Bedlam Farm Blog Journal by Jon Katz

26 April

The Zip (a/k/a) Zud Chronicles. A Nap With Me, A Chat With A Donkey

by Jon Katz

It was a beautiful, crisp, sunny Spring day. I was exhausted; it had been a challenging week for me. I went out to sit in the warm sun. Maria was away, hiking in the woods with a friend. Zip hopped onto my lab and climbed up on my chest. I started scratching his ears and fell asleep. So did he.

We sat like that for a long time – maybe a half hour – and then I woke up. Zip had jumped off and gone over to talk with Fanny, and they communicated through the pasture fence.

I pulled out my Iphone and got a picture; it was pretty touching.

One by one, Zip is charming every animal on the farm except Bud, who does not care for cats. Zip will get to him yet. When I woke up, Zip jumped back up onto my shoulder.

26 April

Flower Art: This morning I Brought Three White Roses Home, My Favorite Flowers So Far. They Symbolize Compassion And Purity To Me.. The Rest Was Bliss..

by Jon Katz

For those who don’t know, if you pray a novena to St. Therese of Lisieux, she will sometimes “send” you a rose if your intention is answered. People commonly will find roses in weird places during or after a novena.” – Catholic Lore.

I don’t worship St. Terese, but she touches me, especially through white roses.

St. Terese, who died at 22,  gave a white rose to people in need whom she met and helped; the white rose became a global symbol of compassion and love.

I am not a Christian, but I have come to love the white rose and feel its power, purity, and hope.  Spirituality is not only for the deeply religious.

For St. Therese, there was always hope and always love.

When photographing the flower, I almost always get a powerful feeling, as if it is trying to tell me something. It always comforts and inspires me. Christians believe this feeling is caused by St. Terese sending a message.

I don’t know what it means, but I do feel it. I spent a couple of hours with these new flowers today, and the more I look at them, the more beautiful they seem.

I hope you enjoy them as much as I do. Consider closing your eyes, wishing for something good,  taking a couple of deep breaths, and looking back at the flower to see if there is a message for you or a response. It’s early, but this is my favorite flower of the year. Seeing it in intense light is a spiritual experience for me.

I love the light here.

The sun always seems to break through.

Roses have dignity and sometimes stuffiness. They are not new or flashy, but the white roses are all the more beautiful for me.

 

 

26 April

The Kids Who Help Kids. It Isn’t All TikTok….Honoring The Youngest Heroes I Know. The Pantry Needs Prego.

by Jon Katz

Not every kid in America is on TikTok all day.

Some cheerfully and willingly come out to do good, like the ones who help collect the backpacks that go to Central High School for the 70-plus families who go there for food support.

These are awfully nice people; I met them this afternoon.

In this post, I pay homage to the young heroes at the Cambridge Food Pantry, who help the children who need help by collecting their backpacks and bringing them to the school for distribution.

These are not the kids who need the food; they are the ones who take time out to help the kids who need it get it. They are heroes to me.

(All this weekend, the food of need is Prego Traditional No Sugar Added Pasta Sauce, 23.5 Oz: jar (Case of 6), $16.74. )

I’m stepping back for the weekend. We’ll resume the food-in-need list on Monday or Sunday evening if I get restless. Sarah has been trying to get Prego back on the shelves for weeks. I hope we can help her.

In the meantime, you can check out the Wish List any time this weekend if you can. Everything on the list represents foods the pantry needs and has been running out of.

I buy two items every week. It helps me to plan, and it always feels good.

I went to the school with Sarah Harrington, the Director of the Food Pantry, this afternoon.

I’ve been writing about and photographing the good people behind the scenes who make the pantry work, and I don’t want to forget these 4th and 5th graders who volunteer to help get the food to the families and children who go to the pantry.

I’m not using their names because the Internet is sometimes the Internet, but they were happy and eager (their parents, too) to be photographed and recognized. They are a great bunch of humans.

They are also now members of the Army Of Good.

 

 

 

I loved meeting these very cheerful and eager people. They came to the car to meet Zinnia, whom they loved and who loved them back.

After unloading the pantry wagon, they hauled the packs back into the school, where they would be discreetly picked up by the pantry families and brought home.

I just wanted people in the Army of Food to see their faces. Children want to do good as much as adults, so I guess they are already in the Army Of Good. They are very grateful for your help. We are very thankful for theirs.

They are at the heart of the country, which is what America is about.

 

More good news: This afternoon, a fresh load of boxes from the Army of Good landed in the pantry Friday afternoon. It ebbs and flows,  as it should, but mostly it flows. Thank you.

Please check out the Prego Pasta Sauce. It’s on the Cambridge Pantry Amazon Wish List.

