Virginia – Page 24 – ToadMama.com

March 19, 2012March 19, 2012

Warrenton Point to Point

Our move from Maryland to Virginia in late 2011 didn’t take us far geographically. But sometimes, I have to say, it feels like we moved to a different country. I grew up in Baltimore City. I was raised in a blue collar family. I can’t imagine growing up in horse country. It’s hard enough to try and picture growing up in a small town like this, but to grow up on a horse farm like this? Truly unimaginable.

I think I’ve mentioned a time or two that Warrenton is in Virginia’s Hunt Country. But I’m not sure I have ever explained exactly what that means.

Hunt Country isn’t where they shoot lots of deer or other wild game. It’s where they practice the sport of foxhunting. (If that is a sport.) That’s where a pack of hounds chases a fox (or other prey) across fields, through woods, over streams, etc. The hounds are followed by people on horseback. Here’s a link you can follow if you’d like to learn more about foxhunting.

It takes some pretty talented riders to keep up with a pack of hounds. To prove just how good, they have races. Most folks know these as steeplechase races.

Apparently, the term “steeplechase” was born in Ireland way back when one guy said to another, “My horse is faster than yours and I can prove it.” Steeples were the tallest, most prominent structures in the countryside, so they raced from one steeple to another. What do you do when there are no steeples? You just pick a couple of different points on the map. That’s my guess as to where “point to point” came from. The folks at Fox Hunt Virginia say…

The name “point to point”, which clearly alludes to the points of steeples, was coined in the 19th century and was initially synonymous with steeplechase. There is still considerable overlap between the two names although “point to point” is now usually reserved for races that are run across country and steeplechase usually refers to races run over prepared tracks, with fences and water-jumps which mimic the natural obstacles. Most point-to-point courses are on ordinary farm land, although some courses are placed on the inside of professional courses.

I guess they would know. If you would like to learn more, the Fox Hunt Virginia site is an interesting read. There’s another curious fact from that site, which I feel compelled to share before moving along…

Although we are talking about the sport of foxhunting, in reality the quarry pursued by a pack of foxhounds includes other animals. It’s perfectly legitimate for hounds to pursue red fox, gray fox, coyote, bobcat, and even black bear. The choice of quarry is a decision made by the hunt staff and is largely dependent on what is available in any given area. Out West coyote are plentiful while foxes are scarce.

Point to point races are a big deal around here. Really big. There are lots of very large horse farms in Fauquier and surrounding counties. Some date back to the 1700s. Many are adjoining, and quite a few have entered into agreements to preserve their land forever. Many of the largest farms have conservation easements, which allows for agricultural use of the land but prohibits development.

I’ve been itching to attend one of these events to see what it’s all about. There are races, sometimes more than one, every weekend. As luck would have it, the Warrenton Point to Point, which was VERY close to town, happened this past weekend.

How close? It was at the Airlie Center, a very large old farm on the outskirts of town that was turned into a conference center fifty years ago. In the image below, which is a bit hazy, you can see the Warrenton water tower. As always, click on the image to get a better view.

Look closely and you will see the Warrenton water tower (center of frame).

It was very exciting. To me, anyway. And I took quite a few pictures so y’all could share in the excitement.

Overlooking the tent area, paddock, and landowner park from atop the hill.

The first race was scheduled for 12:30. I got there around noon, before many of the other attendees. More and more folks poured in as the day wore on.

Tailgating is a BIG deal at these events.

The premium parking spots are atop the hill where one has the best view of the course.

This group of folks even brought their own cocktail tables, complete with tablecloths.

I didn’t want to be too obnoxious and take pictures of the various food and drink spreads, but it was impressive. Top shelf liquor, fine wines, gourmet food, you name it. And you should have seen the food in the officials’ tent!

As interesting as all of the was, the main attraction for me was the horses.

I watched the first race from atop the hill. Then I went down to the horse area for a closer look.

From what I could tell, folks are free to roam around pretty much anywhere anywhere. Within reason of course. I didn’t try walking through the middle of the course or anything, but I did spend some time strolling among the area where the horse vans were parked.

