A Day to Wander

55°f/13°C, overcast after a night of heavy rain.  Our little creek is roaring, water is puddled all over our sloped yard, the ground completely saturated. As I write, a bit of blue is showing in the west, so it may clear up today. 

Seen in through the window of Taylor Books in downtown Charleston,  WV. Pretty cool name for a construction company. 

Yesterday was a road-tripping kind of day, but it didn't really start out that way. Our intention was to drive down to Charleston's Farmers Market to search for some plants I want---black tomatoes, no-heat jalapeños, and celery. All three are favorites of ours, and we didn't find a single one. So disappointing! But what I get for not starting my own plants this year.

Still, we had a good time wandering around the market and talking to growers, going inside to check out the wine sampling and other great stuff, and Larry bought an assortment of what used to be penny candy---root beer barrels, Mary Janes, Tootsie Rolls, and my favorite sesame seed-honey candy.

We left there and stopped at Taylor Books, an independent bookstore, for good coffee and a small lunch. Beef, bean and mushroom soup for Larry and chicken salad for me. Yum. I used the leaf of lettuce as a wrap.

Outside of another restaurant,  a group of waitresses posed for a photographer.  It was Derby Day! So they all had hats. We were too far away for a good photo,

but I found this one on the Adelphia Sports Bar and Grille's Facebook page.

While eating lunch we decided to drive over to the Darrell Norris greenhouse in Ohio where I had gone last week, to get some plants for my (numerous) flowerpots, and more herbs for the block planters in the herb garden. It wasn't too far out of our way, and since we were already on the road...Larry is a good sport!

We arrived there after 4pm, and it was clear that they were winding down from a busy day. There was a food truck, even. And a funky little place to rest!

Across the road, a line of trucks were being loaded for transport to markets. There are two greenhouse companies here, across the road from each other, and both are big operations. 

Plenty of enticing displays inside.

So much to choose from!

Once again my wallet was depleted when we left, and I have plenty to do to get everything planted.

When we left there we took a different way home, which can be translated into "we got lost".  A lady at the greenhouse told us how to go, but evidently we made a wrong turn or two and ended up making a b-i-g circle! But it was interesting to drive these back roads through an area that apparently is slowly being abandoned, with many homes grown over with vines and trees. Southeastern Ohio is part of Appalachia, with rolling hills and little industry to keep people in the area. There are, however, many churches. This one is still in use.

You can barely see the old brick chimney hidden in the trees.

This building is actually in a small park and was renovated. I believe it was an old mill.

This church was abandoned. 

A former store, now being used as storage apparently.  As you can see it was spitting rain, so I apologize for the rain drops on the windshield.

Another church, no longer in use.

And another former store.

Churches, churches. At least there seemed to be more of them than bars! A good thing, I suppose?

In Antiquity, Ohio, where there is little else but the church.

So many abandoned homes. Often there were a half dozen vehicles, campers, even tractors left behind in the yards. It puzzles me because these things have some value, if only for scrap, so why just leave them to rot away? Ar least this tractor and camper appear to be cared for, but the truck, not so much.

This is just one of many empty houses we saw. Perhaps it wasn't the best home, but with good flat land and a good road, it seems the property could be sold. It may be that these homes are tied up in heirship, a thorny web to untangle usually.

We saw acres of land already planted with tomatoes and peppers,

and other fields lying fallow, perhaps having a year's rest. These are all along the banks of the Ohio, very fertile ground, and also a place where Native American artifacts are often found.

A sign of the future for this valley? A huge solar installation is covering many acres here that formerly were produce fields, growing tomatoes, peppers, cabbage, broccoli,  corn and other truck crops. This installation will provide all the electricity for the new lithium battery plant being built on the West Virginia side of the river.

And finally, over the river to home!

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

New Baby, Old Towns, and a Visitor

Wrote this yesterday but didn't get it posted.

45 this morning, clear except for some remaining haze from the Canadian smoke. Sending my prayers for the people affected by these awful fires. I am thankful that the heat left us, so this week has been so pleasant, even needed a jacket in the mornings.

