White Rock Falls Trail

We haven't been hiking very much this year, partly out of concern with how long Tucker would be willing to ride in the backpack now that he prefers to walk. This weekend we decided it was time, so we found a great hike off the Blue Ridge Parkway starting at Slacks Overlook (which actually didn't have a view). It was a great time, though if it had been a half mile shorter it would've been even better. :)

Tucker turned out to be an enthusiastic hiker today, though our plan to tire him out before putting him in the backpack didn't work very well. We hadn't thought through that Tucker's coordination would be no match for a rocky trail with lots of roots. Poor guy has a scraped up nose from a succession of falls that abbreviated his walking attempt and landed him in the backpack for the duration.

The highlight of the trail was when it went into a natural ampitheater with a small waterfall that fell at least 10 feet over the rocks. Other highlights of our trip included when Tucker saw Ben eating grass and leaned down to pretend to eat a fern. Tucker got very excited about finding each blaze on the tree (and touching it) and soon ducky and pacifier were also enjoying the game. We also passed a bunch of blueberry bushes with some ripe fruit on it (yummy!).

My secret garden

When I was a kid, I loved The Secret Garden. I think I read that book at least 10 times, maybe more. I always wanted a secluded place like that of my own, but I never quite was able to find one.

When I was in late elementary school, I put two boards in the crook of a pine tree (undoubtedly with the help of my dad) on the side of our house, thinking that it would be a reclusive tree house for me. It never panned out like that. It was too high to get to easily, too small to be comfortable, and way too buggy to actually stay out there for long.

When we moved in eighth grade, we found an abandoned shed on our property, and I thought that it could be my secret retreat. But it turns out it was a gross, rotting building that was not where I wanted to spend my time either. Instead, I would go out my window and climb up onto the roof, to overlook the lake on a clear night. THAT was a pretty good thinking spot, though I never did feel completely comfortable popping out my screen and walking on the roof (and Mom, if you read this, no, I certainly would never have walked on the roof...).

After that, in the various places I've lived, I've often found a special spot in the outdoors on nearby hiking trails or somewhere like that, a place to inspire and invoke the majestic sublime. I love those places, and had connections to them, but not ownership of them. I've always wanted my own place.

I am ecstatic to have finally found my secret garden at our house. Of course, it's neither secret, nor a garden, but it's secluded and private and a great thinking nook. It's just a little mowed circle near a fire pit overlooking the flood plain, surrounded by tall grasses. In fact, it's even more wonderful that is surrounded by grasses and not a garden--a garden would mean I would sit there looking at the weeds and thinking of the work I'd need to do to keep it pretty.

All it took was a plastic Adirondack chair, and eyes to see the nook right under my nose.

Q: Why did the chicken cross the road?

A: Because it was dumb and thought it should try to run under our neighbor's car.

I am so proud to have discovered the secret to one of life's profound mysteries.

Getting ready for Spring

Have I mentioned that Tucker's an outdoors boy? Well, here he is this weekend helping Daddy to tune up the lawnmower, and then yesterday, helping me to garden. He was still in his church clothes when he got ahold of the peat moss and potting soil and turned into Pigpen from Charlie Brown.

It was pretty cute, though it tired him out so much he put himself to bed on the family room floor at 5:45 pm last night and slept for 13 1/2 hours! (Of course, we did move him to his crib....)

Going green

When I went to my 10 year high school reunion and an acquaintance discovered I was in the environmental field, she said "that's so cool! My company just went green last week!" I smiled politely, of course, but really I am more than a bit tired of the current amount of green wash going on. I'm all for environmental sustainability, I even think corporate "design for environment" type programs really neat and sometimes truly innovative. But how does a company "go green" on a certain day? It's not about switching to recycled paper and putting out recycling bins.... Also, every decision has some externality, some environmental consequence, and those consequences aren't always black or white. Take recycling, for example. There are some things that are so inefficient to recycle in terms of energy that it is actually better NOT to recycle a product. Environmental sustainability is truly complex, and a lifestyle, a philosophy, and a process.

Anyway, Austin and I recently installed our forested riparian buffer. The trees are just wee little plugs right now, inside the green tree tubes, but hopefully in not too long it'll look more impressive. Austin is still going to plant the native grasses, and has plans to restore a wetland, bucket by bucket, in the ditched area in the center of our floodplain.

Subtlety is not Tucker's strength...

Tucker can't say "outside" yet, but he makes his intentions really clear. In this picture, I put my coat on him when he kept pointing at it. Of course, I knew he was pointing at it because he wanted to go outside, not wear it. There are really only so many times I can visit the chickens in a day or haul Tucker and the basketball up the hill that he likes to roll the ball down.

It's great that Tucker loves to be outdoors... but it will be even better once he can be outside unsupervised. :)

Landscaping for chickens

There are some google searches that just don't pan out no matter how you type them in.

"Landscaping for chickens"
"Poulty-resistant landscape"
"Gardening with chickens"

Apparently, there are not that many other people out there writing and thinking about how to design a yard to be compatible with their favorite flock of free-ranging birds.

What is the compatibility problem, you ask? Well, chickens love to scratch and peck. Nothing is more delightful to a chicken than to kick mulch all around, looking for the insects and grubs hiding in it. How do you have flower beds that look halfway decent, when they are attacked daily by poultry?

