The History of our Homestead

I've been trying to find the owners of our property since before we closed on the sale.  The last name was fairly common and other than finding information that the woman passed away a few years earlier, I've never been able to find anything.

Then last winter the neighbor told me that the son of the owner lives in a community nearby.  I did some google searching and found his wife on Facebook and sent her an email.  It went to her "other" folder and she never saw it.  Then, a few days ago she joined a community Facebook group that I'm in and I posted in the group and tagged her just to tell her that I'd emailed her.

She replied immediately that her husband (SW) and daughter were excited to hear about the property and that they would come by.  We arranged to have them come by today and when they showed up, I found out that she hadn't told her husband where they were going and this was hard for him.  I really felt for him.

SW was very friendly and just gave off such a good vibe.  They stayed for about an hour telling me all kinds of fascinating information that I would have never known.  I've recently started researching my own grandmother's history and family in West Virginia and learning about the history of my home and the families that are tied to it is just another amazing discover.

The property next door used to have a large house.  I was told this house was torn down just two months before I moved in.  I found out today that the house was actually a school house many years ago.  Back during the time when black boys and girls were not allowed to go to the local public schools, they would come to school next door to my home, in a two story school house.  The school house had a tall cinder block tower with a large bell that rang.  The tower is not there anymore, but the cinder blocks are on the ground where it once stood.  The house also had a well,  not a modern day well, but a hole in the ground where a bucket was lowered to pull water up.  Their septic system drained on my property, where my current garden is.  The people who lived there were related to SW as they were great-great-grandparents (or maybe a couple more greats.)  This house was the summer home for the relatives when they came to town.

Years later, SW's grandparents convinced SW's parents to move here and they finally did.  SW and his father dug out the basement, he told me about how they had to tear a hole in the basement wall when they had a new well dug and the water holding tank needed to be put inside the basement.

He told me that his mother had a garden in the same place that my garden currently is.

I showed him the old wood signs for Bennett Elementary that we found in the woods and he said that his father was an engineer and helped design and build that school.  He had even gone with his father to the school.  I found online that there was an original Bennett Elementary built in 1909, but a new one was built in 1969 and this is the one his father had helped to build.  In 1996 another replacement school was built and so the one that his father had helped with is no longer around.

He told me that the chimney was always leaking and so a new one was built, but he asked if the cast iron stove was still in the house.  It is not here, but I have found pieces of one in the woods.

He also gave me history about the eminent domain issues and that they had won the right to preserve the land and the rural crescent years ago but then a property owner a few properties away made a deal with the developers to let them use his land to build a road to the land they wanted to build upon.  I also learned about other relatives and distant relatives and properties around us.

He said that next time he will go for a walk with us through the woods, where a faint trail still exists, to one of the neighboring properties.

SW's daughter is beautiful, his wife was also a lovely person, and they all just seemed like a great family.  He wasn't ready to come into the house as he had a lot of sad memories about leaving the property and I respected that and I hope that there will be a "next time" like he mentioned.  I hope that he can feel some sense of comfort in knowing that we live here as compared to someone who might tear everything down and start over to just sell to a developer.

Ninjas in a Half-Shell

The other day we were driving on a back road in some property behind our own property.  I was trying to find a road that I've seen on google maps, but have never seen in person.  We weren't far down the road when I slammed on the breaks.

The little guy was just trying to cross the road.

We'd already driven past another car and I knew there would be more cars coming down this path so I told the oldest that we should move him to safety.

Probably not a picture he'd like shown since he was mid-blink

Once the turtle was safely across the road, he jumped back in the car and we continued on our way.  :)

Silkie Sue, What Are You Up To?

SilkieSue's youngest babies are getting bigger.  They're no longer tiny puff balls, in fact, as I watched one squeeze out of the chicken run today, I realized they wouldn't be able to fit through very much longer.

We thought these were the last five chicks that would come from Clyde, and we were hoping one would end up being a rooster that looked (and acted) like Clyde.  

But it looks like one of our newer roosters may have gotten to a girl about a month ago....

I hadn't even considered that any of the eggs could have been from one of the other roosters, but there is no way that this white chick came from Clyde.

