Endangered Species Flack

I ain't afraid of no ghost

Please, please, read this story. 

"Since the Dusky Gopher Frog is nowhere to be found on the land in question, designating a big slice of it as “unoccupied critical habit” is an oxymoron. You might as well say the moon is unoccupied critical habitat of Casper the Ghost Frog. This goes too far."

Don't get me wrong, I have always loved frogs, but this is nuts.

Bull

We were driving along up on Fiery Hill when the boss exclaimed, "I don't believe it, that's a dead cow in the ditch!"

"What? Really......I didn't see it."

We turned around to check it out. When we got there though its tail was flapping.

It was a Jersey bull, chained to the guard rail with no food or water anywhere nearby. It was also quite some distance from any barn or building, just down the road from his late grandfather's old farm, but all by its loneself.

Liz noticed that he had injured his leg on the chain, which is probably why he was lying flat out when the boss saw him. Cows usually don't.

He thought about turning it in to somebody, but didn't really know if it is illegal to tie a bull to the guard rail and leave it. We still could I guess. I am sure he hasn't been moved in a while and probably isn't going to be.

This is a lot of bull any way you look at it.. .There was certainly nothing to stop the animal from hopping over the rail, which wasn't very high at all, so he could be a danger to passersby. He doesn't look too awfully comfortable either.

Notabear

But close enough for government work. I've been fighting the good fight over my little garden all summer. I gave the kids the big plots to plant and reserved a few square feet by the driveway for my own enjoyment and productivity.

There are several containers of herbs, chard, tomatoes, and such, and we've already finished off one crop of lettuce.

The main bit we covered with landscape fabric to try to control the weeds, which burgeon outrageously in the fertile soil. Beans, flowers and summer squash grow over there, and we're starting work on a new herb garden.

It is pretty and pleasant and nice to work in....

But full of bunnies eating the beans. They don't care about expensive repellents. Fabric softener sheets worked for about a week and then they came back. Several feet were leveled last night....

Tonight after our trip to the far, far west, I am going to try putting up a little bit of fencing I have. It isn't very tall but a couple of pieces of it deterred them from gobbling up the Swiss Chard earlier in the summer.

I hope it works. We love fresh beans.

However, this morning the ultimate garden outrage met me when I ventured out with my pups. The biggest, fattest, blackest, woodchuck I have ever seen trotted nonchalantly away as we walked across the drive. He was so fat that his butt jiggled like a great big jelly.

He was so bold he utterly ignored my little Jack Russell buddy, Mack! He wouldn't be so brave if it wasn't for the bull. I can't let Macky loose because he goes after the bull rather than the rodents he is supposed to chase. 

The darned thing looks just like a miniature bear! We think there is a real bear hanging around over by the old cow barn. Wouldn't it be perfect if he ate that darned marmot and then had a couple of bunnies for dessert?

I Hate to Complain

Should have known when we saw this thunder cloud gesturing at Heaven that we were in for trouble

Oh, who am I trying to kid? I am a whiner from way back.

However, there is something wrong when you can't go to a public park and not have the experiences we have experienced lately. Last week it was pervs in the park for Mother's Day. In broad daylight. On a picnic table.

Yeah, you can't unsee that. Haven't had much desire to go back there...

Then last night we went to our other park, minding our own and not bothering anybody.

The boss went to sit at a picnic table while I wandered around taking photos and looking for interesting birdies.

There were a couple of dogs along the bank, on leashes. I didn't pay any attention. There are always dogs. Some of them are real sweeties. One old lab comes by to visit us every time we are there and we give him a pet or two and then he is on his way.

This time there was a cute little yellow mix at one table and not too far away a barking pitbull. At first I didn't pay any attention. Just another dog.

I walked over to join the boss to look for Bank Swallows on the river.

Suddenly, for some reason that second dog took a heckin' hate to me. She lunged to the end of the much knotted and patched retractable leash to which she was attached, clopping her jaws, flinging spit, and snarling ferociously. Her owner was sitting on the ground with a tenuous hold on the handle and was pulled right over backwards on the ground..... just a couple fingers between me and those teeth.

The owner gathered her back up and I sat down kind of tentatively near the boss. The dog stared right at me and went on with the show. I said, "There is no bird worth this, let's get out of here, " and we rose to leave. I don't mind dogs at all but.....

This one again pulled her owner over backwards on the grass. Fingers on the leash handle....just fingers mind you, no thumb...were again all that separated me from those teeth.

