More on the Texas Drought

While working on the Farm Side yesterday I came upon this article.

Well worth your time to read this man's perspective on the drought and on mega-droughts in centuries gone by

He points out that one drought, documented through archaeological evidence, lasted nearly a hundred years and is thought to have contributed to the downfall of the Mayan civilization.

Times are hard in the West these days. As the author of the article states, about all that can be done is to pray for rain to fall in all the right places.

******Which means, NOT HERE please*******

Road Trip...Bellinger's Apple Orchard

The merchandise

Is all good for you

Or maybe just plain good.

Or even both

Actually we were out taking care of some Gubmint business and the visit to the farm at 685 Argersinger Road was impromptu so to speak. However, as always, we came away happy.

Even as I type I am nibbling some slices of a fresh, crisp, tangy Ginger Gold and contemplating the bag of Cortlands that abuts the bag of its cousins out on the kitchen table.

Winter may be on its way but apple time is the best time......Soon as the really good "keeping" apples like Pink Ladies, Spys and Ida Reds are ready we will make another visit to pick our winter supply, but for now we bought a few pounds of ready picked to keep us going.

****Update, one Ginger Gold, the first apple of the 2011 season, is not going to be enough. My mouth is telling me to go cut up another one.

The Birds

Heard this godawful screeching yesterday, like thousands of finger nails on dozens of chalkboards. Went out to see what was up and discovered a massive flock of starlings congregated in the honey locust.

There were so many that it was literally raining feathers. I had seen a few tearing up the stag horn sumacs out in the front yard, but yowsa! What a huge and noisy flock was hanging in the back yard.

Suddenly they took off with a rush of wings that had to be heard to be believed. I kinda waved the camera in their general direction and clicked the button a few times. Got a tiny fraction of the flock just by luck

Hearing the sound they made got me thinking about what the passenger pigeons must have sounded like when they flew over....and did it rain feathers...and other birdie by-products....when they passed....just wondering is all.

Hay for Texas

Route 5S Sprakers NY, soybeans ruined by flooding.

Close up of silt coating soybeans

While NY reels under the weight of excess water and takes stock of the damage it has done (lots) Texas has been so dry for so long they have forgotten what water looks like.

Wild fires rage, devouring homes and ranches. Fields wither and die and feed is scarce. Folks are liquidating cattle herds because they simply have no choice....

New York Farm Bureau has a link where hay donations for struggling ranchers can be coordinated.

The NYFB link is here.

The hay coordination, donation, etc. homepage is here: Hay Hotline Home.

Sunday Stills....Shiny

For more Sunday Stills......

Remember

We all do. How could we ever forget? My mom, who just celebrated her sixtieth wedding anniversary remembers Peal Harbor like it was yesterday. We will always remember......

Like Fire

The sun came up like fire today...I don't mean just red. I mean red like the heart of a dark blood orange. I mean trailing twisted veils of cloud like fingers of smoke reaching far across the sky. There were sirens.....

Always sirens. Seems as if our hearts know the call of every firehouse for miles around now. Maybe they are just pumping cellars...lots of cellars to pump these days. But the bridge went down in Rotterdam yesterday. And the power was out last night. I take the phone upstairs nights now...never know who might call or why. So I flipped it open, checked the time, and reset the clock there in the dark.

This is the river yesterday. Don't know about you, but I am getting tired of ropes of thick, brown water. Liz finally made it home...hadn't been here since the day before yesterday because the county was in a state of emergency and every single road was either under water or under rock and mud slides. The boss went up on the TOP of the heifer pasture hill to bring down cows yesterday and was sinking almost to his knees on the grass, on the highest part. Just nuts. Can't put a tire in a field. Harvest is halted halfway through and may never start again. Winter is too close by far for my taste.

I take a little heart though, here and there. Although there are few birds left around, a spotted sandpiper has moved in and hunts under the manure shed and on the bridge between the house and barn. It is loud and lovely and so exotic (not that we don't see them around but this one comes so close.) A great blue heron pulses ponderously by. A phoebe flicks its tail and cheeps at me from very near; must be one of the babies from the trees by the bridge, because it shows no fear..... (between the sandpiper and him there was a lot of tail flicking going on that day).

They are worth a smile among the grim I guess.

Those Hardhearted

Just who are you accusing of hiding kittens in the grain tub?

Farmers....or so the AR folks would have you believe. However, had you been a fly on the wall in a certain upstate NY dairy barn this morning you would have gotten an ear full of just how hardhearted they are in real life..

