Beyond

I hope I never lose my sense of wonder. If that makes me naive, then so be it.

Thursday 14 May 2009

and back to life on the farm

There! Done with the poems. Glad I posted them, but real life has been continuing on its merry way.

The new batch of chicks arrived yesterday, fourteen little peeping balls of fluff with bright dark eyes and dainty little toes. We called them the chicken nuggets and reminded the girls the rules about these birds: no cute names! They are currently living in a washtub with a heat lamp over it to keep them at the required 32-33C. I change the paper towel under them multiple times each day (and I thought you had to change babies a lot? No comparison.) and keep their food and water clean and available. Until they feather out, they'll need pretty consistent monitoring.

And in 10 weeks we'll eat them. Still strikes me as strange.

Spring has continued as usual, the blackflies emerging and the June bugs (shudder) smashing into my window screen last night. The grass is thick and the ground too soft for the tractor to venture onto the lawn yet.

I got it the other day, though: I walked out at 6am in hopes of finding a chicken who hadn't returned the night before (no luck. two gone in the last couple of weeks. trap is set but no results yet). The sun was just cresting over the trees, diffused through the mist that hung in a band across the fields. With only birdsong and the rush of the creek for sound, I just stood and looked for a while and got my "aaaah" moment of spring.

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