Like Back Home on the Farm, Belvedere Plantation is a large farm experience for children with countless activities including a corn maze, pig races, face painting, pony rides, hayrides, petting zoo, slides, and of course, pumpkins. But what was very clear is that Belvedere is on a much larger scale! Of course, it’s twice the price for admission as well.

I brought my two oldest, but also grabbed my sister’s two youngest as well. My sister lives near Belvedere and all of her children spent time at the plantation during preschool field trips. With so many activities to choose from, I assured them we would end the visit with a hayride and picking a pumpkin then let them go in order picking activities for all four of them to do.

The Fun Barn will immediately catch your attention. It’s a large white barn with a huge smiley face drawing your gaze. And that’s where my niece chose to start the festivities. Inside the barn are about five or six rope swings taking riders from hay stacks piles up on each side.

Going in order of age, Ben picked the next activity, the pedal tractor track. They have two tracks, one for the shorties and one for tall people. They look like any modern go-cart track but these bad boys and kid-powered.

While they rode I heard the announcement for the pig races and moved my little herd of kiddos to watch four pigs in colored vests run the track to the cheers of a few hundred spectators. We worked our way back the main area taking a few minutes to visit the petting zoo. But Jack was anxious to get the slide so we didn’t linger.

Ben exiting the 100ft slide

The Pumpkin Mountain Slide is a 100ft underground slide that riders descend on burlap sacks. The gravel hill going up is steep and slippery but the kids absolutely loved the payoff… they rode it about six times each!

By now we had well exhausted the hour and a half I thought we’d spend at the plantation. Over the next three and a half hours, the kids got their face painted, rode a pony, jumped for 15 minutes on a basketball court sized inflated mat, took multiple rides down the ziplines, played in the sand at the Little Farmers Corral, had balloon animals made for them, and then took the five minute hayride to pick their pumpkins.

With the four kids all picking pumpkins, Belvedere does have a great deal on ‘all the pumpkins you can carry.’ I believe it was about $26. But I told the kids they could have any pumpkin they wanted, the only stipulation was they had to carry it to the car! My total came to $24 and I considered grabbing a few extra to take advantage of the deal, but I passed.

If you plan on visiting, Belvedere Plantation is open on Friday evenings after 5, Saturdays from 10 to 10 and Sundays from 10 to 6 through October 30th. They are also open tomorrow, Columbus Day, 10 to 6 if you read this blog entry in time! They do serve food and beverages (burgers, hot dogs, french fries, soda, bottled water, and funnel cakes is all I remember from the menu). While they have plenty of bathrooms, I didn’t see any water fountains. If you want to avoid paying $1.75 for a bottle of water, I’d bring your own! I’d plan at least four hours for you visit to make it worth the admission charge. There were lots of people but the parking was well organized and the plantation is so large that there were not long waits or unreasonable crowds anywhere. We didn’t even have to wait for the hayride, they accommodated everybody in line both there and back.

So if you’re debating the drive and cost and asking yourself, “Is it worth it?” My answer is definitely yes. If you just can’t swing it, I also highly recommend Back Home on the Farm in Harrisonburg… it’s smaller and cheaper but also very fun! I will note that the pumpkins themselves were much higher quality at Belvedere this year than what I picked in Harrisonburg last year. Belvedere definitely led to lots of smiles and fun for the kids… as the pictures prove!

* Saturday October 8, 2011 – Belvedere Plantation album on Flickr

Through a combination of it being the annual Oktoberfest celebration and also my brother-in-law getting free passes through a work relationship, our family and my wife’s sister’s family met up in Staunton to visit the museum last weekend on Saturday.

Staunton’s Frontier Culture Museum is a tribute to the first colonial Virginia settlers and is organized on a circular trail with tiny houses / villages representing different colonial era settlers. In the words of the museum’s website, “To tell the story of these early immigrants and their American descendents, the Museum has moved or reproduced examples of traditional rural buildings from England, Germany, Ireland, West Africa, and America.”

