Just fine

Yesterday Alan got to go to a big tractor pull....way out near Buffalo, the Dansville ESP Tractor Pull. The rest of us stayed home.

Which was fine.

Until evening milking time.

First the boss went out to bale up a load of hay and unload a couple of loads into the mow....

Which was fine

Until every single bale began to hang up in the chain on the hay elevator. When the girls and I went over to milk he was on his sixth trip up the ladder into the mow and about as happy as a hornet on a hot plate. (Not quite so fine.)

Eventually he got things working and got the hay put away while the girls and I got the cows grained (Liz), the milker set up, and the herd brought down from pasture and put in the barn.

Which was fine.


Until we discovered that Encore was missing. She is a little summer yearling of mine (sister to Etrain) Liz kept up to show. When she decided to take a small string this year we turned her out. It was after seven before they found her hiding in some brush as far back in the pasture as you can get. Then we couldn't catch her, because for some reason a couple of full sisters, Beech and Butternut, decided that they really needed to beat her up. Every time we got close to her one of them would come and throw her with their head and she would run away again. Eventually Liz got her hands on her and wrestled a halter onto her head. What with driving all the other cows out of the yard, closing the gates, getting her into a stall, which had to be set up as all were full, it was nearly ten PM before we got done with chores. Two hours late is plumb painful, especially on Sunday, which in theory, should be and easier day.
The kid got home from the tractor pull about ten minutes after we came in from the barn, just in time to miss all the fun.

Which was fine.

***The top photo is of the Supernatural, which belongs to a friend of ours.

Some animal rights stories

Nice folks these. (Killing the family dogs was what really got me going.)

And these

They're everywhere. (The problem is that chickens are simply NOT cats or dogs.)

Frost in June

The sun looked brassy enough this morning.

Who would believe that Wednesday night it froze? The moon flowers and cardinal climber took a serious hit and a tomato got nipped pretty badly. This is the latest spring frost I have ever seen here. Two days later it is in the upper eighties. Weird weather!

MIlk prices, oil prices..which should be higher?

Elaine Shein, my good friend at Blogriculture, has written a wonderful post on recent milk price increases. She really has it nailed. I find the Capital Press blog, Blogriculture, to be among the very best Ag blogs because it is well-written and entertaining, yet covers farm issues with real insight.
Thanks, Elaine, for sticking up for dairy farmers and our products. We need all the help we can get.

Thanks also to all you good folks who run to the store for a gallon of our product or grab a pizza with extra cheese or a milk shake with your lunch. We love you all. The girls all love you too.... 96, Char, Zinnia, Bariolee, Lemonade, ETrain, 114, Junie, Beausoleil, England, Bailey, Voldemar, Bayberry, Volcano, Adela, Star, Beech, Balsam, Butternut (3 full sisters) Veronica, Heather, Hattie, Hooter, (the Jersey girls) Lily, Mandolin Rain, Zipper, Kid, Jingle, Colorado, Sedona, Boston, Eland, Drive, Soir Noir, Chicago, Cisco (mother of Kid), Egrec, Elendil, Brink, Salt Lake, Lakota, Foolish, Detroit, Marge, Mango, Marvel, Sequoia, Berlin, Virginia, Mary, Mento, Consequence, Crunch, all think anybody who drinks milk or eats cheese is terrific.

So do all their "kids" ...Mendocino AKA Blitz, Zany, Hazel, Hicktown, Bama Breeze, Encore, Blink (daughter of Brink, of course), Takala, Chickadee, Armada, Camry, Alpha Zulu (AKA Alpha Zulu Pinecone) Magic, Medina, Spruce, Broadway, heck I could go on all day. They all love anyone who has ever worn a milk mustache, or said yes to Got Milk? because they would be out of a job without you! Thanks for making June Dairy Month!

Heifers

These are the heifers out at pasture. We had to bring them all down today as a cow that was running with them had a calf early and we needed to get her in. We pulled all the drys and close up heifers out of there and put them with the milk cows so we don't have to bring the whole bunch in every time there is a calf. It is easier to watch them when they are with the milking herd as we bring them all in twice every day and they get handled more. Also we will be turning a bull out there in the next couple of days to catch any the shorthorn bull missed and we don't want to have to go in with him and try to take cattle out.

