Nippy

The musical brother and me at that family get together a while back
Photo shamelessly stolen from niece's Facebook

Gettin' nippy here in the North Country. All was frosted this morning, with the heifers blowing smoke rings as they huddled against the south wall of the barn soaking up thin, early sunlight.

Sure pretty like that. When it is sharp and cold you can see for miles and hear the geese calling about that far too. The moon was so bright on its way down this morning that you could see that it was not just a round, flat disc in the sky, but rather a big, fat, sphere. Wish I had had time to go back in for the camera, but the cows were waiting, along with Liz who went out early to get a good start on the day.

Missed some amazing shots on the trip to take Becky back last Sunday as well. The mountains around Indian Lake were covered with a thin coat of wet, icy snow. It was grey and cloudy, but narrow spotlights of sun brought them into blazing focus, with threads of fog flowing off them and merging with fuzzy-edged snow clouds like chilly silver. On the way home it was actually snowing up there and it was like a curtain going up and down as they came briefly into view and than vanished in whirling clouds. The mountains never disappoint us it seems, although we still haven't seen a moose. We keep staring into every bog and swamp and tamarack-spiked little black lake, but alas no alces alces to be seen.

DELAP

Dairy Economic Loss Assistance Payment Program

Some fairly fresh info HERE.

And HERE is some PDF governmentese on the situation. There is real desperation in the dairy world despite some minor (but welcome) increases in the farmgate milk price.

If I Haven't Had Much to Say

Things have been so crazy here..... Just no time to get it all down. Been fighting for three months with the ISP/cable/phone company over some incorrect billing they perpetrated on us. Got to the point of contacting the Attorney General and the Public Service Commission over that situation.

They turned off all our stuff Sunday, which was nasty.....thank God Liz has a cell phone... I guess that situation may be, possibly, could be, I hope, I hope, resolved now. I would not be exaggerating if I told you that in the past three months I have spent at least five hours on hold and been hung up on disconnected more times than I can count. Had I not carefully written down everything that was promised to me when we first took the deal to get the service with the speedy birdie logo, and logged the time, date, content, and the name of the employee I was being bamboozled by for every one of the multitudinous, increasing acrimonious calls I made, I would have been left paying twenty bucks more a month than I was promised.....and as far as that goes I still don't actually have a corrected bill in my hand....

We took Becky back to Potsdam to finish out the semester Sunday. Bringing her home and back took two whole days. I own a run down little cabin in the Adirondacks, no power or running water and not on any lake or anything...just a little shanty stuck in the woods. Alan and I both had that odd tingly, spidey sense that we should visit on the way home Sunday. So we did.

The cabin isn't really ON the way home as far as that goes, but we wanted some balsam fir boughs and there are firs there so....we took the long, winding, miserable run across the Bleeker Benson road and stopped in.

Good thing we did. Somebody had broken out one of the big back windows to get inside. Alan climbed in too as we didn't have the keys with us. No sign of damage and nothing missing that he saw, which is amazing. It has been burglarized before and usually the results are somewhat different.

Have I ever told you about the time thieves broke in and stole all the light bulbs and every other thing that wasn't nailed down? They also took one of those huge, cabinet style record player, stereo, radio sets that were popular along about in the late seventies. I am talking FURNITURE here. I'll bet it weighed as much as a Volkswagen. It was up a cramped and nervous-making narrow little open stairway, in the loft style upstairs bedroom. We would have moved it out ourselves but for the daunting thought of getting it down those stairs.

That and the fact that it hadn't worked in years.
(Thanks guys for getting it out of there for us.)

This time Alan picked up a few things that were lying around that had been left behind, including a nice old iron frying pan, which I will use to cook out at camp (Pecks that is) next summer. He will have to get back up there with his buddy and board up the broken window....oh, and we did get some fir boughs.

More Horses in Strange Places

Sunday Stills....the Letter T

Trotting

For more Sunday Stills

Linkie

If you are reader who links to me...and I don't link to you...and you would like me to link to you, please leave me a note in the comments and I will happily rectify that situation.
Thanks

In Retrospect

This is about how I felt after dinner yesterday.

I hope you all had as good a time as you could yesterday, with family, friends and a fine festival of foodiness.

