Sunday Stills...Signs of Fall

For more Sunday Stills.....

Bright Sides

(After all the gloom and doom I figure I owe them to you)

Ever since we started showing at the Altamont Fair I have wondered about some night calling insects we first heard there. By the French Fry booth in fact...just down from the cider house...They make a scritchy, scrapey sound that is quite loud, but I never could pinpoint one to see what it was.

Then a few years ago I started hearing them here too. Probably they were here all along, but I didn't notice...maybe the multitudinous crickets drowned them out. Soon I found myself standing outside for a few extra minutes on late summer's evenings, listening and wondering.
What the heck was making that noise?

I thought for a long time that they might have been katydids, but the songs in online catalogs were never exactly right. It was frustrating.

The other night I was coming to the house in the early darkness, listening as usual, when one tuned up his song about three feet from my head. I spun around, flashlight probing, and there he was in all his green and buggy splendor, a gigantic katydid. So that mystery is solved.

Then there is the morning sun slanting across dew-soaked Queen Ann's lace...spotlighting the red six-bar gate and making it look like it was written in fire against its cowey background. Geese zig-zagging north, south, east and west, barking like a world full of beagles and turning the tame sky wild.

Finding dozens of minute orange, red, and gold crab apples adorning the tiny tree that volunteered along the driveway. Their colors are more vibrant than the sugar maples even, like delightful Christmas balls decorated in fresh fall colors. (They will show up tomorrow in the Sunday Stills post.)

An odd white caterpillar that wiggled so fast across the grassy ground that it was hard to get a picture of him. The wild turkey that for some reason visits the wood stove every morning. Chipmunk striped baby chicks in the calf pen. Mama is so funny, keeping them behind the gate by pecking at them amazingly hard. I think baby chick is the lightest substance known to man. They seem to move by levitation....especially when dodging that stabbing beak.

George and Laura, the fluffy white banty chickens Teri gave to Liz last year as baby chicks. They are always together and look so striking, like bright white feather flags everywhere they go. And tiny George, who could sit in the palm of my hand crowing the sun up (and down and all day in between) is king of all he surveys. Woe betide Mr. Fluff, or the speckly rooster or the brown ones if they step in his way or look crosswise at his precious Laura! He is one tough cookie for all his dainty appearance.

Every walk to the clothesline, trip to the cow barn, visit to the woodstove, or jaunt to feed the pony brings a wealth of sweet surprises to every passing day. Bright sides everywhere you look.

Finding Grace

I won't lie to you. Things are getting so bad here and on thousands of dairy farms...and farms being put out of business for little fishies...and all kinds of farms...and in homes where jobs are suddenly gone and lots of other sad and frightened places across this great nation, that despair is a daily companion. You talk....every day...about what kind of job you might find. What you will do if you give up.
At your age.
Your level of experience.
You don't sleep much.

I know there are regular readers in the same boat, finding it suddenly, unexpectedly, uncontrollably hard to get by. I won't name them, but I read their daily fear and sadness. There are plenty of people facing a lot worse than us. At least we still own the place and the cows and machinery. At least we have the option of selling them if we have to. Many don't.
I hope they do at least have the incredible good fortune that I do myself.
To be loved.
To know it.

This morning in my in box was an email with the words and chords to Steve Earle's Dixieland. My beautiful brother took the time to figure them out for me, so that should I ever find a minute to get out my guitar and tune it, I can play it. He sent me the song on a CD a few months ago and I fell in love with it. I have the best family anyone could ask for and I love them. Plus I know that they love me.That is grace and as long as that is there I know I have no right to complain.

Bell Weather??

How Can I Take This Guy Seriously?

Progressive Dairyman=a farm publication. Agriculture oriented. You would expect the editor to be familiar with ag terminology.

Wouldn't you?

However, in a recent article about us all being afraid to spend money we don't have, the editor makes a reference to a term often used in discussion of economic trends:

"The consumer confidence index is a measure of this trust. It is a bell-weather market signal and a self-fulfilling prophecy."

