Susannah’s Watch

We have been busy mowing and chipping and clearing the brush from around the barn, and we are finally to the point of barn refurbishment! Our expert Barn Guy, Jeff Thompson of Colonial Woodwrights, has begun removing the rotted side boards, sills, and will replace with locally milled lumber. The small building to the right of…

We spent a brisk Veterans Day weekend clearing brush on the farm. We put the new power tools to use mowing down brush and chipping/shredding spikey, scratchy, itchy, branches and vines. We decided to add “Worm Farmers” to the list of things we want to be when we grow up. The soil in the fields…

The results are in for the nematode assay on our prospective first vineyard… we are infected with the dreaded Dagger Nematode. What are nematodes? Glad you asked. They are a parasitic non-segmented pin worm that live in soil. When present in large numbers, they attach themselves to root systems, suck the life out of the…

We walked the farm fields Friday afternoon with Ben Beale from the Univ. of Maryland and St. Mary’s County, to discuss the viability of our soil for growing grapes. Thumbs up from Ben! We have some of the best agriculture soil there is in the county, and some soggy areas as well. After sending soil…

Hooray we have hot water! Hot Water Heater guy installed a beautiful new energy efficient hot water heater! We were so excited to have hot water, but the joy did not last long. Yes it was realllly nice to have hot water, but the dirt and ticks don’t wash off without any water pressure. The…

The first week in residence at the farm, we find that a house built by a tobacco farmer might have some issues 100 years later. The image to the left is a visual representation of the leak in the roof in the living room. Many roofers have attempted, and failed to fix. Another roof guy…

We received notice today that we are an official business in the State of Maryland, and can now be taxed.

…and just like that, we moved from Germany to Mechanicsville! It was a delicate operation moving one big old dog, two little dogs, and two people across an ocean, but we did it, we are here at the farm. What do real farmers have? John Deere things! We took delivery of our first farm item…

Tom and Carol Miller loved wine. Tom loved wine so much he became a wine sommelier and had a business in his retirement years leading tours to Europe visiting wineries and shipping many cases of “fruit preserves” (wine) back to their home in Maryland. I never had the chance to meet Tom, he left this…

Jeff makes another trip to Sandgates following Hurricane Dorian. Some trees down on the farm, and so much clean up to do. He is also on a mission to locate the Dairy barn that we found on old satellite images of the farm. Mission accomplished! Dairy barn found collapsed in a heap inside dense brush….

Jeff makes a trip to MD in August to check on the farm and meet with Aunt Joan and the county administrators in charge of land use. Walking around the property, he finds that trees have encroached on the agriculture land, and the vines have grown into the barn. There is so much work to…

There we were, living and working in Germany and enjoying an evening on the roof top with our dear friends, Kim and Kevin Reid. There was Gin involved. We had been showing the Reid’s the real estate listing for Aunt Joan’s home and adjoining farm for months… hoping we could be neighbours forever after our…