July 3, 2008 – The Love Dog bids you a good day, and she paused briefly from trying to steal Miss Pearl’s chewbone to come over and crawl into my lap and gnaw on my face, and I sang Willie Nelson’s “Stardust” to her in just his voice, and she appreciated it. She is relentless in her pursuit of love, and she has sure won my heart.
  My daughter Emma corrected me in writing earlier that she agreed with a third of what I said. It wasn’t quite that high, she said. We are working on our books today and tomorrow, celebrating the Fourth in Argyle, N.Y., at a chicken barbecue, with our cameras, if I can get her up in time. Got some good movies to go see as well. I am hoping to make real headway on my next book, “Rose and the Soul of A Dog,” about animals and souls. Writing is always a challenge on the farm, as there are many distractions, animal and human, and lots of chores and problems. More pizzlerot, and we have to treat Brutus for that.
 I will be taking photos and blogging throughout the weekend, as usual, and doing lots of grazing, and we hope you all have a happy and meaningful holiday. I never really know what to say about the Fourth of July, as there are so many gasbags sounding off about it, but I am grateful for this country, in which the grandson of Russian immigrants who lived their whole lives in three small rooms could own a 110-acre farm with a big old farmhouse and four barns. I often imagine their faces if they saw me here, and I think they could not possibly absorb it.