Troubleshooting common problems in the off season

Images of houseplants abound on social media outlets today. We’re encouraged to have conservatory corners, living walls and plants hanging from our ceilings en masse. But achieving that indoor green look is sometimes easier said than done. To help you succeed, we’ve compiled a list of the top mistakes plant lovers of all skill levels often make.

Bad Lighting
This may be the number one issue plant collectors face. Every plant has to be grown in the right location in your home or it is a waste of time and money. Low light means no direct light should reach your plant. A low-light plant has to live a few feet away from a direct light source and can survive in mostly artificial light. A high light plant needs at least three hours of direct sun daily.

A Too-Small Pot
New plants should be transplanted into fresh pots that are at least two inches larger than their current pot’s diameter. It’s also a good idea to repot with new potting soil. If the plant hasn’t had proper care then problems are less likely to develop with a root and leaf washing and new soil. A pot with a drainage hole is best. Cover the drainage hole with a stone to prevent soil from washing out the bottom. When your plant starts to look top heavy or there is no more room in the pot, you need to transplant it again. As a rule, transplant in spring when the growing season is beginning again.

Improper Watering
Most folks have a tendency to overwater house plants, especially in the winter. It’s a good schedule to check on your plants weekly by using your finger. If the soil feels damp to your touch an inch deep into the pot, you are probably fine and can skip the chore this week. If it’s dry to the touch, time to water. Don’t attempt to trick your plant by leaving water in the saucer for it to water itself later. Plants sitting in water often get rotten roots. Also, to know how much to water, it’s helpful to know where your plant originated. For example, a tropical plant will be used to drowning rains with periods of dry spells but desert plants—such as cacti, succulents and euphorbias—need less water.

Lack of Nourishment
If you don’t transplant your plant and give it new potting soil regularly, you can be sure it will need some supplemental feeding. Grow sticks are easy; just add to the pot and they are time-released. I use a small amount of compost (one cup per 18-inch diameter pot) on top of my houseplants just like my garden plants. Concentrated liquid fertilizers are an easy choice and go a long way. I also have found my fiddle leaf fig performs much better on a weekly diluted concentrated fig food.

Overlooking Pests
Mealybugs, whiteflies and spider mites are the most common intruders. Mealybugs look fuzzy and leave a shiny sap on the surface of the plant. Whiteflies fly around the plant when you disturb it. Both mealybugs and whiteflies can be treated by washing the plant thoroughly with an insecticidal soap—either homemade (4 cups of water, 1 tsp of dish soap) or store bought. Wash all parts of the plant in the shower, from the tops and bottom of leaves to the stems and stalks. It wouldn’t hurt to get new potting soil as that could also be infested. Spider mites make a web and will quickly kill a plant. If you have a particularly bad pest problem, neem oil is effective, but I would be cautious using it inside and it has an unpleasant odor.

Misting the Wrong Plants
There is no cookie cutter answer here so again, do your research. Tropical houseplants may love misting. If you have a fern in your master bathroom and it gets misted when you shower, adding more mist may be overkill and it may suffer from rot. Plants with fuzzy leaves, such as African violets, hate misting. The incredibly popular fiddle leaf fig also is not a misting fan. Neither is your jade plant.

Not Enough Humidity
Leaf curling, yellowing and brown edges on leaves can all indicate a lack-of-humidity problem. How can you fix this if your plant isn’t a mist lover? Make a humidity tray! Place a saucer or baking sheet filled with stones and water underneath your struggling plant. As the water evaporates into the air the plant receives additional humidity. Just like we get drier skin in winter your plants may like a humidifier in the room too. Grouping your plants for display in your home also increases humidity levels as the plants transpire into the air.

Temperature Trouble
Move your houseplants away from large windows and doors that are not only cold to the touch but also drafty. Also keep them away from your fireplace and heat vents. You may find you need to move your plants to a different room of your house to help keep them well. During the winter, wipe their leaves top and bottom with a damp paper towel if they get dusty. This will help them photosynthesize better in that season’s lower light.

Forgetting to Share
When you really get the passionate about plants, you’ll want to have more of them! A lot of house plants should be divided when transplanting. Some sprout easily from cuttings placed in water, such as Swedish ivy (Plectranthus australis), for example. Others like to be stuck into continuously damp soil to grow new roots. Do the research and figure out what your plants need. You’ll know you are a bona fide plant lady (or gentleman) when you have house plants you are propagating and caring for on every surface possible in your home as well as sharing “plant babies” with your friends.

Recognizing and Defeating Boxwood Blight

Sometimes heralded as the “Aristocrat” of hedging topiaries, boxwoods have held the limelight as a favorite shrub for centuries. They are prized as a slow-growing, easy-to-maintain ornamental that looks as picturesque in tidy, trimmed rows of historic, formal gardens as it does gracing the porch steps around farmhouses and community buildings.

