Thursday, November 13, 2014

Let There Be Light

(post written by Jason) Farmers by and large are not fans of messing around with the time. Daylight savings time results in light long into the evening in the summer. I'm sure that suits most everyone who works in an office, and I'm sure if I worked in an office it would suit me. It's got to be nice to have several hours of daylight to be outside after one gets home and gets supper over with. But it means something different for those of us with livestock and early morning chore times. We get up in full dark virtually every day of the year and I for one find that fact very depressing.

Of course the compensation for rising in the dark and doing what we do beginning at first light is getting to watch and participate in the sun rise each morning. There is a chorus of birdsong that begins within a few minutes of first light at every season. At this time of year first light is about 5:30 and sunrise happens at roughly 6:15. As it grows lighter the birdsong and chatter changes.....a species change I assume....and the chorus becomes considerably louder as it gets lighter, peaking a few minutes before sunrise. When the weather is clement watching the sunrise *almost* makes up for waking up in the dark.

It'll come as no surprise that of the two time changes I much prefer falling back to standard time and gaining an hour of morning light. We can start chores morning chores earlier and we're through at a time when it's still reasonable to eat breakfast instead of contemplating lunch. Unfortunately we aren't through losing time yet and in another month we'll be back to either starting later or working in the dark again. Regardless of when the sun comes up winter days are short enough that we take advantage of nearly every minute of available daylight.

How do you folks feel about daylight savings time ? Do you prefer early morning light or late evening light ? Do you prefer the shorter days of fall and winter or the longer days of spring and summer ?

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Gus, George, Asterik and Silver


Flyer and Faune


Lotus, Romeo, Lofty and Donneur


Bruno, Duesy, Walden, Hesse and Remmy


Lucky and Fabrizzio


Johnny, Murphy, Dutch and Africa


B-Rad and Darby (yes, we sadly broke out the blankets)


Moe and Ritchie



4 comments:

An American in Tokyo said...

I never liked the idea of daylight savings time. Thank goodness I don't have to deal with it anymore! =)

Lori Skoog said...

I don't have to get up so early anymore. Go out around 7am and like having it light. My last 13 years of teaching we had 8 horses here and I had to be out in the barn at 5 so I could be teaching by 7:30...was tired all the time and did not like being in the dark.

Jason, your writing is beautiful...so descriptive.

Jenny said...

I wish it could stay light out until 8:30pm all the time. i would have so much more energy.

Anonymous said...

I just wish it would stay the same - either way would be fine, but just no changes. I like winter temperatures (well, not well below zero), and even snow, but I don't like the dark, at all.