Dodson Dig Co - pickers, Greenville-style

Happy Memorial Day!

In celebration of this uniquely US holiday, here’s a look at the newest novelty in Greenville… It’s American Pickers with an auction house, right here in #yeahTHATgreenville! Thursday saw Dodson Dig Co. Nostalgic Finds & Auction House open to great fanfare in the North Main neighborhood.

Located on the corner of Chick Springs and Wade Hampton just minutes from downtown, the family business has found the perfect space for their storefront and auction house; with a spacious auction room that open to plenty of parking, the back section is perfect for events of all types. During the grand opening folk/rock/bluegrass/Americana My Girl My Whiskey & Me was jamming on the stage while The Hog Hauler (from Henry’s Smokehouse across the street) dished up full plates of barbecue. The tables set up inside and out were full, vintage lanterns and burlap sacks keeping with the pickers theme that was evident in all the vintage signs covering the walls.

In the front “The Shoppe’ spans three rooms and has a little of everything: antiques, collectibles, pottery, gas and oil signs – you name it, they got it. Dodson Dig Co takes consignment and will also handle your estate sale, but store hours are limited so check the website or set up an appointment before heading over.

The first Dodson Dig Co auction is scheduled for September 10^th, 2016, but you’ll find the Dodsons out and about before that – check their calendar for details on appearances in Pickens and Asheville Flea for Y’all.

Happy Thanksgiving!

"I am thankful for... my family"

3 Little Pumpkins celebrate Halloween

Happy Halloween!!!

Halloween snuck up on me this year, the need for costumes arriving far before any creativity and initiative was evident from this mom. Luckily we have a big box of costumes lovingly sewn and handed-down from the Seattle cousins, and the older boys immediately found a costume they wanted to wear during our week of festivities. Vilis was the outlier with a costume borrowed from a friend (thanks Holden!!!), and then I hit the stores to find our cats some scary garb. Just kidding, they look like that all year.

The number of Halloween events in the Upstate is growing each year, as evidenced by Kidding Around Greenville’s lengthy ULTIMATE trick-or-treating guide. We stuck to a few familiar evenings such as Enchanted Tracks and Boo in the Zoo, adding in a couple of new events to mix things up. Enchanted Tracks was once again super-crowded, and after hearing a few not-so-nice comments about kids and their costumes I’ve got a suspicion this might have been our last visit; the boys on the other hand loved the evening spent in the “enchanted forest” with all the fairytale characters, as well as their time in the bounce houses, so we’ll just have to see what next year brings. George the Train still isn’t running, and although they gave the kids passes to the bounce house in the Pavilion instead, I have to wonder why the event is still called Enchanted Tracks…

Having been invited to a neighborhood parade and party we suited up again, resulting in a fun morning meeting new friends. With a spookily spectacular treat table, numerous little projects for the boys to craft, and a bounce house (I see a trend) it was hard to pull the boys away, but fortunately we got home just before it started raining.

Luckily the rain paused long enough for the sweetest twins’ birthday party. The bucolic setting had a backdrop of autumn foliage around the pond, the main attraction of the evening a giant screen that had been set up in the meadow. We sated our appetites with a great big bowl of chili next to the bonfire while the kids raced around, settling in at the picnic tables with warm blankets at sundown to watch a movie. It was such a beautiful evening, topped off with delicious cupcakes and sleepy snuggly children…

Boo in the Zoo was a madhouse as always, but once again we had pre-purchased tickets and so avoided the long wait in line to enter the zoo. By arriving a few minutes before it started we also made it in before the rush, guaranteeing the experience wasn’t as wall-to-wall people as it was even 30 minutes later. Although some of the ‘treats’ broke soon afterwards, I still prefer the toys over the sweeter variety, and the boys spent a good bit of time over the following days sorting and playing with their loot. New to the event this year was a cemetery for extinct species – a visual reminder of a few of the species lost forever in only the past decades.

