Comments (0) This week’s Gazette column is about exercising in winter – something that is tough to get motivated to do, but really helps your winter mindset. These photos are from a recent run at Pratt Farm and a bike ride in the woods at the Morgan property.
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If you don’t like the embedded slideshow below, you can see a larger version here
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In another IM chat with my buddy Mike we discuss the role that racism plays in national politics since the election of President Obama.
Racist photo of Obama as a witchdoctor
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Here are some pics of the new dog Slaney – a half pointer, half boxer.
The first couple are from 12/29 in CT and the rest are from 12/31 when she arrived. This is a great dog. Loves the outdoors and the snow. She’ll walk all day and play outside chasing balls and sticks. Very playful. In the house, she’s insanely well-behaved. Totally housebroken – she plays when it’s time to play and cuddles when it’s time to cuddle.
Last night I was showering with Zach and Slaney jumped in and got an unplanned washing. Apologies to those who now need to poke out their mind’s eye. As I write this, every other word is interrupted by Slaney dropping a tennis ball in my lap so I can throw it five feet.
She’s been out playing in the snow all morning and being walked numerous times per day. She’s really taken to going for walks on the leash.
I spoke too soon. Apparently the news article cited in my last post is incorrect. The email from FinCom chairman Rich Pavadore explains. I’m sure his request for comments from IT professionals would extend to anyone with something to add:
My first instinct is just what I said in my Gazette column – that the BOS and TM are wasting time trying to alter what a perfectly good proposal by FinCom. That said I will read Al’s proposal more carefully and provide the FinCom chairman with anything useful. I will gladly pass on any feedback anyone else has if you do not have Mr. Pavadore’s email web site address.
Update – Kenny & Co have posted on this and included a nice ‘atta boy
Not long ago, I wrote a Gazette column and several posts about Kenny Cieplik and Company and their blog The Traveling Wheelchair. As part of the prep work, I learned that the group had had a meeting with the Middleboro Town Manager Charles Cristello, OECD director Anna Nalevanko, and Building Commissioner Bob Whalen to discuss accessibililty issues. The TM agreed to send out letters to a list of businesses to ask them to voluntarily comply with ADA(Americans With Disabilities Act). The list, I believe, only included businesses with minor barriers such as a single step. Kenny & Co aren’t asking for the moon.
I asked to be kept in the loop on this and the town has been kind enough to do so. I’d like to thank the above-mentioned people for assisting Kenny in this and keeping me informed – something they didn’t have to do.
Here is a reprint of the letter in case anyone is interested.
If any business owners have any feedback, I would love to hear from them. Obviously I would love to hear “success” stories – how you responded to this letter. Maybe you were already compliant – I like to hear that too. Any feedback you have good or bad on the issue of ADA compliance – particularly as it relates to Middleboro would be of interest to me.
There is nothing I would like better than to get a couple of businesses that could give me material for a “good news” Gazette article on the way local business and government stepped up when asked to do the right thing – even when it didn’t necessarily add to the bottom line.
Back in August, the family did some tent camping in North Conway, New Hampshire and I’ve been meaning to post a few pics. Usually we go with some other family but this time went by ourselves. We stayed at the Eastern Slope Campground and had a site right on the Saco River. Nice.
One day we drove up Rt. 302 to Crawford Notch to do what I think is a little known hike up Mt. Willard. The entrance to the trail is behind the Crawford Notch Railroad Station across the tracks. It is(I think) 1.5 miles each way. The trail runs up a reasonably steep but not difficult incline to the top of Mt. Crawford – elevation 2804 feet. You are rewarded with stunning, and I mean stunning views of Crawford Notch. I would say that this is one of the most scenic vistas I have ever seen. As far as difficulty goes, my eight and ten year old were able to do without (much) complaint. The whole thing took maybe 2.5 hours including time at the top.
Enjoy the pics.
Update
I just saw that Danielle Miraglia is playing at the Soule Homestead Joe Davies Folk Festival this Saturday(9/20) at 12:00 PM
On Sunday September 13th, me and the boys went to the Narrows Center Festival. Marese was off doing a 100 mile bike ride – something that I could do if I wanted to be a showoff.