We got a heavy dose of Barry over the past couple of days with heavy rains, high winds and amazingly cold temperatures. It will go down to 37 tonight and was in the low 40s last night. I felt sorry for the show heifers that are running out with the cows. They were so cold this morning that their hair was standing all on end and they looked awful. Cows don't usually mind chilly weather, but they were so wet when it turned cold that it was rough on them. The darned wind flattened the irises, which were spectacular this year....oh, well, we had them for a few days and it is supposed to get better tomorrow.

On the upside, I wish I could bottle a couple gallons of Mohawk Valley air right now and send it where ever you are. All along the valley thousands of locust trees and billions of wild grapes are in bloom all at the same time. The scent is like the freshest, cleanest, sun dried laundry you could imagine. It sneaks up on you when you least expect it, bringing a moment of sheer delight. I want to find someone who will let me dig a couple of black locust seedlings and plant them up near the bowling green where we lost the big apple tree last year. Then I can enjoy them up close and personal every June from now on.

PBR in Verona, NY

Moving the bulls

Mike White signing autographs

Not quite 8

Liz and I traded in some extra hours of work yesterday for a day off to see the rodeo. Of course the long go had no more than started when a wind storm that swirled hats into the sky like a cloud of flying mushrooms, swept in a miserable rain storm. Like the chickens that we are we retreated from our seats right in front of the chutes to perch in a private box in the enclosed grand stand. I hated to leave our vantage point, but Liz, with her superior camera, actually got some great shots because we were up above the fence. Still there is a lot more drama when you are thirty feet from the thudding hoofs and popping tails. My pictures are cropped from my sorry little 3X zoom, but you can get an idea f the action anyhow. I am sure a little later today Liz will have some great stuff on BuckinJunction, which, after all, is mostly dedicated to rodeo.

It wasn't all bull

To get to the rodeo we had to drive west...way west. The trip was not without its rewards, however. Near one oddly dry field (causing us to wonder where the heck she came from and where she was headed) a large snapping turtle threatened all comers from the side of the highway. Her head, big as an armored softball, wobbled menacingly at the end of her leathery stalk of a neck as she contemplated speeding cars. She put me in mind of certain older ladies you see sometimes with similar necks and duplicate attitudes. I sure didn't want to mess with her. I wondered if she would survive the road crossing she was attempting. There was a staggering amount of traffic for a quiet Sunday morning. She was right up against the white line hoping to scare the cars into getting out of her way I guess. Since she was no where to be seen on the return trip, I suspect she made it. Of course the babies from the eggs she was out to lay might not be as lucky, but still...

Later we dropped down off the hills west of Fort Plain to see this amazing field of white. It was like a snowy blanket thrown over the hay field in front of the historic little church. I thought at first that it was planted buckwheat, which, when in bloom is pretty spectacular. However, it was millions of daisies all in flower at one. The picture simply does not convey the number and brilliance of the flowers. I should have used Liz's camera I guess.

Buffalo wallow

Joni has a picture of one that is really neat. Even though I have read about them in all kinds of books, I had never seen a picture before.


Sorry there have been scant posts lately. Liz went rodeoing yesterday and today I have to accompany her. Makes for craziness to have people away at crop planting, calve having time.

Making her Internet Debut

Frieland LF Bama Breeze
"Bama"

World Milk Day 2008

June 1 is World Milk Day, have a glass!

I was kind of tickled

About this

But this is so horrible

That I truly feel sick about it. These poor people losing all their years of hard work, having to kill so many cattle, probably because the government doesn't do a very good job of managing wildlife problems.

Break in at the school last night...

With strange things stolen, such as a teacher's favorite marker and all the completed chemistry lab papers, including Alan's. Nothing on the news yet, but I'll bet they will catch 'em and quickly.

More babies

Liz found and photographed these little killdeers hanging out with her horse. We also found a pair of kittens inside the barn wall, where they had fallen down from the haymow. A little wall destruction and they joined their mamas in the stable.

Babies

I guess it's that time of year. Three calves this week, two heifers, one bull. One of them will put to good use a fine name that was suggested by a respected fellow blogger recently.

