blow up mist and rain and melt the snowbanks, and the sun, dispersing the mist, smiles on a checkered landscape of russet and white smoking with incense, through which the traveller picks his way from islet to islet, cheered by the music of a thousand tinkling rills and rivulets whose veins are filled with the blood of winter which they are bearing off.

Few phenomena gave me more delight than to observe the forms which thawing sand and clay assume in flowing down the sides of a deep cut on the railroad through which I passed on my way to the village, a phenomenon not very common on so large a scale, though the number of freshly exposed banks of the right material must have been greatly multiplied since railroads were invented.

The material was sand of every degree of fineness and of various rich colors, commonly mixed with a little clay. When the frost comes out in the spring, and even in a thawing day in the winter, the sand begins to flow down the slopes like lava, sometimes bursting out through the snow and overflowing it where no sand was to be seen before. Innumerable little streams overlap and interlace one with another, exhibiting a sort of hybrid product, which obeys half way the law of currents, and half way that of vegetation.

As it flows it takes the forms of sappy leaves or vines, making heaps of pulpy sprays a foot or more in depth, and resembling, as you look down on them, the laciniated, lobed, and imbricated thalluses of some lichens; or you are reminded of coral, of leopard’s paws or birds’ feet, of brains or lungs or bowels, and excrements of all kinds.

It is a truly grotesque vegetation, whose forms and color we see imitated in bronze, a sort of architectural foliage more ancient and typical than acanthus, chiccory, ivy, vine, or any vegetable leaves; destined perhaps, under some circumstances, to become a puzzle to future geologists.

The whole cut impressed me as if it were a cave with its stalactites laid open to the light. The various shades of the sand are singularly rich and agreeable, embracing the different iron colors, brown, gray, yellowish, and reddish. When the flowing mass reaches the drain at the foot of the bank it spreads out flatter into strands, the separate streams losing their semi-cylindrical form and gradually becoming more flat and broad, running together as they are more moist, till they form an almost flat sand, still variously and beautifully shaded, but in which you can trace the original forms of vegetation; till at length, in the water itself, they are converted into banks, like those formed off the mouths of rivers, and the forms of vegetation are lost in the ripple marks on the bottom.

The whole bank, which is from twenty to forty feet high, is sometimes overlaid with a mass of this kind of foliage, or sandy rupture, for a quarter of a mile on one or both sides, the produce of one spring day. What makes this sand foliage remarkable is its springing into existence thus suddenly. When I see on the one side the inert bank, — for the sun acts on one side first, — and on the other this luxuriant foliage, the creation of an hour, I am affected as if in a peculiar sense.

I stood in the laboratory of the Artist who made the world and me. I had come to where he was still at work, sporting on this bank, and with excess of energy strewing his fresh designs about. I feel as if I were nearer to the vitals of the globe, for this sandy overflow is something such a foliaceous mass as the vitals of the animal body.

You find thus in the very sands an anticipation of the vegetable leaf. No wonder that the earth expresses itself outwardly in leaves, it so labors with the idea inwardly. The atoms have already learned this law, and are pregnant by it. The overhanging leaf sees here its prototype.

Thus, also, you pass from the lumpish grub in the earth to the airy and fluttering butterfly. The very globe continually transcends and translates itself, and becomes winged in its orbit. Even ice begins with delicate crystal leaves, as if it had flowed into moulds which the fronds of water plants have impressed on the watery mirror. The whole tree itself is but one leaf, and rivers are still vaster leaves whose pulp is intervening earth, and towns and cities are the ova of insects in their axils.

When the sun withdraws the sand ceases to flow, but in the morning the streams will start once more and branch and branch again into a myriad of others. You here see perchance how blood-vessels are formed.

If you look closely you observe that first there pushes forward from the thawing mass a stream of softened sand with a drop-like point, like the ball of the finger, feeling its way slowly and blindly downward, until at last with more heat and moisture, as the sun gets higher, the most fluid portion, in its effort to obey the law to which the most inert also yields, separates from the latter and forms for itself a meandering channel or artery within that, in which is seen a little silvery stream glancing like lightning from one stage of pulpy leaves or branches to another, and ever and anon swallowed up in the sand.

