Day: February 17, 2016

Farming is a good and rich life, it is back-breaking and hard life, full of surprises, challenges, disappointments. The Gulley’s have an iconic milking parlor where the cows come in in shifts,get milked, and are replaced. It takes about 90 minutes for Ed or Carol to milk their dairy cows, and they have to do it twice a day, every day of the year.

The cows are calm and gentle, and the Gulley cows are treated like royalty. The milking parlor has heat and a bunch of the Gulley dogs usually come in to check things out. Ed talks to each cow, he knows each one and loves cows as much as he loves dogs.

A young hawk got into the chicken coop the other day and Ed talked to  him and calmed him down, and then was able to pick him up and set him free. I can hardly imagine that. Ed and Carol work very hard, every day, for most of the day. And the work on a farm is never over. Underscoring the farm – there are dogs, cows, Peacocks, a crippled hen named Matty who can’t walk and who has had her own special pen for nine years – is a great love of animals, something common to farmers but not really known by the outside world.

Ed is an artist, and is becoming a writer as well. He expects his body to wear out a bit one day and he wants to look ahead and live a creative life. He is already there.

Maria the human and Maria the calf met again tonight at the Bejosh Farm in White Creek, N.Y. Maria is planning to summer at Bedlam Farm and be present for both Open Houses, June and October. Maria the person is very happy this, she thinks Maria the calf is adorable and she can’t wait for her to be here. Jon the steer has been sold and will not becoming to our farm this summer (yes!).

The two Marias are quite sweet together, both are gentle and affectionate. They have bonded.

Our friend Deb Foster came over to Bejosh Farm with Maria and I to help Ed and Carol Gulley set up their new blog, tentatively called the Bejosh Farm Journal. Ed and Carol both plan to write on the blog. Deb is constructing it at blogger.com, its about the realities of farm life. They want to explain what life on a small dairy farm is really like and speak for the farmers, an embattled tribe in the age of the new economy.

Ed has lots of stories to tell, and he tells them well. He has a lifetime of extraordinary experience to share, and I’m excited to see this blog get online.

One of his first pieces is about cowpies, those droppings that look like shit to passersby but are much more than that in the eyes of the farmer, they each tell their own stories.

The Gulleys just got their first computer, and Carol even got an Iphone, a leap into the 21st Century. They are serious about telling their story. Ed’s fingers are numb from decades of hard outdoor work, so he will dictate his stories to Carol, who will type his and hers into the computer.

A classic kind of Gulley piece, I think, surprising and interesting and in his own very distinctive voice. Deb ran into some technical troubles tonight, we are reconvening at Bejosh Farm Thursday afternoon to get them sorted out. We’ll get it done.

Hopefully, the blog will be up and running tomorrow night. It’s called the Bejosh Farm Journal. Updates to come.

Red joined Scott and I at the Pompanuck Farm Sugar House this afternoon, Red and Scott and buddies. We had a scary moment or two with Red later in the day, we went out to feed the animals and Chloe, who got excited about her hay, stepped backwards and onto Red’s front paw, pressing it down into the ground.

Red couldn’t move, he helped and then nipped at Chloe’s rear leg, she jumped and then went after him, charging with her head down. She went after Fate also, she was just in the way. I gave the dogs the “away” command and saw that Red was running fine. Chloe had no real bite marks, I think it was just a nip, the whole thing looked worse than it was,but it was unnerving, Chloe could have stomped Red right into the ground, Fate as well, and she was angry and upset.

Two minutes later, Red was back at work and Chloe was eating at the feeder. Everything seemed to return to normal. We’ll keep an eye on it, one of those encounters that reminds us that farm is unique, that things can always happen there, and it is good to be alert and quick-thinking.

Time again for one of my favorite rituals of life, sitting in the sugar house with Scott Carrino at Pompanuck Farm. We had a moment of silence in memory of Paul Moshimer, who sat with us last year, a few months before his death.  We celebrated his life and his presence in our lives, brief as it was.

Scott loves his time in the sugar house at Pompanuck, the sap was running yesterday during the 50 degree temperatures, there is something special about sitting in that place with a good friend and Red (I didn’t dare bring Fate) and just having time to talk. Scott built the sugar house, it is a warm and inviting Rube Goldberg kind of place. Back there later in the week.