not there

So that's it? No more chickens running to the farmhouse door, in the hope of getting me to come out and sprinkle a few seeds outside? No line of cheepers parading by the porch, heading toward the great lilac where, eventually, all four will plomp down and rest? And no more sensor chimes ringing again and again to tell us they're there, waiting for us?

Wow. I miss them. A lot.

Why this sudden disappearance? One reason and one reason only: we woke up to snow. Not even a deep one -- I'd guess two inches.






I go out to let the cheepers out and they are there, waiting, patiently and I open their latched door and out they go-- into the depth of the old barn.






And they do not come out the whole day long.



(this is as close to the outside as any of them will get today)





(even though at one point, we had a few rays of sunshine -- a cardinal takes advantage of it!)



The literature tells us that as long as they have things to do, space to move in (so they don't destroy each other out of boredom), they should be left alone. None of this enticement to come out and play in the snow. They don't like it and they don't need it.

I did go to them with the seeds and they were happy to get them, but they did not follow me out afterwards. Had I stayed in the farmhouse, I would have had, for the first time,  a day without a single cheeper crossing my field of vision.

And so I have to wonder -- will they not come out for the entire winter? Sigh... The farmette landscape is bleak without them.


Perhaps for this reason (and for other more practical ones too), I spent the entire day organizing cheeper photos and farmette photos for the year. 100 in each file, to use later on in any number of ways, as various projects demand.

And the only clever addition to this Sunday was the evening dinner with my daughter and her husband.





Outside, the temps plummeted, but the comfort food (gnocchi) was comforting and the lights twinkled on the porch and for a few minutes I could forget about how cold it must be in the barn and, too, in the chicken coop.