November Hill farm journal, 53

We’re fully into green season here - the trees are absolutely gorgeous and offering near total privacy, which makes me happy.

It was warm enough last week that I decided to move all the indoor plants to the front porch. That night it dropped to 34 degrees! The plants are fine but that in a nutshell tells the story of this spring on November Hill.

Everything in the pollinator beds is growing and I watered for the first time in months to insure everything, especially the new plantings, got a good soaking this week. 

Monday was a very busy day: new entry door was installed, daughter presented her primate research on campus, and we celebrated her birthday with a nice dinner out. Tuesday was equally busy, with the garage being cleaned out (the main part only - the two storage rooms are for another day) and drywall repairs made. Next week it will be painted and we’ll continue with the storage room cleaning/clearing/organizing. Hopefully the garage doors are installed soon. Once it’s all pulled together I’ll share the “big picture” but for now, this is my new door:

It matches the clematis and the climbing roses on the left side of the big garage door, and it makes me really happy every time I drive up. 

After a dip to 34 degrees we’re now into a week with highs inching toward 90. The horses are in the barn during the days. Thankfully the humidity is low, we’ve had a steady breeze along with the climbing temps, and I’ve been able to carry on with chores without sweating. 

Baloo Corgi enjoyed his first big romp in Poplar Folly this week! He and Bear had a blast and I’m looking forward to more fun back there. 

This morning the doors are open, the trees are swaying gently in the breeze, birds are singing, and all the cats and Corgis are stretched out for morning naps. It’s a wonderful life. 

When your heart horse turns 29...

You remember the day you typed in the details of your perfect dream horse on dreamhorse.com and only one horse popped up.

And he was in your price range.

And he was in your state.

And he was in a nearby town.

And his trainer said come on over and meet him and ride him. His owner is only selling to the exact right person so there’s no pressure on you to purchase.

And you get there and meet him and he is a dream come true before you even help tack him up.

And the trainer shows him off for you and you say you can’t ride him - you aren’t advanced enough.

And she talks you into it.

And you look better on him than you ever have in your entire riding life.

And his x-rays are so good the vet takes them to his vet school mentor to make sure he isn’t missing anything.

And somehow, this amazing horse comes to live with you.

And 15 years later he is still amazing, still sound, and the best horse in the whole world.

Happy birthday, Keil Bay. You are THE KING. Thanks for putting up with me all these wonderful years!

When a pony turns 18...

You remember the little girl who saved her money from age 3 to age 7 and bought him. He was 4 and now he’s 18 and all you can think of is how in the world did all those years fly by?

You remember the pony and his girl cantering no hands over jumps, galloping around the fields with a video camera clasped in one hand, attending Pony Club ratings and events, traveling to cross-country trainings with Annie and her horse Johnny, bringing home ribbons from schooling shows where the other competitors were adult women and their giant warmbloods.

You remember the girl doing math in the pony’s stall, dressing up for Halloween, working out girl and pony issues under saddle.

Everything the girl and the pony did together was a first for both of them. They were a good team.

These days the girl is doing undergraduate research in neurobiology and shining like a star, and the pony took over being best friends with the donkeys after Salina died. He grooms with the Big Bay and plays tag over the fence with Cody.

Sometimes I think he misses the little girl but most days he leads a pretty happy life. Yesterday after the little party I threw for him, during which time I told stories about how all the equines came to live with us and recounted the names of their sires and dams, fun times, hard times, and ended with carrots, the pony headed out to check the fence line, which he does sometimes.

Here he is. Happy Birthday Little Man!!!

November Hill farm journal, 52

November Hill is never more precious to me than when I leave it and come back again. I was gone for five days on writing retreat in Hertford, where the cottage on the Perquimans River feels like a second home. Two dear writing friends and I wrote and read out loud and made good meals and told stories that made us all laugh so hard we cried. It was a wonderful retreat.

I pulled out a new novel to work on this trip. Never Not Broken is done, but for a final read-through, so it needs to sit a few more weeks before I do that. The new novel, Arrow of Time, is one I wrote several years ago and it’s a very different kind of story for me. I realized when I got there with the printed pages that I would need to start from scratch with the opening, as the sequence in the first draft is off, but I managed to write the opening two chapters and outline the third, and on my way home figured out how to dictate notes to Siri on my phone for a tweak that I think will make the opening work even better.