We headed for the car. The lady, still being hauled around by the dog, hollered at us, "She doesn't bite."

Um, well, maybe not, but I wasn't waiting around to see. Words were exchanged, mostly between the "lady" and my protector...and we went away.

I was honestly afraid of that dog. Worked for a vet for 8 years, handling all manner of beasts...and that dog wanted me, I know it. I would wish away the harsh words that were exchanged. Better to have left them unsaid. The nice lady told us that the dog didn't like my ugly face. I guess you can't ask a man to let someone say that to his wife. 

I am still wondering what would have been the right thing to do in that situation....

I think I'll just chase birds here on the farm for a while.

The kids' dog, Ren

Tax Freedom Day

Found this cultivated into a farmer's field up near the folks' house.
Dunno why it is there, but it sure seems fitting for the day

Ain't gonna be here for a while yet in beautiful, Upstate NY. You can see how your state stacks up in the gouging and grabbing  taxation situation by checking the map in the story. Ours stacks up pretty much in the pits with a long way before anyone sees daylight.

Did you make the Call Yet?

Cable TV at its finest

We saw this story when it came out, so it came as no surprise when our bill went up....significantly. It's happened before, back when we had Time Warner Cable.

Usually the bill would take a big jump because a promotion went off or somebody had a bad day or whatever. I would spent an unconscionable amount of time on the phone with someone and get the bill back down somewhere near where it used to be.

It was frustrating, but we could live with it. We usually got a decent deal; sometimes someone really helpful would even get the bill lowered a little.

This time when I called I at least quickly got to a live, pleasant, English-speaking person. However, the best deal offered cut about half the TV channels the boss likes to watch like NatGeo and the like and saved us FIVE WHOLE BUCKS. Yeah, five.

So we will eat the increase. On one hand I'm not surprised, but it is outrageous the way huge companies like this make deals with our government and then totally ignore them, to the detriment of customers and tax payers. 

By the way, the "promotion" that expired from the TWC days was in fact one of their standard pricing options.......I do believe that the new company "expired" it. Bah humbug!

Passwords

This guy is more patient than his wife

Is anyone else having trouble with websites failing to recognize passwords and having to change them every month when paying bills? This is driving me nuts. I write them down, plus ask the browser to remember them. They are always forgotten and never right.

This is only with utilities. Everything else works fine and as expected. Since we got this new computer I have had to change my pw every month on both the power and cable company. Sometimes more than once. Dang it is aggravating.

As Alan says, why do you make it so hard for me to give you money? I think they make it hard so people will just give up and sign on for autopay. Not happening.

When taking down the Christmas tree

Saving the Mugo

We had a nice little Mugo pine down in the village. Alan bought it for me, and it grew quite nicely. We missed it when we came here, so he planted this one fifteen years ago when we made the Long Lawn.

It has grown and grown and gotten nice and fat. Catbirds, Song Sparrows, and the Willow Flycatchers love it in summer....it makes a fine staging area.

It was thriving....

Until yesterday when it underwent a severe pruning. You could throw a cat through it now if you were so inclined.

You know you have married well when your significant other not only takes a bar of Irish Spring out to hang it for you, but also shaves his head...in the middle of the winter...... and donates all his hair to the deer repellent effort.

Now we wait and see if it all works. If not Jade has a couple of ideas......

I'm gonna miss Yahoo

What with all the outrageous data breaches that Yahoo has experienced lately, experts are suggesting that users terminate their accounts. 

What a pain in the neck.

Actually killing your account isn't all that hard, but migrating everything you use it for to another address is a real nuisance. I have had that Yahoo address for years and years and years. A lot of the stuff that comes to it is junk. I will be glad to get rid of that without a hundred dozen unsubscribes. 

But a lot is not.

So that's what I have been doing instead of blogging and taking pictures and keeping the house under control...finding passwords for old sites that I still need to use...trying to organize the account I am going to be using so that I am not overwhelmed....getting situated to use one account instead of two.

Bah humbug!

All I want for Christmas

Is NOT website updates. Facebook is bad enough. Every time they roll out something new, we all hate it. Then we all learn to deal with it. Then we forget it and move on.

Facebook is just for fun and all and if we don't like it we don't have to use it. Although changing things around almost randomly, such as the youngsters who manage it like to do, is annoying, it is not of any real importance.

