Who:
Annie Krochalis
Roanoke River Group ExCom, Political Chair, Co-Chair Smart Growth and state committee, delegate
Where:
Bent Mountain, VA
Millicent, the Irish Setter mix, just curled up behind my chair as our daily "thunder-bumper" storm is here. I am researching site development plans and soil and erosion control FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) reports. Next it will be reading up on conservation tax breaks, and then on to a local election campaign letter. I hate seeing farmers forced to sell at commercial development rates to support their family or retirements. I hate sprawl! I like rail-freight highway alternatives and green-space protections. Millicent likes naps and tennis balls in the creek.
As a recovering, retired government bureaucrat who worked in Juvenile Justice and counseling, I now turn my skills to research and grantsmanship for conservation and community-based services through my home business, The Paw and Whisker.
I live in the Blue Ridge Mountains, in a cottage purchased at a country auction. It is a place with an eternal list of projects, a tin roof, a black snake who sheds his skin in my attic, deer at my apple trees, and a raccoon who once picked berries with me. I have watched a red fox play in the snowy orchard behind me, and seen the occasional bear tracks. I can tell time by the cattle across the lane -- they move up and down the hilly pasture getting to the feeding spot by 4 p.m.
Environmental activism is not just ethics or my political bent; I know how fortunate I am to live in this surrounding! I know my responsibility to conservation. I just picked up my veggies at a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) organic farm a little further on up the Mountain. Life is good.
The storm has passed, Millicent has pried open the front door -- time for tennis balls in the creek.
