Gardens

So this year has definitely been an experiment year with gardens for me. I have never had a serious size garden so I am waaaayyy behind on learning what and how to plant. Luckily, I've had some help although I will take full responsibility for how they turn out. I found the most incredible nurseries in Lancaster (courtesy of my aunt Andi ). It took 3 car loads to haul all of the goods back to hearthstone. I also planted an additional vegetable garden on the side of the house (nana's prize gardens). It won't be for long, but I figured during construction it would help keep the deer and critters away. Here are some pics of my ever expanding perennial and annual gardens.  And next time you're over, it will be a PYOD (pick your own dinner) menu. Give me a few practice years, and I am determined to have gorgeous gardens !! 

Digging out the Main House

Since we have been on the property, we have gotten a lot of work accomplished!  I thought I would take a post to update everybody on the main house's progress.  The following pictures show the stages of the house changes...it is slowly getting dug out!  This weekend, the Lamberts came over and Matt, Roger, and Rocky got a TON of work done with the new backhoe grapple, the pettibone, and hard labor.  Check out the progress!  

When we had first gotten the property, the top floors were caving in putting an incredible amount of pressure on the old stone walls.  The whole right side of the house crumbled and fell onto the front yard 2 weeks prior to our signing the agreement of sale.  At that point, we knew we had to get the pressure relieved.  The next step was to take down the top dormers so that the other walls wouldn't buckle.  Once we did that, we sat on a ton of debris that had fallen into the basement but reached up 2 floors.  It was a mess!  

This weekend, we finally started digging it out.  We can now stand at the edge and look into the basement.  We were able to save some major pieces including the main stair case's mahogany rungs and the two fireplace mantles.  I will post pictures of that shortly.  All in all, this is a huge step in the process.  

We have scaffold set up on the side of the house to start repointing.  The goal is to get everything out except for the stone walls standing.  Then rebuild from the inside using the still standing stone walls.  I can't thank these guys enough!

This picture shows the pressure on the walls.  You can see where the right side fell in.

dormers are down, tons of debris

This is standing at the front door.

Another front door picture

We can finally stand at the edge.

Spring Foliage (Trees)

This was my first spring at Hearthstone.  I was blown away by the scenery!  So many of the trees that have not been getting light for so many years, started to bloom this year.  Below are some of my favorite pictures of the tree line (Japanese Maple & Copper Beech are gorgeous!) and of some other spots on the property.   Enjoy the picture walk!