Christmas Bird Count

Common Redpoll (Photo by Alan)

If you click you can see that the air is full of water

from these Mallards taking off out of the fish hatchery

We have been counting our little section of the Johnstown circle for many, many years. My mom and dad began, then asked me to join them, then the brothers joined in and now our grown children come along when they can. This year because the count was on a Monday there was no one available except Alan and me. They weather mages were threatening terrible weather.

However, even in the scant light of O'dark-thirty this morning, it was easy to see that we didn't get any snow at all...lots of wind, but not a flake.

All we could say was YAY!!

Since we don't get milkings off on Monday we had to do chores before we left and got a late start. Didn't matter atall. Before we even got to Mom and Dad's we saw a gigantic flock of crows and a big mess of pigeons and turned up the road to count them. There were at least 105 crows in the flock, and fifty pigeons.

While we were at it, we counted that whole road and were followed down to mom's house by a very nice lady who wondered why were looking at her yard with binoculars. See, we knew the folks who used to live there, but unbeknown to us the house had changed hands. Fortunately the lady was a dedicated bird person and glad to know what we were up to. We got that bird count sign on the car as soon as we got to the house though.

It was a surprisingly good day. We missed a lot of common birds that we usually count, but saw some good ones. A solitary red poll...a mess of cedar waxwings...mallard ducks at the fish hatchery. All in all a pretty good day.

(and some huge trout).

Our Numbers:

132 American Crows

1 Common Red Poll

4 White-breasted Nuthatches

15 Blue Jay

27 Mallard Ducks

93 European Starlings

30 Mourning Doves

231 Rock Pigeons or rock doves or whatever the heck they are calling them these days

2 Tree Sparrow

2 Brown Creepers (we walked into my aunt and uncles woods specifically to look for these and found them almost immediately...thankfully, because it was frigid!)

3 Red Tailed Hawks

29 Cedar Waxwings

18 Gold Finches

91 Black-capped Chickadees

6 Tufted Titmice

2 Northern Cardinals

11 Dark-eyed Juncos

1 Hairy Woodpecker

10 Downy Woodpeckers

3 House Finches

26 House Sparrows

Hope You are Safe and Warm and Out of the Weather

Looks like this storm is walloping a lot of folks on the East Coast and I do hope you are safely out of it.

Our Christmas bird count is today.....don't know why it had to be on a weekday, but it isn't me who gets to decide. Still pitch dark out here and will be for quite a while yet, but it doesn't look like we got any snow. Yet. Howling a gale, but no snow.

No idea what to expect in the county to the north, but I do know I wish the count had been yesterday. Birds were out in huge numbers, emptied the feeders shortly after noon. Saw a sharp shinned hawk while filling the stove....probably lured in by the throng at the feeders. I think we have the largest population of chickadees I have ever seen and the white-crowned sparrow is still hanging around. Tons of gold and house finches, titmice, juncos, field sparrows, tree sparrows, and the other usual feeder birds each day.

We will be starting latish on the count, because this is not our morning off, but got to get milking in a minute. Stay warm!

Sunday Stills....Hats

This was a surprisingly hard one. There are lots of hats around, but no time, no time. Here is a hat from the archives, of which we were pretty proud. Now the kid is one semester away from finishing college and moving on to yet another hat.....somewhere with a full time job (one that is not farming, that is)

For more Sunday Stills.....

Merry Christmas

To all our wonderful friends, family, and everyone who stops here today. Hope you all have a wonderful day of peace and joy, which are the best things that there are.

****Update, we already have our first Christmas present, a heifer calf by Woodbine Ellason was born to Blink, the French Fry cow.

Starlings

Thanks to Ellen for posting this.

This is Just Cool

But probably wouldn't surprise most border collie owners. Ours have all been so intuitive and observant of our actions that they never cease to astonish us.

The world's most extensive animal vocabulary belongs to a border collie. (This kind of "research" has got to be fun. Around here we call it "playing with the dog.")

Nick's favorite commands by the way are "all right" and "eat your food". (I suspect he would also love to hear, "get the kitty", someday, but that is not likely to happen.

Is This Hawk Shivering?

I think maybe, but he is hanging around just the same. Hope you are all enjoying a fine Christmas Eve and have a wonderful day tomorrow. Here at Northview the boss is filling up all the feeders with extra haylage, the chickens have fresh shavings in the little coop Mappy gave us, the porch kitties are enjoying some of the stuff they stuff inside turkeys before they send them out (the heart and neck are boiling nicely on the stove) and Nick had three big biscuits instead of one this morning. Thank you to everyone who sent us good wishes or lovely Christmas cards. You are wonderful and we are very grateful.

Oh, and I got a Christmas present yesterday...well actually I got several, but some were more welcome then others. I love, love, love the Norfolk Island pine. I have four now, getting bigger and bushier and adding lots of green to my jungle in the living room. And the tube feeder to replace the old one that I dropped last week. I am delighted as are the gold finches and chickadees.

Thanks guys!!

However, as to the summons to jury duty. Cmon, it's Christmas Eve, couldn't it have waited?

Eh, I am not too worried about it though. I am too darned opinionated to ever get chosen. And if I do, well, it pays a lot better than dairy farming.

Have a great day!

Randomly Yours

Winter

Yep, the white-crowned sparrow still hasn't read the manual on migrating in a timely fashion

Feast to Famine

First we had flooding. Too much water in the barn. We water flowing in the mangers, sopping cow beds, endless sweeping and shoveling and running of the gutter chain.

Then last night we had none. I was watering pen calves while milking; Becky was watering indoor babies, when it just died out without a whimper. We had heard sirens. We wondered.

Shortly after the water went off the lights did too. Milkers stopped, instant darkness, even the cows jumped. And of course we still haven't been able to replace the generator cables.

