Pretty Morning

Here at Northview. The guys are finally getting some feed put up between the stormy days. Still getting plenty of those with wild downpours that are so loud they sound like the trains across the river.

I put a weather button over the sidebar there, (only to have the html image break every day). It is from Weather Underground and still works even if the image doesn't. They say that we may actually have a stretch of good weather coming so they can get some serious chopping done. They have been working out kinks in the chopper, which is way past its best use date, and pretty much a large chunk of scrap metal with a few moving parts left.

As Alan says, there isn't a piece of machinery on the place that doesn't show evidence of farmer ingenuity somewhere in its construction. I know the old chopper is full of sheets of Patz guard and all manner of other innovative (and desperate) repair materials. Oh, well.

Long as it gets the feed chopped up and in the wagons I am happy. Hope they can bale the field that they have mowed for that. Been rained on twice, but should still make reasonable feed. We mostly used the baled hay for fiber for the cows' tummies anyhow, although the boss put up some second cutting last year that really made milk this spring. Hope they can get some more like that this year.

Since we are having all these crazy storms I am trying to learn to photograph lightning. Not too successful yet, but eventually I will probably figure it out. Also trying to get pics of the cardinal in the box. He is such a bright and cheerful...and extremely wary...guy.

Messin' With Their Heads

This feeder is mine! It was put up for me and members of my family and others of our ilk. It is not intended for you, you fat little feather butts, so there.

And nya, nya, nya poopoo

Move over you pointy headed little green gremlin!

There's a new gang in town and we want your sugar water!

It started with the grackles. They chased all the other birds away from the regular tube feeder out by the garden pond. Darth Raiders, storm troopers, miserable robbers of the little birds.

So I moved the small tube feeder to the sitting porch. Figured I might get some nice photos there and no way the grackles would come that close to me.

It took the little birds a week to find it, but what a carnival of colorful finches I had among the geraniums and Norfolk Island pines.

And what a mess of spent and discarded seeds too. The plants were covered with sticky hulls. You couldn't walk without them crunching under your feet.

Not working.

So I stopped filling the feeder. That was when the house finches brought their chicks and began gleaning under the shelf for scattered seeds. They were so cute!

A lot of the seeds had fallen into a little cardboard box under the shelf.

I thought...what if I put seeds in that box just for the house finch family>

I did.

They found it and brought the kids.

Then I woke up one fine morning to the chink! chink! call of a cardinal.

Yep, cardinal in the box. Cool! He comes every day too but is far too wary for photography.

Then this morning I had two house finches sitting together on the perch ring of the hummingbird feeder trying to get their beaks in the little feeding holes.

Am I messing with their minds....or are they messing with mine?

*****Update: and now the hummers and house finches are on the hummer feeder at the same time. And blogger finally let me upload pics.

Sharing the Porch and the Mulberry Tree

House Finches feeding the kids

Kids begging for brunch

Grey Catbird homing in on the black raspberries

Cedar Waxwing kite

Horses of Northview

Or should I say, one big horse and one small pony gelding who thinks he is a destrier.

Meet Becky's pony, Jack, and Liz's grand old man, Tyler.

Jack is a pistol, big horse in a little package. When he trots out he looks like an old fashioned war horse...all he needs is half a dozen hands or so in additional height and a guy dressed in a tin can. Maybe a few flags and pennants and a cheering crowd too. (You can see that in his head he is hearing that crowd even now.)

Tyler is an elderly quarter horse that Liz is providing with a cushy retirement. Alas, for some reason he doesn't like me much and pins his ears and hides in the corner whenever I go in the barn. He has only lived here a few weeks and I am hoping that in time he will warm up to me.

He is in his upper twenties and it is getting hard to keep the weight on him. Despite that he is as sound as a two-year-old. When he trots it is like water flowing over smooth ground, big, scopey and springy. I can't imagine what it must be like to ride his gaits, but I'll bet it would be sweet.

So there you have them...the current crop of horses at Northview.

Sunday Stills....Black and White

On a dairy farm with Holsteins, black and white is fairy easy to come by....and the pony Jack is mostly black, although technically he would be labeled brown.

For more Sunday Stills.......

A Surfeit

The driveway from the front porch

Driveway in back

Center pic is not a creek...that is the driveway too.

