Is this some kind of Joke?

My sentiments exactly.....

Got Snow?

Why, yes, yes we do......

Not the Iditarod

But we have plenty of winter. Some folks and their dogs make the best of it.

This Song

Because Yankee Hill Lock isn't supposed to look like this

Because it fits perfectly.

Especially the lyrics....."Canadian cold front movin' in....."

And staying, and staying, and staying and staying.....

The Cradle

Lesser Scaup in front of McDonald's last winter

This is never the best time of year for me. The short days and gloom and all..... it has been somewhat better than usual this fall, what with chasing birds every day, but it is still a season I endure rather than enjoy.

And don't get me started on Christmas.

There is however, one phenomenon that only happens in the winter that I have been anticipating daily.

The powers that be empty our river about this time of year, turning it from a massive anaconda that eats at its banks as if they were a herd of feral pigs, to a thin ribbon of silver, slipping between gravel bars and shallow mud pools. (Wish it was like that year round.)

This brings the most amazing birds you could imagine to our tiny inland town. It concentrates them wherever that is a little open water. The area downtown by McDonald's, where Becky is a manager, Schoharie Crossing State Historic Site, where we go most every day, and Yankee Hill Lock, where we go except in summer, turn into legit hot spots. Loaded with birds....sometimes quite rare ones. Some days we count geese in the thousands, hundreds and hundreds of ducks, and more gulls than you would conceive.

Winter water levels transform the barren banks and pools in front of our farm into a nighttime safe space for Canada Geese and Mallards. I listen for their thin voices through the clamor of the Thruway and the rumble of the trains, both morning and night when I go out with doggies or just go out in the dark. It is usually dark, after all.....

This morning they were there...rocking in the river cradle and chattering quietly in the late of the night and the early of the morning. I was glad.

Common Merganser at Schoharie Crossing SHS

January Thaw

The kitchen reeks of wet dog. 

Not that I mind. At least they are contented, napping, dogs, full of kibble and canz. 

It is raining over ice, melting all the sand that has been scattered on drives and walkways over the past couple of weeks. Not gonna complain though. Warm is good.

The sunlight is thin soup indeed most days..this was a couple days ago

A thing that I like about this time of year is going out before dawn and hearing the Mallards and Canada Geese nattering and complaining as they rock in the gentle curves of the river where the current is quiet. 

With the low cloud ceiling the sound rises clearly to us up here on the hill and it is nice to listen to the muted chatter of hundreds or even thousands of birds.

Yesterday, in bright sunshine and steadily warming temperatures I counted 354 geese taking flight and heading off to cornfields somewhere to the south of us. 

Around dusk they return, crying like a pack of hounds for their beds at the river's edge.

Mallards and Black Ducks, down on the river yesterday

Winter Equations

Everything has to have a good side, right?

Every cloud a silver lining?

Even winter?

But is that possible?

Well, for one thing, in winter there are more pockets available for birding gear and other sundries....little notebook, good pen, thin, yet warm gloves so one can write and adjust the binoculars without baring their freezing fingies. 

And those are just in the down vest. In other garments there is room for the midnight flashlight, a box of matches in case I get stranded in the backyard, and anything else I might want to carry...phones...books....all the wool socks so I can carry towels downstairs too without making an extra trip.......yeah, lots and lots of nice pocketses are a real plus in winter. 

And then you have mornings like Sunday, when the world was coated with frost and fine snow and the sun came up pink and blue and all was sparkly in those colors and every steam and smoke glowed as if backlit and you could see a sparrow a mile away against all the pastels....

Yeah, that was spectacular indeed and I hope you were up in time to savor it before it all melted and turned the world stark grey-and-white again. If I said it once I said it ten times....what a day it would have been for the Christmas Bird Count! You couldn't have missed a single bird, so brightly did they all stand out against the snowy, frosty, steamy background. 

It was like driving through a thousand Christmas cards, complete with evergreens and cardinals and chickadees. Of course we weren't actually birding, but rather shopping and visiting, but if we had been we coulda knocked one out of the park.

