windthread

small. but Wonder Full

this is that experimental first garden.  A small oval on the rim of the Campsite B.   I wanted to know what would happen if i just put seeds there.   i didn't understand much at all about that Pile of earth there.   I thought it was the natural rim.  But it was, rather,  earth that had been excavated and piled there when Campsite B was created.  It has become known as the Failure To Thrive Garden.  OR  the Garden for the Spirits.  Stuff  DID come up.  I planted some mixed salad greens.  Arugula and Cilantro.  There are a couple of tufts  of lettuces.  Arugula  never appeared.  Cilantro,  YES,  but nothing over an inch or so tall.  A garden of  Tiny.  But....BUT....as i am working  with the  California Lilac there,  at its edge,  I saw them.   

the failure to thrive cilantro made

SEEDS

i have no idea what you see on your Whatevers.  On this lap top thing,  the pic can only be magnified once.   If i view the pic  on the phone,  magnification is exponential.  So maybe you can see the  little green orbs of Cilantro seed?....Coriander......

and if you pick one off  and bite it....there is a GRAND EXPLOSION of taste....

caenothus...california Lilac which is Not a lilac at all

choosing where.   days of that.    then....digging.   Putting  water,  waiting.   Digging more.   More water.  See how it runs off or seeps  in.   today...still not sure.  And do i?  or do i not?  put  any compost in?   Online.  reading.  Yes.  No.   ???????

.We added a panel of Goat fencing to the original farm fencing.  3 new  T posts.  Cut  the original fencing at the far end and opened the Gate to the Original First Buck Forest.   Which has become overgrown.   or,  Original Grown.  Filled the bucket with pellets and shook it...clink clink, tinkle clink and calling Come Come!!!!  They came.  Wondering what was happening but being up for it,  and going Through into  NEW territory.  Where over the next few days they will clear the underbrush.  Will EAT it.  Happily.   Thereby reducing fuel for Fire.  At some point we will need to go in there with a chipper and chip all the fallen wood.  Hopefully there will be enough time.

while Alyssia was gone,  daughter Jenny and i had a conversation about needing to do the above.  I said OK,  when Alyssia comes back.   The conversation was  clear at that time.  Today...in reality...it was going differently and did go differently and i had some Crunchy exchanges  about that.  Which at the end,  remained  Unclear and Alyssia,  who remains silent "during", said ....."she was  being....................about that and it's funny,  because in this moment i can NOT for the life of me come up with the word....i had it a minute ago,  but Can Not Come UP With It....she was being...............................

and at the same time we were working out how to deal with Alyssia's dog Zoey.....her interaction with Tay,  both of them feeling Alpha and it not working out

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

she's back

 

what to say.   I would have never imagined.   Babies have always been babies.  

Emrie is back.  

At first she had a filter between us.   She looked,  but kept her own Space.   It took half a day and on into the evening.  Until we went to feed the Goats.  It's been two weeks.  The world she went to,  that i saw on her mother's phone pics was a different planet.  She's been gone.  She's not yet ONE YEAR OLD.  Eleven months.  We fed the Goats.  We went down to campsite A and gave water to the Garden there.  Crawling has become walking.  Two weeks.  Walking.  We gave water.

Back in front of the door,  on the great but horrible plastic mat thing from the dollar store,  as the FULL MOON came near,  she played the metal drum with a stick.   

learning

the rattlesnake grass on the right side of the drivewayroad,  here,  on the hill that rises up to campsite B.   Profusion.  This particular grass appears in other places.  But in OTHER places,  there is none,  but some other native grass.  Eitherway,  it is what was such an Amazing and Surprising GREEN this spring,  just a couple of months ago.  Everywhere here now,  there is some kind of native grass that has completed its cycle to seed.   Not just on this Hill,  but all around.  So i understand now,  how it is with the fires here.  It's an Of Course thing.  