So is the bottom one

Water, water everywhere. There is a water trough that was empty out back....it has like a foot in it now....or more than..... I need to measure it. It rains so hard, several times a day, that you can't see the road in front or town or anything more than a few feet away.

Barn was flooded, cows could barely get into their stalls. It rained so hard that it was flowing down the hill behind and coming in the windows of our old bank barn, plus coming UP out of the floor through the sump pump drains...way too fast for the pumps.

Can we build a pipeline to every place that needs this? Thank God at least we live on a hill, although it all passes through on its way to the river in a great big hurry. Men can't chop for the cows, because they can't even get the tractors out of the barnyard. Pastures are getting pretty chewed down too.

I had to go the barn without my cast because I can't get my rubber boots on over it and the water was way over my leather boots. Stomping around all night without it hurt. I am going to see if Alan will drive me over in the truck today. Not to be a wienie but.....

Okay, whine over. I know there are droughts and fires and worse flooding in plenty of places. I hope whomever arranges the weather gets it figured out so they can get some rain and we can get some non-rain. Soon would be good. Now would be better.

Where the Rubber Meets the Road

While the Army Corps of Engineers alternately wrings its collective hands or deliberately targets farm areas for intentional flooding, here is a story of people banding together to save themselves.

Thanks for the tip, Elaine.

The Cure

For what ails you.....

Excuse Me

A hawk blew some bird to bits out over the long lawn and driveway the other day.

I can't figure out what it is. Grey feathers with dark grey markings
and white ovals on the end. Buffy feathers.
Little iridescent feathers like this one that change from pink and purple to tan. Any ideas?

While I beat my head against the wall....just a little, maybe until I can get used to the weather.

Two days of torrential rains. Argghhh......

More to come.

Double argghhh.......

The good news is, all that bulldozing that Alan did held up under the onslaught, despite being just finished and not having time to settle.

Other than that, what can I say? Bookkeeping, day-long marathon sessions, writing chores, milking wet cows, fun and games. At least they aren't too muddy and they are back in the pasture behind the house. I love to see them out on the hill when I look out my window.

Stay dry and have a good one.

Wordless Wednesday

Summer

First day of.

Small animals fed and aired. Check. Rooster crowing. Check. Sun shining bright and hot. Check. Birds singing...indigo bunting, common yellow throat, willow flycatcher, robins, mockingbird, check, check, check and check

Hay in the field waiting to be baled. More Sudex to plant if it stays dry.

Yep, looks like summer. Check.

Legal With Eagles

Last night the sky felt like the inside of a shell.... opalescent quiet pink, bright silver, distant blue, striped with wings of muted gold. I dreamed of the lake, washed with the scent of fish and water and the dusty sweetness of the balsam firs in the sun.

I always smell it miles before we get there and it makes my heart jump up in my chest....every single year.

I dreamed of mergansers slipping by all silent and secret, babies in tow, like beads on a nursery string. Of the resounding crash of a beaver's tail, the exact sound you would expect if someone in a really, really bad mood threw a bowling ball in the lake. It will wake you up at night when it interrupts the gentle susurrus of the wavelets against the dock, I can promise you that.

I dreamed of the Skin-so-Soft, bug dope, and dried plastic pseudo-worm, with just an understated hint of dead bait, smell of my long-closeted tackle box and the sharp bite of the line through my fingers on the rare occasions when I actually hook something.

Of eagles, loons and puddle ducks that babble around the porch, rudely demanding bread and cereal, and sooner rather than late.

I dreamed of the rocking cradle of the dock, a place to be of the water but not in it, gently shifting with the rhythm of the waves, one with ducks and dragonflies....the sun like a friendly hand on your shoulder or the caress of a loved one on your face.

I dreamed of all I love about our week at Peck's Lake each year, all the bright and shining joys it brings.....

And it came to me. I had better get down to the Town Clerk's office and pretty darned sudden too. I don't have a fishing license.

Sunday Stills...the Birds and Bees

This guy was about the size of a grain of rice and right next to my garden chair.

See where he has been nibbling?

Red Bird

Hunter of the hard corners

Hunter of the lily buds

Hunter of nervous old ladies working at the stove.