It is wonderful how rapidly yet perfectly the sand organizes itself as it flows, using the best material its mass affords to form the sharp edges of its channel. Such are the sources of rivers. In the silicious matter which the water deposits is perhaps the bony system, and in the still finer soil and organic matter the fleshy fibre or cellular tissue. What is man but a mass of clay?

The ball of the human finger is but a drop congealed. The fingers and toes flow to their extent from the thawing mass of the body. Who knows what the human body would expand and flow out to under a more genial heaven? Is not the hand a spreading palm leaf with its lobes and veins? The ear may be regarded, fancifully, as a lichen, umbilicaria, on the side of the head, with its lobe or drop. The lip lapses from the sides of the cavernous mouth. The nose is a manifest congealed drop or stalactite. The chin is a still larger drop, the confluent dripping of the face. The cheeks are a slide from the brows into the valley of the face, opposed and diffused by the cheek bones.

Each rounded lobe of the vegetable leaf, too, is a thick and now loitering drop, larger or smaller; the lobes are the fingers of the leaf; and as many lobes as it has, in so many directions it tends to flow, and more heat or other genial influences would have caused it to flow yet farther.

Thus it seemed that this one hillside illustrated the principle of all the operations of Nature. The Maker of this earth but patented a leaf. What Chamollion will decipher this hieroglyphic for us, that we may turn over a new leaf at last? This phenomenon is more exhilarating to me than the luxuriance and fertility of vineyards. True, it is somewhat excrementitious in its character, and there is no end to the heaps of liver, lights, and bowels, as if the globe were turned wrong side outward; but this suggests at least that Nature has some bowels, and there again is mother of humanity.

This is the frost coming out of the ground; this is Spring. It precedes the green and flowery spring, as mythology precedes regular poetry. I know of nothing more purgative of winter fumes and indigestions. It convinces me that Earth is still in her swaddling-clothes, and stretches forth baby fingers on every side. Fresh curls spring from the baldest brow.

There is nothing inorganic. These foliaceous heaps lie along the bank like the slag of a furnace, showing that Nature is “in full blast” within. The earth is not a mere fragment of dead history, stratum upon stratum like the leaves of a book, to be studied by geologists and antiquaries chiefly, but living poetry like the leaves of a tree, which precede flowers and fruit, — not a fossil earth, but a living earth; compared with whose great central life all animal and vegetable life is merely parasitic. Its throes will heave our exuviae from their graves.

You may melt your metals and cast them into the most beautiful moulds you can; they will never excite me like the forms which this molten earth flows out into. And not only it, but the institutions upon it are plastic like clay in the hands of the potter.

Ere long, not only on these banks, but on every hill and plain and in every hollow, the frost comes out of the ground like a dormant quadruped from its burrow, and seeks the sea with music, or migrates to other climes in clouds. Thaw with his gentle persuasion is more powerful than Thor with his hammer. The one melts, the other but breaks in pieces.

When the ground was partially bare of snow, and a few warm days had dried its surface somewhat, it was pleasant to compare the first tender signs of the infant year just peeping forth with the stately beauty of the withered vegetation  which had withstood the winter, — life-everlasting, golden-rods, pinweeds, and graceful wild grasses, more obvious and interesting frequently than in summer even, as if their beauty was not ripe till then; even cotton-grass, cat-tails, mulleins, johnswort, hard-hack, meadow-sweet, and other strong stemmed plants, those unexhausted granaries which entertain the earliest birds, — decent weeds, at least, which widowed Nature wears.

I am particularly attracted by the arching and sheaf-like top of the wool-grass; it brings back the summer to our winter memories, and is among the forms which art loves to copy, and which, in the vegetable kingdom, have the same relation to types already in the mind of man that astronomy has. It is an antique style, older than Greek or Egyptian. Many of the phenomena of Winter are suggestive of an inexpressible tenderness and fragile delicacy. We are accustomed to hear this king described as a rude and boisterous tyrant; but with the gentleness of a lover he adorns the tresses of Summer.

