It has been a little bit since I have posted and I am now sifting through the drama and slap stick that occur in a 5 day stint on our shiny acre. First of all driving in you can't help but notice the Puyallup River is bloated more each day. This sparked a small fear in me, causing me to take a stroll to the old creek in the sticks out back. Happy day, the creek is behaving! It is pretty much the same as it has looked every time before. Speaking with some of the neighbors, they say it has never flooded as long as they have been here. "(Hear) Sigh of relief". I did some early spring cleaning in the barn to make way for the 2,205lbs of organic feed about to be delivered by some friendly Canadians. Unfortunately the bag spilled over in the truck and we could not move it. You don't realize how big a ton is until you have to try to think of a plan b to move it. The poor truck driver asked me if I have a tractor. I just pointed over at my 14 porcine tractors, all of which would love to assist, and could indeed move it (rendering it into a ton of fertilizer) - but it would take them at least 14 days, and everyone needed to get home for supper. The driver decided to go to his next stop and see if there was a tractor there, after which he would come back for our delivery. He took off and I trotted over to the faucet to hook up my "now unfrozen" hose for some easy watering with no bucket carrying involved. Stop there... now my new hose connector is completely flat. How I managed to drive over it when it was hanging on the wall I will never know. Possibly the pigs are playing a trick on me like some nightmarish Farside comic come to life. So Joel carries water buckets for a living after all. Now I could have worked that self pity all day if the feed guy didn't come back around 3pm limping! No, his next stop did not have a tractor, but they did have an empty grain bag that he could shovel it by hand into, so as to get it out of the way, freeing up his electric pallet jack. This poor poor soul, I will straiten up and not tell him I had to carry water. I offered him the one beer I keep in the medicine cabinet, of which he refused. In Canadian culture when you refuse a beer, you are legally deceased. Speaking of beer, I finally met the folks farming next door. They will also be in hops this spring, and are also avid brewers. As a welcome to the neighborhood they gave me a fresh growler of chilly wonder! It was a rich dark malty porter with a generous hopiness. If there is a "chicken soup for the beer appreciators soul" on the shelf at Border's, it probably has that story in it. Come Saturday, after our weekly pancake ritual, I packed the whole clan up - all clad in rubber boots (the ancient weapon on our family crest), and headed to the farm. It was the first Sunny day since we have been operating here, and it was absolutely gorgeous. The kids helped feed and water then ran off to play. Not a moment later I hear this wailing of the sort you can't make out if its joking or real. I look over and Jude is stuck in the mud where they just filled in the well work. I go over there and he is sunk up to his knees and balling -sure that this is his muddy end! I go in to pull him out and I sink up to my knees (Bear Grylls don't fail me now). I pull him out (minus boots) and he goes swishing in his socks back to mom. I managed to wriggle out (barely convincing Daniel not to come rescue me), ran and got my sorting boards (glorified plywood with handle holes) and placed them across the mud in time to rescue the little boots that were quickly sinking to China. Thank God today was the day I was able to achieve connection of a functional hose to a functional faucet, and wash away our muddy memories. Later Jude quietly asked me, "dad how did you get so strong to pull a kid out of the mud?" I told him "carrying buckets of water son". I didn't really tell him that... I am a nerd but not that much so. Over all, it was a great week. Me and my brother built the fence training pen, all our ingredients for the sow's detox came in, and this strange life seems satisfying and enjoyable.
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