Doug Swingley retires

One of my favorite mushers called it quits this year as far as the Iditarod goes, although he will still continue to raise dogs for the great race and still races in other venues. Swingley blamed his age for not running in the Iditarod any more saying on the official race news site, “I’m just too old to compete at the level I want to compete at,” he said. “It’s an awesome group of dogs, and I don’t have the ability to keep up with them anymore without getting hurt.” He sustained some serious hurting last year and is almost as old as I am so I can't really blame him. As a four time winner he has sure got the tee shirt.

He is also taking up horse endurance racing.

Hooray for robins

(File under "finally".) Seems as if everyone has seen robins but me and I have been feeling kind of left out. Usually making the run down to Cobleskill this time of year will provide one or two, but Liz and I took Becky down to school this morning and didn't see a one on the way in. Then we did a little grocery shopping as this weeks midriff is going to feature yet another winter storm and we were worse than overdue for stocking up. On the way up the mountains back to our colder and more wintry home we saw one...then two...then thirty...then at least a hundred.

Yay robins! That's all I gotta say.

East meets West

Or at least they holler howdy from the living room windows to the dining room windows.

Twins and tough calving

A couple of years ago we had an amazing spring with not one, but three pairs of heifer twins born here. (Guess the nutrition situation was especially good). Twins are not exactly aspired to by cow farmers as it is tough on the cow to carry two and the babies are smaller as a rule and less hardy. It came to me yesterday that this had been proved out by the six born that spring.

The last of the six calved for the first time yesterday and had a terrible time of it. The calf was by the shorthorn bull...we have had very few problems with his babies, but this bull calf was big and FAT! Liz delivered it and it was pretty compromised by the time she had it out. The poor heifer was just exhausted. The boss got a bottle of calcium on board and we got her on her feet, but she just didn't want to stand up and lay right back down. She was eating good though so maybe she will be okay...no way to be sure yet. She has a beautiful udder and is out of an exceptionally good cow so I am hoping.....

Anyhow I realized that only two of those six twin heifer babies are still here at the farm. One was injured kicking the skid steer bucket and although we kept her, she never bred so we beefed her a while ago. Another freshened with no openings in two of her teats...kept her too, but she never bred so she is also gone. Twin Rex daughters from my good cow Eland both were sold to pay taxes because they were absolutely insane and kept attacking the kids and the boss (can't really blame that on twinning but neither of them bred up quickly either). The only ones left here are the one that calved yesterday, Frosting, and her twin who has been fresh a few weeks, Poptart. Neither of them is particularly hardy or tough acting or looking. Guess I would rather get one healthy heifer calf than two not so rugged individuals.

Is there a relationship

Between the state of the rural economy and giveaway pens? I might be crazy, but I think so. (If you aren't an aficionado of farm shows, many dealers offer advertising pens to passers by as a way of getting their message out.) For the past few years milk prices at the farm level have been horrendous. 2935 dairy farms went out of business last year alone and we actually had pretty good prices then. However, many people just couldn't dig out from under the debt of the previous years, particularly 2006, which was a perfect storm of bad weather, low farm gate prices and high costs for inputs. During those years, exhibitors at the farm show became kind of sparse and hardly anyone had pens to hand out to visitors.

This year, after a few months of record milk prices, the farm show was back up to its original five buildings full of farm equipment and supplies. I also came home with a handful of nice pens that folks gave me as we wandered through. There is more to this pen thing than whether the pussy willow cup where we keep pens is full for the moment (a certain high school student feels that the pens there are fair game and it will soon be empty) or whether we buy a bunch of Bics at Wally World. In rural areas and even the cities that adjoin them, when farmers are prosperous, so are the many businesses that depend on them. When they are hurting so is the rest of the rural economy.

This doesn't just affect implement dealers and sellers of farm supplies either...farmers buy the same stuff everyone does.......except when they can't. I think the "gimme" pens, the crowded exhibits and the "sold" signs on a number of implements indicate a welcome up tick in the farm economy here in upstate New York. Sadly, milk prices are predicted to tank again this summer; fuel and fertilizer are at an all time high price. Corn seed is limited. Fertilizer supplies are limited. I wonder what the pen situation will be next year at this time.


When I asked to photograph this sign the lady in the booth graciously allowed me to and even put some peppermint oil on my hands for me. I smelled like a stick of gum all day. I thought Mrs. Mecomber would get a kick out of this.

Prototype Bobcat Skid steer from way back when

You have to look closely at this sign and use your imagination, but docking tails isn't the only thing you can use this intimidating device to accomplish. I missed it myself, but I guess the guys were all cringing and clamping their knees together as they edged away from this booth in a hurry.

Select Sirepower, the service we use most often

***See if you can pick out the baby goat in the top photo. Her owner said mama tucked the baby in under the hay feeder and lay down beside her when they first got to the show. Then she kept her snug and hidden all day. I wouldn't even have noticed her if she hadn't pointed her out.

