windthread

 

We went to Camelot Equestrian Park.   Sunday Morning. 600 and some  acres.   

                                                                         Saturday afternoon,  as Jenny and i were working on the kidding pens,   sirens began.    Ears prick.   This hill is along a major road.   Sirens are not uncommon.  Vehicle events….it's long and curved  and carved into granite with no shoulder.  Californians drive fast.     But they kept coming.,  the sirens.   3:00 went into 4:00 and we searched the phones for info,  getting uneasy and then the sounds of the Fire Trucks.   Soon after,  helicopters and planes.   Ok.  We finally see that there is a FIRe.  And we read that it is nearby.  OK.  We begin readying.  Doing things that should have been done 2 months ago,  like raking out the Goat Boat from last year.  We try to reach Alyssia but it goes to  mail box.  We finally reach Jenny's man.   He will set out.  and then Alyssia,  ok.    By then it's going on evening and Alyssia DOeS arrive ….by driving up the Canal road after the police baracade would not let her through on Old Olive.  The Evacuation is underway.  Mandatory.   So it's Jenny and Alyssia,  pulling the horse trailer and the Goat boat into place, by hand.   no easy feat,  hooking them to the Old Cowboy's truck and to the old Toyota.   Time.  it takes Time.   Then…load the Goats.   It goes what we might say was relatively smooth,  the Doe Goats,  they cajole and herd them,  i stand at the opening of the Goat Boat with the big blockade thing we have built and let them in and also keep the ones in,  from getting back out and keep track of Emrie,  who wants to be in the middle of it all,  "  I help"  she says  and we let her learn.    Doe Goats,  all except Karma,  who WILL NOT load,  Doe Goats are in.  Ready.   I drive the old Toyota,  pulling the Goat Boat down ahead while they bring the Old Cowboy's truck with horse trailer into place to load the bucks.   

i'm down at the end of the driveway road for what seems like forever.  Waiting.   Then they come.  We leave and drive to Lakeside parking lot.  It's the hub of Cal Fire and all Rescue,  Butte County Sheriff rescue.  FULL of them.  Full of people buying what they need.  FULL.  Over the Brim    We pull to the far end of the area because no one knows how to back up a trailer.  Talk.  

We are a person short.  Jenny's man couldn't get through.  I will need to drive.   I haven't driven a  pulled object in over 20 years.   It's dark now.  my night vision isn't great.   We decide i will stay at the Casino parking lot about 1/4 mile down the road for the night.  In the morning,  decide what to do.  Alyssia,  the kids,  Puppy in the cat carrier,  Talkie in her little transport pen go home.   Jenny goes home to Chico for a couple hours and comes back   We sleep in the bright lights of the casino parking lot on Saturday night.  

Calls are made.  Who is open to receive livestock?    This is the first time for Camelot.   It's 15 miles away.  OK.   Sunday morning we go.    Evacuations are still in place.  Fire still burns,  20% containment.  

 

home becomes the old Toyota Pickup.  Me and Tay.   We sleep.

 

,   

there are more things that need to be said.  But for now,  this is enough.  Mid Day Monday  we come Home.

I am still driving.   When it's time,   i drive up the Hill,  pulling the Goat Boat.   UP and UP and hard hard UP at the end,  wheels spin and skid,  rocks and dirt flies in a burst,   but we get here.  Here.   Done.

an Initiation.

we  let them all OUT.   Home.  And they begin immediately exactly where they had left off.  

they begin immediately exactly where they  had left off.

this is IMPORTANT.  Very important.

^{had plans to work on rootlets.}    

^{instead,  are evacuated again.  Mandatory,   Since yesterday.   This time we came to the Camelot Equestrian Park.  Other than 4 horses,  we are the only evacuees.  I'll  see about taking some pics tomorrow.   Everyone is fine.    no word yet today about status of Fire..  Will talk more when i  am back.  For now,  just going.}

^{Love and Love}

 

 

 

this is Marti's corn.   From my laptop screen.   You can read her words in yesterday's comments.

 

"While humans and many other animals, for example,  have a specific organ, the brain,  which houses its neuronal tree,  plants use the soil as the stratum for the neuronal net;  they have no need for a specific organ to house their neuronal system.  The numerous root apices act as one whole,  synchronized,  self-organized system,  much as the neurons in our brains do.  Our brain matter is, in fact, merely the soil that contains the neuronal net we use to process and store information.  Plants use the soil itself to house the neuronal net.  This allows the root system to continue to expand  out-ward,  adding new neural extensions for as long as the plant grows.

In addition,  the leaf canopy also acts as a synchronized, self-organized perceptual organ which is highly attuned to electromagnetic fields.  It can be viewed , in fact, as a crucial subcortical portion of the plant brain.  As Baluska et al.  comment, the root apices harbor brain-like units of the nervous system of the plants.  The number of root apices in the plant body is high, and all 'brain units' are interconnected via vascular strands (plant neurons) which their polarly -transported auxin (plant neurotransmitter), to form a serial (parallel) neuronal system of plants.  From observation of the plant body of maize,  it is obvious that the number of root apices is extremely high….This feature makes the 'serialplant brain' extremely robust and the amount of processed information must be immense.

