Archives for the ‘Blog Entries.Local’ Category

An Undiminished Devotion: Reflections on America’s 250th Anniversary

Author: From http://www.musingsoverabarrel.com/ • Jul 4th, 2026
   Category: Blog Entries.Local
Today, and indeed this entire year, patriotic Americans celebrate the foresight, wisdom, and courage of our Founding Fathers in declaring independence from an oppressive government. As our nation marks the 250th anniversary of its founding — the American Semiquincentennial — Independence Day carries an even deeper significance. It is both a celebration of freedom and a solemn reminder that liberty must be vigilantly protected.

Our forefathers were explicit in their intent: our rights are granted by our Creator, not by government. Political power is legitimate only when it derives from the consent of the governed. These timeless truths laid the foundation of a nation built on freedom. Yet today, those principles face challenges — not only from foreign adversaries, but also from those within our own society who misunderstand, disregard, or seek to redefine them.



Enshrined in the Declaration of Independence and secured through the Constitution is the conviction that all people are endowed with unalienable rights: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. These founding principles remain as relevant today as they were in 1776. But freedom is not self-sustaining. It depends upon citizens who possess the character, courage, and resolve to uphold it.

Celebrating this great gift of liberty does not require ignoring the threats against it. Some, under a distorted understanding of “freedom” or in pursuit of ideological causes, seek to silence dissent, erase history, redefine language, and shame those who hold differing views. Such attitudes reveal not confidence in their ideas, but hostility toward the principles of open debate and individual liberty that have long defined our republic.

Yet hope abounds. Millions of Americans are growing weary of division, hostility, and caricatures that portray their beliefs as dangerous or extreme. They continue to stand by the values enshrined in our founding documents: freedom, faith, personal responsibility, and equal rights under the law.

Even amid uncertainty and division, the light of liberty has not been extinguished. Many Americans seek a renewed commitment to the principles of 1776 and the constitutional order that followed. Their efforts are driven not by hatred, but by love — love of country, love of liberty, and love for future generations who deserve to inherit a free and united nation.

Thomas Jefferson, in a letter to Roger C. Weightman on June 24, 1826, reflected on the significance of this day:
“For ourselves, let the annual return of this day forever refresh our recollections of these rights, and an undiminished devotion to them.”
I, for one, am proud of my country. I will not quietly accept efforts to restrict religious liberty, diminish the right of self-defense, or replace the principles of a free society with ideologies that history has repeatedly shown to be destructive.

As America marks its Semiquincentennial year, may we renew our appreciation for the principles that gave birth to this nation and recommit ourselves to preserving them. Celebrate America. Celebrate freedom. And above all, prepare to defend and preserve these blessings for those who will inherit the nation we leave behind.

Happy Independence Day!


[ This content originated at Musings Over a Barrel ]

From Washington’s Notebook to the Taproom

Author: From http://www.musingsoverabarrel.com/ • Jun 30th, 2026
   Category: Blog Entries.Local
It’s well known that early American colonists drank a great deal of beer. In an era when much of the available drinking water — especially in cities — was unsafe, beer provided a safer alternative. One popular style was “small beer,” a low-alcohol brew typically ranging from 1 to 3 percent ABV.

While serving as a colonel in the Virginia militia during the French and Indian War, George Washington wrote down his recipe for small beer:
“Take a large Sifter full of Bra Hops to your Taste -- Boil these 3 hours. Then strain out 30 Gall. into a Cooler put in 3 Gallons Molasses while the Beer is scalding hot or rather drain the molasses into the Cooler. Strain the Beer on it while boiling hot let this stand til it is little more than Blood warm. Then put in a quart of Yeast if the weather is very cold cover it over with a Blanket. Let it work in the Cooler 24 hours then put it into the Cask. leave the Bung open til it is almost done working -- Bottle it that day Week it was Brewed.”

The resulting beer would have been a dark, unfiltered ale. The generous amount of molasses likely imparted a noticeable sweetness, producing a flavor profile quite different from what most beer drinkers are accustomed to today.


As part of its America 250 celebration, the New York Public Library asked the New York-based Talea Beer Co. to brew a couple hundred bottles based on Washington’s original recipe for internal events. The brewery also used the recipe as inspiration for “Liberty Lager,” which is available at its taprooms in New York.

History often feels distant, preserved in books and museums. But occasionally it finds its way into our glass. George Washington’s small beer is more than a curiosity — it’s history you can taste, offering a small but tangible connection to the daily lives of those who helped shape America.

Image courtesy of the Mount Vernon website. 

Cheers!


[ This content originated at Musings Over a Barrel ]

WTF is up with sugar allergies?

