More Farm Walk Stuff

Beam me up, Scotty!

Today is our payback for yesterday's warmth and beauty. Rain. High winds. General yuckiness....incoming. I am hoping we get the cows in before the rain starts. Milking wet cows is not such a pleasant chore. Several of mine think it is just peachy to lean on me when I wash their udder and put the milker on. Bad enough when they are dry, but when they are dripping...ugh.

Milk Weed is not open yet.
I love the silvery lining of the pods when the fluff pops out

Bonanza of box elder bugs. I didn't get time this summer to photograph the amazing egg laying party they threw in the big box elder behind the house. Everything about them is pink and black...even the eggs are pink!

Autumn Farm Walk

Walking up to the field is a sensory banquet. I don't smell the cows, but I am sure you would if you walked along.. It is not an offensive odor, just warm and earthy. I do catch the sweet odor of the sorghum silage, which smells sugary just like fermenting corn. It is a nice scent and comforts me with the knowledge that the men are putting up feed to keep the cows secure through the winter.

A flaming candle of ash

I don't know what possessed me to take a hike up back this afternoon. I had to go to the barn to check on Scooter who is not doing so well again. His extreme prematurity has compromised so many of his systems that if it isn't one thing it is another. Anyhow for some reason I just took off hiking after I looked in on him...maybe the need to get some red and green photos for Sunday Stills...maybe the knowledge that bad weather impends and there may not be many more warm fall days like this one. If you walk the farm roads you can smell poplar trees, a passing skunk, the fruity bouquet of river grapes and the lush green scent of crushed grass as you walk along.

Grasshoppers will rattle against your boots and butterflies, question marks (thanks Dani) sulfurs, cabbage whites and a little blue one I think is a Melissa flutter around your feet. Bees buzz. Dragon flies hum as they hunt. Of course there are always a few overly friendly flies and hungry mosquitoes too.



The grass is such a brilliant green that you would think it was August. However, scarves of yellow river bank grape flung with abandon across leafless trees give lie to that theory, as does the purple-red Virginia creeper festooning the hedgerows everywhere.



I stopped to pish a little brown bird out of the hedgerow between the 30 and 60-acre lots. It came right out to show me its stripey-spotted breast.... a song sparrow. A white-throated sparrow was singing lazily just down the way when I caught a slight movement to my left. There, right next to me, was a cat bird, peering to see what was making that funny noise. Too slow with the camera, but I will cherish the memory of his bright, inquisitive eye and lush grey plumage.




I thought to go up and visit the boss where he was chopping but he had changed fields and I was too lazy to hike the rest of the way up there. Just as well because by the time I got back down the hill he was right behind me. With high wind advisories for tomorrow, I am grateful for this one warm, sweet fall day.



There were tracks everywhere, of deer, raccoons, and possibly the fisher again.

Fisher track? (if its a raccoon it is a HUGE one!)

Deer slots with my boot for comparison

SUNY Cobleskill First Place Post-Secondary Dairy Judging at Expo

Yeah!

This is a great accomplishment for the dairy program at our favorite school. I love it when local kids do big things.

WW

Stop Factory Musicians

Found on Facebook

Tornado Watch

For Upstate NY.

Terrific.

The boss was going to go back and chop, but the rain started up again. Very weird weather today, first it is chilly, then hot again. A very restless sort of day.

The Down Side

Of the season...it has been a bit dry even here at monsoon-plagued Northview, so I suppose I shouldn't complain about the rain. The girls and I did chores yesterday morning so the boss could do most of his outside work before it hit. Now everything is black and grey and gloomy....and drippy..I think I need to migrate.

Or hibernate, whichever is cheaper.

Dire Straits

You get a shiver in the dark

It's raining in the park but meantime

South of the river you stop and you hold everything

A band is blowing Dixie double four time

You feel all right when you hear that music ring

Sunday Stills...the Letter S

Samaras

Sorghum and Sky

Sorghum Seeds

Sedum

For more Sunday Stills.....

Summer Squash (or Something with which to fend off a marauding bear.)

Moonie

The moon came up in a swirl of color, punkin' yaller, almost-orange, trailing fog like gypsy scarves all around her.

Of course I was out in the barn lane, putting cows up the hill, no camera, but eyes too see and marvel.