See, three little black kittens popped out of wherever mama Athena has been keeping them hidden and Liz found them while we were milking this morning.

Chores ground to a total halt. There was much crooning and cuddling and cooing and baby talk. Did I mention cuddling? Ownership was distributed. See, technically Athena belongs to Liz as she brought her home from our friend's farm. However, everybody loves her, Alan especially. Although he lobbied hard to have ownership of the actual kitten factory transferred to his account, he was awarded instead a single black kitten. Beck also got one and Liz kept one for herself.

Athena, a spotted brown tabby, was not concerned as long as a sufficient level of admiration was bestowed upon her offspring, as well as upon herself for her great accomplishment.

Canz (Elvis's canned cat food) was heisted from the house. Ditto dry kitty food. There was discussion, by the subject of Wordless Wednesday Revisited, of running up to the vet's office (once the roads all open again) for little kitty vaccinations. He may look ruff and gruff, but he loves kitties. It would seem that his kids do too.

I'm telling you, you would have been embarrassed by the gushing....brutal.

Mike's Antique Milking Machines

This is a well-known collection of vintage milking machines that was displayed at the Fonda Fair this year.

They are all fun to look at, but as far as I am concerned, we are low tech enough with our overhead pipeline and milkers on canes that we cart around from cow to cow.

A nice milking parlor would suit me just fine.....I was taught to milk in a double-six herringbone, then had to re-learn the job in a conventional barn when I met the boss...kind of going backwards in time so to speak.....sometimes I dream of that parlor......

Enough Already

This is the river the other day,

untimely empty because the locks are all open or just plain gone.
See the channel marker aground on the side?

Today it is full again and over flowing.

I am sure you are sick of me talking about the weather. (I am sick of talking about it too, as far as that goes. In fact, frankly I am downright sick of the weather in general, in particular, and in any other way you can be sick of it.)

It just keeps raining and raining and raining. By mid-afternoon Wednesday Alan's friends were texting him from SUNY Cobleskill and putting up videos on Facebook because of the incredible flooding there. Water was racing down the stairways among the dorms, feet deep and chocolate brown. These were the dorms on higher ground too...I hate to think what was going on lower down. At least some dorm rooms were flooded and kids were moved to higher ground. It was pretty scary.

Meanwhile towns that were evacuated during the peak of the Irene flooding were once again emptied because of still more flooding. I don't know how much more people can take...

Here at the farm we still live on the hill and are still glad of it, although the driveways are taking an awful beating and the milk truck didn't get in on Monday. Water filled one shed so we had to turn Rio out with the big cows. She is a pregnant milking shorthorn heifer that we have actually wanted to add to the big herd, but we have been waiting because we have the cows spending their days in a temporary pasture. Temporary electric fence and un-fence-broke heifers are not a good mix.

Sure enough she got out twice (all I can say is ouch because that fence is HOT!) but the first time she put herself back in and the second time Liz was right there to chase her. Hopefully over the next few days she will figure out where she belongs and settle down.

Also had to liberate Wally, the blue heeler guardian of the cow barn gate. The rain washed the ground out from under his dog house so he is now enthroned in Nick's chain link kennel. Hopefully he will stay there because he is essentially a very bad dog. The cats and chickens don't need his help on their way to an untimely grave.

So there you have it. Most of the news that's fit to print. We can't chop. Can't work on the tractor. Can't do much of anything except divert water and hope for the best. Take care.

****Update, reliable source says all roads in county are closed. Good grief! Been reading FB, mud slides all over the place, the water is up in Liz and Jade's back yard. I called her and told her to forget coming to work.

Wordless Wednesday Revisited

Wordless Wednesday

Fonda Fair

Antique milking machines....sure glad I don't have to use them

Some fair goers I think I have seen somewhere before

The butter sculpture

Bling...she doesn't look her best because she HATED the water and didn't like to drink

Portrait of Thursdon Hand....we thought very highly of this wonderful man

I can remember these. I think I rode in one.

A pretty horse

There are always a few jackasses at the fair!

The whole fair was a tribute to the army of volunteers who cleaned away feet of mud and water and mess to put on a show that sparkled. Wish the weather had treated them better...what a wild and rainy week.

Kansas, We Have Your Weather

And Florida, California and Alaska too. Earthquakes (which I suppose technically aren't weather, but they can go away just the same) a devastating hurricane, and now a tornado.

Enough already. You can all have your weather and your seismological events back any time you want them.

