Maria and I both agreed that this was perhaps the best and most meaningful Open House we have yet hosted. I also believe it was the all-time busiest Saturday turnout today, there were people all over the farm from 10:30 to 4:30 p.m. I didn’t do an exact count, but I’d guess five or six hundred people came all together today.

They came and went in a steady stream.

Above, Margaret Waterson read four or five of her poems to the Open House visitors, the crowd there was the largest poetry reading crowd we have ever had.

The feeling was rich and loving and warm. The Army Of Good turned out in force, and  it was wonder to have the RISSE soccer team there singing and the Mansion residents mingling with the crowd, often with people who have been sending them letters and gifts for months.

I heard about people’s lives, people’s dogs, and about the New York Carriage Horses, I even got a New York State Farm Bureau Baseball Cap, which I love from Chip Barrett, a dog breeder and member of the NYSFB.

Red and Fate and I did five or six sheep herding demos, the dogs were great. Our donkeys, usually friendly, wouldn’t come near the pasture gate because Sweet Sally the cow was in a fenced-off partition right near the gate. Nor would they come close to anyone who had touched the cow, which was almost everyone

Maria sold a lot of art in  her studio, there were lines all day long, and I loved meeting so many good people from the blog and my books (I sold a lot of copies of “Talking To Animals.”) Red and Fate are so beloved, and lots of people are waiting for the adventures of Leroy. As you know, things tend to happen around here.

And the RiSSE Soccer team was a  hit singing “We Are The World,” by Michael Jackson.

I am tired beyond rationality, so I will sign off for tonight and try to sleep.

I will offer a fuller account of my feelings tomorrow night or Monday. I am still sick a bit, and antibiotics and strong sunshine does not always mix. I’ll be raring to go in the morning. I just finished “Shattered,” a book about how Hilary Clinton lost the election and am reading a new book about George Orwell and Winston Churchill, two warriors for freedom.

It’s called “Churchill and Orwell,” and I am loving it and finding it especially  relevant to our time.