Some Story

At the time this story took place we followed it avidly. Jeff King became and has remained my favorite musher, largely because of his interaction with this valiant local boy.

King of Heart

Herding Cats

Thanks to Moos for this one.

Wall o' Water

But not the tomato kind

Dairy Farmers Care

I had heard these spots were out and I thank World Dairy Diary for this commercial showing our side of the story. There are billboards too, or so I have heard.

The Marvelous Market

I have to write the Farm Side practically from scratch this morning, so I will offer you a link to a thought-provoking article on what is fast becoming one of my favorite blogs.

I thank my good friend, Numberwise, for pointing me to Carpe Diem, where you will find this post:
The Forgotten Daily Miracles of the Market.

I learn new things every day reading Carpe Diem. The insight into what is really going on in the economy, rather than the latest terror story intended to persuade us that the government is going to fix everything and give us milk and honey forever and ever amen, is quite comforting.

Irony at its Most Ironic

A chilly standoff in the Capitol and another at Northview

It is five degrees here at glamorous Northview Farm, way below (like about 20 degrees or more) the statistical norm for the season and the region. It has been cold like this almost every day since mid December and even November was outstandingly cold and nasty. This is not just a little anomaly here, this is one danged cold winter. The cows didn't even start shedding until well into February, when normally about the second week in January the hair starts flying. Every once and a while it actually gets warm enough here (indoors that is) to feel comfortable and we wonder why we suddenly feel so relaxed. It is sort of intense to be chilled most of the time......

Therefore this story just tickles my sense of irony all to heck. Global warming my foot...my blue, frozen, never out of double wool socks foot....

Trent Loos Does it Again

Here is a great article by Trent Loos on the Stimulus Plan and horse husbandry, which have more in common than you might imagine.

Wish Us Well

I hope you will wish us well today. We have to get the pigs over to be processed and haul a cow and a heifer to the sale. This is usually not such a big deal, but the ice is so bad the dog even fell down and had to be helped to safety. It is like living on an ice floe on the ocean or something. The guys sanded as best they could yesterday but.....

Sunday Stills Motion

Chickadees are always in motion

Seems as if our resident skunk is too

Kashette was busy this day

This week's Sunday Stills is motion. You woul think everything would be frozen in place around here this time of year, but a few things were on the move.


Believe it or not even this spider was moving right out....He was in the center of the skunk track area above when I spotted him. I though it would be fun to pick up the hunk of snow he was sitting on to take a close up. Hah! He jumped off my hand like a rocket. I tried five times before I realized that he wasn't interested in posing for anything that included the word still. When I left he was hustling across the snow going who knows where and going there in a hurry. Who knew that spiders ran around on the snow on sunny days?

Panning for Gold

In the dining room

With paper plates

Break up and the Farm Show

Beautiful downtown Syracuse, home of more red lights
than certain districts in the old days. That is a green one you see there,
but we didn't see many others.

We visited the NYS Farm Show yesterday. The show itself was very nice. I will try not to complain too long about the parking guys filling the farthest out lots first...2 miles away. About the insane shuttle bus driver. Standing up with camera, jackets, etc. in hand on a school bus with a death wish.
Pot holes.
Corners on two wheels. Praying not to land in the lap of the poor little Mennonite kid in the seat I was clinging to.
Walking all the way back after doing the show, because the buses were all parked. (I think it was a plot.)


No, I won't whine about that stuff any more than I have to. We talked to lots of very nice salesmen, who who were very generous with samples of a number of probiotic products that I can't wait to try. When a cow digests her feed via rumination it is really a lot of little bugs, microbes if you will, doing the job. When conditions get out of balance in her rumen, due to feed issues, or calving or who knows what, those bugs sometimes die, making it tough for the cow to process her lunch. Probiotic products put a new set of bugs on board so she can break down her groceries. We already use a couple of such products, but it will be interesting to try these new ones. We have a lot of calving coming up and so will have a lot of fresh cows needing extra attention.





