the Goats stayed really quiet for so long this morning.  and i was absorbed in dusting, washing off, this

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submerging the Wolf Basket in the kitchen sink and washing off all the accumulated dust.  this basket was woven by Joyce Tinkham out of jute.  in it are some treasures and also a tiny orange plastic treasure chest with each of my kids first lost teeth in.  our dentist at that time, who the kids loved, gave them out for putting safely under the pillow.  Tooth Fairy.  and also there is  a small wooden box with a lizard painted on it that holds pieces of both kids umbilical cords.  stuff like that.  so…cleaning these things, i was kind of drifting.  now and again i realized that the Goats were STILL quiet but then, it was a beautiful morning and breezy and barely warm.  perfect left over cud chewing kind of morning.  finally…at around almost 10 am i went out.    All Goats transfixed and staring.  all the does.  all Sunny Ray, Gideon, Tenzen.  standing, staring at a fixed point in the Oasis, near the Raft…..and Lo and Behold, who should be there nibbling sweetly on the Kochia weed….Buckwheat.  Loose.  a Loose Buckwheat.  and he looked so incredibly BEAUTY FULL,

all loose and amidst the flowering Desert Willow and Chatalpa tree and the rag flag on the Raft blowing overhead in the breeze and the chairs, maybe with spirits sitting…resting in them like my Granddaughter says…  it was a hugely beautiful scene.  i wanted to take a pic but was so anxious that i would NEVER get him back in his own yard again, that forever he would be loose and sometimes wreak havoc unlike this perfect moment…so…instead of chancing it, i got a hammer and nails and baling wire and wire cutters and set to work fixing that end of his fence that I KNEW for a while now was weak and would remind self that once he broke through, it would set the tone for the whole of the future, but didn't do anything about it but think.  

and he just watched me, nibbling away,  and when i was done and ready for the capture, i said his name and he BOINGed …that's stiff legged boinging, like they have springs on the bottom of their feet.  the babies do it all the time.  he continues when he's feeling full of himself, so i got some pellets in the Doe bucket and opened his gate, went in and trickled them clink clink clink in his bowl and remembered what daughter Jenny said:  "dont have feelings.  just be quiet inside yourself"…ok and dear him, he came in.  xtra pellets but his very very Great Day was over.  off and on through the day he stands and studies that corner where he escaped.  Thinking.  we'll see.

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invisible baste.  Moon stitched down.  changing changing changing HER position.  it's not right yet. and what's going on overhead???? i don't know and then down in the right????? i don't know either.  this one is completely unknown from here on in.  tomorrow, the day belongs to this cloth.  unless an Unforseen

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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27 responses to “day 90, Buckwheat’s very very Great Day.”

  1. Michelle in NYC Avatar

    Oh what evocation, the day and the wide world out there in your yard, and Buckwheat being so Great, but boinging to the clink clink. Rapt. I was rapt. May the unforseen have a thread break tomorrow, because this cloth is wonderfully waiting.

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  2. grace Forrest Avatar

    Michelle..i wish you could have been here. i wish you
    could have been STARTLED to see him there
    but then
    seen
    how totally a beautiful scene it was…and them, all
    watching him, transfixed. and SILENT. how interesting
    that they all were SILENT. Goats have a kind of Thinking
    that i never yet understand. i would think that they all
    would have made some kind of comotion at his Looseness.
    but no. Total Silence. They watched.
    and yes. tomorrow for her. i am really interested in what might happen….
    love,

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  3. Nance Avatar
    Nance

    What a wonderful goat story.

    Like

  4. Minka Avatar

    Buckwheat…I was thinking of another adventursome character with a grain name…got them confused…Buckwheat…..Alfalfa….of Spanky and Our Gang….I guess this is Buckwheat and his gang….busily colluding in silence.

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  5. patricia Avatar

    first, the cloth. pure example of the unforseen, as you say, and already so FULL of its self. i like the orange wingy things, the way they cross, the way the lower one seems pull me up and the one behind, seems so connected to the figure–to the face–saying something like, look, look at her. universal woman. oh well. that’s what i’m getting having just crawled out of some really vanished but heady dreams.
    and good old buckwheat. way to go old man. i don’t even know how old he is but that boing-ing. yep, know it well. still brings a deep belly laugh just remembering. imagining now. have a lovely day. love, love.

