Sunday Stills....Shoes and Boots

Becky's old flip flops....most of the shoes around here
are either nondescript sneakers or too nasty to share.

Aluminum racing plate (technically it is a shoe) from the filly Lighthearted.
She was the star of the stable at Saratoga where I worked as a hot walker for Henry S. Clark when I was in my early twenties. When we went to the racing hall of fame we found her name listed in one of the rooms there. She won the Go For Wand and the Molly Pitcher Stakes in 1973.

And this is Charlie Daniel's cowboy boot

And this is its owner. Becky took me to the concert last night.
Wow!

For more Sunday Stills.......

Charlie Daniels

Last Night

Pretty Corny

Last night just at chore time
I heard a great clatter
and sprang to the porch to see what was the matter.

It was three Amish boys with a quick little trotter....oh, heck, enough of that nonsense..I'm too lazy to rhyme today.

Yeah, three Amish lads with a wagon drawn by a snappy little brown horse showed up peddling sweet corn last night. We have been been bamboozled persuaded into purchasing field corn for our dining pleasure by some other members of the group, so I asked to examine an ear before purchasing.

It was clearly sweet corn, so at a mere two dollars a dozen I bought a bag.

The cheerful youth in charge of sales then asked if the "old man" that his dad had met previously when looking at the hay loader was around. He wanted to sell him some corn too. I explained that said old man was my husband and would be eating the corn I had just bought.

The boy ducked his head a little as if thinking and then said, "If you'd like I'll give you another half dozen for free."

I agreed that this sounded like a real good deal. If I had had more money on me I would actually have bought a couple more dozen for the freezer but I don't trot around the farm with much. He chose another small bag of fat green ears and said sheepishly, "If we go back home with this corn we have to can it all tonight and we don't want to do that."

Kids...guess they are the same all over. I laughed and thanked them and they spun that little brown around like an English kid doing donuts with his truck and were off down the driveway with a rumble of heavy wheels.

Friday on the Farm

Crossing fingers here for another dry, sunny day. The boss has been baling up hay apace all week and has put in some really nice second cutting. He has another field just about dry and if rain holds off today he will probably get it. He needs to get us some late first cutting that they left up in the corner of the 60-acre lot too, so the pony will have groceries this winter. (Fat ponies and second cutting don't mix.)

Pale touch me not

He thought the whole fence thing was very funny by the way. And the kids and I have him playing our favorite little free farm game these days. That is popping touch me not seed pods. We love the way they explode like little bombs if you touch them when they are ripe. There are dozens of them by the gate...by the stove....etc. Every now and then you see him looking guilty and popping them when he goes down to close the gate.

Brassy sunrise, already hot

Nippers

As you might deduce from the previous post, yesterday was one of those days. After our adventures in rodeo, dairy style, we went in to breakfast.

Liz went to work, Alan was already at college, so it was just the boss, Becky and me. As the boss passed by he asked Beck, "How handy are you with the nippers?'

Since the cows got out through a partially shorted out electric fence and since brush nippers are the usual remedy for that ailment, I thought he wanted someone to cut the brush out of the fence. Becky told him no she wasn't handy with nippers, but the request lingered in the back of my mind.

Man, it was so hot. I put it off and put it off, doing all manner of normally unwelcome indoor chores, but I knew that brush needed nipping.

Finally I tucked my trusty iPod into my snap-down shirt pocket, sprayed some WD-40 on my nipper head and went out to nip. I tend to spend my non-milking hours in flip flops. Nettles soon convinced me that, as miserable as it is to wear rubber work boots in ninety+ degree sunshine, I had no choice but to change footwear. It probably didn't take me much over an hour and a half to get the fence all cleared out but I was so disappointed that I didn't get any compliments from the boss on my self-imposed industry.

Then about half way through evening milking I realized. He didn't expect either me or Beck to trim up the fence. He was hinting, in his obviously far too subtle manner, that he wanted me to give him a hair cut.......which I had already done, long before the brush nipping nirvana portion of my day...as a means of further delaying the latter job.

I love it when I completely outsmart myself.

Running After Cows

Not my thing.....but done as needed. Yesterday a small but determined cadre of cows (towards whom I am harboring unkind thoughts) pushed down the electric fence and just ran. Normally if they get out they just eat the grass-is-greener-on-the-other-side and you can round them up. Not this bunch.

They gathered just outside the fence girding their loins for flight. I tried to ease through them and point them back toward the pasture. Instead they took off running.

Not in fear. They just knew they were out and wanted to play.

I raced around the house to try to head them off (circle driveway you see).

I almost made it too.