For many home gardeners, boxwoods are a timeless American tradition, recalling sentiments of days gone by. In fact, they arrived in what we now call the United States sometime around the 1650s, before it was even an independent nation. Many European immigrants traveling to the New World carried boxwood cuttings with them, and they made a strange new place feel more like home. But these highly cultivated bushes actually have an even longer history as a decorative landscape plant. Archaeologists have discovered evidence that boxwoods were trimmed and shaped to adorn the pyramids of the ancient Egyptians in 4,000 B.C., making it the oldest known ornamental shrub in the world.

There are over 200 varieties of stately and versatile boxwoods, each with their own unique shapes, leaf characteristics, and growth potential. Unfortunately, all of them are vulnerable, some more than others, to a fast-acting and deadly disease known as boxwood blight.

Boxwood blight spread rapidly through Europe in the ’90s, ravaging centuries-old historic gardens. Finally in 2011, it made its long-dreaded arrival in America, first in Connecticut and North Carolina. Today, it exists in almost every state, and has taken a toll on the gardens of homeowners and historic estates alike.

A “blight” in plant science is a rapidly progressing fungal disease that causes chlorosis (loss of green coloration), browning, and if untreated will lead to the death of plant tissue. For boxwoods, the fungal spores that cause the blight are highly transferable, very sticky, and can be spread from nurseries, plant clippings, and even contact, before the bush is showing symptoms. The pathogen thrives in warm, wet environments, and spreads most rapidly from July through September, though it can be spread and contracted all year long. The most noticeable symptom of boxwood blight is sudden and fast-acting defoliation, or the loss of leaves.

This defoliation is exactly what alerted Lynchburg resident Lisa Richards to the problem in July of 2016. Richards installed English boxwoods around her home as soon as it was built in 1995. She had some small ones, and some as big as eight feet tall. Unfortunately, she was one of the first in the region to deal with the devastating effects of boxwood blight.

It all started when she purchased some new shrubs from a big box retailer in order to fill some holes in her landscape. She planted the young bushes and mulched heavily. The very next day, she noticed that two of her boxwoods had begun to turn brown and lose leaves. Of course, at the time not much was known about boxwood blight, so Richards assumed that the mulch was the guilty culprit. She went out of town for a few days, and when she returned home, she found that the defoliation had spread.

“It looked like someone had taken a blow torch to them,” said Richards. She spoke to a friend who suggested that the blight may have been responsible for the damage, and when Richards sent samples out to the state lab for testing, her suspicions were confirmed. She contacted professional horticulturalists who came to her property, dug up all of her boxwoods, and even removed and replaced the existing soil. “They wore hazmat suits and did everything they could to contain it,” Richards explained. “But a squirrel, a dog, or a neighbor can carry the spores from one yard to another.”

Richards ultimately lost 60 boxwoods in total, and now, there are very few healthy ones left in her Boonsboro neighborhood.

Horticulturalists have responded to the threat of boxwood blight with a tremendous effort to develop a whole new selection of bushes that don’t fall prey to blight, or even other serious boxwood problems, such as leafminer insects. While the classic English varieties with their tightly packed, oval-shaped leaves are extremely vulnerable to blight—and American varieties are also at great risk—many Asian cultivars are more disease-resistant.

Saunders Brothers, a family-owned nursery in Nelson County, is one of the largest providers of boxwoods and topiaries in the southern United States. They had the blight on their radar long before it came to our shores, and once it did, they began conducting extensive research into identifying and propogating the most disease-resistant boxwood cultivars possible. In fact, since Richards replanted her landscape with Green Beauties from their nursery, a Japanese cultivar genetically bred to stand up to the aggressive blight, she says that her yard looks wonderful again.

In addition to offering many of the well-known Asian varieties, Saunders Brothers has developed what they are calling “NewGen,” which are bred to closely resemble the English classic, but have a strong resilience against blight, and hold up to leafminers even better than some of their resistant contemporaries.

Boxwood blight thrives in wet, rainy conditions with temperatures between 60 and 77 degrees. As we enter into late summer and early fall, conditions for the growth and spread of blight are ideal. Saunders Brothers has really been a driving force behind defeating boxwood blight, and the tips we’re about to share have come straight from Bennett Saunders himself.

If you believe you have a plant that has become infected with blight, consider these practices to rid the disease from your yard, and prevent it from spreading:

• If you live in a rural area, the best way to get rid of blight once and for all is to burn the infected plants on site. Fallen leaves and stems carry the disease and can be easily transported by people and animals, so avoid moving it as much as possible. A flame torch will do the trick.

• If burning is not an option, wear disposable gloves, and carefully gather all infected plants into plastic bags before transporting them to the landfill. Be sure to contain the material to prevent spreading as you drive through town.

• After you have removed the diseased boxwoods, avoid replanting in the same spot for at least a year. The fungal spores can survive under the soil, but grow weaker and die off as time passes.

