Old Dog, Young Cat

Gael and Chainsaw, a small and quite appropriately named pestilence.

Wordless Wednesday

Because I spent the morning being wordy writing the Farm Side.

Dang it

This is just lousy. We have been overrun with illegal hunters since turkey season started. (We are completely posted against trespass so they are breaking the law the minute they cross our fences.) We know they are out there because we hear the damn fools bang, bang, banging away at their prey, until if there is any turkey meat left, it is pre-ground and ready to spread on bread.

We can't catch them though because they wear full camo and hide in the bushes if we go out there.

One morning last week at 5:30 AM, with still at least an hour to go before crack o' dawn, someone shot about fifteen times in quick succession in our maple woods, then there were a bunch of scattered shots. You know and I know that they blasted a flock down out of the trees and then picked off the stragglers. Not too sporting and also illegal....besides the whole trespassing issue.

We still have fourteen heifers at pasture. It is a big pasture, they have lots to eat, the woods to sleep in, plenty of water and are content.

Except when nut cases start shooting in that pasture. We have noticed the heifers running real bad a couple of times the past week and heard more gun shots than we could count. It has been tempting to bring the stock in, but if we do we will run short of winter feed. Besides, barring hunters harassing them, they are much better off outside as long as the decent weather holds. Even the milk cows are outside days with a feeder wagon and inside just at night.

Now comes the lousy part. Liz went up just now to walk through the herd and check on them, something she does most days. Normally she has to take a stick to keep them from climbing all over her. They are absurdly tame and will knock you down looking to get petted and fooled with. Today she could barely get near them. Even the Jerseys, Moments and Hillbilly, ran away and Sugar, her purchased heifer, who is too tame to even be safe, wouldn't let her anywhere near.

Then she saw that Moments, who was pregnant and due to calve in January, had just aborted her calf. Of course I can't prove that the running away from the fusillades from the turkeys chasing turkeys was the cause, but I know what I think.

And I think I wish they would go hunt on state land, of which there are thousands of acres within a few miles from here, and leave our cattle the heck alone.

Windmills

Saw these and dozens more near the restaurant where last Saturday's NFO cooperative meeting was held. (Quack's btw, one of the best meals I have ever eaten that wasn't cooked by a relative.)

If I could, I would have a half a dozen or so on the back forty. I find them lovely. I find the idea of renewable energy for the public and renewable income for the farmer truly encouraging. Desirable even.

We could use a little renewable income just now. The tax man loometh and all.
(And if I could find some renewable personal energy and get my fanny out to the barn right now; that would be a good thing too.)

Macro Monday

Denizens of the China Closet

Better Late Than Never

For more Macro Monday...

Steve Earle

And the Del McCoury band playing The Mountain

Thx to a good Facebook and MySpace friend for this one...you know who you are.
I will get Macro Monday done asap/

Sunday Stills, the Letter C

Clouds Color

Cow Calf

Crew Campus

Cold

Cool

For more Sunday Stills

Another Day Another Meeting

(The Potsdam Potties, an infamous yet entertaining display of yard art not far from the college. If I could I would consign animal rights groups to a venue like this.)

Thursday Liz and I spent all day and all evening at meetings....except for when we were milking on both ends of the day. (Yesterday we spent recovering from same.)

The first meeting was an animal welfare conference, which featured David Martosko, Kay Johnson-Smith, Cari Rincker, and Richard MCNally, as well as a number of other outstanding speakers. Evening was county Farm Bureau annual meeting, where we were both elected for new terms on the board of directors.

One of the biggest things I took away from the animal welfare conference was the futility of compromising with animal rights zealots. Moving the goal posts until there are no tame, captive, farm, or pet animals is their avowed agenda. Changing the way you do your job will not stop them. They don't want you better, they want you gone. Too many people simply don't get that, and I was delighted to hear speakers point it out.

I have long thought that well-meaning initiatives put forth by farm and livestock groups to appear more compliant with these groups are misguided, if not downright wrong. If you aren't doing anything wrong, why pretend that you are? Why give them traction to do you further damage? Why not educate the public as zealously as they do?

One thing that separates us from them is dollars. They have them. Most folks don't. And most of us work hard, have lives and are busy living them. We don't have time to lobby senators and congressmen and put our folks in Washington as czars of this that and the other thing.
If you have a few minutes watch this video and hear some of the sort of things we heard.

Today, it's "another day another meeting", this time a milk marketing cooperative meeting, which I must attend with our milk inspector. I am such a stay at home, happiest here in jeans and a ratty old sweater, puttering around feeding critters and taking pictures. However, there is an ancient truism that the world is run by those who show up. I feel that it is my job to show up whenever I can....so I'll see you tomorrow for Sunday Stills.

A Puzzle

Liz and I are off to a conference today to hear David Martosko speak. Hopefully we will see you tomorrow.

Meanwhile, a funny thing happened on the way to milking the other day. Actually we were in the living room, standing up, getting ready to go out, when something large and brown flashed past the windows.


All I saw was that it was big and really trucking, but Alan could tell it was a high-speed rocket-deer. It vanished into the hedgerow. Just as we turned away to go back to putting our socks on, it flew by again, racing in a sweeping circle around the brushy field. It stopped under an old pear tree and lowered its head to eat.
And for a few seconds it ate.


