Another Shorthorn

This is BattleMint, another Holstein/Milking Shorthorn cross. As you can see they don't all turn out red. She is not a bad heifer, but I am probably going to sell her as her mother was an abysmal cow and somebody has to go. I have a Myrik daughter that we can't seem to get bred that is also for sale.

Fair Time

Lemmie shows as a five-year-old this year. Here she is getting clipped

Altamont Fair begins officially on Tuesday next. Liz is getting her animals washed and clipped. This is Frieland Ex Spec Lemonade, a daughter of Ocean-View Extra-Special out of an old Straight-Pine Elevation Pete daughter we had. She has never exactly been a spectacular cow, but she never changes...looks the same at five as she did at two. I am really hoping she holds together to show as an aged cow and looks this youthful.

Carolina Wren on the Porch

For Cathy, who asked. I never imagined I could actually get this video, but as I was getting ready to head to the barn this morning, not one, but two Carolina wrens came to sing on the porch amphitheater. One was under the old DR Trimmer singing its heart out. This one started at the top of the steps then flew right to the door where I was standing, clung to the outside of the crosspieces on the screen and sang about a foot from my camera (missed that on the video). You can see him flying up to the door at the end of the video.
Used my beloved Canon Is3s btw, which does a fine job at anything I ask of it.

I was about to shoot more when the cat hit the screen at about a hundred mph. Guess he isn't a music lover.

****Update, I put a second video, in which you can just barely see the bird on the screen before the cat hits it over on my other blog, The View at Northview.

Thursday on the Farm

Not all the dandelions around here are out in the lawn.....

Sorry I haven't been doing much more than putting up links and photos lately. This is a busy time of year on a farm and we have been going at it every day. The guys are finished with first cutting and getting at the Sudex and second cutting. Trying to bale the latter, but with the every few days rain most of it is ending up in the bag. They are mixing the Sudex with semi-dry hay to get it to go in the bag as it is pretty hard to dry down and tends to mush up and not pack otherwise.

Haven't even had a chance to plug the new camera into the computer to charge its little battery. Beets and beans are throwing themselves at me apace and I have to get them in the freezer. I am itching to get out and take some video of Shamrock playing with her tongue. She is a goofy little Jersey of Liz's and she spends hours flipping it up and down and waving it around and turning it upside down like someone waving a flag. It is the funniest thing to see.

Liz's new job is making it hard for her to get ready for the fair next week. It looks as if she is going to be leaving my milking shorthorn, Rose Magnolia, home because she never got to the library to print off registration blanks for her. I am kinda disappointed because I think she is real nice and I want to see how she looks with her coat clipped and washed and all shined up. She is a strapping big girl now with an amazing frame and a very deep body. I think the Poker bull is going to be a good one.

Well, the Carolina wren has finished his daily early morning serenade and the Indigo bunting is warbling down below the driveway. Guess that means its time for chores. Take care....

Seed Signs and Cow Hunters

Yet another totally irrelevant photograph...how I love them

Here are a pair of stories I used in researching this week's Farm Side

Chicagoans see seed signs as evidence of corporate ownership

Insects could be the key to meeting needs of hungry folks

And here is the rest of the story on the cow found dead with an arrow in its side. (The Angus in question must have been armed, as the alleged perps are claiming self defense.)

Farm equipment thieves caught in the act.

NAIS wearing new clothes, but still the same old nightmare.

Best Butter Commercial EVER

HT Elaine Shein on FB

The Camera Came Today

From the contest.

I am so excited. Can't wait to get it charged up and take some video.

****A big thank you to NutriDense

MORE of this darned weather again tonight. The guys just got the last load of hay unloaded as it hit.

Sometimes You are Glad You Took the Time

Got up really early yesterday to get the most bang for my morning off buck. The sun was just edging a little light across some chilly clouds and puffing up the fog and the Thruway was almost quiet.

Out in the yard a something was singing. Cardinal-like, very flutey and lovely. I figured either a creative cardinal or the mockingbird, but I listened whenever he sang....his call was so sweet and pretty.

Then he came to do the thing so many birds do...sing on the front porch, beak at the door, taking advantage of the two story foyer for a concert hall.

Sweet indeed.

