Fallen barns dot the landscape of my countryside. Some are quickly taken down, the barnboard prized by scavengers and restorers. Some just sit and decay for years, until the elements topple them over into a heap. I love barns, but I also understand that the old wooden barns – those that have not been restored or shored up – will ultimately fall. I restored all of my four barns at Bedlam Farm and I believe they will last another hundred years. A comforting thought. Even in disarray these barns are beautiful to me. I hope to record as many as I can.
My next book – “The Second-Chance Dog: A Love Story” – will be published this Fall by Random House/Ballantine. It is the story of Frieda and of my coming together with Maria. Frieda was in the middle of this story, if you are so inclined, you could say she was a spirit dog who brought us together. Her own story, which I spent a couple of years researching, is pretty amazing too. Frieda was abandoned in the Adirondacks and lived there for several years and before that, she saved a family from an awful fate. Getting Frieda to trust me and to live on Bedlam Farm with the other dogs and animals was the most challenging and complex dog and training experience of my life, and it has had a wonderful ending.
Frieda and I are great pals now, she is lying by my feet as I write this. I have learned on the Internet not to give the content of my books away online, otherwise some people will skip the part of the process known as buying the story. Can’t blame them for that, but I’m not giving this story away, it is too special for me. There is the Frieda part, and the Maria part. Sometimes when you are in a story, you forget just how remarkable a tale it is. Needless to say, this book was a labor of love. Frieda brought me love and joy. She covers my back too, nobody gets near our farm unless Frieda says it’s okay. I have come to love her fierce loyalty and great heart. Random House asked me to take some shots as a possible cover and Frieda and I drove around for awhile yesterday looking for great barn backdrops. This one is of our own barn and Frieda amazed me by sitting quietly right near the donkeys and the sheep – all of whom, at one point or another, she has tried to run down and eat – while I took some shots of her.
I sent Random House a dozen possible shots and if they don’t like any from this batch, we will go out and shoot some more. I do like this photo, it captures Frieda in a fairly elemental way. “You have come a long way, Helldog,” I told her yesterday. “You are going to be a cover girl.”
