Charge of the Lamb Brigade

Patron of the Arts

Not really, but I did buy the original watercolor of this from local artist Ben Hatke:

While I have a particular fondness for his existentially challenged robot, this series only scratches the surface of his talents. Check out his website, his online store and help support the arts!

The view from home this morning.

Main Street

Grace in action

Yes, the mule is dunking.  Grace is owned by local boy Steve Foster who shows off her tricks after giving his testimony about hard living, divine intervention, redemption and the love of a few good mules.  Grace has co-starred with Robert Duvall in his movie "Get Low."  It's not everyday that you meet livestock that is smarter than your dog, listens better than your kids and has met more important people than you have.  Gracie appeared as part of the Browntown Community Center Redbud Festival.

Contemplating the blog's reboot, I went back and reread some old posts.  Here is the very first post from 2002:

Sunday, March 31, 2002

Greetings on a rainy Easter morning. This site will contain periodic comments on things that interest me. I am a full-time prosecuting attorney in a small town in the Shenandoah valley of Virginia. I am also a part-time sheep farmer, living on property that has been in my wife's family for the past hundred years. The intersection of those two lives will provide most of the material for these posts. In addition to the weekly farm report, there will also be comments on books, music, movies, politics and religion. As to the last, I am a convert to Orthodox Christianity. Periodically I may try to share some of the wealth of that tradition. By doing this, I make no claims to special insight or sanctity. In describing my own spiritual condition, I can do no better than the little girl in Flannery O'Connor's story "Temple of the Holy Ghost"; "She could never be a saint, but she thought she could be a martyr if they killed her quick." 

A couple of years after I wrote that, I left prosecution for private practice. The wheel has turned again and I am once more a prosecutor, though this time the small town is in a neighboring county across the mountain from our farm. We still keep our small flock, and I am still Orthodox, though as I get older, it is harder to get in a car and drive on Sunday mornings. These days I don't so much keep the faith as rely on the faith to keep me.

I'm Back

 I started this blog on a rainy Easter morning in 2002.  Blogging was the new thing and I was a early adopter.  For a while now most of what would have been on the blog ended up on Facebook, occasionally on Twitter, or just shared directly with a friend.  (Here, I've got that on my phone, let me pull it up for you . . .)  Being by nature a contrarian, I've decided to go back to blogging.  So, those three or four of you who still have me in your RSS feeds, yes, I am writing again, no I don't know how long I will keep it up, but yes, my intentions are good.  More to follow!