Thanks Folks

Morse Clouds

I am combining an array of your topic suggestions for a sort of a kaleidoscope of a farming week with a wedding at the end. Kind of fun. So thanks. 

A hint of what to expect on Friday....Liz's cell phone auto correct thinks it is a veterinarian and continuously replaces hernia with harmonica, causing much inconvenience during a texted discussion of diagnosis and treatment. A quick check of the calf in question revealed no musical instruments, so we are turning it in for malpractice.

Farm Photos for the Week

 Ephemeral

 Phoggy

 Phar away across the river

Phirst light

Farm Side Finally Finished....Yeah! So here are some photos from around the farm this past week.

Farm Side Friday

Here

Farm Side Friday

You can read it here

Farm Side Friday

You can read it here.

So Far This Fine Day

Finished the Farm Side early and sent it to the esteemed editor. The NASCO catalog provided  subject matter this week. (Why didn't I look at the website earlier? I used the paper catalog....I could have really had fun with the "Outlaw clippers". I know several outlaws who could use a good clipping.)


Finally heard a real cardinal out in the yard and not a tufted titmouse cardinal impersonator either. Those titmice will fool you sometimes, into thinking they are red. The geese are getting so excited these days, flying around clamoring. I think they will be heading out soon.


Finally got the call that Licorice finally had her calf.....a big bull by Maxwell....couldn't have been a heifer, could it?


Off to work...have a good one.

Farm Side Friday

Every now and again you can read it for free. It is right here if you want to.

Farm Side Freebie Friday

Right here.

Farm Side Freebie Friday

Here you go.

A little bit of everything this week so hang on tight.

Another Farm Side Freebie

A pair of gratuitous Yaks for your Friday enjoyment....the things you see around Upstate NY

You can read it without paying again this week, right here.

Farm Side Freebie

Every now and then you don't have to pay to read it.

Right here.

Devil Tailed Toad Strangler

(When it's not raining, it is pretty)

Yeah. We were milking last night while the rain pounded down. Cows didn't want to go back out into it, let me tell you. Take a day of fixing and changing to keep them in and they are really much better off out, so we insisted. They protested, but went eventually out to their feed in the heifer pasture.

They weren't the only ones. The barn was full of teen aged toadlets too, little couple-inches -long fellas that came inside out of the rain. (It has rained enough to drown slugs all over the paths where we walk) We are big herptile fans here at Northview, so the toads all got escorted outside to safety too. Nothing good about the collision between half a ton of cow on the hoof and half an ounce of Bufo.

Then when we came in the house, we found that a friend had put up videos of a little sneaky snake of a tornado up around Glen somewhere and other folks were saying that they had seen two. Another video I found this morning showed it coming right at one of our friend's family's farms, but is was sucked up into the sky before it hit them.

Wow! We didn't even get any wind to mention for which I am grateful. I guess the twisters were both little devil tails, stirring things up but not doing much damage. Still, this is weird as heck. Not your grandma's upstate weather.

Alan and I ran errands and visited folks earlier yesterday and came home along the river. You would not believe how big a channel it cut during the Irene and Lee flooding. Another wow. It looks like a glacier came through at warp speed, cutting gouges and flinging rocks and mud behind it.

We have stayed away from Schoharie and Middleburg and the other really badly damaged areas, but I shudder to think what it is like down there. Poor folks.

Hey, if by chance you want to read this week's Farm Side, the paper put it up online. Usually it is only on the pay site, but here it is if you are interested. Just Look and Listen

Mom

The (very happy) farmer's wife

Wanted me to post this. (Let me know if the link doesn't work for you.)

The upshot is that the paper that runs the Farm Side did good at the New York State Associated Press awards.

The Venner Vox, a really cool blog that I miss every day, won a second place award, which is no surprise to me at least. It was always interesting and at times pretty highly charged.

The Sideline Guys won first place in their division, the niche website category.

And in the under 25000 circulation column category, the Farm Side came in third. I was pretty tickled.

Hearty congratulations to Charlie Kraebel and to the fellows who write the Sideline guys....

Cats with Thumbs and Clever Little Border Collies

Da typist

You know I am an animal lover. Been that way since I was so small that I thought my grandma's little Spitz cross was the size of a Saint Bernard.... I can remember just nicely being able to hold on to his shoulders.

