Day: June 12, 2012

Bedlam Farm has not been sold, but in a way, that seems curiously irrelevant. We have already moved, a new place is taking shape in our minds. We are already gone.  I was concerned when we decided to leave Bedlam Farm that the idea of this place would be lost, it’s sense of mystery and growth, and it wasn’t clear what might replace it. I needn’t have worried about that.

So this is how life works if you let it, if you permit it, if you trust it and have faith in it: I see Rocky on the road, and he leads me to Florence, and she and Rocky draw Maria to her life and house, and we fall in love with the new place and know we want to move there. And we make an offer, and our offer is accepted. And Bedlam Farm waits with grace for a lucky new owner.

And now there are sheep, and Sunday a new dog. And new fences to build. And an art gallery for Maria. And our lives are already revolving around our new home, our new town, our new neighbors. I’m working on E-books and I already see more of them and new  paper books stacked up like planes at a busy airport – the New Bedlam Farm, Red, Rocky, Talking To Animals,  the realization that Running To the Mountain, the cabin, Bedlam Farm are all one and the same thing, the writing, the photography, Maria,  all leading to the same place. The same trip.  And that place is the point, the journey is the point, the search is the point, the animals are the point, and faith and new experience are the point. We are not leaving something, we are moving to something. Crisis and mystery, love and meaning, all just around the corner.

I could always stand still. I could always hide. I could always find reasons to abandon my life and join the walking dead. So could Maria.

Casting aside the shackles of fear, we are free to live, to pursue our lives. We will find what we need. This is faith.

Lulu. Checking me out, before the rain.

My friend Mandy Meyer-Hill is driving to Virginia over the weekend to pick up Red and bring him to Bedlam Farm. He should get here Sunday, traveling in his own crate. I’m working up some plans for him.

Sunday I’ll take him for a week, let him see Lenore and Frieda and vice versa. I’ll keep them apart for a couple of days. Frieda can be an issue with dominance and protection, I’ve handled her before with other dogs and this guy is grounded and adaptable. Still, I’ll be cautious. When he gets here, Maria and I will take him for a walk in the woods and just take a look at him.

I’ll feed him and give him water and then put him into his crate for the night. Let him settle. Monday morning I’ll walk him. We’ll put the donkeys in the barn and I’ll bring him to the small number of sheep. See what he does, what he gets from me, what I need to focus on. Until he is housebroken, I’ll keep him in the crate while he’s in the house. I’ll see if I can leave him with sheep. Rose often sat with the sheep for hours and if he can do that, that would be a good way to acclimate him also.

I want to take it slow and easy. I think the transition will come when he begins working sheep with me. Monday afternoon I’ll take him to our vet to check in (maybe Tuesday) and I’ll walk him around town. And more sheep.

My friend George Forss has several different facets. He is a brilliant photographer, an art gallery owner, a musician (Recorder) and a UFO Investigator. He even has a UFO Investigations Vehicle, an old VW bus with more than 300,000 miles on it and it sounds like Armageddon when he starts it up.

I went to see George to conclude some bartering. He’s getting my old 5D Canon and I’m getting some of his photographs. Great deal all around. I am eager to see what he does with a digital camera. It’s time, I told him.

I asked George about his last UFO call – actually his only UFO call, he said – which occurred about two years ago when somebody reported seeing strange things in the night. George rushed over, returned a few times (they always return to the same spot, he said) but nothing conclusive turned up. It is one of the great remaining wishes of my life to go with George on a UFO Investigation. He is eager for the next sighting.

The more I know George, the more I love and respect him.

Every afternoon, between 4 and 5 p.m., you can find Minnie on top of the wooden tool cabinet in the big barn, where the sun comes bursting through the glass panels in the side of the barn, and she stretches and purrs and soaks up the rays. Minnie should someday be sitting by the beach with sunglasses and a Daiquiri. She is healing well from her fox bite. I am always mesmerized by the life of the barn cat, such freedom and savvy. Minnie is a sun scholar.