Frieland LF Bama Breeze made her long-awaited (nine months in fact) debut in the Holstein Heifer Cowbell Choir here at Northview just a couple of days ago. She is the much-welcomed daughter of Frieland MG Beausoleil, who was given to me for Mother's Day some nine years back. (Actually, it wasn't so much that the boss gave her to me as that he wanted to sell her as a baby because he didn't think much of her dam. I liked her right from the start so I begged. She is a sweet old cow now, and a big favorite, which just goes to show...) The other heifer will also be named after music, Countrified. Her dam is Cisco, out of Cubby, who was thus named because she was tied next to the barn cupboard as a calf. (Desperation often rules the naming around here so we are always grateful for good suggestions.)

There was a baby on the bridge this morning too, hop-skipping cheekily just out of reach. It was new and not long out of the nest, but quite able to handle itself, thank you very much. The new-fledged song sparrow was just a shade less brightly colored than the adults, perhaps offspring of the one that sings on the heifer yard gate every now and then. It wasn't exactly soaring like an eagle but it certainly could fly better than I can.

Other critters are having babies too, some of them causing me very mixed emotions. After all, bunnies are cute. The bring chocolate at Easter and look pretty bouncing around on the lawn. They are soft and fluffy and have big, brown eyes. Bunnies also reproduce at a phenomenal rate and eat just about anything vegetative. They consumed my apple trees this winter, despite wire cages three feet high (the four-to-six-foot snow gave them a paw up so to speak.). Anyhow, Alan uncovered a nest with the riding lawn mower, exposing fourteen little syvilagus floridanus babies, which rolled out onto the grass. (This is the first mowing this year and the lawn is about hip high.) I will spare you the details, but lawnmowers are not good for animals. They provided a quick meal for some passing crows and a couple of barn cats anyhow.

I tried to feel bad about them, really I did. I mean, how awful to be run over by the mower and eaten. It will be at least a couple of weeks before their mother, which escaped unscathed, can produce fourteen more. However, I'm sorry to say that I failed miserably.
I like apples.
They are my favorite fruit except cookies.
There is a whole orchard right next to the lawn, full of untended trees, large and small, which the rabbits could have eaten this winter. They could have mowed down as many box elders and mulberries as they wanted too, no complaints.

Why the honeycrisps I ask.

Why?

Pet food recall harassment alleged

Menu Foods has been ordered by a judge to cease contacting pet owners, sometimes by automated calls, who have retained legal representation. Nice folks Menu. They are said to have known about the contamination long before it became public and now they are badgering those who lost pets to agree not to hire a lawyer.

Happy Birthday Liz!

21

Hogzilla II?

Really big pig shot by not so big kid!
May be world record!

On a good day

The sun comes up like a ball of fire (and I hope I feel the same way.)

The hummers hum and hover and buzz around our heads.

And the sitting porch beckons.......

Read it and weep

Florida Cracker, who writes Pure Florida, posted some astonishing pictures of the tiny sea life that inhabits the sea grass preserve near his home today. Then he linked to a story of some Philistine who wants to dredge a big swath of it so he can bring in thousands of people, and boats and build heliports and golf courses. His plan is so grandiose and alien to a nature preserve, that I could feel my blood pressure rising with every word I read. I have nothing against a healthy economy, but what this man proposes is nothing short of obscene. From what I read at Pure Florida and the Minorcan Factor, there isn't much real Florida left. It would be a terrible shame to wreak havoc on such a spectacular piece of it.

First one up

I had to add some light to the hummingbird photo as fast shutter speed isn't so hot at dawn and hummers won't settle for anything less.

Odd juxtaposition

The bone had been chewed at both ends, though it was more slivered than crushed. The glove was missing two fingers, clearly chewed off. It was a good, sturdy one, with leather fingers and heavy canvas hands, but it had long been abandoned, so no one really cared about it getting chewing it up.


The bone was another story. I am sure its original owner would have preferred not to have an appendage turned into a play toy in such a manner.


It was a deer's foreleg by the way, with the bone above the knee worried to toothpick sized splinters and one toe gnawed away. The remaining toe was small, probably from a yearling fawn.