After we got the machines taken off the cows and hung up and everything shut off (I just happened to have a little flashlight in my pocket and the kids had cell phones, which serve in a pinch) Alan went down street to find that this had happened. (I feel so bad for the poor folks involved, to have such a thing occur so close to Christmas...or any time really. Such a sad thing for them.)

Thanks to the wonders of those cell phones and Alan having friends on other farms around the Town of Glen, we soon knew that it was a widespread outage.

We went inside and sat in the house in the dark, talking and debating what to do. Most of the cows were milked already because Liz needed to get some rest, having been up all night Monday taking her boyfriend to the emergency room (he is out of danger, but pretty uncomfortable). She had finished most of the boss's cows too, so there were only about thirteen head left to milk. It was tanker day though and the tank had not yet been turned on, so if the outage went on for more than a couple of hours we were going to have to dump the milk.

We heard through the grapevine that ten PM was the earliest power would be restored...this was at about seven-twenty.

So we decided to go to the barn, feed out some hay (grain is moved into the barn with an auger...electric of course...and the girls hadn't had their evening feeding) and start hand-milking the high producers. We would have to throw away the milk, but we didn't want them to be uncomfortable for any longer than was necessary.

I was standing there in the dark in the kitchen, fishing around for a wool sock under a chair, getting ready to do all that, when, squeaky-squeaky, flash-bang, the furnace fan began to rotate, the lights blinked on and all the clocks in the kitchen began flashing the wrong time.

There was no need for a food court. The four of us (we sent Liz to get that sleep when we saw that it was going to be a late night) burst into the farmer version of the Hallelujah Chorus.

We could milk. We could feed. We could cool the milk and wash the pipeline. We could eat dinner, only an hour or so late and get our own sleep.

There was plenty to be joyful about and we were. With all the machines on my line, we finished milking the cows in about twenty minutes, fed them some extra just because and came indoors to computers and warmth and glowing light bulbs, which we purely do not appreciate enough.

Flooding

Yeah, we were wishing Noah would bring by some equipment on Saturday. We had the annual family Christmas party in the afternoon, so of course when we got to the barn that morning we found a flood of biblical proportions. Lucky, who is indeed lucky, all things considered, broke her water bowl right off.....which left water, for which we are incidentally required to pay at double the local rate, flowing freely.

Apparently all night. One stable cleaner is level so the water can be run right into the spreader.

The other goes up to go out and water, although it wonderful stuff in the right place and time, refuses to flow uphill. There was so much water that both our little sump pumps turned up their toes. Alan rebuilt one several times before it finally gave up completely.

The women milked while the men moved water and wet, ruined feed and calves that needed new, dry stalls.

Despite all we made it to the party and weren't even the last to arrive. It was nice. Got to meet the new baby and hug everybody at least twice and eat more good food than should be legal. The barn is still soggy and now the spreader has ice in the bottom and won't run, but we will get through this, don't worry. Better days are coming. Here's hoping that seven day forecast has a few hours well above freezing in store for us. Otherwise we will be piling the you-know-what for a while.

Sunday Stills...Holiday Decorations

We barely have any Christmas decorating done this year, so these were pulled out of the china closet for their close up.

For more Sunday Stills....

Christmas "Shopping"

Is just about done.

The Basics of Apple Jelly

A sink full of pink ladies and granny smiths, with a gratuitous red geranium reflected from the windowsill.

Merry Christmas, Have a Hot Shower

Year round!!!!

***I could sing the Hallelujah Chorus myself right now! We were looking at either spending thousands or taking cold ones!

Missed

I was out in the sunset.

Camera right in my hand

Right there in my hand, turned on and zoomed out. Set on C where I often have it.

I failed just the same...missed completely

Too slow, too dark...too bad at aiming.

Thirty or so snow geese, honking softly, quieter than the ubiquitous Canadas, right behind me, the setting sun reflecting off the flashing white of their breasts as their wings beat black, pink, black, like traffic signals from the basement cat.

They were the exact color of flamingos, but seriously less elongated, like somebody washed them in very hot water. It was about the coolest thing in the world.

Sun Dogs

Weather bringers?

Winter Water Woes

Computer problems are limiting how much I can update or answer comments....sorry about that. I really appreciate talking to you, and will get caught up as soon as I get things straightened out.....as are cookie baking and frozen things. The war of the water bowls goes on and on. A water line broke in the barn day before yesterday. Thankfully the guys had only been out of the barn for a couple of minutes when they came in and found little Niagara flowing down the manger.

However, the repairs unleashed a bunch of rust into the water lines, which then got caught in all the valves in the self watering bowls the cows drink from. Thus Alan would fix a bowl and go milk a cow and then another one would start to overflow and he would fix it and milk a cow and so on....this morning there finally weren't any overflowing. Fingers crossed!

I was as surprised as folks who commented to see the white-crowned sparrow this time of year. Usually they come through in April, sing up a storm and offer us lots of enjoyment, then head on north. There are quite a few birds around though, including quite a few geese.

Hope everyone's Christmas preparations are going along well. Off the kitchen....

Brrrr

Real

Some fine music for you on this frigid Tuesday, while we ago about dealing with whatever chose to get froze last night.

Driving Excellence

I cannot wait to buy this book. Imagine taking a failing public service, running at a severe deficit, and turning it around to become both functional and profitable. Imagine lowering costs while increasing services. Imagine businesses coming to a public...that is government-run entity for advice on how to function better. I am looking forward so much to reading it.

Partly because I am astonished by what this man has done....partly because I will think it will change my way of thinking. And partly because I can brag that I babysat for him and knew him when, because he is my dear, wonderful, talented cousin. I hope he sells millions of copies. I am so proud of him!