“We’ve known for years that the farm [Essex Farm] has eyes. When Mark and I leave, it knows, and things go haywire. We were at St. Lawrence University this week, giving a talk and a reading. We left Wednesday, planning to return today. The farm waited until last night to spring. We got a message just before the reading started that ten Highland steers were out, and had run off the farm entirely, and were thought to be wandering somewhere in the woods north of Blockhouse Road. Gus and Jenny and Rob had spent hours trying to lure them home, and nothing – nothing! – would persuade them to come back in. We did the reading, went to bed at midnight, got up at 3, and arrived back here at 6, just as it was getting light. The first thing I noticed when we pulled in the driveway was that the heat lamps in the greenhouse were dark, which meant that three hundred and sixty chicks were chilled and in danger of dying. The circuit breaker had blown sometime during the night, and the chicks were piled three and four deep, trying to keep warm. I pawed through the pile, uncovering the ones that were getting squashed on the bottom, while Rob flipped the breaker back on, and Mark rode out with Ashlee and Gus to try again with the steers. By then, of course, the farm knew we were back. The steers were home, just outside the fence, waiting to be let in…” [Continue reading.]

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