Rural Thursday - Blog Hop # 19

This amazing home is in Buchanan, Va...I could so easily live there! Took the boys to Buchanan's little theater on Saturday to see Red Tails. It was pretty good. Some of you might remember when I showed you the theater last week or so.

Today is my little girl's last day of high school. Man oh man how those years have just sailed by. Sunday there is a Baccalaureate party for the graduating class at a local church. Then next week is the actual graduation ceremony.

Tomorrow I'll be heading to Jamestown with my boys and their 4th grade classes. Looking forward to that. Rain is in the forecast. Need to buy an umbrella today.

Still having issues with the photo uploads. I have always had my photo size set to large. I don't think I have extra large as an option but if I do, it is checked because I do know that I have it set to the biggest size, always have. All of a sudden a few months ago blogger changed something so that my pictures uploaded smaller, just happened one day without me changing any formatting. I googled the issue and found a way around it by changing the html and that worked. Now it changed again for some strange reason and it won't change the size now by changing html. Yesterday I used Photobucket to upload it but it ended up posting even larger than I wanted and changed the whole look of my blog. I don't have the time right now to investigate this further so for now that's how I'm going to do things but it's just so frustrating to me to not be able to figure this out! And TexWis, you asked me if I was on old or new interface the other day. Once again I've been switched to the new interface. Blogger just changed the interface on me recently, yet again, although this time I have no option to switch back to the old interface.

I don't understand how there can be so many of us on Blogger, yet it's different for some of us....anyway, end of long boring rant about my picture problems!

Did anyone watch the Hatfields and McCoys series on the History Channel this week? It was really good. Incredibly sad story.

Linking up with Rural Thursday!



Updating about the double pictures now lol....I just got done messing around with the html and it worked and is back to normal size again so you'll just have to bear with the double picture post today because I need to remember what I did to change the size lol...but who knows, what worked today may not work tomorrow!

Black & White Wednesday

A garage door in Buchanan, Va

Linking up with B&W Wednesdays





*My pictures are still posting smaller and I am having to manually change some html every time I post now. I didn't change settings so I don't know why it's doing this. Blogger is always changing something on me. I guess I'll need to start uploading from a picture source such as flickr? Is that what you do or do you post it directly from your computer file? I hate having to go through a third party, such a hassle!

Barn Charm Tuesday

Shaver's Farm Road, Fincastle, Va
I don't know why my picture is posting smaller than usual today...another blogger issue?
I played with the html on the photo and it enlarged it....anyone else have troubles with the photo uploading a small size today?

Memorial Day

(window display in Buchanan, Va)

What are your plans today? I have no idea what we are doing yet but it will probably involve water and grilling! Have a good Memorial Day and take a few minutes to remember the reason you are celebrating today :)

History of Memorial Day

Weekend Reflections

You can see a little bit of the town of Buchanan and moi!

Linking up with Weekend Reflections :)

Friday Fences

All that is left of the fence are the fence posts...I pass these posts several times a day, they are right down the road from me. I like the texture of the wood. Linking up with Friday Fences ! Have a great Memorial Day Weekend!!

Rural Thursday - Blog Hop #18

(Christian and Ozzy playing in the creek)

Sunday we spent a few hours at our favorite place on Craig Creek. The water is really high right now which doesn't leave a lot of open area for hanging out. Hopefully by the next time we go the water will be down to its normal levels. We've just been having a ton of rain, which is good so I'm not complaining, really I'm not!

Yesterday there was a bus crash in our county, Botetourt. As soon as I heard about a bus crashing I texted Christian to make sure he was in school as I knew it was a bus carrying middle school and high school children but that was all I knew at the time. Christian texted back that he was. Ashlyn drives herself to school so I knew she was fine. Christian chooses to ride the bus, even though they attend the same school but his sister makes him late if he rides with her. She gets that from me.