And thankfulness.

We did...we have so much to be thankful for and yesterday was no exception. Thanks go to Liz for cooking a fabulous feast all by herself. How many 23-year-olds can cook and serve an entire traditional Thanksgiving dinner? Six pies...including a mince pie just for me because I am the only one who likes it. I will freeze individual slices and have pie for a long time to come....plus peach for Alan and apple and pumpkin for everybody. And she got the dressing just right and made a lot of it, without frying the microwave like I did a couple of years ago. The turkey was just right too....and the potatoes and every other thing as well. She worked at it for three days.....I am so proud of her....and it all was so very good.

I am thankful that our Breezey 375 is home. It feels complete and right here now. And she is a great help in so many ways. We missed her a lot. It is going to be miserable to take her back on Sunday.... Can't wait for the next break.

And I am thankful that those &%#** Jersey heifers that jumped the fence didn't get any farther than the 30-acre lot before Alan and his friend happened upon them while out hunting and brought them back in.

I am also thankful that the friend, who lost his very expensive cell phone way up in back....way, way, way up in back under the power lines....was able to find it, after his dad gave him a firmly worded ultimatum on that topic. (Along the lines of get back there and look for it and don't come home without it. lol) They looked and looked (finding in the course of the search my gun sling, which Alan lost a couple of deer hunts ago) and finally stopped to talk. Alan asked the friend something about looking for the phone, the esteemed young friend looked down between his feet...right where he was standing...and there it was! I suspect he was even more thankful that I was.

We had a wonderful day yesterday...food, family, friends and peaceful contentment. (Not to mention Sunday chair naps for the old folks.) Today it is back to sweating the finances and trying to do right...but the interlude was fine and I liked it.

Wishing

All of our friends and family, across the river,

across the country, around the world and around our home town

a very Happy Thanksgiving.

One of the things we are most thankful for is all of you.

Have a great day.

Tales of the Deer Stand

The waters were still in the Adirondacks yesterday...so many lakes, so many mirrors

To answer requests for the details of the deer hunt..... Hunter-in-Chief went out to his stand in the old pasture before milking. Saw three, shot one, thought he missed it. Chased all over the hill looking for it, following some incredibly lively deer, finally gave up and went back to look where he first shot. There was a nice doe. The ones he had been chasing were completely different deer, which explained their amazing stamina and agility. (Anyone who professes that a .243 isn't enough gun for deer is mistaken I fear.)



This deer was amazingly fat, with 2.5 inches of fat on her hinder parts. She was a big un too, very heavily muscled. Having a fisheries and wildlife student, who has studied meat cutting is a pleasantly advantageous thing I must say. Instead of a few haggled up steaks and a lot of stew meat (we process our own), we have tenderloin steaks, London Broil cuts and numerous other tasty dinner options. For farmers who have been out of meat for weeks and can't get our beefer processed just now that pile of frozen venison on shelf number one in the freezer is like Thanksgiving and Christmas rolled into one.

BTW, I took some pictures of the carcass before we processed it...just to show how big it was. If you want to see them I will put them up....maybe over on the View so I don't offend any sensibilities. Let me know if you do want to see them.



Update: A six point buck has just joined the doe. The kid was only out of the house about twenty minutes.... we had an outlaw from town stop and offer today to take the kid out and teach him to hunt. I kinda didn't know what to say to him....except maybe no thanks

Check out the odd asymmetry of the antlers on this guy

Update number 2...you have to check out Jan's blog for the darnedest story about deer and hunting that I have ever seen.....bar none! Do take time to watch the video. The ending is simply beyond belief!!

Hoss's in Long Lake

Do click and zoom. This is an incredible store and we were so glad we stopped. Two floors of all things Adirondack. They even have those little balsam fir incense thingies my grandma used to buy when we were kids. It was like stepping back in time!
And check out that center pic...guess who's home for the holiday!

On the Menu Last Night

Potatoes from Pines...we bought a hundred pounds for twenty bucks and they are really nice!

Beets, frozen during the summer.......

And.......... dum, da, dum, dum......venison.