Bellwether is an old agricultural term. It refers to a castrated male sheep, which is used to lead a flock of sheep and has a bell on its collar. It is used today to discuss political and economic indicators.

It does not however, refer to a cumulonimbus ringing the wind chimes on the porch.

Picky, I know, but I am becoming very aggravated with any number of ag publications full of advice for farmers during this crisis. It is easy to sit in an office and say do this or do that, but not so easy to fulfull these suggestions when your checkbook has been running on empty for months and every dollar you make costs you two. I mean which one of the two you lost do you spend as that first dollar mentioned in the article? And what kind of weather would ring that bell?

California Water

The 39 MIlk Strike

John Bunting has links to incredible coverage of this long ago event. If you can take time to click the links and read the whole story, please do. I admit to having skimmed for now...deadlines loom and milking impends.....Somewhere in the hutch we have a picture of the boss's father and the father of one of our best friends taking part in this or a similar affair at about the same time. There were some terrible events back then...which the old fellow often recalled for us before his passing.

Wordless Wednesday

Cow in the Road

And I swerve to the left.



Well, actually it was goats in the road and we just followed the herd, the folks doing the herding and the police car up 67 until they got to their farm and turned off. Could have been a disaster I guess, but it was amusing for Liz and me in an otherwise not so entertaining day.

We were on our way back from the hospital where mom has been admitted. Her chemo is not going well and prayers would be much appreciated.



We asked Alan to run the long distance errand we had planned so we were free to go to the hospital. He willingly obliged but in all the excitement of hearing about his grandma, he heard Gardinier's (dairy supply) as Granger's (other parts and motors) and ended up many miles beyond Little Falls, kinda lost-ish. He managed to figure out where he went wrong after a bit, but by then Gardinier's was closed so he didn't get the part.

I guess Liz and I will go again today, as it is the drain trap for the pipeline washer and pretty essential to operations.

Macro Monday

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Fishing Mallet Pond and Looking Glass Pond

(Click for detail)

With college guys who were also taking care of lab work for terrestrial ecology class. (Middle pic in the first collage is college work-it just wasn't like that when I went). We saw newts, a red-bellied snake, Canada geese and assorted other common birds, some interesting fungi, an amazing sun rise, with light slanting across the corn fields and mountains and more beautiful scenery than is probably even legal. We saw Alan's friend's truck tail gate bobbing in front of us at great speed among stately trees and deeply ruts too. (I quickly learned where all the hand grips and toe holds are in his truck.)




They caught blue gills at Looking Glass Pond (Burnt-Rossman Hills State Forest) . I got bites, but missed them.





I took 84 pictures, which after severe pruning and editing came down to these collages and pics.




It was nice. They were nice young men and I was flattered that they chose to accompany Alan on a fishing trip he engineered for his old mother. (I tried not to put too much of a damper on their fun.) It was nice to hike down the long hill to Mallet pond. It was not quite as nice to contemplate climbing back up. However, the boys brought their truck down and gave us a ride back up...backwards all the way! Alan's friend can back up better than anybody I have ever met.


It was fun (more for them than for me) to run for miles down those narrow woods roads from pond to pond. Boys are braver than old ladies and there were times when the tree trunks were a tad too close for comfort. The hill up to Looking Glass Pond was so steep that Alan's 5-speed Ram 1500 had all it wanted to climb it in second gear (coming down was worse...).



I was amazed to find places like this that I had never even imagined existed and so close to home at that. I hope we can go again. Soon.

Sunday Stills, the Color Purple

For more Sunday Stills

The Great One is Gone

Mike
Thanks for fifteen great years,
old buddy

Milk Strike

In Belgium. But folks are getting pretty unhappy here too. We have had three different industry representatives here this week, from banking, feed and grain, and the milk cooperative, and they have all painted a grimmer picture than the worst I have ever told you here.