Author: From https://chrisod.weblog.lol • Jun 27th, 2026
   Category: Blog Entries.Local

WTF is up with sugar allergies?

Friday evening we were on the patio at our local brewery when my wife overheard a young person expounding to his two friends about how people wear CGMs to manage their sugar allergies. My wife wears a CGM because she has Type 1 diabetes.

Sugar allergies are not a thing. That would be like an oxygen or water allergy.

My wife was not drinking, which is probably the only thing that saved this kid from an unpleasant encounter with my wife.

Then this morning in the checkout line at Publix, the guy behind her in line, most likely in his 40s, asked her if she was allergic to sugar. When she explained to him she has Type 1 diabetes, he said, "Well, didn't you get that from eating too much sugar?" The store pharmacist, who knows her well, happened to be right there, and he stepped in to try to educate this ignoramus.

So that is two "sugar allergy" encounters in one weekend. I suspected social media, and Claude did confirm that there are a number of wellness influencers, most notably Brittney Bouchard, wearing CGMs and claiming they prove extreme sensitivity to glucose or sugar.

Please don't get your health info from TikTok, unless the influencer also happens to be a medical professional. And even then, be careful. There is a 50% chance the doctor on TikTok finished in the bottom half of their class in medical school.


We can’t fix society with tech

Author: From https://blog.odonnellweb.com • Jun 27th, 2026
   Category: Blog Entries.Local

We can't fix society with tech

Just capturing this thought from an online friend.

You are not going to fix anything, until we find some other core principles to build on. Like cooperation and collaboration rather than competition. Like community rather than individualism. We are all in this together, and none of us is getting out of here alive; but some billionaires are going to get to live in a bunker on an island, or maybe on Mars, when the whole rotten edifice collapses under the weight of its falsehoods and misapprehensions.

Source post


We can’t fix society with tech

Author: From https://chrisod.weblog.lol • Jun 27th, 2026
   Category: Blog Entries.Local

We can't fix society with tech

Just capturing this thought from an online friend.

You are not going to fix anything, until we find some other core principles to build on. Like cooperation and collaboration rather than competition. Like community rather than individualism. We are all in this together, and none of us is getting out of here alive; but some billionaires are going to get to live in a bunker on an island, or maybe on Mars, when the whole rotten edifice collapses under the weight of its falsehoods and misapprehensions.

Source post


Five O’Clock Friday: Budget? What Budget?

Author: From http://www.musingsoverabarrel.com/ • Jun 26th, 2026
   Category: Blog Entries.Local
Money can't buy happiness, but it can buy cigars.



Cheers!


[ This content originated at Musings Over a Barrel ]

Welcoming Summer with a Kentucky Colonel

Author: From http://www.musingsoverabarrel.com/ • Jun 24th, 2026
   Category: Blog Entries.Local
The first day of summer coincided with Father’s Day this year, making for a fitting occasion to spend a relaxing afternoon on the porch with a drink and a cigar. The weather was delightful with warmth and relatively low humidity.

Recently, while looking for simple bourbon cocktails, I came across the Kentucky Colonel. The drink is essentially an Old Fashioned that swaps the traditional sugar for a measure of Bénédictine, adding herbal complexity and honeyed sweetness.

Kentucky Colonel
  • 2 oz Bourbon
  • 1/2 oz Bénédictine
  • 2 dashes Angostura bitters
  • Lemon peel for garnish
Add bourbon, Bénédictine, and bitters to a mixing glass. Combine bourbon, Bénédictine, and bitters in a mixing glass. Add ice and stir to chill. Strain into an Old Fashioned glass over ice, preferably a single, large cube. Express the lemon oils over the drink and drop in the twist.




I selected Bulleit Bourbon 10 Year Old for the bourbon component. The high rye mash bourbon has strong notes of oak and dried fruit. There’s enough spice to stand up to the Bénédictine without overpowering its herbal and honey notes. The cocktail offers a pleasing melding of bourbon caramel, vanilla, and oak with the honeyed sweetness and herbal complexity of the Bénédictine.



I decided to pair the Kentucky Colonel with the Oliva Serie V 135th Anniversary cigar. All of the Oliva Serie V varieties are versatile cigars that pair well with all manner of beverages. The irregularly released limited-edition 135th Anniversary maintains the familiar blend of an Ecuadorian Sun Grown wrapper over Nicaraguan binder and filler tobaccos. The 5 1/2” x 54 vitola features a tapered foot, with the ring gauge narrowing from 54 down to roughly 30 at the tip. Due to the unusual shape, the cigar evolves noticeably throughout the smoke, offering subtle shifts in flavor while maintaining the familiar Serie V profile overall.



