March Came in Like a Cotton Ball

 This is cattle panel fence!

Got Snow?

Yup, and it's the packy stuff we used to love when we were kids. Haven't seen snow like this in years. If the kids were smaller and I didn't have to milk and feed and pay bills we would be out building snow animals and coloring them with food coloring paint.


We used to do that back when we lived in the village when they were little. We had snow lions and dogs and horses, huge ones that took up the whole yard. 


What fun, what fun....


Oldest fossil forest found....again...right near here. Check it out....

Leap Day Story

Below is a story I entered in a contest for leap day stories. I don't expect that it will win, but I am sharing it with all you kind folks anyhow......

Although our leap day story may not be the funniest it is probably a bit different. You see we are family farmers and own a small herd of registered dairy cattle, mostly Holsteins. The kids all grew up showing their pet calves at the county fair and were always eager to have a show calf born on the first of March. 

This is because the first of March is the earliest birthday for calves to be eligible for the Junior Heifer Calf class at the fair. Calves born at the start of the three month period that falls in that class are likely to be the largest and most mature in their group...both very desirable in the quest for a blue ribbon. Junior Calf is a very popular and hotly contested class among the young folks, because the babies are quite young and easier for them to handle than older, larger animals from the other calf classes.

Thus when our old cow, Byrony, who was due to calve on the first, instead had a lovely heifer on the 29th of February in 2000, our son was quite disappointed. The calf, whom he named Balsam, was a really nice baby though. 

Therefore he entered her in her proper class, Intermediate Senior Calf, anyhow, even though she was born on the very last day of that class eligibility period and would probably be the smallest one in the ring.

He was delighted though when he got to the show and discovered that Balsam would be placed in the Junior Calf Class after all. Seems the show catalog said that calves had to be born after February 28th instead of on or after March 1st as is the case at most shows. 

Balsam went on to win that class for our son, who was ten at the time, and had a wonderful career as a pet who just happened to be a show cow too, and a mother and grandmother of many much-loved animals.

Oddly enough, today she stands at one end of one of our lines of milk cows and her oldest granddaughter, Broadway, stands at the other end......though she is actually twelve years old, grandma Balsam has only had three birthdays (or will have on the 29th) and her grand baby, known affectionately as B-Dub, has had six!

Balsam is still a great big pet who will stand and wait to have her head scratched when we are turning out the cows, even though her herd mates are hustling out the door to get to their pasture.

Blustery as a Politician

(But without the hot air.) 


Migrants are coming though quickly now, on their way to northern nesting spots.  Nothing exciting yet, but we saw the first turkey vulture up west yesterday.


This morning Cananda geese stretched across the sky from horizon to horizon.


Our horizons are a lot closer than they are out west, but that is still several miles of flock. I paused in the pulling on of socks to marvel at the sheer numbers of them. 


 Imagine all those hundreds of birds, each the size of a cat, each with wings strong enough to knock you on your butt if you tangle with one, tumbling through the wind like acrobats, right above your head, practically hovering in front of the big living room windows.


The wind was strong indeed, because they were struggling to get moving and to stretch out in their Vs to go wherever they forage each day. 


Some of the flocks are breaking down into pairs already, but most are still in groups from six to six or seven hundred. They drove the boss nuts the other night when I was getting up and down with the sick heifer...they sound a lot like coyotes!


I won't lie and say I like cold weather but you can feel the seasons getting ready to change despite the winter storm warnings on the weather stations. And the daffodils by the kitchen corner are never wrong for long.

Sky and Rat

Spent the whole day and part of the night yesterday nursing a sick heifer. She is bit brighter today....


Anyhow being out at all hours gave me several chances to appreciate the incredible beauty of last night's sky. The moon was a gleaming waxing crescent with a couple of handy stars or planets clustered around it (Venus was undoubtedly one of them.) 


They looked surreal grouped together like that and early on all the stars were amazingly bright. You almost expected Merlin to step down out of the whirl of them.


This has been a great winter for stars and skies and we have much enjoyed watching.


As to the rat. We put the sick heifer in a sort of greenhouse in the woodshed. I was coming down from tending her, in the dark, with only the light of my fairly pathetic flashlight, when something chirped right beside me.


I thought, "RAT," and spun my light to see. There was a grey thing stretched up the barn upright as high as my hip. My heart leaped into frantic action, bang, bang, bang. The thing was the size of a cat.


Then it chirped again and dug its claws deeper into the wood of the post.


It WAS a cat.


Athena, the grey barn cat that Alan is so fond of.


I think she took a year off my life....maybe even two.

Sunday Stills....Trees

 Framing westbound geese

Home to a whirl of blackbirds and grackles

 Across the river in the sunshine

This is the one in all my summer sunrises...

.the sun is still way, way to the south of it these days

For more Sunday Stills...

