Sock Puppet

That's me.

A certain individual left his rolled up, discarded sock in the middle of the living room floor. I was called inside from a lightning photography session (fail) to answer to the absence of the Italian seasoning (which I compile from assorted ingredients).

I was hurrying because...well, because I am a mom. People call. I answer. Even though they are people who could darned well look for the spices themselves while I indulge in a little post-workday play. And other people darned well know better than to leave their laundry in the living room. I stepped down hard on the blasted sock....I was irritated at being dragged away from my deeply fulfilling relationship with the Canon.

And so, it's back to ouch and the air cast and maybe a day on crutches.

Again. I am NOT a happy camper, and somebody else will be feeding the peacocks and baby chickies and putting Nick up in his run. Probably someone with traveling socks. The ground is so rough up there I just got so I could do those chores a couple days ago.

Spectacular Book Sale

Hi!

Just wanted to let you know that we are having a special summer sale. 50% off until June 15th. Visit http://www.tryoncountybookshop.com to see what we have available. Nothing is held back. It is all on sale!

Thanks for visiting.

Roger & Alice Montgomery

Tryon County Bookshop

*****Don't miss this chance. The folks have an amazing inventory of all kinds of special books on guns, shooting, hunting, fishing, history and more.

Mystery Solved

What has been happening to my catnip plant? I kept finding it tipped over and the stems all crushed. I thought it was the wind, but I guess not.

Fog 'n' Deeres...John Deere that is.

We have a second hand...although some days it seems at least 19th hand...John Deere 4430 tractor. Sometimes it is a pretty nice tractor, good sized for what we do and not too bad on fuel as compared to the 4490, which is a ridiculous guzzler.

However a whole, perfect hay day yesterday was spent by the guys in running around finding out why it won't move...some big shaft that had a pin break, that trashed this big, expensive thing and that other also expensive thing...and I guess it is going to be a big, big project.

Bah.

While they were at that I got some tomatoes planted....and chased truly suicidal chickens out of that little patch of dirt. They REALLY want to take that one way trip up to the Amish sale.

I think the men have some hay ready and may try to bale it with the big tractor. Sure hope so, as if there is hay in the mow, anybody can feed, as opposed to having to get green chop off a wagon with the skid steer and a tractor to run the PTO etc. Even I can clamber up in the mow and toss down a bale, although I am going to try to avoid that until such time as I can actually go outdoors without the stupid air cast on my foot. It is a big help, but it is getting old real fast. At least I can hobble around inside the house without it now, for which I am most grateful.

Meanwhile, it is another shining pearl of a foggy June morning. There is a common yellow throat wichity, wichity-ing in the box elders, an indigo bunting, cedar waxwings, and a grey catbird down below the driveway and robins everywhere. A great day to wake up in the country, tractor or no tractor.

Fog 'n' Deers

A cheerful dairy farmer contemplating his machinery

Liz and the BF hit a deer on the way home last night. Jumped right up out of the bushes and tall grass at the edge of the road up by the old dump. They heard from the police officer who answered their call that there have been a lot of them hit by cars up in that area lately.

Maybe the state should break out the state of the art mowers they bought with our tax bucks and mow the roadside so drivers have a chance to actually SEE the deer before they hit them...oh, wait, the state is broke and they want us to know it. Sorry I said anything.

Anyhow they are all right, thankfully, but the truck will need some fixing.

Haven't heard how the deer fared. There are rumors that there are a lot of them running hard into the road because certain folks are hunting them at night, in summer, in total disregard of the game laws. (Now who would ignore game laws, I wonder....). Could certainly be true, but I can't prove it so I won't come right out and say it.

Lots of break downs on the dairy farming front. Bent rod in the chopper. Something snarky with the hydraulics in the John Deere 4430. Case 930 coughed up its cookies yet again. If it ain't something it's another something I guess. Crop reporting appointment for the boss today. Not much to report yet. Just getting dry enough to plant now.

We have been fighting a persistent case of hardware in Liz's good show heifer, Gypsy. We figure it came in in some hay we bought as the Jersey right across from her had a case too. She recovered quickly though with a magnet and some pink pills and probiotics.

Poor Gypsy. I hope she will find her way through it. She is so good about being doctored on...she gets pills and shots and all the green chop she can eat.

Oh, and it is very foggy this morning, first time in a long time. Kinda pretty in a way.

Sunday Stills...Pot Luck

Boo Boo, hard at work, chewing her cud

Where's my bottle?

