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.