Welcome to Ridgeview Valley's Blog, offering regular updates of life in and around Ridgeview Valley, in beautiful Garrett County, Maryland.
December 25, 2011
November 24, 2011
November 18, 2011
November 04, 2011
October 29, 2011
Event Season is Officially Finished
We had a fantastic season of events here at Ridgeview this year. This weekend marks the last of those exciting events for the year. Lakeside Assembly of God is having their fall festival in the barn today but it should be a kick off to winter with the 9 inches of snow we received over night.
I estimate that we had over 2500 visitors to the farm this year as a result of the special events in the barn and we raised over $4,000 for charity through our Bridal Endowment Project!! That is more than double the amount we were able to donate last year!
We have an exciting year in the making for 2012. Theater on the Lake will be back with three new performances and we are going to try a couple dinner theaters and there are already seven weddings planned for next year.
October 19, 2011
Bye, Bye Barnella
Thank you to the Western Maryland State Park Volunteers for allowing Ridgeview Valley to sponsor and provide a loving home for Barnella Quiltberry this summer. We truly had fun with all of the visitors we had over the summer who came to see our carved bear.
Barnella was loaded on a truck and taken back to her den today and will be polished up for the upcoming Bearly A Gala to be held on November 5, 2011 at Wisp Resort. I hope she finds a loving adoptive family to take good care of her.
October 07, 2011
44th Annual Autumn Glory Festiva
Dont forget the 44th Annual Autumn Glory Festival is October 12-16. The Festival begins with the kick off dinner on October 12 at the Wisp Resort then continues on with the Oompah Festival and Fireman's Parade on Thursday and the Grand Feature Parade on Saturday.
The Garrett County Autumn Glory Festival is one that can't be beat, voted #1 Fall Festival in the World by MSN. Enjoy the crafts, entertainment and yummy turkey dinners.
The foliage will be at peak and Garrett County will be beautiful! Won't you come spend the weekend with us??
October 06, 2011
Unusual Odor at Ridgeview Valley
Ok, so this is comical. For the past couple of weeks everytime I have walked into the farmhouse I have noticed an awful stinch coming from the flower beds. I thought maybe there was a critter living in the flowers but I ruled that out. Then I thought maybe it was just the mulch decomposing but it doesnt smell that way at home. Then finally this morning I found the culprit, this fowl smelling mushroom!
Appropriately name the Stinkhorn Mushroom. I consider myself pretty knowledgeable when it comes to mushrooms, I drag my husband out every spring in search of the delicious Morel and then again out in the fall to find the Hen of the Woods, but never I have ever heard of this fowl little fungus. Just thought I would share this with you! I didn't want anyone coming around saying, EWE! What is that smell?? Now we know!
And now it makes even more sense to me after doing a little web research. According to www.mushroomexpert.com, the Stinkhorn does occur naturally in the U.S. but mostly in a sub-tropical environment but the spores can be transported in soil, sod or wood chip a.k.a. mulch!
September 09, 2011
Ridgeview Valley Wedding
Thought you might enjoy seeing some photos from this past weekend's wedding. It was a gorgeous day, hot and sunny. Evan & Angela were a delight to work with and their dog Otto too!
August 19, 2011
The Ridgeview Valley Barn Quilt
You may have noticed the painted quilt patterns that have been placed on some of the local Garrett County Barns. This is thanks to the Garrett County Barn Quilt Association of Garrett County. In 2007 a group of four women got together to make these barn quilts a reality. They decided to do this after admiring the quilt tours in Ohio and Pennsylvania. The first block went up in 2008 and our quilt block at Ridgeview Valley is the 14th block to be mounted on local barns. The mission of the Barn Quilt Association of Garrett County taken from their website is, “…to provide a sustainable heritage tourism attraction/activity while preserving and celebrating the unique agriculture, history, and arts culture of our area through visual combinations of barns and quilt designs, to educate the public and showcase our Appalachian tradition.”
We at Ridgeview Valley are very proud of The Red Barn and all that we can do with it to give back to the community. We thought it would be a fitting location for a quilt pattern. Once we decided to move along on the project we had to decide what pattern we wanted to use. No one in our immediate Ridgeview Valley family had a family quilt with any ties to Garrett County so we started investigating elsewhere. It didn’t take long because we spoke with our dear friend Janet Cunningham and she said “I have the perfect quilt.”
