How do you use a framework? Is it just a bunch of classes, or is it like an empty application that you can push/pull to what you want?

It depends on the framework. The framework that I wrote for VFP was more like a loosely coupled set of co-operating classes. Strataframe is much more powerful. It contains an entire business layer to insulate the developer from many of the ugly details of ADO. It has functionality built in to do save, undo, delete, add - all you need to do is specify a stored procedure to use or if you don't, the framework handles it.