Well, it has been a while. First, let me tell you about the new baby. His name is Jonathan Andrew, to be called J. His first name is after my son Jon who passed away in 2010, and who would have been the baby's grandfather, and proud as a peacock, I know. My granddaughter, and new mother Kate and her hubby Jake are doing well. J arrived on June 1, weighing in  at 7 lbs 9 oz, almost exactly the size my son Jon was at 7 lbs 10 oz. Such happy news.

We have also had our granddaughter Sarah from Colorado visiting to work on her cabin site. It is always such a joy when she comes to stay. Don't I wish all our grandchildren could find time for such extended visits. But of course they are all working, parenting, etc, so their time these days is taken up by their busy lives. Sarah works remotely so has a bit more freedom in her schedule.

Last Friday we did our booth restock, a very busy but productive day. Then Saturday we took a trip to Ohio to take a little break and to pick up a big cabinet for one of our booths. We went to Zanesville, where one of our favorite little restaurants is,Tom's Ice Cream Bowl, which I have written about before. 

We took a different route both there and back, and we were enchanted if a little saddened by the dying small towns we saw along the way. This part of Ohio was once a busy coalmining, glassmaking, and ceramics powerhouse of industry. but no more. A few mines remain, but all the glassmaking and ceramics companies have moved on. You may have heard of Cambridge and Lancaster glass as well as Roseville pottery, Crooksville Universal and  other pottery/china-making companies. All had their homes in this area, along with many others.

The only bad news this week: a coyote, we think, got into our henhouse while we were away Friday and killed every one of our chickens. Every single one. Whatever it was took all the chickens away, leaving only the feathers. Larry blames himself for not putting up the new fence I had bought for the chicken yard. Our dogs were no help, apparently. Buddy has to be chained up when we leave so he doesn't run off, and Otis and Daisy are both just too old. It was just heartbreaking, as this was a nice little flock with most getting ready to start laying very soon.

But I got online and found 8 more hens for sale, about 70 miles from home. So Sunday we went and picked them up. They will be closed up in the coop until Larry can get the new fence put up, and they will not be let out if we are not at home. I hate to keepp them penned up, but after talking to neighbors I have learned that something has gotten many chickens and even a small dog on our ridge, so for the time being the hens will be well guarded. A young neighbor has eggs for sale, fortunately, so we won't have to eat store eggs, at least, until these new hens, which are 7 weeks old, start laying.

Monday Sarah arrived, so we have been having a great visit with her. I spent some time in the garden while she worked on her cabin site, and the other night we had a wonderful dinner, most of it straight from the garden. 

We also harvested our cherries from our only tree, which has done us well this year. The cherries are smaller than usual due to the prolonged lack of rain--it hasn't rained for 3 weeks and it is very dry here.

Cherry cobbler. Yum!

We have been watering daily, moving the waterer from garden to garden, while I also water the flowerbeds with a hose. Not ideal, but better than nothing. I pulled the early lettuce and planted many peppers, some more limas, and the squash and cucumber plants, and butternut squash seeds. Larry put in about 50 more tomato plants and still had about 30 to go, I think, before he's done. The asparagus we planted two weeks ago is coming up nicely, which is really exciting, since this will be a real bed and not the random self-seeded plants that supply us now. I sure appreciate those random plants though. We are praying for rain, as it will be difficult to keep everything going without rain, soon.

I think that's about all the news. Sarah is off to a weekend bachelorette party in the mountains, so I will be putting up the cherries, which we just pitted and froze until I had time, and getting back to painting.

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

Road Trip: Third Covered Bridge

56 this morning, clear and breezy. Right now it's 84. I planted 3 rows of lima beans and 2 of Tenderette green beans, our favorite. Larry is planting early corn as I write. I tilled a new herb garden and rose garden, now just need plants to fill them. We tore out a dead rambler rose and cut down daylights to get at the insidious and invasive honeysuckle that was taking over that area. Still more work to do there to get rid of it but it's a start. I also spread more mulch and lime, pulled weeds and generally stayed busy in the gardens until just now.

