Home for the Summer
☆ July 11, 2011
not bad for a cellphone pic, eh?
The Farmily Tree
☆ July 11, 2011
The Farmily is getting big. I’ve had so many requests for a tree, so here is my attempt: in order of appearance, including year of birth + year joining the Farmily. Click on each name to go to a photo/post on each member.
The Farmily:
Eli ~ Cat ~ born 2006, joined 2006
Charlie ~ Coyote ~ born 2007, joined 2007
Ranger ~ Quarterhorse ~ born 1999, joined 2007
Chloe ~ Border Collie/Mountain Cur Hound ~ born 2008, joined 2008
{mother: Pita, father: John, see extended Farmily}
Daisy ~ Brown Swiss/Jersey Cow ~ born 2006, joined 2009
Sir Baby ~ Black Angus Bull ~ born 2009, joined 2009 {adopted mother: Daisy}
Flicka ~ Quarterhorse ~ born 2006, joined 2009
Frisco ~ Holstein/Brown Swiss Steer ~ born 2009 {mother: Daisy}
Rue ~ Cat ~ born 2003, joined 2010
Mushy ~ Cat ~ born 2010, joined 2010 {mother: Rue, father: presumably Eli}
Kettle ~ Cat ~ born 2010, joined 2010 {mother: Rue, father: presumably Eli}
Fiona ~ Brown Swiss/Angus Calf ~ born 2011 {mother: Daisy, father: Sir Baby}
The Extended Farmily:
Ricardo ~ Goose ~ age unknown ~ RIP 2011
Houdini ~ Quarterhorse ~ 1981-2011
Sunshine ~ Paint Horse ~ born 1985
Rocky ~ Angus Bull ~ born 2004
Ervin ~ Angus Bull ~ born 2006, joined 2009
John ~ Border Collie ~ born 2000
Pita ~ Mountain Cur Hound ~ born 2006
Black ~ Cat ~ born 2010
Blue ~ Cat born 2010
Trailin’ Up
☆ July 9, 2011
So Here’s The Dealio ~
☆ July 7, 2011
Admission: when I write posts, I pretend that no one will ever read them; it’s the only way I can do it. And I guess I half-believe it at this point because I had no idea there would be so many questions about details!
So, to answer:
Re/ EMT ~ I’ll be bringing my pager with me and keeping it charged via solar as well. I’ll actually be closer than the ambulance to any calls that might occur on the mountain, the mountain highway, and the National Forest. I won’t make it to any calls that occur in town but will be able to help on anything that takes place on the mountain (and it sounds like the bulk of summer calls are up there, anyway).
Re/ the Farmily ~ Ricardo is not coming to the mountain, his favorite cow is one of the Special Project cows that stay down here all summer. As for the rest of them, it should go without saying that I would not be doing this if I thought it would traumatize any of them or put them in any greater danger than they are down here. Duh, right?
I think they’ll love it. The cows and horses will have knee-high grass and no bothersome flies. Eli has moved with me three times, Charlie twice, and Chloe once. They’ve never shown distress with any move and I believe that new experiences are really good for them ~ it allows them to use their brains in a different way.
I will be taking a camp trailer up the mountain and I pulled it right next to my house back in April, so that all the animals could have plenty of time to get used to it and associate it with “home.” All have spent much time in the trailer over the past months and it’s just an extension of home at this point, and will be a measure of consistency up there.
I will be setting up a fenced area on the mountain for Charlie (and Chloe) though they’ll also be allowed freedom there, too. The fenced area I have down here is not to keep Charlie from running away, it’s to keep him from getting shot by strangers or the ignorant, and to keep him from hurting anyone (he’s not demonstrated aggression against others, but just to be safe). He’s a coyote, but he is no more likely to “run away” than Chloe is. Which is to say, not at all.
Rue, Kettle, and Mushy have never roamed further than 100 yards from the house since they moved in. They’re homebodies. I expect that to continue up there, too. I hope Eli does not get eaten by a bear on the mountain, just as I hope he does not get hit by a car or killed by a pair of raccoons down here.
Mike once said it perfectly ~ their home is where you are.
Can I get an “Awwwww”?!
Re/ the baño ~ Outhouse!
The Process Of Doing
☆ July 6, 2011
I am so exhausted right now (or, I was last night, when I started writing this post and could not finish; I’m sure the feeling will return by the midnight hours).
I’ve noticed that every time I do something “drastic,” I go through certain phases, in a certain order. I am filled with pure excitement, pure belief, when the idea hits. This carries for a while, and transitions into a slightly calmer but still fueled-by-excitement organizational phase. Then, when I’m hip-deep into making arrangements to put the plan into action, the terror strikes. I am pummeled, not so much by fears but by the discomfort of change. I float for a few days in ‘what the f*ck was I thinking?’ but continue to work on arrangements – and this is mostly due to momentum, not some noble strength – though perhaps without the calm and without the excitement that had fueled it previously. And, through that continued action, it always happens that the anxieties run their course and are simply gone one day, poof, and I enjoy another period of calm-excited preparation, this one cut short when it dawns on me that the time to actually go draws nearer by the second and I still have 400,000 things to do in order to be ready.
And so begins the panic phase, the manic phase, which I’m in right now, and it’s miserable; this phase is always miserable. It’s a race against time and the body’s energy capacity but the beauty of this stage, the gift of this stage, is that it ends when the adventure begins. Not a moment before and not a moment after. And it is such a relief to be done with this particular stage that the adventure itself begins with an absolutely glittering feeling of lightness, of bliss, of flying without even having to work at it ~ not because the adventure is easy but because the contrast from the panic phase is so drastic, and heading off into the adventure feels a lot like being released.
Misc:
Today (yesterday) I finally got a cell phone after not having one for six years.
I think I will miss ice more than I will miss a flush toilet.
MY NEW BOOK!
More, Elsewhere
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