spectating participant

I’m pretty sure I’ve yet to mention that we’re expecting a little one at some point in July. For the longest time, July was a very long time away and it was easy to let that fact slip into the background. But, today we’re now just 7-11 weeks away (38-42 weeks is a normal gestation) from time being up and this new little being joining our family. This finally sunk in this morning in the most unusual way…

Yesterday, we stopped by a friends house and got to see their baby chickens. They’re a couple week younger than ours, but one variety already dwarfs ours: Cornish Rock crosses. These are a 100% meat bird and their soul purpose in life is to eat, eat, eat and get fat, fat, fat. Looking at them now, you can already see dinner on the table. Looking at our birds, you see fast growing chickens, but not dinner. The Cornish Rock crosses are ready for harvest in just 8 weeks — our dual purpose birds might not be ready for harvest until 20 weeks or so. Lots of people refer to these birds as “frakenchickens” and other derogatory terms - they’re not universally popular among chicken farmers because they’ve got lots of genetic problems. For one, they gain weight so fast that they often lose the ability to walk. Also, some will gain so much, so fast, that their tiny little heart will just give way and they’ll keel over. Some people find them to be a genetic atrocity and others appreciate the quick egg-to-freezer timeline. Also, the quality of the meat is often questioned in comparison to slower growing breeds. But, seeing them up close it’s hard to ignore their fast growth and the quick turn around available with this breed.

I’d seen these chicks the week before, so I wasn’t as surprised by their size and weight (most are already over a pound where only one of our 6-week old chickens has crossed that marker so far). Chris, on the other hand, was pretty impressed and came home with visions of chicken dances in his head. Our chicken tractor is about finished and the birds should be moving out within a day or so. We’d already discussed the idea of getting another round of meat chicks once this batch is outside and Chris is thinking Rock Cornish crosses now. This morning, he comments on picking some up, “And they’ll be ready to slaughter at 8 weeks.” 8 weeks, huh? I thoughtfully respond, “8 weeks is about when a baby will be showing up” and it’s then the reality hits me that time is passing. We’ve now hit the point that upcoming events are within the magical 4-week period of birth possibility.

Now, I find the agricultural connection to this realization rather amusing. Especially because today is also Mother’s Day - an important day in terms of planting and gardening. For the past 14 weeks, Mother’s Day has been on my mind as the commonly accepted last frost date for our area. Everything we’ve been doing has been a countdown to this date. This week, seeing Mother’s Day approaching, I couldn’t help picturing all the work that needs done and thinking how the past 14 weeks have flown by. And then, I was reading on one of my boards about the upcoming holiday - Mother’s Day. “Yes, yes, I know…” was my first mental response, until I then started reading about all the plans people were making for that day. None of these plans included tomato plants and squash seeds, not one. All of these people were talking about gifts and celebrations for their Mothers! “Oh crap!” It dawned on me that Mother’s Day was this week and I’d totally missed the “Mother” part of it. To me, it was all about plants, and I’m hoping my mom won’t mind when I tell her that, had she been a seed packet, I would have great things planned for her; but being that she’s just a mom, a celebratory phone call is all there will be this year.

there I said it outloud and that’ll make it true. It just doesn’t seem feasible with our current schedule and stress loads and financial stuff. So, there, we’re not doing pdf. We’ll still come out for a day, at least, to see some folk we like — though the only option is Friday or Sunday — most likely Sunday cause Friday will be getting ready for the show on Saturday! Argh, I so didn’t want to lame out of PDF, but I just can’t see making it happen either.

About two weeks ago, I learned about a natural living baby fair to take place this afternoon. In usual last minute fashion, I discovered that the usual spaces were already full, but that I could have a table outside, weather permitting. So,began a mad scramble to get things together in time, a scramble that was way overwhelming and unbelievably stressful. I’ve discovered that two weeks is not a sufficient amount of time to prep for a show, even one that was as small as this one. I could barely manage to get just a couple sample diapers assembled - which are still not done - and all my other planned-to-take projects are still in various states of completion.

The past two days, Chris and Alex have been putting in some hard evening hours helping me get ready. I’m very impressed with how well Alex has taken this extra responsibility and responded to my non-stop requests for assistance. I’ve learned that I can manage some stress fairly well, but overwhelming amounts of stress are almost impossible to get through. I’ve thrown in the towel more than once and broken down crying over little errors here and there multiple times. Luckily, I’ve got a good hormone excuse going on at the moment, but that doesn’t make the experience any more pleasant.

I was up at 4am to keep working in hopes of getting stuff finished up. To my surprise, rain was falling - oh how hard it is to get out of bed with the sound of rain and cool breezes lulling you back to sleep. Luckily, my stress over the day’s plan of action made staying in bed impossible. But, a check of the weather shows that what was supposed to be a clear week without any real rain, is now a day of rain showers, turning thunderstorms later. My “weather permitting” space seems to be nulled on account of the rain. This is a HUGE relief, by the way, and I would even celebrate if I wasn’t already so drained from the work I’ve already put in. So, in good news, I’m now fully started in terms of stuff for the show later this month. Thanks to this mad dash - I know have completed business cards, a services brochure mostly finished, items already assembled and labeled for sale, and a decent start on the stash I’ll need later this month.

I can now release the guilt that I don’t have more done for today. I can also stop worrying that I’d be showing up with embarrassingly little on hand for sale and have wasted the hour drive to the location, not to mention the stress endured by the entire family this week. I can also get some more supplies ordered which seem ironic seeing how more than 70 yards of fabric and 6000 snap pieces showed up this week. I’ll be placing some bulk wholesale orders today, including 120 yards of fabric as well.