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i cut it short last eve…there was lightning so i shut stuff down.  But what had got me thinking was when i moved the dog crate and the wood box,  i could see further how things are more and more coming apart.  This year,  tiles are loosening,  coming up,  corners getting caught on things and breaking loose.

The pic is the other corner,  under where the rocking chair sits.  the South side.  I'd gotten to remembering when i put this tile down.   It was during Katrina.  2005.  August.  Summer.  Heat.

I have visceral memory of ripping up all of the horrible shag like carpet,  all dog peed on from the little dogs,  all so full of dust.  I had NPR on pretty much constantly and listened to New Orleans as i worked.  Tears.  Sweat.  and i got a case of pink eye from rubbing them away so i could see what i was doing.  So that tile was from the Dollar Store.  That it has lasted 10 years is something.  But it's become brittle.  So,  i was considering this.  The real question is,  Do i Care?   

Do i care enough to get out the putty knife kinds of tools and sit on the floor,  scraping up the parts that are still afixed?  Then sanding,  roughing up and smoothing after prying out all the nails that are also rising loose,  prepping the floor enough to put down new tile?    taking out all the furniture, book shelves.   and the truth is,  i don't.  I care maybe 5% of the time.  Otherwise,  it's the floor.   It's solid. It's enough.  The two oriental rugs…i will at some point haul them in to Albuquerque and get them cleaned at the oriental rug place.  I care about the rugs.  Maybe at the end of the summer.  Or…..  But i am in love now with that concept of Fugitive.  

ok.  so,  a decision is documented.  

 

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these two pieces of muslin were in that same copper pot of onion skins.  the one on the left was bundled with the shreds of steel wool and the I Ching coins…only two…one fell out…

the one on the right,  just its self,  folded rolled and tied with string.  Who could guess they are related??????

 

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this is really the only intimation of onion skin coloring…on the top and the bottom

 

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i have to put some Tick killing medicine on Tay.  She doesn't want me to do that.  Escapes out the dog door.  So…to make it OK for her,  i put a line of peanut butter on a dish towel and hang it over the cabinet door.  While she is licking off the peanut butter,  she ignores me putting the tick medicine along her spine.  We work stuff out.

 

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Shade.  That word implies something different than this for me.  It implies leafy boughs of trees.  But shade is shade.   Goats are good with that.

 

 

 

 

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20 responses to “yesterday part 2”

  1. Stephanie Avatar
    Stephanie

    The peanut butter distraction for Tay is brilliant! I never would have thought of that (big smile).
    If the floor is solid, that’s what is important. The rugs are really nice. The rest is so ephemeral.

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  2. sue Avatar

    the steel wool has added such a beautiful depth to the colour.
    I worked for a couple in spain who had seven dogs, they’d get covered in ticks from roaming freely on their land.. the ticks were hanging in bunches under their legs..legpits..some of them… we’d take them down to the sea 3 or 4 at a time and comb the ticks out in the salt water.. it seemed to help with the healing after they’d been removed. and the dogs were so much better for it.. cant be good having all that blood sucked.

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  3. grace Avatar

    yes…the Dog Human thing isn’t much interesting to her. Things need to make sense in a stronger way, and peanut butter….well,
    peanut butter is really good and makes a Lot ok
    and i don’t need her to be
    obedient
    and stand for what she doesn’t like
    so i can make it ok for both of us
    yes. the floor is very solid. Always dry and strong. Everything a floor should be. Good Enough i think. The rugs…yes…they are really Fine and deserve a good cleaning…they, being wool, will last into the Forever

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  4. grace Avatar

    how BEAUTY FULL this image is…taking the dogs to the sea…and i am
    grateful to you for sharing this, that there are ticks in Spain…..
    such a burden to a dog, yes
    here, there aren’t so many…a few, but they change her Life so much…she is very sensitive to them and sensitive to me trying to pick them off….we work at it. I am well, sad about needing to use the Tick medication…it’s poison, really, poison applied to her skin
    but then i think how i might feel with them …….

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  5. Mo Crow Avatar

    I needed to see your goats basking in the shade during the heat of the day! it’s so very cold and wet here this weekend, it’s good to know there is sun somewhere!

