Saturday, August 2, 2014

Yes, we are still here at Ramsay and all the aspects of work in progress at the farm are going well. After a busy week at the time of our last post, last weekend was relatively quiet in terms of projects, but there were guests on site who enjoyed the amenities and the pleasant weather.

South lawn, horse shoe pits--looking toward Wintergreen

We were sorry to have to say goodbye to our faithful farm hand, Kyle, as of July 25.  His baseball team--"Albemarle Post 74" of the American Legion league--was undefeated over the summer, and they went on to the state playoffs last week which were held in northern Virginia. We see in today's Charlottesville newspaper that they won the state championship yesterday, so Yay Kyle, and congratulations!  Kyle is going on to college at the end of this month, so won't be available to work at Ramsay in the immediate future.  We hope he will come back during breaks from school, as we will miss his diligence and his excellent work.

This is Kyle at bat during a local game, pic taken by
Stephen who was in the stands.

Albemarle Post 74 team, Virginia State Champions! I found this pic on the
American Legion site, and it can't be enlarged without losing the focus.
We *think* that is Kyle, front row, right end.

Kyle can be credited with keeping the new trees along the main driveway alive and well, as he spent a major portion of each day watering them.  The already sizable trees were dug up out of season, with millions of their roots being cut, transported here from a different climate zone over hundreds of miles of highway, and planted during weather that was already hot and dry.  They have survived remarkably well, thanks to the daily ministrations of Ramsay workers, and will undoubtedly benefit from the dormant season here, which will begin within a few months.

To pick up some of the work Kyle has been doing, Richard, who worked with Kyle last summer here at the farm while all the construction projects were underway, has returned to work parts of three days a week.  He and Geo will continue on the daily maintenance routines plus special projects as assigned.

Bobby's crew has  made wonderful progress on their repair and restoration work on the estate house. John's painting crew came last week and has begun prepping and painting the parts of the outside of the house which Bobby's crew has finished.

Kevin continues his restoration work on the shutters and other items for the estate house, and Stephen coordinates for special milling work that has to be done at various off-site locations for trim work for the windows and the shutters which cannot be replicated on site.

Kevin examines damage to a porch column, uncovered by the painters
 during prep for painting.

Custom millwork for repairing damaged shutters

Connie was here several days last week doing garden maintenance, the mowing team from Piedmont Landscaping was here on Wednesday and completed their weekly assault with mowers, trimmers, and leaf blowers, leaving everything looking like a green carpet, and Sherry was here to clean in the estate house as well as the rental properties, which had to be ready for guests this weekend.  There were several equipment repairs that had to be made, so Stephen, Kevin and Geo got everything running again.

The stonemasons completed the brick walkway from the fish pond to the south lawn, and are now awaiting the arrival of some beautiful pieces of bluestone to finish the surround of the pond.

Lovely new brick walkway. Bluestone will be added to top the
concrete edge of the fish pond.

Despite the dry weather over the past month, the parterre garden is looking beautiful, thanks to daily watering and manicuring by Stephen.

Parterre garden

The vegetable garden is mostly thriving, with Stephen and me doing the work that needs to be done.
So far, the stars have been the cucumbers.  We are just starting to harvest green beans, as they were planted late and from seeds, and there are dozens of healthy green tomatoes on vines which are beginning to topple their cages because of their weight, but they are slow turning red.

Blue Lake bush-style green beans, seeds from Southern Exposure

Heavily laden tomato vines

The eggplants were successful in a very modest way.  Two plants produced one reasonably-sized and beautifully colored eggplant apiece, and the two smaller plants made a valiant effort, but have produced only "token" eggplants--we applaud their effort, but believe their days in the garden are numbered.  We fought dusty mildew on the squash and zucchini plants but to no avail.  We have now uprooted them and thrown them out so as not to allow the mildew to spread to any of their neighbors.  Next year, we can try planting the squash closer to the front of the garden where they will get more sun, and running a drip line along the tops of the raised beds rather than using a sprinkler, which should help to prevent mildew.

We've harvested a few bell peppers, and a great deal of Bibb lettuce, which has been extraordinary in salads.  The herbs have also done quite well, especially the basil and oregano.  This month, we can think about any cool weather plants we would like to start for fall and/or winter once the temperatures drop later in September and October.

Bell pepper plants, basil and a tomato plant

Lettuce

The hens are happy and healthy and reliably produce four eggs per day.  We feed them twice a day and make sure they have clean water, clean the coop about every 10 days, and gather the eggs each day, usually in two shifts, as "the girls" apparently rotate through the nesting boxes in shifts--two boxes, four hens.

"The Girls" having breakfast

During a walk this week, I spied a lily growing right in the middle of the low part of the northwest field.  I wonder if it is one of a group which might have been growing around one of the houses at some point and was perhaps dug up while dormant and dropped in the field while landscaping debris was being moved to one of the burn piles.  However it got there, it seems happy and healthy.  To myself, I think of it as an "outlier;" a point in a data set or map that is way off the trend grid.  In the case of the hay field, most of the data points would be grass, clover, poison ivy, Queen Anne's Lace, blackberry bushes, and honeysuckle vines, heavily concentrated in the grass and clover categories.  The "outlier lily" seems more beautiful out there on its own than it would in a crowd of ones like it, I think.

Early last week

Later in the week

Earlier this week the dogs and I discovered what I believe to be black bear scat in the lower part of the north field (thank you, Google images!).  I think that if a bear or bears lived here on the property, our dogs would have discovered it, so I imagine the bear was passing through, browsing on blackberries, and maybe went to the creek for a drink.  So we will be watchful, but not fearful!

On Friday, a cool, rainy weather system arrived in the wee hours of the morning.  Most of the work on the farm was suspended for the day because of the rain.  This weekend Stephen has been the innkeeper for the rental properties, as well as putting in hours of office work.  The forecast for this coming week indicates more rain for our region, scattered in nature, but a few very nice days as well.