• Thoroughly clean and sanitize all of your tools and clothing after working with infected materials.

If you’re looking to add boxwoods to your home landscape, here are some great planting tips to help ward off diseases and keep your boxwoods healthy and happy for a very long time:

• Plant Selection: Choose a disease-resistant variety. Saunders Brothers’ website offers a complete list of options that will stand up to blight and leafminers. (See box at bottom of page.) If you purchase from a local nursery or big box store, ask if they participate in the extension agency’s boxwood sanitation practices to ensure you are not purchasing infected plants.

• Proper Planting: Choose a spot with good drainage, where rain water doesn’t pool up or linger. Dig a hole twice as wide as the root ball of your new boxwood, and allow the top of the root ball to sit about two inches above the soil surface. This elevation will need to be maintained over time to ensure proper drainage.

• Mulching: Saunders said that the importance of mulching cannot be overstated. In addition to a host of other benefits, mulch minimizes the splash of spore-contaminated rain water onto the leaves of nearby plantings. Rain water transfer is thought to be the most common way that the blight spreads. Mulch also creates a physical barrier between infected, fallen leaves and healthy plants. Light layers of mulch should be added every year, preferably in early spring. Choose a well-aged mulch option, and surround your plant with mulch of about one inch deep.

• Watering: Soak the root zone of the new boxwood thoroughly as soon as planting is complete. Then water on an as-needed basis to help it through periods of drought.

With proper sanitation practices, stronger boxwood varieties, and a little common sense, boxwood blight can be eradicated from your yard and your neighborhood. Eliminating this disease is the best chance we have at preserving existing boxwood plantings and continuing the tradition of boxwoods in the landscape. Doing your small part in your home landscape will have great and lasting effects on the state of boxwood health in your community.

Tons of helpful tips and information, as well as interesting boxwood and boxwood blight facts, can be found at the Saunders Brothers website, www.newgenboxwood.com.

Abstract Artist

Lynchburg Living Editor Shelley Basinger: When did you first start painting?
Sunshine Lewis: I started painting in 2008. I had been painting for fun alongside my close college roommate and friend. When she passed away later that year, I had such a deep loss and I kept at it. I realized it was a great outlet for me.

SB: Art is so healing. How did you end up where you are now?
SL: Art found me—I wasn’t looking for it. I believe creativity has the power to heal and is beneficial for everyone. I look back at my art and I’ve grown into my style. It has evolved and changed over time just like I have. It’s been a great tool and a gift to me. I’ve always loved texture and layers that build upon one another. The more I painted and the more mistakes I made, the more I learned. I figured out what worked for me and what I really love. At the urging of friends and family I reluctantly started to put myself out there more and started selling. The more I sold, the more confident I became. I realize art is subjective. Not everyone “gets” abstract art. And that’s ok. I have had people ask me, “What is this?” and I’ll reply, “Whatever you want it to be.”

SB: Do you enjoy doing commissions?
SL: Yes! But only if they allow me creative liberty to make most of my own decisions. I’m okay to ask them for a broad idea of colors and movement. But if there is a client who has too many specific ideas then I am not the artist for them.

SB: You also work closely with the interior design community. How has that helped you take your artistic career to another level?
SL: I decided to send emails to local interior designers whose work I’m drawn to. Eventually it paid off. I’m honored that they would want to use my work, it gives me another foothold in the market and exposure, too. They put my art in such beautiful spaces and it just comes alive.

SB: Your art is full of color and texture. What inspires you to create?
SL: I’m inspired by music, nature, old books, the texture of old brick walls, the sea, and traveling. I can find inspiration in many places and things.

SB: Aside from long days painting, what else keeps you busy?
SL: When I’m not painting, I’m hanging with my three boys and husband. We love to be outdoors at the lake and love to travel. I’m also a birth worker and come alongside families to help them prepare for birth and achieve their birth goals.

SB: Sounds like you don’t have a lot of free time on your hands! What’s next for you? Is there anything you want to accomplish in the coming years, either in your art or in life in general?
SL: I’m looking forward to focusing on a new collection and taking some time off to focus on filling up my online store.
More travel. More experiences. More inspiration.

Get in Touch
Website: www.sunblewis.com
Instagram: sunblewis

I don’t like to go camping.

There. I said it.

I remember when I broke the news to my now-husband when we were dating. I wanted to tell a little white lie—“Yeah, sure, camping’s pretty cool”—but I had to come clean to a man I knew loved everything about the outdoors. Thankfully, it wasn’t a deal breaker, and he has only made me tent-camp with him once. (I survived, but just barely.)

Even though I’m not a fan of overnight camping, I absolutely love spending an evening outside around a fire and eating delicious food. What’s great about our cover story, “Camp Cuisine,” is that it caters to both ends of the outdoorsy spectrum. On one end, you have contributor Mikael Blido (who is known to thru-hike with his wife Traci) and on the other, high-maintenance people like me who would prefer to get the outdoor experience wrapped up by about 9 p.m. Be sure to check out Mikael’s five simple recipes in our Taste department.