Feeding

We start out with a great big bale. 


We pull off forks full of hay until we have an itty bitty bale. 


The itty bitty bale is taken inside. 


Everybody eats.


All is well.

Farm Side Friday

You can read it here.

Yet Another Best Search Term Ever

Somebody landed here from a Google search for "reason for a hairy butt"


I wonder what they thought when they found the backside of a hairy woodpecker.

It's Official

The migration has begun. A Facebook friend out west heard sandhill cranes......


And while we were feeding last night, I was watching the sky as I always do, (once a sky watcher, always a sky watcher), and a flock of black birds surged by, intent, purposeful.
Racing for the best nest sites somewhere other than here.


Not starlings.


Grackles, first of the year. Mixed with smaller birds, probably brown-headed cow birds.


I was thrilled. Not that they are especially nice birds, but it gave me cold chills, like great music does. I went into the barn with my big fork full of hay, tense with a special excitement.


It may still be February but in just a few weeks the woodcock will be back, wings whistling his sky dance song in the horse pasture. The killdeers will scream frantically out on the hill. The spring peepers, (who used to be hyla crucifer but are now pseudacris crucifer just to confuse those of us who learn Latin names for the heck of it), will let out their first tenuous squeaks, then begin a vibrant chorus, then offer a deafening din from the swamps down on Corbin Hill Road to the south of us.


A little later the smaller brood over in the old horse pasture will tune up. I have to strain to hear them over the traffic, but it is worth every effort to know that their fingernail-sizes selves are singing near by.


To me spring is the most lovable of seasons, full of the joy of birth, newness, freshness, wonder and awe. Like the beginning of being in love when we want to share our new found happiness with everyone. This year it seems even more so...such a winter.....it is like climbing out from under a dark rock.


I know we still have weeks of winter left, but the first migratory birds are such a welcome and long-awaited delight. As I came in from the barn I paused, another thing I always do, and listened and wondered. What might be flying high overhead in the misty clouds shrouding the sky? I didn't hear anything, but the arrival of the grackles let me know that there could be almost anything up there just the same....except maybe sandhill cranes. 


***I saw on a bird list I read that blue grosbeaks and hooded orioles have been seen in western NY in recent years. I am eagerly hoping for a chance to check off the former on my life list and having them show up in NY makes that seem much more possible than before. I'm excited about that too.

So Far This Fine Day

Finished the Farm Side early and sent it to the esteemed editor. The NASCO catalog provided  subject matter this week. (Why didn't I look at the website earlier? I used the paper catalog....I could have really had fun with the "Outlaw clippers". I know several outlaws who could use a good clipping.)


Finally heard a real cardinal out in the yard and not a tufted titmouse cardinal impersonator either. Those titmice will fool you sometimes, into thinking they are red. The geese are getting so excited these days, flying around clamoring. I think they will be heading out soon.


Finally got the call that Licorice finally had her calf.....a big bull by Maxwell....couldn't have been a heifer, could it?


Off to work...have a good one.

I Hope the Fame

Doesn't go to his head. Our boy showed up on another blog today too....but maybe that giant tree will help to keep him humble.

Boy and Border Collie

Amazing Mornings

I'll take them......These warm February days. 


Sunrise today was a tangible movement of brilliant, glorious light over sky and land, lighting up the jet trails that just moments before were grey smudges in the sky. I kind of wished we had waited to do the GBBC until this morning. Friday when we did do it, although it was pretty enough out, there was a nasty, biting, cold wind and we didn't see much until dusk. This morning was still, calm, gorgeous, and birds were everywhere. 

 Sun just starting to light up the sky

Geese were thumping by, breasts spotlit by the sun. Little brown something-or-others were jingling and tinkling in the brush, but the sun was so blinding I couldn't tell what they were. Some kind of sparrow.....


Dad is home and doing quite well, impatient to get back to doing all the things he did before, which I take as a good sign. Thanks again for all your thoughts and prayers!

Just Another Drop of Water

Sunday Stills.....Textures

The textures of winter seem fitting for this February week, so here are a few. The upper ones were taken at a quarry up near Canajoharie, the lower ones in a puddle in the yard.


For more Sunday Stills......

Interesting Post

Over on Buckin' Junction, Liz's blog. She saw a three legged deer the other day and got a photo of its companion patiently waiting for it.

GBBC

Spending a bit of time today attempting to count birds for the Great Backyard Bird Count. After a week where we have seen bald eagles, robins and all manner of other interesting critters there is simply nothing around. Big excitement was one tufted titmouse and a red-tailed hawk. Wow.


And brrrr. Do you suppose the cold wind is keeping them away? I'll betcha.

My Hero

The boss came laughing downstairs this morning and told me about a dream he had.


The after effects of the flood are still all around us....and he was dreaming of it....


