The Ranch Camp, Dugspur Virginia.

The universe works in such mysterious ways. When Kenan and i first started dating (over 25 years ago) he was really into BMX bikes. When we moved down here, he eventually gave it up because there just isn't a lot of places out here to do it without driving an hour.

Last year when he turned 44,  he bought a BMX bike, kind of on a whim in Richmond, VA when he was taking Sequoia back to Williamsburg.  Now that he is working in town, he's been riding it after work in the parking lot and around town and realized he really missed it and still really enjoying it.

So how crazy is it that we found out a BMX & skateboarding facility and camp is being built right in Dugspur, VA of all places?!?   Dugspur is a beautiful area in the Blue Ridge Mountains, but it's literally in BFE.  There is pretty much nothing in Dugspur, except the minimart with is about 3 miles from us.  We are closer to Dugspur than we are Floyd.   So although it's in the middle nowhere, so are we and it's actually not too far down the road from us! 

We were there for their media event and got to see some professional skate boarders and BMX riders our doing tricks and riding. It was really pretty cool.  The people building this facility helped to build/design/run (i can't remember the details) the Woodward skate park in Pennsylvania. 

When we were there, they were really just getting started. There were a lot of areas under construction and they were still working out details of their summer camp program. The first camp ended up canceled because of Covid, but that gave them time to add even more cool features to the facility!

They were still working on the dirt jumps and trails when we were there.  Although Kenan has been back a few times to ride, i haven't so i'm not sure what all they have going on now.  They are having an open house type of eent in April and Kenan is planning to go and ride and i'll probably go to walk the trails and mushroom hunt. :D 

The place used to be an old theater camp, so it's already got cabins and a club house etc. They were in the process of building more skateboard areas, including a 10,000 sq. ft indoor skate park, adding hiking trails, disk gulf, a pool and more!  

It's really a neat facility and almost unbelievable that it would be built so close to us right as Kenan decides he wants to get back into it.  Definitely some crazy manifesting going on there! 

You can check out The Ranch Camp here - https://www.ranch-camp.com/

Follow them on Instagram- The Ranch Camp and Facebook- The Ranch-Camp

What a year! Wrapping up 2020 (back post).

 i realized the other day that i've really been neglecting my blog. Life just seems to get busier and busier each year, and as technology has changed over the years blogs just no longer seem very relevant.  i've always kept this blog more as a journal or way to document important moments in my life and really want to continue to do that. Although i love hosting giveaways and sharing product reviews, the blog has really always been about daily family life and i would really like to get back to that.

So, here is a brief recap of 2020, since i sort of abandoned the blog while the world around us was turning upside down. 

My sweet little boy, grew up, graduated high school and is now attending William & Mary University in Williamsburg VA. To say i am proud of his achievements is an understatement. 

Moving my boy across the state during a pandemic was a pretty huge transition.  Empty nest syndrome is no joke, and even though Sage is still at home i got my first taste of empty nest and it kind of terrified me and made me really rethink my life. It may have been the beginnings of an existential crisis.

Honestly, 2020 is a complete blur. When Covid first hit i began making and giving away masks to friends and neighbors. Eventually i was making them for the schools, local stores and the veterinary office for a donation towards fabric cost. i made at least a 1000 and eventually began taking orders for custom masks and making them for sale. i admit, i had a lot of fun buying cute fabrics, something i haven't done since my patchwork days. 

With Covid spreading, we stayed pretty close to home. Although Kenan was spending most of his time in Floyd at the new shop, i was spending my time (when i wasn't sewing masks) in the garden and mushroom hunting.  i had to really dig through my photos, to find a few images from 2020, so these are the best. Just a few i found to show that we did actually grow stuff in 2020.  The garden was somewhat neglected, because my focus was on producing stuff for the shop and sewing masks.

We were still harvesting mushrooms from the logs plugged a few years before. The shiitake and oysters are the only ones that ever grew from the logs we plugged. We plan to plug a bunch more this year.  We are still (2022) getting occasional shiitakes and oysters from these same logs.

Since Covid kept me home more than usual, i was able to spend much more time in the woods hunting mushrooms. 2020 was a good year for mushroom hunting!  i'll probably put together a post soon of all the varieties of mushrooms i've been foraging. Every year i seem to find a new one.

In the fall of 2020, Blue Ridge Alchemy opened it's store front. It is now a working glass studio with a store front that is open to the public. We carry work from many local artists and it gives me an outlet to sell my own work, eggs and honey.  

i'm having to really dig through my FB posts to see just what exactly we did in 2020 so i can play catch up on my posts. i'm not really sure anyone evens reads this blog anymore, but i've always used it as an online scrap book to document life and really want to fill in the last couple years with more than just product reviews and giveaways.  Planning to spend the next few days back posting.  So if you still here reading. Thank you.