Color magnet....

Sow rick-rack, get more rick-rack!

A new friend, Carolina, who is a Huichol Indian made me a traditional Huichol skirt and blouse. The skirt is turquoise and the blouse is red and there are circles of rick-rack in blue, green and yellow around the skirt and blouse. It is a BIG dose of color. I can't wear it without swirling and curtsying and smiling! Huichol art is rich in psychedelic color and imagery because the use of peyote is part of their religion. Everything they make from their personal clothing, jewelry, weaving and the things they make to sell are an expression of their religion. All of their art is sacred art. Their designs show an innocence and simplicity in their view of nature and the world. It's unabashedly innocent too which is refreshing in contrast to the world of art which force-feeds us ugly things that only the cool find cool. Better to BE art un-self-consciously, to celebrate plants and animals and friendship in primary colors. I'm telling you, color is speaking to me!

Zany zesty zigzag

Remember rick-rack? The trim that your mom sewed on curtains and aprons and around the hem of your little-girl dresses? Well, I'm crazy for it.

I've been changed by living in Mexico where colorful embellishment is without restraint, in fact it is celebrated all the way to the grave where the cemeteries are filled with brightly painted monuments and plastic flowers.

I recently found a cache of rick-rack in every color under the sun. I bought 2 meters of every color and proceeded to sew rings of zigzaggy color around all my skirts. I started looking for other things that could use more colorful rick-rack: pillows, place-mats, Wally's overalls, a collar for Winky...it's a good thing I ran out or Wally would have had to take it away from me. Like candy to a kid - I couldn't get enough!

This celebration of color is a way of life in Mexico where everything everywhere is vivid-isimo. But for me it has more to do with the state of mind I've come to. I'm joy-full of the ordinary, everyday kinds of joys; small things...like rick-rack.

Learning from a chick...

So many times when working in nature I stumble over something that speaks to me on a soul-level. One of the benefits of working alone is that the job at hand has your full attention and simultaneously you have your thoughts. The work shows me things and engages me and sometimes there's a memorable conversation.

It happened the other day. Wally brought in a tiny cottonball chick that was looking very droopy. The mother hen is very young and not experienced in raising little ones. We had noticed that sometimes she's rough or negligent. This little peeper looked like it was left out in the cold.

I was hurrying through my chores so I could get out the door early to pick up the neighbor's dogs and open the doors of the vet clinic. I have nursed many a chick and there's no way to do it in a hurry. They need to be warm and have a little beak-full of water every few minutes. If you think they will get better by themselves they usually don't. It's that live, warm contact that makes the difference. I thought, "It's just a chick - I don't have time to take care of more" and then I didn't like myself. In that moment I changed - I decided instead to put my whole heart into caring for it and let the rest of what needed to be done just carry me on my way. So I made a soft little diaper from the sleeve of a t-shirt, lined it with a paper napkin, folded it around the chick and slipped the little bundle between my breasts. It was just the right fit, the little chick could breathe and was softly snuggled and I could keep a careful eye on it. It made little trills to let me know it was happy.

I worked in the clinic checking in the first rush of dogs and cats that morning and no one noticed my little patient. Wally and I came home and the little chick made a nest in Wally's chest hairs slowly making it's way under his beard. Our dog Lucy has always wanted a chick of her own and she lay between Wally's legs scooting up his stomach keeping close proximity to our peeper. Wally can cheep really well and he cheeped away at the peeper and Lucy. Though he had many things to do too, he chick-sat while I prepared lunch. Some twenty minutes later the little peeper became very still, closed its eyes and suddenly died. We were surprised! We were confident that he was getting stronger.

I'm glad we gave it a good ending. I'm glad for me too. I'm glad that I had the extra moment to re-choose to be tender. We can choose to do anything with our hearts engaged but it means slowing down, turning off the excuse-reasoning and opening into the mystery to make contact and attend to what is needed now. Life is not a problem to be solved. Every dimension of life, its gains and its losses, are opportunities that brings us closer to being more alive. It is a blessing waiting to be celebrated.

That's what the peeper told me.

Happy people- happy dogs...

Today was the final day of our spay and neuter clinic. We treated 95 dogs and cats these last 4 days! That's nearly 200 animals in 8 days. These were a few of our "clients".

Dog tired...

This week was extra busy because in addition to my daily farm chores I volunteered at a spay and neuter clinic for dogs and cats in San Blas. We have a problem in Mexico with too many uncared for animals on the streets so the gringo community got together to provide free veterinarian clinics. We raise the money to pay for vets and meds, receive training and volunteer. It's all done through an organization called PEACE here in Mexico. This was the third clinic held in our area. You may have seen some photos on our blog from the clinic in Aticama last March. This week in San Blas we treated 77 dogs and cats and next week we have a 4-day clinic in Aticama. These clinics build a bridge between North American and Mexican relations as well as improving the lives of animals. It's a lot of work and a lot of fun. At the end of the day I was dog-tired!