In other news at the Greenville zoo, the new South American Pampas exhibit was unveiled yesterday, featuring the four years-old giant anteater Mochila, or Mo. Weighing in at 90 pounds, Mo is actually pretty medium-sized for a giant anteater. A beautiful mosaic in honor of the previous residents of the enclosure, the elephants Joy and Ladybird, features 1,500 tiles painted by local students.

On our most recent visit we also spotted a few of the new zoo babies, including red panda Willie (named after one of our fave musician’s ‘Red Headed Stranger’ album), baby siamang George and a Solomon's Island prehensile-tailed skink (born last December). Willie doesn’t look much like a baby; born in July, red pandas achieve full adult fur and coloring by the time they are 3 months old. Meanwhile George (born in March) is still clinging to his mother, and the skink looks obviously like a juvenile, despite being ¼ of its adult weight. We still haven’t seen head nor tail of the twin ocelot kittens.

It isn’t just the kids getting dressed up in our neighborhood. The brick house on East Stone Avenue that is completely dwarfed on three sides by the new development has dressed up this year as the movie star from “Up”. Although the balloons weren’t ‘quite’ as impressive as in the Pixar film, the similarities otherwise are there. This historic building is home to several businesses and law offices.

However you may be celebrating Halloween, I wish you and the kids a safe and happy day. Boo-čas y’all!

An Earth Day celebration!

Our Earth Day event had been in the planning for some time. We participate in a monthly co-op down in Piedmont, and I had volunteered to plan the April event with a dozen possible projects in mind. By the time Earth Day rolled around we had narrowed it down to a few activities, and with a car packed full of supplies and kids we headed down to Piedmont, to our good friend Monique’s property.

As everyone arrived we saw our smiles mirrored in each other’s faces, as we were buoyed by the gorgeous spring day after what had been a week of thunderstorms, clouds, rain and even hail. Once mostly everyone had arrived we settled in for a story.

The Earth Book by Todd Parr explored ways that each and every one of us can live a more environmentally-friendly life, including many small but meaningful steps such as using both sides of the paper, turning the lights off when they aren’t in use and bringing reusable bags with to the grocery store. The book is printed with recycled materials and nontoxic soy inks, and it was super-easy to encourage the kids’ participation and get them talking about the ‘green’ things they do at home with the included poster.

The kids were then ready for a hands-on project, so we moved to the picnic tables and rolled up our sleeves to make seed bombs. Jennifer had suggested this activity as a great sensory experience for the little hands that like getting dirty, and it was fun seeing the looks on their faces as we encouraged the mud play! We each got some red dirt in our bowl which we added water to, forming a muddy clay. After adding pollinator seeds to the mix we rolled the product into balls, which we let dry in the warm spring air. These ‘bombs’ can be thrown anywhere – a garden, a right-of-way, the trailside, an abandoned lot – and hopefully in the coming month will grow the native flowers so important to our local pollinators. As the kids mushed and mixed and rolled Jennifer talked about how the hummingbirds, bats, bees, beetles, butterflies and flies are so important to our gardens, forests and crops. Thank you Jennifer for the initiative, the seed, the supplies and the sharing!

As the kids finished up we started right in on the next project, getting seeds started. We discussed how different seeds have different needs: some need more water, some more light, some more space. Some seeds want to climb, while others want to spread. Our local Home Depot donated bio-degradable pots so that the seedlings could later be transplanted into gardens without shocking the plants, and Greater Greenville Sanitation provided us with a rich, dark soil to fill them, and a few different seeds to plant. Padulas Plants and Gardens supplied us with the rest of the seed, giving us such a variety to choose from that the kids really had a chance to discuss what would grow best in the spaces they have available and what they would like to see/eat the most. Top choices were watermelon, sunflower, moonflower and tomato! Thanks also to Lauren for the extra seed – I think it really made the planting more fun for the kids that they got to choose what seeds went into their pots.

