Friday, June 20, 2014

The very hot and humid weather this week has not slowed down any of the intrepid workers at Ramsay!

Cipriano and his helper have completed the work on the new filtration system for the fish pond, and they refilled the pond with water, plants, rocks, fish and snails on Wednesday.  There are two small fountains now, and the sound of the splashing and the beautiful clean, clear water were so inviting that several of us, including the stonemasons, were ready to get in there with the fish when the temperature was a "feels like" 102 degrees on Wednesday and Thursday!

The stonemasons are making progress re-laying the cobblestone surround of the fishpond.  It is a task which is painstaking as well as involving heavy lifting, as each stone must be selected and then in many cases, dressed to fit the surface area as well as the depth to foundation of each piece.  At first, I thought the tent was to provide some much-needed shade to the stonemasons as they worked, but I imagine it also mitigates sun and rain exposure to the concrete they're using as the foundation for the stones so that it doesn't dry out to fast or get too much moisture for a good set.

Reginald at work

The electricians continue their work on additions to the outdoor lighting in the gardens.

Tree-climbing lighting technician

More lights around the parterre garden

Connie has been busy maintaining existing garden beds, weeding, and wrapping spent bulb stems, as well as replacing some plants in the urns near the parterre garden.  We are also enhancing the area near the mud-room entrance of the main house by adding a bird bath and creating a small shade garden.  I re-designed and planted the urn at the front entrance of the Cottage on Wednesday before our guests from Atlanta arrived.  I have bought all the plants at Milmont Greenhouses in Stuart's Draft (http://www.milmont.com/), and also discovered the bird bath there on Wednesday.  It has been interesting searching out plants that will hopefully thrive in the varied light conditions which exist on the property, and also finding plants that will be beneficial to butterflies and birds.

Through an upstairs window--lots of activity around
the garden--lighting techs, Connie planting urns, stonemasons
under their tent

Blue birdbath at Milmont Greenhouses

Garden urn

These little guys don't mind the heat!

New "shade" garden in the Cottage entrance urn

Beautiful hydrangeas near the outdoor fireplace

Kyle has been a wonderful and dependable helper through all weather conditions, and has kept the trees along both driveways alive by his faithful watering in this hot and dry weather.  He will undertake any task, and has helped to facilitate various projects during these very busy and productive days. This morning he has been helping Connie with "sod busting" in order to plant new boxwoods to screen some of the additional outdoor lights.

David A. continues his work on the cupola of the Grigg barn.  His helper has fashioned a replacement for a missing part on the original weathervane/lightning rod.  This will be his last job as a roofer--he has recently acquired his degree in Nursing and has found a full time job.

John's painting crew has worked through the high temperatures and humidity this week on the Grigg barn.  They work quickly but turn out excellent results!

The vegetable garden continues to thrive.  The seeds I planted for Blue Lake green beans had sprouted last week and are growing almost visibly every day. We are staking tomato plants as they grow, and I have been steadily pruning herb plants to encourage more volume rather than seed production.  The landscape fabric Stephen and Kyle applied over all the beds is doing a remarkable job of keeping the weeds down.  There is only an occasional blade of grass getting through, rather than the multitude there would be without it.

Baby bean plants

Stephen is coordinating details with all the subcontractors as well as Ramsay employees, managing supplies and schedules, and being innkeeper to the Cottage and today to the Carriage House.  The list of things he does each day is too long to note!  Fourteen hour, non-stop days are common.

I *think* these are going to be blackberries in a couple of weeks.  They are
where the blooms were in some of my earlier pictures--the south side of
the northwest field.

This is how the horses deal with the heat--napping in the shade.

Fortunately for everyone, today is beginning cloudy and somewhat cooler--a blessed relief!

Monday, June 16, 2014

A few updates from today's activities at Ramsay:

Cipriano, the wizard of waterworks, was on site today completing installation of the new filtration system for the fish pond.  David's stonemason crew  were here beginning the work on the apron of the fish pond.  The old cobblestones are already looking beautiful, newly leveled and true.

David A., the roofer, was here and put the new copper sheathing on the cupola of the Grigg barn.  It looked pretty beautiful, like a new penny, in the afternoon sun!

Connie was here cleaning up flower beds, trimming hedges, and pruning ornamental trees.  She also managed to rescue a raven which had somehow gotten into the aviary with the hens!  The chickens were nowhere to be seen, having taken shelter in their coop, and the raven appeared to be exhausted and panicky from its efforts to escape.  Connie was able to approach the bird quietly and gather it up gently, bringing it out of the aviary and releasing it in the south pasture, where it flew away--happily, we expect.

Connie, pruning back the trees along the parking area and
adjacent to the walkway to the Carriage House.

The raven rescued by Connie, the bird whisperer.

Donnie and Wayne completed all the hay-making today.  The fields are beautiful, with a new crop already coming up beneath the stubble of the first cutting of hay.

Baling in the north pasture on Sunday afternoon.

