RespiteFarm

March 6, 2013 blizzard. Snowed all day – a very wet snow, thankfully, otherwise it would have been at least a foot deep. Lost power for 48 hours as a result.

Full moon over Respite Farm, Montpelier, VA, December 27,2012

Burning the last of the tree stumps.

Ready for excavation.

Laura and her sunflower patch.

Butterfly and sunflower.

Well, the first time using the front-loader on the tractor included a bit of unplanned excitement!

Laura wanted some dirt moved from the shed construction site to where she was replanting some shrubs. What a better time for me to try out the tractor.

It turns out that gravity works against a novice user like me. The pictures below illustrate what can happen when the load in the front-loader outweighs the rest of the tractor. Compounding this physics equation were the facts that I had the loader positioned too high and the tractor was facing downhill.

Understandably, Laura was shook up, and she was not the one behind the wheel!

Our friend Danny came by and quickly showed us how to get the tractor back on all four wheels.

Outside of some leaking diesel fuel and oil plus some great embarrasment, all turned out well.

At least it stopped before hitting the fence.

Yeah, Bella; it was a dumb move.

Let’s move this dirt the old-fashioned way.

A new visitor showed up at Respite Farm today.

Which brings to mind the late, great Loudon Wainwright, III.

Bella (the horse), Chrissy (large mini-donkey) and Dandy (small mini-donkey) hanging out in the front pasture.

One of the fox pups that can be seen here has grown considerably and returned for a visit this morining.

What does the fox say?