By the time I got in it was past the horizon and sailing forward and I am lousy at moon shots. But it was still a lovely thing, though not much more exciting then a lemon.

And then this morning the sun came up yellow too with the trees all fogged and dew dropped lit up dusty green. Fine weather for the harvest served up daily.

Deadly Silence

For the past two summers I have let some weedy sumacs grow up in front of the big living room windows. They are ugly, but the convenient perch brings birds practically into the house. Not your usual feeder birds either, but secret denizens of hedgerow and tree. Warblers, wrens, catbirds, even what I think was a red-eyed vireo this year (didn't have my glasses on) come to the shady shelter of sumac umbrellas to peer into the house or glean busily, unaware of our watching. It is delightful to have them so close and yet not scare them.

However, as winter winds approach, the need arises to remove the danger of the weak, but woody stems of the sumacs lashing against the window and breaking it.

Thus pruning time arrives.

I was miserably wielding my brush nippers, deep in prickly things, a cloud of mosquitoes feasting on anything not covered with Off! when a hawk drifted in on silent wings. He quickly hid himself among the Virginia creeper and river bank grape festooning the ash tree on the other side of the driveway and vanished. Had I not looked up at just the right time I would have never known he was there. So quiet. So swiftly invisible. ..and yet such a big bird. I barely caught a glimpse, but he looked like a red tail. I finished my nipper work and trudged back around the house just as he swooped swiftly down over the driveway by the old kennel, sending the chickens scattering like spilled popcorn. They raced under the bushes, screaming their alarm.

Well, that stinker. No wonder he was being so quiet. He was stalking our tame flock. I was just telling the boss about it and he says the hawk has been around all week, sitting in the big cedars that flank the front porch.
Now we know why.
Dang.


(He was indeed a red-tailed hawk btw.)

Bear vs. Zucchini

Zucchini wins

Farm Side Fridays

Here

September

Blogger's New Editor

So here I am trying to post some nice photos of cows and sunshine and orange trees and fuzzy grass...oh and some fat frogs too, when the new editing system for posting pops up. Lots of new options. Lots of new things to learn. Keeps changing fonts just for fun.  One of the slowest photo uploaders I have ever used. No way to upload multiple photos....oh yeah, I am in love. NOT.


I checked out the page where folks can comment on this topic and guess what...nobody else likes it either!

Is Facebook Down

Yes, it does seem to be and the result is that almost any service that reports on it is bogged down too. Forget about Downrightnow, which is the main place to find out about outages...it is having server problems too. Amazing.

The Funniest Ad

You will EVER see. Courtesy of my friend Teri.

Not

Not for sale
Not Argersinger Road
Not a through road to Lusso
Not a gravel bank either.

Waited all yesterday morning for the clamor to die down around here...chores and milking, people off to work and school. People home and gone again, phone calls, men in and out for checks etc, until it was all quiet on the northview front so I could boil up a third batch of grape jelly. Alan helped me get the grapes down Monday afternoon and I made the juice before that night's milking.

You jelly makers know that once that last big boiling begins you shouldn't stop. So of course, just as I was setting the timer for that all important minute didn't some turkey with a great big truck and flat bed machinery trailer come cranking in behind my car, nearly running over poor old Gael in the process. And I do mean close call.

First words out of his mouth when I go boiling out the door after turning off my almost finished jelly are, "I'm not here to rob you or anything."

I lost it. I admit it. He drove past those signs up there in the photo, minus the vulture I suspect, and right up to the back door of the house. And claimed to be looking for a gravel bank. Missed our poor old dog by inches. I said very unpleasant things to him, made him back down the driveway rather than moving the car so he could just tool right around, and turned his plate number into the state police. Rather than complaining that I might have wasted their time the nice young officer thanked me for reporting the incident.

Am I sorry? Not one bit. After the theft of our generator cables and with this kind of thing becoming too darned common, I will call the next time too.

Did the jelly turn out all right? I don't know yet. It is kind of funny looking but it tastes pretty good. A lot darker purple than the other two batches..

Signs

Of the end of summer

Did it Freeze Last Night?

It matters. Sudan Grass/sorghum develops a poisonous acid after stress like frost. We are feeding and ensiling it right now. First step-stick head out the door (pet the dog for a minute too) and listen for crickets. They usually get it right.