Plant biologist Peter Barlow adds that the tips of the roots "form a multiheaded advancing front.  The complete set of tips endows the plant with a collective brain,  diffused over a large area, gathering, as the root system grows and developes, information" crucial to the plant's survival.  And as he continues,  One attribute of the brain as the term is commonly understood, is that it is an organ with a definite structure and location,  which gathers or collects information,  which was originally in the form of vibrations (heat,  light,   sound,  chemical, mechanical….)  in the ambient environment and somehow transforms them into an output or response.  By this definition, plants do have brains just as we do,  but given their capacity to live for millennia (in the case of some aspen root systems,  over 100,000 years)  their neuronal networks can in many instances,  far exceed our own.  Old growth aspen root systems can spread through as much as a hundred acres of soil creating a neural network substantially larger than Einstein's or any other human beings.  Plants, it must be realized, possess a spectrum of neural networks, just as mammals do.  Some plants possess extremely large neural networks,  others smaller.  In other words,  "brain" size occurs across a considerable range,  just as it does with mammals.  Nevertheless,  all plants are intelligent ( just as are all mammals).  They are all self-aware.  They all engage in highly interactive social transactions with their communities."

Stephen Harrod Buhner   Plant  Intelligence  and the  Imaginal Realm 

 

OK.  All this.  a lot.   Today i put the coyote bush material that i had steeped on the stove into the copper dye pot.  It's covered to hope against condensation.   Is in SUN.  A piece of cloth.  Tomorrow,  if it can happen,  i will put more cloths.    Will continue for a Season.

i also put a tied cloth in the jar with the walnut sludge from last year's harvest.  It's all foamy and gross looking,  but there is no  bad smell.   At the end of the day i took it out and there were excellent marks.  It continues.  Walnut.  Jenny's man is gathering walnuts from their yard for me.  New and this year.  

 

from Plant Intelligence and the Imaginal Realm into the Dreaming of the Earth    Stephen Harrod Buhner

"a unique part of the plant root,  the root apex (or apices,  which are  perceiving sensory organ,  and brain neuron.  Each root hair, rootlet and root section contains an apex;  every root mass millions,  even billions, of them.  For example,  a single rye plant has more than 13 million rootlets with a combined length of 680 miles.  Each of the rootlets are covered with root hairs,  over 14 billion of them,  with a combined length of 6,600 miles.  Every rootlet  every root hair has at its end a root apex.  Every root apex acts as a neuronal organ in the root system.  In contrast,  the human brain has approximately 86 billion neurons,  about 16  billion of which are in the cerebral cortex.  Plants with larger root systems,  and more root hairs,  can have considerably more brain neurons than the 14 billion contained in rye plants;  they can even rival the human brain in the number of neurons.  And when you look at  the interconnected network of plant roots and micorrhizal  mycelia in any discrete ecosystem,  you are looking at a neural network much larger than any individual human has ever possessed."

the words in all this i liked best were:  discrete ecosystem

discrete ecosystem

 

 

do you see,  in her hair,  the very large Feather?

we Gave water at the wall Garden and then sat.  Talked.  Then went back,  up  the Hill.  Looking.   We had found a good small home,  on a flat bed,  wheels,  up near Redding.  The price was good.  actually,  very good.   Nice.  We stood and looked at B.

it would take some equipment to placed it there.  First and foremost,  this is a HILL.  But it probably could  be done.  Probably.  If there would be a hitch,   there are two trees.  Trees.  A pine and a scrub oak.  If there was a hitch,  they would be sacrificed,  chain saw.  

I can't.

I  just can't.  

We walked further and looked at the   old second Buck forest.   It's relatively flat.  A way in  could happen,  just a couple trees and some small scrub.   How many roots,   i am thinking?  …..in this Place that has been ItsSelf for so so long.  Again..  I can't.

so i think the decision has been made.  Where i am is where i will be.  The windows are Great.  It's dry and in the wet months,  it's warm.   I am near the Goats.  Near where i will milk,   if there is milk to be had.    I am done thinking about it.  I'm here.  OK.  Done.

 

dawn

 

All i have to offer is experience through my own ability so far,  which isn't much, really.  I have no real idea what i'm talking about.  Am just reporting the experiences as they occur.   And this,  because They "said" to.   and because its what Everything seems to be about lately.  Remember?,   on  Aug 30,  i asked for Help.  How can i  live,  the Energy for that…and what's happening is that it is being given.   In moments when i normally would retreat into my thoughts,  into that reverie of daydream,  i am finding i remember asking and i am finding that i am given ENERGY…ie.  my mind/body gets a "jump",  my vision becomes clearer,  i get UP and Do things,   my day has multiplied  and it feels so so Good.  All at a steady pace,  a loving pace of just doing.

and that thing of Reciprocity,  Which has changed meaning….the difference?,  being somehow Inside.  In/With.  WithIn a whole,  a sphere of Us.   My mind taken in by Their Consciousness.  Not my mind,  looking AT them,  appreciating them,  but rather i am part of the GARDEN which has existed and refined itself for thousands of years.  It now includes me.  Because i came here.   Now i need to evolve.  Following Their lead.

not a thing of  you give me this….i give you that….no.  We Live.  Together.  Know each other and listen.  and as They said,

Do what we do.

