Surprise

Kitteh, lying in wait for something
Please click to enlarge any of these

Sitting at the kitchen table this morning getting outside the first cup of coffee when Liz walked in.

Scaring the heck out of something and making it run away and slip on the ice

No surprise as that is how the day usually goes. 


Except that I hadn't heard her truck. I usually hear her truck...before the dog does in fact. He sure is getting old.


I didn't hear the truck because she came in really, really, really early and milked ALL the cows by herself (except Lemmie, because she didn't know what I am doing with her) and fed the babies.


Wow, that sure is a great surprise.Thanks Liz!


And last night the boy dropped in with a half a dozen hilarious stories about life in the big city and pretty girls and all those young guy things we miss when he is gone.

"Something" track. I would say possum....what was that kitteh thinking!

So anyhow, I had time to go out an look at some tracks and take some pics. Brave kitties out there last night...but kinda stoopid!

In Honor of Burns Night

I get to show off this lovely plate Mom and Dad gave me for Christmas......so, Happy Burns Night, everyone!

The Things You Learn While Moving Heifers

The electric fence gate is indeed "hot". If you touch it while wearing thick rubber boots and gloves and standing on snow, you won't get grounded completely and knocked on your *ss. However, liquid fire will run over your skin and you will cuss in the general direction of the guy who built such a tight d*** gate! Ouch!


When you worry and agonize for months over how you will move a certain recalcitrant heifer with big horns and a bad attitude, from heifer barn to cow barn....... When you sweat and plan and lose sleep fretting over what she will do......


She will walk quietly, almost exactly where you want her to go, and stroll into the barn and let you lug her into a stall with only the most minor of disagreements.


As if to say, "Ha, fooled you, didn't I?"


And the best cow moving item I have ever found is an old worn out canoe paddle. I always keep something on the porch with which to direct cow traffic. I can't count the number of times I have looked out the window to see cattle coming at me where they don't belong. Or heard hooves and moos out of place. It does not pay to chase them unarmed, as they will laugh and leap around you, kicking up their heels as they race away.


However, as with any tool sequestered by the lady of the house, all my fiber glass sorting sticks became "walking" sticks (as in walking away..I have a walking hammer too) and are over at the barn. When the time came to move an animal recently there was nothing on the back porch to choose from but a hoe and the canoe paddle.


 I chose the one that fit my hand the best and carried the fondest memories. Much to my astonishment cattle respect that paddle. And do not challenge me when I carry it. Must be because they can see it so well and it makes me look wider (amazing) and more dangerous.


Anyhow, farmers love to recycle and I am going to recycle that old paddle!


**Thanks again for your prayers and thoughts. Dad had a good day yesterday and took two walks and ate hit meals. I think that is excellent progress.

Something Going On

In the Amish world today. Early this morning, as I lay squashed under the mountain of comforters, blankets, and afghans that is necessary to prevent freezer burn in this climate (I felt like a particularly insignificant leaf, pressed in a particularly thick dictionary) I heard horse after horse clopping by.


I paused on the stair landing and watched yet another, seen only by a vague green light from whatever he was using to make himself visible to passing traffic, as he pounded down the road well before dawn.


I wonder where they are all going. 


And have you noticed that almost every single one of their horses is lame to some degree? Watch for the tell-tale head bob when the hurty foot hits the ground when they trot....or listen. You can hear that little hitch in their git-along too, especially in the quiet of the early early morning like today.

Anyhow, something is happening somewhere.....




****And on another note, I am SO GLAD that moose are uncommon in NY (although I am sure most local folks will remember the one in Fonda a couple of years ago. Do click the link above then click on through to read the whole story. I know a lot of tough women, but to drive away an attacking moose with a grain shovel...at 85 years old and 97 pounds...well, that is amazing.

No News is Good News

I hope at least. Haven't heard how Dad is doing yet today, but he came through surgery all right.
Thank you all for your prayers. 


I KNOW they helped.


 Hope you will continue to keep him in your conversations with the Almighty as we will be doing here at home. 

My American Farm

HT to Kim Komando for sharing this site, which shares lots of useful information on American farms and farmers. 

And here is another story about area cheese making.




****Please if you can, pray for my dad today. Major surgery taking place.

Sunday Stills.....Birds

 Tufted Titmouse

 Common Crow (don't let him hear you call him that though)

 A handful of several hundred European Starlings that invaded the yard the other day

What a din!

One of the horde fell dead beside the driveway and I grabbed a couple of macros. Who would imagine that such drab, shabby birds would have such lovely feathers close up!

