On Bedlam Farm

Here is an excerpt from a site I found that discusses the setting for the film "On Golden Pond".

On Golden Pond

Twenty years ago, Hollywood went scouting for the perfect New England Lake to be the location for the classic movie, “On Golden Pond”. Of course, the lake had to be gorgeous, pristine and undeveloped. And, it had to be within two hours of a major metropolitan area. It was a tall order, but they found what they were looking for at Squam Lake. Today, it would still fit the bill.
- New England Travel & Life, 2001

Why, you ask, do I bring this up? Well, because it is eerily similar to something that Mr. Jon Katz has done. Years ago, long before I knew much about Border Collies and their use on sheep- I had an inkling, and really wished to live on a farm, but could not afford to buy a place, I read the book "Dogs of Bedlam Farm". I was quite smitten with the general idea- the ability to buy a farm, have sheep, work the dogs on the sheep, and basically the whole idea. Some of the things that were chronicled, I found to be a bit disturbing, but in general I appreciated the book.

As I learned more about dogs/Border Collies/herding, I realized that there was something off about how Rose worked the sheep- as in she did pretty much what she wanted, got hurt a lot, and spent hours watching them. These activities are not conduscive to good work out of a dog. But, still, I believed that Rose did have a good quality of life, living on that farm with her charges. I started reading the blog at Bedlam farm, and read that there were a couple of new dogs added (not Border Collies) and they seemed to take up much more bandwidth...

Then, I read that the sheep were gone- sold. Oh, that sucks for Rose. THEN, I read that the farm is for sale. Seriously? The farm? Which leads me to the purpose of this post. Did he buy the farm solely as a muse for his book? Did he move there so he could have intriguing subject matter for his readers? Could that be? Since Jon is first and foremost a writer- words from himself, I have to believe that he did. And, it sort of really irks me, I feel like we were played. Sort of like that movie where the guy wakes up and is actually in a movie- his life is a movie.

Anyway, it leaves a bad taste in my mouth.