See, I went out to help my stubborn partner in this operation, who is rather ill at the moment, build some temporary fence up behind the barn. He wouldn't wait for Alan to get home and I didn't want him doing it alone. While we were working, I found the oddities way up on the hill. The grass was all matted down, as if there had been much play going on there. The animals that did the chewing and the rolling down of grass probably are not very big yet, or they would have done much more damage. I wish I could have seen them at it.

Coyotes I think. Pups by the toothmarks. I wonder why they dragged the old glove way up there. Maybe their den is down over the bank. Anyhow, I hope they stick to hunting deer and leave the calves alone....and the cats....chickens...sheep....bunnies.

Running in place

Or that's what it feels like. The boss is sick, maybe a stomach bug, maybe something more serious. Of course, he won't go to the doctor. Alan is still in school, so the girls and I are doing the feeding and milking. Thank God they are out of college for the summer and Liz knows the cows as well as anyone. We sent him in the house to rest last night and finished up chores (you know a farmer, if they can crawl to the barn, they will work). It wasn't too bad.

I really hope it is nothing bad.

Yesterday's best

Herkimer diamonds

Finally....

Something with which I agree from the NY Times.

Herkimer Diamond mining

Was in the plans for today. However, we got up to pouring rain and February-like cold. It looks as if we will have to settle for taking pictures of some we collected other years. Some of these the kids and I dug up and the bigger ones were donated by my brother, who took his family digging a couple of weeks ago. Lousy day, lousy photos, sorry.

Anyone who can....

Take good pictures of fish

Has my utmost admiration!

A local story makes national news service

This story about a SUNY school attempting a little local purchasing refers to our local ag college. What they don't tell you is that the college contained one of the best facilities in the state for butchering locally grown meats up until recently. We did business there for several years and never had such perfectly cut and well preserved meat products. Of course the school closed it.....just not pop culture enough for them I guess. I mean, they killed animals there. Had to get all that nastiness gone. This despite the fact that the meat lab was used to train ag students, culinary students, and pre-vet kids and all animal science majors, plus providing a tremendous service to local farmers by providing a USDA inspected location for meat processing. Sadly even at an ag and tech school, agricultural interests often take a back seat to political correctness.

This kind of thing scares me so bad

80 Year old farmer killed by bull. Liz went to school with one of the grandchildren from this family. We are working on getting Promise and Frank, our two bulls, blood typed so we can get them sold. I am going to call the Holstein Association right now to get a kit. I already have one for the milking shorthorn bull. He is starting to woof at us from the fence and turn sideways when you walk by...not good.

We had company today

Thunderstorms and hummingbirds

Sun going down on a long day

Mostly spent crawling around in the cellar checking phone lines because the other computer wouldn't dial into the Internet and I needed to update some cow files. After hours of such messing around I discovered that the computer dials up just fine....just not from the cow program PC DART. So I guess that will need some work the next time the tester comes.

We also have a problem tonight with a poor cow having trouble calving. Some idiot hunter spooked all the cows into a headlong run down the hill yesterday and the result is she is calving early and it is not going too well. She just isn't ready. We gave her a bottle of calcium and came over to the house to give her a little time and privacy, since she is a very nervous animal. A nice thing for us....a valuable cow, a potentially valuable calf and some jerk hunting out of season (you can only hunt before noon and this was mid afternoon) on posted property going after a five pound bird causes this and we lose. And the cow loses. And I am very afraid that the calf is going to lose it all. Thanks to whomever it was for a lot of trouble and a miserable night.

***Update, the calf finally was born last night at about 10:15. It was stained all yellow, from being stressed in utero by the difficult birth. The cow had trouble I think, because she was at least a week from being ready to calve. Her pelvic ligaments had not relaxed at all yet. Thankfully, the calf, a bull, was very small and refined, so she was able to squeeze him out somehow, through the too small passage. Anyhow, she is up this morning and eating and he drank most of a bottle of colostrum, so he will probably be all right.

Found

More pet food milk protein stuff

Here is a pretty good editorial bringing up the same things I said the other day about MPC or milk protein concentrate and unrestricted food imports. Not to bore you to death or anything, but unregulated importation of the darned stuff is pretty rough on farmers here.

