Mountain Musings

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