This eyed click beetle came buzzing loudly and landed right on my shirt.

Did I jump?

You betcha!

I love Sunday Stills but I wasn't really looking for volunteers

Dedicated to my dad on Father's Day. Thanks Dad, for giving me the interest in the birds and the bugs and all things scientific and natural and outdoors. My life has been much better because of all the interests you passed along. Love you!

For more Sunday Stills.....

Fly by Wire

Caterpillar for hire. Ag bag plot, the hay unloading spot, logs in the crick, not a road to get a stick, all wrecked by a season's worth of rain.

Can't farm again, until it all gets fixed, so it's getting fixed quick.

By that college boy with a great big toy, bulldozing in the rain,

Then ending up his welding on a job for other folks, but he's happy just the same

Hell, yeah.

.......Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Liz out with a truck full of hay, and Beck stuck down at McDonald's again.

In the rain

Always rain....

The boss is gone, everybody's on the phone. And, me, yeah, me, I just answer it....

All day

I think by the time that we order in Chinese we have earned it

Each and all of us.

Yepper.

Robin, Robin, Robin, Robin

The triple-decker nest atop the front porch pillar is overflowing with robin chicks, crowded shoulder to feathery shoulder. The non-stop bug-in-beak stuffing marathon goes on all day, whether I walk through the hall way with laundry or not. They are delightful. Even their cries for food are melodious and pleasant to the ear. No mistaking that our favorite spring bird is a thrush in a gaudy vest.

This is the second brood to be reared there this spring. The first bunch fledged and were gone a few weeks ago. These three...or maybe four if someone is keeping his head down...have already cast off their fledgling down and gaping beaks and are sporting streaked chins instead and spotty breasts and bright, sharp, yellow, beaks.

I hope when they come off the nest they can avoid the cats and grackles and sharp shinned hawks that patrol the lawn to join the other patrol...the worm and grub patrol.

Or maybe they will take after their dad, the fly catcher robin that I wrote about in the Farm Side. He catches bees and bugs n the wing like a really big, awkward phoebe and is quite a sight to see.

Anyhow, I sure do like the robins. Whether they are singing at dawn and dusk and rain time or sitting on the handles of the boss's dad's old plow, announcing ownership of the back lawn in loud cheeps, they keep me company all day long. (Someone should tell the male that the catbird and the mockingbird like to sit on the plow too....really he doesn't own it at all.)

26

Years today. Sure hasn't been dull.

With the 4430 back on line the guys mowed hay and chopped some yesterday. Started feeding from the wagon as the pastures are getting shortish.

Zulu had a little one. It was too new to walk at milking so we left her out with it. They seemed pretty happy together and as she is old Zinnia's daughter I suspect she can hold off any coyotes that come snooping around. Pic was taken almost at dark, through the kitchen window.

We had big old thunder storms rolling over almost all day. Finally gave up on hanging out laundry and having the computer on. Oddly they were all flash and bang and almost no rain (which is just fine). Sure were huge, towering things though, and moved with a ponderous lack of speed. A very odd day as far as the weather went.

Pretty much days of same old same old. Milk the cows, do the chores, milk the cows, do the bookkeeping, milk the cows, chase the *&^%^^* chickens out of the garden. Milk the cows again.

Liz is complaining that I haven't mentioned that her Jersey, Snickers, also had a calf. She did. It is about the size of a fox terrier, honey brown with a few speckles. Jersey calves have such an overdose of cute and all.....they are absurdly like little toys, all jerky and fuzzy. So yeah, another Jersey...

Cowboy or Fool

You decide...leaning toward fool myself. Liz took the photo with her camera. The cow is the fool's old show cow, Bayberry, who seems to suffer fools gladly.

Greek Yogurt

Great stuff! The Fage plant is right up near my folks' house. They use a lot of milk from NY dairy farms and we love their product.It really is great stuff.

Look What Showed Up in the Back Yard

Under its own power. Yep the farm guy mechanical team got 'er moving despite a broken spider gear pin and transmission pump with lots of associated damage to all sorts of expensive parts. I am real happy with the guys, especially Alan, who is only 21 and did most of the job.

