Upper Garden Done

Becky and I finished it today. Everything is planted, except possibly some pumpkins or gourds in some new ground. (Dear friend, Numberwise, we kept you in mind as we filled the rows. Extra pretty much everything if it grows, which is always an issue, especially in a wet year like this.)

A sad day for us though.....

After two weeks of having our boy living at home and working just a few miles away, he is back in our nation's capital, far away from hearth and home....or heart and home, as it should be. It was nice while it lasted, although I wasn't crazy about the job he was on...right out in the middle of that mean old snake of a river that runs past the place. They don't call it the Mighty Mohawk for nothing. My dear  brother is still there for a while...hey, Mappy, watch your step out there! With all this rain it is extra high and mighty.

This morning brought adventures in guinea hen chasing. Liz had them in a coop with a broody hen, sitting on turkey, guinea, and hen eggs. Suddenly they decided that beating her up and breaking the eggs was the thing to do.

So we had a capture committee meeting and put them in the same house as the peahen, although not in her coop. They had better behave!

The boss is baling some hay, not the best as it has been rained on a bit, but I have never seen a year where we weren't grateful for every bale we put up. I am sure not looking forward to unloading it, but it's got to go in. Gonna rain again tomorrow.

As You Can See Below

The younger two of our three offspring (Alan and Becky.....you know who you are) thought it would be fun to hack Northview last night, since I left the computer up on the kitchen table when I went into the living room.

After Liz and I canned 18 jars of strawberry jam yesterday. 

And froze four quarts of berries for shortcake next winter.

And cooked a turkey dinner.

And planted 18 hills of squash and helped move manure and mulch around the edges of the garden. And such.

And got a TICK!!!!! EEEEKKKKKK A TICK!!!!

  I am utterly phobic about ticks and it was a deer tick too.

Rotten ingrates. Alas, they know I have a certain strange sense of humor and wouldn't really get mad....just pseudo mad so to speak.

And I love them, and love having them around, so I put up with them.....but they had better watch out....just sayin'

Gifts

Good things this week.

Our son took his lovely fiance hiking up Castle Rock last weekend. At the very top he picked me a pocket full of balsam fir tips. He knows how much I love the scent of firs.....
So I have them on the bookcase by the bed....the Adirondacks all night, every night.

And then there was his dad...you know what they say about apples and all....

He worked two long days for some friends, driving our skid steer while rock was picked. You would think it would have taken up all of his time just thinking about the work...anyone who has picked stone knows it's a job.

However, he found time to select one great, big, lovely rock and brought it home for me.

Gifts of the land..the very best kind. 

Weekenders

What a weekend. Flooding...inside the kitchen no less, from a leaky thingumabob under the sink. I think I have that mopped up and the boss has stalled it, but whoever plumbed this place was not a pro or very foresighted. No shutoffs where you need them....

A funeral, for Jade's cousin. Long day for them. Lots of wren noise. Lots of rain. Today the sun is doing its thing, but it is cold for May...way, way cold.

Days with my boy, which mean a lot to me, btw. There are few things more delightful than sitting on a porch with someone you love. And we have lots of love and a pretty darned good porch for it too.

He scored a long weekend at home, before a long, nasty spell away, and we took full advantage. Talking of potential property acquisitions, trying on futures, and watching the birds come in. Slowing down the woodchuck onslaught, one pellet at a time....why is it that all the herds of coyotes that trammel the lawn each night and day never eat them?    Fixing windows, moving things too heavy for mom and not of interest to others, general home improvement, enhanced by good company and warm talk. He is off today for two months far away and lonesome and we will miss him. At least he will be a little closer than Virginia, which was way too far. But, first, driving a tractor in a parade today...I hope there will be pictures.

Chicken dinner. Steak dinner. Vanilla ice cream with homemade strawberry jam from last summer. There is almost always good food and companionship in this house. People coming in and out to eat and talking and talking and talking. Big dogs. Little dogs. Big horses. Little horses....not in the house, of course, but you can see them from the kitchen window.  Feeding cows and calves, heating milk, hanging buckets. Grass that is slow to grow where we want it and all too quick where it has to be mowed.

It is quite a thing to have everyone home at once...But this is a big house and can hold them all quite well, and a good thing too. It seems to like the noise and bustle and gets its glow on when everybody is home....well, except for that blasted flood in the kitchen. I think it likes to have its rooms full and busy.

Twenty-Four

Today our boy is 24, a man really, but always a boy to his mama. I'm sure both my middle-aged brothers are boys to my mama, and that is as it should be.

Once again he is far away on his special day, working construction out of state. We miss him. Miss Daisy misses him. But we go on because that is the way it is.

