SPRING BABIES.
Spring has definitely sprung over at Bugtussle Farm - 100+ lambs and one new, very sweet calf. We are lucky to be able to walk a few minutes up the road to soak up this cuteness.
SUPERHUMAN.
I hadn't looked at the time in a while. Honestly, I hadn't wanted to. My wife had been laboring for so long I'd grown weary of watching the hours fall off the clock, the days fall off the calendar, our sleep each night fall victim to contractions ten, then five, then three minutes apart. The labor had been strong enough we thought for sure our baby would be born by his due date, the 22nd. Now it was some ungodly hour on the morning of the 24th and there was still plenty of labor, but no baby. So I wasn't looking at the clock. The clock was too disheartening. I needed something more encouraging to look at, and that's why I looked at my wife.Hannah has always been tough—living the way we do, toughness is a prerequisite—but this night she was superhuman. Her body was challenging her in ways I will never be challenged. Not in the garden. Not in the pasture. Not in my life. And despite the seemingly endless obstacles, through an unrelenting, uphill contest, she endured. Better than endured, she conquered.We would dance through contractions together, and I would watch her face searching for signs of her well-being. But I never saw pain. I never saw hurt. Her expressions resembled some primitive combination of pleasure and control, and she looked not like she does when she is in pain, but like she does when she's at work in the garden. And it kept me going. For three days straight she kept me smiling. Her resolve and her strength and her beautiful face got me, the helpless husband, through her difficult labor.Then after what mathematically must have been 400 contractions, I got to catch our son as he fell from her body. Love rushed out of me like drool from an anesthetized dental patient. Adrenaline was dispatched liberally into my veins. And I don't cry, but by God I wept like a baby. Like our baby. I wept because I was officially a father, but I wept because of my wife, who had not only carried our baby for 40 long weeks, and labored for three long days, but also pushed it out with grace and finesse. Never did she get down on herself. Never did she show fear. She just did the work and had the baby. And when it was over I looked at her again, holding our baby and smiling widely, and that's when I realized we can totally do this parenting thing, because I've got the World's Strongest Human on my side.- Jesse
THE CHICKEN PARADE.
Meet the newest members of the farmstead!
These guys (gals, hopefully) arrived on Wednesday. They are a bizarre lot, and we have no idea what kind of chickens they are - although we have our speculations. We are pretty sure that the little brown one with the weird head will turn out being THIS! It is fun having a new project in our lives, but chicks are a lot of work, especially in the beginning. In fact, we have been keeping them inside by the constantly roaring woodstove, which is a kind of torture for us on these warm, sunny days! Jesse is building a brooder this week, and I'm looking forward to moving the little ones outside where they can start foraging and scratching in the grass, instead of heating up our little cabin and pooping on the floor.- Hannah.