The sun's gone all wonky

[altivo]

Why is it still light? ;p It won't get dark until about 7:30 this evening. I shifted morning chores forward in time because I knew the critters wouldn't get restless until the usual length of time had passed since sunrise. Now evening chores get shifted to later as well, though not quite an hour later. We have to gradually get them used to the idea of our schedule, or they start acting really strangely, refusing to eat and go in and out when necessary.

This is complicated, of course, by the sudden dietary restrictions imposed on Tess and Archie, neither of whom is particularly pleased.

Sun was actually shining this afternoon, and it got up over 50F. I guess the next two or three days will be similar. Rain appears to have finally quit, and the ground is even drying off thanks to sun and breeze. I should go see whether we have crocuses yet. It's certainly possible.

Sketch is about complete for the "limited palette" exercise. I may be able to get started on the painting yet this evening. I've removed one barn from the scene as it looked too cluttered on a 6x9 in. sheet. Made the boys look a bit more alert than they are in the original photo, and dropped a couple of trees for the moment, though I'll probably put some back in.

With the donation of a set of plastic storage drawers from Gary, I have all the art stuff together in one place again. It had scattered into boxes in both barns, my office closet, and various drawers during the last 30 years. I'm hoping that being able to start things on a moment's notice will help me get back into the swing of it.

Baked oatmeal bread today. A little dense but tasty. Corned beef was on sale this week so that has been simmering in the crock pot since nine this morning and should be ready for supper once the chores are done. And... I did laundry too. (My most hated household chore.) That still needs to be folded and put away, however.

OK, it's after 6 now. Guess I should go feed ponies and sheepsters.

Comments

[moonhare]

The change is tough on our dogs as well. Pups were surprised when I stayed in bed so 'late,' and found me feeding them an hour early this afternoon, by their reckoning.

Figured I hop back on now to read through pages because tomorrow morning's routine won't be pretty...

[hrrunka]

You shifted the clocks this weekend? My brother, back when he was working on a dairy farm, used to dread the twice-yearly changes. We don't get the pleasure for a couple of weeks yet. I keep hoping they'll decide to junk the idea.

[avon-deer.livejournal.com]

Every single year (about October time) we have a debate on talk shows and opinion poll pages in the UK about whether we should ditch the move back to GMT. It gets very tiresome. I am not bothered either way myself. Hearing the same stuff every year gets tiring though.

[animist]

Yesterday was a difficult day... as it always was. I hate that change in time! The only time it's good is mid summer. We should be on Chicago time, instead of New York time, so sunrise would be coming around 5am or earlier without daylight savings time.

[altivo]

Our dogs are happy to eat any time, even ten minutes after being fed. ;p The horses, though, are very strict about their routine and of course, don't use clocks.

[altivo]

Yes, it's some sort of "escalation" going on here. They keep expanding the number of weeks of time shift, claiming that it will "save energy." It doesn't do that, of course. It just shifts the usage around. Politicians love their pointless gestures though, because it gives them something to crow about as if they'd actually laid an egg.

[altivo]

I think it matters less to city dwellers than to those of us who are intimately involved with the land and nature. Changing the clock does not change anything else here. Chickens wake up when the sun does, they don't use a clock. Horses and sheep are the same.

[altivo]

Yes, you really should be on Central time. Even Detroit should be. Michigan used to be one of the states that refused to observe summer time changes, and with good reason. Then of course Tricky Dick made it a matter of patriotism and suddenly we were stuck with it. Only the Navajo had the good sense to say no back then. I remember passing through Arizona back in 1973. The clock in the post office might say noon, because the federal government insisted, but it was eleven outside on the street. And when you crossed into the Hopi lands, time lurched forward because they went along with Nixon when the Navajo declined to do so.

EDIT: I may have remembered that backwards. I see that at the current time, Arizona and the Hopi do NOT observe DST but the Navajo and Utah do. So that was the confusion back then most likely. We went from Utah into Arizona, then into the Navajo nation, then into the Hopi nation, then back into the Navajo and from there into New Mexico. So the time kept jumping back and forth like some hyperactive squirrel.