Days and Nights

Saturday November 1 through Tuesday November 4, 2014
Greenfield Mountain Farm
Near Charlottesville Virginia

 

My previous post post showed some of what David has been doing with his days.  An earlier one showed a series of weekly hikes I’ve been on over the weeks we’ve been here.   But what happens at night?   Well I read and David socializes.  LOL   Unfortunately I have many more pictures of my days than of his nights. 

Let’s start with David and the pictures he provided

 

Our farm lane is located exactly 5.8 miles west of the little town of Batesville.  Batesville has had a GREAT store since 1911. 

From 1942 to 1994 the town general store and post office was run by the Page family and called Page’s Store.  Since then it has had several incarnations and several names, the Batesville Store, the Plank Road Exchange and now it is The Batesville Market where one of David’s favorite groups, Red and the Romantics was playing on a Saturday night.   One of the things David really likes about Red is that he writes nearlyl all the music he performs.  This is not the first time that David has heard him play while we’ve been here.

We have a long history with Red actually.  His formal name is Eric and he was a sweet little boy in Carrie’s preschool class.  His father is our dentist.  David enjoyed a few beers and some fine music. 

Whatever its name, occupying the building with the post office, the store is still the center of the little town of Batesville.
May it always be so.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This week Lynda wasn’t able to go hiking so I went out on my own hiking at Ivy Creek Natural Area. This is a wonderful 215-acre preserve bordering the South Fork Rivanna Reservoir just outside of Charlottesville Virginia. It is a mix of upland woods, pine stands, open fields, streams, and two miles of shoreline. Eleven trails through diverse habitat and of varying difficulty make up the network of more than 7 miles of walking trails here.  This trip I hike the red, peninsula and purple trails.   I started the red trail at the barn and follow it down to Martin’s Branch which drains into Ivy Creek and then into the Reservoir.  I cross the creek and follow the red trail along the water, past the big oak.  At the point where it runs into a teal colored trail, I take that, the peninsula trail loop.  I come back to the red trail and follow it all the way back to the black oval which indicates the parking lot.  Then I walk back to the barn and do the purple trial.  That gets me about 4 of the 7 miles of trails.  Enough for today.

 

ICNA is an official site on the Virginia African American Heritage Trail in recognition of its rich social and agricultural history dating back to 1870 when former slave Hugh Carr purchased the land as a family farm. Known as Riverview Farm, the land was in the Carr and Greer family for a century before becoming the Ivy Creek Natural Area.   At the entrance kiosk they have a nice 3D map of the trails as well as trail maps and information about River View Farm and the Carrs.

 

 

 

 

Ivy Creek Natural Area is another property, like the Tall Grass Prairie in Kansas which owes its salvation in part to The Nature Conservency.

Ivy Creek was founded in 1975, thanks to efforts of local citizens who valued the former farmland for its natural beauty and diverse wildlife habitat. Enlisting the help of The Nature Conservancy, the 80 acres remaining of Riverview Farm was purchased to protect it from impending development. Visualize condos in the spots I walk through today. By 1981, with the aid of federal grants, an additional 97 acres of former farmland was bought and that, along with 38 acres of City-owned land bordering the reservoir, was added to the Natural Area, bringing ICNA to its present size of 215 acres — approximately the original boundaries of Riverview Farm.

 

 

The Carr Farmhouse is still there.  It is now the private residence for the Natural Area’s caretaker.   This Carr family graveyard is between the house and the barn. 

 

 

 

 

The red trail begins to the left of the barn and goes down to Martin’s Branch which at this time of year is quite low and water and so filled with leaves you can hardly see the water that is there.  Still, it’s a pretty spot.

 

 

 

The branch empties into Ivy Creek and the trail goes along the creek.

 

 

And then it climbs up to the oldest tree on the tract named the Bartholomew Oak, named for an early volunteer and member of the Ivy Creek Board, Bart Bartholomew.   The tree was definitely here in Thomas Jefferson’s time.   And of course it needs a hug.  Tough picture with no one around and no where to set the camera except on the ground.

 

 

 

 

 

From there it isn’t too far to the junction of the Peninsula lollipop trail.   Being a peninsula, the loop trail has water visible almost all the way around.   Many lovely benches to sit and just be.

 

 

The geese are also enjoying the beautiful day.

 

 

After I rejoin the Red trail I am able to get a picture of the former farm field walls made of stone before my battery decides to die.  Of course I’ve left my extra batteries in the car.  DUH!

 

 

It does resurrect for one shining moment just before I get to the purple trail that circles the Native Plants field that they have taken great care to create.  At the head of this trail is what they call a bat shelter.   I stood under it and took a picture of all the baffles into which bats can go during the day time.  Today unfortunately is one of the days that the education center here is closed so I can’t find out whether they have a colony of bats there or not.  I couldn’t see any.  Nor can I ask whether they have ever had and if bats could winter over here.  The weather next week is getting down to 26.  Brrrrrr.  Not sure bats can do that.   

As for the Native plants field, they had the fire department come and use it as a training spot for burning the ground before they replanted with only native grasses and plants.   Today it looks a lot like the fields on the farm if we let them go for a year or two.   Tall grasses and lots of blackberry brambles.  Good spot to be in the summer for berries.  I assume they will cut it back this year or they will have the start of cedar trees and pines as Mother Nature makes her bid to fill it up with what is naturally here in this area, a complete covering of East Coast Deciduous forest.

 

 

 

All things come from the Earth