But not quite. They were on a hot jog headed for a busy state highway, another busy highway, and a major interstate, depending on how fast they ran or which way they turned. I took off across the long lawn, (so called because it is long), hoping once again to get ahead of them. At the end of that yard is a head-high wilderness tangle of brush and brambles and who knows what. The only way down to the driveway to head off the cows is through it. To even go a foot I had to put my stick on top of it, stomp it down and proceed.

I tried but I am about as athletic as an elderly broody hen. And it was very thick. I fell down a little bank and got stuck under a mass of raspberries vines. I had to slide back up the hill on my fanny to even get out. I couldn't see or hear a cow.

I was praying hard and I'll make no bones about it. In our state the farmer is liable if cows get in the road. We have insurance but.it is never enough.

Finally, sobbing with frustration and fear and raspberry cuts I tumbled out onto the driveway. Incredibly, just below me stood the cows, milling in a confused pod of black and white. I knew I could never get between them and the road so I called and coaxed and walked away trying to get them to follow.

To my utter amazement they did and I soon saw why. Liz, who uses her head for something besides to keep her ears apart had jumped in her truck (far behind the ravening mob), got her dad to open the gate at the barn, went down that driveway,and up the highway to the bottom of the house driveway where the little b&&*((rds were. (We have two driveways, quite some distance apart with lots of gates.)

I don't know how she did it. I was way ahead of her and she had to go in the other direction, open a huge pair of gates, drive at least a quarter mile, when they only had a few yards to go to the road. She said later that corners on two wheels and the speedometer reading eighty had something to do with winning the race.

Doesn't matter. She saved our bacon...or should I say, beef? And believe it or not those darned sons of guns went up in the pasture where they belong, gathered up all the rest of the cows and came tearing down the hill for another go round. Fortunately Liz and I were both standing there waving sticks.

Soon they were closed up where they belong. I have no idea what possessed them to run. I also have no idea what possessed the boss to leave us to chase them while he went back to the barn to finish chores. It was an emergency and a big one but beyond opening the gate he just ignored it. Did he not get what was going on? I don't know and I am not going to ask, but we sure could have used some help.

However, being tough farm women (and one of us is even smart) we got it done.

Ag at the Fair

A friend and colleague is in charge of this building at the fair and, along with a group of incredible volunteers, she does an amazing job of ag promotion every single year.

No Michigan State Fair This Year

From the same governor who likes to play meatout day comes the decision that it is too expensive for the state to subsidize the fair. (Despite the fact that it makes a profit). Thus ends a 160 year tradition, leaving Michigan one of the few states in the nation without a state fair.

Ag is Michigan's number two industry but I guess Granholm isn't a big fan.

Update on the Strange Accident in Fonda

Here

Incredible Traffic Accident in Fonda

Do click, this is like nothing I have ever seen before and no one was seriously hurt so......

State Fair Milking Contest

Aubertine's team wins again.

“I certainly enjoyed it along with everyone else in this team effort, but most importantly it brings the focus to the dairy industry in this state,” Sen. Aubertine said. “All who were here today participating in the milking contest or who joined us in the stands to watch had a great time. Today at the State Fair it was Dairy Day and with all the events, it brings attention to what is the largest sector of our state’s number one industry in agriculture.”

Can it be Ninety and Still Feel Like Fall?

Yes, it can.

Take in Day, Fonda Fair

Looks like Rose Magnolia will have to be scratched. Alan starts college today and both girls have full work weeks. Nobody to stay with her, as we have to keep the ball rolling....or the hay harvesting...here at home. What can you do? I managed to get my photos printed yesterday. Wishing I had bought new little frames for the 4X6 ones, as mine are scratched and detract pretty badly from the pictures. I have to take them.,..and a Boston rocker (thank you Alan for looking around the living room and finding the biggest thing you could to enter)...over today.

Speaking of the fair, here is a link to an interesting photo posted on a blog that is an adjunct to the newspaper for which I produce the Farm Side each week. Check it out. I am expecting to see and photograph all sorts of interesting things at the fair, but this is so not one of them....just go look....I am not sure whether you will be glad you did, but go anyhow.

Becky is trying to work it out so she and I can make it to the Charlie Daniels concert. Hope that works out. Saw him perform at Saratoga back in the day, but it has been more years than I care to mention...

The Fonda Fair

Sunday Stills...Statues or Figurines

This little carving was a gift from my mom

One of my favorite toys when I was small.
Very plain plastic horses cost a nickle up at the dime store.
Just slightly fancier ones were ten cents.
This guy cost thirty-nine cents and it took me a good while to save it I can tell you.

