10 PM and Still Light

There was an orange glow behind the mountain to the northwest of my farm at 10 PM tonight as I came in from chores. I love all this light. I'm spending so much more time outside. It feels like I spent the whole winter in the barn. Makes sense since I live in the barn. The snow drifts so deep on the northside where the flock goes out to pasture it discourages them from trying. They like it in the barn anyway. Now, when I get home from work, they are lined up ready to be let out to pasture. Tonight they went to work on the low branches of the apple orchard. My orchard is long past productive. I like to think of previous owners, maybe a hundred years ago, pruning and caring for the orchard and enjoying the produce. I don't think the original owners planted this orchard 200 years ago. The trees don't look that old. Anyway, what tiny apples grow on the trees are quickly eaten by the goats who stand on their hind legs to reach them. The apples that fall down are eaten by the sheep. Chris eats the leaves on top. Deer hide from hunters in my orchard. I tell them they better stay put but they leave anyway, to their peril. I'm going to sew a little while watching Bill Mahre, then hit the hay. Loren Wildenstein is coming in the morning to help me catch sheep for Jim to shear. It's a good thing, because my 300 pound Merino boys are not easy to catch. Once caught, they are almost impossible to move. Loren is big, strong, young and determined - just right type for catching BIG sheep. I have to order some dyes from Dharma and get those pots boiling.