Day: April 27, 2016

Today was the third laser treatment for Red, one more to go, next Monday.

He knows Nicole now, he knows what to expect, I think the only part that is hard for him is the wearing of the protective goggles. I have to wear them also. Red sits quickly while Nicole moves the laser pointer on his right elbow and his two hips. She wets the fur above the treatment areas to keep them cool, the laser beams can be hot.

Red sits quietly and patiently, sometimes looking at Nicole in his sweet and understanding way. There is a sweetness about Red that is a powerful force. He seems free of pain, he is running well, herding well. After Monday, we’ll stop the laser treatment and discontinue the anti-inflammatory medication.

I think modern science has given Red more years  to work and run.

Took a portrait of this birch bark in the woods this morning, I thought it was striking and had  character. My first portrait of bark, I think.

This is the first landscape photograph I’ve taken with my converted 5 D monochrome. There is an open field that borders the path in the woods where Maria and I walk, and I like the way the photograph opens up to the Green Hills of Vermont, a few miles off in the distance. It’s a different kind of landscape, but it evokes space and sky and mood. I took it with a 35 mm, a lens I hope to trade in this weekend in New York for a newer 35 mm, either a new Canon or a Zeiss lens, depending on cost and my success at bartering.

Haggling with the crew at B & H Photo is a harrowing experience, I’ll do my best.

Ed Watkins is pure country, he loves moving around, working outdoors (or indoors). He is shocked that I don’t drink much, and disappointed. He urges me to try a beer, which I have never had.  He was up on the roof today, painting and singing, and I liked this shot of the man on the roof, working in the sun, happy as he could be.

Ed loves to drink, but he is careful not to drink and drive (“can’t do that anymore,”  he says, sadly.) He stops at his house or the house of one his co-workers at the end of the day sometimes, for a “highball.” He works continuously, he says our farmhouse needs some loving.

We opened up the rear gate and let Chloe and the donkeys come out to get their first grass of the season and mow the back lawn where the dogs hang out. It’s still cold, so the grass hasn’t really come up yet, but this weekend  should get it moving. We are putting in a short electrified fence in the rear to section off some grass, with the pony we need to be rotational grazing regularly.

Ponies (and horses)  eat continuously, they kill off the grass by pulling it up from the roots, so we need to section off the area behind the barn as a kind of paddock. This time of year especially, we have to watch how much she eats, ponies can get sick from the sugar in Spring grass if they eat too much. They can also founder.

We hope to have the fence up in a few weeks, Todd Mason is coming to do it. Maria and I sat out in lawn chairs and talked and hung out with the equines, it was warm and sweet, we feel fortunate to be able to do that.