Hanging on by a.....

This little poplar tree is a favorite of mine, a volunteer that popped up next to the driveway a few years ago. It probably will have to come down soon, as a poplar in that particular place is not ideal but I will enjoy it while it lasts.

Anyhow, its lovely yellow leaves came down in this weekend's storm...all but the one on the very top. Yep that is the only leaf on the tree. Some days I have a lot of fellow feeling for the thing. Wonder if it will still be there this morning when the sun comes up.

Milking Shorthorns High Average

At the Fall for Colors Sale

Tomorrow It Ends

After tomorrow, (in theory), the robocalls and other assorted political annoyances will stop for a while.

I don't know about you, but I sure am ready.

Yesterday an already contentious election season turned plumb ugly. Due to certain circumstances, which I will be nice and not discuss here, I missed my morning off. Thus I wasn't the chirpiest bird in the flock when I came in from chores.

However, I did such computer things as my messed up computer would permit, sat down in my Sunday Chair, and fell asleep, while reading a wonderfully mindless book. I was dreaming peacefully...pleasantly....ahhhh....can we say bliss? (Visions of Bejeweled Blitz danced in my head....and I was winning too.)

BRINNNGGGGGGGG...the telephone rang. My heart changed gears in less than a breath and began to pound like Bill Kreutzman's drums.

It was for the boss who was also nodding happily in his chair, enjoying Sunday football (entirely ignored by me, thanks to my Peltor ear muffs, which are real marriage savers, thank you NYCAHM.)

Becky grabbed the phone and carried it in to him. He answered...and it was an individual stumping for Susan Savage, for whom we weren't all that likely to vote in the first place. He was outraged and let the caller understand that in no uncertain terms. Sunday for Pete's sake! The closest thing to a day of rest that we are going to get and certainly not the right time for political harassment! (It is a shame that you can't slam down a portable phone). Neither of us managed to fall back into dream land. He went out to mow some hay and I waited for my heart to resume its normal sluggish Sunday rhythm and resumed perusal of my novel.

*****We interrupt this blog post to interject the darned near unbelievable. I was proof-reading through the above making sure it read as smoothly as I wanted it to, when the phone rang. Believe it or not it was someone ELSE from the Susan Savage campaign. It was nice to talk to a real, live person so I could tell her just how happy we were to be awakened from our Sunday snooze yesterday. ARGGHHHHH

Ah, I feel better now, except for the sky-rocketing blood pressure....those calls work just like a gallon of coffee or a four pack of AMP and so much cheaper too. Of course we do not nap on Mondays, but dang!

I am so ready to stomp down to town and vote on those lousy new voting machines tomorrow, confident that by Wednesday the ringing of the phone will announce one of our itinerant children or a beloved mother or brother or good friend, not some soulless creep from some political campaign.

Sunday Stills....Halloween

Boo!

For more Sunday Stills....

Lucky

Is a Holstein heifer by Chilton out of my Trixy family. Yesterday morning she had a heifer calf by our milking shorthorn bull, Checkerboard Magnum's Promise. I was thrilled to see red when Liz brought her down the lane and a heifer to boot, happy dance indeed!

I am going to get Liz to tattoo her right away, because she is virtually an exact duplicate of several other daughters of the same bull. I would love to get them all in halters and line them up for a picture. Maybe next spring...even the half Jersey looks amazingly like the others.

If it weren't for size you wouldn't be able to tell Northstar from Rio from this new one, whose name is Laramie.

NY Farm Bureau Circle of Friends

With election time drawing near, I would like to point out the names of local government representatives who have acted with the state's number one industry in mind....agriculture that is.

Here is a link to this year's NY Farm Bureau Circle of Friends

Note that longtime senator, Hugh Farley, made the list, as he has for as long as I can remember.

So did Assemblyman George Amedore.

When we had our milk marketing issues a couple of years ago, and lost our milk company, both men put staff on the job of finding out what we could do to fix our terrible situation. George even called me personally and we talked for an hour or more on farm issues and what was going on in Albany. They both listen when farmers explain our issues and seem to understand how our business works.

Senator Darrel Aubertine also made the list. He is not local, but he has worked hard for ag in the state. Raised on a dairy farm himself and still raising his family on their diversified farm, the man gets it, as so few do.

Bird IDs Needed

Common or arctic loon?

Could these be smews?

Surf Scoter?

A good friend photographed these birds at Low's Lake, NY. Can you ID?

Factory Farm Yes or No?

Here is an amazing discussion of the topic: A Tale of Two Farmers

Good Thursday Morning

With Liz away in Pittsburgh we are somewhat short handed.
We are gettin' it done though.

The boss is fixing up the barn for winter, replacing stall dividers that the cows tore out, putting in windows etc. We fixed up the water hose too, where that idiot trespasser with the trailer tore holes in it. It wasn't leaking too bad for a while, but went completely south this weekend.

Frost last night, trucks are coated. I took the camera to the barn to try to take advantage of the incredible light. With the sun so low in the sky and sunrise so late it slants like a big spotlight, picking out all the subtle colors of the oaks, poplars and sumacs that still have leaves. I didn't get too many as I had to work...sigh....but I will look at them pretty soon and see if any are worth saving.