There was some free play  before we started the next project, planting trees in honor of Arbor Day (which is actually today, the last Friday of April - happy Arbor Day!!!). Monique had chosen a few seedlings for us to plant on her property, and so we got busy. One crew headed off to scoop some horse manure, while a second got busy digging holes. We mixed the manure and more of the Greater Greenville Sanitation soil in while discussing why we can’t just fill the hole with the good stuff (the tree’s roots will only grow in the super-fertile stuff and eventually become root-bound), the tree species (tulip poplar and western hemlock) and how to protect the tiny seedlings (Our neighbor had donated some garden fencing which will protect the trees from the dogs and lawn mower until they grow bigger – thanks Ms. Susan!).

The kids drifted in and out, leaving the moms to do most of the heavy work… but does it matter? The seeds have been planted – literally and figuratively! Over the next weeks as our little seedlings sprout, grow and get planted in gardens and on porches across the Upstate, there will be dozens of little hands watering them and caring for them, little eyes watching them grow. As the kids return to Monique’s over the next months, maybe years, they’ll be (hopefully) able to witness the trees maturing. And as we watch our little ones grow, we can hope that the love for nature has been planted in each and every one of them, so that they may learn to respect and care for the earth and its resources.

A heartfelt thank you to everyone who helped make this day a reality for the kids, especially Monique, for opening up her home to us every month, to Mr. Leviner of Greater Greenville Sanitation, to Ms. McCarty at Home Depot and to Andrew Padula of Padulas Plants and Gardens!

Snippets of a Greenville Thanksgiving

Some yard work in preparation for the arrival of the inlaws

The leaves are really dropping this time of year

Showing off our favorite spots downtown

Among the beech trees in the Carolina Foothills Garden Club Sanctuary - Falls Park

One-on-one time with the grandparents

Selfie!

The Thanksgiving table

Someone has their appetite back after a being down a couple of days

The upside-down apple pecan pie makes another appearance for dessert

Thanks for coming to visit! See you again soon!

Pedrick's Garden and Falls Park finished

It’s wonderful to see the last portion of Falls Park finished! The southwest portion now includes Pedrick's Garden and the Carolina Foothills Garden Club Sanctuary, a wild(er) section of woods along the Vardry Creek ravine. The more formal Pedrick's Garden is named for Pedrick Lowrey, one of the principal fundraisers for Falls Park, and is located behind the shops on Augusta Street in the West End. Connected to the Sanctuary and Furman Way by a new bridge, the Garden is a series of raised beds designed to resemble sunflowers, including a fountain that looks like the seed head.

The three-acre sanctuary is named for the club that was instrumental in bringing the possibility of Falls Park to the attention of civic leaders. Including a small waterfall, rock staircases built into the hillside and a spring house used by Furman University botany students to grow moss and ferns, the entire acreage was once owned by Furman University. The Furman Arboretum was the first in the state, starting out with 266 trees and rock-lined steps and trails throughout built by the Works Progress Administration.

We descended to Vardry Creek from Furman Way, hauling the stroller down a series of stairs and maneuvering it across the uneven dirt path. We don’t mind off-roading with the stroller as it is light enough to carry for short distances; however the trails are not stroller-friendly and I recommend sticking to Furman Way and taking the bridge at the giant beech tree across the creek to those looking for an easier stroll.

The Sanctuary can be accessed from Falls Park by following the walkway behind the stage. A small bridge crosses Vardry Creek, named for Vardry McBee who is considered a father of Greenville and at one point owned much of the land that is now downtown Greenville.

When Furman moved to its current-day location after WWII, they took some of the plants from the Arboretum with it, and when the side closest to the shops was filled in for a parking lot, creating a steep slope, the Arboretum was all but forgotten.