The best way to spend some time around a campfire? Tell a few spooky stories. It is getting closer to Halloween after all! We had a blast working on our This City feature with Woody Watts, founder of the new group Hill City Paranormal, to give an update on the Rocking Cradle House legend that dates back to the 1800s. (And, spoiler alert: THE HAUNTED CRADLE IS BACK… well, maybe.)

Another one of my favorites this issue is our feature on Kuumba Dance Ensemble. Founder Sheron White and I actually reconnected for this story, as she helped me out when I participated in Dancing with the Lynchburg Stars years ago. Sheron was a breath of fresh air then, and still is today, and she hasn’t slowed down one bit. Hear how her group is continuing to grow, even during a pandemic, in our Art department.

Whether it’s dance, campfire food, spooky stories—you name it—it’s important now more than ever to gravitate toward the things in life that bring us joy. For me this fall, that will mean being intentional about disconnecting from social media (and negative conversations), and heading outside to enjoy Central Virginia’s beautiful evenings.

(But at 9 p.m., I’m coming inside to go to bed.)

All My Best,

Shelley Basinger, Managing Editor
Shelley@lynchburgmag.com

Before the mercury drops, mark these items off your home to-do list

Heating & Cooling

Change your air filter monthly. “One of the leading causes of break downs are dirty air filters,” says Brandon Brown of Browns Heating and Air. He suggests setting a reminder on your phone for the first of the month to change filters. This will help your system work better and easier overall.

Line up a full system maintenance. This will clean your system inside and out. “A normal home HVAC system runs more than a car does per year and needs to be cleaned and maintained like a car needs its oil changed,” says Brown.

Fill gas or oil tanks. Do this now, “before cold hits and prices go up,” Brown says. It’s also a good idea to check on your gas logs and get them serviced if needed.

Have your ducts professionally cleaned. Brown says this is suggested for older systems that have been installed for a while. “This gets rid of all dust, dirt, mold spores and toxins in the duct system you breathe,” he says.

Exterior Upkeep

Check your roof for damaged shingles. According to All Phase Roofing and Construction, while roof damage happens throughout the year, the rough winter seasons in Lynchburg can be especially tough on your roof. Repairing damaged shingles now can prevent leakage once snow starts falling.

Clean and repair your gutters. This task needs to happen after all of the leaves have fallen and when temperatures are still above freezing. “If you [miss] cleaning gutters in the fall, you may have issues going into winter,” says The Brothers that just do Gutters on its website. “These issues are not always evident in the winter because your gutter is frozen, but during the first thaw they’ll show. The excess debris in your gutters that was not cleaned prior to winter will result in a sort of debris popsicle within your gutter system.”

Check around your windows and doors for air leaks. If needed, seal the leaks with caulk to keep out the cold air.

Inspect and clean your chimney to prevent fires. Statistics show dirty chimneys cause approximately 22,000 house fires each winter. Have a certified professional inspect your chimney annually, and make sweeps or repairs.

Miscellaneous

Store unused lawn care equipment. Local realtor and home renovation expert Dan Vollmer says whether it’s a mower or a trimmer, you should drain all of the gas before you put the equipment away.

Remove and store window screens. This is something else Vollmer does to prevent future, often costly, repairs. “Sometimes the weight of snow can stretch them out,” he says.

Replace smoke detector and CO detector batteries. According to the National Fire Protection Association, house fires occur more in the winter than in any other season, and heating equipment is involved in one of every six house fires.

Cover Buzz
The July/August cover of Lynchburg Living was the most shared to date, particularly because of the familiar faces people saw: “Proud of our boy Patrick Hubble for raising the bar and making the cover of Lynchburg Living,” wrote Foulers Scooter Club on Facebook. “OMG,
@globelady (Kim Soerensen) you are too cute!” said Benjamin Cousins on Instagram.

You’re Welcome
“I just wanted to touch base with you and thank you for the page in Lynchburg Living (“Go With Your Gut,” July/August). I saw it late last week and it’s lovely. We appreciate the opportunity to share in depth with the community on such a large scale. Thank you again!” – Angie Chapman, Nature’s Outlet

Correction
In our July/August issue, we made an error in the Healthcare Hero article (page 59) about Carl Falls, RN. Falls received his nursing degree from Centra College of Nursing, not Liberty University. He received a psychology degree from LU. We apologize for this mistake.

Idea (Holiday) House
Due to some construction delays, we had to bump our 2020 Idea House to the November/December issue. The good news? It gets to become our annual holiday home! Stay connected on Facebook and Instagram for updates about the Colonial-style house, located on Clayton Avenue in Lynchburg’s Boonsboro neighborhood.

