Wait for it…

So, here we are. One week past our alleged due-date of October 27, and wondering if our child will ever be born. Our sources tell us that no one has been pregnant forever, and we are keen to believe them. However, we do remember one news story a few months ago about a woman in some third world country who had been pregnant for some 40 years. We don’t remember all of the details, mostly because it seems like we’ve been there ourselves by now.

Nathan, Shiver, Robb, and I have set out to do a pheasant hunt. That date, we know for sure. It will be Saturday, December 1 2007, at the Lookout Creek Farm hunting preserve, near Mentone, AL. For the meager cost of $200 per gun, we each get to pot seven cock pheasants. Now, I’ve never seen a pheasant on the hoof or on the plate, but I have read “Danny Champion of the World.” Mr. Dahl was down on the idea of shooting pheasants, and I can tell you why…. This is the description that the pheasant hunting establishment nearest my house game me as an idea of good sport:

…at this time I don’t have a place to do a quality pheasant hunt. I don’t have a place that offers adequate cover for the large birds. Let me suggest something that I think you and your friends would really enjoy. I offer a European pheasant shoot that is great fun. Here is how it works. We need a group of ten people to stand in a large circle here on our property. We then throw 100 pheasant into the air one at a time. It is just like a driven hunt like the Europeans do it. Shooters are 100 yards apart, we rotate every 10 birds to keep things fair for everyone. At the end of the shoot there are usually several missed birds. We will then take the dogs and shooters and hunt the birds on the ground.

Eww. None of us was happy with that idea. Perhaps when we are 90 and much less ambulatory.

Lookout Creek Farm is about two hours from my house. I know this because when it became abundantly clear that Amy wasn’t going to have a baby today, we packed it in, and drove out there. The place is easy to find, and seems quite scenic. As we were in the neighborhood, we took the opportunity to checkout DeSoto Falls and the DeSoto State Park. Both of these were quite nice, but due to the drought, the Falls had been reduced to a small trickle. The canyon they poured into was still quite impressive, and every Alabamian needs to make the trip at least once.

One of the interesting historic tidbits posted on the park’s bulletin board was that the park contains the ruin of what appears to be a fortification built by Welsh explorers circa 1140. This would seem to suggest that the Welsh founded Alabama slightly less than 75 years after the Norman invasion, and about fifty years after founding Cardiff Castle.

Well Wishes

Our best wishes go out to Nathan, our man in Mobile, who has just been drawn for a Colorado cow elk this September. This time, he will be limited by license to muzzle-loaders only. We have hinted that the proper equipment for this enterprise should be one of the fine reproductions of the Pattern 1853 Enfield, though we will admit that the 1861 Springfield rifles are nice too. Either are preferred to any of the more modern muzzle-loading rifles that will develop absolutely no trace of character or style for at least the next 150 years.

In any case, muzzle-loader or center-fire, if Nathan sees a cow elk in September, it will be in his pot by November.

The Tot of Steele

As most readers are already aware, Amy is about thirteen weeks pregnant with our first child, hereafter referred to as the “Tot of Steele.” We don’t yet know the child’s sex, but we are sure that even at this point it is a child. We’ve seen heart-beat, head, fingers, toes, etc in the sonogram images. The mind boggles and the heart humbles as new parents marvel at the first life signs of their newly formed child. Such an experience surely must be incompatible with a world in which abortion exists. Nevertheless, as the atrocity at Virginia Tech has shown us, evil still slithers among us.

Most every one that Amy has talked to is predicting that the Tot of Steele will turn out to be a girl. I knew that Amy was pregnant before she told me, and by that same clairvoyance, my money is that it will be a boy. Regardless, we just pray that our little miracle is happy and healthy. Neither of us care which our baby turns out to be, though Amy likes to point out that girls get to wear “cuter” clothes. I’ve had to remind her that our expected child is neither a doll, nor a stuffed-animal. I’ve forbidden her to dress our child in any clothing that has ears or a tail sewn-on, except in the event of Halloween.

Talking of which, the Tot of Steele is due near Halloween on the 27th of October, 2007, some 149 years to-the-day after our hero of San Juan HIll, Theodore Roosevelt. This portends well for our child, but I’m afraid it will mean a rough ride for my loving wife, when the time comes.

Let it never be said that we do not look after the little darling, even before birth. Last weekend, we purchased the child’s first set of books: “Scuffy the Tug Boat” and “The Poky Little Puppy,” two of my childhood favorites.

We’ve seen several bedding sets that we like, for both little boys and little girls. Soon as we know for sure, we’ll rush out and pick-up the appropriate set. I have been somewhat amused and annoyed at the fact that all of the children’s clothing and bedding that features a “wild animal” motif, never displays the any of the animals as having teeth. Is it really fitting to teach children that Rhinoceroses and Crocodiles are cuddly? If we were on a different continent, this could have great potential for tragedy! If you don’t know what I mean, you should immediately rush out, and purchase a copy of Peter Hathaway Capstick’s “Death in the Long Grass.”