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Friday, September 12, 2014

Mini Moose

Do click these photos for a better look

 On the way home from the farm show yesterday we stopped at a favorite pond that lies just along a sharp curve in the road.



A couple of years ago an obliging Great Blue Heron allowed us a nice opportunity to get some pictures, so we always pause to look.



Yesterday was no disappointment. There was a doe and fawn right in the water. The doe was eating off the bottom like a moose, head submerged to the ears.

Some ducks paddled by. One was right behind the fawn in a most photo-bombitous position.

It was pretty cool. I love stopping there.







And then this morning...I have to lean on the big five-bar gate to the pasture to tie it shut when I take the cows out. I was doing that this morning....not being tall, my chin and ear are right on the gate...when a fat grey squirrel bustled out of the building the gate is fastened to and started across it.

I kept waiting for him to see me. I was in a bright squash-blossom-yellow sweatshirt. 

He just kept coming.

And coming.

And coming.

Until he was about a foot from my face. Had he continued he would have had to squeeze under my ear to get to the fence.

I almost let him.

But I was afraid he might bite me.

So I said "boo". 

Instant magical transformation from grey squirrel to flying squirrel. 

I didn't know they could jump that far. 


Thursday, September 11, 2014

A Moment of Silence


And prayer for all the families who will never forget this day...and for all the people still living in the city, with the knowledge of what has happened and what could happen.......

Wednesday, September 10, 2014

Road Trip

Loved this ad!
Every farm dog we have ever had has loved the old milker liners as toys.
We call them doo dahs. 

To the Central NY Farm Progress Show. This is kind of our annual get away close to home. The drive over is always spectacular and we never fail to run into favorite friends and neighbors.


This year the weather was truly the best we have ever experienced for the show. We walked around, met a good friend and talked a while, picked up some pens and apples...always a big attraction at farm shows...and just enjoyed ourselves immensely.


We saw a drone for the first time...almost got a photo but I wasn't quite quick enough. There were a few Turkey Vultures sailing over the grounds and the drone passed very close to one. It didn't seem too impressed.



A corny Mohawk

There is another whole day's worth tomorrow if you missed it today. We had to rush home to see if the boss could bale second cutting.


***A special thanks to Alan who got the parts and fixed the brakes on the car so we could go. Thanks guy! As you can see, this is not a trip for the faint of brake.

Tuesday, September 09, 2014

Oh, Foo

German Orange Tomatoes for sandwiches


Perhaps Facebook isn't the greatest source of weather information. I just saw a map on a farm page that suggested that early frost might soon occur, damaging corn and soybean crops across the nation's bread basket.

Oh, yay. We have had such an indifferent summer, nothing ripening, poor drying weather, lots of bah humbug going on.

Now, we are finally getting some warmer days, resulting in lots of tomatoes. If the weather holds good and we don't get hit with late blight, we should be able to make a goodly amount of a sort of soup-base, tomato saucy stuff we tried out last year.

I am not sure I remember the exact process, but we cooked the maters with herbs and seasonings, just a little bit, tossed them in the food processor to render them juicy, and froze the result for winter.

Added to my usual soup or spaghetti sauce they imparted a fresh, summery taste that was unbeatable. I am hoping we can make a lot.

Speaking of soup. I love soup in the winter!

My favorite is a version of my vegetable beef standby, which uses sweet Italian sausage in place of beef. You could use hot if your taste buds will stand it.

Start out by sauteing some sausage links with onions and garlic and fresh herbs if you have them. I use whatever is on hand, fresh basil, wild oregano, marjoram, even some of the milder mints, such as orange mint.

When the links are soft, I cut them into little disks with kitchen shears. A little meat goes a lot farther that way and the flavor gets into the broth better. 

Then I put in whatever vegetables I have. Literally. Beets are about the only thing I leave out and then only because I don't want purple soup.

Last weekend I put in green beans, Romano beans, patty pan squash, zucchini, carrots, potatoes, parsley,tomaotes, shell beans from Romanos that got too mature, and one big old kohlrabi that I grew for Becky because she thought they looked cool.You could also add corn, shredded cabbage, or any number of other favorites. Broccoli and cauliflower are perfect.

At the same time I usually toss in a can of whatever tomato product I have on hand, such as diced, crushed, or sauce and some water, enough to fill your pot. This time, I had a quarter jar of spaghetti sauce left over so I added water to that and dumped it in.

I season the whole shooting match with Italian seasoning, more garlic, some grated Parmesan cheese, a teaspoon of sugar (takes the bite and bitterness out of the tomatoes) and whatever else comes to hand. Then I cook it all slowly on the stove top for a while, until everything is nice and tender. Or cover it and stick it in the oven at 325 for a while. (Then I can go to the barn and not have to stir it for an hour or so.)





