I am adding videos to the blog regularly now, mostly in response to the many requests for them. We are living in a visual world, the blog has to keep up. This afternoon, Jay Bridge,a friend and carpenter came to the farm to fix the slate steps on the back porch and repair some of the holes in the barn that the donkeys made this winter. When they don’t have grass, they eat buildings. Took Red out in the heat to get the sheep out briefly so Jay could take some measurements.

I took a video of Red moving the sheep, Fate was assisting. I am using my Iphone 6 plus for the videos, the quality is very good and it is easy for me to post to YouTube and then link to you here. I am approving comments on the YouTube channel as there are one or two stalkers coming around and they can be hateful, it is a privilege to ban them, one small step towards a civil Internet.

I am adding a video streaming screen to the top of the Farm Journal so that you can all access the latest videos quickly and easily.

So it’s time to mention subscriptions again, they do matter, they keep the blog free, they keep it modern, they keep the photographs and words coming. They permit to be a writer in  time of great change.  They help pay for the cost of the blog, it is not cheap to run a good and dynamic blog. If you subscribe, you can cancel at any time, it is quite simple,   you have three good options – $3 a month, $5 a month, or $60 a year. If you can’t pay or don’t wish to, the blog is free, you can access all of it whether you pay or not, I don’t keep track.

This is the future of writing, I wish to be a relevant part of it, I hope you do also. Or there will be no writers like me. I mean to be here a good while. I embrace change and creativity, you will never hear me lament my life or speak poorly of it.

The blog is secure, no financial data is stored here, and no one on this end, including me, can access or control your money. You manage your own account, for your own protection. I can’t start or stop subscriptions,  nor do I wish to, you can do it easily at any point. You can use major credit cards or Paypal. Or you can send a check to Bedlam Farm. P.O.  Box 205, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816.

The subscription program is important, it is the new way for writers like me to keep doing their work and make a living. I’m not there yet, but we are getting closer. Five years ago, this would have been unthinkable for you, for me. Now, it is not only thinkable, it is the future of writing. It is my future. I began the blog in 2007 to support my books, the blog has become the book. More than four million visits to the blog are recorded each year, there are more than 400,000 unique visitors. A very small fraction of them subscribe, at least so far.

Those that do are appreciated, and their numbers are growing, slowly but steadily.

The blog is my new living memoir, my great work, I write and take photos here just about every day of the year, usually three, four or five times a day. It is good to be paid for my work, it is a long time coming, and it is beginning to work. Thanks for subscribing, and if you can’t subscribe, thanks for  reading the blog.

Many of you have followed me from the beginning, you have not abandoned me, I will never abandon you, whether you can subscribe or not.