Making Ripples: post-corporate adventures in Floyd County Virginia

Seven Springs Farm

I have been told that Seven Springs Farm was a great source of organic farming supplies ever since I moved to Floyd, but I could never seem to locate the place. This weekend, Gretchen and I got directions from a new settler and we picked up supplies and plants for our deck gardens.

They still have lots of lettuce, herbs and tomatoes as well as a few perennials. We were shown around by Dane Elder who is shown here behind a selection of lettuce varieties. The plants are exceptionally healthy.



I also picked up some covering material for my gardens. They have two kinds, a lightweight sunscreen for summer and a heavy duty material for use in the winter. I am experimenting with the light weight covering to keep birds off my strawberries and to keep the new plantings from burning while they adapt to outdoor life.

After five years of hearing about Seven Springs Farm and getting vague directions like "It's over there off Kings Store Road", I had come to the conclusion that it was one of Floyd's best kept secrets or perhaps I just couldn't get there from here.

Their prices and service were excellent and I wanted to show my appreciation by providing a map that actually shows where they are located. You can Google Seven Springs Farm and you will get their webpage 7springsfarm.com but the maps are not expandable.

Thanks to all who told me about Seven Springs Farm. It was everything they said it was.

Floyd Country Store celebrates 100th Birthday

I was showing a friend around Floyd Saturday and just happened to hear this familiar trio finishing up a set at the Floyd Country Store.

Bernie Coveney, Rob Neukirch, and Chris Luster were performing Americana instead of their usual Bluegrass, Jazz or Gypsy music and it was pure delight!

The way Rob's vocals meld with the effortless instrumental stylings of Bernie and Chris creates an effect which has to be heard to be believed. They enjoy themselves and it shows. It always leaves me wanting more.

The Silverleaf Bear has returned

Last year at about this time, I was startled to see a bear running across a neighbors field. This year the bear was closer and I was able to capture a few images from our back deck.

It looks like the same bear, only larger than last year.

I would have liked to gotten a clearer shot but he was a hundred feet away and my visibility was limited. I did not even consider running out the driveway to get a closer look. I was happy to be up on a nine foot high deck with no access from ground level.

We are in Floyd County, VA, about a third of a mile from the Blue Ridge Parkway and the area in between has plenty of forest cover. Deer and wild turkeys are plentiful. Bears not so much, but that's fine as one bear leaves a lasting impression.

The bear crossed Silverleaf Lane and went down into Ann and Rodger Bower's field just minutes before JC Thompson and his wife came down the lane on their nightly stroll.

Never a dull moment up here on the ridge...

Construction accident gets rapid response in Floyd County Virginia

Ralph Poff, of Floyd, VA, fell from a construction lift yesterday while working on the roof of our neighbor's house on Silverleaf Lane. He reportedly fell about 15 feet to the ground and was rendered unconscious by the impact.

We first became aware of the accident when a medical helicopter started circling over our house and made preparations to land in a field near this neighboring house.

In a very short period of time there were four teams of emergency service personnel and a Carilion Life-Guard medical helicopter team working to resuscitate Ralph and prepare him for transport to the Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital.

It appeared to be a well coordinated effort involving a lot of people and several vehicles. Once Ralph was prepared for transport, he was loaded into an ambulance and driven to the helicopter which was waiting on the crest of a hill beyond the construction site.

He was unloaded from the ambulance and carried to the helicopter where he was loaded into the rear hatch which can be seen under the tail rotor. The helicopter took off a few minutes later and  flew off toward Roanoke.

 The accident had occurred about 1:30 pm and the medical personnel were working on him until about 2:30 when he was loaded into the Carilion Clinic Life-Guard emergency medical helicopter and carried off to the Roanoke Memorial Hospital.

The presence of the helicopter was a huge stroke of luck. It was returning from the site of a private plane crash in Roanoke when the call went out for the Carilion Clinic Ambulance to come to the construction site. The helicopter followed the ambulance from Roanoke to the construction site in Floyd and as a result probably saved an hour of transport time in getting Ralph to the hospital.

The speed of response by all concerned probably contributed to keeping the accident from becoming a fatality. We later learned that Ralph had broken his back in the fall.

We hope for his early recovery and are very thankful for the emergency medical personnel and volunteers who come to our rescue in Floyd.

[click on images to enlarge]

Christmas can wait - We're still in Thanksgiving mode...

It's been a week to count our blessings. Lots of things happened but everything worked out well in the end. The weather got really cold in a hurry, but we had a ready-made solution right at hand - Brunswick Stew.

I even found time to empty out part of the crawlspace.

We visited family in North Carolina for a pre-Thanksgiving celebration and heard our talented grandchildren perform in two concerts in Raleigh.