Nope, not a one chirping. Still doesn't either feel or smell that cold ...and yes, you can smell cold, although I can't exactly explain how.

Second step, swipe a hand across the stuff on the car. Nope, not hard and crispy,just wet.

Finally, get high tech. Turn to the computer and check out weather stations. 41 at Albany airport. Probably didn't freeze here either. Okay, another day of bringing in plants, cleaning up garden and turning grapes into jelly. Why oh, why, did the boss's late father plant the grape vine right next to the standard apple tree? Most of them are up about thirty feet on teeny, tiny little branches. We won't be getting them, alas.

Dairy Politics

In the 122nd District. Read about it here.

Working the Curve

College kids...they present quite a challenge to us old fogies....we want to be able to converse with them as if we actually knew what we are talking about and sometimes that ain't easy. When I had offspring in Animal Science, Anthropology and Fisheries and Wildlife, the learning curve for conversation was fairly shallow. They brought home veritable fountains of fascinating new information but at least I had a foundation upon which to build my knowledge. I have lived animal science since I could toddle around with puppies and kittens. Anthropology is just history with science thrown in. Fisheries and wildlife, yeah, fish and fascination, I could do that. I already knew half of those tough Latin names from another college experience in another life time...and from learning them just for fun.

Then along came Agricultural Engineering, which is a fancy name for Diesel Technology. Suddenly the curve looked (and sounded) like Everest on a bad day. I more or less, kinda, sorta, get it about gasoline engines, having dated a mechanic back in the day, and having driven a lifelong series of clunkers (without cash, alas) which taught me just about every single thing that could go wrong with one... Diesels, not so much. I can drive a tractor, but my knowledge stops right there, and that is just fine with me. I like Esox and Sylvalagus, phooey on injectors and turbo chargers.

However, to survive the nightly after-class sermons in the barn I have been forced to learn things I didn't want to know. I now know what a common rail is and can draw one on the barn blackboard. Pumps, bench tests, PTO horsepower. I can listen to all that diesel-Greek with the best of them (I won't lie and say that I get it yet, but I guess I am going to learn whether I want to or not).

Now the turbo charger on the 4490 has gone bad and the kid is trying to replace it with the one that came off the engine that the same tractor blew a couple of years ago. With all the men clustered around that tractor all through milking last night and Becky making pancakes so we could test drive the new grape jelly, Liz and I ended up milking pretty much alone....fun, fun, fun. Will all that classroom learning bear fruit and the tractor arise from the dead, yet again? I surely hope so.

In the meantime let me draw you a common rail.

Sundae on the Farm Report

Here is an excellent report on Montgomery County's 10th annual Sundae on the Farm.

Sunday Stills....Flags

For more Sunday Stills.

A Valiant Trouper

You have probably read about Gael's ongoing issues with old dog vestibular disease. This is a syndrome that supposedly clears up in time, but Mike had and she has almost constant recurrences, which are a misery. Gael was so bad just a few days ago that she simply couldn't eat or walk and we were thinking that the time had come. She hadn't had a good day in weeks and it was obvious that she was miserable.

Then from one day to the next she got just enough better to eat again and to do silly things that she has never done before.

Like Thursday afternoon when Liz and I were heading out to pick up Becky from work. We were just leaving the back of the house in the Durango when Liz said, "Mom, Gael is following us."

I said, "Speed up quick and get out of her sight. She'll stop."

I mean the dog has cataracts so bad she can see about three inches in front of her nose and you have to bellow to call her from a yard away. How could she follow the car?

"She's still coming."

"Quick, go around the corner out of sight. She'll go back."

"She's still coming."

"Drive down between the big trees and wait. She'll go back.

"Uh, ma, look back."

"Oh, all right. Pick her up and put her in the back. She can go with us."

So the old dog who used to live for rides in the car (yeah, the same dog that chased the rear windshield wiper and then ate the rear seat belts in frustration when she couldn't catch it), got an unexpected ride yesterday. She was too tippy to stand and watch out the window like she used to...and can't really see anyhow...but she curled up in her tiny little ball, which seems to give her the most relief from the ODVD and lay there all comfy until we returned. Liz lifted her out of the back and she toddled up on the porch smug as can be.
She knew.

