Do sheep eat dead leaves? I googled it and couldn't find out. Apparently goats in California can be killed by oak leaves. But my sheep seem to like the dead maple leaves they are finding as the snow pulls back. It's February, and the sun seems summer-like in its brilliance. I'm wearing sun glasses as I prune the apple trees this morning and watch as a big white ewe scoops up a lower lip full of brown leaves and tosses them in the air joyfully. This is like an early spring to her, and the leaves are a treasure that makes a change from the hay and grain rations. I imagine the unlimited supply is what really excites them. No more relying on that miserly man, me, and whatever I feel like giving out. They are all pregnant too and craving weird nutrients. The maple leaves are likely to contain some valuable stuff that scientists haven't even discovered yet. Maybe this is a permacultural breakthrough. Sheep on dead leaves. A new way of life. At least until it snows again.
Change is in the air, not just for the sheep. It's Super Bowl day, which marks a distraction from the routine. Between Punxsutawny Phil and Tom Brady, I prefer Phil as a marker of seasonal time. At least the groundhog is based on the old belief that the time in between is a fluid medium, good for prognostications and communicating with the other dimensions. Now if I was a Republican I would be looking for some distractions, because you don't need a medium to know that old Mitt is not which way the wind blows come next fall. And who would want to have a beer with him? If the right is going to pull off its usual bait and switch it helps to have a folksy performer. Mitt is not that guy. Is it too late to write in for the groundhog? Google has the answer, I bet.
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