Country Life

While I continue to note development pressures in Page County - I saw a groundbreaking for a house in a large lot development area on Ida Loop this weekend, for example - once I turn the corner on Marksville Road to head into Hawksbill Cabin's subdivision, dip into the hollow and croos Beaver Run, I know I can count on a quiet and relaxing getaway...at least for now. And that's what I found over the weekend, although I was only out for a short time.

I took a walk on Sunday morning, using a route that Mary often takes, and I have a couple of posts that will come out of it. For this first one, I want to talk about the neighbor's pasture, and the barn down by Jordan Hollow Inn.

Our neighbor keeps a small herd of Herefords, although I didn't see them this weekend (the herd changes every year...'nuff said). He also keeps 8-10 goats there, a donkey, and a horse. The goats are the most amusing of this crowd - often when we drive by, they are all sleeping up in the "manger" of their barn. On Sunday, they'd roused themselves and were moving around in the barn - a little later they moved out into the pasture.

The horse and donkey usually hang together, although on my walk Sunday, the horse was out near the road, leaning over the fence. Mary's encountered her here before, but it was a first for me. She's in the first photo with this post. Unfortunately I didn't have a gift, but I stopped and let her sniff me, then I rubbed her nose.

I walked on past Jordan Hollow Inn to the intersection of Marksville Road. Just north of the Inn is this stream - I think it is the Upper Hawksbill. Last weekend it snowed from 2 to 4 inches in the area, and the streams were swollen from the melt and from overnight rains on Saturday evening.

The Hawksbill was moving swiftly here and downstream in Luray when I checked it out. The story has it that this part of the creek was filtered and used to fill the swimming pool across the way at the Shuler's old place. The pool is now one of Stanley's recreation facilities, very popular in the summertime - it is featured on a little poster we have in the cabin dating from when the facility first went public. Next to the pool is a party hall - I've posted on this before.

The final landmark on this part of the walk is an old red barn next to the stream. If I understand it correctly, this building is on the Jordan Hollow property. It used to house a place where you could take horseback rides around the Inn - there are miles of trails through the woods and over the hills there - and even carriage rides in the area. The carriage rides are all gone now, and the riding place has moved to a new location on the other side of the hill.