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  6. Cynthia Avatar
    Cynthia

    warm morning wishes ..it is suddenly summer hot here..the grass was warm under my feet when i went out….i am enjoying thinking of your goats and their silence together..it is such a real communication…and loving the vision of the triumphant buckwheat even as i wish you back the time of fence mending…i would so like to be back in vermont ..soon…
    meadow writes that now there is also..a new sweet cow..and her bull calf soon to be a steer calf…he is in the back woods/pasture with the goats…and that is what i would love to be there to see…this new interaction…well soon..ish
    i have so enjoyed looking into this piece of cloth that is waiting for you..it is fun to realize how that fills me with a quiet anticipation..
    meanwhile i wish you a day full of thread and cloth and quiet adventure there..i like those and smile thinking of buckwheat with his “quiet adventure ” as you said beyond his fence…enjoy your now xox much

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  7. Marti Avatar
    Marti

    Sitting on my “goat steps”, greeting the sun as it comes up, I was looking at a corner of the backyard, the one where the small planting of corn is growing high…something about looking at a space of land and wondering and I share thoughts with Buckwheat as he probably will still look out at his “freedom corner” and remember his frolicking adventure and when he can do it again…

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  8. Marti Avatar
    Marti

    And I find that Jenny’s words, “don’t have feelings, just be quiet inside yourself” are good if you are the goat herd but if you are the goat Tia, well then emotions will certainly enter into the whole thing when comes the first time that I meet all of them and the little ones…

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  9. Marti Avatar
    Marti

    Meant to say goat herder, not goat herd…

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  10. jude Avatar

    down in the corner, maybe a place to escape to?

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  11. kat Avatar

    A golden orange bird, flying high.
    The lady looking for the perfect place to observe all around her.
    Stairs at the corner, for respite somewhere unseen?

    Like

  12. Saskia Van Herwaarden Avatar

    LOL I see him staring at the spot he had previously escaped thru, just like Tungsten does whenever he’s found an escape route we then ‘fixed’, he stares and looks and scrapes the earth and wonders ‘what has happened, what has changed?’
    I have an old cigar box from my grampa with the bits of dried up umbilical cords and the boys each have their tiny tin boxes with the teeth I managed to retrieve, memories Grace

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  13. grace Forrest Avatar

    a window..of sorts?????
    a way to escape the dream?

    Like

  14. beth Avatar

    What a fine story. And a very fine cloth. It will be interesting to see where both go from here.

    Like

  15. Dee Avatar

    I saw that little overlapping scrap as the break in the fence.

    Like

  16. Dee Avatar

    I love the furriness of that moon.
    Wondering about ‘being still. not having feelings’ when waiting for a cloth to announce itself…
    and the wisdom and interest of goats – such captivating tales you tell! I couldn’t help thinking about your recent post about the importance, urgency even, of attending to physical things and how you thought about fixing the fence and didn’t and then did but after this great scene unfolded… it seems of a piece

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  17. grace Avatar
    grace

    yes…it was a sewing day today, Thursday. and i kept
    somehow thinking it was Friday and then correcting self,
    nope!! only Thursday….so…yes. very GOOD!

    Like

  18. grace Avatar
    grace

    next time, i’ll take pics. IF there is a next time.
    i put LOTS of nails

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  19. grace Avatar
    grace

    colluding is a very perfect word.

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  20. grace Avatar
    grace

    yes…way to go. he will be 2 in August. that boinging
    is almost cartoon like, from him, with those great curving
    horns

    Like

  21. grace Avatar
    grace

    the time of fence mending…well, i have begun to find
    some ummmm, acceptance, maybe even detachment to the
    things that are ongoing and repetative about Growing
    and Keeping out there. it’s just how it is and your
    Meadow knows these things.
    a Calf! this would be something to see. but as you
    say…soonish. when it is. but i also very much
    look forward to that time and you telling of it as it
    goes
    xoxoxo

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  22. grace Avatar
    grace

    i watched some today, on and off and he didn’t seem too
    preoccupied with it.
    Goats are opportunistic about certain things. if they
    see Possibilities, they definately check it out.
    How that end of the fence got pulled away was from his
    rubbing, scratching by leaning into the fencing and
    scooting along. they all do it. it was just a weak
    point.

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  23. grace Avatar
    grace

    it’s all different now….

    Like

  24. grace Avatar
    grace

    these are beautiful imaginings…

    Like

  25. grace Avatar
    grace

    yes. a cigar box would be perfect for these things.
    and in keeping with your recent post on your blog,
    i buried my kids placentas in the garden…at the old
    house of long ago.

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  26. grace Avatar
    grace

    an unremarkable day for Buckwheat today, Thursday,
    and changes in the cloth that may stay or may go….

    Like

  27. grace Avatar
    grace

    you are right, about the importance, urgency, of attending
    to all the Life out there. the fence was/is a perfect
    example of that. to stay With it in an easy and constant way. it so easily could have gone amock as marti’s word
    implies… the remaining treebushes from that Terrible
    Freezing Cold Winter are now just now coming back into
    their own. I actually was surprised that he didn’t go
    for them. that would have been sad. and i am not anymore going to replace things that are lost. they will just
    be gone.
    being still/sans feelings….about cloth, well, maybe
    and for sure about Self’s Desires over the necessity of
    the Cloth. She learned this with her own Need/Desire
    about the Goats when they were with her…that it did no
    good, all the feelings, that what worked was just becoming quiet and allowing the Goat to act of it’s own
    free will. they respond so much better to this than
    to sensing Frustration which they don’t Understand at all.

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