Make Hay While the Sun Shines

It’s funny how the start of daylight savings brings out the same arguments each year. For me, I don’t really mind…. The hours are still the same; it just means that it’s still daylight at my 7pm bedtime!

Really, for a farmer it is probably not important, the animals don’t wear watches and anybody who works outside can get caught out working till 7 o’clock thinking it’s only about 4 o’clock. But if you drive past a farm house early, before the sun gets up, you will often see the lights on, and if you were to look in the window, the farmer would be at the big kitchen table, radio on, listening to the weather or the latest stock report, drinking a coffee. The farmer is waiting; waiting for the sun to rise so that he can see the animals. The earlier the sun is up, the earlier the old Ute starts up and slides out into the paddocks to check the stock. The longer the daylight, the more work can be done outside. Pretty much a case of, “make hay while the sun shines”.

For Dad, there are plenty of reasons to be out early. We have been marking lambs and getting ready to shear the wethers, and what were little pigs a short time ago, are now big pigs with appetites and attitude. Farmer Pete was down for the weekend when daylight savings kicked in, and he, not being a believer in “messing with time” had certain opinions which I heard in passionate discussion during the weekend.

Whatever your line of thinking, the start of daylight savings means Melbourne Cup is closing in on us, which means Christmas is around the corner, which means you need to order your Free Range Ham today!