Day: July 7, 2018

The weather turned cool and beautiful this afternoon, the sheep were happy to go out into the pasture with Red overseeing them and  Fate running happily and uselessly around them. It was a beautiful day, and i love the wind blowing the meadow grass on the hills across from the farm.

Tomorrow, we take the newly skirted wool to Vemont to be processed into dyed yard and roving. In the morning, I’ll post another video fo my conversations with Ed about his life and his effort to come to terms with his terminal brain cancer.

This Piece Is Sold

I went to see  Ed Gulley this afternoon and he showed me a new creation, an old flower vase painted with acrylic paint. I thought this one was special and he asked me to sell it. It is being sold for $100 plus shipping. If you are interested, please e-mail me at jon@bedlamfarm. with your mailing address and I will send you payment information.

It will take a week or so to get all of his sketches and glass works shipped out.

This is strictly first come, first served thing, and thanks for your interest in his work.

I think this art work is truly doing more for  him right now than any other thing and keeping him feeling productive and engaged.

He is thrilled to be selling his art again, and at this time. Ed told me this morning he sometimes felt like a caged rat, he is not used to being confined and immobile, as the cancer spreads through his body.

He is responding with courage and grace. We did another video today, he couldn’t do one yesterday, and it is compelling. He talks about the “small life” of the farmer and about his “big life” ambitions for himself.

He also talks about the narrowing window for dairy farmers to save their farms, and I gave him the gift of asking him for his milk prices speech, it perks him right up every time.

He paints and sketches in almost every waking moment.

I will sell occasional sketches and vases and jars that are all painted with acrylic paints. You can follow Ed and Carol Gulley every day on their remarkable and successful Bejosh Farm Journal.

Jack Metzger, the artist and gallery owner who founded Outback Jack’s Antiques And Collectibles, called me today and  said he found an object that was meant to be with me, he wouldn’t take any money for it, he said, it was a gift.

We met  him at the store to pick it up.

It is, a curious and interesting, a metal donkey that once held matches and hand-rolled cigarettes in the thin container labeled “Nex Smoke”. When you pulled the donkeys tail, a cigarette fell out. Matches in the side saddle.

Maria and I both loved it and are trying to figure out where to put it. Jack is right, it is just right for us.

Abrah Griggs just send me her new sketch for the Belly Dancing sheep that will be a part of the new bedlamfarm.com banner, perhaps dancing atop one of the letters that say “Bedlam Farm.” Abrah was at our  Open House when Maria’s Belly Dancing class came, and she saw them dance and did some wonderful sketches.

Abrah is the artist and graphic designer working on the new banner for bedlamfarm.com.

I have been bugging her to get one of the Belly Dancing Sheep into the banner, it speaks very much to the soul of our farm, and also to Maria. Abrah just did a brilliant job capturing the spirit of the belly dance as it relates to our farm and to women all over the world.

I love this sketch.