Ahhhh. Drink it up!

Thankfully the storm system has shifted east of the Roanoke Valley, which may help to mitigate the flooding in the valley and here in Franklin County. It began raining heavily here again at noon and continued for three hours unabated. When the rain began to subside, we took a ride through some back roads in Boones Mill and down to the town of Boones Mill on Route 220. Here are some photos we snapped.

This is Little Creek about to pass under the Dans Road bridge, the route to our house. This creek is normally sedate, no more than 8’ wide and 2’ deep at this section. A landscaper owns the 5 acre lot pictured and last year he built a three bay garage to house his machinery and equipment. Two hours before we took this photo, he was working as fast as he could with his Bobcat creating a dirt berm to deflect flood waters away from his garage. Mission mostly accomplished. There was evidence water breeched the structure from the rear during an earlier heavier downpour.

Here a little horse farm is really being walloped. I’ve been watching this guy and several crews fix up the old barn and install several hundred feet of fencing. Well, the bank barn looks like it will make it through but most of the fencing has been smashed down by debris. His horses were standing in deep water on the other side of the barn. Not good.

Here is Maggodee Creek which runs along Route 220 through Boones Mill. It was very high but still roughly five feet from it’s high during the flood of 1985. The water level had dropped a foot by the time I took this photograph.

Returning to our farm I took a quick ride around my Gator HPX and snapped some photos. Here is the culvert that last month I spent a day repairing. As you can see it has been completely Un-repaired. Clearly when we bought the adjoining 36 acres with it’s culvert washed out, I should have taken this as a sign that the 48” diameter culvert needed another 48” diameter culvert next to it to keep it company. Instead of all the stone and dirt I packed there. That’s now somewhere in Smith Mountain Lake.

But all storms pass. Here, Cahas Mountain is beginning to shake off it’s shroud after four days of heavy rains. Hopefully everyone living on that mountain is safe and sound.

We’ve got close to 14” of rain since Saturday morning. It’s noon on Tuesday and it’s still raining heavily. My little branch of Little Creek – which feeds into Maggodee Creek – is normally only 6” deep. At the moment it’s four feet deep and has laid waste to my riding trail culverts. Many trees have been pulled down though thankfully none from around the barns or the house. I’ve been running hither and thither fixing grades, cleaning barn gutters, re-securing copper gutters on the house and installing non-perforated drain pipe. The good news is that even the heaviest rains today aren’t breaching our 24×30 crawl space and threatening our 2,400 sq ft basement. And my three barns no longer have standing water in them. If only I had made these repairs and improvements before 10” of rain had already fallen

Our location just south of Cahas Mountain has seemed to afford us a little more rain this year than other localities surrounding us but we’re overdue for a good soak. As you can see by the contrast of color saturation between hardwood leaves and newly mowed open field, we could use some showers. And it looks like showers may be coming our way. Watching the satellite loop at the NWS, the west side of the Blue Ridge near I-77 is enjoying moderate rain showers; here’s to hoping the storm makes it over the mountains into our corridor. My only regret now is that we’re heading up to Leesburg for the VADA/NOVA dressage competition today and I won’t be here to watch the rain wash over the farm.

Okay so maintaining 27 acres of pasture with the 62” belly mower on my John Deere 2210 was entirely out of the bloody question, so I recently made a trip down to Anderson Lawn and Garden in Rocky Mount. Mike my sales guy at Anderson hooked me up with a MX-5 rotary cutter for my 3520. It’s a beast of a cutter with an equally beastly price tag of $2,000 but it will keep me from killing my $1,600 belly mower deck in six months flat.

It will also keep me from herniating some discs thanks to the 3520’s very comfortable floating seat. The seat really smooths out the bumps, with the unintended consequence of rubbing off the hairs on the back of your thighs but it’s a good trade, all things considered. I just finished the first maintenance mow of all 27 acres and also worked on some brush hogging and small tree shredding. I can tell you it’s just too much fun pushing invasive trees over with the front loader and then shredding them down to the molecular level with the rotary cutter. It’s good therapy. With it being so dry lately, the airborne particulates and pollen kicked up by the cutter was hard to deal with at times. I’m back on my triad of allergy medicine: Advair 250 for my throat and lungs; Allegra for systemic allergies and Rhinocort Acqua for my nasal passages. This combination thankfully acts as an impenetrable wall and my allergies are thankfully all but eradicated. However I still need to shop for a comfortable pair of vented eye goggles that can fit around my glasses. Clouds of dust are painful eye irritants even without an allergic reaction

