Best o’ the Blog: Essays, Stories, & Confessions

Greetings! Below is a sampling of some of the best recent writing here at FarrFeed. I generally write about New Mexico, Taos, Nature, transcendental weirdness, my ongoing involuntary education, and who did what to whom. Uplifting, gruesome, and hilarious. You may even shed a tear. There are over 1,500 posts at this site, and many that aren’t listed here are excellent, so feel free to go exploring. If you’re new to the blog, though, this is a good place to start. – JHF

Merry Christmas from Taos

by John Hamilton Farr on December 24, 2011 · 3 comments

in Best o' the Blog, Taos

They grow a considerable amount of their own food and draw spiritual sustenance from their very surroundings. They have a magic dog. For some reason I mentioned a survivalist website I visited once that spoke of “doomsteads,” or self-sufficient hideaways in which to weather the approaching storm. I had to explain what doomstead meant, of course. My buddy laughed and said, “Jesus, I’ve lived in doomsteads my entire life!”

{ 3 comments }

Moving to Taos

by John Hamilton Farr on November 13, 2011 · 3 comments

in Best o' the Blog, Taos

Taos is perfect for the Indians. They have the best part, and they know it (where the WATER comes from). The Spaniards are still looking for the gold or hoping it goes on sale at Walmart, and the Anglos are just screwed—even the rich ones live on borrowed time, floating through the astounding scenery like [...]

{ 3 comments }

Clear Skies

by John Hamilton Farr on October 20, 2011 · 5 comments

in Best o' the Blog, Spirit

What a great day. It’s like someone flipped a switch! First I had my own breakthrough. All my life I’ve been moping around waiting for success, for some external “thing” to validate my existence. Money? Reputation? A certain lifestyle? But I was always thwarted by my family, where I lived, or maybe just the weather. [...]

{ 5 comments }

Reason Enough to Live

by John Hamilton Farr on September 23, 2011 · 8 comments

in Best o' the Blog, Personal

She had been right all along in matters of the heart. Thank God for what little charm I did possess, because I’d treated her like dirt. Exactly like my alcoholic father, too, no empathy at all. Ironically, this revelation eased my pain enough for me to fall asleep. She’d done nothing to me. Whatever else I had to deal with, she wasn’t it. All I had to do for her was be a man.

{ 8 comments }

Taos Torture and the Soul of Man [Revised]

by John Hamilton Farr on July 8, 2011 · 14 comments

in Best o' the Blog, Spirit

Taos is a ridiculous place to live. Let me count the ways. Better yet, let me ride them into Hell and come back scorched. Oh right, we did that already. I feel almost fine now, but don’t get in my way unless you’re five feet and a half, get misty-eyed about your Iowa roots, and [...]

{ 14 comments }

And a Joy Arose Inside His Heart

by John Hamilton Farr on March 28, 2011 · 2 comments

in Best o' the Blog, Consciousness

So I walked up the mesa again today. It was ferociously windy, maybe 55 degrees, with a bright sun under mostly cloudless skies. Wearing only shorts and T-shirt, I wasn’t cold. What clouds there were blew over the mountains long and straight, cloud-taffy pulled out by the western wind. As I walked, I thought about [...]

{ 2 comments }

Juan del Llano and the Varmints of Doom

by John Hamilton Farr on March 8, 2011 · 7 comments

in Best o' the Blog, Juan del Llano

This is the full version of the partial draft that went out accidentally last night! (“It was a sharp, disgusting late winter day,” etc.) Read how Juan del Llano rides the range and dances with weasels.

{ 7 comments }

Hawk on the Windshield [Updated]

by John Hamilton Farr on February 23, 2011 · 8 comments

in Best o' the Blog, Nature

I just had a very close encounter with a big brown hawk. A couple of feet away would qualify, yes? This happened less than a mile from home. I was at the top end of the road where the pavement ends. About two singlewides from my turn, I drove all at once into a screaming [...]

{ 8 comments }

Rio Grande Gorge Plunge (Video)

by John Hamilton Farr on February 19, 2011 · 15 comments

in Best o' the Blog, Video

You know the drill: don’t try this at home! (I’ll leave it to you to figure out just what that is.) This FotoFeed image shows where I was. What we have here is a cool video I just created of footage shot while descending from the west side of the Rio Grande gorge to the [...]

{ 15 comments }

Old Adobe Lesson: the Saloon

by John Hamilton Farr on January 5, 2011 · 5 comments

in Best o' the Blog, Taos

Behold the room that makes life here possible! (I shot the image below in the late afternoon while testing the Pentax K-x’s in-camera high dynamic range processing and then tweaked it a bit more.) I hope your home has a space like this that’s warm, where you can eat, sit, have a drink, or dry [...]

{ 5 comments }

← Previous Entries