Hats of to Leif Riddervold, Bundoran Farm’s natural resources manager, who organized this event and to all who participated.  I can’t wait for the next one.

Situated on a knoll over looking Plank Road and the  surrounding protected pastures and forested ridges of this Albemarle Virginia rural real estate, the Heimgartner’s homesite is perhaps one of the most visible in all of Bundoran Farm.   We felt extremely blessed when the Heimgartner’s purchased this homesite and began to explain their vision of what they intended to build and shared with us images of houses they want to use for models and precedents for their home.  Talk about exceeding expectations.

Working with Keith Scott of Rosney Architects, the Heimgartner’s have designed a home that is ideally situated for this Charlottesville property.  It pays tribute to and builds off the rich legacy of the vernacular architectural traditions of the Central Virginia landscape.  Building the house will be T.L. Goode Homes of Charlottesville.

With the recent groundbreaking, we look forward to seeing Heimgartner’s home rise from the ground and be a wonderful addition to the Bundoran Farm landscape. We are excited we had the chance to play a small part in the Ken and Ida getting their dream house.

Ken and Ida Heimgartner review their house design with Keith Scott, Toby Goode, and Leif Riddervold

Heimgartner Residence Groundbreaking - Toby Goode, Keith Scott, Ida & Ken Heimgartner and Joe Barnes

This Thursday evening, April 22nd, they are having another Big Ol’ Country Store Cookout. Kyle will be grilling up half-pound burgers, veggie burgers, hot dogs, and sausages.  Sharing the menu with Kyle’s “pieces de can’t resist ‘em” will be French fries, onion rings, mac & cheese, and a whole mess of other sides.  We’ll also be serving from the full deli menu.

Word has it that there’ll be a couple of kegs hanging around the store, looking to be useful, and as always, the store’s sommelier, Cid Scallet,  has chosen suitable wines for the occasion.

And the sounds from the Corner Lounge?  Those will be provided by one of their fave new local groups, Batesville Produce, who yielded a lot of buzz in their store debut a month ago.  Spend an hour with Produce and you’ll hear a peck of Delta blues, a bushel of Western Swing, a barrel of old-time country, and about ten kilos of great music!

The fun begins at 6:30 p.m. and lasts till 9:00 p.m.

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The Symposium's Plenary Session

Good Forestry, Clean Water, Good Habitat for Sasquatch

Riddervold was lucky enough to trade a few words about local physical geography with the stealthy resident, who explained (here I paraphrase from Leif’s account):

“…It not called Tom Mountain.  It Sasquatch Mountain.   Sasquatch run Tom off after he borrow stick and not return…  Sasquatch miss Tom but Sasquatch majestic creature of forest, not $#%$&#$  Rent-A-Center…”

Apologies to Garrison Keillor for the Scandinavian jokes, and to Graham Roumieu for everything else.

Happy April 1st from the Bundoran Farm team and our forest friends.

This Sunday, my two son’s, during their frequent visits to Bundoran Farm with me, got a chance to explore and be boys in the truest sense with 2,300 acres of open landscape as their arena and a beautiful blue sky on a early spring day as their backdrop. First on the agenda was the launching of my youngest son’s model rocket. After a few launching glitches (come on, even NASA has some), his rocket went straight and high in the air. (See attached footage of this memorable event) The parachute deployed perfectly and the rocket started its graceful decent to the ground. Unfortunately, the breezes were a bit stronger than anticipated and the rocket landed high up in a tree along the edge of the pastures. If you find a rocket on the ground named “Crossfire” please drop it by our offices at the Baldwin Center. You will make an 11 year old boy very happy.

Click here to see the video of the missle launch.

With our space program on the shelf until we built another rocket, we turned our attention to another one our favorite pastimes with the sky — Cloud Shapes. We lay down on our backs, look into the sky and take turns describing the various shapes and figures we see in the clouds. Today we saw a many things including rabbit, a profile of a man’s face and a Jai Alai player.

After a good round on Cloud Shaping, we took a stroll over to observe the cows and all of the new calves. Not wanting to startle them, we watched from the fence lines as the cows seemed to enjoy this beautiful Spring day as much as we did.

I started my weekend off on Friday evening at the opening reception of “Our Water, Our Future” at the Charlottesville Community Design Center.  “Our Water, Our Future” is a unique and informative exhibit on the Charlottesville-Albemarle community water supply system presented by Charlottesville Tomorrow.  In addition to walking through this engaging and interactive exhibit about the goals, details, potential cost and impacts (both good and bad) of the areas 50 year water plan, I got to spend some time with several of good friends I have made over the past few years and met some new ones along the way.

Friday evening was capped off by a wonderful dinner at one of the many fun restaurants on Charlottesville’s pedestrian Downtown Mall.  As expected, not only did my wife and I have great time with our dinner companions, we ran into and chatted with a few other friends and colleagues from the area. 

The weather this past Saturday afternoon was spectacular.  Having a sunny day in the mid-60s was extremely welcomed after the rather unusually snowy winter we experienced this year.  My wife, 2 boys and my Boston Terrier, Hunter and I headed down to The Corner, picked up some sandwiches from Little John’s (including my favorite sandwich of all times, “Five Easy Pieces”) and had a picnic  at and long stroll around my favorite place in the entire world, The Lawn at the University of Virginia.

Sunday was another great day, weather and activity wise.  After church and a bit of grocery shopping, my oldest son and I went to the Virginia versus Syracuse lacrosse game.  We were thrilled when Virginia, ranked 2^nd in the country, beat number one ranked Syracuse, 11 to 10.  Go Hoos!

