went to harvest apples from Bill and Nelia's tree.  They are gone to Maine.  Apples are tart…not the exact pie apples,  but close enough and there are many.  So, called Jan, the Dog Trainer…for her pigs?  yes and i can see the changes in the Goat world at her place.  

 

DSCN5821f

apples and a few huge cucumbers.  there's one more pig but it was off somewhere doing something.

 

DSCN5823f

like everywhere,  an abundance of Wild Sunflowers

 

DSCN5824f

around the side…over by the hay barn,  the Chicken's Place and around the corner from that…

 

DSCN5835f

the dog kennel from when she used to board and train dogs.  But now, here,  are two of Sunny Ray's progeny.  The white one in the front with the horns is a wether (neutered male)  the other a doe.  They are just about a year and a half.  The woman she sold them to had called last week….torn her rotator cuff and said she couldn't care for them and Jan needed to take them back.  Eyebrows go up….who, we wonder, hasn't had a rotator cuff injury and just kept going ?,  but the woman was insistent and so here they are.  Good news is that the guy who comes to help Jan with things like bush hogging saw them and wants them.  But not till after he is back from elk hunting…next week.  But this gave me an opportunity to see what Sunny Ray throws.  Nice.  Very Nice.  

DSCN5847f

Jan had gotten two new does from a herd in Tularosa…supposed to be bred when they came.  and yup,  3 days ago.  I smell them,  like all Goats do.  Smell is the Link.

 

DSCN5850f

 

DSCN5854f

the mother smells me

 

DSCN5857f

where this is is the lambing jugs.   Three small "rooms" that can be separated by cattle panel.  From when she had the Hair Sheep up until last year.  A ram would be brought to breed all of them at the same time…i think she had probably over 20 ewes.   So as they would lamb,  the ewe and her lambs would be separated out and put in a jug so that they would bond.  In a day or so, would be moved out into the main herd and another ewe brought in.  It would only take a day or so,  but would ensure that Each knew their own.

i have and do value my time here knowing Jan.  She is a no nonsense person.  She cares for her animals with impecability.  She "loves" them in her own way,  that is different than how i love things.  But her difference has taught me well.   I will not be able to butcher Goats that i know.  She does.  I found it incredibly hard to let the kids go,  she is good with it.  And for these years,  the exchange between us has been so much for the Good.   I am Grateful to her.

 

 

 

Posted in

17 responses to “harvest time”

  1. Tina Avatar
    Tina

    Oh Grace thank you for sharing your day … the pictures of you with the does! Love the wild sunflowers … things look so green.
    True how we each have something to teach and too learn from one another. I just shake my head at all the amazing books I have read … how differently I see things or react to things because of my time spent here and at at Spirit Cloth and … and….and

    Like

  2. grace Avatar

    we have become Sisters, yes?
    yes.
    Jan’s place is over by the River…the bosque of the Rio Grande.
    Different from here, green. yes. green.
    and yes. we ALL give. Give so much to one another and YOU,
    your Heart Gives and supports me in my own small Going.
    it’s Mutual. such Love

    Like

  3. Michelle in NYC Avatar

    Well, you must know that todays post has just shone the sun back into my dark city night :—> THANK YOU. Looking’ good too and ain’t it grand to have a friend whose difference is not an obstacle but a lesson…the cooperation between you is such authentic friendship! O and absolutely ADORABLE baby goats. In my fantasy I’m that sort of natural woman (next incarnation maybe)

    Like

  4. jude Avatar

    You and the goats are beautiful.

    Like

  5. Mo Crow Avatar

    good to see you (((Grace)))

    Like

  6. Angie Avatar

    Oh Grace, such sweet sweet pictures of you and the baby goats… 🙂

    Like

  7. saskia Avatar

    lovely to see you!

    Like

  8. joanne Avatar
    joanne

    So small. So sweet.

    Like

  9. grace Avatar

    yes. remember, Jan was the go between for me getting Tay
    from the woman who had had her for her first year. And there
    was the strip of time we went through when i was asking her
    for advice on training Tay…i had the old dog Chinche then
    and in the beginning, Tay was just such a HUGE energy that
    i had not expected…
    and Jan’s way of training just was not something i was
    comfortable with…couldn’t do it and so i didn’t and we
    have remained ok with that…i still tell her Tay stories,
    events and she listens and sometimes offers her way of dealing
    with things, often tho, she just listens. She’s tolerated
    my Softness in a nice way…not judgemental although she does
    NOT keep any animals unless they “pay their own way”…she
    does not and never will have a “pet” and has pointed out that
    by not breeding and then milking the Goats here, i have
    relegated them to pet status…
    so there’s a lot but your words are exactly it….thank you
    for them….authentic friendship….i like that….thank you.

    Like

  10. grace Avatar

    well…the Goats for sure…me…more and more i am like
    a dried short stalk of grass, but you were talking
    about my heart tho, and my heart is same as Goat

    Like

  11. grace Avatar

    Thank you, Angie…it was cause for very soft Joy

    Like

  12. grace Avatar

    yes. smaller than usual. the little doeling just at 2 lbs
    and the buckling 2 1/2. This doe normally kidded 3 and 4 kids.
    Jan thinks that as she was transported very soon after she was
    breed that the doe may have aborted one or two…maybe just
    absorbed them.

    Like

  13. Martine Bos Avatar

    Grace………i so love seeing you smell that little one………

    Like

  14. grace Forrest Avatar

    it’s funny. a kind of very primitive thing, picking them up and putting them to your face, inhaling. involves too, putting your face to their
    noses, the exchange of scent.

    Like

  15. joy in az Avatar

    So glad to ‘see’ you! Such sweetness radiating from these images

    Like

Leave a comment