Happy Mother's Day

And thanks, Paints....very sweet....E-Train is having her first Mother's Day, having had a cute little heifer yesterday. We were in the barn until nine PM because old Zinnia decided to keep mother, baby and all the other cows out on the hill.

I would like to thank my mom for being such a great mom...Happy Mother's Day, mom, we love you!.........and my kids for keeping me on my toes, by such means as inventing games like "Whack-a-brother", "manure fight", and many, many others too obnoxious to mention. Last night it was "who can think of the most names of bulls?" (We women were shutting Alan right down until the boss got in the game. Never try to get between a man and his specialty.) I may no longer be quite sane, but I can assure you that I am awake.

Speaking of Mother's Day...here is a very determined mother.
and here is a very funny mother.

Brand new goslings

Liz took this out the car window when we driving over to the school today (she forgot to hand in a scholarship application and it was due today...since she bought me gold fish and a water lily and some hens and chicks for Mothers Day I am sure not complaining).
These babies just came off the nest, because the girls have been watching the parents setting. The silly things nest within yards of the road. Just a few yards from here Becky and I was an American bittern on Tuesday, a life bird for me....don't get too many of those any more.

**You may want to click to get a better view.

Before the Hell storm

Still more on food saftey and inspections

This morning I found the update below in one of my inboxes. It originated with the Meating Place, which offers an industry newsletter to which I subscribe.

"Only a week after taking the reins as FDA's food czar, and in the midst of a melamine outbreak, Dr. David Acheson has had plenty of explaining to do.
More of it came Wednesday, when Acheson found himself before the U.S. House Agriculture Committee, trying to assure its members that the U.S. food supply is safe despite widespread contamination of chicken, hog and fish feed.
However, some committee members contended that melamine is indicative of a bigger problem.

"The explanations from the USDA and FDA leave me with the uncomfortable feeling that maybe we just got lucky this time," said Rep. Collin Peterson (D-Minn.). "The next time tainted food or feed products slip through the very large crack in our import inspection system, we may be forced to confront a much more serious situation in terms of animal or human health."

Acheson conceded that FDA, which inspects just a small percentage of the $60 billion in food imported annually, is due for an overhaul. He says plans to request additional funding and manpower to fuel such efforts."

Um, yeah, I do believe that might be a plan.

More on the pet food recall

Here is a story that reveals all too clearly that some plumb shady practices have been going on in the pet food industry. Obviously no one has been very careful about what went into what dogs and cats eat, where it came from, or even honest ingredient labeling.
Sadly, there is nothing stopping contamination in the dog food dish from showing up at the dinner table too. Another story yesterday indicated that the contaminated rice and wheat gluten (that actually turned out to be wheat flour) was made into fish food in Canada and fed to fish in the USA, which were certainly eaten by unsuspecting Americans.

We were discussing the issue in the barn this morning (politics and national issues are topics that turn up there every bit as often as how many bales of hay to feed.) We decided that if the US inspected foreign foods and their suppliers anywhere near as thoroughly as we do American farms and factories, the likliehood of such adulteration would diminish immensely. Here at Northview we have an inspector from Producers Cooperative, where we sell our milk, who routinely checks our premises. From seeing that medicine for dry cows is on a different shelf than that for lactating cows, to making sure there are no holes in the milk house screens, no dirt where it shouldn't be, and even that the place is tidy, he keeps a close eye on us. Our milk is tested EVERY SINGLE TIME the tanker picks it up, that is every other day, for antibiotics, cleanliness, butterfat, protein, somatic cells and water content. If it is too high in any negative factor it is condemned and we pay for the entire truckload of milk that it was dumped into. We are also under the direct oversight of state and federal inspectors who check for the same things and very thoroughly too.We could be denied a place to ship our milk and fined if we get caught doing naughty things. Certainly if we dumped melamine into our tank to boost our protein price, we would get caught...real fast

Then we are under the observation of the Soil and Water Conservation folks, the EPA, state Ag and Markets, and have so many other government entities watching over how we do what we do that I literally can't bring them all to mind. Building inspectors, Dept of Environmental Conservation, nosy neighbors.... vets inspecting the beef that we ship....we are being watched, and carefully. However, it is pretty darned obvious that while the US government peers at its own navel by layering inspections on its internal food supply like someone dressing a kid for January in Alaska, it has its back turned toward millions of tons of material that is slipping in through the back door. What we need is for imported products to fall under the same scrutiny, and, (since not everybody outside this nation is our best buddy... most favored nation status to the contrary) they should actually fall under MORE scrutiny.

