Connecticut
Post posts about what is happening in the State of Connecticut.
Lyman Orchard's Winterfest 38
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sun, 02/21/2010 - 11:10I’ve lived in Connecticut for about twenty years now, and my wife and two youngest daughters were both born here, so it is a surprise that none of us have ever been to Lyman Orchard’s annual Winterfest. Yesterday, we corrected this error and had a great time.
One of the main draws for us was seeing Bill Covitz’s ice sculptures.
Of course Fiona was especially interested in sampling some of the food that was for sale in the store. They had lots of great samples, and I want to highlight some of the best. One of our favorites was the Mango Spice Salsa from Giff’s Original in Cheshire. It was very tasty and they use as much local products as possible in their relishes, chutneys and salsas.
There were quite a few other really good salsas and sauces available as well. Besides buying some of the Mango Spice Salsa, we picked up some Sachs Brand Barbecue sauce. Another good sauce that we sampled was All Natural Frank’s Marinara sauce. Frank used to run a restaurant up near Hartford, and now makes his sauces from Hebron, and you can find his sauces in a lot of stores around Connecticut.
Another honorable mention goes to Rich’s Sweet Heat crossing the line from Coventry, RI. Also notable in the sauce and salsa category is Salsa Delievery from East Granby with their Fresh Salsa of the Month club.
In the drinks category there were samples of fresh cider from the orchard, East Haven’s Foxon Park White Birch Beer, and Sweet Leaf Tea which had various ice teas and lemonade available for sample. Sweet Leaf Tea is actually from Austin Texas, but they’re making a big push in the northeast. Rounding out the drinks section was Lebanon, CT based Farmer’s Cow.
Across the aisle from the Farmer’s Cow samples were sample cider donut holes and cherry pie from the orchard and nearby were nuts from The Nut Lady from Agawam, MA.
With our food sampling complete, Fiona insisted that we stop and say hello to the puppies. Guilding Eyes for the Blind had a display up about their puppy raising program as well as several very cute puppies.
Ending off our day, we visited the igloos. These were small, but still large enough for Fiona to climb into. After this we went on a brief sleigh ride. Although the snow was melting around us as the horses pulled our sleigh across the field, it was a great experience.
As we left, Fiona asked if we can come back every year. I tend to take things a little more ‘one day at a time’, but agreed that we would put it on our list of things to try and come back to in 2011.
As a final note, in light of recent FTC rulings about bloggers endorsing things, I should let people know that the only things we have received for this favorable review was the good times and good samples we had at the Winter Festival, as well as a free cherry pie that we have been offered for putting some pictures of the event up on the Lyman Orchard’s Facebook Fan page. Fiona and I are really looking forward to Kim picking up the cherry pie.
For more pictures of the event, check out the pictures tagged ‘winterfest38’ on Flickr.
Connecticut Winter Festivals
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Fri, 02/19/2010 - 11:14A couple weeks ago, I wrote the crowd sourcing winter vacation contest asking for suggestions from my online social network for suggestions about winter vacation ideas. I received a few comments about dogsledding at The Rocks Estate and various winter festivals in Maine, but not a lot to go on.
As my family talked about it more, we decided for a more frugal path and doing various day trips to different events in Connecticut. The State Department of Environmental Protection has an interesting program called No Child Left Inside. This week, they are running a set of programs at Dinosaur State Park in Rocky Hill which seem interesting.
Visit Connecticut lists many events going on including a Chinese New Year Celebration Show in New Haven , Hansel and Gretel in Bridgeport , Bite Week at Mystic Aquarium, Dinosaur Camp for Children in Oakdale, a Penguin Party in New London , and the Connecticut Flower and Garden Show in Hartford.
Yet for the most wintery fun, three things hop out at us. This weekend is the Winterfest at Lyman Orchards. It will include an ice carving demonstration, igloo making, sled dog mushing and lots of food.
Chester is also having their 20th Annual Winter Carnivale this weekend, which also includes ice carving and good food. It is also a great time to go look for bald eagles along the Connecticut River and the Connecticut Audubon Society has Bald Eagles on the CT River boat trips and The Audubon Shop in Madison has Eagle Watches on the Connecticut River.
