“World's Most Complete Neighborpedia”
Explore:   What's happening in your neck of the woods?

Craig W. Barrett - Hughesville MD Real Estate

Almost Time For Baseball - Hughesville Baseball Registration

Let's Play Ball!

photo credit StuSeeger

Batter Up!

According to Hughesville Baseball Association, registration for t-ball, baseball and softball starts this Saturday January 17, 2009:

From the Hughesville Baseball Association Website:

GET READY FOR BASEBALL...

Registration for the spring 2009 baseball season will be held at the Hughesville Firehouse and Mechanicsville Firehouse according to the schedule below. The registration form can be completed and printed online. Click here to open the registration form.

Complete the registration form, print and bring it with you to one of the registration dates. Be sure to bring the form with you to the registration, along with your proof or residence and child's birth certificate. Check here often for up to date information prior to the scheduled registration date.


There will be two registration dates at the Hughesville Firehouse:

Saturday, January 17 from 10:00 am - 1:00 pm

Wednesday, January 21 from 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm


There will be two registration dates at the Mechanicsville Firehouse:

Saturday, January 24 from 10:00 am - 1:00 pm

Wednesday, January 28 from 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm



Registration Donations:

T-Ball $75 per player

Baseball $85 per player

Maximum per family $160


Registration Notes:

1. For late registration, if teams are full, players registering during one of the regular registration dates will receive placement first. Late registrations unable to be placed on a team will receive a full refund.
2. This year, Senior League Softball will not start until mid –May to give High School time to finish, and Big League will start in June, however, all players should still register during one of the dates above.

Here Somes Santa Claus

Hughesville Santa Claus

Here Comes Santa Claus

Santa's coming and his elves have finished the schedule. Santa will arrive with a parade of fire trucks and ambulances at the locations listed below between the hours of 6:30pm and 9:00pm each night. Santa wants everyone to have a safe and enjoyable holiday season. Parents are reminded that it will be dark outside and difficult for Santa and his helpers to see everyone clearly. Please hold the children tight until the fire trucks stop moving.

Santa also wants to tell everyone that he can not get to every street because of the size of the fire trucks. Santa's elves have tried to identify streets that Santa can turn around on. GROUP MEETING PLACES have been established for those children that do not live in or near a subdivision and will be Santa's first stop. Have a great holiday and we'll see you soon!

NOTE: Santa runs will be cancelled due to weather and emergencies without notice.

SATURDAY DECEMBER 6

VILLAGE CHRISTMAS TREE LIGHTING 4-6PM

(Corner of Old Leonardtown Rd & Prince Frederick Rd.)

STARTING AT 6:30PM

Hughesville Manor

Deborah Drive

Denise Lane

Westchester Drive

Langley Court

Scout Camp Road (to Juliette Low)

Oak Glen Drive

Oak Glen Circle

Wood Glen Drive

Juliette Low Lane

Homeland Drive

Merri A Lee Way

SUNDAY DECEMBER 7

HUGHESVILLE INDUSTRIAL PARK

Brookleigh Subdivision

Patuxent Woods Lane

Harvest Ridge Lane

Swanson Creek Subdivision

Ivy Hill Court

Carriage Crossing

MONDAY DECEMBER 8

James Lee Drive

Lake Jameson Subdivision

Cracklingtown Road

Beverly Drive

Randall Drive

Cindy Lane

Sandy Level

Bryantown Estates (Bittersweet Dr)

Paternoster Lane

Stiles Place

TUESDAY DECEMBER 9

Oaks Road

Poplar Street

Ash Drive

Arborview Subdivision

Tall Oaks Place

Kent Drive

Traleigh lane

Independence Village

Carrico Mill Lane

Bell Ridge Court

Cameron Ridge Road

Serenity Woods

WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 10

BRYANTOWN STORE

Edelen Estates

Langley Road

Bryantown Hills

Bryantown Drive

East Court

Sunnyside Drive

Huckleberry Drive

Finn Court

Huckleberry Court

FRIDAY DECEMBER 12

GILBERT RUN PARK

Round Hill Road

Chambord Court

Dents Lane

Old Home Place Drive

Paps Parkway

Rupert Drive

Elizabeth Lane

Amberleigh Lane

Crescent Run Street

SUNDAY DECEMBER 14

BRYANTOWN SPORTS COMPLEX

Mount Eagle Lane

Maguire Place

Bryan Meadows Lane

Ogrady Place

Clayton Road

Clayton Court

Woodmount Lane

Green Springs Street

Gallant Lane

Bassford Road

Woodridge Drive

Racoon Run Court

Robbers Roost Court

Eagle Ridge

MONDAY DECEMBER 15

Truman Manor Lane

Stowe Lane

Woodgate Place

Truman Manor Place

Truman Manor Lane

Celestial Lane

Plumage Lane

Burreed Court

Young Road

Hens Rest Lane

Spikerush Court

Flatbill Court

Sorrel Ridge Lane

Christy Lane

Greenwood Lane

Prescott Court

Humbolt Court

Collins Court

Lockwood Place

Hunters Harbor Lane

Stillwater Lane

TUESDAY DECEMBER 16

Creekside Drive

Ridgeway Drive

Meandering Drive

Hilltop Drive

Wilkerson Road

Sarah Court

Ladysmith Court

Crawford Court

Woodlark Drive

Inheritance Drive

Beechnut Drive

Celestial Lane

Ginger Root Lane

Formosa Lane

Check out hvfdems.org for updates to the schedule.