We are working on the plan for the Doe Goats to be freed to bring down the browse.   I'm not sure if they will eat these grasses?   We'll find out.

first third of the Wall Garden...from the drivewayroad

you can kind of understand the slope.  At the upper end of the pic you can see the two lilacs  in their landscape pots.  For Alyssia to decide...where....she gets  back tomorrow.

Most of what has been planted here has come to the apex of it's LifeSpan.  We will make notes of how it's gone and our thoughts about that.   Everything we planted, grew.  Some Well.  Some,  just some.  There is a lot to learn about how we continue to amend the soil.  Some will remain unknown because of that initial  stunning Spring Garden of volunteer wild plants which we will have to assume,  used their fare share of nutrients the virgin soil had to Give.

the other thing is to sit with the thoughts about the fact that we CAN plant and grow Anything.  But we need to think about the reality of what we really want/need.  We have used everything so far.  With the Auto Immune Protocol Diet,  there is endless joy of stir fry greens and we have used them all.  Radish Leaves, pods,  the leaves and Stems of everything else.  I smile,  as i chop.  All the stems that all my life i've sent to the compost.  Now...crunchy additions.

the big failure has been the onions...or leaks?maybe?  anyway...that family...they are still  so spindly.   ??????

we didn't end up planting all the squash seeds.  I still might try.   It remains warm into the end of November.  

These,  a few  thoughts.  So many.  it is such an incredible JOY to learn a new Place.

 

 

 

 

every evening

the final walk.   The whole of it,  the Hill,  from the big Gate at Carefree Way,  is i think,  about 8 times this expanse.  Maybe only 7.   At the end,  you can see the travel trailer.  Behind it the horse trailer that we will be moving down soon in case there is need for it.  It will be parked  down by the Rooster Swamp.

in this pic.  to the right is the second forest yard for Sunny Ray and Jack Flash.  The one with deer fencing that they summarily escaped.  Just beyond it is the way down to Campsite B.  To the left,  across from Tay is the Chicken World and Tenzen/Nogal's forest.  You can see two bales of alfalfa.  Those orange buckets are what i fill with Goat manure/compost and take here and there.  Each evening Tay and Puppy and i walk down to A and water.  Make our way back up.  We go up and down at other times too,  but for sure,  each evening.  It's almost a Full Moon.

Tonight i worked on a watering barrier around the Fig.   It's been running off.   down.  Has been ok,  but only ok.  Needs the barrier so i can let it trickle,  let it seep in.  I think it's good now.  4x4s and rocks.  The two trees we planted,  a Hosui Pear and Apricot Plumcot  are good today.  No sign of shock.  It was cooler.  Only high 90's.   The Hydrangea has stem buds.  

Today was Fate's evaluation in Sacramento.  He's on the "spectrum".  There was the thought that anything it is was from prenatal drug use.  Which ordinarily resolves around 3 yrs.  But they have placed him "on the spectrum".  Autism.  Ok.  I am even more glad we got into the creek.    Alyssia and Emrie come back on Wednesday.    Her  (Emrie's) father's mother,  her Houston Grandma,  took her to church yesterday to "formally introduce her to the congregation".   I have to wait to hear from Alyssia what all that  entailed....??????  Don't know what kind of church.   But Alyssia was going to Walmart to buy a dress.

am sitting on the step of the travel trailer writing this.  A dragonfly came and sat on the screen.

 

distance and time

i am a slow bloomer.  i take time.    This is looking out, down the slope to the Hut site at B.  I am where i often sit these days,  above,  over through the trees from the Travel Trailer at C.  Where it is cooler and where there is always the at least small breeze.  Sometimes Wind.  But shade.

for the first time today,  i brought this laptop friend OUT Here.  I brought the phone,  which connects me to the Internet.  With what i imagine is the new additional tower,  Verizon has hooked me In and i can sit here,  on the Earth,  in leaf  and pine needle mulched ground and 

write this.  I have been here,  over an hour,  going back and answering the comments of the last few posts.  Sun has traveled across the sky.  Wind has rustled branches,  leaves have fluttered down,  black butterflies and black and yellow butterflies have passed near.   

Sitting here,  there's been NO insects,  other than the butterflies.  No ants even.  None.  There is so much i want to learn.  When i change the water for the chicken Talkie,  under her water bottle are small ants.  So...ants ARE here.  When i forget and leave the door window open in the travel trailer,  flies come in to drive me nuts.  But no flies here.   No ants.  No spiders.  No ticks.  Just earth and trees and wind and dappled sunlight

So, from where i'm sitting,  down the SLOPE 80 some feet,  is that first crossbeam of the frame of the hut.  Then,  across the 14 ft of the whole frame to another maybe 15 ft of flat and then a maybe 20 ft of drop slope to the road/driveway and 20 feet across that to the rim for some maybe 20 more feet of a gentle slope to the edge of the drop off that dives down to the creek/canal.  

There is a board pointing up toward the middle of the photograph...to trees...and these are the Tops of trees probably 40/50 ft tall that are growing on that final slide down to the creek.  If you can see a small light square in those trees,  at the center of the pic directly up from the extending board....that is some building...miles away...and up as the valley rises in that distance.  The sky....the green line and the blue sky....these are MANY MANY miles away and UP.

Does this make any sense?

This morning we planted Alyssia's two trees in holes that Jenny had made with the rented Excavator  yesterday.  It digs through the rocks.  They had rented to continue the trench for the water line.  That was yesterday.  If we had dug the holes for the two trees with a shovel and pick it would have taken a couple days.   Sunday morning is also drop off day for Fate.  His father brings him and daughter Jenny,  his grandmother,  delivers him to his mother.  Shared custody.  Every week.  So usually he needs to be returned on time,  but we needed the early day to plant the trees and asked if he could stay a while.  Ok.  So he helped in his almost 3 year way to Give water to the hole,  to water the landscape tubs with the trees.  As we worked,  adding some of the Goat Manure compost to the holes,  getting the planting depth correct,   easing the root ball from the pots,  the Sun rose and we were sweating and hot...we took off his shirt.  Wanted to take off our own.   When we were finished,  we went to sit by the canal/creek in the shade,  Fate with his usual loved pastime of throwing stones into the water,  but it was approaching 100 degrees and i moved to sit on the metal culvert and brought him down to sit between my legs.  We dangled our feet in the water.    And i thought....why not?    and moved him with instructions to WAIT....and got IN.   It was over my waist and i reached up and lifted him down and IN too....he was startled and thrilled and i told him to splash and kick and i splashed and it was ok because Jenny was there to save us if we got too crazy.   And i was filled with joy.

this is what i wanted to come for.  To be here NOW for.  While i can still do these things.  While i can be the only adult so far to GET IN the creek,  they say it's very cold...it's not,  it's a fast flowing creek,  and  it's just FOR getting In to....and when we were done,  my wet clothes kept me cool for hours.    I am day by day more aware of how incredibly amazing a gift all this is.  That i had the courage to let go.  To take the risk.  

 

      

 

 

the cloth line

on the day of Solstice i put up this small cloth line.    This taking way longer than ever before.  I guess because of having no idea about the  "house".   It's shape even,  it's orientation.  Where would the door be?   But it seemed now time.  Some pieces of baling twine tied together strung between 3 small tree trunks.    Along the East side of the slope where i'd begun clearing a path to replace the original one i'd been using that had become too worn and slippery.   I had to cut away dead branches for that.  Maybe that's what gave the momentum for the Line to be strung?   And then,  i realized i had no clothes pins.  and realized further that i didn't Bring my clothes pins,  that most likely they are still where i left them at the Other Place...on That clothes line.  Which brought forth a lot of memory....that thing of Slide Show....still images,  one after another...click....click....click....

I don't hear from Travis and Everett.  They're not much for communicating.  Everett has a FaceBook page but he pretty much just marks his moods.  Sometimes what game he's into.  Or that he made a macaroni salad.  Mostly it's just about his moods.  He has many ups and then downs.  He doesn't mention the place.  So...all this led to my calling Travis who says everything is good.  That they have planted trees and that the lizards and "frogs" (eeeee,  toads)  are good.   That Wheat,  the underhouse kitten has kittens of her own...under the house.  That they are fine.   I guess.

so this clothesline here.  Strung now.  And today being Go To Town day,  i stop on the way back at the hardware and buy some clothes pins.

 

 

 

 

 

hand

i've never stitched on new commercial fabric.  it's cotton.  but it's new and the "hand",  that there is,  is dense and stiff.  There is no Give.    I began the stitching across the top and usually by the second row the rivulets begin to appear,  the third  for sure,  but here,  not.  I wanted to quit. Let it go.  Change it.  But  for some reason,  i also want to continue.   Sat outside,  on the ground,  up in the shaded forest place above B.   Continued.   It was over 100 today, but there, a small breeze.   An easiness.  The Families remain a constant in my heart  all the while.  Now and then i'd come in and check the news of Them.    Go back and stitch.   Feel what it feels like to be doing Nothing...what that feels like.  Just feeling it.  

The Wall Garden gives food.  For breakfast i had chard and radish pods stir fried in sesame chili oil.    I've never experienced radish pods before.   We only ate So Many radishes and many have gone to seed...long almost vines.  Seed pods,  like small pea pods.  As i water i eat them  just as they are.  Stir fried they are excellent.  I think how incredibly Lucky i am to be living this life.

 

 

 

 

 

half way around. Solstice.

we arrived here,  at the New Place,  ten days before Winter Solstice.  Time has passed.  Days.  Days are time.  Time is a life.  a life is days.  

this morning,  on the way Down to campsite A,  to look at the Fig Tree,  Puppy of course came.  Puppy always comes.  Always.  Everywhere you are,  Puppy is there.  100%.   So...thinking back to Puppy.

Puppy Merced Hill.  Merced...phonetically,  mer said,  spanish for Mercy.  but here,  Merced for her birthplace...Merced Califrnia.  Somewhere near a dumpster at a gas station.  The story can be retold.  

We are stopping for gas...the All of Us,  Three Vehicles,  many drivers,  a dog,  an old cat,  a months old baby,  i am out,  in the bright lit parking lot with Tay on a 20ft lead, hoping she will pee.  Wandering. Hoping.  As we pass a dumpster,  a small shape moves and comes into the light.  Small kitten.  Moves into the light.  Tay lunges. Small kitten just stands.  Pulling back on Tay.  Daughter Jenny walks up....looks,  says we should take it.  I say No.  We begin to walk away and the small kitten comes forward,  following us.    As all the gassing up is completed,  daughter tosses small kitten into the Old Cowboys truck.  Back seat.  Where the Old Cat Tazmeena is in a carrier.  Kitten digs in.  Goes to sleep.  

Morning.  We have arrived.  To the Somewhere.  Kitten has been put in the Toyota pickup for the night.  Given a towel and a little bowl of canned food...we are not sure she is weaned.    She shit neatly on the floor mat.  Ate the food.  We let her out.  And as i walk this Place for the FirstTime,  with my daughter,  my granddaughter,  my great granddaughter,  my dog,  there comes Puppy.   Tiny.  Coming.  Coming Along.  Like a puppy.  and so it is.  So She is.  Puppy.  Puppy Merced Hill.

Months have passed. Winter with it's Rain.  Spring with the burgeoning of GREEN,  and now,  on into Summer.  Where ever anyone is,  Puppy is.  Puppy is with the Goats.  Puppy is with the chickens and then now with the last chicken.  Puppy is with who ever arrives down at the Gate at A.  If i happen to leave the door open,  Puppy spends the night inside the Camper Trailer.  Puppy is Everywhere.  Puppy just goes.  No guarantees.  No forordained.   And she is Everywhere.