This was my first time at this great annual event but will certainly not be my last. We arrived around 12:30, grabbed lunch and sat down near the main stage where The Hot Club of Cowtown was playing. These guys(and gal) kicked ass. There was a definite western swing flavor – the same sort of Bob Wills influence shared by Asleep At The Wheel. I could have listened to them all day. BTW – if you don’t own Ride With Bob, you should hang your head in shame and question all your past musical choices. The bass player was all over his instrument and had a percussive style that reminded me of – off all things – Primus. Awesome.
The festival had music going on inside the Narrows Center as well as outside on the main stage. We wandered into the Narrows Center about ten minutes before Danielle Miraglia went on. I had never heard of this person before but she rocked – great stage presence, great voice, very compelling. The songs were strong(I bought a CD) and she has a really interesting picking style – she had a way of plunking the bass strings that produced a sound akin to a bass slap along with a melodic picking on the higher strings. Very interesting. She was accompanied by a viola and electric bass – both kick ass musicians whose names I did not catch. We caught the whole set – I was way impressed.
After that, we wandered down to the children’s area near the Gates of the City. This was good but for kids younger than mine. After catching an ice cream and looking at the vendors we headed home. I’ll definitely be back next year and plan on catching all the great free music that this festival offers.
This is a nice short day trip. Brewser Gardens runs from the Jenny Grist Mill and Run of the Mill Tavern in Plymouth down to the waterfront near Plymouth Rock and the Mayflower. There is ample parking and free admission. The park has nice landscaping and a walkway that runs alongside Town Brook – right next to the original site of Plymouth Plantation.
At the mill, there is a deck with ice cream shop and gift shop. Inside the mill is the Run Of The Mill Tavern, a decent family restaurant with a second floor deck overlooking the grist mill waterwheel. The deck can be hot in the afternoon, but is great on a cool day or later in the afternoon. The path winds up on the main Plymouth waterfront area – very touristy but scenic and enjoyable. In the park is a plaque honoring severy members of the Eddy family – including early Middleboro settler Samuel Eddy.
A while back, I posted about an encounter with the author(s) of The Traveling Wheelchair. This most excellent blog posts reviews of public places giving them zero to five stars based solely on their wheelchair accessibility and ADA compliance.
This encounter led to some emails and link exchanges. Yesterday I met with Kenny Cieplik and Company to interview him and get background information for my next column. I haven’t fully decided on the focus of the piece but it will certainly include the interesting way that Kenny is using his blog to engage businesses, governments, and people to affect positive change w/regards to accessibility. There will be some interesting success stories, and a mention of a couple of people who must not be allowed to pollute the gene pool.
Comment away if you have any feedback or suggestions for the next literary masterpiece aka my Bumpkin’s Corner column in the Middleboro Gazette.
As a bit of background, Mr. Cieplik spent 20 years in a nursing home after a cerebral hemorrhage at age 11 left him in a coma and disabled. Thanks largely to the Rolland v. Romney case, Kenny has been able to move into his own home and gets along very well. His home is beautiful, fully accessible, and nicer than mine – CURSE YOU KENNY
It just goes to show you that state government can do something right when you beat them about the head repeatedly with a giant lawsuit stick.
Update
My column in this Thursday’s Gazette discusses this topic. Rather than get too far into solutions, I offer this document from the EPA. Solutions to illegal dumping are complex and varied and too involved to include in this week’s literary masterpiece though I may do another Bumpkin’s Corner piece dedicated solely to some options for combating illegal dumping.
I was riding my bike along River Street in Middleboro not long ago and noticed all the trash along the side of the road. I took my camera on the next ride and took these photos. I’m currently writing my next column – due to be published on September 10th – about rural trash in general and River Street in particular. Please share any thoughts via comments or email.
Beyond the tires and bigger stuff one sometimes finds on a remote road, there is an awful lot of “lunch trash” – fast food cups, wrappers, bags, beer-related detritus. Based purely on the type of trash, it looks to me like people are finishing their drive-through lunches right about the time they get to River St, and toss their junk out the window on a regular basis.
Back to more important and pleasant things.