My dad carved this wood duck in 1983

For more Sunday Stills

A Wonderful Dairy Story

Read about a nice young person's visit to a family dairy farm for a day.

HT to A Dairy Goddess

NY Confirms EEE

From NY Ag and Markets:

NY CONFIRMS FIRST EQUINE CASE OF EASTERN EQUINE ENCEPHALITIS

Two-Year Old Oswego County Gelding Showed Symptoms; Died of Mosquito-Borne Virus

New York State Agriculture Commissioner Patrick Hooker today announced the State’s first confirmed equine case of Eastern Equine Encephalitis, also known as EEE, this year. The affected horse was a two-year old gelding kept in Oswego County. EEE is a rare viral disease of horses and humans that is spread by infected mosquitoes. To date, there have been no reported nor confirmed human cases of EEE in 2010.

“New York’s abundant water sources and humid climate unfortunately make the perfect breeding ground for mosquitoes and the EEE virus,” Commissioner Hooker said. “Therefore, we highly encourage horse owners to protect their animals and consider vaccinating for EEE. The EEE vaccine has proven to drastically reduce the incidence of the virus in horses and can be easily administered by a private veterinarian.”

The infected horse was a two-year old gelding that was purchased at a New York auction earlier this year. The young horse had an unknown vaccination history at the time of purchase and was not vaccinated after purchase. Last week, the gelding was showing typical signs of EEE, including loss of appetite, circling and leaning against the stall, and after examination by a private veterinarian, was euthanized. Brain samples were sent to the New York State Department of Health’s Wadsworth Laboratory and tested positive for EEE. To date, the other horses on the same premises are not showing any signs of EEE and have since been vaccinated.

Farm Side Fridays

The Farm Side, the newspaper column I write for our local weekly, is usually on the pay page.

Thus normally I don't link to it.....

However, this week, there is a link in the daily email so I will share it with you.

If you wish to read the critter that was the forerunner of Northview you can do so here.

Apple Season has Arrived.

On the way over to the fair for the Holstein show the other night we followed an isolated, but intense, thunder storm to Altamont. The gigantic, flashing, grumbling cloud spewed rain and lashed winds as it hurtled eastward, then jingled half a dozen double and triple rainbows behind it. We stopped near an orchard to take a photo of a particularly vibrant one, arching all brilliant and glorious over shaggy farm fields. It was a quick point and shoot, across in front of the boss and out the car window so there was little time for frame and focus.

Not Early Yet

In the dark before early, the moon poured like water over nighttime scenery; the heifer yard became the bottom of the ocean. The sea of burr cucumber mantling Wally's kennel like kudzu (he guards the barn now) into folded coral, bending into itself all convoluted dark and shining.

A shoal of heifer sharks slept on the barn ramp, full of haylage and sweet corn leaves from garden clean up. The ink and water color of sunrise was just a hint on the other horizon, pointing out the east to anyone awake to watch it.

I was.

Getting the house chores done so the day can be dedicated to finishing up the garden. The beans rendered up an incredible fourth picking yesterday. This has surely been the summer of the green bean. Onions and shallots are dug, potatoes awaiting that service (how can the ground be so darned hard after all the rain we've had?) There is a chill in the air that is suggesting that first frost may come early this year.

I am not ready....but I need to get that way. Brought the first house plants in already....

Getting Up in the Dark

Is not on my favorites list, but it is time to be getting used to it now. In just one week we have gone from two morning singers, the indigo buntings and the carolina wrens to nobody but the roosters making a peep in the morning.

I miss them.

We solved...or rather Alan did...the not-quite robin singing every morning up at camp question. I hadn't said anything to him about the drive-me-crazy-every-morning birds that made the forest ring all around the camp, but he decided to look up the call of the scarlet tanager. He has been seeing a lot of them around and wanted to see if he had been hearing them too.

And there it was, the almost robin. No wonder I never could spot one no matter how many times I walked around the cabin peering into the trees. They may be bright red, but they are not big on showing it off. I am satisfied now at the solution to that puzzle. Next summer I will know.

Looks like we may get a decent rest of the week and the guys are champing at the bit. Hay! We must finish hay or we won't have enough feed again this winter. We lost a whole field of mowed sudex to this rain. It molded on the ground and they must now chop it on the ground to get rid of it.

I don't know why we keep getting all the rain for the whole state every year....three years in a row now of enough rain to support a rain forest. This little section of the valley gets dumped on time after time. We will get a downpour while our friends in Glen have a good day baling.

Sure hope they can get a lot of second and third cutting this week before Alan goes back to college. Crossing fingers for no breakdowns.

Wordless Wednesday