Sunday, May 11, 2014

This was a busy week at Ramsay.  The weather was excellent--sunny and warm--until yesterday, when we had showers off and on throughout the day.  We were happy to be receiving rain, as we had been hand watering all the plantings around the houses.

Some highlights from last week:

--Paul, our plumber, was on site to get information to start research on replacing some of the plumbing fixtures in the guest cottage.

--Workers from Grelen Nursery arrived on Monday to move seven of the trees along the main driveway and replant them on Cottage Lane.  On Wednesday, their spade truck was here to enlarge the holes left when the smaller trees were removed in order to prepare for the delivery of larger trees on Thursday.

--Early Thursday morning, the larger trees began arriving on flatbed trailers, and a crane which had been brought to lift them off and put them into the holes was ready for them.  By the end of the day, four new trees had been planted.

The work continued through the day on Friday, with four more trees being planted, and all the workers and equipment were leaving by about 5 PM.  The new trees look quite beautiful and happy in their new home.

--Representatives of Rockfish Roofers were here to continue their assessment of the Philadelphia gutter and metal roof sections on the main house.

--Another accomplishment for the week was the completion of the new cross fence in the southwest field.  Mike's crew was here early in the week to mark the site and drive the posts, then they returned Saturday afternoon and stretched the wire and hung the gates.

--The hens are doing very well, and are now producing three to four eggs a day on a regular basis.  So far, the eggs have been distributed to the main house as well as to some guests at the Cottage, with wonderful reviews for the work of our "girls."

Stephen has cleared the path through the woods in the west part of the southwest field, and I've been enjoying walking there almost daily with our dogs.  The undergrowth is growing fast, and there is a lot of poison ivy amongst all the saplings, honeysuckle and vines.  I'd advise long pants and socks and shoes or boots for anyone planning a hike there.  It looks like this summer will be a good one for making blackberry jam and cobbler.  These blooms, which I saw this morning, are "blackberries-to-be" along the edge of the woods on the north side and on the south side!