Finding time to pick beans before they go to seed, and keeping an eye on all the critters, is a challenge right now. Mike and Wyatt are at Mike's parents' farm, helping them prepare for an American Pickers–type sale. With a November election coming up there are debates for me to monitor, video copy treatments to write, transcripts to transcribe. But poultry and produce wait for no one, including politics. All three have helped me hone my time management skills.
The latest addition to the farm, two chicken hens with one chick apiece, and a third hen with five chicks. Checking on them periodically helps cleanse my mental palate between jobs. I saunter out to the barn and look inside their stall. I make sure their water is fresh and there's enough corn scattered. After completing a rough script and before picking beans, I checked on the chicks.
To my horror, a two-day-old turken chick was inside the watering pan, up to its bald neck in water, flapping its tiny wings to get out.
I scooped it up, held it in my cupped hand, wrapped it in a sweatshirt, and raced to the house, willing the chick to be warm with every step. With one hand I lifted the lid of the 1950s Sears incubator and slipped the chick inside. I hear it chittering away. It sounds warmer now.
Farm life is filled with tiny dramatic moments when you hold the difference between life and death in your hand. Some days those moments don't turn out happily. But when they do, you feel like you can tackle anything.
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