Welcome to the Northwest

Well, all right, it is really the Northeast.

But we have their rain.

You will have to ask the kids about trying to catch heifer number 241 AKA Egypt, who was in need of certain AI services last night. We have headlocks (self-locking stanchions) right in the pen where Egypt and seven others reside. Had a certain individual (who figured mightily in the drama but for fairness sake we will leave him out of the story), actually ever finished installing them, the heifers would have been used to using them, somebody would have set the control to catch them and this entire story would have been over yesterday morning when Liz noticed that Egypt was in heat. However, that person, who will not be mentioned, didn't finish the job.

He also hadn't exactly knocked himself out cleaning the pen either...there are issues here...we will ignore them.

Efforts to catch Egypt began at the beginning of milking at around 6PM. She was not used to the headlocks so although all the other heifers got caught in them, she didn't. Had we wanted to breed the others the story would have ended early. Alas.

She also quite effectively evaded the lasso we keep for catching heifers . And the efforts of several committees to snag her with a halter. Finally Liz and Alan went into the very not clean pen and just grabbed her. She probably weighs nine hundred pounds. There was skidding, falling and dragging. I am delighted to say I missed it as I had to milk on the other side of the barn. Suffice to say cleanliness went down but not without a fight.

At this point there are items in my washing machine that I am not going to touch until they have been run through at least five cycles. There was a long line for the shower. Liz finally bred Egypt AI in time to get in from the barn at nine fifteen PM. It was ugly and I am sure there is going to be some serious moaning and groaning from the individuals involved in the bovine reproductive drama. They were pretty lame last night and after having time to stiffen up.....Please God, I hope she caught. She is a daughter of England our surprise red carrier and we bred her to the milking shorthorn, Promise. Maybe we will get a red baby....

On the plus side I bought some of that fantastic bacon from the milk inspector (yeah, really, he sells the best bacon I ever ate) when he stopped yesterday, and we had a tomato, a great big, fat, red tomato I bought at a farm stand the other day....and a huge, leafy, ripply, light green and red speckled lettuce I grew in a barrel by the back door...and several kinds of nutty, crunchy whole grain bread...so guess what we had for dinner...yeah, big, thick BLTs. Bacon crunchy, tomato-juicy, lettuce-crispy BLTs.....It almost made up for the fun we had with chores.

Farmers Squeezed by Big Milk

Here is an article, on National Public Radio of all the unlikely spots, that details some of what has been going on in the dairy industry over the past couple of decades. A good read!

HT Cousin Scott


Here is another interesting article on anti-trust efforts that may be undertaken.

Ain't Complainin'

About the weather that is. Oh, I could. The first half of the week was blazing hot. Nineties. Sticky humid. Then Tuesday night we got a pop up thunderstorm that did just that.

Pop up I mean. When we went to chores it was gloomy and a little windy. Maybe a rumble of thunder in the distance, but no looming threat. We prepped the first set of cows and got the machines on and since the thunder was getting just a tad more emphatic I walked over to the house to unplug the computers. (Which Becky had already unplugged.)

By the time I walked to the office, via the dining room, which is where they are, and back to the door the wind was howling, laying the bushes and shrubs right down and lashing the trees like crazy. The rain began to pelt down so hard it made a din you wouldn't believe. And the Thunder Rolled.

I collected an umbrella and some hats for me and the girls and waited on the back porch wondering if I should try to get back to milking. Usually whenever someone is stranded at the house by bad weather we all figure they should stay there until it lets up. Still, they had just started milking.
And Alan had gone up to the thirty acre lot to pick up a tractor and a forage wagon. He wasn't back yet when I left.

So I decided to run for it.
I don't do run you know.
Not built for it.
Bad knee.
All the usual excuses. However, I ran that night for all I was worth. It was raining so hard the umbrella was completely useless. Lightning was flashing on all sides. It was quite an incentive to hustle I'll tell you. I kept wiggling the umbrella trying to convince the lightning that it would be too hard to hit a moving target for it to bother.

It was a big relief to make it to the barn and find Alan had arrived safely. I was completely drenched but unfried. We got back to work, watching a torrent building in the roadway and the heifers trying to walk on water in a new puddle. It isn't a lot of fun to milk in a thunderstorm, but we have surely seen worse.
So please understand...I am NOT complaining

It is hot. It is humid. It hasn't exactly been the best summer ever and all....However, we really shouldn't complain about the weather.

Really we shouldn't

Wordless Wednesday

Keets 'n' Beets

(Note the anti-Elvis wire covering.)

Busy day yesterday. Men cleaned the barn, fed cattle and worked on a plugged gas line on the 930 Case and a broken transmission fluid line on the 4490 Case (always something).


Liz went to Duanesburg for some guinea keets we found on Craig's list. Here's hoping we can raise them and have resident guinea fowl at Northview again. At one time I had around 70 of them. They provided much entertainment with their continuous state of avian hysteria, as well as teaching the horses not to spook at feathery bombs going off under their noses a hundred times a day. They also liked to fly up to the top of the 70-foot tall tower and sit there and shriek at everything that passed.

