Poor Richard’s Almanac

The weather guys are calling for a horrific snow/sleet/freezing rainstorm to strike here at our friend Ben’s home, Hawk’s Haven, this morning. Of course, our friend Ben has many homestead chores yet to do, not to mention errands in the tiny nearby towns of Kutztown and Trexlertown and urgent deadlines involving bookmaps yet to mail off. So I’m looking nervously at the sky and wondering if those are flakes I see or simply a cobweb on the window. No, they’re definitely flakes. The chickens, who hate snow, will not be pleased with this turn of events, and temperatures in the single digits the past few nights have been causing their eggs to freeze and crack in the nestboxes, a sad return for their efforts. (Of course, my golden retriever disagrees with this view–she gets any cracked eggs with her breakfast.) But a flock of brown-headed cowbirds turned up at the feeders yesterday, which my friend and ornithological guru Rudy says is a sure sign of spring. Our friend Ben can only hope–and get moving with those chores!