However, the bank website is a horse of a different color. I manage a number of accounts for farm and family and use our bank's website frequently. Been doing so for years.

Just this week the company rolled out a fancy new site intended apparently for people who are too financially challenged to understand the difference between pending items and those which have cleared.

Thus the pending items are greyed out, making it ever so difficult for older folks such as myself to read the nearly invisible print. Oh, and they don't post totals for anything that is pending either....How very helpful of them to require me to use the calculator or do actual math....horrors.....

They also put lots of pretty pictures in the background and ads for pointless services right in the list of transactions. Just what everyone needs for Christmas, right?

They send me surveys on how well I like their services and such almost weekly...... I simply can't wait for the next one. This keyboard is gonna be smokin'.

The Terror of TB

This week's Farm Side will be about the horrendous government reactions to the finding of one TB positive cow that was imported into the US from Canada. I wouldn't wish this on my worst enemy, let alone good friends.

Read about it if you wish:

Western Producer

A little background

Global News

Some history

CBC News

More from Western Producer

These are just a few of the stories I perused in the writing of this week's column. I do a lot of research almost every week, because I hate to get things wrong if I can help it. Trust me, reading these stories is going to break your heart. This is not just about cows, but about family pets, beloved horses, and economic and personal disaster. I hope somehow things get sorted out without too much more damage than has already occurred.

 Make sure you notice the projected source of this disease in this case and what is being done about it...which btw is nothing. 

Here is a link to someone who knows more about it than I do. 

Just not

Feeling it these days. This is not a great time of year for me, with the short days and the mud and all.... I really can't walk and no birds around...whine, whine, whine.......Peggy and the boss and Becky have all been sick....

Makes it hard to find anything cheerful or cheering to write about. I did go so far as to put on a hunter safety orange sweatshirt this morning so if it doesn't get too cruddy out I might be able to walk a little. Maybe see something besides chickadees.

Meanwhile, the important things in my world seem to have dwindled down to watering the Christmas tree and washing the dishes....

Oh, and laundry....yeah, there is always laundry. I know, I know, there are plenty of people who have much worse things to deal with and they have my deepest sympathy....but I still hate this time of year and don't find myself writing much.....

And having finished whining, I will return you to your regular programming.

Guest Tirade

Mad blogger with the older camera

So I'm using Becky's computer, which is really Alan's computer, but he lets her use it, because mine seems to have fan issues......thus no new pictures.

Fan problems were, alas, not solved with canned air. Hopefully a certain nephew will be able to repair that situation. I could get a new computer I suppose, but I am a great fan of Windows 7 and really, really, really don't want to change.

Plus, you know how you get everything all trimmed up and ready to sail after you run a computer for a while....yeah....that's how it is.

Now for a rant. Alan bought me a new camera from Best Buy. A bigger bells and whistles critter, which we can't wait to point at birdies. 

Alas they ship with the brown truck people, who do not do well delivering to us. Every single package we get has to be chased down either at their warehouse or wherever they decide to dump it.

This time I got a notice that it was delivered....yesterday.....but no camera. Called the brown truck guys. The not very helpful lady there said it was delivered to the stump at the bottom of the driveway.

So, you mean to tell me that an expensive electronic device sat outside all night? Unguarded? A tenth of a mile from the house and out of sight?

Color me delighted.

Then the boss went to look for it and found it was at the bottom of the BARN driveway! Yeah, the driveway is overgrown with brush, way down the road from the house with no buildings in sight. Farther away even than I thought. This was no mistake. This was deliberate and perhaps a reaction to our political signs, some of which have been stolen btw.

The box is damp, although the camera seems maybe dry....hard to tell, it's so darned cold.

I will be contacting Best Buy later when there are live people to talk to. The brown truck lady said that her company was not in any way responsible for leaving our package at the wrong address on a stump.

Meanwhile, both the US Postal Service and FedEx deliver our packages and mail with no problems. FedEx brings stuff right to the back door and has never messed us up. So it can be done......

Cooties

Evidently an hour's bird counting every morning and a lot of dog walking has a price. For the first time in all my years I was bitten by a tick yesterday. A trip to urgent care today and I now have drugs with so many side effects just reading the literature is like a Stephen King novel.

Plus I have to protect myself from the sun. Dagnabbit. This is me who wears shorts and crocs until November and hates hats. Now I must wear sunscreen and sunglasses and all that nonsense.....

I would revolt, but it's already revolting.