Meanwhile, I did the usual house chores and bookkeeping and processed some beautiful beets my dear brother and sister-in-law dropped off on Sunday. You'll have to ask my mom the story about me and my adventure with my first baby food, which just happened to be beets. Let's just say that I liked them and leave it at that (I'll never tell).

Meanwhile, after a historically cool summer it has gotten hot, in a fast and furious fashion. I took out the digital veterinary thermometer yesterday and stood in the milkhouse by the sink. The compressor was running to cool the milk and it was over 103 degrees there.
I don't know how far over because I couldn't stand the heat long enough for the thermometer to turn off.

If the cows had their way they would just stay in the barn all the time with all the fans running....I wonder what all those animal rights folks who think it is cruel to put bovines in a barn would think of that! When we open the door for milking they crowd inside and rush to their stalls as fast as their feet will take them. Heading out the other way is just as slow as coming in is fast. Wish we could leave them in, but when they are in, stables have to be cleaned and bedded every day and the feed brought in...it just takes too much time in summer when there is crop work going on. They do have lots of shade and a creek and pasture to rest in, but they love those big barn fans. (So do we by the way).

Muddy Monday (complete with Macro)

All last week teaser clouds rumbled around the horizons, but it didn't rain. The guys went after hay like crazy, finished up a bag and got another on the bagger. Last night there was a new set of ominous boomers rolling by and Alan asked on the way out to chores if I wanted the computers unplugged.

Nah, just another empty threat.

Not

Within an hour it was pouring (just so you know, we didn't need it.) and we really got dumped on. Ramped the humidity up even more and it is predicted to get up in the nineties again today. Guess we are going to get summer all at one swoop.

The guys are so close to finishing up the hay and really need to bale a few thousand...it can stop now.

Sunday Stills....Clouds

It was a good week for clouds....I didn't touch the color on these, just a little minor cropping.

For more Sunday Stills......

The Price IS a Crime

But we just buy our fertilizer. Farmers in Peru feel more strongly I guess.....


Farmers Kidnap 13 Cops, 4 Civilians in Peru

Not Much Excitement

And I like it that way. The guys are starting a fourth ag bag today. Wish it were the fifth...or sixth...
Crops are sure short with the terrible weather this summer.

We are so glad we didn't plant a lot of corn as what we have is terrible and we still have to pay the cost of planting, fertilizing and applying weed control to it. Sweet corn doesn't look too bad...if the raccoons stay out of it we will have some to eat and freeze in just a few days.

The boss brought down a skid steer bucket load of chopped barley and new seeding for me to bed the babies with last night. It was kind of mungey and nasty, but I am cleaning them out, liming the beds and bedding them up twice a day for their comfort and for fly control. I was running out of stuff to put under them. Anyhow, he left the bucket down and we had to fight to get it away from the cows. Something about it must have tasted good to them. What we rescued was nice and fluffy for the babies though.

We counted the other day and we have THIRTY-THREE babies in the barn right now. Some of them are yearlings that really need to go to pasture, but mostly they are little calves. Liz has been feeding as many as 25 on a bucket, which is a bucket load of work I'll tell you.

I enjoy the task of keeping the tiny ones comfy though. They are so cute. Often after their beds are clean they will stick their noses down into the fresh bedding and then buck and jump like rodeo bulls just for the joy of playing in it. I have to be careful what order I bed them in because the feet fly right past my head sometimes. It is so satisfying though, when by the time we finish milking they are all lying down with their knees tucked up, chewing cud and watching me work.

All is good.

More Chuck Jolley

This week Mr. Jolley interviews Kevin Murphy about anti-agriculture activism and what response farmers can offer. As are many of Mr. Jolley's articles, this one is worth taking time to read.

I Hate to Say It

But the signs are all in place.

Foggy mornings.

Shrieking cicadas in the honey locust right next to the kitchen window. There are so many and they are so loud they drown out even the Thruway.

Gold finches in droves, tinkling from thistle to thistle. There are hundreds and they do the baby raising gig now when the seeds they like are plentiful....the other birds have gone silent, even the mockingbird....

Shrinking days....summer days are like wool sweaters. They are hot and itchy but you love them anyhow...and the hotter it gets, and the soggier, the more they shrink, until they are just too short to be good for much of anything. We are getting there fast, alas.

Fall is almost here...

Cecropia Moth Caterpillar?

We think so.

Cash for Clunkers

Dairy farming has its own version of this program. It is called Cooperatives Working Together, or CWT.

Just for Dairy Farmers

****And of course for consumers who are interested in what happens behind the scenes in the milk production industry.

John Bunting has had several posts this week on processor profits (up 176% this year at one notorious company) and how the International Dairy Foods Association, which represents the big food companies (which are growing ever richer at the expense of dairymen and women) have sent a letter decrying efforts by government officials to direct a little more cash toward struggling farms. Worth reading. I learn something every day.

