Randomly Yours

Winter

Yep, the white-crowned sparrow still hasn't read the manual on migrating in a timely fashion

Feast to Famine

First we had flooding. Too much water in the barn. We water flowing in the mangers, sopping cow beds, endless sweeping and shoveling and running of the gutter chain.

Then last night we had none. I was watering pen calves while milking; Becky was watering indoor babies, when it just died out without a whimper. We had heard sirens. We wondered.

Shortly after the water went off the lights did too. Milkers stopped, instant darkness, even the cows jumped. And of course we still haven't been able to replace the generator cables.

After we got the machines taken off the cows and hung up and everything shut off (I just happened to have a little flashlight in my pocket and the kids had cell phones, which serve in a pinch) Alan went down street to find that this had happened. (I feel so bad for the poor folks involved, to have such a thing occur so close to Christmas...or any time really. Such a sad thing for them.)

Thanks to the wonders of those cell phones and Alan having friends on other farms around the Town of Glen, we soon knew that it was a widespread outage.

We went inside and sat in the house in the dark, talking and debating what to do. Most of the cows were milked already because Liz needed to get some rest, having been up all night Monday taking her boyfriend to the emergency room (he is out of danger, but pretty uncomfortable). She had finished most of the boss's cows too, so there were only about thirteen head left to milk. It was tanker day though and the tank had not yet been turned on, so if the outage went on for more than a couple of hours we were going to have to dump the milk.

We heard through the grapevine that ten PM was the earliest power would be restored...this was at about seven-twenty.

So we decided to go to the barn, feed out some hay (grain is moved into the barn with an auger...electric of course...and the girls hadn't had their evening feeding) and start hand-milking the high producers. We would have to throw away the milk, but we didn't want them to be uncomfortable for any longer than was necessary.

I was standing there in the dark in the kitchen, fishing around for a wool sock under a chair, getting ready to do all that, when, squeaky-squeaky, flash-bang, the furnace fan began to rotate, the lights blinked on and all the clocks in the kitchen began flashing the wrong time.

There was no need for a food court. The four of us (we sent Liz to get that sleep when we saw that it was going to be a late night) burst into the farmer version of the Hallelujah Chorus.

We could milk. We could feed. We could cool the milk and wash the pipeline. We could eat dinner, only an hour or so late and get our own sleep.

There was plenty to be joyful about and we were. With all the machines on my line, we finished milking the cows in about twenty minutes, fed them some extra just because and came indoors to computers and warmth and glowing light bulbs, which we purely do not appreciate enough.

Flooding

Yeah, we were wishing Noah would bring by some equipment on Saturday. We had the annual family Christmas party in the afternoon, so of course when we got to the barn that morning we found a flood of biblical proportions. Lucky, who is indeed lucky, all things considered, broke her water bowl right off.....which left water, for which we are incidentally required to pay at double the local rate, flowing freely.

Apparently all night. One stable cleaner is level so the water can be run right into the spreader.

The other goes up to go out and water, although it wonderful stuff in the right place and time, refuses to flow uphill. There was so much water that both our little sump pumps turned up their toes. Alan rebuilt one several times before it finally gave up completely.

The women milked while the men moved water and wet, ruined feed and calves that needed new, dry stalls.

Despite all we made it to the party and weren't even the last to arrive. It was nice. Got to meet the new baby and hug everybody at least twice and eat more good food than should be legal. The barn is still soggy and now the spreader has ice in the bottom and won't run, but we will get through this, don't worry. Better days are coming. Here's hoping that seven day forecast has a few hours well above freezing in store for us. Otherwise we will be piling the you-know-what for a while.

Sunday Stills...Holiday Decorations

We barely have any Christmas decorating done this year, so these were pulled out of the china closet for their close up.

For more Sunday Stills....

Christmas "Shopping"

Is just about done.

The Basics of Apple Jelly

A sink full of pink ladies and granny smiths, with a gratuitous red geranium reflected from the windowsill.

Merry Christmas, Have a Hot Shower

Year round!!!!

***I could sing the Hallelujah Chorus myself right now! We were looking at either spending thousands or taking cold ones!

Missed

I was out in the sunset.

Camera right in my hand

Right there in my hand, turned on and zoomed out. Set on C where I often have it.

I failed just the same...missed completely

Too slow, too dark...too bad at aiming.

