This is the best picture I could get of one of the two young robins I spotted in their pretty little nest in the maple trees behind the barn.
Their parents are flying on and off feeding the hungry little tykes .. except when I take position behind the nearby shrubs to take a picture. I can wait till I'm blue in the face, or more accurate until my arms cramp up, but they won't come near the nest as long as I'm there!
We're having beautiful weather, not too hot and not too cold, and if it was up to me I'd keep it like this all summer long!
The vegetable garden of our landlords is going gangbusters, we've been told to pick up the pace eating lettuce, asparagus and snow-peas since they're growing like crazy.
We're happy to comply!
Their arbor at the driveway, which was completely covered with that beautiful Wisteria a couple of weeks ago, is now sporting two beautiful varieties of different roses:
(And it looks like that Wisteria is having a second bloom as well!)
James has been working hard on several appraisals this week and I have accompanied him when he went out to measure them one day.
It's a lot easier to do with two people, one calling out the numbers and one writing them down and creating a drawing, although things got a lot easier with the introduction of lasers a couple of years ago which has eliminated the fumbling around with a tape-measurer!
On Thursday and Friday he helped Dan (our landlord) to tackle one of his 'projects' for our rent-barter.
They painted the new pump-house (they're on a well) the same color as their house.
It had been partly primed but that's as far as Dan got and he sure appreciated James' help in finally getting it done!
Just like with measuring for an appraisal, it's a lot easier and faster with two and of course James has all the necessary tools which helps a lot as well!
I've been tackling a few other projects. One of them being the 'saving' of the grapes!
During our first visit to the property in May all that was visible of said grapes was that patch of brown, dead looking branches there on the foreground.
They used to grow over an old arbor that had slowly deteriorated and this winter it had finally given up the ghost and collapsed ...
When we arrived a couple of weeks later, this had happened!
Not only had the vines started to send out new shoots but half of the leaves belong to ... blackberries! Vigorous, nasty, mean old blackberries!
Dan thought there where 6 different vines under the whole mess but exactly where they were was anybody's guess ..
Needless to say, it wasn't a very fun job to untangle the whole mess and figure out what was what and what to cut or save or lead whichever way ..
Many hours, bloody scratches and a lot of cursing later I finally got it done. It was unavoidable that some of the new growth was lost due to the tangles but at least now the rest has a chance.
(These are table-grapes by the way)
Mowing the grass is a weekly occurrence in the spring, and we've taken responsibilty for about an acre of it, but since we haven't had much rain, and that particular area is not being watered, it's already starting to turn brown so we can slow down at that chore.
Which is nice, since this meadow is a little bit of a mine-field right now.
Compliments of this little dude .. well, little .. it's actually quite a hefty guy, for a gopher!
Talking about our barter for rent, we've agreed on 10 hours (between the two of us) per week but since there won't be as much to do in the winter we'll be doubling up on them over the summer when most maintenance as well as any special projects will be done.
Of course it's a new situation for both of us and we'll see how it works out.
We've made lists of things to be done and we confer almost daily about who is doing what or who needs help with anything and I think as long as we keep communicating and expressing what we like or not or what could or should go different, we'll be just fine!
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