Entries

Liz and I went over yesterday noon to make our fair entries, expecting as usual to stand in line for a goodly time. Amazingly there was almost no one there and getting entered was a snap. Same at the photo kiosk at Wally World. We printed up our photos and picked up some appropriate frames in no time. (I went with the silhouettes and frogs, along with some landscapes from Pecks. Liz chose rodeo pics.) Now I just have to choose between a chicken and the frog head close up for my 8x10. I printed both just in case. Took some Italian sausage soup to mom and dad while we were out and ran the other errands as well.

We had kinda, sorta decided not to enter Blitz in the fair. Lotta work and all. However, while standing in line I looked at the stack of parking permits. Hmmmm....cows at the fair means exhibitor parking. No cows at the fair means best of luck getting a place close to the barns. And after all, cows or no cows, the barns is where it is all happening.

I asked Liz, "How much extra just to enter one cow?"

She replied, " I don't know...it can't be much."

She knew all the particulars like sire, dam and DOB, so quick like bunnies, she made out the entry form right there in line. It ended up costing fifty-five extra cents to enter her big cow. We have to scare up a few bales of decent straw and get her trucked over (a whole mile) but looks like Maqua-Kil Blitz Mendocino is headed to the fair this fall.

Fair Entries

Today I guess I will be heading over to Fonda to make my fair entries. Last year I picked a few photos off of Northview, printed them and entered. They came in second, which was quite a happy making sort of event and I got a pass which is always quite handy. Then I gave the framed photos away as Christmas gifts, which worked out pretty well too. Thus I will do the same this year.

The fair is less than a mile from here so no matter how determined I am to stay home, the lure always proves irresistible, every single year. How can you pass up a chance to meet dozens of friends you haven't seen since last year, see hundreds of lovely animals (although if Altamont is any yardstick numbers will be down), eat lots of bad for you but oh, so tasty food, and partake of the atmosphere of a county fair? I know I can never quite resist.

So....now I need to choose some photos....I was thinking maybe these....or these....any suggestions?

Thank You

To CTG Ponies for thinking so kindly of Northview. She gave me this award yesterday

Pass the award along to 7 of your favorite bloggers, based on your personal preference.

I couldn't possible settle on just 7 of you folks to pass it along to....you all are special favorites of mine.

Thanks also to Linda, who told me how to do these award thingies! I never got it right before.

Le Danse Macabre

Would describe the weekend all too well. A little background....the kids have been showing cows at the Altamont and Fonda fairs since they were small. Liz was six the first time she led her calf of the year, Sonora, into the ring at Fonda. Last year the show schedule was scaled back to just Fonda, as gas money is scarce and Altamont is far away...(and there are other issues...if you show there you know all about it). Then, just for fun they entered Liz's Blitz cow back at Altamont for this year....just one cow, just to hang out with the kids who show and thus have some fun at the fair.

As soon as entries were made and the health work done, Blitz, who had just calved, came down with a 103+ degree fever and lost a lot of weight practically overnight. An antibiotic put her right, but not in time for truck in, which would be today. She will be all right and all but looks awful.

Okay, stuff happens. Everybody is tired anyhow and there is still Fonda in a couple of weeks. Maybe she will be fit by then.

Then we came in Saturday night to discover that a kid Liz has known since he was little, drowned in a pond while swimming with his brother. He shows calves for one of her best friends. Suddenly, cow stuff didn't matter so very much. Kids from the bunch that show together spent the weekend commiserating over the internet. I didn't know him, having scaled back my fair attendance as the kids became old enough to run the string alone, but that doesn't matter. Losing a kid is the worst thing there is. My heart goes out to the family and the whole gang at the fair. Not much of a year for the kids for sure.

Then comes the macabre part. As soon as Liz came in from chores yesterday morning her phone began to ring. It was Price Chopper calling the Barter and Donnan funeral home to find out where to deliver a meat platter. Strange, but things happen with cell phones. Then they called again. And again.

More people called for the funeral home. Where to park. When was this viewing or that? We tried calling them to get it fixed, but guess whose phone rang when we did.

By mid afternoon she estimated that she had received over thirty calls. Even the local telephone operator called to ask what the heck was going on. Liz likes to take a nap on Sunday. That was just not happening. Of course she could have turned off the phone, but there were friends trying to call over the tragedy over the weekend and she didn't want to do that.

Finally, I got on the Web and found a weekend phone number for Verizon. I won't discuss their weekend customer service operators, because this is a family blog. Needless to say we were not pleased with the disinterested response we got.

So I composed a kinda, sorta firmly worded email, which she fired off to the company. (Have I mentioned that I do firmly worded quite well and by this time we were pretty aggravated?) Within an hour the problem was fixed and the minutes that had been devoured by the misplaced calls were replaced on her phone.

And to be fair, it wasn't Verizon's fault. Someone at the funeral parlor accidentally routed all their off hours calls to Liz's cell.

However, it was a weekend of sadness punctuated by weirdness. Macabre is a good word for it.



***Update, just read the news...this is just a couple miles from us. Talk about weird.

And this from Jinglebob
I knew NY had issues, but dang! Just dang....

Sunday Stills, the Four Elements

Earth

Wind

Fire

Water

For more Sunday Stills....

Dickiebo Insisted