Thirty or so snow geese, honking softly, quieter than the ubiquitous Canadas, right behind me, the setting sun reflecting off the flashing white of their breasts as their wings beat black, pink, black, like traffic signals from the basement cat.

They were the exact color of flamingos, but seriously less elongated, like somebody washed them in very hot water. It was about the coolest thing in the world.

Sun Dogs

Weather bringers?

Winter Water Woes

Computer problems are limiting how much I can update or answer comments....sorry about that. I really appreciate talking to you, and will get caught up as soon as I get things straightened out.....as are cookie baking and frozen things. The war of the water bowls goes on and on. A water line broke in the barn day before yesterday. Thankfully the guys had only been out of the barn for a couple of minutes when they came in and found little Niagara flowing down the manger.

However, the repairs unleashed a bunch of rust into the water lines, which then got caught in all the valves in the self watering bowls the cows drink from. Thus Alan would fix a bowl and go milk a cow and then another one would start to overflow and he would fix it and milk a cow and so on....this morning there finally weren't any overflowing. Fingers crossed!

I was as surprised as folks who commented to see the white-crowned sparrow this time of year. Usually they come through in April, sing up a storm and offer us lots of enjoyment, then head on north. There are quite a few birds around though, including quite a few geese.

Hope everyone's Christmas preparations are going along well. Off the kitchen....

Brrrr

Real

Some fine music for you on this frigid Tuesday, while we ago about dealing with whatever chose to get froze last night.

Driving Excellence

I cannot wait to buy this book. Imagine taking a failing public service, running at a severe deficit, and turning it around to become both functional and profitable. Imagine lowering costs while increasing services. Imagine businesses coming to a public...that is government-run entity for advice on how to function better. I am looking forward so much to reading it.

Partly because I am astonished by what this man has done....partly because I will think it will change my way of thinking. And partly because I can brag that I babysat for him and knew him when, because he is my dear, wonderful, talented cousin. I hope he sells millions of copies. I am so proud of him!

Lucky

The Mid West took a shellacking this weekend in the weather department. We were threatened but lucked out in the end, with just a tad of ice and some drenching rains. Miserable, but nothing compared to a blizzard.

We were also lucky in that the boss told the guys over at the auction last week to give him a call if a really cheap stock trailer came in. They did and we got this for way under two thousand. It is really old, but not at all decrepit and will serve us for a bit and keep us out of the hands of the uncaring and unscrupulous among the haulers. I am grateful as heck for that.

More Ugliness on Eastern Livestock Meltdown

It always seems to come back and bite the little guy.

Sunday Stills....Pets

Click for detail

Notice the hard working border collie staring at his prey... lots of eye. Below find the prey. Nothing like a dog that works cats.

For more Sunday Stills.....

Thinking Thankful Thoughts

I have been lately. So many of you who come here to read about life on our small family dairy farm have helped us in amazing ways over the past year. Friends, family, people whom we have never met, but who would certainly be friends if we did, have helped us put another year behind us....still milking cows, still doing what we do, despite all odds, and they have not been good odds. When we ran out of feed last winter, people helped. People called from far away to offer help. You were so good to us, who had done nothing to deserve the goodness.

It was humbling...there were amazing acts of kindness. From seeds for the garden, neat things to plant from far away, to kind words of support when the world seemed black and frozen.

You are good for our hearts and our home and our lives and I just wanted you to know that we have not forgotten and we thank you every day that comes....

Definition of a Farmer

I could add a few to this. Farmers have to wear a lot of hats these days.

The Better Half of Snow

C'mon, you knew there had to be one. It can't be ALL bad..only almost....I am not a winter fan, less so after taking a crashing fall while taking sand in so the cows had better footing (guess I should have sanded where I walk first). However, despite the bruises and bumps, there is an upside to this white stuff all over the ground.

Tracking, reading the unfolding story of what happened in the night, out in the yard while we were sleeping. There the crook-legged hen left a garbled trail over to the porch to steal cat food. Here the rooster scratched for sun flower seeds under the feeder. It is like gossip written in blue and grey against the white....every one's secrets revealed.

This morning's tabloid offered a probable explanation of where Triton went. Triton was a lovely cat Alan brought home not long ago. I really liked her....what a hunter.

Then one morning she was just....gone....we never saw her again.

