November Hill farm journal, 76

We’re in the middle of a heat wave - 6 days now of temps 92 and up. Yesterday afternoon we hit 96 degrees. This is the thing about summer I dread and really dislike. The farm is beautiful this time of year, lush with tree foliage and green and growing things, but when it gets this hot, keeping horses happy and keeping up with the chores becomes a burden.

Meanwhile my amazing farm helpers pushed on yesterday, working from 6-2:30, to continue the fencing project. Thankfully most of their work took place beneath the shade of two huge oak trees so they said it wasn’t too bad. I encouraged them to wait for a break in the heat, but they wanted to go forward and get this done.

I’ll post photos once I can get out there at the right time of day to get good ones. It’s so nice already having the gates mid-way the fence line between the barn and the outer fence of the property. The fencing looks beautiful and when my garden space is complete it will be a nice little oasis at the end of the dirt paddock. I can garden in the midst of the horses and am thinking it might be nice to plant a couple of apple trees out there.

With this heat we have had two small rainfalls, enough that I didn’t need to water before leaving for Bath last week, but not enough to wait until this Saturday for the next one, so I’ve watered the pollinator beds by hand and yesterday evening my husband helped me roll the wheelbarrow water bag down to Poplar Folly to give the hollies, the Virginia sweetspire, the persimmon, and the redbud babies a good drink. They all look terrific.

The bees are coming Saturday morning! I’m naming the apiary Arcadia and one queen will be Echo - not yet sure what the other will be. Their area is behind Poplar Folly in a spot that will get morning into afternoon full sun and then some light shade toward evening. In the winter they’ll get full sun most of the day when the leaves are off the trees, so I’m hoping this spot works for them. It’s away from the house and the horses, and since I no longer have plans to try to get lots of honey from them, I think it will work okay for me as well, in terms of not having to haul supers up the hill. We’ll see how it all goes.

Today I’m going to the feed store in town to look at a whisky barrel water garden that I can put by the hives so they have water right there. There are ponds and rivers and a lake nearby but I want them to have water close by for cooling the hive easily, plus a little water garden will be fun.

Photos when things are set up!

Meanwhile I’m just trying to get things done without sweating too much!

When your screenplay nearly gets the best of you - DEEP WORK

Last night I was so confused by my own plot line I nearly exploded trying to explain it to my two writing friends. I wrote this trilogy of novels several years ago, and the plot is definitely complex, hopefully in a good, marketable way.

However, the writer of said work has to be able to get it clear in her own head before adapting it for the screen.

I ended up re-reading the first novel in this trilogy, read a chunk of it out loud to my feedback team here, and got the feedback that it wasn’t confusing when they heard it. This morning I jumped back in and did my best to wrap my brain around the thing my brain previously created. What a hoot!

This afternoon I had made progress but hit the truly complicated part and some resistance. I got up from the work space, decided to do some reading instead, and then Cal Newport’s voice rang in my head. “Deep work. Not distraction.”

Guilty as charged. I turned on a dime and sat my butt back on the red bar stool and forced myself to dig back in. Fifteen minutes later I had sorted out the central issue. This time around I charted the information in the novel manuscript AND on my screenplay outline and also repeated it out loud to my friends in an effort to truly cement it in my brain.

My agent told me years back that I didn’t back away from writing complex material and this is definitely the most complex plot I’ve ever attempted.

Thanks, Cal. Thanks, writing women. I’m back in the saddle and my outline is nearly done!

Writing retreat in Bath

Desperately needed time away to write and dive deeply into the structure of a TV series adaptation... I found this cottage on Airbnb and booked it, then learned it is owned by the mother of a woman who lives in the same town as I do and who has been instrumental in bringing some great things to our county, including the local food co-op. The cottage is lovely and three writing women are here typing away. Heaven!

Homeschooling the hounds

November Hill farm journal, 75

It’s been a lovely week here. We had just the right amount of rain last weekend to give everything a good drink but not so much that we had a river running through the front stream bed. On Tuesday a cold front moved in, bringing our temps for the past three days to highs just at 70 degrees and lows around 48 degrees. I feel this is just about perfect weather for humans and animals alike. Of course, it is ending tomorrow and by Saturday we’re looking at a high of 91 degrees. I’m not thrilled but it’s the weather. We just have to roll with what comes.

The garden beds are looking wonderful. I have to remember to pinch back some of the plants that will grow too tall before they do, but for now everything is growing, blooming, and standing beautifully in the garden.

In other news, Keil Bay was losing weight and I freaked completely out about it and have boosted his feed tubs plus added a mid-day meal. He defies the norm where senior horses can drop weight in winter; he always looks fabulous in the winter months but for the past two summers we have had an issue with him needing more calories. He has already put weight on in the week since I increased his feed, and as anyone who knows Keil can imagine, he is adoring the fact that he gets that mid-day feed tub served to him in the cool quiet of the barn with his fans going.

It’s tricky having one horse that needs more calories and the rest needing less than they get, but we’ll manage. I’ve finally scheduled the interior fencing along the dirt paddock to be replaced, which means the plastic strand fencing that has been there all these years (and proved totally useless in corralling donkeys) will be taken down and away. We’ll have three-board fencing to match our exterior fencing, sans the woven wire, and the front and back pasture gates will be closer to the barn so the horses and the humans don’t have to travel all the way to the end of the dirt paddock (near the difficult neighbors’ house) to move through. I’ll end up with a small enclosed garden space at that end which will serve a double purpose: more garden space, and screening for the property line on that side. I’m very happy we’re making this improvement.

I have mowed all the buttercups this week, harrowed the arena, and thanks to my farm help, all the weedeating and mowing needed elsewhere is totally under control. I also pulled poison ivy out of my pollinator beds and am glad that chore is behind me.

This weekend I have some power washing to do and getting ready for the bees, who are coming June 1. More on that soon!

A certain golden girl can jump on the sofa now and it’s a favorite sleeping spot. What a sweetie she is!