Down in town, the waters washed up a baby seal that was swimming valiantly down Main Street, followed by a ferocious alligator that wanted to eat it.


The boss was the only man around and all the older women on the flooded street hollered at him to save it from the alligator.


So into the flood he waded, grabbed it and tossed it in the pickup truck, only to be accosted by a conservation officer who arrested him for picking up seals without a permit.


Whilst this was occurring the gator came upon the officer and accosted him in turn.


The older women screamed again, "Kill the alligator, kill the alligator," and handed the boss an iron pipe.


He proceeded to follow their instruction, but the officer gave him a ticket anyhow, and added one for killing gators out of season.


Later, in court before a kindly justice who used to live down the street from us, the ladies all testified in the boss's behalf.


The judge said, "Not guilty," and threw it out of court.


I wonder what happened to the baby seal........

Another failed photo from my Sunday Stills pursuit

For some real fun, go here and check out these incredible photos of dogs fetching toys...under water (although there are no seals, old ladies, or floods). Trust me, you had no idea what fearsome wee beasties we harbor in our houses. (Scarier than that tropical Fultonville alligator I can tell you!)


Update...here are some more underwater dogs.

Thursday

There is word of snow, anything from a major storm to something going on way south of NYC. Not gonna worry about it. 


Bookkeeping seems to be done for the week, writing is pretty much done for the week. We have a logger fella working in our woods in hopes of enough income to pay the taxes. Cows are shedding like it's their job. I groomed on Lemmie for about two minutes yesterday and got enough hair to cover the floor. They go outdoors every day, but evidently she doesn't see fit to groom herself.
Boy is still laid off and home. Liz is off to the far, far north today on her job. The kids have all been doing a lot of things to make life better around here....a lot...I won't go into detail, but many worries are off my shoulders because of the three of them. Liz even took my heavy outdoor work shirt home and washed and dried it last night just to be nice. I don't know what we would do without them.

 Above, geese on the river

Below, a curtain of ice up in Canjo, a teaser for this week's 

Sunday Stills

I generally like Thursdays, as I usually am done with the books and writing and can actually be a farmer for the day. Dunno how this one is going to go, but I guess I will head out to find out. Take care

Just Ducky

Trip west to get some needed farm supplies yesterday. Discovered that yet again a medicine we rely on regularly is being discontinued. It is so hard to manage around that scenario.

But aren't these common mergansers we saw fishing the Mohawk just ducky? It was fun to watch them hunt an area then just let the current sweep them downstream to go fishing somewhere else...so effortless.

Ocean-View Dispersing the Herd

I was shocked to read that Ocean-View Holsteins in Windsor, California will be selling their over 600 cows on May 2. The farm is a true icon of Holstein cattle, having bred such famous bulls as Ocean-View Sexation, Zenith, Zander and many others.


Liz was lucky enough to visit the farm and meet the owners during a college field study to California to learn about farming there. She loved seeing Zandra and other well-knows cows.

Mandy, an Ocean-View Zenith daughter and two-time junior champion at Altamont fair, 

being milked in the fair parlor.

Here at Northview we have many daughters of bulls from that farm, including Liz's retired show cow, Mandy (Ocean-View Zenith), and Becky's Lemonade (Ocean View Extra Special), Camry, same sire as Lemmie, and several others.


I guess there comes a time for all things to end, but we will miss Ocean-View and their beautiful cows and high-transmitting bulls.

Happy Valentine's Day

OMG, there's a construction worker playing xbox in my dining room...what to do, what to do....

at least with all that protective coloring you won't trip over him

Just another day for us and I am fine with that. We have our quarrels and troubles like all families do, but my family is very good to me every day...don't need a holiday to make a big deal about it.

Cold Again

Not the big time cold that you see on the Northern Plains or up in the Land of the Midnight Sun, but a darn sight colder than is comfortable. We have had a remarkably easy winter, with plenty of warmer than normal, sunny days, but I am still ready for it to end. 


The nice days are such a teaser, reminding us of planting and growing things and playing in the garden pond...

Lots of interesting birds and wildlife around now, including a deer that popped right over the fence out of the barnyard when Alan came over the other day.


We saw a bald eagle right over the corner of the barnyard when we were feeding the other night. Looked up and there he was, low, and right over our heads. 


A sharp shinned hawk almost hit me in the head this morning. I was watching where I was walking and didn't even see him, but Liz said that he skimmed right over me. He landed in a nearby tree and she ran for her camera, but he flew just as she got close.


Saw about fifty robins flying west earlier today, along with a bunch of small, very musical birds, whose call I have never heard before and couldn't identify. Very pretty though.


Also saw what looked like an owl flying between the barns this morning at daybreak. I hope so! Having discovered what the mystery animal is that is coming on the kitchen porch and eating the cat food...a skunk...I am hoping that it is a great horned owl and stays for dinner....

