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