The Farm, When You “Wanna Get Away”

You don’t have to hop on a low fare airline to get away. Instead, you can hop in your car and drive a few hours up to our property in Amelia County, VA. There were 13 men and teens who drove up to spend the night on March 31st, 2017. Then another van full of 6 showed up on Saturday morning to hang out. As I stood in the bright sunshine on Saturday morning and looked around at all the guys working and having fun I realized that THIS was what we envisioned when we bought the land. We had ideas for what we could do with the property, but experiencing those ideas with other people is what makes it special.

The trip up was cloudy and it rained some, but we got the canopy set up without too much trouble. This was the night that some tornadoes touched down in Chesapeake and Virginia Beach.

We woke up to a beautiful morning. We talked briefly about drawing closer to God through nature, and took some time to walk and reflect. The rest of the day was full of work and weapons. I did spy the occasional cell phone, but for the most part we disconnected from technology and reconnected with the world and with each other. There’s a mounting body of evidence that spending time in nature is good for our brains. I definitely felt more relaxed and at peace, but Davin, my bunk mate, didn’t fare as well. He claims I snored “all night.” Judging by the monumental efforts* we went through to brew coffee on Saturday morning, I wasn’t the only one snoring. (I’m talking to YOU Billy.)

John brought up an arsenal of black powder guns, and those were a hit. We shot some target, and we did a little archery.

We also got some clearing and mowing done. We built a target box, and we made some progress on the outhouse. Good times. We’ll do it again in the Fall, and maybe make it a semi-annual tradition.

* Dani and crew took an empty bottle, filled it with water, and set it in the fire to boil. Then they used a coat hanger to pull it out of the fire and make coffee. Chalk one up for manly innovation.