Reciprocity

As was expected under USDA changes, Brazil can now send fresh beef to the United States, a move that will probably  open other markets, such as Japan, to them.

Besides concerns about Foot and Mouth disease, which is endemic in that nation, USDA has admitted that at least in the short term, there is little likelihood of reciprocity in markets, as Brazil dumps an expected NINE_HUNDRED MILLION DOLLARS worth of beef on our markets.

In return we get....$900 million worth of their meat in competition with our own farmers and ranchers, a chance to share a devastating disease........and not much else.

Hooray..... Do you miss COOL yet?

The Look of Eagles

I've been following, albeit reluctantly, stories of the protests against horse racing in Saratoga. Activists want the sport banned because they consider it cruel. Horses have died at the track, perhaps more than usual this year, and they are simply horrified. I get that.

Of course it is sad when a horse dies. If you think you as a spectator are troubled, imagine how the horse's connections feel. They care for these animals day and night, often giving better care than the most cosseted of house pets would expect.

And as one commenter on a local news story pointed out, when human athletes die in competition, no one suggests banning football or baseball. However, horses are animals and so must be elevated to a higher plane. They must hate to be made to run so fast all the time, right?

They couldn't possibly actually like racing as much as any youngster likes T-ball, could they?

Nah, of course not. Why would an animal born to run want to? Horses, even horses without an iota of Thoroughbred blood, don't race each other in their pastures do they? And sometimes get hurt?

Not possible. Except that it is. Horses run by nature. Horses race by nature. They like it or they wouldn't do it. You can't really make them, as was demonstrated by some Amish fellows trying to get a drafter out of the road up west of here. It didn't want to get out of the road and so it didn't. It just stood there blocking two lanes of traffic until it got good and ready to move. It was way too much bigger than the human pests trying to influence it for them to make it do anything.

I will leave you with this little tale of my days walking hots at that selfsame race course.

I worked one summer, much to my infinite delight, for Henry Clark's stable at Saratoga (check him out, he's in the hall of fame).

One day late in the season the stable claimed an older chestnut gelding. I really liked him, even though he was so tall I could barely reach his head. Many of the horses in the yard were "hot", so high strung, full of giddy-up go, that it was hard for a neophyte such as myself to keep them politely walking in a circle when they needed to cool out or stretch their legs a bit.

This guy, however, was as gentle as a kitten. Truly kind. With his head about a half a mile above mine he always walked quietly beside me, whenever he was in my charge. 

Normally most of the horse walking takes place early in the morning. On a normal day, unless one of the horses that I walked was racing, I went home by noon.

However, one afternoon someone was racing...can't remember who...but I think it was Sweet Sop, another gentle chestnut, a little filly that I simply loved, so I stayed to work while actual racing was going on.

For some reason I was tasked with walking the old fellow, while we waited for the other horse to get back from the track.

The call to the post sounded as we paced around the walking ring. 

I still get chills when I remember how he raised his magnificent head upon hearing it, pricked his long red ears, and, with flaring nostrils, bugled his own call to the contest. He was utterly alight with eagerness.

As much of an old veteran as he was, as far as he was concerned that bugle rang for him.

That was over thirty years ago,  yet I will never forget that moment.

The look of eagles. 

Don't tell me that horses don't love racing and live to race. I've been there and seen that. If you want to be cruel, take that away from them, and break their generous hearts.

You work with what you got

Prior to the knee I had a reasonable routine worked out....for doggies that is.

First thing in the AM, walk the pup on a leash and put Mack up in back on his running cable. Let him exercise on the cable until the sun got warm, bring him in, leash walk him at noon, and put him back out there when it got cool later in the day...

It worked for everyone. I don't let him loose with Fin because he has such a tremendous prey drive that I'm afraid he'll kill him.

Enter the knee. Just one trip up the muddy slope to the backyard laid me right up. Thus I now walk the pup, crate him, and just let Mack outside loose. He is such a hunter.... he peruses the yard and barnyard for vermin at warp speed. He has a lot of fun and it's fun to watch him at it.

This morning all was in place. I was washing dishes and keeping half an eye out the window for him. He was hunting under the horse trailer.......when an all too familiar scent wafted in the open door.

Oh, crepes! Not that!

I quickly crated the little guy, closed the doors, which were propped open, and went out to assess the damage. Plans whirled through my head of how Mack was going to have a nice vacation over in the cow barn...in solitary...