An English cottage woman doing the dishes

Not only does the museum recreate the buildings, but they have full time staff in period costume doing daily tasks and answering questions for the visitors. I often tell people that even though I was a history major, I don’t have tons of historical facts roaming through my brain at any given time, but I do know enough to tell if somebody is completely wrong. I tested the staff at times to hear their responses and was very impressed with their knowledge. And as a bonus, I left feeling comfortable that I had learned a great deal about the 16th and 17th century life in the Americas.

If you go, take some time to research the website and Facebook site; the museum has plenty of special events and you may want to plan your visit accordingly!

On the web: http://www.frontiermuseum.org
On Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Frontier-Culture-Museum-of-Virginia/55813996379

* View my Album – 201010 – Frontier Culture Museum

The crystal clear reflection of the cavern ceiling on Dream Lake

Luray Caverns was discovered in August of 1878 (99 1/2 years before I was born) when a Luray, VA, tinsmith’s candle was blown out by a cold wind coming from the hillside while his party was actively searching for caves. The group of four descended into the cave by rope and used candles for light and their first glimpse was of the massive Washington Column, still the main focal point as you enter the caverns today. The men discovered what would later be revealed as the largest cavern system on the East Coast.

Tourism to the caves began immediately as well as the admission charge. To celebrate the many means of travel used to reach the caverns, the facility also has a car and carriage museum, started in 1957, that is included in the price of admission. Visitors will notice that the tour area within the caverns are brick and concrete… first poured in the 1950s. In 2000, they added a garden maze which looked like it may be fun, but it was nearly 100 degrees and required an additional fee. I had never seen it before though. Then across the street, and also included in the price of admission, is a small museum dedicated to life in the Shenandoah Valley.

The caverns get over a half a million visitors a year so you won’t have a private, quiet tour. However, our tour was self-paced with tour guides standing at each main feature, repeating their speech every 10 to 15 minutes. We spent about one hour walking the caverns and that was with a 7, 6, and 3 year old going at their own pace. It is easily walked by children (even though I remember having some pretty sour feet at the end when I was a kid, mine never complained once on their first visit). The one disadvantage: it’s costly. We spent $68 for our family to go with our youngest being free. But you can research that using Luray Cavern’s Plan Your Visit website.

Our drive home was along the peaceful Skyline Drive. I have a lifetime access pass so we get to drive on the road for free, but normally it costs about $15 a car I believe. The kids enjoyed the view and we stopped at a few observation areas for pictures and so that the kids could climb on rocks. After the first 12 miles though, the kids were pretty much done and I think Holly fell asleep. We made some plans to return when the weather is cooler to camp at either Lewis Mountain or Big Meadows! There are so many hikes that I’d like to do; it’s time to get started!

Before I met Holly, she spent a few years traveling the world. She started with the group Up With People right after she graduated high school. She was part of UWP Cast C99 (see her pictures) and spent a year in the U.S., Germany, Italy, Belgium, Netherlands, Switzerland, and Denmark rehearsing, doing community service, and performing the UWP Roads show. She was always spoken so highly of her time with UWP and I got my first glimpse of the show when they came to Nashville, TN, in 2007.

Camp Up With People's First Performance - July 22, 2011 - Harrisonburg, VA

This year, Up With People started a three week summer camp for 14 to 17 year olds just an hour from our house. The camp was run in conjunction with Camp Horizons in Harrisonburg, PA. Tonight the very first Camp Up With People cast performed at the Eastern Mennonite High School (EMHS) auditorium and we brought the whole family to watch. In just three short weeks, this cast of high schoolers were able to do community service, visit Washington, D.C., climb mountains, and ride horses all while rehearsing and putting on an hour-long performance including UWP staples as “Up With People” and “One 2 One.” I was so impressed with this group and the kids even loved it. We enjoyed it enough that we came home and watched Holly’s 2004 UWPIAA reunion DVD and then downloaded the Up With People – Roads
CD from Amazon!!

