Simple Pleasures

Snow mixed with rain on the Chicken Ranch today. A kind of dampness that settles in middle aged joints and makes a hot bath feel more like therapy than necessity. I broke out the oil skin duster to work and feed today. The snow and rain bead up on me like dew on a pumpkin leaf. Thank goodness for big hats, “head umbrellas“, that keeps most of the cold wetness off my head and beard.

Snow is falling fast and hard one minute and then floating like cotton balls the next. Winter is doing a practice run. After the blizzard last year we all kind of cast a wary eye at those blue-gray clouds. Big weather is not likely to come for a while, but sheds are buttoned, animals strawed, and wood piled long and high. Just in case Momma Nature decides on a preemptive strike.

We have come a long way since pioneer days but a hard winter will still test the mettle of man and beast. Being out long in a cold wind can burn a mans candle to the wick and make some animals plumb ornery; some people too for that matter.

Looks like a good night for a bowl of chili and later a drink by the fire. Warm, dry and fed is what comfort is all about. Simple pleasures, but then I am a simple man. Dec 2011