That gorgeous animal had just run and was about to get a cooling bath.

I watched the activity for a little while, but when I heard the call for “horses to the paddock” (where they have to gather pre-race), I made my way over there.

It was really quite interesting standing within feet of the horses and their handlers as they prepared for the race.

Twojohnsandajack, the #2 horse, was in the lead when this picture was captured.

I can’t remember whether the #2 or #3 horse won, but I do know Meg of My Heart did not finish in first place.

I went back to the top of the hill to watch the third race. The weather was gorgeous. Mid-70s and sunny.

After that race, I headed back to the vans to get some more pictures.

I just loved the coloring on this horse, named Go For Green.

It's a dangerous sport, for the riders as well as the horses.

Horse racing's equivalent of a pit crew.

These horses seemed pretty evenly matched.

I left after the fourth of nine scheduled races. I’d been hoping to get a bit of riding in myself that day. (No, the short 4.5-mile ride to the event site didn’t count.)

It really was an interesting day. The point to point races are just one of many horse-related pursuits happening around here. Polo season starts mid-May. There are a variety of horse shows going on from now through November. Plus I think there are hunt clubs in the area that have scheduled hunts just for fun.

Do you think I should try to capture some more horse-related images to share here? Or have I already given you more than you cared to see?

February 21, 2012

Small Town America

Yesterday was President’s Day. It was also the day the funeral was held for former Warrenton Mayor Bill Lineweaver, who died recently at the ripe old age of 89.

The town placed flags along Main Street either for the holiday or as an homage to the former mayor. Whatever the reason, I thought the town looked nice bedecked in flags.

I thought you might enjoy a peek, too. I braved the cold yesterday morning to capture some images for you.

I hope you enjoyed your mini tour.

My mother-in-law is visiting with us for a few days. We’re all enjoying her company. I was going to say “both,” as in Hubby and I, but the dogs are happy to have her here, too. Even canines enjoy visits from Grandma. 🙂

There’s not a whole lot else happening, so I’ll leave it at that.

February 15, 2012

The Natural Habitat

When I first started writing for a living, I made a lot of mistakes. One is the same one lots of rookies make. In fact, one of the telltale signs of a young writer is someone who starts an article, story, paper, etc. off by citing a definition. I’m sure you’ve seen it done. Heck, you may have even done it. It would go something like this.

Wikipedia (which, by the way, you should never use as a reference) defines “habitat” as “an ecological or environmental area that is inhabited by a particular species of animal, plant or other type of organism. It is the natural environment in which an organism lives, or the physical environment that surrounds (influences and is utilized by) a species population.”

That’s not to say you can’t use definitions in your work, you just don’t start off that way. It’s lazy. Uninspired. If that’s as exciting as your opening, which is really supposed to pull your reader in, gets, imagine how boring the rest of the thing will be.

I just thought I would share that little tidbit since it popped into my brain as I started to write this post. Which, by the way, has nothing to do with rules of writing, it has to do with observing animals in their natural habitat. Actually, it’s about the habitat of one particular animal.

Wanna guess which animal?

You’ll never guess, so I’ll just save you some time and pain and tell you.

That animal is me.

K Visiting Me in My Natural Habitat (aka OFFICE, ignore the wet head)

Yep, Hubby was in the spotlight yesterday. Now it’s my turn.

I have finally redecorated my office. There are still a few things left to do, like add more pictures to the walls, but the big stuff is finished.

Before, it was BLAND. Seriously. Everything was either white or off-white. It was quite depressing.

Not only was it lacking color, it was quite disorganized. I never completely unpacked stuff. There were boxes sitting around, and stacks of paper to be sorted. It actually looks rather neat in these before shots. Because I didn’t remember to capture before images until I had already started preparing to paint. It’s hard to paint with crap scattered all about the place.

Just trust me, it was bad. Completely uninspiring. I hated spending time in there. So, during my period of unemployment earlier this year, I decided to change things. I wanted to add COLOR. I wanted the room to be interesting.

Some people go for the chic office look. I was going for fun. I wanted COLOR.