The pairing was as enjoyable as expected. The cigar’s pepper, cedar, and cocoa played nicely against the bourbon’s rye spice and the herbal sweetness of the cocktail. The Kentucky Colonel softened some of the cigar’s peppery edges without muting its distinctive character.

I’ll be adding the Kentucky Colonel to my summer cocktail rotation. It’s flavorful and refreshing without feeling heavy, and I suspect it would pair equally well with chocolate-, espresso-, and coffee-forward cigars that carry a touch of sweetness — flavor profiles that are firmly in my wheelhouse.

The combination of the Oliva Serie V 135th Anniversary and Kentucky Colonel made for an excellent way to welcome summer: a flavorful cigar, a well-crafted cocktail, and a leisurely afternoon enjoying the screened porch and the season’s pleasant weather.

Cheers!


[ This content originated at Musings Over a Barrel ]

Laurel Hill State Park

Author: From https://blog.odonnellweb.com • Jun 22nd, 2026
   Category: Blog Entries.Local

Trip: 58
Nights: 191-193

Last weekend was the annual Aliner Ascape rally, which has settled at Laurel Hill State Park near Somerset, PA. We missed last year when my career blew up 3 weeks before the camp out, so it was great to get back this year to see old friends and a make new ones.

The park is kind of in the middle of nowhere. We had to drive 40 minutes to find a brewery. The town of Somerset is about 20 minutes, and that is really the closet store or gas station. However, it is very worth the effort. It is an old CCC camp with a really nice lake, trails, streams stocked with trout, and picturesque mountain views. Also, there is a stand of hemlock that got missed when we clear cut SW PA (and the rest of the country) in the 1800s.

Photo collage 1Photo collage 1

We arrived on Thursday and quickly settled into catching up with friends. The campsites are levelish with power. Thursday night was a group campfire with about 25 friends. On Friday we went out birding in the AM and made the trek to the “local” brewery on Saturday afternoon. The weather was perfect all weekend, sunny and breezy with highs around 70F (20ish C) and lows in the 50s (13ish C). I may have logged some hammock time on Friday and Saturday afternoon. On Saturday we again went birding in the AM and in the afternoon I went to visit that stand of old hemlock.

Photo collage 3Photo collage 3

The stand is only about 6 acres, and it’s an easy 15 minute hike to get there. When I arrived I had the place to myself. I was standing and enjoying the magnificent trees when I realized I was alone. No people anywhere. There was a flat rock perfectly situated to meditate under one of the larger trees. The rock looked natural and not placed there. I accepted the invitation and took at a seat on the rock. I suck at meditation, so I mostly failed at clearing my mind. But I did greatly enjoy about 15 minutes of nothing but the wind rustling the leaves, the nearby stream, and one very chatty blue-headed vireo before anybody else showed up. However it was there that an idea popped into my head. (I know, like I said, I suck at meditating.) I’ve thought about an extended multi-week camping and working from the road trip for the last few summers, but for various reasons the timing was never right to do it. A lot can change in 12 months, but looking forward from now, we can do that trip next year. So I’m thinking of making this annual camp out the first stop on a 3 week camping tour of the NE US. I can work in some mooch docking with family, and my first camping in Vermont and NH before visiting more family in Boston before heading home.So it was at least a productive idea.

Photo collage 2Photo collage 2

After communing with the large trees it was time for the group potluck dinner where I ate too much and also accepted the offer of moonshine. It would have been rude to refuse, right? By Saturday night we were peopled out so we retired to the camper early to play cards but actually ended up calling it a night early too.

Sunday was go home day.


“Laurel Hill State Park”

Author: From https://blog.odonnellweb.com • Jun 22nd, 2026
   Category: Blog Entries.Local

Laurel Hill State Park

Trip: 58
Nights: 191-193

Last weekend was the annual Aliner Ascape rally, which has settled at Laurel Hill State Park near Somerset, PA. We missed last year when my career blew up 3 weeks before the camp out, so it was great to get back this year to see old friends and a make new ones.