Especially the latter fella and he is in the know, up close and personal. He talks to farmers all over the region every day....He told us about so many farms selling out that he knows of, one after another, and so many more that never even planted their fields this year...just grazed the cows on all the land and they are selling when the grass is gone. With beef prices so low and CWT dumping thousands of healthy dairy cows and heifers into the meat market, I wonder what they will get for their herds. Not much I suspect.


You should really click that link and look at the photo with the story. It made such an impression on me, that, having forgotten where I first saw it, I thought about it for a couple of days before doing some searching to find it and posting the link. I don't expect that you will ever see such a thing here....but it certainly is something.

Voter Intimidation

Even at the farmer level.

Yesterday I saw farmers who were afraid to sign an independent petition requesting an increase in milk prices. They belong to a certain large, national, so-called "cooperative", which told them they would lose their market if they signed it. That company controls a ridiculous portion of the market so they had little choice but to comply.

Something is rotten and it ain't in Denmark.

Meanwhile, check out this article. (HT to John Bunting)

Happy Birthday Mom

We don't dare come see you because we are all still sick, but we will be thinking of you and will call.

Love you!!!

Hope you have a great day!

Wordless Wednesday

Check These Out

Doesn't look like I am going to have much time to write for the next little bit. We are having to meet with a lender...bet you can guess why. I have to do any number of things to get ready for that encounter.....So for your reading and listening pleasure here are links to a few of the talented folks whose work I read every day.

Becky, who has a video with a great Neal McCoy song, last of a dying breed. Not something we personally are looking to be, but it sure is looking more possible every day.

Jinglebob, who will give you a look at life on a real ranch...so different from here on the East coast and so interesting.

A new dairy blog, which I read for the first time this morning.

My lovely sis-in-law, who sends me zucchini (thanks!) Check out that pretty new header!

Dani, who has some of the most beautiful photos I have ever seen!

Jeffro, for insight into so many of life's dilemmas

And anybody else over there in the sidebar...they are a bunch of great writers and photographers and real friends...

******Update: Here's another one! Just happened upon this blog from Sitemeter. This is so funny! I had grandmothers like that and if the Lord is willing, someday I may be one. (turn your sound up)

Is Your Nose Supposed to Crunch?

(Please scroll down for Macro Monday)

Something folks whose only contact with large animals is Disney often don't understand is that large animals can and will hurt you.
Sometimes in horribly, final ways.
Sometimes in ways that are painful as heck, but not serious and only make people point and laugh at you.

Yesterday Alan went to a Yankees game with his big brother and family and friends (ask him what he was doing when their moment of fame with the TV cameras came...he's a guy is all I can say). He was home in time for most of milking and of course he was regaling us with tales of his great day.

Just as I was putting the milking machine on Becky's show cow Lemonade he was telling me about a particularly dramatic home run.
I looked up at him.

Wham! Lemmie nailed me square in the nose with a swing of her long, hard tail. A cow's tail has a lot in common with a baseball bat. It is hard as heck, swings in an arc, and has an amazing lot of force behind it. I hopped out of that stall holding my nose and hurtin' for certain.

When I took my hands off my face Alan said, "Mom, I think it's broken. Your nose normally looks exactly like mine and it doesn't now."

Great. I was the only one of the four of us still at home who never got their nose broken by a cow. I was not thrilled to join the majority. At least it was only the tip involved. Liz has had the top of her nose broken by flailing tails more than once and the boss's is a bit bent by too many baseball games as a catcher. Guess a cow got Alan worse then me too.

Still, I hated the thought of going through life with the end of my nose flattened. Call it foolish vanity for someone my age, but I liked my nose the way it was.......before.

Anyhow I went out in the milkhouse, took a hold of the end of the poor thing and pinched.
Crunch. Things snap, crackle popped and when I went back out for inspection everyone agreed that my nose looked like it is supposed to again. It's kinda tender this morning but I am grateful to recognize myself in the mirror. Dang Lemmie anyhow.