I’ve been meaning to post pics of a daytrip we took to Glendalough during our visit to Ireland in June. Along the way we stopped at the Meeting of the Waters that was discussed in an earlier post. From Wikipedia:
This place is absolutely gorgeous – my poor photos do not do justice to the beauty of this place. Beyond Glendalough itself, one route brings you through the Vale of Avoca – a drive that is worth doing even without this beautiful destination.
There are several miles of top-notch well-maintained trails and wooden boardwalks that traverse the river and lakes not to mention a fine visitor’s center. There is a nice legend of a lake monster – which of course I told to the kids. They love that kind of stuff. As one of the captions said, traveling to Ireland with the kids, or anywhere else for that matter is pretty much effortless. We are very lucky.
You can click on any photo to go directly to the web album for larger pictures or manual viewing. If you put your mouse near the bottom of the photo, some controls will appear. The speech bubble near the left will turn captions on and off. You can also pause the slideshow and step through it manually so you have plenty of time to savor my witty photo captions.
A while back I had a podcast and post about a local CSA run by The Dahlia Farm. I thought I’d post an update on how it’s gone. We’re a couple of months in now. The posted picture is of a recent 1/2 share. We have baby/pickling cukes, fresh basil, kohlrabi, zuchini, baby carrots, blueberries, red/green swiss chard, green beans.
Early in the season there are lots of greens – many whose names I can’t spell or remember – along with more traditional fare. So far I’ve been real happy with the CSA and Mr. Reynolds(a friend of my BTW) has been good about soliciting feedback.
I pick up my share once a week and usually hit the supermarket on the way home to buy stuff that compliments the share. For instance, there may not be all the ingredients for a salad, but there is usually most of them depending on the season. On occasion there might be a bit of fresh cut flowers or even some home made soap. Nice.
All in all it’s been a great experience. The food is fresh, free of chemicals, and quite a notch above what I’ve been buying in the supermarket.
Mark Belanger
Rich Young
Paul Singley
Tony Lawrence
Taking a break from casino and local politics posts, I have some time to revisit a recent trip to Ireland. The main purpose of the trip was to visit my mother-in-law who passed away last week.
We managed a couple of days for family stuff including a trip to Glendalough which I’ll write about later. On the way, we drove through the Vale of Avoca in Co. Wicklow – a truly beautiful place. We stopped at the Meeting of the Waters. This is where the Avoca river begins at the junction of the Avonmore and Avonbeg rivers. The spot was immortalized in song by Thomas Moore:
The photo slideshow includes a couple pics of tiny country roads we wound up on due to a GPS-induced wrong turn. You can click on any photo to go directly to the web album for larger pictures or manual viewing. If you put your mouse near the bottom of the photo, some controls will appear. The speech bubble near the left will turn captions on and off. You can also pause the slideshow and step through it manually so you have plenty of time to savor my witty photo captions.
The meeting of the waters is a small park in the Vale of Avoca. You park on the side of the road and descend a stone staircase to a short path that leads to the river. There is also a monument to Thomas Moore a few benches. Pretty place and well worth a visit if you are in Co. Wicklow.
Back in the old days, some boring old fart had drag out a slide projector so he could bore you to tears with slides of his vacation. Thanks to the Internet, I can bore you much easier.
That’s progress folks.
Here are some pics from Harry Pickering Day – a cookout event to honor his years of service. Good Time, good people, great guy.
Sometimes I think that a lot of people who do community minded things often have other motives that taint the good work they do. Not so with Harry. He always seemed to have very pure motivations to me.
There was a very good showing that included former selectmen(no current ones, nor the TM), current town department heads, talented writers(that would be me), and some very demure and modest people(that would also be me). There were burgers, dogs, and drinks followed by a few short speeches and words of acknowledgement from current Park Dept. staff, Steve Spataro, Lincoln Andrews, and some people I didn’t know. Steve presented a plaque to Harry. Afterwards the pool was opened – those of us with kids took advantage of that.
The town pool was looking pretty good – I’ve included a few pics of it.
Update
I’ve removed all the images and replaced it with an embedded slideshow. Alternately, you can view the pictures directly on the picasa web site for downloading and individual viewing here.
Technical gibberish warning
I’ve been using nemasket.net as a feed aggregator. It pulls in headlines from all the local blogs that I follow. It is using WordPress(blog/cms software) and a plugin called feedwordpress – an RSS and atom syndication doohickey.
