Day: June 14, 2013

I’m happy to tell you about something new relating to our community of ideas and interests: I’ve called it the Open Group For Bedlam Farm My blog is, in many ways, a monologue, the story of one person’s life on a farm, his writing, life with animals, creative work, photography, search for a meaningful life. About his struggles with fear and observations about his dogs, donkeys, cats, chickens and sheep. I’ve created an open group so you can post anytime you wish about your own experience with these same things. More and more, there is a rich dialogue growing between us, more and more, notions from Bedlam Farm and other places. You are entitled to your own space, your own opportunity to post the photographs you love so that we can all see them – the ones you send to me and I often am too overwhelmed to really read, about your blogs work with fear and your own notion of a meaningful life.

I will be fascinated to see the work I keep seeing and hearing about and now everyone else can see it too. This can be enormously helpful to  you, those seeking exposure for  your work, those wanting to share photos, stories about animals that are useful to others. This is not a political site, it is not another place for the “left” and the “right” to continue their eternal arguments. It is not a place for political announcements of any kind, nor is it a place to sell things. You are welcome to alert us to your art and books and to interesting pieces on your blogs.

There are plenty of sites for all of that on Facebook. It is not an animal rescue site. As with all things relating to my sites, anger, offense and argument will not be tolerated. Such posts will be banned instantly along with their senders. Otherwise, my wish is for you to be communicating directly with one another in a way that is not possible really on Facebook reply logs. This group is a part of my Facebook home page. I especially wish to see links to interesting new blogs, your best photography and sure, photos of your animals are very welcome. So are useful information about positive animal training.

You can speak directly to one another here, and even see images of who you are talking to and learn about them. The birth of a community.

I consider this a major step in the evolution of the new publishing, the new digital community, the new way for individuals to express themselves, their work and their ideas beyond the corporate gulag that has become the American media. If you click on the block,  your e-mail will be forwarded to my website, and once you are approved, you are in the group and can post freely. Please be conscious of making sure to be considerate of other members and make sure they all get a chance to post as well. I am excited about this, eager to see the community grow. It is free and open to anyone who has something to offer.

Welcome to the Open Group For Bedlam Farm.

I had the brightest ending to a week that began darkly. I drove to Bennington, Vt. to food shop, pick up Fromm Dog food from Celeste O’Dowd O-Malley – she is as Irish as Red – and I was so glad to get in the car with Red, leave Maria to her magic and get on the road with my camera. The end to this week was the complete opposite of the beginning, the story of life. I stopped at Stannard’s Farm Stand and they said they were about to come to the house and check on me, it had been days since I had stopped in for their fresh strawberries and blackberries, was I okay?

I told them about the Lyme Disease, and then they peppered me with questions about, as some had aches and fevers. At the Round House cafe, Scott asked Maria how I was doing, and she said I claimed to be dying, but was running my mouth and being obnoxious so she knew I was okay. I talked to Celeste about construction delays for her new home near Brattleboro. We were completely out of food – Maria is like a guy in the sense she would be happy to eat bread and cheese for a week or two until neither was around and she was starving. Artists.

Mile by mile, those strange and disturbing days melted away, faded, became remote. It could have been so much worse, there are so many things so much worse than my Lyme Disease.  Life rushed by me every mile.

Beautiful things began to happen to me today. I was busy all day. I met a barn swallow mom.  Simon brayed at me. Flo jumped in my lap. A friend asked me to photograph their grand-children’s naming ceremony next week. We are going to have our anniversary day Monday at our favorite inn. Red started lying down on command and had fun doing it. I saw a beautiful tree on a beautiful road. I saw curious dairy cows next to a dying old barn. I came home to my wonderful wife and a porch full of life. I am making a pizza with roasted asparagus, cauliflower heads and ricotta cheese. Life happens every day, good and bad, and the measure of a good and full life is how I respond to both. Any chump can deal with good things, but only the lucky learn to accept both.  We never quite get the life we want, we get our life and that’s a good life for me.