If I don't have potatoes I throw in a handful of uncooked pasta or rice toward the end of the process.

It is never exactly the same twice, but it is always good. We wiped out a five-quart pot in two suppers, with grilled cheese sandwiches on the side the second night.

Monday, September 08, 2014

A Good Measure


Heaped up, pressed down, shaken together, and running over.


I can't think of anything we have done to deserve all this, but I am thankful.

  



Sunday, September 07, 2014

Sunday Stills....Songs as Pictures

A clew, a clew, Marv and Cinnamon are siblings
This one Shirley got in the comments, "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother

Not in the title, but the best known line


Walkin, in a winter Wonderland (Sleigh bells ring)
I'll Fly Away

Something different this week. Straight from Ed, "Here is the challenge, find pics that represent musical groups or songs as pics and when you post them let the folks guess what they are. Just say if they are a song or group… Have fun with this one."


This one's for Becky, she'll know

I Should Be Sleeping (Emerson Drive)






I thought about this all week, and finally came up with something....have fun guessing. Answers soon....

For more Sunday Stills.....


PS, mine are all songs

Saturday, September 06, 2014

Something's Coming


The early sky is like the inside of a fish bowl, all green-lit and glowy. It is like moving under water.



Just a corner of the sun shows between trees in the hedgerow, angry red, like an ember in a darkened room.


Any other morning the dog would hurry, eager for her bowl of canned dog food laced with lots of water...she hates to drink for some absurd reason.


This morning she dawdles, la, la, la, la.



Mosquitoes descend like flying teeth,  in whining, whirling clouds around us.

Something is coming and I don't think it's Christmas.






Thursday, September 04, 2014

Still More TBT



I'm on a roll here.....

More old Farm Side columns:

Swimsuits and Suitable Reading Material

Types of Cows....there's one in every barn.

More Types of Cows

An Unpublished Tribute to Peggy's Namesake

TBT 2008



Longtime readers will have read this. Longtime Farm Side readers too.

However, here is an old Farm Side from 2008....