Community Outreach
For the fourth year in a row, Lynchburg Living donated to Meals on Wheels of Greater Lynchburg in connection to our annual Lynchburg Restaurant Week (Aug. 1-8). This year, we pledged 25 percent of our sponsorship proceeds to the nonprofit. In early August, editor Shelley Basinger presented a $250 check to the organization’s executive director, Kris Shabestar.
We also want to extend a special thank you to our 2020 LRW sponsor, Forest Hill Endodontics!

Send us an e-mail to shelley@lynchburgmag.com. Correspondents must identify themselves; names may be withheld on request. Lynchburg Living may edit or condense.

A rustic, yet refined, home where self-expression is EMBRACED
photography by Heather Kidd

A record player rests atop a faux fur throw with a vintage record player at the ready. “I collect vinyl—it’s soft, and I like the sound,” Ellen Dorman says of the display on her entry console table. Indeed, softness seems to be a dominant theme in the Dorman family home: everything feels warm and inviting in this space, from the earth tone walls to the abundance of soft throw rugs to the natural wood furnishings. It’s the kind of home that welcomes you the instant you walk through the door.

The front hallway is a vignette unto itself, offering family photos from a few falls ago hanging in charming old window panes beside whimsical paintings of roosters, flowers and cows—a carefully curated homage to what the Dorman family holds dear.

Despite the open floor plan and lofty ceilings, the neutral palette helps the Dorman home feel cozy and intimate. And although her home is dressed in neutrals, it doesn’t feel dull or one-note thanks to Ellen’s expert application of layering techniques. Here, beiges, greys, and creams exist harmoniously beside bountiful textures: wood, textiles, and stone. Stone serves as a stand-out feature that ties together the kitchen and living room of the home.

The muted color scheme works overtime. Not only does it offer warmth, but it also serves as the perfect foil for Ellen’s vibrant gallery walls. Her thoughtful design choices work to draw the eye to these focal points. Each room serves as a sort of gallery revealing vivid expressions of cherished memories preserved in time. From the staircase to the family room wall to the children’s playroom, you’ll see handcrafted collections of family portraits, pastoral symbols and other meaningful moments, each one depicted in brilliant colors.

The layered neutrals, which consist of grays and browns—such as Colonnade Gray, Foothills, and Stone Lion by Sherwin-Williams—are very different from the colors Ellen used in her previous home. “Our last house was completely colorful,” Ellen explains, sharing that she painted every room a different color after living with white walls for many years. “It was a rainbow house!” she adds. When building this home, however, she decided to use a neutral palette instead. “I knew I wanted neutrals so I could easily change out the art… that’s where I bring in color,” she explains.

The Dormans left their earlier (and colorful) home several years ago in search of a halfway point between husband Erik’s workplace in Lynchburg and Altavista Combined School, where Ellen taught art. After spending over a year driving around, attending open houses, and scouring real estate listings, they came upon Evington’s Hickory Hill neighborhood, which ended up being the ideal place for their family.

“It feels like you’re outside of town, but you’re still close to everything—and this lot was woods, and I really wanted a wooded lot,” Ellen says. “We love being outside.”

Surrounded by woodlands, Ellen’s two children are free to play outside to their hearts’ content. Here, they have the chance to engage in good, old-fashioned play: building forts and constructing teepees are just a few of the ways that Ethan and Elliott have fun on the three-acre property. The family often gathers around the fire pit, and the boys play in what Ellen jokingly refers to as their “dirt pile.” She explains that when they were constructing the patio and fire pit, she asked the contractors to flatten out a mound of earth where she had intended to install a swing set. She reconsidered when she saw how much fun the boys had just playing in the dirt. “I thought, ‘Shoot, I’m not gonna ruin that. Let ’em play in the dirt!’” she laughs.

Ellen takes an equally easy-going, child-friendly approach with the interior. For example, the dining room finds itself in regular use, not just on holidays. It’s not your typical dining room. A roll of brown craft paper runs down the center of the table, and instead of traditional dining chairs, stools, poufs, and benches serve as seating. “This isn’t a ‘formal dining room’ unless we’re entertaining at the holidays and whenever we have family over,” she explains. Instead, the room serves as a convenient place for the kids to dabble with colored pencils and paint and engage in art making. And it’s not just for the kids: “Anybody’s allowed to scribble, doodle, or leave notes here!” says Ellen.

The table itself, worn with paint splatters and carved markings, is a remnant from the former Patriotic Peacock art studio in Downtown Lynchburg, where Ellen spent time as an art instructor. It should come as no surprise, then, that Ellen, who spent 13 years teaching art for Campbell County Public Schools, encourages creativity and has designed this space—and this home—as a safe place in which to foster self-expression. “A lot of these pieces tell a story,” Ellen says, such as the family room’s end tables, which were fashioned from wood from her family’s farm in Charlotte County. Although Ellen grew up in Altavista, the farm holds special meaning. As the birthplace of her father, it’s a true homeplace, where the family still gathers for summer cookouts and the traditional Fall Stew event.

