Projecting is for Opera Singers

Or maybe ventriloquists. But not for network news behemoths. Or at least that is the way it should be. However, every election cycle sees pundits projecting away, even when only microscopic percentages of actual votes have been counted.

A simple solution to the annoyance this engenders is to just go to bed early, preferably with a good book. Beck and I are rereading the Jane Smiley Georges and Jewels books and much enjoying them. Young adult fiction, complete with horses written about by someone who actually knows a hoof from a handball court, is a sure cure for the mental trials of adulthood.

I drifted away into peaceful slumber, perched on the shoulders of Black George as he jogged up and down hills, untroubled by thoughts of proposals and projections.

Only dream horses for me now, but I remember enough from the real ones to escape the election doldrums in good fashion.

And now, back to that half-polished rough draft for this week's Farm Side.

New York State Ballot Proposals

We've been trying to track these down for a couple of weeks now. Just to know what we are voting on and all.

This page is pretty cumbersome, as proposals from previous years are lumped in with current ones...so watch the dates.

However, at least you can see a list of what you will be voting for or against next Tuesday.

Read it here: Project Vote Smart Ballot Measures

NY Ag Tax Cap Signature Needed

New York Farm Bureau is urging the state's farmers to contact Governor Cuomo to urge him to sign the tax cap legislation, which was recently passed by both Assembly and Senate.

High property taxes present a huge challenge to family farms in NY. Ours are among the highest in the nation forcing us to compete with farmers in other states at a considerable disadvantage. You can use the Farm Bureau website to send the governor an email, or use this information from his office to call or send a letter. 

Hope we can get the word out and help make NY a better state for farming. 

Crying Wolf Video and Goat Murder

There is a pervasive culture of romanticism surrounding the reintroduction of large predators around the nation, even here in NY. Because of the way issues such as moving Canadian wolves into Yellowstone (where they went from being common to endangered just by changing their address), people who have no dog in the fight get to decide what will happens.... sometimes thousands of miles from their own personal habitats. 


Here is a blog post about a young man who lost a large percentage of his goats to a mountain lion's wanton killing spree.


And the Crying Wolf video offers a chilling glimpse into what may well be an anti-human agenda, which may be behind the Endangered Species Act and wolf re-introduction in the Greater Yellowstone area. Beck and I watched it last night and were both enthralled and appalled by much of what we saw. Whatever you believe about man's place in the ecosystem and the positives or negatives of wolf introduction, you should really take the time to view this video.


There are always two sides to everything. Here is another side. 

Who is Really Getting Your Vote

Hacking the voting machines

Registrations and Thunderstorms

See that thundercloud...just floating there, placid and pretty, but threatening all sorts of interesting weather? I'm starting to get phone calls about the current NYS increases in all the fees and such on various state registrations, boats, snowmobiles, trail fees, launch maintenance fees......(and technically these aren't even tax increases). I've had folks call just to vent about their school tax bills down in Amsterdam too. NY voters are getting nailed every time they turn around.

In fact, I only bought a seven-day fishing license this year because the price had gone up so much.

I am thinking that the NY voting public is kinda like that thundercloud, just hanging around all calm and innocent right now. However, when the actual tax bills do come in this fall, I think there are going to be some interesting reactions then too. I don't imagine the weather will be too nice in Albany.

A Little Skeptical

About what will happen next. Or maybe worried would be a better word. Delighted though, just delighted.

Delta Smelt and Dairy

This is many, many times larger than a delta smelt, but IS a minnow, a fall fish

Prominent California dairy blogger, Dino Giacomazzi is doing a solid month of posts on his dairy blog, emphasizing answers to questions from readers.

He was kind enough to answer my question about the economic impact of government water regulations in his state on his dairy business. These environmental rulings are turning some of the most productive land in the nation into a dust bowl in the name of a tiny fish, which wouldn't even provide a snack for the fish above. I have no doubt that even if you aren't aware of it, you feel the impact of this situation every time you buy fresh produce at the grocery store.

Read his excellent answer here. And if you have a question for Dino, he is ready and waiting to answer yours too.

New NY Commissioner of Agriculture

Looks like it. I hate to see Patrick Hooker go, and hope he finds another great position in ag leadership. He has done a great job as commissioner.

That being said, if he has to leave, Darrel Aubertine is a great choice as a successor. A sixth-generation farmer, he has been a tremendous pro-agriculture force during his tenure as a state senator and assemblyman.

The Water is Already Clean

Farmers doing enough to keep the bay clean

According to this article, water leaving NYS for the Chesapeake Bay watershed ALREADY meets EPA standards as per their own monitoring stations. So why do our state's farmers have to make more expensive changes in the way they grow our food?

It is a lot like the whole thing with exhaust coming out of tractors cleaner than the air that goes in under new regulations. They are out of control and have totally lost contact with reality....

Excellent Post on Missouri Prop B

Here

Tomorrow It Ends

After tomorrow, (in theory), the robocalls and other assorted political annoyances will stop for a while.

I don't know about you, but I sure am ready.

Yesterday an already contentious election season turned plumb ugly. Due to certain circumstances, which I will be nice and not discuss here, I missed my morning off. Thus I wasn't the chirpiest bird in the flock when I came in from chores.

However, I did such computer things as my messed up computer would permit, sat down in my Sunday Chair, and fell asleep, while reading a wonderfully mindless book. I was dreaming peacefully...pleasantly....ahhhh....can we say bliss? (Visions of Bejeweled Blitz danced in my head....and I was winning too.)

