• i have a sliver of wood stuck under the nail of my left index finger.  a sliver.  it throbs.

    i poked my left  eye into a tip of a salt cedar branch yesterday.  it feels like i have cinders in my eye.

    my left hand is still doing something i don't know why.  Maybe from trying to pry that gas cap out?

    but aside from all those left things,  there were some right.   

    Nogal had gotten out by pushing his way through a weak part of the fencing where it connects to the back wooden privacy fencing.  I am imagining that since i was just not coming to bring feed,  he felt he needed to take matters into his own hands.  There is a lot of Kochia there, next to the fence and i imagine again that he just was pushing first his mouth and then his head through to get at that and when it "gave",  he thought why not?   I patched it with a piece of cattle panel and a lot of baling wire to weave it in.   He has had no interest in it,  so i'm hoping it might seem like a dream to him and i will learn my lesson about talking too long on the phone.  So ok.  We go.

     

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    This Cloth.  I am so into this Cloth.   It is pointing out to me that i am no longer feeling any need to add things or Not add things according to any  "rules"   It simply is what it is.   And  i am loving the freedom of using Colors that i never would have,  even not that long ago.   as in,  Earth is not necessarily brown.  The ground here is from Deb Lacativa,  a damask,  old.  thin.  almost a pearly quality to it.  It's perfect for the story this Cloth is telling.   It allows the story this Cloth is telling to be almost some kind of Song,  no words,  just sounds.  And it's interesting to me that the Glennis moon that could go no where else,  is so right,  here.  In the There.  

    So this Cloth is a song.  I like that.  I like that i was able to understand that.  it makes me feel really, really, really Good.

     

     

  • he got out.  Nogal.  i'd been on the phone,  a long time.  Jan the dog trainer called because she'd not heard from me.  It was a looooong conversation,  and Good,  but long,  way into the feed time for Goats and i knew that,  but they were quiet so i talked.

    but…Ho…..went out and there he was.  Nogal.  OUT.  Tay with him,  they are about the same size.  Tay is 90 lbs.  So now i know.  She was out there,  with him,  i don't know how long …they were out there, together.  First time for both of them,  out,  together.   I said to her…Bring Him and she ran behind him,  softly,  nothing much,  just running behind him and i held open his gate where the feed bowls are and where Ten Zen was eating,  just held open the gate and told Tay to bring  him and it wasn't nothing amazing or whatever,  but i held his gate open and he went in …because it's where the feed was and i still can't tell how he got OUT?  i guess over the low part of the fence?  i don't know,  but he WAS   OUT and quietly just out and Tay was there with him for some time without indicating she was and so in a way it is NOT good….that he DID get out,  but in another way it is GREAT because he was out…gently,  quietly, and Tay was there,  just being there…no comotion,  just there

    oh, eeeeeee

    this is a whole new thing.  Once they know………………………oh, eeee

     

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    so now there's time for another Cloth and of course,  it's about  Going.  the path here is from a blouse from the 60's.  I've gone many places since then.  Many were left unmarked and only live in my memory.   

    instead of tearing  off what seemed to be excess at the bottom,  i instead folded it so it's now a long relatively narrow horizontal pocket.   Maybe to hold where i've been.  All that,  maybe being thought of as many,  but really,  just the same pretty much over and over.   a place of earth.  the repetition of beings of that earth,  Moon and Sun.     Looking…up, to  There,  lo and behold….Earth, Moon and Sun.

    Here…There    From….To     Same.

    just pinned for now but as i worked at the pinning i thought that one of the good things about waiting is that the bugs should/might be worked out of internet connection.  I am so used to uploading the day from the camera into Picasa.  Allowing some distance and objectivity from the Immediate.

     

  • sometimes you decide only to feel what that decision feels like so you can know you need to change it.

    a long story edited to give YOU all, relief

    UNLESS WE RE DECIDE,   we have decided as of today that pushing it,  pushing it no matter,  isn't the best idea.   I spent a chunk of time looking at temperature averages for several different cities along the way and it's 90's.   And the real truth is that it's hotter than "historical average",  not just now,  but last year.  And maybe even the year before.  It's just hot.

