Fall Home & Garden - September 2023

Wednesday, September 20, 2023

Drought exposes old dam beneath the South Fork

By HARLEIGH CUPP Daily News-Record

LYNNWOOD — Record low river levels due to this summer’s drought have brought a new meaning to the term “concrete jungle” as remnants of a large dam that used to power a mill along the South Fork of the Shenandoah River near Port Republic have been completely exposed, allowing for careful and curious inspection of a piece of history that is usually buried underwater.

While much of the structures’ history is based off of pure speculation pieced together with stories of the past from nearby landowners, it appeared as if a smaller concrete dam was replaced by a larger, much stronger one in 1940.

According to an article from the archives of Farm Bureau News, the dam was used to channel water from the river to the Knox Crutchfield Mill — which was completely destroyed by fire

Harleigh Cupp / DN-R

Glenn Rodes stands at the mouth of a large concrete mill race that due to the drought has been fully exposed for the first time in years.

The Knox Crutchfield Mill — which burned down in the 1970s — built and used the concrete dam across the South Fork of the Shenandoah River to redirect water for power.

Harleigh Cupp / DN-R

Drought FROM PAGE 2

in the 1970s. Pieces of rusty pipe, car axles, railroad tracks and even a plow blade stick out from cracks in the concrete walls that were used to reinforce the concrete as it was poured. Over

time, the river eroded and redirected itself to fill out the mill race, thus turning the man-made channel into its primary path toward the Shenandoah River. The location of the uncovered dam is located on private property in the northern part of Port Republic.

Harleigh Cupp / DN-R

Car axles and assorted pieces of scrap metal — used for reinforcement during early dam building — stick out from concrete ruins exposed by the recent drought.

Harleigh Cupp / DN-R

Glenn Rodes walks through an exposed section of the concrete dam ruins that remain in the South Fork of the Shenandoah River near Port Republic.

Conservation photographer Sydney Haney points her camera while standing in a bog during a trip to Alabama. ABOVE: Haney has been showcasing more than a dozen prints — including this image of a dark eyed Junco perched on the limb of a ghost tree in Tennessee — as the month of August’s featured artist at Mill Creek Country Store.

Local conservation photographer exhibits work at country store

By HARLEIGH CUPP Daily News-Record

PORT REPUBLIC — For the first time in her seven-year career, Sydney Haney — a young conservation photographer from Elkton — has had the opportunity to showcase a few of her favorite works with a formal exhibition as this month’s featured artist in the loft at Mill Creek Country Store.

Haney attributes her interest in photography to her technology teacher at Elkton Middle School — who graciously allowed her to borrow a camera to take home during holiday break, she recounted. Haney shot all weekend long and was hooked then and there on the idea of exploring the world through a lens. Soon after, Haney remembered

receiving a camera of her very own as a gift from her folks and her skill and style has developed from that point forward, using the natural landscape of her home as her playing field.

“Photographing plants and animals in the Shenandoah National Park and George Washington National Forest served as a catalyst for my interest in nature and conservation,” Haney remarked. One experience that stood out as a milestone in her photography journey took place during the summer of 2019 when she was granted a free scholarship to the North American Nature Photographer’s week long summit held at Great Smokey

Contributed photos by Sydney Haney

RIGHT:

Contributed Photo by Sydney Haney

This image titled “Shenandoah Storm” has been part of Sydney Haney’s nature photography exhibit at Mill Creek Country Store this month. See PHOTOGRAPHER , Page 5

Mountains National Park. Haney admitted that she had found out about the event — led by professional photographers and lifelong naturalists — by chance and sent in her application and sample photos thinking it was a “long shot.” Nevertheless, she was accepted and attributes her summit experience to further inspiring her to pursue conservation photography.

“This is my way of bringing the things I love so much to other people,” Haney said, “and photography allows me to say to them ‘here’s what’s in your woods’ [without saying a word at all].”

Haney is currently a wildlife conservation senior studying at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg in addition to being a member of NANP’s conservation committee as a contributing artist of endangered species photographs. Before jumping into college, however, Haney took a gap year to serve with AmeriCorps where she worked on a crew conducting prescribed burn operations near Vicksburg, Mississippi — an opportunity that she first learned about while serving in the Youth Conservation Corps crew in high school.

While visiting home on break, Haney and her mom stopped into the Mill Creek

Country Store, and that’s when they learned about the monthly rotating art gallery. Haney’s mom inquired about it at the front desk, and before she knew it, she was signed up on the spot, she said. By the end of July, she was hanging up a selection of more than a dozen framed fine art prints.

On one wall hangs an image that shows a tiny bird sitting on the last limb of a bare evergreen tree against a white background.