This has mostly been working OK but had a manual component to it. Some feeds include the body of the post, a summary of it, or nothing at all. What I wanted was the post headline being a link to the original site (gladys, bumpkin, CST, etc) and the body of the post to be a citing of a small portion of the original post. I just couldn’t find a way to do it and ended up manually citing the original article myself.
As a computer guy, what I lack in skill I make up for in laziness. I can’t stand doing a task repeatedly. It drives me nuts. This lazy instinct finally drove me to automating the citing portion.
This post is to help me remember how I did it and maybe attract a more elegant solution from some superior geek that stumbles upon it.
WordPress supports themes – templates that give the site a very different look and feel depending on which theme you use. Inside the theme directory is an index.php file that controls the display on the main page – usually a listing of the site’s posts. With a little trial and error, I figured out that this line was displaying the actual text of the post:
<?php the_content(__('Read more...', 'inove')); ?>
I re-wrote and added this stuff.
<?php # capture output buffer ob_start(); # output post body the_content(__('Read more...', 'inove')); # assign post body(output buffer) to a string $mycontent = ob_get_clean(); # get rid of any embedded php or html $mycontent = strip_tags($mycontent); # truncate the post body to 300 chars + ... $myshorty = substr($mycontent,0,300); $mycontent = $myshorty . " ..."; # print the post body echo "<i>$mycontent</i>"; ?>
Short version
Nemasket.net should now take care of itself. Any readers using it to follow the local Internet stuff won’t have to wait for me to update anything.
If you have any blogs or local sites, you’d like include, drop me a comment.
UPDATE
As always, when something seems too difficult, it usually means there is an easier way. A builtin WordPress function will do the same thing my 7 lines of code do. This one line does pretty much the same thing – truncating the post at 55 words:
<?php the_excerpt(__('Read more...', 'inove')); ?>
Work smarter not harder.
This is the companion blog to my June 4, 2009 Gazette column – Guide to the Local Internet. Here are the links to the local sites discussed in the column.
News aggregators
Nemasket.net
Blog roundup
News
Middleborough News
Jory Pepper Blog
Politics
Bellicose Bumpkin
Middleboro Review
Coffee Shop Talk
Brownie, You’re Doing a Heckuva Job
Reel Wamps
History
Recollecting Nemasket
Casino
Gladys Kravitz
Carver Chick
Casino Helper
Fiferstone
Truth To Power
Carl’s Casino Quotes and Commentary
Discussion
Nemasket Forum
Middleboro Matters
Back in December ’08, I purchased the domain Nemasket.net, started a forum and played around with various things. Up until now, I haven’t found the right niche for the main Nemasket.net site – though I was perfectly happy using it to goof around and post video, audio, and misc. docs.
That niche is a portal for convenient access to all the local blogs and web-centric Middleboro activity.
Basically it fetches articles from any blog or local web site that I want and creates a stub article with a link to the original article. Periodically, I go in a add a brief summary or relevant quote. Along with this, I hope to regularly post audio, video, and relevant docs for town goings on like BOS meetings, Town Meetings, and so on.
Nemasket.net has been a site in need of a reason since I got it 1.5 years ago. I think this is the reason.
Thoughts and feedback requested.
Last Monday I took the family out for a walk at the Weston Memorial Forest. What a great place! I’d heard of it, and even knew it was on Tispaquin Street but had never made an effort to find out exactly where. It’s amazing how little information is on the web about it. Same goes for Pratt Farm.
We parked on Tispaquin Street roughly across the street from Black Brook Path – marked by the yellow pushpin in the image. From there the main trail seemed to run roughly straight out with a number of paths that went left and right off the main trail – I didn’t take any of them. The main trail eventually crossed a couple of small streams and ended at some high tension lines.
There seems to be enough out there to make it worth exploring on the bike to get a lay of the land. With luck the high tension lines may be passable – which would take you into the Rocky Gutter Wildlife Management Area.
Yet another great place like Pratt Farm that would really benefit from an easily accessible trail map.
The trails were in remarkably good shape. They were wide, basically clear and free of roots – at least the main trail – and covered with pine needles and a bit of grass. One thing I noticed was a lot of dead trees – more than one would expect – as if there had been a disease or bug infestation recently. I’d expect that all the dead brush is a significant fire hazard.