    Earlier,  i'd gone  into town and stopped to get gas  only to find that the key for the gas cap was not with me.  I didn't have enough gas to get back home.  I was across from the new auto parts store.  Run by women.  I've never seen a man working in there.. Interesting..i'd never seen a man working in there. Hadn't thought of that till just now, typing this.   So i left the gas station and went across.  Could they pop or pry out the gas cap?  Consultations among each other and one young woman went out with me to try.  She brought 2 screwdrivers.  She tried.  tried and tried.  it was HOT,  we sweated,  her mostly,  i was just squating next to her,  watching,  offering useless conversation.  She worked and worked and i got to notice closely her hair which was a long ponytail with parts of the sides shaved off to the skin.  Nice.  and as she was working,  a vehicle pulled up with another young woman  all girly and two young kids.  Who joined us and obviously knew the one working on the gas cap who told her she needed something really "thin" and did she have something like that in the SUV?  she came back with a fork.  which didn't work but i realized that i had my jackknife and got that and after more work,  She POPPED it out!   There was NO WAY i could have gotten back home without this intervention.  Gas was on Empty.  NO WAY.  No one to call.  and it was

    hot.  already in the 90's.

    and it took her around a half hour.  At any point she could have given up.  It would have been FAIR if she had.  I couldn't  have blamed her.  but she didn't and wouldn't and i held out a 20 dollar bill and she said,  Oh,  NO!   Oh no,  i can't.  Oh NO,  i can't take that and i told her i would have been a dead dog without her and she said,  oh….No i can't and crossed her arms over her chest and i looked over at the Girly young woman standing there still and said is that your friend? and she said,  she's my wife.  And i held out the $20 to her and she too said, oh no……and i said yes and she said are you Sure? and I said beyond Sure and i stuffed it in her pocket,  saying get you guys something with it, or the kids.  It wasn't even enough for a pizza.  and i ordered a new NON LOCK gas cap,  went back over to the gas station and came HOME.   

    I'd promised self   i'd take Tay for a ride in same truck,  the one we will drive to California…it's now after noon and 90 something degrees,  i'd vowed to take Tay for a ride everyday to get her used to it before Going,  and we drove along the ditch bank and it's a small truck,  like small,  meant to be a farm truck or something,  and her tail is often in my face and she hangs out the passenger window panting and saliva spilling from her panting mouth.   I think…17 hours.  

     

    then the phone call from Alyssia where we Talk.   where we talk about how it is we WANT stuff but then there is the thing of Peace of Mind that she,  her mother and i have talked about as being the cornerstone.  Peace of Mind.  and how it's just going so slow there with all it is,  even though they are doing everything they can,  day unto day,  and we talk about how things just ARE,  not how we wish they could be 

    and we Re~decide that it's just too iffy to make the trip in July.    it might be ok.  it might not.  To leave the well being of 24 sentient beings  "up to the Universe" does not work with the thing of Peace of Mind.  and maybe we don't have enough FAITH,  but well then,  so be it.   I will miss Emrie's entry into this plane.  I will meet her,  probably now in October when she is two months old.  I think she will be ok with that.

    so i need to QUIT talking about Going.  I imagine it is driving You all crazy,  this going of mine.  So i want to quit talking about it.  When i go,  i go.  But till then,  there is so much more happening in this world…like the Naomi Klein article in the latest Nation which i want to put here tomorrow.

    Now,  i'll just go give Water.  and give some dry cat food to that feral mother under the house.

