Day: October 11, 2010

There seems to be enough love to go around at the Daily Meeting.

And live. I know a brave artist who is.

Judy gets the stalls ready and then comes out to help push the last cows into the barn, as the sun dips over the hills. I love the last light.

While Ed got the ATV and Judy went into the barn, I got the gate and the cows started their lumbering walk to the barn. “Good light today for you, isn’t it?” Ed notice, and he also noticed I had my fisheye landscape lens out. Ed doesn’t miss much.I love the stately parade of the cows to the barn as the sun hit the farmhouse. Family farms are rich and wonderful places. They are struggling It is important that these idiosyncratic individualists find a way to survive. You can help a bit buy considering the Family Farm notecards, which go to benefit farm aid. I will be bringing some and selling them on the book tour and you can buy them on Redux or call the gallery at 802 867-4211. Family farming is a tough life, and this way of life is beset by all sorts of pressures. In the Corporate Nation, the fight for individualism is on.

Stopped by the Rouse Farm today to drop off the “Judy” notecard series now for sale to benefit family farms at Redux.  Everybody was relaxing, watching TV, and Ed invited me into the kitchen for some coffee. The pot is always on in Michelle’s kitchen. You can pour your own from a can of Nescafe, and it’s good. Ed, Michelle and Judy talked about cows – ill-tempered ones, cows with prolapses (last Friday), cows that kick and butt (Judy has a huge bruise on her arm). Ed talked about his father, who died of cancer, and his mother, who collapsed of a heart attack on the farm. He said he’ d like some of the notecards proceeds to go to hospice as well as to farm aid, and I told him I was a hospice volunteer.

I gave Judy the notecards and she looked at them, smiled a bit and showed them to her husband TJ. She said nothing to me,but smiled a bit later. She liked them. I will miss the kitchen when I’m off on book tour. Ed and the family took a drive Sunday and came by the farm looking for me. On Sundays they often drive around to other farms to visit farmers. Wish I’d been home.