I also noticed that SilkieSue's back feathers are finally starting to grow back in, over a year after they were broken off by Clyde.

 And then I went back to the coop tonight to count the birds.  I saw SilkieSue sitting up on the roost and I thought this was strange so I looked down in the corner where she's been staying with the babies.

I was missing a chick so I looked back up at SilkieSue.

How the heck did she get that chick up there?!

Everything is growing

The guinea keets are almost adults now.  They aren't quite the same size as the two guinea that we had left, but they are definitely getting there.

Carrie is as prissy as ever.

And the pure bred Buff Orpington roosters are gorgeous.

Just a few little picture updates.

Hickory Horned Devil Caterpillar - Yikes!

The oldest found this THING in the goat pen today.

Even RebaSue was a bit scared!

A couple birds came close and attempted to take a peck at this thing, but they'd quickly give up and walk away.  After a little internet searching we found the proper name for this guy and that he's completely harmless.

You would never catch ME holding it though!

Easter Egger

Easter Egger had her wings plucked by another bird.  I'm not sure who the bully was, but it got so bad that I pulled her into the crate in the mud room a week or two ago and took these pictures.  We sprayed Blue-Kot on her, which is a medicine for wounds on animals. 

You can see broken feathers and some missing

Now, a few weeks later, the blue is almost all gone and we saw new feather growth.  Yesterday, after I took these pictures, I let her out of the crate to join the flock.

She went straight to the first spot she could find and started digging for bugs.

So far she's done well with the flock so I think she'll be fine.

Nokesville Road Roosters' Makeover

It was time for the Roosters to have a make over.  We are hoping to paint them once a month to change with the seasons and holidays, but first we have to reward the people who helped to replace them by letting them do the dirty work to paint a rooster.  :)

This time it was a woman who commutes over an hour to work each day and drives past the roosters.  She was very supportive of them being replaced and is just a friendly person that we now know.  She came by for her turn to paint and was going with an 80's rock band theme with bright colors and big hair.

The oldest and I decided to celebrate football season starting.

We couldn't figure out how to give it big hair, but then we saw some garland that was still on the mailbox post from last winter (whoops) and added that and an earring to the bird.

 

Those nutty roosters are at it again.

We've already planned out Octobers' themes and have a few people coming to help paint them.

The lawn mower drama continues

The lawn mower wasn't working correctly a few weeks ago (again).  This time, I tied a string to the governor piece and as I was mowing, I had to pull the string every once in awhile to let more air into the engine and keep it running.

Then last weekend, it wouldn't work at all.

So yesterday afternoon, as I was waiting for the youngest to get off the bus, I decided to see what was wrong and to take the lawn mower apart (again).  I pulled the cord a couple times without hearing an sounds that would help me figure out what was wrong, but then suddenly, it started again.

Not only did it start again, but it sounded great and wasn't dying.

I didn't want to risk letting it turn off and not start again, so I started mowing the lawn.

Yes, I was still dressed from work.  Wedge heels, slacks, top...

Better believe I got that yard mowed.

In Memory of Clyde

The Chicken Chick is a woman who has a major chicken blog and a Facebook page that is viewed around the world.  She is very informative and helpful to chicken folks.  The other day she was offering a couple free chicken decals and told people to comment with what they were doing for the weekend with their birds and she would randomly pick four winners.

I am not one for attempting to win any sort of prize, but with Clyde passing away and the oldest having a hard time with it, I thought it would be nice to comment to try to win him the decal.

I shared that we had recently lost my son's pet rooster and that weekend we were actually having him cremated.  Kathy replied telling me to give her our address and she would send him whichever decal I thought he would like.

Sure enough, a few days later this arrived.

Johnathon was quiet for awhile while he thought about it and then said how nice it was that she sent the card.  I pointed out that there was something else in the envelope.

He was happy that someone thought about him and then I explained that she'd just recently lost one of her amazing roosters as well.  "Really?"  he asked.  Yes, I explained how her rooster had also been sick and she lost him too and I could see the light in his eyes change as he realized he wasn't alone.

A few days later the name plate arrived for Clyde's box.

The Chicken Chick

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