The Only Good Thing About July

July 2025                                                                              Most Recent Posts:
Greenfield Mountain Farm                      Back at the Farm Via Dixie Caverns
Afton Virginia             Eastward Travel Days Including the Worst One Ever

The only good thing about July happened right at the very beginning when Carrie, Celia and Colin came to visit over the July 4th week-end.  We had a wonderful celebration with friends of ours Emma, Tim,  Lewis and Nina Daisy.  Emma and Carrie have been friends since they were born, literally. 

We gathered for great salmon grilled by Tim and provided by Ted and Lynne who are the parents of two other of Carrie and Emma’s friends, Alex and Allegra.  Unfortunately both of them were away but Alex graciously allowed us to use his house and pool for the party.

Around the table from the far left are:  Celia, Lewis, Carrie, Lynne, Ted, Time Emma and Nina.

The patio, pool and BBQ area has a great mountain view.

Not sure why I got no pictures of the pool playing or the food prep but this is what I had.  Tim wonderfully brought sparklers for the kids.

Great fun for the kids.

Colin gives me the eye.

Not sure if Celia is imitating Tinkerbell or doing a Diva pose but she’s having a great time..

The next day the Daisys came out to the farm.  Emma and Carrie did many sleep overs and “noodling around” here as Emma’s mother used to say.

Today we went on a hike.    Emma and Nina

Carrie trying out the big sister role with Nina.  This is something she also loves to do with her cousins nearly all of whom are girls.

Splash pad in the yard.

Fruitsicles at the picnic table.

Just relaxing after our company departed for Charlottesville.

Colin is  all set with gloves and hearing protectors.  Now if he could just really use that weed eater.  I’d love it.   I suspect by the time he’s big enough to wield it, he won’t be at all interested.

Immediately after Carrie and the kids left the leg pain, that had been minor while they were here, got exponentially worse. 

The rest of the month was seriously miserable.  Somehow, someway of which I am unaware, I developed sciatica all down my right side. No pain killers worked, none of the “icy packs”.  Even the pharmacist said nothing over the counter works on nerve pain.  This x-ray of my spin shows the narrowed nerve channel at the red arrow.   It is noticeably narrower than any of the others. 

The intolerable pain  lasted a full 4 weeks and ultimately resulted in a course of steroids to stop the pain.  I often in tears so exhausted  from not being able to sleep for days and days or even to lay down to relax due to the pain. 

My chiropractor was wonderful and eventually after adjustments three times a week got it all calmed down before resorting to an MRI.   I have no idea what I would have done had this turned up while I was on the road rather than while I was here where I have a chiropractor I trust. 

Over and over my journal records leg pain all night and no sleep.  And to make matters worse this was a record breaking heat wave for July. Repeated stretches of 4 and 5 days in a row of mid 90’s. All month long.  Definitely the worst July of my life that I can recall.

I could walk with only a little pain and sit for short periods just no laying down.

So I was able to do a few things including lunch at Mellow Mushroom with my friend Anonymous Mary.  It’s our favorite pizza place where I think she gets the veggie and I know I get the Holy Shitake.  We take the leftovers home for tomorrow.   I know she’ll hate this picture but I only had two and the other one was worse.   I should have looked more closely at them when I took them.  But there’s only so many times you can ask to take someone’s picture.

One day I served myself the mini pancakes I’d made for the kids when they were here and continued reading the 550 page biography of the artist Frida Kahlo about whom there is an exhibit at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond that Laurie and I are planning to attend in August.   What a life she had. 

Of course there were always, even in the extreme heat, beautiful skies and the mountains.

I spotted two spotted neighbors just inside the yard one morning.  What a treat.

Not much else to say about July.  Sciatica and the attempts to get rid of it took up the month.   August WILL have to be better.

Back at the Farm Via Dixie Caverns

June 12-June 26, 2005                                                        Most Recent Posts:
Around the Pond RV Park, Greenville TN                  Worst Travel Day Ever
Dixie Caverns  Salem Virginia                                       Sequoia Cabin Museum
Greenfield Mountain Farm

If you haven’t read about my harrowing experience in Worst Travel Day Ever, the link is above.  
I just discovered after sending my email notification for posting that I said I went Around the Pound.  Pretty funny but too late to change it.

Thursday June 12
Around the Pond RV Park

Today I traveled only 159 miles.  This is my absolute favorite amount of travel in one day though it seldom turns out that way.  But today 159 miles took forever due to two slow downs 10 mph, one for 20 minutes and one for 15.  That and the 6 lanes of traffic through Knoxville made for an unnecessarily stressful driving day.

I lost an hour moving back into Eastern time for the first time since March.

Around the Pond is a perfectly fine overnight and a cute little place.  There are a lot of either seasonals or permanents and the campground is working on a large expansion so either there is a lot to do in the area,  the weather is great or ????   When I tried to put a link for them, their website would not come up.

Here is some of the cuteness.   The office.

The pond

Pond residents.  Too many Canada Geese to suit me.   I’m not a fan.  RV park in the distance

Lovely weeping willow of which I am a huge fan.

One lone beautiful swan.  No idea if there might be a mate on a nest somewhere.  It is Spring…well summer now.

More old gas station cuteness

Probably permanent resident.

Other non goose waterfowl residents.

I took all these pictures on my walk around the park.  I kept being amazed at the number and kinds of fowl.   Chickens here.  Do they sell eggs?

