Lonesome Still Mornings and Collective Survival

...or how to perform a Sysiphean task without fossil fuels

The chickadees and juncos are the only things outside that stir the stillness of a rare morning of sun. No wind tickles the accumulated layer of plucked duck down festooning the frozen mud and mulch out where we have harvested bird after bird this season. The woodsmoke of a fresh lit fire rises, steady and thin, and excepting for a few far-off roosters,…