Saturday, March 10, 2007
John Deere Day
At KC Canary in Fultonville. It was so busy all day this was the only time I could take a picture that the booth wasn't full of people!
Friday, March 09, 2007
Do as I say, not as I do
"While Gore relaxes in his posh pool house and heated pool, you should be taking shorter and colder showers, and hanging your laundry outside to dry. As Gore jets around the world in first-class comfort to hob-nob with society’s elites about his self-declared “moral imperative”, you should travel less and bike to work. You should use less electricity while Al and his wife, Tipper, use 20 times the national average. Now that’s a real carbon offset."
I already hang my laundry outside to dry, heat with wood, (which is pretty darned renewable), and drive as little as possible. However, I am not willing to give a pass on pollution to countries like China or India and $300 men like Gore.
Thursday, March 08, 2007
Dean's List
Wednesday, March 07, 2007
Tuesday, March 06, 2007
Jonrowe and Swingley scratch from Iditarod Race
Here is the official site for the race. Here is Susan Butcher's family website, which supports the families and children of cancer patients.
That pesky global warming
Today will feature partly to mostly sunny skies and afternoon temperatures will struggle to rise to between 5 and 10 for the area. This would be a RECORD LOW MAX temperature for the date which is 15 dating back to 1901. On Wednesday...a weak storm will track to our south. This will increase the clouds and there could be a few flurries, especially south of Albany. When this goes by, another blast of Arctic Air arrives for Thursday !
We may set another record low max temperature on Thursday and possibly a record low temperature Thursday night/Friday morning.
Monday, March 05, 2007
Guest post
This was written by our esteemed veterinarian here at Northview and is something folks really should be aware of....
Beware, American Consumers!
I am writing to inform the unwitting American consumer, that they are being duped and defrauded by the Retailers of America, of which, Price Chopper has just joined the ranks. There is a rapidly growing movement to sell milk by large processors and retailers (Wal-Mart, Dean Foods, Price Chopper, etc.) at a higher price to the consumer by calling it "rBST-free", or "artificial hormone free” milk. BST (Bovine Somatotropin) is a naturally occurring hormone produced by all cows in response to lactation. All milk has the same amount of BST in it, whether or not cows are injected with rBST (Posilac). So the milk that is labeled as being different and sold at a premium is no different.
rBST (recombinant Bovine Somatotropin) is a FDA-approved supplement, that about 20-30% of our Dairy Farmers use to help cows produce more milk. It is one of the most heavily researched and studied drugs to ever be approved for use in Animal Agriculture, and has been in use for over 12 years. It is simply a tool that helps dairy farmers make a living.
Aside from the baseless fear marketing to the consumers, what is the most troubling about this trend towards “rBST- free” milk is that it is occurring at a time when farmers are enduring the worst prices they have ever seen. They are receiving the same for their milk that they received in the 1970's and 80's, yet we all know how much more fuel, electric, and other inputs cost today. Under current market conditions, not a single dairy farmer is making a profit milking cows.
To add insult to injury, they are being coerced into giving up a safe, approved technology, without adequate and fair compensation. The only people profiting from “rBST-free” milk are the processors and retailers. It is very troubling to me that the labels are illegal and misleading, according to the Food and Drug Administration, which is not enforcing its own labeling laws. So please don=t be mislead. All Milk is Milk. Whether it is produced Organically, or non-Organically, with r-BST or without. It has the same composition. It is all antibiotic free. It all has hormones in it. Milk is Milk.
The only way to stop this movement of selling milk through fear tactics is to not buy it. Buy regular milk; the same milk you have been buying forever. Don't spend your hard earned money on a marketing ploy, that is illegal and misleading, and driving dairy farmers out of business. Our farmers are the most efficient food producers in the world. We need to support them and appreciate them, or we will some day be as dependent on foreign food as we are on foreign oil.
Kris Harshman, DVM
Dairy Veterinarian since 1985
Sunday, March 04, 2007
Iditarod Starts
82 teams, 1000 dogs, what could be more exciting? It kicked off yesterday with the ceremonial start downtown and will continue for over a thousand miles over frozen snow, hard bare ground and some of the roughest conditions on earth. To the winner $69,000 and a truck. to everyone, even those of us who follow from afar, a huge dose of pioneer-style adventure and excitement.
For the best coverage I have found visit Cabela's Iditarod site.
Jeff King is always a favorite of mine, but it is easy to get behind almost anyone brave and determined enough to get behind a team of dogs and head out into the wilderness. Included among them is the husband of the late Susan Butcher and their daughter, Tekla, who will ride the trail later this season in her honor.
There is much excitement over this year's event, as there is the potential for another five time winner if any of several mushers including King and Martin Buser or Doug Swingley should win.