Today....too darned much snow and too darned cold, and too darned grey and gloomy, but on the plus side of the equation....a heated Milwaukee hooded sweatshirt with the battery charged and the switch turned on.......

Priceless!

Got Ice?

Never seen anything like it. We have had ice like this since November and it gets worse all the time. Actually almost all melted last week, but the new storm brought back plenty. It eats up sand and salt like quicksand.....It is slowly devouring the horse trailer....

There's a Storm A'comin'

My late father-in-law used to call this solid comfort

Or so they say. Midweek, I guess. But for now we will enjoy having our boy back in the 518, working just across the river and up the road. I'm telling you, it's really sweet.

On the backyard menu

And then yesterday we had all the kids around at one time or another, also sweet. I am getting so nervous about our daughter having a daughter, and the date keeps getting moved up.....

We are expecting a couple of calves any minute now....probably Wednesday, storm day, knowing the way cattle behave.

 A little taste of springlike weather has visited too though,with the chickens loose to run around the yard (scarfing up all the wild bird food, alas) and the cats sunning, and the robins stopping by every morning for some applesauce.

I guess we had better enjoy it while it lasts as well as getting ready for the upcoming weather event. In case you too are affected by this predicted storm, I suggest you hie yourself to the store for essentials, such as TP, bread, and most importantly, lots and lots of milk......

The Frozen South

It's been an ugly week in the southern half of our great land, with snow and ice migrating south on the tail feathers of the fleeing song birds, but not receiving quite as warm a welcome.

As always, in times of adversity though, Americans have stepped up in dozens of ways, to either help one another through the difficulties or turn them into a great adventure.

Makes me proud to be an American, even if up here we are pretty much used to such weather and prepared for it. We wouldn't fare quite as well in hurricane season I suspect.

Tail Stand

Ursa Major to the north, standing right up on his long, bear tail. He's been there all week, frozen in the sky, as we are all frozen beneath it. When will he move, I wonder.

Is he hibernating up there in the sky? If so he looks pretty uncomfortable. 

And he had better watch out for Orion, who has been stomping around up there all winter, sword on high and temper roaring. Unless the hunter steps on a scorpion, that old bear may be in trouble.

Stars these nights are unrelenting, hard and sharp, like glowing stones in frozen water.I stop  every night on the way in from work, just the same.How can you not stop to look at the sky? There should never be that much hurry.

These cold, harsh nights, the horizon is ringed, except to the west, by twisted false sunrises, the light from the surrounding towns and villages, reflecting up at yellow clouds. 

It is as if the air is ill, sick with a head cold, and miserable enough for all of us. Brr, shiver, guess I'd better hurry inside, walk, and feed the little hound dog, and snuggle down for the night.

Morning will bring a crescent moon, with its little star in tow, innocent as a sweet new lamb, but colder....ever so much colder.....

The Ice Man Commeth

The ice man
He ran his head off, or so it looks

See, I got a picture of him, running his little head off to stay ahead of spring (I'm pretty sure he can safely slow down if he wants to). Actually this odd little formation, about the size of your hand, was just there in the ice one morning when it was a little warmer than today. I had the camera so....

The ice woman commeth too. I borrowed Alan's huntin' hat last night for the trek to the barn. For the first time that I can remember my really, really warm work hat was just not up to the weather. 

Some fractured ice from a warmer day. None of this going on now

Our luge run

We have seen many seasons that were much colder than this one. Back when I worked on a big dairy farm up in Johnstown, we saw minus 40-degree spells several winters in a row. At one time I was driving a little VW with no heater during one of those periods. Had a catalytic space heater that we set on the seat and pointed at the windshield so I could drive. Never missed a milking no matter what the weather, even if I had to drive to work with two tires on the snowbank and two in the road because of the ice. I am not sure if I was dedicated or just dumb.....

Anyhow, as icy as the walk to the barn is these days...it gets just warm enough at midday to melt a slick onto the existing ice....it beats the heck out of those days. And a conventional tie stall barn is one heck of a lot warmer than that big old free stall was too.

Did I ever tell you about the time I went to work there all alone at about 4:30 in the morning and found a guy out in the free stalls in the dark, leaning over a sleepy cow talking to her? An escapee from a local youth jail, who came from the big city and had never seen a cow before.......my life has never been dull.

