Fragments From Floyd

I would say that I stay fairly busy. There are never any days I hang around here listless, wondering what the heck can I do to entertain myself. Trouble is, most of what I find to do these days is done with my butt in a chair, letting my fingers do the walking. Ann prys me out of the seat a couple of times a day to accompany her on one of many sanity-walks, but that is hardly a cardiovascular workout...

...unless we do "heart attack hill" or make the berrypatch loop. In terms of practical exercise, we are doing little with this place other than maintaining: we cut the grass, keep a bit of garden, find enough firewood to get us through winter. Should we create more of a working farm here? We have water, space, and time. Do I have the will to give it away to goats, chickens, meat rabbits, a few head of cattle?

Yesterday after visiting the Bent Mountain Library where I'll be speaking a week from tonight, I was invited to the nearby farm-home-managery of a fellow I met many years ago just once, a biology teacher, at a wildflower rally. We stood in one of his fenced enclosures and chatted about goat genetics; he's created some novel coat colors, it seems.

An alpaca (one of about 20) stood very close behind me and nibbled at my neck; I wondered if that same mouth was capable of taking off a stranger's ear, but managed to stand fast, and chat as if alpacas always nibbled my neck. Two (of about 20) pygmy goats stood either side of me with their front hooves on my hips while they nibbled on my shirt tail. The great white Pyrenees dog nuzzled at my hand to be petted, as a half dozen white pigeons circled in the pine branches overhead. The newest goats had just been dehorned. A baby alpaca born that morning was nursing aggressively as the milk just started filling momma's utters. So much life, so many things going on, such energy.

But how much of my waning energy do I want to sacrifice to live among assorted critters? And how much expense? Keeping goats would require very good fencing, and shelter, and a place to store feed, and constant vigilance against wild dogs, and vet bills and...I don't particularly care for goats milk. We have neighbors not a mile away that could sell it to us if we did.

On the other hand, having a meat source, or eggs, might be an asset worth the effort. I'm just thinking, and have the sense that it's time to move into a different pattern, lift up out of the comfortable rut, turn the wheel with whatever effort is required and see where things might go without the forces of habit and least effort. Vision. I need vision. Maybe I'll climb Heart-attack Hill and watch the sun go down later today, and see what I see from a high place.