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this morning felt off.  But once OUTSIDE,  everything came into focus.  Joanne,  blog Wednesday's Child,  jsuley.blogspot.com  nudged me forward.  She's teaching a class at her Library in Maine on Permaculture Gardening.  I've read a lot.  But reading a lot doesn't equal doing.  I instinctively respond to the No Till concept,  more so,  here,  in this Forest Place.  But….cardboard  Oh eee.   but with making these first beds for the dye plants,  in space where so many of the grass people live.  EEEEeee again.  I really want the dye plants to make it this year…indigo,  madder….and i need just a small space for that.  So,  ok,  cardboard and i ask the grasspeople for just this much space.  So much left for them.    Just this much. 

 

 


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i pushed back what i'd brought with the rake,  going down to the earth and placed the cardboard.  Which was made easier for me because Jenny had brought it last summer.  Thinking we might use it to discourage the poison oak,  but it's just lay there through the summer and to now and,  Now,  it's soft and already beginning to transform/decompose….soft,  pliable,  earthlike,  i can think.   So this is one bed.  There needs to be another.  Tomorrow.

 

 


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Way in the far away back you can see SunnyRay as he watches the doe Goats set out.  In between working ,  i sat and watched him.  His focused attention on the does.  His standing,  alert.

 

 


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and they go.  SUN today,  after days of RAIN RAIN RAIN there is SUN and they once again retrace their pattern of movement,  which is quite soft and gentle and reassring,…the pattern of it,   they follow a design that they have made,  morning till dark.  Their hooves like stitching

 

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20 responses to “a day. so Beauty Full and Pure as a day can possibly be”

  1. Tina Avatar
    Tina

    Grace it all looks so wonderful .. sooo green. I do truly love how you just keep going. Will we be seeing baby goats this spring? More chickens?

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  2. Laura R Avatar
    Laura R

    I love your goats photograph. I am waiting for my goat calendar to arrive.

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  3. joanne Avatar
    joanne

    Wow. I am sad that my garden is under 10 inches of iced covered snow!!!! Can’t wait for deep brown dirt.
    The list of perennial edibles is in the mail.

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  4. Michelle Slater Avatar

    Talkie and the doe goats + dear old SunnyRay just steal my heart. Hurrah for good brown earth cooking and Beauty FULL days.

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  5. jude Avatar

    i sit here and i smell soil

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  6. joy in az Avatar

    oh that gorgeous dirt! and the goats look amazing

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  7. Mo Crow Avatar

    (((Grace))) I haven’t dug a garden bed for years, layers of cardboard or newspaper can help suppress really persistent grasses & weeds but they limit the free movement of the worms who do all the work and in a dry climate it also limits moisture getting down into the deeper layers, a good thick layer of well rotted compost & mulch at least 6″ thick will suppress the weeds & turn your subsoil into friable earth for planting given time.

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  8. grace Forrest Avatar

    baby Goats…it is our intention. There was a perfect
    moment the other day, Arctica was at TenZen’s fence…
    both were totally ready. When it’s like that, it takes
    just moments. But it was POURING rain POURING, and
    things can go awry, so….we wait now, watching. Does will hang out at buck fence, tails flittering…called flagging. There is some mucous discharge.
    Chickens…that’s up to everyone else. We all think it would be great but it also means a lot of focus on introducing them to the Place and to Talkie. And then there’s Tay. I do not want full responsibility for that.

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  9. grace Forrest Avatar

    love that you are waiting….

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  10. grace Forrest Avatar

    it’s such an incredible List

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  11. grace Forrest Avatar

    That Earth, it is just beyond So MUCH

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  12. grace Forrest Avatar

    HELLO!, joy in az!!!! so glad to find you here!

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  13. grace Forrest Avatar

    once again, and though this year it’s better, there is a crunch for time. I am not used to the movement of months here…it’s fast. I’m a month behind, really.
    And yes. Limiting. But the good thing is that this cardboard is
    already softened and shredding fibers, falling apart. It may just add to this for the first time planting space. I should find a pic from when it was dense with the grass people, the rattlesnake grass.
    It’s not a heavy layer. and i put back the compost on top. There was also quite a bit left underneath. It’s very WET with the Rains which will continue through a month or so at least. I’ll watch it, I think it will be very much OK. For this first time. From here on out it will be heavy mulching only.
    Today on a FaceBook Farm and Ranch page there was offer of fully composted mulch, horse, goat, chicken and !guinea pig!, bedding straw and LEAVES. She bags it in 50lb feed bags, $5 per bag, 5 bags for $20. I asked Jenny….woman is in Chico, asked if she’d
    get 10 bags and bring this Sat when she comes. YES~ so Yay,
    if i am slow to slog down the buckets from up here, these can
    ensure the fact that the Wall Garden, Food Garden down at A will
    be good enough when it’s time. HAPPINESS!!! I am the only one working the gardens right now. It’s a lot. We were so LAte last
    spring. Do not want to repeat. and to say, down there, just the mulch. the Chop and Drop system too. Am very excited to watch it all go.

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  14. Liz A Avatar

    Making soil … such good, satisfying creation

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  15. dee Avatar

    “they follow a design that they have made, morning till dark. Their hooves like stitching”. I love that.

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  16. grace Forrest Avatar

    it is ecstatic work

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  17. grace Forrest Avatar

    i love watching every day….how they Go

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