WITH.  One Life.

i was going to put a lot more here.  But that would be too much.  Maybe tomorrow.  Maybe in a while.  But i did begin stitching the Root and then there was the line of pulse that rose from the root and went UP.   a feeling of yes.

I took some coyote bush this morning.  It's in a pot,  soaking.  It's still hot…7:13 pm,  91 degrees.   In a while,  i'll turn the burner on and steep it.  A while.  then let it rest tonight and in the morning,  will take out to the copper pot.  Tie some cloth.  Put it in.

SunnyRay.  Gideon's boy.   Saved out.   Kept.   Keeping now.  

  it's  September.   There is September in my mind and in  my internal biological sense of things,  my midwest of birth,  my Southwest of recent life sense of things.   But i am in northern California.  September is a Going,  a lingering.  a continuing.

i am trying to understand ways to give words to what i am experiencing here.  i drove into town yesterday, through the cut in the granite that made  a road,  down down into town,  all the human ness along it ,  the Town itself,  all human and on every side of that road,  PLANTs.   TREES,  bushes,  shrubs,  flowers, grasses   and i felt the roots of them,  underlying all of it.  Roots of plants.  The DOING of Plants,  under and through ,  under and through,  caring for all that comotion above

this stone.  From  the shores of  Lake Superior,  the upper peninsula of Michigan.  

i used to work at the University of Michigan,   Adult Psych Unit,  Neuropsychiatric     Institute.   Those words  seem so old.  Already.   Anyway, i used to work there when my kids were little.  I accrued a day and a half a month vacation time.  Paid.  All year i would wait.  And then we would GO.   Load  what ever vehicle and Go.  Camp.  We would go Camping.    Upper Peninsula of Michigan,  Lake Superior,  mostly the Hurricane River.

take a few minutes to  FEEL that

ok and now flip to 2019,   Oroville California.  My kids are adults,  their kids young adults with kids in one case,  in the other adults with a kid.  

Me.  here.  With this stone.  That i have brought with me for 30 some years,  40?    A long time,  me and this stone.

was holding this stone this morning as Sun rose.  Been a long time since i deliberately sat holding stones.  Asking.   it lasted much longer than i might have guessed,  this stone meditation.   And  when it finished,  i thought about the exchange yesterday in the comments,  about Plants,  about going to the Plants for help,  and then that thing of reciprocity.  

I was urged to pick up cloth and i did.    Just what was on the top of the basket to my left.   I wanted to place a face.  Thought about cutting through and putting a different muslin behind but did not do that,  instead,  folding some cloth and stitching to the back of this ground cloth so it rose some from it,  then stitching the oval of Face.  Small marks,  rubbed for "features".  It went from there.  to what you see  and it was time to feed Goats and  Give water to Wall garden. I need to take buckets of manure and alfalfa down,  every day now.    Which i did but as i was doing that,  i kept thinking.  The Plants.  the Plant Spirits….how it is said that they are so much willing to help us.  Always have been,  but now more than ever and as i did those things,  I ASKED.  I asked that they help me.   Help me What? i thought.  Help me in knowing how i can live…usefully….FOR the well being of the whole, here and in this Time.  As i walked down the Hill to A,  carrying the buckets,   i held these thoughts and repeated them.   After giving water,  i sat and continued.  Just breathing in the morning.   I asked for energy to live as i need to,  as i can.  

Coming up from that,  instead of putting it off,  i dumped SunnyRay and Jacks water and hauled the hose and refilled so it was fresh,  something i might have ordinarily put off till  "later".  I stood and watched SunnyRay come immediately and drink,  LONG and DEEP and that was satisfaction enough.  Just that.      But i came in and the request for Help remained and i was needing to  Ask again,  a different way,  to ask about reciprocity…how do i reciprocate?  and the answer was immediate.  Talk about Us.   and then,  Do what you do.   And i thought…what do i do?,  i take Care.  I write this blog.  I make cloth.

 

the rest of the hours went quickly.   Again,  just from the top of the basket,  pieces that were just enough,  cut and torn, placed with so little "thought",  just placed.  and then stitched down.  On and on,  some hours.   Roots are still to come,  but for now,  this Plant Spirit and it's evening now.  The Goats have been fed.  Their water replenished.  When i'm through with this,  i'll take this cloth over to that resting place on the hill behind B.  Near the young manzanita and sit.   Look at it.  Ask if it is Good.