This morning a set of large, like German shepherd-large, canine tracks, led from the bank of the creek right across the heifer road and all the way to the house and beyond. Right next to the cars and the back porch where Triton lived.

Canis Latrans. Bold as brass, right up to the house, right up to the hen coop, right past the pony barn. Although we have three dogs, they are all confined in warm places for the winter. None of them left the tracks. I knew there were coyotes around; you can't miss hearing them, but I had some idea that they stayed out in the field....waiting for the cats to come to them.

Hah! I swear if the door was open they would probably walk right in the living room looking for Elvis and Simon.

There are also bunny tracks out there, but very, very few compared to most winters. I guess that is the better half of having a coyote in your back yard. Besides cats, he apparently eats rabbits too.

Still.....

Duck ID

Practicing up for the Christmas Bird Count. Here is a nice page of duck identification information. (I wonder if there will be any open water at all by the time the count rolls around!)

Cold Feet on Plum Island?

Maybe

Food Court Hallelujah Story Revealed

Last week I posted the video of the flash mob that performed Handel's Messiah in a Canadian food court (it still gives me cold chills when I listen).

Here is the story behind the video.

NY Farm Bureau Annual Meeting

Is on this week. Here is a nice story from the front:

NY Farmers donate 4.7 million pounds of food

Wordless Wednesday

Steckling

Not a sugar beet...nor a steckling either

A steckling, a steckling...my kingdom for a steckling.....

But I will most happily settle for a nice definition of a steckling from any of you wonderful agricultural folks who happen to stop by. (I am working on this week's Farm Side and need to talk about beet culture.)

Sugar beets are not exactly big business in upstate NY and the Net has been helpful, but not absolutely so, in my quest to write about the recent federal court decision on GMO beets.

Thanks in advance for any help you are able to give. Quotable quotes about the beet industry would be most welcome as well. You can leave them in the comments or email me at threecollie AT gmail DOT com.

Ethanol Hurts

On one hand my car runs so badly on it, seems like all we do is buy dry gas.

On the other hand we are paying prices for concentrates (grain) for the cows that we would never even have imagined just a couple of years ago. Between the cost of feed and the high price of all kinds of fuels it is a daily struggle just to survive...a very discouraging struggle. I personally would like to see the government go out of the food for fuel business.

Here is a story about the issue with a lively discussion in the comments.

Good Morning

From kinda, sorta, snowy Northview. I guess the western end of the county really got dumped on. We just got a little bit...enough for me for sure, but just a dusting. At least it wasn't rain. It was a fairly quiet weekend, which I spent working and enjoying the company of my boy, Nick. Doesn't look eleven does he?

The Border Collie Dilemma

Seems to have been solved without any decision on my part. The female broke out of her run at her home and went and found her own boyfriend.

Sunday Stills....Pot Luck

Lots of fun this week!

For more Sunday Stills

Rustlers Caught

Suspects were apprehended in calf losses in Minnesota. They wanted to start a dairy farm and decided to get an unconventional start. Check out the comments...sure had me shaking my head.

Cha-cha-changes

What is with people wanting to see what I look like anyhow? I am not thirty any more and will never be again...not forty or fifty either...I sneaked through Sunday Stills last week without too much misery. Then I got the news that my old editor (a nice guy with a great sense of humor...he always came up with cool titles) is my new editor now.

And he wants a new picture to go with the newness of the editorial page. I have soldiered along writing the Farm Side since 1998...lots of wise cracks and parentheses (just because I like 'em) and the same picture of my grinning face....for all those years. And every year I would chortle to myself....hehehe...they haven't made me change my photo yet. I was just thinking that the other week while undergoing the agony of having my picture taken for SS. I guess I laughed a couple days too soon.

I took a bunch yesterday. (I have to send an assortment.) It hurt. Think old. Think weather-beaten old. Grey even. Think weather-beaten, wrinkled-up, grey even, whistling distance of 60 farmer's wife.

Ouch. I was enjoying my fantasy dag nab it! Above is my favorite so far....that really isn't me....really it isn't.....

Something to Write Home About

Nick

Rev. Paul has a post about the Iditarod. If we can just get to the other side of this whole winter thing we have that to look forward to. I do love sled dog racing and the Iditarod is the big one. We used to go to sled dog races all the time around here. We would stand in snow banks with freezing toes, watching the dogs go by on silent feet, only the sound of their breath and the swish of the runners to mar the silence of the winter woods...nothing like snowmobiles that deafen everybody for miles around. I miss it.

