A Tornado Watch

Will keep you awake if you kid is out in it. Hadn't seen the GF in three days so it was simply an essential trip...for the kid that is.

The air was heavy with the scents of summer, soft and humid, redolent with grape and falling lilac, sweet with honeysuckle and the last of the apple blossoms. A few mosquitoes buzzed hopefully and the sky was alight from horizon to horizon. I kept opening the porch door to look out and test...storming yet or only threatening? Coming soon or giving us a pass this time?

It was hard to sit and quietly read with the grass outside flickering, white, black, white, black like some bizarre neon bar sign advertising trouble.

Only a few stray drops of rain pattered down, but the lightning never seemed to let up. In its own way it was beautiful, back lighting one cloud, spotlighting another, with colors never seen in the day time spectrum. It was easy to see why our cows don't worry about the fireworks at the fair or race track. They have them right over their heads during storm times like this.

Eventually I crutched my way upstairs, phone in one pocket, flashlight and book in the other, to try to get some sleep despite all the weather action.

Then the wind hit. Like a wall. The house shook. The bed shook. The lights went out. The lights went on. And off. And on. And off.

And on, so I crawled back down the stairs and we turned on the TV weather and called up the kid.

He was on his way home. The Doppler map was pulsing with red and orange and purple where the hail storms were.

The kid got home with tales of a barn belonging to folks we know with its whole front blasted out into the road by the wind and trees down everywhere. We were pretty darned happy to see him.

By the time we went back to bed it was mostly done with its destruction, although the power went out some more. We need some normal, calm, dry weather around here. It has rained at least a little and often a lot for many, many days now. And, naturally, it is going to storm again today with rain in the forecast for every single day of the coming forecast.

All the News

That's fit to type.

Got a surprising, but very welcome call yesterday, that the 4490 was not only ready, but the bill was reasonable. Didn't take the guys ten minutes to be on the road to go get it.

Tyler, Liz's old horse came home last night, to a gigantic new box stall built by Alan. We used to have a pair of almost 18 hand Belgians that lived in tie stalls in the old barn. He took down both of those stalls and turned them into one big box. I will get some pics later, but other than hitting himself with the hammer he did a real nice job.

The rain continues, so the time spent cleaning up and building stuff and flower gardening goes on....all well and good but it is past time for the crops to be planted, vegetable garden in and haying started. Will this rain ever end? We are beginning to wonder.

We are breeding cows like crazy now...if they all catch we will be fielding calves left and right next February or March. Busy, busy. We had five in heat Sunday alone.

That is Bama's new baby, Cinnamon Twist, in the photo. She is NOT that color, but rather a dark, rich mahogany color. I don't know why it is so hard to get true color photos on the milking shorthorns. Once in a while I get it right, but rarely.

She is about the smartest calf I have ever seen. She was eating grain and hay before she was two days old. Now she jumps up and down if she sees me kicking hay into the mangers. And she knows her name. She can be sleeping and you call "Cinnamon-n-n-n" and she jumps right up and starts bouncing and calling. What a little sweetie!

You Hear it First

(Taken last week before the rainslaught)

The rain that is. Of course you know that it is going to come. Even the weather gurus are getting it right this time, rain, rain and more rain.

But when you are outside trying to get something...anything...done.... the first sign of its arrival is a soft patter, like the rustling of dad's newspaper back in the day.....just before he got up from his chair to give you what for.

And then it sweeps across the land, giving you what for again. What for you tryin' to work out here? This is my land, I have taken it and I am keeping it.

And it has and it is. It has taken over all our ground and turned it into fresh churned mud, and it hangs on and clings and drips and droops and bothers all day every day. No let up from the gloom, not a single ray of sunshine.

It is ever needful to keep a fire going to dry the clothes we wear out in it, hanging over every register, dripping and drooping.

In fact that is what I was doing when the latest rain laid claim...building a fire so things would dry...while my latest set of dry things got wet...again...at least polar fleece sheds rain real well for a while at least.

Can you imagine? Polar fleece in May?