Macro Monday

These cool and sometimes downright cold fall days have their upsides right along with the down. Many days we are greeted with sunrises of peach and apricot with every blade of grass frosted like a birthday cake for winter. Nights are surrounded by the sweet lullaby of sleepy geese rocking in the cradle of the river. They are flowing south now like pepper from a shaker, some days thousands at a time. Yesterday early one big flock flew north toward the river while a second surged west toward a cornfield gleaning party. They crossed each other in flight like origami on the wing. I waited and watched to see if they collided or broke apart, but one flock was a few feet above the other and they slipped by easily, barking like a big batch of beagles.

Even the weeds have their lovely moments, whether it is the frost coated goldenrod or this sprig of ordinary catnip painted purple by the freezing night time temperatures. This morning it is downright shiverish, which just makes that first cup of coffee all the more welcome.

For more Macro Monday

Sunday Stills...Horses

This is my favorite horse pic. This horse and another live on our way over to the college. They always look so color-coordinated out in their field.


Had to use the archives for this challenge. Our only horse these days is a mini named Jack and he would NOT cooperate. I did get a nice pic of one of his feet.....For more Sunday Stills...

****Happy Birthday, Scott!

Second Week of Deer Camp

For all you Yoopers out there. Go listen. Seriously
(or maybe not so seriously)


ITS THE SECOND WEEK OF DEER CAMP
I GOT A SWOLLEN HEAD
I'M LYING WITH THE DUST BALLS
UNDERNEATH MY BED

AN ICY BREEZE IS BLOWING IN
THROUGH THE TONGUE AND GROOVE
MY PANTS ARE FROZEN TO THE FLOOR
AND I'M TOO SICK TO MOVE

I DIDN'T DRINK TOO MANY
ONLY THIRTY CANS OF BEER
IT MUST HAVE BEEN THAT LAST SHOT
THAT PUT ME UNDER HERE

CHORUS:
IT'S THE SECOND WEEK OF DEER CAMP
AND ALL THE GUYS ARE HERE
WE DRINK PLAY CARDS AND SHOOT THE BULL
BUT NEVER SHOOT NO DEER
THE ONLY TIME WE LEAVE THE CAMP
IS WHEN WE GO FOR BEER
THE SECOND WEEK OF DEER CAMP
IS THE GREATEST TIME OF YEAR

I REMEMBER PLAYING POKER
THAT WEASEL MUSTA WON
HE'S WEARING MY NEW SWAMPERS
AND SLEEPING WITH MY GUN

HE'S SNORING LIKE A CHAIN SAW
THE CAMP SMELLS LIKE A DUMP
SOMEONE'S DIRTY UNDERWEAR
IS HANGING ON THE PUMP

MUKKU’S IN THE WOOD BOX
EENER’S PASSED OUT ON THE STOVE
HIS FLANNEL SHIRT IS SMOKING
I WONDER IF HE KNOWS

CHORUS

VITO’S CRAWLING THROUGH THE DOOR
I THINK HE GOT FROSTBITE
HE PASSED OUT IN THE OUTHOUSE
AND HE'S BEEN THERE SINCE LAST NIGHT

THEN GOOFUS STUMBLES THROUGH THE DOOR
HE SAYS HE GOT A BUCK
HE WAS COMING FROM THE WAYSIDE
AND HE KILLED IT WITH HIS TRUCK

THEN MUUSTI CRACKS A BEER AND SAYS
ITS TIME TO CELEBRATE
GOOFUS GOT THE FIRST BUCK
SINCE 1968

Complaint Free Wednesday

Normally on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving we here at Northview are frantically cooking ahead, cleaning the house, fitting chores in between etc. However, this year I am planning on spending any free time that I have complaining about the government. This guy made me do it.

He may wish folks would quit griping about the barrage of bad legislation and total insanity coming out of Washington today, but d I don't think he is going to get his wish.

Opening Day

It is opening day of the southern deer hunting zone here in upstate NY. Can't say as it is my favorite time of year. I love venison and our freezer is devoid of meat other then three sets of pig ribs.. As landowners we get a couple of dmp permits and three of us have regular licenses. I am hoping somebody fills one of our tags.