“[In this image], a lone dark-eyed Junco rests on one of the few remaining limbs of a ghost tree at Clingman’s Dome in the Great Smoky Mountains,” Haney said. “These ghost trees — Fraser Firs that have fallen victim to a tiny, invasive insect known as the Balsam Woolly Adelgid — are a haunting visual reminder of the mass die-off of these precious high elevation trees, but the songbird makes use of its perch as fog creeps slowly up the mountain.”

Another is of a dark landscape illuminated by four streaks of vibrant, purple lightening that Haney titled “Shenandoah Storm.”

“As a wildly electrical storm rolled overhead on a summer night,” Haney recalled, “I grabbed my camera and tripod and waited for the perfect moment.

While using a long exposure method to increase my chances of a successful capture, it happened — one, two, three, four bolts of lightening. I jumped with excitement when I realized that I got them all in the photo.”

Haney explained that she’ll shoot just about anything nature-related on her Fujifilm XT2 outfitted with a macro lens, but some of her favorite images over the years have been of native salamander species. She revealed that she’s been working on a long-term project that focuses on finding, photographing and compiling images of Virginia’s endemic and endangered species — such as the

Dixie Caverns salamander — into a book that she hopes to publish by the time she’s 25.

“I want to reach the public [through my photography] to help tell the story of the creatures and influence how much development is happening [to those creature’s habitat],” Haney said. “We hold so much power over the land that we walk on.”

Her nature-centric, detailed photographs will only be on display for a few more days, but a gallery of Haney’s latest work can be found anytime online at sydneyhaneyphotography.godaddysites. com.

Photographer

This is my way of bringing the things I love so much to other people, and photography allows me to say to them ‘here’s what’s in your woods’ [without saying a word at all].

Sydney Haney, conservation photographer

From orchard to oven

Redbud Bake House embraces peach season with sweet treats

By HARLEIGH CUPP Daily News-Record

WAYNESBORO —

For Io Fortier, nothing says summertime quite like a basket full of handpicked peaches, and for the duration of the season, she will be baking up batches of sweet and salty, peach and pecan

snack cakes sold exclusively at her little corner table inside the weekly Waynesboro farmer’s market.

“Peaches taste like a Virginia summer to me,” Fortier said.

Having grown up in Portland, Oregon, and moved to Virginia six years ago to be with her partner, Fortier’s background is filled with an interesting mix of waitressing and wine making. It wasn’t until she settled in Waynesboro with a brand new baby that she took

baking seriously, though she recalled being first inspired to start sourdough after learning the process while working with the winery.

After combining instinct with trial and error for a while, Fortier started selling her baked goods to the public as Redbud Bake House when the Waynesboro farmer’s market — organized by Project Grows — opened in May.

Contributed photos

LEFT: Io Fortier — owner of Redbud Bake House — sells her goods at the Waynesboro farmer’s market. RIGHT: Redbud Bake House has been making the most of peach season with these snack cakes baked with fruit from Chiles Family Orchard.

Massanutten Resort replaces lift six, offers first scenic rides this weekend

By HARLEIGH CUPP Daily News-Record

MASSANUTTEN — The centerpiece of a three-part ski area expansion carried its first customers up the steep slopes at Massanutten Resort during a soft opening of the recently replaced lift six on Wednesday, Sept. 6.

Kenny Hess — director of sports and risk management at Massanutten Resort — was among the first to take a ride to the top.

Orchard

Redbud Bake House is a micro bakery that operates out of Fortier’s home in the Basic City but make no mistake in thinking that her single-handed operation is anything except basic, she explained.

“I’ve had such a sweet and warm reception so far,” Fortier remarked, “and continue to sell out each week.”

Redbud Bake House typically offers five to seven different items at each market, and Fortier has offered a little taste of everything she’s worked to perfect from a sourdough baguette to chocolate chip cookies to rosemary focaccia. While much of her time is devoted to caring for her baby, a workflow that works for Fortier looks like starting the first rounds of dough on Wednesdays and pulling the last few things from the oven at 8:30 on a Saturday morning before hurrying over to the market.

“I love being a part of the local food community and getting to meet the farmers,” Fortier said.

As someone who is passionate about using local grains and inspired by seasonal produce, one concept that Fortier holds near and dear to her heart is that of farm to table — or in the case of peach season, orchard to oven. In fact, all of the fresh peaches used in Redbud Bake House’s snack cakes are sourced from Chiles Family Orchards in Crozet.