The whole affair makes Pete Hardin, of the Milkweed, look real smart. He has said for years that uninspected and unregulated imports of fractions of milk, such as milk protein concentrate, potentially permit milk from exotic species, such as water buffalo, and unclean locations, such as Chernobyl, to be included in our food. Hmmmmm, ya think?

I like this quote

From hearings on animal welfare by the House Ag Committee....


"The Committee gained insight not only on the issues facing animal welfare but also the solutions that industry is working through to ensure that we have a safe, plentiful, and affordable food supply," Chairman Boswell said. "It's evident that livestock producers are vigorously addressing animal welfare issues."

"Today's hearing demonstrated that the animal agriculture industry is committed to ensuring the humane treatment of animals in its care. Farmers and ranchers, not activists, should be dictating animal husbandry practices. Passing legislation based solely on emotion goes against the Committee's responsibility to use science and best management practices that are designed to improve animal welfare practices," said Subcommittee Ranking Member Robin Hayes."

I give thanks to both of them for having some common sense rather than pandering to whatever special interest group has the most strident voice each day.

May sunrise

The days are long this time of year, but they sure get off to a good start!

It isn't always arm and hammer

Sometimes it's arm and chickadee

Some people have lawn ornaments

Some people have garden gnomes...
Some have blacktop...
Some have the ocean.,
or forest,
or sidewalks





I have........Liz and Mandolin Rain!

On the way to a milk meeting last night

***HT ...this is the kind of land that is getting buried under houses.

Another kindness requested

Last month when I asked readers to support my brother's ride in the Tour de Cure for diabetes, several were kind enough to do so. He is grateful for your kindness, as am I. Great cause, great brother, wonderful folks...it's all good. Thank you.

Here is another kindness that could be done. Laurie at Don't Make Me Get My Flying Monkeys has been writing for some time of her cousin Dale's battle with cancer. Things are going hard for Dale right now and Laurie is hoping that folks around the world will send Dale cards or photos to cheer him up.

His addy is:
Dale Petersen
Room 3408
Presbyterian St. Luke's Hospital
1719 E 19th Ave
Denver, Colorado, 80218

Town for sale

I love this story of a husband and wife who decided to build a town, did so, and ran it all their lives. Mrs. Hagglund is auctioning the place off this weekend if you are thinking of picking up a nice little lakeside town all your own.

"Everything Eddie and I did in life was successful, because we worked together," she said. The dream started one day in 1954 when the couple, who operated an implement dealership in the town of Sharon, spotted dozens of anglers on Lake Ashtabula during a drive to visit relatives. "I said to Eddie, 'Wouldn't this be a good place to have a hamburger stand?'" Hagglund said. "That's all it took." The couple bought a chunk of lakeshore prairie for a couple thousand dollars, planted trees and began putting up buildings. The first was the dance hall, which featured a large neon sign that said "Danceland" and hosted dances and roller-skating. They later added the cafe and other businesses. "We were just like homesteaders when we came out here," Hagglund said.n 1960, when the local township board denied their request for a liquor license, the Hagglunds incorporated the town and issued themselves a license. To meet the requirement of 100 residents, the couple "counted cats and dogs" and even coaxed some residents of nearby Luverne to sign a petition saying they lived in Sibley, Hagglund said."

I like that!

Still another meme

From Matthew. Posted over on 2007 Garden Records

Wanna feel a little insulted?

If you are a farmer that is, and not too fond of NAIS (National Animal Identification System)? Just read this story on Cattle Network.com. and you will get the idea.

Especially the part about reading to farmers at the sixth grade level.

"....As described by the USDA, these “key messages” “are organized into topic categories and supported with concise sentences. They are designed for an audience reading at the sixth grade level.” (Handbook, p. 41.)"

Dang. Sixth grade. It has been a while.