Macro Monday

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Montgomery County Sundae on the Farm Directions

A scene from 2006 Sundae on the Farm

Sunday on the Farm will be held at Hoffman's Sand Flats Orchard this year.
It will take place Sunday September the 20th 2009 from noon to 4PM

Directions can be found here

The farm is located on Martin Road near Fonda NY. Sundae on the Farm is a tremendous place to learn about farming, have a great time in the outdoors and enjoy good food, wonderful scenery, live animals, crafts, vendors and of course a terrific ice cream Sundae.
Hope to see you there.

Sunday Stills, Mechanical Transportation

.........It runs on fuel and can take two or more passengers




For more Sunday Stills.......


This is the Montgomery County Farm Bureau Pro/Ed Committee float at the Fonda Fair last week. I thought the people who worked on it did an incredible job, telling their story with simple but attractive materials. The judges at the parade felt the same way, as they awarded them the top prize for best float. Congratulations folks, and thanks for providing me an entry for this weeks SS

More Rain and Amazing Dogs

We have been wildly grateful for almost two weeks of fantastic weather. Been working like crazy to take advantage of every minute of it, after one of the rainiest summers on record.

Sad to say it started raining about midday yesterday and was really enthusiastic about it.
Raining again this morning. Weather man says we are in for another stretch of good weather next week and I really, really hope so. Between low milk prices, high everything else prices and horrible weather we are hurting. We at least need to get more feed and there is some out there if the weather cooperates

The boss says the new seeding can be harvested, (finally) there is some ratty old hay up in back they might get and what corn actually grew needs to be put in.

He gave a call to the crop insurance guy and was told that they are awash in claims. It has been such a horrible weather year and a lot of people, us included, have sick and sorry corn. I am so glad we only planted a few acres, less than half our normal. Nationwide it looks like a good crop and we can buy corn meal for the ration a lot cheaper than we can buy commercial fertilizer and then watch the rain wreck the corn.

However, since I wouldn't want to make you gloomy about the weather, here is something fun found via a distant cousin on Facebook:

What Does a Homesick College Girl Do

In the middle of a long, lonely night far away from home?
Why, read the Northview Diary archives, of course.
Love you Beck and miss you too......
Can't wait until you are home for the real thing instead of virtual home and farm life.

Goosey, Goosey....What!!

Liz was driving us home from Fonda the other day. As we crossed the river bridge I glanced to the west to see a beautiful necklace of gulls decorating the lawn at the state transportation barn. They were such a lovely gleaming white against the freshly mowed lawns.

A pair of geese about to swim under the bridge caught my eye. I always check even the commonest of wild birds, just in case there is something exotic going on.

I was glad I did. Half of this obviously closely bonded, tandem-swimming, pair of geese was an ordinary Canada goose. The other half was stocky-bodied, bright grey with white markings, and had a distinct and knobby bright orange bill. As far as I could tell, not being familiar with every exotic goose in the world, it was a common, ordinary barnyard goose. It looked like this. It could conceivably have been a greylag goose, as that European breed does occur here on occasion. Or it could have been somebody's pet lured away by the call of the wild.

I don't guess the bonding of wild waterfowl and tame farm birds is at all uncommon, but this was sure a first for me. It was the thrill of the week, bar none.

As always I had the camera with me, but those of you familiar with the bridge know it just isn't a spot where you can take pictures. Maybe later in the week Alan and I will drive over to the transpo barn and see if they are still there.


****PS, Dairy farm blogs are few and far between, so I am always delighted to find a new one. I have been reading a new one for a couple of weeks and I believe it is a keeper. Check out Orange Patch Dairy. I think you will like it.

WW

How Do You Take a Pig to a Parade?

Why, in the back of a pick up truck of course

A hitch of fancy Clydesdales

A mistake, but I liked it

Pair O' Percherons

Passel O' Pipers

And other scenes from the fair.

Going to the Fair Today?