As the story developed we learned that there were 39 children on the bus. The bus overturned 2 or 3 times (conflicting stories on this) and landed on its top. 13 children were taken to the hospital, none with life threatening injuries, thank God! The bus driver has been charged with reckless driving. I can't imagine how scary that must have been for the kids. You can see pics of the accident here and read about a remarkable little guy who kept a calm head and helped get the students off the bus!

Linking up with Rural Thursday again! Why don't you join?!!

Black & White Wednesday

Under my umbrella, ella, ella, ay, ay, ay :)

Linking up with B&W Wednesdays!

Barn Charm Tuesday

Another great old barn on Shaver's Farm Road, Fincastle, Va

Go look at some more barns from all over the world by visiting

The Buchanan Grill

Trying to find the history on this little drugstore/grill is nearly impossible. All I can find on their website is "step back in time" but I want more than that, I want to know exactly how far back into time I'm stepping and exactly who is Ransone? Well I still don't know who Ransone is but I did find out that this place is from the 30's and here's a little more that I found:


Botetourt County, Va.: Seven-Inch-tall Burger and a ‘55 AMI Jukebox

“Once you get ahold of it, you don’t turn loose unless you want to eat it with a fork.” That’s Eric Pelton’s advice on how to consume a Big E Burger at the Buchanan Grill in Buchanan, Va.

This flame-grilled wonder rises some seven inches above the plate. Consider the elements: six ounces of freshly ground beef, double cheese, grilled onions, bacon, horseradish, mushrooms, mayonnaise, ketchup, mustard, raw onions, pickles, lettuce and tomato.

Pelton, a former truck driver who took over this Buchanan landmark in March of 2010, says most diners cut the Big E Burger in half or attack it with a fork. “And it’s surprising to me that more women order it than men,” he adds.

The restaurant also plates up what Pelton calls “good old Southern home cooking,” and the booths, counters and floors are original, from The Fountain Grill of the late 1930s. The 1955 AMI jukebox still plays 45-rpm records from the Elvis era, all free of charge to customers. Citizens of Buchanan once bowled in the basement of the building.

In this town on the James River, on the first weekend in April, the 1864 raid by Union General David Hunter is re-enacted, with shots ringing out right in front of the restaurant. The Buchanan Grill, in fact, is the only restaurant I’ve found that features video of a Civil War reenactment on its web page.

For customers visiting in the spring to experience the drama of the Civil War, kayakers floating on the James River, and the many locals whose orders Pelton can predict as they walk in the door, the Big E Burger at the Buchanan Grill on Main Street ranks as one of the Blue Ridge’s most memorable attractions.

Blue Ridge Country .

We ate there a few years back, after the Civil War Re-enactment and have to say that we were a bit disappointed in the fact that they have a soda fountain but we were served cokes from a can. Really? This was before the new owner so maybe they've fixed that now. I mean seriously, you're at a soda fountain, the big thrill is to get your cokes from the fountain! Oh, and they played old I Love Lucy re-runs while we were there, loved that!

The grill is across the street from the Buchanan Theater I showed you a couple of days ago :)

Linking up for the first time with

Friday Fences

These are the kinds of fences I'm seeing a lot of right now, fencing around baseball fields. It's baseball season after-all! That's my Braden up to bat. He and Dalton are on the Greenfield Red Sox while their older brother, out there coaching 3rd, is on the Greenfield Braves. Christian likes to help coach his little brothers' team in between his own games and practices. This game was played at Cloverdale Elementary school last week. We lost but better luck next time boys!

Linking up with Friday Fences!

Have a great weekend :)





Looking for something to do this weekend? Check out the events here!

Rural Thursday Blog Hop # 17

This is the Buchanan Theater in Buchanan, Va. This cute little old theater was built in the early 1900's. I took the boys there to see Puss in Boots not too long back. Tickets were only $5 for adults and popcorn, candy and cokes were only a dollar. I noticed on their website though that they had a slight price increase starting June 1 by just a dollar so it's still a real deal for a night out! The movie Red Tails is going to be playing there in a couple of weeks so I think I'll take the boys to see that one. It was something they had been wanting to see but we just never got around to it.