I took a couple of through-the-windshield, slashing rain, howling wind and dark and gloomy conditions type photos on the trip. Below is the ice on the river beginning to break up. Experts are predicting a serious flooding situation when it finally warms up enough to move that ice and I suspect they are right.

We are driving on about three feet of compressed ice on our barn road. It has been such a cold winter that almost none of it has melted and our big concrete walkway that is about a foot above the driveway hasn't been seen in months. When all that is on the river and all the snow and all the many places where the ground is covered in that much ice all melt, I expect it to be pretty noticeable.



Despite being footsore from the hiking, the show was fun. Glad we went. Even more glad to be home.

Customer Appreciation

This week's Farm Side Friday

I Was Followed

Off to the stove.

Not a bad job in this weather, what with the sun shining and water tinkling off the roofs and cardinals and blue jays and gold finches livening things up all over the place.

Then I heard soft, sneaky footsteps behind me.

The stalker.

I don't know why she thinks she needs to keep an eye on me.

Trent Tomlinson

Is about as nice a guy as you could meet....the girls and I met him last summer and he acted more like the guy next door than a major country singer.

He played this song at the Vermont State Fair concert and we loved it the first time we heard it. Now he has released it on MySpace video so you can hear it too.
Go ahead, take a listen...the top one is a slide show with studio audio and the lower is live.



Trent Tomlinson - That's How It Still Oughta Be - Live Video


Trent Tomlinson - That's How It Still Oughta Be (Slideshow)

New Slow Moving Vehicle Laws

According to a press release from the Commissioner of Agriculture, NY's SMV laws have changed thusly...
(Wonder if they are going to enforce Amish compliance with these.)

"The following is a summary of three new laws, as well as lighting requirements that pertain to slow moving vehicles. For the exact language of the new laws, please refer to the New York State Vehicle and Traffic Law at http://public.leginfo.state.ny.us/menuf.cgi.

New York State Vehicle and Traffic Law Section 100, paragraph (d): The law now pertains to every agricultural tractor, self-propelled implement of husbandry, and towed, mounted or semi-mounted implement of husbandry. “Implement of husbandry” means a vehicle designed or adapted exclusively for agricultural, horticultural or livestock raising operations or for lifting or carrying an implement of husbandry.

New York State Vehicle and Traffic Law Section 375, subdivision 36, paragraph (b): Farm machinery and implements of husbandry designed to operate at 25 mph or less, traveling on a public highway during day or night, whether self-propelled or used in combination, shall each separately display a slow-moving-vehicle emblem as specified by law. The previous law required an SMV emblem on either the tractor or the vehicle being towed, but not both.

New York State Vehicle and Traffic Law Section 376, subdivision 1, paragraph (a): It is unlawful to operate, drive, or park self-propelled agricultural equipment on any public highway or street during the period from one-half hour after sunset to one-half hour before sunrise and during other times as visibility for a distance of 1,000 feet ahead of or behind such agricultural equipment is not clear, unless such agricultural equipment is equipped with approved lamps that are lighted and in good working condition.

Lighting Requirements for Self-Propelled Agricultural Equipment: When lighting is required, all self-propelled agricultural equipment shall also be equipped in accordance with New York State Vehicle and Traffic Law’s lighting requirements, which are as follows:

§ Head lamps: must be two white lights on the front of the equipment, at the same level and as far apart as practicable

§ Tail lamps: must be one red light at the rear of the equipment and as far to the left as practicable
§ Combined hazard warning and turn signal lamps: must be two amber lights at least 1.1 meters (or 42 inches) high at the same level, as far apart as practicable, and visible from both the front and rear

§ Rear reflectors: must be two red lights at the rear of the equipment, at the same level, and as far to the left as practicable."

By all means check the website about these laws. The above is taken straight from the press release and I don't know how much more there may be on this.

