windthread

 

 a dicot.  an annual herb native to California.  Habitat,  slopes  Family asteraceae

 

 

 

Alyssia had appointments today at the VA in Sacramento.  Kids were here.  Julian, almost 9,  his first day  back from his father's in New Jersey for the summer.  

Emrie is enamored by her brother.  

 

i got this book for him,  for us,  for the library of the Hill.   He likes it.  we talked a lot.  Different things.  He brought up Home School….saying…they can't teach me how to live here.  He's unsure about eating the eggs of his Chicken.   Are they her children?  We talked.

Talking with a 9 year old  can wear you out.   I was on my way down  to give water to the Wall Garden at A and stopped to sit a minute on the Hammock at B.  I fell asleep.  Sitting in the hammock  at near dusk.   I awoke and 

"they said"

drawing is how you witness.  Cloth is how you celebrate.

all that,  yesterday,  nothing new.  it's a familiar place,  that Wishing.  Wishing i would be how i am not.  

To be an artist,  an artist of anything,  requires devotion.  Requires that whatever it is,  is Primary in your day.  As it is for say, Jude,  Mo,  Judy Martin.   Their day circles their Art.  It's what they Do.   And i understand that,  fully,  but it doesn't fend off the intermittent lament.   i know there is the Potential.  in me.   But reality is i love too many things.  And most times i am ok with knowing that but sometimes….

today again,  i needed to be the Goatherd.  They are wary of going too far.  If i go ahead and call to them,  Come Come,  in that bright voice,  they do come.  And as long as i STAY,  they stay.  Goatherd.   I need to figure out a way to take the Cloth Making stuff with me.  so i can sit in the forest somewhere and Work.  

this Plant person is the next i wonder about.  As with Her,  this plant has evolved particular seemingly unusual qualities.  My sense of it is that there is REASON for that.   The stalk that rises above all the leaves is Tall.  Plant is maybe 6ft tall?  a little more?  Why?   

there was some chaos.  I fed the buck goats their alfalfa early.  I needed to go to the Lakeside store for ice and Buckwheat was yelling.  He has finally found himself having feelings about all those doe Goats running loose.   And i 

forgot

to cover the feed wagon with the tarp before i left.  When i got back,  there was OOna…IN it,  chewing away.  She'd jumped into it and there were others around,  waiting for an opportunity to do the same.  I turned on the hose…up behind the Travel Trailer and walked back down,  used it to startle her OFF and  covered it once again with tarp and bungie cord  and had to sit there a while because everyone that was waiting their turn needed to see that there wasn't going to be a turn,  they had to look, climbing up with their front feet to see that it was closed.  The wagon,  which is Big,  had gotten pushed ahead and over the tree root that held it in place.  First thing in the morning,  i need to see if i can reposition it.  So it doesn't roll into the Buck Forest fence.

Cinderella has something going on with her udder and butt hole.  We have been trying to apply medication.  She runs.  Alyssia spent an hour yesterday wrangling her and finally into their Rain Shelter, captured and sprayed with the medication.  She has kept to herself for a while now,  not going out to forage.  Has become thin.  Spent a while this eve,  watching for an opportunity to give her pellets while the rest were otherwise occupied.  They can hear a pellet a mile away.  Finally,  success.  Tomorrow, that will be easier.

 

 

 

 

 

 

She is about to bloom.  For sure,  then,  we will know her  "name".   But when you "google" her,  there's not much information.  In comparison to what she really IS…living near her.  As i type this,  her scent rises from my hands….a soft brief touch when i was giving water,  and her scent lingers,  strong,  an hour later.   And if i say, yes.  this is "what" this plant person "is".  What does that actually mean?   I guess,  it is a way to communicate.  a way to exchange information.   Like to Like.   Across distance.   This Hill to say,  Jaimie's world.    But it's not ALL of it.   All of it requires learning a very expansive   context.  A complicated context that takes very soft, slow looking.   A soft slow being with.

so there's that.

and then i thought today a lot about what things mean in terms of where i've "gotten to".   All the places i had thought i wanted to go,  could go.   Again,  Jaime's link took me to Susun Weed and back back back to so long ago now,  to when i thought i wanted to be a midwife.   How i read Susun Weed's  work,  Ina May Gaskin's Spiritual Midwifery,  both of them making me want to "become" something…a midwife with knowledge of the  Plant People.  I ddn't.

and i have wanted to be other things.  I wanted to be an artist.  I studied with Kay Gould Caskey.  Graphite.    I drew a lot of things,  but i didn't become an artist.

I wanted to become an artist of Cloth Making.  I studied Jude Hill,  and have made cloth.  I have not become a Cloth Artist.  I am a student of Jude Hill.

so i thought about all this today as i wandered around,  calling Goats….Come Come…in a bright voice that they like and respond to…Come Come and i wander a hill and late in the afternoon stitch yet more Kantha stitches,  slow slow they go and i thought about how i'd wanted to go sit in front of that Plant Person with my drawing journal and pencil and

it's dusk.  The Goats are just over the way,  browsing what is left from other browsing….evening and they don't like to go far from "home",  so it's dry leaves and twigs.    I guess i am a Goatherd.    and i guess i am a grandmother.  Julian returns tomorrow from New Jersey,  his summer in the City and i will swim with him in the canal/creek.