The park is kind of in the middle of nowhere. We had to drive 40 minutes to find a brewery. The town of Somerset is about 20 minutes, and that is really the closet store or gas station. However, it is very worth the effort. It is an old CCC camp with a really nice lake, trails, streams stocked with trout, and picturesque mountain views. Also, there is a stand of hemlock that got missed when we clear cut SW PA (and the rest of the country) in the 1800s. So the trees are 250-300 years old. They were there when PA reported to the King.

collage of photos from a camping trip

We arrived on Thursday and quickly settled into catching up with friends. The campsites are levelish with power. Thursday night was a group campfire with about 25 friends. On Friday we went out birding in the AM and made the trek to the "local" brewery on Saturday afternoon. The weather was perfect all weekend, sunny and breezy with highs around 70F (20ish C) and lows in the 50s (13ish C). I may have logged some hammock time on Friday and Saturday afternoon. On Saturday we again went birding in the AM and in the afternoon I went to visit that stand of old hemlock.

collage of photos of old growth hemlock trees

The stand is only about 6 acres, and it's an easy 15 minute hike to get there. When I arrived I had the place to myself. I was standing and enjoying the magnificent trees when I realized I was alone. No people anywhere. There was a flat rock perfectly situated to meditate under one of the larger trees. The rock looked natural and not placed there. I accepted the invitation and took at a seat on the rock. I suck at meditation, so I mostly failed at clearing my mind. But I did greatly enjoy about 15 minutes of nothing but the wind rustling the leaves, the nearby stream, and one very chatty blue-headed vireo before anybody else showed up. However it was there that an idea popped into my head. (I know, like I said, I suck at meditating.) I've thought about an extended multi-week camping and working from the road trip for the last few summers, but for various reasons the timing was never right to do it. A lot can change in 12 months, but looking forward from now, we can do that trip next year. So I'm thinking of making this annual camp out the first stop on a 3 week camping tour of the NE US. I can work in some mooch docking with family, and my first camping in Vermont and NH before visiting more family in Boston before heading home.So it was at least a productive idea.

collage of photos of birds and one groundhog

After communing with the large trees it was time for the group potluck dinner where I ate too much and also accepted the offer of moonshine. It would have been rude to refuse, right? By Saturday night we were peopled out so we retired to the camper early to play cards but actually ended up calling it a night early too.

Sunday was go home day.


“Laurel Hill State Park”

Author: From https://chrisod.weblog.lol • Jun 22nd, 2026
   Category: Blog Entries.Local

Laurel Hill State Park

Trip: 58
Nights: 191-193

Last weekend was the annual Aliner Ascape rally, which has settled at Laurel Hill State Park near Somerset, PA. We missed last year when my career blew up 3 weeks before the camp out, so it was great to get back this year to see old friends and a make new ones.

The park is kind of in the middle of nowhere. We had to drive 40 minutes to find a brewery. The town of Somerset is about 20 minutes, and that is really the closet store or gas station. However, it is very worth the effort. It is an old CCC camp with a really nice lake, trails, streams stocked with trout, and picturesque mountain views. Also, there is a stand of hemlock that got missed when we clear cut SW PA (and the rest of the country) in the 1800s. So the trees are 250-300 years old. They were there when PA reported to the King.

collage of photos from a camping trip

We arrived on Thursday and quickly settled into catching up with friends. The campsites are levelish with power. Thursday night was a group campfire with about 25 friends. On Friday we went out birding in the AM and made the trek to the "local" brewery on Saturday afternoon. The weather was perfect all weekend, sunny and breezy with highs around 70F (20ish C) and lows in the 50s (13ish C). I may have logged some hammock time on Friday and Saturday afternoon. On Saturday we again went birding in the AM and in the afternoon I went to visit that stand of old hemlock.

collage of photos of old growth hemlock trees

The stand is only about 6 acres, and it's an easy 15 minute hike to get there. When I arrived I had the place to myself. I was standing and enjoying the magnificent trees when I realized I was alone. No people anywhere. There was a flat rock perfectly situated to meditate under one of the larger trees. The rock looked natural and not placed there. I accepted the invitation and took at a seat on the rock. I suck at meditation, so I mostly failed at clearing my mind. But I did greatly enjoy about 15 minutes of nothing but the wind rustling the leaves, the nearby stream, and one very chatty blue-headed vireo before anybody else showed up. However it was there that an idea popped into my head. (I know, like I said, I suck at meditating.) I've thought about an extended multi-week camping and working from the road trip for the last few summers, but for various reasons the timing was never right to do it. A lot can change in 12 months, but looking forward from now, we can do that trip next year. So I'm thinking of making this annual camp out the first stop on a 3 week camping tour of the NE US. I can work in some mooch docking with family, and my first camping in Vermont and NH before visiting more family in Boston before heading home.So it was at least a productive idea.

collage of photos of birds and one groundhog

After communing with the large trees it was time for the group potluck dinner where I ate too much and also accepted the offer of moonshine. It would have been rude to refuse, right? By Saturday night we were peopled out so we retired to the camper early to play cards but actually ended up calling it a night early too.

Sunday was go home day.


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