Today in the orchard
Spent time puttering in the orchard we call the BRC. It’s the orchard where we allow all the various companion species to grow more or less unchecked. It’s the location of some of our most coveted cultivars (varieties). The orchard is relatively close to the house and surrounded by a good fence. The chicken house and the duck house are both in the BRC. That means we go into the orchard at least twice a day to let the birds out in the morning and in at night. It’s a great motivator to get us out observing what’s happening in the orchard every day.
Occasionally, however, one of us gets distracted and doesn’t get out to close the birds in til well after dark. That can be a bummer, or almost a bummer, like tonight. I was heading to the coop a little after dark when I heard unmistakable trouble in the hen house. I stepped it up and bolted down the path past the Ribston Pippin (no crop this year), Black Oxford (lots of fruit), 447 (good crop), Rolfe (4 apples), Yellow Bellflower (excellent keeper), and Cherryfield (aka Benton Red aka Collins aka Salome) and got to the gate just in time to see a sizable and rather rotund raccoon racing off into the darkness. There were a lot of detached tail feathers lying around but no further damage. Looks like I arrived just in time! Thankful, I clucked it all the way back to the house under the emerging stars humming NRBQ’s tune “Trouble in the Henhouse. (Check it out on Tapdancing Bats.) Tomorrow I'll be on time.