Day: November 6, 2017

There is a wise old tree, now a trunk, on McMillan Road, it seems wise and old and somewhat mystical. I have learned to see t trees as individual, sentient beings. This tree has great character.

On most mornings, you can find us all gathered in the back pasture – the sheep, dogs, donkeys and people. It is the high point of the farm, it was once a cow pasture, we fenced it and made it a third pasture, so we can rotational graze. From May to October, the animals thrive on our own grass, and also fertilize it.

When Chloe the pony was here, she ate so much grass I wasn’t sure we could get through a whole season, but we did. Now, there are 10 sheep, two donkeys, and we have more than enough grass. We are still letting them graze, usually we are feeding hay by now, but the weather has been warm and wet and the animals are actually a bit overweight.

I love the perspective from here, the farm looks beautiful up on the rise, and the busy road seems to fade away. There are dense woods all around the fencing, and deer often hop into the pasture to graze. They’ll trim down a bit then, and we have brushogged the pastures to help them be healthy for the Spring.

I feel like a Master Of The Universe up there on the hill,and have taken some of my favorite photos. Red stands guard at a distance, Fate runs in circles around the flock, Gus comes and goes as he pleases.

We expect to be feeding hay in a week or so – a hard frost tonight and tomorrow.

I am so lucky to able to witness this beautiful sight every morning, I never imagined I would be so lucky.

Life got better once we started every morning by communing with donkeys. Donkeys are spirit animals, they have been around humans for thousands and thousands of years, they are intuitive creatures, they sense our moods and intentions. Maria’s emotions are always close to the surface, and the donkeys are finely tuned to her moods and feelings. She kneels in front of them, and they get close.

This is not just something they like, but something they need. The connection between them is palpable. For them, for us, this is grounding.

In my life with Maria, there are few boundaries between work and art and life. Our lives are my writing, my pictures, my books, our home, our windowsills, her videos, photos are also our life. Nowhere is this more true than our farmhouse, a beautiful classic and sturdy home built around 1800.

The house is really a gallery in many ways, Maria is the curator. Every morning, the windowsills, walls and colors reflect the artist’s view of the world, India is all over our living room, we have a Frida Kahlo bathroom, and now, a New Mexico kitchen is taking shape.

We both loved the colors we saw in New Mexico, but Maria absorbed them in a particular way. She spent all weekend – I was laid up with a cold most of the time – furiously painting the walls. Yellow on top, soft green on the bottom, red trim on the window sashes.

She got one coat up, has one or two more to go, She has an amazing amount of energy when she gets focused, and in a week or so, it will all be done. She moved the stove, counters around, spread tarps all over the place, and hopped up and down all day painting the ceiling trims and the upper sections of the walls.

The new colors have transformed a room that was a bit drab, it is warm and inviting. We are leaving the old white cabinets the way the are (we will paint them over in white), they have a classic look.

But when I looked at the kitchen sink, I thought this is a work of art all in itself, another corner of the farmhouse that is changed, that reflects our art and work, and the colors of our lives.

I love the fact that  creativity is woven into our lives and our work, there is really no distance between them. I think the role of the artist is to give some meaning to life, and I think our house does that for us, perhaps for some others.