And that’s what I got. When describing my paint scheme to a friend, she said, “That sounds like a child’s room.” It might even look like a child’s room. But that’s okay. I like it and that’s what matters, right? I mean, I spend an awful lot of time in here every day, I might as well like what surrounds me.

So, are you ready for the AFTER pictures?

It’s hard photographing an entire room, so you have to see it in pieces.

2_transformed — View from Behind My Chair

I have to pause here and explain that my office and Hubby’s office share an adjoining bathroom. It’s quite convenient, but sort of limits how far one moves during any given day.

4_transformed — Looking from My Chair Toward Hall and Bathroom Doorways

5_transformed — A Peek into the Bathroom

6_transformed — Cloud-covered Ceiling (gives the room a more outdoorsy feel)

7_transformed — Even the Dogs Have a Place

And, yes, they use it all the time. Hubby says it looks like I said something like, “Okay, I have to put the dogs away now so I can go to work.” Because, really, they’re there pretty much all day long. We come into the room, I sit at my chair, they climb into their beds.

8_transformed — Miscellaneous Bits of Color

10_transformed — There's Even a Spot for Hubby!

11_transformed — Miscellaneous Bits of Color and Interestingness

13_transformed — More Color (and rocks!)

I would show you more frog pictures (yes, I found my frogs!), but I do realize that not many folks appreciate frogs like I do. Take Hubby as an example. He doesn’t get the frog thing. Recently, I ordered the switchplate cover, crazy frog lady sticker, and window sticker (you can see that in the picture above with the “More Color” caption). When they arrived, Hubby, who gets the mail every day, saw the return address on the package and said, “Really? The Frog Store?” As in, “I cannot buh-lieve you are now shopping at The FROG Store.” That sort of conversation happens in my habitat frequently.

That’s it for the tour. I hope you like my new office as much as I do. If you don’t, that’s okay. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, no matter how wrong or silly that opinion may be. 🙂

Now I have to get to work in my nice, new office.

February 14, 2012February 14, 2012

Handiest Hubby Ever

I’ve been meaning to write about this topic for a very long time. What better time to write about the love of your life than Valentine’s Day?

This isn’t about him per se as much as it is about his workshop.

Now, if you are thinking “mancave,” STOP. I hate that term. I think it is one of the silliest, most overused terms out there. Maybe if we didn’t watch HGTV and TLC so much, with shows like House Hunters, Property Virgins, Property Brothers, Curb Appeal, Sell That House, etc., it wouldn’t be so bad. But terms like that, as well as open concept, open floor plan, granite counters, and en suite, drive me crazy.

Anyway, back to Hubby’s workshop…

Before we moved, Hubby had a workshop in the basement of our Maryland house. It was okay, but it was also cold, cramped, sort of dark, and the stairway was too small, which made it hard to get long boards, 4 x 8 sheets of material, and other stuff into the shop. It also made getting large, finished projects out of the shop. Having spent so much time over the last seven years at the WV place, he didn’t get much use out of the workshop. So, when we decided to sell the house, he moved all of his tools aside and converted that space into a little apartment. By himself. Well, we paid some guys to hang and finish the drywall, but he did everything else. Really. The man is quite handy.

Once the WV place was finished, and riding season was over, he missed his workshop. He’s not one to just sit around. He’s a tinkerer. So we knew that the new house had to have a space for his workshop. Not in a dark, cramped, cold basement either. In a separate building, with heating and plumbing. And maybe even some windows for light.

That was the plan.

You know what they say about the best-laid plans, right?

Not only did the house we fell in love with not have a separate building for his shop, the garage is sort of small, and the basement was completely finished. There was rather nice carpeting, nine-foot ceilings, built-in shelves (small), a pool table, and even a full bathroom. It also had a workable entryway from outside. The door was small, but could easily be replaced.

We both loved the house, but Hubby didn’t know what to do about his workshop. He needed his shop back.

“Well, just unfinish the basement,” I said.

“That’s crazy,” he replied.

