Tuesday, July 8, 2014

Garrison Keillor always begins his Lake Wobegon stories on "Prairie Home Companion" with "It's been a quiet week in Lake Wobegon.....".  We can very rarely say "It's been a quiet week at Ramsay," and this week has been no exception.

Last week, work continued on the fish pond cobblestone patio, Bobby's crew was here part of one day to finish some trim work on the Grigg barn, internet technicians were here to make changes to wireless service to the Estate House and the Guest Cottage, the lawns and pastures were mowed, and all of Ramsay's hourly workers were busy, including Sherry, Geo, Kyle, and Connie.

The painting crew prepped and painted the old chicken coop (not the temporary one where the hens are now) last week.  The building is just across the farm lane from the Grigg barn, and with its newly cleaned and painted roof and walls, it looks quite elegant in its simplicity and proportions.

We're so pleased that Kevin, Ramsay's master carpenter from last summer, has returned and is applying his skills to re-building/restoring all the shutters on the Estate House, and also to several other smaller projects.

Shutters dismantled for restoration

Kevin removes decades of weathered paint from louvered french doors.

Kevin taking down a shutter for restoration

Kevin replaced the threshold to the Carriage House door.

The July 4th holiday fell on this past Friday, which meant some well-deserved time off for farm workers who had worked many long hours in weather most people wouldn't be caught dead in.  Most work stopped on the farm at Noon on Thursday due to the forecast for severe weather by Noon that day, and which we could see coming up over the mountains, and hear, as thunder rumbled toward us in the late morning.  Thursday afternoon, we received some torrential rain, but the more significant factor was the derecho-type winds that struck the area.  We were fortunate not to lose power at Ramsay, and the farm suffered little damage from the wind.  There were tree limbs down on all the lawns, and clumps of green leaves everywhere, covering the lawns and the vegetable garden like a layer of green mulch.  Stephen and I did the pick-up, as all the maintenance people were gone by then.

Stephen and I hosted a small gathering of friends and family on the lawn at the Farmhouse on the 4th. It was a beautiful day, everyone enjoyed seeing Ramsay's beautiful views, and the chickens made lots of new friends.

One of the most time-consuming and challenging projects this summer has been the installation of additional up-lighting in the formal garden area and around the outdoor fireplace and Guest Cottage lawn.  Much of the work has been done already, but changes are being made to several installations.  In addition this week, the biggest challenge has been undertaken and successfully accomplished:  creating electrical connection to supply lights in the large cast-stone urn in the center of the ellipse in the boxwood garden.  Special tools had to be acquired, and extra manpower solicited in order to move the urn off its base and drill out a core without damaging the urn.  This was completed today and Connie has restored the plantings in and around the base of the urn.

Alterations being made to a previously completed installation

Drilling out a conduit through the urn in the ellipse

The vegetable garden is growing almost as one looks at it, due to the sunny days and either rain or daily watering.  I noticed some mildew on the zucchini earlier this week, and found a large horn worm on one of the largest tomato plants, so while purchasing chicken feed at Countryside Organics in Waynesboro yesterday, I bought an organic spray to kill the mildew and an organic pest-repelling powder to apply to the tomato plants.  The cucumbers continue to produce well, and today there are several red tomatoes on the large plant we bought from Turnip the Beets farm.  The other tomatoes have plenty of green tomatoes on them, but no ripe ones yet.

This evening we are again under a "severe thunderstorm" watch, surrounded by thunder and lightning, and with mountains having disappeared behind curtains of rain.  This is a big contrast to the weather of this past weekend, represented here in a view from the deck of the Farmhouse.