Saturdays & Sundays

 

Friends have asked what I do on weekends.  When I'm not in Albany visiting Mike, I'm usually attending one of the various workshops that are offered by The Pfeiffer Center.  The course fees are waived for the garden interns so I try to take advantage of as many of the offerings as possible.  Yesterday, there was a day-long workshop on beekeeping.  The 30+ attendees visited the garden apiary with Beekeeper/Development Director Bill Day and Beekeeper/Head Gardener Megan Durney.  That's Bill in the olive green coat on the left and Megan in the red vest on the right.  While Megan's headwear appears to be a tribute to the beehives of old, it's actually how she keeps her waist-long dreadlocks from falling into the hive.  Megan has been my principal instructor in the art of beekeeping; she's a very gentle soul and the bees seem to know this.

Bill keeps hives at a nearby farm.  He has a dry sense of humor and often travels about on his beloved BMW motorcycle.  He and Megan complement each other with their teaching styles.  The weekend workshops really help to round out the hands-on learning that takes place during the week.  

There are also some regular chores that must be done on the weekend.  I mentioned watering the plants in the greenhouse in an earlier post.  Today, I was on horse duty.  Weekdays, spring through fall, the horses are walked up to the pasture where they graze for several hours.  On the weekends, they stay in their paddock so they need to be given hay for their morning and evening meals. 

You reach the horses by walking across the field that's in the background in this photo.  When they see you at the field's edge, one of them typically lets out a loud whinny.  Then they come over to the paddock gate to check you over for treats.  That's Captain and his older sister Eva waiting for me to give them the apple halves I brought.

After throwing a small bunch of decoy hay over the fence to get them away from the gate, I gather as much hay as I can carry and place it in their stall (this is the same hay that I helped to gather from the pasture and rode on top of in a wagon back in May).

Then I put some salt crystals on the ledges in the stall for them.

Next, I get the hose in place and climb up a steep slope to the barn above and turn on the water to fill the horses' drinking bucket.  I wait up top until I get the signal to turn off the water.

Fortunately, we save mucking out the stall and paddock for the weekdays so that a few people can tackle collecting the manure and dumping it in the compost pile located nearby.

Glad to have a few shots of me in my LL Bean Wellies as I've now cracked a second pair and won't be ordering another; new Sorel boots are on their way.  The Carhartt flannel-lined, canvas shirt jacket is proving to be a more durable purchase.  Thank you to visiting Waldorf teacher Kimberly who accompanied me this morning because she was missing her horses back in Kansas.  

As for the rest of the weekend, I spend it cooking, reading, catching up on correspondence, and of course, blogging.  Thanks for keeping up with me.  It's much appreciated.