John Barnard

The cold wind was without mercy, picking up speed and racing up the valley under an ominous, cloudy sky. One of the cows hadn't showed up at watering time and the temperature was falling rapidly. We had had some rain earlier on and with the moisture and the cold wind combined, a newborn calf would be in danger before too long. My dad, sister and I got on the back of the pickup while Grandpa drove along dirt tracks in the camp where the cows had been put to pasture that morning and we were standing up in the…

It is a beautiful winter night and with the last embers of the cooking fire  slowly burning out I'm getting ready for bed. It's been a day of joyous reconnection with old friends. Wine, great food and a deep feeling of love and belonging. There's a hint of spring in the air. I can see tiny buds on some of the impatient trees on the property but we all know the warmer temperatures will soon give way to one or two more cold spells before we bid farewell to winter.  

It's been a tough month for most. The days…

Love, Independence Day and Other Thoughts

" She gives me her cheek when I want her lips

  But I don't have the strength to go

  On the lost side of town, in a dark apartment

  We gave up trying so long ago"

          4th of July - Dave Alvin

It is a cool winter morning out at Marnuk Estate. Sapphire blue skies, not a cloud in sight. The dogs are following the pale morning sun around the house and slowly everyone is starting their day. Our country, like many others, is busy weathering another wave of COVID…

"For the deal I made, the price was strong 
I traded you for this song 
We woke each morning with hearts filled 
Bluebird of love on the windowsill 
Now the heart's unsteady, and the night is still 
All I've got's this melody, and time to kill" 

   - Somewhere North of Nashville -  
          Bruce Springsteen 

There's a cold wind blowing up from the South and a bank of thick cloud is darkening the horizon. The temperature has dropped significantly in the last few hours and for some mysterious reason I hope that…

Old Timers and Heroes 
  
"Hard times are real 
There's dusty fields no matter where you go. 
You may change your mind 
'Cause the weeds are high where corn don't grow." 

         - Travis Tritt - 

I'd been on the farm in Wisconsin for four days and I was on my lunch break. I scratched off the silver plastic that revealed the pin number on my international calling card and sat down on the stairs with a cup of soup and a hotdog. I heard the faint connection tone and then the ringing of the phone. Timing was…

Wine and Tabacco Smoke - A journey through the Overberg 

A cool wind is whipping up from the valley floor and screams over the rocks where we are huddled in a circle around a fire. We're passing around a pipe and the tabacco smoke mingles and sets in with the smell of meat on open coals. The milky way and the Southern Cross keeping a watchful eye over our campsite. It's been a tough day of hiking but the beauty of the Overberg mountain range brought a simple kind of peace over group. We drink wine and talk…

Lights of Cheyenne - James McMurtry 

Look off down the highway 
at the glittering lights 
Like windshield glass 
on the shoulder tonight 
As the diesels come 
grinding on up from the plains 
All bunched up like pearls on a string 
And I guess time don't mean nothin' 
Not nothin' at all 
And out on the horizon 
the broken stars fall 
Old broken stars they 
fall down on the land 
And get mixed together 
with the lights of Cheyenne 

Well I've been up all night 
and I'm down on my back 
Workin' the counter 
to take up the…

The gale force wind is ripping at the tent pens and ropes. Lightning, now overhead, lights up the valley revealing the ten thousand foot peaks in all directions etched against a violent purple sky. Belly full of soup, head full of whiskey and a tattered heart filled with longing. I can hear my brother sleeping next to me, tossing and turning on the uneven ground and breathing deeply. We walked up and around The Amphitheatre in the Drakensberg mountains and via a couple of metal ladders at the top we…

Bills are paid but it makes no difference 
To the gods that seem to rule our home 
Heat shut off for no known reason 
This old building's got a mind of its own 

I can tell your footsteps on the stairs from three flights up 
I know the jingling of your keys 
You won't hear no and you don't look back and you can't slow down 
These days you don't have much to say to me. 

In another town what would fetch a good living 
Here is barely hand to mouth 
So I'm going out and get a U-Haul trailer 
Drag it down the turnpike…

Love the quick profit, the annual raise, 
vacation with pay.  
Want more of everything ready-made. 
Be afraid to know your neighbors and to die. 

And you will have a window in your head. 
Not even your future will be a mystery any more. 
 Your mind will be punched in a card 
and shut away in a little drawer. 

When they want you to buy something, 
they will call you.  
When they want you to die for profit  
they will let you know. 

So, friends, every day do something that won’t compute.  
Love the Lord. Love the…