And, last, but far from least, the multitude of Canada Geese rafting on the river....or really a tiny handful of the total, they stretch for at least half a mile.

For more Sunday Stills.....

Chuck Jolley Nails it Again

Five Minutes with Animal Rights Extremism. Mr. Jolley includes an excellent reference list of animal rights groups. 

Cheese and Dairy in the Mohawk Valley

Area business people are making whey while the sun shines.


The boss and I are lucky enough to know all these fine folks and to have served with them on various boards of directors and such over the years (sometimes it was pretty exciting too).


 Kudos to them for bringing real economic development to the valley, while embracing its unique rural nature. Much of what little I understand about milk pricing I learned from Mr. Spencer back in the day......

And Yet, We Still Seem to Have Enough to Eat

"College majors that are useless" screams the headline on Yahoo news. The article contains a list of degrees that you don't need to bother with, no jobs in those fields, don't even go there. Move along, move along.....


Three of the five dead end, awful, bad, and pointless careers listed are agriculture related. In fact the number one worst degree to pursue, according to the pundit who wrote the screed, is agriculture in general (this from a guy, who, according to his Facebook page studied film and TV at UCLA). 


It's no secret that the number of folks actually farming has declined a lot over the years....partly I suppose because of increased efficiency in most aspects of food production, and partly because fewer and fewer people want to work that hard at such a challenging profession. 


However, a point seemed to have been missed by the author as he bandied about Department of Labor statistics on how many jobs were projected in each field. 


Agriculture is all about producing food and fiber. The population of the planet is growing by leaps and bounds. I suspect that all those new babies that are projected to arrive on earth in the next few decades will arrive here kicking and screaming for their first meal and wanting to be warm. I imagine they will continue to want to eat until their tenure on the planet comes to an end. Most of them will wear clothes. At least some of those clothes will probably be made from natural fibers.


Just who does the author figure is going to feed ad clothe all those new folks? (Not to mention the ones who are already here and eating and putting on shirts and pants on a regular basis?)




And then there is the no jobs myth.




Currently agricultural exports contribute one of the few positives to America's balance of trade. Here is a quote from a recent Farm Side, "Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack even mentioned this at the American Farm Bureau annual meeting in Hawaii, “Last year, American agricultural exports amounted to $137.4 billion, which led to a $42 billion farm trade surplus, and direct support for more than 1 million American jobs.”


Hmmm, a million American jobs directly supported by agriculture. Plus countless millions the world over, fed and clothed by American agriculture....with many more millions soon to be born, hungry and naked.......are those degrees really all that useless?


I don't think so, but then two of my three kids have ag degrees and are working in good jobs, which they got straight out of college....maybe that skewed my opinion a little.

****Here are some even better  numbers.
****And here is someone who actually knows what he is talking about, as opposed to the author above.

Last Night When I Came In

The stars were out last night when I came in, clip-clopping slowly across the ice in my Yak Trax, like a sharp shod work horse going back to its stable. They were not quite Adirondack bright, but pretty darned clear and cold and shiny for being so close to town. As cold as it was I shut off my flashlight for a few minutes just to watch and listen...as I do most evenings year round, testing and tasting the waters of our wild Northview fish bowl...


The night was exceptionally quiet as if all the smart creatures, even the cars and trains, had gone to their dens to snuggle up out of the cold. It was good to know that our work was done, cows fed and milked, heifers double fed against the cold, cats hiding in the barns and the pony tucked up for the night. The boss bought us takeout for supper so I didn't even have to cook.


There was one bright greenish object in the sky, just off the zenith. Could have been an exceptional star or maybe some man made thing cruising around up there with the ancients. I was too lazy to look it up when I came inside and besides a lot of research sites were as dark as that cold night sky...not that I blame them a bit. Maybe Orion was playing baseball instead of stalking around with his bow, hunting trouble. Maybe he hit one out of the park and it hung there shining against the dark. Could have been, who knows with Orion?


He tends to stomp across the heifer barn roof early every morning and I worry you know...he is pretty big and heavy.


Anyhow, this morning dawned with a frozen crescent moon and an ice skin over everything that is going to defy those Yak Trax I fear. Time to do it all again and to dream of spring and greenery.

The SOPA Protest

Is on for the day. Check it out here.


And here.


And many other places around the web.

Farm Child Labor Laws Issue

This was shared on Facebook today. I believe that it is the best explanation of why the proposed new farm youth labor laws are a terrible idea that I have seen yet. Please take the time to watch three generations of ranch and farm folks talk about their lifestyle.