Update from Rick McNair
This came in via comment from Rick McNair – who knows more about area trails than anyone I know.
Clarification on Weston as there are actually two. The second is off Purchase Street. Just go up Purchase about a mile – just past Faye Avenue and there is a small parking lot on your left. About five miles of trails including one circle trail that ends up back at the parking lot. Another trail will cross the power lines and come out to a farm with a private airfield.
Across from the area you described in your blog is Western Reserve area that I have not been in for twenty years.
The area you were in is much smaller. The power lines are very difficult to follow unless you like muck and plenty of water. It will eventually connect to the area (Weston II?) mentioned above. I’ve done it in winter only after an extended freeze. All frozen over.
Rocky Gutter is across from the Weston II. Just before you reach the parking lot for Weston II there is a dirt entrance on your right that you can take and it ends at a small parking area. This is a bog area and also access to Rocky Gutter. No trail maps or trails marked.
I do believe a detailed description was put out on one of Limo’s many incarnations for all three of these areas.
If we go for a ride/run we can go to the trail area I just mentioned for Rocky Gutter. It is the best in the area.
Updated map with Rick commentary
The area (Weston I) was not really passable the last time I attempted it – many years ago. Too wet so I later tried it with a deep freeze.
I was in the area a few months back and took the trail you speak of that comes out my the power lines and may also come out to some bogs. Don’t remember. Did you follow the trail that ends up on the edge of the pond? Has a bench to view the area.
That whole area has connecting trails that just require you to cross a road or just trot down the road a bit. When I say the system has hundreds of miles of trails it is accurate – and Rocky Gutter is just part of it.
I have several local maps that have details of the various areas.
jofalc’s guide to trails
I got this great comment and have promoted it to be part of the post:
I have “played” in Weston for years. It is a great space. It is passable. The National Grid went in there a year and half ago and cleared the powerlines. In the spring and early summer, too wet, way too wet. But late summer and fall and deep freeze of the winter, passable. I did it in a deep freeze a year ago. It crosses two brooks, Woods Brook and Short Brook. They both feed into Tispaquin then Fall Brook, Nemasket and eventually the Taunton River. Fact: But if you simply cross Purchase Street from the parking lot Rick mentioned and into the Gutter, water flows into Buzzards Bay. Quite extradorinary if anyone wanted to know or cares. It marks a boundary of Taunton River watershed and Buzzards Bay drainage basins.
Weston is nothing compared to the “gutter” in size, but the Purchase St. side has excellent pine groves along with the Atlantic White Cedar swamp, it reminds you of New Hampshire. If you want to mountain bike, spend a day in Weston on the Purchase side and take the powerlines across the street and into the Gutter. You could go for the whole day, although I have 13 mile run loop I do in less than a couple of hours, and have been running it for years. The only thing you will see is deer.
Just to give you more scope, I start and run from Myles Standish in Plymouth, through the woods of Carver, the Gutter, the Weston and to my childhood home on Thomas Street, NOT using any roads! 16 Miles and no roads! Bog roads and trails. Never had a problem with a bog owner;) Oh, but times are changing.
Anyway, Mark, thanks for pushing the CPA. People don’t realize that Middleboro is the second town landwise in the Commonwealth and has hardly any conservation lands. Pratt Farm and Weston are such small fragments. Proportionally Middleboro is SOOO out of whack. At least that is what I think. You pushing the CPA is genius and long overdue.
I don’t know about “genius” I think it’s more like a no-brainer. CPA is in sleeper mode – don’t count it out just yet – Mark
In this week’s podcast I talk to Jim Reynolds – owner of The Dahlia Farm in Middleboro that has just started up a CSA – Community Supported Agriculture. In a CSA, you buy a share of a farmer’s crop and pick up produce during the growing season. Mr. Reynolds also runs Reynolds Flowers
Other local CSA’s include Plato’s Harvest and I believe the Soule Homestead.
After our discussion, I bought a half share of the CSA – which came out to around $15 per week. This includes enough veggies to feed 2 people for a week, some eggs, and I think some fresh flowers. Jim also gave me a dozen eggs from his free range chickens.
