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Things to do in Loudoun County for Nov 9th-12, 2023

If you are looking for something fun to do this weekend in or near Loudoun County, look no further! You’ve found the right place!

Whether you are looking for a winery/brewery visit, a night out for some live music or perhaps a fun class or something to keep the kids busy near you in Loudoun, you will find it here.

Disclaimer: Look at Loudoun is not affiliated with any of these events. For accurate info on like start times, or locations, weather cancellations, etc., please contact the organizer.

Loudoun County, VA Events

After a week filled of work, I certainly enjoy a break by getting out and about in the area. I find it relaxing and enjoyable. Do you feel the same way?

If so, why not take advantage of the bountiful activities our County and surrounding area has to offer? I’ve picked a variety of events for the you all to enjoy. I also welcome suggestions if you are looking for different types of events not listed!

Let’s take a look at the events coming up!

Thursday, November 9, 2023

Horseshoe Curve Restaurant – Live music with Dylan Woelfel

Bingo at Harvest Gap Brewery 5:30-7:30pm

Connect Social Mixer + Networking Event for Female Entrepreneurs at AWL Creative 6:30pm

Friday, November 10, 2023

Chili Weekend at Dirt Farm Brewing

Pilates and Pints at Solace Brewing Company

Who remembers The English Beat? They are playing at the State Theatre in Falls Church at 8:30pm! Advanced tickets required!

Friday, Saturday and Sunday Events, November 10-12, 2023

30th Annual Northern Virginia Christmas Market at the Dulles Expo Center – features 225 fine artisans from more than 30+ states.

Lucketts Holiday Open House 10am-3pm

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes at Seneca Ridge Middle at 7:30 pm

Saturday, November 11, 2023

Celebrate Veterans at Lovettsville Community Park 9:30am-4pm

Another Fine Mess Playing at Spanky’s Shenanigans

Foraging Hike at the Salamander Resort, Middleburg, VA. Learn how to forage for wild edibles

Broad Run High School Band Holiday Market at Saturday at 10am

Berryville Turkey Trot 5k & 1 Mile Kids Fun Run at Saturday at 9am

Saturday and Sunday, November 10-11, 2023

Catoctin Holiday Art Tour

Sunday, November 12, 2023

Nature Sketching/Banshee Reeks Nature Preserve – Requires Early Registration 24 hours in advance

Mark Cullinane at Dirt Farm Brewing / Sunday at 1pm

St Francis de Sales Catholic Church Blood Drive – 7am – 11:30am

Whatever you choose to do this weekend, I hope you have a great time! Feel free to leave a comment on what you did over the weekend, or if you have events you would like to see more of!

Living in the Broadlands Community – Ashburn, VA

Buying, Selling

The Broadlands Community is a protected wildlife habitat lying within Ashburn, VA. It is conveniently located close to the Dulles Greenway, Dulles Shopping Center, and has outstanding amenities.

For the children, the Broadlands Community offers a swim team named the Piranhas, many tot lots, biking trails and family events such as the Broadlands Halloween Parade every year. In addition, the Broadlands Nature Center offers year round programs for the kids and a place to visit turtles, doves, fish, frogs and a friendly snake who loves to be fed. The Nature Center offers children a place to learn about waterfowl, fishing, worms and countless other natural creatures living in Broadlands. Unfortunately, the Nature Center is closed for renovations right now. Check out www.broadlandshoa.org for updates on when it will re-open.

Broadlands also offers pools to residents and non-residents as well during the season of May-Sept. Non resident households can purchase passes to gain access to the Southern Walk Pool and Community Pool.

For the adults, Broadlands has a wonderful variety of places to eat out and socialize such as Clydes at Willow Creek, The Original Steakhouse and Sports Theater which is probably the all time best place in Ashburn to watch a sporting event, Glory Days (another great place to catch a game), Bonefish Grill, and many Chinese and Tai Restaraunts…way too many to list..But you won’t go hungry. And don’t forget Bingo! Shopping is also close by with both a Harris Teeter, Lidl and a Safeway within the community, not to mention Walgreen’s, hair salons, and pet food stores to name a few.

Broadlands Community has quite a few walking trails. For an inclusive map, see the Broadlands Pedestrian Map.

As of November 6th 2023, 34 homes in Broadlands have sold Year – to – Date. Of those, 23 were single family homes and 11 were Townhomes.

For a list of homes that are Coming Soon, Active, Active Under Contract, Pending or Sold within the last year, click here. To keep up to date on home sales or homes coming on the market in the Broadlands Community, email [email protected] or call 703-963-7407 to get the latest information in the neighborhood sent to you.

