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an odd day.  but OutSide, not odd at all, just some work.  This is the second half ton bale of alfalfa i've gotten.   there is a gallon jug of water on top, to give you a sense of it's size.  This is the kind of bales of feed that they haul to cattle free ranging through the winter in the mountains.  Big.  it's a little over 20 of the normal two string bales that i ordinarily have.   The first time, it was kind of a fiasco,  we couldn't get it off the truck so had to pull "flakes" off individually and stack them.  it was hard and i wasn't looking too much forward to repeating that.  But a new and improved plan and we DID it.    and then my neighbor's son was around for a few days, so i hired him to help me pound in,  well, he did the pounding,  some reinforcing Tposts in places i thought were weak in Goat fencing.  Done.  so, really, it was a good day.   and i guess at the end of it,  i'm thinking that i'm glad it's over.   Time for just going.  OK.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

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29 responses to “290”

  1. Jan Avatar
    Jan

    it’s a lot of work, these goats.

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  2. grace Avatar
    grace

    yup. it is. but i look at it and think…what would be more
    “worth” doing? and then i look at them and one or the other
    does something that just is so, well, endearing….
    i am still just hoping that the daughter comes for most of them.
    in the not too distant future. still hoping that.
    but, Who Knows. People are interesting.

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  3. Jan Avatar
    Jan

    you are patient and strong. and loving. and the goats are happy.

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  4. Michelle in NYC Avatar
    Michelle in NYC

    You are, for sure–interesting. I’d be glad that day was done. Nothing like a little just-going to ‘soothe the savage soul’…or maybe it was’///soothe the savage heart”…suddenly I can’t remember, and because I too am glad this day is done, I’ll wish you well, with love, and just go.

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  5. grace Avatar
    grace

    yes. these are true things. i like, very much, true
    and uncomplicated things.
    Goats also appreciate this.

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  6. grace Avatar
    grace

    i don’t know about me, interesting. i am very very
    plain. and the plainer i can get, the better.
    i think it’s the savage beast. but it was my heart
    that feels savage today.
    yes. WE will just go, right?

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  7. grace Avatar
    grace

    i had just been to Your House listening to One Fine Day
    and watching sleet.

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  8. ² Avatar
    ²

    i smile when i saw the picture of the bale
    i was a farmers daughter …
    i know the hard work …
    the endearing of some animals ….
    some cows …
    the are in some way just like us
    how darker it is outside
    how more i appreciathe light

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  9. patricia Avatar
    patricia

    there is so much below the surface here. so very much. but what i want to hear, the simplest thing i can hear, would be how did you move the 1/2 ton brick of hay to the barn?

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  10. Judith of N. CA Avatar
    Judith of N. CA

    yes…how was that done..tilt truck bed ? and what happens when you cut that first tie..does it explode or just sag ? Patricia, we are ex shepherdess, and these things become..how and what ifs, don’t they ? just wondering, Grace…

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  11. patricia Avatar
    patricia

    Judith–yes, and what if the bale had wings….

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  12. ateliertovke@yahoo.com Avatar
    ateliertovke@yahoo.com

    ok

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  13. grace Avatar
    grace