I wondered if Billy Graham or Thomas Merton said that, and then I was delighted to remember it was me.

Isn’t this the message, the point?

I once told Red to stay in the pasture and went into the house to get something, answered a phone call, put up a photo, blogged and moved some books around. Then I made lunch. Sitting down with Maria I noticed Red was not lying near me. Where is he?, Maria asked. Lord, I said, I forget him out in the pasture. It was about three  hours and I ran out and he right where I had told him to stay. I think three minutes is the proper length of time for a real stay, few dogs will do that especially when alone (Lenore will not, nor will Frieda.) Red hadn’t budged. I’m careful about asking him to stay and if I do, I don’t go anywhere.

We are working on our lie-down stays for the therapy dog test tomorrow morning. All Izzy needed was an evaluation from the vet, but I’m not comfortable seeking patients myself so I think I found a good group to help us, but they have stringent policies and a strong lie-down stay is one of them. Red will lie down and stay in a flash in the pasture but he doesn’t  understand that’s what I want if I ask him to do it on a leash (which he has been on once in his life) or alongside of me, which is what I am sure they want.

I want to get the process started tomorrow, it takes a long time and tests are infrequently given. We were working on it this afternoon and we both are having fun, elemental in training. Couple of times here or there, he doesn’t expect a treat, just the work. I am modulating my voice, using my body, he is really getting it and doing it. I called for him to lie down above, and he just dropped to the ground. Good dog.

He loves to work.

There’s a devoted mother Barn Swallow in my life. This morning, I walked into the barn with a big lens and she sat still as I got close to her, then she dive-bombed my head, and then Red’s. Red is Mr. Cool and he just ducked and looked for the sheep but I heard peeping and looked up and there was a nest in the rafters with three peeping babies in it.

This brave mom was driving to draw me away, and failing that, trying to scare me away, and failing that she just sat and dared me to come after her – anything to protect her babies. I got my shot, congratulated her on being such a good mother, assured her that I meant no harm and sounded a retreat with Red. I love barn swallows, they zip and in out of barns all the time, but when you get this close, they are calling you to them. After that, duck. I will try and stay out of that barn of the barn if I can. I’m sure she and Maria will be communing soon.

So this morning I had to come up with my own Hurry-Up Training approach. Red and I are going to Vermont tomorrow for him to be tested for a therapy certificate by a Vermont Therapy Training Organization. It’s a through test – the first of four steps – and I admire the conscientious and thoroughness of the group. Lots of paperwork, rabies certificates and the tests have dozens of steps, from the dog’s demeanor to reactions to being touched so sit, stay, lie-down and many others. I just realized that, a suberbly trained dog when he came to me, has some oddities. He hates to walk on smooth surfaces, sometimes freezing, and he has only been on a leash once or twice in his life.

Beyond that, his stays and lie-downs have been taught to him around sheep, not away from them. If I ask him to lie down in the pasture, he drops like a rock, you can see it in the videos. If I ask him to lie down outside of the pasture, he is confused, doesn’t know what I am asking him to do. So I went into hurry-up-training mode this morning, a quick-step process. I got him outside, away from our usual spots, and had him face me. I had him walk up to me, put my hand under his chain, asked him to sit. He got it in a minute. Then I backed up, held up my hand, told him to stay- he has a beautiful stay – and I bent over, held my hands out, pushed them down towards the ground, said “lie down.” It took a few minutes, but he got it, and we started having fun with it, running here, running there. I brought some biscuits into the equation and threw them towards him when he hit the ground flat.

I’ll work with him more this afternoon, but I will have to ask him to let me do the lie-down and stays off-leash, his training is to move out to my left or right as a herding dog would do, and he is confounded by the leash, I’ve just not used it, even at the vet.

Have to do this a dozen or more time this afternoon, keep it interesting and fun, and take him to sheep right away afterwards. See if we can pull it together by tomorrow. He and I are in sync he usually grasps what I want, often before I do, and he loves to please.