Sunday Stills....From the Heart

It took me a while...until Sunday morning in fact, to think of what I should photograph for this challenge. There is so much that is dear to my heart....my dear family, from kids to brothers, mom and dad, and all those cousins, aunts and uncles to beloved folk who should have been family even if they aren't related by blood. I am very, very blessed by the people in my life, including all you wonderful folks that I have only met here over the past few years....

Then this morning I woke up thinking about this little valentine, done on canvas board, that I painted for the boss for Valentines Day back in 1985, before kids, before so much. 

It's just a little 3"X5" thing, and lives in the desk drawer in the office, but it sure came from the heart.

For more Sunday Stills......

Bird Snob

I'm not too bad a one I guess.


I don't care for the way imported starlings nest in any opening they find in a building and make a big mess, but I can tolerate them.


 Not too crazy about rock pigeons (, which are really just plain old pigeons, the ones that you see in the park and also nest in barns) but they are beautiful fliers when they fling themselves across the sky just bursting with joy...and they can be kind of pretty tootling around on the ground too.


However, I hate, hate, HATE, English sparrows, or house sparrows if you prefer to be more PC about it. Personally I call them Sassenachs.


The drab little brown interlopers are very different from native birds though....and sneaky old bird snobs can use that to advantage. 


For example, they know I don't like them and they don't linger at the feeder when I go outside. Even the timid little titmice don't fly far, but the Sassenachs are much more wary. If I tap on the window when there is a huge assorted flock at the feeder, only they fly.


However this year a band of them has been marauding the feeders like nasty highwaymen stealing from the chickadee gentry. (Stand and deliver that sunflower seed). 


Being a busy little being I didn't deal with this situation until yesterday. It was sunny and pleasant so I hung the line full of clean laundry. Darned sparrows kept perching in the lilac bushes and then flying straight down that same clothesline to raid the feeder.


You know where that kind of thing leads.


I puzzled for a bit about how to stop them, since I am not fond of doing the laundry twice. Aha! An idea!


I keep a plastic great horned owl swinging in the breeze in the back porch door to keep the little $%%##@ from nesting on the porch.


I took it down and lugged it outside with a bit of old shoe lace and approached the lilac bush where they were perching smugly, waiting for me to go back inside so they could befoul my laundry.


Then they saw the owl. You never saw (or heard) such a commotion. They fled to the top of the tallest cedar tree where they set up an outrageous racket of alarm.


And once I had it swinging merrily in the lilacs, tethered at the top by the shoelace, they left and haven't come back.


I know they will become habituated to the owl and I will either have to move it or think of something else. But for now, revenge is sweet.


And best of all, a steady string of little native birds has continued to use the feeder all day. One bold chickadee even went over to the lilac bushes and sat two feet from the owl, scolding with all its might. Every so often he would glance over at me where I was hanging out more clothes as if to assure me that he had the threat in hand and I was safe from the nasty predator.


***Update, by yesterday evening some of them had figured out how to fly around the house the other way to get to the feeder, so my respite was short if sweet. At least they weren't using my laundry as a flight path.

Heifer Wrasslin'

**Alan took this last summer with his phone and I stumbled upon it yesterday while cleaning out my inbox. I believe it is the Kingpin daughter, Bayliner, down below the barn yard gate, having escaped in order to eat box elder trees. I don't know what it is with that family, but they all will do whatever it takes to get to the darned things and eat them....and personally they could eat every single one on the farm right down to the roots and I wouldn't get mad.

We had three springing heifers, Rosie, my milking shorthorn show heifer, and one open heifer to bring into the cow barn yesterday. (Well actually we had several open ones, but they didn't cooperate.) 


At first they didn't even want to come down off the hill at all. They didn't want to be driven. They didn't want to come when called. They wouldn't even come down when they heard the skid steer which brings their food to them.


After waiting for a while (in the bright, crisp sunshine, not too much of a punishment) I went and got a bucket of grain. 


That got their attention.


We kind of wanted to bring all of them down and put those that are not springing up to calve in a pen in the back of the barn where can keep a better eye on them. However, Shamrock, the Jersey, Rio, a milking shorthorn, Cevin and one other Holstein wanted nothing to do with us so they are still out.


Getting the others down to the barn was only part of the equation. Getting them first into the barn was one project, then getting them into stalls or the pen, depending on how close up they are to calve was another.


It was good to have Al home. He caught some with a halter and just pulled them in and put them where we wanted them, and tolled the others with that trusty grain bucket. Liz got back from work and helped too, so although it took quite a while it went pretty well.


 Nothing like young folks to make a job go a lot easier.


Now we will have to watch them close to make sure they can handle their new locations safely. Cows can be pretty godawful dumb sometimes. I'm glad they are in though, because we need to watch the close ups real closely.