That Amish fellow that we heard wanted to mate my Nick with his dog has come forward and contacted me. I am afraid I am getting cold feet about the whole deal. Nick is a good dog and well worthy of passing on his traits, but I wonder what will happen with the resulting pups. One would come to me, but what about the rest of them? Will they be stock dogs on his sheep farm or dumped on the pet market, where good working border collies do not belong? I am going to have to talk to him some more I think. Meanwhile Liz picked me up a DHL booster and I vaccinated Nick, just in case.

I do want a puppy...and a puppy from the bloodlines we have worked here for nearly two decades would be perfect but.....

Truckin'

Years ago we lost a good deal of money at the hands of an unscrupulous cattle trucker who switched our cows with his own and sold our heavier, larger animals as his. We got the smaller check. As cows aren't weighed at the farm and he wouldn't tag them we had no way to prove this. However eventually he switched a huge 1400-lb cow for an 800-lb one and we fired him and bought a trailer.

We hauled our own ever since. However, we loaned our trailer to a neighbor, his barn burned, and the trailer was damaged in the fire. Recently the metal began breaking down very rapidly...so we decided that it was not safe to use and hired a different trucker to haul a cow to the sale yesterday.

She was a big one, one of mine naturally, my Encore cow out of the Trixy family. I really, really hated to sell her in the first place. We just couldn't get her pregnant and she was mean as a snake....bills to pay so she had to go.

First the trucker couldn't get backed up to the door of the barn. Mind you, Alan, at twenty, can back a bumper pull stock trailer in, one try, on ice, snow, you name it. ...I think he could prolly do it blind folded. The ground was clear, the barnyard all scraped and nice .....This guy had a goose neck and couldn't get it anywhere near right.

He finally set up with his open door out into the barn aisle so the cow had to turn and go around it and squeeze through a little bitty gap to clamber into his filthy, stinking, wet, slippery mess of a trailer. I got the boss to make him pull out a little because I knew she wouldn't do it. It would have been hard to load a show cow that way, let alone a gigantic loony-tune like Encore (she ended up weighing a few pounds under 1500.)

Then I asked him to let me throw some sand on the trailer...he had mats and it was just a morass, wet, obviously slippery. I hate to make a cow ride thirty miles sliding around like they were on a skating rink.

He flat out refused! I mean the sand was right there. The shovel was right there. I would have done the work so he didn't have to!

He said, "Oh, I had a cow go down there this morning...she got right up...." Patronizing as heck. What would a woman know about loading cows anyhow?

I was so mad I could have spit. Of course when we brought her down the aisle, the damnfoolidiot trucker got right out in front of her waving his cane. So....she wouldn't go around the door and jumped up in the stall with my beautiful Broadway, my very favorite cow in the world, just diagnosed pregnant and doing no harm. And proceeded to bang the heck out of her.

Getting Encore out and on that truck wasn't pretty. She didn't want to go, she was a lot bigger than we are and the trucker got her all stirred up and mad.... I didn't blame her a bit.

And then he wouldn't tag her. So there we were...once again trusting that we would get paid for our big cow and not somebody else's little one.

As soon as that trailer door swung shut, I just stomped off to the house fuming. Man was I mad. The boss hurried through his work and went right on over to the sale barn and stayed and watched her sell so we were sure to get the right one. Kids and I did the night chores without him...which isn't really all that big a deal. She did sell right and we got our own check and not somebody else's...only brought 44 cents a pound, which was a good bit less than I was hoping for, but that's an auction for you.

I 'll tell you what though..... We are either patching up that old Corn Pro or we are finding a used stock trailer. When the boss and I load cows, we set up gates, we put sand in the trailer (which is backed up right square to the door) and on the barn floor and we are quiet, and quick and in the right place at the right time. It has been years since we had any rodeos loading. The cows go down to the door and jump in and we close the door...nuff said.....We even got the big, horned, beef steer on the trailer last week without any fanfare, although I admit we were worried about him. There is no reason to do it any other way, except laziness or sheer, screaming, incompetence. I will not go through that again....ever.....

So if you hear of a used trailer for a reasonable price...stock style, give me a shout. I had all I wanted of truckers yesterday.

