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227 Getting a hold of my self… (?)

i need to.  and if that were literal, this would be one of the hands i would need to use…

 

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i hardly recognize this hand…except for the scabs.  the bandaid.   look, though, how the veins and ligaments or whatever are so prominent, and then…those pleats of skin at the wrist…………..

 

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there's a cloth under all this

 

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an aborted saradine can attempt.  now in re dye.  i am not very good at all this.

 

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and this.  

This is some of the silk noile i got from Dharma Trading.  i kind of don't like it.  it is tame.  civilized noil.  i like rough, raw noile.  but, oh well.  so this is in the big Walnut pot which is an enamel pot.  it's in there with that giant iron thing that i've showed pics of before.  This cloth,  when i get it somewhere close to "right" will be my Judy Martin dress.

Judy's Journal,  blog post of August 19th, 2013  Celebrate and Cry.  ever since i saw that, i've had this idea of making a "dress".  and well, it isn't really a dress, it's a jumper sort of thing.  it is similar, Judy's,  to some of my denim uniforms that i have for summer.  i have no clothing words to describe it….don't know them,  but it's loose and well…drapes.  i think the silk noil that i don't really like will do that.  Why i want it is because going out so early to do the Goat things,  i need layers.  and soon i will be coming back IN where it might be moderately warm or really warm, depending,  and i  DO NOT LIKE changing clothes entirely.  so if i could really just remove layers?

under the "Judy Martin" dress i could have first, against the skin, leggings.  then over them, some cut off levis.  (there would be wool socks).   i used to wear this kind of thing in the winter because i liked the look of it.  but i remember too that the "dress", or long skirt, or jumper, created a pocket of warmth between it and everything under it.   So…not to go on and on,  this is in keeping with the Goldilocks  Principle and we'll see.

 

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here we have it.  a half ton of alfalfa.  we had to seperate the  half ton bale into "flakes" to get it off the truck.  but we did it.  i really like determined women.   a Lot.   and tonight there are very very peaceful Goats,  lounging in the Evening Sun,  chewing cud and finally, all is well again.

and i received word that the drum, the Yantra, as he calls them,  will be set into the postal system tomorrow.

 

 

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25 responses to “227 Getting a hold of my self… (?)”

  1. Valerianna Avatar
    Valerianna

    Yipyip, the drum comes!! When I was in college I was a totaly hippie ( not in the 60’s, though, too young to have made that) I went to college in Maine and wore tights – in the days before leggings, or the revival of them – wool socks, hiking boots, wool sweater and some hippie guaze skirt. Yikes, what an outfit. It was cold outside. Inside I would lose the sweater and be fine. Layering is good 🙂 – just right according to Goldilocks.
    I like determined women, too. I’m happy that there are a lot of them in the world.

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  2. grace Avatar
    grace

    yes. the same outfit. i wore boys work boots. and
    too bad you missed the 60’s. to bad anyone missed them.
    i used to wear that stuff to work…at the University of
    Michigan Psych Hospital and no eye blinked. we were
    really something then. So SURE of our selves.
    and the wool sweater. up until a couple years ago i
    had an oversized mouse brown wool cartigan. it finally
    fell totally apart.
    and determined women…we were SOMETHING today, getting that 1/2 ton off. and the part i loved the most was that
    it was all a kind of Just Going. we tried lots of ways and it was all hard, but just somehow smooth, too. and
    then, finally…it was done.
    a really very FINE day.

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  3. jude Avatar
    jude

    your hands like my hands are a new mystery. layers are good. that’s a lot of grass.

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  4. grace Avatar
    grace

    all the scabs and rips…my skin is not resilliant anymore.
    wire rips it. wet cracks it, although that’s really not
    new. there are always those cracks at the edge of the
    thumb nail in the winter.
    it’s a Lot of alfalfa. and it is One months worth. in
    one end, out the other. and so it goes. but they are
    so so quiet tonight. All is finally Well again. i really
    NEED that.

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  5. jude Avatar
    jude

    we all need that. it is an in between.

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  6. grace Avatar
    grace

    new meaning to
    an in between

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  7. Judith of N. California Avatar
    Judith of N. California

    I can hear the cud chewing clear out here…yeaaaa for Alfalfa ! I think we should all start a new club….wise women Hands !! I used to have lovely hands and fingernails…HA..not after raising sheep for years and now after splitting almost 3 cords of wood this year…but we’re going to be so warm and toasty this winter and that’s what counts. Oh..I’m so happy for the goats.

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  8. Mo Crow Avatar
    Mo Crow

    Please wear gloves Grace! when I first started gardening full time in 1990 at the Sydney Botanic Gardens my hands were a disaster within a week working bare handed so I started wearing gloves for everything that has to do with soil, plants, trimming trees or using outdoor machinery. It’s awkward at first but you get used to it quickly and I have different types of gloves for all the different jobs. Heavy duty leather ones for moving rocks and tree trunks and things with spines,strong rubber garden gloves with a woven back so they breathe for the day to day jobs & very fine skin-like gloves for teasing out the roots of tiny seedlings when we are planting out vegetable and annual beds. Wearing gloves has saved my hands so I can still do the fine beading, stitching, carving and detailed drawing.

