Back and Forth

Yesterday morning EJ drove off to do a little grocery shopping–mostly to get a turkey for our Thanksgiving dinner at the end of this month. They are always cheaper in November so in recent years we’ve begun buying at least one extra so we can cook a turkey a few months later. I enjoy making multiple homemade turkey potpies to freeze so that we can pop one in the oven on days when we are busy and/or don’t feel like cooking. We had a bit leftover in the freezer from the last turkey we cooked so I made two potpies yesterday morning. One we ate for lunch and the other I froze. We plan to have the second next week. We have to eat the old so we can make room for the new after Thanksgiving.

After lunch, I made banana bread from bananas that were getting a little too ripe. Banana bread and coffee are nice to eat in the mornings.

Before EJ drove to the grocery store, and before I began baking, I went outside to take photos of the sun rising and lighting up the trees. Our outside cats, Theo (pictured above) and Millie followed me around. They always follow me when I am outside–especially Theo, who enjoys accompanying me into the coop while Millie usually waits outside the fence. Black Millie is very sweet and gentle, while Theo is a bit of a character. Often I’ll be doing my chores when–OOFFF!–Theo unexpectedly jumps on my back and rides around on my shoulder, until he gets too heavy and I push him off. He often lurks out of sight and then zooms into the house when we open the door. He also likes to leap up to catch a bird at the feeder. He always bonks his head on the underside of the tray feeder, spilling seeds everywhere–while the birds fly away. I affectionately call him “Theo the Dunderhead.”

After a brief clash of autumn leaves and winter snow, we are back again to autumn. The snow melted the next day when the temperatures rose to the low 60s. This up and down, back and forth weather gets a bit confusing, especially when the mornings start out chilly. I wore my coat and hat when I went to the coop yesterday morning, but by afternoon the temperatures had risen. So even though I knew that it was going to get warm, I thoughtlessly put on my hat and coat when I went to the coop to gather the chickens’ eggs and refill their water bowl in the mid-afternoon. As soon as I stepped outside, I realized my mistake. “Ugh! It’s too warm for a coat!” I continued to the coop anyway, but I didn’t wear a coat when I went outside after that.

Saturday night we turned our clocks back an hour. I really hate the twice-yearly time changes. It’s hard enough on us humans, who at least understand what’s happening even if I can’t comprehend the reasoning, logic, purpose, or necessity of messing with the clocks. I think it’s more difficult on the animals. Well, at least it is difficult for Hannah Joy. I feed her first thing when I get up in the morning and then I feed her again at around 6 pm each evening. I try to keep to the same time on the clock, even if the time changes backwards or forwards an hour. Otherwise, our schedule could get really messed up. Hannah Joy gets very insistent when she knows it’s time to eat. By “insistent” I mean that when she decides it’s time to eat, she starts forcefully nudging my hand, getting in my lap and wiggling around, or blocking my face with her head so I can’t see anything. If we ignore her, she gets vocal and starts moaning and complaining. EJ actually feeds her in the evenings on the weekends, and she keeps accurate track of which days I feed her and which days EJ feeds her. Yesterday, she tried to tell EJ that it was time to eat, which it would have been the day before but not after the time change, so EJ ignored her. So she came over to me and started pestering me, but I told her that she had to wait a little while. She went over to EJ again and started bothering him. When he didn’t get up, she lay on the floor in pathetic misery until finally EJ got up to feed her.

I hate the time changes.