Wednesday, February 25, 2009

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WARM WEATHER AND WILLPOWER worked their magic today to get me wending my way à pied to check on my infant orchard, a half-mile up the road.





It's been quite a while since I've given the young trees any solicitous attention (or even looked at them, if truth be told), so I was a bit nervous as to what I'd find. Would they be mauled or mutilated by wild animals? Chewed upon? Would the vagaries of winter weather have had any deleterious effects?




Happily, I discovered that nothing had plauged their healthy and upright condition. But a close inspection found no signs of development in the buds--something I was hopeful of seeing.




On my walk, however, I saw no lack of development on the part of my Amish neighbors. All winter they've been decorating the side of the road with mounds of earth as they build their "daudy house." (An add-on for Jakie and Rachel, patriarch and matriarch of the three generations of family.)


It's nearly complete, almost ready for move-in. Two young members of the family were industriously washing the windows and sweeping the floors as I passed by.



Of course, few are the times when I fail to see some form of cleaning--washing, sweeping, tidying up--going on about the place. I see them washing the windows, the walls, the buggy, the barn, the animals. They are often sweeping the driveway. Clothing frequently flutters on the line.



My brisk little walk notwithstanding, when the sheep in the meadow just beyond the barn turned their soulful eyes on me, I had to say, "I feel like a sluggard, how about ewe?"



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