Tag: family

Time flies

A friend commented that she missed my blog, which tells me, I haven’t been posting as often as I used to.

While we were away, it rained heavily and our dirt and gravel sloped driveway took a beating. We came home to deep gullies and evidence that someone other than VDOT had attempted to smooth the state road so getting to our mailbox was a real challenge. Our tractor has a blade attachment on the back and I am getting quite adept at smoothing out the mess. I no sooner got it improved than we had another two days of heavy storms and my work was destroyed again. Again, the tractor and I tackled the mess and got most of the driveway smooth enough to not drag bottom on the car coming in and out. When the fiber optic crew was here before out trip, laying the new line, one of the guys on a small backhoe dug out the ends of our culvert for us. The rain now has a better path, but the steepness of the driveway still allows serious run off. The state road is hazardous to drive right now and the ditch below our culvert is filled with gravel from the road.

The weekend we got home, our eldest local grandson (not the eldest of all of them) was graduated as a distinguished scholar from high school. As his high school is in the process of being significantly enlarged, they held the graduation at the basketball stadium at Virginia Tech, so each student had unlimited guests. He had many, some from as far away as Florida come to cheer him on. Daughter and SIL threw a party that afternoon for everyone and many of his friends as well with lots of food and cupcakes. He will enter Virginia Tech in the Engineering School in the fall. We are very proud of him and his accomplishments as a student, with the robotics team Fabrication co-leader, and in Taekwondo as an instructor and as a 3rd degree senior black belt.

Last weekend, our spinning group had it annual spring porch party always hosted by the same couple. About 20 of us gathered for an afternoon of socialization, spinning, and an awesome potluck. I brought out my spinning wheel for the first time in a while and started a very colorful braid of Organic Pohlwarth which I finished a couple of evenings ago.

All of these weekends have thrown our usual routine out the door until this weekend. We resumed our Saturday morning breakfast out, followed by the Farmer’s Market and good local food to supply our freezer and refrigerator.

Soon I will be able to harvest peas, some volunteer new potatoes, and garlic from our garden. The tomatoes and peppers are growing, green beans and corn getting taller. We are about at the end of asparagus season (hubby says Yay, though I don’t serve them to him.)

I do need to week whack the paths again.

The other craft I have dug out, is to set up my sewing machine and make a couple of simple summer tops as the weather has been in the 80’s and humid. As you see, I’m not a good selfie taker, but this is one of them.

All is well on the farm. Holding out hope the rain doesn’t mess up the driveway again until I can figure out what is causing the tractor to stall out repeatedly. I may have to have the repair folks come and get it and give it a once over.

June 8, 2025
Busy Week/Changing Seasons

There was a lot of living history this week. On Wednesday, we had about 80 fourth graders and 7 rotations with the museum history, slavery in Appalachia, a bit of William Tell fun with suction cup arrows and a plexiglass shield to protect the”victim,” women’s duties on the frontier, blacksmithing, fiber production at home on the frontier, and frontier Militia that includes the presenter firing a flintlock rifle for the students. After we were done, the curator showed them a covered wagon and how it would have been loaded to travel the Wilderness road to the western parts of Virginia (now Kentucky and Ohio).

Thursday we had over 100 sixth graders with some changes in rotations to match the available volunteers. These groups are fun to do and also have some of the frustrations that teachers deal with daily. Some the the youth are very engaged and have great questions. Some would rather be anywhere else and poke and prod their neighbors, or engage in flirting with another student.

The door to the loom house is low, about 5’5″ and most kiddos that age walk in without a thought, but there are a few as tall or taller than me at 5’7+” that have to duck to enter. The space inside is tight to put 15 sixth graders, but we make it work.

Wednesday night threatened cold so the flowers planted in the deck pots were covered for the night, there are no more nights much below 50 f for the next 10 days.

The first Hummingbird was spotted this morning. The single feeder that is currently out will empty quickly and soon additional feeders will be added.

The vegetable, sunflower, and herb seed have sprouted under the grow lights. They will begin to get acclimated to the outdoors in a day or two.

