Two years ago, we got the idea of putting banners up on the front law to let people around here know about our Open House. Lots of people notice the banners. We change them each year a bit, and Maria has used her artistry to pick the colors and lettering.
This year, we are focusing the banners on the belly dancing, which will be happening at 1 p.m. Sunday, October 7th. Sheep herding will be three or four times a day, Red, Fate, me and maybe Bud will be putting on some demos. The focus of the Open House is art, a celebration of rural art and rural creativity.
There will be lots of original and compelling (and inexpensive) art and many people come to stock up on Christmas presents. People can meet our donkeys, see our sheep shorn and listen to some wonderful poets – Mary Kellogg, Jackie Thorne, Carol Gulley, Amy Herring.
Maria’s studio will be chock full of art, the work of eight local artists. There are a lot of creative people living around here. The banners signal that the Open Season is close. And so is Bud, we are supposed to get him next Saturday.
Maria and I went to visit Mary Kellogg at the Holcomb Adult Resident in Granville, N.Y., today, we brought her some copies of her new book of poetry (her fourth) titled This Time Of Life. She was very happy to see this book in print.
Mary is 89 now, and she and her family have decided that this is not a good time for her to return to her beloved farm. It is a painful decision for Mary, who lived on the farm with her husband Bill, and then by herself for nearly 30 years.
Mary was a powerful symbol of independence to us, and she had – has -a Thoreau kind of love of nature, she knew every bug, deer, flower and bird that came anywhere near her farm, and was generous to the squirrels of her hill.
I’m going to read from This Time Of Lifeat our October Open House – Columbus Day Weekend – Saturday and Sunday, 11 to 4. Mary says she will try to be there.
The Open House is getting exciting. Maria’s Belly Dancing group is coming to dance on Sunday, the shearer is coming on Saturday along with a bunch of gifted poets – Amy Herring, Jackie Thorne, Mary, and Carol Gulley.
Plus Maria and eight very talented local artists, the Schoolhouse Studio will be crammed with imaginative and unusual art, many people do their Christmas shopping here that weekend. And Bud, our new Boston Terrier, is coming on September 29, he will be here for the Open House.
It is emotional visiting Mary, she so misses her life, but she also accepts that it was getting difficult to be living alone. She says the people at the adult home cook wonderful food and take great care of her. She fell and broke her hip a few months ago, it is healing well.
Mary’s spirit is proud and strong, and we very much hope to see her at the Open House. If Mary says she wants to do something, she usually does it.
Matt Ross, our farrier, came today to trim Lulu and Fanny’s hooves, they were a bit long. The donkey’s hooves grow much faster in the summer, when they are eating fresh grass – with the rain, there is a lot of it this year. These are two sweet donkeys, Matt says they are the nicest donkeys he has ever trimmed. Fanny loves him, and snuggles up to him while he is trimming Lulu.
Matt is a good and fast worker, he was in and out in 15 minutes, and the donkeys look sharp. He says both are in great shape.
They will be here to greet and meet people on our Open House, Columbus Day Weekend. It is shaping up beautifully. Rachel Barlow will paint on Sunday, Maria’s belly dancing group is also coming Sunday, and we have a stellar poetry reading session on Saturday afternoon (the shearer is coming at 1 p.m Saturday).
Mary Kellogg’s new book ‘This Is My Life” is out, and I will read from it. Amy Herring will be reading some poetry from her new book, so will Jackie Thorne and Carol Gulley will also be reading one of her poems.
I’ll be doing many sheepherding demonstrations with Red and the incomparable Fate, and people can meet Bud, our new Boston Terrier, riding up on the rescue van from Arkansas on September 29.
I’ll be giving a talk about the small dog experience, from Gus to Bud.
The heart of the Open House is Maria’s art show, her studio will be chock full of unique and interesting and inexpensive from nine local artists, plus herself. Our theme is “The Art Of Rural Life.”
This celebration of our lives and of the creative spark looks quite special. Hope to see some of you there, for those who can’t make it, lots of videos and photos.
It is looking more and more likely that Bud will be completing his long and difficult journey and come home to us on September 29th, the day after he gets his microfilaria test for baby heartworms on the 28th.
That’s more than a week before our October Open House.
