Birth of a calf

We had a little excitement during milking tonight.

This is Becky's show heifer, Lemonade, with her first calf, a half Jersey heifer.

All went well

Stealing a wee snack from number 49, Veronica, who is NOT her mother, but was willing none the less.

I shall overcome

The robin in this window

I know you're in there

Come on out and fight like a bird (brain)

Two auctions in one day

First a machinery auction over in Sprout Brook.

Then a horse auction over at the fair grounds.

The elk are Hanchetts. We drive by all the time and they are way off in the pasture...much too distant for a good photo. Today they were right up by the fence.



The burnt out trucks and machines are from the Town of Root barn fire. What a terrible loss of equipment. It was nice to see all the trucks loaned by other towns lined up there. Good neighbors.

And this kids wants to drive

You try so hard to get them to pay attention...to use judgment...to think before acting.

And then the kid who is begging to be allowed to take his road test so he can join all his buddies who have theirs (and are out getting speeding tickets and rolling over their trucks) goes out to the barn and cuts the switch off his sister's show heifer. I couldn't believe it. I cannot describe to you how egregious it is to do such a thing. The switch is the puffy hair at the end of the tail. It takes a long time to grow. It is not required for showing, but a long, fluffy one adds so much to the appearance of an animal. And showing cows is absolutely number one in Liz's world, ahead, I think, of even rodeo.
And this heifer is the daughter of her two time junior champion. She is still a pretty heifer but it certainly will not help her chance to do well to have a bare stick for a tail.

She did have a big manure ball in her tail. It did need to be washed out (you will notice I said washed out not cut off).

"What were you thinking?" I shrieked when told.

"I wasn't", was the reply. .....my point exactly.

Argghhhh!!!!

****Update....his sister took it well, having seen enough bad this week not to want to worry too much about cow hair. There was in fact much discussion this evening about Bovine Rogaine or Hair Club for Heifers....

They're back...

(Or at least I hope so.)

The tame-ish chickadees that nested in an ornamental bird house on the sitting porch were checking it out again today. The photo was taking through the parlor window, so it isn't the greatest, but the bird sat there while I clicked off seven shots so I am not complaining.

Birds of the day

Robins, juncos, chickadees, white-breasted nuthatches, downy woodpeckers, rock doves, English sparrows (lousy sassenachs), mourning doves, song sparrows, crows, fifty grackles in a small tree all facing in the same direction, all evenly spaced like some strange decoration in a macabre store window, red-winged blackbirds, cardinals, gold finches, starlings, a fat tom turkey strutting right under the grackle tree, a couple of leftover Canadians winging it up the river, some small drab flycatcher that is not a phoebe, nattering from a bush by the barn, a phoebe snagging cluster flies by the big windows in the living room...all at the farm during this after storm day. Last week we saw our pair of purple finches, house finches, turkey vultures, assorted gulls, and a loon up on a little pond in Johnstown yesterday. (He was pretty big for such a small puddle.)

A great blue heron, pterodactyl ponderous, flapping over Randall, two horned larks showing their double collars perfectly as they flew in unison by Bellinger's apple orchard, a gaggle of mallards on the bike path, a kestrel lugging with no little difficulty a huge mouse or vole up where McClumpha's pile their straw....all seen on a trip to the FSA office today (and up around the "block" of course, to check out what was going on with farmer neighbors).

But my favorite is the woodcock, who is back at it in the horse pasture next to the house. I guess he is as glad as I am that it has stopped storming at least for the moment.

Another miss

Thankfully

THE FLOOD WARNING IS CANCELLED FOR
THE SCHOHARIE CREEK AT GILBOA BRIDGE.
* AT 2 AM TUES THE STAGE WAS 18.7 FEET.
* FLOOD STAGE IS 20 FEET.
* THE RIVER WILL RECEDE TO AROUND 17 FEET BY NOON TODAY

Nightmare

We were away at the dentist's office today when all this took place. the boss had to have a tooth yanked out. The girls were at college. Alan was in high school. When we came home Al was there already and he told us that the girls were coming home early because Gilboa Dam is at flood stage. A fellow who worked there called his wife to get folks from school to head for home early if they could. They took him at his word and skipped their late classes. Although we live high on a hill it is predicted that much of this part of the state would be under water very quickly if that ancient dam gives way. We pay it a lot of respect.

Update 9:30 PM...THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN ALBANY HAS ISSUED A FLOOD WARNING FOR SCHOHARIE COUNTY IN EAST CENTRAL NEW YORK. THIS INCLUDES THE CITY OF COBLESKILL. UNTIL 115 AM EDT TUESDAY. AT 119 PM EDT RADAR INDICATED ADDITIONAL MODERATE TO HEAVY RAINFALL ABOUT TO MOVE INTO THE COUNTY FROM THE EAST.
I wonder if the girls will have school tomorrow. Fonda is under a flood warning as well, so maybe Alan won't either.

Then when they got home they told us about the shootings at Virginia Tech. How on earth do you get your mind around such horror? Kids at the college were calling or texting friends who had transferred down there from our little SUNY school, trying to learn if they were all right. I worry about the 25-mile drive our kids make every day through deer and pot holes and Wal*Mart trucks as thick as fleas. I wish I didn't have to worry about this kind of thing too. I feel so bad for all the students, teachers and families that have anything to do with that college. What a nightmare.

