Dream Weaving

My handsome younger brother and his delightful wife have a cottage business, weaving wonderful rugs, blankets, towels etc. This Christmas we gave them blue jean quilt lap robes and they in turn shared products of their craft with us. I love having homemade things and things that are old or traditional. Maybe it is growing up in an antique and book store, I don't know....they are just better than new and bought somehow. I couldn't thank them enough for this lovely stuff.

And then they gave me heck for not putting the rugs on the floor. And for being afraid to use the towels and dish cloths for fear of ruining them. I was told "USE THEM!" in no uncertain terms.




Now I ask you...would you put this on the floor where dogs can claw and clatter or fold it in half and put it in this old Boston rocker to look pretty? Same here...the kids love to come sit in these two old rockers my dad gave me, when they want to talk to me, when I am reading in my Sunday chair...now they can sit on this beautiful rug.




However, Mattie did convince me to use the dish cloths and towels and wow, am I glad he did. They are so thick and fluffy! Incredibly absorbent and just abrasive enough to be nice and "scrubby".
I am so tickled with them!
So I am using them....and using them.....and using them.....and I can't tell you how sweet it is.
I hope the lap blankets we made work out as well for them! It certainly is cold enough this winter for anything warm to be welcome.

Gillibrand for Senator

Am I thrilled? Hell Yeah!

If she is indeed chosen today at noon, at least somebody representing NY will be from upstate, pro 2A, able to use and understand common sense, and in her own words, ""I've been working hard for our middle class families, for our veterans, for our farmers, and I think the work I have done I can do on a bigger scale as a senator and continue to help all the constituencies I've been working for and perhaps even have a bigger impact in the Senate." (From Channel 9 News)

I think this is the first time I have heard anyone mention farmers in a positive way, at least anyone in a position of government power, since about last September.

Cabin Fever Quiz

On Farm Side Friday

And here is an article about the future of milk prices with a photo of a real good friend of our family...His whole family are real nice folks from whom we received the Shaufelcats, including Elvis, the cat with hands. They are the kind of people who fed us when the boss was in the hospital with appendicitis and came and fed cows when the kids and I couldn't run the feed cart and all (this was many moons ago...now the kid not only runs the feed cart, it only takes him a few minutes to change its motor.) They are some of our favorite people!

About the Scale

This is an older photo. The crock is now full of heavy stuff.....

I have posted about the big scale in the dining room before....Here is a post about it. People look at us funny the first time they see it. But when Johnstown Knit went out of business due to GATT and NAFTA, they sold a number of them, which must have been used to weigh fabric. We only paid $125 for it...but it only goes to 125 pounds....so we just look at it rather than use it for anything.
I love having it though. Sort of a monument to the days when there was manufacturing around here....the days when you could buy work clothes at the outlet store for a reasonable price...clothes that were made right there in Johnstown. By folks who lived in Johnstown.

When the outlet sold out we bought the boss dozens of red tee shirts for about a dime a piece. (People think he is just fond of the same old red shirt, but really he still has lots of them.) Sadly though, all the heavy, thick, very warm sweatshirts that were long enough to go about to your knees are full of holes and becoming dog bedding one by one. There isn't anywhere that I can find to buy such clothes any more especially for such low prices.....alas.




Anyhow, we love our scale and it was so neat the other day the way the sun shone right into its workings and spotlighted everything that I couldn't resist a picture.



Tracks of a rather large canid that rummaged through the yard the other night. It came almost up on the front porch. If you follow tracks, not pictured, down where the kids and I had to dig Alan's truck out of the snow bank (just before the boss finally plowed our driveway for the second time this winter) you can see he was mousing...or perhaps voling. However, our poor kitty Teak vanished....probably in the same direction as the mice. She was a fat, pretty little calico Schaufelcat and we miss her. Can we say that cats and coyotes don't exactly live in harmony?

Video Bucking Bull Catalog

Cord McCoy at Albany last year...nicest guy you could ever meet!

Here is a catalog of videos of the offerings at the upcoming McCoy Ranch sale. If you have time go watch some of the films of the critters. Pretty darned cool.

Wordless Wednesday

Jelly Side Up

Trent Loos on Dairy Prices

Go here, to listen to Trent discuss the outrage of milk prices crashing on the farm while staying high in the stores. I am wondering at what point NY's anti-price gouging law will kick in. If ever.


He says there is talk of a 300,000 cow buy out...nuts to that! He is right about looking into why prices aren't reflecting what processors and stores are paying farmers.

Buzzing about the Bees

An interesting possibility has come to light on the devastating bee killer being called colony collapse disorder. The sudden appearance and terrible consequences of this disease have baffled scientists for years. However, it seems now that it showed up on the horizon the same year that Australian bees were allowed to be imported here. Read the whole story here.

Sunday Stills...Color

This week's Sunday Stills assignment is color. There isn't as much of it around in the winter as we might like here in the Great Northeast, but you can find some....if you look in the right places.

Mom's Blog

My mom, who is a wonderful storyteller, has had a blog for quite some time.
Today's post is an amazing story from the family folklore that will most likely give you a good laugh.
Have a look....Tryon Books and More

Frieland Follies

"You say it's a pond heater? I thought it was a Roscoe Rescue Rump Roaster."

"Okay, Boss, now what do I do?"

"Gimme flakes"

"Why did that girl bring me in here?
Oh, look out, Mom is coming....run away...."

"Why are you taking pictures of them and not of me???"