How are You Coping

With this winter deep freeze? I'm sure it has altered pretty much everybody's routine whether it is just warming your car up in the morning, or maybe taking a vacation in the Bahamas (this gets my vote) or making endless changes in your barn routine to keep the animals comfortable.

Around here, we just keep fighting it day by day, breakdown by breakdown, draft by draft. Yesterday the boss went to Glen and bought three of the heaviest small canvases he could get. We nailed them up over the big fan and both barn doors, and then tucked them in with feed bags stuffed with more feed bags, and piles of hay.

The skid steer is being prissy and not liking the cold and we now are having to buy and feed round bales, which are normally left down below the barn. Last night when the lazy little twit was actually running for a few minutes, he brought some bales up to the door, where we can roll them right in by hand if it won't start this morning.

Everybody got extra bedding last thing at night and we are feeding a LOT of hay. Hay helps the girls stay warm as they digest it.

Inside the house I deal with the dainty dachshund. I am not accustomed to such dogs. Contrary to popular local opinion border collies don't much mind the cold, so until my dogs got old, they didn't need a lot of extra attention in that department. They did sleep indoors, but indoors here...well, it is cold most of the time, and we shut the furnace all the way down at night, so it ain't exactly summer. 

Anyhow, Daisy, although delightful, is not a big, rugged border collie, bred to work sheep in the most extreme weather that Scotland can muster, and come out smiling and looking for more. Nope, Daisy is a little toy dog.

So I lined her tiny doggy bed with one of those silver survival blankets. Then I added two one-gallon jugs of hot water, one on each side. Then I put one of those plushy Christmas blankets on top of the whole affair. She has a cozy little snuggle spot right in the center, into which she just nicely fits

This morning she grinned at me and didn't want to get out of bed even though the furnace ran all night despite being turned all the way down. She was plumb cozy.....

As I sit here typing with all my winter outdoor stuff on except my down vest, scarf, gloves, and boots, I wish I could say the same. It's really not that uncomfortable, but I have no desire to take my outer polar fleece off....and it smells resoundingly of cows, as I normally only wear it to the barn. Phew.

Stay warm!

Sounds and Scares of Winter

Speaking of scary drivers....
Nothing like coming upon one of these on the wrong side of a blind hill.
 At least this guy has lots of reflectors

We are back in the cold again, not surprisingly, I guess. Saw a meme on Facebook yesterday about how they used to call this polar vortex hoopla winter back in the day.

And yep, it's just winter. Doesn't mean we have to like it, but it wasn't invented last week either.

Anyhoo....yesterday Becky and I were standing in the kitchen buttoning, booting, zipping, and wrapping, and generally getting ready to go to chores when we heard this motor. If you are a farm woman, you get to know how motors and transmissions should sound. After all, you have probably driven big machines, pulling other big machines, chopping, or baling or whatever, and you darned well better know how to tell when something is wrong. Otherwise you will break big things and your name will be mud. I used to be able to tell when the 5088 needed oil, even if it was just down a tad, without ever pulling the dipstick.

As we heard this motor, we looked each other in the eyes and knew that something was not right. Sounded starved for fuel, maybe a frozen line, or something not getting somewhere it needed to be. It was struggling, real hard, and sounding just awful. And it scared us.

Because it was a plane! Going right over the house. Low and laboring, gasping and grumbling. Simultaneously we said, "Please don't crash and hit us..."

She ran outside as it rumbled overhead to report that it seemed to have headed off toward the Johnstown airport safely, but we were still shuddering from something besides the cold, I promise you.

Then last night I had a feeling....our boy and my brother are down there in helpless city people land where they are getting a big snowstorm. I checked on Al, And yep, they were both having trouble. Five hours to make the normally short drive from their respective work places to where they live when they are down there, normally an hour's drive or so.

They both made it home, but no thanks to lousy road care and worse drivers. Alan says the plows are so short that the snow just tumbles over, and what he says about the drivers doesn't bear printing. 

I know winter is just winter, and January is big on winter in this hemisphere, but I won't lie and say I find it entertaining, because, nope, I really don't. Stay warm!