Statute of limitations

As the mother/person in charge of general household tidiness, (and as someone who is weary of cleaning around it), I hereby declare a statute of limitations on change, (var. "loose", "stray" and "spare", but not including "pocket".) This statutory period of time will be up to, but not exceeding, the period of time that it takes me to get tired of looking at it.

Thus change (i.e. quarters, nickels, dimes, pennies, centimes, pesos, decimos, lira, shillings, markas, francs etc.) that is left lying around on the sideboard, dining room table, kitchen table, floor, desk, chairs, or stuck to the ceiling with pieces of spaghetti will be confiscated and put here:



Folding money will not fall under this statute, but if it clinks, jingles or rolls when dropped, it is subject to sudden and unexpected confiscation. (The little pile of quarters and pennies on the sideboard that was buried under .6 inches of noxious dust is already gone.)

Thus if you wish your metallic hoard to not join the one I am collecting to pay for food for camp, keep it in your pocket, purse or bedroom.

Thank you,
The management

Todd Fritsch Cheyenne City Limits

Every now and then I write the Farm Side about barn music, (and the wars that sometimes accompany it)...that is, what we listen to while we partake of the staggering ennui produced by milking the same cows over and over again every twelve hours infinitely (or so it sometimes seems). We are a musical bunch, some talented (not me) some just appreciative (yeah) and there is always something playing; Jason Aldean, Kieth Anderson, Trent Wilmon or sometimes George Strait. And sometimes Queen, very loud, if no one is around but Alan and me. Northview has a wee advantage over my thousand-word weekly moment of newspaper fame though. Here you can actually listen to what we listen to.

Or at least you can if you click on Todd Fritsch over in the side bar...or right here.

(Mattie, bro, I am talking to you here....you will like this guy if you can get your dial-up to download it. I just wait it out because it is worth it.)

Somewhere on the site (it moves around) you will find a little juke box. Once you find it, might I suggest Faith Ain't Faith, Bob Wills Song, The Cowboy Song...(or really anything else on there)? This guy is somewhere between Chris LeDoux and Garth Brooks and sings cowboy songs in a sweet, warm voice. He is a real Texas rancher so he knows what he is talking about too. I can listen to him all day (and in fact I have been listening to Faith Ain't Faith for the past twenty minutes.)

"Cheyenne city limits, ridin' a busted thumb, saddle over my shoulder, headin' back where I come from.
Rank broncs they left me, broke and all tore up....
An old man stopped to give me a lift in his beat up pick up truck
I crawled in and we drove off through that dark Wyoming night
It was downright eerie how that old man read my mind.
He said, son you've stopped believin' you can ride in the rodeo
Remember what your grandpa said, when you were twelve years old..

Faith ain't faith until it's all that you have left. Ridin' high is easy, but the lows are life's true test. Do your best to keep believin', the good Lord'll do the rest.
Faith ain't faith, son, until it's all that you've got left."

Nor' Easter...maybe

Since midweek the weather pundit folks have been predicting a severe winter storm for local environs. Thus the fellows scurried around all week getting in some extra firewood for us, and hay and straw for the cows . I picked up portable objects from the lawn and everyone battened down the hatches, or at least tied the canvas on the woodpile, during yesterday's prelude to the storm. (See ominous sunrise above.)

This morning we got up to fast falling snow, really coming down like Christmas. (The ground is already covered completely and I have only been up an hour.) For the first time ever the dogs were jumping on the back door minutes after I let them outside. Normally I have to call them for a minute, even though they can expect a nice crunchy, tasty, not-yet-recalled, dog biscuit when they come inside. I am hoping this exceptional behavior is not an omen.

Anyhow, the weather folks have now downgraded the whiny weather portents from winter storm warning to winter weather advisory....and flood watch.

If my calendar is correct today is the Ides of April. Where is spring? I think Clem hogging our share! When are we gonna get some nice weather so the guys can get on the ground and I can play in my gardens? Alan got half the fence built so we can get heifers out to pasture, but it will be hard for them to eat snow cones and icicles, so in they stay. Cabin fever is a normal January/February ailment for the northward dweller, but April? There is something wrong with this picture!

(Which BTW is the side lawn..note the cattail bog)

***Check this weather out!

Matthew Strikes again

I am sure everyone has seen the thinking blog thing....Matthew D sent it to me...five thinking blogs, hmmm......

I am thinking that the blogs that most keep me thinking are.

1) Pure Florida...not just thinking, smiling, laughing, knee slapping, looking things up to learn more, sometimes crying, always satisfied by a good read

2) Thoughts from the Middle of Nowhere...everybody loves Sarpy Sam

3) Upstream...local, pertinent, I may not always agree, but I'm always interested.

4)BOOKS BuckinJunction....written by my kids. I think I always will at least think about reading them and think I like them.

5) Blogriculture...this is a great blog, written by folks who work for the Capital Press farm newspaper. Sometimes they are funny, often they are thought-provoking, always worth reading.

I am only allowed five by the rules I guess, but I read everybody over there in the blog roll as often as I can. Cathy, Joni, Rosemoon, HT, Carina, Laurie, Jeff, Swen, and Matthew, who sent me this are frequent reads. So are Cubby and Karen and Mrs. Mecomber. And Wil. And Jan. And Caroline. And everybody else on the list. I read some because their lives are fascinating, some for their politics, others because they feel like family, and some because they are talented photographers, or writers, or funny, or just nice enough to link to me way back when nobody else did. I like the folks I have "met" blogging here at Northview and I thank them for their friendliness.