The picture above is the last 2 eggs from this dozen with 3 supermarket eggs. The photo does not do justice to the amazing orange color in the yolks – apparently from high levels of beta-Carotene. The shells are very strong and break very cleanly. The eggs have a great texture and flavor. Supermarket eggs are just pale and sickly in comparison.
In this discussion, Jim talks about the mechanics of the CSA, why he decided to do one at this time, and organic farming in general. For more info, contact The Dahlia Farm.
A local resident attempted to ask for a clarification of the alleged co-opting of the Middleboro BOS to casino interests.
BOS chairman Pat Rogers shut down the question because it hadn’t made it into their packets. I never cared much for the correspondence mechanism. Basically you send a letter to the BOS secretary, it presumably goes into their packets, and they comment on it if they wish. I’ve sent in several letters and have never had them addressed – so the feedback system is insufficient.
It will be interesting to see if this question is addressed next week.
One of the blogs I follow is Representative Dan Bosley’s blog. Mr. Bosley is the chair of the the committee on Economic Development and Emerging Technologies. He recently had a post about windmills on farms in New York.
This reminded me of an idea I had while back so I posted the idea as a comment on Mr. Bosley’s blog. Here it is:
Mr. Bosley replied:
Now this isn’t horribly different from Pickens’ plan except that it encourages average citizens to pour money directly into the problem.
Like many of us, I would love to use alternative energy – but the one of the best forms – wind – is not available to me. I don’t care if my windmill is in my back yard, on a hill in western Mass, or in the middle of a desert in Arizona. There are potentially millions and millions, maybe billions of private dollars just waiting to be used to solve our energy and environmental problems.
Some astute readers have noticed that not all blog posts are showing up on the Casino Facts blog page. Last time I looked Jessies blog wasn’t showing up at all. What’s up with that? Has CFO finally bowed to all that pressure from the anonymous cowards on Topix? Hardly.
I altered the cfo blogs page at the request of the current web site maintainer. For all the blogs of interest, each post is fetched, examined, and linked if it looks to be casino related. This is all done by a program – which I’m quite sure is not infallible.
An alternative way of keeping up with things is my blog roundup. This has links to the most recent posts from a number of blogs including some pro casino ones and other blogs that have little or even nothing to do with the casino. Post order is chronological – most recent first.
This post should make it onto the CFO blogs page so the readers have the option of following my blog and others regardless of whether they show up on the CFO blogs page. Of course you can just visit Gladys, Middleboro Review, CarverChick etc to check manually. We all maintain links to each other for convenient navigation between the blogs.
Many in both pro and anti casino circles point to McCain as being the candidate that is less friendly to Indian casinos. This NY Times article casts serious doubt on that theory. This is a long and seemingly thorough article that puts McCain as the driver behind IGRA and the rise of Indian gaming. Given that I’m voting for Obama either way, I’d be interested in feedback on this.
IGRA is a poorly written law whose vague provisions have wreaked legal havoc since it’s inception. If that is an indication of McCain’s governmental skills then I have serious doubts about him. That said, I’d be voting Democratic even if McCain personally promised to squash the Mashpee Wampanoag Bingo Hall and Cornucopia of Excellent Goods at Low Prices.
For a while now, I’ve been advocating that Middleboro take a look(or re-look) at the Community Preservation Act or CPA. Conveniently, the Rappaport Institute has just released a 39 page report on CPA.
I’ll be posting in detail on the report after I’ve had the chance to fully digest it. In the meantime, I throw it out there for your perusal.
One thing that jumps out at me from the summary is that communities which are not using CPA are losing somewhat right out of the gate. Communities that have adopted CPA, get some matching funds from the state. The state funds come from a statewide fee on transactions filed with the registry of deeds. In simple terms – any sale of property(and other things) contributes money into the CPA fund – which is distributed to towns participating in CPA.
So simply – a bunch of money is flowing into the statewide CPA fund from properties that are bought and sold in Middleboro, or if someone transfers ownership of a property, or anything that requires a change at the registry of deeds. This money is flowing into towns – mostly affluent towns – that have adopted CPA. We are getting nothing.
I’m still very much in the investigative stage with CPA – feedback is welcome.
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