At the approach of spring the red squirrels got under my house, two at a time, directly under my feet as I sat reading or writing, and kept up the queerest chuckling and chirruping and vocal pirouetting and gurgling sounds that ever were heard; and when I stamped they only chirruped the louder, as if past all fear and respect in their mad pranks, defying humanity to stop them. No, you don’t — chickaree — chickaree. They were wholly deaf to my arguments, or failed to perceive their force, and fell into a strain of invective that was irresistible.

The first sparrow of spring! The year beginning with younger hope than ever! The faint silvery warblings heard over the partially bare and moist fields from the blue-bird, the song-sparrow, and the red-wing, as if the last flakes of winter tinkled as they fell! What at such a time are histories, chronologies, traditions, and all written revelations? The brooks sing carols and glees to the spring. The marsh-hawk, sailing low over the meadow, is already seeking the first slimy life that awakes.

The sinking sound of melting snow is heard in all dells, and the ice dissolves apace in the ponds. The grass flames up on the hillsides like a spring fire, –  — as if the earth sent forth an inward heat to greet the returning sun; not yellow but green is the color of its flame; — the symbol of perpetual youth, the grass-blade, like a long green ribbon, streams from the sod into the summer, checked indeed by the frost, but anon pushing on again, lifting its spear of last year’s hay with the fresh life below.

It grows as steadily as the rill oozes out of the ground. It is almost identical with that, for in the growing days of June, when the rills are dry, the grass-blades are their channels, and from year to year the herds drink at this perennial green stream, and the mower draws from it betimes their winter supply. So our human life but dies down to its root, and still puts forth its green blade to eternity.

Walden is melting apace. There is a canal two rods wide along the northerly and westerly sides, and wider still at the east end. A great field of ice has cracked off from the main body. I hear a song sparrow singing from the bushes on the shore. He too is helping to crack it. How handsome the great sweeping curves in the edge of the ice, answering somewhat to those of the shore, but more regular! It is unusually hard, owing to the recent severe but transient cold, and all watered or waved like a palace floor.

But the wind slides eastward over its opaque surface in vain, till it reaches the living surface beyond. It is glorious to behold this ribbon of water sparkling in the sun, the bare face of the pond full of glee and youth, as if it spoke the joy of the fishes within it, and of the sands on its shore — a silvery sheen as from the scales of a leuciscus, as it were all one active fish. Such is the contrast between winter and spring. Walden was dead and is alive again.  But this spring it broke up more steadily, as I have said.

The change from storm and winter to serene and mild weather, from dark and sluggish hours to bright and elastic ones, is a memorable crisis which all things proclaim. It is seemingly instantaneous at last. Suddenly an influx of light filled my house, though the evening was at hand, and the clouds of winter still overhung it, and the eaves were dripping with sleety rain.

I looked out the window, and lo! where yesterday was cold gray ice there lay the transparent pond already calm and full of hope as in a summer evening, reflecting a summer evening sky in its bosom, though none was visible overhead, as if it had intelligence with some remote horizon.

I heard a robin in the distance, the first I had heard for many a thousand years, methought, whose note I shall not forget for many a thousand more — the same sweet and powerful song as of yore. O the evening robin, at the end of a New England summer day!

If I could ever find the twig he sits upon! I mean he; I mean the twig. This at least is not the Turdus migratorius. The pitch-pines and shrub-oaks about my house, which had so long drooped, suddenly resumed their several characters, looked brighter, greener, and more erect and alive, as if effectually cleansed and restored by the rain. I knew that it would not rain any more.

You may tell by looking at any twig of the forest, ay, at your very wood-pile, whether its winter is past or not. As it grew darker, I was startled by the honking of geese flying low over the woods, like weary travellers getting in late from Southern lakes, and indulging at last in unrestrained complaint and mutual consolation. Standing at my door, I could bear the rush of their wings; when, driving toward my house, they suddenly spied my light, and with hushed clamor wheeled and settled in the pond. So I came in, and shut the door, and passed my first spring night in the woods.