One of the roosters.

another rooster.  Are there rooster wars like we used to have at the farm?

Guiney hens are actually very pretty.   Also eggs?   Not sure how I’d like living in a place with so many free range birds going everywhere.   We had a “bird yard” with an executive hen house and a fence around it.    At one time we also had pilgrim geese and they were a real mess.

Here’s the expansion.  quite a few sites in the back.  Electric is in.  Now sure about sewer.  If I return to New Mexico perhaps I’ll stop by for another overnight.

Friday June 13
Dixie Caverns

For my last night on the road, I stayed at Dixie Caverns in Salem Virginia.  Today’s drive was 172 miles.  Not too much more than my preference.

When I got here my site was the most unlevel I’ve probably ever had.  But then it is Friday the 13th.  It was simply too much trouble to get out mats to put under the tires to keep them on a hard surface and not hanging in the air.  So I hooked up the  water and electric and kept the slides in.  $50 for the night.

How unlevel was it???   As unlevel as this level will show.  Who knows with a longer level.

The next morning before I left, I did take the $14 cave tour which left from the office/gift store.

Guess folks are really into rocks, minerals and fossils.   Real?  Or fake?

From the office we walked about 100 steps to the cave entrance.  There were 3 of us on this day but they do a lot of local school tours.  Luckily today was a Saturday in June.

The Dixie Caverns are unique in that they are up in the mountain which is unusual since  you walk up rather than down when you enter.   If you are into stair stepping, this is the place. In touring the cavern, we climbed up or went down over 400 stairs. Visitors don’t burrow down in the ground to tour the Caverns, they walk up. The cave rooms are inside a hill, which is entered through an entryway that leads to a 48-step staircase dubbed “Jacob’s Ladder” to arrive at the first room.  From there you wander passageways from room to room.   The top of the cavern is 80 feet above the entrance

You can see the stairs behind the guide.

The current owner of Dixie Caverns is Connie Browning. Her family has owned Dixie Caverns for six decades, being purchased at auction in 1956 by her grandfather, Albert Trompeter. Records indicate there were three owners before Trompeter bought the cave.

There are no colored lights.   The colors are natural though perhaps a result of the lighting which is only on during the tour.

coming down from the ceiling

Beautiful reflections in the underground water.

Closer views of the colors on the formations.  Zooming in lightened things considerably.

This huge formation is called the Wedding Bell.

In this picture of it you can see the stairs going up and its height relative to our guide.  It is actually used for weddings.  You can reserve it and get married right here.  I’m wondering how popular that is.

Another view.  It really is a beautiful formation.

The colors were surprising.  I believe he said it was the calcite.  Unfortunately I’ve forgotten if he said what makes some of them sparkle.  If you know about these things please comment and tell me.

This is the same formation as above at more distance and with a woman on the tour for perspective.

I could do the tour in the morning of my last day on the road because my drive was only 117 miles.  I was back at the farm in time it turns out for the hottest summer on record.

June 14 – June 16
Greenfield Mountain Farm

I arrive back at the farm on Saturday June 14th.    When I drive down the 3/4 mile farm lane it is always a thrill to come out of the woods into the valley and see the farmhouse in the distance.   I stop Winnona and disconnect the car at that point.

Once disconnected I move Winnona into the barn yard and do the maneuvering to get this too large vehicle in the right place for connecting to the electric and still leave room for the car and visitors.

I walk back out to the car and bring it up.   Then it’s time to decide exactly how much and what I have to unload for this uncharacteristically long stay in Virginia.

For the rest of the month, the next two weeks, I did a little work and a little play.

The work included trying to figure out why the washing machine won’t work.  It’s hidden behind this barn door with the wash board on it at the foot of the claw foot bath tub and next to the shower.

David’s ingenious idea of how to add a 20th century appliance to a 19th century house.   I loved it until I had to figure out how to fix it.

Since his death, the machine has decided to blow a fuse before I return the last now 2 times.  It works fine until I leave.  And it’s off while I’m  gone so I cannot figure out how or why this happens.

I have to take the bottom of the barn door off to be able to take the front of the washer off to get to the fuse.   Unlike the top the bottom  is not on a hinge because it’s too close to the tub.

It is all solid wood and the bottom is very heavy to disconnect and move aside.

I’ve got my tools, I’ve got new fuses.  But this time that doesn’t do the trick.  SIGH.   My repair man isn’t here so I’ll have to call someone else to come which is a trick given where the farm is.

Enough of that.  The more fun was having dinner with my friend Pam before she leaves for her house on the Outer Banks of North Carolina for the summer.  I won’t see her again until the week before I leave for the winter.  Crossing paths has become more difficult since we retired.

Not part of the fun.   I discovered insulation from under the house blowing up in the furnace vents.  I cannot figure out how this could have happened unless the vents were disturbed or more likely destroyed by a groundhog that has burrowed under the house.  All efforts including a gun to eradicate the cagey creature have so far failed.

Some neighbors stopped by to check out the yard since it hasn’t been mowed in a while.  I wish they would  do a better job of keeping the grass down.   Often there are more of them than just this one.

Aren’t his little antler buds cute?

I’m not usually in Virginia for the summer and I’m experiencing exactly why.  The temperatures have been between 89 and 95 nearly every day IN LATE JUNE.   But this year I was too busy planning my trip west west and couldn’t find anything for the summer that didn’t mean I’d have to move every 2 or 3 days.    On to July……….