Interesting quote

From a story in USA Today.

"The desire for a raw natural diet is leading to a new pattern of foodborne illness," said Douglas Powell, a professor of food safety at Kansas State University in Manhattan."

Coyote

Laurainnj, who writes the fascinating blog, Somewhere in NJ, recently posted the story of the coyote down there that tried to carry a toddler off, right out of the family back yard. Many people had very interesting comments on her post and I got to thinking about our experiences with the little brush wolves here at Northview.

About thirty years ago, though I had lived most of my life hiking the mountains and working outdoors, I had never seen or heard one. They just weren't out there. Then on a trip to the Boonville area (not so very far from Canada) we heard a pack howling as we slept in our camper one night. It was a wonderfully eerie, hair-standing-up-on-the-back-of-your-neck experience.

Soon we were hearing them here, some distance farther south and east. They didn't bother much of anything and were an interesting reminder of wilder places. We still didn't see them, but we knew they were out there.

Then at age 26 I took up milking cows. Soon I married my farmer and coyotes took on a whole 'nother aspect. First they contented themselves with taking our cats. They just LOVE cats! From a high of around forty clustered around the free milk dish (thanks to all the folks who do drive-by drop-offs) we now have seven. Any that don't stay in the buildings are lunch. Next they began to prey on weakened animals like twin calves born outdoors at night. The mother cow can protect one quite successfully, but two are hard to cover. Then they killed a cow that fell down an embankment and couldn't stand. We couldn't get her on her feet, but she looked like she was going to recover, so we were carrying food and water to her with the truck. One morning her hide was almost entirely ripped off, her throat was torn out and, of course, she was dead. So to those who wonder if they can take deer, the answer is a resounding yes, even though they are quite content with rats and rabbits when they can get them.


Later a pair of them drove the visiting nurse off the back porch when she stopped to care for my late mother-in-law who was receiving hospice care. The nursing service called us in high dudgeon to come get our dogs off the porch so the nurse could get in. No dogs though, just a pair of coyotes that were bolder than they needed to be.

I suspect the one that attacked the child was rabid, like the fisher that attacked a woman in her garage near here, or didn't realize that the child was a person. I have no fear of them bothering me personally, even though I have encountered them many times when walking in the fields. They are bolder than foxes, which bolt willy nilly, but not aggressive-seeming. They offer us dirt farmers a boon in that they kill woodchucks, which otherwise build great mounds of dirt around the holes they dig in hayfields. There is something about a hidden pile of dirt and stones that is rough on farm machinery! We don't miss the chucks as they just adapted to the predators and moved down to the house, where they dig holes under all the buildings.


However, to all the folks who claim that we are encroaching on coyote habitat and thus should be happy to have problems with them, sorry, this time we were here first. Unquestionably people drove wolves out of the northeast and opened a niche for the little wild dogs, but coyotes didn't show up here in upstate New York until LONG after I was born. The cities they are moving into were there many decades before they arrived to sort through the garbage and grab small dogs. I am sure they are here to stay though, so we get calves in off the hill as fast as we can, and are thankful for cows like Zinnia, who would protect a baby from a whole pack of real wolves if she had to.

The things you see

Seen on the street in Fultonville

Seen creeping up out in the main garden

Seen from the big windows just before the sun went down

....on a fine (finally) spring day.

In case you ever wonder...

....why I am this way. My parents, (abetted by my grandparents), used to sing this song to me. It was performed at different times by Bing Crosby and Dorothy Shay, who released it in 1947. I was born the same year as Vladimir Putin and am three days younger than Dan Akroyd, so I don't know why they chose me for this particular golden oldie. I was a nice kid, really I was. There were other female grandchildren in the family, but I was the only one to receive the signal honor of my own song. It is really not fair.

Here is the chorus:

Daughter, baby daughter,
Poisoned all the neighbors chickens.
Daughter hadn't oughter
Least 'till she could run like the dickens.
They hit her with a shovel!

They pronounced it "Dotter".
They still call me that.

I think I like this guy

*****

For those of you, who, like me, don't watch 60 Minutes, here is the transcript of a show on Rick Berman, AKA "Dr. Evil", a lobbyist for the other side of the food-as-societal-scourge and deadly -poison-that-will-kill-you-if-you-eat story. Even if you don't agree with him he is pretty entertaining. As someone who makes a living (sort of) selling a food product, his ideas are a welcome bit of sanity in a world that seems to have lost all common sense to me.

"I have no problem with education. But, education turns into regulation, you know?" Berman says. "As the government gets deeper and deeper into people's lives, they start to dictate more and more. If a bartender can cut you off for visibly being intoxicated, why won't we get to the point where a restaurant operator is not allowed to let you order dessert? I mean, you could get there."

Nobody wants to see a drunk driver coming at them down the middle of the highway, but I don't think it is time to regulate pecan pie intake just yet.

****Nice sunrise today again...amazing lot of black birds hanging around, grackles, red winged black birds, cow birds and starlings.

The only thing making this possible

This is what is making life semi, sorta, halfway, bearable during this unseasonable spate of cold, nasty weather. I posted it over at the View last week, but I just wanna look at it some more and pretend I am not freezing......