Janet’s family has a long history in Garrett County. Her great-great grandparents owned approximately 200 acres in what is now McHenry and a portion of that land bordered the Harvey farm, now Ridgeview Valley. When we learned the history of the quilt and Janet’s family we were certain we had to use Janet’s quilt.
The pattern is called a Crazy Quilt. Crazy quilts became popular in the mid-1800’s when housewives would use various scraps of material often times fine materials like silks and satins to create a quilt. They would embellish them with “fancy” stitching to offset the use of scrap fabric most of the time from old clothing. There is no set pattern for a crazy quilt, it is a free-form, flowing project with the pattern being determined by the shapes of the scraps of fabric. It was popular for ladies of a community to create the quilt together with each lady providing her own unique square and even embroidering her initial in her square. This is the style of Janet’s quilt, pieced together by her great-great grandmother, great grandmother and numerous other ladies of the area who still have descendants in the McHenry area. Janet and her mother Virginia Walton Cunningham found the quilt only 10 years ago in their house long after the deaths of both grandmothers. Janet is a 5th generation owner in McHenry. The house that she and her mother own is located along Deep Creek Drive and was moved to higher ground in 1924 to accommodate the waters of Deep Creek Lake. It was transformed into a boarding house known simply as McLean’s and was the oldest known business establishment on the shores of Deep Creek Lake.
Janet spent most of the spring of 2011 researching all of the initials on the “Crazy Quilt” that we have memorialized on The Barn at Ridgeview Valley. The following is an account of those initials.
The “Grand M” and “E.B.M.” belong to her great-great grandmother, Barbara Ellen Weitzel McLean. Her nickname was “Ellie”, explaining the reversal of the first two initials. She was born in 1857 in Lonaconing, MD and married Dougald “Duke” McLean of Scotland in 1880.
The initials “P.M.” belong to Ellie’s daughter, Pearl Z. McLean, born 1885. This is Janet’s great grandmother and she along with her parents operated the boarding house.
The initials “B.M.” belong to Beulah McLean Walton, Pearl’s Daughter. This is Janet’s grandmother and she with her mother ran the boarding house until the early 1970’s.
The initials ending in “W” belong to members of the Weitzel family. “A.W.” belongs to Anna Weitzel, “E.W.” belongs to E. Weitzel, and “L.W.” belongs to Linnie Weitzel Fike. These were friends of Ellie’s visiting from Lonaconing.
The initials “N.S.” belong to Nora Savage. Nora lived on Deep Creek Drive caddy-corner from the McLean’s stone house. Her children are Parley, Earl and Dayton. Parley and his wife Gladys lived on the opposite corner from Nora. Gladys is now 95 and resides at Goodwill Mennonite Home in Grantsville.
The initials “L.E.G.” belong to Lula E. Glotfelty, mother of Hubert, Grace, Mary and Blaine. Hubert married Ellie’s granddaughter, Harolene, who also lived and worked at the boarding house. The Glotfelty farm is located by the Garrett County Airport and Hubert and Harolene’s daughters Arlene Glotfelty Beitzel and Vera Glotfelty Sweitzer still reside on the farm.
The initials “M.S.” were the most difficult to trace, but it is believed that they are the initials of Margaret Sebold Savage. She was married to Arthur Savage and they lived in the area of the now Deep Creek Marina showroom. Her children are Harold “Bud” of Delaware, Shelby Paugh married to Dale Paugh of McHenry, Lucille Glotfelty of Accident, and Betty Lou Roberts of Elkins, WV.
The process of choosing our barn quilt and receiving the final project has been a memorable experience. The Barn Quilt Association of Garrett County chose Ridgeview Valley as the location of their 2nd Annual Award Winning Barn Quilt Festival. The festival was Sunday, August 7, 2011 and over 300 people attended the event. They unveiled our barn quilt during the festival and both Janet and her mother Virginia were on hand and were given recognition of allowing us to use their quilt as our inspiration. I hope everyone that drives by to see our quilt pattern enjoys the history that it has brought back to life and inspires them.
