For you, Chauncey Gardner!

There is a voice for every animal here at the farm.  I can hear them plainly in my mind!  They can speak to me so clearly, I’d like to turn them down a notch or two…

My one and only true objective in this lifetime is to serve their needs.  From the moment I hit the floor until the time I don’t get up again, I am supplying the food needs and nutrition of my little tribe, here on the farm.  Or maybe I should say, our little pack…. omg!?  Within my spiritual quest, I recently read that once we choose an animal, to be with us, we have bestowed upon them the opportunity and the responsibility of becoming human in their next lifetime!  This pleases me immensely because it certainly would explain a lot!  hahaha 

In my mind’s eye, when Abigale passes over, she will once again rejoin her spiritual pack of duck hunting dogs!  Of course, in this lifetime, she is only a very humble rat terrier yet just chocker-block full of all kinds of amazing working dog and hunting dog breeds, not to mention the terrier, which is made of pure audacity!  Old Jim calls her out when she’s being like “the old school marm” which was in olden days, the one and only town schoolteacher.  Aren’t words just delightful?  How they connect us,  follow along with us?  How they do change…

Of course the conversation is not at all one-sided, my clan knows many words and phases, which are always authenticated with proper intonation!  I can become so connected with this little pack of rat terriers and aussie mix dogs, among others…  that at night in the dark, on our nightly promenade, my sounds and my bird calls can cause quite a stir, not to mention a few squirrel chirps, which brings to mind the word “cut!”  That didn’t work, it’s embarrasing, really…  there’s no squirrels up at this hour!  They are tucked away snugly in the old abandoned raccoon tree, the one that was hit by lightning and now lays in two humongous pieces, like broken arms of some ancient extinct creature upon the ground, sad, but home to the likes of any self-respecting squirrel during the dark hours. 

Abi has bird dog in her blood, as I have seen pictures now of hounds, with her exact coloring, a light red-head, spotted she is…  her aunts and uncles no doubt of great birding lineage.  The dead give-away is when she stops and picks up her foot, holding it up, staring straight ahead, pointing…  a little rat terror that points! 

Abi had a few babies in her day, she saved my life more than once clearly.  I remember the last pregnancy I allowed, laying up into the late evening rubbing her pear-shaped belly, telling her she was going to have some pretty babies.  She learned the word “babies” and was always the very proud mother.  But for some reason I noticed that one of her babies, and maybe others too, was prone to shaking, just like a chihuahua will do, as if his poor nerves were just shot!  hahaha

I hope those babies made it okay!  It always took every ounce of fortitude I could muster to let them go out of my hands, so tiny and innocent they were, so adorable and dependent! 

The best time I can remember, well, just one of them, these two guys showed up out at Irene’s farm, where I was staying, in a big one-ton dually,  flat-bed work truck, to see the latest little litter of babies.  These belonged to Abi’s little sister, Cleo.  Of course, you always have your favorites, you just can’t help it.  And this was one of those times.  Both guys gravitate right toward the two smartest, the two bravest, and the two I had invested the most time into, much to my horror as a mom! 

One guy was older, crusty, hard as stone in a wiry older kind of way, clothes far too worn and tired, like he was.  But when he smiled, oh my goodness.  The twinkle in his eye could light you up!  The obvious spray of wrinkles across his sunburned cheek just emphasized these sparkling eyes.  This guy had humor and insight for days! 

The other guy was younger, bigger, stronger by far, just by sheer youth alone.  He was completely bearded, with soft curly hair behind his ears and to his shoulders, wearing of course, overalls.  No shirt.  Enough to make a girl of any background swoon.  Which did not help in the least to negotiate price and payment much less giving up these two special babies…  but I guess, in hindsight, they were all very special!  hehe

Yes, I let them take my favorites, the smallest, and the smartest.  With a much reduced price, I might add, Half-Off my regular price, to be exact.  I will say this:  Even though I am not, nor ever was, in the business of breeding puppies, I can only hope and pray that those babies that I sent out into the world were able to bring even one small bit of the joy that their parents have brought me and the rest of us, here at the farm. 

Abi is getting on up in her years these days, and she’s as lazy as pie.  With all this brutal heat day after long day, she is loathe to leave her Serenade Pillow-Top spot on Jim’s bed, right by the old AC unit, the prime real estate in that room.  I can help her with her transitions, such as with glucosamine for doggies, and proper exercise and attention.  It’s a new commitment I have made for both of us. 

I’m sure before it’s all said and done, Abi and I have lots more squirrels to bark at and ducks to chase by the pond.  It’s not a pretty sight, much like that movie Hope Floats with Harry Connick Jr. and Sandy B., of Austin notoriety, in the scene where she watches her mother out the window down in the water with the ducks, and the yellow lab chasing the ducks, and barking…  and she’s shouting “Bad Dog!  Bad Dog!”  It’s classic and now I use it all the time, of course.  🙂

Tonite, at Chez Cissy’s Farmhouse Bistro, we had tiny slices of organic celery stalks, in olive oil with thin round slices of gold organic potatos, onion and spices, fresh basil, just a little, a few green peas from the freezer for good measure, and then topped off with a creamy milk gravy with more celery.  Oh, and I forgot, the reason for the goodness, the splurge:  thin slices of barely frozen beef, a chiffonade of beef in Worchestershire Sauce, caramelized with the vegies first, of course, then added.  Yes, the smells were pretty supreme!  When Old Jim comes in afterwards and starts putting leftovers up, you know it was pretty good!  I always sneak some good bites to all the critters too, just the meat parts usually, as I am not supposed to be eating that.  (Got to be more disciplined!)  It’s just hard to give up making great meals flavored with good cuts of meat from time to time!  I know, I am sooo bad.  Cholesterol, ethical concerns, health concerns, I know!!! 

What I learned this week!  “All true artists must experience struggle in their life.”  I must have been channelling a new friend this week, because I started a new blog, that seems to be all about her!  Maybe it is my undeniable intent to write a blog about a truely authentic artist, which in this case, doesn’t happen to be me.  I’m one of those…  ooohh,  I hate to use the term:  “Jack-of-all-Trades.”  Yiiicchhh, there… I said it.  Yes, I play a little music, understand and appreciate frequencies and the history of music totally,  from many perspectives, I might add.  I am a true lover of Art, my favorite being the Impressionists of France.  I’m crazy over the Art Deco era, loving the architecture, the glamour, the celebrities, the high style!  My favorite artist is Renoir, but he is laughing hysterically at me creating such a blog as to infer that I myself might be an artist. 

It is said that if you don’t focus into one specialty, then you will be master of none.  That is my curse.  As for my new friend, I have clearly only begun to scratch the surface of what may lie beneath!  This is a true artist, and one with a true style developed that shows in everything she does.  As everyone probably knows, I am just a total all things equine maniac!  So it might not surprise you that I just happened to mention to her about a painting of horses, or of a horse.  She has a little fuzzy white dog with incredibly expressive eyes!  Oh, the stories those two could tell, I bet! 

Well I just wanted to say that I have made a few honest attempts at forming the new blog I’ve been incubating…  now I have one totally rejected draft, and the new one, totally inexplainable to me at this point, but I’m working on it!  🙂

So I pray you keep the home fires burning, the candle in the window, the pot of coffee on the stove, and the biscuits in the oven!  There’s lots more to come, if I can just get myself in gear!  Cleo and Abi say “amen!”  And that sure was some tastey gravey tonight, Mom!  Good night!