As it turned out I didn’t drive directly to November Hill. Elf (the Beetle) popped on his exhaust system light about an hour from Hertford so I had to stop and determine if it was safe to drive the remainder of the way. It was, but we decided I would go straight to our VW mechanic’s shop and leave it there, and husband met me, switched my luggage to the other car, and we drove home from Durham.

I can’t believe how much everything grew while I was gone. We’ve entered the time of year where we can see nothing but trees out our windows. With the exception of the neighbors to our right, but next spring we’ll be reaping the benefits of the row of American hollies going in along the fence over there. From April to November we have near total privacy thanks to the trees and I love this season so much.

The pollinator garden plants are going wild, doubling their size since I left last week. One of my button bushes has started to leaf out. I’m doing a bit of weeding every day and mostly keeping on top of it. There’s one area where I haven’t planted yet and some grasses and other things are popping up there - I have a Dutch hoe that works really well getting that kind of thing out, so tomorrow after the rain stops I’ll do that while the soil is soft.

Husband picked up the two flowering dogwoods and ten inkberry hollies from the nursery and those will be going in the ground later this week.

The damaged fence is nearly repaired. These posts were put much deeper into the ground, and cemented securely. The no-climb is attached and the boards will go back up later this week.

We have a bluebird nest in the mailbox. Miniature Keil Bay has been temporarily displaced (I found him kicked out of the “run in” out onto the lane!) into the barn side until the eggs hatch out. I guess we didn’t get that bluebird house out soon enough for the bluebirds!

The dogwoods were stunning this year and are already leafing out. Yesterday we had a little rain and then sunshine and wind, and the white petals were blowing all over the farm. It’s a lush and beautiful time of year.

After the sun came out yesterday I worked in the back yard a bit, clearing four vegetable beds and orange-oiling three fire ant mounds that had popped up. The strawberry bed has berries, and the blueberry bushes are coming out well too. The fig tree is putting up new leaves at the base. It needs to be pruned and I hope to get to that next week.

Finally the garage door installer came by to double-check measurements. The new doors will go in soon and the entry door is set to be installed the end of this month. Once that work is done, the soon to be blooming rose bush is going to be trained up onto an arbor that will go above the garage doors and across the entire side of the house. And I’ll order a new light for the entry door and call that project DONE.

We have more rain today and everyone is enjoying their quiet barn time. By tomorrow they’ll be antsy but for now, it’s quiet and peaceful; the only sounds are the rain falling and a few hopeful birds singing. It was wonderful to be on retreat and it’s wonderful to be home again.

November Hill farm journal, 51

Last night we got 3.1 inches of rain in a matter of hours, and all that water rushing through the stream bed in the front pasture swept leaves from last fall against a section of the front fence and damaged it. The leaves used to simply go under the lowest strand of Horseguard tape but now that we have the no-climb with boards the leaves were trapped. Thankfully my farm helpers are both here tomorrow and they’ll get it fixed, but I was so upset this morning to see the mess and realize at least a day’s work will go to that instead of the steady progress we were making with the “list” items.

All the rain started the spring flowing again, too, and while it’s not enough to do serious damage, the water is flowing along a path that’s creating boggy areas along the driveway. I feel like we need to address that as well.

It’s been quite warm again but tonight we have a frost warning in effect. I’m past being ready for spring!

April is our birthday month - husband, daughter, Keil Bay, and the pony. 48, 21, 29, and 18. Of all those ages the most remarkable ones are daughter and pony. Best birthday wishes to them all!

I’ve ordered two flowering dogwoods and 10 inkberry hollies for planting. I’ll be picking up a few more pollinator plants for the beds, and if the weather ever settles down, need to get the vegetable garden going and also overseed the pastures. I have seed from the botanical garden, all native pollinators, and I have to get those started very soon.

Bee supplies are rolling in. I have to figure out exactly where the hives are going - have changed my mind three times already, but once you set them up, moving them can only be done in gradual increments so I have to find the best site and plan to leave them there if possible.

April is historically our busiest month but somehow I still feel like it should be March!