I could not have asked for Better Company this morning. I'd forgotten 9 year old girls. Maybe they are the most perfect of all the earth's creations. so on the Cusp of everything. I have known her since she was born, really, her father brought her around a lot when she was little. And then over the last maybe 5 years, every weekend they come. But it's always a kind of in the middle of the road exchange with the adults talking, the child listening. So i knew her but i didn't KNOW her. I do now. She was already here when i made the Old Cowboy see if you are dead call this morning and he reported that he had forgotten to tell me that he had NO peanut butter left and was i coming to town...no...hadn't planned on it, but i thought, why not. She hadn't had breakfast yet so we decided to GO OUT FOR BREAKFAST....which i never do. Never go out to eat. I get those Green Chili Cheeze Burgers and Breakfast Burritos for OCB to take to his house. But to go IN and sit? So we went to the busiest restaurant in town, the El Camino where probably half of Socorro is any morning. Really. And Everybody Knows Everybody. Family place. She said...except for your eyes, they probably think you are my grandmother. And i said yes. When the waitress asked her what to drink, she did not hesitate and said Coffee. My eyebrows went UP and she looked directly at me and the waitress turned up her mug and said "cream?" Yes please. so, OK. She is a people watcher like me and commented on how many people seemed to be drinking pop with their meal. Talking about how her father had changed to eating healthy and that they no longer have pop in their house. No junk food either. He cooks. She lives with him now. Visits her mother only. Now and then. She said, volunteered out of the blue, that the reason for that is that her mother used to abuse her. That her father went to court. But that she loves her mother and wishes she would get well. All this in a conversational tone. Back to people watching. Then we went to get the OCB's peanut butter at Walmart where they have an institutional sized tub of Jiff Creamy that he likes. Off to the other grocery where we got his Blue Bunny Chocolate Chip icecream that was on a previous list and hot dogs. I got both of us a package of Peeps. She showed me how the cardboard packaging was sticking into the bottom row of her rabbit peeps and then went on to have a conversation with them that they looked like really less than two years old, but oh, she could see they were suffering and so she would eat that row first as an act of mercy. Right then i knew i could get hooked on this kid. Off to the Old Cowboys. I introduced them and he immediately launched in to getting me to look at his mail, his auto pay thing to the city for his utilities, the bill that finally came from his lawyer, the payment notice for the disabled veterans and he off handedly said to her that i am his business assistant and she assumed a stance and said "then I will be her assistant" and we went through all the mail and i handed her the stuff to trash and she shredded it well and put it in the trash. I wrote the check for the lawyer's bill, he signed it and she put it in the return envelope and afixed the stamp and his return address label. I showed her where and how to mark the ballot for the Electric Cooperative election and she did the envelope and return address stuff herself. He asked her if she liked watching movies ...yes....so some time spent in his pirated movie stash for disney ones and then some like Braveheart and The Gods Must Be Crazy and she asked if she could use his Sharpie to write her name on them. She did. We bagged them up and she went out to the car and came back in with one of her Peeps, handing it to him saying thank you, Robert. We left, and getting into the car, she said "He is a very sweet person".
On the way to town and back, the people were Walking. along the road, along the freeway. Some carrying crosses they had made. We talked about what we knew about Jesus and how he had to walk and carry his cross to where they nailed him to it. It was just a sharing of information. Neither of us knowing a whole lot. But we waved to the Walkers. They waved back. She asked if i had ever walked and i said yes, twice. Was i Catholic?, no, i just like the idea of it. She thought she might too someday.
We got back and hung around with the Goats who had a really interesting response to her. The Doe Goats were feeling Frisky anyway, so there was a lot of head butting and a lot of hormonal energy, them being bucky with eachother and for some reason they wanted to do all that very close to us as we sat on the picnic table in the middle of it all. She wondered if they were lesbian. I said it's hard to know with Goats. They just have FEELINGS and express themselves. So there was some conversation about that and about when and why i let them breed or not. She said "well, as long as they are good mothers" and i said yes. They were ALL very good mothers. We cut lilacs for her grandma and when she got home, she had not taken the right keys so we had to break in to one of the windows that was covered very tightly with plastic. I stood on a cooler that we put atop a wooden chair and Raya stepped up on my shoulder and dropped in to the window to come unlock the door. We congratulated ourselves at being capable and efficient and that was that. A totally Satisfying exchange. All the way around. Could NOT have possibly been better.
the Least robust of the two young Narrow Leaf Cottonwoods! BEAUTY FULL pollen tassels!!!!! Trees and bushes here....the first year planted either live or die. the second year their roots search for water source in the earth which indicates if they might sustain themselves. The THIRD year, they actually begin to flourish. This is year Three. We made it! They will grow large. Goats are ecstatic to eat the crispy fallen leaves in fall and winter. I am VERY happy about this. VERY.
and LOOK. It might happen. An Apricot Year!!! Apricot Chutney. eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeEEEEE maybe.
this afternoon, still time for some changes here that feel Right....
for more wheelbarrows of compost to the big raised bed
for Tay time who was beside herself with the excitement of Raya who she just wanted to Absorb into herself, she LOVED Raya but didn't know how to. Raya was firm but kind and said to me
she doesn't know the meaning of No. True.