They performed two shows tonight, but Cast B, the second three-week camp will be performing two shows at 4pm and 7pm on Friday August 12th. The show is free and will be performed at the EMHS high school auditorium located at 801 Parkwood Drive, Harrisonburg, VA.

Interested in learning more about Up With People?

• Official Website
• Camp Up With People
• YouTube Channel
• Twitter
• Facebook
• Smile ‘Til It Hurts: The Up With People Story

So this is a simple recipe. I’m definitely not a chef and not an expert at Korean food, but here’s a recipe that I have no problems with and gives a wonderful, tasty result!

* Continue for step by step directions or just skip the lesson and download the Cucumber Kimchi Recipe Card

Step 1 - Cut the cucumbers and sprinkle on the sea salt

Step One:

This is all about the cucumbers. Most prefer to use Kirby cucumbers, but any will do just fine. I like to cut mine into wedges, but you can also slice them width-wise if preferred. Put them into a glass bowl and sprinkle sea salt over them and lightly mix it up. The salt will draw out excessive moisture from the cucumbers and make them crispy. They need to sit for at least 30 minutes, but preferably overnight.

Step 2 - After the cucumbers have sat for awhile (preferably overnight), it's time to rinse off the salt and drain the water!

Step Two:

After the cucumbers have sat, you should have a small pool of water forming at the bottom of the bowl. I use a salad spinner, but all you really need to do now is rinse off the salt and remove as much water as possible from the cucumbers. This process makes the cucumbers salty as well so you don’t have to add additional salt later in the process. Keep the cucumbers separate and now gather the remaining ingredients.

Step 3 - Gather the ingredients

Step Three:

I don’t have exact measurements here, but I try to judge it based on the number of cucumbers I used so that the cucumbers make up about 70% of the mixture. You’ll need roasted sesame seed, green onion (or chives), carrots, garlic cloves, onion, and red pepper powder (available at most Asian markets or online if needed)

Step 4 - Slice the green onion (or chives)

Step Four:

Wash and then thinly slice the green onion or chives. I cut them into two inch segments and then slice them lengthwise twice. You can do this any way you like of course. Add them to a large glass mixing bowl (I suggest glass because if you use plastic, it will likely stain a bit red when you add the red pepper powder).

Step 5 - Slice the carrots

Step Five:

I slice the carrots similar to the green onions: two inch segments and sliced lengthwise into thin strips. I used just two carrots. Add them to the large mixing bowl.

Step 6 - Slice half an onion lengthwise

Step Six:

Using regular onion is optional but I like what it adds to the taste. I slice them lengthwise. For this amount, I used half an onion. Add them to the large mixing bowl.

Step 7 - Mince the garlic

Step Seven:

Mince some garlic. I did three cloves and one was really big. Garlic is kind of the magic behind most Korean food so I highly suggest using the real thing instead of garlic powder. Add it to the mixing bowl.

Step 8 - Add a handful of roasted sesame seed

Step Eight:

Throw a handful of roasted sesame seed to the mixing bowl.

Step 9 - Add about two tablespoons of red pepper powder (I added a bit of salt too, but it's not necessary)

Step Nine:

I added a tablespoon of salt and two tablespoons of red pepper powder, but I highly recommend skipping the salt (sea step two). I will not be using it in the future as my mixture was just a bit too salty. So, add the red pepper powder to the bowl. If you really like spicy, add another tablespoon.

Step 10 - Mix up the side ingredients making sure the sesame seeds and powder are well spread and the onions are not stuck together

Step Ten:

Time to get your hands dirty, My mom and grandma (Halmoni) always use those disposable kitchen gloves, but what fun is that? I just dig in and mix it all up. Be sure to split the onions into individual pieces if they were stuck together and do your best to evenly distribute the garlic, sesame seeds, and red pepper powder.