It is illegal to transport a heartworm dog who has not completed treatment and has been certified healthy by a vet. And it should be, heartworm is now in every state in the nation, and it is a lot less expensive to prevent heartworm than to treat it.
If all goes well, Bud will be here to meet people at our Open House, held on Saturday and Sunday, Columbus day Weekend, October 6th and 7th, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. both days. Maria has been preparing art to sell for months.
Red will be strutting his stuff, and Fate will be doing nothing in her spectacular and joyous way. The theme is the Art Of Rural Life.
We will also have sheepherding, sheep shearing, spinning, poetry readings (I’ll be reading from Mary Kellogg’s new book, “This Is My Life,” and there will be readings by Jackie Thorne, Amy Herring) and Maria’s wonderful art show in her studio featuring her work and gifted local artists.
I’ll be giving a talk also, focusing on Bud’s story and the animal rescue movement.
I am so grateful to Carol Johnson of Friends Of Homeless Animals for rescuing Bud, and for getting him up here. She is an angel. And we are grateful to Dr. Jonathan Bradshaw of the South Arkansas Veterinary Clinic, for getting him healthy again. He is a vet with a great big heart.
Gus was purchased by FOHA after he was found suffering from starvation and exposure in Arkansas. he was in rough shape. He is a Boston Terrier. FOHA is transporting him North on a giant FDA approved truck.
We can meet him in Brattleboro, Vt., where the truck stops, it is 90 miles from us.
We will continue his follow-up treatment up here at the Cambridge Valley Veterinary Service, where Gus was treated for megaesophagus. They are waiting for him.
So are we. This will make the Open House even more special for both of us. I remember how happy Gus was to meet all those people at our Open House year. This seems very healing to me, and just right. The wheel turns and turns.
If you live anywhere around Cambridge, N.Y., put June 30 in your calendar. And go see this man and his remarkable farm.
His name is Ed Gulley and when he is gone, if that ever happens, you will not see the like of him again. Writers are a dime a dozen, but rugged individualists with small dairy farms are getting rare.
I could take portraits of Ed Gulley all day every day, his face is a living and moving kaleidoscope, one day clean-shaven, the next with a Santa Claus beard, sometimes looks mean, sometimes sweet, but as he likes to joke (ok, i do) always old and ugly. And don’t be standing around if he’s angry, he castrates and slaughters his own animals.
As you can tell, I love Ed, we are unlikely brothers, but brothers still, sometimes a troubling thought for both of us. Actually, Ed is five or six years younger than I am, but life on a dairy farm brings character to one’s face, and Ed often looks like a grumpy Father Time with a wicked sense of humor. No two photos of him are the same.
One day I might just publish a book of Ed Gulley photographs and portraits, I’d make it into the National Gallery. Ed is an artist, a philosopher, the Wendell Berry of our country, squawking day and night to anyone who will listen about the unfairness of milk pricing and the plight of the small farmer, a vanishing breed.
Ed loves animals in the way someone who lives with them 24 hours a day does, yesterday I saw him on his knees soothing a frostbitten possum he rescued from a bitter cold winter night. Ed is an animal whisperer, he strokes and pets his possum, even while the wary little thing hisses at him. Ed will release him soon into the forest.
Ed is an Edosaurus, the last of a breed, and he is not going quietly. (He said he dressed up for me because he knew I would bring my camera, he put on his Superman Sweatshirt.) Ed and Carol Gulley are planning an event I personally would not dream of missing, a June 30, 2018 Bejosh Farm Open House. You can see cows, goats, pheasants, chickens, calves and cows.
And the wonderful folk art he has made out of industrial farm parts. You can follow the Open House on the remarkable Bejosh Farm Journal, now read all over the world. Ed is now a gasbag with a blog (yes, I know…), a dangerous thing.
Maybe that’ s why we are brothers.
By June, I imagine Carol will have persuaded him to chuck the beard, and Ed will look just like any other old mountain man. (Whatever you do, don’t tell him you drink skim milk.)
But I would want to kid you, the main event will be Ed himself, if you twist his arm (or even breathe, ) you will hear jokes, folk tales, farm wisdom, wonderful stories about animals and Ed’s exciting new farm and folk art.
He really is a genius, if you can get past that face.
I have, and I love the man. And nobody has ever asked to take my portrait.
