At a time when my mailboxes is literally flooded with requests for money, I am uncomfortable asking for money.

But it’s important that I do.

It’s been a few months since I’ve asked for help in supporting my blog which is the primary tool and engine for every single thing I do – from blogging, animal writing, my pictures, Bishop Maginn High School, the Mansion and the collect worked and missions of the Army Of Good.

And of course, for having a blog at all. Since I started the Bedlam Farm Journal, I’published more than 32,000 posts and roughly 40,000 photos. All are free. All cost money to produce.  If you like it, I’m afraid I have to ask support so I can keep it going.

I’m essentially asking to be paid for my work, I’m not seeking gifts.

It all starts here. My blog was founded in 2007, well before social media turned so much of the Internet into a shithole. But the trolls and alarmists and haters and busybodies have not gotten all of it. The blog is my grown jewel, my best work.

My editor told me starting a blog as a book author was the dumbest thing he ever heard. He was laid off just before I started the blog and gave up book writing.

You can skip my pleas for money if you’re in a hurry,  and just go and donate one time, for any amount you want, or send a small monthly donation to keep things running and bills paid.  Support my blog right here.

My blog is better, stronger and more diverse than ever.

And also more effective.

We help new and existing refugees, elderly people at the edge of life, the occasional farmer under siege by know-nothing animal rights vigilantes. And I love writing about my life on a small farm in the country, inspired by E.B. White, and his wonderful book “One Man’s Meat.”

My mind is eclectic. I range all over the place.

We do a lot and there is a lot more to do.

Unfortunately, running a blog can get expensive. My free blog mailing service is free to you, but not free to me. And every time the system kicks off a subscriber for no discernible reason, it costs me $25 to get it back for them.

I don’t begrudge anybody this, I want as many people as possible to read the blog, and I take responsibility for it, there are lots of fees – domain fees, hosting fees, and as the blog has grown, so does the cost of the servers needed to operate it.

My blog costs are now between $1,000 and $1,500 a month.

This strains the budget, but is also a sign that the message is getting out there. I have between three and four million visits to the blog each year, and hundreds of thousands of daily visitors. This is good news for the Mansion, for the Bishop Maginn students, and for the newly arriving Afghan refugees, all of whom we are helping in various ways.

The donkeys and sheep and dogs also appreciate it.

And of course, it’s good for me. I love what I do.

In addition, I write about my farm – dogs, donkeys, sheep. I  write about my magnificent other, Maria, who is a joy to know, live with and write about. Her art and musings on nature alone are worth the price of admission.

Beyond that, I have initiated a series of essays that keep me in touch with the outer world, from politics to the Amish to the nature of community and rural life.

I write just about every day of the year, usually four or five times a day. I love every word, typos and all, and every minute of it.

It is real, if nothing else and I am striving every day to be a better human being, and sharing that  up-and-down journey. Hard work.

The blog is making me healther, perhaps you also. I am learning to listen, to be more patient and tolerant, to ease anger out of my life and work..

I see the blog, which is free (and so are my photographs) as my living memoir, my great work.

If you find it entertaining, instructive, thought-provoking or otherwise useful, please consider supporting it. If you don’t often agree with me, then you need it all the more. What use is it to read only people you agree with?

You can simply send a one time donation to Jon Katz, Blog, via Paypal, [email protected] or via Venmo, jon katz@jon-katz-13. Or by check, Jon Katz. P.O. Box 205, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816.

Or you can  hit the support the blog button and figure out a different and more continuous way to help. The subscriptions are simple to start easy to stop.

I hope the blog is stimulating, challenging, informative and sometimes annoying. The end result is an escape from the red and blue thing, which to me signals the end of original thinking in America.  Whole generations of Americans are growing up thinking theere are only two ways to think, and I’m afraid both of them suck, they are overwhelmingly about seperating you from your money.

I’m holding out, I hope. I’m not supposed to agree with every thing I read, I learn more from reading smart people I don’t always agree with. But the truth is, I have to ask for money too. One difference, I hope, is that I will never lecture you or tell you what to do.

Some people subscribe as a contribution (the blog is always free, just put in your e-mail at the bottom of each days’ Farm Journal page where it says “Free Email Signup.” I stand behind it and we will fix it if fails.

I’ll never abandon the good people who don’t have the money to subscribe but who have been with me from the beginning.

Paid subscribers get the same thing as non-paying subscribers. The blog will always be free. And readers are also free to use my photographs in any way they wish. They are never bookmarked or copyrighted, they are my angels, a gift to the other world.

No money is ever on my website or server. The site is protected by two highly regarded online security firms, and also my Web designer and operator. If you subscribe to anything here, you can cancel any time.

There is a “cancel my subscription button” at the bottom of every blog post. It is easy to get in, easier to get out. You won’t have to root around for a way to cancel.

So if you are inclined to help, I’d appreciate it, and I need it. Please support my blog. , either by pushing the button or sending a check to Jon Katz, P.O. Box 205, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816, or via Paypal, [email protected] or Venmo, jonkatz@jon-katz-13.

We have some interesting and challenging years ahead, and I plan to be writing my butt off, just about every day.

Many thanks for all of your support, I wouldn’t have lasted a week without you..