For a week at least. Or two. A month. Or two. A year....you get my drift.

I was getting some drift too, and it sure didn't smell good out there in the yard. My heart was down at my knees. I was all clean and showered, nice fresh clothes and all, and now I had to catch my dog......who was certainly neither clean, nor freshly showered, and probably not smelling of roses and daffodils either.

I called. Called again. "Here Mack."

And he came, bustling up like a good boy.

Covered with mud, panting and soggy with dew, but smelling only of muddy dog. I don't know what riled the skunk, or where it is, or anything else about it.... But at least he didn't get the dog....and that's what counts.

Alas, I obviously now have to cook up a new knee-saving morning  routine, as, if there is a skunk out there, probably Mack should not be hunting off leash.

Dagnabbit.

BTW I discovered, much to my surprise, that he comes when I blow my shepherd's whistle just like the old BCs did. Which is handy.

Ouch

Wrecked my "good" knee digging garlic. It is pretty bad and I am plumb crippled up. This has happened before...I borrowed a brace from Jade and in a couple of days it was fine. This time I am going to get my own I think.

Meanwhile it is all I can do to get dinner and walk the dogs, so not much is getting posted.

Thanks for your patience. 

Decline Free Offer

Despite painstakingly doing everything I could to stop Microcrud from updating this poor old thing to Windows 10........

Despite reading everything I would find on how to avoid it.....

I still got the dreaded screen with the x that isn't exit.

Thanks to Kim Komando I knew enough to not click that x, which begins the install, but rather to click...twice....the decline free offer button.

Because yeah, I need a word processing program and mine (from what I have read) doesn't play nice with Windows 10. Don't want to buy another one. Don't want to mess with another one. I know how to use the one I have.

This is not a big problem for me personally, although it is annoying in spades.

What is a big problem is that I am going away for a week, tomorrow, and the boss will be playing with this. We share.

He is not tech savvy. He forgets.

If I come home from camp and find this thing running a program that won't run the stuff I use for work I am going to be really ticked off.

I am not sure what to do about this. How do I make sure he doesn't accidentally update?

Bad to the Bone

Polished up the Farm Side this morning and sent it along to the editor. This week's topic is the nasty Norway Rat. Like most farms (and cities) we enjoy the company of this ever-so-successful other mammal.

Or maybe enjoy is the wrong word. I personally abhor them, as do most folks. When one showed up on the bird feeder right in front of the kitchen window recently, I went on the warpath. Alan bought me a Crossman pellet pistol, which I love btw, but it doesn't have the greatest sights in the world. That did not stop me.

However, better shots than I am missed and missed and missed, as did I, for two solid weeks.

Finally it got so used to us trying to shoot it that it sat there yesterday while I dispatched it from about six feet away. I wonder why the pistol has such lousy sights anyhow....instead of the usual round beads, or things that line up sensibly it has two squares....if you line them up right, you can barely see your target.

The furor over the baby bison out in Yellowstone made me wonder what reaction I might get to admitting, in public, both here and in my column, that I used a "firearm" to kill a verminous rodent (I didn't actually see it die, as it scurried off, but it hasn't been back, so I'll betcha.)

I am sure there are plenty of defenders of rats, who, if this blog were more popular (thank God for obscurity) would take me soundly to task.

I have read some seriously ill-informed discussion of the above event, wherein foolish and pointless human interference caused the death of a protected animal. I found the interference to be simply outrageous and incredibly arrogant. Some folks thought the people who picked up the poor creature should be given a pass, since their actions were caused by an excess of ill-directed compassion.

 I call bullsh**. There are signs regarding the proper treatment of wild animals. I've been to the park. I've seen them. There is no excuse for what the fools did and not much of an excuse for the people who have subsequently attacked the rangers, the park, and any person with actual livestock or wildlife experience who dared offer a sensible comment in a public forum. 

I am beginning to think that some kind of practical animal husbandry needs to be taught in schools or something. The simplest of country kids knows better than to touch a baby animal, even a domestic kitten. Folks see fawns stashed by their mamas all the time. The best thing is to walk right past and pretend not to see. Simple. Obvious. Except when it's not.

We need to somehow counteract the Disnification of our interactions with the natural world before no one is allowed those interactions because of the foolishness of a few. Even if, as some sources claim, the mother bison was deceased, how hard would it have been to contact authorities about the calf, rather than intervene, risking lives, and ultimately causing the death of the animal?