Step 11 - Move the cucumbers over draining any excess water

Step Eleven

Move the cucumbers over to the other bowl draining any water from them as you go. We’re almost done here!

Step 12: Get your hands a bit dirty! Mix it all together (many wear gloves here, but not me!)

Step Twelve

Here’s those disposable gloves may come in use… especially if you have cuts on your hand as the red pepper powder is a bit spicy! But once again, I dug in bare handed. Mix it all up thoroughly and evenly spread all of the ingredients.

Step 13: Admire how beautiful it looks then either jar it or cover it. 30 minutes minimum, preferebly overnight

Step Thirteen

You could theoretically eat this now, but I wouldn’t. I would cover it (or jar it) and put it in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes before eating. The longer it sits, the more it ferments and the taste will change. Some people prefer fresh kimchi (like me) and I try to let it sit overnight and then eat it within two days. Others, like Holly, like it to sit for a week and then indulge. This is obviously up to you!

Ben Taught Himself How to Ride a Bike from Lewis Nelson on Vimeo.

Outline of the George Washington Birthplace Site

As I prepared to write this blog post, I realized that my father has pretty much lived and worked in all the same places as George Washington, only in opposite order. While a soldier stationed at Ft. Belvoir in the mid-1970s, he lived just a few miles from Mount Vernon, where George Washington spent his last 45 years. About 5 years ago, he owned a small store called the Ferry Farm market, just miles from Washington’s childhood home (Ferry Farm in Fredericksburg, VA), and for the last year, my dad has worked as the gardener at George Washington’s Birthplace at Popes Creek, VA. Even as a history major loving U.S. history and studying George Washington’s endeavors as a soldier and government leader, I never studied (or even heard of) Ferry Farm or Popes Creek. On my first family visit it to my dad’s new house near the monument, we decided to take a personally guided tour from the park’s gardener!

Popes Creek is located on a small bay (Popes Creek) connected to the Potomac River near King George and Colonial Beach, VA, about 45 minutes SE of Fredericksburg down VA State Hwy 3. The farm was first settled by George Washington’s great-grandfather John Washington, who came to Virginia in 1657 and married the daughter of Nathaniel Pope. Pope gave them 700 acres to start a tobacco farm. The couple would eventually own over 10,000 acres including the land that would become Mount Vernon in Alexandria, VA. George Washington’s father Augustine expanded the holding to nearby Popes Creek where he married Mary Ball and had his first child, George.

Tobacco crops in the Colonial Farm

George Washington Birthplace National Monument is not very big or fancy, but it is one thing…. FREE! In addition to very beautiful walking trails, the park boasts a few living history exhibits, 100 to 200-year old trees, the memorial house designed and built before archeologists discovered the original dwelling, a large picnic area, a well manicured family burial ground, a beach, live animals, a memorial obelisk (small scale model of the Washington Monument), and a colonial garden. At the park, you can get a glimpse of life in the 1700s and see the land where the Washington Family planted and sowed their tobacco crop as well as the Bridges Creek area where the tobacco was loaded onto barges for shipment. The visitor’s center is small, but has some neat artifacts and the Park Rangers give guided tours of the property on the hour.

The Colonial Gardens

When my father began work as a gardener last year, the Colonial Garden has not been maintained for years. He removed the overgrown grass, preserving any of the native varieties still present, and repairing the fence and brick walkways. He then researched the herbs and flowers that would have been present in the 1970s and replanted the garden to its present state. I must say I was more than impressed with what he has been able to do there in just one year!

Blacksmith

Starting our project

About 30 minutes into the project, I told Holly, “This really has to work. I’ve always wanted to do landscaping work but I’m always afraid it will look horrible so this would be a great confidence booster!” My wife, even though she grew up at a greenhouse, has also never really done much of this so it was definitely a trial by fire! But we kept scooping away the layer of dirt, dead grass, and some live grass.