Cows are getting so shaggy. They do not look one bit like their elegant summer selves. Even Mandy is growing a thick warm coat. I hope this doesn't promise an extra cold winter, although if it killed off the darned ticks I would put up with it.

New EPA Rules for Chesapeake Watershed

Bad news for NY.

Ag and Markets estimates that this would cost NY $250 million over the next fifteen years, despite the fact that NY leads the nation in regulating run off....and water leaving the state already meets EPA regulatory guidelines.

Keebler

Rainy Night....in NY

It felt like Halloween out there in the dark last night...while we were putting the girls up to pasture. Light streaming from barn windows glowed golden on steaming cow backs and made them seemed like hulking monsters. I turned my flashlight off to save the battery, while I acted as a fence, there were they got out this spring, and as they surged past me on the way to their dinner of green chop they seemed even more monster-like.

Huffing and puffing and slapping their hooves down in the mud, pushing and shoving, hurrying to eat. Flashlight beams crisscross over them, lighting up the sky, as whomever is driving gleans the midnight dark barnyard for stragglers....it was like a scene from a low budget horror movie.

And as always, just at the conclusion, one of the monsters makes me turn on my flashlight. Big, old, Bayberry, Alan's retired show cow, has to come over every night and check me out for my own potential monsterish characteristics....am I going to eat her? Jump out of the darkness and scare her? Grab her long tail and skijor through the mud behind her?

Nope, its just that old lady playing fence....again....and she rejoins her charges for the slog to dinner.

Incidentally, there were stars out there last night, albeit rather misty ones, and I hoped for a decent night. Alas I am not sure what time it was, but a front went through in the middle of the night slashing horizontal rain against the windows loud enough to wake me up. Dang it! It is so muddy the boss is having a terrible time getting just the most essential of chores done, let alone actually catching up on anything. Enough already. Also enough with whomever sees fit to drive his semi by at around 3 AM and blast on the air horn. Liz is in Pittsburgh, buddy, she can't hear you!

New Outdoor Wood Boiler Regs Tabled

Hallelujah!

Our membership in NY Farm Bureau is worth every penny it costs us because of their efforts on this issue alone. Add in the convenience of E-Lobby, their hard work on trucking regs, farm labor, and many other issues facing farms today and it is a real winner for us.

Dairy News Aggregator

Dairy Insider

Sanford Stud Farm Kitchen

I loved these kitchen items and the rooms themselves. They reminded me so much of camps owned by relatives when I was a kid...the same style of wainscoting and dishes and all.

More Sanford Stud Farm Photos

Mare and foal barn

Medicine Cabinet in Jumping Barn

Kalamazoo track rake

Down the aisle of the mare barn

Sunday Stills....Fall Foliage

The Village of Ames, NY, one of the prettiest places I know

Behind St. John's Lutheran church, Freysbush, NY

Most of the best is over here, but we found a few trees that still look kinda nice.


For more Sunday Stills.....

This one is from the archives of a prettier year

Sanford Stud Farm

Also known as Hurricana Farm. Today we were fortunate enough to be given a personal tour of the restored barns that are now under the care of the Friends of Sanford Stud Farm .

What an incredible place. At one time it covered a thousand acres, or so I have read. It was one of the largest stud farms of its day, housing as many as 150 breeding horses, sending one winner to the Kentucky Derby as well as an American horse to win the Grand National. Native Dancer, northern Dancer and Big Brown spring from horses bred there.

Mare and foal barns, not included in reconstruction area...alas....

The farm barn, which housed teams of pure white mules and dairy and beef cattle
Also unrestored

Saddle racks

Hand made stall hinges, made on site by the farm blacksmith

Saddling area

Jumping horse barn

Today much of the land is under Walmart and many of the buildings are gone. Those that remain are simply amazing. In the jumping barn the stall walls are inch-thick solid cherry. In the mare barn you can still see the marks where the race horses kicked the walls, and the edges of the doors (which are nearly as high as my head) that were chewed by generations of thoroughbreds. The atmosphere in the stables and rooms speaks of a time when life was much different, long before supermarkets and highways. (In the early days of the farm the race horses were walked to the track at Saratoga.) We were most grateful for a chance to glimpse the glory days of racing through our visit to this historic spot.

A medicine cabinet in the jumping barn

Solid Cherry Stalls

Gibson Oat Grinder, the only one in the US

"Suicide Ladder"which goes to the oat bin

Computer Problems

I got 'em.

Not sure which update screwed things up...Firefox updated, Picasa updated, AVG antivirus updated (I think that is the one that did the bad) Java updated.....However, something slowed the whole works to a turtle crawl and things are going gnorw.

Google Chrome, which Alan uses so we can have separate log ins and all, vanished completely and I had to uninstall and reinstall it. Can't get AVG to uninstall....gah!

If I haven't answered comments it is because the darned thing eats them or takes half an hour to load the page.

As soon as I get things figured out I will get back to answering comments and all that stuff. Meanwhile, have a great weekend.

Snow Last Night

In October...somebody call the global warming people...oh, but they are not calling it that any more are they? Because it is so hard to convince folks that things are warming up when it snows a month early in a warm spot like here on the river.

It didn't snow much mind you, but I went out in the rain with a flashlight and some of the rain drops were swirling in slow spirals instead of splashing straight down. That is snow where I come from.