Sunday, May 24, 2009

Never too pregnant for farm chores

Just like the farm wives of old, who churned away at the butter until they squatted and their baby fell out, at which point they just strapped that thing to their chest and kept churning, my sister is taking it to the limit with her planting, weeding and gardening even at 36 weeks. Having been great with child myself, I can truly appreciate how much the extra human *growing inside* weighs on doing farm labor. Which, as we all know, is probably just gearing her up for that other kind of labor here in a few weeks. I find her to be an incredible badass, don't you?

*please also note crazy farm lady wear crucial to summer life here: tank top, black yoga pants and garishly-colored crocs. The ear phones add a special je ne sais quoi, do they not? Not quite the awesomeness of my slightly risque, multi-colored maternity farm sarongs, but a close second. Jay shot one of me working a horse in that get-up, and in fairness I will post it if I can dig it up. (No I won't).

4 comments:

Becca said...

Please note the expression on my face here...lips formed in the letter "P" (not as in "pool", Music Man) as in "Please have mercy on a sweaty pregnant lady and put the camera away!!" I was afraid this 37 week belly shot might end up here.

But I will say that I'm darn proud of learning to drive our tiny lawn tractor and have to admit that mowing while sitting comfortably takes more skill than I imagined.

Anonymous said...

Charis, you are my hero for getting a photo of our niecephew in belly on the blog so I could see a photo of Becca in all of her pregnant beauty.

Although I have to say that the alarming thing about this photo for me is Becca's latex gloves . . . I'm a city girl but I don't think that latex gloves are typical farming gear, am I right?

Becca said...

Oh, Barbara, they only LOOK like lavender latex gloves...they are in fact my favorite farm accessory to date: Atlas thin gardening gloves - the closest thing to weeding with your very own fingers - I am a HUGE fan and even just bought a hot pink pair for mom. Maybe I'll make a Facebook page for fans of Atlas gloves. (They do make the crazy pregnant look all that more alluring though, do they not?)

Mamma Gina said...

All I can think of (from Charis' prose, not the picture) is that scene in Life of Brian where the huge Catholic woman with about 700 kids births a baby while standing at the sink. I think one of the other kids just picks it up and takes care of it and mom keeps doing the dishes. It's somewhere around the "Every Sperm is Sacred" number.