12 June

Open House, Before And After

by Jon Katz
Before And After

It’s the day after the Open House, and it’s 94 degrees at the moment, Maria is hold up in her studio with Anne Dambrowski, our very much loved friend and bookkeeper. I’ve begun stacking the borrowed chairs and putting some of our extra chairs back in the barn.

I’ve emptied the cooler and taken the bottles back into the house. Started collecting the garbage and putting it into the cans. Cleaning up the yard. Several people drove over and into the new natural lawn we were planting and I need to rake that and plant some more seeds.

The house is a shambles. For about two weeks before every Open House, Maria takes all of the furniture and fabric – there is a lot – out of her studio and commandeers clothes, bins, tables. The house is a shambles, and neither of us know where anything is. She even takes the clothes basket where my underwear and socks are kept and moves them out.

Our Open Houses last two days, but they are closer to a month for us. The amount of preparation is quite daunting. We clean up the grounds and the pasture, get the firewood stacked and stores, clean out the barn, mow several times, scour the grounds for dog droppings and piles of manure, brush the donkeys, put up banners and signs, gather the art and place it, get some food for our helpers and ourselves.

Maria talks to each artist and posts stories and videos about them – she works hard at this, she wants everyone to succeed, and and I do videos together, they are increasingly successful up on You Tube.

Today is also our anniversary, so we are trying to clean up and honor our marriage a bit.  It will take three of four days to clean up, just as it took three or four days to finish the set-up.

We only promote the blog on our websites, but that is enough. We had a huge crowd on Saturday, a small one on Sunday, which balances the weekend in a very nice way. On Sunday we get to breathe a bit and talk to people. On Saturday, it is exhilarating and relentless.  The Open Houses are informal and gentle, they attract the most caring and thoughtful people.

We put out a voluntary donation box to help defray the costs – we buy some supplies and hire several people to help with the crowds and music. The box has some bills stuffed into it, we haven’t had a chance to count it yet.

The Open  Houses are very much worth it for us, they are a measure of our lives and a reflection of our work and ideas. Many members of the Army Of Good showed up, they are ready to march.

The sheepherding demos are very popular, so are our donkey tours.

I signed a lot of copies of “Talking To Animals.”

We had a short poetry reading, some ukulele music, singing by the Refugee Soccer Tream.

We let groups of people into the pasture to feed the donkeys and brush them and come to know them. This year, the visits were disrupted by the presence of Ed Gulley’s cow, Sweet Sally. The donkeys were afraid of her and wouldn’t come near her or anyone who touched her.

The dogs get to run all day, but they are also exhausted. Even Fate stood sill for a photo op with Red near the apple tree.

This evening, we are having an anniversary dinner and some ice cream. We are very pleased about the Open Houses, and very tired. By the end of the week, things will get back to normal. And in a few weeks, we will start thinking about the Fall Open House. We are discussing whether or not to have a Creative Workshop in the Fall as well.

Haven’t landed quite yet.

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