I Arrive At The Farm

Well, I'd somehow managed to turn a four hour drive into a six hour drive. But it had been an adventure, and I was actually feeling relaxed when I arrived at the farm. The place was still looking well tended. Truth be told, the tenants are keeping up the grounds better than I ever will:

The tenants weren't home when I arrived and their dog was inside the fence, so I walked my dogs around to the north side of the house to check out the area where the new septic tank had been installed. In this photo, you can see Daphne and Clover, the two puppies, racing across the sandy soil atop the septic tank and, across the road, my neighbors' barn and two horses:

Seamus, Wally and Fergus gave everything a good sniffing:

Winky covered much less ground and pretty much kept close to my apartment door. I discovered on this trip that half of what I thought was a Flowering Crab is actually an Apple tree:

The dogs bounded all around the north end of the yard and, thankfully, never stepped off the grass into either the county road or the dirt road. That's my north hay field there across the dirt road:

On the south side of the house I learned that the Apple trees were, like the berry bushes, having a very productive year:

The branches were sagging from the weight of various varieties of apples:

And the lawn was covered with them even though the tenants had been working to keep them picked up (and eaten):

The tenants informed me that the better looking apples were often not the same as the better tasting apples:

And the lone Pear tree was also having a productive year:

This is the view from the road of my little "orchard" on the south side of the farm house. That wooden structure at the edge of the road used to have a sign in it announcing that the former owner was selling candles. I'm dreaming of some day repainting the sign to announce that I'm raising purebred Red Poll cattle: