New Lawn Art...a Wolf

Ken keeps making these critters bigger and bigger...which means that they are more challenging to paint...which means that he has to wait longer (and longer, and longer) for me to get them painted.

Footsie

How 'bout the horns on this highlander?

Spinning wheels, twisting up the wind into threads of energy

A heifer we liked at the fair

This cow is seven years old...isn't she beautiful!

Been two months since I broke my stupid foot. It is still giving me heck. However, last night I iced it and amazingly got a good night's sleep. Gratitude! Little brother gave me a new air cast too and that has been a big help.

***More photos from the Boonville Fair

More Boonville Fair

Have I mentioned that I love harness racing?

Wordless Wednesday...at the Boonville Fair

You Gotta Go See This

You just gotta. Florida's finest nature blogger, FC, at Pure Florida rescued some little tadpoles. You need to visit his blog and watch his video. of the event...not missing the captions.

Poles in the Water

Or perhaps not. Went fishing with the family on their pontoon boat one day at camp. It was sweet no matter how you measured it. Wind in your hair, eagle flying by, air textured with water scents and forest tang.

We anchored a few times and couldn't buy a bite. Not that it is exactly punishment, rocking quietly on a boat anchored on the prettiest lake in the world, but an occasional fish does add a welcome bit of punctuation to the party.Then the little brother put us on a spot up at the far end of the lake by the dam.

Dropped a worm.

Wham.

Reeled in a large rock bass. Another worm. Another rocky. Sis-in-law and brother were fishing crayfish and hellgrammite larvae (or dobbies) respectively. I stuck with worms, which don't bite and do appeal to even the biggest, meanest fish in the lake (a rainbow trout BROKE my favorite pole a few years back when I was fishing a lowly earthworm.)

NY law permits two poles in the water per person.

However, keeping two poles in the water was physically impossible. You couldn't get one fish off before there was one on the other pole.

It was crazy; the fastest and most furious fishing I have ever experienced. Although we only caught rock bass, they were huge for rockies and ferocious biters. And you could easily see that there were big predator fish down there, because the surface danced with jumping fry. Even good-sized rock bass were leaping to escape the savage teeth. There are plenty of big pike and pickerel in that lake. Alan says he has seen logs, which suddenly swam away when the boat flowed over them. I suspect that there were at least a couple of those "logs" right under the boat.

We had the live well full of fish before we drifted off the hot spot.

By then the wind was kicking up and the surface of the water was turning that hammered-metal color that it gets before a storm. Matt anchored a few more times, but we never hit the spot again.

Soon the wind got serious and the rain started splashing down, so we ran for the cabins down the lake, churning up an eager wake and getting a free shower.....just before the lightning started slamming all around.

It was the craziest fishing trip I have ever experienced. Such fun!

And the fish fry that Lisa and Matt put on the last day, wherein we got to eat our catch, cooked over their campfire along with Dutch oven veggies and apple crisp ditto wasn't too shabby either.

On a related note my little red el cheapo pole got broken in the car on the way home. I need to find another one before next summer. Any ideas on what to buy? I mostly lake fish, prefer a light-weight, responsive pole, and use a close-faced reel. The pole the trout broke a couple years ago was my favorite ever, just a little Zebco that gave me a real feel for the fish and cast like a charm......every time I go to Wally World, the selection of poles offered changes so much it just boggles my mind. What has worked well for you in this department?

Good Post on Beef Production

Not Beef

Black Duck

From Jeffro

Jeffro explains all about growing beef from calf to feedlot

Back

Not so much to the future as to the same old, same old. The John Deere 4430 has once again earned its reputation as one of the worst tractors we have ever owned. Will not be buying green again I do not think. Major issues this time requiring splitting the tractor to repair it and having a rental to keep working at the hay. We need to trade that junk in!

Two of Alan's friends were in a regional medical center when we left for camp, one with a life-threatening illness and the other with terrible injuries from a motorcycle/deer accident. Both are moving in the right direction, which is wonderful news, although they still need prayers. Over the past few weeks the power of prayer has been demonstrated a number of times, which are not mine to mention, although I am sure grateful for the outcomes. Hope things turn out all right for these two nice boys.

A pretty day today, a lot less humid and much cooler, for which I am grateful. I am sure the cows will be too. They hate the heat and don't do well in it. Liz and the boss had five cows in season in one day while we were gone and didn't even breed them...so hot there wasn't much likelihood of them conceiving anyhow. We had a heifer to breed yesterday, one that was running out with the cows. She obligingly came in the barn without being asked, but wouldn't leave when we were done. Amazingly, although she is not trained to lead, she let Liz throw a halter on her and ambled out of the barn behind her, as tame as a kitten. Too bad she isn't a pretty one to show, as she is evidently came from the factory already halter-broken.

