Apples!

With all the weather issues including record rainfall and a very long spring, I didn't know what to expect from my ancient, perhaps colonial era, apple orchard.

The sheep will grow fat on these apples once they drop to the ground in the fall.  No apples at all last year as a late freeze killed the blossoms.  I still harbor fantasies of bringing my orchard back.  I wish I knew who planted all these apples trees.  It surely was back breaking work, with this ground that is solid shale.  They planted the trees so close together, tucked under the piney ridge, and they grew so large, that most of them do not get any sunlight and don't produce apples.  I love to wander through the other-worldly darkness in the middle of the orchard.  The trees on the perimeter are heavy with fruit.  I will not spray them, so the fruit does get a bit buggy.  The sheep and goats don't care a bit.  Matilda and Fancy's son, Bubbafette, are already taking advantage.   The sheep don't have the ability to stand up on their hind feet like my Nubians.  They can only watch and wait.