Ellen celebrates family life through her artwork—this was even the theme of her senior art exhibit at Emory & Henry (and a few pieces from that show hang upstairs). Even the family pet— a beloved English bulldog—has made it onto a gallery wall in the family room. With its deep leather couches and abundance of throw blankets, the family room feels just as inviting as all of the other spaces, and this is intentional. While Ellen appreciates the modern design aesthetic, she finds the straight lines to be “too stiff. To me they’re not as inviting, and I wanted my home to be user-friendly,” she says.

And user-friendly it is, indeed. Equally rustic and refined, the home epitomizes the Danish concept of hygge—loosely translated as extraordinarily cozy and comfortable. Featuring a stacked stone fireplace that’s topped with rows of candles, the space summons the feeling of sumptuous mountain ski lodge, which is fitting since the Dormans love to spend time in the mountains and on the slopes.

The wing chairs that flank the fireplace belonged to Ellen’s grandmother; the desk is another heirloom piece. This combination of heirloom furniture, original artwork, and natural finishes creates a home that not only tells the story of their family and their history but also serves as a reflection into what they hold dear: memories, comfort, and each other.

200-year-old local ghost story gets 2020 update
photos by Woody G. Watts

Instead of running away from things that go bump in the night, Woody Watts always runs toward them.

“My wife and I even got married on Halloween,” Watts said. “We’ve always wanted to be like the Addams Family, but I think we’re more like the Munsters.”

Watts can trace his love for investigating the unexplained back to his childhood, when he was obsessed with radio dramas and “The Twilight Zone.” He even made his own short films with a VHS video camera. As an adult, Watts combined his love for spooky stories with his knack for creativity and founded Hill City Paranormal in 2019.

“It all began a few years ago when the Academy Center of the Arts began doing their haunted tours around Halloween, and they asked my video company to get involved,” Watts said. “I jumped at the chance and asked if I could bring in my own team to do some investigating.”

But Watts wanted to be official, so he created a logo, website, and Hill City Paranormal’s “Haunted Hotline,” so people could dial in and talk about their own paranormal experiences.

One of the first stories Watts started investigating in Lynchburg was the legend of the Rocking Cradle House on Jackson Street—and now in 2020, there is confirmation by some local experts that the cradle has reappeared.

The house, which even has its own plaque commemorating the legend, has been the subject of a number of eerie stories dating as far back as the 1800s. Built by Bishop John Early in 1834, it became the home for a traveling minister named Smith.

“There are several different versions of the story,” said Christian DePaul of the Lynchburg Historical Society. “And everyone tells the story differently. That’s what makes these stories so interesting.”

The story goes that a woman—who DePaul said could have been a house slave, caregiver or even Smith’s wife—was tending to a baby. They noticed the baby’s cradle was rocking back and forth on its own. Early was quickly alerted and brought to the house. He declared that the cradle was possessed and yelled, “Beelzebub, be gone,” and the cradle stopped. But when he would say, “In the name of Beelzebub,” the cradle would begin to rock again.

The cradle quickly became a tourist attraction in Lynchburg after Early realized that he could control when it started and stopped rocking. Yet, all good things come to an end—even spooky ones. After a few weeks, the cradle stopped rocking for good. However, to make sure it didn’t become possessed again, Early had the rockers sawed off and shoved the cradle into the attic.

According to DePaul, the spooky tales about the house continued. After the Civil War, the house was used as a hospital space and a major began living with a family there. The tale goes that the major suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and, during one of his episodes, the family would lock him in the dining room. Supposedly at midnight, if the dining room doors are closed, they will slowly creak open and the walls will begin to pulse.

Even in the 1980s, renters in the house found an old Fisher Price rocker in the attic—that also began to rock on its own, even with its missing batteries. The renters ran out of the house and never returned after that.

So what happened to the cradle? Well, according to DePaul, it has resurfaced and is currently sitting in a local antique shop while the shop’s owners decide what to do with it. How it got there they don’t want to say, and are staying very private about the cradle for now. But DePaul said he has seen photos of it. Sure enough, both of the rockers are sawed off.

“It’s such a great story,” Watts said. “It’s one thing to hear a story, but it’s another thing to actually find proof.”

Local realtor Betsy Ferguson says she saw the cradle, with its rockers sawed off, last February when working with some homeowners. They told her it had been in their family for many years, and they weren’t sure what to do with it. “I told them to get rid of it,” Ferguson said, describing the feeling she had while inside their home as “creepy.”

Watts visited the Rocking Cradle House on Jackson Street while we worked on this story. It is in foreclosure and a worker who is tearing down old structures inside granted him access. “Honestly, the house gave me a headache,” Watts explained. “I was told no one will stay in it long so they are cleaning it out. Even the worker has heard the stories and gets weirded out working there.”

Watts is hoping they can convince the owners of the cradle to come forward so they can continue tracing back its origin to confirm if it is, in fact, the original cradle from Lynchburg’s Rocking Cradle House legend.

