Mountain Musings

Fall Garden and Preserving

Here's some of the autumn harvest from the last few weeks in photos. 

Anna and I had a great afternoon stirring up some autumn-olive jam again this year. The clusters of ripe berries were just waiting for us to pick them! A new experiment was using Pomona's Pectin for a low-sugar version. We enjoyed a beautiful warm day together.

I used a half-bushel of apples of several varieties which we picked up near Rockfish Gap to make applesauce and applebutter for the first time--it turned out delicious! Our Vita-mix came in handy, but I was wondering--does anyone have a recommendation of a good food mill/strainer for making applesauce or other similar foods? Comment with your experience or recipes.

In our fall garden now: parsnips, carrots, cabbage, and various greens and herbs. This year I decided to try sowing a cover crop of oats where the summer's plants were finished. It is sprouting up nicely. I'm looking forward to seeing if there are any results in the soil quality next season. Thanks, Heartland Harvest!

There you have a peek at some of my outdoor and kitchen goings-on!

~Hannah

1,422 and a Giveaway!

That's right...one thousand, four hundred, and twenty-two blog posts that I'm behind on reading!! Yikes! I've been quite absent from the computer and haven't read blogs or left any comments lately with the busyness of finally finishing the new addition, company visiting, and getting my mom moved in. I've missed you all!

So...tonight I took a break from putting up curtains and scrolled down the Bloglines list wondering which one I'd click on first.

Green Fairy Quilts won out...and, boy, am I glad! Judi is having another giveaway, and I found out in the nick of time.

This giveaway is for a quilt kit, complete with her original pattern for "Morning Bloom." I'd love to win it!

All you need to do is visit Judi's pattern page and comment on which 3 of her patterns you like the best. She'll draw a name on Tuesday night. I wish you the best in the giveaway...but I hope I win! :)

~Deb

Shooting Skeet and a Birthday Party ~ Final Day

Thankfully, our friends from Texas were here for a Lord's Day meeting, and we were thrilled that they were able to meet our church family. Here we all are on a Sunday afternoon after the meeting enjoying shooting some clays. We livened up the quiet neighborhood with some noise for sure!

Even the girls took a turn shooting, and there were some pretty decent shots!

The ladies sat a good distance away from the bangs and talked while the little ones played.

 
We geared up for more excitement that evening when we invited friends over for soup, sundaes, and games and for a chance to meet the E's.

Two birthday girls were in our midst...Katelyn from Texas and Anna from Virginia both turned 13 a day apart. Sarah made the birthday cake, and Kandace helped dip the ice cream for our guests. I don't think Katelyn will ever forget her Virginia birthday, complete with balloons, streamers, and Dutch Blitz games!

 
One bit of very sad news...Mr. E found out that his 91-year old father had just passed away, and their trip was shortened by a few days so they could return to Texas for the funeral.

On the final Sunday evening, we all gathered round and sang hymns together, and Tom prayed for safety before our friends would begin their 24-hour drive back to Texas early the next morning. 

We are so grateful we had the opportunity to host our new friends. We loved getting to know them! Who would have thought that a week before we had never even met them?!

We had a wonderful week and hope that you, our blog readers, experienced a taste of life in the Shenandoah Valley by reading about our fun adventures with our friends!

~Deb

Fun and Games

Throughout the week the E's were in VA, our families managed to fit in plenty of game time. From Risk and Spoons to tennis and football, there was lots of laughter and exercise to be had.

Everyone had a chance to dust off their ping-pong skills.

Tennis at a local park was a much-anticipated activity. We filled all 3 courts and had some great matches.

The guys battled it out in a round of Risk. Jonathan was happy for some competition!

Dutch Blitz didn't quite have a total monopoly on our card-game playing--several intense games of Spoons are now captured on video. Hilarious times!

~Hannah

Final day: Shooting Skeet and Birthday Party

Humpback Rock--Day 4

On the agenda for Day 4: after spending the morning looking at a tractor (guys) and browsing a yarn shop (girls), we headed up to the Blue Ridge Parkway for a picnic lunch and S'mores on the grill, stopping to grab some local apples on Afton Mountain.

All our skewers and sticks were filled with marshallows to fuel us for the upcoming hike. Austin relished the S'mores since Sarah had forbidden him to eat that evening's oatmeal cookies. :)

We could see the Humpback Rocks high above the colorful trees as we drove into the parking lot. An hour later we would be at the top.

It was a perfect day for a hike--great tree-climbing, rock-scrambling and picture-taking opportunities were everywhere.