After the last of the winter vacation playdates ends, we will gather as a family and discuss which events to visit. Hopefully, I’ll have some good stories for the blog early next week.
Um, Can We Talk About the Issues Now?
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Thu, 02/18/2010 - 14:18Recently, there have been plenty of discussions about the Connecticut Gubernatorial candidates. Ned’s campaign manager complained about ‘insider’ politicians. The Malloy campaign made comments about other gubernatorial candidates getting tired of their polo ponies. My wife and I joked that Rudy Marconi, who has had the best videos of this election cycle so far, should do one with Ned Lamont and Dan Malloy in the backseat of a car squabbling. “Insider… Polo Ponies… Insider… Polo Ponies”. Then, Rudy would turn to the back seat and say, “If you kids don’t start behaving, I’m pulling this car over right now.”
Of course, that doesn’t really move the discussion ahead a lot either. Meanwhile, the blogs are starting to ask what’s really going on. Over on My Left Nutmeg, Branford Boy wrote, CT-Gov: Ned <yawn%gt; Lamont Announces for <snore%gt; Governor asking where all the excitement is. Even in Virginia, they are picking up on this since Ned Lamont has hired Creigh Deeds’ former campaign manager, Joe Abbey. Deeds, and by extension Abbey are both perceived as being a bit to the right of Lamont and there has been a discussion there about whether or not Lamont is running to the right.
After that, I had an interesting discussion with Ned about his campaign. He wanted to address some of the issues that I’m concerned about and I applaud him for that. First and foremost, we discussed the Citizens Election Program. He spoke about his support for that, if everyone is participating, but with some of the Republican candidates opting out, and even running advertisements already, he spoke about the importance about responding now instead of waiting until after the primary.
Another issue we talked about was the Sick Pay bill. He focused on the importance of job creation and how it is important to make sure that the hundred thousand people on longer term unpaid leave find new jobs. He suggested addressing the unemployment issues first and then addressing sick pay issues. As to the bickering between campaigns, Ned said that he has told his staff not to engage in those sorts of discussions.
So, let’s talk about the issues. How do we make sure that people can afford their houses, their health care, their heat, their food, and other things necessary to get by in our great state? How do we make sure there are enough good jobs, enough good doctors, and a wise use of energy in our state?
Today, Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro is visiting the Flabeg Solar US Corporation’s Naugatuck manufacturing location. What can Rep. DeLauro, and the next Governor of Connecticut do to make sure that Connecticut is well placed for job growth in the emerging green economy? Yesterday, State Sen. Colapietro and Senate President Pro Tempore Williams met with a tailor and drycleaner to highlight their views about legislative plans to grow jobs in Connecticut by providing assistance to small businesses. How do we provide this sort of aid while addressing the budget issue?
Earlier this month, Ridgefield First Selectman Rudy Marconi called for medical tort reform in Connecticut, expressing a concern about a “full-fledged doctor shortage”. How will his proposals protect patients from malpractice and at the same time protect doctors from frivolous lawsuits, excessive damages, and the related high premium prices?
In my mind, we have some great candidates for Governor that are well qualified and have great ideas. I want to hear those ideas. I want to see the ideas compete in the marketplace of ideas, and see new ideas emerge to even better address the issues of our state, so, can we talk about the issues now?
#cttu – Aldon Hynes, Internet Novelist
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Fri, 02/12/2010 - 09:46It’s five o’clock on a Thursday and the usual crowd is driving to the CT Tweet Crawl. It is a diverse group of people that gather every so often who are united by little more than their common use of Twitter. I’ve been going to Tweet Crawls, Tweetups, and other social media gatherings for years. It used to be much more geeks talking about some wild idea for a new website. The content producers started showing up, the bloggers, podcasters, and videobloggers. Finally, the marketing people caught on with their nice suits and a chance to exchange business cards.
I’m listening to All Things Considered on the radio as I drive up. They are talking about William Faulkner and I think about novel writing. Every year I give National Novel Writing Month a try, and one year I completed the novel, but never got around to editing it.