    well..i never would have imagined being able to do it.
    But when i was at the feed store, a couple months ago,
    worrying about what to do since the Goats just could not
    make themselves eat that grass hay, Jackie the part time
    feed store woman offered to reserve me whatever amount
    of Alfalfa i would need to make it to Spring. They
    have a farm here in the valley that grows feed for the
    family ranch up in Datil. this is common. I was
    ecstatic until she said it was in half ton bales. i said
    there was no way i could do that. She said oh, we can
    figure it out.
    Jackie is a very Big woman who does her Just Going with
    the help of a nasal cannula for oxygen. She came that
    first time with her son and mother..her mother i knew
    from way back when we were doing a Peace Vigil on the
    plaza in center of town during the Iraq war. Virginia
    is small. skinny like me. Virginia now has Alzheimer’s.
    she doesn’t remember me, doesn’t remember the Peace Vigil.
    Doesn’t remember war. and then, there is Jackie’s son
    in his 20’s Phillip who is an Extremely Large young man.
    Humorously whiney in a deliberate way.
    so, i already said, that first time was kind crazy. we
    ended up, me and Phillip, moving flake by flake out of
    the truck and stacking it. i had to keep saying…PHILLIP, HELP ME….but we did it.
    this time the plan was to wrap a rope around the circumference of the bale and tie it to a Tpost (metal)
    that i had sunk at the back of the pallets….she would
    then slowly pull the truck away and the bale would slide
    out. but everyone i talked to, (a few people) were very
    skeptical about this. thinking the post wouldn’t take
    the weight. probably. but….they came again anyway
    and had put the bale at the very end of the truck bed.
    i did a great job getting her backed up to the pallet.
    positioned just right. and then, Phillip got in and
    with his butt bumped and bumped, inching the bale to
    the edge of the tail gate till it finally tipped off,
    then, Jackie slowly slowly pulled the truck out from
    under it. THUMP. it was maybe a little over half on
    the pallets. so she then backed up slowly slowly and
    pushed it inch by inch ON. and we had the TA DA moment.
    it’s just a little crooked. otherwise, perfect.
    This is a completely great example of how you just go.
    How you just figure something out. When you don’t
    have another way. Ranch people here live like this.
    and this money she gets from this Alfalfa from me goes
    to the Well Being of The Whole of that whole family
    operation. it feels very very good.

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  14. grace Avatar
    grace

    it’s a 5 string. and no. they are good at baling. it’s
    tight. there is a very satisfying POP when i cut the
    5th string and the whole thing relaxes but doesn’t
    explode and really doesn’t sag. maintains it’s shape
    pretty much to the end. the hard thing is pulling off
    the flakes. then dividing them.

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  15. grace Avatar
    grace

    o Yvette….
    love,

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  16. patricia Avatar
    patricia

    wonderful description–felt like i was right there butt bumping with Philip. and yes, this is what one does when push comes to shove. oh.

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  17. Mo Crow Avatar
    Mo Crow

    Teamwork!

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  18. grace Avatar
    grace

    yup. when it was done, we all stood and looked for a
    few minutes feeling totally and completely
    Accomplished. and it was a truly genuine Event.

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  19. grace Avatar
    grace

    and i know that you and your man have done similar
    Impossible Things at your place, there in N. California….

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  20. Judith of N. CA Avatar
    Judith of N. CA

    Oh you have no idea how “the explanation” tickled me..I am laughing out loud..Larry said, what’s so funny ?..I explained oh…Grace telling us how she got that massive bale in place..he said, “oh-okay”. Such is life of shepherds and herders…but it’s always fun to hear how others “just go”. Damm straight..it was a truly genuine Event !!!!!

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  21. saskia Avatar
    saskia

    this to me is a very funny post, not like LOL although I am grinning, but fun because it is an Event born out of necessity, which is also beautiful in it’s ordinariness

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  22. Mo Crow Avatar
    Mo Crow

    great teamwork and good word movie!

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  23. grace Avatar
    grace

    Maria…are the bales ROUND there?
    i look at your map of Belgium, your part of Belgium,
    Flanders. it’s farm land. yes.
    and the light is coming…it’s coming.

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  24. grace Avatar
    grace

    we felt very happy

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  25. grace Avatar
    grace

    more and more important, that word….genuine

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  26. grace Avatar
    grace

    yes…funny not like LOL
    but funny because there was a lightness to it. we
    needed to do it and we did in a very odd way, but a way
    that worked.
    it’s one other instance when i wish all this was
    filmed. it’s in one way really just so NOTHING but
    yet at the same time, just so Great!

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  27. Michelle in NYC Avatar
    Michelle in NYC

    Plain ‘You’ is very interesting to me…always you no matter what or whom you are looking at and relating to, your specific point of view on things. That’s why I keep coming back…YOU.

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  28. Michelle in NYC Avatar
    Michelle in NYC

    Like that…the blow by blow description of the process and the people…it’s unique, plain, and somehow very poignant.

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  29. grace Avatar
    grace

    oh, Hey!, Michelle….maybe it’s US that’s interesting???

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