Spring Egg Hunt!

Hickory Farms 50th Anniversary Logo Contest

Hickory Farms is celebrating its 50th Anniversary this year! We want to recognize this important milestone with an anniversary logo. The celebration planning committee is hosting a logo design contest open to everyone living in the Hickory Farms neighborhood. The contest runs until May 31, 2025, the winner will be selected by the committee and announced in June. The winning logo will be featured on souveniers at the anniversary celebration in September and the winner will receive a $25 gift card.

Design Criteria

Create an orginal logo and tagline that hightlighs Hickory Farms' 50th Anniversary

Deadline

Submissions must be received by May 31st, 2025, at 11:59pm (Late submissions will not be accepted)

Submission

Email the electronic file with your name and contact information to social@hickoryfarms.org For non-electronic formats email for coordination of hard-copy submissions

Eligibility

All Hickory Farms residents, no age limit

Reach out to social@hickoryfarms.org with any questions.

Join Our Neighborhood Watch

- Allie Shaw, Your Neighborhood Watch Coordinator

Our Neighborhood Watch has been up and running again for over a year, and we're thrilled that a few families have already joined! But we're looking for more families like yours to help our community.

A Simple Commitment: Only one night per shift, easy to fit into your family's schedule.

Family-Friendly Fun: Whether walking together, taking the dog out, or doing a quick drive, there's a way for everyone to get involved.

New! Teens can earn service hours!: High school students can join thier parent(s) to earn service hour credit!

Join us and take an active role in keeping our neighborhood safe and close-knit!

Contact for more information:
neighborhoodwatch@hickoryfarms.org

Got Stuff to Sell? Spring Yard Sale Anyone?

We’re looking at holding a Community Yard Sale again this year. If we do, Pete Scala will run it, assisted by Jessica DuBois, and we plan to hold it on a Saturday in late May (or early June?), from 8 am to noon. Currently looking at May 17th (from 2018 to 2023 that has been a good weather weekend – last year not so much).

Let Pete know if you want to participate in a Yard Sale. Call or email Pete Scala [(703) 764- 0730 (landline), (703) 909-6341 (text) or scalapr@verizon.net]. Also, if there are problems with doing it on May 17th, let Pete know that, too.

As in past years, HFCA does the advertising, posts signs, and distributes maps showing yard sale locations (but not names). Because we usually have many families participating, we always get a much better customer turnout than single family or 2 or 3 family yard sales.

The way it works is: that Saturday morning you put out your items for sale in your front yard, and shoppers use the map we provide to go to participating houses.

2025 Hickory Farms Commons Maintenance

- By Melissa Stark

Hickory Farms Community Association (HFCA) is happy to continue partnering with Green Zone Landscaping, Inc. to assist us in maintaining and cleaning up our 20+ acres of common areas.

Green Zone Landscaping’s scope of work for 2025 will include the following:

• 26 + cuts per season (front entrances, N. Path, Rabbit Run, Upper and Lower Commons) and a fall clean-up to remove leaves in November, as well as December.
• All common area turf and entrances will be mowed every Tuesday, unless it rains, then it will be delayed to the following non rainy day. Please note that when mowers are present in the common areas, that common area is closed until they are finished. We would like to avoid having patrons get injured by flying debris that the mower can pick up.
• Height of 3-5” or as seasonal conditions dictate.
• All common area sidewalks and curbs will be edged using a machine bladed edger at the time of each visit.
• Contractor will remove minor debris, such as trash and tree branches, from all turf areas prior to mowing.
• Blowing of resultant debris/clippings will occur from roadways, sidewalks and paths (Northern Path and Lower Commons) at the time of each mowing visit.
• On path areas (N. Path and Lower Commons), a cutting on both sides of the walkway will be maintained.
• Trimming around miscellaneous obstacles within the common areas turf will occur at the time of each mowing visit. Miscellaneous obstacles within the common areas turf are the following, but not limited to: benches, signs, bird feeders, cable boxes and flower gardens. Trimming areas shall exclude residence property lines.