But back to the covered bridge, the subject of today's post. This one was very sad.

This, I believe, is called the Knowlton or the Long covered bridge. And long it was, at 192 feet. About a half of the bridge is gone, leaving only the supports to show where it once ended.

 

By the time we reached this one it was raining pretty steadily. Larry elected to stay in the van while I took photos and got soaked.

O wonder if there are any plans to restore this sad bridge, or if it will be left to continue deteriorating? 

Along our route we noted 3 former General stores, a testament to the days when the area was more prosperous and populated. We also saw several former one-room schoolhouse either in disrepair or converted to other use, and one abandoned high school. Below are photos of two of the old store buildings. Can you just picture wagons coming across a covered bridge and pulling up to one of these stores? Ladies in bonnets, gents in black suits and hats, coming to stock up on coffee, sugar, fabric and other essentials? Perhaps they traded eggs, butter, and other produce for their shopping.

This one showed more recent innovations, like lights and a place for gas pumps. 

We saw many elegant old barns too, but again, a lot of them were no longer in use or falling down. Traveling this road was like stepping back in time in some ways, with so many relics of the past. We saw many signs of the big oil and gas drilling activity that once brought hundreds to this area,  although today most of the wells are inactive.

But there were modern farms too, lush hayfields and fat cattle.  So while some of the old ways are gone, life goes on, just in a different way.

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

Road Trip: Covered Bridges 2

38 this morning. Brrr.  But clear and bright, looking to be a gorgeous day. 

We continued on Ohio Route 26 through Wayne National Forest to the next covered bridge along the route, the Rinard Bridge. I wonder how that is pronounced? I give the accent on the second syllable, which sounds a bit French. But local pronunciations tend to simplify, so likely it is pronounced RYE nard. Like the town of Rio Grand is RYE o grand. 

This bridge, come to think of it, is actually quite grand. I have not found information on its length, but it was quite a bit longer than the first bridge, and both wider and taller.

The bridge spans the Little Muskingum River, which has a history of flooding. The bridge was destroyed by flood not long after it was built, and again a few years later. Then stood until 2004 when another flood took it out. The bridge was intact however, and plans were being made to re-install it when a second, larger flood occurred just a few months later, destroying the bridge that time. Not to be deterred, the local population and the State of Ohio immediately set about rebuilding it, using many of the original timbers, as well as tbe original design.  The bridge was closed to traffic in 1991 and a replacement modern bridge was built beside it.I am not sure if the reconstructed bridge was ever used for traffic. So this covered bridge has quite a history.

We noticed two interesting features. First, the flooring is installed on the diagonal, which would add to the strength of the structure. 

Second, it had window openings! And the view from them was just beautiful.

I think this looks like framed art.

Until next time!

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

Road Trip: Covered Bridges

46 this morning, cloudy, windy and showers off and on all day. Not a good day for gardening, so why not take a little road trip?

I had a doc appointment in Parkersburg,  about 50 miles north of here, so we decided to combine that with a drive to see more of our neighboring state's covered bridges. Ohio has over 120 of these historic structures! We chose to seek out three in Wayne National Forest, just over the river from West Virginia.

The first was the Hune Bridge, built in 1891.

All three bridges we visited were closed to traffic.  Probably a good thing, to preserve them. But I do wonder if this disuse is allowing the state to allow the bridges to deteriorate since they are no longer vital to traffic flow? At this bridge, we could see that the issue was that the foundations were washing out. Not a cheap fix, but definitely repairable. 

There was a sweet little camping park by this location, and here I found a literal plethora of wildflowers.

Wild phlox

I don't know this one, do you?

A hillside covered with Dutchmen's Breeches

Rue anemone

A view up the road, bordered by wild phlox

Trillium. These were everywhere.  We did not see any of the rex or yellow varieties however.

Closeup of the Dutchmen's Breeches

And of course, sweet violets.

Another antique spotted in the area!

We had packed a picnic lunch but the weather wasn't fittin', as the oldtimers used to say. So we ate in the car before venturing on.

More next time!

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.