Dan Rogers is the Bedlam Farm Hero Of The Year. He worked all day today in 100-degree heat to replace the rotting wood in the barn, on the front of the house, and on the front porch, which was close to much more rotting.

Our house is looking great and feeling great, and in a few days, it will be in perfect shape after being pounded by rain the past year or so.

Climate change is bearing its wrath here, with Tornado’s severe rainstorms and way too much water sometimes and too little other times. The water is doing more harm than the sun.

He said the rotting was getting close, but we are fine now and well into the future. Dan is a pleasure to have around; he is intelligent, funny, hard-working, reasonably priced, and meticulous about doing it right. He is also honest about the work he does. He always has a better and usually cheaper idea than ours.

We have become good friends. I look forward to his visits, but he insists on using the water hose. He’s a country boy; they always take their shoes off inside.

He and I seem to have the same warped sense of humor, and we always talk to one another when he takes a break from work, which he only does if I bring him ice water. He said the heat nearly did him today; he’ll come to finish this part of the porch in a day or so.

When we saw the damage beneath the barn, the front steps, and the rotting cedar shakes, Dan made time—he is busy—to replace them individually, usually early in the morning. It is difficult to do hard physical work in any weather, and brutal in this heat. He’s done much work already; there is more to do.

Our farmhouse is old, and it needs continuous care. We saved and planned and are getting it done. This year, we fixed the roof, which was damaged in a rainstorm (we got some insurance help), the septic, and an upstairs toilet, and are now tackling the rot. The farm will be good for at least another hundred years. We owe it to Bedlam Farm to keep it healthy.

We hope to work with Dan to put some insulation into the attic. It’s a small space, and in the winter, there are a lot of cold seeps. I’m trying to get Dan interested before Maria does it.

She has two cords of wood to stack and insists on doing it herself.

Even Dan had to stop in the late afternoon. He did a great job. We will stain the Cedar Shakes blue, the same color as the house.