Mother Honey Locust

Decorated her children for the holidays......

Bird Strike

I was on my way down to the heifer barn, taking scraps to the hens, when a young of the year Red-tailed Hawk (it had a barred rather than red tail) lifted lightly from the Box Elders and floated up to the defunct telephone pole that sits just in front of it.

Oh, no. 

There are a few reasons why a hawk might be set among the chickens like a cat among the pigeons and most of them aren't good. I had to have Alan help me, but sure enough we found what remained of one of the Barred Rock pullets stuck under the cattle panel where the hawk had stuffed it while dining.

I shooed at it until it flew away west and went in to get Liz to pen up the birds.

No more free range for the girls this fall I guess. No need to provide free lunch other than sunflower seeds and suet. Sure was sad to see the little hen taken, but them's the chances you take when you have poultry outdoors.

And of course, they just started laying about three days ago. 

What do you say

About these drab wintry days? I try to write something here every day, but we have been so busy with holidays and deer and deer and holidays that I have fallen down on the job. Had the first of the venison sausage this morning. Practice makes perfect and all, and it came out great this year. Good job, Al and Liz. If you want to see the processing efforts visit the View at Northview over in the sidebar.

Meanwhile, Uncle Alan picked up a Christmas tree yesterday and had a ball decorating with Peggy. She wan't all that interested at first, but once she realized what was in all those old cardboard boxes and what you did with the little silvery balls and shiny horses and doggies, she was enthralled.

And so were we, watching and laughing. I was out here in the kitchen when I heard the Border Collie ornament come out of the box....

"Ooh, look Uncle Alan, Finn!"

I have a resin carousel music box Ralph's brother and sister-in-law gave us that she was over the moon about. And the train that my dad gave us that goes under the tree, she was raving to her dad about it when he got home from work.

So the days have been full with stuff......

And...today we have to cut that second buck. Should go faster as we are not going to grind him, but just cryovac large pieces for roasts and chuck roast style cooking. 

Guess I had better get busy getting ready for another busy day.

Happy Thanksgiving

Music soothes the Savage

Thanksgiving cooks. Liz and I are trying to do the day before cooking for two families' Thanksgiving dinners.

I do my bird ahead and bone it and reheat it with gravy.

She makes all kinds of breads and dinner rolls.

Kitchen traffic was getting gnarly and the chefs grumpy......when.....

She suggested I put my phone in a bowl and turn on some music. (Because a bowl makes it better.)

Magic. Memories of trips to see Trent Tomlinson and Emerson Drive.

Road trips singing along.

Milking the cows back in the day with people bellowing over the milking machines from all sides of the barn.

Good stuff. Sure an eclectic list though. From Queen to Crosby Stills and Nash to RW Hampton, Robert Dennis, and Todd Fritsche.

Good stuff. Happy campers. 

Happy Thanksgiving cooking to one and all, from our noisy kitchen to yours...

But for the Wind

It would be quite nice out today, although cold. However said wind is a stump grinder of a rumble-grumble, whipping and whining and tossing things around, and making the house cold even with the stove at top speed. 

I keep looking around for what makes the howling noise up in the honey locust when it really gets going. It sounds like a train, but I don't think the branches are strong enough to hold one.

The pup is going over fool's hill these days and had a panic attack because a pot for underwater plants blew up along the cable and scared him. Despite his warning me of the extreme danger I picked it up and put it away. Those things come in handy in the summer.

We seem to spend the day shuttling dogs in and out and to and fro. Too cold for them outdoors. Too boring for them in.

 During this exercise we found a downside to deer hunting. Ren unearthed, to her infinite delight, the Rocky Mountain oyster (so to speak) of the big buck. 'Ooh, ooh, ooh! Treats!' You may have heard Liz trying to catch her and get it away from her.

She was so happy with her find and so very reluctant to relinquish it that it took a while. Glad she is Liz's dog rather than mine.