More pet food recall

Carina posted this story today and I think it is really worth reading.

Happy Easter

Why I can't seem to find the energy to write about anything...

The normal temperature here for this time of year is fifty......today it is a balmy 28.

Sunrise

Almost but no cigar...thank God!

First there was a bomb threat at the school today...kids had to stand out in twenty degree weather for quite some time, then hunker down in the concrete-walled gym while the bomb-sniffing dogs were brought in to go through the buildings....
no bomb.

Then Old Roy dog biscuits were recalled....and on the fridge are the remains of a great big bag, the rest of which was devoured with great relish by a certain trio of border collies that I know. The Sunshine Mills website listed lots of closely related sizes and flavors of biscuits that contain melamine...
the ones on the fridge weren't on the list...
or at least not yet.

I am most grateful that both of these close calls were just that, on behalf of my favorite boy and the best dogs in the world.....

Old stone mill

The stream below the mill

Had to go to Oneonta again and finally got a couple shots of this old mill. It was kind of hairy parking along I-88 with the semi's roaring by practically scooping the car up in their slip streams. Kind of a neat old place though.

Don't pay more for the same stuff

"In a recent study, lab analysis of 95 different brands of retail milk purchased in 48 states confirmed all milk naturally contains the same hormones. There was no difference in hormone content of retail milk based on label claims regarding the use of POSILAC."

Center of the dance

We hadn't heard the woodcock since I posted about him the other night so I figured that he had moved on. However, I heard a faint twitter when I was walking over from the barn tonight, once again as the last pink faded in the west. Soon a loud peent came from over by the horse pond. I wanted to walk up there, but I was pretty sure crashing through the brush with a flashlight would spook him, so I just stood in the driveway behind the car. The Interstate was loud, but I could hear the peent quire clearly Figured it would be hard to hear the sky dance, but danged if he didn't do a big circle right over my head. I have never heard one make such a huge circle, all the way from the pond to the heifer barn, which is on the other side of the house. It was great....worth waiting for my dinner of homemade soup to stand and listen.

On Fiery Hill

From inside the house foundation

"White bronze" marker

And old marble stone

We made a trip to the abandoned farm where the boss's mom grew up. Nothing left but the foundation, a lot of brush, a few stones and some realtor's signs. Wish we were rich enough to gather up all these old farms and keep them safe.....

The cemetery is up the road a bit, and may have nothing to do with the farm, but it is very lovely. I especially like the zinc monument... I have been wanting to get up there since we finally got a digital camera to take pictures of it before something happens to it. (Although as it happens someone has done quite a bit of work cleaning up around the stones etc.)

**Photos by Alan

Geese

Muskrat houses

Over on Route Twenty near Sharon Springs. They dwarf the tiny pond they occupy. Must be quite a sight when as many rats as it took to build 'em start swimming around and cutting cattails. The pond must churn like somebody was stirring it with a souped up Evinrude!

Timberdoodle

Coming over from the barn last night, talking a bit to Alan, pleasantly tired, happy to be finished with chores... just past daylight...barely needed the flashlight. Suddenly something hurtled past my head on whistling wings, a speeding susurrus, silhouetted momentarily against the last orange glow in the west. Mourning dove, I thought, wow, she is out late.

Then, from the flat, grassy knoll up by the horse pasture pond it came....for the first time in at least fifteen years I heard a very special sound. The buzzy, rasping, nasal peent! of a male woodcock courting a mate. Ah, all became clear... the feathery bullet was his lady friend heading elsewhere in a heck of a hurry.

We have a dancer! Big news! I was thrilled. Indeed cold shivers ran up and down my arms. Alan made fun of me, saying that they (woodcocks, that is) are all over the back of the farm; all I have to do is walk out there to see one. However, he has never heard the dance and doesn't understand that watching one bomb through the bushes like a flying rocket or hearing one dance are not the same thing. Not the same at all.

It was too cold last night, I was too tired, it was too dark. But (if he stays) Alan and I will tiptoe up to the pond one night soon to watch and listen to the magical sky dance. If we are lucky, Mr. Timberdoodle will spiral skyward, then hurtle to earth piping the ethereal mating whistle that makes these fat, pointy-nosed little birds a ghostly springtime wonder. It is such a special thing that you almost feel guilty watching...like you were in some one else's church or something. Once he stands there in the darkness, hearing that other-worldly song, I think my boy will know what I mean about timberdoodles though.

I had never seen the sky dance and didn't know of it at all until I read A Sand County Almanac in college, having grabbed it off the college bookstore shelf because it had a pretty cover. (Now there was a life changing moment....all these years later and I still think of the things I read there, especially how chickadees come to folks who cut firewood...looking for insects. (They do btw.) You just never know when an important book will sort of jump off the shelf at you and change your way of looking at the world.)

Later someone important to me at that time in my life found a dancing ground across the road from my camp in Caroga Lake. We sat on the tail gate of my pick up truck in the driveway, every single clear night, swatting mosquitoes and watching the dance as the sun went down. I didn't have a TV then and didn't miss it either.
When I moved down here to the valley, there was another dancer who regularly performed on the heifer pasture flats behind the house. Then a few years ago he left for some reason and I never heard another until last night.

Now we have a possible avian thespian setting up stage out by the pond, which is already one of my favorite places on the farm.
I hope he stays.