"Staff are advised not to “invest[ ] time” in “Anti-NAIS producers” and instead “locate and motivate more favorable individuals” (p. 9). While staff are to tell farmers that participation in premises ID will not compel them to participate in either individual animal ID or animal tracking (Handbook, p. 42), at the same time, staff are to pursue the second and third components of NAIS, “adoption of animal ID and tracing,” during 2007. (NAIS Outreach bulletin, Feb. 2007, p. 1)."

I can't help it. My feelings are hurt.


***Update....Here is a story on the human form of NAIS

Found by accident

I came across this site while trying to find some place within fifty miles of here where I can buy a couple of fan tailed gold fish for my garden pond. We went to Herkimer Sunday in said pursuit and found the fish store there out of business and replaced by a tax preparation store front operation.
I was already aware of puppy mills, before I stumbled on this site, having spent eight years working in a veterinarian's kennel and seeing plenty of sad stories. This is simply horrific though. I guess I won't be visiting the local branch of this chain to buy my fish. I can't justify spending money in such a place. So does anybody within a few zip codes of here know where I can buy a couple of healthy fish without bankrolling such enterprises?

**BTW check out the prices! I bought Mike and Gael from a reputable breeder of working quality border collies for $350 and $425 respectively. Both come from parents that had successfully competed in open level sheep dog trials. Gael's father ran in the Nationals. They were both healthy, well socialized, and capable of what I wanted them for. (Plus in my admittedly biased opinion, they are great dogs.) If you want a purebred dog, buy from a reputable breeder and do your homework. You wouldn't hire a nanny without a background check. Don't hire a dog without looking into its background too. You can also deal with a reputable rescue organization where someone will help you through the experience of starting with a new dog. But talk to dog people. Find out about your breed, the breeder, or whoever is providing you with your pet BEFORE you bring one home and fall in love. Oh, and stay away from border collies unless you have a job for them and plenty of patience. Some of them are fine anywhere, but a good many will herd kids, car tires, tractors, cats, each other and even running water if they don't have something constructive to keep them busy. I almost lost Gael that way when she was a pup and hadn't learned "come here" yet. She took off trying to head a little stream of water and was almost to the road before I thought to use my whistle....which luckily she heeded.

Yep

Spring!

Cow magnets

Apples asked in the comments just what cow magnets do and why we use them. I thought it was a good enough question to answer in a post (plus I don't have much to say today and am grateful for any and all ideas.)

Cows eat all kinds of things in their pursuit of digestible greenery. Autopsies have revealed bicycle tires, shirts, entire feed bags and lots and lots of baling twine. Unfortunately cows often also ingest bits of sharp metal, which can pierce the stomach lining, causing infection and even affecting the heart.The resulting condition is called hardware disease. At the very least it causes the cow a lot of discomfort. In some cases it ends in death. At least some of the time, shooting a powerful magnet down the cow's throat with the same balling gun you use to give aspirin or stomach pills will fix it. Ideally the magnet will grab the offending nail or bit of steel and drag it to the bottom of the stomach where it can just sit there doing no harm.

Magnets don't always work, but sometimes the results are simply spectacular. We had an old cow, number 80, Adela, years ago, before we were married. She went off feed and began a slow decline. Our vet at the time didn't think she had hardware so he treated her symptomatically and went on his way. Days went by and she failed to improve. Finally I suggested to the boss that we give her a magnet just to see what happened. She was obviously dying, so what did we have to lose? By the very next morning she was gobbling hay as if she had never been sick.
Coincidence? Nah...

We had another cow drop dead from a standing position at the end of milking one day. One minute she was standing in her stall chewing her cud; the next she was sprawled on the floor stone dead. We were stunned and really puzzled so we had our veterinarian conduct an autopsy. Amazingly a bit of sharp metal stuck in her stomach wall had worked its way through the stomach lining to pierce her liver, she moved just right (or perhaps just wrong) and bled to death internally in seconds. The metal was a bit of steel off a wagon that a less-than-diligent hired man put through a forage blower into the silo. (Of course we didn't know about it until too late for old Danillla.) We didn't keep him too long after that.

Anyhow, we keep a couple magnets on the fridge among the Far Side cartoons, shot up targets, family photos and school schedules. Then we can always find one when some cow starts refusing dinner and acting odd.

