No Joy in Mudville

It's been like Casey at the bat here the past few days. Liz and I had a great Friday, managed to get some more grapes and make more jelly, got a lot cleaned up and caught up. We were having a cup of coffee and feeling pretty good about ourselves. Then the boss came in looking grim. He had good reason. The big tractor, the 4490, blew some portion of its anatomy out through the engine block. Parts flew 70 feet. It will not be running again without a whole new motor. It is sitting in the farthest back field too. I don't have any idea how they are even going to get it down here.

Some friends loaned/rented him a tractor so he can keep grinding away at the corn. (Thank God for people like them.) Then we got three inches of rain. He had to give up on the field he was in and move to another on higher ground. Then a sweet cow (well Liz doesn't think she is so sweet because she banged her up pretty bad when she was a show cow) aborted her calf last night. She isn't an easy one to get bred in the first place so this could be it for her. We will have to see.

Now this:

HERKIMER

WINTER STORM WARNING

MONTGOMERY

FLOOD WATCH

WINTER STORM WARNING

OTSEGO

WINTER STORM WARNING

Something is wrong with this picture. Whoever heard of dreaming of a white Halloween? I think I'll hibernate!

***And I want to know where my share of global warming went!



Found this on World Dairy Diary...Saratoga Cheese Company to open new plant in NY. The region has lost a lot of dairy processing facilities in the past few years. Good to hear of a new one coming in.

Kindness

Jeffro was kind enough to nominate me for a blog award and to say the nicest things I have heard in many a moon. If you haven't yet visited his blog, check it out. You will find well-written posts on any number of subjects from driving a truck to the right kind of politics. (We met via People of the Gun and I am darned glad of it.) I especially enjoy reading about life on the road from a trucker's point of view and hunting stories and tales of Jeffro's younger days.

I don't do so well at this nominating and all, not wanting to be limited in my choices or hurt anybody's feelings. I read pretty much all the people in the blog roll for various reasons ranging from great writing, exciting pictures to wondering what will happen next. Give 'em a try if you get the chance.

Just in time for Halloween

Spooky weather

Twenty Million Dollars

Does this mean that our taxes will go down?

Farm Side Friday

Here is this week's version of the Farm Side, which I have written or contributed to for over ten years now. I am having more fun writing it than ever now that I can share it with Northview folks, of whom I have grown very fond and whose opinions I value very much.

The paper has a couple of new staff blogs, following the path of other area papers, both of which offer blogs. My favorite of these is the farm blog at the Times Union, Farm Life, which is written by one of the sweetest people you will ever meet. Teri's farm may be small but she has a real feel for what it means to be a farmer and puts that into words very, very well.

Anyhow, it was mentioned here, that they are looking to get a few more folks blogging at the paper.....(wonder if they know they already have a fairly active blogger contracting for them). I like the idea of blogs associated with newspapers. They offer an opportunity for a more in depth look at the news, a more personal touch, and an up to the minute connection with the media and current events. I hope they do expand the feature and I especially hope my immediate boss does something like start a blog. He is a terrific writer and I miss the column he used to post on Sundays (hint, hint).

LIfe revolves around

Corn this time of year....Chopping it. Changing tires when they go flat. Filling the ag bags. Feeding it to the cows. Bringing ears like these down for the piggies and the hens. Mud, mud, mud (we are so sick of mud.) Forty acres to go and the weather is getting worse every day. I can't wait until they are done and it is all in the bag.

Wonders of Home Weaving

My talented sister-in-law hand wove this wonderful blanket for my especially special younger brother. It is patterned on an antique blanket my parents have had since I was a kid. The original came into the antique shop where we all grew up some long, long time ago. (Growing up in an antique and book store was an experience that had to be lived to be imagined. It was cold in the winter, hot in the summer, and dusty all year round. We read the merchandise and took for granted being able to play in three seat cutters with tiger and horse head lap robes to keep us warm. Thus I have read all of the original Tarzans, Roy Chapman Andrews, Osa Johnson and a vast array of other books that not too many people have had the opportunity to peruse. I didn't appreciate the history surrounding us then but these many years later I surely do.)

(That is a tall brother there, so you can tell it is a BIG blanket)

Matt and Lisa were kind enough to take this photo for me and allow me to post it for you. It looks wonderful to me.
It looks warm too....(which also looks wonderful to me). She made me a blanket a couple of years ago and that puppy doesn't want to wander far from my Sunday chair, else heads will roll. Even in the summer I keep it handy....just in case!

Signs of the Season

The fall migration is in full swing

These are nearly gone now

I keep finding these in the washing machine.

I gather them when I am outside....stick them in my pocket...
and forget them.
Every time.

This is not just welcome now


It is plumb necessary

Kody Lostroh

Liz took this video at Mohegan Sun. I think she did a great job with it and Kody did a great job with the bull too.

Mohegan Sun PBR

PBR at Mohegan Sun

Dip Dog with Nick Landrenau

Liz got some great shots and video at the rodeo yesterday. Here are a couple.

