Mary Muncil, who is marrying Maria and I, told us to bless the barn where we will be married. Go in it every day, many times, and bless it, fill it with a kind of energy about us and our life together. So we are. First thing we have to fix some of the 200-year-old slate on the roof. Ben Osterhaudt, left, has played a major role in my life on the farm. He helped rebuild the barn, and has kept the farmhouse running for several years. He is honest, gifted and a pleasure to have around. He can fix absolutely anything, is a brilliant carpenter and always charges less than I expect.

Cathan Dupuis, on the right, is a gifted mason who built one of my fireplaces and also the stone walls around the back of the farmhouse. The two are good friends, and it was a pleasure to see them up on the barn roof.

We picked up our rings today, and will exchange them at the wedding. Emma Span, my daughter, will be Best Man. She will hold my ring.

We are writing our own vows. I had a great lunch with my good friend Steve McLean, pastor of the Argyle United Presybyterian Church. I had originally asked him to consider marrying us – he is a Bible/Jesus guy “all the way” as he puts it, and today we both laughed at lunch when I told him we were not marrying until “Death Do Us Part” but as long as we wished to love one another and be together. He said he thanked me for not asking him to preside over that kind of wedding, and I was glad I spared him that. I don’t know how he would have felt about two donkeys being in attendance, and some sheep and dogs. When we invite people, we tell them no gifts and don’t bring any shoes they want to keep.