I wouldn’t say this to Ed, his head is big enough, but he is a good friend, and like the best farmers, a wizard when it comes to problem solving. He solved a big problem for us today, this was good and big news for us.

Farmers solve 100 problems a day, and Ed is smart and resourceful. We bought our farm three years ago, and we have 17 beautiful acres that go beyond the farmhouse and our pasture and into the woods. We have only been able to walk in our woods a few times, we have wetlands and a fast stream rushing between  us and our woods.

When we asked Ed about this, he went into his workshop and showed up with Carol in his truck. He leaned into the water – it is freezing, he didn’t seem to feel it much – and put down a chunk of wood and overlaid it with two boards. We finally have a bridge and can walk in our own woods with the dogs and one another!

This is a great gift, and a big deal for us. The stream is high and fast now, from all the snow, much of the year it is quieter. But now we can walk on it every day. There is nothing sweeter than walking in our own woods, it is full of old deer stands but otherwise lovely. We have to cut through some heavy brush to make a path for ourselves, but we can do that later, and Ed is threatening to come over with his chainsaw. If Ed says he will do something, he means it, he will do it.

I count Ed among my closest friends. He is an artist, a writer and a true creative as well as a farmer, and I learn a lot from him. I have to say in all honesty – this is rare – that is as good or better a bullshitter as I am, and I do not often acknowledge that.

We are lucky to know him.  I will always remember the night he took our poor dead bear home and skinned him or the day he came over in his truck to take our sheep Deb’s body away. If you live on a farm, you have to know someone like Ed or you will regret it. He’s the real deal, and  has given us a great gift. Maria is thrilled.

I’ve been living on farms a long time, but I do not have Ed’s experience, confidence, or frankly, his imagination. Writing has been my work for decades, not farming, and I guess we can’t be equally smart about everything. I would never have thought of Ed’s little bridge, or known how to put one in place. Now I can walk in my own woods. We will try it out tomorrow morning.

When he sees he will figure something out, it usually happens. I am a huge fan of his wildly popular new blog, the Bejosh Farm Journal that he and Carol publish together daily. He is a natural, he has a lot to say and it is well worth listening to. We are grateful that he and Carol are in our lives, and are getting to know their equally lovely family.