Stillwaters Farm

Come be restored.

September 5, 2008

Well.  It’s ABOUT time!

 

So many things have transpired since I last made an entry into the farm chronicles!  Probably the most influential—the battle of the modems…  Seems that our good friends at AT&T were finally able to diagnose a long-standing problem with outgoing communications and the impairment of our website uploads.  Yep, you guessed it—a fouled modem.  Since we have that all fixed and runnin’ fine, it’s time to catch you up on what’s been going on this summer—down on the farm.

 

Since our last entry in March, we have been busy bees.  The veggie garden “bones” are complete, and we were able to grow a sparse patch of various and assorted vegetables this summer.  While the yield was only fair at best, we didn’t expect much.  There just wasn’t enough time or manpower to load the beds with composted manure—black gold in gardening terms.  The good news?  We have a huge crop of birdhouse gourds to go into the barn in late fall for over-winter drying.  Come springtime, we’ll have a fresh new group of palettes for our garden artistry. 

Our perennial gardens at The Cottage fared much better.  The initial garden bed was laid out and installed in late summer, 2007.  So, this was our first “real” year of growth...and boy, oh boy, did it ever grow!  We have butterfly bush in several shades of blue, pink, and lavender as well as a buttery-yellow.  Our knock-out roses—the ones off the “gee-these-plants-are-half-dead-but-we’re-calling-them-distressed” rack at Lowe’s (as were most of the rest of the plants in these beds)—came on strong and never stopped performing all summer long.  Seeds we’d saved from last year’s zinnias filled in any gaps.  Salvia, bergamot, Echinacea, penta...all the old butterfly standards were present.  During the course of the summer, we also installed several more beds—a shade bed, a mock riverbed for a problematic wet area, a very small water garden, several containers and whiskey barrels.  The result?  We’ve been rewarded with visits from an amazing array of butterflies, bees, and birds.

Speaking of birds, in June, we were privileged with a visit from Gregg, an ornithologist from the Memphis area—and her family, to assess our farm for its “birdability”.  After two days of scrutinizing the farm by golf cart and with binoculars in hand, she pronounced us “very birdy”!  It seems that she found several declining-population species in abundance here and was very optimistic regarding our plans to focus on wildlife as a drawing card for our agritourism venues.  She encouraged us to keep a listing of birds that have been sighted on the farm and was nice enough to start us off with a rather lengthy list of our feathered visitors.  We look forward to hosting her and her family again during migration!

The Cottage, in its first year, is rapidly growing in popularity.  With steady rentals throughout the summer, we can see a time in the not-so-distant future when we will need to seriously entertain another accommodation.  Not only are we convenient for Freed-Hardeman University events, but we are also strategically located to offer our guests easy day trips to Memphis and Nashville.  However, mostly what we’ve seen are battle-weary folks just looking for a place to rest.  Ah, our specialty!  With great feedback from our guests, we are encouraged to continue with improvements to the facilities and grounds, including—very soon—a 4-person golf cart for tours and wildlife expeditions on the “back 100”.   The crew of critters has done their individual parts to make our guests feel welcome and loved—even entertained at times when Gianni or Huggy decide to chase the mailman, or a turkey or guinea fowl drops by the patio for a visit.

As many of you know, we were blessed with a “drop in” critter in mid-June.  Seymour, the day-old deer was brought home by Gianni and Huggy during their nightly patrols, and we have been bottle-feeding him ever since.  He’s now almost three months old, and his formula appetite is voracious.  We’ll be scaling him back and encouraging more solids, although he has proven to supplement himself with a sip or two from Buttercup—since she already has five pups...what’s one more?  Once he’s ready, we’ll release little Seymour to be with the other deer who frequent our farm.  It will be a sad day to see him go, but we know it is best for him to be allowed to be a deer.  I’m sure he’ll visit with his “mom” and aunts and uncles in the Great Pyrenees side of his family. 

Not all the animal news this summer was good.  While we were blessed with happy, healthy little Gus, the buckskin mini colt born to Sunny, on August 3rd, Biscuit and Misty’s first baby did not fare so well.  On August 25th, in the wee hours of the morning, Misty delivered an absolutely gorgeous black colt with a white blaze—stillborn.  To make matters worse, Misty continued to labor, and by early afternoon, she’d prolapsed her uterus, which, in the horse world, is a life-threatening condition.  We rushed her to a wonderful vet here in Bethel Springs, and by the grace of God he was able to clean her up, replace the uterus in its proper position, and stitch her closed.  Two weeks and lost of antibiotics later, the stitches were removed, and she’s been pronounced sound.  An absolute miracle, given the circumstances.  She is none the worse for wear, aside from being a bit blue now and again, but that will pass with time.  While we will miss not being able to know little “Vincent”, we are most thankful for the gift of Misty’s life.

At present, we are looking forward to a busy-but-fulfilling fall season at the farm. 

On the family front, Aaron has assumed his station on the Cutter CGC Douglas A. Munro in Kodiak, Alaska, and has recently become engaged to a wonderful young lady from an equally wonderful family.  We are so proud and look forward to what the future holds for them.  Aaron is currently on a 4-month tour that has taken him somewhere in Asia.  Also, we actually heard from Zak early this summer—a miracle in and of itself.  Richie is currently out of the country—and we are looking forward to hearing about his exploits when he returns, and Jami will be giving birth to our fifth grandchild later this month.

It is a full life, and we are blessed.