I can't begin to tell you the fun I have had with him, back when he had time to hustle me out on impromptu nature trips, hitting the vlies and swamps and woods in the Blue Bomber, birding and photographing the wonders of nature.

He and I have built miles of fence together...well, he built the fence, and I supplied company, camera, and carrying of tools.

He has taken me hunting...I have always hunted, but hunting with him is a special experience, because he is so observant, and thus finds signs that I would walk right past. That skill has put food in our freezer for many a year

As I say, we miss him, but it is good to know that he is out in the world doing well for himself. Guess that is how it's supposed to be, with the raising of kids. You do your best and hope they do too.

Anyhow, Happy Birthday, Alan, hope you have a wonderful day.....love you....

Orion Wore a Kilt of Clouds

She looks a lot like daddy
and a little bit like Great grandma Peggy,
which is pretty fitting I'm thinking

As seen from midnight stairs the umpteenth time....

Kind of fluffy for a guy like him, but  he looked good in it, step dancing out there, on the heifer barn roof.

When I came down again at dawn, droves of robins queued up to take a turn bathing in the big rut in the driveway.

Festooned with frosting, the trees were trailing veils of gauzy mist...the whole river was shrouded in it, the geese like mysterious strangers hiding from the unfurling sun.

I thought to take pictures of it all to save to show her what her first day looked like, someday when she is old enough to see them.

But I didn't, because I was too darned scared.

We were all scared and it was a long and worried day.......but worth every fearful second.

At the end the young family was increased by one, and the new parents knew a bond like no other.

And the new grandparents shed a couple of buckets of tears of pure, deep, elemental joy, that can only be engendered by the birth of one so loved.

Welcome to the world, Miss Peggy Ann Marie Schultz. We love you baby girl.

Links and Life at the Bottom of the River

First of all my dear sis-in-law shared some pics of where my brother and our son are working and have been the whole month of February. Nothing like life inside a cold coffer dam right in the teeth of the river wind. It's pretty nasty up here on the hill, but better them than me down in that ice sluice. 

Then this week's Farm Side research, or at least some of it. Some weeks I feel like a kid with a paper due, instead of an old fogey with a piece due for the paper. 

Dairy Farming Facts and Figures

2012 Census of Agriculture

3% of Dairies Produce 51% of Milk

Young Farmers Growing Fast in NY

Cuomo Announces NY Back in Third Place in Dairy

OSHA Withdraws Memo on Small Farm Inspections

Who

One of our cats, Chainsaw

Is working twelve hour days, seven in a row, outdoors in all this weather?

Not us. We work some hours, but surely not that many in the winter. And we mostly work in the barn except for the boss getting wood and taking out the cow poo.

No, the correct answer is the construction crew Al and his uncle are on, working just up the way on the other side of the river.

We see him for a few minutes most days and we feed him. Actually he went out and got a big bunch of groceries yesterday so we could be better prepared for that task.

Wish you could hear the story about the monster in his grouting hut yesterday. He was warned to be careful going in, as there were "coyote" tracks right up to the door.

He went in really careful and found a monster tom cat snuggled up to the heat vent (have to keep the grout from freezing). It went ballistic, bouncing off cement and metal before finding egress and hiding under a trailer. Someone who shall remain nameless teased him about being nervous about a little kitty cat until the giant beast ran out in front of him. Eek!

I don't know where they come from, but it seems as if there is an endless supply of gigantic grey or black tom cats in this area. We always have one, and actually he thinks this is one that was hanging around here a couple of years ago, and they are indestructible and very fierce. They are not ours. They are just here.

We have a big, fat, grapefruit-headed grey right now, hiding under the machinery, sneaking into the barn, and beating the heck out of all our cats early and often. Maybe they come up from town. Not a fan.

Chain is tiny compared to the wild toms

He Asked

On one knee in the horse's stable....

And she said yes!

Congratulations Alan and Jennifer...this has to be one of the best Christmases ever!

23 Anniversaries of this Special Day

Since the March 21st, one day after a blizzard, when a very special farm boy was born to a family eager for his arrival.

All but one of the other 22 anniversaries he has been here to share the day. I'm sure some of them were more exciting than others, as is the case for pretty much anyone.

This year, he is far away, working, I believe, on this project.

Because his little red truck is a bit shaky in the rear end he hasn't made the ten-hour one way drive home in well over a month. This has required some adjustments for all involved, but everyone has soldiered along as best they could.

I would much appreciate it if you would join us in wishing Alan a happy 23rd birthday today. I'm sure he would be grateful and I certainly would too.

Under the World Trade Center

***Photo by Alan with cell phone

The boy is working four stories down, under....


