When planet Earth was young, it collided with something large enough to knock it off its polar axis. That collision, and the ensuing tilt, are why we have seasons. It’s also widely believed that the debris from that collision eventually became our moon.

Earth spins on its axis, one revolution every 24 hours, and that gives us night and day. At the same time, it’s also orbiting the sun. And that yearlong, off kilter, rotation around the sun, changes the amount of daylight we get each day over the course of the year.

If our planet hadn’t been knocked off balance, we wouldn’t have seasons here in New England. The amount of daylight we’d receive each day would be the same throughout the year, much like it is at the equator. As Earth rotates on its tilted axis, we in the northern hemisphere are now, once again, being tipped farther and farther away from the sun.

I don’t know what life is like near the equator, but around here, the length of daylight triggers changes for lots of things that call New England home. Young male coyote pups are on the move, having been chased out of their parents’ territory. They’ll keep moving until they find a place, and a mate of their own. Our chickens are laying fewer eggs, as their bodies are clever enough to try to keep them from raising chicks in the middle of winter. Our trees have already dropped most of their leaves, having made the calculation that there isn’t enough sunshine to collect right now to risk being exposed to frostbite. Our sheep started breeding in October and will start having lambs as the grass starts to grow in March. The breeding season for white tailed deer has also started. Their season is known as “the rut” which comes from the Latin word “to roar”. The males are now experiencing peak testosterone – and stupidity. They are far more likely to step into traffic, or take down our electric fencing, as they clearly have more important things on their minds. Pigs, like humans (in more ways than one), have no breeding season. They can procreate regardless of the time of year, and presumably their testosterone and stupidity levels remain fairly consistent throughout as well. For our pigs, this change in season simply means an abundance of acorns, and pumpkins, and a whole lot more time for napping.

It’s hard for me to wrap my head around the fact that this lopsided planet, which I truly adore, is spinning 67,100 MPH, and tilting, as I go about my daily chores. The seasons, however, are undeniably changing, and try as I might, I can’t really ignore it much longer. The shorter days mean that winter is surely on its way, and unfortunately it also means that Anne and I have even less daylight to get everything done, which needs to get done, before our orbit tilts us even further away from the sun.

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