****Each and every one of these photos was taken yesterday in the course of a what-passes-for-normal day's activities here at the home of Frieland Holsteins and Maqua-kil Jerseys and Holsteins....and of assorted somewhat less dignified animals.

*****No animals were injured during the making of this blog post, although they tried....they really did.

Seven Below Zero

On Farm Side Friday, which coincidentally is titled Below Undertaking.

****Thanks to Rurality for the article that inspired this one.


The photos have nothing to do with the Farm Side, Friday, or being below zero. Rather, they may serve as a small reminder that better days are coming (it says in fine print.)

iPod

Or how MySpace changed my life. I know Northview Diary deals mostly with farming, photos, family and a little politicking, but music was my life when I was younger.

(Much younger)

My next younger brother, an assortment of other folks and myself formed a series of bands that played in our folks' cellars, garages and occasionally other rooms, much to the detriment of our relationship with family members who were attached to their ear drums. (Think Hendrix. Think Led Zeppelin.).

In time we graduated to high school gyms and bars and even Sherman's Amusement Park, pictured above. (Click on the photo in the link and you can see a big building in the foreground. For about one summer the management hired bands to play dances upstairs, above the games and the popcorn machine. We were one of them.)

Then we grew up. The band disbanded. Once I married my farmer and had a batch of kids time for music condensed to a few CD's while I was doing housework and barn music chosen by the kids. And the radio. And tired old country stations which play the same dozen artists and the same handful of tired old songs 24-7. I won't say I lost interest but stagnation set in.

Then the kids introduced me to MySpace and I won an iPod from World Dairy Diary.

MySpace is the hunting ground of unsigned artists, musicians who for some reason or another don't have a major record deal, or ones who do have a deal, but don't get the air time that brings fortune and fame. Talent has nothing to do with scanty clothes or sales gimmicks, but that seems to be what sells popular music. There are nice musicians on MySpace who will even sometimes give you tracks just for wanting to listen to them. The iPod made it possible for me to put all the wonderful stuff I find in one place and to listen to it without hearing everybody whine about not liking my choices or drowning out the TV.

I won't say I like housework now, but it does pass more swiftly. And I get to listen to folks like the Roosters, Joe Hash and Justin McBride instead of certain vegetarian girls and ball player's kids who shall remain nameless.

This week's song pick has been Justin McBride's Tumbleweed Town. Liz bought the CD from him I guess and let me put a copy on my music list. Hard to believe, when you listen to his gritty heartful voice that Justin just retired from his main career riding bulls on the PBR.

Wordless Wednesday

Asleep at the......reins?

Liz and I made the grocery run today trying to beat the extreme cold that is expected to make the next week or so miserable. We wound up climbing a steep, blind, hill behind this gent. I am not sure that he was asleep, but he certainly wasn't worried too much about his driving. This is a main state highway and traffic bangs along at 55 through this area. He was doing maybe 2 at a very slow walk. His horse was tired and just plodded along, ears flopping, head nodding, almost asleep himself. We weren't in any big hurry and just pulled in behind and followed at his speed. It was certainly not safe to pass him as you couldn't see either around the curves or over the crest of the hill. I was actually kind of tickled to nab a couple of pictures of the rig.



However, there was a regular horse's pattootie behind us who was champing at the bit like he was on the way to the hospital (which if he had his way we might all have been). He ripped up behind Liz and kept jigging out into the other lane like he wanted to pass. (For you locals this is the big hill by Sowles. Not a place to pass unless you want to get up close and personal with a Wal*Mart truck traveling fifty MPH in the other direction.) He was quite irate at having to follow us and the Amish man up the hill. After a few more yards the horse driver noticed the trucks behind him, jiggled the reins and hurried the tired horse on up the hill. As soon as it was safe to do so we passed and went on our way with the impatient fellow right behind. We lost maybe half a minute of time from our trip.....had we tried to pass I suspect it might have been more. I enjoyed the quirky juxtaposition of modern and not quite so modern in meeting a horse drawn wagon on a state highway, which I suspect the guy behind us missed completely.

Spectacular Sky

We did Christmas with the brothers yesterday, with pizza, conversation and fun (and this is not pizza to be shrugged off lightly. I don't know where they get it, but it is awaited eagerly every year...pretty special stuff.)




Anyhow, besides getting to hug and enjoy lots of dearly beloved family members we were treated to a truly amazing sky on the way home last night. The sun was setting slowly, and the clouds were outlined with the most amazing glowing yellow I think I have ever seen. We were speeding along in the truck and couldn't stop so I just shot through the windshield, which of course, doesn't do any picture justice. Still you can kind of get an idea of how beautiful it was.

Sunday Stills.....Macros

See more at Sunday Stills

This kind of thing

Do click on any of these and you can see the actual snow.
It was falling amazingly hard!

Slows you down a little and makes indoors look good. This was a couple of days ago. It was supposed to be nice, but instead snowed so hard you could barely see the top of the heifer pasture hill.





This is a fraction of a huge wheel of gulls that was swirling over the heifer barn last night. It was so cold I couldn't seem to get good pics, but you can get an idea of how it was.

Absurdly Busy Friday

Farm Side Friday too.

This picture, however, has nothing to do with my weekly tirade. It is my kitchen floor just after it was painted a couple of years ago.
It desperately needs a new coat of this pleasant and inspirational green.
(I read once that green kitchens inspire cooks to be creative. No idea if this is true, but some amazing things come out of this particular room.)