16 September

Great News. Get Ready For Bejosh Farm, The Book

by Jon Katz
Here Comes The Book

Great news from the magical world of Bejosh Farm, fresh from the County Fair with an armful of ribbons, the cast of the Wizard Of Oz. Ed and Carol Gulley started their new blog, the Bejosh Farm Journal, less than a year ago, and it has many thousands of readers in the U.S. and about 40 different countries.

Ed and Carol have decided to put together a book filled with videos, stories, photographs and stories from their dairy farm, they want to re-create the life of a dairy farm in four seasons, and they should know whereof they speak, they have both been dairy farmers for more than half a century.

This idea was hatched at our dinner with them last week, and they have already contacted a book packager to help them put it together. Many of their readers have said they would love to buy it.

In the past few years, the artist in Ed has emerged, and so has the writer in Carol, I am proud to have her as a student in my writing class, and she needs very little direction. The two of them move quickly and brilliantly and without drama.

They are singing their songs and raising their voices to the world – something very few farmers have ever done.Their videos and writings are powerful, touching, funny, authentic and revealing.

Someone is finally telling the real and very authentic story of the family farm, now a tragically endangered species in America.

They have taken us deep into the lives of the vanishing family farm, they show us every day what will be lost if the family farms vanish and what has been gained by their existence. You can see a video of a calf being pulled out of a cow, and Ed Gulley pulls no punches, makes no excuses or apologies as he writes  powerfully and with feeling and outrage about the real life of real farmers.

Carol’s writing is softer, reflective and often poignant. She is definitely nicer than Ed. He is a master story-teller, and he speaks the truth as he sees it, period. Carol is a student in my writing class, she moves pretty quickly.

She writes about the tragedies that have haunted her family, the toll of the brutish hard work they, and their passionate love of animals, on and off the farm. She writes like Willa Cather about the life of farm women.

Animals are an enduring part of their story, apart from their cows and steers.

There  is a small posse of dogs, and there is always a rescued turkey, mole, possum, hawk, dog or kitten on Bejosh Farm. They kept a crippled hen alive in a special hen for 14 years until she died a natural death this Spring.

Apart from the writing and videos on farm life, Ed has begun selling his wind chimes and farm art sculptures from his blog, and people are loving them. The Gulleys will be a part of our October Open House on Columbus Day Weekend, Ed will have some of his remarkable new pieces here.

Ed and Carol Gulley are both in their  sixties, but in decades of teaching, I have never seen anyone at any age grasp the promise of new technology in the way they have to present their story to the world. And it is a story well worth hearing, seeing and reading.

We will also have belly dancers (Maria’s class) performing on Saturday of that weekend. Details on Maria’s blog. The Risse Refugee singers are coming again, so are some of the Mansion residents. Red and I (and Fate and Gus) will do our sheepherding show, and I’m selling some pictures.

Maria’s studio will be crammed with affordable art and gifts for Christmas.

You can follow the new book, the four seasons of a family farm on the Bejosh Farm Journal. We have dibs on the first reading at next year’s Open House.

16 September

The Little Free Library Catches On

by Jon Katz
Catches On

People with Little Free Libraries told us it would take a while before the idea caught on, and it is catching on. Almost every day, a car stops and people get out to check the books in ours LittleFreeLibrary. Some have returned books and then taken others. It is a brilliant community- building idea, people sharing free books with one another and returning others.

We had to convince friends and neighbors – and readers – that we didn’t need their old books or books they wanted to get rid of. That’s not the idea.  We have plenty of books.

We put our read books in the library, people take whatever books they want, and if they can, return another book. We really don’t need other people’s books.

I’m proud of our library. I stick some of my books in there once in awhile, and also the new hardcovers that I’ve read. There are  a half dozen children’s books, some we put there and a couple other people dropped off. It lifts us up to see people standing out there and browsing the books, and we consider it a victory of sorts when people take one.

There are more than 40,000 registered LittleFreeLibraries in America, some communities have scores of them.  They movement was founded a few years ago by a Wisconsin man to honor his mother, a book-loving librarian in Wisconsin.

You can build one, buy one, or have a friend or carpenter build one for you. They come in all kinds of shapes, sizes and colors. They seem to spread like wildflowers. We hope that happens here. This is one of the Internet’s better ideas.

We are off to a good start.

16 September

The Farm On Route 67. On The Way Monday.

by Jon Katz
The Farm On Route 67

I’m happy to report that my photo “The Farm On Route 67” was printed out this weekend by George Forss and will be shipped out Monday or Tuesday at the latest. Thanks for buying it, the first printing is sold out, but George says he has printed a few extra copies. We are planning to sell them at our Open House in October, if anyone is interested in buying them now, please contact Maria at [email protected].

The photo costs $60 plus shipping. Thanks.

16 September

The Yellow Barn On Route 22

by Jon Katz
The Yellow Barn

If my e-mail is any good judge, this is one of the most popular of my rural landscape subjects, I took this photo Friday with my new Archomat art lens.

These  yellow barns are about seven miles down the road from us – red paint was much cheaper when most old barns were built. I’ve decided to sell a small number of  81/2 by 11 archival prints of this photo, the prints cost $75, shipping $10. That is a total of $85. This is a signed limited edition – 15 of them signed and numbered.

I’m liking this new way of selling my photos.  I’ll choose a photo I think is distinctive, offer it expensively and only mention it once or twice. We’ll see what happens. So far, so good. We sold out the Blue Heron series, and also the Farm On Route 67. Thanks for that.

I’m opening up a small new revenue channel for the blog and my work.

If you are interested in this print, it will be printed by George Forss and shipped out in very secure tubes. Maria is handling the photo sales, you can contact her at [email protected]. Thanks.

16 September

Takedown

by Jon Katz
Takedown

I would have thought it impossible, but today, Gus took Fate right down, he got underneath her, grabbed a leg, tripped her, rolled her over and jumped on top of her and grabbed her collar. Fate seemed astonished at first, but had some trouble getting up right away. When she did, she had a Boston  Terrier hanging onto her collar. Gus can take care of himself.

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