I climbed out of my creaky old desk chair and crept to the door.

Right on the step was the Carolina wren that was hopping around my feet on the other porch last week. Supposedly he is singing tea kettle, tea kettle, tea kettle.... if he is that is the prettiest tea kettle song I have ever heard. I would link to some of the places that have bird call recordings but I haven't heard a one that does him justice. Most of them are much flatter and less fulsome than the real thing, up close and personal.

I am so glad I left my games to go see!

Sunday Stills...Clouds

For more Sunday Stills.....

Oil Change or Perhaps Not

What do you think of a dealership that takes in a tractor to replace a rear wheel bearing and fails to replace the used transmission oil, filter or strainer?

Or even to call to see if we wanted it done?

Said oil was full of metal filings from the scored housing from the failed bearing so bad that the filter clogged...

TWO, count 'em TWO service calls yesterday to deal with that situation and I am not a happy camper. This kind of thing is why jackknife mechanics flourish around here.

August 6 2005

The day the first post appeared here. It's been a great five years. Thanks for riding along and sharing via the comments!

Incredible Photos from the 30s and 40s

Do take a few minutes to look at these in the Denver Post. They are phenomenal and include homesteaders inside their prairie homes, juke joints, dam building and so much more. Amazing!

HT Luv Hahn on FB

Armed Robbers Hitting California Dairy Farms

This is a chilling story of armed robbers attacking Fresno County farmers as they go about their work. The attacks have been brutal with injuries for the victims


It seems horrifying that even out in the country people can no longer feel safe in their own homes, barns and fields.

Grinning in the Garden

Do click for comparative largeness

My garden is small and crowded, but I have a lot of fun with it. These giant sunflowers are volunteers that I let go among the beans and sweet corn. As you can see my model was more than a trifle reluctant to participate in this particular comparison (Coulda been the nettles).


BTW the model is six feet tall under normal circumstances and six one with those big boots.

Tornado

Alan was up chopping Tuesday when a hellacious storm hit. Trees were bending right over, rain was slashing and drumming and he could barely see to drive the tractor. When he came down he told us about a thing dangling down from the clouds that was circulating and undulating up and down. Over the past few years we have seen that two or three times so we didn't think too much of it until today....when we heard that an E-F1 tornado touched down just a little bit from here.
Wow! He must have been watching it forming. It went right over him.

Defining a Family Farm

Read about it here

Local Meat Harvesting Facility on NPR

HT to Chuck Jolley on Facebook for this story about the meat lab at SUNY Cobleskill. Alan took some classes there, which made our venison processing efforts much smoother. He learned a lot about cutting meat from Director Eric Shelley and worked in the room pictured in the article.

Could We Have

Male bobolink in fall plumage

Indigo bunting singing in the sweet corn

An almost wordless Tuesday? Much to do and never enough time, so I will leave you with a couple of bird pics I took the other day when I was working on Sunday Stills.

This Explains a Lot

From John Bunting's Blog. I frequently feel sad and guilty because our place doesn't look as nice as it should. These numbers can tell you where the fix it up money goes.

"In June, 2010 New York dairy farmers were paid a total of $177,505,300. According to USDA "Costs and Returns" the total costs were $261,960,900. There will be those who argue the "costs" numbers are not accurate because milk can be made cheaper - think slavery."

Monday

Remember Scottie?

We don't usually work Sundays except for chores but yesterday the boss worked his fanny off, all by himself, finishing up a hay field because it was going to rain.

And then it didn't .

But he got some things cleaned up so they can start fresh today. The Sudan grass/sorghum is so wet they are mixing it half and half with dried out first cutting so they can get it in the bag. They are feeding a similar mix green chopped to the cows and they seem to like it pretty well. The kids worked for my bro then went to the fair to the tractor pull. Mark finished up seventh I guess.

Today the sun is coming up in a blaze of red and it is humid enough to wring a glass of water out of a handful of air. Off to the barn then the usual round of garden, kitchen and bookkeeping. Have a good one.

I was walking over to take my Sunday graffiti pics and heard a loud rustling in the creek bed between the farms. ANOTHER woodchuck carting plastic. I have no idea where he found it...but must be a new style in marmot housing.