Whispering Oaks Farm

As I was driving back from the airport photo shoot of Jarrad's VW bus last Tuesday, I noticed my throat was really scratchy all of a sudden.   Two hours later I was looking for the license plate of the Mack truck that had run me over.  Yup, the flu bug bit me.   Darn!    And it didn't get any prettier Wednesday or Thursday.   Now why in the world should I tell you all this?    Joel had taken a vacation day Friday in anticipation of us taking our RV up to the farm to stay there for the first time.....and here I was, sick, sick, sick.   Well, I've gotta tell you, unless I am on my death bed, there was no way we were going to miss out on this chance to sleep on our farm for the very first time.

So I took the dogs to the boarding kennel, loaded up the meals in the cooler and packed our cool weather clothes.   As soon as Joel got home from work Thursday afternoon we loaded everything into his truck and went to pick up the RV.    We were able to get north of Atlanta that night before stopping somewhere around 2am.   I think we were both excited to get back up to the farm and we kept egging each other on that we could drive "just a little bit further".   Finally, we pulled into an overflowing rest area and squeezed in between 2 big rig trucks and fell into bed in the RV.   The next morning dawned cool and crisp as we jumped back in the truck to drive the remaining 3-1/2 hours north.

And this was our reward........as we rounded the bend of our little country road we could look up the hill and see the bluffs, farm house, pavilion and barn coming into view.    We always stop the truck and just drink in the sight before proceeding up to the property.    It's still hard for us to believe that this farm is now ours!!

We were a couple of weeks too late to see Fall in all its glory, but there was still a bit of color around.   Enough for us to get a sense of the changing seasons.   And the lower temps were a big tip off, too.  It was in the 80's when we left Florida and the mornings on the farm started with temps in the high 30's and low 40's.

 Could the sky be any bluer?   The towering oaks make such a pretty backdrop for the pavilion.

This area leading to the woods reminds me of the park near my home town in Penna.   Long ago the residents of the town were trying to come up with a name for the park and they finally settled on "Weona Park".......get it?  We-own-a park?!    Ha ha......well, as I look at this part of the farm leading down to the dense woods, images of Weona Park come to mind, so I guess we could say Weona Farm.   Corny, huh?   There's no telling why these things cross what serves as my brain.   Sorry...

I know I keep showing you pics of the bluff, but I am fascinated with these rock formations.   There is just no easy way to show you how huge the boulders are.........without leaves on the trees they appear to be over 2 stories high.   Don't know what we're going to do with this part of the farm, but it's interesting to just walk around down there.

 Joel was so excited to back the trailer into the RV garage for the first time.

Wow!   Lots of room for the slide outs on either side and plenty of space to work around the trailer.
Time to unhitch.

Yup, this is going to work great to protect the trailer from the elements.  It's great to have a clean cement floor, a sturdy roof overhead and water and electric hookups on the side of the slab.

 While Joel was tinkering with the RV set up I went exploring.   As I walked thru the ravine below the bluff I almost fell on my you-know-what.   There were hundreds of hard, round dark spheres under my feet and it was like walking on tennis balls.   I picked one up and gasped.   They were black walnuts!!!   Oh.  My.  Gosh.

I had planned to plant a black walnut tree in hopes that sometime in the next 10 years we would see fruit from it.   And now we had one already  bearing thousands of nuts!   This farm just keeps on surprising us with things we didn't even know existed there.   I ran back up to Joel and we grabbed some bags and went to work picking up a few walnuts to take back home.  

 Walnuts were everywhere.   Over here..........and

 ...over here.........and all over the ground.   There was no way we could get them all.   At least not this trip.

Joel lugged the bags up hill and we laid all the walnuts out on the picnic table to dry as it had rained the day before and they were a little soggy.   Can't wait to bake some goodies with these.

 I remember as a little kid going with my mom and Aunt Gladys to their childhood farm to pick up black walnuts from the ground.   We would take them home and sit on the pavement with a hammer and break thru the hard black shell to expose the walnut shell inside.   Can you imagine how tickled I was that now Joel and I could do that on our own farm?

 After breaking away the black outer husk, the walnut looked like any walnut you buy at the store in the shell....it was just a little damp.

So I whacked the inside shell with the hammer and voila!    Walnut meat!   It tasted so sweet and now I can't wait to break into the remaining nuts we brought back home with us.    Mom and her sister used to keep the walnuts to use in baking Christmas cookies and banana walnut bread all winter.    Yum, can't wait to repeat that heritage.

 Here's a view looking back at the pavilion on your left and the barn in the center.  I just can't seem to get my fill of all the splendor we saw on the land.   

