This Apple

Didn't fall far from the tree

And she's the apple of her grandma's eye

Still Kicking

We are. No one is really 100% yet, but we are on the mending edge. Despite the plague  we had a productive weekend. I got to spend Saturday with the guy above. Always a lot of fun. 

From 7-County Hill

He took me riding around the farm on his quad, something I had never done before, and I am sold. A lot like a horse, without the hay and attitude. Not that I don't like horses and all.....

A little White Pine grove

Then we finished emptying the garden pond and cleaning it. Up until last summer it was a wonderfully balanced, self-sustaining little ecosystem. I didn't touch it except for algae killer now and then for years. Then the extreme cold froze all the wild and tame plants in it and it went to heck.

Shagbark Hickories on the back of 7 County

Smelled bad. Looked bad. Became a boring old chore. So I pumped it out and bailed it out and shoveled it out...it was STILL frozen in the bottom btw....over a couple of weeks, and he helped me get it dumped, cleaned and refilled. We...or should I say they...it took Liz, Jade and Alan to lift it...took out a large yellow iris that was the only thing left alive... and chucked all but a small pot full. It filled half the skid steer bucket.

The view north, for which the place is named

Now comes the fun of recruiting new stuff to get it balanced again. Anybody know any stores that sell hardy water lilies? The old ones came from Wally World and they don't have them any more. Speaking of which we found lily roots the size of your arm in there (!!!) No wonder we had so many flowers every summer.

Then on Sunday a new chick brooder/transitional house was built. The chicks were rapidly outgrowing the original brooder, and what with the weasel/mink/Sasquatch that has been killing hens they didn't dare put them out in the big coops they built.

Anyhow, it was a busy weekend...we still feel pretty cruddy...and our boy is off to the nation's capitol today....back to normal programming for us I guess. Take care.

Something pointy this way came

Sunday Stills....Cups

For more Sunday Stills.....

Ring o' Robins

Much earlier than this....in the still dark, really

Went out way early to look...or listen really...for Timberdoodles. Alas, not a single Peent! no matter how distant, to be heard.

However, there was a fine dawn chorus, echoing through the early fog and bringing the morning alive with wild music.

Only four species though. Only four. Robins, Song Sparrows in every direction, a distant White-throated Sparrow, most likely one of our own winter survivors, as they hang around the feeders, tame as ever, all day long, and a lone Killdeer, stitching the songs together with a strident staff to hang the notes upon.

There will be more, and probably soon. By the end of May it will be hard if not impossible to pick out all the threads of the morning symphony...but for now it is a Wing Quartet, lovely, but promising so much more and soon.

And hopefully a Woodcock!! Just for me.

Please send condolences, a prayer, a soft shoulder in time of need, or just a moment of silent thought, to my sister-in-law, Lisa, my brother, and their whole family. She lost her dad yesterday....never easy, but especially hard this time....and they need all the love and support we can give them.

Sorry also for the absence of posts. We have all been laid low, yet again, by a plague that found its way home from an Easter party with poor little Peggy. It spread through the family like a fungus. The boss has been very sick....wife thinking about the hospital and waiting on him and bringing him medicine sick....Liz has been nearly as ill....and the rest of us have been pure D miserable. I sound like an asthmatic VW with a clogged air intake.

This could all clear up any time now if I have my way, but it probably won't. At least Peggy is significantly better. Anyhow, have a good one. 

Speaking of the White-throated Sparrows....one was singing the other day in the stunted Elm across the driveway when I took out a few seeds, fairly begrudgingly, because, chipmunks you know... He saw me coming and flew to the Honey Locust still calling for Old Sam Peabody as they do.

And then, wonder of wonders, he landed about two feet above my head and just poured out his song as I stood there. I could see every feather in his bright, white, throat and yellow lores, and stripey everything else. It was like standing under a waterfall of Heavenly music. I think he would have sung as long as I stood, but I went inside so he could enjoy his breakfast in peace.

Common Core Mammal Math

Take two deer

Add one deer

Take away one deer

Take away four deer

Equals four deer

Wherein we visit Middle Earth

See, we found a Hobbit!

An Ent, peeking out from behind a Hawthorn

Fair Gondolin

Dancing at the eleventy-first birthday party

The Eye of Sauron

More on Dairy Markets

Here is a letter from an outstanding ag writer that explains amazingly well what is going on with farmers in the Northeast and surrounding states losing their milk markets. 

It has NOTHING to do with too much milk being produced on local NY farms and everything to do with manipulating federal rules to make big bucks, with no concern for what the local economy loses when farms go under.

If you are interested in how milk marketing works, you need to read it. Heck bookmark it, as I did, for future reference. The way our food is handled matters.

Just Make Yourselves at Home

And I don't mean on my rosy red lips

Sunday Stills...the Color Yellow or Wild Flowers

Look closely, there's a Goldfinch in there

Do you see him now?

Not much in the way of wild flowers around here, yet, although the daffodils are coming up. There was plenty of yellow and lots of flowers around last summer though

For more Sunday Stills.....

The current state of Upstate NY spring flowers, alas

Siblings Day

Was yesterday or so they say. I kind of missed it being caught up with poor little Peggy being sick and all.

However, I have the best. Siblings that is.... a brace of wonderful brothers, who are truly good men. Got to give my folks credit for raising gentlemen who choose to do good in the world...to be honest, caring and giving people. They have true compassion and are both much better people than I can claim to be.

I am grateful that our son is growing up so much like them.

I know I'm lucky to have them but I don't tell them so often enough no doubt.....

Love you Mike and Matt....you are the best.

Dairy Markets and Good Neighbors

Several of our neighbors are losing their milk market....just being told, "We don't want your milk any more. There's too much on the market". 

