Sidney’s the one that started this whole apple mania. On any given day our house is harboring at least 3 apples that Sid has brought in from his ramblings around the farm. A lab always has to carry something in their mouth and apples are currently easy and accessible. They are in the bedroom, kitchen and points in between. But Sid is loyal to get them out and eaten. He’s like a squirrel with the nut stash!

This morning he managed to find some new apples that had fallen, ate 4 while I did the chores and then helped himself to the basket I filled for the sheep! As I came back to the barn Ashley waited, all alone, a true apple monger. So I tossed her a couple extra while the rest of the flock looked on from the barn area, wondering, had they missed the golden moment?

“God gave you a gift of 86,400 seconds today. Have you used one to say ‘thank you’?”

William A. Ward

If you can’t think of anything you are thankful for, then stop what you are doing for one second, take a deep breath and relax. Congratulations. You now have a reason to give thanks. May you always find an abundance of reasons to be thankful.

I love this entry above. watch a lovely little movie at http://www.mayyoubeblessed.com/ which emails me a heartfelt blessing each day http://www.bettertobless.com/hfb.html They are quite nice and thought provoking.

May you each be blessed.

Applebee’s has nothing on our flock! These sheep are loving their apples. We have one tree that is dropping golden delicious faster than we can gather them. The deer are helping by night but this afternoon I filled a basket so I’d have a stash for them. The trees in their pasture are not dropping yet…macintosh but still developing. It would be an understatement to say the highlight of their day is the apple toss. I take 6-7 apples and toss them into the grass for them to eat. Here Ashley is enjoying her apple; and for an instant I set the basket down in the field (that was dumb!). Some of the youngsters prefer hand fed! In fact Peach (right corner, bottom picture) will butt me if I walk away from her without an extra apple. We’ve had words about that behavior!

Multi-tasking is at a peak here this weekend. Jack reset fence posts and gates that needed adjustment, let down the hay elevator for winter, spread all the manure since March, mowed and trimmed the perimeter pastures that don’t get grazed and went hunting this afternoon. I got a pound of yarn mordanted in two separate baths, a pound of silk pieces “zorbed” (Silksorb to remove the serecin and scoured to clean, all in one), dye kits packaged for the upcoming shows in October, cleaned my truck, filled dye orders and tended the sheep.

The walk from the house to the dye studio is uphill/downhill and the sheep are even further out the uphill/downhill…trips back and forth:100: projects completed: a success: calories burned: priceless!

These are some of the nicest days of a New England year. The temperatures are 70’s during the daytime, 40’s overnight, no bugs, and no humidity. Every morning of late this is the sheep view. It’s cool, calm, misty, the grass wet with dew. The sheep are calm and content even though there is not the best grass of summer anymore. It’s as if they know to just be free and able to enjoy these bug free, cool days is good enough. It’s also apple season, and around the edges we have some great fruit bearing wild apple trees. They love to eat apples. Ashley, Bea, Georgia, Peach and Charlotte will hand feed, the rest eat from the ground. On the outside of the fences the deer come to eat what falls to the ground. Just the other day Jack and I were standing around the barn yard just talking and friends stopped by. They watched, as we came up the lane ,while 3 deer were eating apples just behind the barn! They were in full view except to us!

We got the final load of hay in the barn last week…100 more which puts us great shape for the winter and spring months. Steve(counting bales in the field) and Liza did the offloading and Jack and I did the stacking in the barn and by the end we were unable to move more than 1 foot in any direction for the last 6 bales! It sure is cozy up there though and now with the hay in and the wood stacked we are ready for the coming season.