I agreed that it did sound a bit strange, but the two of us have no use for a fully finished basement in a house that’s already a tad large for our needs. So he ripped up the carpet from about two-thirds of the space, built a wall to separate that area from the rest of the basement, had a larger door installed, installed a special PVC tile floor, arranged his tools and added a…

Wait, I can’t tell you about that until later. It’s something Hubby has wanted for YEARS. Years, I say.

First, I think I should show you some pictures of the recently completed space.

IMG_5961_entry — Welcome to Mike's Workshop

When you enter from the basement, that’s what you see. A very large work-bench, which is actually his first building project here at the new place. He needed a large surface to work, put it’s primary purpose is to support material as it comes off of the table saw (at the end of the workbench).

IMG_5963_workbanch — Workbench from Another Angle

As you look around, you’ll notice that he is very organized. Proof that opposites do attract. 🙂

IMG_5967_table_saw — View from the Other End

There’s a shot from the opposite end of the room. That big teal thing in the middle of the room is the table saw.

All of these tools have a specific purpose. I’m not going to go into all that detail, though.

He’s been working on this space since the day we moved in. Actually, he started planning the layout before we moved in. Before we even closed on the place.

These are some of his older accoutrements. He’s been amassing this equipment slowly over the years.

This storage closet now has much brighter lighting thanks to the new fixture he installed sometime within the past few days.

IMG_5970_planer_sander_shaper — L-R, Jointer, Sander, Shaper

That electrical panel you see hanging on the wall is another recent addition. All of these big-ass tools require lots of power.

The green thing hanging from the ceiling, which you can’t see very well, is an air filter. It collects airborne dust particles. You know, so our house doesn’t fill up with dust.

IMG_5975_table saw — Table Saw and Workbench

There’s a better shot of the table saw/bench combo. That should give you a better idea as to how wood sawed on the table saw will easily feed over on the workbench.

That cute little thing is the miter saw someone very special got Hubby for Christmas.

Behind that is a planer, which belonged to Hubby’s grandfather.

The air compressor is actually for woodworking and auto repair. Yes, he can fix cars, too. And motorcycles. Come to think of it, he knows how to fix lots of stuff.

I told you the man is handy.

And now… for the pièce de résistance. The thing Hubby has wanted since forever.

IMG_5973_cyclone DC system — The Cyclone

That’s the cyclone dust collector. It’s the heart of the dust collection system.

Have you been wondering what all the weird pipes are for?

Finally, a two-stage Cyclone Dust Collector with all the features of the larger systems, but in a compact size that requires less headroom. Aside from the safe and efficient operation of a two-stage system, this Dust Collector features a pleated filter system with internal shaker paddles for maintaining filter efficiency, remote control switch for activating the Dust Collector from across the room, roll away collection drum for easy dumping and a 6″ inlet for handling larger duct systems. If you’ve always dreamed of a Cyclone Dust Collector, but didn’t have the space, this is the one for you!

That text is from the Grizzly web site. (What, you’ve never heard of Grizzly? I guess you don’t have a Hubby like mine.)

The cyclone is basically connected to most of the tools via those pipes. Think of it as a giant vacuum. When Hubby uses a tool that makes sawdust, he uses his remote to activate the cyclone, which sucks up all the dust as it is being created. The air filter hanging from the ceiling captures all the minute, airborne particles that the cyclone misses.

Cool, eh?

Hubby is quite proud of his workshop. And I am quite proud of him. He designed and installed the entire system.

Are you wondering why a man needs so many special tools? I could save that for another post since this one is already REALLY long, but let me just show you a few examples of his work.

IMG_1369_family_room_2 — Entertainment Center (open)

IMG_1372_family_room_4 — Entertainment Center (closed)

He’ll probably cringe when he sees I posted that headboard because it’s something he just sort of slapped together. But it’s a perfect example of one of those things where I said, “Honey, can you build me a …” and within days it was done. That is Eric’s bed, by the way. Which is why it’s sort of plain.

Unfortunately, most of that stuff stayed at the old house. Except for Eric’s bed, which went with him.

My favorite “project” of Mike’s, which we brought with us, of course, is the bedroom set.

