Shenandoah Valley, part II

Grandma Schrock's family - the Grove Weavers - gathered in Harrisonburg this week for a reunion and to visit ancestral landmarks in the Shenandoah Valley.

Here the family explores a cemetary near Weyer's Cave, VA, in which are buried Ramont's great-great grandparents.

Grandma Schrock (far right) and her four living siblings stand behind their grandparent Groves' gravesight.

Shenandoah Valley

This week: Harrisonburg, Virginia.

We're visiting Ramont's brother, Radell - a farmer who sells vegetables and fruit in the local market and through a community-supported agriculture venture.


This gigantic pepper ended up getting stuffed for dinner on Radell's balcony-with-a-view.



Ramont's parents just bought a house in Harrisonburg! We took an informal look at it this morning.


The view at the end of their lane:

MCC Orientation

As will become increasingly clear on this blog, we are preparing for another assignment with Mennonite Central Committee--leaving for the willage of Charagua, Bolivia on August 12 to work with vater and other community/social development issues.


We recently attended two weeks of MCC orientation in Akron, PA, where we discussed issues

of relief, development and peace-making; lived in beautiful willage-inspired rooms; were fattened up with excellent food; met some rather inspiring folks; and discovered that MCC types generally have three children, spaced precisely two years apart.

Harder Schrocks in the willage

We were in Mountain Lake (MN) the first week of July, visiting with Liz' entire family. David and Rachel moved to Kansas then, leaving us with the folks, Willmar, Hannah, and the three monkeys (Elias, Amos, and Reuben).
Besides eating well and drinking terere copiously, we moved all our possessions into the attic, fished and played croquet tirelessly with Elias,

and even baled some hay.

Harders hit the vater

The Leo and Gladys Harder (Liz' grandparents) family gathered at Shavehead Lake (IN) at the end of June for a weekend of visiting and playing on/in the water. Ramont was the best wake-boarder around (except Uncle Wes), as the first photo shows. The rest of us were happy to fly around and crash together on tubes behind the boat.

Last days at the seminary

At the end of June, we left AMBS for good--both with excitement for what's ahead and with some regret for leaving a good life behind. Here Ramont mows lawn for the last time:


We picked some last (early) produce in the drizzle of our last evening: big red potatoes, onions, sugar peas, basil, cilantro, and four large, beautiful cucumbers.


And it's off to Minnesota (with all our earthly possessions filling about 1/4th of the U-haul)!