Day: March 22, 2016

A special week for me, for us.

– First, some book news. My next book, “Talking To Animals,” fifteen years in the making, has been scheduled for publication – April, 2017, Simon and Schuster. I talked on the phone with my editors today and  have about a week’s worth of revisions to do, including two new chapters.

I am proud of this book and eager for it to come out. My books occupy a different place in my creative life than they used to, but they are important to me, they are stlll, in many ways, who I am, an author, a book writer. And now a blogger. I wanted only one thing in my life, and that was to be a writer, and that is what I am.

How lucky, I have a big publisher committed to my next book. A book tour and all that, some sales for Connie Brooks at Battenkill  Books, perhaps (we’ll give away some tote bags). How lucky I am to do what I love. Publishing is not simple or easy these days, I am proud to still be a part of it.

– The news at the farm is different. Big news in the pasture. Maria has retired her important French green boots – $8 at the consignment store in town. They were hurting her feet, I bullied her into going to Tractor Supply and getting some new blue ones (above), they are not as stylish but they are comfortable and they make a great clopping noise. And they are dry and warm. The French boots went to the American Legion clothing distribution center.

She and Chloe clop-clop together to the feeder every morning. Chloe is always thrilled to have food. Red is keeping the sheep at bay.

-Also this week, Scott and Lisa Carrino will launch their $75,000 gofundme project on Thursday, I will be linking to it and making noise about it. A big win for community if it works. The Round House Cafe building has been put up for sale, they need to buy it in order to stay there.

-We are plotting and scheming a getaway for early April. We have not had a vacation in some time, we are perfecting the idea of the small trip. We want to get to a beach, we are scouring the Internet for cheap rooms near the water in New Hampshire, where I have never been (except on a book tour.) We figure two days. I would love to give Maria a real vacation, but that is not in the cards for now.

I felt especially lucky today and this week. A few years ago, my life fell apart and I thought I would never put the pieces back. Seven months ago, we had to file for bankruptcy and we thought we would lose our home. We came out of bankruptcy, and are recovering. I am as much in love as I was when I married Maria five years ago. I have a book coming out next year, and my agent loves my idea for the next one.

I’ve been getting up at 3 a.m. to work on the revisions, I’ve done three chapters already. Going to keep up this face until it’s done. I am tired.

I know so many writers have left publishing, given up on earning a living and writing books. I will never give up, not as long as I can breathe. Maria and I have left behind our hollow lives, and filled them up. My great fortune is to see her make her beautiful art and sell it as quickly as she makes it. She is living her dreams as well, ours have been hard fought but sweet and appreciated. Dreams are like that. A good week for me, for us.

Yesterday, I was making dinner. I bought a fresh chunk of very lean beef from a grass fed cow on an organic farm at our food-coop. I took it out to soak in some Worcestershire sauce on the counter. I wanted it to soak for an hour or so, I went into the living room and put some earphones into my Ipad and started to listen to some music, it was my quiet and very peaceful time. When I came into the kitchen an hour later to start cooking, the meat ($8.75) was gone.

Not a drop left, not a morsel. I was bewildered. No dog of mine has ever – not in my whole lifetime – taken food off a counter, especially so cleanly and quietly and cleverly. The plate had not moved an inch, the floor was clean, the meat was in three chunks. The floor did look a bit greasy. I looked in the oven, in the refrigerator, around the kitchen. It was gone, it had to be Fate. Red never goes into the kitchen, he hates linoleum floors.

It was Fate. She smelled the hamburger meat, came in and ate, and then gook a giant dump outside. So this is war. People tell me all the time that some dogs just do this or that, when I mentioned this on the blog last night, I got a bunch of messages from people telling me that they have dogs that do this all the time, there is not much to be done about it.

That is not my philosophy. I am launching the counterattack tonight, I went out and got some more hamburger meat, put it on the counter, waited for Fate to take a peek, roared and bellowed and stomped my feet, she took off and went under the dining room table. Two minutes later, she came back and I was hiding in the bathroom, I caught her in the act.

Fate is one of those testing dogs, she loves to look me and Maria in the eye sometimes, and say, “make me.” I will  have to figure this out, I maintain the probably fiction that I am smarter than she is. We’ll see.

This is like a chess match, I am very determined when it comes to training dogs, and I believe strongly that they can tell when you mean things and when you don’t. Fate, I said, you will not be the first dog in my lifetime that steals food off of the counter. In fairness, she’s been her nearly a year and this is the first time this has happened, so I imagine she smelled it, got tempted and took a shot.

I was pissed off last night, but there is no point in correcting a dog unless you catch them right in the act, otherwise they get confused about what they are being corrected for. I am plotting and scheming my loves, I do not accept that Fate is one of those dogs who will do that from time to time. We are going out to dinner to celebrate the pub date for my next book, “Talking To Animals,” it will come out in the Spring of 2017. I am happy about it.

Got to finish the final edits in the next two weeks.

We are going out to dinner to celebrate this, the hamburger was  resume tomorrow.

Trees can be beautiful in all kinds of ways. This old pine is dying in the deep woods, as it dies, it’s bark curls and forms a precious kind of sculpture, I am very much drawn to photographing it.

We got the new gate in part because Chloe was chewing on the old one, impatient to get her carrot and hay in the morning. Chloe is scary smart, she has opened the old gate more than once. So she uses the new one as a headrest. She hears us moving around inside of the farmhouse in the morning, she gives me and Maria a kiss on the nose each morning. Not a bad way to start a day. I love donkey and horse noses.

On the path in the woods, the border collies rush ahead, then wait in the sun for us. We had a drama with Fate yesterday. For the very first time in my life with dogs, a dog crept into the kitchen, reached up on the counter, and ate a chunk of lean, pasture-fed beef destined to be our dinner.

Of course, it was Fate. She’s been with us for nearly a year, and has never pulled any food off of any counter, I guess the meat was too exposed and too tempting. Tonight, I’m plotting my response, life with dogs is chess sometimes, they make a move, I make a move.

I’m going to get more beef today, I’ll put some sauce on it to make it smell good and put it out. I’ll lurk near the kitchen, I imagine she will return for another raid, and I will toss the throw chain against the metal counter, almost surely startling the wits out of here. Then I will correct her, loudly and forcefully.

We’ll see what happens.