BEDLAM FARM: An escape from the pressure cooker

An Unincorporated Division of The Anonymous Anything Society AUGUST 7, 2013

Persons who deal in high tension jobs - and nowadays that applies to most every field of endeavor, need to take a break, get away from the pressures once in a while. Leastwise, that's what psychiatrists and psychologists constantly preach. The antitheses: travel taxes us in a multitude of ways.

Travel schedules that include driving in near suicidal traffic, or the rush and crush of boarding overcrowded jets coming and going on overcrowded runways, strange beds in unfamiliar settings and the inevitable upset of our digestive systems and those belonging to all who accompany us, is often punishing.

Worst of all, we've become adrenalin freaks. Two weeks away from the slave galley is not enough to cure of us of our obsession for a constant rush.

Let me suggest something else.

Through persistent daily exposure to a web site, my wife Phyllis got me hooked on a place in cyberspace that has become a daily escape. It's a website called "Bedlam Farm.com." I'll give you the link to it after a few more lines.

Jon Katz is a wonderful New York Times Best Selling writer and photographer with all sorts of credits, including 21 books. He and his artist wife Maria are occupants of an upstate New York Farm - actually his second.

Before doing this, Jon, like most of us, knew almost nothing about farming on a small subsistence farm nor farm animals. That's probably true of most of the last two generations, preceding mine ("The Greatest," it has been called).

Revisit the beauty of everyday life. Reading Bedlam Farm is a sort of Zen - enlightenment through meditation - in the company of three dogs, one of whom is an amazing sheep-herding collie, three donkeys, two barn cats, a small herd of sheep and a few chickens.

I recommend a dose of at least 30 minutes of Bedlam Farm every day after lunch.

_______

Well worth repeating: The danger of West Nile Virus. Help spread the word.

Last week, I spoke of the terrors of suffering mosquito-borne West Nile Virus. To recap the information about it, most persons who contract it through a mosquito bite have hardly any symptoms. Those who do, can have long lasting fever, muscle pain, and in some cases severe neurological damage, causing paralysis and even death

There were fewer than 300 fatalities in the U.S. last year, but the thousands of victims who continue to suffer from the debilitating symptoms is growing as the malady spreads. There is no inoculation to prevent it and no cure as of yet. Supportive nursing care in a hospital for severe cases is mandatory.

The Centers for Disease Control urge everyone to do everything possible to eradicate mosquitoes. Even small containers of stagnate water can quickly become breeding grounds for mosquito larvae and should be emptied. A light oil such as canola on the surface of water will destroy larvae. The best personal protection is to apply a liberal amount of a repellant containing a chemical known as DEET to the uncovered skin.

Touching or kissing a victim will not cause a transmission of the disease. Your dog or cat or horse will not be carriers. They and we humans are known as "dead-end" victims. It is only spread by mosquitoes feeding on a bird carrying the virus. A red flag as to the presence of West Nile Virus can be the appearance of dead birds.

C.L. "Tex" Kidwell of El Paso, Texas, sent this:

"I have a first hand knowledge of just how serious the disease can be. A lady at the Y where I workout began coming there about two years ago and she used a walker and had to have assistance to get on the machines. She now only uses a cane but walks with a serious limp in one leg. I assumed she had a stroke because all of the symptoms pointed to that. I learned recently that it was West Nile; that she nearly died and it has taken her three years to get back to where she is now. She is also back to teaching."

73,

-Phil Richardson, Observer and Story Teller.

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My unending thanks to Jim Bromley of Glendale, Arizona for arranging for a Link to ARCHIVE of other essays.