As I grow a little older I have come to the realization that I do not like Daylight Savings Time. A few years ago anyone could ask me what I thought of the subject and I would have felt very ambiguous about it, not really having a strong opinion one way or another as I recall. Yet now I find myself almost dreading that “Leap Forward” as they say into the spring season. The knowing when I go to bed on the Saturday night before the event which always seems to occur around two o’clock in the morning, I shall wake up to glance at the clock, my body feeling as if it is my normal rising time of five o’clock only to discover an hour has disappeared and I have slept in until six o’clock!
Sleeping in until six o’clock on a Sunday morning may seem rather inconsequential to some folks but when your life to a great extent revolves around animals an hour one way or another can mean quite a bit to farmyard creatures! Now I am definitely not one of those people who feel they have to feed, milk or otherwise cater to their creatures at a dead on specific time of day or the world will end with colic, mastitis or other dreaded illnesses and ailments of our four legged friends, but I do like to maintain some semblance of routine which I think is more for my peace of mind. For just as folks who have a nine to five type job, life on the farm also has its own time clock to follow albeit one that necessitates some flexibility in the workers!
Like so many people I am sure, my day seems to flow that much smoother when falling into a familiar pattern. Most days will find me climbing out of bed between 4:30am and 5am with no aid of an alarm clock. My body’s circadian rhythm does not need such a device. After building a fire in the wood cook stove and putting the kettle on for tea I either perform an hour of yoga or potter about doing mundane things such as the paying of bills, checking email messages or if it is Sunday morning, writing my Sunday Blog. The yoga workout definitely puts one in a more serene frame of mind to face the day as opposed to the bill paying morning chore yet both have their importance in a weekly routine. After a couple of cups of tea the time arrives to head out to milk my cow. Now in the darker winter months I head out around 7am to do this chore but as “The Change” approaches I start moving my milking time closer to 6:30am so as to get both the cow and me prepared for my usual 6am milking time during the spring and summer months. I think Lass would come in for milking at any time of the day or night as long as there was a tin of grain waiting for her in the manger as 6am for a commercial dairy is like noon to us folks!
Animals are creatures of habit. This morning as I went to the milk house Lass was waiting for me at her gate as she heard me head down the slope from the barn on the four wheeler, Casper our boar got up from his bed under a Juniper tree and came galumphing over to his feed trough and Mary’s piglets trundled outside and through the hole in the fence to stand expectantly at their food pan by the milk house door. If I vary my routine just a tad I have piglets invading the milk house, snuffling around me and Lass’s legs as I try to get the milker up and running while Lass stands there patiently since she already has her grain in her manger. 
Mary peeks over the half door separating the milking area from her farrowing stall waiting for her tub of grain too. While the milker is doing its job on Lass I dash out and dump grain in the pan for the piglets, grab another bucket of a different grain to head over to give the two young sows, Ramona and Sweet Pea, their “First breakfast” as a Hobbit would say, before dashing back to the milk house to check how Lass’s udder is deflating. Once milking is completed Lass heads out to the paddock while I grab full milker and head to the house where Darrell awaits to carry the heavy bucket into the kitchen for me where the milk is strained, milker all washed up, milk pan set to cool and a cup of tea is on the brew.
Even the horses in the field recognize this morning routine as they look my way as I pass, knowing it is not their feeding time. Brandy also knows the morning routine. If let out when I go to milk she patiently waits on the front porch knowing I am off to do a chore she never accompanies me on as much as she may wish to! I guess a simple hour change in time is not really that big of a deal when one looks at the whole picture of daily life. The animals adjust and we adjust and in a couple of weeks I will wonder why I ever made such a fuss about “The Change”…