Safe Neighborhoods in Loudoun County: Online Crime Statistics

Buying, Local

One of the most common questions realtors face when they are working with buyers is about safety concerns regarding the neighborhoods being looked at. Where is that information found? There are several sources such as the local papers, homeowners associations, etc…but probably the best source is from the Loudoun County website.

Loudoun county utilizes a website for daily crime reports which is located at https://www.loudoun.gov/4727/Daily-Incident-Report. Here you can look at the towns to see where incidents have occurred and what type of incidents. The archive will allow you to look at reports in the past as well.

In addition to the daily crime reports, you may find viewing trends helpful. This information is found at the LCSO Significant Incident Report link.

The Loudoun County Sheriff’s Dept Facebook page posts the latest incidents or traffic alerts plus other timely information. If you are on social media alot, this may be a good place to keep up to date with the happenings on Facebook.

Not directly related to crime incidents but something that could be of interest to you, is to receive the latest alerts from Loudoun County. The alerts you can receive include emergency information, news releases, traffic information, weather alerts, election information and more. To sign up, vist www.loudoun.gov/alert.

When you are out looking at homes and start to question the safety of the neighborhood, please don’t be shocked if your real estate agent can’t give you that kind of information. It’s not that we don’t want to give it to you. We do… and we definitely want you to feel safe in your new home and out of harms way. But we have some ethics and laws that prevent us from steering our clients either to or from neighborhoods.

As a real estate agent, we have to abide by these regulations. While I can’t tell you whether or not the home you love is in a safe neighborhood, I can and will tell you that whatever home you are looking at, please check the crime reports for that neighborhood and town.

Also, if the concern comes up, I advise my clients to observe the area as they drive through. Check out the general vibe of the neighborhood and see how they feel. Oftentimes, you can learn a lot just by driving through the streets or business areas nearby.

If you have any questions about Loudoun County, please reach out or leave a comment below!

The Magical Ginkgo Grove at Blandy Experimental Farm

Dog, dogs, Local

Strolling through the Ginkgo Grove within the Blandy Experimental Farm is kind of magical and is definitely worth a visit in the fall.

The Grove is one of the largest collections of Ginkgo trees outside of their native home in China.

The Ginkgo tree has been described as a living fossil because they supposedly witnessed the rise and fall of the dinosaurs across Asia, Europe and North America. The species of trees declined in population years ago for reasons that scientists are still researching. Currently, the Ginkgo biloba is the sold surviving species.

The Ginkgo Tree in Blandy exists due to a scientific experiment back in the 1930’s and 40’s. The experiment was started to determine what proportion of trees would develop into a male vs female tree. The trees did not reach maturity for 20 years and the numbers that were tallied up in the 1980s were 157 female trees and 144 male trees. A roughly even number of female to male population.

History aside, the grove is a completely magical place to visit in the fall. There are 300 trees on approximately 3 acres. I’ve made it an annual visit to take pictures of my dogs.

Blandy Experimental Farm has a webpage devoted solely to the leaf watch. Check out https://blandy.virginia.edu for daily updates on what the leaves look like.

I have found that going when the leaves either start falling or have already fallen is a really cool experience. The leaves are very soft and make the ground look like a yellow carpet. Here are some photos of my dogs over the years which demonstrates the ground covered in a sea of yellow.

Breeze and Meg – Gingko Grove
Breeze at the Gingko Grove, Boyce, VA
Maddie – Gingko Grove

In addition to the Ginkgo Grove, the Blandy Experimental Farm has some fantastic walking trails and is a lovely place to visit. If you missed this year, make sure to put this beautiful place on your list of fall experiences.

First Friday in Leesburg and Things to do in and Around Loudoun Nov 3-5, 2023

Events

This weekend kicks off many “First Friday” events in the area. First Friday is typically a day when an area has a group of stores that stay open later for the public to shop and dine on the first Friday of every month. In Loudoun County, the Leesburg First Friday event has become quite popular. Leesburg shuts down the streets downtown so people can safely walk from shops to dining locations. Check out www.leesburgfirstfriday.com for more information.

If you want to a change of pace from Leesburg’s First Friday, but still want a similar experience, Old Town Winchester has its own First Friday in their downtown walking mall – www.oldtownwinchesterVA.com. Neighboring Fairfax County has a First Friday Art Walk as well which looks fun – 1st Friday Art Walk (fxva.com)

I’ve picked a handful of this weekend’s events to share with you and would love to hear from you if you attend. Let’s see what there is to do this weekend in Loudoun County!

