Bedlam Farm Blog Journal by Jon Katz

29 January

Bud Joins The Rat Battle. The Most Powerful Weapon Yet

by Jon Katz

We’ve thrown just about everything we have against the giant female rat who has been skillfully avoiding traps, sonic noises, traps with peanut butter and crackers, and odor repellent (we threw out all of the poison; it was too creepy).

Last night, we unleashed our most powerful weapon yet: Bud

We have a Boston Terrier in the house, Bud, our most skillful and successful hunter (until Zip). He usually sleeps in his crate at night, but we left the door open so he could wander downstairs and go after the rat if she reappeared (she may be dead or gone).

Bud is always hunting for squirrels, moles, mice, and rats if he can find one. Boston Terriers were bred in Boston in the mid-1800s to kill the rats who were running amok in that city. They did a great job.

Bud is the best rat controller I can imagine; he is fearless, savvy, and determined. Like most Boston Terriers, he thinks he’s a dinosaur with huge teeth. He makes up in spirit and drives what he lacks in size and muscle. Go Bud.

We thought of bringing Zip into the basement for a few days to catch the rat there, but I don’t believe that’s a good idea.

Zip, like Bud, is very happy where he is, and he is fond of his heated cat house in the ban. He takes his napes in there on cold days.

Border collies are meant to hang around sheep, and Boston Terriers are intended to kill rats. Go, Bud, show the rat your stuff. When we came downstairs this morning, Bud was in the bathroom by the hole we think the rat uses to enter the house and up through the basement.

He was locked in. I doubt any rat would walk past that. Bud never forgets to back off or let go. He knows where she is.

28 January

Bedlam Farm Journal, Sunday, January 28, 2024Zip Report The Cat Who Took Over My Farm

by Jon Katz

I meet with Zip twice daily, at 9 a.m. and then again at 4 p.m. Today was another rainy day; I have had some success looking for a way to trade some lenses for a new one that is supposed to be excellent for capturing birds and nature.

I’ll have to trade three or four lenses to get the new lens I want. It’s a good deal, and I won’t add a penny to the debt.

He is always precisely on time and stays with me for 20 to 30 minutes. Then he sails off to kill and eat something; he’s getting a tummy. Zip needs his journal. People tell me he is a one-of-a-kind cat.

 

My morning meeting with Zip. He loves having his cheek scratched.

Maria made a new ramp for our aging chickens today. One or two were having some trouble climbing up and into the roost. Zip inspected it immediately. Everything at the farm appears to be his.

 

King Zip likes to hold court on the wicker chair on the porch. He is more Imperious than the hands.

When it rains or gets cold, he retreats into his heated cat house in the barn. He believes he is in charge of everything, which might be true. This chair is the site of most of our morning meetings (see Maria’s photos above). I sit in the chair, and he sits on my shoulder, and the purring and stroking begins.

No doubt about it, Zip has changed me and the farm, he’s a little squirt with a huge personality.

28 January

Notes From The Farmer’s Market. People Who Are Building And Expanding Their Lives And Ours With Wonderful Food

by Jon Katz

Every Sunday, the farmer’s market is beautiful in my life. Maria and I go there every Sunday morning and are consistently surprised by the newcomers from all over the Northeast who have landed here to make their home and follow their dreams.

Casey is finishing work on her horse trailer and plans to open her breakfast and coffee cart in a month or so. She is getting confident and eager to get started. She is thoroughly prepared. Daughter Evelynn will be a start. I’ll be there.

Saturday, I’m taking a soap-making lesson with our friend Cindy, “The Goat Lady.” I plan on describing that lesson. I love Cindy’s soap, and Cindy is pretty cool herself. The market sells great food, vegetables, coffee, tea, and scones. It gets much bigger in the summer—the market winters in the old town firehouse. In May, they go back outside.

 

Evelynn, above, a Food Cart Baby With Casey For A Mom.

 

Kean Mcllvaine is another newcomer to our town; she is a creative and passionate breadmaker and baker. She sells the best bread I have ever had and is proud of her Sourdough boule with castelvetrano and kalamata olives, walnuts, and hazelnuts; her signature O.G. loaf, made with a blend of darky rye, durum, and white flours, and another Sourdough boule with a golden crust and loaded with jalapenos and grated cheddar.

Also, my favorite is healthy bread-seeded sourdough loaded with toasted fennel, flax, sunflower, and sesame (vegan) seeds. Those are just a few things Kean, a Michelin-starred, classically trained baker, makes. Kean is passionate about her Focacci; you can check out her work here.

She is passionate about her work. She says healthy bread is a human right. I’m bugging her to start her blog; she has a fascinating husband (he is a fund-raising consultant who loves bees and makes raw honey) , a wonderful baby, and a beautiful house by a beautiful stream. She is working on her distant plans for a bakery.

She’ll get there. And she has a lot to write about.