Then back into the grassy part of the field it ran, pronking, ducking and prancing, and digging its face into the grass. Back to the pears. Back to scrubbing its face. Another tour around the field at racing speed, then a repeat of all actions, with some facial pawing by a front hoof added in for local color.


I was completely bumfuzzled by the weird ungulate activities, but Alan and Liz both made sense of the doe's bizarre antics immediately.


Take one deer.
Add some chilly windfall pears.
Factor in some semi-dormant, but still cranky yellow jackets napping and nibbling inside the pears.

Priceless.

Sometimes People are More than Nice

Thank you Sara, you made my day!

The Mountains Revisited

They look kinda different this week. Now, about that Global Warming thing all you folks inside the Beltway want to tax us all into poverty over..........it's not even the middle of October yet y'know.

Too Early by Half

Must go out to milk now and take Beck back to college.
Do not want to.
Argghhhh........

Macro Monday

Do Click

For more Macro Monday....

100,000

By tomorrow morning, Northview should turn a hundred thousand hits on sitemeter. I wonder who it will be. Thank you to each and every one of you who made it possible....thanks also to all the folks who came by looking for information on how to grow lettuce and carrots indoors, shorthorn calves, names for calves and pictures of hot young PBR star, Reese Cates.


Here it is:

Domain Name		(Unknown)
IP Address		165.166.173.# (Info Avenue Internet Services)
ISP		Info Avenue Internet Services
Location		Continent : North America Country : United States (Facts) State : South Carolina City : Fort Mill Lat/Long : 35.0069, -80.9423 (Map) Distance : 652 miles
Language		English (U.S.) en-us
Operating System		Microsoft WinNT
Browser		Internet Explorer 7.0 Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 6.0; Trident/4.0; SLCC1; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; Media Center PC 5.0; .NET CLR 3.5.30729; .NET CLR 3.0.30618; yie8)
Javascript		version 1.3
Monitor		Resolution : 1280 x 800 Color Depth : 32 bits
Time of Visit		Oct 11 2009 9:12:59 pm
Last Page View		Oct 11 2009 9:13:30 pm
Visit Length		31 seconds
Page Views		1
Referring URL		http://familycow.pro...ex.cgi?action=recent
Visit Entry Page		http://northviewdiary.blogspot.com/
Visit Exit Page		http://northviewdiary.blogspot.com/
Out Click		this video http://vimeo.com/6939006
Time Zone		UTC-5:00
Visitor's Time		Oct 11 2009 9:12:59 pm
Visit Number		100,000

Sunday Stills...Photoshop

For more Sunday Stills

More Craigs List Funnies

Here

***You would think he would be looking to avoid it.

A Simple Truth

Yesterday in the Mountains

One of those very special brothers of mine offered to help us out with the challenge of getting Becky home from Potsdam for break. He was kind enough to take time from his work and home life and choir practice and all to drive for over nine hours up mountains and down, across night and day, so a college kid could come home and see her family for the first time since the 28th of August.



As always the Adirondacks offered up their best and shiningest as a reward for the long distance drive.



The trees lay across the mountains like the tawny pelt of some large wild thing, rocky, granite bones jutting up through golden browness. They seemed to shrug off a few leaves here and there as we passed like a lion shrugging off flies as it lay licking its paws on the Savannah.




All the colors of a lion swirled across them, turned luminescent by bright, thin sun. There were trees the color of pumpkins, lanterns,and oranges, with crimson cardinal flags from the swamp maples, and russet, gold and cinnamon from the many scattered oaks. Hickories splayed leafy brown and green fingers over swift, and silent waters, lakes and rivers turned blue jay blue where the sun hit, and liquid ink in the deepened shade.

Sacandaga River, Raquette River, sleek lakes by the dozen, I don't think I have ever seen them lovelier. The Sacandaga was showing its teeth after all the rain, with whitened fangs piercing the smooth indigo of its flow wherever a rock was hidden. Beck was in class when we arrived, and not answering her phone. We were looking for a coffee stop when I glanced across the road, across the campus, across a dozen others, and spotted her as instantly as one heart recognizes another. It was a grand moment I will tell you.





As we returned home and dusk fell, along about Lake Durant the catch-light waters let go their hold on the sinking sun and closed their shining mirrors for the day.

I love the Adirondacks. A trip across them is as much a treat as any theme park or holiday party. More in fact. Much more.

Thanks brother for the joy and the music and the good talk of old memories while we made new ones too.
And thanks for the special reward at the end of the day...the whole family together again, at least for a little while.....we love you muchly.

***I must also thank those who stayed at home and kept the work moving along, so thanks guys and especially, thanks Liz....hope old Mando gets it in gear and has that calf real soon.

*****I must also question. What is with the corner yard with bathroom fittings (you know, the most important ones) set at regular intervals with sunflower planted behind each of them? In downtown Potsdam that is? The traffic was just too heavy to get a picture, but we sure were puzzled.

From Grass to Cheese

A commenter left a link to this video yesterday. It is short but touching and does a good job on explaining what motivates folks to keep farming when times are hard. .

Wanna Get Your Patriotism all Fired Up?

Listen to the Cactus Cuties sing the Star Spangled Banner.
Thanks to Teri Conroy for posting this on Facebook.