26 April

Preparing For Winter In Spring. David Came This Morning With 40 Great Bales Of Hay And Two Bales Of Straw

by Jon Katz

There is hay in the barn. Yay, a great feeling. We have enough to get us through next May if needed.

It’s one of the fascinating rituals of living on a farm—I start planning for winter around the first of May. The farmers first taught me that if you wait until September or October, it’s too late. I get started now. I’ve sweated out a few Octobers; hay can be scarce and expensive.

I learned my lesson.

I’m the Bedlam Farm Quartermaster. Maria takes care of the animals daily, and I take care of maintenance, planning ahead, and shopping.

It takes us all summer to get ready. Dave, our excellent and conscientious hayer, has worked for years on the ingredients that go into hay. It’s the best and richest first-cut hay I’ve ever seen, green, extensive, and full of nourishing ingredients. The sheep look great; their coats are thick and bright, and so are the donkeys.

The pastures need lying and brush hogging, and the fences always need some mending. In winter, rats and mice come into the house looking for food. We need to ensure there are no holes they can use to get into the upstairs, as our friend the rat did.

We also need to install and then remove the storm windows first.

David plants, harvests, and experiments with different grains and plants in summer. He came this morning – Maria is off hiking in the woods with a friend – and we had a good hour-long talk, as always. We keep promising to have lunch – his sister, it turns out, reads the blog: Hey there! – but this year, we’re going to do it.

We got two bales of straw this time for Zip. The farmers have a very effective way to keep Barn Cats warm: They stuff straw into one of those polyurethane coolers. It’s one of the best and most efficient ways to keep the cats warm if they need it.

Other ways for a barn cat to stay warm in the coldest weather: You can make a small, simple cooler using a lidded box, foil, and recycled packaging materials. Sometimes, the things that keep things cold are the same that can keep animals warm in the winter.

I like the farmers’ way; they’ve lived with Barn Cats for centuries: polyurethane coolers stuffed with heat-retaining straw. We also have a heated cat house if needed. Zip rarely used it this winter, but he loved being out in the snow.

Itt’s good to know it’s there.

David is a fascinating man.

He has never owned a computer and is horrified at the idea of having his own blog (he is a hermit, I think), but he wants to hear more about it. If anyone I know should have a blog and write about growing healthy and prosperous hay, it’s David. He is always fun and rewarding to talk to. He’s studied the makings of good hay all of his life. His hay is unique.

It’s a great feeling to have the winter’s hay in the barn in May, and next, we start working on firewood. I’ve messaged our lumber man telling him we want his wood again, and Maria will begin stacking the remaining wood – we have about a cord left – and preparing the shed for a series of two-cord deliveries, ending in October, just about the time we light up the wood stove.

It’s still cold here at night like it used to be in April and May, but the weather people say it could go up to the 80s on Monday.

Extreme heat gets to me more in the summer than extreme cold in the winter. It’s time to get the fans out and the air conditioners in soon. Preparing for winter is one of my most favored tasks on the farm. Getting the wood and hay in is lovely; I always think of the old farmers and their brutal struggle to prepare for winter.

Mine isn’t brutal, but I have a connection to that time. Maria will do all of the woodstacking, as usual. She has made it clear she doesn’t want or need any help. I’ve stopped bugging her about it.

26 April

Spring At Last, Really…Good Morning, Friday, April 26, 2024. The Miracle Of Life Is Enough

by Jon Katz
When lilacs last in the dooryard bloom’d,
And the great star early droop’d in the western sky in the night,
I mourn’d, and yet shall mourn with ever-returning spring.”
– Walt Whitman, on the death of Abraham Lincoln
I think of Whitman’s poem on the First Day Our Lilacs Start to Bloom every year.
That was this morning when I looked out to see the green lilac leaves framing the animals grazing. It was a beautiful and very uplifting way to begin the day.
When I woke up last night, I was thinking about miracles. It occurred to me that a miracle doesn’t have to be spectacular, like walking on water; it is often so mundane that we miss it. Lincoln was a miracle; I miss his courage, decency, and honesty. Sunrise is a daily miracle for me.
One of my spiritual guru authors wrote that the miracle is to walk on the earth and breathe in and out.
For me, the miracle is just being alive. I am still alive, and I am walking and photographing this beautiful world all around me.
My life is already a miracle because I exist. I sometimes feel that people want me to be more than I am. But my miracle is just what I am. That’s enough.
Now that I think of it, flowers are a miracle every time they bloom.
Fate at rest. I’ve noticed that when dogs sleep, it often looks like death. Perhaps this is why they are so accepting of death while humans hide from it and deny it. I hope I die as peacefully as Fate sleeps.
Zip might be a miracle sent by the spirits to enrich our lives and remind us of the power of animals to love and remind us of love. That is a miracle, for sure.
Friendship is a miracle; the tough dog Bud is always happy to let Zinnia, his pal, use him as a footrest.
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