The Amaryllis bud opened with only 2 flowers but is 22″ tall.

After the museum yesterday it was time to mow the lawn for the first time. The riding mower original battery was so dead there wasn’t even a hint of light from the headlights, much less turning over the engine. I edged around the house and pulled out the gas push mower and it wouldn’t start either. Our once a year pushing the heavy riding mower up on to the trailer and trip two towns over to drop it off wit the repair guy was done. Once it is repaired, the grass will be so tall it will be difficult to mow, but that is all I can do for now.

We are looking forward to warm days and mild nights. Tomorrow, grandson will come help me get the rest of the garden ready to plant soon.

April 18, 2025
Sunday, Family Day

Today was a gorgeous day, perfect for lunch out and a walk on the Huckleberry Trail. The scrub bushes are beginning to leaf out, some of the trees are about to flower and it is too early. We will have a freeze but in the meantime, seeing the snowdrops, the crocuses, and the buds swelling on the daffodils is delightful.

The nice weather has the hens laying nearly as well as summer. A bad day now is 4 eggs from the 9 hens. A good day is 7. It always amuses me when all three Oliver Eggers lay the same day. One lays green eggs, one lays Khaki colored eggs, and one lays pink eggs.

Daughter had a “I want to move to Australia” week, so we had them over for dinner. Fifty years ago on a flight to Hawaii, I found a recipe for Hawaiian ribs. The recipe works equally well for pork chops, so that was on the menu along with egg noodles, peas, Naan bread liberally spread with homemade garlic butter. Daughter brought an Angel food cake, strawberries, and whipped cream, so we had dessert too.

Some time was spend spinning on the little Jenkins Delight Turkish spindle, spinning a colorful fiber sample. It is a dark wool base with silk, silk noils, bamboo. I’m not a fan of noils, but spun it to lacy weight noils and all. I will ply it tomorrow and measure it out.

We have no appointments this week. I will be leaving on Thursday for a fiber retreat, leaving hubby to deal with the critters.

February 23, 2020
Gifts- 12/3/2019
A plan is finally in place and not too stressful, I hope. With lots of doctor’s appointments, PT, and hearing clinic appointments between us, we seem to be spending lots of time in waiting room which affords me knitting time. Yesterday, daughter needed help with a sick child so she could go to work, so more knitting time. During hubby’s TV time is even more knitting time. The amount of it though is causing some joint pain with the cold raw weather. I have taken to wearing lots of wool layers from skin out to keep warm.

Hubby needed a new chair as “the Chair II” had failed, and then his laptop crashed so we ordered a new chair and he ended up with a business grade refurbished computer from the computer repair shop. He will only get a stocking stuffed. Child #2 provided a few wishes and wants experiences for her kids rather than more toys. Doable. Child #3’s family is taken care of. Child #1’s family is partially taken care of, that one is still in progress.

This weekend begins 3 weekends of craft events and hopefully, folks will buy my goods as gifts for their families and I will go into the new year low on stock which will make my personal property tax lower next year.
Time to get back to knitting.
December 3, 2019
Names – 12/1/2019

I was named for my grandmothers, my first name is Frances. Born when I was, I started school just as one of the early “talking” animal comedy movie series was released and I was relentlessly teased. I had been tagged with a corruption of my name as a nickname that was cute for a small child, but I didn’t want to follow me as I grew up. We had a family friend who was Fran and I didn’t care for her, so I didn’t want to be hung with that. As I left for college and into the work force, I used my birth name of Frances, but that too presented it’s own difficulties as Francis is a man’s version and I have spent years using the phrase “I as in his, E as in hers” to educate/correct people. To add to the difficulty, my maiden name was and should have been simple, Sale, just like it sounds, but I got Sales, Sally, Soles, Salle.

After I married, I added Stafford and we get Stratford, Stoffer, Staffer. And I changed jobs and introduced myself as Frances, but one of my new co-workers tagged me as Fran and thus it has been except with my family.