At nearly eleven one night, on the way home from a milk-marketing cooperative meeting, I was restively dodging deer and drunks and desperately anticipating the toast that was to take the place of my long delayed dinner, when my attention was riveted. In the middle of a feverish mulling over of PPD’s, hauling and handling, and distances from distant cities, a catalog of one hundred ways to inject romance into your committed relationship assaulted my overtaxed brain. A dreamy couple on the radio suggested strewing a path of rose petals through the house leading to a romantic, candlelight dinner. This almost caused me to drive into the Erie Canal. Maybe I’m too practical, but my first thought was, “Where the heck would you get rose petals?” The second was that anyone who wanted to strew them on my floors in a discernible path would have to shovel out all the dog hair, sand and other debris that was strewn there first.
Then, if I attempted to serve a meal by candlelight, my significant other would fall asleep with his head on the table and catch his hair on fire. Just how romantic is a fire extinguisher anyhow? This is Spring Work time. He starts his chores at four thirty and gets done long after Liz and I finish milking. His idea of a romantic meal would probably be a McDonald’s fish fillet served on the fender of a tractor with a side order of bug repellent. Or maybe a citronella candle would seem more intimate than a can of Off! .
The radio show had many additional suggestions for spicing up a stale relationship, but, as I said, the marketing data I had been asked to digest in place of dinner had overheated my tiny brain. Therefore I went online and found Gregory G. P. Godey’s book, 10,000 Ways to Say I Love You
Here is suggestion number two. “Sign your letters ‘forever and a day’.” Since most of the letters I send to and receive from my spouse are instructions about farm work, this could be interesting. Here’s a representative sample. On a Post It note stuck to side of bulk tank: “Ralph, the vet said that number 39 had a retained placenta. You’ll have to pill her,” (the vet did NOT mean by mouth), “ The repair shop called about the tractor. They say it will be fixed as soon as possible. But they have to order the parts, Forever and a day.” Yeah, or at least it will seem that way.
Suggestion number 8, “ Place a heart-shaped sticker on your wristwatch to remind you to call”. Yeah, OK, if I can find my watch under the assorted, encrusted barnyard material. And call whom? The trucker? It would take more than a sticker to remind me to call him during the early morning, pre-school-bus feeding frenzy at this place. Try a note covering the entire computer screen-that might get my attention.
Romantic suggestion number nine: “Squeeze into phone booths together”. Now why would we want to do that? And where would we find a phone booth? Besides, we have a pickup truck and three kids. That can cause all sorts of close encounters. With a few sandwiches and something to drink in the cooler, pile children on your lap or have them sit on tires in the back among the fence tools, gas cans and bales of twine. Bounce frantically up the lane to wherever you are working. The kids can have a picnic while you chop hay and he hauls loads to the barn. Now that’s romance.
Which brings us to “His and Hers”. Our romantic list maker suggested “His and Hers” everything, from towels to Porsches. I’m happy with clean towels that I don’t have to pick up off the floor before I use them. Who cares about the monogram? What good would a Porsche be with our driveways? One trip and it would be marooned until July. I was thinking maybe “His and Hers” shovels. Then maybe I could find mine when I want to scrape off on my side of the barn. But then again, I tried “His and hers” screwdrivers. You’d be amazed how fast a man gets accustomed to shocking pink and florescent orange tools, when he can’t find his and hers are right there in the toolbox. My little pink-handled screwdriver is in the milkhouse right now, 1.2 miles from my toolbox. The big Craftsman ones that he bought me as a romantic Christmas gift are either on tractors or lost in the sand behind the toolshed. An orange-handled hammer that once belonged to me has been turned over to cow barn use, provided the old, loose-headed one in the kitchen stays in the kitchen.
Suggestion number 17, “Shoot your TV”. Now that I could really get into, as long as they leave my computer alone. I have yet to find anything romantic about John Wayne’s gravelly voice interrupting my sleep at some ungodly hour because the boss and/or the kids fell asleep in front of the infernal tube again.
“Get a bumper sticker that reflects his view of life”. Now there’s a suggestion. As long as he considers Border Collies to be the world’s smartest dogs, that is. I’ve got another good bumper sticker that reads, “Cow Dog Cadillac”, but there isn’t room for it on my bumper. Do you suppose that means that it’s time for a new car? Hint, hint.
Then Mr. Godey has a list of gift suggestions. He recommends all sorts of items from books to perfume and wine. As far as perfume goes, I figure all a farm wife really needs is a dab or two of WD-40 on her wrists and she’s good to go. Any parts manual will do for a book, or in our house, one of Horace Backus’ Holstein books always supplies smiles.
As you can see, romance on the farm just does not compare to the city version. We don’t have time for such nonsense. However, on the other side of the issue, we have sunrises and sunsets that rival drive-in movies for romantic value, birds that sing every chorus you could wish for, a family that shares our every activity and a sense of humor that allows me to write stuff like this and stay married, right honey? Honey?
Those were sure the days. If one of the kids sat on my lap now....but we still have a lot of fun together and farm romance hasn't changed a bit...now where is my WD-40......

TBT




Wednesday, September 03, 2014

Somebody Stop Me

Antique milking machines at the fair

I started milking cows for a living during my twenties.

More than three decades worth of milk inspectors have watched over the milk houses where I trod (after carefully rinsing off my boots).

There is no milk house clean enough to suit an inspector.

They have to mark off something. Every single time. Part of the game is making it hard for them, eliminating any and all somethings, which might somehow offend. We won sometimes, as evidenced by awards certificates in the office and Super Milk signs. 

And sometimes not so much.

There is no milk inspector now.

And yet......

 I can't stop shining up the pipeline, washing down the floor, chasing out the cats....and all the other little fiddly things that long ago became habit.

Does it ever go away?

The Ag Parade






Tuesday, September 02, 2014

The Best Fair


Kudos to everyone from the youngest exhibitors to the parking kids to the fair board, and to everyone who worked hard to make it so.......

The boss and I both felt that this year's 173rd Fonda Fair was the best in a long time.



We even found some good places to eat, which have been scarce in recent times (thanks Al, for the delicious Greek stuff!).

Over the next few days I will have pics of everything from pipers to the ag parade, as we went over yesterday for the open draft show, which is always a thrill, and of course I took pictures.



Anyhow, Mr. Blue is home, and was crowing his heart out this morning when I came down stairs. I had kinda missed hearing a rooster in the morning. Jack had to come home early, as someone fed him some second cutting from someone else's horses' hay, and he colicked but he seems fine now.Once again, thanks to Alan and Jen, who went over and found him rolling in his stall and started walking him right away. The boss had JUST been there and he was fine...things can sure happen fast when you don't want them to.

Becky says he won't be going back next year despite his positive debut. Too much risk for the old guy. Can't say as I blame her. We could have lost him...

And until next year...


Looks as if Grandpa and Maddie are all faired out.....




Brand New Door


Well, new to me anyhow. Back in early spring the boss bought a second-hand door at the Sprout Brook auction.



Yesterday Alan installed on the back porch. The hope is for a warmer entry in winter and fewer flies in summer.



Here's hoping.




And, thanks, kiddo.