In the morning I watched the geese from the door through the mist, sailing in the middle of the pond, fifty rods off, so large and tumultuous that Walden appeared like an artificial pond for their amusement. But when I stood on the shore they at once rose up with a great flapping of wings at the signal of their commander, and when they had got into rank circled about over my head, twenty-nine of them, and then steered straight to Canada, with a regular honk from the leader at intervals, trusting to break their fast in muddier pools. A ”plump” of ducks rose at the same time and took the route to the north in the wake of their noisier cousins.

For a week I heard the circling, groping clangor of some solitary goose in the foggy mornings, seeking its companion, and still peopling the woods with the sound of a larger life than they could sustain. In April the pigeons were seen again flying express in small flocks, and in due time I heard the martins twittering over my clearing, though it had not seemed that the township contained so many that it could afford me any, and I fancied that they were peculiarly of the ancient race that dwelt in hollow trees ere white men came.

In almost all climes the tortoise and the frog are among the precursors and heralds of this season, and birds fly with song and glancing plumage, and plants spring and bloom, and winds blow, to correct this slight oscillation of the poles and preserve the equilibrium of nature.

As every season seems best to us in its turn, so the coming in of spring is like the creation of Cosmos out of Chaos and the realization of the Golden Age. –

“Eurus ad Auroram Nabathæaque regna recessit,
Persidaque, et radiis juga subdita matutinis.”"The East-Wind withdrew to Aurora and the Nabathean kingdom,
And the Persian, and the ridges placed under the morning rays.

***

Man was born. Whether that Artificer of things,
The origin of a better world, made him from the divine seed;
Or the earth, being recent and lately sundered from the high
Ether, retained some seeds of cognate heaven.”

A single gentle rain makes the grass many shades greener. So our prospects brighten on the influx of better thoughts. We should be blessed if we lived in the present always, and took advantage of every accident that befell us, like the grass which confesses the influence of the slightest dew that falls on it; and did not spend our time in atoning for the neglect of past opportunities, which we call doing our duty.

We loiter in winter while it is already spring. In a pleasant spring morning all men’s sins are forgiven. Such a day is a truce to vice. While such a sun holds out to burn, the vilest sinner may return. Through our own recovered innocence we discern the innocence of our neighbors.

You may have known your neighbor yesterday for a thief, a drunkard, or a sensualist, and merely pitied or despised him, and despaired of the world; but the sun shines bright and warm this first spring morning, re-creating the world, and you meet him at some serene work, and see how it is exhausted and debauched veins expand with still joy and bless the new day, feel the spring influence with the innocence of infancy, and all his faults are forgotten.

There is not only an atmosphere of good will about him, but even a savor of holiness groping for expression, blindly and ineffectually perhaps, like a new-born instinct, and for a short hour the south hill-side echoes to no vulgar jest. You see some innocent fair shoots preparing to burst from his gnarled rind and try another year’s life, tender and fresh as the youngest plant. Even he has entered into the joy of his Lord. Why the jailer does not leave open his prison doors, — why the judge does not dismiss his case, — why the preacher does not dismiss his congregation! It is because they do not obey the hint which God gives them, nor accept the pardon which he freely offers to all.

“A return to goodness produced each day in the tranquil and beneficent breath of the morning, causes that in respect to the love of virtue and the hatred of vice, one approaches a little the primitive nature of man, as the sprouts of the forest which has been felled. In like manner the evil which one does in the interval of a day prevents the germs of virtues which began to spring up again from developing themselves and destroys them…”

*****

As a student of Thoreau writes: “Thoreau makes a big deal out of sleeping (winter) and waking (spring), and his desire to awaken the sleepwalkers around him.”

This text from Walden Pond is from American Transcendentalism Web. To view more selections by Thoreau, and other writers of the genre, click here.

Here is the website for the Walden Pond State Reservation site in Massachusetts.

Woodstock, VA – Peggy Lahn from the Shenandoah County Animal Shelter spoke about volunteering and pet adoption opportunities at the January 20, 2010 lunch meeting of the Rotary Club of Woodstock.

The Shenandoah County Animal Shelter – located at 288 Landfill Road between Edinburg and Woodstock on Route 11 – provides essential animal services for Shenandoah County. Cindy Rinker, Rotary member remarks: “If you’re not in a position to adopt an animal, there are many other things you can do for the animals. Like to go for walks? Change your trail and take a four-footed friend out for a stroll. An important part of being in the shelter is keeping the animals socialized so they will be ready to go to a forever home.”

