New Baby Boy to Love!

(The following was written Monday.)

No pictures yet, but Bunny arrived (f-i-n-a-l-l-y) around 1:00 AM this morning!

After nearly 24 hours of labor and no more dilation than 5.5 cm, Bunny's mama got a C-section.  The Peanut was a C-section, too, but they were trying for a VBAC this time 'round.  No such luck!  The mama is teensy, and she grows solid little babies (Bunny was 8 lbs. 4 oz.) AND her body just doesn't seem to want to dilate.  (I shudder to think what this would have meant for her and The Peanut were we living 100 years ago.)

But, with this operation not being an emergency (as The Peanut's was), Mama & Daddy both were calm and Mama was awake through it all . . . so got to see Bunny immediately!

Here's the first picture of the new family of four to come down the electronic communication line!

I can't wait until they come home:  I'm hoping I'll get to meet him on Thursday or Friday when I'm in town!  I'll post pictures just as soon as I get some from the family.

And this one is hot off the presses, taken this morning.

In other news, it is a G-O-R-G-E-O-U-S day!!!  Wowzer!  If I was working outside, I'd be in a tank top, no doubt!  I'm considering switching the heating and hot water system over to the summertime status today.  Of course, rain & snow are predicted for the next day or so . . . .

More phenology:  haven't seen Mr./Ms. Moose the last couple of times in or out, but I did see a cute but stinky skunk yesterday morning, scratching in the dirt at the side of the winter driveway.  I also noticed the v-e-r-y first tiny leaves popping out on one of the trees in the front yard, and today I noticed that Annie Blue's Elderberry, with very swollen buds, was beginning to open!  (And, double bonus, that means it survived last fall's late transplanting!)

(Now writing in "real time" on Tuesday.)

An addition to the last paragraph above:  I thought I'd written a post about Annie Blue's tree last fall, but I looked for it and couldn't find it.  Maybe it was too painful, and I never got around to it.  But, the day that the fisher killed Annie Blue and I buried her, I dug a lovely elderberry up and transplanted it on top of her little grave, right outside the kitchen window.  And, now I feel like I can "talk" to Annie Blue whenever I want . . . and that she's giving additional life support to the tree.

The buds on Annie Blue's Elderberry.

When I was outside taking the above picture, I also snapped the following two:

The chives are popping up!

I hadn't noticed it before, but some little critter did a number on two low branches of one of the Dolgo Crabs.  Normally, this would be evidence of a rabbit's handiwork, but I've seen nary a one all year here on the ridge.  That doesn't exclude the possibility, but maybe it was a porcupine (although I haven't seen one of them lately, either) . . . or a ??

As much as yesterday was glorious, today is grey and dreary.  More snow is predicted, too.  So, I decided NOT to switch over to the summertime heating / hot water system yet . . . which was probably just as well.  The snow has finally melted away from the area directly underneath the clothesline, so the fact that the laundry I washed last night in preparation for hanging out (for the first time) today probably jinxed the good weather!


I have oodles of paperwork to slog through in preparation for my tax appointment on Friday (I had my tax preparer file an extension), so that will take up the bulk of today's time.  (I slept - again! - until 12:45 [!!!!!] today!)  A good day for inside work, I guess.


Yesterday's glorious weather brought the first of springtime's "drop-bys" - folks out enjoying the weather and driving the back roads.  It reminded me, too, to get the house in better shape for unexpected visitors.  When the dogs alerted me to the small pickup in the yard I was a little apprehensive, not recognizing it.  My wariness was upped when they asked if the pickup stuck down the road was mine and if I wanted them to pull me out?  Uhhh, based on the fact that you are two strange men I don't know . . . ?  Umm, that'd be no.  But then, one of them (probably sensing my hesitation), asked, "You're Papa Pea's daughter, aren't you?  I'm so-and-so who owns the cedar mill outside of town."  Oh!  Then, the BIG GUY (!) stuck out his beefy hand and introduced himself.  He was the husband of a woman whose done a few drop-bys herself, someone I'd always known about but had never met.  Ahhh, well then, we all know each other!  Apprehension and wariness removed!

"Yah, we're just drivin' around, drinkin' beer.  You want one?"  Sure!  So then, we three took the traditional stance, leaning on their pickup, drinking ice cold beer from their cooler on a glorious spring day.  :)

We talked about religion, we talked about divorce.  (Big Guy was on his 2nd - or third? - marriage, and Cedar Mill Guy's wife had left him.  They knew I'd been left by my hubby and were probably checking up on me, seeing if they could help.  Which is awfully sweet.)  We talked about my stuck truck again:  they said I should be able to drive it right out in a day or two, the snow had gone down that much (but offered, again, to pull me out).  We talked about the road being (ha!) closed to anything with more weight than 1000 pounds and how that restriction only really applied to logging trucks, they said.  Uh-huh, right.  Wink, wink, nudge, nudge.  They liked the White Trash bridges I'd built.  ;)  We talked about Papa Pea.  Cedar Mill Guy thinks he's just the bee's knees . . . or, as he said, "just an EXCELLENT man!"  We talked about money (who has any?) and stress (which had caused them to take the day's drive and a break from business paperwork).  Overall, it was one of those visits that reminds me that, even people I might not know, are aware of my situation and lookin' out for me.  And that does my heart good.  :)

Having unexpected visitors also allowed me to look at Swamp River Ridge through their eyes, and I wasn't thrilled with what I saw.  Lots of winter's accumulation of dry dog poop to be raked up, the woodshed filled with recycling and garbage waiting to be sorted and hauled away.  Metal fencing needing to be repaired after winter's toll on it, general yard clean-up.  I'd like to make myself a new goal:  to spend at least one hour on outside, general clean-up / maintenance tasks each day now that it seems to be (almost?  maybe?) springtime.

The longer I sit here writing, the darker it's becoming outside.  I'm suddenly thinking that I should walk out to the truck today to see if I can get it home . . . in case I do get more snow accumulation and need to plow again.

My apologies for the disjointed nature of this post, but it's how my brain is today!  Maybe it's because I'm still waking up, because I slept another 12 hours last night?  I dunno.  Just one of those "off" days, I guess.

Okay, let me go back up and re-read what I've written and insert some pictures!

* * *

I haven't uploaded all the pictures I have - I'll do that later.  But, the mercury has dropped 3 degrees since I've been writing, and white stuff is coming down.  I'm gonna suit up and the dogs and I will walk out to try to get the truck home.  Stay tuned!