Cammo

A team of white-throated sparrows, chickadees and some dark-eyed juncos were scouting the bushes near the house yesterday. It was a dull day and they are not so bright colored, so I could barely see them in the view-finder. I heard the first Sam Peabody call from the white throats the other day. Guess they are wishing for spring as well.

Research

I find the best stuff while searching for substantiation for my opinions for the Farm Side each week....trivial, pointless and highly entertaining factiodal-type stuff I mean. The wealth of information available on the Internet, free for the asking, simply never ceases to amaze me.

For example, how about a study showing that farmers are five times less likely than the general populace to develop lung cancer? The apparent reason is that us folks who work with critters all day inhale droplets of aerosol manure. That stuff, as we all know, is full of germs. Scientists say that they inoculate us against the dread disease. (Of course my father had another take on it. He said we were all full of..ahem...sorry, I simply can't quote him here on a family site. I'll bet if you know him, you can just hear him saying it though.)


I also discovered today that our own home place, Montgomery County NY, was rated the number two best county to live in, among the top 100 rural counties in the Northeast region by a poll taken by Progressive Farmer Magazine. How about that? I knew that it is pretty here, not too many earthquakes, tornadoes or presidential candidates, even though our government leaves a little (oh, heck a lot) to be desired, but that was plumb surprising. And cool. Home, sweet home!

Bucket List

One Cowgirl asked a bunch of folks to try this and it seems kind of interesting, so I'll give 'er a go.

What do I urgently want to do before I die...hmmm.....

1) Write another, better book. Murder Along the Mohawk seemed terrific when I wrote it, but it is pretty darned lame now. I don't care if I get a book published, I just want to find the self discipline to actually finish (another) one. I sure have started a bunch.

2) This is hard...I have done most of the things I really wanted to....not a big goals person. Getting Becky to get her drivers license comes to mind (Beck, are you reading this? You REALLY need to learn to drive. Sooner the better kiddo.)

3) It would be nice to go to the ocean beach again...maybe Venice Beach to pick up fossil shark teeth. That was the perfect outing for a born treasure hunter.

4) This is really, really hard. I started out life with the goals of marrying a farmer and having a horse. I now have a perfectly functional farmer, and don't really need another; I acquired the world's greatest horse when I was about twenty and am too old and lame to raise another. And I learned to relish, delight in, and treasure what I am doing today, every day (well almost every day...) when my best friend died before she was fifty. Time to play now, not when the bad news comes...sorry that I can't come up with more unfulfilled dreams, but I just don't have too awful many. Most that I do involve digging in the dirt for mineral specimens and finding birds and amphibians. (Just call me a happy camper I guess.) I would love to hear from any of you what your bucket list would contain though. It really is fun to contemplate.

Lobby days

Liz is off to the capital today to participate in PX Days, wherein farm folks become lobbyists and talk to legislators about our issues. It is a lot of fun and very interesting. Eye opening too sometimes when you get to speak to downstate legislators (for downstate, fill in New York City). They tend not to think quite like we do...to put it mildly. I would love to go myself, but I don't walk fast enough to keep up with all those long striding farmers...plus someone has to milk the cows and get Becky over to school.

Here is the agenda (pdf) If Senator Cathy Young and Assemblyman Bill Magee speak, it will be very interesting for her. They are very knowledgeable about farm topics and are the leaders of the ag committees in the legislature.

We got up (at four thirty) to barking dogs, rumbling thunder (the reason for the dogs alarm), and pouring, torrential, tumultuous, buckets of rain. I wonder if this bizarre and miserable weather is an omen for Super Tuesday. Hope I can get down the driveway to vote anyhow. We saw a caravan of cars with big signs advertising Ron Paul parked in Johnstown yesterday. I wanted to get a picture on the way home, but they were gone when we came back by. Too much traffic on the upside of the trip. Not many folks were paying much attention.....I won't say who I am voting for...so far only one candidate even has a policy on agriculture. That is McCain and he is agin it.