It is a worrisome time too though. Despite our posted signs strangers will be wandering over our property. Along with that willingness to break the law in pursuit of a deer usually comes disregard for safe hunting, sensible gun handling, fair take and the location of other people. And livestock. After all, if you freely walk past a posted sign to hunt someone else's land you are willingly breaking one hunting regulation. How much do you care about the others?

The Jersey heifers were brought in off the hill yesterday. They are the wrong color for the "if it's brown it's down" crowd and the heifer pasture abuts some land belonging to a housing development, which is a source of many of the sneaky clowns we will be unwillingly be hosting.

Hunter in chief is out in his stand already, waiting for the sun to rise. I wish him luck. I wish all you hunters out there a safe day...just please hunt the state lands or places where you have permission. .....I don't mean to be so cranky, but I am tired of calling the police on the ones we find, sometimes right in the pasture with the cattle....

Ball of Sunshine

Up in the heifer woods. This little bit of glade is on the WEST side of the pasture woods and this was taken at sunrise and yet this one little spot just glowed, with reflected light I guess. I wanted to go up there and bask in the beauty, but it was milking time so I settle for a fardistant shot from the porch and attention to daily duty.




And this is the best I could do for a shot of the faster-than-a-speeding-bullet cat food can stealing moves of our resident cat burglar. This is Gael, racing by with a stolen cat food can lifted from Elvis' breakfast. Periodically we needs must clean her can collection out of her crate in the pantry where she stashes them for future use....not sure what she wants to do with them...maybe build a space shuttle?

A Request

Things aren't going well for the family of one of my very favorite bloggers. If you can find it in your schedule and your heart, please go offer Sara some words of strength and kindness. (I know you are the kindest folks there are.)

Project Laundry List

What a great idea! We have never had a drier, although now that the washer has retired from the fray, I sometimes use them at the laundromat. We have instead two clotheslines made from really heavy rope. (None of your skinny little grocery store lines for this farmer. It takes some serious twine to keep overalls and suchlike off the lawn.)

In the winter we have my grandma's old laundry bars, the boss's late mother's set and two modern ones. I must be weird because I think a line of clothes ebbing and flowing in a nice brisk breeze is a lovely sight. Maybe I don't watch enough TV. Anyhow, there seems to be a movement back to doing the drying like grandma did and I am all for it. I have a suggestion for all those anonymous note senders who like to whine about other people's laundry....look the other way.

He Thinks Your Duck Call's Sexy

After months, nay years, of annoying us all half to death with turkey calls, Alan has switched to goose calls...and duck calls...(who knew that I could miss those turkey calls so much?)

Anyhow, this afternoon he went out after turkeys. Not seeing any he leaned on a wagon right behind the cow barn. Off and on he heard a little rustling in the brush nearby, but didn't pay much attention.

Practicing those duck calls on the hundreds flying over you know.....

Then something made him glance to the side. And there less than six feet away, staring intently at him, was a six-point buck. I guess it would be hard to say which one of them was more startled. That pesky call might not appeal to me or to duck, but deer...that's a whole nother story.

Congressman Rogers on the Healthcare Debacle

Sent to me by a good friend who suggested I forward it..... Take a couple minutes to watch it if you can. There is a lot packed into a short four minutes.

Around the Water Cooler

Liz has this shorthorn/Holstein bull calf for sale. Fifty dollars. He will make a nice compact steer for anybody who wants to raise some beef in the back yard. He is well started and a real lively guy.

Or the farmer equivalent, up in the parking lot at LJ Hand Farm Store....the boss was talking to a prominent local farmer yesterday, a fellow we think a lot of. We are kind of out of the loop up here on the hill, but the boss's friend knows everybody and all that is going on in the farm community.

What he heard was some really horrible stories that actually made us feel lucky as we face problems we have never seen before here at Northview. A lot of our neighbors are in trouble and just waiting for beef and heifer prices to take a jump to sell out. If and when that happens this county is going to look a lot different than it does now. We are better off than a lot and that is a pretty darned sad thing to say about the industry that is the backbone of this rural county.

Paterson's New Plates=GREAT BIG FAIL

Channel 9 is saying that this plan may be scrapped. Something about millions of ticked off drivers, a lot of very unhappy DMV workers, facing the prospect of taking care of those millions of ticked off drivers in addition to their regular work....Alas, you know and I know (and Cumptico-Calico) that our good gov and his cronies in Albany will just stick their hands in our other pocket so they can go on spending like fools. Still this plan had egregious written all over it. I hope they do dump it.

