We've come full circle so soon...

We have come full circle so soon with life and death here on the farm.


I have witnessed several births. I have seen from contraction to walking the birth of two goats - two out of the ten we had. The whole thing. Not really a pleasant sight, if you can imagine, but amazing! Goats may not grow up to be smart, but they can walk within about 15-20 minutes of being born. That's amazing too! I have seen a baby chick first peek it's head from the shell. I have seen baby chicks go from chick to chickens! We have also had baby rabbits born, though I was not there to see it. (A new born baby goat ... still covered in what I am gonna call slime!)

Yet, death seems to loom ever present too. First there are intentional killings. I have slaughtered a goat that fed 30 people three times - a huge blessing and money saver. That was a real "in your face" experience. Its difficult to deliberately take the life of an animal like that. Its not like having a gold fish die ... its a goat for crying out loud, whose neck I slit. Second, sometimes death comes at unexpected and unwanted times. 

With our batch of baby rabbits, a virus or bacteria came quickly upon them and wiped them all out just several days after being born. I think there we 8 to 10 of them. And, the trigger of these thoughts, was the death of one of our 10 baby goats. They are all sick, but are now being treated, but one got infected too early - or we got the medicine started too late - but now he is dead. I walked into the goat house this morning and there he was in his pin, lying unnaturally on his side, as if death were silently proclaiming its victory over this little life. Of course I buried the goat, so when I picked him up, rigor mortis had already set in and he was lifelessly cold. Kind of eerie. I mentioned we are administering medicine now so hopefully the other baby that is seriously sick will not die too.

But, as indicated, full circle is shortly to come around, as one of our adult female goats, Emma, is pregnant. She should give birth within several weeks.

Further, on a less death-toned note, plant life is a constant reminder of this circle. Even consider what the One who designed seeds said about them, "Truly truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit," John 12:24. When a plant dies, seeds dry out and produce more plants! These seeds not only produce entirely new plants, but food, fruit, vegetables, leaves (spinach), etc ... that are all so delicious, and they feed us! Now that is an amazing design, with an even more amazing Designer! (A tasty squash we grew in Ometepe!)


Just made me vividly aware that life and death happen every where, all the time.