Bedlam Farm Blog Journal by Jon Katz

I’ve been thinking for awhile about something to buy for the Mansion staff, they are unsung heroes to me, I see them working so hard and lovingly every day, they do not make much money, or get the praise they deserve.

This work is a calling, it is not for everybody, but it can be richly rewarding and emotionally challenging and physically different. These are the men and women (mostly women) who take care of our mothers, and sometimes, our fathers.

They do the hard and difficult work nobody else wants to do, and the rest of our world doesn’t like to talk about and think about. They deal with grief, dementia, loss and death almost every day.

They are truly unsung heroes. So I got these promo from a pen company that makes classy pens and will engrave them any way the customer wants. So I bought 50 of them and had them engraved: “Unsung Heroes Of The Mansion: Thank You.”

They are always desperate for pens, so this might be useful as well as fun for them I hope so. I hope it reminds them that they are appreciated. If the world could see them  work almost every day as I do, they would be paid what they are worth.

At the suggestion of a reader, I’d love to get each member of the staff a gift card of some kind for Christmas. I’ll be in touch about that.

Fate has accepted Bud, as a pack member and a playmate. For much of the day, the two chase each other around the yard, wrestle, chew on one another and sit together in the sun.

It is a lovely thing to see, something Fate also needs, and is especially good for Bud, who is beginning to trust the world. It gives both of them exercise and stimulation, and I balance the playing with being quiet and resting.

Both are important. Dogs must be given the chance to do nothing, to find the peaceful parts of themselves.

It was a pleasure to see the two of them through the kitchen window playing and wrestling with one another.

It was a good feeling inside of me.

I know the moment I set foot out of the house this morning that we had just experience the first winter frost of 2018-19. The water in the birdbath was  frozen solid, capturing some beautiful fall leaves in a gorgeous kind of natural ballet.

In a few days, the animals will be eating hay, not grass, and all of the flowers will be gone. The season of color and light is passing, a new and darker but also beautiful time.

We can no feel winter creeping up, November is always a dark and grey  month here, even with climate change, our winters are real. We are ready. Hay in the barn, wood in the woodshed, barn repaired and dry, roof repaired, wood stoves cleaned.

Tonight, we’ll take the top off the birdbath, put it aside for the winter. I will miss it, and the color and light, but I accept the creative challenge of the winter pasture.

My day started with dental implant surgery. A dental implant from several years ago appears to have gotten infected in some way, so it was removed in a 45-minute procedure this morning by an extraordinarily nice Dental surgeon named Timothy Kelling in Saratoga Springs.

The staff was also extraordinarily nice and attentive, it was as pleasant as those things can be. Everything avoids strong pain-killers like the plague now, and I know that is a good thing, but I could have used one today.

The procedure went well, and I think I won’t get another implant – ever.

It was a mess on the other end as well. I’ve got some stitches and gauze in my mouth for the blood, and I stopped and bought some Motrin for the pain.

It’s working well, though I confess to missing the old stuff a bit. I also got a bone graft to replace and build up the bone that was lost by the implant.

In two weeks, I’ll go back to get the stitches out, in four months I’ll go back to see what we will do next, if anything. At the moment, I’m leaning towards nothing.

I’m on antibiotics for the infection, but looks like everyone will be good.

Maria think’s I’m good looking, believe it or not, and she doesn’t care if I have a missing tooth, it won’t hardly be visible.

I have never seen my implant, so after Dr. Kelling took it out, he showed it to me, it was attached to a gold tooth. I brought it home as a souvenir.

I always feel fortunate after these medical occurrences. It could have been worse, it could have cost a lot more than $875, it could have been more painful, more serious.

People have a lot worse visits to doctors than this one, and often get a lot worse news.

And the Motrin is working pretty good, the sun is out and bright. All in all, the world looks pretty good.

P.S. Got a half-dozen e-mails from people in different parts of the country who were trying to call my radio show on Wednesday, and couldn’t get through. So maybe there were some technical details. I hope they try again next week, the station is checking their system.