Bedlam Farm Blog Journal by Jon Katz

I have this odd  habit of enjoying my visits to the doctors who come to inhabit the corners of almost every person’s life as they get older.  I’ve complained repeatedly about the tendency of male doctors to obsess on data and rarely bother to talk to me, and yet I keep meeting some male doctors who are extraordinarily nice and empathetic and whom I trust and enjoy.

I’ve shifted my medical doctors to Saratoga, and the doctors attached to their hospital, they are called the Saratoga Hospital Medical Group. They are impressive, professional and have combined to keep this engine running and in tune.

I spent a lot of time talking with Dr. Peter Van der Rief, an ear, nose and throat specialist, about my throat. We also spent a lot of time talking about his 14 year-old geek son, who is, like many geeks, gifted, independent and not all that interested in conventional school curriculums.

I’ve written for Wired Magazine, Rolling Stone and authored a book called “Geeks,” so he and I had a lot to talk about.

People tend to thing of the gaming geeks as being dysfunctional and self-destructive. I think they are one of the most creative and accomplished sub cultures in history, they do things almost no one else can do, and that few, if any adults, comprehend or respect.

The stereotype of the brooding, rebellious and idiosyncratic young computer warrior is deep, and quite often, simply wrong. These are the brilliant kids who grow up to make $125,000 a year when they are 22, and who can live in the most interesting cities in the world in apartments their parents could never afford.

They live in a complex and exciting world of color, decision-making and creativity. In my time, my parents had a full understanding of my culture – it consisted of a portable radio and comic books. We watched the same TV shows, saw the same news.

And we worry about them?

It’s quite different day. Caring and attentive parents like Dr. Van der Riet can only wonder about the world their children live in, and whether they are doing healthy things or not. And whether all that time online is good for them.

The doctor and I had a good talk about it. He told me he appreciated my positive attitude. I appreciated his warmth and care. It was patient-doctor love at first probe.

We also had a good look at my throat, it was a more intensive and uncomfortable process than I wished for, and it will take longer than I thought. I’ve got some fluid to take home and he put me on anti-biotics, he think my trouble might have been sparked by a sinus infection. He took a very close look at my throat.

I told him I’d been having trouble with dryness, coughing, etc. I told him I had a radio show, was doing a podcast, and often gave talks about my books. I need to be able to talk. We had a good talk, he even got to see my voice crack and catch. There are some issues to consider.

So there were tests and I have a special saline solution to inject into my nose, am on anti-biotics and I am once again forced to concede that it is foolish to generalize about people, there are obviously some loving and caring and communicative male doctors.

I met one today. I met another one, an oral surgeon, a few months ago.

My throat is grateful to know him, if these remedies don’t work, we will go onto other things I don’t even want to know about. It’s all about maintenance, I am lucky to have people in life who keep me healthier than I have ever been.

I’m actually looking forward to seeing him again in a couple of weeks. I have a couple of books to bring him. I know I will find my voice and keep it. To me, a doctor who can do that is a maker of miracles.

This morning.

I’m off to the Mansion to teach my weekly Meditation class. Then to Saratoga to see an a throat specialist about the difficulties I’ve been having with my voice and throat lately.

Spring is edging its way into our lives, slowly and one day at a time. We’ve got the sunshine down, all we need is a bit of warmth. Red was  his old self today, steely-eyed and in command.

Due to the response to this picture – I never know – I’m putting it up for sale. It is one of those iconic images that touch people.

Clotheslines are banned in many upscale communities, some people think they look trashy and ruin the aesthetic of a neighborhood and lower real estate prices.

Others-like me – think they are a cultural art form all of their own. This photo shows our clothesline flapping in the wind, Maria’s studio is in the background.

I think just the opposite. Clotheslines not only help the environment, they are beautiful to see, they remind us of the beauty and clarity of nature and family.

So this picture is on sale on Maria’s Etsy Shop for $125, it will be printed by the Image Loft of Manchester Center, Vermont, signed and unframed and shipped for an additional charge of $6.

It will be a Fine Art print, Hahnemule Photo Rag, 100 per cent cotton acid free paper, archival ink. If you prefer to pay by check or other means, please contact Maria, she is [email protected].

I see this photo touched some people deeply, that is especially gratifying for me.

You can see it or purchase it here. If someone wants it and can’t afford the full price, contact me and I will try to work something out.

Before coming here, Bud spent his entire life in Arkansas. He had never seen snow, or experienced the bitter cold winters of upstate New York. This week, the weather has finally begun to warm up, though not all that much.

But I see the change in Bud. This morning, he waded into the pond at the foot of the pasture, he spotted his first fish and went after it, it will be interesting to see what happens when the frogs emerge.

Bud loves the country, he loves being out doors in the warmer weather, and he loves the farm. He barks at the sheep and pushes them around, annoys the donkeys, goes out exploring the edge of the woods every day, running alongside Fate as she races around the sheep.