We decided to take the chunks of live grass and attempt to transplant it to a very dead part of our front yard. We don’t have high hopes that it will catch as we are probably not going to water it every day, but we needed a bunch of fill dirt for that section anyways so we figured, “why not?”

Then we decided that a small retaining wall and flower bed near our driveway was very misplaced so we raided the castle brick to line our new ‘area.’ The other flower bed will be filled with gravel and used to put our gliding bench… it’s a perfect spot to sit while the kids play on the driveway.

Dark Hardwood Mulch from Rose Hauling

Next we realized that we needed mulch. Two years ago we ordered three cubic yards of compost/top soil mix for our garden and it is still in great shape. So I hopped in my truck and drove over to Rose Hauling in Barboursville to check out their mulch. I brought Ben along for the ride as I figured he’d love to see the mounds of dirt and watch the loader drop the mulch in the truck bed. They actually fit two hards of dark hardwood mulch into my small truck!

The work isn’t finished, but I am very impressed with what we did in two days and for a total cost of $60 in mulch! Our finishing touches will probably include some stepping stones from the sidewalk to the side yard and another directly in front of the stairs leading to the grass. Then we’re thinking a classic stone bench for between the rose bush/azalea pairs (we transplanted the rose bush and azalea on the right too by the way). For the front part near the border, Holly is planning to do annual planters. Perhaps a supertunia? Yet another benefit of Holly’s family owning a greenhouse, she’s up there through Sunday and should come home with a minivan full of beautiful flowers from Arona Road Greenhouse! The bad part… she took my camera with her with all of the best pictures still on the memory card! The album will have to come later… maybe a follow up post with the finished results!

I guess now we just have to replace the blinds on the second floor! We also remulched the entire front landscaping and surrounded the tree to the right with the castle brick. We also have to continue adding some fill dirt to the front yard ditch… wonder if that’s what I’ll be doing in the morning!!! After that it is fertilizer and seeding time.

Ben enjoying some April sun

Today has been a happy day. I start a new job next week so I decided to leave my last job last Friday to enjoy Spring Break at home with the family (unpaid of course). After a long day in the yard, I should be getting ahead in my online MBA class, but I can’t help thinking about how happy I am about Ben’s upcoming therapy plan.

It’s been almost five years since the day Holly emailed me in Iraq in August of 2006 to tell me that she was 100% positive our son Ben had Apraxia. While we’ve had glimmers of hope in his treatment, right now is really the first time I’ve felt good about Ben’s overall treatment team, therapy hours, and prognosis! We were very scared at the beginning of the year that Ben was not getting the right therapy by the right people and he would soon be too old to receive a majority of the benefits of recognized Apraxia speech therapy techniques (which should have begun for him at two years old but only began about two years ago). We were almost to the point of moving to Stafford when I got the call about a government job right here in Charlottesville. Not wanting to commute an hour and a half, we decided to try one more time to find a qualified private therapist to oversee Ben’s therapy.

I’d say we got lucky, but all I could really think is that we didn’t try hard enough when we moved here. After just two phone calls, I ended up speaking with Christine Evans of Evans Family Speech and Hearing, LLC. Based in Richmond, Christine meets clients in Charlottesville twice a week near Pantops and has experience treating Apraxic children. We quickly got a consultation scheduled and the very next week. Christine confirmed her theory during an full evaluation that Ben’s errors had become very consistent and could greatly benefit from the Hodson Approach. On top of that, she was able and willing to attend the IEP meeting for Ben at Ruckersville Elementary School last week!