Sunday evening was Oscar’s Night.   For my wife, a great movie buff, it’s like Christmas, her birthday and July 4^th all rolled into one.  Typically, she is at home watching it from the red carpet through to the Best Picture award.  The rest of us in the family try our best not to disturb her. This year the Academy Awards were even more exciting for her.  We attended the live telecast of the show at the Paramount Theatre on the Downtown Mall.  Charlottesville was one of only 51 places across the world have live telecast like this.

Dressing up, walking down the own red carpet, sampling food from several Charlottesville restaurants, attending a pre-party sponsored by Virginia National Bank, in addition to watching the show in high definition on a movie theatre sized screen is seems like it is the next best thing to being in Hollywood.  I’m really looking forward to next year’s Academy Awards.

The highlight of my weekend occurred on Saturday morning.  Each year around this time, we hold the Bundoran Farm Community Association Annual Meeting.  In addition to going over the property owners association’s business, we spend time bringing everyone up to speed on what has been accomplished over the past year and what we are looking forward to the following year and beyond. 

While the meeting was long – starting at 9:00 AM and finishing up around 12:30 PM – we enjoyed every minute of it and left energized and inspired.  It is such a privilege for everyone on the Bundoran Farm team to work with a group of property owners that are so caring, thoughtful and respectful about the land and their neighbors, not to mention just fun to spend time with.  What a diverse group of people with interesting background sharing common appreciation for this legacy landscape. The more time I spend at Bundoran Farm and with the families that are making this place their home, its easy to see how the future this wonderful place will be in good hands with the wonderful people living here.

Next weekend, maybe I will just take a long nap.  Or, maybe I won’t.  I’ll just have to see what is happening around town.

By means of a short poll, we came up with a list of some of the top things to do in, and with, the snow at Bundoran Farm. 

• Take your sled out of your attic and pretend you are on the Olympic luge team as you glide across the pastures and by the orchards.
• Make what you think is the world’s biggest snowman with your friends, kids and/or grandkids. If you are really ambitious and creative, you can make a snow cow too. 
• Watch the shadows grow across the snow covered pastures as the morning rises in the east, shrink during the day, and grow long again as the sun sets in the west over the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
• Drive, ride and/or walk on the Bundoran Farm roads that, due to the diligent efforts of the farm management team, are plowed well in advance of surrounding roads.
• Enjoy time with your neighbors next to a warm fire, over a hearty homemade stew made with fresh ingredients from one of the many local “farm to table” sources, with a nice bottle of wine from a nearby vineyard.
• Marvel in the nearly heroic efforts of the farmers to keep their cattle well feed with the hay they cut and put up the previous summer.
• Listen to the serene, almost “sounds of silence’, interrupted by the babbling of a nearby stream, the call of a far off bird or the whistle of the wind passing through the branches of the hardwoods.
• Discover and follow the tracks in the snow created by abundant wildlife that inhabits this protected landscape or make new tracks in the virgin snow for someone else to discover and follow.
• Sit back, relax and ponder the beauty of it all and relish in the realization that this is your place and your time with a way of life on a land that works.

Please let us know what you think we should add to the list by e-mailing us at info@bundoranfarm.com.

Our new contact information is:

Bundoran Farm
5005 Edge Valley Road
North Garden, VA  22959
434-295-3700
info@bundoranfarm.com

Since its completion late last year, there has been a flurry of activity at what will be the social and informational hub for Bundoran Farm.

In addition to hosting the Inaugural Baldwin Center Symposium, “Residential Development and the Working Landscape” (attended by over fifty participants from across the country), a number of groups with missions and goals consistent with the Baldwin Center’s have enjoyed gathering here.

Equally important is how this new facility along Edge Valley Road has become the place to find all there is to know about Bundoran Farm and how you may become part of it all.  In addition to being the headquarters for the Baldwin Center for Preservation Development, a non-profit foundation with the mission to showcase innovative practices in agricultural preservation, environmental stewardship and sustainable ground, the Baldwin Center houses members of the Bundoran Farm development, management and real estate sales team. Learn more about The Baldwin Center for Preservation Development online.

Meet The Bundoran Farm Development & Sales Team

Leif Riddervold has been Bundoran Farm’s natural resources manager since its inception.  Leif is responsible for the development and implementation of the natural resources management plan for Bundoran Farm.

He is a key liaison between those who live on the property and those who work the land promoting careful stewardship and use of the land and its resources.

Growing up on his family farm, Leif has been actively involved in viticulture, cattle operations and other aspects of agriculture for most of his life.

Mr. Riddervold holds degrees in environmental science and geology from James Madison and the University of Virginia.

Chad Rowe, a recent addition to the team, serves as Bundoran Farm’s primary real estate advisor. 

A licensed Virginia realtor, Chad not only works with our customers and property owners, but also our cooperative broker partners as well as all referring brokers to ensure a comfortable sales process for those looking to make Bundoran Farm their home in the countryside. 

A Virginia native and avid outdoorsman, Chad has extensive experience in working with both resort and primary residential communities. 

Chad holds an English degree from Randolph-Macon College and currently sits on his alma mater’s Board of Associates.

Whether you have questions about available homesites at Bundoran Farm, are interested in learning more about our Preservation Development concept, or just want to enjoy the pastoral views from the front porch of the Baldwin Center, we invite you to drop by our new home at 5005 Edge Valley Road.  See you soon.

If you would like to stay up to date with the progress and experiences on Bundoran Farm we encourage you to check out our here on our blog, Bundoran Farm Field Notes, and become a fan of Bundoran Farm on Facebook at: www.facebook.com/bundoranfarm

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