A milking shorthorn Holstein cross baby

Farm Boy

Beautiful Broadway, my favorite cow

For more Sunday Stills.....

Indoor Cows..they like it that way

Let me i-i-i-i-i-n-n...it's hot out here!!!!

This study on the preferences of dairy cows showed that during summer months, when offered the choice between going out to graze or staying in a free stall barn with access to a total mixed ration, they stayed in the barn over 91% of the time.

Ours show the same preferences. When it is blazing hot and the fans are running or raining or cold or windy or anything but perfect outside they want to stay in. They look pretty on pasture and grass and exercise are good for them, but they aren't dumb. The like fans, and shelter from the weather just as much as we do. So maybe those free stall cows in their confinement housing are happier than our perceptions when we drive by might make them seem.....

You KNOW You're a Farmer If

You are flattered when you buy a new brand of hair spray and your twenty-something daughter says, "Let me know if this is any good, okay....."

"Of, course," you say, "Why?" (You know her carefree ponytail hair style doesn't usually include hair spray.)

"It's almost time for the shows and the fair. I need something good to do top lines."

Ri-i-i-i-i-ght.......and there goes that fashionista moment.

***For folks who don't show dairy cows, the top line is the ridge of hair on the backbone that is sprayed up and trimmed flat to give the cow a nice, sharp, smooth appearance.

Yeah, she wants to see if my new hairspray is good enough for her cow.

Don't I feel fancy now...

Cops Shoot Gator

Which turns out to be made of concrete. Nice shootin' Tex. (I want one of those!)

PS..link is now fixed

The Blitz-o-Mat

An old pic of Blitz, much in need of a bath

This morning bloomed sharp and cool, with whistling winds and bright, thin sunshine. However, for the past few days it has been blazing hot and soggy humid. We people have handled it pretty well. Lots of water and we're good to go. Been satisfying to get at least a little field work done.

However the cows hate the hot, and suffer the miseries of the damned. Many of them still have a little winter coat left on after the cold, wet, late spring we've had. When it hit ninety they stood with heads hanging, panting like bellows, and drooling. Milk production dropped by over a hundred pounds a day.

Tuesday night Liz clipped some of them, which helped a bit. Blitz was especially miserable though. She is a big old white show cow, a very spoiled baby. She got a prompt hair cut as soon as she came in the barn.

However, after milking she was still suffering, and stood alongside the milk house step, drooping like a hothouse flower. Alan had one of those light bulb moments and grabbed the milk house garden hose. Then he trained cold spray on Blitz's freshly clipped sides and back until sheets of water sluiced to the ground all around her.

She never even flinched. As a long time show cow she has had hundreds of baths and she knows what a hose is for. She stood there with a demeanor of sheer bliss for as long as he trained the spray on her. Later I gave her a rerun when he had to go scrape the alleys.

She didn't move until all the other cows were gone and the call of green grass overcame the call of the water.

Last night there she was at the end of milking, standing in virtually the same four hoof prints looking for another shower. Guess that must be the Blitz-0-Mat.

June is Dairy Month

Thank you girls for all the good things you make possible.

Thank you Broadway, Dalkeith, Zinnia, Cider, Lemonade, ETrain, Camry, Egypt (BooBoo) Carlene, Bama Breeze, Bayliner, Magic, Bailey, Booth, Verona, Heather, Balsam, Bayberry, Consequence, Blink, Spruce, Asaki, Pecan, Baja, Zulu, Armada, Evidence, Syracuse, Boston, Lucky, Bonneville, Neon Moon, Monday, Blitz, Mandy, Hollywood, Moments, Lakota, Foolish, Detroit, Sugar, Lucky, Licorice, Chickadee, Gracie and all the Northview girls...and all the other, red, brown, black and white and roan cows that work hard to keep us in cheese, ice cream, and cold, fresh milk.

Stars

I pause on the stair landing every morning and evening to look west and mark in my mind the weather, the weather to be, the heifers social life and whatever birds may be whipping across the yard to hit the feeder or popping up the drive searching for bugs or singing on the phone wire.

Last night the sky above the barn was dotted with a handful of stars.

After a relentless month or more of grey and gloom and rain and rotten weather I was stunned. I hollered down the stairs to the guys, who were still up that there were stars. Stars! Can you believe it?