***HT American Agri-Women and Celeste Settrini

Shipping

Not far from the tree

A beef steer over to the processor today. And moving stock. And trying to get the Farm Side written. Should be an interesting day. Stay warm out there.

Waited a Long Time

To get up nerve enough to ask my brother to let me post a video of him singing and playing. He was kind enough to say yes, so here he is at yesterday's family get together. 

Uplifting

Well, actually uploading....a video of my brother playing and singing at yesterday's family party. I'm afraid it is going to take a while, but if I get it figured out I will share it in a bit.....and yeah, we do extend the Christmas season a bit most years.


Meanwhile, we were driving home last night, crossing the Mohawk bridge south out of Amsterdam, just as the crows were coming in to the infamous roosts at the east end of the city. 


It was truly surreal, thousands upon thousands of sharply-edged birds twisting and turning in crisp, bright, black against a lemon meringue and peach pie sky, with ink-etching trees on the horizon and gold and silver mirrors reflecting on the river. Wish I could have taken some pics for you but the car was moving in one direction, the birds in the other so all that was left is words. Stay warm....

Farm Girls

Patch themselves up with duct tape when they blow out a knee and still have to work.

Go to the parts store up at the other end of the county, carrying THIS part along...with instructions that it is NOT this part that is needed, but the OTHER part.


And somehow remain cheerful and fun to be around.


The subject of both these photos is Liz and the stories are true, with no names changed to protect the innocent.......

Farm Side Friday

Every now and again you can read it for free. It is right here if you want to.

Some Fairly Amazing Children's Books

I hadn't been on Mom and Dad's website for a while and hadn't seen this page of vintage, rare and really interesting children's books. Worth a look. Lots of L. Frank Baum, Palmer Cox,  and other things you don't see every day.

Organic Kids

Suppose we raised organic kids like they do organic cows. The slick marketers of organic goods will feed you all this stuff about better for the earth, (which considering that it takes more ground to grow organic stuff, seems like a bunch of bull hockey), etc. but what about the animals involved?


Organic cows do not get treated with antibiotics when they are sick. Their owners rely on topical, herbal, or homeopathic remedies. If cows don't respond to those treatments they die or are sold to someone who does use conventional medicine to treat them or sold for beef. (That's why they call farms like ours conventional...we do things the way regular people do.)


So suppose your "organic" little human comes down with a desperate case of pneumonia or some other serious bacterial illness, needs intensive care, and a conventional antibiotic, then what? Do you treat him with a herbal supplement...or do you sell him to the neighbor who feels it appropriate to treat children...or cows....with modern, tested, legal, safe medicines?


I know which way I would go, but then I am kind of conventional.


I try not to bash any kind of farming here on Northview, as there are far too few of us farmers left not to stick together. However, I am just plain sick of having organic dairy farming shoved in my face everywhere I look, as if it were the only answer to food production. I KNOW what happens to cows on organic farms that get sick. And if you have a pet dog or cat, you know that even the best cared for animals DO get sick  sometimes.......I would love to give you a quote on the topic from a trusted professional in the animal medical field with whom we regularly do business on what they think of the care of organic cattle but I don't have permission so I won't. 


However, we wouldn't think of expecting our children to get along in the modern world without modern medicine, so why do we act as if asking the same of dairy cows is practically a religious duty?


Every single farmer's bulk tank is tested for antibiotic residues every single time the truck from the company picks up milk. If there is a positive finding the FARMER pays for the whole tanker load of milk...not cheap! So there are no antibiotics in your milk no matter what kind of farm produces it. 


If you want to pay through the nose for organic products, which are generally chemically indistinguishable from conventional products, have at it, but you might want to think about the cows involved.

Do You Feel it Too?

When the geese go by? That tugging in your chest that seems to lift you up to follow them?  Pulling you along behind like a reluctant wagon.....


 It's their cries that do it. Magnet calls, siren songs, the call of the wild from the sky. It is a good thing I am too heavy to fly their trailways with them or I would so be gone.......

Canada Geese

In phenomenal numbers down on the Mohawk. We have been seeing them from the house, flocks that stretch from horizon to horizon, sailing by all day. It is quite a sight!

Yesterday I had to go out with Alan to take care of some bidness in town and got to see them resting on the river.

I took some videos, but they are pretty shaky, so it is going to take some editing before they don't make you seasick. However, for those of you familiar with the area, flocks like these stretched from well west of the river bridge to the former Poplars dock and more were cupping in all the time.