BRINNNGGGGGGGG...the telephone rang. My heart changed gears in less than a breath and began to pound like Bill Kreutzman's drums.

It was for the boss who was also nodding happily in his chair, enjoying Sunday football (entirely ignored by me, thanks to my Peltor ear muffs, which are real marriage savers, thank you NYCAHM.)

Becky grabbed the phone and carried it in to him. He answered...and it was an individual stumping for Susan Savage, for whom we weren't all that likely to vote in the first place. He was outraged and let the caller understand that in no uncertain terms. Sunday for Pete's sake! The closest thing to a day of rest that we are going to get and certainly not the right time for political harassment! (It is a shame that you can't slam down a portable phone). Neither of us managed to fall back into dream land. He went out to mow some hay and I waited for my heart to resume its normal sluggish Sunday rhythm and resumed perusal of my novel.

*****We interrupt this blog post to interject the darned near unbelievable. I was proof-reading through the above making sure it read as smoothly as I wanted it to, when the phone rang. Believe it or not it was someone ELSE from the Susan Savage campaign. It was nice to talk to a real, live person so I could tell her just how happy we were to be awakened from our Sunday snooze yesterday. ARGGHHHHH

Ah, I feel better now, except for the sky-rocketing blood pressure....those calls work just like a gallon of coffee or a four pack of AMP and so much cheaper too. Of course we do not nap on Mondays, but dang!

I am so ready to stomp down to town and vote on those lousy new voting machines tomorrow, confident that by Wednesday the ringing of the phone will announce one of our itinerant children or a beloved mother or brother or good friend, not some soulless creep from some political campaign.

Wednesday Thursday Friday?

This is nuts. It is bad enough that there are parts of America that are too dangerous for the average Joe or Jill to visit due to urban violence, but how can there be places we can't visit because of foreign crime? It is unbelievable that anybody finds this acceptable. How can they declare national wildlife refuge off limits to the citizens who pay for it because nobody has guts (I wanted to use a better word here, but I'll be nice) to offer our people security and safety? Just read the initials of the title and you will know what I am thinking.

And They Want us to Stop Using Our Outdoor Furnace

BP to burn 42000 gallons of oil per day. If it is the best answer for keeping as much oil as possible out of sensitive areas I am fine with what they are doing...it just seems ironic that the state is chasing after a few wood stoves in light of the pollution BP will cause.

Let Your Voice Be Heard on Outdoor Wood Stoves

You can file your testimony on the topic here. For background the DEC here in NY is planning regulations that would force most existing stoves to be taken out of service whether they are bothering anybody or not. No other state has put in place such restrictive rules, although several have regulated stack height and siting.

A few bad apples shouldn't cause people like us who sited our stove with great care and maintain it well to have to spend tens of thousands of dollars to heat our home. At this point should OWFs be banned not only would we be forced to abandon a ten-thousand dollar stove, but we would also have to purchase a new indoor furnace as ours is defunct.
Below is the testimony I submitted via the form linked to above.

Thousands of rural New Yorkers rely on outdoor wood stoves for safe, economical heat from a renewable resource, which does not depend on fossil fuels. Our own family turned to an outdoor device when we could no longer afford to heat our home with heating oil. One year alone we spent over three thousand dollars on heating fuel and that was before the price ongoing price spike. I estimate that it would now cost us at least five thousand dollars as we have an old Victorian farm house that is nearly impossible to heat. At this point our only cost to stay warm in the winter is a little electricity and some chain saw chains and gas, as we have our own wood source. It is our only source of hot water in our home as well...year round.

I am afraid we would suffer greatly without it. We run a dairy farm and our income has been horribly curtailed by low milk prices. Perhaps we would even have to sell our farm and move to a warmer climate if we could no longer heat with wood. I will not use an indoor wood device because of the danger of a house fire.

Strong consideration should also be given to the Deep Water Horizon oil spill when comparing the environmental impact of OWFs.
I can't imagine how many wood stoves would have to burn for centuries to have such an immense negative impact on the environment.

Please allow us to continue to use our own resources to heat our homes and to heat our water even in the summer.
Thanks

Eminent Domain...Vermont Farm Spared

I am so glad for this farm family.

New York Farm Labor Law Rises from the Ashes

When are the folks who keep reintroducing this ridiculous bill going to figure out that a political career in Queens, the Bronx or Brooklyn does not prepare them to understand the economic realities of farming? (Other than maybe Old McDonald's). Although it would in no way affect our own farm, as we hire no outside labor, many fruit and vegetable growers would be devastated with little benefit to workers.


However, to people used to politics as usual it looks so good on paper (and in the paper, of course). Pedro Espada the Senate Majority leader called the earlier bill, "my legacy." Guess he still wants to leave upstate with a nice legacy of economic problems caused by the failure of someone from the Bronx to "get" agriculture.


The "new" bill, introduced by Sen. George Onorato of Queens, (a farm district if I ever saw one), changes a couple of words...and I do mean a couple...from the original bill....

Ranchers Want Protection

From illegal border activity.

I

Proposed NY Rural Truck Ban Rejected

This is good news for farmers who haul crops by truck. Although it was meant to give folks tormented by hundreds of reeking garbage trucks each day some relief from that misery, the law of unintended consequences meant that this legislation would have spilled over onto farmers trucking corn, hay and produce. Even milk trucks would have been affected, as would farmers markets.
Glad they didn't go ahead with it.

HSUS Rates the Legislators

New York: Gillibrand100
Schumer 83
Tonko 77

I won't tell you how I feel about this, but I'll bet you can guess.
Check your legislators here....warning pdf