Everything's coming up ... brown.

This is the time of year in Wisconsin that is especially difficult for an Oregon transplant. Yes, our roots are getting established and all, and we've had plenty of good watering and compost, but the fact is that it's nearly MARCH, when in Portland we'd be at the beginning of that glorious tumble into candy-colored, sweet smelling cherry blossoms and sunshiney daffodils. And here, well, besides the skimpy afterthought of snow, things are plain old dead and brown. We're in that spring lagtime, when those big sticks on the hill hardly resemble trees, and the single digit temperatures in the morning hours just don't hold that winter-in-Narnia mystique anymore. Where's Aslan, darnit?

All to say that it's nearly impossible to believe that at the end of next month (hopefully) we'll be beginning our own colorful transformations (mostly of the green persuasion), and I can't wait!

Being pregnant is really the oddest thing in so many ways nobody tells you about. For one thing, your pants start to fall off, or at least the pant hems drag on the ground (this is the one time in life when a person can feel good about growing out of their pants, I suppose, so I'm trying to enjoy it while I can). Your sense of balance and being are slightly askew. Things that were easy before (hiking, stairs, sleeping) get subtly, incrementally more difficult. Peeing is always an emergency. Dizzy is normal. It's not bad - just strange. And as I type right this second, somebody is giving me the tiniest little boot in the uterus, just to the lower right of my navel. It's like having a little alien under your skin. What a bizarre delight!

I just saw March of the Penguins, and though I found the movie to be just okay (unless the animals are wearing some sort of outfits, no dice), I found the penguins' whole child rearing ritual to be fascinating. Basically, for those of you who haven't seen it, the mom lays a giant prehistoric-looking egg right in the middle of the Antarctic winter, when it's 80 below out, and then she basically volleys the egg to the dad, who for all intents and purposes shoves it up his dress (well, skin flap) and keeps it warm there while awkwardly stumbling around holding it in with his feet, during which time the mom travels 70 miles for food - for months at a time!- and then comes back to relieve the dad while he goes to eat and eventually the baby hatches when the weather is nicer (a balmier 40 below). This makes me feel a little less weird about human pregnancy, I have to confide, and oddly a little closer to penguins.

Gideon is becoming quite the log skidding pro and learning the ropes brilliantly. We had him out again yesterday, and Chris, his brother Michael and I pulled four loads in - one big fat mother of a tree was a bit of a challenge for the trusty Belgian and definitely begged some extra convincing. I've learned a few things during these exercises: snow on the ground makes for much easier pulling ("greasing up the skids" as someone might say), and for the heavier logs, momentum really is everything - don't stop if you don't have to! I'm hoping to start doing some riding soon - Colby is turning all soft and mushy. My lower back demons are rearing their ugly heads again lately and I haven't felt too great about hopping aboard, but hopefully that will resolve before I get too much bigger up front! Jay's still working on my sleigh/surrey, and Chris wants to get some sort of snow-boarding apparatus to attach to the harness, so Gideon may be more of a recreational novelty once the logging isn't such a priority.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot - I've had a few people inquire about the pasturization process I mentioned in my last blog. We've been home-pasturizing now that we're getting fresh milk from the neighbors' dairy. It's pretty simple: we heat the milk in a water bath (double broiler) until it hits 161 degrees, hold it at that temp for 20 seconds, then plunge it into a sink of icy water and stir until it reaches 50 degrees, then refrigerate. That's flash pasturization - regular takes quite a bit longer as the milk is heated to a lower temperature and held there for longer. For yogurt, since we boil the milk anyway, we are able to start out with the raw stuff. Mmmm, best yogurt ever!

Well, Becca and Ellis have been gone for a whole week and I've missed them! I'm sure Ellis will be a much bigger boy by now. They get back tonight and Jay finishes his musical this weekend, and it feels like once again we'll have the family back. I, for one, am glad.

On a different note, some movies I've seen recently and enjoyed: Hustle and Flow, Home Movie, Broken Flowers, Cinemania, Devil's Playground, All the Real Girls, Mad Hot Ballroom. Be sure to share if you have movie or book suggestions - I'm always looking for stuff to add to the Netflixx list, and reading is very big around here in the winter!

Love and tiny fetus kicks to all,

Charis