And I couldn't believe that pears were still dropping from the pear tree.  I was able to retrieve several more for us to eat.   These were even bigger than the ones we picked on our last trip to the farm.  Today I'm baking some pear bread from the pears we picked.

This was the first time we checked our mailbox for any mail.   Love all those "firsts".    We had quite a busy day for our first full day on the farm.    We certainly slept well that first night.   It was so wonderfully quiet and dark that we slept a full 12 hours.    Ah, that felt so good.

 Early the next morning Joel grabbed a cup of coffee and I pulled out my camera as we walked the land in the mist.  We could hear cattle lowing in the field across the street.    And somewhere in the distance was a faint crowing of a rooster waking up another farm.

 Don't the oaks behind the pavilion form a pretty backdrop?   And the breeze was constant so the leaves were all rustling.    We just love that sound.

Beautiful color everywhere......

 I think I'm in love...........with these trees..........

 ...and the mist...........

 ...and the early morning light.........

...and the blessing of being able to enjoy it all.   We just can't seem to soak up enough of the beauty of this land.

 Happy guy.....with a cup of Joe...........in the cool morning.........wearing jeans........on his farm.   Yup!   Happy guy!  He says it just doesn't get any better than this.

 Looking down into the valley toward the rising sun.

 Our neighbors rustic gate for the cattle.    Just some more every day bucolic farm life scenery.

 The grape arbor certainly looks a lot different stripped of all it's leaves.   The farmer told us we have to trim it back in February.   That should be interesting....in the cold.....possibly snow?    Hope we can get up there to do that on time.

Here's a view of the house from near one far front corner of the land.   Just a simple little farmhouse.  Perfect for two.   And a little white fluffy dog.   And some occasional company.

 Joel stood at one of the survey corner markers, looking down into the "hollar" as our farmer called it.   We have yet to explore these woods which make up over half of the farm.    As we were standing there Joel said that he loved how the breeze whispered through the oak trees.   And he looked at me and said, "How about we name the farm Whispering Oaks Farm?"    Perfect!  We just smiled at each other and agreed the name was going to stick.

 I love the name.....been trying to think of an appropriate one ever since we bought the farm and now we have a name that means something to both of us.    When Joel was a kid, his parents built a Christian youth camp on the eastern shore of Maryland.   His dad went in there with a bulldozer on raw land and built cabins, a pool, a dining hall and much more.    Joel has such fond memories of those years on that land with his folks and the name of the camp was White Oak Bible Camp.   Joel's mom even saved 2 twin quilts that had been hand made just for beds in one of the cabins by women from local churches.    The quilts are green with large white oak leaves in each block.    She gave the quilts to me shortly after we got married when she realized I loved all things quilt-y and I treasure them as a family heirloom.

Now, those quilts will have a double meaning as they are oak leaves representing the trees on our farm.   Someday I hope to find 2 old metal beds and put them on the sleeping porch of the farmhouse.   Those quilts will take a place of honor covering the beds and I'll smile whenever I see them put to use once again.....this time for our grandkids to sleep under them when they visit.

 It'll be fun to tromp thru the woods and explore whatever is down there......some other day.    Today I was not feeling so great and barely had enough energy to just do our little walk around.

We even bought boots at Tractor Supply this trip for walking around in there.    Maybe next trip we'll go exploring further into the woods.   It goes back really far and who knows what is back there?

 Another view of the house, one of the grape arbors and the pavilion.   

Weona Park....oops, Weona Farm little park-like area, all cleared out next to the woods.

 Ok, I'm going to have to explain this one to ya'.    For those of you who have never used an RV, there are certain tanks under the unit that hold water from your shower and sinks, and then another one called the black water tank holding, well, you can use your imagination here.    Those tanks have to be emptied or else you'll have a real problem.    Joel has spent hours trying to figure out how to get our black water tank contents emptied out.....uphill......100 feet.....to the septic connection by the pavilion.

The solution he came up with is a macerator pump, which grinds up the um, er, um, contents of the black water tank, and then with the push of the red button the pump pushes the slush thru the long hose in the pic above to the septic connection.    And he is grinning because it took him an hour to get it all figured out...........and it worked!!!     I had the dubious honor of standing at the other end making sure the hose didn't pop out of the pvc pipe.    Guess the perk for me was that I was so congested from my cold that I couldn't smell a thing.   Ha!   Gotta love a man and his toys....especially when everything works the way it is supposed to work.

 Unfortunately, all too soon it was time to pack up our walnuts and dirty laundry and head back home.   Two nights was too short and we are already counting the days until we go back up to the farm again.    The drive isn't exactly fun, but the time spent in the fresh air makes the trip worthwhile.

