Every morning, Zip sits on his wood debris throne to stare at the marsh and watch for his nemesis, Alvin the Chipmunk. We burned his first wood pile hideout the other day; it was getting too big. Maria went out and collected some fallen maple and other limbs and built another one for him this morning. He went to it right away and held court.

This is now Zip’s favorite thing to do in the morning. He goes to the wood pile right after getting his morning breakfast. I would like to know if there is an afterlife and how I might arrange to be one of Maria’s animals.

Zip loves to sit in his wood pile for an hour or two. Zip is like me in at least one way: we love to silently sit outside and stare at the world. How many ways are there to spoil a cat, a dog, a hen, a sheep, or a donkey?

Beautiful sunrise through the mist.

Next to Zip and Zinnia, Fanny and Luly are the two most spoiled animals on Bedlam Farm, Bud moving up the line. Every morning, Maria picks up the fallen apples off the ground and feeds them to the donkeys; I love the sound of their crunching and drooling. She takes a basket full into the house to make applesauce, which is delicious.

We usually bring Zinnia and Fate into the pasture in the morning. They don’t like it when we don’t.

Asher checks me out. He’s looking for apples from the apple tree, one of the very few sheep we have who eats apples.

St. Joseph watches the hills become visible in the mist.

Lulu is our guard donkey; she watches out for the sheep day and night. They know it, too; they all gather around her when there is trouble—Woe to the strange dog or coyote that comes near the sheep without her permission. She never bothers our dogs.