Beck and her bunny

That $#*&&** Robin

I am beginning to have strong feelings about the robin who spends all day, every day banging on the kitchen window. I won't go so far as to say that I hate him, but when two other robins ganged up on him yesterday and drove him away for a while I rejoiced. Too soon it seems, as he was back a couple of hours later, clinging to the uprights of the windows and beating on the glass.
He is a bratty bird for sure and has very strong feelings of his own about his reflection.
I wonder if he was the one getting drunk on palm berries down in FC's back yard all winter? that might explain a lot about his behavior. I hope there is a program for robins like him....or that he finds a lady friend real soon and gets his mind on other things.


On the other hand we have a mockingbird! I know they are all over the place down south, but up here in the far, far north, they are a sometimes kind of bird. Some years we get a tame one who will eat currents off the windowsill in the living room. We get to hear their frantic singing and to try to decide what birds they are mimicking. Then four or five years will go by before we see one. This one mostly sings robin songs, but he has a few other calls as well. By the end of summer if he stays he will probably know every call around

Planting

Things are finally greening up around here. I actually walked through real, honest to gosh, genuine green grass on my way around the garden pond this morning. (I walk around it every morning just in case it has somehow gotten warm enough for the fish to swim around.) I am grateful for the green. I think I will go plant some lettuce and carrots to get my mind off all the ugly of the past couple of days.

Mike
*A border collie is never too old and never too tired to play ball*

Macabre

We tuned into Channel 9 at 6PM, just before we went out to do chores, to see if the standoff in Margaretville had ended yet. To our amazement the station was doing a live update, as the police had just sent smoke bombs into the house and a pall of smoke of staggering proportions was rising into the sky over the lovely old farm house that housed the alleged murderer. Within literally minutes the smoke turned black and the house burned down before our eyes. I cannot tell you how fast it went from a small flower of flame peeking out one door to a towering inferno that consumed the wooden structure like a red avalanche that moved up instead of down. It was so very, very fast and inexorable. We watched in horrified fascination until we simply had to get out to what one TV commentator called a "farmhouse". Up here in the northern part of the state we call such structures barns but everyone got the idea and the commentator at the station managed to set him straight after a while. This whole affair has been a macabre drama that makes no sense at all to a rational mind. Why did the alleged culprit do the bizarre and horrific things he did? We will probably never know, but I wish he had chosen a different path.

Another Bucky Phillips?

Having just finished the Farm Side for Friday, ( a little porky this week,) I was planning on posting about my disgust at Governor Spitzer's verbal abuse of our state senator, Hugh Farley, and his wish to unseat him. Upstate we are a sort of conservative lot and we are fairly fond of Farley. Or at least I am and I don't think the issue of campaign reform should include personal attacks.
From NY1,

"State Senator High Farley faces the real possibility of losing not only his seat, but the Senate's GOP majority in November 2008. Especially when Spitzer's well-funded campaign machine targets him. "
"He's targeting me, targeting Senator Bruno, and targeting different senators around the state so that he can take over the Senate,” said Farley. “I think that that's bad government."

They may not get their way though.

From Fox 23,

"If the governor's plan is to get Hugh Farley out of office, it will be a tall order. Farley was unopposed in his last race and has won his last several races by wide margins."

(Farley is the guy whose phone call got the boss's mother's power turned on when the power company said they could have ten days to ruminate about it after a tree fell on the wires). I think Spitzer is just a tad arrogant to tell us who we should hire to represent us. But then what other word could you use to describe a guy who calls himself a steamroller?

Anyhow, that was what I was planning on blogging about. However, the guys had the TV on while they were eating breakfast. I could hear it in the background as I researched feral hogs and worldwide pork consumption. There was ongoing coverage of the latest state trooper shooting, with an ongoing stand off in the tiny Delaware County town of Margaretville. I had to stop what I was doing to go watch. This situation feels way too much like deja vu. This time the perpetrator is 23-year old Travis Trim.

I hope it ends with no more bloodshed. I hope the two new victims are all right. What drives people to do things like this anyhow?

**Update, the news just came through that another trooper has died. Lord, Lord, how very awful.

Still a good man

My brother is doing this again this year, as he did last year. He is a fine man, it is a good cause, and if you can find it in your heart to support him that would be special. Thanks in advance.

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)