Ghost hunting, Watts said, is about 75 percent history and 25 percent paranormal activity.

“With finding something like the cradle, it’s part of the history of Lynchburg,” he said. “And if it’s out there, that means it’s not the end of the story.”

DePaul said there could be a number of reasons the cradle has survived all these years.

“It could have changed hands or became a family heirloom because they were fearful of it or just kept it out of respect,” he said.

But is it true? Is the cradle truly haunted? DePaul said you need to look at the evidence.

“I always have to do my own investigative work to verify a claim,” he said. “Sure, there are always embellishments and different versions, but when you hear four, five, or six people tell similar stories, you have to think that something may exist.”

That’s what Watts has tried to do as well when looking into other tips sent in to the “Haunted Hotline.” He has calls from all over the country, even from as far away as Alaska. So far, he’s produced more than 70 episodes with new calls coming in each week. Investigations have taken him down to Littleton, N.C., to hunt Big Foot and to near Luray Caverns to talk to someone who says they were abducted by aliens.

“I feel like when the pandemic started, we got a huge surge of calls because people were cooped up in their homes for the first time in a long time,” Watts said. “The pandemic forced people to slow down and finally notice what was going on around them.”

Watts said they’ve fielded calls about anything from haunted stuffed animals to flickering lights to UFO sightings. But mainly, the hotline has given people a safe space where they can talk about their experiences without judgment.

“There’s a stigma associated with talking about the paranormal,” Watts said. “People don’t want to be labeled as crazy and that’s why we introduced the hotline. People could tell their stories to help them talk about it and process it.”

Now that Watts has tapped into the supernatural in the Hill City, he wants to see more people take an interest.

“I think there could be an opportunity here in Lynchburg to talk about this kind of stuff,” Watts said. “I understand that sometimes businesses don’t want to take that approach. But I don’t know. It might be fun to see a plaque here or there that talks about the more [spooky history].”

Other Haunted Tales
in Central Virginia:

The Rocking Cradle House isn’t the only ghostly tale about the Hill City.

“In my experience, Lynchburg has some of the most paranormal activity I’ve ever seen,” DePaul said. “It may have something to do with our involvement in the Civil War and the city’s spiritual roots.”

For instance, during the Civil War a soldier wandered into a house on Pearl Street where a young woman was playing the piano. The soldier sat down in a chair to listen to her play, but when she finished, the young girl realized the soldier had died. The story goes that if that exact tune is played in the house again, the image of the soldier appears in the room.

“People are always skeptical to tell you something like that,” he said. “But there are people who I know and trust who have talked about their own experiences.”

Sweet Briar College in Amherst County has also had its own ghost stories. Over the years, students and faculty have reported sightings of Daisy Williams, the daughter of Sweet Briar College founder Indiana Fletcher Williams, after the girl’s death in 1884.

After a fire in the Sweet Briar House in the late 1920s, a story appeared in the student newspaper that contained reports of faculty and students spotting a woman and a child enter the house and then leave again.

Sweet Briar was even featured in Syfy’s “School Spirits” in 2012. The episode featured student Dani Humphrey, who talked about her ghostly experience while attending Sweet Briar.

At Appomattox Court House, a slain Union Lieutenant Colonel named Augustus Root was known to hang about the grounds. Root was buried in the yard of nearby home, which is now the headquarters for the park. A 1939 postcard dubs the home as “The Haunted House of Appomattox.”

Have you seen or heard something spooky?
Give Hill City Paranormal’s Haunted Hotline a call at 701-HAUNTED (701-428-6833).

County Smoak Finds a Home on Timberlake Road
Photos by Jenna McKenney

You might say that Ken Hess eats, sleeps and breathes barbecue. But lately, he’s not getting much sleep. “I generally get here at six in the morning. By the time we get home, it’s 10:30, 11 [p.m.],” he says.

Ken and his wife Jess have poured all they have into County Smoak, which just opened on Timberlake Road in May. They are both trained chefs, graduating from the Culinary Institute of America. Ken was familiar with Lynchburg, competing here in his first barbecue contest in 2002. They ended up moving to the Hill City in 2016, and Ken worked at several restaurants for the Parry Restaurant Group (including Bootleggers and My Dog Duke’s Diner).

Jess worked at Linkhorne Middle School, which is what led them to their barbecue business. After a food truck backed out of a school fundraiser, County Smoak was born. Last year, they started doing more frequent events, including pop-ups at Stadium Inn. “We got a pretty good following. We would have lines sometimes in the morning. Thirty minutes before, people would start lining up,” Ken explains.

The Hesses looked at spaces to anchor and grow County Smoak for a year before opening up on Timberlake Road next to Tiny Town Golf. When the pandemic hit, Ken was laid off, and that sped up their plans. Their family of five drove straight through to St. Louis to buy a trailer with a smoker that Ken calls “the beast.”
Two months later, County Smoak opened its doors.

