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

Juan del Llano and the Shadow Snatcher

by John Hamilton Farr on August 19, 2012 · 6 comments

in Best o' the Blog, Juan del Llano

Juan del Llano had seen better days. He knew this like he knew he was a child of God or shit stinks. But knowing something wasn’t the experience. It was like he had a ticket stub from Heaven and the show had hit the road. In this condition he went out into the world. The [...]

{ 6 comments }

Funny Stories, Etc. (8/18/06)

by John Hamilton Farr on June 12, 2012 · 4 comments

in Best o' the Blog, History

I was searching the FarrFeed database to find something I’d written a while back about my first car (a ’57 BMW Isetta), among other things, and when I found it and reread the piece, I knew it wanted to bring it back to the head of the line.This dates from August, 2006, about a week [...]

{ 4 comments }

Love for Dummies

by John Hamilton Farr on June 7, 2012 · 8 comments

in Best o' the Blog, Change

For a couple of weeks, I haven’t wanted to do anything. My exhaustion goes all the way to the 90-mile horizon and back. I’m getting plenty of sleep but still want more. Understandable, perhaps, in light of the end of the year-long effort to empty and sell two mobile homes 600 miles away filled with [...]

{ 8 comments }

Juan del Llano and the Dumpster of No Return [UPDATED]

by John Hamilton Farr on May 17, 2012 · 9 comments

in Best o' the Blog, Juan del Llano

His wife took one look at it and said, “You’re a screwball!” The appellation from darkest Iowa in the ’50s was a primal zinger, and he felt it. Why couldn’t she have landed on “visionary,” he pouted?—albeit in a manly way. It was one of the most manly things he’d ever done, in fact, renting [...]

{ 9 comments }

If I Never Raise That Door Again, It’ll Be Too Soon

by John Hamilton Farr on May 8, 2012 · 12 comments

in Best o' the Blog, Personal

I just told someone the storage unit was “dangerous territory.” He asked if I meant snakes or memories. Well, we ain’t got no snakes. [interlude] Speaking of which, for all it’s being in the high desert and Southwestern and all, I think I’ve seen three snakes in the dozen years we’ve been here, and one [...]

{ 12 comments }

Juan del Llano and the End of Nearly Everything

by John Hamilton Farr on April 7, 2012 · 11 comments

in Best o' the Blog, Helen Chronicles, Juan del Llano

By late afternoon, it was 45 °F colder than 24 hours before. Soon there were four inches of wet snow bending down the trees. After supper, the lights went out. Juan’s mother was dying in Tucson. It was just another day on the frontier. * * * There was more snow than Juan del Llano [...]

{ 11 comments }

Pivot in the Pines

by John Hamilton Farr on March 15, 2012 · 2 comments

in Best o' the Blog, Personal

I seem to have popped naturally out of some kind of fog, which surely has to do with fleeing Tucson. The best thing that happened to me since we returned from darkest Arizona—a place my wife tells me not to condemn just because of how my parents lived—is that I’ve rediscovered beautiful New Mexico, and [...]

{ 2 comments }

February Love Song

by John Hamilton Farr on February 15, 2012 · 5 comments

in Best o' the Blog, Personal

The whole thing was her idea. Since our favorite restaurant was featuring music of a certain kind with dinner on Valentine’s Day, my wife suggested taking me there the night before, which worked out splendidly. The place was relatively quiet, uncrowded, and the food was wonderful—it always is. Meanwhlle, the lady was flying high. She’s [...]

{ 5 comments }

Coyote Toilet

by John Hamilton Farr on January 30, 2012 · 13 comments

in Best o' the Blog, Spirit

“Quiet!” she hushed, raising an index finger to her lips and cocking her head. She meant it, so I shut up. Seconds passed. “What is it?” I asked softly. “Like something outside, a wild animal, coyotes howling or something,” she replied, still searching for a match. Personally, I didn’t wonder. It’s hard to hear through [...]

{ 13 comments }

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 }

← Previous Entries