Celebrating Valentine’s Day in our way: a tulip for Maria, who I love dearly.
12 February
Celebrating Valentine’s Day: Maria’s Tulip
by Jon Katz
Bedlam Farm Blog Journal by Jon Katz
12 February
Get Ready! Come Watch The Daily Baby Goat Show With “Crazy Goat Lady” Cindy Casavant, Presenting At Least 100 Goat Kids (Babies) As They Are Born
by Jon Katz
I’m inviting readers of the blog to join me in a free baby goat show from my friend Cindy Casavant, a goat farmer and master of making great soap. For animal lovers, there are few things more fun and fascinating than seeing some momma goats giving birth and introducing the mothers and the babies in pictures.
The babies are due in two weeks, Cindy is getting started today by posting some photos of the mothers. I’m going to link steadily to the baby’s birth, Cindy’s site is very much worth linking to. The presentation is free, and Cindy and her blog are well worth a visit. She works like a demon and is creative and bold.
This is exciting new turf for me, as well as Cindy. She is shy and not used to promoting herself. This will be a big step for her, a born farm kid who has been farming her whole life. You are invited to come along for the ride.
I have agreed to jointly present (link to regularly) an epoch event in the lives of a goat farmer, the imminent birth of at least 100 baby goats on her Caz Acres farm. Cindy is one of the farm people I met her at the farmer’s market and I have the most respect and admiration for. She and her husband Larry have a goat farm just down the road from us, the work is hard and dirty and demanding seven days a week, 24 hours a day. We’ve visited several times.
She plans to put up a photo of a newborn baby or “kid” every day. Maria says there is nothing in the world cuter than a baby goat.
Goat farming, like all farms, means revenue is always uncertain and unpredictable. Cindy’s idea was to make her very wonderful soap and build up that business so that she and Larry could retire one day like most farmers want to do, but only a few get to do. They both love farming, but they also want to be able to diversity if they wish once they get older.
I’m putting my money on Cindy. She has a soap-making factory in her basement – I made some soap there last weekend. And sales are already rising rapidly. Maria and I met her at the farmer’s market and we became friends and admirers.
Cindy’s soap is the best I’ve ever used and her sales – wholesale and retail – have been steadily rising. She and I have been talking about her wonderful blog, and I suggested that she put up pictures of her goats and their kids every day or as close as she can get. I told Cindy I thought she needed to put more of herself in her blog, and certainly more pictures of the goats and their babies. That, I said, will draw a lot of curious people to her blog, and hopefully, a lot more soap sales. She agreed. She might hold some open houses on the farm when the babies are born.
The birth of babies is a big event on a goat farm. It means goat milk will flow, wonderful cheese and soaps can be made and shipped, and one of the miracle processes of the agricultural world will be available for all of us to see. I’m psyched.
The baby presentation will be free of course, and I suggested linking to her goat pictures, which she is happy to do. You will get to see this as it happens or seconds later. I like the idea of celebrating the miracles of nature.
I love the idea of supporting people like Cindy, they do well without me, but I think the bagby goat show will be a fun for my readers and perhaps draw more attention to her site and soap operation. As you know, I’m committed to using the blog to do good and recognize worthy people.
Cindy is great fun to watch and follow, she has some great instincts about making her soap operation even more successful, and I’m coming along for the ride to see it when it happens.
I think her goat baby presentation can be a big boost for her and great fun for us. She’s going to start by putting up some photos of her goats on the site today. I’ll also link when the fun starts, but Cindy is always doing something interesting. I’d suggest bookmarking her site for when the babies start. And I’ll be making some noise when it happens. You can check out Cindy the “Crazy Goat Lady,” as she calls herself (she is anything but crazy) today at her website.
Cindy is a fascinating person with a riveting life. Come and see for yourself. I’ll keep you updated. I hope to get to her farm and get some photos myself.
12 February
Morning Morning. Setting Off To Find A New Knitting Mill For Our Yarn
by Jon Katz
Monday morning, a new week. We’re setting off this morning to drive to Hillsdale, New York to check out a new knitting mill to process our wool for yarn. The new mill is about 90 minutes away, we should be back soon after lunch. I hope this works out, Maria loves working with our wool and turning it into yarn and roving. This new mill sounds perfect for us, fingers crossed. Busy weekend, I’m getting a new tooth implant on Thursday, and I’ll have all of my teeth back and chewing.
It’s cold again, and cloudy. No sun today. A winter storm is possible for tomorrow. We’ll be ready for it. More later.
11 February
Color And Light: Tulips For Valentine’s Day, As Promised
by Jon Katz
I love putting up my archive photos of flowers, but it’s a treat to take some photos inside the farmhouse, these are with Tulips I brought Maria for Valentine’s Day. We don’t trade gifts on Valentine’s Day usually, but I think a wife and partner as wonderful as Maria deserves recognition. It’s the small things, yes? See you in the morning. We’re heating to mill our new wool miller. Later. The storm coming Tuesday. Be dry.
11 February
Bird Meditation, Something New. I Don’t Know What I Want, But I Like What I am Doing
by Jon Katz
Life seems remarkable to me sometimes,
I know little of flowers and less of birds, yet I somehow think this helps me to sense how I want to photograph them, almost everything they do is a surprise to me, fresh and exciting. Maria came into my office to tell me she had just put more feed in the bird feeder in case I wanted to come out and take a picture with my new lens. I did, and I was rewarded for my trouble.
I don’t know what these birds are, but I decided to sit outside with my new lens, I can be far enough away so that I don’t disturb the birds.
Two or three showed up right away, and I got the photos I wanted, quiet, contemplative images that were almost a meditation for me. I loved sitting out in the yard holding the camera up – next time the trip-pod. I love bird photos that show them in their natural world. They remind me of chickens, only they move much faster. I didn’t want to shoot through glass, I wanted to sit outside and wait. I want to get a feel for birds in their space, their speed, thair energy, their herky-jerky ness.
It was a sweet half an hour or so until it got darker and colder. I’ll be back in that seat often. This feels so peaceful and restful to me, it’s almost like a meditation. Perhaps it is a meditation.
I don’t know where I’m going with these pictures yet, but I like what I am seeing so far. As with the flowers, they touch something deeply inside of me, something that wants to come out and is coming out. I’m so lucky to be open to these things at this point in my life.
The birds are athletes, amazing in their ability to dive, move and twist. This one wrapped itself all around the feeder to get to the suet. I’ve been around birds all of my life, yet I’ve never really seen them. It’s true, photography helps me see the world anew. The lenses I trade for are helpful.