New York Farm Show

At Syracuse today. I would give you a link, but the link won't work. See you later.

***Here are a few pictures from the show. I will have more tomorrow. We had a great time!

Alpacas of New York

The Caterpillar race car

Our feed folks were there

I use a currycomb on our cows...or my broom. On the big farms they get just a tad more high tech

Cows, Column, Accounts and Company

Are on the list for today. One milking down. One newspaper column down. Bookkeeping done and backed up. Depreciation list updated. Company to arrive later...hopefully by then the house will have reached the appropriate level of clean for this particular visit. (There are levels of clean at Northview, ranging from best friend clean...some surfaces are dusted and you can get through the dog hair without a guide....... to in-law clean...which is a height we rarely attain.) The clean required today is a fairly low level, somewhere around best friend clean. We aren't there yet.

Brought to you by ice

Still to go..a trip to bank and post office, picking up Becky at college and night milking (including remembering to turn on the tank). Night calf feeding. Nighty-night (which will be most welcome).

*****Check out Pure Florida for today...your hair will stand right on end

Sinopa and Max

Good morning

First coffee, sharply fragrant, (although just now it is all about the caffeine). Second coffee is never as good no matter what you do to it. First rooster crowing at something even though there isn't one single glimmer of light in the east...except what comes from the lights at the county jail. (Speaking of which, the penny just now dropped as I was writing, why we see UFO's down there all the time. Those weird lights in the sky are either helicopters searching for escapees they don't tell us about or dropping off or picking up. I can't believe it took me so long to figure it out-lousy sense of direction I guess...always thought the lights were the city.)
I also used to think that roosters had some special connection to the sun and crowed because they felt it coming up. Now I know that they crow at lights on the Thruway, the moon, flashlights and fireflies. Guess they just like to crow.

Even though it is pitch dark I can tell it is going to be sunny today, at least early on. On cloudy days I can barely drag myself out of bed in the morning, but this day I am wide awake already. We had a little sunshine yesterday (and by little I mean in thirty-second increments) and it was wildly invigorating. Whenever it peeked out I felt like cleaning the house from attic to cellar, starting my whole garden, and writing War and Peace (fortunately it only slipped out from between the clouds a couple of times). Guess that is why they call it spring...it makes you feel springy.

Still no robins although I thank the folks who have written or called to share theirs. There were a couple of pale Canadian birds about four miles down the road (right near the jail in fact) on Sunday. Wish they would take a tiny detour in their Northward journey and fly down here for a minute. It is Northview after all....they COULD stop by if they wanted to.

Energy IQ Survey

This survey astounded me...want your preconceived notions deflated like an overinflated balloon when bounced upon by a border collie? Then check this site out.

HT to TFS Magnum

Another beef recall

The largest in history. Strangely there is nothing wrong with the meat. Makes me glad we grow our own though (see post below). We know everything possible about what is inside our freezers, right down to the first names (and last) of the guys at the slaughterhouse, what their kids do for fun (motocross), where they live, and who the inspector who stands watch over them is. We have known him for years and that channel runs both ways...he has known us too. We know that they take care of our animals and of us...and I am grateful for it. Can't say as I am a believer in organics, BST-free milk or any of that hoopla, but locally-grown (and home grown is as local as it gets) looks better and better every day,

Overdoing it a bit

On the pork thing. Over 700 pounds. This is one of two freezers.....oh, cryovacced frozen pork chops for sale...and boneless roasts...and ham steaks. Four dollars per pound....

Friends and family

Sometimes winter starts to get me down...usually along about February. I know it is the same for a good many other folks too. I have one I-friend in Calgary who has been dealing with temps of minus forty and lower for over a week now. Other friends in other places have their share of weather and illness related woes too.


This week though people have done me such kindnesses that I feel as warm as if it were a humming June day with robins and thrushes singing the dawn chorus to the mornings and the garden springing up in green shoots like punctuation in the dark, rich earth.


First a dear friend stopped by to vaccinate kitties and to give me a beautiful little stained glass border collie, which somehow captures the very essence of border collie, crouched, intent and staring....giving the world "the eye." I hung him where he can peer down the driveway through the big front window, watching for whatever may appear there. He is so perfectly collie that I get a little thrill of delight every time I see him.....thank you!

Then another friend gave us all little boxes Valentine chocolates, literally a sweet thing to do...thank you too.