No, not mine *shudder*. However, there is 110 acres for sale down in the valley visible from our house. Enlarge the photograph below. Essentially all of the open land visible in the photo in addition to the swath of trees running down the middle, has recently been put on the market. The asking price for the land is $1,300,000. No that’s not a typo. However, through the grapevine I’ve learned that the soil testing engineer stated that it was the most heavily compacted clay he’d ever worked with. The land won’t perc and therefore cannot be split up into small parcels. With that said, the lay of the land is quite attractive and the slope is mitigated by several terraces.  I couldn’t imagine a better spot for a hunter/jumper facility or a gentleman’s farm w/ a trophy house sitting on the highest point. I think an offer of $5,000 an acre might lead to a negotiation that arrived at a fair price. If you’re a developer, or know a developer specializing in mini-farm estates then that is one avenue of potential. Perhaps four or five twenty five acre tracts with shared equestrian facilities. In the interest of full disclosure, I have absolutely nothing to gain from the sale of the land, other than an improved view, since the elder farmer who owns the land has taken to cultivating weed lots instead of corn  

As a refresher, this is how my garden fence project looked 7 long weeks ago:

And this is how far I’ve gotten today:

My apologies for a dark and dreary photograph. I snapped this picture just as the sun was setting. As you can see, however, the fence project is very nearly complete. By my best estimate I’ve got another 14 hours of labor left before I can call the fence complete.

It’s a really beautiful fence and I’m proud of the quality of my work especially since it’s the first picket fence I’ve ever built. The amount of labor I’ve put into this fence is insane. The posts went in rather quickly, but then my design called for wood edging to strengthen the fence and retain the garden’s soil. As you can see from the photo, the back side edging is a full 10” high. However, the front is only 3” high. In order to maintain a level line I was forced to dig a small trench on the sides and front. Rather than bury 9” of edging in the ground I ripped the 1×3x10 boards down to 5” high. To slide the edging flush against the posts I had to chisel channels into the surrounding concrete. I didn’t anticipate this task due to my lack of experience  Luckily I didn’t break my left index finger despite striking it with my hammer about three dozen times!

I crafted each picket myself. Starting with one hundred fifty 1×3x8 pine furring strips I was able to make three hundred pickets. Two 45 degree cuts on the tip gave me my picket top and once every picket was mounted on the rail I hand sanded the face of the tip to smooth out the end grain. I opted for a scallop design. The outside pickets are 46” long, and they drop 1” until they reach 43” long. I spent an hour online shopping for a style of birdhouse to mount on each of the four corner posts. I painted the houses to match the fence and they seem to suit the fence very well. The remaining fourteen posts have gorgeous copper post caps. Through Ebay I was able to locate a coppersmith in Newport News, VA that crafts copper caps by hand and his products are top notch.

To complete the fence, I’ve got to put on one more coat of paint, and then build and mount the gate. I’ve got my forged iron gate hardware and with a bit of luck I should have enough free time next week to get everything finished up!

I’ve been busy for the past three weeks and too busy to update my blog. For shame! Time to play catch up. Let’s begin with the Flora at Oak Hill Stables. As you can see our mutant monster trumpet vine is in beautiful bloom!

So, do ye wonder how this vine got to be named the monster? Well, wonder no more! Run for your lives!

We received our photo cd from the professional photographer present at the Dressage competition in North Carolina last month. The fee for a cd containing all photos taken of your ride(s) is $125, and in addition you are given full copyright ownership. That’s a great deal as far as I’m concerned. We always videotape rides with our digital video camera for training reference purposes, but you can’t beat a professional photographer for capturing the beauty of horse and rider.

I’m closing up my one year retrospective with some odds and ends.

On the left, a pergola stripped of its overgrown vines and pavers re-exposed to the world. On the right, the stable barn with 8” of old base removed and 4” of rock dust added; a thorough power wash of the interior; new 6×6x8 edging underneath all outward facing stall walls.

On the left, a barn office newly cleaned, organized and with racks for Nancy’s saddles. On the right, revived Boxwoods and Azaleas.

On the left, Wisteria (mostly) under control, and Rose of Sharon nicely trimmed and waiting for just the right moment to bloom. On the right, a painted, furnished and (mostly) decorated office.

On the left, a reseeded lane with over fifty undesirable trees removed, a half acre of thorny shrubs uprooted. On the right, an evergreen mound broke free from its veil of sweet potato vines and weeds, and a view blocking giant paradise tree removed.

On the left, dozens of boxwoods trimmed, hundreds of weeds removed, yards and yards of mulch added, scarlet firethorns trimmed, and the beginnings of an outdoor eating area. On the right, dozens of larger boxwoods sheared and shaped, yards and yards of mulch added, and a Wisteria shortened by six feet.

On the left, a dog run converted into a chicken run. Henny Penny now has two baby chicks, way to go Henny Penny! On the right, yards of much added, trees and weeds removed.

On the left, five acres of lawn to mow that I can rip through in 90 minutes thanks to my 23HP John Deere 2210 w/ the 62” deck. Plus the view is to die for. On the right, way more than five thousand square feet of hardwood floors need to be waxed every one to two years. Great for working your shoulders. Wax On! Wax Off!

On the left, one hundred tons of red clay and sand added to the top of the north pasture. On the right, three thousand feet of fence set into the ground.

On the left, a renovated trellis in Springtime. The trellis garden has been weeded with yards of mulch added, and eight newly planted vigorous Clematis vines of several varieties.