One of those days

Busy. Interesting. Springy.
Right after milking the boss left for the crop center to get a spreader wagon to spread some fertilizer, seeds (alfalfa, alsike clover, timothy, brome, trefoil, field peas and barley), which is how we plant our hay crop. As soon as he was gone Beck and I saw the heifers working the fence. We threw them some hay to keep them quiet as we didn't have time to do anything else with them.

I drove Beck to school and on the way home saw a massive column of smoke to the north. It looked like an F5 tornado looks on television with a massive, swirling base and a column of smoke that could be seen for at least thirty miles. I couldn't pull off anywhere to take a decent photo...these were from our front yard. It was a mill complex in Johnstown, just a tiny distance from where my great-great aunt used to live. Biggest fire there in decades. I give a lot of credit to firefighters who got it knocked down fairly quickly. Alan's school was filled with smoke and the pricipal took quick action to close air vents to prevent outside air from filtering in, He also called the fire companies about whether toxic chemicals were burning so he could close school if needed.




Although I couldn't stop to get fire pictures, I was able to pull off the highway to move this lady (I saw lady because she was probably a fifth of a mile from water and headed for the woods..going to lay eggs maybe?) off the highway.
Anyhow I carried her to safety . Another much larger turtle had already been hit and was struggling with a badly broken shell.


I believe she is an Eastern Painted turtle, one of my favorites. (Chrysemes picta)
She didn't seem too thrilled to have her picture taken, even though she did have all her bright red and yellow makeup on.



There were some little tennis ball-sized painted turtles loafing on logs at Lykers when I stopped, but they were quick to slide into the water...too quick for photos, (unlike the fish, which are still swirling around the culvert opening). Big bull frog tadpoles there too, also too swift for pictures.


Back home, there wasn't a person to be found. Liz was visiting her boy friend. The boss was still at the plant. There were no heifers to be found either. The yard where the four of them stay was bare and empty. I changed my shoes and headed out to find them, (flip flops being lousy for running after cows). Luckily I found them locked in the barn. Later I also found out why my garden pond was down several inches. One of them jumped the fence and drank until she looked like a barrel. Liz put them all in the barn after that. They need to go to pasture. Dry hay just doesn't cut it when there is green grass to gobble...and tasty garden ponds to tipple.

The boss planted his seeding and cultipacked one of the two fields. The second will be done today. I planted dahlias, lilies of the valley, cannas....wild flowers...and lots of other stuff and cleaned the stock tank and figured out how to teach Beck to drive without anyone being killed by the fact that she can't steer. Killing two birds with one stone, in fact...she will drive the garden tractor mowing the lawn. Alan is too busy to do his traditional chore...and she can't steer, throwing those of us who ride in the car with her into paroxysms of terror on tight corners. The lawn mower plan seems brilliant to me. She learns to drive, albeit on a small scale. Alan is free to drive bigger tractors doing bigger jobs. And I get my lawn mowed to boot!