When our children were born, I didn’t want to give them names that could be corrupted with a y or ie on the end. We didn’t want their initials to spell something that would cause them issues and both son’s as they grew up went by their middle names, even being enrolled in school with a first initial, middle name, last name. One son as a professional knows when he receives a call, email, or letter if the person really knows him by whether it is addressed to his first name or his middle name. Younger son chooses to go by his birth first name in formal form now, except by immediate family and we haven’t been able to make the change, so he is still called by his middle name. Daughter grew up with her first name, sometimes first and middle.

Her children’s first names are palindromes.

As an educator, I was exposed to many different names of children and wondered where some of them originated, were they made up, family names, names from countries of origin. Sometimes I worried that they were being teased or bullied because of the name with which they were tagged.

December 1, 2019
Whew, I’m back then gone again-8/26/2019
These few weeks are on the road. Away last Thursday to help out family with packing and as transportation as they prepare to move. Time was spent enjoying their company and some time alone at their house with empty boxes to fill with books, music, and linens. Thursday was hot when I arrived and after picking up grandson, we waded in the cool creek before preparing dinner.

The tiny fish darting around our feet and a few crawdads skittering away if you disturbed their rock.

Friday was rainy but much cooler and the time that everyone was away from the house was used to pack boxes, clean up the garbage that the bear got into and taking photos of the jewelweed with rain drops on the leaves.

Saturday after grandson’s volunteer time at the library, he and I drove to a local State park and walked a trail that his Mom’s Master Naturalist group had done and looked at some of her art used on the signage. It was a beautiful mild day for a nice gentle walk in the woods.

Sunday after a late breakfast out with everyone, he and I used my Lifetime Senior Pass for the National Park system to drive up on the Skyline Drive and hike a couple miles up a mountain trail, mountain goat on a couple of the rock piles, and back down the trail. I guess there were too many people out to see any wildlife other than a few butterflies.
On the way back off the Parkway, we ended up behind this lanky young man skate boarding down the Skyline Drive wearing earbuds, so he probably couldn’t hear the traffic behind him. Eventually the car in front of us, us, and the line behind us were able to go around him. It was a very long down slope, quite steep at some points causing him to do tight S turns to slow himself. I hope he made it safely without causing anyone else injury because of his stunt.

Other down time was spent spinning on one little Turk and plying on the other slightly larger Turk and knitting on a small shawl. I was so enamored with the last issue of Ply magazine that I read it through cover to cover and took it with me to reread. I had two books with me and finished one, but found the second one of zero interest to me.

I’m home for a few days to get laundry done, the house vacuumed of dog hair, the chicken coop cleaned out, then off again later in the week for a long weekend with friends as a vendor and participant at a fiber retreat. When I return from that, again a few days at home to clean up and unpack to repack and return to help the moving family out for a few more days.

The garden has given up on tomatoes and cucumbers. The sunflowers are drooping and need the heads cut. The tomatillos are not really producing anymore, but I am hopeful that there may be a few more to harvest. The peppers are heavy with fruit and there are a few pumpkins, but the chickens got in my garden every day I was gone and destroyed the fall plantings and the cover crop beds. I guess those beds will just be covered with hay for the winter instead.
August 26, 2019
The Great Circle Wedding Weekend

Whew, what a weekend. About 10 days ago, Mountaingdad came down with the symptoms that I had thought were allergies with me and I was mostly over, but as often happens with him, it went straight into bronchitis. Last Tuesday, he went to the Doctor and came home with meds, lots and lots of meds. We were scheduled to leave on Thursday and hoped that 36 plus hours on the antibiotic and prednisone that he would be feeling better. We awoke Thursday and he still was not feeling any better, but we decided to go on anyway and hope for improvement. We arrived in Northern Virginia to see our daughter in law’s senior exhibition prior to her graduation with a BFA in May. As they don’t really have room for both of us in their house and because we didn’t want Mountaingdad to expose Son #1’s family to his bug, we returned to the hotel from hell down the street. By the time we arrived, all he wanted to do was go to bed, so we checked in to the hotel and I took off on the Metro to met DIL at her exhibition to look around. We had reserved a room with a single queen bed, got a room with two doubles which may have been good since he didn’t sleep much that night. The heating unit in this room worked this time, thank goodness.