     

     

     

  • another full day of Toyota truck work.  It's Hot.  and there are a lot of flies.  Flies are usually in the month of  August.  While they are out there under the truck,  i work inside for the most part..finishing the pantry,  under the counter by the stove and through the 3 kitchen drawers.  The middle one that is completely falling apart.  Maybe tomorrow i'll try to glue it.  Maybe not

     

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    so, in response to some queries re the Plan.  

    the Plan is

    between the 17th and the  24th

    Jenny and whoever else will arrive.   They will arrive in a rented pick up truck.  That rented pick up truck and the old  cowboy's truck  will haul the horse trailer and the Goat Boat.  I will have gotten a Uhaul truck to take all my belongings.  Travis will drive that with Tazmeena in a cat crate.  That Uhaul will tow the Honda car.  I will drive the 1983 Toyota Pickup in the company of Tay.  Tight fit.

    The Goat vehicles need to drive straight through.  Travis and I will  take two days because i need to.  I can't.  Can't drive 17 hours straight.  Never could and more so now.  

    so we are talking about 17 hours.  Two days.  Just and only this.   To me,  sometimes it feels like a forever thing,  but its not…it's just those hours.

    What it depends on is the Planet.  If we can get through in temps of 90's,  we CAN.  If the temps continued at 100 something,  we can't.  Goats can't.  

    I wanted.  I wanted to be there.   I wanted to be there for Emrie's birth.  Maybe i can.  Maybe i can't.  She will be ok with it,  either way.

     

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    Emrie's Cloth about Magic

     

     

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    running my hand through the scrap baskets  (3)  (small scraps)    and keep coming back to this one.  Thinking about how some things just appeal to us,  sometimes for no reason,  like,  there doesn't have to be a reason.  And they are not about becoming a Cloth,  but are simply Pleasing to look upon.  And then we add things.  or not.

    so the Vet did come for a "consultation".  He'd not seen the actual transport Goat Boat before,  i'd only told him its dimensions.  I wanted him to SEE it.  I want to leave no question unasked,  have no lingering maybe nots.  Want everything i can think of,  thought of,  and asked,  evaluated.  There is always some hesitance about Asking.  If you ask 5 people,  you will get 5 opinions….all through individual "filters" of knowledge and experience.. at best.  So i didn't really want to ask him.  But i knew that it would eat away at me if i didn't.  

    And so he said OK.  and if it seemed too crowded, …  he surprised me by saying to stick a couple does in the horse trailer with the bucks.  Said as long as we were MOVING,  nothing would  "happen".  But in case we had to stop for a while,  pick ones we wouldn't mind having bred.  I don't think we will do that,  but it was an uplifting option that i would have never thought about and made me laugh,  visualizing it.

    and we might.  MIGHT have dates on a calendar.  July 17 ~ 24.  somewhere there.  Things can change,  but this might be the Window.   MAYBE.   PROBABLY.   and everyone would set out at once.  They would get there first.  I can't drive 17 or 18 hours straight.  It  will take me two chunks of time with sleep inbetween.  

    Travis and Everett came the second day in a row to work on the Toyota PickUp.  Today there was superglue used and wire and black electrical tape.  Those of you that pray,  please do.   I am finding out more and more they are the  "we can fix it"  kind where you just need to take a deep breath and be willing to Just Go.  so…ok, all that.  So today was today.  SUN is close to the Rim and i need to give water for the Toads.  Tomorrow is another day.

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    arctica…wondering what it might be like to Ask.

     

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    Onday

     

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    even Just Going…who never tries,  but remembered that yesterday there were peanuts.

     

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    she who hesitates is lost.  Oona Claims space

     

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    Oona.  who in younger years was the most snotty.  Now,  with Onday,  gives the most Love.

     

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    Onday claims the Stump,  the wildest thing here in this Way Back.  In the new Goat Forest there is only Wild….fallen branches,  brush.  How will she claim that?

     

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    the tortiseshell mother cat who i have seen in the Way Back a couple of times.   Tay,  spending nights outside.    and here,  in the SUN of morning….at first i thought there were three.

     

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    i think there are 5 kittens.  FIVE KITTENS.  under the house.  I gave them all Water.  Them,  their mother.   Cats.