Must have been pretty potent as the ones at the end of my leash go crazy whenever we pass the spot where she (finally) dropped it, even though it has long since been removed from play.

Happy Birthday

He's the one on the left.....

To a great dad, a fine son, good citizen of our area, world's best brother, and a fine  young man. Congratulations on all you have accomplished, Scott. It is a pleasure to know you.

I Shouldn't Post this until Friday

But Becky made these for the library craft sale. I made sad puppy eyes and got one to keep for our tree too. 

*****And hunting season Day Two

Meanwhile, in a Tree Stand Nearby

In the stand before the sun came up. Sitting in the cold pearly reflected light, listening, when the sounds began.

Clack. 

Antler or brush?

Clack, crash, crash, clack, clack, clack, clack, definitely deer.

Definitely two deer.

Then came a loud scuffling, snorting, crashing, banging and bashing. Cough! Bark! Cough! Did you ever hear a deer bark? There is nothing quite like the sound.

Two bucks were fighting right in the 30-acre Lot. I am told it was the most amazing experience in the world, listening to that battle out there in the dark, senses heightened by the lack of light, only the scent of the rut and the sound of the fight to tell the tale.

Later came the light and shortly after sunup came one buck, a heavy 7-pointer. The victor. Maybe, maybe not.

Like in fishing it was of course the smaller of the pair. The big one got away.

It was the first shot of the  season (other than sighting in) of the .308 Winchester recently added to the collection here.

We will be eating well this winter....

Boom Sticks

At four-ish or so in the morning the Super Moon lights up the ice fog like a magic wand. Everything is still dripping from the rain over the past few days and the lone spruce seems a whole dark forest in the not quite light. The yard between the house and heifer barn seems as if you might need to access them through a wardrobe, if you know what I mean. I have to just stand and look for a while, so eerie and alien the morning seems.

Then, come six or seven, the boom sticks start. To the southeast a throaty shotgun roars. One shot. Probably either a deer harvested or a clean and admitted miss.

To the southwest the sharp crack of a medium-sized rifle. Another single shot, another case of the same probable outcome. All around us, north of the river, south, east, and west of our farm, shots ring out everywhere. We have been hearing people sighting in, but this is different. Purposeful. Deadly.

Then to the east, boom, boom, boom, boom....and one more lone, trailing, echoing boom of disappointment. Nope, you didn't get anything but the flashing view of a bobbing white tail, leaving the area on the run.And maybe an adrenaline rush that messed with your aim. Them projectiles is expensive these days....calm down and take your time.

Yeah, it's opening day of the south deer season here in NY. There will be no more wearing drab clothing to go out counting birds....in fact I won't be going counting at all for a while....

However there will be something other than beef on the menu....just sayin'. After the hard years around the 2009 dairy crash I got very good at cooking alternate meats. And we will have some to cook.

Ice Cold Apple Goodness

Frosty pink fogginess

Right at this moment I am enjoying an Ozark Gold apple that was on the tree half an hour ago.

We went out to our favorite orchard, Bellinger's to pick Pink Ladies, having decided that it is going to take a second bushel to get us through the winter....they are getting eaten quite quickly. Seems as if everybody likes them, including Peggy.

It was cold and foggy and spooky and beautiful out there all alone among the trees. Geese were echoing somewhere above, unseen in the thick cottony fog. 

There sure is a lot of good picking left, and I guess the orchard will be open until T-Day, if you are interested in getting some for yourself. The Pink Lady trees are bent right down with brilliant, blushing fruit. The boss and I picked a bushel in no time.

As always I wandered the nearby rows for a couple of other kinds to finish out the bags.....including four Granny Smiths and the Ozarks.

Wish I could share with you how delicious this apple is. I only picked four of them too, and if not for digestive discretion I would eat them all right now, while they are still so cold.

However.......