Floods

What a week of insane and horrible weather for the eastern half of the US. WW has some photos and links to flooding in her area and the Dacks.

We are just wet and soggy here, (and I do mean wet...the garden is under water and the boss is having to fork feed out of the bag for the cows, because he can't get in with the skid steer) but there is flooding all over the rest of the state. They have even delayed the opening of the river because of high water and debris.

Liz's boyfriend drives truck down in the southern tier and he snapped the photo and emailed it to her. He actually had some others of worse stuff, but she deleted them. Thanks Jade for the photo.

The kids have good friends who live up near where the Frankfort tornado touched down. I guess they haven't been getting much sleep, with tornado warnings and watches. The other day we were under five watches and warnings at once, including tornado watch, severe thunderstorm warning and watch and flood warning and watch. Up here on the hill we are pretty good when it comes to flooding, but last year's Glen tornado started right here at home, right over Alan on the tractor....which was not so very comforting...

Here is a report of some survivors of the devastation in Alabama. The folks down there will be needing our prayers for a long time for sure. I don't know when the normal weather is going to show up this year...if it does....but it could come along any time now.

Wicked Weather

We just got regular spring thundershowers. (Not like we needed the rain or anything, but not much harm done.) However, up west of here, right near the homes of some of the kids' friends it was really wild I guess.

Meanwhile, Liz bought me my first ice cream of the season. I took a ride up west with her yesterday as she had to get some hay and shavings and feed all the horses she and the BF care for. She stopped at Auntie Kim's and got me some sort of orange pineapple concoction that was perfect for our first really hot, sunny day of the year.

I also discovered that the weather this winter simply wiped out my herb garden. The lovage lived, as did the garlic chives, walking onions, regular chives and orange mint.

Pretty much everything else seems to be completely gone. Can you imagine a winter nasty enough to kill spearmint!?!

I began a complete do-over, re-dig mission so I can get some new thyme and such for the empty spots. Sadly the speedwell also bit the dust after nearly ten years of out-bluing the skies and jays. That will probably be hard to replace, since I have only ever seen it for sale once...the time I bought it.

In honor of the warmish weather I made hummingbird food this morning. They should be back pretty soon, cold or not.

Heat Wave

Twenty-four this morning.

Above

Yay! I am tired of living in a meat locker, where you could just turn off the fridge and use the kitchen table if you wanted to.

And there was a house finch out in the pear tree yesterday, singing his heart out.

Singing! Can you believe it! Not cheeping, not chirping, not peeping or beating his little head on a tree trunk because he is so sick of the weather (oh, wait, that was me), but singing! I loved it.

Weather Signs

This often leads to

This

Back when I was working at my first dairy farm job my boss taught me many weather signs. One that has held true in almost every instance is that if snow clings to the branches and wires either wind or rain is close behind. That sure was the case yesterday and despite how grueling the wind was I am glad that it wasn't rain. Hate to think what that would have done to all the thousands of snow-covered roofs in the region.

Do you know any other interesting weather prognostications?

Sun Dogs

Weather bringers?

Lucky

The Mid West took a shellacking this weekend in the weather department. We were threatened but lucked out in the end, with just a tad of ice and some drenching rains. Miserable, but nothing compared to a blizzard.

We were also lucky in that the boss told the guys over at the auction last week to give him a call if a really cheap stock trailer came in. They did and we got this for way under two thousand. It is really old, but not at all decrepit and will serve us for a bit and keep us out of the hands of the uncaring and unscrupulous among the haulers. I am grateful as heck for that.

Winter Weather Advisory

It was pretty nice out yesterday and early last night. While I was out serving as a fence, little Keebler came out to be made much of, purring like some loud and buzzy insect and snuggling into my gloves. The stars were bright with a few thin, dark clouds slumping across them. (It wasn't like the night before when I kept snuggling up to the tractor, which had a still kinda, sorta warm engine from feeding and saved me some misery.)

A couple of hours later a cruel wind whipped up and lashed any thoughts of warm and fuzzy right off the map. Now there is a winter weather advisory.