Price Takers, Not Makers

Here is an excellent article on the ongoing loss of large numbers of dairy farms, with some interesting suggestions for solving the problem.

And here is a story about one particular farm selling out.

The Incredible Sweater

Check out this amazing accomplishment by a farm kid. A lot of kids would just swipe a credit card through a reader at the mall when they needed or wanted a new sweater. This young lady has a much deeper understanding of how things happen.

Hallelujah Chorus in a Food Court

Thanks to Rev. Paul for this delightful video. Do watch and listen....you will be glad you did. An watch the shoppers....

Cold Dawn

Bur cucumber skeleton....they are a nuisance like kudzu, but interesting just the same.

The colors are not so very unlike June...pink...gold...faded blue and a little green where the lawn grass grows or the pasture is nibbled short. All as if muted by distance, far away from the hot, red tongue of sun, which would light them up bright and strong if it was summer. Softened by frost, silenced by summer's end. Bird calls are thin but bright. No dawn chorus when I go out to the stove. Just the roosters crowing, a chickadee waking up in the hedgerow.....a far away cardinal chinking but not singing. Even the crows are absent, not a goose is stirring down on the river. It is about as peaceful as it ever gets during this soft prelude to the day time.

November has its moments.

The holiday has left us with a pile of bookwork and barn work and household choring for the day so here are some fine reads from my favorite bloggers.

First a happy birthday wish to one of my most favoritest blog friend....Cathy at Looking Up

My kind of poetry about winter, from Linda at Just Another Day on the Prairie.

More poetry about the season from my first ever blog friend, Rosemoon at Moonmeadow Farm

Because this is a dairy blog, a daily must read on dairy John Bunting's Dairy Journal

Just in case you think the weather is a challenge here, a bit about daily life in South Dakota. If you farm or ranch you have mornings like this....but that doesn't make them fun.

Plus a blimp

Your morning laughs, just to get your heart pumping.

Something different but beautiful.

And mice, but cute ones

And there you have it. Now off to the barn to see what mayhem the girls and boys have thought up for us in the night. (We hoped that when we shipped the steer from Hell that the whole broken water bowl/flooded mangers thing would be given a rest...not so much, alas.)

Sunday Stills.....Self Pics

Didn't want to do this one, not one little bit. Hate having my picture taken, hate it, hate it, hate it.

However, it is done. The top one was taken back when I was thirtyish, on the late, great, Magnum. Bottom one taken Friday, by Becky, showing a Sunday chair moment....seemed appropriate for Sunday Stills and all. Please note the Peltor ear muffs, greatest marriage saver in the world.

For more suffering by Sunday Stills participants, go here......

Birds and Deers

Alan's best friend is home from college on break, so they have been doing some hunting together. Today they hunted here and the friend got his first buck and a skipper (antler-less deer). We were really happy for him.

Wednesday they were hunting here and, although they didn't get a deer that day, they had an amazing experience. They were sitting in Alan's two-man tree stand watching a flock of turkeys when suddenly the birds alerted. Alan thought he spooked them and asked his friend what he had done to scare them. His friend didn't think he had moved at all. The turkeys hurried over to the T-field, which is adjacent to the cow pasture where the tree stand is. Both boys were watching them through their rifle scopes, just taking pleasure in observing them, when suddenly, from out of nowhere, came the real cause of the spooking incident.

Dunno what the attraction is with the dog house,

but the hens crowd into it all the time. There are four hens and a rooster in there at one point.

A bald eagle on locked wings hit the flock from behind, scattering them in every direction. The point of potential impact was out of sight behind a knoll, so they didn't actually see the eagle hit the turkeys. However, it didn't fly up while they were there, so it probably got one. Not what I would have expected to be its normal prey, but what an opportunity for the boys. Eagles are still not very common here...still an event to see one, let alone one hunting right here on the farm.

****Speaking of eagles, big birds and all, here is a really interesting story courtesy of my friend, Elaine Shein. Years ago, when the boss's mom was still with us, we saw the most staggering flight of geese imaginable. They went over the barn from east to west, a wide band of them that filled the sky overhead, maybe fifty geese wide, from horizon to horizon.