Here is another quote,

"In 2007, there were 59 accidents involving SMVs that resulted in 17 personal injuries in New York State. Farm equipment usually moves 25 miles per hour (mph) or less in areas where the speed limit may be posted at 55 mph, leaving little time for approaching traffic to react. According to the National Safety Council, roadway collisions that involve farm vehicles on U.S. roads total more than 15,000 per year. More than two-thirds of those collisions involve the farm vehicle being hit from behind and over 90 percent occur in the daylight and on dry roads. Usually, when a fatality occurs, the victim is the tractor operator.

Slow Moving Vehicle emblems must always be kept clean and must be replaced when faded. It is illegal to use SMV emblems as driveway or mailbox markers, which can confuse the meaning of the SMV emblem and lead to its loss of effectiveness as a warning device.

For questions about the New York State Vehicle and Traffic law or the changes to the law that went into effect this year, contact your local New York State Police Troop Traffic Section.":

Love is in the Air

Ah, spring! Step onto the porch take a deep breath (heck take a tiny little gasp) and you are met with a solid wall of it. It is kind of like getting hit in the head with an olfactory brick. Or maybe stepping on a rake handle and feeling all the ouch in your nose. Kinda sorta stomach-clenching, brain-numbing, beyond imagining fragrant spring air.
It creeps into the kitchen causing Liz and me to look up in puzzlement. What the heck is that?

Then the penny drops. We now watch the dogs very extra carefully and subject every kitty that crosses our path to a heightened level of scrutiny before proceeding, progressing or bending to pet.

Despite the fact that the only green things are spruce trees and house plants. Despite the ice gripping the ground and making every step a pending peril. Despite temperatures dropping into the very low teens every night. Despite the fact that the calendar and every other sense says that it is still winter, our noses tell us otherwise.
He's back......

Mephitis mephitis, skunk on the loose. To him this is the season of love. To us, well, we just wish he would move along.



****Update, other topic.... Jan at Poodle and Dog had these links to just how Humane the Humane Society of the US really is....you need to read them. Thanks for keeping us up to date on this stuff, Jan!

Hopeful

Faint Promises

Two days ago I stood on the back porch waiting for the dogs. The old dogs can go out pretty much unsupervised now, although Mike will get in the compost bin and eat apple peelings if you don't keep half an eye on him.
However, Nick will go after the old sheep if you don't watch him, so I do.
(This morning a cottontail rabbit got up right under his feet when he went out the door. Of course he gave chase. I called his name and said, "That'll do," and he stopped instantly, practically tipping over in his tracks, and turned right around and went back to tending to business. That is good boy type stuff, to come right off the chase without a backward glance. I was proud of him.)

Anyhow on that coupla days ago noon time I closed my eyes as I stood there rejoicing in the sun. (It is sometimes hard to see with the snow howling by and all, but it really is getting just a little bit higher over the horizon now.) I let it beat on my face turning the light behind my eyelids bright red, almost as if it were a summer day, and it felt GOOD. Did you ever do that when you were a little kid? Point your face at the sun with your eyes closed and look at all the reds and purples that you see and feel that blissful warmth? There was just enough of a breeze (as opposed to a frozen gale) blowing to tug at my hair that day that made feel me like walking right out and starting on the garden.




It was the most peaceful, yet invigorating moment that has come my way in many moons. A faint promise that finer seasons are on the agenda and may, in fact, show up soon.




However, yesterday a snippy little storm blew in, setting all the slush like concrete again, and spitting a couple more inches of snow all over everything, so a walk to the barn is fraught with real peril. And the wind is snarling around the house likie a werewolf, nothing balmy or promising about it today. It is February still and it still feels like it, and looks like it, but I sure am grateful for that little taste o' spring the sun allotted me the other day.


And on the bad days, breakfasts like this take some of the sting away. (Thanks Liz).
Homemade waffles with maple syrup from the north facing woods down past the barn. What's not to like?

Sunday Stills, Architecture

This is the Montgomery County Old Courthouse, built in 1836. It was a nasty day when I got over to town...it had just stopped snowing, but you can still see that it is quite a place.



For more Sunday Stills.....

That's Just Dovey

Quite early this morning, before the sun was even over the horizon. Guess the birds were hungry after the very cold night.