One answer, of course, is to contain the poultry. We actually do have our chickens fenced in, but they have taken to flying over the fence to enjoy the freedom of the whole property (except for the one hen that is too bottom-heavy to make the flight). I tried clipping their feathers last summer, and that does work, at least temporarily, till the feathers grow back.

But the thing is, we have a tick problem. A big tick problem (I'll spare you the details, because ticks are gross). And chickens are just about the best non-chemical antidote for ticks (actually, truth be told, guinea hens are even better at tick control but they are loud enough to annoy the neighbors). I would prefer to have messy flower beds, and not lyme disease.

So... the chickens are not going to be banned. Now what?

My tentative answer: intentionally messy landscaping. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em. Right? I was even thinking of transplanting the evergreen yucca from around our property to anchor one "flower" bed (that's the plant in the picture above), or planting switchgrass and pretending it's an ornamental grass. I could also go the wildflower route, and as an extra bonus any weeds that crop up can be considered volunteer native wildflowers.

Of course, my mom the gardener arrives today, and it's possible she will convince me to go a more traditional route of bulbs and shrubs.

Why I love Virginia

...For shorts and flowers in March (actually, most years our crocuses appear in February!).

Snow pics from our one storm

Have I mentioned that this was a very disappointing year for snow? No big storms. No snowshoeing in West Virginia. No excitement for my favorite weather man (Austin). In a future career, Austin might pursue meteorology for the amount of time he spends on the AccuWeather forums reading what other weather nerds think about the potential for storms in the Southeast. One of the rules of the forums is that they're about "weather forecasting not wish casting..."

Anyway, we had ONE good snow day, and we made the most of it. Today was 70 so it already feels like a distant memory.

And now, the rest of the story....

I forgot to mention in the last post that this weekend has been beautiful. It was 59 degrees when I woke up this morning. One of the kids at church was sitting next to an open window during coffee hour and said to me "this is like Spring!" And it is! It has been wonderful. I was painting some porch tables today and Austin had to remind me to paint them in the shade so they wouldn't dry too quickly. Now THAT is a problem I like to have.

Anyway, now that we've covered what Tucker's done this weekend, here's some pics of what we've been doing.

Austin spent the weekend working on the shed extension.

I spent the weekend lounging in the hammock and taking pictures. (Okay, maybe I did a little painting too....)

Mad Dog and a Gyre of Ice

Ben turned into Mad Dog* this afternoon and ran off down the hill to the lower field, presumably to find some more deer remains. Austin decided to accompany him, to see what the Meechums River looked like after the cold snap.

[*Mad Dog is Ben's alter-ego. When the moon is full, and people turn into werewolves, Ben turns into Mad Dog. Our normally quiet (some might say "lazy"), almost nine year-old dog transforms into a wild, wiggly creature that runs amock, chasing anything that moves at top speed.]

Austin found a gyre of ice had been created beneath the small falls on our property (which in local lore is called "Ass Buster Falls" according to our 80-something year old sparkplug of a neighbor who has lived on our street all her life).

The water speed from the falls had managed to chip away the ice into a perfect, maybe 6' circle, and the water was slowly making the ice circle spin in place, at the mouth of the falls. Check out the pic:


Unfortunately, Ben didn't share our same fascination with the spinning and ice and busied himself going for a swim (not recommended in a partially frozen river!) and finding more deer parts to bring to the front steps. Whatta Dog....

The Long and Winding Road

Yesterday was a rainy, cold sort of day. I bundled Tucker up in the late afternoon and took him on a walk with Benny in the stroller while Austin was working out. It wasn't raining, and besides being a bit on the brisk side, much fun was had by all. One of Tucker's favorite activities on walks is Sneak the Mitten Away from Mommy where he pulls his mittens off and flings them out of the stroller when I'm not looking. Let's just say my boy likes his hands colds and his mittens lost.

Anyway, so we finished up our walk, I took him out of the stroller and headed up the stairs into the house, expecting a little tyke to join me any minute. No dice. Tucker lives to be outside. First he explored the shed door but found it unsatisfactorily latched, so he took off down the driveway. I watched, expecting him to turn around. Again, no dice. By the time he got to the hemlock tree, I decided I would join him on his expedition up the driveway. Little man toddled with purpose up our long, windy driveway. We reached the sign at the end and we celebrated our arduous journey, and I turned around to head for home.

And Tucker kept walking.

And walking.

And walking.

I tried to convince him to do a little loop on the gravel circle in front of our house. Silly mommy. My little man was on a mission and he kept going. He passed the O'Connells house where he discovered two puddles and that their paved driveway is easier to walk on. And then he kept going. By the time we reached the Downs' driveway it was definitely dinner time, still rainy and cold, and almost dark. We had a face off as I repeatedly picked him up and turned him around. He would take two steps towards home and then try to fake me out and run back the other direction.

By the time we got home, Tucker must've walked a good quarter mile, possibly more, and we had a mini meltdown when it turned out it was dinner time, and not time to explore the rest of the outdoors. (It only took three times through the Ducky book to get him ready to cooperate with dinner....)

Today, it was even rainier. To celebrate, Tucker went puddle hopping (see pic).