The Shenandoah County Animal Shelter maintains a great web site that includes pictures of: Pets of the Month (like Grace, the cat, and Biscuit, the dog – shown here), Pets up for Adoption, and photos of Lost & Found animals. You can view it here.

The Shenandoah County Animal Shelter reminds everyone that the number one thing you can do to keep your pet healthy is getting them spayed or neutered. Too many litters of puppies and kittens are killed every year because there are not enough homes for all of them. If they are lucky they end up in animal shelters to get euthanized humanely.

Shelter Needs Your Help:

The Shelter is always in need of donated items. Currently, they need kitten food. A few items they always need are: dog/cat treats, dog/cat toys, cat litter, litter scoops, newspaper, blankets, towels, bleach, dish soap, laundry detergent, fabric softener, dog/cat collars, hand sanitizer, disposable gloves, and animal crates. They ask that any
donated item be in good condition.

Details on Adopting a Pet:

- Dogs have a $15 adoption fee and a $35 spay/neuter deposit.
- Cats have a $10 adoption fee and a $25 spay/neuter deposit.
- If the animal is already spay/neutered, only the adoption fee applies.

If you to not live or own property in Shenandoh County or in a county touching us (Frederick, Warren, Page, and Rockingham Counties) the animal must be altered before leaving the shelter. We work closely with the local vets and can usually make a spay/neuter appointment quickly. They provide transportation to the vets office. It is the potential adoptor’s responsibility to come to the shelter, complete the adoption, pick up the animal from the vet’s office and pay the vet bill. Most vets prefer not to do surgery on animals under 4 months of age.

Shelter Hours:

- Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
- Saturdays, 10:00 a.m. to 2 p.m.
- Closed: Sundays and all holidays.

Driving Directions:

From the North
take Rt.81 south to Woodstock exit #283. Make a left off the exit ramp onto Rt. 42. At the Sheetz turn right onto Rt 11. Go south for 2 1/2 miles. Turn right onto Landfill Rd. Make the first right after you cross the railroad tracks.

From the South
Take Rt.81 north to Edinburg exit #279. Make a right off the exit ramp. At the end of the road make a left onto Rt. 11 north. Turn left onto Landfill Rd. Make the first right after you cross the railroad tracks.

If you have any other questions, concerns, or comments about the Animal Shelter, feel free to call them at (540) 984-8955, or send an email to: animalshelter at shenandoahcountyva.us.

Edinburg, VA – Tragedy strikes when Doug Cummings barely escapes a suspicious vehicle accident with his life and realizes that someone is out to get him. But who?

His only known enemy, twisted psychopath Zeb McGraw, is behind bars. Could someone on the outside be helping McGraw? Or could the culprit be the mysterious cowboy who miraculously helps save the life of Doug’s horse, but who almost seems too good to be true? As the chilling plot unfolds, Doug is forced to confront the would-be killer and end the nightmare, no matter what the cost.

Lovers of horses and books
Released in June 2006, The Chase captures the colorful Virginia hunt-country lifestyle in a thrilling nonstop journey filled with revenge, greed, loyalty, and love. The novel is the Gold Medal Winner of the 2007 IPPY Award for Best Regional Fiction, is a notable Winner of the 2007 Eric Hoffer Award, was a Finalist in ForeWord Magazine’s Book of the Year Awards, and was nominated for a Library of Virginia Literary Award.

The author, Jan Neuharth, will be discussing and signing her two books, The Hunt and The Chase, at Fran Romeo & Company, 212 North Main Street in Edinburg, Virginia on Saturday, January 30, 2010 from noon until 3 pm. This Special Event, in celebration of Valentine’s Day, is part of a series of book signings by popular regional writers to be hosted at Fran Romeo and Company each month.