Milking Bayberry, his favorite cow

Meme for me

And for you if you want to do 'er. (I never tag)

From New York Renovator

Pick up the nearest book (of at least 123 pages).
Open the book to page 123.
Find the fifth sentence.
Post the next three sentences.

Finished this one last night between the end of milking at 7:30 and 11:30 a solid hour and half after I should have been in bed. (Do NOT under any circumstances start a Dean Koontz book when you don't have time to finish it. I had never read him before and didn't know.) And I did actually get breakfast before I started reading any of my three Sunday books....

"Some rocks directly below him, then the beach, the breaking surf. All of it fifty feet down. Too far for them to have jumped without injury...."

From Dean Koontz The Good Guy, Kill Me Instead

Asaki

Mrs. Mecomber gets to do the honors. Thanks again to everyone who participated in the naming of this baby.

Recipe for a perfect Sunday

Two books (top two on this list) I have been waiting anxiously to read BOTH came into the library and were just waiting for me to find them Saturday morning when Beck and I ran over to town. I know it was greedy to start the first last night and have them both finished by this evening's milking, but I really, really like JA Jance. What can I say? There are few better Sundays than the one I had today.

Keep the names coming

Pleas, please, please...they are great!

Name the calf

Time for a name that calf contest.
As always, all suggestions are welcome. Names submitted (in the comments please) are put into a hat, one is drawn, and the winner gets to name the calf.

Your exciting (????) prize is to have a purebred Holstein heifer go through life with the name you chose on her registration papers. Previous names chosen this way have been Hattie, one of our best Jerseys, Bama Breeze, Veronica and a couple of others I can't think of just now. This girl has potential as a show heifer so her name could be up in lights so to speak (well, really, just up in a little picture frame over at the show but....)

The particulars on this baby...her mama's name is Frieland LF Volcano. Her sire is a Select Sires young bull, Kingdom. This baby is a bit special as she is only the second red and white Holstein female we have ever had here at Northview. The other one is her half sister, Magma. You can see a rather bad photo of her here.

Have fun....the name chosen will definitely be one that you submit, as we are plumb out of names at this particular time. Happy naming!

If you don't like the weather in Upstate NY

Wait a minute....or maybe just a little more than that.....The first pictures, including the pink heifers, which is unedited except for cropping out the pink-for-minute heifer barn, were taken at 6 AM. At that time the sky was even pink in the west!

The last photo was taken just before ten AM. Same day. Almost the same spot as the first one.

Fiber Converstion Fire

The girls called from the road down just north of 20 and asked us to put on channel nine to see where the huge fire was. I looked out the window and was stunned. These photos were taken over several hours from the living room window....terrible! The smoke can be seen for many miles at least 30.

Another twenty-something and one fewer teenagers at Northview

Fittingly her gifts so far have been books, books, books and I hear tell there is another in the offing.

Almost a meeting

You will need to click to see how thick the snow was...

Liz and I ran Becky over to college this morning, after milking (and after the motherperson got up at four to finish the Farm Side for Friday), and then headed to Oneonta for a farm meeting (the boss stayed home to calve a cow.).

It was put on by our feed company.
With good speakers.
Brook's Chicken.
Great door prizes. We really wanted to be there.




We hopped on I 88. There was rain predicted. There was squally wind predicted. However, nothing that we heard prepared us. Or not enough anyhow. It was a boy who cried wolf sort of thing. We have canceled several tempting outings this winter because the forecasters called for blizzards and other apocalyptic weather conditions and nothing happened. We decided to ignore them (or I did...Liz wanted to stay home) and we paid the price. The wind was so fierce on 88 that Liz could barely hold the car on the road. We got off onto 7...not much better. We made it to Richmondville, called Becky and told her to skip class, picked her back up and headed home (with a quick detour to Wally World for dog food.)



What followed was 30 or so miles of the worst driving we have seen this winter. It was bad. I have pictures. I didn't take them until it had actually let up some.....The snow was horizontal! Now that we are home it is sunny again.....