Baling in the field just north of the main house.

Equipment at rest after a job well done.  West edge of the northwest
field.  Buster and Laddie inspect the machinery and the round bales.

Beautiful summer view of the northwest field, accompanied by the
sweet scent of new hay.

When I took the dogs out around 5, I encountered this slithery guy (or girl), a black racer, perhaps on its way to dinner.  Note how ripply its body is because of the surface upon which it is crawling.  When we came back this way about 20 minutes later, it was nowhere to be seen.

On such a hot and humid day, it's always nice to encounter the cooler pathways around the houses and through the gardens.  The plantings in the very large urn in the center of the ellipse have flourished in their sunny location.  We will be replacing the plantings in the four smaller urns (two near the fish pond and two next to the brick path to the front lawn from the main sidewalk) within the next two days, as the spring plants which were there have not fared so well in the heat.

Among his myriad other tasks today, Stephen mowed the parterre garden, which created this silky smooth carpet of green.

Goodbye for today from Elizabeth, the only hen I can distinguish from the other ones.  She has a more marked white ruff around her neck, and is the largest one, so I call her Elizabeth after Queen Elizabeth I, since portraits of Elizabeth I often portray her with a white ruff as part of her royal raiment. Elizabeth the hen also has to know everything that is going on, inspecting everything; nothing escapes her notice.

Sunday, June 15, 2014

Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there!

This past week was another busy one, and even this weekend has been full, with workers here engaged in two projects as well as a full house at the Cottage.

Work continued on the restoration of the Grigg barn this past week.  The new siding and new roof look spectacular, even having attracted positive reviews from a passerby who has evidently been observing the work from Rt. 250 and decided to come up and pay Bobby a compliment!

Donnie and his brother, Wayne, were here toward the end of the week, cutting, raking and baling hay in the southwest, northwest and north fields as well as some of the smaller areas like the floodplain area south of Stockton Creek and the field just below the north side of the main house.

Cipriano and his assistant began the reconditioning of the fish pool between the parterre garden and the main house and have been working on it both days this weekend.  They brought a large tank in which to store a lot of the water, the surviving fish, and the plants, and moved everything over to the temporary, above-ground pool on Friday.  Work on the cobblestone surround has also begun, and the stones are being stacked for storage on pallets on the south lawn as they are removed.

Patsy has found that she can no longer maintain her landscaping work here at Ramsay, and has recommended a friend, Connie, to continue with plantings and garden maintenance.  Connie began work on Tuesday, and her first effort was to create the herb garden in one of the raised beds in the greenhouse ruin.  I had bought all the plants at Milmont the previous weekend, and they were awaiting transplant into their new homes.  Connie incorporated several "found" items in her design, and extended the garden to the sunken area in what was the greenhouse proper.  She calls the sunken garden the Mediterranean garden, because many of the herbs we associate with Italian cooking are there.

She re-purposed plants she had removed to make room for the herbs by incorporating them into the center feature of the raised bed and in the elderly watering can perched on the wall of the sunken area.

We hope everyone who stays at Ramsay and likes to cook will take advantage of these beautiful herbs, both the ones in the new gardens in the greenhouse ruin and the ones flourishing in the vegetable garden.  All plants are labeled with their tags in case help is needed in identifying them.  Connie also did some weeding, watering and deadheading of flowers around the main house later in the week, including a major clean-up of the flower beds next to the entryway into the mud room.  This week she will be "refreshing" the little garden between the driveway and the Carriage House (which I call the Secret Garden), as well as further cleanup in the area around the outdoor fireplace near the Cottage.

There was a somewhat violent thunderstorm here on Wednesday afternoon, which fortunately did not cause any major damage, but did blow down a number of limbs and leaves from all the trees.  Connie and Kyle did some major cleaning up on Thursday and Friday, and will complete removal of piles of debris tomorrow.

Kyle was here several days last week, and continues to keep all the trees along both driveways watered, as well as helping with the mowing and maintenance of the front pastures along with sundry other tasks as needed.

The landscape painting class was here last week, with their easels set up in various places, mostly on the lawns around the main house.

Painters from John's crew were here prepping and painting all the new carpentry on the south portico as well as some roof-repair painting on the front porch of the Farmhouse.

Guests arrived for a weekend stay at the Cottage on Friday afternoon.  Stephen set aside his contractor/project management hat and put on his innkeeper hat, and greeted them when they arrived, and gave them orientation for the area and directions to their weekend wedding-related events.  I had done the breakfast and supplies shopping Friday morning, and Sherry had everything fresh and clean for their arrival.  The guests, who are from Texas and New Mexico, were thrilled by the Cottage and the site as a whole, and are already planning a return trip.  Stephen is now giving them a "Gator tour" of the farm.

Stephen will see the guests off and begin mowing in the new paddock, and Donnie and Wayne are literally "making hay while the sun shines!"

Tomorrow will begin yet another busy week at Ramsay.