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  6. Michelle in NYC Avatar

    Yes–fabulous dog/human compromises. Ticks MUST be destroyed of course because they not only are uncomfortable and weaken the animal, but they also inject diseases and can kill the critter they feed on.
    Yes–solid is good enough and I too have no strength for making things better here. If I had money to pay professionals I’d move out for a month and let them make it fine again. But, it is fine enough unless the closet door comes crashing down (((smiling)))
    Yes–goats are clever. How they endure. And, isn’t the contrast between Mo’s Winter and your Summer nice to think upon.

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  7. Nanette Avatar

    We have brown dog-ticks here which paralyse and kill, very quickly, as well as your sort which are a blood sucking nuisance, and not good either. When Mirrhi was little and I needed to do something I required her to be still for, I would do similar, except I would smear a dollop of cat food on the fridge and then let her lick it. Seemed obvious to me, get the puppy to stand still however you can, then she remembers the “chore” as pleasant. I don’t need to do it anymore, she’s very easy and compliant.

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  8. jude Avatar

    do goats get ticks?

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  9. Tina Avatar
    Tina

    Grace your dyed pieces are fabulous. And your idea to distract with peanut butter is brilliant. Oh happy day!!!

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  10. Deb G Avatar

    Your floors and mine have some things in common. 🙂

    Like

  11. grace Avatar

    o
    I like knowing that.
    i’ve been thinking about all the homes i have known that
    have had related floors…my paternal grandparents home for
    one, before my grandfather and dad built the home i grew
    up in with their apartment downstairs….
    their house i remember visiting…i was 4 i guess…had
    similar floors and they had papered the walls in the kitchen
    with newspaper. No second thoughts to any of it.
    and then the home of the old mom and pop here in N Mex, an
    original old adobe. Same thing, the floors, but remnants
    of really Beauty FULL old art deco kind of design linoleum….
    now THAT might inspire me…if i could find some of that original old linoleum….hmmmm. Am going to go look up
    linoleum…haven’t thought of that word in ages…and there
    is a really beauty FULL part in one of Louise Erdrich’s books about someone’s house…how she put down some new linoleum
    with ify results…

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  12. Mo Crow Avatar

    Ariel P Cat lets me know when he needs the spot on flea medication by getting all jumpy and irritable, he doesn’t like the feel of the medication but knows after nearly 17 years of having it put on the back of his neck once a month that it works so he surrenders but suggests that I get it over with quickly!

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  13. grace Avatar

    it’s interesting, but there aren’t any fleas here. Never
    have been. ???????

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  14. grace Avatar

    we do have heat. but summer goes so fast. soon i will be
    like you are now.

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  15. grace Avatar

    fine enough. yes….fine enough.
    they actually have large areas of shade, but sometimes
    choose these odd ones anyway
    and sometimes will just curl up in a feed tub and
    cook.

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  16. grace Avatar

    i wonder if Tay will ever choose to be “compliant”….
    i wouldn’t be surprised if not….
    Mirrhi is a sweet dog

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  17. grace Avatar

    no. and interestingly, not cats either.
    Old Lion, pronounced le own, the old Tom Cat for years
    hung around in the worst of places. Would be gone for
    days and come back dragging a rabbit with yet one more
    piece of him missing, even him. Never a single tick.

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  18. grace Avatar

    is is, Tina. good and happy days. Not sure about
    fabulous
    but they are needed for backing cloths and will work just
    fine for that.

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  19. Wendy @ the Late Start Studio Avatar

    I could send you a nice square of carpet if we lived closer. 🙂
    Your goats are chasing patches of shade while I chase patches of sunshine. And I use peanut butter to catch the mice who think they’ll winter over in my house . . . my attitude to mice in the house is not at all Buddha-like. Seeing your fabric, I now have a yen to dye some fabric today . . . some rust perhaps.

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  20. Nanette Avatar

    I thought about describing Mirrhi as compliant, that makes it sound as if I give orders and she goes along no matter what, or that she’s submissive. She’s neither. But she’s very good at knowing what I expect of her I think….knows sometimes before I suggest she does this or that. But she has a very strong contrary streak and I work with that, allowing her her little rebellions, to which I tell her ‘ok’ so I feel better for having given permission. Ah, but sweet she is.

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