Rainy Days 'n' Brantas

Canadensis that is....down on the Mohawk.

Snow Last Night

In October...somebody call the global warming people...oh, but they are not calling it that any more are they? Because it is so hard to convince folks that things are warming up when it snows a month early in a warm spot like here on the river.

It didn't snow much mind you, but I went out in the rain with a flashlight and some of the rain drops were swirling in slow spirals instead of splashing straight down. That is snow where I come from.

Running Outdoors in the Dark

Both ends of the day, dagnabbit, and no choice about it. Thank the Lord for flash lights.

Last night we got done with chores fairly early. The boss was able to feed the cows from the wagon in the field so we could turn them right out at the end of milking. Thus I came to the house just as the moon was taking over sky duty for the night.

The sky was cobalt and gold with twenty jet trails stretched across it horizon to horizon. They were like a foggy fan, wide in the east, converging in the west, some wide and faded, some sharp and thin.

I puttered around building up the fire in the stove for overnight and soon I could also see live jets flashing among the contrails. Wow, there are a LOT of planes flying over this place. The phenomenon was much noticed and discussed on Facebook on a friend's page later in the night.

Then well after it was really dark (and I was lying in bed re-reading a Diana Gabaldon book) the chickens set up a fuss. I knew something had been bothering them as they have been trying to roost on the porch...this is not a development that I favor as they have been sending deer antlers, planting supplies and bottles of dry gas and chain saw oil treatment flying all over when they get up on the freezer. I ran out into the dark, barefoot with flashlight.

Not a sign of a thing, but the boss says possum. From the low key outrage they are expressing I'll bet he is right. Guess I need to put them back in the little coop.

Morning, still dark, back out to take Nick up to the run with his breakfast. Foggy, which is fine, as foggy beats rainy any day of the week and that was what was predicted when we retired last night.

I don't much like the dark, but one entertaining aspect is shining my flashlight down into the garden pond on the way in at night. Young froglets and crayfish trundle around doing what they do among the plants and sleepy gold fish. It is fun to get a look at their secret world.

***Incidentally the blog roll crashed this weekend. I have done my best to reconstruct it from memory, but if I missed you, please let me know so I can add you back in. Thanks!

In the Dark

Yeah, tis the time of year for chores in the dark. O-dark thirty in the morning and after dark in the evening. It isn't too awful when it is clear. Kind of neat to be out in the night. However, during monsoon time it is pretty darned grim. They say it is supposed to clear off this afternoon.

I am ready.

On the feeding side of things Alan came up with a good plan. We were chopping Sudex and second cutting hay and feeding it green...a reasonably workable system. Then we got this rain. No idea how much, but it is still raining after almost two weeks, the driveway is gone again after just being repaired, the four-wheel drive is down and the John Deere can't do the job. We didn't want to open any of the 150 or 200 foot long bags the men have put up for winter, but the girls gotta eat.

I suggested to the guys that next year they should think about putting up two or three little bags first thing in the spring, so if we get a spell of bad weather or a break down we don't have to commit to feeding out winter feed when it isn't winter. (Once you open a bag, the feed spoils if you don't keep feeding from it.)

Alan thought a while and said, good plan. Then he suggested...."why don't we pull the bagger off the bag we are filling now and just close it up and start a new one for the rest of the fall harvest?. Then we can feed that instant "short bag" right up."

Yeah, brilliant idea, so that is just what they did. The cows had big golden mounds of partially ensiled Sudex for supper last night and they really liked it. We let them eat in the barn instead of outdoors so they were actually dry when we milked them, which is not an issue for them, but it sure is nice for the cheap help. They went back to their pasture last night, but heaping mangers await them as soon as it gets light enough to find them and bring them in.

Had a calf born yesterday too. We were watching Camry like a whole family of hawks. The past two times she has calved she has been afraid of the calf or something and tried to give birth while running away from the process. This is not a workable plan and she nearly died with her first calf. things were pretty dicey last year too even though she calved right by the barn and we were right there.