We enjoyed Thanksgiving in Floyd with Gretchen's daughter Marjorie.

Gretchen has been getting commissions to paint portraits and I am seeing a resurgence in demand for custom framing projects.

Business has also been picking up at the art gallery in The Locust Street Station. That is something we are quite thankful for.

I had a cataract removed and now I have great vision in both eyes again. Doctor David Kinsler at the Vistar Eye center in Salem did the procedure and the results were fantastic. This is the second eye he has done for me and I am happy to recommend him to anyone who needs this procedure. We were in and out in less than two hours and I was back on the computer in the afternoon.

Gretchen had a minor accident on Sunday and we ended up in the Emergency Room at Montgomery General Hospital where we were taken care of by our old friend Dr Joe Baum!

Dr Joe is one of those people who make you feel better when he enters the room.  An xray and some Ace Bandages and we were on our way back home.

We are now preparing for "Dickens of a Night" in Floyd this Friday. Almost all of the businesses will be open, there will be street singers, street musicians and the regular Friday Night Jamboree. It will be a great opportunity to connect with old friends and to meet newcomers.

When things slow down a bit, I hope to start writing again. Fortunately, Doug Thompson, Fred First, and Colleen Redman keep blogging so there is no shortage of interesting things to read.

First Friday in Floyd VA is a winning combination

The Friday Night Jamboree may have been the original attraction that drew musicians and cloggers to Floyd  from all over Virginia and North Carolina, but the entire Floyd community now puts on a show that entertains hundreds of visitors every Friday night, especially on the first Friday of every month.
 

These Friday night celebrations have become a major "photo opportunity" for visiting photographers. You see them everywhere capturing images of joyful celebration. These images appear on the Internet every week and bring more visitors from far places looking for a night of music and family fun.

Floyd has created a truly hospitable small town environment that offers good food, lodging, shopping, and entertainment for visitors and encourages them to return and bring friends.

Floyd attracts talented people and visitors are made welcome, especially those who bring their own musical instruments.

Last Friday was the First Friday in September and almost every shop and gallery in town was open and there were artists receptions and live music everywhere.

Watching kids choosing penny candy from the barrels in the Floyd Country Store is a show in itself. Woody and Jackie Crenshaw have created a family venue in the Floyd Country Store that has something for almost everyone.

On Locust Street, you will find enthusiastic audiences cheering musicians as they play everything from gospel music and Bluegrass to Jimmy Buffett tunes. In the coffee shops and downstairs at Wildfire Pots, you will hear Blues, Celtic music, Jazz, Flamenco music, and tunes written by local singer/songwriters.

It is a common sight to see crowds of spectators gathered around musicians jamming on the sidewalk, with visitors waiting with instruments in hand for a tune that they can join in on.

It is almost impossible to hear and see everything during a single Friday night, so you end up returning and then you find that there are even more interesting places you have missed.

 

This recent First Friday, The Blue Ridge Art Connection at the Station on Locust featured a reception for visiting artist James Underwood, a prize-winning pastel artist from Bedford, VA. His work can be seen at www.underwoodart.com

They also exhibited work by students who have taken classes from the artists of the Art Connection. This group was admiring an oil painting by one of the students. The Art Connection encourages and supports beginning artists as well as promoting their own art.

  

The Jacksonville Center for the Arts featured a Breezeway Gallery Exhibit that showcased members of the Jacksonville Center. Live music and refreshments created a party mood. The Jacksonville Center for the Arts has trained many of the local artists who are now professionals.

The overall effect is that the presence of so much talent and a willingness to share with newcomers has created a steady increase in the number of artists who are contributing to the local economy.

It is not just the art community and musicians that attract visitors to Floyd, it is the concerted effort by most business establishments to welcome visitors and make them feel at home.

The town is so small that visitors are easy to identify and most people in town will go out of their way to be helpful. As a fairly recent transplant of five years, I can still remember the pleasant shock I experienced coming to Floyd for the first time. People made us feel welcome from day one.

Many of the visitors I spoke to this weekend mentioned being pleased with their accommodations at the Hotel Floyd and local Bed and Breakfasts. More than half of the visitors I met Friday were planning to returning to Floyd for another visit.

Have you noticed the all-black wooly bears this year?

We may be in for a very severe winter if you believe the Farmer's Almanac.

Here in Floyd, VA, we are seeing an all-black version of the common wooly bear caterpillar without the traditional wooly bear stripes. It is completely black from end to end and has a soft fuzzy coat like a normal wooly bear.

At left is the winter severity legend in pictorial form. Image from the Wooly Bear Festival in Vermillion, OH

According to legend, the severity of the upcoming winter can be judged by examining the pattern of brown and black stripes on woolly bear caterpillars--the larvae of Isabella tiger moths.

