![\"\"](\"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/P1010130.jpg\" "\\"seedlings\\"")
<\/a><\/p>\nOr stroking the soft velvet of Josie’s ears before settling in to milk.<\/p>\n
A duckling’s first swim.<\/p>\n Bruno’s smile.<\/p>\n The warmth of the woodstove when the rest of the earth is still and cold.<\/p>\n \n Waking to the rooster’s crow at 3am, long before dawn.<\/p>\n \n Wait.\u00a0 Nix that last one.<\/p>\n Anyway, on our farm, the fall brings the always-exciting, never-grows-old\u00a0incubation and hatch of next year’s chickens.\u00a0 I know most farms hatch chicks in the spring.\u00a0 But on our farm we figure anything worth doing, is worth doing backwards.\u00a0 So as the evenings grow chilly and the daylight hours shorten, we get the special joy of the way this:<\/p>\n transforms into this:<\/p>\n …after just 21 days, some turning, and some misting.\u00a0 It seems like a miracle every time.\u00a0 Which might be because the main way I’ve experienced birth involves 9 months of swelling, severe indigestion, and a trip to the hospital.\u00a0 A styrofoam box with a heating coil seems just too easy to be possible.<\/p>\n Even better, in a just few hours under the heat lamp, this:<\/p>\n transforms into this:<\/p>\n \n Which is cute enough to\u00a0make up for the nonstop peeping from the brooder box.\u00a0 All day and night.\u00a0 Whenever the chicks hear you\u00a0walk into the room. Or come down the stairs.\u00a0 Or breathe too loudly in the upstairs den.<\/p>\n \n You see, cuteness is a part of God’s\u00a0master plan.\u00a0 He gave\u00a0cuteness to the baby animals so they would stand a chance against us protein-crazed humans.\u00a0 Luckily for us, He’s not afraid to strip\u00a0cuteness away before the harvest.\u00a0 Which explains why turkeys reach their full size….<\/p>\n …and their full-blown ugliness in November.<\/p>\n \n \n The Lord giveth cuteness and the Lord taketh cuteness away.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n