Currently, Neuharth is at work on the third novel in her Hunt Country Suspense Series, due to be released in 2010. An attorney by profession, she managed the business and marketing side of Paper Chase Farms, Inc.- a 115-acre full-service equestrian center in Middleburg, Virginia – from its inception in 1985. For 15 years, she oversaw  the operation of 70-plus horses, more than 200 students, a dozen employees and eight instructors/trainers, and orchestrated an annual agenda including 20 horse shows, clinics with world class equestrians, and a half-dozen celebratory and promotional events.

In September 2000, Neuharth and her partner Joseph Keusch sold the horse farm to the Hanley family from Fairfax, Virginia, who christened the facility Fox Chase Farm.

Ms. Neuharth received her B.A. degree from the University of Florida and her Law Degree from Vanderbilt University School of Law. She serves on the boards of several select equine, business and educational entities. Neuharth and Keusch also consult on a wide variety of equestrian issues.

*****

Opened in Fall 2009, Fran Romeo & Company is a gift and wedding boutique on Main Street (Route 11, Old Valley Pike) in the small, historic town of Edinburg, Virginia, the heart of the Shenandoah Valley. The boutique carries a wonderful array of unique items, including jewelry, which its proprietor, Ms. Fran Romeo, personally selects from all over the United States. Fran is a wedding and event planner, specializing in arranging personalized unforgettable days to remember in the Valley, and the region.

To reserve your seat for the January 30th book signing event with Jan Neuharth, call Fran Romeo at (540) 984-3606, or email her: Fran at theromeocompanies.com.

Check out Fran Romeo & Company on Facebook.

RETURN TO SPECIAL WEB SITE MARKETING OFFER HERE.

Strasburg – With this article, we launch our new web feature, “Hot Sites.”

Daily, as editors of 7Bends.com and 7Bends of the Shenandoah Valley magazine, we come across websites that are of interest to our changing lives – from a practical, entertainment and/or technology perspective.  And, we also receive emails from our visitors suggesting web sites and/or events of note – that pertain to the Shenandoah Valley.

This week, for example, I ran across the “Virginia Green” web site. This is a statewide program that works to reduce the environmental impacts of Virginia’s tourism industry. A partnership between the Virginia Tourism Corporation and the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), the program awards Virginia Green Certification to tourism-related business, such as hotels, restaurants and attractions – for taking voluntary actions to reduce harmful impacts on the environment.

The site also includes a digital “Virginia Green” Travel Guide, Green Travel Trips, Birding and Wildlife Trail information, A Map of Scenic Roads,  a list of eco-friendly events happening all year long across the state, as well as the Virginia eNewsletter.

Learn all about birds in Winchester this weekend

One of the eco-friendly events listed for the Shenandoah Valley just so happens to be this Saturday, November 7 in Winchester, VA.

It’s the Shenandoah Audubon’s Birding Festival, being held from 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m at the War Memorial Building in Jim Barnett Park – located at
1001 East Cork Street (take the Apple Blossom Mall exit off of I-81).

At this annual event, there will be demonstrations with live birds and talks about how to identify birds. Scouts can earn merit badges. Experts will be on-hand to answer all your birding questions, and basic birding and bird walks will be offered. Bird books and crafts – and top quality bird seed – also will be available for purchase.

Bird carving will be demonstrated and other conservation groups will have exhibits.

Admission is free and they’ll be many different fun activities for the children. Because the event is inside Winchester’s War Memorial building in Jim Barnett Park, it will be held rain or shine.

For more information, call (540) 667-6778, or visit the Northern Shenandoah Valley Audubon web site, which incidently, is another great local resource!

If you know of a hot web site in the Shenandoah Valley, drop us an email, and we may choose to feature it on 7Bends.com, the Event – News – Marketing – Communication Portal of the Shenandoah Valley.  Send to editor at 7Bends.com.

(NOTE: The wonderful Aztec bird photo comes from another great web site – Lucy Pringle’s site that shows all of the latest photos she’s taken of crop circles in the United Kingdom, including one right across from Stonehenge.)

Kamran provides a safe and caring environment for dogs and cats of all sizes.

Middletown, VA –  According to the Human Society of the United States (HSUS), there are approximately 74.8 million owned dogs and 88.3 million owned cats in the United States.