Hickory Farms residents are responsible for trimming of their own property line that borders the commons area, which includes the residence’s fences, gates, trees, plants, hardscapes and built structures.

In addition to our lawn services, we have also partnered with TruGreen for 3 grass applications to the Upper and Lower Commons for the 2025 season, as well as 3 target treatment sprays on either the Upper Commons Main Island or the Lower Commons Tree of Heaven remediation island.

Please stay connected through the Listserv & check our Hickory Farms website calendar for more information about common areas treatments.

Home Maintenance Checklist

Chimney & Fireplace Cleaning

Have a chimney sweep check and clean the chimney – if you used the chimney during the winter.

Furnace Humidifier Shutdown

Drain and clean the humidifier water pan. Turn off the water supply valve. Work the float arm back and forth to dislodge crud and scrape off any mineral buildup.

Air Conditioner & Heat Pump Spring Checkup

Schedule your spring checkup. Use a hose to spray debris off the outside compressor unit.

Test Smoke Alarms & Carbon Monoxide Detectors

We recommend that you replace smoke detector batteries and don’t wait for them to die. Press test buttons on carbon monoxide detectors. Open each unit and vacuum dust that could interfere with operation. Carbon monoxide detector batteries are usually not replaceable by the user; replace the unit when indicated on the unit's instructions. Check the date on each alarm. Most older smoke and carbon monoxide alarms should be replaced after seven years. Replace them with alarms that are guaranteed for ten years.

The Birds of Hickory Farms

- By Bob Cosgriff

February is the shortest month of the year and for our backyard bird count it was even shorter since we were on a cruise for the last 12 days of the month. However, we did manage to pick up seven new birds in the 16 observing days we did have. That number brought us to 38 species seen by 28 February, which is a new high species count through the first two months of the year. The quality of the birds was also high: Cedar Waxwing, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Pine Warbler, Fox Sparrow, Red-shouldered Hawk, Yellow-rumped Warbler, and on the last day of the month, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker. That’s quite a lineup of occasional visitors! To date in March, we have added two new species, Chipping Sparrow, on 16 March, tying 2014 for the earliest arrival time for this attractive harbinger of spring. On 23 March, a beautiful Brown Thrasher showed up to bring us to 40 species for the year. March can be hit-or-miss for new arrivals, since the ‘winter’ birds are already here and the spring birds usually arrive in April and May. Hopefully we will add a few more birds to our list before April rolls around. So far, we are averaging 20 species per day in the yard.

The Bird of the Month is the Chipping Sparrow (Spizella Passerina). Smaller than other common sparrows such as Song Sparrow and White-throated Sparrow, the “chipper” is a dapper bird with a gray head and body, a rusty-red crown, a black eyeline, and brownish back and wings with wing bars. For more information visit: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Chipping_Sparrow/id

Looking ahead to April, we should see Gray Catbird and House Wren show up about mid-month, with Ruby-throated Hummingbird and one or two early-arriving warbler species making an appearance in the last week or so. Then the big influx shows up in the first two weeks of May. If this year is like the last few years, we should add about 20 species to our count in that period.

As for the bluebird trail, nesting should be starting as you read this article. We had a large number of hatchlings last year and those that survived through the winter will be competing with adults for available nest boxes. I saw two Tree Swallows checking out box #8 in the upper commons on 25 March. There was a successful swallow brood in that box last year. Purple Martins could begin to arrive in mid-April but more likely in the beginning of May. We will soon be getting the martin colony ready for occupancy by putting a handful of pine needles in each gourd, ejecting any House Sparrows, and then raising the box to its full height.

As the weather warms, wildflowers are beginning to appear, and trees are starting to put out foliage, now is a good time to begin to get out and about in our beautiful common areas which provide habitat for a number of migratory and year-round birds. Enjoy the springtime and stay tuned for the next update on the birds of Hickory Farms in early May.

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