All Hail

Well, not all, but it sure was banging down the other day. I couldn't believe the weather man today. It is raining again.....rained all weekend with lots of serious gully washers. Then this morning, when announcing the latest go round of unneeded water works, the weather man said, "Oh, this will just green up the grass a little on the lawns. The grass needs water."

How green does he want it anyhow? And what the grass needs is a little sunshine.

Heart and prayers go out to the poor souls in the Midwest who are really experiencing too much water. This awful spring is changing their lives in horrible ways.

Psycho Bunny

This is the bird chasing rabbit I wrote about in the Farm Side. The thing is bizarre, racing in circles, over and over again, chasing birds off the long lawn.

You can see that it is huge for a cotton tail, but it isn't a snowshoe, which is the only other rabbit found around here. These pics aren't great because it was real early in the morning when I got them and was still pretty dark.

Psycho bunny sure hates grackles....and loves to take victory laps around the mugho pine, kicking up its heels and shaking its furry ears.

Soap and Muskets

A couple of assorted pairs of kids and the BF went to the Revolutionary War Re-enactment and Market Fair at Johnson Hall this weekend. Despite the rain they all had a nice time.

And this lovely lady was there again after a long hiatus. Beck bought me a couple of bars of her terrific soap. We met her some years ago at the market fair and bought some and have hoarded bits and stubs of it ever since. I still have a tiny bit of the gritty brown stuff she makes so the "Indians" at the re-enactment can produce the skin tone they want to go with their outfits. However she hasn't been at the fair the last few times I managed to get there, and the fair hasn't even been held for a couple of years so my supply has dwindled.

The Market Fair is always a lot of fun and except for the foot I probably would have gone too. The period costumes, camp with tents, suttlers, and assorted Revolution era entertainment are a terrific way to spend an afternoon. Great music, lots of cool people who really know how to have a good time and a lot of carefully researched and well-presented history. Mom and dad used to put on their Clan Montgomery Scottish dress and attend and they always looked spectacular. (Hey mom, got a good photo for me?)

The magnificent house itself is worth a good bit of time, as it is an amazing preservation of the life-styles of the rich and famous of that time. Used to be pretty much every class of school kids that came along got to make the tour and learn a lot about our area history and I can remember my first trip with my class (There were still a couple of dinosaurs roaming the woods nearby). Sir William and his son Sir John were big players here in upstate NY back in the day.

I am really tickled to have a couple of bars of freshly-made Scottish lye soap. Beck suggested I cut it into little bitty bars while it is still soft so it will last longer, so that is just what I did. You can't imagine how nice your skin feels after a wash with it......

Sunday Stills...the Color Yellow

This little lady didn't sing to me, but at least she came out for her portrait

All are clickable and two clicks will embigenate a bunch

I tried for yellow birds. There are enough of them around.....Gold finches, common yellow throat, yellow warblers galore. Alas, because of all the green I could hear them, but not see them.

So here is some yellow that would sit still for the camera and not hide in the shrubberies.

For more Sunday Stills......

Good Morning

From rainy, green Northview. The guys are still bogged down fixing the John Deere (it has had its name taken in vain a time or two I can tell you.) Of course it had to break way up in the field in a unmovable manner so they have to trek back there about twenty times a day between trips for more and more parts and more and more tools to fix the ever extending field of damage caused by a big pin breaking loose at the transmission pump. (Oh, how I love hydraulic transmissions.)

Becky's old show cow, Lemonade had a heifer yesterday, a big 'un too, so she is happy. We need to do a major heifer shuffle so we have room for new babies. Got six I would like to turn out with the milk cows to free up a pen for two shorties and two Jerseys.

What Sudex they have managed to plant between the rain and the breakdowns is up. Yay.

"Physician's" (they aren't really doctors) Committee Can't Do Math

Or maybe they "do" math, but not too awful honestly. John Bunting calls their numbers into question and backs it up with real math. A good read.

Sock Puppet

That's me.

A certain individual left his rolled up, discarded sock in the middle of the living room floor. I was called inside from a lightning photography session (fail) to answer to the absence of the Italian seasoning (which I compile from assorted ingredients).

I was hurrying because...well, because I am a mom. People call. I answer. Even though they are people who could darned well look for the spices themselves while I indulge in a little post-workday play. And other people darned well know better than to leave their laundry in the living room. I stepped down hard on the blasted sock....I was irritated at being dragged away from my deeply fulfilling relationship with the Canon.