Saturday, March 03, 2007
Birdy Weather Watching
Weird things have been going on with my garden pond. I ran a stock tank heater on it during the worst of the cold (it is, after all, a stock tank.) The other day there was a huge opening in the ice, right down to the bottom with no water showing. I figured that the ice had cracked it and let the water out and I was going to be missing a lot of fish and plants. Then yesterday's rain filled it right back up again. I simply don't understand what is going on out there, but I sure hope the fish and green frogs that are spending the winter there are all right. I filled and cleaned the twenty gallon fish tank in the living room anyhow, just in case I see some fish, and can bring them in.
The birds make being outside enjoyable just the same. Last night, as the almost full moon ascended behind the old horse pasture, a couple of dozen ducks swirled in front of it before pitching down toward the river. As I turned to walk away one last one raced across it, a speeding black silhouette on its cold white face. All I need was a camera and fast reflexes. Didn't have either though.
Chickadees are singing their spring call, DEE, dee, dee, and taking no prisoners at the feeders. Normally they wait their turn, what with being the tiniest of the visitors, but now they charge in to grab seeds as if they were overnight blue jays on a tear. They blow through the gold finches like a hot breeze and the bushes ring with them. I think the tame pair is still around as a couple of them fly right up to me, bitching and begging if the feeders are bare.
Cardinals are in ready-for-spring mode as well, whistling from all over. We have quite a flock this year and they make a lot of music. Even the starlings sound like water over stones as they chortle from the eaves of the heifer barn.
One of the colder days when updrafts were few, a resident red-tailed hawk landed about two feet above the ground in a bush just outside the living room windows. The hunting is probably good out there in the overgrown pasture and he stayed quite a time, while we admired his massive, feathery self. Then he soared off looking as big as an eagle against the brown and white of snow and dried golden rod.
Even though it is easy to find beauty in this ice-bound season I am eager for spring. Everything is just too cold and hard right now. Snow is six feet deep in all the farm roads, with ice a couple of inches thick on top of it. Nothing we own will move it or negotiate it, so you can't get anything done without a huge hassle. The men are piling manure, can't get out to the woodlot, can't safely navigate the driveways even with four wheel drive, working is just plain lousy on an all day, every day basis.
Please send me a warm day, mud and all, if you have one to spare; I am half past ready.....
Thursday, March 01, 2007
BOOKS
BuckinJunction is too.
***Update: One of the authors of these two blogs pointed out rather sharply to me that they are NOT written by my sisters, as I actually have none of those. Rather these are the work of my two older female children. Thus the new labels....
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Two outrageous stories
Officials claim that they are not going to name the "patients" who were buying these substances. I am thinking that if college and high school coaches were buying them for their players, parents should know who they were. I know I would want to.
And Bonny Prince Charlie is railing against Mickie D's foods, which would be just fine if he didn't run a huge organic food company, which he promotes relentlessly. Right now he looks to me like he is just trying to hobble the competition. I am not a big fan of fast food, but ulterior motives aren't my favorite either.
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
Why blue?
Just to be sure we were correct in our assumption, I did some research on blue ice. (Did you know that there is software with that name, and rappers as well. I sorted through a mountain of dreck before I came up with anything remotely useful.) I found lovely pictures of ice. Then I found this, which really doesn't seem to explain our ice, since there are sections that are just as thick adjacent to the blue ice that are plain white. And this, which shows black ice. Here are more links about ice color. I guess you can take your pick of theories.
I am still inclined to think ours comes from minerals, as the blue occurs right next to plenty of plain old white and some that is just sort of dirt-colored, probably from dirt. Anyhow....
Thanks, Laurie, for an interesting question.
Monday, February 26, 2007
Blue ice
We took a quick trip up to the western end of the county today to buy bird seed, rabbit pellets, twenty-seven bucks worth of bread (parents of teen-aged boys will understand this purchase) cow medicines and two pints of this.
Upon arriving home we stopped in front of our maple woods to take a picture of the blue ice on the road cut there. It forms about this time every year and I find it just plain beautiful. Most years we see some snow rollers at about the same time, but none are in evidence yet. Still we had two pair of bluebirds in the driveway the other day so spring must be getting closer. On the other side of the equation, we also saw a trio of horned larks up in Glen and they are surely birds of winter. I can't wait until the days warm up just a bit and maple sugaring begins. Then you know for sure there is a change in the season coming.
Sunday, February 25, 2007
Thursday, February 22, 2007
Swan song in the Mohawk River
And a trip to the New York Farm Show....we hurried through chores this morning so we could go to the Farm Show. Although it is a long drive and the weather wasn't the greatest, we had a really nice time there. Some of the best sights were along the way though, including a pair of swans opposite the Roadway Truck Stop right here at home and some wild, snowy, trees on Little Nose Mountain. The boss took the swan photo, as he had to cross the highway to get it and frankly I was chicken.