Linking up with Rural Thursday :)

Black & White Wednesday

Went to the Buchanan Cruise-In last Friday night and saw lots of neat old cars, like this one! Linking up with the Black & White Wednesday ladies!

Barn Charm Tuesday

A different view of last week's barn. Shaver's Farm Road, Fincastle, Va

Check out more barns from all over the world @ Barn Charm!

Green Windows

This building sits on a corner in Nellysford, Va. I don't know what it is or once was and seems to be deserted but I liked those green windows and lights! I also like the shadows on the walls :)

Friday Fences

See? Did I not tell you that Shaver's Farm Road is picturesque? If you walk out over those hills, about 2 or 3 miles, maybe a mile or two more, you would find my house :)

Linking up with Friday Fences

Rural Thursday Blog Hop # 16

This year, year 2012 is the year of the Cicada here in Virginia and in West Virginia. The first time I had heard about this was shortly after we moved to Missouri in 2001 and the Cicadas emerged. We were clueless then, this year we are know-it-alls about the Cicadas coming. I first heard them, the sound is quite loud that they all make, a constant buzzing noise...i guess you could google it if you were so inclined to do so, I wasn't ;)

I don't know much about the Cicada only that they live underground for a very long time, up to 17 years then come up from the underground and look like "exhibit A" (the pic on the left...ok, I know this is a horrible picture but at the time of trying to take this I was also wrestling Ozzy and Ozzy just loves bugs...any kind of bug...unfortunately Ozzy won...RIP Mr. Cicada...and that black blur in the bottom right corner is, you guessed it, Ozzy.)

so anyway....they shed their shell and leave it everywhere, like on trees, by the hundreds...like "exhibit B" the photo on the right. I'm not sure if exhibit A is before or after exhibit B but if you would like to know more on the crazy Cicada you can visit this link Cicada Mania and you can even order stuff like t's, hats and mugs, cool eh?! No, I didn't order any ;)

Well that's what's happening here in my corner of the world and I'm linking up with my pals at Rural Thursday!

Black & White Wednesday

A place to picnic @ Craig Creek....linking up with Black and White Wednesday :)

Barn Charm Tuesday

The boys and I had some errands to run after they got home from school on Monday and because I was in need of some barns for Barn Charm I grabbed my camera and planned to find a few after we finished. The road where this barn sits is Shaver's Farm Road in Fincastle. It's only about 5-10 minutes from my house but I have never taken that road till then, always meant to but always in too much of a hurry. So glad we did. It's a very picturesque road with a few nice barns along the way. There was a great old barn right when we turned onto the road but I wasn't prepared when I saw it so I'll have to go back and get a photo of it :)

And you know, I'm linking up with Barn Charm of course!

It's All In The Name

Seen @ Virginia Beach

Friday Fences

The road that leads to Craig Creek. Linking up with Friday Fences!

Have a good one!

Rural Thursday - Blog Hop # 15

After visiting Waltons Mountain, we stopped @ The Blue Ridge Pig in Nellysford, Va for some yummo pulled pork (Carolina style) sandwiches :)

Linking up with Rural Thursday!

Black & White Wednesday

The pier....Virginia Beach, Va

Linking up with the Black and White Wednesday crew :)

Schuyler Baptist Church

This is the Schuyler Baptist Church which sits near the Hamner Home (The Waltons). I've tried to get info on when the church was built but cannot seem to find anything. It's amazing to me when I research places and they don't seem to think that the age of a building is of any importance. I for one am obsessed with these things and comb the internet trying to find out lol...anyways, I did find a bit of info that this is the church the Hamners attended.

I know it's Tuesday which means Barn Charm but sadly I don't have a barn today and also it's first of the month which is Theme Day for City Daily Photo bloggers and the theme is "Bakeries" and I didn't get out and do that either...oh well!