Ramsay Farm FYI: Tuesday, September 30, 2014

The estate house exterior painting is complete.

A definite look of fall in the air!

First of all, the Ramsay Farm blogger (Susan) wishes to offer apologies for having allowed this many days to elapse without a post! I was incapacitated by a serious fall from my horse Friday a week ago, and am now recovering, albeit slowly. I got to have my first ever ride in a rescue squad vehicle, and spent most of that Friday in the ER at Martha Jefferson Hospital in Charlottesville, but am now feeling more myself. Stephen has taken all the photos for this post, and has done an admirable job of supervising and assisting with all the work on the farm as well as helping me overcome the lingering mobility issues caused by my accident.

The focus of much of the work these past couple of weeks has been the Guest Cottage. Kevin and Richard have successfully completed re-constructing the screened in porch on the back of the Cottage. The new construction will last longer than the original, as measures were taken to prevent the accumulation of moisture between the frame of the porch and the concrete upon which it sits. Kevin did a lot of custom work on the frame of the porch, re-creating the arches as well as many other details.

Another aspect of rejuvenating the screened porch was having all the furniture cleaned, including an on-site visit from an upholstery specialist, who cleaned all the cushions for the chairs.

Also at the Cottage, the hardwood floors have been sanded and refinished.

While completing the work on the screen porch, Kevin discovered that the corner at the east end of the original cottage had sustained major water damage underneath the siding over the course of many years. He and Richard uncovered the damage, cleared out the rotted wood, and have replaced all of it with new.

Geo, Connie and Sherry have been on site, each carrying on with their assigned tasks. Richard has spent much of his time helping Kevin, but has also assisted Geo in clean up tasks and with watering.

Our loyal Grounds Crew!

Connie, Ramsay's yellow-jacket magnet, was working in the border around the Studio last week and saw and then heard yellow jackets in the wall. She reported to Stephen who called the exterminators. They found that a huge nest had been constructed in the wall of the studio just above the arched window in the bathroom. In order to provide access to the nest for the Orkin tech, and remove the damaged sheet rock, Kevin had to remove some of the trim and a piece of the sheet rock from the inside, which has now been repaired. And no more yellow jackets!

Despite many overcast days over the past two weeks, we have not received any substantial rain. This whole area immediately east of the mountains is extremely dry. The parterre garden is doing quite well, however, due to routine weeding, edging, mowing and manual watering via the irrigation system, but other areas of lawn and the pastures are beginning to show the signs of drought.

Donnie and Wayne were on the farm making hay several days last week, and all the fields have now been mowed, raked and baled.

There have been guests in the Carriage House for several weekends past, and we just had our second couple spend their Honeymoon with us! The Guest Cottage is nearly ready to be rented again with a new screened porch, beautiful shiny floors, and fresh paint on all the exterior trim.

We're starting to see a bit of fall color in the maples, especially the ones which were moved from the main driveway to Cottage Lane in the spring. Early mornings and evenings are looking particularly autumnal, with lower light and more mist.