Month: February 2010

I believe all of my dogs are working dogs, and an intrinsic element in their lives is what I might call media whoring. Rose’s work is obvious, – sheep and fiction – Lenore has already sparked three children’s books, Izzy has his own book and Frieda has one children’s book under her belt, and I have absolutely no doubt she will be generating more, if not a full-length horror film. The deal is clear. They get good lives on a farm, I get to write about them. Photos, readings, signings, notecards. That’s the deal. I told Frieda today that she will get to go to a reading this year. That will be a landmark.

This afternoon I saw Maria’s fun dog fabric – soon to be handbags, maybe potholders also – and I put the border collies to the side, and said “let’s go to work girls,” to Lenore and Frieda. Usually when I take a photo like this I put four or five small biscuits on top of my head (you really need the right hat). Lenore who is viscerally bribable, stares lovingly at the biscuit. Frieda has a bit more integrity and you have to explain what you are doing. “This is for Maria, sweetie. Let’s see those big brown eyes.” A year ago if I had tried this with Frieda, I would be typing with one arm. But Frieda and I are tight now, and she gets the photoshoot thing along with the rest of my dogs And she is happy to market for Maria. Maria will be annoyed that I got this fabric up on my site before she got it on hers, but hey, I was home most of the day in a snowstorm. The dog fabric will be up on her site tomorrow.

Maria is off working today, and she foolishly left some samples of the new dog fabric she has bartered for to make her potholders, quilts and handbags. Last week, she made what I call the first Sparky handbag, but the new material is a lot of fun and Lenore and Frieda happily modeled for me behind the farmhouse during a lull in the eternal storm. I don’t know what she calls them, but I’m calling these the Spot Bags. They will be up shortly on her website. I also got Frieda to model. Both were paid in biscuits. They are naturals in front of a camera.

(Reminder: This Thursday March 4, Mary Kellogg will be reading from her new book of poetry “Whistling Woman,” at the Red Fox  Bookstore in Glens Falls, N.Y. The book contains wonderful new poems from Mary and some of my photographs. I will also be on hand to sign books for anybody who wants them.)

On March 26, my daughter Emma and I will be appearing at Red Fox to talk about Em’s new  book “Ninety Percent Of the Game is Half Mental,” on sale March 16.

Emma and I will also be making a joint appearance on behalf of her book at Northshire Books in Manchester, Vt. on May 8. Also the Mother’s Day/Spring notecards are being organized by Christine Nemec at Redux.

We seem to be a good ways from Disney World. I decided a couple of years ago to avoid politics as much as possible, pursue spirituality quietly, and never complain about the weather. I live in the North Country, and it snows and snows. If you read the old Farm Journals – some of which inspired this blog – you read of blizzard after blizzard. That is life here, and it means that Spring will be all the more appreciated. As a farmer told me when I first moved her, if you don’t like snow and cold, buy a map and move to the yellow part.

February 27, 2010 – Took this shot from down in the valley, from behind the Presbyterian Church, with my 70-200mm zoom in heavy snow. A different perspective, for me, perhaps for you. Bedlam Farm saved my life in a number of ways, and nearly ruined it in some others. A magical place for me, and I love it. I know every inch of the house and those barns and have undertaken the hero’s journey there, and am still on it.

It’s a special place in a snowstorm. Rose and I walked down the hill and into town to get this shot and this hill is where Rose, six months old, went out into a blizzard and found the sheep and donkey who had walked through the gates of the big barn, above and out into the dark. We walked them back together and it was the beginning of an extraordinary collaboration that continues to this day. Now, she is inspiring my writing, especially the novel “Rose In A Storm.” She never stops working and I enjoyed our walk and this perspective.

This guy followed me around in Adventureland. I love Disney World, but there was a bittersweet feeling. Maria and I fled there last year when we were going through hard times and were feeling a bit shunned, as happens when people go through hard times and  people seem to vanish, something I see all the time in hospice work. I think it’s time to move on. New kind of vacation, different places. Time to say goodbye to a number of things in my life that connected with Disney World, some good and some bad.

We are thinking of different places to go next time. Maybe Costa Rica.

But still, it is always fascinating to me. I must have walked a hundred miles, and enjoyed each mile.

Notes. This Thursday, March 4, Mary Kellogg will read from her new book of poetry “Whistling Woman” at the Red Fox Bookstore in Glens Falls, N.Y. I will be there. Izzy too. New notecards are going up at Redux Gallery. Maria has a new line of dog fabric and when she went to work today, I snuck out and photographed them. Will put them up later. I missed the blog. I will soon have to face this idea of selling the farm. It’s going to be Spring, despite the scene outside, and people are nibbling around. I am eager to finish my book of short stories, then do a book about dogs and dreams for children. I am excited about the publication this fall of “Rose In A Storm” which seems a long way off, but which will be here in a flash.

Time moves quickly. Make use of it.