I’m thinking to myself, “What do I have to say to this upcoming gathering? What do they have to say to me?” I anticipate the first question I will hear from many people, “So, what do you do?” I eat, I drink, I sleep, sometimes I write or manage to find interesting technology projects that pay the bills, but that isn’t concise enough for this crowd and people won’t want to swap cards with me. I could say that I’m quick with a joke, or to light up a smoke but people would then assume that there’s some place that I’d rather be.
Years ago, I spoke with my daughter’s kindergarten class about what I do. It occurred to me that the best way to describe what I do is to say that I “help people tell their stories online.” With this in mind, the words of William Faulkner rattling around in my head and a little Billy Joel somehow slipping in, I decided on my new job description. “I’m an Internet Novelist”.
Yeah, it’s a little different from Bill’s friend the Real Estate Novelist. I’ve had time for a wife, although she may sometimes get frustrated at the amount of time that I am online. So, at the TweetCrawl, I use the phrase. I get polite nods as people seem to get it, exchange business cards and move on. Only one person seems to object. He points out that novels are supposed to be long form fiction. A lot of social media is very short form, and by novel standards, even a long blog post is short form. In addition, social media people are supposed to be writing about what is really going on, not some fiction.
While I’m a big advocate of truth and authenticity online, it seems as if a good social media presence is concerned with the narrative, with taking all the bits and pieces of life and weaving it into an interesting story. Hopefully, the story isn’t fiction, but becomes true in the telling of the story.
So, there you have it. I’ve told my story of being an Internet Novelist, and hopefully telling this story makes it a little bit true. It certainly made the discussions at the CT Tweetup more interesting. On the way home, I listened to Fresh Air as Terry Gross interviewed Loudon Wainwright. He talked some about his father being a journalist for Life magazine and how he had bought into the notion that you need to write a book to be a serious writer. Maybe I’ll end up buying into the same notion, but until then I’ll keep up my various forms of internet writing and hope to weave them into interesting stories.
CT Underhound Railroad, Half a Year Later
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Wed, 02/10/2010 - 14:19Last August, Fiona and I gave a ride to a young pit bull rescued from the Hartford Pound. It took the efforts of several people to save the young dog.
First, Sherry, an animal control officer in Hartford reached out to people that might be able to help. A woman in Maine had a place where the dog could be fostered, if there was some way to get her up to Maine. Fiona and I couldn’t drive up on the day that the dog needed to be picked up from the pound, so another person pulled the dog from the Hartford Pound and took her over to the Sadie Mae Foundation where she stayed for a couple days. Finally, Fiona and I picked her up and drove her up to Maine. Another woman picked her up from us and brought her to her foster home. Eventually, she found her forever home.
After the trip, I set up a mailing list for the CTUnderhound Railroad. Over the past half year, we’ve set up a website, a group and fan page on Facebook and have touched the lives of many dogs. As we look at our next half year, we’ve been thinking back over the past half year, and how we can be most effective.
Besides finding homes for dogs in need, we also need to work to make sure that there are fewer dogs that end up in the shelters, and we’ve worked hard to encourage spay and neuter programs. We also want to encourage town animal shelters to adopt best practices to make sure that these dogs find safe homes as quickly as possible.
The group has worked together to create a spreadsheet of town shelters as well as to reach out to various animal control officers. Currently, we are listing the Petfinder pages of forty-four town shelters on the CT Underhound Railroad Shelters Page.
This morning, I did a quick census of dogs on these pages. I counted 125 different dogs of twenty eight different breeds in these shelters looking for homes. Almost half of them are pit bulls. Pit bulls can be wonderful pets when they are properly taken care of, and I hope that people looking for a new pet seriously consider adopting a pit bull. However, I realize that for some people that is not an option and there are many other wonderful dogs in the shelter of Connecticut. If you are looking, please spend time looking through this list and seeing if there is dog that meets your needs.
The first half year of the CT Underhound Railroad has been more successful than I ever imagined it would be when we first started, and hopefully the second half of our first year will be even more so.
