Room in front of the fire for everyone

As I sit at the kitchen bench writing this, I can feel the cold wind sneaking under the kitchen door beside me.  Wind has many entry and exit points in this house.  Under doors is a favourite and no matter how many stuffed sausages you jam against them, wind always finds a way in.  I can also hear the gentle whining of the hens and roosters at the other side of the door.  Doris hates the rain.  It's bad for her hair. They're asking me to open that door and go out into their feed area and disperse some grain.  On good days it's leftovers like pasta and bacon rind but today I've only got some sad looking lettuce leaves from a Cos that's overstayed its welcome in the fridge.  I feel bad.  I need to go out and feed them but the weather is coming at us sideways.  We've got a series of cold fronts that are being blown up from the south which means it feels like it's come via Antarctica.  The dark grey clouds are zooming across the skyline with curtain trails of rain dropping what looks like sleet being blown in every direction.  Autumn is a crap month here.  I don't know how the blossom manages to hold on with 50+ km winds but somehow it manages - depending on where you've put your trees of course.  We look forward to the coming months when you only need to wear two layers of clothing not three.  And that's just in the house.  Old homesteads are wonderful in summer but in winter unless you've got a Carson to go around and light a fire in every room that has a fireplace, you'll have an enormous electricity bill or you'll just stay warm in one room and complain about the others.  My dining room sits in between the warm wood fire heated living area and the frost bitten hallway that has leaves blowing down the carpet runner.  We don't dine in there, particularly during winter as it would be more suitable to hanging meat than dining right now.  And as I work from home my entire days (and nights mostly) exist around the confines of a rectangle rug in front of a fire shared with two cats and a cocker spaniel.  And if I open that back door right now, that will also include at least 8 chickens.