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  9. Mo Crow Avatar
    Mo Crow

    Hi Grace this is Rod (Old Man Crow)
    Yes, please wear gloves. As you know, I work with Mo as a gardener and I made it a rule when we started working together that we wouldn’t touch any soil or tools until we put our gloves on. I just hated seeing her beautiful artist’s hands being ruined by working with me! The same applies to you. At first they may seem awkward but once you find good gloves for whatever you’re doing you pretty soon get used to them. Then it becomes second nature.
    YOU DON’T HAVE TO RUIN YOUR HANDS!
    End of rant. Take care.

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  10. patricia Avatar
    patricia

    the currents from this huge sigh of relief for happy goats, happy herd woman, are rippling across the country. and also loving your observation– that amazing phenomena of just how sure we were–of ourselves, what we knew, what we thought we knew, and how we were going to change every thing. and i’m just looking at all that. smiling. not so much from the righteous place of “then” but from the more mellow place of “now.” and yes, wouldn’t have missed it for the world.

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  11. Marti Avatar
    Marti

    Along with the Yantra coming, and I love that name, the walnut and steel wool dyed piece for your grace/judy dress was put in the mail today so good things coming to you this week…and I cannot wait to see the drum so I can do a little dance of Welcome, perhaps a little Scottish highland dance, or maybe a dance from my roots, a Spanish jota or better yet, a New Mexican folk dance, so beautifully done with the swirling skirts. I would have to borrow a skirt since I don’t have any but then, I can bring a bunch of my silky dyed scarves, tie them around my jeans and andale, off we go, twirling and swirling,in honor of the drum, in honor of your dress and just for the sheer joy of it all…

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  12. jan b. Avatar
    jan b.

    I really like that visual!

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  13. yvette Avatar
    yvette

    I love your hands..good working hands
    i love layers
    my nickname has always been…lappenmeisje….translation….cloth girl layers of cloth
    love

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  14. Michelle in NYC Avatar
    Michelle in NYC

    Me too…or trying/// I just posted this message over at Jude about ART: “Art-yes=how I defined myself/ But, dealing with the supplies these last many days, with pastels, acrylics, charcoal, pencil, color pencil, water colors and all sorts of brushes and palatts, with still the stacks of paper to go, has me so exhausted and kind of overwhelmed, since I’ve hardly used any of it in too many years. I’m keeping only the best stuff, donating the rest. My thoughts are all tangled in remembering what it felt like to get locked ino that feverish creativity. I’m undoing the threads, and getting selective. If”What happens, and then, what we do about it. The story. And the expression of that” is right, then I’m doing just what I aught be doing.”
    In YOUR case: Your whole life, and every detail of your days is your ART…and I want to let myself think my Art is my Life too, as I continue winnowing it down to manageable.
    We’re all happy critters here!

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  15. grace Avatar
    grace

    the CUD. these things are the things that can tell the
    Truth. watching them suddenly, lying, their legs folded
    just so, their eyes all slitty, their jaws moving…
    it wasn’t till i saw that yesterday that i realized that
    the Cud Chewing had been ABSENT during the no good hay
    days. they were constantly restless, constantly at their
    feed bowls, constantly constantly. and this is NOT how
    Goats feel ok. they eat. they rest. they ENJOY their
    cud. get up, wander a bit,
    but not that restlessness.
    so i Know more. and i trust my sense of observation more.
    it doesn’t matter, what anyone else imagines to be TRUE.
    what matters is what the Goats are doing….you can know
    things, the important things from just watching.
    WOOD. and this tells me something about N. Cal…3 cords.
    i need a cord and a half here. 3 is a Lot. good then.
    INFORMATION. the more we have, the better.
    xoxo

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  16. grace Avatar
    grace

    maybe

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  17. grace Avatar
    grace

    CROW MAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OH wow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    OH!!!!! eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
    oh HEY!
    ok. then. since you showed up here IN PERSON, i will
    think about it.
    oh…HEY….HI!
    LOVE,

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  18. grace Avatar
    grace

    some of that Sureness is still Good…still Good…
    it might not Change, but it does Sustain

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  19. grace Avatar
    grace

    oh….it will be the front panel. you will be amazed.
    it wasn’t at all what you wanted, but oh, look, how
    so GREAT it is that we are a degree different in what we
    see as perfect……………
    and phonetically: on de lay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! yes!

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  20. grace Avatar
    grace

    jan…this is Marti. she is so totally Marti. and
    she IS a visual.

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  21. grace Avatar
    grace

    i love the word…lappenmeisje….i want to be
    lappenmeisje too…
    i love you….

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  22. grace Avatar
    grace

    you know…i don’t know i would de fine it this way.
    i think we are all so much the congomerate of so much…
    in this life and before…
    but it’s good, to find SPACE to be able to see ourselves
    in the moment….

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  23. mimmin Avatar
    mimmin

    contented goats, long may they stay this way and yes please look after your hands

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  24. grace Forrest Avatar
    grace Forrest

    those hands come and go but always repair themselves. All is well
    with hands in this moment

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  25. grace Forrest Avatar
    grace Forrest

    and just to say…i am watching your Country in this Moment.
    i think of you There………..

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