When he is ready – cold or tired – he crawls under the pasture gate and goes and sits by the back door, waiting to be let in. From the first, I wanted him to be a farm dog, and that is what he is.

To the people who wrote me alarmed or angry messages cautioning me that he was too frail and fragile to be a farm dog, near animals or outdoors in less than perfect weather, I would say I am glad I gave him the chance to be a dog, he is in large measure getting the time and space and opportunity he deserves to live the life of a dog as much as is possible.

It’s gift to see him evolve from the time and shell-shocked, terrified creature that didn’t want to get off the truck in Brattleboro.

To the cruel man who owned him – he still has a terror of some confinements – you lost.

I’m not going to be on the radio the next couple of weeks, Thomas Toscano, my partner,  is going to be off for a while on a medical leave, and I can’t run the station’s old equipment by myself. So we’ll have a breather.

As it happens, Maria and I are bearing down on our first podcast together, we did one trial and are recording the second version tomorrow or Friday. I have plenty to do.

The podcast links and buttons will go up on our blogs next week, stay tuned.

The Talking To Animals broadcast is coming together I believe. For the last two  weeks, there have been a steady stream of callers with thoughts and issues that are interesting to me and others. The station’s phone seems to be working, calls are getting through.

This is what I wanted the most, to have a dialogue. A wonderful woman named Cynthia Daniello has been a bright spot for me. She is elderly, wheelchair bound, living in an assisted care facility in the Northeast.

She has been calling the show every week for some weeks now, and she has a dazzling knowledge of animals. She grew up on a farm, lived with horses, worked in a vet’s office for decades. She wants her life to have meaning and purpose, she doesn’t want to vanish from the consciousness of the outside world.

So she shocked me today by saying she would take up my suggestion and start a blog and write about her life but also help answer questions people  have about their pets. She worked with animals all of her life, and knows her stuff.

I’ll write about the blog and link to it when it goes up. Cynthia is the real deal.

This alone has been worth doing the broadcast, I will share her journey with you. Once her son arrives for a visit, she’ll have her blog up and running.

Go, girl.

I have worked hard to make the broadcast work, and have come to love it, especially the interactions with callers, who share their worries and concerns about their animals, mostly their dogs.

I think I have  been helpful I work hard to research and understand their problems and the possible solutions. I want the broadcast to be useful, civil and thoughtful. We are getting there, even though every single program could be the last, I’ve known that from the beginning.

No commercial radio station would ever give someone like me two  hours of air time every week, that is the joy of community radio.

I can use the time off.

Maria and I are enjoying our weekly talks about the farm, a good warm-up for our podcast together.

Thomas is a perfect counter-weight to me. I stick close to science, he veers off into the mystical, even the supernatural, and this yin-yang is both refreshing and entertaining. He has a great intellect, and I sense he has often been at odds with the world. This is a condition I know only too well, it’s only in recent years I have settled down to come to terms with me.

Thomas and I have what the pros call chemistry, from the first we have complement one another, me poring through my books, leaning on science, Thomas letting his fertile mind roam.  I cannot really imagine the broadcast without him.

There have been times when I wanted to strangle him, times when I wanted to hug him.

He is one of a kind, when he talks about music, his eyes and face go soft, he is transported. We might just become friends one day. He can be edgy and abrasive, but his e-mail is soft and gentle and poetic – his true soul, I think.

We have a good chemistry together on the air, and we chat easily off. Thomas and I get along very well, but it does get tense sometimes. We connect with one another, but are also very different in many ways.

He seems very much alone to me, and sometimes very angry. It is almost as if he is in conflict with the world. I could cry when he talks about his music, he is a conductor by trade, and I believe he misses conducting dearly. If you’ve ever read about them, you may know that they are not like other people.

There aren’t many conducting jobs around Bennington, Vt.

I asked him how he came to be here, and he doesn’t really know. I think he had nowhere else to go when he left Brooklyn a few years ago. He is trying to save the station pretty much all by himself.

It hardly seems possible to me.

I think if we worked together every day we would kill one another, as it is, we have great fun doing the broadcast.  We e-mail each other every few days. The broadcast is really beginning to work for me, we did it, and I thank you.

People ask me all the time now how long I’ll stick it out on WBTM, and I  try to answer honestly. The station seems like it’s on life support. Thomas has been running it almost entirely by himself and he is tired and drained.

It does not seem to me to be a sustainable situation.

I’ve hardly ever seen anyone else around there. There is no advertising, marketing or promotion of any mind, and the stations Korean war equipment is coming apart.

So I’ll enjoy the broadcast while I can, and for as long as it goes. I thank you for  your support of this program. I’ve wanted to do it for years. Putting together a successful radio broadcast together, is for me, a cherished dream, as long as it lasts.

God Bless Community Radio, once the last station falls, it will be CNN and Fox News all over the world and on every screen.