These are good folks, who work hard for our community, provide scholarships to students....Liz won one for college, which helped a lot...and create jobs for dozens of people. The economic contribution to our area made by these farms is immeasurable. Plus they grow a LOT of food. Each farmer in the US feeds 155 folks..... losing these farms will matter

Although many answers to this milk marketing problem spring quickly to mind, the reality of the situation is that most of them won't work.

They can't really sell milk to their neighbors.

It is for the most part illegal and dangerous to sell raw milk. It is possible to jump through a lot of hoops and do it. However, just one sick person or one high count and the farmer is in trouble fast.

It is possible to process, bottle, and sell your own milk. Not easy or cheap to start up and no guarantee of success, but some people manage. 

I can't imagine how they find time to add milk processing and marketing and delivery to their daily work. Dairy farming is by nature all consuming. It demands pretty much everything the farmer can give and then asks for more. Animals and crops demand schedules, but they don't respect them in the least.

Work hard all day getting crops in or getting things cleaned up or fixing machinery? Too bad, that first calf heifer isn't going to wait to have her baby because you are tired. You can just stay up all night and do it all again tomorrow. That top producing cow isn't going to wait until you are rested to go off feed and need you and your vet. An unexpected high count isn't going to wait for a better day to send the milk inspector around to your door, clipboard in hand, and expecting the problem to be fixed yesterday.

There are always unexpected events adding to the farm schedule, which is of necessity already crowded beyond imagining. 

When I was a kid visiting my dairy farming aunt and uncle or playing with neighbor kids who lived on farms I swore I would never have anything to do with dairying. Imagine having to milk twice every day! Every single day. Every Christmas. Thanksgiving. Birthdays. Sick days. Having to milk cows when you have the flu or a broken foot or a concussion from a pipe to the head. (All of which I have done.)

Not this kid. No way, no how....or so I thought. Of course we all know how that turned out.

Anyhow, there are no easy answers for these good, strong, farm families. 

We lost our own milk market...twice...both times were nightmares of hundreds of phone calls, hours of begging, calls to legislators, Farm Bureau, anyone who might somehow give us a hand. Eventually we found places on trucks for our milk, but it wasn't easy or fun.

I hate imagining what our neighbors are going through.

The cows don't stop making milk just because the milk truck isn't picking up any more. They have to be milked without fail. And the bills don't stop either.

I hope they find a market and fast. 

This Nest

The boss spotted it the other day when we were walking the fence. Not a squirrel drey...crow maybe? I wonder. 

Treasure Hunt

Winter just won't let up. It is well below forty today, rainy, sleety sometimes, and just plain nasty. 

A good day to stay indoors.

A good day to treasure hunt.

I have already started three trays of seeds, mostly tomatoes, but a few other odds and ends, including the apple mint I paid a ridiculous price for on Amazon. Tiny package, hardly any seeds, if indeed the chaff sort of stuff in the package was even seeds.....

And no germination. If I hadn't already given them a bad review I'd give them another one. My old plant froze off winter before this one and I simply can't find a new one. Dagnabbit. I had the thing for at least 30 years and moved it several times. We really missed it last year....my favorite mint for mint apple jelly.

Last year we grew some other herbs with the intention of selling them at the swaps. They didn't do too good there so we kept them and discovered that there is no such thing as too much sweet basil....

Thus I went spelunking for seeds. 

Score! Now to plant them. 

Wordless Wednesday

Easter Weekend

We had a sweet Easter with much busyness....Alan cut down the dead box elder behind the house, scaring his mother out of ten years' growth and causing much worry and consternation. 

It was threatening to come down on the roof though, and thanks to the mud we were pretty much out of firewood so.....

It did land right where he it wanted to...and he worked really, really hard chunking it  up and dragging it to the stove with his quad. And he built a great fire and got us all warm and toasty.

He also changed my stuff onto an old phone of his. Nothing wrong with the phone I had, but it was older and didn't do a lot of things that this other one will. Now I can play 2048 on my phone!

And I have a new, improved iBird Pro ap.

But what is it with me and pedometers!!! I have tried several kinds and I walk so softly I don't trigger them. Not that I'm a stealth farmer or anything, but I have nasty arthritis and need to treat the old joints gently.

I was hoping that he could put a pedometer ap on this phone, and I could finally set fitness goals and do better for myself. He has one on his and walks like 8000 steps a day.

No luck, I walked almost all the way around the heifer pasture yesterday, plus lots of short trips out to bird, going up and down the stairs and all...

And the darned thing, at the end of the day, said that I had taken 7 steps. Back to the drawing board I guess. 

Still, I like the "new" phone....it does stuff.....

The kids took a lamb with them to Easter at the other grandma's too. They lost one of the Blackface, but the other needed to be fed at noon so they took him and his bottle along and he spent the day on the porch...

There is something fitting about a lamb at Easter.

Cornbread for the Living

My youngest brother, ever one for adventure and innovation, has always beein into old engines and the machines they run.

He called me Sunday to ask if I wanted any of the cornmeal that he ground using these old farm tools. 'Why, not?' I thought, so he sent some that he made from whole grain corn last week.

Yesterday I made a double batch of cornbread with it, and all I can say is, good thing I took a photo before the locusts descended. Guess I will be making another batch today. 

We had it last night with leftover Easter ham and a little butter and maple syrup.

Yum.

Outstanding in his field

And speaking of maple, I kept smelling a sweet, warm, scent yesterday when we were out walking fence...kind of like hot cotton candy at the fair.

I couldn't see anything in bloom and wondered for a little bit what it might be. Then I realized...the box elders, members of the maple family, are already in bloom. This will probably mean an awful short tapping season alas, but they sure do smell great. 

Except to Liz, who is allergic to maple tree pollen.