I did get to see the exhibition and we took Son #1 and Grandson #1 out for a quick dinner, got what rest we could and left Friday morning for Norfolk/Virginia Beach to my step sister’s wedding. We were supposed to stay with our youngest son and his family and again feared exposing them to the bug that wasn’t going away, so we checked into a hotel. Again, he stayed in bed and I went to visit with son and his family and took them out to dinner.

Saturday dawned and he still wasn’t feeling any better. I had some goodies for my Dad and Stepmom to help feed their guests and for a brunch they were having this morning, so I left Mountaingdad in the hotel room and had a short visit with my Dad and their houseguests. Afterward, I got him out long enough to get some lunch, still hoping for the best, but realizing that I was going to have to attend the wedding alone last night. I dressed and was about to leave, when he revealed that he was feeling very dizzy and heavy in the chest. Instead of attending the wedding, we ended up spending a couple of hours at a “Doc in the Box” making sure that his bronchitis had not turned into pneumonia. We returned to the hotel with no change in diagnosis with a whole new regime of meds to try. The hotel was hosting prom party rooms the first night and high school band competition groups last night, so not much sleep was had.

We left early this morning on minimal sleep to return home so he can rest in his own bed. Nine hundred miles of travel in 4 days and very little family contact had, but we are home safely with no photos to share. The new meds we hope will help this time and get him on the road to recovery.

April 26, 2015
Chaos to Quiet

What a week this has been and I hardly took a photo. Last weekend we picked up eldest grandson in Northern Virginia and brought him to our farm for spring break so we had three of the grandchildren here with no parents. The grandson that lives with us currently was in school until early release on Thursday for his spring break, so we mostly were caring for only two during the day. Daughter and son in law arrived back here on Tuesday night, exhausted after taking two days to drive a mammoth truck with their goods here. Wednesday, Mountaingdad provided childcare while we unloaded the truck into two storage units, then helped us take the furniture out of our front bedroom to put their bedroom furniture in there. Thursday after son-in-law’s successful interview, we moved our bedroom furniture into their storage unit.

Fortunately the weather last week was wonderful, allowing free range time for the chooks.

They are loving the sprouting chickweed. Tomorrow, the brooder pen will become home of 4 almost 8 week old Americaunas who will join the flock in a month or so, once they become acquainted through the fences and by fall, we should have some colored eggs to add to the one’s layed by the Buffy’s. Some of the Buffy’s will be culled and hopefully, there will be some new Buffy’s to add to the flock.

And nice weather for the cousins to run the fields and Mountaingdad to take a ride on the BBH to go the hour and a half to the dealer to have servicing and a flag added to the back.

Friday, I drove eldest grandson back to Northern Virginia in time for his evening guitar practice. We ran errands that night and yesterday morning and then I drove home, delighted to find daughter preparing dinner, so I didn’t have to worry with it.

Today we had our traditional Easter dinner of ham, au gratin potatoes, asparagus, deviled eggs and rolls mid day and daughter drove son-in-law to the airport to fly back to Florida for his last two weeks work there before he joins his family here and begins his new job.

It has been busy, this evening it is quiet and I will rest.

Loving life on our mountain farm and all of the young activity here.

April 5, 2015
A Weekend of Play, Responsibility, and Loss

The loss was not too significant, given that we still have about 6 weeks until we can plant tender plants outdoors, but as we were leaving for two days, one night, I left the light on my starter flat of tomatoes, tomatillos, and peppers. Most of the tomatoes and the tomatillos had sprouted, only a few of the peppers had shown any sign of sprouting. The light was very close to the clear lid on the sprouts and given the south facing window as well, it must have gotten too hot especially for the ones that had gotten tall enough to reach the lid. I still have a few Jalapeno sprouts, one leggy tomatillo, but the rest are a burned loss. This morning, I clipped the dead sprouts and replanted seeds. This time, I am leaving the lid off and just spritzing the surface a few times each day.