Golden morning

I just liked the way these scraggly old trees framed the rising sun this morning.

Whoo hoo

Check this out! A very special person gave Becky a call tonight to let her know that Emerson Drive is expected to perform at Fonda Fair, right across the river from us. After what she went through last year upon finishing high school, including having the concert to which we bought her tickets for graduation canceled, this is pretty special. I know what we will be doing this August 31st, the good Lord willin' and the crick don't rise.

We are wondering if the guys actually read the letter Liz wrote them last year detailing Beck's big disappointment and asking them to think about either coming back to Northern Lights or playing the fair. We will probably never know, as they never answered the letter, but excitement reigns tonight anyhow.

Growing lettuce indoors (part two)

This has worked out amazingly well. We have enjoyed lots of lettuce for sandwiches and small salads and it just keeps coming back no matter how much we pick. The boss makes amazing croûtons (really good in soup too, so I made some of that Saturday, with venison, homegrown ground beef and a little Italian sausage from our 2006 piggies) so with a little super sharp hunter's cheddar and some ranch dressing we are rich indeed.

Hmmm

Someone kindly nominated Northview for a blog of the day award and I just wanted to say thanks...so thanks.

Today

Worth reading

Turkish Dogs has a really well thought out post up just now, which details the agenda of the Humane Society of the United States and PeTA in a truly enlightening manner. You know, of course, that as far as those organizations are concerned we have no right to interact with animals unless they are starring in animated Disney drivel and we are paying to look them on the TV screen.
Janice has included some truly damning quotes inher post. You will be grinding your teeth, I'll tell you.

Maybe tomorrow

567 Purebred cattle killed by bookkeeping

Just in case you think National Animal Identification is harmless read this story about a farmer in Great Britain whose records are alleged to be not quite up to snuff...so they killed all his cows on him.

Imagine half a million pounds worth of purebred dairy cattle butchered at a "secret location". Imagine not even paying the farmer for his loss. As in, hey buddy, you are out of business, too bad for you....all because of violations which have not been proved, and with no crime being charged. To me it is a signal to every livestock owner in the US, whether you own two back yard chickens or 10, 000 milk cows, to maintain your vigilance against NAIS. Don't let them pretend that it is voluntary and don't believe that it isn't going to hurt you.

Seventeen

Happy Birthday Alan!

Doctor Green

That is what a vet we used to have called the first green grass of spring. Sarpy Sam's photo of his beef cows casting out across his Montana pastures in search of a few new blades got me thinking about that. Here in the frozen (see photo below) Northeast, dairy cows spend most of the winter indoors. If they are outside too long when it is this cold their teats freeze. (A frostbitten udder is an ugly thing indeed.)


However, after several months of having every bite they eat carried to them (and all of it being stored feed), they need a chance to forage around and nibble on whatever tempts them. Green grass can make them sick if they get an excess in the spring, but they just love to have some.


We have to work hard sometimes to keep them eating through the challenging weeks after they have a calf. This period when their whole metabolism is changing from resting through their "dry period" vacation to working hard making milk is called transition. Sometimes the process goes awry and they stop eating. Cows that don't eat die. Unlike humans who can go weeks without food, a cow had better be eating or chewing her cud almost all the time or you need to start worrying. Sometimes when one is just a little backward, something tasty will make her forget her woes and begin to eat again without being doctored on. There is nothing more tempting to a winter-sour cow than a handful of green grass. Even when it is too muddy to let them out, as soon as the first green spears show up west of the machinery shed, the kids and I go pick some and hand feed it to our pets. Or any cow that is a little off feed....or anybody with a long tongue and a soulful expression. You should see them bang their stanchions up and down when they catch the scent of someone with a pail of grass. It is cupboard love in its finest form. Most of us cringe when we see the doctor coming, but for cows when it is Doctor Green they come a runnin'.

Movin' On

*Grackle trying to use the tube feeder*

I came back over to the house today, half-way through milking, to get another cup of the beverage described below. Usually I take that all important second cup with me when I go out to milk, having consumed the first here at the computer, while waiting for the rest of the household to rise and shine (or rise and glower, as the case may be.) However, last night we got a mess of fresh snow on top of partly frozen tractor ruts and mud and walking was tricky.

Anyhow, while I waited the 2.25 minutes that I nuke the water for my all-important Tasters Choice, I looked out the window over the kitchen sink at the heifer pasture hill. You never know what you might see out there, from turkeys, deer and squirrels to those big black half dog/half coyote things that got the neighbor's pony. Today there were blackbirds flying past, a little above treetop level, just about over the north side fence. The flock undulated, wave-like, as they went, maybe seventy or eighty birds in sight at any one time.

They flew...and flew..and flew...the whole time the water heated, all the time it took me to put in the coffee, sugar, and milk. All the time it took me to tug on two pairs of gloves, slip outside and get all the way to the cow barnyard without spilling any. It had to be at least five minutes worth of grackle, red-winged black bird and probably some brown-headed cow birds. At the same time starlings shuttled back and forth, blue jays flashed by and a few geese sounded their distant hound dog cries. I'll bet there were a thousand stretched birds across the roughly half a mile that makes up our road frontage.

There may be snow on the ground and ice on the river, but the ones who arrive first gets the prettiest mates and the fanciest nesting sites. The birds aren't waiting for the weather; they are migrating and they are doing it NOW.

