(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({ google_ad_client: "ca-pub-1163816206856645", enable_page_level_ads: true }); Northview Diary: Chicken dinner with a side of cow stomachs

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Chicken dinner with a side of cow stomachs


*There be mountains*
*Even if they are kind of small*



*A pretty red train that was parked along the road*


*Beaver house on Route 7 near Oneonta*
*Photos by Alan*


When I hear the bugling of north bound geese I can just lean over here at my computer, look up and out the window, and watch them winging over the barns and house headed for the Arctic tundra. Any other time of year they pretty much seem like pests, gobbling crops and hanging around parks eating and excreting, but in the spring their calls are stirring. Electrifying even. They make you want to get up, get moving, and go out doors and do something.

Therefore yesterday Alan, Becky and I did a bit of gallivanting. We headed off
to Oneonta after chores in search of the elusive Brook's Barbecue chicken dinner. As it happened that is just what was being served at a farm information meeting presented by the company from which we purchase our cow grain, Pennfield Animal Feeds. Since this week's Farm Side is going to be about said meeting I won't spoil it for local folks by telling you all about it. However, it was a pretty trip as you can see from Alan's photographs. We sang all the way down and all the way back. With Alan's steady (not to mention on key) bass to help us along, even Becky and I could get by. We actually discussed the possibility of just driving right on by and singing some more, but the lure of that wily chicken was just too strong. We gave in.

At the dinner we learned important facts about raising calves, including all sorts of stuff about esophageal grooves, abomasums, reticulums, rumens and rabies. I also won door prize of a nice hat and Alan won a tote full of goodies and tools. He traded me the tote for my hat, shared the cookies and crackers with everyone, and snagged the ruler and work gloves right quickly (before some a certain nameless individual could get HIS hands on them).

It was a valuable meeting especially in that the program information could be used by small farmers like us, even though it applied to just about any size farm. All too often we may learn something new at a farm meeting, but it is something almost impossible, or at least totally impractical, to implement on a fifty-cow dairy. I was grateful to bring home information on raising babies that I could put into practice this very morning, rather than talking about it while milking, then letting it fade from my memory because it was a thousand miles out of reach for little old Northview.

I have to thank the geese for the inspiration and Pennfield for prime poultry and super schooling. I had a real nice time!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh, I love the picture of the red train! Sounds like a nice little trip (I love that you sang all the way - LOL!)

Best wishes to you for a beautiful day!

Anonymous said...

CP RAIL! Ahhh... road trips and Canadian geese! Gotta like it!

Of course, however, I have to say that I read the title of this post and thought, Hmmm... Is she sharing some Scottish recipes?

Boomer Hawk said...

I liked the photo of the train too!! I grew up a mile from the tracks, and when Canadian Pacific Railroad (the old name!!) ran "The Peanut" up the Rimbey/Winfield line once a week, we could hear the whistle for a long prairie way!!

Hank Snow, and many other canuck singers, had a memorable song.
If you search "Canadian Pacific" & "lyric" you might enjoy the heritage we from the north grew up with!! There, I reminiced unintentionally!! Thank you for the memory walk!!

threecollie said...

Hi Marti, thanks, it looked so pretty parked there in the snow. Best wishes to you too...I hope you feel better soon.

Matthew, thank you too...but for all my Scots/Irish heritage, I just hate haggis. lol

Boomer, Do they have a lot of red engines like that or is that one something special? It looked so nice there and I wondered if it was an actual train or a museum piece or something.
I will check out the Hank Snow song if I can. My parents liked him when I was a kid, quite some several decades ago.