Tuesday was plenty warm…74 degrees in places here in Central NY. I got a good ride in and passed through Halsey Valley. I stopped to speak with Russ Frisbee at his tractor repair shop just to exchange greetings. His nephews run a 140 cow dairy and this is one more view of their operation. This will make 4 total paintings between the dairy lands and the tractor repair site. I must get attached to people that i meet along the road. I do love the layout of the farm and how they care for the valley. Later in the ride I sat with Dave who was cutting some firewood for his neighbor, an elderly woman. He told me about 4 times that he had died and came back to life, the first 3 unconscious of the fact but the 4th time he was quite aware. He said he couldn’t describe it better than to say he was at total peace once he crossed over. And he had always thought of death as either going to heaven or to hell as he’d learned through his Christain faith, but this was a revelation for him. Perfect peace. And finally I visited Jimmy up in his hilltop lair. I checked in to see if he survived the rough weather. He did indeed, tough as he is. He said next year he hopes to go on the road during the winter months because his little trailer heater couldn’t keep up with the 24 degree below zero cold where he was. He’s recently built a platform up in the trees and it is a great sitting and visiting spot. The railings are made from tree roots and thick grape vines…very organic. Anyway, this is 12″ x 9″ using pencil, gouache and watercolor on Waterford cotton paper. $75 unframed