Thus the plan was to keep her in the stable when she looked close and be right there to assist. Like many plans made by mere mortals this one was foiled by a higher power. She looked fine yesterday morning, no sign of labor, so we turned her out with the rest of the girls. Last night when we brought them down to dinner she was leading a shaggy little black and white heifer, a daughter of SWD Valiant. I guess she finally figured things out. Just in case she hadn't quite we kept them both in the barn last night....

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.

More Farm Walk Stuff

Beam me up, Scotty!

Today is our payback for yesterday's warmth and beauty. Rain. High winds. General yuckiness....incoming. I am hoping we get the cows in before the rain starts. Milking wet cows is not such a pleasant chore. Several of mine think it is just peachy to lean on me when I wash their udder and put the milker on. Bad enough when they are dry, but when they are dripping...ugh.

Milk Weed is not open yet.
I love the silvery lining of the pods when the fluff pops out

Bonanza of box elder bugs. I didn't get time this summer to photograph the amazing egg laying party they threw in the big box elder behind the house. Everything about them is pink and black...even the eggs are pink!

Tornado Watch

For Upstate NY.

Terrific.

The boss was going to go back and chop, but the rain started up again. Very weird weather today, first it is chilly, then hot again. A very restless sort of day.

Can it be Ninety and Still Feel Like Fall?

Yes, it can.

Weather and Wrens, plus Macro Monday

Katydid

Rain, not just a sprinkle but a never ending downpour. Sluicing, slashing, screaming, splashing, yeah that kind of rain. While farms all around us, even just up-county, have faced a summer of mini-drought, here at Northview it has rained at least three days of every week but one or two. The men have gone nuts trying to put in baled hay. It takes a couple of days to dry it and those couple of days have been so hard to come by.

When we complain about excess rain people look at us like we lost our noodles or something, but every two or three days I dump the wheelbarrow that sits beside the stove...half-full most of the time.

Slashing rains finds leaks....leaks that probably just developed from the slashing rain....don't ask....

And wrens. I love wrens. The cheeky, uppity house wrens that take over the place like they were paying the taxes, or the Carolina wrens that just showed up to serenade me every morning, they are great favorites of mine.

Thus I was so sad when I found a dead one...or what was left of him, just a head and enough feathers to guess what he was. I was also perplexed because I found those tattered relics on the carpet in the front hallway where the birds sing outside the door to get that sought-after concert hall effect. How the heck did he get into the house? And how the heck did our fat, never-been-outdoors since he was a kitten, Elvis the Schaufelcat, catch him? The stinker....every time I have fed him since I have chastised him verbally about his diet and his terminal wren breath. Eating my wren is pretty close to over the edge....

Then yesterday as we looked out at the deluge, knowing it was nearly time to go out in it, get the cows and get our jobs done, Alan heard something. He thought it was outdoors. He perfectly mimicked a wren's alarm call and asked me what bird made that sound.

A wren I answered.

A few minutes later he again roused me from my stupor to point out that said wren was on the upstairs banister. The indoor banister, just outside our bedroom door.

Let's just say that catching an agile wren in a huge, cluttered monster of a house (with ten-foot ceilings) with many rooms and doors and windows is challenging.

Just a little.

A bit the worse for wear after all his thrilling house exploration he finally was released into the bushes out front, whence we set about dealing with the water.

Enough already.

Enough rain.

Enough cruddy weather (the boss is reading me the forecast as week speak...rain every day all week.)

And enough wrens in the house. We still have not figured out how they are coming in, but we closed all the doors so they can't slip around screens or anything.

One certain term comes to mind here.......arrggghhhhhh!!!!!!!

Lots more Macro Monday here

Tornado

Alan was up chopping Tuesday when a hellacious storm hit. Trees were bending right over, rain was slashing and drumming and he could barely see to drive the tractor. When he came down he told us about a thing dangling down from the clouds that was circulating and undulating up and down. Over the past few years we have seen that two or three times so we didn't think too much of it until today....when we heard that an E-F1 tornado touched down just a little bit from here.
Wow! He must have been watching it forming. It went right over him.