What can I say? What a dog!

Paul has a Poem

Paul at Salt Creek Life has the nicest poem about the season that I have read in a good long while. It had me smiling and reading out loud. Go read...enjoy.

Montgomery County Sundae on the Farm

Is on Farm Side Fridays this week. Directions are included if you are attending. Looks like it is going to be a great event!

The Farmer gets Older

Happy Birthday to the boss!

First Day on the New Feet

Pecan had a new baby girl this morning. First day on the new feet, first breakfast, second breakfast, nuncheon, high tea......

Wordless Wednesday

Cow Housing

Another pic of Moments, since everybody liked her

A lively debate has sprung up in the comments and I thought maybe I should address it from the point of view of 32+ years of caring for and milking cows in both styles of stabling, freestall and conventional barns with pasture. I can assure you from personal, long-term experience that cows are fine in both kinds of barns. Sure they like pasture, but they also race to get into the barn in summer...that is where the fans are and fly control is better. And in winter that is where it is warm and comfortable. Although they can withstand amazingly adverse weather conditions they like to avoid them just as any creature would.

I am not sure that the terms that we use to describe our own emotional states apply to cows in the same way as they do to humans. I admit I am as anthropomorphic in my language as anyone, but I think a cow's sense of well-being runs more to comfortable vs. uncomfortable, hungry/not hungry, frightened/secure rather than abstracts like happy or sad. They are not predators, but rather prey animals, and as such they devote most of their energies to survival. If we make survival easier for them, rather than being what we conceive of as "unhappy" because they are not outdoors, they are contented with having what they need to live and feel safe and comfortable.

Most free stalls are designed with the cow's comfort in mind, with ventilation systems and sprinklers in summer and side curtains to keep out the weather in winter. Cows can walk about freely, eat when they want to and lie down in stalls that are scientifically designed after much research (which is still constantly ongoing with better ideas coming out every year) to fit their needs as perfectly as possible. I am sure you heard about Temple Grandin, whose life story won a boat load of Emmys this year. She is a perfect example of the kind of expert who designs animal handling and care systems so that they serve animals as well as their caretakers..

Not unlike house cats, which might have a heck of a lot of fun hunting birds in the neighbor's back yard, but are much safer indoors, cows inside stables may not look as natural, but the key thing is care. They are well-cared for, their wants and needs attended to and they do just fine. If I were to try to define a "happy" cow, I would describe one that is lying down on a firm but comfortable surface, chewing her cud, calm rather than alert, at a proper temperature for her species (cows like the fifties). There is no reason she can't experience all those things, as much as she wants to, in a free stall barn as well as in a pasture.

Cows look pretty grazing out on a nice green hillside, and under the right conditions that is a fine place for them to be. I like pasturing our cows because it is a very economical way to care for a herd of our size, and they do thrive in summer. Winter is another story. I would love to have a nice modern free stall barn for them in winter. The cows would like it I'll bet. Inside a stable that was painstakingly designed, after much research and trial and error at universities and on farms, to cater to their every whim, is a fine place for them.

A Great Farm Safety Resource

NY State has a wonderful resource when it comes to staying safe on the farm. The New York Center for Agricultural Medicine provides a broad range of safety and health related services to the state's farmers.

An especially handy tool is their list of farm safety articles, which can be found here.

If You Like Monty Python

Go listen to this clip that Dickiebo has up on driving on the left.

Having a son who can do ten minutes of the Holy Grail at a time...and being more familiar with the air speed velocity of swallows with coconuts than with European geography (although I did know the answer to the question...without the taxi) , I laughed so hard that my coffee was hazardous to my keyboard.

Home Girls of Northview

On Parade

***Well, actually on their way down to the barn for morning milking

Traffic jam, NY style...upstate NY that is

Detroit

Bonneville and friends

Moments,
we were hoping she was pregnant
and the other day when I walked by her, her calf to be was poking its fanny against her side
and I got to feel it kicking and wiggling, hooray for Moments!

My favorite cow, my milking shorthorn, Broadway, thanks Alan for giving her to me!

B-dub as I call her gets three pics just because she is so special.
Can you believe her amazing color?