It's okay when he's with the crew, but sometimes they go topside to get coffee and he stays alone with his cooler and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches (the broken down little red truck sure cramped his style...at least the jelly is Mom's strawberry).


Then it is different. He keeps talking about it. 


A glimpse of movement at the edge of his vision.


Nobody there.


Shadows that shouldn't be there, gone when he turns to look. 


A prickly feeling.....


I suppose there is no reason to be surprised at this. The other men sense it too and talk about it.


He got lost down there. Took him a while to logic his way out.


We truly need to remember......

Son of a Pup

Waiting for his "mama"

The boy's uncle, who is truly a prince among men, has picked him up in NJ and is bringing him home. It takes a pretty special person to drop everything and drive about 8 hours round trip like that. Thanks, Mappy, you are a good 'un. He had his truck towed, dunno what the verdict is there yet.


The pup has been to the vet, a new vet to us, and is back home. Not sure what is going on, but thinks he will be okay, thankfully. He now has antibiotics and anti-nausea meds and can have some food tonight. Can't wait until he feels well enough to act his usually naughty little self.


The little wretch has had vomiting and accompanying back end symptoms, but is enough better to be hungry. He knows he gets biscuits in trade for object of theft so he is being hell on the towels and hats. Dagnabit.


Anyhow, we are still full of lots of worries, but not quite as many.

Humble

The kid is back in the Big Apple, away at his off-farm job, and so very not here......... although through the wonders of Net and cell phone we keep pretty close all the same.


The other day job training took him to the World Trade Center site. He said that, as he walked down the street by the site, he felt humbled and awed and thought a lot about all the good people who lost their lives there. He wants to take me down to the city so we can look for Carl DiFranco's name on the memorial.


I was humbled that he even reads this blog, and that, while he was doing such exciting new stuff that is going to be so big in his life, he remembered that other young man, so tragically murdered along with thousands of other innocents, by enemies of our nation and our way of life. And touched...I was touched....


I hope I get to make that trip....seems very fitting somehow....

Redneck Landscaping

Yesterday I was complaining about the lousy "yellow lilac bush" I bought at Wally World ten years ago or so. The darned thing took four years to bloom and when it finally did it had tiny, white flowers that were so not lilacs. Little things the size of your pinky and drab as dirt

 A Match for any Lilac Bush

 I have been cutting it down ever since.


As I was lamenting its pointless persistence and wishing for a flat place to set the smaller bird bath, the boy said, "I'll get it out."


Always distrust that smug tone of voice in a young man...or even in an older man. They like to do things in.....well, a big way.....


And get it out he did, with a huge, thick yellow towing strap and the weapon in the top photo.


Can anyone say overkill?

The great, big, evil lilac bush

At any rate it's gone, roots and all and when it stops snowing I can smooth the ground and move the bird bath.

Morning Walkies

 Maples and Pines across the river

 A little rhubarb I started a couple of years ago

 Catkins follow pussy willows

Thistle

Alan came out with me this morning when I was trying to get some bird photos for Sunday Stills. Didn't get much in the way of bird shots, but I did get the fallen tree off the lawn and now the bird bath is level and visible from the house. Yay!

Happy Birthday Baby Boy

I know where I was 22 years ago today....and now my boy is off in the wide world of the big city working on big stuff. He sends me scary pictures and even deletes the worst ones before I see them so I am not too distressed.......


But I am proud of him, taking what he has learned at our humble little farm and what he has taught himself or picked up in college and turning it into such responsibility and change. 


Happy Birthday, son, we miss you!

I Hope the Fame

Doesn't go to his head. Our boy showed up on another blog today too....but maybe that giant tree will help to keep him humble.

Okay, Here It Is

The boy stopped in yesterday on the quick, hurry up, to show me his new window decal. He asked me to take a pic and share it with you as he thinks it is pretty cool. (FYI, it is the Bone Collector one. When we went down to Cabela's he bought me a Bone Collector air freshener, which is very nice too.)

And then he was gone, off to Jersey and the pier, to make holes in things and then fill them up again.

Where the Boy Works

Each day. Don't these remind you of the first scene of the second Crocodile Dundee movie? He is right down there by the East River pumping concrete grout to stabilize the ground.

Van Gogh Skies

Rain coming in. Warmer than it has been but it feels cold. Oh, well.

Talked to my boy last night, which made me feel much better. He has left the farm for a job in the BIG city (yes, that big city) working construction. The dairy economy is ugly and the money is there, not here. I comfort myself knowing that farmers like us feed them all, all those busy, scurrying city folk, crammed together down there, hurrying around.....every pizza, every coffee with half and half, every French Fry or Big Mac....wouldn't be there without the people who work the land. It helps to know.

And so on we go.