Friday, Nov 3

Live Music – Bryan Shepherd at Dirt Farm Brewing 5pm

All ages open Mic @ Old 690 Brewery 6pm

Swing into Fun at Monkey Joe’s www.monkeyjoes.com unlimited play time for your kids!

Fields of Fear www.coxfarms.com. More Halloween fun!

Spider Man to the Rescue @ KidsCreate Studio www.kidcreate.com

Saturday Nov 4^th

Fall Festival at Cox Farms www.coxfarms.com

Toddler Take-Off @Flight Springfield, VA www.flightadventurepark.com/springfield

Monster Mini Golf – Indoors! www.monsterminigolf.com

Big Flea Antiques Market At Dulles Expo Center

Pumpkin Chunkin at Great Country Farms

Purcellville Artisan Tour Nov 4^th and 5^th

Nomini Bay Oyster Festival Dirt Farm Brewing

Unison Heritage Day

Leesburg, Loudoun and the American Revolution Tour Thomas Balch Library https://www.leesburgva.gov/Home/Components/Calendar/Event/34627/21

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/earth-and-sky-adventures-tickets-738040447847 Earth and Sky Adventures Hike

Sun Nov 5^th

Nov 4^th and 5^th The DC Big Flea

Ghost Doctors’ UFO Tour Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum – Udvar Hazy Center

Jude Frances Trunk Show by Mystique Jewelers Middleburg, VA https://www.mystiquejewelers.com/

Walk for Wildlife Closing Celebration at Catoctin Creek Distillery https://loudounwildlife.org/events/category/featured-event/day/2023-11-05/

https://sproutcenter.org/events/sprout-5k/ Clydes Willow Creek

D’Vibe and Conga Dance Party with Fireworks https://vanishbeer.com/venue/vanish/

Hope you get to enjoy the weekend and Stay Safe!

Water Issues at your Horse Farm or Home

Equestrian Properties

One key element in a finding a horse farm for sale is looking at the actual land layout of the house, barn and pastures. The layout of the property is important because it can effect how your farm will be managed. Water runoff can create many issues on a horse farm. Thus, it is important to look at how water travels through your property.

Managing my own horse farm and through client experiences, I have seen first hand how water runoff is an issue. An expensive issue at that!

Recently one of my clients had experienced water issues around their barn. In their case the water runoff caused their barn to flood and deep muddy areas near the entrance to their barn. Fixing this was very costly for them. They had an excavator work for several days re-routing water flow and he installed drainage tiles. This was very costly.

One barn we recently visited sat downhill from the driveway and appeared to be in a valley. The fortunate aspect of this barn was the extensive excavating which was in place.

The second farm we went to was on a big rolling hill and everything flowed downward. The farm owners had resolved water issues by building ditches and installing pipes. As you can imagine, this was a very costly project, but the barn was well protected from any water runoff.

Another example of water issues was my own farm. My barn is set up well on a flat surface, but a shed uphill caused water to run straight towards the barn. After a few particular bad thunderstorms, the barn and and aisle flooded with 6-8 inches of water in it. I hired an excavator and he redirected the water in such a way that I have not had any water issues with my barn since. The fix worked, but it does need maintenance throughout the years.

When you are seeing a potential horse property, looking at the actual land is very important. Hiring an experienced horse farm specialist can be an asset to you. They should be able to point out potential issues such as this and help you navigate the process.

My favorite time to show horse properties is after a big storm. This is valuable because it allows people to see how the water runs or sits on a property.

If you don’t have the opportunity to see a farm after a storm, try to look for potential issues with the way the barn sits. Is the barn at the bottom of a hill? Are other structures causing runoff issues because they lack gutters? Can you see evidence of water intrusion?

Looking at the pastures is also key. Pastures may sit in low lying areas causing issues with a horses hooves to sink or for mowing. Wet land can suck your horseshoes off or cause potential injuries as well. It also can be a mowing nightmare. Look for how close water bodies lie in relation to your pasture. Is flooding a concern from a river or pond?

In Loudoun, I have found a tool called the GIS assessors map very helpful. It shows topography maps and flood plain or wetlands. FEMA also has maps available to help in research.

Having a pasture or two in a wet area is not the end of the world if you have extra space to turn horses out. My own farm has one paddock that has wet areas. Mowing can be difficult at times in that paddock. I use that paddock in the summer or during dry times. My horses are older and barefoot so I have little concern with losing shoes. I also have 3 or 4 other areas for turnout space which helps for rotating paddocks.

If you need help in your horse farm search, give me a call at 703-963-7407. I’d be happy to help you find a suitable farm and help you with spotting potential pain points you may encounter!