While I work on finishing the roadside perimeter fenceline for this pasture, Spring is evident in the field left temporarily out of service. A bumper crop of Wild Turnip and Peppergrass competes with orchard grass and fescue in a pasture obviously in need of renovating  Alas, this field must await reseeding until next year. I can only rest one field at a time, and this one ain’t it.

But this one is. Today I re-tilled this top pasture, seeded it with pure bluegrass at 3 lbs per 1,000sq ft, and raked it to help cover the bluegrass seeds. Bluegrass takes about 4 weeks to germinate so it will be interesting to see how well the bluegrass does through the course of the late Spring and Fall. It takes about 9 months for sod to establish itself, so the field won’t be opened up to horses until this time next year.

I’ll close by saying that Spring in Virginia is something you should experience at least once before you die. Here are some Springtime photos I snapped today.

I’ve been fighting a head cold that has been draining my fuel tank for the past few days. Yesterday morning, I managed to dig the last of my post holes for the current fenceline project and this morning I drove to Lowes and Anderson Lawn & Garden to pick up some supplies and equipment. But during both afternoons I’ve been planted in that far office chair plodding through some programming chores for lack of any physical energy whatsoever. Tomorrow I hope to feel well enough to set 17 posts in concrete and spread about 400lbs of heat tolerant bluegrass seeds on pasture #4. Wish me luck! Head colds suck!

Five months ago, it is my understanding that the 110 acre open field we see from our northern view (pictured above) was sold to a local developer and a Franklin County, Virginia judge. Where previous perc attempts (the most notable being ordered by a Florida developer) had failed miserably on the land, they were able to successfully perc the land after breaking through the hardpan in about 16 sample areas. Then around January, the surveyors got to work subdividing. I had estimated about sixteen 5–10 acre lots. Boy, was I wrong. There are 31 lots with public road frontage on the bottom and I understand from a neighbor that there will be between 75–90 lots in total. So, the sleepy little valley with a total of about 20 houses including mine will be growing to around 100 homes within 5 years time. Iif you are looking at relocating to northern Franklin County in order to enjoy suburbanized country living with convenient access to Roanoke then you might want to have your realtor investigate this future subdivision.

I actually don’t think this is a bad idea. The land hasn’t been correctly managed from an agricultural perspective in probably 20 years and 90 families will do a much better job minimizing slope erosion then one 90 year old farmer could. Franklin County has plenty of room for new folks and with the counties’ already quite sensible – and sensibly evolving – environmental standards, we have an opportunity to become the standard by which other counties are measured in the region.

Directly to the south of me, across the next public road, the first phase of a “green” subdivision has been quietly put on the FSBO market. It is a 60 acre subdivision owned by a lady who also owns several hundred more open and wooded acres adjoining our land. I think a “green” community would sell well in this area and it would be nice to see “green” building become the new Franklin County standard.

In related news, our future neighbor and horse boarder from Florida is renting a house across the road from us while they select a builder to build their new home. The family owns 15 acres adjoining ours, and I understand they’ll be building a post and beam home. A post and beam is – being a Yankee transplant – one of my favorite architectural styles and I look forward to watching the project develop. Who knows, I might very well be building a post and beam bank barn someday

It was a beautiful warm and sunny Sunday in Boones Mill. With a bumper crop of wild garlic dotting my now awakened lawns, it was the perfect time to get my lawn tractor ready for it’s third season. I pulled the deck and found all three blades in salvageable condition, and after 20 minutes with the angle grinder it was time to go cut me some wild garlic  But first I had to gather a bushel (or three) of fallen branches and put the girls’ toys away so they weren’t inadvertently run through a 62” shredder  Not that I’ve ever done that. No sir.

I’ve got some sort of virus attempting to set up camp in my ears, nose and throat but like any good American male I’m ignoring it. Hopefully tomorrow I’ll be able to continue ignoring it while I work on some more fencing and sneak in some more landscaping work. I’ve got $200 in Parks Seeds in a box and they need to leave the box and go into my annual beds so my annual beds can become perrenial beds because life is too short to plant an acre of annuals every damn year  

I finally talked myself into getting a trailer to haul building materials back from Lowes and Southern States. It’s a real time-saver and it’s handy loading up for a job and taking the trailer to a job on the farm. When I’m done for the day I store the trailer in the storage barn and I no longer have to unload and reload in between phases of a job. Yay!

Well, my next stretch of wood fenceline is coming along. It’s been slow going; a half day here, a half day there, and so on. We’ve been pretty busy playing catch up after our vacation, but lately I’m making faster progress. So if everything goes as planned I’ll be done my fenceline project by, oh, 2009  Oh, were that statement only in jest! I’ve got a few thousand feet of fence to build. I’ve done 360’ so far  The fence project will be more of an ongoing project that I do in between other projects. Otherwise, I’d get mighty sick of fence work, mighty quick!

I’m already set to switch gears and work on some landscaping projects. I’ve got so much I want to do ; the trick is finding the time to do it!

I snapped this symmetrical and spherical photograph with my new Nikon 10.5mm lens. I’m nothing more than an obsessive novice photographer, and I’ve been wanting a wide angle lens for quite some time. Once I have the appropriate Photoshop filter to “straighten” out my photos, I’ll be in heaven with this new lens for certain shots.

As a pat on my back my north side boxwoods (pictured) are looking pretty good. I took ownership of them in 2005 when they looked like mutant boxwoods from outer space and I’ve somehow managed to bring them back to a more orderly fashion through patience and lots of trimming! 

I really fell out of the blogging loop over the past month and I missed it. I hope with this post I’m returning to an active blogging lifestyle

Nancy, the girls and I snuck off on a Disney Cruise during the first week of March. It was the first cruise any of us have ever taken and I’d recommend the experience to anyone with young children. One of the highlights for me personally was the butterfly farm on Saint Maarten. I’ll leave you today with some of my favorite snaps from the butterfly tour and I promise to update everyone on my farm work later today.