King-sized Bed with Matching Nightstands

The picture is from the old house, but the stuff is here. Trust me. I would never leave that behind.

His first big project at the Virginia house, I think, will be building the dresser to match the bedroom set. Or the cabinetry for our closet. I’m not sure which will come next, but I’ll be sure to share pictures of the finished products.

I got very lucky when I married that guy, eh?

January 22, 2012

Let It Snow, Already!

Mother Nature has been teasing us. All winter. If you can call it winter. We’ve hardly had any really cold days, much less measurable frozen precipitation. Of course, those two things are pretty closely related.

Friday night into Saturday, we had a winter weather event. First it snowed. Not much, unfortunately. Then it rained. And it was cold enough that the rain became freezing rain. Which left a densely compacted layer of ice.

Yes, ice.

Yuck.

Snow, I love. Ice? It’s no fun. Just ask my dogs who missed out on both of their walks yesterday and one walk already today. Things are just too slippery.

They’d be fine, of course. It’s me I’m worried about.

Here are some shots of our world, which I took yesterday morning.

IMG_5792_ice — Clean Street, Icy Sidewalks

This shot is my favorite. I love the expression on the lion’s face. It looks to me like he is saying, “Help! I’m frozen and I can’t get up!”

Look at the roof of that car to get a better idea of the thickness of the ice.

It’s a good thing the streets got plowed. Otherwise, they would have looked like our driveway and I wouldn’t have gone anywhere yesterday.

It’s still cold today, so not much has melted. Tomorrow, it’s supposed to warm up. They say February will be our month for snow. Will we have another Birthday Blizzard maybe? That would be awesome. NOTE: If you follow the Birthday Blizzard link, you should watch the video. It’s one of my all-time favorites.

Then, if you are really bored, you can look at my large collection of pictures from that snow event.

January 11, 2012

Late Report on a Holiday Visit

This post is a tad late, but that’s okay. Right? Right.

It’s actually a very unique post. There are FOUR pictures of me in this one post.

Try not to get too excited.

Wondering how I managed that? There was someone else present with a camera for a change. None of these pictures even came out of my camera. How about that?

My parents, brother (Tom), sister-in-law (Sharen), nephew (Josh), son (Eric), and fiancee (Kelsey) came to Virginia for a visit the Friday after Christmas. Sharen is the one responsible for all of the pics (thanks, Sharen!).

We all love having visitors. That includes the girls. Especially when those visitors come bearing treats as Pop always does.

That’s not an especially great shot, but it’s the only one where you can see Sharen, the guest photographer. Look at those facial expressions. Josh and Tom both have that “Oh, God, she’s taking pictures in the bathroom?” look. I recognize that because I get similar looks often. And me, I’m just tickled to see there are other people in the world who shoot pictures in seemingly weird places. (I was taking pictures in a women’s bathroom last night!)

The girls were loving all of the extra attention. Tom, Sharen, and Josh are cat people. At least they think they are cat people. Check this out…

I bet Josh, shown above hugging Meg, would love to have a dog.

And Meg sure seems to be enjoying Tom’s lap!

Meanwhile, Kelsey and Mawsie were having a good chuckle over something. I was in the kitchen preparing lunch, so have no idea.

Hard to tell who is happier in that shot. Don’t you think Josh would love a dog? Until he had to scoop poop anyway.

Meg is our friendliest dog. She loves everyone.

Belle and K are both friendly, too, it just takes them a little while to warm up to folks.

Of course, they’re all quite lovey with me and Hubby all of the time. Unless they know it’s time for a bath!

Sharen even captured a sneak peek at Hubby’s workshop. He’s been chomping at the bit to get that set up so he could start making stuff again.

She got a picture of our new dining room table, too. Ignore the chairs. They are waiting for me to paint them. It’s funny that the table doesn’t look big in the picture, but it seats eight adults comfortably. With Josh there, we even managed to squeeze a ninth person in (there were more chairs in the room at the time).

All in all, it was a very nice visit.

Here’s one last shot of me…

Can you believe it is almost the middle of January already?