Stop by the dairy booth and say hi.

Macro Monday

For more Macro Monday

Sunday Stills, the Rule of Thirds

For more Sunday Stills....

Old Dogs

Had to go the barn in the way before early, still chilly from night, dark time this morning. Couldn't remember whether I turned the milk cooler on last night or not.

I had to check. It is an obsession of mine. Did I turn it on or did I forget and spoil a night's milking? So far I have always remembered, or someone has reminded me, but there is a first time for everything I guess.

We have no young dogs any more. The "puppies: are 8 or 9. Mike will be 15 next month and Gael is 13.

And it shows. Mike can barely walk, with one bad hind leg and the old dog vestibular disease, and he is mostly blind and deaf. He no longer barks.

Ever. Even strangers can come and go right next to his crate and he doesn't even know they are there. His life is a round of dog food, sleeping and staggering through the house trying to find me or Liz, his people. When he walks by I put my hand in front of his nose, so he can know where I am and rest for a while....before he starts circling from room to room again.

He was so much dog when he was young. Taking on bulls and putting them where we wanted them. Herding heifers so well that the time came that I didn't even have to open his kennel run any more. They saw my hand go up to the latch and ran for the barn when I wanted them in. He just worked himself right out of a job.


My ever shadow, every moment of his life if he could. So smart that in the sleeping beside the bed years he only got up with me if I put on my glasses. If I didn't he knew I was coming back. If I did he knew I was up to stay. Now he sleeps downstairs because he can't get up them any more. It is sad to see him reduced as he is, but he tries...oh how he tries.

Gael has cancer and the old dog V disease. Getting around is a bit easier for her, but not much. She does still bark and take an interest in things just the same though.

This morning I let them out while I put my shoes on for my little check the tank excursion.They need to be out for a long, long time, because Mike forgets to "go". I don't know what we will do when winter comes....

When I headed to the barn, Gael knew where I was going, in that border collie way that they have. I told her to go back to the house, but she pretended to be deaf in that other way they have and trucked right on over to the barn yard gate. It is a long walk for an old dog. Behind us Mike let out a muffled woof.
He never barks.
But somehow he knew something was going on and he was missing it.

I gave Gael a firm "stay" at the gate and went on to check the tank
Which was turned on.
It always is.

She was waiting at the gate, quietly watching for me when I came back....in that way that they have. The night was redolent of passing skunk and something autumny blooming. The late summer insects were nearly deafening and the moon was full and fine. However, what caught my mind, as Gael and I walked back to link up with Mike and come into the house, was the fine and forever, as long as they live, loyalty and work ethic of grand old dogs.

Oh, and the love too. When the work is long done and the days reduced to the least common denominator, those old dogs love like it was their job.....and maybe it is.

Off Topic but Comforting

My dad used to call me Crisco...if you think about that it will come to you.....

Weather and Amish Machinery

Amish hay loader

Must hurry to make full use of the weather we are having...just about the first good weather of the summer. The boss is baling.
Chopping.
Working on machinery.

Not this machinery...this is a horsedrawn hay rake some Amishmen
left parked near here. They are hustling after hay too.

Yesterday Liz and I cleaned calf stalls and led calves. The last part was fun. I love training them to lead, even if they will never be show cows, like Northstar. They are so much nicer to handle when they are older if they are handled when young. I got to do something I have always wanted to do...lead an own daughter of SWD Valiant. I always wanted one, back in the day, but could never afford to buy one. Last year the kids went to the OHM Sale and bought some semen, and I got a heifer calf off old Beausoleil. Her name is Bastille, but I am calling her Tilly. (For you old time Holstein folks, we also have daughters of Straight Pine Elevation Pete (milking and calves) Citation R Maple (ditto), a milking Cal-Clark Board Chairman and two Whirlhill Kingpin daughters. I'll bet we are one of very few herds that do.)



