Farm Sign Gate

I was one of a bountiful number of ag journalists who wrote about this fascinating, but incorrect story. I'm calling it farm sign gate.

Retraction anyone?

Stranded Payments in PA

Where is the milk money going?

Shorties at the Fair

Rose Magnolia, our girl, shown in the intermediate calf class

The other shortie at the fair,
sired by Promise, our old bull,
a junior yearling, I think.

Lemmie Loves Me

Lemmie before she heard my voice

Just in case you wondered whether cows know their folks or not....Liz's boyfriend took me over to the fair for a bit. When I got there Lem was just lying there resting. The second I spoke and she heard my voice she spun her head right around to see me. Then any time I spoke her name she quickly looked to see what I was doing.

As soon as she heard my voice...
there were people all around talking but she picked me right out

Chewing cud like it was her job.

Milk vein

Liz, Becky and the men generally feed her. All I do is milk her twice a day, put fly spray on ditto...and talk to her, because, despite her breaking my nose with her tail last year, she is one of my favorites. Nice to know she likes me too.

More Cows for the Fair

I hustled all weekend getting these ladies finished for Liz's fair decorations...then she forgot them. Oh, well, I am sure she will remember tomorrow and the paint will probably be a bit drier then.Now if I can just get the printer working for the stall signs.

Rose Magnolia at the Fair

Some fast phone pics sent home by Liz during and after clipping. Her head is shaped a lot like that of her paternal grandmother Gold Mine Poppys OT Kay (Her sire is the Select Sire Power bull, Poker).

***Yet another update. There is another milking shorthorn heifer over at the fair, a nice yearling. Guess who her sire is?

Yep, the two shorties that will compete are very closely related. Rose's granddad is the other heifer's papa. Even though the older animal will almost inevitably beat little Rose I am simply tickled red (shorthorn red). I picked Promise out myself from a photo I saw online. I fought kinda fiercely to get him drawn rather than just beefed (as a certain husband was going to do). I have no objections whatsoever by being beaten by one of his offspring.

Pins and Needles

Fair time is nervous time for me.

I worry.

The drive is terrible. 32 miles of twisting, winding road, bad enough in the day time, horrible at night when shared with hard core elbow benders and worse. We have been followed, harassed and witnessed massive drug busts while on that merry jaunt to the show and back.

Then there are the cattle. I worry about them. They are so vulnerable to who knows what while they are there. There is a good watchman, but there are so many um.....people....not cow people...all kinds of people. And loose cows, always a few loose cows.

And dear Lemmie has to be hand milked today as the milking parlor won't be open until tonight. She has been hand milked before, but I worry. She is one of my very favorites to milk, tall enough so I barely have to bend down to put the machine on, always clean with a properly placed udder, just a very nice girl...and she is the best cow Becky has ever had. Here at home one of Liz's best heifers, a Silky Cousteau, out of Mandy herself, turned up with a bum hock yesterday. Real bad. She is a big strapping thing, but somebody or something did her harm. Probably one of the other big heifers in that pasture. They tend to play rough. I am so worried about her too. That whole family of cows is very soft, not toughies like some who will just rub a little dirt in it and walk it off. I hope she is better today.

And then there is Gael. Gael is Liz's border collie, Mike's half sister. Her dad was a great enough dog to go to the National finals with his owner. I have written about him here before, one of the most staggeringly talented dogs I have ever seen. Gael was softer when she worked, but she had a git er done attitude that made her more dog than she actually was. She is fifteen. Old dog vestibular disease and with it intermittent blindness. Incontinence. She was drinking from the garden pond when I looked at her yesterday. The next time I looked out to check on her she was gone. I looked and looked. She had fallen behind some plants and couldn't get up. I went and helped her. Then she fell in another flower bed and couldn't get up. She ate a couple bites of meatloaf and nothing more. She has lost so much weight in the last few weeks.... I will get her some canned dog food and see if that helps, but in my heart I know it is getting to be Time.

How I hate to make that decision. I know will feel guilty as I did when Mike left us last fall. Who am I to say? When is it right? Too soon? Too late? Good dogs. Good friends. Good helpers. They are all getting old at the same time.

It all adds up to not much sleep. Worry and a buck and a half will get you a cup of coffee (unless you are the Star$$$$ sort) but I do it anyhow. I will be glad when the week is done and all the decisions are made and the cows and kid back home again.

****Update...first thing I saw out the kitchen window when the sun got down to business this morning was Monday, the Cousteau daughter, lying in some bushes looking awful and very sorry for herself. I was so discouraged I could barely stand it. She is good one. I want her to thrive and prosper. We brought the cows in and were discussing what we would do....try to get her down into a pen, take food and water to her right where she was (problem, the other animals would fight her to take it away from her) or put her in the empty pasture behind the barn. Then Alan said, as he looked out the cow barn window, "Isn't that her right there? Isn't she the only one with a collar on?"

Nonsense....she was so bad off, how could she walk? Well it turns out she could walk pretty darned good and was right there in the barnyard with the rest of the heifers...going back to that whole family being a bunch of wienies.....Yup they are. Guess she sprained her hock, but she is infinitely better this morning. She refused our offer to rest in the barnyard and hustled right out with the others....see this grey hair here...this one right here? It's hers!

Sunday Stills....Smoke and Fire

I pride myself on one-match fires. This wasn't one.



For more Sunday Stills....

Rooster

Teri gave us this fellow a while back. We let him out of the coop to run around the other day and he is such a sweetie! He is still called New Roo for want of a better name.

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!