If the brown stripe between the two black stripes is thick, the winter will be a mild one. A narrow brown stripe portends a long, cold winter. So, what will happen when there is no brown stripe at all?

This is what a normal Isabella tiger moth wooly bear looks like:

Our black wooly bear was identical to this, but was all black. It did not resemble the caterpillar version of the leopard moth that is pictured below:

The leopard moth larva has a spiky coat, while the common wooly worm has a softer and even coat. We were so startled to see the all-black wooly bear that we did not get a photo. As soon as I see another, I will post the photo here for a comparison.

If you don't believe in wooly bears, then you might consider what is happening to our weather recently.  Trees are already turning color and some are dropping their leaves. Nights are cold enough to justify turning on the heat again. Temperatures warm up to the eighties by noon, but drop to the fifties and below at night.

I am not taking any chances. I have been hard at work splitting and stacking firewood in preparation for a long hard winter.

I am already concerned about next year which should be even colder than this one as I have little confidence in the computer simulations that predict a global warming trend.

Honoring family heroes

Owen Joyce is a ninth generation descendant of Private George Sowers, who fought in the American Revolution.

Owen recently attended a re-dedication ceremony at George Sower's grave site in Floyd. After quietly observing the placing of flags beside the headstone, he insisted on placing his tiny flag on the grave of his great, great, great, great, great, grandfather.

It seems that George Sowers was buried in 1834 in the historic Zion Lutheran Cemetery in Floyd, VA. when retired Master Sergeant Tom King started a campaign to rehabilitate the old graveyard and wanted to properly honor the fallen heroes that are buried there.

Once the headstone was restored to its rightful spot, Tom King started searching for the descendants of George Sowell and planned a re-dedication ceremony with military honors.

Here he leads the procession to the grave site where the ceremony was to be held.

Four generations of descendants descended on Floyd, many coming from North Carolina. They participated in a solemn ceremony, a family get-together, and then spent the morning visiting Floyd and the Blue Ridge Restaurant before heading home.

In today's world of nuclear and isolated families, it is heart-warming to see far-flung family members gathering to honor a soldier who died 175 years ago.

For the rest of the story and a complete set of images, visit fallenheroesoffloyd.org

I think I know why we haven't seen any deer lately

I was out walking with the cats tonight and as we strolled through the woods on the western boundary of our property I heard a crash behind me and the sound of a running animal.

Looking through the trees at our neighbor's field I saw a black bear running across the field and into the woods on the far side. I was stunned as I never expected that anything that large could move that fast.

It was about 3 1/2 feet high, looked to weigh about 250 pounds and it moved!

The bear did not canter like some videos I've seen, it moved at a gallop, thrusting off both back feet and landing on the front feet 5 or 6 feet away. This was rapidly repeated again and again until the bear disappeared im the distance.

I was relieved that it was running away because I could not have outrun that bear if it had been heading in my direction.

Since I was not carrying my camera, I looked online to find a bear image that resembled the bear I saw and found the image in a Prince William Sound Bear Hunt by Neil Moomey and Mike Kopcznski, May 2000.

So now that we have a bear that travels within 150 feet of our house, I will be more cautious when going outside at night.

It adds another dimension to living in the country.

UPDATE:

Here is a shot from our back deck showing the exact location where the bear was running down the slope toward the right. We will be watching this meadow closely from now on.

  

Scott Perry is teaching at the Jacksonville Center

Scott Perry's Pickin' Porch has moved to Studio 125 at the Jacksonville Center for the Arts in Floyd VA. He has made the transformation from a music store that gave music lessons to a music studio that sells instruments.

He started teaching Guitar, Mandolin, Banjo, and Ukulele lessons two years ago with about 25 students.  He now teaches almost 50 students a week. When I visited him yesterday, he was teaching Alexandra Cox to play Clair de Lune.

Scott's lessons enliven the Center, staff members provide sales support when Scott is out of the studio, and Scott's students are exposed to the many wonders and services available at the Center. It looks like a win-win situation to me.

A few weeks ago his students were performing Blues and Country music on the streets of Floyd. After they played a couple of tunes, other musicians on the street began to join in. They were one of many groups jamming on the street in front of the Friday Night Jamboree.

Scott has a web site where he writes about acoustic blues and roots music and musicians. Take time to visit http://ohpapamusings.blogspot.com. Here is one of his articles where he shares his feelings about teaching music:

Scott performs traditional and original acoustic blues and roots music, and conducts educational workshops on blues music. He also has his own promotion company and record label Oh Papa Music.

He and his wife Lisa live on a 40 acre farm in Floyd County, VA, with their two sons.