Invisible Geese

Throwtheballthrowtheballthrowtheball....
throw it now, please, please, please, throwtheball

Out with Finnbar well before sunup. Geese were flying over, calling like the wild hunt. Finn thought that they were mighty fine and raced around looking up for them.

He loves birds about as much as I do and follows finches and sparrows back and forth across the lawn as long as he is out and they will fly....

Me, I looked up too, to see if they flew across the moon. I have always wanted to see a night bird silhouetted on the moon and never have. I know people who have taken spectacular photos of them. I have seen a fantastical night painting of Canadas flying across a silver mountain lake against the moon....but I have never seen it myself.

Maybe someday. 

Happy Birthday Dad

If you see this fine man today, wish him a very happy birthday. Love you dad!

Some of his amazing wood carvings

Vintage

Wanna buy a cinnamon roll? 

Magnum does NOT look happy

Who dat?

So dear to my heart

Wannabe

Heifer barn moonset the other morning

Yesterday was a saga of frustrated rain, kind of a snow day wannabe. It was cold and grim and drippy and not much was accomplished.

I never went anywhere but out to feed the birds and shuttle doggies and still found a tick crawling on my ear. 

Dagnabbit! Enough of that. I put Sevin all around the path under my bird feeder arbor. It isn't going to bother any pollinators this time of year, but maybe it will debug the chippy-munks, which simply refuse to get it over with and hibernate for Pete's sake.

Today is another grim and grungy sort of effort. Brrr......You all stay warm and dry now!

NotOurCat

Recycling

This Week

The Farm Side is about the Farm Toys for Tots campaign, which is not being carried out this year, but you can still do it on your own. What kid wouldn't love a nice new farm toy?

And on this movie....Milk Men  ....which I watched and found informative and thought-provoking. Dairy farming has a timelessness and universality that might be belied by modern perceptions of what makes a farm....

Warning-Graphic Video

"Videos that contain graphic content can shock, offend and upset.....

Are you sure you want to see this?"

In this age of malware, viruses, and other attacks on our electronic devices, this warning on a video our boy shared with me had me backing away....

So I asked him, do I want to see this?

He assured me that I did, so I watched.

My tender, delicate, snowflake-like sensitivities were horrifically offended...

Or maybe not. 

See it was just this silly-looking guy with a white rodent of some sort, which he placed on top of an obviously already opened beer bottle, which he held up in his yard, declaiming about the "coolest bottle opener in the word."

(I guess he is famous....ish, but not in my world. Never heard of the guy.)

A not particularly well-focused hawk grabbed the ratty thing and flew away, dumping the top off the beer in the process. The guy then drank it. 

I personally wasn't too impressed with the idea of drinking a beer after a rat sat on it. Or by the guy's bulging beer belly, which he waved around like a battle flag.

I was much more interested in what kind of hawk it was....Red-shouldered I think. The guys says he has two living in the yard, wild, and that they have been there for ten years. I wonder how much beer it took to tame them enough to come in like that.

However, graphic? Not really. There was no blood or gore. I suppose if you like mice your feelings could be hurt. It wasn't a particularly fair fight. Or if idiotic rednecks make you need a safe space, this would not be the video for you. However, I think the warning was just a tiny bit of overkill. Pun intended.

Personally when I heard something scrabbly and nasty in the pantry over the weekend, I was indeed offended and major efforts to remove same are ongoing.

I wonder if I could borrow the hawks.....

I Always Wanted to Moon Somebody

I know there will be thousands of photos shared everywhere of tonight's super moon, with every crater and freckle showing. I lack the skill to do that, and so must play the fool instead.

Anyhow, here are some moons. 

Thanks

You know who you are. Brother, uncles, cousins, friends, neighbors, and strangers, people I have met once and much admire, people I have never and will never meet.

Thank you for taking time out of your lives that you might have much preferred to spend in other ways, and spending that time in who knows what nightmares, for the sake of people like me.

Thanks!