As a hopeless romantic–it was no surprise to me that after we hung the
giant almost half ton doors on the grand entry gable that Dean asked me
on my way out last night if he could have my keys so that he could lock
up….in the old days once the doors were hung the citadel was safe and
they keys were passed to the keeper of the castle….a perfect metaphor
for the unbearably bittersweet transition from us winding down to Pippin
Hill ramping up–only two weekends this weekend.

What I will miss most–until coming back in a few weeks for the grand
opening–is the sweetness of a team of entirely disparate people all
pulling together to create and exquisite work of art venue in about half
a year of construction.  Not a miracle per se–but indeed  testimony to
what can happen when people love each other and work together to
accomplish something that matters to all of us.  I am blessed to have
been a part–and ache with the loss of departure-while leaving a huge
piece of my heart wit the people, the project, and the panoply of the
creation’s beauty here at Pippin Hill.

As a perfect symbol–yesterday the excavator pulled up in his bulldozer
to drop of a tub of his wife’s home made molasses cookies–what more
could anyone ask for?

I am going home now–until the next–but likely lesser odyssey.

george abetti – geobarns

Following the presentation by Mr. McMahon, there will be a panel discussion also including Dennis Rooker, Member Albemarle County Board of Supervisors, Kim Tanzer, Dean University of Virginia School of Architecture and Gaylon Beights, Chairman Beights Corporation.

The event will held next Monday, January 10th at the Omni Hotel in Charlottesville.  The reception will start at 5:00 PM. The program is scheduled to run from 5:30 PM to 7:30 PM. Tickets for the event are $25 each and can be reserved online by going to www.cvilletomorrow.org/event .  Seating is limited.

On a trail up Israel Mountain the fall colors were spectacular in the late morning sunlight. Spicebush, hickory, birch and others were bright yellow with black gum and maple providing bright red. The forest has many chestnut oaks and mountain laurel, reflecting the underlying quartz rock foundation. One small American Chestnut reminded us of what used to be the predominant tree.

Asters and goldenrod blooms, bright green Spotted Wintergreen (Pipsissewa), Spleenwort, Christmas, grape and cinnamon fern added color to the rich colors of fallen leaves in the under story.

Leif explained how the forest is managed: when there are many mature trees some are carefully selected for harvesting during the time of the year least likely to cause damage to the remaining trees. Some of the best trees are left to provide seeds to replace trees that are removed. A year after the “harvest” the forest looks as if no one had been there doing the removal. After crossing several small streams and they hiked up to the ridges which provided a look at the different microclimates on one mountain side.

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.

BCPD-Symposium-Findings-120709

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.