A New Life

As the farm came to life this spring, crocuses pushing through layers of brown oak leaves and delicate yellow-green leaves emerged from bare branches of the trees, another life began within. The C.F. and I decided to add a Wee Farmer (W.F.) to the family. So as the many signs of spring progressed in the past four months, I have enjoyed the private knowledge that a life is unfurling in my own tummy. The cycle we’ve participated in on the farm with our animals has become significantly more immediate and personal.

The C.F. seems pretty excited about the W.F. However, I have to remind him when we talk about pregnancy, labor, and birth to please refrain from making comparisons to his experiences birthing livestock. No, bringing the calf-pullers to the hospital will NOT be necessary. And he is treading on thin ice comparing a pregnant woman to a cow anyway. Thin, thin ice.

Our farming endeavors are growing as well as our family. We have added pigs to the mix of animals, and so have seven intelligent-seeming, dirt-worshiping creatures to save delicious dinner scraps for. We’ve also increased our flock of laying hens to around 200 birds, most of whom will start laying in a month or so. Our garden barely survived the rainy rainy spring, but now seems to be much happier in the sun—the first green tomatoes have appeared on the vine. The C.F. keeps very busy with all of this. As of this morning he will be the pinnacle of efficiency, since he is now the owner of a funny kind of dirt bike that will make looking for a ground in the electric fence easier, more fun, and gas efficient (he insists). I have been recovering from a semester that was half good (soil physics class), and half torture (why does a soil scientist need to know water chemistry anyway?!). I also have been trying to figure out how I ever managed to cook in the summer, since having to turn on the stove in 90-degree weather is unthinkable.

We’ve moved out onto the sleeping porch again, and I had forgotten how wonderful it is to sleep outside every night. Last night I was walking from the house to the porch, which is about 100 yards down a little path. In the garden fireflies were winking against a silhouette of trees, and I realized one of the things I am most excited about in this new phase of life we're beginning—getting to share these moments with my W.F. I can’t wait to show the W.F. fireflies, what a whippoorwill and a barred owl sound like, how amazing fresh blueberries taste. Just imagining sharing all the small wonders of the world makes me take more notice, pay more attention to things I would normally just walk by on my way to the sleeping porch. They say that once you have a child, your life is never the same again, and I am only just beginning to see what they mean.