I’m not smiling very much these days. The loss of Paddy has hit me hard and I tend to melt into tears at the slightest little reminder of her.
But I do have some new friends at work that make me smile when I see them. I haven’t learned their names yet, but their faces are already dear to me.
I’ll bet they made you smile too!
P.S. Please keep voting for Suzanne at Chickens in The Road… Vote every day!
On the days when I get on the road to work at just the right time, God will bless me with this and I know it’s gonna be a good day…
This is the entrance to the Rappahannock Cellars Winery
Sunrise is too early for a wine tasting though.
Then, when I get home, if I have time after all of the critter care, I’ll take a walk around the gardens and try to get pics of pretty things to post for your enjoyment.
This year I planted Zinnias. The variety is called ‘State Fair Mix’. They are very tall and great for cutting. The blooms are large and the Flutter-bys love them!
The Bumble bees love the sunflowers that the chipmunks planted for me.
I’ve come to the conclusion that chipmunks have something magic in their saliva since every sunflower that they plant seems to grow (not usually in the best places) Yet the row that I planted of different varieties for cutting don’t even germinate!
O’well, no matter where a sunflower grows it’s gotta make you smile.
TGIF… have a great weekend y’all!
…try, try again.
Our persevering swallows rebuilt their nest way up in the corner… I guess we all decided that they deserved the chance to stay there over the door after this many tries! No one had the heart to knock the nest down.
It’s too high to check daily but this morning I decided to get a ladder and see what was going on up there.
I couldn’t get an accurate head count as mom & dad were having fits and the babies were all hunkering down in the nest. I have a good feeling that these babies are gonna make it!
Other miscellaneous shots from Chesley…
I can’t take credit for the sunflowers, Farmer Brown and his daughter planted those in their new vegetable garden project.
Rumor has it that Farmer Brown bought some GOATS!!! As soon as some new fencing gets installed they will be right there for me to love on! I’m excited!
No not Sassy Cats… this post is for the fisher people who are reading.
The catfish at work have been particularly active lately.
Most of these are 2′ long at least!
My boss asked me to make a couple of slik flower arrangements for Chesley.
I don’t work with silks too often so I was a bit apprehensive, but I think they turned out pretty good…
For the master bedroom…
For the ballroom…
She hasn’t seen them yet, I hope she likes them!
Most of the time I love nature, today however, was a hate day.
When I left work yesterday I snapped this picture of our baby swallows…
This morning when I went to check on them I found this…
All five babies gone and the parents flying around with bugs wondering where they were! I suspect it must have been a snake that got them as I would assume any other predator would have just knocked the stick over rather than climb a wall to get at them.
I was just sick. I was really pulling for these babies even though I knew the nest wasn’t in the safest spots.
I know that Mother Nature can be cruel, but sometimes it just overwhemes me.
So yesterday when I checked on our diligent Barn Swallows the nest looked like this…
And this morning…
Welcome to the world little bits!
Momma glared at me from a perch above my head…
We don’t have a pool anymore… maybe someday.
But for those of you who do have an inground pool I HIGHLY recommend this product!
I was so tired of going into work and opening the skimmers to discover many dead frogs, newts, salamanders, and toads. This product has saved the day… any many little lives as well!
It’s the Critter Skimmer an awesome invention! It replaces the cover of your skimmer with a new one that has a little ramp attached so if a little someone gets sucked into it they can just crawl up the ramp and escape!
I installed these on the three skimmers at Chesley and we haven’t had a single fatality since!!!!
LOVE IT I rate it a million gazillion stars!
There have been a pair of Barn Swallows at Chesley that have been trying to build a nest above the pool door all spring. For obvious reasons, the people who use said door do NOT want a nest built there! So all spring I have used a piece of bamboo to continuously knock the nest off of the wall. I believe other people would also use the same piece of bamboo to knock it down too. No eggs had been laid, and we were all hoping they would give up on that spot and move somewhere else to build… but no. they just moved from one corner to the other corner…
Keep in mind that this has been going on for WEEKS!
It had to get knocked down so often that we left the bamboo propped next to the door…
Well, it finally worked! They gave up on building above the door!!!
We WON!!!!
Ummmmmmm, well kinda…
Yep, that’s right, they decided to just build right on top of the dang bamboo instead!!!
Now THAT my friends, is perseverance!
We gave up, guess we won’t use that door for awhile.
I checked the nest the day after I took these pics and there was another egg added for a total of 5.
Paddy’s outdoor enclosure project has been on hold since we decided that the best solution for her ‘pond’ is the largest metal stock tank that we could get from Tractor Supply. It’s been on back-order and finally came in
My dreams of a pretty little natural looking pond faded quickly away as I realized that a beaver will chew through a rubber or hard plastic liner, dig through a bentonite clay layer, and a real concrete pool just doesn’t fit into the budget.
So here it is, Paddy’s new pool…
It’s eight feet around and two feet deep.
I’ll be borrowing the Crazy Dog People’s Kubota to sink it into the ground.
