Letter from a friend

What does it take to bring tears to your eyes? This morning I found myself wiping my eyes, not once, but three times. First a dear friend wrote to me last night via email and the letter made my day. It is sweet to have good, caring people in your life. They can lift your spirits even when discouragement piles up in your heart like snow in a nor'easter.

Second time was when I read Jeffo's blog. That boy on that 930 Case, fearing for the fate of his pick up truck, could so easily have lived here. (That's him down there doing all that wishful thinking).




Then I saw this video on Jan's blog. Different kind of tears. This is a real funny one.

And don't miss Yeah Right on enforced community service. I personally will be just thrilled to have my full-time college students (who also work hard until 8 PM every single day here on the farm) conscripted into 100 hours of government required and overseen community service. A universal draft will be next. You read it first here....just wait and see. Meanwhile I think getting an education and feeding America, voluntarily, is community service enough. I have always been against required volunteerism, which makes a mockery of the very word. This is plumb egregious.

Another Farm Side Friday

Last week the paper put the Farm Side back on the pay page, so I didn't link.
However, this week it is on the free site again if you want to read it.


***Update: this is the second update. The first was eaten by a stupid pdf site locking up my computer. Have I mentioned that I hate pdf?
This week's column generated more controversy than any in recent months.
Years even!
Seems that some polling places had different details about the new machines than the one where we voted. The phone has been ringing all day with folks calling me about the time it takes to vote and all. Some were in my corner. Some not so much.

It never fails to boggle my mind...I will write something that I consider to be wildly controversial. I will wait nervously for Friday expecting to get it in the neck.
Not a word.
Then I will write something like this mildly tongue-in-cheek diatribe about the changing of NY's voting system to the new, poorly-regarded electronic ones and things go crazy! I am hoping I didn't generate a rash of letters to the editor or get anything started.

It has happened before..... when I least expect it. I once wrote about thousands of crows and starlings and hundreds of turkeys and ducks making a lunch counter out of the feed in one of our ag bags. I called them nuisance wildlife...mostly because they sure seemed like a nuisance to me. A lady wrote a letter to my editorial boss accusing me of wanting to take out little old ladies ...and not to lunch either. It took me several months to even think of a reply to her and I am sure my boss got a good chuckle out of it... all I wanted to do was write about how funny Mike's reaction was when I took him up there in a snow storm to herd them away. He is a dog who thought nothing of hanging off a bull's nose until it went where he wanted it to, but he was plumb scared of all that poultry.

Anyhow, time factors aside, and all kidding aside, there is good reason to be concerned about the new electronic voting machines.

Here is one story.
Here is another.
And another.
And more.
Yet another
Another
Still more
More
And I still can't find the article I used for my research. That will teach me to delete bookmarks!

Gloomy Road Trip

Had to run to Coby yesterday. Saw this stuff. Tried to get a decent picture of the winterberry holly, which is the most incredible red you can imagine against the drab fall colors in the swamp. However, the roadside was far too soft to pull off and traffic was sailing. Maybe another day..... before the berries fall. The hawk was perched right at the bottom of the driveway, but we couldn't get a good picture until he flew. Liz took the ones of him, as he was on her side of the car.
I hope next time I can get better pictures to share...

Jogger runs a mile with a rabid fox hanging off her arm

Really! This is one tough lady. We have been discussing stong women (and men) here the past couple of days. This is the ultimate if you ask me.

***Thanks to my friend Elaine Shein for this story.

Things in the Sidebar are closer than

Trisha Too asked in the comments what cow magnets do and why we put them in the cows' stomachs sometimes. Here is a link to an older post with an explanation:

Cow Magnets

And I am not a happy camper this morning, as regular readers may have already guessed. I fear that, when the much touted mysterious elixir of change is served up to America, it will come at the expense of hard-working independent people like my family and serve only the good of those who want prosperity to come at the hand of government. So I will go away and be grumpy for today and post something more cheerful when I get over it. At least the campaigning is over for a few hours, although we will certainly hear back slapping and self congratulations that will echo from coast to coast.

Government induced jet lag

Do you think it is an accident that they put the &*%%$^*) time change just days before a very important election? Me neither. It's just a way to make us feel so jet lagged and stupid that we mess up in the voting booth.

And here is a link to Deb's excellent Tyler Farm Homestead blog, where she answers one of yesterday's commenters about fishers. Their family sadly lost a lovely house cat to a predator recently and they suspect it was a fisher.

Wheat in New York City

The Urban Wheat Field

HT to Trent Loos

The cat

Spends his time in this fashion, while we are out cutting wood to make the house warm for him and milking cows so we can afford to buy cans for him. He knows the word "can" and comprehends quite well that it refers to those little round things from the grocery store, which are full of such tasty goodness. Is it any wonder that we are jealous of him and feel that it would be much more appropriate if he were a dog?





And here are a few more pics of Saturday's wood expedition. Maybe he is jealous of us too, as he missed all this.

In Search of Combustable Carbon

We call this the T field

A cat's cradle of maple sap tubing.
(Do click on the woodland pics. They are much better large.)