I couldn't believe it when I saw photos after I got tall* and found out that he was a little bitty thing that today I could scoop up under one arm and walk away with.

Anyhow, I have always shared a special connection with animals, especially dogs.

However, today provided the most amazing in a lifetime of uplifting interactions. I got up this morning, jet lagged and grumpy from the time change, to find that Nick had enlisted Elvis the cat, Wally the cow dog, and several of the more knowledgeable among the cattle, and written my newspaper column for me.

Yeah, turns out Elvis is a secret member of Cats with Thumbs and can keyboard. They did the research and the whole nine yards. Can you believe it?

They even copied and pasted in a couple of good quotes. And you wanna know what they wrote about?

Turns out the animals hate the time change too. So much that, according to Nick, Keebler the Shuttle Cat made 350 trips between the barn and the house forwarding (and backwarding) information.

Thanks, guys! You really made my day.

*Okay to head this off at the pass, all you wise guy family members can hold the smart remarks about just how tall I am not. I am at least tall-ER than then if not actually tall.

Atall.

Steckling

Not a sugar beet...nor a steckling either

A steckling, a steckling...my kingdom for a steckling.....

But I will most happily settle for a nice definition of a steckling from any of you wonderful agricultural folks who happen to stop by. (I am working on this week's Farm Side and need to talk about beet culture.)

Sugar beets are not exactly big business in upstate NY and the Net has been helpful, but not absolutely so, in my quest to write about the recent federal court decision on GMO beets.

Thanks in advance for any help you are able to give. Quotable quotes about the beet industry would be most welcome as well. You can leave them in the comments or email me at threecollie AT gmail DOT com.

Cha-cha-changes

What is with people wanting to see what I look like anyhow? I am not thirty any more and will never be again...not forty or fifty either...I sneaked through Sunday Stills last week without too much misery. Then I got the news that my old editor (a nice guy with a great sense of humor...he always came up with cool titles) is my new editor now.

And he wants a new picture to go with the newness of the editorial page. I have soldiered along writing the Farm Side since 1998...lots of wise cracks and parentheses (just because I like 'em) and the same picture of my grinning face....for all those years. And every year I would chortle to myself....hehehe...they haven't made me change my photo yet. I was just thinking that the other week while undergoing the agony of having my picture taken for SS. I guess I laughed a couple days too soon.

I took a bunch yesterday. (I have to send an assortment.) It hurt. Think old. Think weather-beaten old. Grey even. Think weather-beaten, wrinkled-up, grey even, whistling distance of 60 farmer's wife.

Ouch. I was enjoying my fantasy dag nab it! Above is my favorite so far....that really isn't me....really it isn't.....

Farm Side Friday

The Decline of Dairy Farms

Friday

Various editors over the years have been responsible for Farm Side titles...or headlines...or whatever you would call them. Some have been incredibly creative and fun and left me laughing until tears ran down my face.

This week's is a pretty good one and I thank whoever came up with it.

Without further ado:

Waiting for the Puffball Fairy.

Farm Side Friday

A couple of days ago sunrise looked like this

Is about World Dairy Expo and the popular breeds of dairy cattle this week.




Meanwhile there is flooding everywhere. I was joking yesterday about wet cows leaning on us when we milked them ....which they do...which is a pain...but this isn't a bit funny. The paper is full of stories of flooding, minor so far, but nothing is minor when it is happening to you.

Our four wheel drive tractor is down with something like a valve spring (they got the turbo fixed only to reveal other problems) so the John Deere 4430 is all there is to feed and chop.

It got mired yesterday just getting the wagon out to the field and the tire chains had to be put on the the rain and muck. We are normally in for breakfast by 8 or 9 but it was nearly 11 before morning chores were finished.

The boss has enough left on that wagon to feed them today, but tomorrow he is going to be mudding it for sure if he has to chop....we don't want to open a bag of winter feed yet or turn to the hay mow, so I surely hope it stops raining and dries out.

Meanwhile there are rumors about the river continuing to get higher until tomorrow night...I am waiting for sunrise to see what it looks like. It was already pretty high when the sun went down last night. We are high on a hill, but.......

Hope you are all snug and dry wherever you are and if you need rain, take some of ours.....please.

Farm Side Fridays

Here