Monday 4 July 2011

Springing into Summer

Muddy March, wasn’t. We finally lost all the snow by the 9th April but still had ice slabs in the fields well into the end of the month, then it rained, for all of May. Steven arrived on the 11th April and Phennie and Tom reached their 19th & 13th birthdays respectively.


April also marked our twentieth wedding anniversary and we decided to celebrate by having a pond dug, which should A. look beautiful and be a great source for wildlife and B. if we are really lucky, make a difference to the marsh and accessing Murdock in something other than waders - only time will tell. The day was finished off with a delicious meal at Max London‘s in Saratoga Springs, then puds & flowers gifted to us from Louis & Junko. I am a very lucky girl indeed. The following day we decided to walk to the top of Murdock (walk off all that food we ate previously). Steve actually found the far east boundary. It was even better than when I found it previously AND just happened to be somewhere entirely different to! The views from up there are spectacular, seeing east to the Green Mountains of Vermont and to the West far beyond Saratoga and the Mountains marking the start of the Adirondacks.


The pond project will hopefully start at the end of this summer. It will be along process (being a couple of years), as once the pond hole is dug, the deposits of soil (at 80 feet by 60 feet and 12 foot deep, that is a lot of earth) will be left to dry and then the following summer the soil will be spread and made to look somewhat normal once again, then we wait for the grasses to re-grow and all should re-establish itself.


Arrival of a Kubota RTV - seriously fun and terribly , terribly useful, no really, you can attach a bush hog to the back, a harrow, you can fill the bed with incredibly large rocks (and manure) AND I have even moved small but long tree trunks on it ;- ) We managed to get it across the marsh, just, but attempting this again has been over thrown by the thought of getting it bogged down in three foot of silt and mud. Maybe soon it will be dry enough to do with ease, eventually the thought being to take the chain saws & other equipment needed to finish clearing the pathway to Murdock & fencing pastures on the far side.


Spring sprang, then summer arrived and with that comes mowing, and more mowing and then even more mowing, which thankfully, we all love to do!


Tom’s incredibly long summer holiday started with a telephone call to my office, requesting that I get home immediately, he had cut himself ‘badly’… this was NOT good as we are all pretty rugged when it comes to our war wounds, so if he says it is bad, it most likely is. A trip to the Emergency Room, four hours & ten stitches later. All was good. The funniest part of that day being when Tom stated to me in the car en-route to the ER, sallow in the face, suffering from shock and covered in blood, that ‘the doctor better seduce me before I get stitched, I don’t want it to hurt’. I tried to contain myself as I roared with laughter, swerved all over the road and then pointed out that it was ‘sedate, not seduce’, we will remind him of that in years to come.


Tom’s work day at Silver Eagles Farm, topping paddocks.



And so it came, the release of dear old Stuffing…. So, it is alright for some to have free-range guinea fowl & chickens (who, for the record spend a great deal of time here with us) it is apparently not ok for us to be offered the same freedoms? Due to Steven finding Stuffing being chased down the road by the city dwellers in cars harassing and chasing him away from their property. He decided that for the turkey (and the city dwellers) it would be better to release Stuffing far far away from these people. A wooded area of around two hundred acres of ‘private non-hunting grounds’ was a spot we chose - if he chooses to stay within the area, he should be very happy and mostly safe.

I returned Steven to the military once again, I’m getting rather bored of that. You would think that with age and time, it would get easier, but it does not. A fantastic month of mouth watering memories and new changes to our home and surroundings (stone walls, raised beds, a shed just to mention a few) make me smile each time I see them. I managed to get a speeding ticket going through the Easy-pass lane to the thruway leaving Albany, which of course must have been a mechanical mistake on their part. I have lost count of all the speeding tickets I have got when I have been either collecting or depositing Steven back into the arms of the USAF. Now that I think of it, I ONLY get speeding tickets when I am collecting or depositing on the orders of the USAF. Seems somewhat unfair.


The barn swallows fledglings have left as has the noisy little house finch - whose parents decided to build a next in one of the hanging baskets - luckily for the finch, I hadn’t needed to water the basket until after he hatched and moved out!

August will hopefully bring the visit of the Phennie before her start at MSU. October should also bring Steven back from ROK to North Carolina. We will all be on the same piece of land, a rarity but very welcomed at last.


Pie's paddock - a huge improvement on last year!

1 comment:

  1. Place looks good. How has the summer been treating you guys. You'll be summering into fall before you know and you know what's next. I continue to miss the farm -- especially when I see the pictures. I can't wait until the pond is finished!!

    KT

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