all creatures great and small

Living on a farm has its advantages in the spring time. My little animal-lovers get to witness nature in a mostly undisturbed setting.  Though I am somewhat squeamish at heart, I try not to let on in front of my children. Shhhh... don't tell. I fool them into believing I am not afraid of these crawly things in hopes that someday they will not let fear of touching an animal 1/100th of their size rule over them.

One day back in March, thousands of tadpoles appeared in the small spring-fed pond at the bottom of our hill (picture above). I did a good mom kind of thing and let my children catch and raise a quartet of them in one of my favorite glass vases on the kitchen counter. I assumed the tadpoles would take around three weeks to grow legs and lose their tails. Not sure where I came up with this number, but I figured that kittens can be adopted away from their mothers after 6 weeks, and tadpoles are far more simple creatures, so it couldn't take too long.

Wrong. Three months later a few of them had hind legs, but they all remained in the tadpole category. Their bowl was absolutely putrid because we had discovered the hard way that tadpoles are "fragile". I was afraid to clean it lest they die after all this time on prime kitchen counter space, and my kids would want to start over with new ones.

After all of that watching and waiting, metamorphosis did eventually occur. Despite the long tadpole stage, the end process was alarmingly fast as one tadpole at a time made its final change into a Pacific Treefrog. In a 24-hour period a tadpole would sprout front legs, lose its tail, and then did its best to hop right out of the bowl. After the first frog was found on the kitchen floor, we paid more attention to the others as they approached frog-hood.

Goodbye frogs that took FOREVER to grow. You can fend for yourself in our backyard now.

After all of the observing for months I couldn't believe how fast the final miracle happened. Perhaps the long stage of tadpole development really was about preparation for that final miracle. Even the smallest among God's creatures is complex in its own way. And perhaps metamorphosis can occur in our own lives if we are patient enough to see it through.

Without further ado, here is glimpse (seriously, only a tiny segment) of the other animal encounters we have had over the past few months. Cecil Frances Alexander's poem says it best...

All things bright and beautiful,

All creatures great and small,

All things wise and wonderful,

The Lord God made them all.

(Rescued baby hummingbird)

Each little flower that opens,

Each little bird that sings,

He made their glowing colours,

He made their tiny wings.

(Great Blue Heron)

The rich man in his castle,

The poor man at his gate,

God made them, high or lowly,

And ordered their estate.

(Wild male turkey displaying his feathers. So much more magnificent in real life.)

The purple-headed mountain,

The river running by,

The sunset, and the morning,

That brightens up the sky;

(Swallowtail Butterfly)

The cold wind in the winter,

The pleasant summer sun,

The ripe fruits in the garden,

He made them every one.

(Gopher snake that doubles as a styling necklace)

The tall trees in the greenwood,

The meadows where we play,

The rushes by the water,

We gather every day;--

(Snake skin as tall as Annike. Hopefully the owner is out eating our gophers.)

He gave us eyes to see them,

And lips that we might tell,

How great is God Almighty,

Who has made all things well. 

-- Cecil Frances Alexander

circa 1848

Oh yes. Can't forget the chyrsalis hanging in the doorway after nap.

chicks

I never in my life thought I would be living on a farm with farm animals and a barn and a real tractor. Life is one big beautiful adventure. Especially with my husband, who does things that I would never in my sanest moments consider. Usually I wouldn't consider them for well thought out reasons. But I do need to give him some credit because in general his wild ideas end up blessing and enlightening our little family.

Like his latest foray into the dark to rescue chickens.

A house in an apple orchard down the street was abandoned by a rather large family. More specifically, it was a 2 bedroom dilapidated shack with at least 3 families living in it. They left behind quite a few chickens and a rooster, along with a lot of unsalvagable junk. Christian thought it would be a good idea to "adopt" some of their chickens since quite a few of ours have been consumed by the coyotes, foxes, hawks, you name it. These chickens were young and fast, and Christian couldn't catch them in the daytime. So my determined husband sneaked down to that old house in the dark on at least 3 different occasions with flashlight to bag us some chickens. Yep, we are real country folks now.

Unexpectedly, in the dead of the night, Christian found a mama chicken sitting on a nest of 7 eggs well hidden in a cluster of banana plants. He has always been good at looking for things. There was a good chance those eggs were duds, but he took the eggs along with the hen just in case. Three days later we found 7 baby chicks in our barn!

The girls are in love.

Karsten isn't quite sure what to think. You can't tell from the picture, but he got pooped on. Farm boy in the making.

Once upon a time we had a lot of baby chicks on our property when we were crazy enough to lease some of our land to the chicken farmers (see the initially shocking story HERE), but we haven't been a part of that for a few years now.

You can bet that I will never find myself in the dark on a strange property covered in trash hunting for chickens. But sometimes I think that we get used to playing life a little too safely. We can get away with being squeamish about things our ancestors would have had to face boldly. I am glad my husband seeks to bring new life to our little farm in whatever way seems practical to him. It reminds me that the big or little things in life don't always have to be played safely. A little dirt and a little determination can birth the next adventure.

lost and found

Have you ever lost something dear to you?  And then spent hours upon hours trying to locate it... retracing steps, looking under every bush and rock and cranny where your precious object might be?