And so, it's back to ouch and the air cast and maybe a day on crutches.

Again. I am NOT a happy camper, and somebody else will be feeding the peacocks and baby chickies and putting Nick up in his run. Probably someone with traveling socks. The ground is so rough up there I just got so I could do those chores a couple days ago.

Spectacular Book Sale

Hi!

Just wanted to let you know that we are having a special summer sale. 50% off until June 15th. Visit http://www.tryoncountybookshop.com to see what we have available. Nothing is held back. It is all on sale!

Thanks for visiting.

Roger & Alice Montgomery

Tryon County Bookshop

*****Don't miss this chance. The folks have an amazing inventory of all kinds of special books on guns, shooting, hunting, fishing, history and more.

Mystery Solved

What has been happening to my catnip plant? I kept finding it tipped over and the stems all crushed. I thought it was the wind, but I guess not.

Fog 'n' Deeres...John Deere that is.

We have a second hand...although some days it seems at least 19th hand...John Deere 4430 tractor. Sometimes it is a pretty nice tractor, good sized for what we do and not too bad on fuel as compared to the 4490, which is a ridiculous guzzler.

However a whole, perfect hay day yesterday was spent by the guys in running around finding out why it won't move...some big shaft that had a pin break, that trashed this big, expensive thing and that other also expensive thing...and I guess it is going to be a big, big project.

Bah.

While they were at that I got some tomatoes planted....and chased truly suicidal chickens out of that little patch of dirt. They REALLY want to take that one way trip up to the Amish sale.

I think the men have some hay ready and may try to bale it with the big tractor. Sure hope so, as if there is hay in the mow, anybody can feed, as opposed to having to get green chop off a wagon with the skid steer and a tractor to run the PTO etc. Even I can clamber up in the mow and toss down a bale, although I am going to try to avoid that until such time as I can actually go outdoors without the stupid air cast on my foot. It is a big help, but it is getting old real fast. At least I can hobble around inside the house without it now, for which I am most grateful.

Meanwhile, it is another shining pearl of a foggy June morning. There is a common yellow throat wichity, wichity-ing in the box elders, an indigo bunting, cedar waxwings, and a grey catbird down below the driveway and robins everywhere. A great day to wake up in the country, tractor or no tractor.

Fog 'n' Deers

A cheerful dairy farmer contemplating his machinery

Liz and the BF hit a deer on the way home last night. Jumped right up out of the bushes and tall grass at the edge of the road up by the old dump. They heard from the police officer who answered their call that there have been a lot of them hit by cars up in that area lately.

Maybe the state should break out the state of the art mowers they bought with our tax bucks and mow the roadside so drivers have a chance to actually SEE the deer before they hit them...oh, wait, the state is broke and they want us to know it. Sorry I said anything.

Anyhow they are all right, thankfully, but the truck will need some fixing.

Haven't heard how the deer fared. There are rumors that there are a lot of them running hard into the road because certain folks are hunting them at night, in summer, in total disregard of the game laws. (Now who would ignore game laws, I wonder....). Could certainly be true, but I can't prove it so I won't come right out and say it.

Lots of break downs on the dairy farming front. Bent rod in the chopper. Something snarky with the hydraulics in the John Deere 4430. Case 930 coughed up its cookies yet again. If it ain't something it's another something I guess. Crop reporting appointment for the boss today. Not much to report yet. Just getting dry enough to plant now.

We have been fighting a persistent case of hardware in Liz's good show heifer, Gypsy. We figure it came in in some hay we bought as the Jersey right across from her had a case too. She recovered quickly though with a magnet and some pink pills and probiotics.

Poor Gypsy. I hope she will find her way through it. She is so good about being doctored on...she gets pills and shots and all the green chop she can eat.

Oh, and it is very foggy this morning, first time in a long time. Kinda pretty in a way.

Sunday Stills...Pot Luck

Boo Boo, hard at work, chewing her cud

Where's my bottle?

A milking shorthorn Holstein cross baby

Farm Boy

Beautiful Broadway, my favorite cow

For more Sunday Stills.....