Different kinds of news from the farm today.
– Maria is sick, exhausted, might have some kind of virus. Sent her off to bed early, if she’s not better in the morning, I’ll encourage her to go see the doctor. In this way, she’s like a guy. “What for?,” she’ll ask. “What can they do?” Er…
– Our new ewe Rosemary is doing well, we think she will be the leader of the flock, she’s vigilant, intelligent, always out front. She loves to hang out with the horse and with Izzy, our other Romney. She is not exactly blowing and scraping to Red, as he is used to, but she is doing what she is told. Mutual respect.
-Jay Bridge, a friend and also a carpenter and sometimes jack-of-all trades, got up on the ladders today and took all of the green shutters down off of the farmhouse. As Jay has reminded us, shutters were never natural to old farmhouses, not around here. They were added in the 1950’s, to make old white farmhouses like ours (it was built in the early 1800’s, long before the Civil War).
The storm windows block the beautiful old windows behind them but that is unavoidable. We both like the simpler, plainer look of the farmhouse, old farmhouses are wonders of simplicity and functionality. The foundation walls are two feet thick, an engineer told us the house has not settled one inch, as many new homes do.
Good riddance to the shutters, and thanks for loyal service. We never liked them, fixed them or really figured out how to live with them. They are sitting out in front of the farmhouse, waiting, free of charge, for anyone who wants them to come and pick them up. Jay is coming back in the morning to fix some broken slate on the roof and shave the door to the woodshed, which is tilting so much the door won’t open wide.
Our lives are simplifying, sometimes by choice, sometimes by circumstance.
-Took Red to get a massage at the vet’s today with Cassandra, he was a bit sore and stiff after his tough workout rounding up Rosemary and battling with her protective ram and two pals. Cassandra said his back and rear legs were sore. Laser next week.
-Negotiations over my next book continue. My proposal was politely rejected. That is not awful news, it happens on the first round more often than not, especially given the pressure publishing is under now. If you can’t take it, you’re in the wrong line of work.
The good news is my publisher wants me to do another book and my agent and editor and me all want me to do another book. I have a new idea which everybody seems to like and am working on a new proposal.
Most of my book ideas over the years have been rejected initially. Books are somewhat of a compromise – what the writer wants to write, what the publisher thinks they can sell – and the new one I proposed – channeling James Herrriot and E.B. White and Wendell Berry to write about the lessons of my farm and the animals here -is appealing for me.
My talks with my agent and editor have been very helpful to me. They believe strongly I have more good books in me and want me to stay on the course, while maintaining the blog, which is where my heart is much of the time. One does not have to take away from the other.
In a sense, this kind of thing what I do on the blog, share my life on a farm and the stories of the animals who live here. The animals are at the heart of it, but increasingly, I am widening my range of writing and subjects and developing my photography. I like writing about rural life and the people I encounter here.
I love E. B. White’s writing style, and there are many things bright and beautiful here, including my wife. So talks continue, nothing in publishing is simple, I think we will work this one out.
Several of my best-selling books – The Dogs Of Bedlam Farm, Soul Of A Dog, Dog Days – were narratives of my life in a small town in upstate New York with a farm and some fascinating animals. A year of lessons from the farm, starting in September, would be a very natural book for me to write.
I’d like to return to that format once again. We’ll see what happens, I’ll fuss a bit over the proposal and then send it along.