Our six dogs, all rescued, missed the usual routine of following me around the house and farm. They were so glad to have me home all day and I told them what lucky dogs they are! Amaranth

Cottonballs with legs

Hello Junko, here are more stories about chickens and such. I had a quiet day with the chickens, neglecting my other duties. I worked on finishing the baby pen. The little chicks look like black and white cotton-balls with toothpicks for legs. Short toothpicks. The babies are very curious and get into every nook and cranny of their environment. They need a world that is smooth with small openings. Today one of the babies got in between the wooden crate that they sleep in and the fencing. The crate was very close to the fence with just enough of a narrow passage to inspire a curious baby to explore. It soon found out it was a one way alley with no way to turn around. The exit was in view when it got too small for even a cotton-ball to pass through. It struggled and pushed managing to get its leg stuck in the mesh of the wire. I was working in another part of the pen at the time but my "mothers intuition" kicked in and I went to check on them. I had this funny feeling something was wrong. I checked and only saw two babies. I could hear an occasional peep but couldn't see where it was coming from. Their little peeps have a ventriloquist quality. It jumps all over the place making it difficult to pin down where they are. I moved all the rocks holding down the bottom of the fence but no baby. I searched for 5 minutes but couldn't locate it. It quit peeping so I couldn't zero in on it. I'm the good shepherd and didn't give up and finally noticed a dark spot near the bottom of the crate. I gently moved the crate and waited for it to run off. It stayed by the wire. Then I noticed a tiny little foot stuck through the wire. I went and got my wire cutters and did some very delicate cutting. After about 6 careful snips it hopped free and seemed none the worse for the experience. It didn't have a limp which is a relief. I moved their bedroom out away from the fencing and looked the whole pen over for possible problems. I think we're in good shape. Tonight I noticed that the mom is sleeping in the corner on some soft grass I brought for them so tomorrow the crate is out.

After I mow the lawn I rake up the grass and spread it around the chicken pens. They love to eat the fresh greens and spread it around with their chicken dance. It also makes good nesting material. The mothers make wonderful, cozy nests to lay their eggs in hatch their newborn chicks.

This evening I went out and sat with Hiromi and Helena, our geese along with Nancy the duck. It was dusk and the night sounds were starting. I watched Hiromi listen to each sound with caution seeking to sense any danger. He doesn't yet know how safe his world is. I'm hoping in time he'll know and relax into a deep goose sleep. They nap a lot during the day with their heads tucked under their wings. They feel safe when I'm there.

Their world has all the essential elements of the human world but without the maliciousness. I love my time with them. The work is hard but satisfying with amazing moments like when a chicken decides to perch on my shoulder or take a rest on the back of my leg while kneeling to fix something. It's a joy to spend some time with some chickens. It takes a little time for them to accept you. They're suspicious but they learn to trust us and in time find all sorts of handy uses for us such as moving rocks so that they can eat the bugs hiding underneath. When I'm walking around the farm and find a grub or bug I grab them and make a trip to the chicken pen. They all come running. It's a wonderful feeling to be the star of a small world. Well, time for me to hit the nest. Bye for now. Wally

The Hawk Came Back

The hawk came back It got one hen in the morning. We found the hen dead inside the coop and at first we weren't sure what had happened. In the evening I went back to close the chickens in for the night and all the chickens were outside the coop staring at it. It reminded me of the scenes you see where all the neighbors are in the street looking at a house where some crime has happened. I went in and the hawk was inside. I shut the door behind me and called to Amaranth to bring a fishing net. The hawk was doing his best to escape but he was trapped. Amaranth brought the net and I netted him. It was at that point we saw that it had killed another hen. It only ate their heads and left the rest. Seems it was some sort of a gourmet. I carried the hawk out and planned to put it in a cage to relocate it. I'd only gone a few steps when it cut a hole in the net and escaped. It ran up to the plastic mesh fence and managed to slice the fence and escape in a flash. I was furious because I knew he'd be back. I didn't sleep well that night because it upset me to think of our hens dying in such a manner. I also was trying to figure out what to do.

The next day I started remodeling the pens. I kept all of the birds locked in their houses and went to work on covering the pens with chicken wire. I've spent the past week working from dawn to dusk and they turned out wonderfully. Now all of them have large areas to sleep and eat. I'm also going to cover the area in front of their pens so they'll have a huge area all enclosed. The hawk will have to go to MacDonalds for lunch from now on.

On the same day the 2 hens were killed one of the new chicks was also killed but not by the hawk. I think one of the grumpy hens got it. I've seen her give them a good shake when she can catch them. I made a new, fully-enclosed pen for the babies to keep them isolated until they're a month or two old. They're happy and can have their rice and special food without the other chickens getting it.

We are going to start planting our vegetable gardens this week so I need to finish "Chicken World." Well, that's about it for the news. We'll keep you posted. Wally