 

not me.  I went off to the Farmer's Market.  Jenny and Alyssia had arrived before 7am.  No indication of anything.  We walked the part of the fence that was loose.  Talked.  Nothing out of the ordinary.  Tay and i left for town and the Market.  But in the short time i was gone

Much.

i got a blow by blow from them on return and repeated and rerun because it was such a Surprise.  

Seems as if there is a HERD of Goats here.  Maybe it's their new, week long, freedom?  Maybe who knows.   

But it seems that Ginger, in the pic above, on the left,  had made a decision.  And went about implementing that decision.  Which meant a lot of challenging,  a lot of head butting…HARD..like really hard.  A lot of body slamming if the head butting wasn't enough.  There was even biting.  Oona is on the right in the pic.  Really,  the one that might challenge anyone.  She is a hefty Goat.  She is from Snowbunny.   But it was Ginger,  the slight Goat,  that took the challenge.    Maybe it was because yesterday there was a chicken taking the lead?  

it's approaching dusk and it's still going on.  Ginger is alert,  watching.  

and all this means that each of them would need to find a new place in the herd.   But it's a good thing and it's Timely.  Someone needs to lead.  It will help us,  all the way around if someone has taken the lead.  And Ginger would be good.  She is very people responsive but also very herd oriented.  So now we just watch.   

SUNDAY.   I thought i'd tapped publish last night but i didn't and it's just as well.  Today is like any other day.  Whatever happened yesterday was not evident at all.  Calm.   So, i have no idea what if anything will happen next.  One thing tho.  

Talkie, the chicken has so far spent her Goat time in the buck forests.  Today, she was with the does,  whether in or out of their area.  ???  Maybe it still somehow has something to do with Talkie?

Day was spent with everyone working to clear the Goat Boat of tools etc.  The metal shelving along the outside of it. *   It's all organized now in the Moveable Shed over in the aborted buck forest between A and the hill down to B.   Goat Boat is poised.  Empty.  Clear.  Ready.    Jenny brought a wind chime,  hung it in the Morning Tree outside the Travel Trailer.  Beside the aesthetics,  it is a way to understand even slight Wind currents.   We think of both Wind and Solar energy.  I have been assigned the task of tracking shade across the expanse of the Meadow at A.   Shade meaning when surrounding trees cast their shadows.  I will do this hour by hour.  Keep a written record.    More Kantha stitching.   It's so slow.  But things i see for the Cloth change.  In my mind,  it is so different than when it began.  While giving water in the Wall Garden i ate several radish seed pods,  a fig,  2 strawberries and an Asian Pear.

*shelving that was in my bedroom in The Other Place,  shelving that held cloth.

 

 

What if?  What if because of being Only One,  you decided to weave yourself in?  and What if they didn't mind?  And you became the Lead?  Talkie.  a Chicken.  a single Chicken became a part of the herd this morning.  Not just a part of the herd,  but the one that went Ahead.  First.  With Goats,  someone always needs to go first.  and with this herd,  first is always up for grabs.  Talkie took it.  She also lays one egg a day.

an hour and a half of constant commentary.  No chit chat.  We walked.  He wanted to begin at the highest point.  That would be at the far top C.   and we wove back and forth,  looking,  noticing,  him talking,   us listening.  He asked many questions about our hopes,  our imagined use.  our imagined needs.  He asked what we had seen so far,  what we had understood from the land so far.  and he wove that into what he was seeing today.  He's very knowledgeable.  Very.  Knows his stuff.  and more,  Loves his stuff.   He sees the immediate and envisions the future.  He was Great.  really Great.   He will draw it all up,  a map of the land,  how he envisions permaculture practices on this map.  Will get it to us soon.  What we found out beside all that we didn't know,  was that our own knowledge base is solid.  That we have done our homework,  especially daughter Jenny.  That our intuitions are good,  especially Alyssia.    It was great.

i'll let it all soak in for a while and little bits will float to the top.  But just easy in the moment was his happiness about how the Earth here just takes pleasure in growing mushrooms…JULIE.. how everywhere,  there are these Turkey Tail mushrooms….Extremely Medicinal….he talked about using the cut or spontaneously downed Oak to innoculate with Shiitake.  Saying this in itself could support a lot.   I smile.  Ever since reading Julie's experience,  i had wondered.  Yes. Mushrooms.

On walking up the drive/road we saw a very young small slender snake,  very small.  Earthworm size,  but longer…it was dead and the yellow jackets were doing their work .   I went back late and found it again.  Brought it in.