These kittens must be precious because my husband spent hours upon hours looking for them in our yard, around our barn, in the thorny bushes, in acres and acres of tall grass.

As I mentioned in a previous post, we found the kittens when they were 2 days old, and promptly moved them and their mother into our barn where they would be safer from the predators on our property (coyotes, foxes, snakes, hawks, and even our own chickens.)  Their feral mother, not at all warmed to the idea of us keeping her kittens, continued to care for them so long as she did not see us near them.  We were determined to handle them enough to tame them.

Despite our attempts at stealth while handling the kittens (and who can resist these fuzzy balls of kitten-ness?), every week or so, Calico Kitty (Momma Cat) found us out and moved them. The hunt would begin again as Christian spent hours bushwhacking to locate the helpless babies and restore them to safety in our barn.  Notable places he found them were in an empty cement container, in the blackberry brambles, in the chickens' nesting box, and even stuffed into the remaining ashes in our barbeque pit.

The feral mother was almost clever enough to outsmart my husband on her final move, and the kittens went missing for a week and a half... until we brought in reinforcements for a final sweep of the property and my sister found them stuffed between logs in the woodpile.

It must be nice to start life out so loved... so loved that someone would search high and low, thick and thin, not giving up until we are found.

The truth?  We are that loved, and more.  By a Savior who will search the brambles and the tall grass and even the darkest places of our hearts to find us and bring us back to a place of knowing Him.   

"Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them.  Does he not leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it?  And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home.  Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, 'Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep'.  I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent." Luke 15:4-7

We kept one... Annike has dubbed her "Kitty Soft Paws", but they feel pretty sharp to me.

december in review

Yes, I know, December has come and gone.  In most cases I am not quite sure where I find the time to blog, but in December the time literally did not exist.  After a busy month of prepping for Christmas Day, we awoke to find that Santa had left us a nasty cold virus under the Christmas tree.  I have been out of commission ever since, either caring for sick children or attempting to sleep off the cold myself.  Ahhh, precious sleep.  I am dreaming that the year 2012 will hold more sleep for me than the year 2011 did.

A few highlights from December...
Sommer got her first ride on the tractor.

A visit from my brother, and his first ride on the tractor too!

A visit from Oma and Opa.

A baby bunny.

Note: After this picture was taken, Sommer yanked out a fistful of bunny fur... whoops.  That darn clench reflex.  The baby bunny was released and seems to be doing just fine.

Special girl-bonding time.  (We are contemplating the possibility that Sommer may be part Inuit - must be Christian's Norwegian side of the family!)

In addition to the respiratory virus, Santa left us 3 goldfish and a castle for them to play in, per specific request by Annike.  He also left this in my stocking...

It was a good Christmas.

But, here we are in 2012... finally.  Between pregnancy and newbornland, I am not sure that 2011 was one of my finer years.  One year ago on January 1st, I found out I was pregnant with little Sommer.  It was a wonderful New Year's gift... and the rest of the year I didn't feel so great.  But she is worth it!  (At least, I think she will be one day).

I hereby raise a fictitious toast to a new year that holds more sleep and less physical discomfort, more thankfulness and less complaining.  And a toast to my fantastic husband, who really picks up the slack when I am not myself.  Thank you, Lord, for the new beginnings that cycle regularly through our lives.

in the country

Living in the country has its advantages and disadvantages.  Fortunately, nothing as horrid as the boot incident has happened in a few years (major disadvantage).  Over the summer we had ample opportunity to interact with the nature surrounding us, giving me a greater appreciation for the detailed care that God took as He created the world we live in.  We've stumbled across some of His treasures in our own backyard.

Having a husband who likes to catch creepy-crawlies certainly helps us admire them.  Our daughter thinks lizards are pets...

Orange-bellied salamandar

different type of salamandar

... and hunts for ladybugs in grass taller than she is...

... and loves to chase chickens.

She will probably kiss a toad one day looking for her handsome prince.  Until then, she can be content with simply holding one.

She will eat anything that is grown in our yard.  The garden was full of produce this year - carrots, onions, tomatoes, and the sweetest crop of beets I have ever tasted.  

Oma and Opa helped pick the last of the summer veggies.

Annike devouring a garden fresh tomato.

No current pictures of all the fruit in our orchard, but we are up to our ears in apples.

Sommer is too young to eat from the garden, but we are training her now to love the outdoors.

We have discovered some other treasures of nature like this wasp nest with perfectly hexagonal cells repeated over and over and over.

And this morning as we were exiting the driveway, a magnificent creature flew right in front of the car.  It landed in the road, clearly injured.  Christian rushed to rescue the wounded bird, and THIS is what he captured...

... a Great-Horned Owl with talons like daggers and a beak that made me glad I wasn't a mouse.  The towel was necessary protection.  Have you ever seen such beautiful eyes?  An intelligent creature to be sure.

Notice the relative size of Annike to the owl.  Animal rescue picked up our winged friend this afternoon (now maybe he will stop keeping us up at night!)

How cleverly God created each of his creatures, both great-horned and small.  The care taken as He designed each individual uniquely for survival in their world... down to the color of their eyes.  How much more care has He taken with us?  Surely this testifies to the greatness of His love.