This was not the only great news for us. In our search for Christine and realizing we would be staying locally, I began asking more questions of our school speech pathologist. Ms. G is a new SLP this year and just graduated from JMU last year (for her Masters). While I never doubted she was a good therapist, I was under the impression from my first conversation with her that she did not know much about Apraxia or how to treat Apraxia. In our most recent talks, it turns out she had been doing the things I was looking for all along. She was using the Kaufman Speech Praxis Treatment Kits for Children. She was using cuing and prompting techniques. Most importantly, she was producing results. We didn’t quite realize this until we spoke with Christine more as well as our January visit to St. Rita School for the Deaf in Cincinnati, home of the Sign N’ Say school for Apraxic children. Sign N’ Say confirmed that Ben was age appropriate and would compare with their late 1st grade students who have dedicated Apraxia SLPs and even use sign language to supplement their communication skills.

The final piece of the puzzle was the IEP meeting. For those that do not have a special needs child (of any degree), the IEP is the Individualized Education Plan that forms a contract between the school district and our son to provide specific, appropriate treatment in the least restrictive environment. Since moving to Greene County, I do not have one bad thing to say about the school board, Ruckersville Elementary staff, or the process. They have always been responsive and willing to take the next step. The problem has been the same issue faced by many parents of Apraxic children: the appropriate therapy for Apraxia is not always well known and treatment is not consistent throughout the educational system. Part of this revolves around the simple fact that not all Apraxic children have the same issues, but it is also because many educators and therapists are not on the same page when it comes to how Apraxia affects learning and how it should be treated. That is why I volunteered to assist the Cherab Foundation; I wanted to help change that.

Our IEP meeting was a great success. Holly and I formulated a list of our concerns based on hours of research and consultation. The director of Special Education for Greene County attended the meeting (I invited him to attend earlier in the month) and I believe his presence really helped as well. We had a great discussion about Ben’s capabilities and even worked to move him to the main stream classroom for the full day minus his one of one speech therapy and reducing occupational therapy sessions. We’ve uncovered a lot of new information this year and the school was really willing to incorporate that for the next school year. One thing I’m very happy about is the inclusion of a ‘total communication approach’ that will incorporate low tech and high tech communication aides such as a letter strip (so Ben can point to the letter a word starts with when somebody can’t understand him), WordQ to help predict words and help with spelling and reading, and other options to be explored. On top of that, we were able to connect our private speech therapist with the school therapist so that they can work off of each other and reinforce each other. I can’t be happier about that! I also want to send one more thank you to Christine Evans for coming to the IEP meeting and also for the hour long private session she held at our house afterwards!

With all that Holly and I learned through this process, we really want to share with other parents that may be in the same situation. Look for more postings about the topic. I’m also considering a more comprehensive article for use on the Cherab Foundation website (after thorough review by the board of advisors of course) and possibly submitting the story to Albemarle Family (I spoke with them about this possibility last year).

I close with a small summary of Ben’s upcoming therapy sessions:

Ruckersville Elementary School:

Speech Therapy: One-on-one sessions and in-class support for six 20 minute sessions totaling 1 hour and 20 minutes a week

Occupational Therapy: 30 minutes weekly focusing on pencil grip and proper handling of eating utensils

Private Therapy:

Evans Family Speech and Hearing, LLC: 30 minutes weekly. May move to two sessions if necessary.

Happy Horse Hippo: 30 to 45 minutes weekly to focus on physical therapy and core muscle development while incorporating some speech therapy activities while riding a horse (hippotherapy). This work with Ann Tuzson PT, PhD, is not only fun for Ben, but I really think he’s gained confidence and some definite throwing and catching ability! Sessions are held at Hidden Creek Farm in Ruckersville, VA

Dietary Supplementation:

ProEFA – Essential Fatty Acids – 2000mg daily (two pills in the morning)

Nutriiveda – created as a dietary shake, this powder has been shown to give great improvements to children with Apraxia as described by numerous parents at the Pursuit of Research website. We try to get this to Ben daily, but he fluctuates on his willingness to drink the shake. It goes in spurts.

Considerations: we try to stay fairly dairy free (one cup of yogurt will give Ben a runny nose for days and the same with most other dairy as well) but we’re considering trying a gluten-free diet as well. Thoughts?