We were supposed to go to Saratoga to have my foot checked five days after surgery, but the appointment was moved to early Tuesday morning.

I’ll be back in time to go to the Mansion, my return to the world. Sue Silverstein and Maria say I should wait another week or two before returning to Bishop Gibbons.

I won’t take on the two of them. I know when I’m beaten.

I thought it would be nice to start the day and the week with a video of Maria doing her Monday morning video. This is a fun way to get a look at the heart of our farm, which every morning is Maria’s feeding the animals, talking to them, and checking on them.

Please excuse my hobbling around; the surgical boot makes walking difficult. Maria took a few shots of me as well.

Her love of these animals and her life of life has become the heart and soul of the farm in many ways and a joy for me to see. We each have our roles; hers is precious and inspiring to me. Maria had never lived with animals other than dogs and cats before we got together, but she is so natural when caring for them that I wonder about this other life stuff.

It’s worth paying attention to her treatment of Biddie, our aging and oldest sheep. Biddie is losing her teeth, which is commonplace with old sheep, and she is losing weight.  She looked skeletal.

Maria decided to give her extra grain in the morning, difficult to do with other sheep around. She points to Biddie, and she follows her into the pole barn. Some other sheep come running (I would kick them in the ass at this point), and Maria tells them gently to eat their hay. And they do. I could never pull this off, and I’ve been living with sheep twice as long as she has.

Such a gift comes from the heart, but I think it goes deeper than that. This comes naturally to her.

She must have done it before.

Come and see. We posted joint videos for the first time. You can see hers here.

I thought it would be nice for others to see it as well. So it’s a video of a video. It’s a deep look into what Bedlam Farm is all about. I had the dream; Maria brought it to life. The animals know it.

We were all cranked up for our visit to see Dr. Daly, but she had an emergency, and tomorrow will do just as well. I’ll see my redesigned foot for the first time, and we’ll make sure the wound is healing properly. It sure feels like it is. We got thrown off, I was looking forward to the visit today, but I am rebounding in our way – we got to work, instant healing for us.

Yesterday, I figured out some exposure options on my Leica and got some neat pictures of the Magnolia at dusk, and I’ll post them shortly. I guess it’s surgery related, but I haven’t been able to sleep these past few days, even with my sleep apnea mask. So I’m going to try to rest this afternoon. I’m just not good at it.