Tuesday, May 20, 2014

By the end of the day yesterday, good progress had been made on the work on the barn as well as the planning for the garden fence.

I brought home 160 pounds of compost from Countryside Organics and purchased all of the plants we still needed for the vegetable garden at Milmont Greenhouses in Stuart's Draft (http://www.milmont.com/).  The only requested vegetable I didn't find ready to transplant was the green beans, so I bought seeds for the Blue Lake variety there at Milmont.

Loading up at Milmont on Monday

Plants from Milmont in their temporary quarters back at the farm.

Plants from Turnip the Beet Farm awaiting transplanting.

Today, Kyle and Stephen added the compost to the raised beds along with more soil, and the landscape cloth will be laid over the beds tomorrow.  I will be in Richmond tomorrow, so we are hoping to be able to plant on Thursday and Friday, depending upon the weather.

Beds with compost, ready for landscaping cloth,
 which is a natural way to prevent weed growth.

Sherry was here this morning, doing laundry and cleaning in the Cottage.  The weekend guests were here until yesterday late-morning.

Bobby and his helpers were here early and made more progress on the barn.  Sagging is gradually being replaced by straight and true.

Piedmont Irrigation crews rolled in around 11 AM and by 1:30 PM, all lawns were mowed, all edges trimmed, and all walkways and driveways blown clean.

The representative/technician from our wireless internet service provider was here midday and has replaced and relocated the dish with one which is smaller and is now attached at the south end of the barn.  Stephen checked our signal strength in the early afternoon and it was over 3 times what it has been in the past at its best.  We were the only ones on the property using the signal, so it will undoubtedly be less strong when others are here and online, but it was a good sign.

Karen and her landscape painting class were here in the morning, with artists set up in various locations in the vicinity of the main house, and all doing beautiful work.

Our son and daughter-in-law and our granddaughter (who will be 3 in October) were here for a visit.  She got to meet her first chickens, helped water the flowers, and drove her own mini-John Deere around on the parking lot--undoubtedly the youngest JD driver on the property.  She has grown so much, we think it's time for a larger model!