Crossing the U.S. every day

 

Arthur Levine admits he doesn't travel much, other than going to Florida once in a while, or to swap meets.

But one of his hobbies (you'll need both hands to count all of them), takes him across the U.S. without leaving his Manchester Township garage.  Between what's hanging on his garage walls and what he has stored away, Levine owns more than 400 license plates.

Not only does Levine collect license plates, but his complete collections include vanity plates from all 50 states. Dealer plates from all 50 states. Handicapped plates from all 50 states.  His next collection--he says his last-- is 'stacked' plates, or plates with numbers or letters vertically, as in Pennsylvania's college or fraternal plates.

Like most of us, he enjoys driving down the road and trying to decrypt a license plate on a car in front of him.  The trick, he says, is to understand that not all vanity plates have a logical explanation. Some are initials, nicknames.

Beyond license plates, Levine collects W.C. Fields memoribilia, Guiness Books of World Records, TV guides.

But on his business cards is "Collector of License Plates",  a member of the American License Plate Collectors Association, he's MRCANDEE on email, and a tip of the hat to his real job, a greeter at the West Manchester WalMart.

Chainsaws, ice fishing, maple sugar

 

 The annual Ridgway (Pa.) Chainsaw Carvers Rendezvous is finished for this year, but check its website here for next year's event. More than 200 carvers are spread through the square and a nearby large parking lot, showing off their collections, and making more as you watch. Bears were the carving model of choice, apparently, but there were plenty of eagles and owls, and even a teeter-totter. The artists are from as far away as Germany.

Saw dust and chips were everywhere, the whine of chainsaws too. The event is sponsored by a local art gallery, without help from the Chamber of Commerce or the town. There wasn't a motel room available for miles around, and restuarants were packed. Like Punxsutawny's Ground Hog Day, just down the road, it seems this is Ridgway's one event that makes it stand out.

There's a whole lot of money flowing into town that week. But on Saturday, it ended after the auction which raised money for charity.  So, we got back into the car.

Finding snow this winter has seen something of a problem, so we headed off again to the eastern Cleveland suburbs to see a few flakes. There wasn't much snow there either, but the old standby of Chardon, Ohio, known for its snow and sugar maple festival, had more than most. Even the ponds and lakes were still frozen, and we watched Dan and Kevin wander out to the East Branch to go ice fishing.

That wasn't going well, as far as the quantity of fish goes, but they seemed to be enjoying themselves with their homemade ice fishing shelter, complete with heater, skis, and a few beers.

Up the road a few miles, Ken and Lindy were tapping hard and soft sugar maple trees (I didn't know there was a difference) for the upcoming collection and annual maple syrup-making. About 130 trees are now dressed with old white milk jugs in Tom's back woods.

It's not warm enough there yet to collect.

Nixon Park's Maple Sugar weekend

Nixon County Park naturalist Amber Carothers taps a red maple tree to get sap flowing in time for Nixon County Park's maple sugar weekend. Events begin on Saturday, February 23, at 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., and continues Sunday noon to 4 p.m.

 Activities include tours of the park's sugar bush, lectures about the process of making maple syrup and sugar and hands-on demonstrations. Maple sugar products will be on sale, and attendees can eat a pancake with real maple syrup.

Cost is $2 per person for the weekend.

Growing veggies in February?

It probably shows a lack of seeing the obvious, but I was surprised to find Jim Markey harvesting vegetables at J-Mar Farms along the Susquehanna Trail Saturday.

I assumed that all veggies being grown here this time of year were from hot houses. Markey was working in two or three foot trenches, digging in the soggy soil. Bleached celery, so called because it's pale yellow-green color, is new to me. But I'm not a cook, and until Saturday, didn't much care for celery because it's usually full of stringy fiber, and generally tasteless.

Bleached celery, a local crop known for its enhanced flavor and lack of chewy fiber, is still being harvested in York Township, despite winter temperatures.

Jim Markey of J-Mar Farms in York Township, toils in trenches where the celery has grown since being planted in October. Workers planted 11,000 stalks in October, and cooks and chefs used it for holiday meals over Thanksgiving and Christmas. By Saturday, Markey was harvesting some of the 3,000 still left,  still insulated under mounds of straw and plastic sheeting.

Markey says bleached celery is only harvested in Lancaster and York Counties, mainly because growing it is very labor intensive, since the stalks must be trimmed of all its tough dark green stalks, roots and most of the leaves removed. Even worse, winter temperatures can destroy the entire crop, as happened a few years ago when 10,000 stalks were frozen out.
 
On New Year's Day this year, however, Markey still had 11 vegetables in the ground because of mild temperatures.  On Saturday, Markey was digging bright orange carrots as well as celery.   
 

Sign of Spring

Maybe because of last week's spring-like temperatures, these snowdrops aside Phil and Mary Miller's North Hopewell Township home were blooming Sunday.

Miller says his snowdrops don't usually pop until late March, but this so far has been a warm and nearly snowless winter.

Snowdrops may have medicinal purposes, aside from being pretty and an uplifting sign of spring. This from England's Mail Online:

This small, white flower blooms in the late winter.
Traditional uses: Rub-on treatment for headaches, painkiller and poison antidote.
Modern uses: Reminyl, one of the main type of drugs used to treat mild to moderate dementia, is derived from galantamine, a compound found in snowdrop bulbs.
It helps increase levels of acetylcholine, a brain chemical involved in the transmission of messages from nerve cells.
Alzheimer’s is associated with a drop in acetylcholine levels — galantamine stops or delays the decline, helping to maintain memory.
‘Galantamine was originally tested for use in conditions such as eye, gastric and heart disorders.
'It wasn’t until the Eighties that it was explored for potential benefits in dementia,’ says Dr Melanie-Jayne Howes of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

 

Chilly Cabin Fever walk at Rocky Ridge

For those of us who are going stir crazy for lack of snow, the York County Park system and Rocky Ridge Park hosted a Cabin Fever Walk Saturday. Attended by about 20 people, ecologist Robert Bull of Wilson T. Ballard Company of Shrewsbury led the hike through the snow-covered park.

Most Yorkers woke up Saturday morning to no snow at all, but Rocky Ridge was covered with just enough snow to make it look like winter, but not enough to make for tough walking.

Bull spoke of poplar trees, the different kids of oaks, maples. He pointed out the different lichen and moss growing on rocks, and explained how well today's forests are doing, compared with 100 years ago. Interesting stuff.

Most of the hikers were Cub Scouts from Pack 25 of York, and more interested in climbing rocks, drawing designs in the light snow cover and throwing snowballs.

It was a warm up, so to speak, for next week's Klondike Derby, where many of the scouters will be sleeping in tents at Camp Tuckahoe.

Snowy walk in Fawn Township

Jessica and Josh Wilson take their horses Lady and Medeira for a 10-mile once a week through Fawn Township.