In clearing the thicket for what was to be the Sanctuary workers found a stone bench and an arch near University Street that are now accessible from the trail. Next to the small waterfall is the springhouse which is closed to visitors but is surrounded by a wall with moss and ferns already growing on it. A dozen beech trees are clearly visible along the ravine, their autumn foliage carpeting the understory.

With cooler temperatures and rain in the forecast the next few days, we’ll be giving thanks for the company of grandparents in from Michigan indoors – which makes me all the more grateful for a few more beautiful fall days spent outdoors here in the Upstate. Wishing all my readers blessings of health and happiness on Thanksgiving!   

The swamp garden

The boys love hands-on outdoor play. Digging in the dirt, making mud pie, pouring water type of stuff. We have the mud kitchen in our backyard, but we are always looking for new places to explore in addition to returning to the tried-and-true. Some of our Greenville favorites include the RMSC butterfly garden and Linky Stone Park, even though neither is meant for digging but more for exploration and observation. We often head to Paris Mountain State Park for outdoor hiking, to pick up sticks and find rocks, but as a State Park digging is frowned upon and lugging a bunch of containers and toys out can be tiresome. However a new spot has gotten our attention as a sort of giant mud kitchen – the Swamp Garden.

I’ve written before about our nearby bakery & locally-sourced grocery, the Swamp Rabbit Cafe & Grocery – here about the store and here about their produce boxes. We often meet our friends at the Cafe because it is a great spot for a short hike on the Swamp Rabbit Trail and a healthy snack afterwards. Picnic tables with shade awnings provide relief from the sun and cool drinks and treats from the store are always a delight. However we always had to be extremely diligent in watching the kids, because in addition to the vehicular traffic there was also bicycle traffic to worry about.

The solution is the Swamp Garden. Its intention is to “provide a free-range play area for small children in order to inspire their curiosity and a love for nature.” A non-obtrusive fence helps corral the kids while plenty of stuff keeps their attention for hours, and really it seems that there’s something new on each visit. It started off small, with stumps and picnic tables for parents to rest while the kids grabbed some of the containers from the shelf to collect hickory nuts or cicada shells. Then the wagon and various tricycles appeared, rendering the kids mobile. The bug cabinet with nets and fake bugs encouraging the capture of real bugs. A sand box ingeniously designed with a hinged lid that can be closed to protect from wandering nocturnal animals but is perfect for sand play. And the simple – a few kid-sized shovels for digging in the dirt and then all the things the kids have found: sticks, rocks, nuts, seeds.

This Halloween the Cafe & Grocery hosted Little Monsters Night on Halloween. With a scavenger hunt, pin-the-spider-on-the-web, story time and all sorts of other fun stuff, the boys had yet another chance to show off their costumes and play with friends. Wouldn’t you know it, despite all the arranged activities and their costumes, all they wanted to do was dig holes and pull that wagon around!

The swamp garden is what your kids make of it, just like the little library housed in the miniature house next to the picnic tables. I suggest stopping in to grab a fresh scone and coffee from the cafe, and then settling in for an hour or two while the kids play. Enjoy a brisk autumn day (or even a hot summer one as the mature trees provide plenty of shade) with friends and let them do their thing – be kids and dig holes.

Trick or treat?

Several friends mentioned waiting expectantly with a bowl full of candy for the trick-or-treaters that never appeared this Halloween. While I can’t say we didn’t get any masked characters at our door, it is only because the group caught us on our way out the door to go trick-or-treating ourselves. They piled out of the car and hit up a house or two that had lights on before jumping back into the car and continuing on to what I can only assume were greener pastures. We bundled up, turned the porch light off and headed out ourselves: one dashing pirate, one little firefighter and one pumpkin-turned-hipster after the latest blowout.

