Depends

So much of what happens here depends on the weather.  Had to add another chore to the list yesterday due to the rain and cold and bring a load of firewood up to the porch.  Actually a couple of chores because the wood stove ashes need to be cleared every day, and when the (metal) trash can gets full it has to be taken to the burn pile and emptied.  Haven't needed to do that in months.

While milking in the morning just a light drizzle of rain was falling, but it somehow influenced a big flock of blackbirds that has moved into the oaks.  They were chattering like crazy, and loud!  I love how the birds will take off in formation, dozens and dozens at a time, swooping and swirling as with one mind.  How do they keep from crashing into one another on the fly?

Wet weather definitely has an effect on the goats.  Our barn routine gets totally out of whack when it rains.  The girls get cranky and quarrel among themselves.  Instead of going up to the corner for alfalfa, on rainy days the ones let loose cluster around the gate to the play yard waiting for it to open, which doesn't happen until the last milker is let out.  At bedtime, they push and shove, trying to be the first to be let inside.

This doesn't happen with the chickens.  On drear days I always shut the big door to the coop, but unless it is pouring the little girls stay outside, pecking and scratching and turning over fallen leaves for the bugs I suppose are brought out of the damp earth.  It's like a wet treasure hunt.

Turkeys continue to gather for breakfast and throughout the day, but instead of the toms fluffed out and showing off, they all march as if to a dirge, dressed in funereal black.


Whether I cook or not depends on the weather.  The salads or bowls of cold cereal of summer have lost their appeal and I think more in terms of soups or just about anything that goes in the oven.

It's grey, gloomy, and misting outside at first light this morning.  Bessie Anne went outside for a potty break and came in, her coat dripping.  That wouldn't be so bad, but she immediately wanted up on the bed and promptly plopped herself on my pillow.  And so starts the day.