Speaking of them.. they saved the day by providing us with a used pool filter and pump! Neighbor Mike is going to help us out with the plumbing. Our good neighbor’s are really coming through for us!
God bless good neighbors!
Wish we could start today but Mr.C and I have to get out to Chesley to cut back the ornamental grasses before they start growing too much. So tomorrow will be the ground breaking… I’ll try to keep y’all updated.
Capri D asked that I post a pick of the Mohawk Viburnum when the blooms popped…
I only wish I could share with you the heavenly scent it exudes… it’s amazing!
And so another season begins…
I started back to work today. It is always hard to get up and go this first day back. It didn’t help that it was below freezing this morning either! First thing every year is to walk around and make a list of all that needs doing. By the time I get to the third page in the notebook I’m already overwhelmed. It’ll be ok… once I get rolling I’ll make quick work of it.
My bosses happened to actually be there today so I got to speak with them a bit. He’s thinking about getting CHICKENS and asked me to give him some ideas on where to build a coop!! He also wants to put the land that won’t eventually be vineyard to good use somehow… I took the opportunity to suggest the possibility of alpacas…. or goats. We shall see what happens. Should be fun anyway… something to look forward to.
Yesterday also marked the beginning of mowing season. Yes, I’m aware that we really shouldn’t be mowing on Easter, but when Mr. C only has 2 days off a week we don’t have a lot of different times to choose from. I did feel guilty about it but felt a tiny bit better when I saw that we weren’t the only heathens in the neighborhood… seems that the sound of our mowers going inspired several other neighbors to start theirs up as well.
I took the time to wander around with the camera again…
The veggie garden is tilled and ready to plant…
The dirt is looking especially lovely this year…
My Mohawk Viburnum is getting ready to burst into bloom…
The purple leaf plum is in full bloom…
As is the crab apple tree and the redbuds too…
Looks like I’ll be able to post pics of the dogwoods next week. Yep, Spring has sprung, and so it begins…
I uploaded the Chesley Christmas decoration pics to my photo show site, here is the link…
http://photoshow.comcast.net/lhodge570/favorites?sk=53064789ace0dd00fa5719c2a1a8c820
Click on Chesley Christmas 2008 and hopefully you’ll see it.
Been a busy week of decorating out at Chesley. Since the new railings were finally finished and installed I did a lot more outside this year. 8 hours of bending over a railing and ‘fluffing’ out garland and wreaths is NOT good for a persons back! My hands are in shreds as well from the cold and the wire. It did turn out purty though…
I still have a bunch to do out there. The big open house is on the 20th.
In two weeks my boss’s daughter is getting married at Chesley. I’ve been very busy just trying to keep the gardens watered so everything doesn’t look brown and crispy. One very prominent garden is situated in the center of the main parking area right in front of the main entrance. I hate to brag, but this year it has been just stunning. I was so happy with how well everything was blending together and so full and lush. I was planning on getting several good pictures last Monday.
So just imagine my devastation when I came in Monday morning to find this…
Those were huge dragon wing begonias and beautiful, thick, lush chartreuse potato vines!
Oh my gosh I was on my way to find a tree stand and a shotgun! But these were the probable culprits…
A mom with triplets! So I don’t guess I could have really done the deed. I sure would have liked to give them all a good spanking though!!
The joy of gardening!
Yesterday(Sunday) afternoon I got a call from my bosses daughter saying that there was a baby beaver by the upper pond at work and they knew the mother had been killed (we won’t even go THERE right now).
They didn’t know what to do. They had seen it on Saturday but hadn’t seen it on Sunday at all. They had torn apart the lodge to see if it was inside but it wasn’t. I told them that I would go up and have a look the first thing Monday morning fully expecting not to find anything.
Lo and behold I went up this morning and there was this little baby beaver sitting in the remains of the lodge! So I went over and it slipped into the water but stayed close and was making these pitiful little whining sounds. So what was I to do????
I sat on the bank of the pond and started making the sounds back to him of course! Then I started making other sounds just hoping that one of them might sound like a mama beaver. I felt like the crazy mockingbird that sits on our chimney mimicking every bird in the neighborhood. Finally I made what must of been the right noise cuz out of the pond came the little beaver! I kept calling him and could tell he wasn’t sure about me in the least but I eventually creeped close enough that I could slip a net over him! He didn’t struggle at all. Oh my gosh he is the softest, cutest little thing!
I took him right over to the BRWC and reluctantly handed him over to Peg. She was kinda stunned that I was able to call him close enough to catch. This is her first beaver rehab so she said she needs to do some research tonight. I got to feed him his first bottle… I’m totally in love! I can’t wait to go back tomorrow and see him. We just got in two coyote pups and from the looks of our ‘patient’ boards a lot more baby birds have come in too. Going to be a busy day.
So now I’ll leave you to wonder at this little bundle of pure cuteness…
what a face!
how sweet is that???
Now you’re all in love too right???
LET’S GO REDWINGS!!!! (I know cheryl… you do not care!)
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