     

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    the date is wrong but close enough.  it was this morning.   When Travis and Everett came today,  a toad crossed the thing called driveway.  Going North to the stick pile.  As they were backing up to leave,  i had to yell STOP because the same toad was making its way back…WAIT and ok and it made its way back  over to where i was watering.  2 storms had come and gone.  Almost hail but not.  

    I can't keep everything totally Safe,  forever.  

    I can't keep everything totally Safe, forever.

  • this morning….at day break….

     

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    this was in that copper hanging basket under all the scraps in the bottom tier.  I didn't know that.

    not even forgotten,  just didn't know it was there,  and really, didn't know it still existed,  and really, had forgotten making it,  and only remembered when it appeared up from the scraps.

     

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    around 20 something years ago.  When i first came here.  I would plant the seeds.  Grow the gourds, wait for them to dry.  Soak the skin off them,  rub them clean,  dry them again and cut them.  Remove the seeds for next time.    Paint them with oils and ink.  The bottoms were bowls,  the inverted tops…like this one,  hanging vases.  And other ways.

    Looking at this….FELT SENSE.  about that Angstfull Urge.  About making the thing that can't exist.

     

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    three of these scraps,  Deb Lacativa's hand.  I come back to stand and look for what i am wanting to see.

     

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    this year's fallen Oriole nest

     

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    the collaboration.  Tay's work….chewing off the broken sides of a large basket and leaving the bottom intact as a shield.  My small scrap weaving.  Mo's pouch.  Together they tell such stories.

     

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    inside Mo's pouch is a folded paper tied with a Red Thread.  I've never opened it yet.

     

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    Making the Thing that can't exist. 

    Because it's not ….a…..thing.  It is ManyThings,  it is the Experience of the ManyThings,  together and separately and together again,  in the taking of how much ever time that takes,  how many days or years.    Noticing how it all is a changing fluid thing,  and this is something of that thing of Diorama.

    Diorama….maybe the Thing that can't exist is the Diorama that is my life,   and maybe it's something to do with having always been in a uhhh,  a place of Waiting.  Always Waiting until something has happened,  waiting for the space to open up,  open out….but i was Waiting.  

    Looking back,  i have always been waiting.  Maybe that's just part of life. Maybe it IS life.   Wait till you are no longer a child,  till you grow up,  till you have children,   till those children grow up,  till you find a place to live and then other places to live,  to make a living so you Can live,  and the details of that,  to wait till a mistake is resolved by waiting for that person i was married to to finish his life,  waiting for the old cowboy to finish his,  waiting for the kids to find land,  waiting for that land to begin to create It's story,  waiting.    

    and maybe now,  i have lived long enough to be able to arrive at a place of no waiting?  A place of IS.

    i can finally be where i am.  which of course,  i always could have,  but i was waiting.  And maybe waiting is necessary.  Maybe,  as Alyssia sometimes says…."it's all just developmentally correct, Gramz".  

     

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    Alyssia wants Solar.  She is afraid of it too.  Hooking into the grid,  there's always More.   But she really wants her children to grow up with the understanding of Some.  of Some that's shared.  of Enough,  but the Enough being dependent on being mindful of the needs of others.  She wants them to understand Enough and Sharing.  Emrie will be born into solar.

    I might come back later.  It's just after noon now,  but i wanted to get all the pics here while i can.  This internet gets slow and sometimes impossible later in the day.  I need this here,  so i can not lose it,  can re think it and see if it's true.

    LATER…6:30 p.m.  Storms rolling through,  one on the heels of the other.  I leave this machine off.  So maybe i can't keep going with this,  but i love it and am energized by it.  So if not this eve,  then tomorrow.

