At the end of last week I was puzzled when I visited my old house to find all three street trees had been reduced to untended patches, not seemingly the result of the usual bean quest but I replanted and moved on. Yesterday as I was incubating eggs previously happy chickens were inexplicably sad and two evaporated in a small puff of light as I was doing my rounds leaving a much reduced total. Today the pig count was well down and three small piles of meat were found indicating the likely death of the missing ones. Will the houses be burned out shells and the life be extinguished in another week as part of a phased withdrawal or is it just the circle of life in action?