We close on our new home at 3 p.m. Thursday. Today, Maria and Red and I – I cannot really imagine life before either of them – went to check out the New Bedlam Farm. Lori McLenithan and her husband Dave were in the last day of a tag sale. We set out behind the barn where Rocky hangs and we found a pond and three new pastures right behind the farmhouse. Beyond that are acres of beautiful woods – space for the donkeys to graze, for the dogs to walk and run, for the sheep to have their own pasture. More than enough for the three donkeys, pony and half -dozen sheep that will be coming. We need some new fencing.
How thrilled we were to feel so close to owning this wonderful place.
Red and I will get to move the sheep out to pasture every day – the farm is 17 acres. And there will be a sheep pasture by the side of the house where we’ll work and do some herding demos. The family has cleaned out the beautiful red barn and there are four stalls for our crew. We will be moving Rocky inside for much of the day – he can wander around at night. His life will change. He’s getting water in a tub by the barn now, and during the summer days, he will be in the shade heating some hay.
Someone asked me a question in my Sunday Facebook Q & A session about moving. “How can you leave Bedlam Farm?, it seems like heaven on earth.” It was a curious question to me.
There are many reasons for moving, and one of them is that I don’t have as much money as I had when I bought this farm. When I bought Bedlam Farm, I spent a small fortune fixing up barns, the farmhouse, putting in new foundations. I guess people assume I am rich, but I am not rich and wasn’t even rich then. Publishing has changed, and I am changing with it, and writers make a lot less money than they did a few years ago, and that means for me to be free to do the work I want to do I need to alter my life as so many other people are doing. It is very inexpensive as far as farms go, especially now that we have dropped the price three times.
But I also want to build a place with Maria. I told the questioner that there is no heaven on earth for me. Heaven is where I am with Maria and these animals. If there is magic, it is inside of us, not in buildings or land or bank accounts. And that is good, because I have never had less money than I have now, and building this New Bedlam Farm will be a very different experience for me. One step at a time, carefully. I was delighted seeing these new pastures because they are beautiful, but I was also happy because I don’t need to buy hay between April and November. Perhaps I am now thinking like a real farmer, not a writer with a farm.