And last night, when we came home from the Farm Bureau meeting someone with whom I have conversed on the Internet since 2001 (and been shellacked by at Battleboats and Jamble many times as well) sent me a short video clip. Everyone was shouting around me (we are a loud lot here when passionate) about some horse they had seen along the road and I couldn't hear what was going on in the movie, but I could tell it was something special. Later, when all was quiet, I turned up the volume. To my throat-tightening amazement, the video featured his "bingo ladies" (he calls bingo where he lives) wishing me a Happy Valentines Day. Imagine a whole room full of people in a distant city, all of whom I have never met, getting together to do such a nice thing. I was at a loss for words....except thank you from the bottom of my heart. I have never had a nicer Valentine.

Last, but not least by any measure, when I awoke this morning (later than I had any right to having been up way too late at a the meeting) unfamiliar lights were shining over from the barn. Liz was up working on calving in Char, number 116, who is still, even as I write, taking her sweet time having her baby. She had been up at two and again at four and was still awaiting developments....thanks Liz for the extra sleep and freedom from worry. It is pretty special and will be missed.

How can I be gloomy? Thanks again to all the good people who are kind enough to think of us and help us get through the doldrums of February in such special ways.

PS...... I requested in the Farm Side this week that someone send us robins if they saw any. Before it even ran in the paper (it runs today) Liz spotted a huge flock down on 30A...so thank you too, whomever was kind enough to share their spring harbingers with us....we are most grateful!


****Update: Naturally it is a bull...check out that weird ear!



****Mrs. Mecomber sent me a meme. I will do my bit here

Out of Salt

Wow! This does not augur well for the rest of the winter. Another storm coming our way next week....I sure hope they have enough salt left to cope with it!

Bloggers in Agricultre

Linda, at Just Another Day on the Prairie, is setting up a site that will link to bloggers involved in agriculture. I think this is a great idea. I am grateful to her for doing the work of setting it up.

She has links set up now to join and to link to the site if you are interested in adding your blog or webpage to the group. This could turn out to be a wonderful resource for those of us in the industry!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

But we have indoor lettuce....finally

On the Menu for Today

ICE

Bareback reining with no bridle

I don't usually cry when I watch someone riding a horse, but I did when I saw this video



Sorry folks who still have dial-up, but this is one of the most amazing things I have ever seen!

HT to One cowgirl, who saw it first.....

Ice on the river

The river is high for winter and racing with ice floes. The only place I can get a photo is from the gas station in town, but you can get half an idea of how fast it is flowing. Usually this spot would be seething with gulls, crows, ducks and geese. Now there is only speeding water and blocks of ice

Bunch of birdbrains invades Philly High School

I would never advocate any activity such as this..I feel sorry for the chickens and the folks who have to clean up after them.....but I can imagine something similar happening around here.....Senior pranks have a way of taking on a life of their own. I hate to even mention them, because I have heard some awful things (second hand) that have been proposed...and thankfully never realized. It is scary what kids think up at that age.

I like the district spokesman's comment on the fines faced by the perpetrators when they catch them, "It's not going to be chicken scratch,"

Close call

Mom had a little get together to celebrate Becky's birthday yesterday. There was a wind advisory posted but it wasn't too bad when we set out. However, as we were tooling down route 29 right in front of the farm where I used to work (and where my little pick-up truck was once run over by a tractor trailer) a car suddenly screeched out of his lane and came hurtling down the highway right towards us.

180....Fishtail....360....looming larger by the second....I pulled over against the guardrails and watched him come. No where to go to get out of his way on the busy highway. Nothing to do but watch in horror as he flew towards us, out of control.

Then he spun one last time and nosed into the guardrails right in front of us.....now facing the same way we were.


All I could do was tell my phone-bearing offspring, "Call 911".

Liz did so and reached an operator who had a terrible time understanding where we were. It was hard to convince her that aid was needed in Johnstown, not at the home farm. The man who had nearly met us head on got out of his car and went over to the car that had evidently rear-ended him (we didn't see that part of it) calling on his own phone. I don't think anyone was hurt, but we could not stay on the side of the road where we had stopped even if we had been equipped to offer assistance. Traffic was simply insane. No one even slowed down, just sailed between the damaged cars at sixty or more. I needed to move my car so they would see what had happened and slow down. So we proceeded to Grandma's house.


It was hard to settle down and eat birthday cake. To see such a wreck at almost the exact spot where a tractor trailer once ran over the cargo section of the truck I was driving set my heart a-pounding for a long time afterwards. Then we had to drive home in a near white-out as the promised wind showed up with a vengeance (we were lucky and got behind a plow truck that was winging shoulders and spreading salt).

BTW, this is one person you will NEVER see in a moving vehicle without a seat belt. In that long ago accident, every single thing in the cab of the truck with me went flying off down the highway through my broken windshield. I never did find my hairbrush. There was nothing left in that cab when my poor little Chevy came to rest....Except me. I got off with a cut on my head and lost a few hunks of hair.
Which grew back.

There are no accident reports to be found on the net or in the local papers so I guess yesterday goes down as just another weather-related minor accident. It scared the heck out of me though.