Ed encouraged us to look for something different so here is our hop house from back when hops were a major crop here in the valley and some haymow pics I couldn't resist. I love the way the mow looks early or late in the day with the sun slanting in through the rafters (and assorted holes in the walls).
It has been quite a while since I posted a photo of barn art so here are some peanut butter and jellyfish (click for brand names).....mostly by Becky with editorializing by assorted other denizens of the dairy.(Note the countdown to the rodeo in the lower left corner....very important.)
Etrain wondering what I had with me in the stall when I was supposed to be getting ready to milk her.
The girls were not thrilled to see mom floating around the barn with the camera yesterday morning.
Have been so low all winter that there has been little value in shipping cull cows and almost none in calves. For example, two weeks ago we sent a pair of bulls to the sale, 114 and 108 pounds. They were healthy, lively and real nice calves. We got $30 a piece for them. In a normal year the check would have been more like $250 for a pair of calves that nice. Despite this dairy cows have been culled in record numbers as farmers struggle to survive on milk prices that are many dollars below the cost of production.
Tuesday we sent a cow that has been dry all winter. She has been running out with the bred heifers and we didn't sell her sooner because of assorted logistical problems involving the truck not being available and the actual challenge of getting her in and loaded (which did turn out to be quite a job). Yesterday we got the check and it was the most we have gotten for a cow since prices started their precipitous slide. It is probably just a fluke, but I hope not. Sadly I think if either beef or milk prices climb much you are going to see a lot of farmers going out of business in a big hurry. Right now I think a lot of guys are holding on because if they sell their cows when prices are so bad they won't get even a fraction of their investment back.
Got some much deserved recognition in the paper today. People in the area take Lynwood Hand's store for granted, but believe me, if you don't live around here and you visit for the first time, stunned amazement is a normal reaction,
Hand's has everything that exists that can be used on a farm and if he doesn't have it he will find it. When I first joined the farming world visiting the store was a like a trip to Disney Land, with a wish list a mile long and everything needed to fulfill it right there on the shelves. The boss remembers a man from out of state that he talked to at an auction who was looking for certain tractor tires. The boss sent him to Hand's and he darned near bought out the store. He had never seen so many supplies and things in one place and priced right as well.
I am glad the paper took note of our favorite farm store and I wish them many more years of successful business. They are having a customer recognition open house this Saturday from 7:30 AM to 5:30 PM, with discounts and vendor displays for folks who attend. I hope you get a chance to stop by and tell them how much having them here means to the community. You will have a great time if you can! (And you can stock up on barbed wire and baling twine. Ear tags and neck chains. Tire chains and tires and tubes and tools and oil and teat dip. And snaps and buckets. And medicines and brushes. And anything else you can think of from bearings to hydraulic lines.)
Rain today, perhaps necessary, but not at all welcome as we need to ship a cow that is going to make us run around in it, and we finally just saw the end of most of the mud. Oh, well, you can't change the weather....although there are others who could use this more than we can.
It is greening up around here at the proper time of year, (although Alan was up to the top of his chest-high waders in a vernal pool at school yesterday and it snowed!) rather than leaving us with bare fields at the end of May as was the case the past couple of years. As soon as the fence guru (above) and his staff finish a few little details (such as a new gate) we will be able to turn some dry cows and bred heifers out in this pasture. I am ready!
And the tip of the day for first time electric fence builders...always make your gate dead! That is put it on the side of the fence where when you open it the circuit is broken and there is no electricity in the gate wire. Easy to do and awfully painful when not done and you brush that gate wire by accident.
As I listen to reports of the robber and murderer who seems to be using this resource, it is kind of disconcerting. We use it all the time for find things that we want or just to see what livestock and machinery folks have for sale. It is a handy clearinghouse for unwanted stuff that may be valuable in other hands. So far we have found a source of lovely gold fish for the garden pond and a real treasure just this week.
Last week besides dealing with the milk mafia and all sorts of other interesting problems, our barn refrigerator croaked. I have no idea how many calves Liz is feeding but it is a lot. Normally we save waste milk for them in the fridge and she heats bottles and buckets and feeds them all while the boss and I milk the last line and hospital cows.
With the fridge dead, she had to wait until we milked the "bucket cows" to feed calves. It meant hours and hours of extra time in the barn for her. Finances being what they are, a trip to Wally World for a new one, even a dorm sized one, was not a prospect we cared to contemplate.
Therefore I checked Craigs List. The very first day that I looked, right across the river in Fonda, there was a listing for a large dorm sized fridge for fifteen dollars! Exactly what we needed....It took a few days to actually make contact and for the men to get over and check it out, but it now resides in the milk house and Liz is back to getting done about the same time the rest of us do. Nice for her, and much, much better for my personal guilt quotient.
