Lunch With the Ladies — Janet Szabo

On Monday, six of us met at a local assisted living facility to have lunch with one of the women from our church who lives there now. We’re hoping to make this a monthly occurrence. We used to do this about 20 years ago—DD#2 was in kindergarten at the time—when a group of us met monthly at another facility to have lunch with the mother of one of our members. Margaret probably remembers, as she was part of that group. The assisted living centers are quite happy to accommodate us.

We had a lovely time. The facility set us up in a private dining room and for $5, each of us got to have lunch. We chose our menus ahead of time. I had glazed ham. We visited and caught up with each other. I love these women. They are a wealth of knowledge and encouragement and they are the ones who taught me to quilt.

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I spent most of yesterday morning working on Mountain Brook Homestead Foundation stuff. I had to add information to the website and also send out a few administrative-type e-mails. I am chairman of the plant sale that will be held in May. We have our spring pie social at the beginning of May, and Sunnie is coordinating the Community Yard Sale that will be held at the end of June.

For the past two years, the Homestead Foundation has hosted a Garden Tour fundraiser, but we were having trouble getting people to agree to participate in a third one. Not everyone is willing to have strangers tromping through their property. I suggested that we contact Kim and Dave, owners of a nearby property, to see if we could partner with them for an event. Kim—who has a wealth of nonprofit fundraising experience and is a delight to work with—responded enthusiastically. We are planning a “Picnic at the Plaid Swan” for August 5.

Locals may recognize Plaid Swan as the former Avalanche Ranch. The 60-acre property is located about half a mile up the road from us and has an interesting history. Back in 1999, the husband and his then-business partner got the contract to build a guest house, a caretaker’s house, two guest cabins, and a barn on the property. They worked on that job for almost two years. The main house was built by another contractor. A few years later, the owners divorced. The wife got the property as part of the settlement but had trouble maintaining it. It went onto the market for 26 million dollars, then sat. Eventually, everything down to the HVAC system was sold and the property reverted to the bank. I went there with Cathy and her husband and a real estate agent sometime in 2017 or so and saw first-hand how the property had deteriorated.

A few years ago, a woman called our number and said she and her husband were thinking about buying the property and could they ask some questions? They talked to the husband, who filled them in on the history. By then, the price had dropped considerably. That woman turned out to be Kim. She and her husband did indeed buy the property and have been working on it for about three years. They have brought it back to its former beauty and then some. Dave raises llamas and alpacas. The guest houses are rented out as Airbnbs.

We will be selling tickets for a picnic lunch and an afternoon at the Plaid Swan that will include the opportunity to stroll the many gardens—Kim planted 500 lavender plants last year (!)—pet the animals, enjoy demonstrations by our local spinner’s guild, shop vendor booths, and visit with local artists who will be set up throughout the property.

You can take a look at the properties and see some of the amazing transformation by visiting the websites at https://plaidswanranch.com and https://redryderllamas.com. We are very excited about this event and hope it becomes an annual tradition.