Bye, bye Whispering Oaks.   We'll be back soon.   And maybe this trip we'll bring our porch rockers so we have something to sit on our porch and enjoy the view.

Thanks for visiting,
Debbie

As Promised

Jarrad and I spent one more afternoon shooting pics of the bus.   This time we went to a local airport after Jarrad got permission from a VW enthusiast executive there to shoot some photos out by the planes.   Nah, these weren't planes, these were more like jets from The Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous.   We were cracking up....here we were, 2 amateurs, snapping pictures like crazy with jets worth millions next to his bus.   It was a hoot!  We were very careful and respectful and had an escort at all times.   (He was snapping pics with his cell phone and doing video with it, too!)

And then we heard a roar as a Coast Guard plane rolled up to it's hangar.   The Coastie's jumped out and began washing the plane.   How cool was that to be able to watch them at work?

Planes were taking off on the runway directly behind the bus.   And then we found out why all the guys in dark suits with earbuds in their ears and stern expressions had been all over the lobby of the building where we parked.  

See the jet behind the VW's front windows?   We weren't allowed to show the numbers on the tail so I obscurred them behind the VW.    It was Governor Scott of Florida leaving to go back to Tallahassee!    If I had known at the time we could have smiled and waved....giggle....wonder if he was looking at Jarrad's pride and joy?

Oh, yes, the specialty license plates and the Department of Homeland Security sticker on the big black car parked next to mine should have been the tipoff.   Duh!

And I thought you should see the guy who masterminded it all, Jarrad himself.   Hope you enjoyed seeing the results of two and a half years of his hard work.    He has estimated that he put over 1400 hours into the restoration........ha!     It has to be more than that.   Many is the day that I spoke to him and he said he had been up until 3 or 4am working in his one car garage.   Yes, I said one car garage.  He did all of this in an itty bitty garage he shares with his wife's washer and dryer.   He even hung huge sheets of heavy duty plastic at one point and taped them together to create a giant spray booth!   I'm not kidding.  

I guess it's true, where there's a will, there's a way.    And Jarrad found a way to make it all happen.   He sends out many thanks to his patient wife, Dawn, who put up with hearing all the details about this bus from start to finish.   She's been so encouraging and supportive of Jarrad's "little project". 

Here's the link I promised you in the last post. 
 http://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/detail.php?id=1554268 

There are pics there as well as two you-tube videos to view where he describes the details all you guys were looking for regarding the engine and the types of components that went into the bus.   Hope you've enjoyed reading about the saga of the bus.

On to other things,
Debbie

Wanna See More Bus?

So I just have a few more shots of the bus to share with you.    Actually I have almost 200, but I edited the list down to something a little more manageable.  Here goes.......

I had to include a close up of the pinstripe detailing above the headlights on the front of the bus.

And I love the angle of this shot of the passenger side, the shiny chrome, the red pinstripe, the awesome black against cream says it all.

So.  Very.  Shiny.

Ok, this is just over the top for me.........Jarrad installed LED lights in the chrome strip above the front bumper.   Very cool.

More shine...........easy to look at ............hours of work to get it that way.

One last shot of the hula girl, the mascot that makes everyone smile.   Wish I had counted the number of people who passed us, honked their horns and waved as they admired Jarrad's workmanship.   What an accomplishment!    Makes a mama proud, can you tell?   And I'm so excited for him!   He won Best of Show in a car competition last month in Pass-A-Grille Beach.    The big show is coming up in two weeks in Pasco County.   Why don't you come on up and join us there?

It still amazes me that he took the bus from this........

To this..........

Un.  Believably.   Gorgeous.
Jarrad, I think this is your crowning achievement.    Good job, buddy, good job.
Love 'ya,
Mom

VW Bus Finale

It was two and a half years ago that our oldest son dragged, er, ummmm, invited a friend of his to join him on an adventure and they drove a couple of hours north of here to go look at a beat up old VW bus.   Somewhere, miles off the interstate, back where the country road became a dirt road, and then the dirt road just virtually disappeared......there was "a guy with a bus".   Jarrad and his buddy had a few trepidations about hanging out too long so far off the beaten path, but Jarrad was determined to bring this bus home with him.   And so, they managed to get it up onto the flatbed trailer and began hauling it back home.

THAT began the odyssey of "The Bus".  This is what it looked like in the early stages of restoration.

Yea, there's some rust, some mechanical issues and a really rough looking interior.

 

I can just read Joel's mind as he was looking at the engine,"Are you kidding me???   This is too much work."

And I don't think Jeremy had caught on to Jarrad's enthusiasm just yet, either.  