Serving a percentage of cat, dog, and other companion animals in this region is SkyDog Petsitting, an owner operated business licensed in Warren County, Virginia. SkyDog Petsitting LLC is owned by Kamran L. Smith. Smith officially opened her doors for business in March, and serves clients around the Middletown, Strasburg, Stephens City, Front Royal, and Winchester areas.

Joining Smith in her petsitting endeavors is Betsey Moseley of Stephens City.  Moseley is an experienced business professional and avid pet lover.

Smith began her business after being awarded a 2009 Dare to Dream grant from the Front Royal Women’s Resource Center (http://www.frwrc.org/).  The Center created the Dare to Dream Grant program to provide women with an opportunity to enrich their personal and professional lives.   Smith received the grant after submitting a proposal outlining her dream to start a petsitting business.

“Sky dog” was the name given to the horse by Native Americans of the Plains, so one story goes.   Smith uses the name for her business not only because of the word’s relationship to two beloved animals (dogs and horses), but also, as a reminder to herself to practice both the grounded and imaginative aspects of running a business.

Prior to starting this business, Smith was a writing and marketing specialist for an international software company.  She volunteered for the Mid-Atlantic Great Dane Rescue League, and volunteers her writing skills for free to non-profit animal rescue groups.

Smith is a member of the National Association of Professional Petsitters and Professional United Petsitters.

For more information, contact her at (540) 539-1468 or visit www.SkyDogSit.com

“Owing to its convenience to the Valley highway and its adaptability for a headquarters, Belle Grove House was seldom without a military tenant nor its grounds without an army. Dead to sentiment, ruthless war had already made a waste of these ornate grounds in which its warrior lord had once taken such pride.” (Quote by James E. Taylor, An Artist with Sheridan Up the Shenandoah in 1864)

Middletown, Virginia – A Civil War Commemoration and Living History Weekend will be celebrated on Saturday and Sunday,  October 17 and 18 in Middletown, VA.  Back in 1864, October 19th was a pivotal moment in the history of Belle Grove, and our nation. The Living History weekend coincides with  the 145th anniversary re-enactment of the Battle of Belle Grove and Cedar Creek. There are already 6,000 reenactors registered to participate in the battle!

Belle Grove, one of the outstanding mansions of the Valley of Virginia, shows evidence of the cultures that came to the Valley with the early settlers. It also identifies with ideas that were shaping architecture at the time. Like other period houses built in the Valley, the design shows Thomas Jefferson’s influence from the Tidewater and Piedmont areas, and also Classical Revival elements, an architectural innovation of the day.

Don’t miss out on the Cedar Creek – Belle Grove re-enactment weekend activities:

- Tour Belle Grove’s Manor House, interpreted this weekend to the 1860’s by the Frederick Ladies Relief Society in period civilian dress.

- Witness an encampment of Confederate and Union soldier re-enactors on the lawn who demonstrate camp life and tell stories of the 1864 Civil War battle that swirled around Belle Grove.

- Meet national, state and regional historic preservation professionals and learn more about battlefield protection.

The laying of a commemorative wreath will occur on Sunday at 1 p.m. to honor the brave men who fought and died during the October 19, 1864 battle, and those who sustained them on the home front. Some call this battle the single bloodiest day in American history.

Spectator Schedule of Events (***At Activities Tent)

Saturday, October 17

9:30 - Battlefield gates open to public; Victorian Ladies Aside – Field Demonstration

10:00 – Belle Grove Plantation opens; Military and civilian living historians – Battlalion drills (Camps) – Civilian life at the Heater House

10:15 – Civil War nurses from the Union and Confederacy – Linda Estupinan-Snook***

11:00 – CS and US Calvary Demonstration

11:15 – Boys of Hope – Adams’ Battery G, 6th Rhode Island Artillery – Robert Grandchamp***