Sounds

Took a midnight...well, actually 2:30 AM....... barn check run the other night. 

Well, actually, it was more of a barn check hobble, as the ice has been horrific ever since it warmed up after the last snowstorm.

First I heard what seemed like a loud banging noise. Paused and listened....it was just the electric fencer clicking. It was so very loud in the midnight stillness.

Checked on Foolish, who is due to calve and gave her a bit more bedding.

Headed back. An odd, deep gurgling and clinking sound came to my sleepy ears. I stopped a while to find its source. 

Aha, under the rigid shell of ice, which would probably hold up a truck with ease, water was moving in the little creek that divides the two farms, jingling and jangling against the bottom of the ice. During the noisy day you couldn't possible hear it, but in the silence of the middle of the night it was as clear...and almost as lovely....as a bell.

Then last night, after the rainy storm and the weird warm weather I took the same walk. The little creek was filling its banks and rushing and rustling like a small but urgent river. Can you hear me NOW?

And now the ice is worse than ever and I am thankful that other people are making the trek and milking the cows this morning.

Coffee

Something spooked these turkeys the other day
They raced across the heifer hill, then hunkered down in some wild rose bushes.

And more wonderful Mappy bread for "breakfast" here at twelve minutes past noon. Beck and the boss and I did chores alone this morning and spent a lot of extra time chasing drafts and moving heifers. 

Still LOTS more to do in the face of the potential cold tonight, but what we got done is a good start. Beck has sure stepped up at handling stock. She is calm and patient, and yet firm enough that they respect her...a great combination, with a heavy emphasis on the patient part.

We actually got Cinnamon in the barn and in a stall, which has been tried with as many as five people before without success. And weirdly enough, the minute she actually came through the door she calmed right down and was quiet as an old cow. I think she thought the door was the entrance to the dragon cave or something. What a surprise to find that it led to hay and corn meal and a warm comfy stall...and lots of company.

Now the boss has to run west for grain and then we need to cannibalize an old hen house for some board to button up the sawdust shed pen. It is a lean to up against the barn, normally plenty sheltered, but with this ugly weather we want to close it up a bit.

And then to put more something or other around the vacuum pump. It is not in the warmest place in the world and already struggles to start in the cold. 

And then to put the canvas up across the back porch. I hate doing it, but the time has come. 

See ya later! And stay warm!

Wild Geese

Although the weather forecast around here is changing and often, we are obviously going to get something.

Heaven only knows what, although we have freezing rain, heavy snow accumulations and pretty much whatever else you might choose, including zombies on Zambonis, from the winter misery menu up for grabs.

The birds are confirming that something will happen although they aren't saying what either. Feeders have been bare for weeks. Not even the Sassenachs coming in to steal seeds. Then yesterday they were crowded with sparrows, juncos, gold finches, chickadees, downy woodpeckers, and pretty much everybody else in the neighborhood. More of the same today.

And the wild geese were so restless it was crazy. A friend took me to lunch yesterday, which was an amazing lot of fun, plus good food in the bargain. We stopped on the way home to check out the population on the river in town....nothing like traveling with a fellow birder..... and it was positively thronged with birds. Not just geese, but an exceptionally large flock of assorted gulls, ducks, etc. And oddly enough, instead of being mostly gathered on the bank as usual, they were floating all over the river, mostly facing west and for the most part evenly spaced. Looked like a net of geese....hey maybe it was a skein. 

Anyhow, all day long chunks of the flock kept breaking off and flying up, circling here and there, and then cupping back down in. Of course when I walked the dog without the camera they would fly low, right over the house, with the rays of the setting sun painting their breasts gold and pink. When I went out with the camera, they would circle way off to the east, well out of range. Then when I went out to haul firewood, obviously sans camera, back they came to taunt me happily.

They were beautiful, and I looked up every single time a bunch went over. I think they feel the stirring of the coming storm.

And I had a white-crowned sparrow this morning. He looked pretty out of place. 

Anyhow, once you get all stocked up on milk and bread and toilet paper...did I mention milk?....stay safe and dry and warm and have a good one.