This is our third Halloween at this house; we had barely moved in on the first, and on the second I stayed home again to hold down the fort while the boys scavenged for candy. Both years we had around 50 trick-or-treaters which I thought a good amount. However I was in for a shock, because the crowds we saw just a short walk from our house were unbelievable – one could barely walk through the crowd with a stroller, much less maintain visual contact with all members of our party at all times! The residents had gone all out with live music, fire-eaters, gigantic decorations and buckets upon buckets of candy. There were lines of children at each front door, people sitting on their stoops handing out treats as fast as they could. While accompanying Mikus I heard more than one adult request candy, supposedly for the kid “too tired” or “sick at home.” Although the majority of children had costumes (some so elaborate I wonder at the time spent making them!) there were also those with just a bandana, a mask, or nothing visible that could be defined as a costume. All in all we didn’t stay long in the chaos; the boys were having fun people watching, but it was really just too much – I wonder if the people living in these houses really enjoy shelling out a few hundred bucks on candy when they don’t even have a chance to enjoy the costumes of those coming to their door… I felt bad that we were joining in the fracas while there were neighbors sitting at home, waiting for the bell to ring.

the band is playing on the left and the lady swallowing fire is on the right

So we walked home, trick-or-treating as we went. Those homes with porch lights on welcomed us with outstretched hands full of candy for the boys, as they had seen few children all night – very hard to believe with the costumed masses just up the street. When we got home the boys poured out their haul onto the table, where mom and dad took a look (and a small fee) before selecting one piece and then heading off to wash the mustache and chocolate off. A very nice evening, as the weather cooperated and the boys had tremendous fun.

It was during the night that we got our biggest surprise… snow! During moments awake with Vilis I heard the wind howling and even hail on the roof, but with sunlight we saw the white stuff had lingered in shadier spots as it tends to do. Lauris and Mikus downed their breakfast in record speed while I emptied the front closet in search of snowpants and gloves that fit (it was the first time the boys even wore their winter hats this season). Luckily we got them out the door in time and they had just enough time to soak through their shoes and get a few well-aimed snowballs in before it melted.

Vilis made it outside for a few minutes too, as this was his first snow. He wasn’t impressed.

And today the temperatures are back up to 70 degrees… Who knows what tomorrow will bring? 

BOO!

Happy Halloween!!!

This year the list of Halloween activities for kids grew by a mile; there was absolutely no shortage of things to do, places to haunt or spooks to see. The local family website Kidding Around Greenville gives a good idea of the options with their 2014 Ultimate Halloween List – crazy, right?

We opted to go back to Greenville Zoo for yet another year of Boo in the Zoo. Once again, remember to buy your tickets beforehand in order to use the “fast lane” to get in and go the first week if possible; this is helpful in avoiding the lines. The night we went we would have done well to go later in the evening, as the crowd had thinned out by then.

I like that the treats handed out at the zoo are a balance of treats and trinkets, but be warned that the trinkets aren’t made to last. And I know that Pepsi is a local company, but what kind of message are we sending the kids by handing out cans of Pepsi at the zoo? Luckily Lauris and Mikus understood when we said that the organizers wanted to make sure the adults get a treat…

Next up was Enchanted Tracks, the Greenville County Rec event at The Pavilion. Complete with trick-or-treating in a forest filled with fairy tale creatures, bounce houses and all sorts of games, this was much more crowded than last year and luckily we arrived not long after it opened and were able to avoid the lines for the fairy tale forest. George the Train wasn't running due to required maintenance on the tracks, but he should be back up and running in the next few months. Thank you to Macaroni Kid for the tickets!!!

A local group hosted a fun get-together during the week, with a parade, piñata and plenty of friends to race around with. If we only did one Halloween-themed activity next year, I wish we could come back to this party.

And finally, tonight’s the night! I am forgoing my handing-out-candy duties here at the house this year so that I can join the boys out trick-or-treating. Be on the lookout for the pirate, firefighter and pumpkin, and make sure to save a Reese’s for their mom!

PS The boys requested to see their costumes for the last few years, and I enjoyed seeing how they’ve grown! Here is Halloween 2011 (in France), Halloween 2012 and Halloween 2013.