12 noon – CS Artillery Demonstration

1:00 – CS Signal Corp Demonstration

1:15 – Spectators must leave camps and return to spectator viewing area

1:30 – Loyal Hearts – Histories of American Civil War Canines – Mike Zucchero***

2:00 – Formation

3:00 – Battle of Cedar Creek – Confederate Attack

4:00 – Belle Grove Plantation closes

4:30 – Confederate Troops Pass & Review; 46th Pennsylvania Band Concert***

5:30 – Battlefield closes

Sunday, October 18

9:30 - Battlefield gates open to Public

10:00 – Church Services – Catholic Mass in Event Tent/Period Mass in U>S> Headquarters (Non-denominational in Camps). Belle Grove Plantation opens – Military and Civilian Living Historians

11:00 – US Artillery Demonstration

11:15 – Loyal Hearts – Histories of American Civil Wat=r Canines – Mike Zucchero***

12 noon – Victorian Ladies Aside – Field Demonstration

12:15 – The Legacy of Sheridan’s Ride – Jonathan Noyales***

12:45 – Formation

1:00 – Belle Grove Plantation – Memorial Wreath Laying Ceremony; spectators must leave camps and return to spectator viewing area

1:30 – Battle of Cedar Creek – Federal Counter-attack

3:00 -  Union Troops Pass & Review

4:00 – Belle Grove Plantation closes

5:00 – Battlefield closes

(Schedule subject to change.)

Admissionprices to Belle Grove and Cedar Creek Battlefield Reenactment:  Adult 2 Day Pass $25; Adult 1 Day Pass $20; Belle Grove, NTHP, Cedar Creek Battlefield Members and Students 2 Day Pass $15; Belle Grove, NTHP Members, Cedar Creek Battlefield Members and Students 1 Day Pass $11

Admission to Belle Grove only: $10 for adults; tickets half-price for Belle Grove, NTHP, Cedar Creek Battlefield Members, and students. Children 5 and under are free.

Belle Grove Plantation is located at 336 Belle Grove Road, in Middletown, VA 22645

Phone: (540) 869-2028

Visit the Belle Grove web site.

“Vaccinating companion animals, such as dogs and cats, against rabies for their protection as well as the protection of family members is very important,” said Lord Fairfax Health District Environmental Health Manager, Scott Fincham.

In the Lord Fairfax Health District, which comprises Clarke, Frederick, Warren, Page and Shenandoah Counties and the City of Winchester, the total number of cases in 2008 where an animal tested positive for the rabies virus was 26 and in 2009 there have already been 24 confirmed cases within the Lord Fairfax Health District.

“The rabies virus is shed in the saliva of animals sick with the virus, so any animal bite should be taken seriously,” said Mr. Fincham. “If an animal bites you, wash the wound immediately and call your physician, local health department or animal control agency immediately.” Likewise, if your pet is bitten by a wild animal, contact your veterinarian and the local health department immediately.

The Lord Fairfax Health District strongly advises people to take these steps to prevent families and pets from exposure to rabies:

- Vaccinate all cats, dogs and ferrets against rabies and keep them up to date
- Avoid contact with wild animals or stray cats and dogs
- Do not feed wild animals or stray cats and dogs
- Report stray animals to your local animal control agency
- Eliminate outdoor food sources around the home
- Keep pets confined to your property or walk them on a leash

During Rabies Awareness Week, some veterinarians may offer low-cost rabies vaccinations. Check to see if your pet’s doctor is participating. State law requires all dogs and cats over the age of four months to be vaccinated against rabies. Vaccines can be given as early as three months and one product is approved for kittens at eight weeks. Dog licenses are required throughout the state and some communities require licenses for cats.

The Lord Fairfax Health District is working with Valley Health System to hold a Rabies Symposium on Wednesday, November 4. The symposium will be held at the Winchester Medical Center Conference Center and will consist of presentations and discussions among local health officials and Virginia’s State Public Health Veterinarian, Dr. Julia Murphy. One meeting will target physicians and healthcare providers. Other meetings will be for veterinarians and their office staff, animal control officers, and animal shelter and wildlife rehabilitation personnel. The symposium is free but requires registration.

For more information on rabies, log onto the Virginia Department of Health’s Web site or the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Web site -  or call Lord Fairfax Health District Environmental Health Manager Scott Fincham at (540) 722-3480.

For more information about registering for the November Rabies Symposium, contact Winchester Medical Center’s Medical Education Coordinator Stephanie Nelson at (540) 536-8871.