There were no distinct Vs or anything, just thousands and thousands and thousands of birds. Maybe a third snows and the rest Canadas. We heard them going over, over the noise of the milk pump, which was indoors then and very loud. We all went out and stood in the barnyard watching them pass in awe....I can't describe the sensation of seeing that many geese....it had to have taken ten minutes for them to pass. We have certainly never forgotten it. Wish I was out there today on the great flyway seeing all those birds out there.

Black Friday...Rain Again

Just so you know...this is NOT today...I only wish it was

It is so gloomy that there really is no sunrise...just a sort of easing from glowing dark to dripping dawn. Dog and cat chores are done, barn awaits. Liz got her hand wrecked by a calf last night. Don't know how much she will be able to do today.... It was really black and blue and her knuckles were swelling pretty badly after chores.

Alan has a deer hunting thing going on here today...the boss decided to let some folks come hunt with him on our usually closed property. Hope that goes well and that they maybe get a deer or two. Hope also that the weather comes around a bit for him. At least it isn't freezing rain as was predicted.

Thanksgiving was great....a traditional feast in the manner of Grandma Lachmayer and the Allied Union (you who were members will understand.) Not quite as many folks around the table, but the spirit was there. Liz and I cooked for two days (while doing herd health and chores, which was an interesting feat) but now we won't have to cook for at least a couple more. I have to debate the whole turkey pot pie thing. I love to make it, but Alan doesn't like it....however, everyone else does....hmmm.....

Other than that, just a regular day here at Northview. The closest we will come to the shopping Juggernaut thundering across the rest of the world is me doing a little bookkeeping and paying a few bills. And that is plumb close enough. My mind simply boggles at the folks who have been standing in line...some for over a week...just to get stuff. And when they get done and they have the stuff, then what? I don't get it. I may not have all the latest, hottest stuff, but I do have a life.

Can't see wasting any of it in mindless pursuit of stuff like that.

***Jan at Poodle and Dog Blog has a dog story that will touch your heart....really worth a read.

Thankful

For more than I could list here, for friends and family like you all, for cows, and border collies, and turkey, and dressing and pickles and gravy.......and cranberries!

What with all the "thank a farmer" messages circulating on Facebook this week I thought it would be fun to actually thank one of the farmers who made our wonderful Thanksgiving meal possible. So here is a link, and I sent them an email to say thanks as well.

Thank you Habelman Family Farm for growing the red, tangy cranberries for our homemade cranberry sauce. From our farm to yours, Happy Thanksgiving!

I also am thankful for all the truckers, those still out on the road today and those who are lucky enough to have made it home for the holiday, who helped make our meal possible. Since we have had a trucker close to our family we have begun to have an idea of what they go through to move our goods from place to place.

Chrome

What do you name the new calf from the Mandy family...the one that is long and black, with bright, white stockings up to here? Yeah, Chrome.

Gratuitous barn cat...Tux again

Our two days before Thanksgiving present from Neon Moon, a Fustead Emory Blitz daughter out of Mandy. Chrome is sired by one

of our herd bulls, Keeneland Astre Pat, K-Pat for short. Sorry to be so slow to post, but between the holidays (Thanksgiving and deer season) the cows, herd health, shipping the steer etc. time has been one thing that is in short supply. Hope everyone has a wonderful day tomorrow and thank you all for your kind words!

Yesterday

Was a medley of milk inspector, friends bringing things, Amishmen reporting poachers hunters who were trespassing tearing up a hay field with a 4-wheel drive, confronting the darned thugs, who have been confronted here before....next time the police get called...cows stuck in places where they don't belong...well, just one cow, but it was a big rescue project..... Cows out, cows in, feeding, milking, choring, bringing a little Thanksgiving to some family members who will enjoy it, and a small buck harvested for winter dining. Not to mention three roosters supplied for the same purpose, but placed up in the small chicken house for now.

Yeah, it's a wonder the door hinges didn't give up under the strain.

Today we ship the mean steer. Not looking forward to that, but it has to be done. Then writing the Farm Side, hopefully, and more getting ready for Thanksgiving...oh, yeah, Liz and I cleaned the fridge yesterday too and finally turned those Brussels sprouts into food.

Tomorrow, early hunting by Alan and friend and herd health. And cooking. And cleaning Thursday the dinner along with the usual chores and milking and a small prayer for nothing untoward.

Friday entertaining some hunters who take Alan hunting at their place every year. Saturday, who knows? Sunday...I hear that chair calling my name. Whoever called this a holiday week sure had a strange sense of humor.