Remember what I told you about our family motto in an earlier post?    "How hard can it be?"   Once again, met with fits of giggles.

 "You're gonna love it mom.  Just wait till it's done!"

Oh, my!   That is one sad looking door.

 Do you remember this post from a few years ago???   Jarrad came to our house and asked if I could reupholster his car seats.  Whaaaat?   I've never done that before.  But we did it.   We used faux ostrich leather for the center strip and suede fabric for the outer sides of the seats and seat backs.

I cut and sewed and Jarrad used his muscle to put the seat covers back onto the skeleton seats.

 Just a few more anchors and the back seat will be finished as well.  

Ah, not bad, even if I do say so myself!   And, it was a fun project to do together.
Well, this is how the bus looks today.....are you ready?   Drum roll, please!

Can you believe it?   Pretty amazing, isn't it?  And Jarrad did all the body work, engine refitting, brakes, exhaust and interior himself.   What an accomplishment!   Jeremy helped him with some welding, too.......I couldn't tell you what they welded(I know one of the things had to do with bumpers).   It has a kick butt sound system, and roars like a muscle car from the 60's as we're tearing down the highway.   Yes, I was holding on at one point!   But it was fuuuuuuuuun!

 Yesterday Jarrad picked me up and we drove to an airport hoping to take some shots inside a hangar.   When that didn't pan out, we opted for some industrial looking shots instead.   What a great time we had together.

She's as pretty from the back as she is from the front, wouldn't you say?

Check out the pretty red pinstripe detailing.   Those are some cool wheels, too.

The proud owner in all his glory....having a blast, waving to admirers, while the hula girl mascot looks on.   Too.  Much.   Fun.

So then we headed out to Sand Key Park to get some shots before sunset.   Look at how her paint job just glows.   I love the cream/black combo set off by the red pinstripe.    And I can't begin to tell you how many hours Jarrad spent to get all that chrome to shine like it does.

This is crazy........Jarrad used his router and created the VW logo on the wood floor he installed.   That knocked my socks off.   He even installed wood paneling on the sides and roof of the interior.   Really gorgeous wood working, buddy!

For all you guys out there I wish I could tell you more about what is under the hood, but I don't have a clue.  Jarrad is uploading a video we shot yesterday and in it he describes what he did mechanically and I'll include a link to the video as soon as he sends it to me.

I know that one of the things he did was to fashion this scoop on the rear quarter panel to assist with air cooling the engine.   Very slick, indeed.

 Front seats and wood door inserts and armrests.

And of course he used his lathe to hand turn the gear shift knob from an exotic wood....just because he could!

And to make the bus more functional he created a center console that also holds drink cups.

How do you like that ceiling?    It's not easy doing curves like that, you know?

And of course he built in a cooler which you can drain outside without lifting the cooler out of the van.   He thought of everything.

The back seat we reupholstered looks pretty good now that everything around it is completely redone.  Check out those speakers below the seat.

Alrighty,  this post is getting a bit lengthy, so I think I'll end it here and continue the grand tour in the next post.

Bye for now,
Deb

Eggs, Socks and Musings

Oh, how I wish I had thought to take a picture of the pretty eggs Barb gave us on our last trip to her house.   Her "girls" lay the neatest colored eggs...and Barb shared a couple dozen with us.  She has even made her own label for egg carton containers.   Cute, huh?

 I don't know what's going on, but I can't seem to stop knitting socks these days.   They're a great project to carry with you when sitting at the DMV, waiting at the dentist's office, or sitting and watching tv with your mate.

And the yarns that are available now..........oh, don't get me started.   I keep buying yarn wherever I go because the saturated colors are so scrumptious!   I just can't seem to resist them.  I've been knitting so much that I finally broke down and made a small bag, just to hold sock knitting projects.  This bag is perfect for holding my pattern, the double pointed needles and a ball of yarn.  Ha!   Now I have "socks on the go"!

In my stash was some Kaffe Fassett fabric, well, actually, there is a lot of Kaffe fabric in my stash....but, I digress.   I just love his bold use of color and picked this piece of fabric to use as the backing and put clear vinyl on the front so I could always see which project I was working on. 

I added my label to the front.....

 .....and my favorite snaps on a tab for a simple closure.   When closed, the tab doubles as a handle for carrying the bag.

And when we take long trips, the little bag fits neatly inside the bigger matching bag, which holds sweaters that I'm knitting.    I'll post more pics of this huge knitting bag and another one for hand embroidery on my other blog www.pinkfloridathreads.blogspot.com in a couple days.   Look for it there.

Back to the studio,
Debbie