Alan went out to cut firewood yesterday. It was so incredibly sunny and lovely and fine that I hiked up to join him...and took the camera along of course.


There is a neat cycle going on here with this wood cutting thing. This particular woods is a sugar bush. Most of the trees are hard maple and we let a local fellow tap them each spring. He gives us a couple of gallons of good quality syrup in return as well as cutting down dead trees and thinning a few undesirables for us. These he left along the edge of the field last winter and now we are cutting them up for heat.

Our quarry, the elusive dead elm tree

The cats cradle of sap lines is amazing considering how very steep this woods is. I went down into it and clambered along the top and I have to tell you. Every single time falling crossed my mind I started to slip. I had to concentrate on keeping my feet under me every step I took. It is hard to imagine what it must be like to lay out line like this on these hills in snow. A team of goats might come in handy.

Steep, baby, steep!
(Consider the size of the old lady shadow to envision just how steep it is.)

Whenever the kid took a bucket load of nice, dry elm down to the house, I sat on the end of a log and watched the maple leaves swirling down. Although most of them just sort of float and glide, every tenth one or so rotated down around its stem like a whirling top. It was amazing how far across the field they flew. The air was crisp and cool with a leaf-scented breeze made pleasant by the sun beating just above the horizon like a warm, bright heart. I actually was sorry when the saw began to cut in a curve and the kid decided to wait until he could use the vice to resharpen it.

Close up of the maple tubing

Our maple guy isn't the only one drilling in this woods!

Playing hooky while the saw clutch cooled

NY's Old Bones

Epic

Here is the funniest video I have seen in a while. A long while. Alan tells me that this came from Saturday Night Live....I dunno, I was in the other room reading a moderately acceptable book when he began to laugh convulsively. I was too lazy to get up to see what he was laughing at, but then my good friend Elaine Shein had it up on Facebook later and I took a look. All I can say is if you are eating or drinking, wait a minute. Or at least swallow first. Without further ado, here is McCain Palin (Or not as the case may be) on QVC

Magic Asparagus

And other sunlit things....

For Alan...there is hope kiddo

I had planned to write of happier things

But then we heard about a young boy, barely old enough to drive, losing his life in an accident just across the river from here. He was a little younger than our kids, but hung out with the same group that Alan is friends with. Alan liked him, as all the kids did. We feel so bad for the family. In a small town even if you don't know folks personally, you are friends with their friends or live just down the road. Our hearts go out to this family and I just don't have it in me to do a regular post today. Pray for them if you can please, as we will. You can read the details here if you wish.

We have had a couple close calls in our immediate family the past few weeks. I won't go into details because some of the stories aren't mine to tell. Suffice to say we were lucky. There were some injuries but people are all on the mend. I am more than thankful that we didn't lose any of the kids or cousins or anybody. I don't care how hard you try to keep everyone safe, bad things happen to good people.

The Baling Twine Police

Need to come to our barn and start handing out tickets! The darned stuff is dangerous....so start picking it up or I am going to call them!

You know who you are......

Important reading

Alphecca

Still More Melamine in Chinese Products

This is pretty frightening. Our family is buying less and less prepared food these day...not that we bought a lot anyhow, but I am reading labels more carefully all the time.

I honestly started feeling (and writing about) concern about the Chinese dairy industry years ago, when they were buying up registered Holstein cows locally. I remember reading the editor of a certain dairy magazine that serves our area crowing joyfully about exporting heifers and thinking that what might have looked good at the time would come to roost later. China's exported apples have virtually devastated the apple industry in some states. They have no quality standards, but cheap prices are a strong lure. At the time of the Chinese cattle buying expedition I expected that nation to flood the world market with cheap dairy products hurting US dairymen. I had no idea that instead they would export poison in dairy food form.

In this article the Chinese government admits that melamine adulteration of feeds and food products is commonplace there. I suspect that we have only just begun to see the scope of the problem.

Just Before the Storm

This is snow, although it was pretty dark by the time it started

Yesterday, uncounted thousands of blackbirds surrounded the house. I think it was the largest single flock of them I have ever seen. The din was amazing. If you play the video, try turning the sound up. This is just a tiny fraction of them. They completely surrounded the house and buildings and were lined up in the sky and in trees all along the Thruway and in the neighbor's corn field. The banging sound is rain hitting the tin roof of the porch...just before the snow began.


Blackbirds

Multitudinous blackbirds and another strange bird.

Good one from Aunt Peggy

TO: GOD
FROM: THE DOG
Dear God: Is it on purpose our names are the same, only reversed?

Dear God: Why do humans smell the flowers, but seldom, if ever, smell one another?

Dear God: When we get to heaven, can we sit on your couch? Or is it
still the same old story?

Dear God: Why are there cars named after the jaguar, the cougar, the
mustang, the colt, the stingray, and the rabbit, but not ONE named for
a Dog? How often do you see a cougar riding around? We do love a nice ride! Would it be so hard to rename the 'Chrysler Eagle' the 'Chrysler
Beagle'?

Dear God: If a Dog barks his head off in the forest and no human hears
him, is he still a bad Dog?

