Both ends of the day, dagnabbit, and no choice about it. Thank the Lord for flash lights.
Last night we got done with chores fairly early. The boss was able to feed the cows from the wagon in the field so we could turn them right out at the end of milking. Thus I came to the house just as the moon was taking over sky duty for the night.
The sky was cobalt and gold with twenty jet trails stretched across it horizon to horizon. They were like a foggy fan, wide in the east, converging in the west, some wide and faded, some sharp and thin.
I puttered around building up the fire in the stove for overnight and soon I could also see live jets flashing among the contrails. Wow, there are a LOT of planes flying over this place. The phenomenon was much noticed and discussed on Facebook on a friend's page later in the night.
Then well after it was really dark (and I was lying in bed re-reading a Diana Gabaldon book) the chickens set up a fuss. I knew something had been bothering them as they have been trying to roost on the porch...this is not a development that I favor as they have been sending deer antlers, planting supplies and bottles of dry gas and chain saw oil treatment flying all over when they get up on the freezer. I ran out into the dark, barefoot with flashlight.
Not a sign of a thing, but the boss says possum. From the low key outrage they are expressing I'll bet he is right. Guess I need to put them back in the little coop.
Morning, still dark, back out to take Nick up to the run with his breakfast. Foggy, which is fine, as foggy beats rainy any day of the week and that was what was predicted when we retired last night.
I don't much like the dark, but one entertaining aspect is shining my flashlight down into the garden pond on the way in at night. Young froglets and crayfish trundle around doing what they do among the plants and sleepy gold fish. It is fun to get a look at their secret world.
***Incidentally the blog roll crashed this weekend. I have done my best to reconstruct it from memory, but if I missed you, please let me know so I can add you back in. Thanks!
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7 comments:
That is one of the things that I hate about winter months is the darkness that settles in way too early!
I noticed the contrails last evening, too. The cool thing was that most of them just hung in the air for ever! Just the tiniest amount of breeze at that time to separate each individual, man-made cloud. Created one heck of a criss-crossing pattern in the sky!
And above them all were the faintest whisps of mares'-tails hinting of the coming rain.
Nice post.
I love shining a light in water to see what the aquatic critters are up to at night.
And just think..daylight savings time will be ending soon. I much prefer daylight savings time.
I also like Diana Gabaladon, I'm ready for the next Jamie Fraser to come out...and not the comic book one either.
Linda
http://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com
I don't much like stumbling around in the dark either.....I darn near walked into the southbound end of a northbound skunk once doing that very thing.
dagnabit! is right.
Lordy I miss the sun. I can hardly get out of bed. I'm thinking of getting one of those sun-up lamps to put beside my bed.
You set it for the time in the morning when it will slowly come on to imitate a sunrise with its full-spectrum bulb. I think you can even select bird song to accompany it.
Still, I love the fact that you're finding things to enjoy with your flashlight.
I went to an astronomy gathering last night. After all it's dark at 7 o'clock! Pretty cool to see Jupiter and its moons through a nice scope.
Lisa, I hate the dark!
Joated, it was striking! I was glad that I had outdoor things to do that night.
FC, it is one of the nicest compensations for being done after dark these days. There are so many cool little things down in there
Linda, same here! I love daylight savings and I hate it when it ends. And I love Diana! I am rereading my way through them and enjoying them so much more the second time around.
Linda P, so glad that it was only almost! Wow! They are hanging around here too and I am very careful, especially when I take the doggies out.
Cathy, that sounds like a really wonderful device. I had never heard of it, but I will be looking into it for sure. I am wrecked by the short days, slip into the funk from Hell and am just useless. And I really can't afford to be useless. lol
Seeing the planets does sound really cool. The sky is one compensation for the dark.
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