Here at Northview we were just getting started milking, early, trying to beat the storm, which looked like a big one, and its potential for power failure, when the lights went out.

Fun, fun, fun. Thankfully the power was restored fairly quickly, although a couple of hours were added to evening chores, which were not much enhanced by the rain either.

September in upstate NY is supposed to bring warm, bright days and cool pleasant nights. Sunshine. Calm. Fresh vegetables.

What the heck is up with this and who has OUR weather? That's what I want to know.

Sunday Stills....Potluck

Hey, there, cutie, how's about a kiss?

No, no, kiss me, kiss me, kiss me, me, me.....

What! Who me!!?!

Kiss this!

For more Sunday Stills........

And to get into the spirit of things....some real pot luck.

Eleven Cows Found

I know some of you live where these are as common as sparrows,

but this is the first one we have seen in at least five years.

This hen pheasant is nibbling something on our soggy driveway...

I read somewhere that eleven missing cattle were found. 22 thoroughbred horses still missing.

Here are some info links:

New York Farm Bureau flood help link

NYFB Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack, coming to Schoharie County dairy farm today.

How to help in flood-ravaged Middleburgh (our favorite place to collect brachiopods when the kids were small.)

Fifth Place

Junior heifer calf...Fonda Fair...Bling

No complaints. The competition is fierce at Fonda and there are a lot of nice cattle at the show this year despite the flood. Congratulations to everyone who made it possible for there to be a fair this year and to all the exhibitors who dared.

The Fog Comes In

And no little cat feet about it. More like a sensation of cold, wet, fish strapped all over your body...of breathing through a soggy, slightly moldy blanket. It seeps right into the house....Erk.

It rained hard again yesterday, not helpful in any way.

We turned the cows into a new field though, and of course they didn't really want to come back out. All that lush, delicious grass you know.

So the boss and I hiked up to call them....at least they didn't make us go into the field with them... Anyhow as we walked along, a great whirling flock of bobolinks rose up...the most I have ever seen in one place at one time. It was pretty cool.

They kept us company while we stood in the lane and hollered for cows and it was pretty nice. Even if is was a not so welcome harbinger of what is coming and soon......

Unsung

But heroes just the same.

The boss just spent a few minutes chatting with our milk truck driver while he was picking up the milk. He, his boss who is the owner of the trucking company, (a really sweet guy), and all the other drivers...and no doubt dozens of guys from other companies...have been going through H-E-Double Hockey Sticks getting to farms to pick up milk.

If the trucks can't get in, even if the farmers have generators and power to milk the cows (not to mention still having barns and cows, which many don't) then the bulk tanks fill up and have to be emptied somehow....usually by dumping milk. Having dumped milk when our market got mixed up a couple years ago, I know how painful that can be. It takes a lot of work to grow and harvest feed and grow cows and then feed the cows to produce the milk. Not much fun to watch the fruit of all that labor swirling down the drain.

Add to that the fact that some of the plants that take milk have closed temporarily due to the flood and you have a nightmare.

The owner of the company that hauls our milk just spent three hours just getting to two close together farms marooned by flood waters. One of his drivers drove all night to get to an alternate plant to offload milk. They have been having trouble even getting home at night when they are done.

Thankfully, these men know every back road, short cut, long way and detour in this part of upstate NY. If there is a way to get where they need to go, they will find it.

My hat is off to them. Thanks, Dale, and John, and all you other guys, you know who you are, who are working so hard to get our product to market. It means a lot.

A Long, Long, Time Ago, On This Very Day

Folks said that they were much too young to fall in love.

It didn't matter to them. They knew better.

Folks didn't believe that they would make it, but they knew better.

My brothers and I thought that they didn't see what we got up to and maybe we sneaked something by them. They knew better.

And now, sixty years later, they are still in love and proud of it, glad of the family they have raised and delighted to be together still, despite all that life has thrown at them.

And I am proud and thankful to be their daughter.

Happy 60th anniversary, Mom and Dad.

Here is a quote from Mom's Facebook page (yeah, my mama does Facebook) "Tomorrow is our 60th Wedding Anniversary. I think we are going to make it!

They told us we were too young, but we are still in love, have three wonderful children, nine exceptional grandchildren and 6 great grandchildren."

You go mom!

Dairy Supply Management

Is not popular with everyone. (And as I watch the list of folks who are in favor of Foundation for the Future fill up with processors like Land O Lakes, folks who make a lot of money by keeping farm prices low, I like it less and less.)

Here is a website for farmers who are against the supply management plan.

Stop Supply Management