I don't think I have ever seen quite this many. Note the one lone stranger out there in the middle. There were a few mergs too, dipping and diving, but the geese certainly were the stars of the show.

It is SO Good

This is me smiling when I get up in the morning.

...well, actually it is a candle flame, but you get the idea.

To look at the weather forecast each morning calmly. Yes, there is always concern when you work out doors. But the almost life or death urgency is gone.


 I don't miss it.


And we discovered to our dismay and astonishment that there was something wrong with the old stove right from the factory. There were issues with the door gasket right from day one, but we didn't know any better so we just used it. The gasket and door latch on the reconditioned stove is infinitely tighter and better. That puppy seals right up tight!


We burn about a fifth or less of the wood we used to and the fire holds for days with barely any attention.


EIGHT YEARS! That's how long we struggled with the old one and didn't even know we were struggling. It is sweet to have the guys (they are determined that the wood must weigh about eighty pounds per block, just a little too much for me unless I have no choice) toss in maybe five chunks a day and not have to whine and beg for wood all the time.


It is so good to be warm.

Sunday Stills....Light Painting

Painting

with

moon and candle..and making accidental words

For more Sunday Stills.......

For the Love of a Cow

Liz and her retired show cow, Heather. Heather is 12 now. You can see that they are pretty good friends after all those years.

Living Closely with Cow Families

Not an Astronaut offspring, but he could have been

In the comments a good friend mentioned genetics and inheritances in folks. 


Which got me thinking a bit. In well over thirty years of living every single day with generation upon generation of registered Holsteins, a few Jerseys and a handful of milking shorthorns, it has amazed me, how very much of the makeup of a cow, her performance, and especially her silly little quirks are inherited.


Of course anyone who bred registered cows during the right time period remembers the Paclamar Astronaut daughters...they were long and black and sharp and gorgeous....


 However, they were also a little bit, (well maybe even more than a little bit,) on the "nervous" side. 


Flighty even. 


Oh, heck, let's be clear here...the ones we bred were downright psychotic. We had a little black one whose name escapes me***. When you tried to milk her she would kick right over the top of the divider. That is about chest high for those not familiar with stall dividers.


She kicked like that every single day from the first time she was milked until she died calving while the kids and I were at camp one year. She hated everybody with an equal opportunity loathing that was downright impressive.


Other traits also seem to be much more heritable than the sire summaries would have you think. Like eating box elder trees. As members of the maple family box elders have fairly bitter leaves I do believe. Cows will eat them when especially hungry, but they are certainly not high on their menu preferences. Except Balsam's family. Every one of them will climb up on the jersey barriers around the barnyard to prune the trees on the bank. We have seen some feats of bovine gymnastics that would downright amaze you, all in pursuit of low hanging leaves. 


Getting out of fences is another proclivity not measured in the stud books that seems to run in families. Inspecting windowsills on the way out of the barn (although that may be a breed-specific thing as it seems to be mostly Jerseys who find it necessary to stop and check every single windowsill every single day.) Stealing calves. We have had a family since I met the boss that all stole calves....we still have some of them.


You can keep your TPI and your PTA and your daughter averages and all. If the proofs measured everything we noticed running in families in cows there wouldn't be room on the page to list them all.


***Liz looked her up and her name was Apple Crisp...she was crisp enough all right.

Sunny Day

Still having heating issues but the sun is shining, it is really nice outside and not bad inside. The fan motor is in Albany awaiting pick up. Barn chores are done, cows out and eating, stalls bedded for tonight and everything tidied up.

Still awaiting our first calf of the year from Pecan, and as always hoping for a heifer. Pecan is bred to a bull we had years ago, a son of Whittier-Farms Ned Boy named Foxfield Doreigh NB Rex. Besides the Ned Boy he had some Triple Threat back there on the dam's side and threw a lot of black reds. We bought him at an auction when Liz was a baby, and although he is long gone, we still have a unit or two left of him. His daughters were always kind of round-boned more than we like and not the nicest-natured critters on the farm, but they were tough and lasted a long time.


We were all sad to hear of the passing of Gaige Highlight Tamara, a famous New York Holstein, bred and owned by folks the kids have often showed with over the years. In fact her owner let Liz take her in the ring a couple of times at the Cooperstown Junior show when there were more cows going in than there were hands for the halters. She was a spectacularly beautiful animal.


