Picking peaches....

We've gone to the peach orchard twice this season, and hand-picked so many beautiful fresh peaches. How much fresher can they be?  Picked right from the trees, very early in the morning before the bees and wasps come out to play.  Never let it be said that a good pair of boots doesn't help with peach-picking.... you don't have to worry about where you're stepping because the leather boots will protect you from just about anything that's under those trees. (Well, I guess they wouldn't protect you from a rattlesnake, but let's not put that thought out into the universe or I'll never again go to that peach farm.)

The days have been glorious since the rains stopped.... we might get thundershowers this weekend, but for now, the weather is beautiful, with sunny blue skies and just enough heat to let you know that summer is here but hasn't been set up to broiling yet.  That will come.... probably in just a couple of weeks.

The neighbor's goats.... they continue to get out of the fence over there. If they're not on our property, I just ignore them. When the neighbor notices that his livestock have either jumped over or crawled under his fence, he comes driving down his hill and then up our hill, intending to scare the goats back into their own pasture.  That neighbor used to have two dogs who helped him herd the goats, but no one has seen the dogs in a couple of months now. Heaven only knows what happened to them... both of the dogs were loyal to their owner, but that particular neighbor isn't exactly animal-friendly, whether it be to his dogs or his livestock.  Up here, one has to just turn around and not look, especially when a property owner like that is raising goats for the meat, not for companionship.  And there are days when I hear a baby goat crying for all he's worth over there across the hill, and I just know that the neighbor has selected his dinner.

Those are the days when I cannot, just cannot, sit out on the porch.  I've said it before, and I'll say it again... sometimes it hurts my heart to live up here.