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old dog, old tricks

DSCN6345f

do i take Her?

 

DSCN6348f

just some on the branch.  Already,  i can feel the influence of the Hill.  Jenny describes to me the overhead canopy of branches and how the poison oak vines are "really quite beautiful",  she says,

how they travel over head. Branch to branch,  tree to tree.  Her,  who gets a patch of ITCH everytime she works there.  No one else does.  But then,  none of them go into the thick of it.  Just her.  

my daughter.

so…i can already feel the Hill as i work on this Cloth and i look at that diamond with a dot on the face of the woman  and i can feel,  how once i get there,  and am there for a few days or some days,  i will make that mark on my own face.  My skin.  With what?…don't know.  but i will.  I might be the only one to see it.  OR,  maybe i will do it when the kids are around?  How might i explain that?  or will i even bother.

Old Nana has a diamond and a dot on her face today.   maybe good enough.  Jenny and Alyssia wouldn't blink an eye.  Old hippy.  then New Age mama.  Now an Old Dog Old Nana.  

i worked the pellet bucket with Sunny Ray and Jack Flash today.   Making them follow me.  Sometimes into their feed bowls which i would move here to there,  sometimes from my hand.  Sunny Ray being such a total mess of bodily fluid and desert sand,  but he nuzzled the pellets from my palm and really,  his lips left no stink…how amazing….

I LOVE Goats.

 

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23 responses to “old dog, old tricks”

  1. me-ml Avatar
    me-ml

    ..just you telling of marking your face, made my breath quicken.. as if deep in my brain remembers something from long-long ago. and tears now wet my eyes. I breathe..
    this ritual of marking is something i need to think about more. It feels of great importance. X

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  2. joanne Avatar
    joanne

    Will you be able to wash the goats before they travel? Is that even something they will allow.
    Maybe henna for the square and red for the dot. Square is the box house and the red dot is you. Home.

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  3. Mo Crow Avatar
    Mo Crow

    imagining you painting your face with this diamond and dot in white ochre and charcoal, beautiful magic & take the Hoya if it will fit!

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  4. Michelle in NYC Avatar
    Michelle in NYC

    That Patch of Itch…poison Ivy?
    Hoya…if it doesn’t fit…cuttings will root.

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  5. Cheryl Avatar
    Cheryl

    I love the idea of the diamond and the dot. I hope you post a photo.
    BTW, I remember years ago taking a plant as a gift into California by way of Arizona. At some agricultural checkpoint, a man in uniform took it away and put it in a bin for burning – along with the fresh fruit we had in the car for snacking. I hope that has changed???

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  6. cynthia Avatar
    cynthia

    looking outside my window as the dawn breaks..everything white..russet brown glistening with frost ..14 degrees..and admittedly beautiful..but the green of your plant was so wonderful..so full of memoery of growing up and having the december rains turn the coastal foothills green for december..the air fulll of the scent of eucalyptus..incorrectly introduced but so long ago that it never crossed our minds then..just that astringent amazing smell..we moved from san francisco to the east bay when i was eight and into the hills behind berkeley..my little sister and i sneaking off to the creek every chance we could..and oh i was so frequently just covered itchy and miserable with poison oak..baking soda baths and calamine lotion ..those scents as well define that year..but i never stopped going to the creek..and she is right..they are beautiful….so circles and diamonds and dots..a geometry of movement and change..it so suits you..feels so right
    gentle day grace

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  7. cynthia Avatar
    cynthia

    ..i thought poison ivy would just be exactly like poison oak..but although they each give that patch of itch ..i found poison ivy so confusing and different than the readily identifiable poison oak…when we moved back east..and for several years just wandered through woods like a demented girl scout… muttering leaves of three let them be…

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  8. joanne Avatar
    joanne

    My husband cleared some brush from the hillside of our friend’s Sonoma house (wine country) and didn’t know about poison oak. Doctor’s visits and emergency room visits –took a long time for the large blisters to go–and there was some influence on his lungs–breathing in. Be careful.

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  9. grace Avatar
    grace

    yes…it’s an old feeling, an instinct
    love back, marylou

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  10. grace Avatar
    grace

    i laugh at the thought…washing them for the trip…
    no. That’s a 2 person job. Back when Jenny had them
    here in N Mex we used to wash them in the spring…shave
    them. All spiffy….you need to do that if you are
    breeding a herd so conformation can be visable.
    They are incredibly self cleaning too. by spring they
    will shed the winter hair and look good again. for a while.
    it’s a cycle
    not sure…but henna is a good possibility

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  11. grace Avatar
    grace

    as Cheryl advises below…
    i’d not thought of that. But won’t be able to cross state
    lines with a plant. I’ll miss her.

