Our friend Ed Gulley is a dairy farmer, animal lover, family man, agricultural entrepreneur, and folk artist. There is a passionate artist within this hard-working and generous man and it is coming out all over the place. Ed loves his goat Sadie, who is much like a Lab at the farm, she hangs out in the milking parlor and sometimes makes her way into the house to check things out. She wanted to eat my camera. Ed and Carol Gulley are crazy about her, as they are about all of their animals.
It is a well-kept secret in rural America that farmers are the world’s most devoted animal lovers, for many of them, animals are what their lives are really about. A good farmer loves his cows dearly, they are his sustenance and in, a way, his children. Bejosh farm is an arts center in many ways, there are fountains, rock formations, sculptures everywhere.
Ed is a pure outsider artist, he is untrained and creative, he takes the detritus of farms and of life and makes folk creations out of them, Maria is wowed by his work and has invited him to show his stuff at the October Open House. We love and respect Ed, the creative spark burns brightly in him. He is a good farmer, neighbor and friend and he works as hard as I’ve ever seen a human being work, his legs and hands are always covered with bandages and gauze.
Bejosh farm is more fun than Disney World, and a lot cheaper and easier to navigate. Sadie will check out your pockets, do not let our smartphone be too close.
After work, some people stop for a beer or coffee, Fate stops by the water tub. She tried to climb in it once or twice and nearly drowned, but has given that up, she just takes a drink now and sometimes sticks her head in and blows bubbles. She deserves it, she works long and hard.
They say Mother Earth was the first artist and the best, I see that in the meadow, she is constantly painting the meadow with sun and light and different colors. It is never the same, and to see this painting, you have to be walking up the hill soon after sunrise.
It’s time for Fate to handle the sheep along much of the time, but she and Red have worked beautifully and easily together. She has learned a lot from him, he has been a gracious teacher. Before she evolves any further, I thought I’d make a short video of the two of them together. I am happy the videos are being enjoyed so much, I got away from videos for a bit, I don’t like hauling too much equipment around and my camera is my main love.
I’ve enjoyed working these two wonderful dogs together. Red always stays focused and businesslike, Fate loves to race around, so I’m working on slowing her down, she gets very excited. In the video, you can see how we are doing it. Red brings the sheep, which Fate is not yet strong enough to do, and then he lies down and waits. She takes it from there.
Lots of border collies would not be so gracious about sharing their work, lots of them do. I have not yet figured out the ears. Fate works with one ear up and one down, Red’s ears are both always in the same place. One day I’ll figure it out. Enjoy the video and tnanks for liking them. Visual images are important these days, I want to keep working on mine. We are off to Williamstown, Mass to see the Van Gogh exhibit at the Clark Museum. I have lots of things to share with you today, see you you later.
This month, a covenant explored, a collaboration considered, a coming together of two ideas, the Bedlam Farm experiment, and the Pompanuck Farm ideal. My writing class has moved from the Hubbard Hall Center for the Arts and Education to the Pompanuck Farm Institute, a beautiful 78-acre farm, spiritual retreat and environmental campus just outside of my town.
Sometimes my class meets inside of a beautiful building at Pompanuck called the Round House, it is a great indoor space to meet, but today we moved outside under the tent, where we could look out at Pompanuck’s gardens, ponds, forests and streams. All the students wanted to go, I balked. I worried that it might be too beautifully distracting for a writing class, I am a Calvinist that way, but it was just right. This is the most creative space I have ever tried to teach in, with one of the most creative classes I have had the privilege to teach to.
We all felt at home, at ease, stirred by Mother Earth’s sweet embrace.
Behind this idea, a stirring notion of collaboration. Pompanuck Farms is a spiritual retreat, a beautiful space committed to Mother Earth and the natural world. The Bedlam Farm idea was born as a center for creative encouragement. Scott Carrino, the co-director of Pompanuck, his wife Lisa, Maria and I have become friends.
What, we have wondered, if the two ideas could come together in some ways. At the first Bedlam Farm, a sprawling 90 acre farm with four restored barns, we had the facilities for our Open Houses, art workshops, writing classes. At our new farm, the Open Houses work well – the animals are central – but we don’t have the buildings for our other projects. The recession and the new world of publishing sent us packing. We kept most of our dreams, but not all of them.
Can dreams return?
Pompanuck and Bedlam Farm were both challenged by the great recession to maintain our ideals, both places had to retrench and rethink what we could do and wished to do. Scott and Lisa opened the Round House Cafe, but Pompanuck is very much alive as a retreat and nature center.
What is these two ideas could come together, if we could re-commit to these dreams, give rebirth to our ideals, create a spiritual, creative and ecological covenant together? In addition to my writing class, we are holding a day-long Creativity Conference at Pompanuck in October, a gather of 50 members of the Creative Group At Bedam Farm from all over the country on the eve of our October Open House. It is not something we could have done at our farm.
I don’t know if this is possible, or where it might go. But the first step – teaching writing there – is underway, and I feel the spiritual and creative magic in Pompanuck, it fits us like a glove in many ways. We want the same things, we have the same dreams in so many ways. Maria is considering teaching an art workshop at Pompanuck this Fall, my writing class – exceptionally motivated and committed writers – are planning to publish a book of short stories in the Spring.
Pompanuck is fertile ground for us, there is no better place to teach and learn about writing. Or for Maria to explore her art.
Red and Fate came along. Red sat quietly as usual. Fate immediately rushed into the pond for a swim and came tearing back to greet and jump on every single person under the tent. I am struggling to curb her enthusiasm for jumping up on people, it is hard for her to stop. (A major training challenge. She is a mayhem machine, this photo marked the only second she was still during the two hours of the class.)
In this collaboration with Pompanuck, I am inspired by the need to uplift people, light the creative spark and help heal the world. We must not think that this kind of covenant cannot change the world. I believe it will benefit the earth, society, that it can call forth a goodness which will spread like a contagion. We cannot ease the suffering of the world, we cannot by ourselves health the earth, but we can call forth a goodness and generosity of spirit that will inevitably spread, just as hate and fear spreads.
Love and creativity are a contagion, as well as rancor and argument.
I am excited by this new covenant with Pompanuck, eager to see where it may go. So is Maria. My wish is that it enables us to lie more fully and peacefully and to feel that life on earth is both hopeful and worthwhile.