Tamara has sons in AI, 15 EX daughters and was scored 4-E 97 in her own right, about as good as it gets.....truly one of the great ones. So sorry to hear of her passing.




***Very sorry about the old photos. With the death of the desktop most of my photos are hard to get to, so......

Dog Rice

Now and then we run out of dog food for the three puppies, Sadie, the boss's mom's old pound hound, Wally, the Blue Heeler devil dog and Nick the border collie. When that happens, someone cooks "dog rice", which is simply homemade rice seasoned up with this and that. 


When the doggies eat this we add leftover meat juice, fat and other good things saved just for doggies.

Frost sparkling on the window

When we eat it, because it is after all just people rice prepared with dogs in mind, and it always smells incredibly good while cooking, we eat it with butter. And last night, with sausages chopped up in it.  The doggies love dog rice days.


So do we.

Re-Stealing a Meme

I missed this on Look a Baby Wolf, but caught it on Jeffro's blog....


Haven't done a meme in a long time, but this is too good to pass up.


Quoting from Lee Ann: 


"Take the first sentence from the first post of each month of 2011. That’s your year in review. Tattle on yourself with your link in the comments if you give it a shot, particularly if yours works out better."


January: To all our good friends around the town and around the world.


February: Yeah, it is storming...again... For the most part for the past few weeks we have just caught the edges of the big storms that have pummeled the region. 


March:We love pancakes!


April:The boss left early, Alan is at school, everybody else has to work and TWO cows are calving simultaneously. 


May: About what will happen next.


June:This morning bloomed sharp and cool, with whistling winds and bright, thin sunshine.


July: We lost a hen last night up on the bowling green (yes, this old Victorian homestead sports an actual bowling green...not that, other than mowing it, we have a clue what to do with it.)


August: The more I read about this program the less I understand it and emphatically the less I like it.


September: Folks said that they were much too young to fall in love.


October: Jinglebob posted this link on the real result of letting folks exercise their Second Amendment rights.


November: Milk?


December: It is. 

Warm

We are. Despite the stove guy NOT CALLING US that the stove was back at his shop...he didn't want to come up our driveway because it is muddy and there are some bushes that might scratch his truck....local folks got our stove back home for us.


The boss called stove guy day before yesterday and got the news. We were not exactly happy, but at least we knew that it was in New York State.


The boss then called a really, really, really nice businessman in town who offered to let the stove guy drop it off in his yard on the flat....which was done.


Then that man dropped his own work in his busiest season of the year, in the busiest time of that season now that it has frozen up, to bring the stove up with his logging equipment and very carefully set it in place. He also gave us some wood. He would not take any money.


Alan and the boss plumbed and wired and messed with stuff all day. The water hoses Becky and I carefully sequestered in the milk house against the day froze the minute they took them outdoors. And blew up. Alan had to go buy more hose.


The underground stove hoses I have been keeping thawed by burning a fire in the little stove thingy Alan built froze as soon as the men dismantled it.


 "Hot Hands" hand warmers, hot coffee, hot mac and cheese and all Alan's grout clothes from his job in the city were needed to keep them going. The boss banged his hands up working so stiff from the cold. I don't think either of them needed any rocking last night, but I put hot water bottles in the beds so they were extra warm.


It took them from eight in the morning to evening milking time to get it functional...of course cows had to be milked...the girls and I did that. And fed, which the boss and Liz and I did. And of course the cows broke things and created havoc and got out of the feed yard fence just for fun.


But then, but the start of evening milking, Alan was building a fire. There were still some frozen hoses and some assorted bugs with the plenum to work out, but by the time we went to bed last night we had honest to God and thanks to God HEAT.


We left it on all night, something which we never do, and I got up to a warm house. I am sitting here, comfortable. Genuinely comfy, cozy, and contented. It is like being reborn to joy. I don't think I will ever take being warm enough for granted again.


Thank you to everyone who helped, everyone who thought of us, cared, prayed, worried etc. and especially thank you Hiram for bringing that puppy home for us. We will see you repaid somehow and soon.

Grandma Says

Eat your greens!

Sunday Stills...Happy New Year

This is my favorite shot of the year. Or at least I think so. I love birds and hummers are among my very favorites. The two that hatched at our place this summer were nearly as tame as chickens, but  lot more fun.


As to my photographic hopes for 2012. I hope I have the camera with me when I need it and that the birds will hold still and the flowers will shine and the light will be right and things will fall together. If they don't, well, I will still have fun and I hope you do too.


Happy New Year to Everyone!


For more Sunday Stills......