Mr. Wirt and His Chickens c. 1900 – Before Daylight Savings Time

The chickens and I have talked it over and we are in perfect agreement, for a wonder!  This time of year, just after Spring and Daylight Savings Time have converged, is not the easiest time for any of us to co-ordinate things.  Not the humans, not the chickens and not the deer or bear people.  Our clocks — biological, mechanical, digital, and otherwise — are out of sync.

The chickens are still up even after I’ve eaten my dinner.  They will not be ready for their kiss-and-lie-down prayers until I am well-settled in front of the television.  Maybe even nodding a bit.  If neither Nyel nor I remembers to put Jeopardy on pause, I am doomed to go lock up the coop by flashlight.  There is no long twilight at this time of year and, with chickens, I’m either right on time or in the “big dark” as three-year-old Christian Hawes used to call the pitchy-black time of night.

October 2020 – Ms. Doe Eating Pears

I try not to go out at flashlight time.  That’s when the deer people come calling and their modus operandi is to freeze in place when they see me coming.  That’s okay… if I can see them.  But my night vision isn’t too great and I am more-or-less unaware of what lies (or stands) just beyond my little beam of light.  It makes me nervous.

It makes me even more nervous to think that one of the bear people might be lurking out there.  I know they come around at night, too, because they also leave calling cards.  Actually, I’ve never encountered a bear in the yard — not like my frequent meetings with Ms. Doe and Mr. Buck, especially during the fall and winter.

I read recently that deer spend their entire lives within a one-mile radius of where they were born.  That certainly helps explain why I feel well-acquainted with the current deer people of Oysterville and with their forebears, as well.  I don’t know the habits of our village bears, but I suspect their range is somewhat larger.  But it’s not the where of it that I worry about — it’s the when.  Especially during this awkward time of year.