The things you learn

***1453: Coffee is introduced to Constantinople by Ottoman Turks. The world's first coffee shop, Kiva Han, open there in 1475. Turkish law makes it legal for a woman to divorce her husband if he fails to provide her with her daily quota of coffee.***

I have been gently (and intermittently) enjoying the Outlander series of books for some months now. I read perhaps a chapter or two each day, with a marathon every Sunday afternoon. (On a normal non-Outlander Sunday, I polish off at least two books, but these are really, really BIG). They are vastly entertaining and thought-provoking too and I like 'em.

A lot. I am most grateful to find an author I enjoy who has written a plenitude of material because I am always running out of book before I run out of interest. These books are teaching me a great deal, as one part or another sends me searching the Internet to find more details on dozens of topics. (I also dream of Jamie and Claire as if they were friends or family members...not sure what that is all about, but I don't mind it.)

Reading about the American colonists in such detail fired up my curiosity about just how coffee found its way around the world. (After all, since it is such good stuff; we should surely comprehend its origins). This timeline tells the tale pretty well.

***The above quote should serve as a warning to husbands even if they don't come from Turkey. Don't mess with the lady and her coffee! (Or get between her and a good book!)

Frosty morning

*Taken 3/2

Chicken dinner with a side of cow stomachs

*There be mountains*
*Even if they are kind of small*

*A pretty red train that was parked along the road*

*Beaver house on Route 7 near Oneonta*
*Photos by Alan*

When I hear the bugling of north bound geese I can just lean over here at my computer, look up and out the window, and watch them winging over the barns and house headed for the Arctic tundra. Any other time of year they pretty much seem like pests, gobbling crops and hanging around parks eating and excreting, but in the spring their calls are stirring. Electrifying even. They make you want to get up, get moving, and go out doors and do something.

Therefore yesterday Alan, Becky and I did a bit of gallivanting. We headed off to Oneonta after chores in search of the elusive Brook's Barbecue chicken dinner. As it happened that is just what was being served at a farm information meeting presented by the company from which we purchase our cow grain, Pennfield Animal Feeds. Since this week's Farm Side is going to be about said meeting I won't spoil it for local folks by telling you all about it. However, it was a pretty trip as you can see from Alan's photographs. We sang all the way down and all the way back. With Alan's steady (not to mention on key) bass to help us along, even Becky and I could get by. We actually discussed the possibility of just driving right on by and singing some more, but the lure of that wily chicken was just too strong. We gave in.

At the dinner we learned important facts about raising calves, including all sorts of stuff about esophageal grooves, abomasums, reticulums, rumens and rabies. I also won door prize of a nice hat and Alan won a tote full of goodies and tools. He traded me the tote for my hat, shared the cookies and crackers with everyone, and snagged the ruler and work gloves right quickly (before some a certain nameless individual could get HIS hands on them).

It was a valuable meeting especially in that the program information could be used by small farmers like us, even though it applied to just about any size farm. All too often we may learn something new at a farm meeting, but it is something almost impossible, or at least totally impractical, to implement on a fifty-cow dairy. I was grateful to bring home information on raising babies that I could put into practice this very morning, rather than talking about it while milking, then letting it fade from my memory because it was a thousand miles out of reach for little old Northview.

I have to thank the geese for the inspiration and Pennfield for prime poultry and super schooling. I had a real nice time!

Ironic indeed

I'm sorry, but this just makes me shake my head in wonder...

"A North Pole expedition meant to bring attention to global warming was called off after one of the explorers got frostbite."


Am I missing something here?

"Then there was the cold - quite a bit colder, Atwood said, then Bancroft and Arnesen had expected. One night they measured the temperature inside their tent at 58 degrees below zero, and outside temperatures were exceeding 100 below zero at times, Atwood said."

Mackey wins

Come Back Kennels came back in a big way as Lance Mackey won the 2007 Iditarod and became the first musher ever to win back to back Yukon Quest and Iditarod sled dog races.

Jeff King, my own favorite musher, had class enough to cheer Mackey on when it became clear that he himself was out of the running. Jeff is running in fifth place right now. Zack Steer, who will likely come in third is in Safety.


***I see by reading his profile that I should be including Paul Gebhardt, this year's second place musher, in my list of favorites....he grew up on a Minnesota dairy farm, which makes him A-okay in my book!

What a dog race..Iditarod 2007

Day 10. As the leaders pass towns and check points with names like Shaktoolik and Unalakleet, this years race has turned into a dash for Nome with several top racers within a few hours of one another. Right now Lance Mackey has a decent lead, but Paul Gebhart is making him work for it. Martin Buser, Jeff King, and Zack Steer round out the top five. Other high caliber mushers are also within striking distance.

Mackey has an interesting thing going with the fact that he is running the race for the sixth time wearing bib number 13. His father and brother both won it under those circumstances and it looks like those numbers might be the charm for him too.

Propane explosion and train derailment

Big news in Upstate New York. I haven't seen a train all day so I guess the tracks are still closed. They were this morning anyhow. It is so quiet with no rumble grumble across the river every few minutes.

Oops

If I have missed replying to your comments, or answering emails from a couple of you who are my favorite folks, it is because I somehow changed the filters on my main mail box. Kind of an "oh, duh", moment. I think I have it fixed now, but if you are fuming and wondering why I am so rude, well, now you know. Nothing to do with rude, but everything to do with clutzy. Or idiotic. Or careless. Or a doofus. You get the idea.