And we actually had a nice day yesterday. Field work was done. The first hay was chopped, just a pile on a bale wagon to feed the heifers in the barn, but actual 2011 grass was harvested. GFs and BFs visited. Liz did a mighty cook out for supper (which turned out to be a cook in as the grill suffered some sort of fatal set back) and all in all it was for the most part a normal day.

Normal...not something we have seen much of lately. I would not mind a little more of that.

Thank you

To all who served or who serve now.

Where would we be without you?

Indeed, who would we be without you?

Here a Chick

Laura surprised us with five little chickies....just as we had decided that she was sitting on infertile eggs and were going to switch them out with a peacock egg. Wouldn't that have been fun? Laura is a tiny little white Cochin bantam hen.

Sunday Stills...Weeds and Grasses

For more Sunday Stills......

Texting While Driving

B-Dub, smarter than many cell phone owners

and she doesn't even have opposable thumbs

Has GOT to stop.

TWO of the kids' friends have been hit from behind by people texting in the past week alone...both by people going at high speeds. Thankfully, even though one boy was on a motorcycle and was flung a great distance, both are okay, but this is nuts!

How can you drive without keeping your eyes on the road? I can barely look away from the road when I am in the passenger's seat for Pete's sake.

A Tornado Watch

Will keep you awake if you kid is out in it. Hadn't seen the GF in three days so it was simply an essential trip...for the kid that is.

The air was heavy with the scents of summer, soft and humid, redolent with grape and falling lilac, sweet with honeysuckle and the last of the apple blossoms. A few mosquitoes buzzed hopefully and the sky was alight from horizon to horizon. I kept opening the porch door to look out and test...storming yet or only threatening? Coming soon or giving us a pass this time?

It was hard to sit and quietly read with the grass outside flickering, white, black, white, black like some bizarre neon bar sign advertising trouble.

Only a few stray drops of rain pattered down, but the lightning never seemed to let up. In its own way it was beautiful, back lighting one cloud, spotlighting another, with colors never seen in the day time spectrum. It was easy to see why our cows don't worry about the fireworks at the fair or race track. They have them right over their heads during storm times like this.

Eventually I crutched my way upstairs, phone in one pocket, flashlight and book in the other, to try to get some sleep despite all the weather action.

Then the wind hit. Like a wall. The house shook. The bed shook. The lights went out. The lights went on. And off. And on. And off.

And on, so I crawled back down the stairs and we turned on the TV weather and called up the kid.

He was on his way home. The Doppler map was pulsing with red and orange and purple where the hail storms were.

The kid got home with tales of a barn belonging to folks we know with its whole front blasted out into the road by the wind and trees down everywhere. We were pretty darned happy to see him.

By the time we went back to bed it was mostly done with its destruction, although the power went out some more. We need some normal, calm, dry weather around here. It has rained at least a little and often a lot for many, many days now. And, naturally, it is going to storm again today with rain in the forecast for every single day of the coming forecast.

Cowboy and Boats

Jinglebob's entirely hilarious post. You have got to go read it.

Happy Birthday Elizabeth

Now when you travel to distant cities for National Farmers Organization you can get a rental car and see the sights.
Love you!

And to add to the ongoing drama the boss was attacked by a cow yesterday...he came in and told me that I probably would have been calling the undertaker if it wasn't for the cow in the photo above, Mandy. Mandy is Liz's retired show cow, kinda dumb...or so we thought...but very sweet. Yesterday cow #171 charged the boss when he was calling the cows...from behind...

He heard the slurping of running hooves in the mud and turned around to see her racing at him with her head down. He didn't have a stick (he never does) and couldn't move in the mud...he has trouble picking up his one leg anyhow. As he watched his life flash before his eyes a big, black bolt slammed 171 right in the side, nearly knocking her down.

Old Mandy had seen her charging and ran in and nailed her before she could get to him. Every now and then a cow will do something like that and just astonish us. They aren't big on communication, don't wag their tails or sit at your feet. Still they must relate to us in some way, perhaps as especially dumb calves or weak and stupid herd mates.

Now the debate is on about what to do with the offender. We are short on cows and she is a good milker, dry right now and due for a calf in a couple of weeks. My vote is to send her over to the sale just the same. I would rather be short on cows than short on husbands. Others think we should maybe put a ring in her nose like a bull and let her drag a short chain from it so she can't run with her head down. For now at least she is going to stay in the barn anyhow.

Maybe It's Just a Sprain

Trust...or maybe I just look like a bump on a log