Dear new mommy,

I'm thinking of you today.
And I have something I want to tell you.

Someday you're going to find yourself folding clothes in the same room that you brought her home to. To your great shock the labels will read "Size 12", not "12 months".  You'll look at the soft yellow walls that you've been putting off painting (bright apple green, because she's fearless in her color choices), and realize that she's growing at light speed.  The sunshine tinted walls were perfect for a baby, a little girl who brought sunshine into a room as she exploded into it, but it really IS time for the green.

You'll put the underwear away and be surprised (even though YOU bought them) that there are training bras.  Her shirts will still be modest enough, because you're buying those, too, and still have a say in THAT, but they'll be stronger in color and message.  These aren't the sweet little lace suntops that you remember putting away just yesterday...10 years ago.  She might have camouflage jeans for you to tuck away, and you'll smile because you understand she's trying to connect with her dad at this odd girl-woman stage.

Instead of being just another chore to check off your list, you'll discover that doing laundry has given you a very personal, very sweet moment of reflection and insight.  It may be akin to the feeling you had when you put her in her crib in that yellow room for the first time and thought, "Well, baby...here we go! What an adventure THIS is going to be...".

Only THIS round, there'll be apple green walls for a background.

Brace yourself.

With much love, empathy and prayers for you in your adventure,
The Farmer's Wife

Sunday Hike

I KNOW.
This is the fourth or fifth post in as many days...what gives, right?

Something you should know about my little family:
We are Overpreparedness ROYALTY.
Let's take packing for a hike in one of our north pastures for a couple hours, for example.  Each person had a backpack with water, an extra shirt or socks (depending on the person), snacks and so forth.  Maggie's pack also had a wooden box with colored pencils, her nature journal, two reference books for birds and pond life (published 1953 or thereabouts).  Angus had bug spray, LEGOs (I'm sure of it), a couple containers to carry bugs home in, gloves, and hand sanitizer that he brought out at every pause in the hike and offered around.  I don't know what was in the Farmer's pack, but right before we left, he was fiddling around with two way radios, and there was a bowl for the dogs to drink out of.  Mine had my phone, camera, and the dogs' water.  And we had a small cooler with lunch, too.
It looked like we were setting off for Queensland or something.
Perhaps we've watched too many episodes of Gilligan's Isle and it's scarred us all for life.

Anyway...

Here are some pictures of the two hour tour.
Warning: There are a LOT of rock pictures.  We dig rocks.

But first, a cactus flower!  Thank goodness they were blooming, because it helped us locate the cactus piles easier...

Fixing to begin the hike.  Maggie is lecturing us on hiking etiquette, here...
She got a cactus in her shoe approximately 3 minutes later, prompting dire warnings about the dangers of wilderness and how to avoid them.

Gumbo lilies are the most ephemeral flower, giving up petals about 5 minutes after they're picked....

...like this one that was picked by Angus instantly upon spying it.
You'll note the BB gun.
He desperately wanted something to attack us so he'd have an occasion to save the party with his weapon.
No such luck. *sigh*

This is very exciting.  The dogs spied something DEAD and bounced over to investigate.

Not everyone will think this is a lovely photo, but I'm struck by the delicate swirls of the nasal passages...
there's beauty in our creation, far under our skin, even!

 These are layers of rock, like stacks of paper or cardboard...

Happiest doggins in the world at that moment! Her whole body was smiling!

Maggie tried to journal at every point.  Right before I took this photo, her dad stepped on her sandwich.  AAARRGGHH!  

Here's the poem she was working on sitting on the rock with the sky behind her:

When I feel the rain coming down

and the wind in my face,

I feel something.

When I can feel the grass on my bare feet

and smell roses bloom,

I feel something.

I feel.....

Home.

 It could be Montana, it could be craters on the moon...

LOOK!  A TREE!!!  It's noteworthy, here.

 Another happy doggins.  Happy and TIRED.  Twillie kept up pretty well, but she thought the fun part ended with the emptying of the lunch bucket.  Hike over! Let's go home, folks; my couch is calling!

A side shot of a gumbo lily glowing in the sun...

We found ONE yucca that was preparing to bloom.  Not a good year for yucca blossoms, I guess.

We eventually made it to the reservoir to the south.  The dogs were completely delighted with the swampy coolness of the water!  Angus WANTED to wade in, but the cow pie mud was a bit more than he wanted to tackle.  

(I love the line in this picture.  Sometimes all the elements come together in the photo like I see them in my brain at the moment.)

OH! While we were waiting for the Farmer to return with the Trailblazer, I took pictures of the mama duck and her babies across the reservoir.  They were too far away for me to identify, but when I was cropping the pictures on my computer I discovered it was a canvasback hen and her ducklings! (The two interlopers by Mama Canvasback are grebes.  They're cheeky.  She's trying to ignore them.)  I don't remember ever seeing a canvasback around here, so this was big for me!

I also tried to take pictures of the many azure dragonflies, but prairie dragonflies are nervous little things and even too fast for the sports setting on my camera.  Here's the best I could do. They seemed to adore the sagebrush!