still, from Michelle's post, from Marija Gimbutas
and then, just now, feeding. I go to the Way Back gate to where the wheel barrow is, tilted on its side always in case of rain. I wheel it out, in the morning to the bale of alfalfa or in the evening, as now, to the Albatros where the grass hay is stored. The Sound of this sets it all in motion....the wheel bumbling along across the dirt. There is a squeak. Everyone knows what's coming. Tay accompanies me, carrying her ball or a stick. back and forth. I feed the 4 buck Goats first and Gideon, then load the feed in the wheelbarrow for the doe Goats in the Way back and trundle the wheelbarrow to that gate. Drop the feed over into the bowl. All of it, then go through the house, out the back porch and distribute all of it into 4 other feed bowls. Every day. 365 times a year. The universe could set it's doings by my reliability. Also, feral kittens. They have been coming out to the feed bowls lately.
Tonight, as i approached the gate with the wheelbarrow, getting almost there...a shock! Goldie and Essence, formally known as little rat boy, were ON THIS SIDE OF THE GATE!!!!...Goldie to the west, over by the wood pile and Essence, just there at the gate, but inside, THIS side and Tay
saw them.
she has watched them and their doings through the gate all this time, totally entranced, as she is over at the other end of the house yard where she lays, nose pressed to the wooden slats, watching them. and here they were, tonight. on HER side. She bolted, fast as lightning and and it was a split second. Goldie slid through the gate wires but Tay had Essence under her mouth...how i can't tell, too fast and i yelled NO! NO BITE! which is a thing she knows because she likes to bite the wheel of the wheelbarrow. She knows that she can put her mouth there against the wheel, she can make growl sounds but she knows she cannot bite, even tho sometimes she still does.
so..NO BITE NO! and he, Essence scrambled to go through the gate, but she got him again, pressed, i don't know how exactly; with teeth? with just her muzzle? i don't know but i yell the second time and she releases and he scrambles through. I tell her NO, Babies. No bite babies.
she didn't, but what if she'd been alone? and they were there? These are things we will Work on in the days ahead. There will be chickens.
when i went into the Way Back to distribute the feed to all 4 other bowls, both Goldie and Essence were where they are now, under the porch steps. Neither any worse for the experience...Essence being his ordinary vague self, Goldie all in his Right There self, Wheat, watching from a little distance. and so it goes. Thursday, more than mid way through the month of August.
