Photo Essay

The goats had to wait for me as I was so taken by the morning sun playing behind the clouds on the way down to the barn.  The two puffs below the horizon are the smoke from a couple of hellacious burn piles up on Omo Ranch Road.

In the middle of the day, after bringing a load of firewood up to the porch Bess and I took a breather on the deck and saw that the clouds were marshalling their forces, spectacular with the light behind.  That firewood came in handy later as the temperature continued to drop and the wind picked up.

It seemed only fitting to show the clouds as they were at the end of day.  With exquisite timing, the rain held off until I was on the way back again, and then it poured.  The chicken pen was full of turkeys, all those not taking shelter under the manzanita bushes, and they weren't about to leave just because I showed up.  Ginger, as usual, was running around outside the fence and we were all getting soaked.  Bessie Anne lost patience and tried to herd Ginger in, but the little dingaling got scared and ran down into the orchard.  With the Silkies and the rest of the big hens in their rooms and the turkeys busy with a quickly thrown handful of grain, I put Bess in the feed room and tried to coax Ginger to come back, but she wasn't having any of that.  Slogging about and getting wet to the skin, I gave up and Bessie and I went in.  I've such a soft spot for Ginger that I couldn't leave her out in the dark and went back outside again.  My little red hen was tucked up on a hay bale but hopped down and ran with me into her pen and rushed in the door.  By then the cloudburst was over.  Chores done for the day, I turned...

and was struck by a glorious blaze of light and a stupendous sunset.

It was a good day.