Friday, August 29, 2014

Friday, August 29, 2014

In my previous blog post (Wednesday, August 27), I mentioned seeing lots of wildflowers around the fields, but I didn't have pictures to share at the time.  Usually when I'm out walking, I have all three dogs with me and I often don't have the opportunity to take pictures, so this afternoon I walked down to Stockton Creek without the dogs (who weren't happy about it), so I could try and capture photos of some of the fall flowers.  Here are some of the photos--I wish I could identify them for us, but am not able to at the moment--I need to get a field guide to wildflowers!  There are a few farm activity photos after the flowers, courtesy of Stephen.



On the bank of the creek--a glimmer of water in the background.

Bees love these!

Butterflies love these!

Painters were busy all day today and will probably be working tomorrow as well.  The outside of the main house is gleaming with new, white paint.

Painters getting an early start this morning.
Geo, Richard, Connie, Sherry and Kevin were working on site today in addition to the painting crew. We are expecting guests in one of the rental properties tomorrow for the long weekend, and Cipriano and his assistants will be here tomorrow to work on the water filtration system for the fishpond.   Several people will be working on Labor Day Monday, despite it being a holiday for most.

Some of the maple trees along the main driveway are starting to show some fall color.



The horses wish everyone a happy and safe Labor Day weekend!







Wednesday, August 27, 2014

Wednesday, August 27, 2014

We had some much-needed rain last weekend here at Ramsay...

and a system of cooler, drier weather arrived over the weekend, so the farm has been a beehive of activity this week with all hands on deck and lots of work being accomplished.

The cooler front brought beautiful, clear blue skies with some interesting cloud formations...



The recent rain freshened up all the lawns and garden; the Piedmont Landscaping crew arrived today and mowed all the lawns and along the driveways.





Donnie has continued to cut hay in the fields this week ,and the northwest field is now completely cut, raked and baled.

Bobby and his carpentry crew reached a major milestone this week, completing all the restoration and repair work on siding and trim of the main house.  They successfully repaired numerous water-damaged areas, replacing old wood with new, custom-made and fitted pieces.

John's painters are now following in the path of Bobby's work, and the prep work--scraping, sanding, caulking, etc.--is mostly done. They began applying the finish paint to the trim work this week.



Custom crown molding exiting the shaper
 at a specialty shop in Waynesboro...

and being  delivered on site at Ramsay.

Finish paint on the trim work began this week

The original north portico lanterns get a face lift!

The north portico ceiling turned sky blue today

Out with the old [yellow]and in with
the new Black Forest Green

Kevin has completed the restoration/rebuilding of all the shutters for the main house.  The hardware for the shutters has been retrieved from the shop in Waynesboro which refinished it, (see previous post) and the shutters are now awaiting new paint before they can be re-hung.  Kevin has now moved on to undertake the long-awaited restoration and repair work on the screen porch of the guest cottage.

Dismantled piece-by-piece, measured, labeled, and stored for reference.

Decades' worth of water-damaged material uncovered and removed.

New porch columns primed and ready for service.

Connie has been busy this week cleaning up and maintaining all the borders and plantings--a never-ending process on a beautiful estate like Ramsay. Like Geo, our tireless yardman, Connie's creative juices are evident all around the grounds as she prunes, shapes, plants, and rearranges everything that is green or blooming!

Connie shows off one of her masterpieces at the ellipse.



Geo continues to be our handyman extraordinaire.  He handles numerous day-to-day chores in a timely and efficient manner, assists Connie routinely with her gardening work, and has that special gift of being constantly on the look-out for things that need attention.

Sherry, our long-suffering and unsung housekeeper continues--as she has for almost a decade--to take wonderful care of all the residences and guest quarters. She is a gem!

The vegetable garden continues to produce beautiful and tasty heirloom tomatoes and herbs.  The marigolds have been very happy this summer and we've enjoyed their bright splashes of color amongst the green of the garden plants and pathways.  At the Nelson County Farmers' Market on Saturday, we bought some transplants for fall/winter vegetables, including cauliflower, broccoli, and Red Russian kale.




Baby cauliflower and kale
Stephen manages all the workers and schedules, coordinates supplies for all projects, locates sources for special materials, handles financial matters and deals with vendors, in addition to mowing pastures, tending chickens, handling the livestock, and keeping all the farm equipment running.  The long days of summer mean workdays that begin at 6:30 AM and end at about 9 PM, but they also mean that a tremendous amount of work has been done, a good number of people have contributed, and an almost unbelievable amount of progress has been made on maintaining, improving and conserving this national historic treasure called Ramsay.

We have known for some time that the Gibson family named this estate Ramsay in honor of the 18th century British settler who received a land patent for the property. Earlier this month, my mother forwarded a copy of her daily devotional for August 3rd titled, "Pray and Work". It went on to say, Ramsay is the family name of the Earl of Dalhousie, who is the head of one of the most ancient and famous Scottish families. The motto of the Ramsays is the Latin phrase Ora et Labora, which means, "Pray and Work". Well, that is certainly what we do every day here at Ramsay!

Leaves are beginning to turn yellow and red in a few trees in the woods and on the lawns, and the walnut tree behind the farmhouse is releasing showers of small, yellow leaves.  The bottom-land near Stockton Creek is bright with yellow and purple asters and other fall season flowers.  I've noticed a number of butterflies recently, especially near the creek and in the midst of the flowers.  The angle of sunlight is already noticeably different--softer in the afternoon, with crickets singing in the brushy areas around the fields by late afternoon, and we notice dawn and dusk creeping a little closer together each week.

Here is a late-summer evening picture taken tonight from the south lawn, looking toward Humpback Mountain, and featuring Ramsay's two Belted Galloway cows.



Wednesday, August 13, 2014

Wednesday, August 13, 2014

Ramsay is bustling with activity on jobs large and small!

Kevin is closing in on the last of the 70 shutters from the main house that he had to rework, and in many cases, rebuild.  It is truly amazing the damage that happens to wood exposed to weather, even when it's encased in several layers of paint.  He has been getting this work done while Bobby and his crew continue the restoration work on the siding and trim.

Cleaning and re-assembling a shutter with custom millwork.

Kevin re-assembles the "puzzle" of a
 louvered shutter--one of 70.
Puzzle completed and ready for hardware and paint.


Stephen has been busy coordinating supplies for all the projects, supervising work schedules, and delegating jobs to be done by the farm's part-time help. Yesterday, he picked up some of the custom millwork from the woodworker in White Hall--some 5/8" trim mold that encases the dentil block molding on the soffits of the main house.

On Monday, he delivered all the hinges and hardware from the shutters on the main house to a company in Waynesboro. They will strip all the layers of paint from them and apply a powder coated new finish. This process has proved much more cost effective than having this work done on-site--which we had attempted--and the finished product is little short of amazing! See below:


Old shutter hinges with decades of rust and 3-4 layers of paint.

Rusted hinge and "frozen" hinge pin. (before)

Above hinge after sand-blasting & electrostatic-ally powder-coated!




















Bobby's carpentry crew is nearing completion of the monumental task of repairing and restoring the exterior of the main estate house...

Chris and Bobby hard at work.
... and John's painting crew has been working every day--following Bobby's carpentry repairs-- scraping, sanding, and priming the siding and trim on the main house.



The bluestone for the surround of the fishpond arrived recently and this past week the stonemasons laid the new bluestone and  mortared the joints for a beautiful finished result.

Grinding the surface of the concrete apron surrounding the
fishpond, blowing dust away, in preparation for laying
the new bluestone.

Applying mortar prior to laying bluestone.

Beautiful!
We had some light rain daily for several days which was welcome because recent weeks had been so dry.  On the "misting" days, Bobby's crew and Kevin worked through the falling dampness, but they missed a day or two when the rain was falling in a more determined and soaking way.  Geo continued with his work, devising a temporary but effective roof for the Gator.

The Gator "convertible."
Trimming the tall hedges along Farm Lane and around the Carriage House garden has always been a challenge, but Geo solved the problem this week by creating a cantilevered platform on the side of the Gator so he could stand on it to trim the top of the hedges.


Connie was here and has done a lot of cleaning up, weeding, trimming, and mulching in all the garden areas.  Today she reached the greenhouse herb garden which has thrived in the sun and in the recent rain.  The marigolds in the tub below the bird bath will soon be replaced, but all the herbs are healthy and beautiful.  It's hard to believe all these beautiful plants--shrubs, really, started out in 4-inch plastic pots from Milmont three months ago!


L-R:  Lemon balm, dill, variegated sage, "Aristotle" basil.
The mowing crew has been operating on an "on call" basis the last few weeks as we have had so little rain  that there was nothing for them to cut.  After running sprinklers for days and then receiving some showers last week, we summoned them last Friday to work their grooming magic on all 8 acres of manicured lawns here at Ramsay!

Tripod sprinkler on the east lawn.


Geo and Stephen incinerated the "burn pile" in the bottom alongside Stockton Creek on Tuesday because there was no wind and a light rain was falling and predicted to fall throughout the day.  The pile had grown to a huge heap of cuttings, tree limbs, leaves and sticks from the lawns, and other material from gardens, lawns and walkways.  The burn was uneventful but effective, and is now extinguished.

There have been guests in the Guest Cottage both weekends and into this week, with guests also in the Carriage House 2 weekends ago.  Everyone was most complimentary of the amenities here and took advantage of farm tours provided by Stephen.  Sherry has done her usual excellent job of laundering linens and cleaning the properties, and Stephen has been on site and on-call as innkeeper and tour guide.

The guests who are here this week reminded us how different our perspectives can be at times.  I had mentioned that it was too bad that the weather was rainy and foggy while they are here, since it meant they wouldn't see the beautiful views around the farm. But Stephen said they are from Texas where the daily average temperature now is over 100 degrees, and they said they haven't had rain in so long that their water is rationed.  So they were very happy to be here while it was raining and cooler, and now today, they've been here while the views are beautiful and clear.

The garden is doing well.  Some of the Bibb lettuce is still going strong, but some has been pulled out and discarded as it had bolted.  The tomatoes are finally ripening, and we have several colors--a beautiful golden yellow one with red streaks, dark purple ones, and pale red/orange ones.  I can attest to the deliciousness of the dark purple cherry tomatoes in a salad with the Bibb lettuce and some of the basil from the garden.  Well worth the effort to plant, care for, and harvest.

Heirloom tomatoes.

Beautiful basil and some peppers.
The Swiss Chard is rallying, perhaps with the shorter days and some cooler nights, and the cucumbers persist in producing several each week.  The green beans are really happy, and are growing faster than I can pick them.


All the animals seem healthy and happy.  The chickens look forward to their feedings each day and, in return, provide the guests and us with fresh eggs--a dozen every three days.  We haven't had to buy eggs for the breakfasts for the rentals now for months!


Today was a beautiful day after the several days of rain and low-lying clouds on the mountains.  There was less humidity, so the mountains looked clear and beautiful, with shadows on them from the clouds breezing by overhead.  Donny and Wayne were here earlier in the day cutting hay, so the fields are beautiful and fragrant.  Everyone worked full days today to catch up on jobs that had been delayed by weather, and everything looks tidy and "Bristol trim."

Looking north from the small "in-between" west field,
 toward Afton Mountain.

Looking south across the southwest field.

Looking northwest, Ridgeley fence line among the trees.

Looking northeast from the driveway of the Farm House.