In some ways, the pandemic was a great time to open. It’s trained people to do takeout and order online, which is the core of the County Smoak business model. There are a few picnic tables outside, but the majority of orders are to go. If you want brisket or mac and cheese, don’t wait too late in the day—they sell out frequently. The pork sandwich is the number one seller, and Ken says the turkey is very popular as well.

Also, in this polarizing time, the Hesses are glad to see a diverse customer base come together to agree on good barbecue.

“I think we’ve really been able to bring everybody in,” Jess says. “With the right message to people, there is common ground. Everybody can come together and be in a shared space and enjoy the same food and get to know each other.”

A part of the mission of County Smoak is giving back to the community. They started Thankful Thursdays, where they provided free meals to members of the hard-hit service industry. With the help of donations from customers, they were able to expand that to a daily mission. Every night, they take leftover food to people in the Roads to Recovery program, a nonprofit that focuses on those who are recovering from addiction.

“It’s not just about making money. It’s about the community aspect,” Ken says. “Barbecue has always been about community and family.”

County Smoak
7423 Timberlake Rd., Lynchburg
Open 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Wednesday-Sunday
www.countysmoak.com (434) 215-3311

How boot camp workouts work—and why women seem to love them the most

When you first walk into Burn Boot Camp Lynchburg, you’ll notice it isn’t your typical “gym.” There are no treadmills or bulky weight machines in sight. The soft, carpeted floating floor is sectioned off into zones and alongside the walls are a variety of hand weights and lots of bright blue equipment: Burn Bars, ladders, and ropes, to name a few.

No two workouts are the same—but members always know one thing for sure: they are in for a heart-pumping 45 minutes.

“Our whole mindset is to keep moving,” said Tasha McConnell, head coach. “Once you step on the floor, you’re not supposed to stop moving.”

She isn’t exaggerating—when I took a class to fully “research” the topic, I found myself gasping for breath within minutes and shaking from muscle fatigue by the end. But I never stopped moving because the chorus of encouragement from other participants gave me the strength I needed to finish my workout with a smile on my sweaty, exhausted face.

Boot camp–style group fitness classes are becoming a popular form of exercise, especially among women, because of the personalized environment, fat-burning benefit, and natural camaraderie. Workouts vary from gym to gym, but generally they are a type of high-intensity interval training (HIIT), which builds strength, endurance, and agility, according to the Mayo Clinic.

Burn Boot Camp Lynchburg’s workouts are sometimes formatted as intervals or sometimes dictated by one’s own pace. Members get a mix of strength training, metabolic conditioning, speed and agility, and core conditioning each week.

Fit Body Boot Camp, located just down the road in Forest, also follows a HIIT model, with sessions lasting 30 minutes. Head Coach Brenda Brady says that by offering a single type of workout, a boot camp, they attract members who are seeking similar things, resulting in a tight-knit community.

“It’s more than just fitness,” Brady said. “Some people come here for stress relief, some are here for fitness, some are here for the camaraderie with other people. There are so many reasons that people work out, and I think they’re finding that they get what they need when they come here.”

While any workout can be personalized, boot camp–style workouts can be modified to make exercises easier or more challenging without compromising the benefits of certain movements.

“We always have a basic exercise [and then] there’s always going to be a modifier to make it easier, and there’s always going to be something we can give the athlete to make the exercise harder, so we can hit everybody’s level and keep them challenged where they are in their fitness journey,” said Brady.

Another big focus of boot camp gyms is removing as many obstacles as possible.

“We have people who have never had a gym experience ever, and we also offer free childcare,” McConnell said. “We’re just trying to take those hard challenges out of it. That way they can focus on those 45 minutes and really focus on themselves.”

Additionally, two of Burn Boot Camp’s daily camps are for women only. This helps foster a comfortable environment where women can focus on their personal wellness journey and build relationships with and empower, rather than compete with, other women.

“We try not to be competitive,” McConnell said. “We want a focus that is very you-versus-you. … We are very judgment free, but [we] also push their limits at the same time.”

While the relationships between members are apparent, Burn Boot Camp member Holly Howard says she enjoys the environment because she feels like she receives a more personalized experience.

“I’ve actually met a lot of people through [Burn], and … people are motivating. I’ve done a lot of regular gyms, and you don’t get that same thing unless you’re going with a friend,” Howard said. “The trainers that have been here know everybody’s name, so that’s really motivating. … They come and push you to do more.”

McConnell emphasized that there is nothing wrong with traditional gyms, but boot camp gyms offer a unique and motivating atmosphere that keeps people on track to meet
their goals.

“Anybody can get a good workout anywhere. You can go to Planet Fitness and get a good workout, you can work out at home,” McConnell explained. “But it’s that difference of, are you going to work as hard by yourself or in a setting … with people surrounding you who have like-minded goals?”