Sorry.... if you have emailed me in the past few days and didn't get an answer I humbly apologize, but you are going to have to resend because they are just gone...

More possibilities

You might be a dairyman if....

(These are a little more graphic than the last set).
Still an awful lot of them apply to me.

Number one: is a big waste of time. You do it AFTER work
Number two: Yep, haven't we all? Nails too. Fence pliers, nitrile gloves....I could go on and on
Three: And Sunday
Four: No accident about it
Five: And dinner
Seven: And worse things
Eight: It's "have drunk". (Where do these kids go to school anyhow?)
Nine: Some are tougher than others. What farmer hasn't seen a perfectly healthy cow with "I am dead, aren't I?" syndrome? Or maybe it is "I have fallen and I can't get up."
Ten: Shirts too
Eleven: Right up there with baling twine
Twelve: They are aren't they?
Thirteen: No, it is "close enough for government work" around here.
Fourteen: Fluffy reindeer bathrobe actually. It is warmer than jammies and covers a multitude of sins
Fifteen:Nope
Sixteen: Yup, and more than once
Seventeen:Yes that too
Eighteen: Uh, huh,
Nineteen and twenty: some cows are smart as rocks and have a death wish too. From getting loose and falling upside down with their head pinned under them in the manger to getting wedged upside down in the watering trough I have seen more than I want to.
Twenty-one: Actually I love the stuff
Twenty-two: Both, not at the same time
Twenty-three: Actually not
Twenty-four and twenty-five: When the boss had emergency surgery and I was all alone I could lie down on a bale of hay and sleep as long as no one bothered me
Twenty-six: All my life in fact
Twenty-seven: Well, you get the idea. I have never tried to back up a spreader, because that is not one of my jobs, but I can back up a forage chopper and hook up wagons (it took me a very, very long time to learn though). Fairs used to be a lot more fun than they are now. Too old and tired I guess. And I have no problem whatsoever figuring out what to do with a day off. It's finding them that is a problem.

It could be

You might be a dairy farmer if..........

John Deere Day

At KC Canary in Fultonville. It was so busy all day this was the only time I could take a picture that the booth wasn't full of people!

A kind of different

Line of clouds

Do as I say, not as I do

Here is a good editorial by Steven Malloy about Al Gore's hypocritical views on using energy...which are that because he is rich he can use all he wants, but the rest of us should tighten our belts and ride our bikes.

"While Gore relaxes in his posh pool house and heated pool, you should be taking shorter and colder showers, and hanging your laundry outside to dry. As Gore jets around the world in first-class comfort to hob-nob with society’s elites about his self-declared “moral imperative”, you should travel less and bike to work. You should use less electricity while Al and his wife, Tipper, use 20 times the national average. Now that’s a real carbon offset."

I already hang my laundry outside to dry, heat with wood, (which is pretty darned renewable), and drive as little as possible. However, I am not willing to give a pass on pollution to countries like China or India and $300 men like Gore.

Dean's List

Both girls got notices yesterday that they made it last semester. It was Becky's first semester of college and I think the fifth for Liz. She has made it every semester.

Green

A tiger in his previous birth

Or so the neighbors are saying about this carnivorous calf.

Jonrowe and Swingley scratch from Iditarod Race

Both 53-year old Doug Swingley and Dee Dee Jonrowe, same age, have scratched their teams from this year's race. Swingley is said to have possibly broken some ribs and dislocated his thumb in an accident. Jonrowe broke at least one finger in a fall and may have further damage to her hand. It is a shame to see these two respected veterans forced to stop, but I am in awe that they can run at all. I only have one year on them and I am sure not up for running over a thousand miles in weather colder even than it is here (and trust me, it is plenty cold. The transmission on the work truck is frozen, making it impossible to get any hay).

Here is the official site for the race. Here is Susan Butcher's family website, which supports the families and children of cancer patients.

That pesky global warming

Stop by Northview Dairy Farm this week and enjoy our forecast: from Channel 10...

Today will feature partly to mostly sunny skies and afternoon temperatures will struggle to rise to between 5 and 10 for the area. This would be a RECORD LOW MAX temperature for the date which is 15 dating back to 1901. On Wednesday...a weak storm will track to our south. This will increase the clouds and there could be a few flurries, especially south of Albany. When this goes by, another blast of Arctic Air arrives for Thursday !

We may set another record low max temperature on Thursday and possibly a record low temperature Thursday night/Friday morning.

Guest post

This was written by our esteemed veterinarian here at Northview and is something folks really should be aware of....

Beware, American Consumers!

I am writing to inform the unwitting American consumer, that they are being duped and defrauded by the Retailers of America, of which, Price Chopper has just joined the ranks. There is a rapidly growing movement to sell milk by large processors and retailers (Wal-Mart, Dean Foods, Price Chopper, etc.) at a higher price to the consumer by calling it "rBST-free", or "artificial hormone free” milk. BST (Bovine Somatotropin) is a naturally occurring hormone produced by all cows in response to lactation. All milk has the same amount of BST in it, whether or not cows are injected with rBST (Posilac). So the milk that is labeled as being different and sold at a premium is no different.

rBST (recombinant Bovine Somatotropin) is a FDA-approved supplement, that about 20-30% of our Dairy Farmers use to help cows produce more milk. It is one of the most heavily researched and studied drugs to ever be approved for use in Animal Agriculture, and has been in use for over 12 years. It is simply a tool that helps dairy farmers make a living.