However, I got the men to go across the river to check it out, rather than us women doing it. And I got them to take a phone along. Just in case.
One is never alone these days even when working in the yard.
The blue jays have gone silent and secretive with the nesting season getting under way. Still it is easy to spot them as they pounce down upon some succulent thing, fluffing their blue bloomers behind them and acting all important and proud. They have been coming closer the past few days than they ever do in winter, and it is nice to get such a good look at them.
My morning walk downstairs feature a serenade from the white-throated sparrow and a distant cardinal. Soon the white crowned sparrows will stop by for a while. For some reason they love the box elder trees and for a few weeks almost every one of them will sport a showy sparrow or two. And the wait for the hummingbirds has begun.
Click for a close up This just epitomizes Liz Determined to get it done herself and the devil take the consequences!
I lost my last good hair clip while wandering around the college the other day. Therefore I was digging through all the rarely opened drawers looking for a stray....to no avail I might add. (I have to find somewhere to get some! Cows like to eat long hair and it catches in everything and snarls something terrible out in the wind.)
However, I found this 1993 copy of the Recorder, with Liz and her first show calf, Sonora, on the front page. (Since I didn't start writing for the paper until 98, it was just serendipitous that the reporter and photographer happened to pick Liz for her article. Maybe it was the determined look on her face.)
I don't remember how Sonora fared at the fair. Probably not all that well, as her only claim to fame and ticket to the show ring was that she was gentle. Liz was only seven and not so very large either. However, that first long ago fair was the start of a show ring career for her that continues today.
Over the years she has held up both ends of the line, with old Dixie being grand champion Holstein once and reserve a couple of times and Mandy junior champion twice. Showing cows doesn't pay beans unless you are one of the big guys, but waiting and hoping for that next great one takes the edge off the drudgery aspect of the job. Last year the cows didn't do all that well, but who knows what will happen this summer. You just never know when a good one will show up!
I am supposed to be writing the Farm Side right now and it is wordless Wednesday and all, but this is just too cool not to pass along to you.
Here is a site where you can quickly check your computer for the Conficker Worm thing. It is so simple. If you can see the graphics on the site, you are all good. Otherwise.........
If you haven't visited the Sutton Center Eagle cam lately take a second. The chick is getting huge and you can often watch the parents feeding it. It is fun to watch it mimicking the parents as they move sticks around the nest as well, sort of a monkey see monkey do kind of thing.
About four years ago Alan and I pollinated some Amaryllises. Then we planted the seeds. This year they have really come into their own. This is only a few of them.
Cheer up cheerily, fee bee bee, Old Sam Peabody, Peabody, Peabody Three grackles say Chack! Taking the dog out to the run is suddenly a fine and better thing than it was just three days ago. All winter it was hard to go out. Now it is hard to stay in.
An interesting story about the huge springing lion mount (top) in the college mammal room. One day when Alan was first in fisheries and wildlife he was looking for the room where his next class would be held. He walked into what he thought was the correct room. It was in total darkness, all blinds tightly drawn. Since he was the first kid there he reached over and turned on the light. ....and there was that guy right in front of him.
Oops wrong room! (The thing is mounted so it is right in front of the door!)
With all that has been going on lately I have failed to get something done that I really wanted to..
And that is to share a delightful new blog with you. Southview Farm is written by my sister-in-law, Lisa, who is married to my terrific younger brother Matt. You can spot him in the comments every now and then as Mappy. (When he was just a little guy that is what our wonderful Lithuanian landlady called him. He calls me Fred. ....It's a long story). You can see him at his weekday job in today's post at Southview.
Anyhow, check it out! Matt and Lisa are the weavers who made our wonderful rugs, blankets and towels and they have an assortment of interesting animals, day jobs and good kids. You will see fish and looms and horses and lots of nice photography.
********As soon as we get in from chores, which I am leaving now to pursue, I will try to get a picture of yesterday's puzzling object in its usual place. I just thought the patent date was neat, as it gives an idea of the possible age of this old house. (Trust Alan to find something like that.)
******And check this out too! As we pursued a home for our milk last week and this, I kept hearing rumors about what is going on in Maine. Now we find out that it is true. After what we have been through my heart just aches for all these farmers. Meeting organic standards is challenging and costly. These farmers who just got dumped by the people who buy their product have worked long and hard to obtain the organic designation. I hope a solution is found for them and quickly. Milk is a perishable product so hours and days matter immeasurably to these poor folks!
