The last of the cherry leaves are still holding on, but the rest of the trees around here are pretty much gone. This week it has struck me that the dark days of winter really are upon us. It’s barely light when I leave for work and it’s dark well before I leave the office.

I notice the effect on me, my motivation to do anything after work but cook, eat and curl up on the couch is pretty much gone. But I really notice it in the pets. Sterling, the cat, only wants to go out in the cold and rain long enough to do his business and then comes back in. The dogs play hard outside all day, and the cold takes more energy out of them. They come in at night and sack out on their beds in the living room.

And the hens. They are far more tuned in to the seasons’ cycles than any of the rest of us. They’ve naturally adjusted their hours to fit the available daylight. Penny is pretty much back to being pretty after her molt. Now Agnes, Lucy and Pru are all molting. Pru most dramatically, she’s got no tail at all, almost no wing feathers and a naked neck. She looks pretty sad.

All the molting and the dark mean no eggs for us. I had to buy a dozen for the first time since March so that we could have eggs for breakfast. At $4 a dozen, I remembered exactly why we have hens in the first place.

Of course, no one said that hens are smart. I love them dearly, but their brains are smaller than peas. Yesterday I left the dogs inside because it was rainy and windy. I left the coop door open as I thought the girls might want to come out later in the day if it cleared off. Twenty minutes later I looked out the window to see them all out scratching in the pouring rain. And most of them don’t have that many feathers right now.

Sometime between noon and four the coop door blew shut and they couldn’t get back in. Instead of taking shelter on the porch, in the shed or under the wood pile, they apparently spent the afternoon huddled near the door hoping for someone to let them in. Thankfully none of them drowned. Ha!

Wet chickens in damp weather with overnight temps predicted in the high 30s, low 40s are not a good thing. I ended up making an emergency trip to the farm co-op for a new heat lamp bulb on my way home from work once Mike called me with the news about the bedraggled chooks. Then I got to spend 30 minutes in the rain rigging up the extension cord to the coop and securing the heat lamp for them. Of course, dry chickens with no sign of the sneezes was my reward this morning.

And, now that the lamp is plugged in and rigged on the timer, I don’t have to worry about them unless it warms up again. Plus, since it’s not really that cold yet, it means that I don’t have to worry about shutting them in the roost box each night and letting them out in the morning as the lamp will keep them plenty warm unless the wind is howling.

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In other news, I picked up some new cookbook porn to feed my habit. I had a 30% off coupon for Borders, so swung by and treated myself to a copy of Alice Waters’ new The Art of Simple Food. I can’t wait to spend some time with it. Based on the treatise on the back cover makes me think I’m sure to love it.

Eat locally & sustainably

Eat Seasonally

Shop at farmers’ markets

Plant a garden

Conserve, compost & recycle

Cook simply

Cook together

Eat together

Remember that food is precious

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