What beauty awaited us at the end of the trail! Standing on the rocks with the Shenandoah Valley below us, we gathered to sing hymns about our Creator and Saviour. One friendly hiker even returned to listen in.

Coming down the mountain tired but joyful, we joined Mom in touring the Appalachian farm at the Parkway visitors' center before the sun began to set.

~Hannah

Next up: Fun and Games

Polyface Farm Tour ~ Day 3

"Hi, I'm Travis. I'm from Texas, and I want to learn everything I can about farming!"

Our friends from Texas planned their Virginia visit specifically to coincide with a talk being given at a local college by Joel Salatin of Polyface Farm.

We visited his farm one morning and just happened to show up on chicken processing day! Talk about perfect timing for our visitors!

Here's a photo of everyone watching part of the processing; Joel is in the background working alongside his farm apprentices. Travis took lots of notes!

 

And here's another somewhat more gruesome picture showing chickens in the cones getting their necks slit. I had heard about this process but had never seen it done...now I have...gulp.

We also saw lots of piglets and some very healthy looking hogs...I guess farmers quickly get used to animal smells on a farm.

 
Here, we're taking time out for pictures of our group on the hay wagon.

Another section of the farm included fields where more chickens were housed.

After a very full morning of touring the farm, it was time to leave and head home. We stopped at the end of the driveway and piled out of the van to take a final picture by the Polyface sign.

That evening our friends traveled to Bridgewater to hear Mr. Salatin speak, and Travis brought one of Joel's books with him to have signed.

Speaking of hogs...I think Travis just may have been in hog heaven at the end of the day!

~Deb

Next: Day 4 ~ Hiking Humpback Rock, S'mores on the Parkway

Welcome to Your New Home, Granny!

She's Here!

Yay! Granny's here! We're back home from South Boston after packing and loading up all of my mom's stuff on Friday and doing the final cleanup on Saturday morning.

The Lord was very gracious in keeping Tom and Jonathan protected from injuries during all of the heavy lifting. We're also thankful for the guys on this end who arrived to help us unload ~ thank you, Jason and Jeff!

Now...until Granny's room is finished (sometime this week we hope!), everything is crammed in the garage or Sarah's room or the living room. We have some fun work ahead of us this week!

Thank you for all the well wishes and prayers for the move to go smoothly. We are all excited to have Granny here, and I'll try and post a picture of her later today after a good night's rest in her new home.

~Deb

Flying High ~ Day 2

Until last week, Sarah was the only member of our family who had never flown before. That all changed when our friends from Texas rented an airplane for three hours one morning so their son Erich could fly us around the area and show us his piloting skills.

Here are Sarah and Mr. E. heading across the tarmac to catch their 30-minute ride. She survived and seemed to enjoy her first flight! Yay, Sarah!

Meanwhile, as each twosome was in the air, whoever wasn't flying played Dutch Blitz in the airport lounge to pass the time. We think they are now hooked on this fun game!

Erich did a fine job of showing us the sights (along with a few special moves demonstrating zero gravity...scream!), even letting us take the wheel to "fly" briefly. That made me quite nervous!

We flew over our house and saw our gardens, shed, and new addition from above. We also saw the Showalters' farm over at Heartland Harvest from the air, our friends the Wagners' house, and our local quarry. That was all so interesting!

 
Of course, we had to take a picture of the whole gang in front of the airplane after we all were back on the ground.

Thank you, Erich and family, for such a unique excursion...definitely not one we'd be privileged to do every day! It was fun!

~Deb

Next: Day 3 ~ Polyface Farm Tour

Texas Meets Virginia! ~ 1

We were delighted to host new family friends from Texas last week...lots of activities, lots of pictures, and lots to blog about! Hang on!

Erich (top right), a young man in our church who works with Jonathan, invited his family to come to Virginia for a visit to meet his friends and church family. We enjoyed hosting them while they were in our area. What a wonderful peak week for leaves here in the Valley...I think they fell in love with our mountains and cooler weather!

Day 1 ~ Hiking, Hymns, and Haircuts

Nothing like a hike to stretch your legs after a 24-hour drive! The first day we drove north and hiked Wolf Gap at Big Schloss, geocacheing while there, and picnicking afterward.

 

Each evening after supper we gathered for family devotions and a time of hymn singing.

And...since everyone left Texas needing a haircut, Kandace obliged by giving each of the guys in her family a cut...including shaving off a beard! Here they are all lined up...from oldest to youngest!

I think the first day was a great success, and there's more fun to come!

~Deb

Next: Day 2 - Flying High!