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  12. grace Avatar
    grace

    no, poison oak. it’s everywhere in California. common.
    can’t take cuttings either….Cheryl’s comment

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  13. grace Avatar
    grace

    no…it’s not changed. They are ever more stringent.
    THANKS for bringing it to my attention. I could not
    bear to see her flung in a bin.

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  14. grace Avatar
    grace

    geometry…thank you for that…..
    yes…she tells me about how everything is GREENing now…
    i wish i’d known you and your sister then/there

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  15. grace Avatar
    grace

    yes. can’t burn. releases the chemicals. She gets it whenever
    she works in the thick of it. The kids have learned to identify
    it and stay away…or, it’s seasonal forms so far…spring/summer/fall
    they’ll learn winter now. am interested in finding out if i
    am susceptible to any degree.

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  16. Marti Avatar
    Marti

    I am so glad that I haven’t missed your leaving and that so far, you are still on the internet. (I’ve been gone for almost 2 weeks and was not on the Internet.)Returned last night from almost two weeks in your soon to be home, California. This state gives so much, holds so much and you will come to know this. So now the waiting of a few more days, the circling of time, the caravan that will soon depart and with this departure, your travel will be circled with all of our love, our blessings, our wishes for as easy of a journey as possible.
    To do what you all are doing, building your homestead, is to be given a gift. Yes, it will be hard work but you all will handle it. How wonderful to be given new land to call home, new dirt to plant seeds, new skies to mull over, new winds to feel on your face and most of all, how deep the quiet joy that comes from continuing the circle of La Familia; generations, teaching, supporting, sharing, loving, living.
    So much of what you all are experiencing as you build your homesteads together reminds me of a quote from Lady Bird Johnson:
    “The environment is where we all meet; where we all have a mutual interest; it is the one thing all of us share. It is not only a mirror of ourselves, but a focusing lens on what we can become.”

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  17. dee Avatar
    dee

    I’m so glad to read a few posts back that one of your essential items is your computer! this writing feels so transitional — parts of the imagination are already THERE. I like the idea of an invisible tattoo…I see it as the stamp of the kite maker.

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  18. jude Avatar
    jude

    poison oak is really bad if you are allergic. I went to the hospital once. had it between my legs.

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  19. grace Avatar
    grace

    that’s a beauty FULL quote, Marti….a mirror of ourselves,
    a focusing lens on what we can become…this is perfect.
    Will carry these words there…plant them.

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  20. grace Avatar
    grace

    big smile…..stamp of a kite maker…..
    i want to make a real mark.

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  21. grace Avatar
    grace

    yes. they have been learning poison oak since Feb or March…
    when they first went there. When Jenny climbs around in it
    ie when putting in fencing or something, she will get a patch.
    The spot is miserable till it quits…like 3 wks. But the
    good thing is her response has remained the same over these
    months. doesn’t get worse. maybe even a little less.
    No one else has gotten it. Before they learned, Julian and
    Destiny walked where it grows, once Julian was bare foot.
    I’ve read it said that Native people aren’t suseptible. Don’t
    know if this is really true…but it might apply to other
    brown skinned people? Interesting thought.
    as a kid, there was poison ivy in our woods. We just
    developed a 6th sense about it and stayed away.
    also…Jewel Weed is the antidote*. Am going to see if there
    is some growing along that canal…it’s very possible.
    *poison ivy….maybe p o too? Lots to learn.

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  22. ali Avatar
    ali

    Not been commenting a lot lately Grace, but following all the excitement of preparations. What a wonderful job you have done with your family, Jenny and Alyssia are such strong brave women, what a heritage and an upbringing for Emrie. I am so loving reading about all your preparations, and there is wisdom and learning to take from your decisions about what is important and what not. it makes me so happy to envisage you in your little home on the hill, amazing that you will be able to run your computer – phew.

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  23. grace Avatar
    grace

    it’s just so ok, ali, the not so much….i would be that way
    too. There’s not a lot to say at this point, really.
    and yes. looks like we can do the computer. it has become
    important to me. i LIKE it. it holds the Story.

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