So nice to be back

It’s been a while, but finally this past week, I put my feet down at Hayslope again. Not much had changed. The birds still sounded like they did before, maybe a little more since it’s spring. The greenery was spring green instead of that shifting over to fall muted color.

I didn’t get to see the turkeys … oh, did I tell you about the turkeys? They’ve been wandering through the property, along with a baby groundhog who is getting bigger all the time. But the turkeys must have been at another spot on their rounds and not at Hayslope.

Didn’t see the baby groundhog either, or any of the many cats, but I suppose they do like it better when I only see them on the cameras and not in person – and I can tell you I’ve seen them since I got back to Georgia!

Anyway, it was a short trip, but a productive one. I got the smoke alarms working again (sorry about all that noise, Ma Hurley!) and added a new camera – now I can see the outside of the house itself instead of just around the house.

The big plan for this trip was to get ready to have a split rail fence and real gates installed across the front of the property, and that’s done. It’ll be six to eight weeks before it’s installed, but Brown’s Custom Fencing & Construction in Bulls Gap is signed up to do the job, and I couldn’t be more excited. I’m sure you’ve notice that I like to use local contractors whenever possible, and it really helps when those folks are already the best for the job.

I’m pretty excited to get real gates. I know I coulda waited on this, but I’m just tired of the cable across the drive. The fence will be installed behind the boxwoods and the parking area, keeping the gate into the field behind the fence. On the other side, it ends at one of the stone pillars beside the Kentucky Road, which used to be the drive into the Hayslope property before it got chopped up into smaller lots and was just the drive into the Blair-Patterson pro.

I’ll be back up in June, unsure if before or after the fence goes in (maybe during!). I think I’m gonna clear out the view from the house to the spring. I was sitting in what we like to call our office on the side of the house, listening to the birds, as one does, and kept looking down toward the spring, which I couldn’t see. I think I should be able to.

There’s a spring down there somewhere ….

Until then!