Aside from the baseless fear marketing to the consumers, what is the most troubling about this trend towards “rBST- free” milk is that it is occurring at a time when farmers are enduring the worst prices they have ever seen. They are receiving the same for their milk that they received in the 1970's and 80's, yet we all know how much more fuel, electric, and other inputs cost today. Under current market conditions, not a single dairy farmer is making a profit milking cows.

To add insult to injury, they are being coerced into giving up a safe, approved technology, without adequate and fair compensation. The only people profiting from “rBST-free” milk are the processors and retailers. It is very troubling to me that the labels are illegal and misleading, according to the Food and Drug Administration, which is not enforcing its own labeling laws. So please don=t be mislead. All Milk is Milk. Whether it is produced Organically, or non-Organically, with r-BST or without. It has the same composition. It is all antibiotic free. It all has hormones in it. Milk is Milk.

The only way to stop this movement of selling milk through fear tactics is to not buy it. Buy regular milk; the same milk you have been buying forever. Don't spend your hard earned money on a marketing ploy, that is illegal and misleading, and driving dairy farmers out of business. Our farmers are the most efficient food producers in the world. We need to support them and appreciate them, or we will some day be as dependent on foreign food as we are on foreign oil.

Kris Harshman, DVM

Dairy Veterinarian since 1985

Iditarod Starts

My favorite sporting event of the year and the last great race has begun in Anchorage, Alaska.
82 teams, 1000 dogs, what could be more exciting? It kicked off yesterday with the ceremonial start downtown and will continue for over a thousand miles over frozen snow, hard bare ground and some of the roughest conditions on earth. To the winner $69,000 and a truck. to everyone, even those of us who follow from afar, a huge dose of pioneer-style adventure and excitement.
For the best coverage I have found visit Cabela's Iditarod site.


Jeff King is always a favorite of mine, but it is easy to get behind almost anyone brave and determined enough to get behind a team of dogs and head out into the wilderness. Included among them is the husband of the late Susan Butcher and their daughter, Tekla, who will ride the trail later this season in her honor.

There is much excitement over this year's event, as there is the potential for another five time winner if any of several mushers including King and Martin Buser or Doug Swingley should win.

A boy and his cow(ch)

Alan and his show cow, Bayberry, who is used to kids using her as a portable seat.

Birdy Weather Watching

This time of year it is hard to get away from the topic of weather. We have had it all in the past four or five days, snow, sleet, freezing rain, fog and warm sunny days that feel like April (I vote for more of those). This morning it is foggy with the ground covered with a cast iron coating of yesterday's ice. I will be glad when the walk to and from the barn is done, as it is a real challenge to get over there and back.

Weird things have been going on with my garden pond. I ran a stock tank heater on it during the worst of the cold (it is, after all, a stock tank.) The other day there was a huge opening in the ice, right down to the bottom with no water showing. I figured that the ice had cracked it and let the water out and I was going to be missing a lot of fish and plants. Then yesterday's rain filled it right back up again. I simply don't understand what is going on out there, but I sure hope the fish and green frogs that are spending the winter there are all right. I filled and cleaned the twenty gallon fish tank in the living room anyhow, just in case I see some fish, and can bring them in.

The birds make being outside enjoyable just the same. Last night, as the almost full moon ascended behind the old horse pasture, a couple of dozen ducks swirled in front of it before pitching down toward the river. As I turned to walk away one last one raced across it, a speeding black silhouette on its cold white face. All I need was a camera and fast reflexes. Didn't have either though.

Chickadees are singing their spring call, DEE, dee, dee, and taking no prisoners at the feeders. Normally they wait their turn, what with being the tiniest of the visitors, but now they charge in to grab seeds as if they were overnight blue jays on a tear. They blow through the gold finches like a hot breeze and the bushes ring with them. I think the tame pair is still around as a couple of them fly right up to me, bitching and begging if the feeders are bare.

Cardinals are in ready-for-spring mode as well, whistling from all over. We have quite a flock this year and they make a lot of music. Even the starlings sound like water over stones as they chortle from the eaves of the heifer barn.

One of the colder days when updrafts were few, a resident red-tailed hawk landed about two feet above the ground in a bush just outside the living room windows. The hunting is probably good out there in the overgrown pasture and he stayed quite a time, while we admired his massive, feathery self. Then he soared off looking as big as an eagle against the brown and white of snow and dried golden rod.

Even though it is easy to find beauty in this ice-bound season I am eager for spring. Everything is just too cold and hard right now. Snow is six feet deep in all the farm roads, with ice a couple of inches thick on top of it. Nothing we own will move it or negotiate it, so you can't get anything done without a huge hassle. The men are piling manure, can't get out to the woodlot, can't safely navigate the driveways even with four wheel drive, working is just plain lousy on an all day, every day basis.
Please send me a warm day, mud and all, if you have one to spare; I am half past ready.....

BOOKS

BOOKS is the kind of blog that can make you proud.

BuckinJunction is too.


***Update: One of the authors of these two blogs pointed out rather sharply to me that they are NOT written by my sisters, as I actually have none of those. Rather these are the work of my two older female children. Thus the new labels....