Then I froze some beets. Kept on catching up on the laundry I couldn't dry all summer...no dryer so it is the line or the bars.
Did books.
Built a new fire (thanks FC, you are still helping me with that job.)
Helped unload a wagon of bales.
Milked without the usual compliment of helpers....fair week, vacation week, folks away at college.
Today more of the same, but with zucchini this time.
Not complaining though. If I could bottle this weather and stretch it out I would do it.

Fair Week

Liz, Alan and the boss went to the tractor pull last night. I stayed home, listened to the roar of the big engines, just across the river and talked to Becky on the phone and on Facebook. (Speaking of which, I would love to "friend" any of you folks if you are Facebookers. If you don't know my real name....just ask in the comments...or check over there in the sidebar.)

Anyhow, we milked early so they could get over there on time. Having milked early for the cable guy in the morning it was fine for the cows. We got Road Runner yesterday, mostly because they offered a cheaper deal than Frontier, which we had used for the past two years. I am not thrilled. It is hard to work the TV (not that I watch it, but I do hear the whining from the other room.) and this computer is not any faster...maybe not even as fast...as before.
And I couldn't install all the fancy-schmancy stuff because it says I don't have IE8 and SP2...except that I do...have both that is. Dag Nab It! However, we will save a few bucks a month for the next year so...

Because of all the early-milkin', tractor-pullin' shenanigans I was in the house by 5:30 ish, with laundry done, supper (which no one ate) cooked, a fresh crumb-topped apple pie on the counter (made by Liz. stole the pic from her too). It was so quiet (except for every ten minutes or so when another tractor went off over at the pull) that I felt like I was in the wrong house. I had a piece of pie for supper, read a good book, took doggies out and brought doggies in and went to bed early.

And they brought me home Hall's fudge......what could be more perfect?

Nice Language There Guy

You won't see words like this on Northview.

Wordless Wednesday

Happy 58th

Wedding anniversary to our mom and dad.
Congratulations on having what it takes.
Love from all your "kids".

Sorta Back to Normal

Things are kinda, sorta, back to normal after a week when our youngest border collie, Nick, nearly died from eating an illicit chicken, and the cat, Elvis, nearly passed on from a hairball infestation. We also drove to Potsdam, had several inches of pounding rain, and went generally crazy every day....There were other stories too, harder and sadder than anything here, but not mine to tell.

The stupid chicken flew over a 6-foot chain link fence to offer herself up to Nick. How could he refuse? And of course, from the evidence left in the run, she was one of the ones that is laying eggs. I have no idea what eating raw, boneful, featherous chicken does to a nine year old dog who normally consumes only dog food, but I can tell you it isn't good. At one point he would only stand up to go outside if I begged him.

We nursed him tenderly, even went so far as to dose him with the cat's hairball medicine. Tablespoons full of raw beef. Rice and milk. Checking in the middle of the night. Beaucoup de petting. I am right fond of that dog. He is such a bad boy that he has to spend a lot of time in the kennel, because killing Mike his high on his agenda and all the cats are just a little lower on the list. On the other hand he is obedient and eager to please and sweet and great company when he isn't raising Hell.

At any rate he stood up from what looked like his last and ate a couple of bites of dog food Thursday. By Saturday he ASKED to go to his run to get some exercise and bark at cats. Today he seems completely normal and is eating ravenously to make up for lost time, snapping up bites from Mike's dish on his way out the door.

Please, chickens, you have hundreds of acres to scratch around on...stay OUT of the kennel.

Elvis is mending too.....despite my inept application of hairball medicine and several set backs.

Now we just have to get used to Becky being gone and Alan back to class

Oh, and the fair opens tomorrow too.

Macro Monday

For more Macro Monday.....

Sunday Stills....Sound

I tried all week, in between college trips and rain storms and cows and such to find something to take a picture of for sound. I shot the cats meowing...just as they closed their mouths...and so it went all week. So here is a pic of one of the best sounds there is...from the archives....My brother's hands...playing music for us.

For more Sunday Stills....