More goats at Willamette View

Eating their favorite delicacy, blackberries, for yet another day. On the banks of the muddy Willamette River in Portland Oregon, 20 goats make fast work converting a tangle of prickly blackberry bushes to organic fertilizer.

Every goat has a name. I rather doubt there's a "Billy," or even a "Gruff." I'll have to ask the Goat Girl

Casey Brewer 
West Side Goat Girl LLC 
360.798.5878 
http://www.wsgoatgirl.com 
https://www.facebook.com/pages/West-Side-Goat-Girl-LLC/197107650320224

and here for your enjoyment:

Goat Girl by Tanya Donelly

See my child, my past
Hoping yours is a blast

I park my heart in your driveway
Now I'm healin' hell
I wanted a lion but I ended up with a man
Who wanted a gazelle

But I am a goat girl, I am a goat girl
I am a goat girl, I am a goat girl
And I do my brutish best

See my child, my past
Hoping yours will last

I park my heart in your driveway
Now I'm healin' hell
I wanted a lion but I ended up with a man
Who wanted a gazelle

But I am a goat girl, I am a goat girl
I am goat girl, I am a goat girl
I am a goat girl, I am a goat girl

Thinkin' goatish thoughts
Dreamin' goatish dreams
Diggin' up tin cans
Chewin' on your sleeve

And I do my brutish best

Songwriters
DONELLY, TANYA

Read more:  Tanya Donelly - Goat Girl Lyrics | MetroLyrics 

and now the latest photos

(click to enlarge - may be used with credit)

The goats have come to Willamette View...

(by Hal Brown)

.....where they are voraciously munching away the tangle of blackberry bushes, in between post-prandial napping.

The goats are from

The Goat Girl

http://www.sauviegoats.com
No wonder the goats seem so happy: according to Goat Girl, blackberries are a favorite with goats,
Goat Girl FAQS

the photos are mine.

Click to enlarge

 On life with death and dying in a CCRC

All of the ads I've seen for CCRC facilities like the one where I have lived for six months emphasize the joys of living in them.

This online ad is from Rose Villa, the CCRC next to Willamette View where I live.
It could be from Match.com.

There's nothing wrong with that. But there's much more to the culture of living among people in the last quarter of their lifetimes. The hope of some (but not all) widows and widowers at a CCRC may be that they will fall in love again. Some do. But for those who don't, or don't want to, it is a sure thing that they will develop lasting friendships. 

The ad which would reflect what enables many, even most of us to varying extents, to be happy here is one that tells the story about how well we live as kindred spirits, facing the end of our lives, or the lives of our most loved one, within a span of years which is easy to contemplate. 

"Normal" death and dying are all around us. Every day we walk past one or more bulletin boards where 3x5 cards, updated daily, list the names of residents who have died.

Some of the longtime residents may recognize all of the names. Some of the newer ones, like myself, recognize only a few.

Sometimes the cards hold no surprises, other times we are shocked when we see a new card and realize that someone who had seemingly been in good health, has died.

When a married resident dies, it is common to see their spouse (often with family members) in the dining room or hallways within a few days, if not the very next day.

Twice a year the counselor presents the "Rite of Remembrance," where most of the residents gather to say goodbye to those who have died. They listen to a heartfelt, thought provoking, and inspiring speech by the staff counselor. It is devoid of the platitudes so often heard by those whose job it is to address funerals. 

I hope to write more in the future as I think about living well, and about facing death in this culture of life and death. 

I hope I am worthy of the title I have, some might say audaciously, given my new "job" (really an endeavor of exploration) on my LinkedIn profile: heuristic researcher, psychosocial thanatology.

Reading on DSM-5 (latest psychiatric diagnostic manual) and how to assess grief