Macro Monday

It is almost Thanksgiving, so here is one of my favorite Thanksgiving cacti.

For more Macro Monday....

Sunday Stills, Fur, Fins and Feathers

Fur,
a little bit 'o' my milking shorthorn baby, Northstar
and below, Athena the Schaufelcat

Fins,
a carved pickerel, the only fins around,
Done by a friend of my parents

Feathers
A barred rock hen
and Saturday dinner (rooster below-we had five roos in our tiny flock far too many)

For more Sunday Stills.....

Haying in November

Winterberry Holly Photo by Alan

Is a pretty darned weird thing to be doing. However, that is what the boss has been up to. We had so much rain this summer (I blame China) that he and Alan had a terrible time getting in feed. Now whenever we have a day or two of decent weather he is chopping a load here and a load there, just to try to stuff enough in the bags to make it through til spring.

Yesterday he took off a field on Seven County Hill that was covered with brown and green fluffy, puffy grass. He canvased up an old hay wagon and chopped it into that resulting in the nicest bedding you could imagine. It was so nice to let the girls inside last night and to know that they had wonderful, soft comfy beds to lie in. Bedding has been kind of short and this was so much nicer for them. I limed the walkways and with the new bedding and the nice, white floors the barn was pleasantly bright for work.

They are calling for rain again today so probably no haying. No lack of things to do, although if I had my way he would get to sleep in his chair today. He is pretty darned tired out. I have to get my old guitar out, dust it off and hurry up and learn Steve Earle's Dixieland for tomorrow. Family get together planned and middle brother (the one with the talent) and I are going to play a bit I guess. Trust me, I will not be playing like Steve Earle...instead just a few bare and bony chords will escape from my arthritic fingers and tarnished strings. Liz is making chocolate cuppy cakes and Alan's newly famous pumpkin bars should be forthcoming as our contribution to the event.

Have a good one anyhow. It is Saturday and you know what comes after that.

Yeah, that's right...Sunday

Real People

Real farms
Real cows
All gone

Laura

We have a George too.
HT to Jeff at Alphecca.

A Fisher of Liz

Or was it a pekan? Anyhow she met one on the bridge between the house and barn yesterday when we were walking over to milk. She gasped, it snarled and the encounter was over just that quickly.

Personally I have never seen one, nor had she, but she described it perfectly. There were tracks....BIG tracks.....tracks at least four inches long from front to back. That is a big footprint!

Here is a story about how fishers are becoming quite common in the area.

And here is another story that makes me glad that this one snarled at Liz and then went on its way.

And here is a pretty good description of the critter and the lifestyle of the snarky and furry.

Wonder if this guy is behind the demise of our dear Lucy and the sudden absence of a favorite barn kitty, Calico Girl.....and the clawing of the ag bags. We were blaming coyotes and we certainly have those too. If you want to read the whole story check out Friday's Farm Side.

Apple A Day

Went to our favorite orchard yesterday to pick a bushel of apples to store. (If we get a chance I am going back for more before they close.)

We had the place to ourselves as the season is winding down. It is so beautiful up there. There is no place like home, but Bellinger's Orchard is sure a close second. There was no shortage of apples either. The trees are still weighed right down with varieties ranging from standards like Ida Red to new ones I had never encountered before like Ruby Jon.

We almost filled our half bushel bags with Northern Spies and Ida Red. Then came the fun part...wandering among the trees looking for tasty looking apples to test drive this fall to see if we want a larger quantity next time. Alan nibbled a dropped Empire that he picked up and was sold immediately. He probably picked half a peck of them just for his own entertainment.

We also grabbed a few Pink Ladies, a couple of the aforementioned Ruby Jons, some Ambrosias, Granny Smiths and some Winesaps. (It does look as if our tree in the yard is a Winesap as the apples look just right.)

To me a couple bags of good hard apples in the front hall is like money in the bank. No, better than money in the bank...it is apple snack season. We have been making applesauce whenever we get any apples. There is still time for more spiced apple jelly.......Liz bakes a mean apple pie. Alan has suggested expanding his pumpkin bar franchise to include apple bars....

