Monday, October 13, 2014

Early morning light, east lawn

The weather is making up for the earlier lack of rain, having sent along several rainy days and some heavy downpours since our last post.  Today we are having more nice, soaking rain, which will be great for all the garden and lawn areas.  Leaves are falling from the many ash trees around the property, and the hickories, poplars, and maples are all beginning to show their fall colors.

Last week, Kevin and Richard finished the work on the back of the Guest Cottage, removing rotted wood they had discovered at one of the corners and replacing it with new wood.

They also replaced all the posts around the edge of the carriage turnaround at the top of the main driveway, which involved custom cutting all the posts and resetting them once the old ones had been removed.

The well-drilling crew was here several days, attempting to put in a new well in the top of the southwest field.  Despite their best efforts, the water source they eventually found provided a very low flow rate.

Geo was here several days and did a lot of clean-up work as well as splitting firewood for the outdoor fireplace and the fireplaces in the Guest Cottage and the Estate House.

Connie did some maintenance work on the Gator as well as attending to her gardening tasks.

Sherry was on site, preparing the Guest Cottage and the Carriage House for rental this weekend, in addition to cleaning the Estate House.  The Carriage House was rented from Thursday to Sunday by the wife of a world-reknown musician whose niece was being married over the weekend.  Stephen ran into the musician himself at the Brownsville Market on Saturday and had a brief "small world" chat!  A family rented the Guest Cottage for Saturday to today for a fall getaway, and Stephen took them on a Gator tour of the farm, which they loved.  They also got to feed the horses and gather eggs from the chickens, and are planning to come back again.

On Saturday, Ramsay was the site for a meeting of the Waldingfield Beagles.  This is their 130th season, and they have always held their meets at farms and estates in the area.  This was their first meet at Ramsay, and they had a fun outing, as the beagles got to cast for rabbits in all the thicket areas on the west side of the farm, accompanied by their handlers and a few spectators.  Personally, I'm glad they didn't actually catch a rabbit, and it didn't seem disappointing to any of the people with the beagles, as they mostly like hiking around across country and being with the dogs.  As is customary for these meets, we provided refreshments after the hunt, setting up under the east portico of the old barn, since it was misting rain.  Everyone loved being at Ramsay and learning about the history of the farm from their tour guide, Stephen.

Ramsay is in some pretty impressive company.  "Tea Time" is Rita Mae Brown's farm, and the
other estates are well-known in the area as well as nationally.

Arriving at Ramsay, ready to hunt.

Eager beagles!

Gathering the pack.

The hunt moves out!

Post-hunt "tea time."

We're expecting more rain this week, probably through Wednesday.  More guests will be arriving for the rental properties, but no further special events are planned.