Giving Water tonight,  there was yet another color tree frog and 3 Oh SO SMALL lizards.

and Emrie,  who likes to be the center of Everything,  was totally silent through it all.  Alyssia or Jenny carried her.  She was attentive.  She listened.  As if she knows that all that was being talked about,  all that was being Imagined would become hers and she needed to know.

 

 

 

 

almost Dark.  3 kinds of   "spring peepers",  tree frogs in the Wall Garden.    Kinds,  meaning coloring.  One copper bronze with a VERY dark stripe at the eye.  A brown green spotted one.  and then a Bright orangeish.  All the same body.  Just the difference in coloring.  

Still,  enough Kale for sharing.  

Beets have the feeling/sense that they are nearing completion.  Nothing that i see that says that…just the feeling.  Which lends to the understanding that it's time to plant again.   A whole other Round to go.

now, it IS dark.  just in these few sentences.  and tomorrow…OH, tomorrow.  The Permaculture Guys.  9 am.

 

 

every evening,  after giving Water to the Wall Garden at A,  i walk up this road/drive toward this setting Sun.  Right now it is RED.  This pic does not represent it well.   it's Red.  But well enough to give a glimpse of what Fire might look like,  in a close distance.

Jaime commented yesterday  "If i am going to worry effectively,  I need details.  How do you stay alerted?  How do you evacuate with the goats?  Where do you go?"

First,  i am educating myself about Fire ongoing.  There is a lot to learn.  the science of Fire even has a name,  which i forget at the moment,  but in a category of Earth Sciences.  And to say that i work at it, but know not much at all yet.  Understand not much of it's dynamics here…..in this land of such LUSH ness that really,  in these summer months is so much more of what i know to be desert.  Where i came from…so much more Sky Water…the monsoon rains of July,  then the occasional electrical storms throughout August and September.  THIS,  here,  in this land of Forest,  this is 

dry.

NO precipitation.  None.  and this is normal.  What is not normal is the increase in overall temperatures.  The changes to seasonal norms ie beginning and endings.  It IS changing.  When ground igniters begin early and dry sooner,  when the temperatures exceed 100 degrees for days,  it ripens the opportunity for Fire.  Any small spark.  small.   spark.  I forget the percentage,  but the vast majority of California fires are the result of human cause.  Little things.  a spark from a lawn mower even.  The fire now that rages in Redding…from some defect in an automobile.   Who would guess.

so i learn.  Daughter Jenny reads copious info and shares it.  I read all that i find.  I watch CalFire site.  What i am grateful for tho is that i don't have TV.   Jenny said today that people actually get sick from TV.   Usual programing is replaced with 24/7 coverage of  major fires like this one now to the north.  She works at the hospital in Chico and people come in sick from worry.

so to Jaime's wonderings:

how do i stay alert?  Easy,  here.  The Hill is just off a major road of Olive Highway.  Just down the way ,  like maybe a quarter of a mile at most,  is that market/gas station.  Lakeside Market.  Which becomes the command center for CalFire for anything in this area.  They also are invested in keeping it.  Gas pumps,  underground propane resource tanks.    Not to say it couldn't happen.  Knock on Wood.  Anything can.  But they are very invested in keeping it alive.

There have been two small fires close already.  One at the lake   not far and one just over the way…we could see the smoke rising from the driveway….smell that one,  ash fell here and the Goats were anxious.  What i have come to know is that if anything is at all nearby,  the sound of emergency vehicles going up Olive Highway is constant.  It begins with police sirens,  changes to police sirens and intermittent Fire Vehicles that emit a loud long sound,  and it increases,  until it's almost constant.  It might sound horrible,  but really,  it's not.  It's reaassuring.  They are ON IT.  I have an incredibly HUGE admiration for CalFire,  for local FireFighters.  

How do we evacuate with the Goats?   this is what that movable shed is for…so we can clear the Goat Boat,  make it ready.  We need, to,  to get the horse trailer emptied.  right now, half of it is filled with solar panels.  It needs to be where it can GO.  Maybe down in the Rooster Swamp in the summer months?   

We,  I,  continue to use the stainless steel milk bucket with pellets in it to rattle and that draws them quickly.   Do that,  and load them. Leave.  There is of course too,  Tazmeena,  Puppy and Tay.  This is why when there is a "maybe" evacuation warning,  we get Ready.

Where do we go?  I don't know.  Depends on where the fire IS.  There are endless sites that give info,  many places where people and livestock can hunker down.  Everyone around offers refuge.  So you wait to be told.  You get OUT and wait to be told.   The roads are full of people helping….giving information.  People come together.

So…all that.  and do i wish i hadn't come here?  No.  Somehow it feels right.  Somehow i am up to the Risk.  Not sure how,  but i am.  I don't worry.  I listen.  I watch.  but i don't worry.  I love this Hill more and more every day.   So much Magic here,  Earth Magic.  It might burn.  No way to know.  as i've said,  it's Luck.