Thank you all for your prayers, kind comments, letters to senators and just plain caring. The prayers worked and your kindness helped us get by.
Late last night a complete stranger called and offered us a market for our milk. He came in today and talked to us, and although we will be making less money, which is not such a good thing, we now have a market.
Hopefully at least, if nobody else runs around behind the scenes messing it up.
I have never been lied to in my life, like I have this past week. People that we trusted knowingly mislead us. Not a pleasant lesson, but I can't thank you all enough.
People are asking what is going on. So far nothing. Dozens of phone calls No answers. It is looking very bad. And we are looking for a used small milk tank truck Anybody know of one for sale?
Update**** Despite feeling somewhat like a steamroller has come through here, there is a positive side to our current nightmare..... And that is you...the people reading this, who have made us feel cared for with your kindness and concern. Your emails and kind words in the comment section help us get through the anxious days and sleepless nights. I can't tell you how much I thank you for that.
We have also had some state officials and Farm Bureau people pulling out all the stops to try to fix the situation. I can't thank them enough for their efforts to save our cows. I hope we don't have to sell them. If we do, we have promised the kids we will hang on to a few of the show cows. Anyhow, my deepest thanks.
From our fisheries and wildlife guy.....Homework was never like this when I was in school. The best assignments I can remember were bringing in frog eggs (and that may have been a voluntary assignment) and writing stories. We sure never got to trek out into the wilds of a farm, armed with mom's camera and a turkey call, to count birds and photograph amazing snow geese and deer and strutting tom turkeys.
We did do some amazingly cool stuff in school though, back in the day, stuff that little matters like lawsuits would certainly prohibit today. Like along about fifth grade, Mr. Davis, our science teacher, took us both to Howe Caverns and down into a wild cave. Can you imagine taking fifth graders into a wild cave today?
I can remember wading down the stream that ran through the center of the wild cave, in soggy, totally inadequate boots, hoping to see bats and marveling at tiny limestone formations that popped out of the walls and off the ceilings and floors everywhere. We had to clamber down a rope from a parking lot to get into the cave....through a sort of well cover, culvert thing with a huge concrete cap that was lifted aside....I can't see that being allowed to day, but that cave has its own photo album in my mind and the pictures are as sharp and clear as if it were yesterday.
Friends and I did quite a bit of spelunking in the college days and I am sure the interest was spawned on those fifth grade trips. I am too old and lame and not exactly skinny enough any more to belly crawl through dark, sleek, wild places deep underground, but I am glad I had the chance once upon a youthful time. And I am glad my mom didn't know about those unsupervised and probably ridiculously unsafe 20-something trips. We gave her enough grey hair as it is.
Here and here are some pics Alan and I brought back from last year's trip to Howe Caverns where we went to celebrate his successful road test. Here are more.
Speaking of teachers who truly inspire students, this fellow taught all three of our kids over the years, and he is one of the two or three best teachers any of them have had. Although he has surely earned his retirement, the school will be lessened by his absence next year.
Don't seem to matter much today. It is 2:30 in the morning and I can't sleep. Over the past week the cooperative we ship milk to changed where it sells our milk. In the course of the contract negotiations they neglected to make sure that they set it up to have a milk hauler for our farm milk. Everybody else got a hauler because everybody else is on the flat and can have a tractor trailer pick up there milk. We alone need a ten-wheeler because of the hill. A giant cooperative is refusing to let our milk leave the farm, on the same truck it has always been on.
So all week no one came to pick up the milk. All week we were assured that this was all getting solved. Finally yesterday we had to dump the milk. And finally yesterday we learned that nothing is solved and there is just a standstill in the negotiations, which we have had no part of.
If we don't have a hauler in the next few days we will have to sell the cows or send them somewhere to board at someone else's farm or some other desperate measure. None of these options would allow us a milk check, which is what we live on and pay our bills with. Plus the boss's entire lifetime of breeding cattle and the kids lifetimes and half of mine will simply be gone. Our lives will be gone, because everything we do every day, every habit, every joy, every pain, is wrapped up in those cows.
You find out just how much you love them when you look at them and think about putting them all on a truck and watching them go.
On another day I would have been happy to see that NYRI is a dead issue and our neighbors won't be getting a monstrous power line through their backyards. Today my heart and soul are sick, especially for Liz who loves her cows like children. I am happy for them in a vague way, but I can't feel any delight.
If you have any ideas let me know...or at least pray for us. I spent three hours on the phone yesterday and won't know until at least Monday if any of my frantic calls will bear fruit. I am going out now to check old Zinnia who took it in her head to look like calving last night....
Hop House
Posts