****Unless I get a chance to pause in the cleaning up a week's worth of Godawful mess in the house and barn to get out the camera I am going to go with more pics from camp for a bit. Above is Becky with the bubble stuff she so cleverly grabbed at the Dollar Store for camp....and Alan, blowing bubbles with scissors and a cut off soda bottle. The bubbles were brilliant...there isn't much that can add to the serenity of a clear, blue mountain lake, but bubbles, floating way down the lake on the breeze do the job nicely.

Hark! I hear a wren! I wondered where the heck they had gone......first one this summer.

Sunday Stills....Farm Animals

Click to compare me to a dinosaur

The girls, coming in to be milked

Thought you might find this refreshing, as hot as it has been lately.

This one would have been easy for me, except that I spent the past week in the woods overlooking a lake wallowing in my love for the wild and the light and the song. And swimming and fishing. And takings hundreds of photos of sunrise and geese and herons. Not seeing a single farm animal (and not minding, not one little bit)

However, here is a pic of one of Miss Laura's chickies and a couple from the archives.

For more Sunday Stills......

Still More...

Photos from camp. I watched the sun come up this day.



It is amazing how quickly it goes from being just a bright orange glow in the east to half to whole.

And there are even more here.

Photos from Camp

This sunfish had amazing luck, but lousy judgement. If you look closely you can see big gouges on its side where a predator sought lunch. Then Alan caught if off the porch and released it. Two days later his cousin caught the same fish right in front of the porch and released it again. Instead of live and learn I guess it's live but don't learn.

Home Again

A little bug porn...er a pair of damsel flies

The Men

Discussing kayak advertisements....me, I like the canoe.

Foundation for the Future

FFTF-Rainbow Stew for the Dairy Farmer

Is a new dairy pricing program that the National Milk Producer's Federation is foisting on farmers proposing to Congress. It includes monetary assessments on milk checks, some of which will go straight to the Treasury to help lower the deficit, the rest of which will be administered by yet another board. We dairy farmers already have boards reaching into our pockets to fund the Dairy Check Off and CWT among other programs, so of course we should be just delighted to crowd a couple more hands in there. The board will decide what generic milk promotion will get the funds that they take from us. Of course generic milk promotion has been proven not to work...or at least not very well, but why worry about that?

And then there is the whole supply management thing. If the supply management tool kicks in farmers will only be paid for a percentage of their previous three months average milk production. The theory is that they will produce less to avoid that. Since cows don't have on/off switches I wonder how that will be done. Feed less? Kill a few cull some cows? I don't imagine that it will be pretty.

Plus I figure if they lower the amount of milk US farmers are permitted to produce, someone else will step up to the plate...er.....glass...and fill the void. Melamine anyone?

Supposedly farmers are in favor of this new, improved, dairy policy, but really, I have yet to talk to one who is, unless they are on a cooperative board and toeing the company line although I have read a few positive comments on ag media stories. Most folks seem pretty skeptical.

One good thing I can say is that it is planned to decouple prices from the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, a move that is long overdue.

However this pup, and it is a pup, will probably fly through Congress because it does away with the dairy support price program and milk marketing orders are "simplified".

Most ag publications are talking about FFTF as if it were Rainbow Stew for dairy farmers. Of course it is obvious that they listen to the pundits at NMPF and not so much to actual producers. I don't really think that many cooperatives ask farmers how they feel about things like this....they are more inclined to tell them what to think instead.

Here is some analysis of what is going to happen if this is passed.

Almost Butter

These are pink from the front, a sort of washed out, not terribly appealing color. I like them with the sun behind them though. I wonder if adding something like Miracid to the soil would bump up the color a little. When I had them planted up near the house they were a much nicer shade.

Sunday Stills...People

Oh, wait, update...here is a brand new one of Liz with Bling.

Pictured the latter yesterday for her registration paper and she is being trained for the fair.

I always get a kick out of this pic of an Amish horse pulled up to the gas pumps....fill 'er up!

Had to use the archives this week...sorry Ed. It has been such a crazy week what with haying, planting and getting ready for camp and no one has been around the house when I wasn't working myself.

For more Sunday Stills......

Saturday Before Camp

We are off to camp today.

The dog now has tags on his collar, which will definitely need to be taped together if anyone is going to sleep. License and rabies certificate is stowed and packing is about done.

Noodles, poles, life jackets, tackle boxes........I love the smell of an old, well-loved tackle box...melted rubber, wood smoke, Skin-so-Soft...there is nothing like it.

The weather forecast is for rain and library books.

I have left a series of posts for the week, but will be out of reach of a way to answer comments. However, I will talk to you next week when we get home from Peck's Lake NY.

Hope you all have a good one!

Company for Breakfast

*Do click any for detail

Lettuce Begin

We have grown this lettuce several years now and have been only moderately impressed. However, this year it has outdone itself. Where other years it has been rather pale and bland in flavor, this year it is a gorgeous color and has a robust flavor and delightful texture. It is called Beleah Rose and comes from Pinetree garden seeds.

Get Goats

That is my answer to this problem.

It worked here. And as to the fencing thing, the guy we bought the original border collies from had a business out in California grazing goats on the power lines to keep down brush. One man, one dog, no fence needed.