A Deer & A Bell

written by

Drausin Wulsin

posted on

August 17, 2023



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This buck graces our land.

He was recorded on camera earlier this month. Doesn't he look magnificent - so full, regal, and humble, within his place? He presents true beauty and inspiration. He feels like a force of magic, that walked on from stage left.

In like manner, the turkeys below, from this past February and in communal seance, seem to be dancing to the song of the hillside. 

When such wildness appears, it is responding to the call of the land, whose voice we are finally recognizing and honoring.


Our 4-acre pond is now complete. It is 15 feet in the deepest spot, with a curving 400-foot dam connecting two hillsides. Once grass grows on the dam and the depression fills with water, the pond will look like it has always been there. In the meantime, it stands as an amphitheater, worthy of any great concert. With maturity, it will serve wildlife and provide selective irrigation for growing vegetables in the neighboring field downslope.

Mike Garen is its architect and contractor. He is an artist as much as anything, in that he can coax heavy equipment to render graceful, sweeping lines across any landscape, in unmatched capacity. His signature is all over our farm, through stream banks reshaped, ponds created, and water lines installed. We are blessed by his untamed finesse, as with the stag from stage left. 

The wetlands are replete with hibiscus, showing color and complexity we hope to soon see emerging in the newer phases.

A recent summer meal of Mackinac Lake Trout, fresh tomatoes, fresh lima beans, fresh corn, and fresh peaches and blackberries was a gift from the gods.

May the sweltering honesty of August celebrate you like an ancient bell ringing its clarion sound. The bell below was forged at the Bell Company in Hillsboro, Ohio in 1886. It has been in our family for about 80 years, and recently received a fresh coat of paint.

We respond to the clarion sound of stags and bells.

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Grassroots Farm & Foods

 610 Frost Rd. 
Hillsboro, OH 45133

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