****Update...to add insult to injury, not one, but two milk inspectors just stopped in to tell us that our milk hauler will be charging us another $300 bucks a month to haul our milk and we can't change haulers. Milk is about the only commodity where the producer pays the hauling to the buyer. (Everyone but milk buyers pays their own darned shipping and handling.) On the positive side (and there always is one) one inspector said that the barn looked good. Milk inspectors NEVER tell you that your barn looks good. (I think they just didn't want to get us any madder than necessary.)

Blond joke

Someone dear to us sent me this and I thought it very fitting for this weather so.....

As a trucker stops for a red light, a blonde catches up. She jumps out of her car, runs up to his truck, and knocks on the door.
The trucker lowers the window, and she says "Hi, my name is Heather and you are losing some of your load."

The trucker ignores her and proceeds down the street.
When the truck stops for another red light, the girl catches up again.
She jumps out of her car, runs up and knocks on the door.

Again, the trucker lowers the window. As if they've never spoken, the blonde says brightly, "Hi my name is Heather, and you are losing some of your load!"
Shaking his head, the trucker ignores her again and continues down the street.

At the third red light, the same thing happens again.
All out of breath, the blonde gets out of her car, runs up, and knocks on the truck door. The trucker rolls down the window. Again she says "Hi, my name is Heather, and you are losing some of your load!"
When the light turns green the trucker revs up and races to the next light.

When he stops this time, he hurriedly gets out of the truck, and runs back to the blonde.
He knocks on her window, and after she lowers it, he says...
"Hi, my name is Kevin, it's winter in Upstate New York and I'm driving the salt truck!"

Something's brewing

We crawled out of bed a little early this morning because Liz is going to help out on a Farm Bureau membership drive a little later in the day. We were nearly done milking when the sun came up. Its rising was at once ominous and glorious. At first there were bands of purple and sandy tan. Pretty enough, but in a Martian sort of way...the colors were simply not of this earth. Then the strange dullness slowly dissolved into a sea of red so bright that it shone right through the house from the living room to the rippled old glass in the dining room windows. There the red was exuberantly bubbled and wrinkled by the ancient panes until it looked like lava flowing down between the curtains.

The milkhouse wall was stained bright pink for a few seconds too, like a sunlit villa tucked against a hillside somewhere on the Mediterranean. I hurried back into the barn to call everybody out to see, but by the time I turned again the color was gone and the sky had faded all to grey. Because Liz was in a hurry to get Becky over to school (the latter is paying the former for chauffeur duties) the breakfast above is not what we are having today. However, a week ago Sunday was another story altogether. Anyhow, between the red sky at morning and the weather forecasts I guess we have a storm brewing. Sleet. Freezing rain. High wind watch. Bah humbug!

*****Visit Pure Florida today to see the kind of photos of Herkimer Diamonds that someone who knows what they are doing can produce. Mine are feeble by comparison.... even though the stones are just as bright and even somewhat larger.
It is kind of neat to walk outside with a flashlight here at night, as all the Herkimers and slabs of mica from Richter's Mountain sparkle like, well, like diamonds in the night....maybe someday I will get the knack of photographing them.

Reese Cates?

*****UPDATE: I now have much better pics of Reese here and here


Liz says so and he does look like his picture on his fledgling website. I put his picture up because I have had a number of hits from searches for pictures of him....so, here you go, folks.
Here and here are more pics of Reese

Also one of my favorite blogs has gone private access. Not sure what to think about that, since I am not one of the folks permitted to read it. Guess I will have to take the link down, but I really hate to do it. It was one I visited almost every day and really liked a lot.

More PBR Albany

Travis Briscoe won it all. There were 31 successful rides for an all time highest record and so many 90 point rides in the short go that guys with 90 points (6 of 'em) were fighting for third and forth place.
Amazing!

One real bad, heart wrenching wreck....Vince Northrup..that's why I don't go to more rodeos. I was praying every one of those guys from the chute, to the ride, safely off and back. It is just so horrible when they get hurt.