To the best of my knowledge, we’ve never had great bread before. Kean is as shy as she is gifted. She misses Washington, D.C., but not for long.

The Happy And Cheerful Hodges Family – they are running Adirondack Seafood Co. –  brings Lobster rolls, shrimp, and crabcakes to our little town at the farmer’s market. Blessings on them. They are just as lovely as they look, and their fish is fresh and fantastic. Today I got crab cakes, a Lobster Roll, some fresh and fat shrimp and chopped Alaska Crab bites. What a gift these talented young people are. They don’t just sell excellent food; they brighten our lives.

28 January

The Feminine Devine And The Coming Revolution Of Compassion. We Are All Part Of One Heart

by Jon Katz

The Divine Feminine is the female aspect of the divine power believed to connect and bind the earth compassionately and kindly.

To my surprise, the Divine Feminine, which has fascinated me more and more in recent months, encompasses qualities we desperately need in our country and the world, which the men who fight for power have failed to embrace.

Featured photo, Maha-Devi, The Eternal One

We are all paying the price. The goddesses of the Feminine Devine shame the Frankenstein leaders we suffer ender.

On the other hand, the Divine Feminine embraces qualities like nurturing, intuition, compassion, receptivity, and creativity. These powerful qualities have vanished from our civic life, dominated mainly by angry, cruel, ignorant men. How much empathy and compassion for others do Mr. Trump and his followers have?

I just bought Maria a book called Purnam, Stories Of The Wisdom Of The Feminine Divine (above) by Abhishek Singh. It is beautiful, eye-opening, and timely. Many women know of the Feminine Divine, but most men have never heard of it.

I’m reading about it and want to learn more. It is eerie that the Feminine Divine is the complete opposite of the cultural and political system that is hurting, frightening, and damaging all of us.

I picked the book up when it arrived the other day and loved it so much I bought another copy for Maria.

We can read it together. Maria possesses all of the qualities of the Feminine Divine. Reading about the values of the women who helped found organized religion before a bunch of Popes and Patriarchs pushed them aside and imposed very different values. God was never meant to be a father or a male. He was meant to be all of us, one heart tying us together.

Above, Aarambh, “the beginning.”

The teachings of the Feminine Divine give me hope for the world and an idea of how real change is coming.

As women are moving to dominate the law, medicine, giant corporations, colleges, I’m getting this very stirring vision, I call it the Revolution Of Compassion that I sincerely belief is coming, inspired by the damage and cruelty male leaders are imposing on our lives, our country and our world.

The Revolution of Compassion is a pipe dream, a fantasy. Still, I believe it is already beginning to make itself felt as women worldwide speak up about the values that separate them from so many men and leaders.

Sometimes,” writes Thich Nhat Hahn, “someone we love – our child, spouse, or parent – says or does something cruel, and we feel hurt. We think it is only we who suffer. But the other person is suffering as well. If he weren’t suffering, he wouldn’t have spoken in a way that hurt us…Our responsibility is to produce the energy and compassion that first calms our hearts and allows us to help others. If we punish the other person, he will suffer more, and the cycle will continue. Responding to violence with violence can only bring more violence, more injustice, and more suffering – not only to the ones we seek to punish but also to ourselves. The wisdom is in every one of us.”

Our so-called leaders abuse us almost daily with their lies, anger, corruption, cruelty, and domination.

These are not the values of the divine feminine, a movement that was instrumental in founding organized religion and fighting for compassion thousands of years ago but has been pushed aside and forgotten by the men who still dominate the planet.

What intrigues me is that we don’t need to create a kindler, gentler, more inspirational and spiritual country, this movement already exists. I read about it as I explore and research the history of the Divine Feminine. We need this movement to flare up and march; it is, I feel in my bones, a movement that can lead, inspire, and save the world from men’s bloody and greedy rule.

I’ll be reading and learning about the Feminine Divinine as it applies to our lives in 2024. The spirits are rising; the arrogant and corrupt leaders are feeling their return and fighting to keep them away.

The people in Washington and the new generation of creepy leaders have overplayed their hand. A Revolution Of Compassion is coming.

Women birthed the earth and brought compassion to faith:  it makes sense that they would help to rise and change it.

From the book “Stories and Wisdom from the Feminine Divine.”

Aarambh (above) – the beginning.

Jiva: Mother, what was there in the beginning?

Devi: Only the “present” as when it moved, “past” and “future” were produced, and time came to be.

Jiva: So from this “now” came everything?”

Devi: Yes, but then we became prejudiced by our pasts and futures.

Jiva: And forget to be in the: now.”

Devi: …and that in the beginning, we were all part of one heart.

Jiva: …hence when we embrace the “now.”

Devi:…we become whole again, go to a place where our biases disappear, our separation dilute.”

I love this subject and will be exploring and writing about it.

 

 

 

 

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