October 31: Painting Dribs and Drabs

Phil had a few more walls to finish, and a few walls to touch up. (Isaiah did a good job, but didn't ever figure out quite enough paint.) Phil also had to roughly cut in all the ceiling transitions, so he had a day of looking upwards. It wouldn't have seemed like that would have lasted a full day, but all the detail work takes time.

In other news, Jadon is quite the good big brother. If Caleb cries, he picks him up. He was looking up answers to a trivia "quiz" Isaiah was giving, and holding the baby. Every once in a while he would make Caleb "jump."

And we had another baby arrive. Bethany had been looking like it was time to birth for weeks now. We were expecting her delivery imminently a week or two ago. She was due, we figured, close to me. So we do share a birth month, at least. Phil had noticed that her backend was pulsing; she went off by herself into the woods. We checked her periodically, and Isaiah dashed up at one point: "Get the camera! She's pushing the baby out right now!" Sweet boy. I would have watched, and left the lazy home dwellers miss the event. But Isaiah wanted to share the excitement.

He led the way to her delivery spot. I was held up a bit by the younger boys, almost sobbing for me to please wait for them. Isaiah actually watched the calf flop out, but we were about fifteen seconds behind. The calf's head was tucked under its front legs, which looked pretty horrible. I did untangle that, and stripped the teats of any initial blockage, then left them alone. (And I had brought the camera, but none of the photos turned out.)

Then came the typical tug-of-war of emotions. Bethany is an experienced mother. Would she get the baby to eat colostrum in time? (Thirty minutes is ideal; two hours is still good; after that, the intestinal tract doesn't accept the nutrients as well.) I tend to want to interfere to make sure; Phil prefers a hands' off approach. We went with Phil's method, and it was fine.

Happily, too, the calf came on a day in the 70s, not the previous week when highs were in the 50s. It was really ideal weather for a new birth.