For more than 100 years and across the span of five generations, Chiles Family Orchards have been picking, packing and shipping fruit and other

The sun beat directly in his face as the chairs moved up the hillside, dangling above bare ground and parked heavy equipment. The return trip however, offered a refreshing view of the entire resort plus the Shenandoah Valley and Blue Ridge Mountain ranges beyond. With the sun now behind him, the scene was a painted landscape of blue and green with patches of early fall color splotched here and there — a

produce to central Virginia and beyond. What became a large operation serving both the tourism and commercial production agriculture sectors all started with a small peach orchard planted in 1912 by two men named Henry Chiles and John Montague.

Fortier lived on a hilltop overlooking the orchard for several years and recalled how excited for peach season she would get each time she watched the trees blossom into a sea of pink each spring. Now that she resides just over the mountain, she made the journey back to Chiles to continue to feed both her family, her personal love of Virginia’s peach culture — and now her customers too

“In the past, farm to table felt elitist,” Fortier noted. “Now that [farmer’s markets are offering SNAP benefits and other programs] a wider range of people have access to beautiful, locally grown products. I think it’s great.”

Find Redbud Bake House’s peach and pecan snack cakes along with other handmade and locally grown goodness under the Constitution Park Pavilion at the Waynesboro farmer’s market on Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. For more information about the

Waynesboro farmer’s market and Project Grows visit projectgrows.org/ food-access/waynesboro-farmers-market/.

To learn more about peach season at Chiles Family Orchards go to chilesfamilyorchards.com.

Do You Know The DANGEROUS DIFFERENCE?

If you see winged, ant-like insects flying around your property, you need to know whether they are ants or subterranean termites. Your house could be in danger! Carefully compare the insects flying around your house to the illustration below. If you’re uncertain, call us for positive identification. If the insects are termites, CALL US IMMEDIATELY. We will eliminate their colony and protect your house.

Ants vs. Termites

FROM PAGE 6

Harleigh Cupp / DN-R

The recently replaced lift six at Massanutten Resort carries empty chairs up and down the mountain during its soft opening on Sept. 6 while construction on the slope itself continues below. See LIFT, Page 8

scene Hess commented was rare for any skier or snowboarder to see.

Hess mentioned that he started his own adventure at the four-season resort as a seasonal lift operator while he was studying at James Madison University in 1980. Six years later, Hess found himself in a full-time position and it’s become the “career he never expected to have.”

“People want something new,” Hess remarked — and something new for the upcoming ski season is something they will get. In addition to a shiny, smooth-running chair lift, snowbirds that flock to the resort each year will be able to ski down extra intermediate trails that were finalized last season.

The old lift had been running almost nonstop for 10 months out of the year since 1989. Hess himself was “one of the guys on the ground” when that lift went in and he agreed that it was simply time for a higher speed and higher capacity lift.

Hess explained that there are very few ski lift manufacturers that operate in the U.S and in order to get on the books with Doppelmayr — the same

company who constructed two other lifts at Massanutten — the resort had to sign a contract in January 2022.

No sooner had the last bits of snow melted from the slopes this past March then crews went to work dismantling the lines and massive metal towers. The old equipment was intended to be scrapped, but Hess noted that Massanutten was able to sell it to be reused by another ski resort in New York. The very top of Massanutten Mountain is quite steep, so excavating and clearing the slope with massive track hoes and dump trucks was difficult at times.

“It’s kind of like a cavity,” Hess said, “you’ve got to pull the old one out in order to put the new one in.”

During installation of the new beams and cables helicopters were used

to lower heavy pieces of metal and pour concrete bases for the towers at the very top since it was faster and safer that way, Hess said. Each of the towers were bolted into the concrete bases using massive nuts and bolts.

Even though the new lift follows the same profile, is in the same location and can carry four people per chair, Hess pointed out that two major benefits of the new lift is that it will cut ride time over the half mile long stretch from more than eights minutes roughly down to four and since the chairs are detachable, resort staff can take them off the main cable for storage during bad weather or for maintenance.

A final load test was conducted by strapping huge drums of water to chair lifts that would mimic the same weight

as four adults riding up and down the lift.

“[This lift] is more user friendly because it’s easier to get on and get off and the ride time is reduced,” Hess said. “Guests get more time on skis and on bikes [and less time on the lifts].”

While a “soft” opening was held for resort staff and mountain bike park season pass holders, the lift will open for general bike park and scenic tours admission every weekend — beginning Saturday, Sept. 9 — until the slopes open for regular ski season in December. The mountain bike park will close for the season the last Sunday of October.

Lift tickets and season passes can be purchased at the General Store at Massanutten Resort or online at www. massresort.com.

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[This lift] is more user friendly because it’s easier to get on and get off and the ride time is reduced.

Kenny Hess, director of sports and risk management at Massanutten Resort