Our away was a trip with the two grandchildren living with us to go to Northern Virginia to pick up our eldest grandson for his week of spring break. We arrived mid afternoon and checked into the hotel just two short blocks from our son’s apartment. The only things positive that I can say about the hotel were its convenience and its price. We were on the front of the building, right across from the office with a busy street out front. The beds had no foundation and were uncomfortably soft and unstable and the wall mounted heating unit, needed because the temperature dropped into the 20’s and the door had no weather stripping (we could see light around all 4 sides) sounded like a wind machine. The thermostat in the unit did not work, so it was either too hot or too cold depending on whether I turned it on or off during the night. The kids slept, fortunately, but Mountaingdad and I did not get 4 hours of sleep between us. The kids were well behaved on the drive up and once we arrived at son’s apartment. All of us went out to dinner together before separating for the night. Son’s research showed us that a bus to the Metro left from in front of our hotel at 8:35 a.m. and he and eldest grandson were going to join us for a walking tour of the monuments on Sunday morning. The car was packed and we were trying to make do with the free breakfast (bagels and grocery store donuts) when son texted that they found a bus a half hour earlier and could we be ready.

The Florida born grandkids thought the Fairfax connector bus and the Metro were great. We got off on the Metro stop that put us nearest the Lincoln Memorial, a city walk of about a dozen blocks. A lot of hand holding and herding were necessary to keep those two safe on Washington DC streets, especially since that grandson wanted to do everything that his almost two year older cousin was doing.

A bit of heavy reading on a man just studied in 2nd grade.

Cousins posing in front of Lincoln.

More monuments, the Korean War memorial, Martin Luther King memorial (also a recently studied topic), a history recitation by the eldest grandson on Jefferson as we looked across the water at that memorial, too far to walk with kids, and a little one who soon gave out, taking turns being carried by an adult, Uncle being the preferred carrier.

With a bit of coaxing and challenges to race, we got her on the ground again as we hit the homestretch, around the Washington monument with a jog up it’s hill to actually get to touch it and on to the Smithsonian Metro station for the train back to Vienna for the trip home last evening. Many miles walked and tired kids.

The second grader was excited to see Washington. Eldest grandson excited to be able to spend spring break on the farm, son and daughter-in-law relieved to be able to work and study this week without trying to find daycare for him and entertain him at night, and us pleased to be able to have 3/5 of our grandchildren in our home at one time with the responsibility to keep them safe and cared for in their parents’ absence.

Daughter and son-in-law are in route with a truck full of their household goods, hopefully taking it slowly and safely to arrive here tomorrow night.

While we were away, our haying farmer neighbor took out several cedar and locust trees that have interfered with mowing and haying and removed about a dozen boulder size rocks that have knocked more than one tooth off of his sickle bar and caused more than one nick in our brush hog blade. His haying and our mowing should be an easier job this year.

March 30, 2015
Whew, We Survived!

The kids are in bed and we survived the entire weekend. We were not young parents, which makes us not young grandparents, but we are healthy and stay active.

The weather cooperated, and the kids had a lot of free outside play time. They have moved from a neighborhood with a street in front of the house and a canal that was home to the occasional alligator in the back, so playing outside without an adult nearby just didn’t happen. Here on our farm, they have boundaries about where they can go alone and rules about not climbing on the rock piles, but are allowed to dig, run, romp and roll, and play make believe games to their heart’s content.

We are still introducing them to the region, so after lunch and quiet time, we took them to the Huckleberry Trail, a paved former rail grade that is still a work in progress, connecting more and more areas of the region, but the original portion, runs from the town library to the mall area in the next town, about 7 miles. The trail is an asphalt path used by bicycles, joggers, dog walkers and people just out for a stroll. We started at the library and walked only 3/4 mile to the gazebo. By then, the three year old was done. She had walked and run on the outward leg. She was coaxed, challenged to races and monkey backed on the way back to the car.

Home for some more outdoor play, dinner prep and clean up, a couple of chess games with Mountaingdad, baths and bed. We are now recuperating before I have to get up early to get grandson to his bus for school.

March 22, 2015