Yeah, I think I do need to run up and grab another bushel before they close...which might happen this week.

I Got a Raise

The Winterberry Holly is amazing this fall.
This patch was filled with robins having a feast on their way south.

Well, almost....been writing the Farm Side for 11 years...been paid the same the whole time, except for the first couple of weeks. When I got my pay this month it reflected a significant raise. Of course I was tickled about half to death.

At Lykers

Alas, being a reasonably honest soul, I called the controller at the paper...and yeah, it was just a mistake. Oh, well, I enjoyed the imagined glory while it lasted...lol

Eclipsed wood duck, identified by Alan
at fifty mph as we passed,
and photographed by him as well (we went back and parked for that)

And Alan and I raced off to spend the money on groceries over in Cobleskill...now I just have to write four more columns that are already paid for. My cupboards are now crowded with things with which we can make other things.......and this is good.

On a sugar maple stump

Macro Monday

As you can see, I Have been climbing up to dust in high places. Why this pretty shelf is above the head of anyone my size is beyond me, but I do get to look at it every now and then when I clean the dining room.



For more Macro Monday

Sunday Stills....Currency

Or maybe coinage...I love wheat pennies and save all that I find. When ever I come across one I put it in a little Saki cup on the mantel in front of the old picture of the boss's mom all dressed up. After a few accumulate then I put them away and start again.

for more Sunday Stills...

Objects in the Mirror

Lately I have been cooking mostly wild game and the odds and ends of past beeves and porkers, dug out of the back of the freezer and turned into unexpected things, which are (amazingly) pretty darned good. Those gristly shank bones...a little vinegar, some spices and some time in the oven and they become the basis for soup or chili that is hard to beat.
And I never made turkey soup before. Turns out I'm not too bad at it.

Applesauce from the Winesap tree that Grandma Peggy kept. The apples have always been terrible, mealy, harsh, bitter, blah. This year I left them on the tree until this week. Who knew that they are a variety that needs some good hard frosts to flavor up? They are fantastic! And not a worm in the bunch. I am going to get out the shepherd's crook and shake down the few that are still hanging on.....before the chickens get them


One pound of sausage that was hidden behind the ice cubes, sauteed with onion, garlic and lovage, topped with a can of green beans and a big bunch of instant mashed potatoes, whipped up with an egg, some grated Parmesan and garlic powder....bake for an hour and a half and get out of the way, they will be back for seconds.


Just around the corner is deer season. The hunter in chief is also the guy who cuts up the deer with me. He took meat cutting class in college last semester. That should help us turn any that he gets into a better product for better dining. Now I just hope that he is successful.

MPC's Getting Noticed in the Mainstream Media

Roylane Jordan Daughter, Gypsy Rain

Salt Rising Bread

How many of you western NY folks are familiar with it?

Do you like it?

Around here if you have Montgomery blood having someone bring back a loaf (or two) from Hornell is like Christmas, Thanksgiving and the 4th of July rolled into one.
And one of those wonderful brothers I have and his lovely wife, did just that day before yesterday.
After a brief meeting at the bottom of our washed out canyon of a driveway, Alan conveyed the precious loaves to the kitchen where we looked on in wonder.

We have had salt rising bread for breakfast
Supper
Snacks
General occasions of irresistibilty.
There is still some left......maybe I should hide it.

Wordless Wednesday

Full Moon

Last night.

Strange clouds lined up from North to South

All the way across the sky

Like the backbones of sketchy fish

Laid out row on row

Across the sliding moon

Somebody please explain

The difference between this scenario and this one.

Two people whose job, (or potential job,) description includes rules governing dress.
Two people who feel that they have the right to express their religious beliefs with articles of dress.

One is fired.
And everyone is fine with that.

One gets an apology for the outrageous offense against them.
And that's okay too.

I just don't get it. I'm moving to France.

Macro Monday

For more Macro Monday

Sunday Stills....Halloween

No pumpkins here at Northview.... but we do have a black cat.




And that haunted house thing going on.










We even have ghosts!

Boo!

For more Sunday Stills.....