Dear God: We Dogs can understand human verbal instructions, hand
signals, whistles, horns, clickers, beepers, scent ID's,
electromagnetic energy fields, and Frisbee flight paths. What do humans
understand?

Dear God: More meatballs, less spaghetti, please.

Dear God: Are there mailmen in Heaven? If there are, will I have to
apologize?

Dear God: Let me give you a list of just some of the things I must
remember to be a good Dog.
1. I will not eat the cats' food before they eat it or after they throw
it up.
2. I will not roll on dead seagulls, fish, crabs, etc., just because I
like the way they smell.
3. The Litter Box is not a cookie jar.
4. The sofa is not a 'face towel'.
5. The garbage collector is not stealing our stuff.
6. I will not play tug-of-war with Dad's underwear when he's on the
toilet.
7. Sticking my nose into someone's crotch is an unacceptable way of
saying 'hello'.
8. I don't need to suddenly stand straight up when I'm under the coffee
table.
9. I must shake the rainwater out of my fur before entering the house -
not after.
10. I will not come in from outside and immediately drag my butt.
11. I will not sit in the middle of the living room and lick my crotch.
12. The cat is not a 'squeaky toy' so when I play with him and he makes
that noise, it's usually not a good thing.

P.S. Dear God: When I get to Heaven may I have my testicles back?

***Not the sort of thing I usually post, but it made me laugh so hard it hurt. And since last night we lost power just as we were milking the last few cows and didn't get it back until around two AM I needed a good laugh...figured you might too.

Guest post: My First Deer

If I were to describe the best day of my life I would have to pick the day that I harvested my first deer.The whole month before opening day I had been biting my nails waiting for season to start. Two weeks before season started I had posted our whole farm in hopes of keeping poachers off our land.

After slogging through the mud for three days posting the land, I started to get a little cough. I have asthma so I figured that it was just overexertion. However, my symptoms only seemed to get worse. Soon I realized that it was not asthma and that I had the flu. As deer season neared I realized that I was going to miss my first chance at a deer.

Opening morning came and went; I was bedridden after the doctor said that under no circumstances was I allowed to hunt, at least for the first week. The whole week I was tormented by the accounts of my father's expeditions. I had to wait it out. Thanksgiving came and I felt good enough to gorge myself on turkey and all the fixings.

I started working on the farm again doing light work when my father fell ill. He had the same ailment I had. So I was left with all his work to finish on top of my own. After cleaning the barn of animal wastes and feed refusals, I was setting off to spread the noxious matter, when Doctor Mom gave me the okay to hunt for a few minutes.

Dad had told me about a little spot in one of our fields called the old pasture lot. We had used the field as a pasture in the past when the grass was insufficient in the other two pastures. The grass is tall most years, providing an excellent food source. A creek that runs on the westerly end of the field has cut a deep bank into the grassy sides of the pasture, providing great protection from the cold winds of November, as well as a constant water source. Encroachment from hunters is also hindered by the natural structure. Tucked up against the bank is a small wooded area. Stuck among the tangled masses of grape vines and box elder trees there is a little apple tree where the deer and other game animals love to go when season opens. There is a little gap between the trees where a watchful person can peer past all the thickets and see the contents of the little hollow.

It was there that I harvested my first deer. After following my dad's advice I walked around the far side of the field in hopes of advancing on the little grove. I have seen large deer go there before in hopes of eluding the constant hunting pressures. After thinking that I had not been quiet enough I took the shell out of my gun. As I walked to the hole in the trees I noticed some brown where there shouldn't be any. I quickly reloaded my gun as the magnificent creature raised its head. I felt the report of the gun against my shoulder and my ears ached from the load noise.

I slammed another round into my gun as I walked quickly through the entangled trees and shrubs to get to my quarry. At the end of my short trek laid the most beautiful animal I had ever seen. I did not need to use the second round because I shot it cleanly through the head. I then puzzled how to get this new found source of meat and nourishment home. I tried and failed numerous times to strap it to the hood of the tractor.

I had a huge dilemma on my hands. Should I leave the deer to go get help or should I keep trying to get it on the hood of the tractor? After a few agonizing moments and a few more attempts I decided to leave my deer and go get the loader tractor to get it home

When I finally got it to my house, I went inside and told my mom that I had shot a spike buck. She came out with her camera and saw the beast, There, before her, was the 140 class eight point buck with brow tines that were almost eight inches long. It weighed at least two hundred pounds. It was so large that when we hung it from half-inch rope the sheer mass of the animal snapped the line that was holding it up.

Since that day I have taken many deer. However, the day that I harvested my first deer will always be the most remembered in my mind. My father has taught me the importance of land management and self control. I never harvest more wild game than we need. And after I take any animal I think it for what it gives my family. Each animal that I take makes the ultimate sacrifice for my family's well-being.

This is a paper that Alan wrote recently for his college English class. He received an A+ on it and I liked it so much I though I would share it with you, with his permission. He is such an outdoorsman that it never fails to amaze me that he also writes very well. However, he does and I hope you enjoy this essay. Here is a photo of that deer and the happy hunter.

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.