Liz's and my favorite, Cord McCoy

Another favorite, Kody Lostroh

Becky's favorite, Luke Snyder

PBR in Albany

(Or, watching your kid on TV is really cool.)

Photo stolen from Liz, taken at Vernon Downs last summer

The Professional Bull Riders Association came to Albany last night and brought along some great bulls and even greater cowboys. Such famous names as Travis Briscoe, Guillerme Marchi, Paulo Crimber (who danced and Liz has video) and Adriano Moraes were right here in upstate New York and riding their best.
Liz had a ticket for a seat not far from the chutes. At nine-thirty it was televised on Versus and of course we watched.

She really got lucky too. It was one of the best rodeos I have ever seen. Lots of good rides, (although nobody hit ninety), no really awful wrecks. My heart jumped right up in my throat though when Reese Cates' bull nearly flipped over forward (his face was digging into the ground) and Reese had to put his hand right down in the dirt to save himself from falling under him. Close one!

Cord McCoy, who is Liz's favorite, (and a really nice boy-we met him at Turning Stone) had a great ride for fourth place. She got to talk to him for a minute at the end which was nice too. (He encouraged her to buy a baby bucking bull though, which plumb makes me ner-r-r-r-v-ous....she is just the kid to actually do it.) I love to see Cord do well, partly because he came out of a terrible injury to do what he loves with a zest that is contagious. You never see him without an ear to ear grin.

Anyhow, all through the show we scanned the stands for her. We knew she was right down front and right near the chutes. Sure enough Alan soon spotted her..... taking pictures for BuckinJunction. I kept trying to watch for her too, but the action in front of the chutes kept distracting me.

Tonight the second go round and short go will take place (well, really this afternoon). Liz has tickets for today too.

And....(dum dad dum dum)..........One of them is mine...(we earned this trip by milking cows for five weeks without so much as a milking off when the boss was hurt....there will be no whining from the cheap seats). So if you watch Versus at nine tonight you can look about five rows back right by the chutes for the excited cow girl with the camera and the old lady with her hands over her eyes. See you there.

Iditarod

The start of the race is fast approaching, so here is a link to Cabela's Iditarod site. It is the one I use to keep track of things. I will put it in the blogroll until the race is done so it will be right here handy.

My personal favorite is Jeff King. He is an amazing innovator and this year is no exception. He will take to the trail with a cooker in his sled handlebars so he can have warm food on the trail. Cool...er, hot.... (BTW, to whom it may concern...King is 50).

Looks as if at this point there are 111 mushers entered, which will be a mighty large field.

Garth Brooks benefit concert

Liz and I stayed up past our bedtime to listen to the concert Garth gave to benefit California wildfire victims. We heard some of our favorite songs, but others were preempted for commercial breaks, which seemed interminable....as in one song, ten commercials. We are about to give up and go to bed when Friends in Low Places came on. We both stood there waiting to see if he did the third verse.

He did, so all was redeemed. It was worth waiting through all the commercials.
It made me sad to read that he really means to retire after finishing the series of benefit concerts. I hope the lure of the stage proves too strong though and he continues to perform at least occasionally. One of my dearest friends always meant to take me to see him, but passed away before we got the chance. I have always regretted that we didn't manage it.......Beaches of Cheyenne came out and I heard it for the first time on the way home from a dog training outing with her. I couldn't wait to ask her what she thought of it, as I liked it immediately. Sadly I never got the chance to ask that question either as I never saw her again. It was a very hard time...at that point in my life I had never lost anyone so close to me and the pain was darned near unendurable... that song will probably always bring me poignant memories. (and of course it was one of the ones they cut in half for commercials.)

Today was a good day though. We began the day laughing ourselves half sick over I don't remember what and ended up laughing over that third verse. I guess there are worse things than a day bracketed with laughter (even though in the middle of it we had to clean out a cave in of bridged feed in our grain bin, a long, miserable job, which involved hammers, mallets, screwdrivers, shovels and four of us...ugh.)