Flo and I have crossed one of those animal thresholds. I see with a cat it is more gradual than a dog – Red and I bonded almost instantly – Flo watched me from hiding for much of the winter. Now, I see whenever I am outside, she appears, walking near me, watching me, being near me. I was recording my podcast today and I noticed her right up on the stone wall just a few feet from me, where she always seems to be. This morning, out in the barn, I saw her peering out at me from a hole in the barn wall. She is looking out for me.
I leave you tonight with this sweet image, Flo and Lenore working on their relationship. Flo is a tough, smart and wary barn cat. She hid in the woodshed and under the porch for months before she revealed herself and she has been very wary of the dogs, even as Lenore has tried to make friends, as Labs do. The few times she got close, she got her nose swatted. She has kept her distance. This afternoon, as I sat recording my fourth podcast (Lulu’s Dilemma) I looked up and saw that Lenore had noticed Flo sitting on the old stone wall and inched her way closer.
Tomorrow will be a fun day at Bedlam Farm, Vince Vecchione is coming to try and clean up the watery mess by the gate where Lulu has been leading her farm rebellion. Rain in the forecast for Thursday through Saturday. I hope it goes well and as expected and I am eager to see Lulu’s next move. No wise man matches wits with a donkey, they are smart, strong and stubborn. I keep thinking of Maria and I sitting in the pasture while the animals stood across the gate and stared at us as if we had three heads. Who’s the ass now?, I kept thinking. I’m heading to bed and wish you a peaceful and restful night. I think I might need it.
Wednesday Vince Vecchione, a local ground wizard and excavator is coming to the farm to install a 20-foot pipe and lay down some gravel. The plan is for the stream to run through the pipe and for the gravel to provide a firm base for donkeys, people, sheep, tractors, trucks and excavators to come on over. Lulu collected all of the animals on the farm and walked away from our gate and new pasture while Maria looked menacingly at me about this minor fiasco – I insisted it was important to open up the new pasture to provide enough grass for the animals, and that was before it rained for five days straight and now there is a lot of grass around, and Lulu would rather eat it than plow through the stream).
I understand that donkeys are smarter than me, but I pride myself on my wilfulness and farm ingenuity. Donkeys’ have four strategic weaknesses – they are intensely curious, they are obsessively loyal to one another, they love brush and leaves, they always want to do what you don’t want them to do, and don’t want to do what you want them to do.
I will play on all of these weaknesses with Lulu. First, she will be curious about the tube and the digging. Secondly, she is aware that Simon and Fanny are chomping on tall grass and leaves, she will want to be with them if they keep going over and finally, if she thinks I don’t want her to go into the pasture, she will go in in a flash. I’ve been through this with Lulu before, I know her weaknesses. My weaknesses? I show my emotions, I am impatient, I am not as smart as she is, even though I have the same feelings about doing what people want me to do.
Vince is coming at 9 a.m., I will be there with camera and video. The donkey has had her time. Now it is my time. We’ll see who’s an ass.
I learned some time ago that I didn’t have to run to a mountain or a farm to find my place, to find my space, to find a safe and quiet place where I could gather myself, withdraw from the world, disconnect from the wired world and find myself. On our new farm, not far from the road, near the barn, with donkeys and chickens and sheep around, I have found a place, a corner, shielded from the world by trees and bushes. There, I think, I meditate, I do Tai Chi, I hope record my podcasts. I believe such a place is essential to being able to think in the world, and to go back to myself as life intrudes and flows away, and then returns with a crash. It is hard to find time and space to think, it is essential to health and peace for me.
I love my back porch, it is, I think, truly Appalachian, a porch that is fully utilized and lived in. Down below, there is our new garden, stuffed with pansies and new flowers coming. Then, Maria’s pots where she plants young seedlings and new seeds for movement into the gardens. There’s a barn cat on the left, Flo, Minnie in one of the chairs and the chickens gathered for their afternoon meeting. The only thing missed is the clothes stand where we dry a lot of our clothes. It’s a classic in its own right, and it draws the photographer because so much is happening there.
