Health Care Fine Art

New YouTube Video

Today Lorna added this three-and-a-half-minute video clip on the "About" page of my website. It explores the connections between my medical background, my art and where I live. Thanks to Steve Mays and Lorna for making this happen.

Voting in the Middle-of-Nowhere

My 85-year old mother Joan voting in the Dixie Christian Church basement today.

I live in the middle-of-nowhere; our house is located off-a-gravel-road which itself is off-a-gravel-road. There are a lot of disadvantages to living in a remote rural area:

• No good restaurants
• No art museums or galleries
• No theater
• No live music

But there are a couple of advantages. One is that voting is fast, easy and pleasant. There was no line when I showed up to vote today; just four friendly volunteers to help me. They all knew my name; no one asked for identification.

Another advantage of living here is that nature can be right at your backyard. I don't have to travel anywhere to take my nature pictures, I can just walk out the door.

I wouldn't move if you paid me!

End of the Season

Flowering Dogwood - Full Fall Color

This week marks the end of the growing season. We had our first killing frost.

There continues to be splashes of vibrant color in the woods; the dogwood trees have been particularly good. We have thousands of them here at the Prairie Garden Trust.

This week Bill Frank brought out his big yellow combine to harvest 20-acres of soybeans. We are getting ready to plant them back into native prairie plants. More subjects to photograph.

Last week we had a managed burn on the 43-acres north of our house. We have to burn our prairies about every three years to keep them vigorous.

This week also is the end of the season for the Presidential election. I'm ready for it to end! I'm spending way too much time reading the blogs and checking the polls.

Time for your Flu Shot

It has been 14 months since I left medicine. I'm happy to be focusing exclusively on art now, but I miss encouraging people to get their flu shots. It is one of the most useful medical interventions that exists. It could save your life!

Since I can no longer encourage my patients I will encourage you, my blog readers to get a flu shot before Thanksgiving. The easiest way to get the flu shot is to call your doctors office and ask them if you can drop by for one. Sometimes they offer them at offices, drug stores and hospitals, so ask around.

Steve Mays interviewed me on why I encourage all humans to get a flu shot every year. You can hear the 20-minute interview by clicking here.

Put Up 53 Bluebird Houses Today

Male Eastern Bluebird

I spent most of today putting up 53 Bluebird nest boxes on our 600-acre property. These are replacements for the ones I built 20-years ago.

These new houses are PVC Nestboxs and are made by Steve Gilbertson in Minnesota. I picked them on the advice of Dr. Jack Dodson. Jack is the president of the Missouri Bluebird Society and also was one of the partners in my Medical practice.

Jack knows a lot about bluebirds both from experience and reading. When I asked him what to get he immediately suggested the Gilbertson PVC nestboxes.

Even though the Bluebird is the state bird of both Missouri and New York, most people in those states have never seen one. Hopefully with more nest boxes like this they will continue to increase.

Soybeans offer Fall Color

The Fall Season officially started this week but there is not much fall color yet. One exception is the soybeans in the field next to our house; they are starting to turn yellow.

A local farmer has planted this 20-acre field in soybeans for the last three years. We aren't in the business of growing row crops. Instead, we are using farming to prepare the soil to return to native prairie. By keeping the field in soybeans for three years we can reduce the number of exotic seeds that would sprout and take over the field.

Controlling exotic species is one of the most challenging ongoing problems we face on the 600-acres we live on; the Prairie Garden Trust. Exotic (or introduced) plants are progressively taking over most fields in the Midwest. Our hope is to reestablish a diverse community of plants that would have occurred here naturally before humans and machines arrived.

This Winter we will plant several thousand dollars worth of grass and wildflower seed. Then, over a few decades the field can return to what it once might of been. Managed burns will be important to encourage the native species.

Blazing Prairie - we set fire to our property

Prairie Fire

This afternoon we set fire to our North Prairie. Managed burns like this are a key to maintaining our property: The Prairie Garden Trust.

Burns during the growing season, when the grass is still green (like today) tend to have more smoke and the flames don't go as high.

If you burn on a dry day in Winter the flames in the tall grasses can reach 20 feet into the sky. Very intense, loud, hot. smokey.

Once the burn is over and the fields re-grow, the greens seem even more intense in the prairie.

 

Pictures that make me want to cry

Jane Domke, 1969

Today I shot pictures that make me want to cry; pictures salvaged from our house fire. In February of 2004 my Mother's farm house burned to the ground; everything was lost. The fire got so hot that it melted aluminum into puddles.

As the firemen were sifting through the rubble they found some family photos that had not been totally destroyed. Only 50 pictures survived out of the thousands that covered five generations of our family. I've been avoiding photographing the decomposing pictures because it is so depressing; but today I decided I had better do it before they are completely gone.

The picture above is of my sister Jane. I'm guessing it was taken in 1969.

I find the vivid wiggles of color on the right appealing. And the fact that it was salvaged from a house fire is conceptually interesting I could  imagine an art gallery might have an exhibit based on salvaged pictures. But for art in hospitals this would not work. Experts and common sense would say that pictrues like this would serve as a reminder of death and destruction and don't belong in hospitals.

Leaving Medicine - One Year Later

It has been exactly one year since I retired from medicine. I thought I would look back on the year and reflect on the experience so far.

My work as a Family Physician was tremendously social, and I thrived on that. I was concerned that I would feel isolated or lonely without that intense contact. Surprisingly, that is not true at all. 

I continue to be social, but most often through emails. I would not have predicted that emails could fill a social need, but for me they do. I may go days without leaving our farm, but I never feel isolated.

"Do you miss Medicine?" is a question I hear a lot. It is a reasonable to ask since medicine was such a major part of my life for 28-years.  Not once have I felt a pang of regret about leaving. Don't misunderstand, I loved medicine and greatly enjoyed helping people. However, two things happened:

• Something better came along (a career in art)
• I felt satisfied with the work I had accomplished and did not want to get stale.   

Yes, I feel frustrated with some things in medicine, but that is not why I retired. I do feel a profound sense of disappointment that the US does not offer Universal Health Insurance to all citizens, but that did not make me quit.

So, one year later I can say my wife Lorna was right when she said to me: "It is time to leave medicine now!"

Our Dog is a Bur Magnet

Boots covered with Burs

If you have a dog, be happy you don't live in the country. Even though our three dogs love to roam our 600-acres here (they are free at all times) this time of year their fur picks up several types of burs.

Burs are seeds with hooks or teeth which attach themselves to fur or clothing of passing animals or people. In the picture above you can see our Australian Shepard named Boots. He is covered with tick-trefoil seeds.

The same problem happens with my jeans. For the next couple months if I stray off our mowed paths my pants will be covered with burs just like Boots is.