Bucky balls

I am sure many of you scientific types have heard of bucky balls and buckypaper and even understand how they came into existence. To me though the whole concept is new and exciting, nanotechnology not exactly being an everyday tool on a dairy farm.

However, the potential exists for virtually everyone to use material made of buckypaper in some form or other in the future. Just discovering the stuff is incredible. Imagine doing research on manufacture of carbon by stars and turning out molecules that can be made into a substance ten times lighter than steel yet 500 times stronger! Alan and I have been emailing back and forth all morning about it....cool stuff!

Hard frost last night

The TV news report says that it is the official end of the growing season....maybe.....I haven't taken the canvas off the tomatoes yet, but I wouldn't be surprised if we still get a few more. They ripened late and very slowly but we have had all we could eat plus lots to freeze.




The fire in the outdoor woodstove is very welcome these days. This old house is cool in summer and absolutely frigid in winter. (All you folks who have made us blankets and lap robes...you know who you are...we thank you from the bottom of our hearts. Our toesies thank you too.)




As soon as all the geraniums I am giving up on (I normally bring in every single geranium and struggle all winter to keep them lush and nice. This year...just a few...I grow them from seed anyhow so I end up with a ridiculous number of them) actually freeze I am going to refill the pots with a little fresh earth and plant lettuce in them. We have grown lettuce indoors for a couple of years now and you can't beat it if you have a bright window.




Liz is off here for this today. Her favorite cowboy, Cord McCoy, is there to sign autographs and ride and her other favorite, Kody Lostroh is too. As of yesterday they were first and second in the standings, which was pretty cool.




It is a long drive to a different state. As the official motherperson I will worry all day and night until she is home. (It is my job and I take my work seriously.) She wanted me to accompany her and I would have loved to go, but it was felt in certain corners that I should stay home and work. So I did. No morning off this week, but it was a pretty morning and I didn't really mind all that much being out. I hope she has a great time and brings home lots of good photos. I hope she meets that nice cowboy that she talks to on the Internet. I hope she calls home soon........

And here is this week's

The Farm Side is a Friday column, so here is a link to this week's right on the heels of yesterday's.


Northview Diary is sort of an offshoot of the newspaper column, which I started writing ten years ago last March. At the time I was working on a novel (and no it never got published) and a friend was writing the Farm Side. He and his wife thought of the name when he was asked to do a farm column for the paper thanks to his excellent letters to the editor. He asked me to spell him once a month as he has a large and very busy farm and a batch of grandkids that need time with grandpa. After a while he asked me to write twice a month and then after a year he decided to call it quits and left the column in my hands (or at my mercy if you prefer).

I enjoyed the chance to write about farming and about life in the valley so much that three years ago in August I started this blog. The first photo here was taken with a disposable camera....how things have changed since then....I have enjoyed this just as much as writing for the paper, mostly because of the dialog with folks who comment. I feel that I have made friends from Canada to Mexico and Florida to California, as well as meeting new people just across the river from the farm. I am thankful for everyone who reads either the Farm Side or Northview Diary....it has been good to get to know you. Thanks for stopping by!

Becky

Has been given a rather special honor. We are pleased and proud. Read about it here.

I have also hired her to move Northview to the new Blogger template. I simply don't have time to move all my links and gadgets, but I am sick of Blogrolling being so unreliable. I like to read most of the blogs I link to and it is frustrating to never see them in the sidebar. Anyhow, I am sure for a couple days until she gets it all straightened out it will look a little strange here, but please be patient with us.
Thanks!

new template

Hey threecollie's daughter here. Northveiw is moving to the newer blogger. If you notice any links missing/ not working drop us a line in the comments or at breezey375@yahoo.com and we'll make sure it gets added.

I'm having a tad of difficulty getting all the link working and or to show up at all. And frankly mommy scares me and she's very attached to this blog...

Farm Side online

As of Monday the paper I write a weekly column for, the Recorder in Amsterdam, has a free website. Thus if you wish to read the Farm Side each week you can do so. Here is a link to last's week's column.

Rain and piggies

After a stretch of exceptional fall weather it is raining again. It never really dried out but now the mud has the consistency of grease.
Hard to walk.
Hard to work.
No corn will get chopped today. These photos are from yesterday, when it was fine enough to pick tomatoes and try to dig out the roots of those giant sunflowers.....unsuccessfully I might add.




Also, yesterday, Alan and Becky made the long trip south to get new piggies, a pair of gilts this year. They are remarkably fuzzy and quite different from last year's pigs. However, we have never gotten one that didn't grow really well from our pig farming folks and I am sure they will be fine. Last year we ended up with the best sausage ever, so we are going to make a lot more this time....believe it or not everybody liked it better than pork chops.

Remember yesterday

Better if clicked

Jay (not Leno)

A collage of blue jays gobbling seeds as fast as they can stuff them in their bills and a video so you can see exactly how fast that is. They clean two or three of these big sunflower heads every day....and this is the last one I have. They are such beautiful birds though that I always am glad when they come out of hiding in the fall when baby rearing season is over.

The color of autumn

Better if larger...do click