    LATER ii.   i  went out,  with Tay,  her on her long leash,  into the last round of Storm so far,  Great Wind and Thunder,  some rain.  She is afraid of storms.   We walked…she pulled and was excited,  we stopped at Margie's across the road where the two little pit bull boys spend the weekend,  and they were all beside themselves to be nose to nose.    Because of the Lightning,  we didn't go far,  but on the way back,  i let go of the leash to give her practice at staying close.  She did.  We need this for the trip.

    LATER iii

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    the Storm knocked her.  I gave her a stick and some strong Cloth

     

     

     

  • the "sunday school flannel board"….just there,  just for touching,  for putting.  right now,  it's enough.

     

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    i see them blurry,  but it might be the day,  not my eyes?  or the camera?  or they actually might be blurry,  but it was a day of on off Storm…i think of barometric pressure,  not knowing what exactly barometric pressure is,  but i think it fluctuated wildly and might account for the Blur?  or not.

     

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    F

     

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    Folds up.  An easy Take.  Mimbres pictograph design,  Gila (pronounced Heela) Wilderness area…those people just disappeared.  But left behind their images on pottery.  This little table thing done by Alz B's sister Bobby,  for her.  She never liked it.    It was the first thing i brought home after she left this plane.

     

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    SouthWest window…full to over flowing of scraps/fragments ….sorted,  dusted…the scraps and then the hanging basket submerged in kitchen sink with Simple Green and all the years of dust glued together with fly shit came away….I'd forgotten entirely that it's COPPER!    Belov~ed COPPER!  I'll need it…for what it was intended…vegetables,  garlic,  FOOD in the small kitchen space of the Hut.  TAKE.

    report from the Hill.  They have made progress.  It's slow,  but steady.  Alyssia at over 7 months and the heat.  They get there at 6 am and work till they can't anymore.  Until Alyssia Shouldn't anymore.  Alyssia's water pump went out in her vehicle.  She'd hoped it was just the hoses and REPLACED those hoses over the top of Emrie,  but Not.  Not the fix.  To be towed on Monday somewhere for the repair.

    Decision.  SOLAR.  ok.  there is trepidation.  What if we use/need too much?  How will that play out?  But we'll let it play out.  Solar.

    Decision.  Alyssia will get a new washer/dryer.  That's my gift to the Well Being of the Whole.  I want her to get a good one that has that brain that Bill and Nelia's has,  that knows when there is just a baby sheet and a towel and 5 stinky wash cloths and puts that much water.  And knows when there is a comforter and a sheet.  and puts that much water.  At Alyssia's.

    Decision.  Between Jenny's campsite and mine,  a shed that will hold the solar batteries and also a used washer/dryer that will be greywatered.  

    Dream.  That maybe Gideon can just have the whole run of the place.  Even tho he can no longer Run.  That maybe he can be just FREE to go where he might please.  Up against the Doe's fencing,  over in either and all Campsites.  Just whatever he might be able to manage.  There is such LOVE for Gideon.  I told him all this a while ago…told him about it.  He is loved.

     

    the storms.  Wind.  and it suddenly is 72 degrees and Windy and the relief is beyond Relief.  How it goes,  these days.  How it WILL go.  

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    wake up

     

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    hunger

     

    105 degrees.  Next days,  storms.  Maybe a severe night storm tomorrow.  But back to the 90's.  Good.

     

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    cleaned bottom and middle shelves of  "pantry".  This one with 3 stainless steel pots for cheese making,  a glass lid that fits all.  Stainless steel colander.  Jars.  my family rolling pin,  the 4 Cup pyrex liquid measurer,  two flashlights,  jars of tomatoes that were not dated.  Will dump them out.

     

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    i have a thing for jars.  especially jars with black lids.   Take?  Leave?  I know that they have jars in California,  but…..eee,  

    so,  Domestic

     

    G

    other.  it began with that turned head.  looking into the far distance…her ear.  Went from there with no knowing about what might be next.  Some kind of woven dome.  I remembered the book from so long ago,  The Kin of Ata Are Waiting For You.   I only have very vague impressions of that book.

     

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