How do we maintain adequate quantity and quality of water in Floyd County?

We could start by attending the Water and Life Event in Floyd County. The free Earth Day event is hosted by the Partnership for Floyd at Floyd County High School and will be open to the public at 9:30am on Saturday, April 19. (more…)

What is it with some tea companies? They smartly impart snippets of wisdom, or just darn good quotes or thoughts on tea bag labels (Yogi Tea) and underneath bottle caps. It always gives me something to ponder and sometimes makes me smile, which is probably the point. In the last two weeks, thanks to Honest Tea, I’ve enjoyed the refreshing Sublime Mate (pronounced mah’ tay). (more…)

Ann and the children and I moved from our little farm in Wytheville so that I could retrain for a new career. It meant leaving behind our best friend, Zachary, a six year old Black Lab. It was for his own good; he would be miserable penned up in suburban Birmingham. (more…)

The standing corn browns and curls and our deep valley grows colder in the shadows of these shortening September days. The canning is laid by, and we celebrate the end of long months of kneeling servitude to the trowel and the watering can. (more…)

A reader informs us: Don’t respond to emails, phone calls, or pages that ask you to call a phone number with the 809 prefix! You may be charged over $100 in unrecoverable fees. (more…)

FloydFest is a non-profit non-commercial grassroots event focusing on cultural preservation by showcasing diverse musical genres from around the world.

“This is really about cultural survival and awareness,” says festival co-founder Kris Hodges. “Without its roots, the tree falls over.”

The festival features three additional stages, including workshop arenas, and several specially themed areas. The Artists’ Village embraces original arts and crafts from over 75 selected vendors, and offers demonstrations in woodturning. glassblowing, blacksmithing, weaving and much more. The African Village offers workshops in African drumming and dance. And the Children’s Area has its own schedule of performers, crafts and events, plus a mid-festival parade. (more…)

On a recent drive across the east end of the county, my wife and I took roads we’d traveled often, before we moved to Goose Creek. (more…)

Four years ago, March, the old field across from the house was choked with 13-year-old White Pine trees. (You can count the number of whirls of branches and age them in this way.) They had been planted, we were told, to harvest as Christmas trees. Paid for ‘by the tree’ they were planted way too close together, then neglected and growing tall and spindly in long dreary rows. Each anemic tree wore bare branches almost to the top, starved of light by its nearest neighbors. Rank and file, they grew in monotonous congestion on the only level land in this small mountain valley within our boundaries. (more…)

It amazes me how a leaf knows when its time has come to fall. Perhaps some combination of day length and temperature gives the signal. But maybe it’s just the good taste to abort, an inner sensitivity to the needs of the whole, giving its parent tree a chance to hibernate with its blood gone underground for the winter, safe from freezing. Whatever reason and whatever the trigger for the moment of leaf launch, I’m glad they don’t all get the same idea on the same day. (more…)

The former Dulaney’s Store in Alum Ridge, has recently been transformed into an exciting musical venue, now known as The Old Store. (more…)