We took a long walk in the deep forrest this afternoon, I loved watching the late afternoon shadows play off the big old trees, so much character, peace and feeling. A temple, really.
Day: August 21, 2015
Got Cows?
Ed Gulley’s 4-H kids made this paper cow at the county fair, he plans to restore it. The Gulleys are folk artists, their farm is filled with great stuff, Maria has invited Ed to show some of his work at the Bedlam Farm Open House in October. Ed and Carol are old school farmers, they work day and night, do almost everything themselves. We are having dinner with them tonight, we are bringing pizza from the Round House.
We couldn’t reach the Gulley’s by phone or text or e-mail, so we got worried and went over there, they were hauling things around the back yard in one of their tractors. The Gulley’s are precious friends to have, Ed is coming to cut our fallen tree down, he is selling us good hay and getting us a cord or two or firewood, time to start getting ready for winter.
They are not technologically advanced, we haven’t figured out the communications troubles. They are both great fun, we are excited about dinner.
Generations: Time Is Our Shadow. Passages. Fate And Red.
Time is the partner of all of us, it is all encompassing, relentless and powerful. Some of you, watching my photos, have seen it before I did. My photography helps me see the world, it shows me things I cannot see by myself. Fate’s arrival is a generational thing, a passage. When Red worked alone, I could not see that he was growing slower, tired, that he needed more rest and sometimes moves stiffly.
As a working dog, he is so gracious, responsive and easy that it seems effortless to him. But it is not. Red is nine years old, he has been running and working hard his whole life. He is fit and healthy, he will be around a good long time, but in a sense, there is the beginning of a passage going on.
After his work herding the sheep, Red comes into my office, he pants for a good long time, he stays by my side, he sleeps a long time, more than he did a few years ago. He has plenty of energy to work, tremendous drive, but on the path in the woods today with Maria and Fate and Red, I could see how close he stayed to me, how fast Fate moves, how curious she is. Red is fine, he is good, but he is slowing down.
He is getting older. He is very accepting of Fate, sometimes almost relieved, it seems, to share the burden and intensity of running. Red has many years of work ahead of him, he is the most wonderful dog, but I will be more sensitive to his need to rest, will look for more therapy work for him, it is good for his soul and easy on his body.
Fate has extraordinary and boundless energy, she was chasing after chipmunks for much of our walk, bounding through the woods listening to their squeaks, trying to find them. She loves the chase, she is no hunter. When we stopped, Red came near me and lay down, he seemed eager to rest. So there is is, time is our partner, always, it appears all of the time, at will, and we are servants and slaves to it. It is so ubiquitous that we often don’t even see it.
Helping Joshua: It Could Be Anyone One Of Us
When Mayor Bill deBlasio took office two years ago and promised to ban the carriage horses on his first day in office, the carriage drivers despaired, their backs were to the wall, and they were up against a staggering array of powerful enemies, the mayor, a millionaire animal rights activists obsessed with destroying them, real estate developers drooling over their stables, and a lazy and manipulable media happy to relay any wild or unproven accusation against them.
Yesterday, the mayor folded, abandoning his ban and running from the issue. An impossible win for the horses and the beleaguered and hard working people who worked and lived with them.
We are all hoping for another great and once seemingly impossible victory this week in the new struggle to keep animals in our world, to protect farmers and animal lovers from the growing and irrational intrusions on their work and lives. We wish to create a new kind of movement to save animals and to treat the people who live and work with them with dignity and respect.
Joshua Rockwood needs help, you can follow his story here. He was unjustly accused of animal abuse and cruelty, he faces trial on 13 different counts, all of them outrageously irrational, trival or false, from having an unheated barn to allowing his water bowls to freeze in – 27 degree temperature. He is an idealistic young farmer fighting to keep his farm moving forward. If he is guilty of anything, it is of not asking for enough help when the worst cold wave in modern history hit the Northeast last winter.
Justice in America is not cheap or simple. Joshua has already raised more than $58,000 for help with his legal fees, that money is going rapidly. He needs help to improve his farm and get it ready for another hard winter.
To keep moving forward with West Wind Acres in the face of horrendous distractions, legal proceedings and fees, he needs $16,000 to built new eco-friendly water tire tanks and Greenhouse Shelters for his pigs, cattle and sheep. in the past 24 hours, his gofundme site has raised more than $5,700. We are on the way, not yet there. A little more than $10,000 to go, it seems like a lot, but there are a lot of you out there who understand his plight.
The money will help him care for his animals, run a more efficient farm, prepare for the winter, and sell more of his healthy food to local people.
I’ve written a ton of articles about Joshua, I’m not going to belabor it here again. He is a good and honest man, he deserves our support. If you have ever had a water tank freeze in the winter or owned an unheated barn, then you could be standing in his shoes today. He has been trapped in the new hysteria over animal abuse, the new Orwellian world of secret informers, unknowing police, feckless politicians. We have lost touch with the reality of farming, of animals, of the natural world.
We need for that to change, Joshua is a great place to start.
The role of government is to protect the freedom and property of human beings, not to take them away. We are redefining animal abuse to include the very real nature of life itself, an impossible standard for many farmers and animal lovers to maintain. Joshua needs and deserve some help, you can get to his gofundme site and check it out for yourself. And thank you.
Like the carriage drivers, Joshua is brave and determined. I hope that like them, we will soon have another victory in the new social awakening over our treatment of animals and people. I believe he must prevail. For his sake, for ours, for the future of animals in our world.
The Carriage Horse Victory: Something Won, Something Lost. Me And Eva.
This week, Mayor deBlasio of New York clearly signaled that he had had enough for now. He was leaving the New York carriage horse fight to the animal rights people who started it. He was running away. The savage and expensive effort to put them out of business had failed, at least for now.
I was very happy, this story has dominated much of my writing life for a long time, I have worked hard at it. I believe it was an important victory for animals, for rationality, for the very idea of humanity.
Within minutes, I got a half dozen messages from people in the carriage trade, including this from one long-time driver and friend: “…by now you have seen the headlines about the Mayor, this turn of events is fantastic and wonderful news, thanks’ again for all of your help in the struggle to keep the horses where they belong.”
Another: “Jon, I am so happy, we want to buy you some drinks when you come to New York. A little while ago, our backs were to the wall, now people are cheering for us on the streets.”
Then, within minutes, a fierce online carriage horse advocate and former carriage driver named Eva Hughes – she is part of a prominent carriage trade family – posted a long and more wary message on my Facebook page:
“After 8 years and $2 million (extreme lowball estimate),” wrote Hughes,”NYCLASS is not folding its tent any time soon. They will regroup, and they’ll be back.” Hughes seemed uncomfortable at the idea of a a victory celebration, and was clearly unwilling to break out the champagne or stand down. “Perhaps they’ll wait for an opportune moment,” she wrote, “like the next accident that happens involving one of our horses. It could be tonight, next month, next year, or 5 years from now, but there will be an accident, just like anywhere else there are people and horses. They could strike while that iron is hot, galvanizing their supporters with ghoulish images and purple melodrama, descending on City Hall a la the villagers in Frankenstein.“