{"id":5586,"date":"2021-02-25T09:22:04","date_gmt":"2021-02-25T13:22:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/praxis.shawnyoung.com\/web\/hlt\/wordpress\/?post_type=testimonials&p=5586"},"modified":"2021-06-24T14:28:14","modified_gmt":"2021-06-24T18:28:14","slug":"blum-family","status":"publish","type":"testimonials","link":"https:\/\/praxis.shawnyoung.com\/web\/hlt\/wordpress\/testimonials\/blum-family\/","title":{"rendered":"The Blum Family"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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LANDOWNER STORIES<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Blum Family<\/h1>
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Three generations of vision<\/strong> for restoration and preservation.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI know how much they valued it.\u201d Preserving Joshua’s Meadows was an obvious choice for Annette Blum. The historic farmhouse perched on 26.785 rolling acres in Bel Air has been a part of Blum\u2019s family for three generations. Blum\u2019s grandfather, Brodnax Cameron, Sr., passed the scenic property and original crumbling farmhouse every day in the 1930s while commuting from Baltimore to Bel Air on the Ma and Pa train line. \u201cHe called it a ruin,\u201d Annette remembered, but the daily views of the property stuck with Brodnax and in <\/em>the early years of the Depression, Blum\u2019s grandparents, Brodnax and Julia Cameron, <\/strong>purchased the property for $5,000 and set about renovating the home for their family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy grandparents bought the property and built an addition with a modern kitchen, as well as renovating the rest of the building,\u201d Annette recalled. A large farmhouse was originally built on the property in the mid 1700\u2019s and footprints of housing for enslaved people, a cider mill, pump house, dairy, and chicken house can also be found on the property. By the time the property was purchased, the original structures were in disrepair and the land was overgrown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI grew up knowing how much work my grandparents put into the property,\u201d Annette said, \u201cThey planted a victory garden, and began to farm. They had sheep and chickens.  Later, after a problem with dogs, they got rid of the sheep and boarded cows and had a farmer plant the field.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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Photo by Harford Land Trust<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOne thing that my grandfather did was to apply his ideas of 18th century architecture and mathematics to the land around the house, as well as inside. He designed the area of the backyard, the former garden, and the terraced area in front to include golden rectangles, a semi-circle flanked by two rectangular sections like a Palladian window, and an “all\u00e9e” from the front door to the end of the garden.  He terraced an area to level off some of the yard but also act as a fence–called a “ha-ha” because it gave the illusion of continuity to land in the distance.  I figured all this out years after I inherited it, when having a new fence designed.  What gave the house and grounds an orderly simplicity was the mathematical way he situated it in a way that was hidden and not obvious.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI believe that land is more valuable than just a spot onto which to build a building,\u201d Annette said, \u201cAnd that preservation is a means to preserve that value.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photo by Shawn Slater<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Annette has a strong connection to the property having spent much of her childhood exploring the landscape. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere is a conical hill known in the family as \u201cLittle Round Top\u201d which is fun to climb and has a great view.  As a child I would sleep out on Little Round top with friends in the summer, and lie in sleeping bags looking at stars.\u201d <\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Chasing frogs, sledding steep, snowy hills, observing a family of foxes, and looking for spring wildflowers are just a few of the experiences on the land Annette seeks to preserve for future generations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Land preservation \u201callows breathing space,\u201d Annette reflected, \u201cIt is good for wildlife.  It reminds us that land has value for its own sake.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div><\/section>\n\n\n\n

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Photo by Harford Land Trust<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/section>\n\n\n\n
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Our Work Depends on You<\/h2>

Harford Land Trust can save more land in Harford County, Maryland, because of generous people like you.<\/p><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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GIVE<\/div><\/a><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cI know how much they valued it.\u201d Preserving Joshua’s Meadows was an obvious choice for Annette Blum. The historic farmhouse perched on 26.785 rolling acres in Bel Air has been a part of Blum\u2019s family for three generations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5580,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-5586","testimonials","type-testimonials","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/praxis.shawnyoung.com\/web\/hlt\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/square-joshua-meadows-grass-farmland-IMG_6933.jpg",900,900,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/praxis.shawnyoung.com\/web\/hlt\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/square-joshua-meadows-grass-farmland-IMG_6933-400x400.jpg",400,400,true],"medium":["https:\/\/praxis.shawnyoung.com\/web\/hlt\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/square-joshua-meadows-grass-farmland-IMG_6933-800x800.jpg",800,800,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/praxis.shawnyoung.com\/web\/hlt\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/square-joshua-meadows-grass-farmland-IMG_6933-768x768.jpg",768,768,true],"large":["https:\/\/praxis.shawnyoung.com\/web\/hlt\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/square-joshua-meadows-grass-farmland-IMG_6933.jpg",900,900,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/praxis.shawnyoung.com\/web\/hlt\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/square-joshua-meadows-grass-farmland-IMG_6933.jpg",900,900,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/praxis.shawnyoung.com\/web\/hlt\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/square-joshua-meadows-grass-farmland-IMG_6933.jpg",900,900,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Harford Land Trust","author_link":"https:\/\/praxis.shawnyoung.com\/web\/hlt\/wordpress\/author\/hlt\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"\u201cI know how much they valued it.\u201d Preserving Joshua's Meadows was an obvious choice for Annette Blum. The historic farmhouse perched on 26.785 rolling acres in Bel Air has been a part of Blum\u2019s family for three generations.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/praxis.shawnyoung.com\/web\/hlt\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/testimonials\/5586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/praxis.shawnyoung.com\/web\/hlt\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/testimonials"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/praxis.shawnyoung.com\/web\/hlt\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/testimonials"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praxis.shawnyoung.com\/web\/hlt\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praxis.shawnyoung.com\/web\/hlt\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5586"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/praxis.shawnyoung.com\/web\/hlt\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/testimonials\/5586\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6578,"href":"https:\/\/praxis.shawnyoung.com\/web\/hlt\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/testimonials\/5586\/revisions\/6578"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praxis.shawnyoung.com\/web\/hlt\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5580"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/praxis.shawnyoung.com\/web\/hlt\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}