Tuesday, May 6, 2014

Ramsay had a busy weekend, with guests staying in two of the houses.  The weather was beautiful, and they were able to enjoy outdoor activities at the farm in addition to their engagements nearby.  Stephen mowed fields Sunday afternoon, and the dogs watched from the barn yard while I hung out with the horses.

On Sunday in the late afternoon, we put away outdoor sports equipment and then took water to all the container gardens around the Estate House, the Cottage and the Carriage House, and to the urns at the main entrance, as the predicted rain had never arrived that afternoon.  The annuals added by Patsy recently as well as the perennials which are now coming up all seem to be thriving.  Mike dropped off the big tractor they use to drive fenceposts into the ground and they moved it to the staging area just beyond the old barn field.

On Monday, Sherry was here to clean and do laundry, and the Grelen Nursery workers were here to move some of the trees from the main driveway to Cottage Lane.  Today, the "spade truck" from Grelen was here, digging out the holes where the trees had been in preparation for the larger trees scheduled to arrive on Thursday.  Monday afternoon we finally received some rain, though not as much as had been forecast.

Also Monday afternoon, Mike and his crew arrived and put in all the fence posts for the new cross-fence in the southwest field.  They will be back with the woven wire and gates one afternoon later this week.

Stephen procured materials to make the raised beds for the vegetable garden today, and he and Kyle began building them this morning.  They will finish them tomorrow morning, and the soil will be delivered on Thursday if all goes according to plan.

The hens all seem to be doing well.  They produced one egg yesterday, then two today.  They sound happy, and they also are looking like they want to get out!  I've had a couple of close calls when I've reached in to get their feeder for re-filling--they're quicker than they look.  Once the garden is underway, we'll begin work on a space for the hens on the west side of the workshop, where they'll have room to roam and will probably be even happier.  Today I gave them some scraps of fresh pear and a half of a tomato, and they were very excited about them, pouncing on them immediately.  They did seem to work out sharing without any squabbling.

This afternoon, I brushed North Star and Toby to try and remove some of the remainder of their winter coats.  I still need to trim their fetlocks, but their coats are starting to shine.  Here is Star's glamour shot: