goats, chickens, snow

I haven't mentioned the dogs and cats for they are not the effort of chickens and goats - and infinitely better company. Snow exponentially compounds the effort. Cleared a bit of yard for my chickens and big yellow huffington buffinton rooster poked out - haven't seen much activity beyond the door. not planning on hiking again up to blue house coop until closing time, though i am sure that they would love me to clear a spot of yard for them - maybe tomorrow. here's Huffy on his perch!

chickens and goats 2

well, goats weren't just sliding under the fence: i watched Sonrise jump over the fence and manage to miss hanging up in the barbwire. so i gathered skinned cherry branches to weave between the fence and barbwire. outsmarting goats is not something i counted on doing with my education. what did i think i would do with my education? i don't think i pictured long term plans.

chickens and goats

No snow coating the ground this morning, huge relief as I had left my car here. Looks like my gamble to open the vent to the green house at Blue house was a good one - tho sun peek-a-booing thru snow flurries. Now to walk the goats who yesterday nosed under their fence; well, only the smaller two, Sonrisa and Pablo. They were easily convinced back with biscuit and i pulled more pine boughs across the bottom of the fence to keep them in. Will be waiting impatiently for chicken Patience to go in tonight as I've friends to meet in Blacksburg for a movie! ayeeeee!
all the ice was gone from the river bank yesterday, taken by the very high mudlucious river...imagine it will be lower this morning.

chicken dither

Patience I name this smallest of barred rock hens
Last to tack into the lit coop door!



(I tried to scream her in the coop, but no, she took 5 minutes longer than the rest to roost)

missing the obvious

I can remember running around my grandmother's house looking for her glasses in hopes of earning a nickle;yesterday evening after returning home from a delicious meal and wonderful company at Dave and Nancy's, I spent an hour off and on looking for my tea cup - this morning i found the cup in the microwave. dah. But missing the obvious has come to be more important when studying homeopathy - like not getting lost in the minutia of symptoms (like looking for my cup in my library which is way too crowded with books and things!). Remembering to look for what needs to be fixed: like seeing the person frantic for their glasses standing there with them ontop of her head! People come to a homeopath today taking many supplements or pharmaceuticals for this and for that - it is easy to be overwhelmed by the list. I have to stop and look again at the person sitting in front of me. How does she express herself - literally looking at facial expressions, at posture, at clothes...And then asking questions which reveal habits/behaviors, clues to finding a remedy. I had retraced my steps in my house, but failed to recall that i often warmed my tea in the microwave! (I know, microwaves are not good for one!)

a beach

i was in sand today
shoving ice pieces into the river
there was no sun visible
it was raining ice from the warming branches


not much like DR!

disappointment

no sunday paper in box after 1/2 mile hike
raises anger like no letter for a month
when you'd asked, that was all I had requested

no, I lie: no letter was expected
no paper, not

no paper pisses me off
no letter just confirms despair
at having spent 20 years with a man
who reads only his astrology.


(the paper man had a wreck, he answered his cell
in the hospital on IVs; i wished him well
apologized for phoning)

wasn't there a song: Nowhere man?

I've learned it wasn't in the stars
yet you still sit there on the couch
invisible in silence held to the book
not my God who wouldn't have allowed
his day to be diminished by watching TV or gambling or golf
no your God of penis and End days

I've learned I was driven near crazy
by your thirstless lack of curiosity, disdain of change
that your presence collects in pools of memory
that can be smudged off by work
as inane as vacuuming or walk

I've learned in this one month
that I can miss you and not
can heft a 50lb bag of feed
without cursing your sorry no ass
the cats are happier by half
I've survived 30 days of snow and ice
BE GONE ghost




(work in progress!)

8 degrees

this is the coldest morning yet, tho we're due for high 30's this afternoon!
I doubt this cold has killed plants here, but my son alerted me to the kill that must be
in Houston, New Orleans - all along the gulf Coast

I am to town today: meeting, errands, dinner at Gilley's and PRECIOUS
making up for missing Ann's dinner last week

ABC

DD's Miss Spider's ABCs has got to be the strangest book of its genre - NO W or X!! makes you want to write/draw one - next snowed in project. Friend of mine's daughter who is pregnant with a girl, was told by her mother in law that little girls can't wear black ("it's a rule," she said); so we're on the hunt now for little girl, especially infant, wear in black!

After the Ice Storm

No electricity for a week and boarding a plane
Took a shower at a friends, packed what was clean
Felt like walking out of a cave
into civilization charade
How we must sound to the homeless
talking of Olympics, talking business
carrying money, carrying a ticket
destination on the pavement
look purposeful, look like couldn't stop to understand.


mhn

(wrote this in 90's, but it seems close now - tho fortunately we have power!)

Christmas tree tale

Perhaps it was the wine that drove me to dismantle the cedar tree
on New Year's Eve - after all the ornaments were carefully removed
with each sometimes recalcitrant hook
the lights unwoven, scattering more needles
I shoved the bare bones out the door.
the next morning as I noticed remains I thought of goats
but then it was so dry, that night I dragged it
to the goat yard
this morning it is bare.