Beginnings Part One

I wish you could have been there.


The Chehalis Livestock Auction.


To see the men, tanned from long days out in the field. Hats low, denims thick, boots high. Old men with years of experience, thinned now, from day upon day walking the field. Middle-age men with suspenders attached to their jeans and hands clasped together holding those two straps over their chest as they contemplated which pig seemed best. Young boys, faces red with excitement and bits of straw in their hair and on their shirts from holding a baby goat.

I wish you could have been there to see the women- some with leather and bandanas after a mornings ride. Some with grey hair, like Missy, who had been raising pigs all their life and who were quick to give advice. Some, young Mamas, with children wrapped round their legs and others strapped to their fronts. Some, young girls like the two sisters: two of seven siblings there with their Papa deciding the next animal for their family farm.

I wish you could have been there to hear the auctioneer rattling a mile a minute, selling 3 goats here to number 365 and the whole lot of pigs there to number 473. I wish you could have been there to smell the air heavy with sweat, hay, and animals.

I wish you could have been there to see Tirzah dancing her way between the stalls, giggling with purest delight as she was kissed by a goat or was touched by a pig. To see Daniel, leaning against the fence, talking with Missy's husband and learning everything he could before it was his time to bid. To see his head nod or shake as he took part in his first ever auction. To watch him turn around, all smiles and eyes bright- telling me we were now owners of 2 feeder pigs.

And thus our homesteading journey truly begins..