Zekiah Farms Fresh Cut Christmas Trees

Fraser Fir

photo credit: chippenziedeutch

Fresh Cut Christmas Trees

Zekiah Farms has beautiful Fraser Fir fresh cut Christmas Trees, fresh roping and wreaths. They are selling now and until supplies last. The trees are displayed undercover in the barn, so there is no need to worry about the outside weather.

Enjoy a Visit to the Farm

While you're there, see the farm animals or take a tractor ride (weather permitting). Stop in the store for gift ideas. They have unique arts and crafts, fresh apples, greens, winter squash and Zekiah Farms own naturally raised, antibiotic and hormone free meats.

Directions and Hours of Operations

In Bryantown, MD at the traffic light on Route 5 (Leonardtown Rd) turn onto Bryantown Road. Proceed approximately 1.0 miles and the farm will be on your left. You will see two white barns with greens roofs.

Their Street Address is:

5235 Bryantown Road, Waldorf, Maryland 20601

About Zekiah Farms

Nestled in historic Bryantown with the environmentally rich Zekiah Swamp running through it, Zekiah Farms makes the perfect place for family, school, youth, or corporate outings. Zekiah Farms has developed programs to help educate and give memorable farm experiences. These programs will not only be educational, but entertaining and fun as well. Our goal is to share an understanding and love for agriculture and the environment.

Please remember this is a farm, please wear appropriate clothing and shoes.

Credit Crisis and Zero Acorn Crop

Acorns

Photo Credit: Dominic's pics'

When Nature Goes Nuts

According to the National Wildlife Federation:

The acorn crop in an oak forest can reach 700 pounds per acre in a good mast year, when one ancient tree with an immense trunk and a spreading crown could yield 15,000 nuts. Yet by the end of November, most of them will be gone. Packets of energy that are easy to open and digest, acorns are a significant food item for some 150 species of birds and mammals and typically make up at least 25 percent of the diets of black bears, raccoons, gray and fox squirrels, wild turkeys and white-footed mice, to name a few. White-tailed and black-tailed deer, meanwhile, eat oak foliage along with bushels of acorns.

But yet, there weren't any, or very few, acorns on the ground in the Mid-Atlantic region in November.

Couldn't Find any Acorns Anywhere

Rod Simmons, a field botanist, couldn't find any acorns. He got spooked when he was teaching a class on identifying oak and hickory trees late last month. For 2 1/2 miles, Simmons and other naturalists hiked through Northern Virginia oak and hickory forests. They sifted through leaves on the ground, dug in the dirt and peered into the tree canopies. Nothing.

Simmons and other Arlington Naturalists called around the region and heard similar reports. No acorns on an Audubon nature walk in Maryland. Same reports in Fairfax, Falls Church, Charles County, and as far away as Pennsylvania and Nova Scotia. No acorns falling from the oaks in Arlington Cemetery.

An Over Abundance of Resources

Last year was a mast season. It was a good year to be a squirrel. No worries of starvation, plenty of protein to nourish the newly born babies. It was an exuberant time. A mast year occurs when the number of nuts that trees produce in a given year is exponentially higher than the average.

All Things Cyclical - Even Acorns

The spacing of bumper acorn crops about three or four years apart is no accident either.

"The evolutionary response of oaks to seed predation is to produce more acorns than the sundry forest animals could possibly eat," says animal ecologist Rick Ostfeld at the Institute of Ecosystem Studies (IES) in New York´s Hudson Valley.

But he notes that if there were large crops every fall, populations of squirrels, mice and deer would increase until no amount of acorns could satiate them. So the oaks intermingle good mast years with poor ones, during which many of the seed predators starve. "Trees aren´t as stupid as they look," he says.

Seems There's a Lesson Here

A zero acorn production year, from what I can research, is rather extraordinary and unheard of. The implications of how it will affect the forest animals is not known. It's assumed to be far reaching. Because of the complexity of the relationships between the plants, animals, weather, and pollination, etc... no one really knows why this extraordinary event has happened.

Seems to be a parallel between the Global credit crisis and the zero acorn production. Both are extraordinary events and both had previous years of an over abundance of resources. When times are good, pay down your debts, save discretionary income, budget your time, money and resources. Because there might be a day when the acorns may not come.

Arlington National Cemetery - Veterans Day 2008




This is a Real Estate Shows internet show of pictures I took and a post I wrote about taking my kids to Arlington National Cemetery on Veterans Day earlier this month. My inspiration is the love of my kids and Country, but encouragement came from Matt Stigliano. Thanks Matt.

I had posted this a week or so ago, but due to technical difficulties I accidentally removed the original and was just now able to get the show back on.