Spring Birds

Don't seem to care that we are now back to normal March weather after our brief summery interlude.


Myself, I would like to go back to sun and fun.

Sunday Stills...Weather

For more Sunday Stills

Square Dancing with the Broom

The boss is sometimes a pretty good fella about sweeping out the mud he tracks into the kitchen. Yesterday he had a little more help than he really needed....and I was right there handy with the camera.

Farm Side Friday

You can read it here

Clotheslined

I'm sure that in the winter a clothes drier's a fine thing...just a rumbly, numbly, grumbly and your laundry's nice and warm.


And on those gloomy, damp and rainy days too, I'm sure gonna bet.


Not much else that you can do when all your stuff is wet.


But on a sunny, June-in-March day, not unlike this outright fine day


A couple trees and a hank of rope is plain flat out the best way.


A nice, long, waving clothesline beats a homely metal box.


Nineteen ways to sideways, and seven days a week


Bracing breezes set the jeans and sweatshirts dancing, 


Do-see-do. 


A junco twitters sweetly from the spruce (wish I could "follow" him and hear his "tweets" all springtime long.)


Sun-shined purple petals on the crocus by the pond and the maples cross the river have their summer lipstick on.


Yeah, on days like this I'll take a clothesline any time...Laundry isn't work at all in this sunny springtime world.

Something is Blooming

Happy Birthday Baby Boy

I know where I was 22 years ago today....and now my boy is off in the wide world of the big city working on big stuff. He sends me scary pictures and even deletes the worst ones before I see them so I am not too distressed.......


But I am proud of him, taking what he has learned at our humble little farm and what he has taught himself or picked up in college and turning it into such responsibility and change. 


Happy Birthday, son, we miss you!

Twins

Born this morning to Detroit, one of Liz's older cows. Sadly one was a tiny little heifer and the other a mammoth bull. All three are doing okay though.

Weather

Simply amazing, although not unprecedented. Just before my dear brother was sent to Korea we had a spring like this. Had the fences all built by the end of March with his help and oats planted in early April.


Too wet this spring for much of that, but the boss and I have both spent some time cutting brush out of the pasture fence. I needed some alone time Saturday so I hung the camera case around my neck, grabbed my brush nippers, and headed up the hill. Took a while to get into the swing of things...been feeding with the men all winter long, so you would think I would be in shape, but nipping off rose bushes and honeysuckle takes different muscles than hauling hay on a pitch fork.


Still, I cut all the way to the first creek and didn't get sore at all so I guess I am not too bad off for someone who will officially turn old this summer.




The boss went out while I was doing housework yesterday and cut all the way to the first ravine on the south fence, which is pretty darned good. He came in dripping and shedding sweatshirts though.


You can just see a haze of green on the hillsides and I am so grateful. We are buying all our feed and it is painful in the extreme, what with fuel and grain so high and milk prices free falling. Can't wait until there is enough grass to turn out and I surely want to get the fence back up on the old pasture this year. It is real rough going, but there is usually quite a lot of grass out there.

Can't wait to see the girls arrayed on the hill behind the house like spotted beads on an invisible string....one of my favorite sights of all.

The Power of Migration

Amazing video of a part of what was estimated to be a flock of 2 million tree swallows.
This page has a number of other videos of this amazing sight.

Another excellent migration video ...snow geese this time.

Monday

Fence line oak up in the heifer pasture

I am losing track of all the calves I swear...at least one more heifer and a cute little Jersey bull born over the weekend. I think poor Liz has twenty on buckets. 


Last time we had a Jersey bull calf we were offered the opportunity to sell him to a certain individual who...oh, never mind...it was the religion of peace and all, but the way they handle baby calves is distasteful, even if most of our animals eventually end up as beef.


 Instead we gave him to some folks who have a Jersey farm...well in the end they paid us for him, but not because we wanted them to. He was well bred and is used now on their farm to breed registered heifers. Kinda nice, because it means that Liz's herd prefix will be out there a little. This guy will probably go the same way or become a steer and go out to Fort Plain to keep a certain Percheron company. Too bad he was a bull, because he is put together real nice.

Sunday Stills....Transitions

Transitions.....from dark to dawn, from function to rusting decoratively in the forest, from trees to part of the forest floor, from winter to spring.


For more Sunday Stills.......

Sheepdog Trial

HT to Joated who absolutely MADE my St. Patty's Day!

Happy St. Patrick's Day

We've been enjoying corned beef and cabbage for a couple of days now. I always cook enough for leftovers as we love it and the boss always buys some extra to freeze for later in the year.


And here is a little bit of green...not much around here yet... This is moss growing on the front steps, which are made of big blocks of worked limestone. Whenever I walk out there by them I envision carriages pulling up to discharge passengers in ornate summer costumes....

Saratoga Springs, NY Arms Fair

Today and tomorrow. The folks are there with the books. If you get a chance stop by and say hi.

Hmmmmm

Crying Wolf Video and Goat Murder

There is a pervasive culture of romanticism surrounding the reintroduction of large predators around the nation, even here in NY. Because of the way issues such as moving Canadian wolves into Yellowstone (where they went from being common to endangered just by changing their address), people who have no dog in the fight get to decide what will happens.... sometimes thousands of miles from their own personal habitats. 


Here is a blog post about a young man who lost a large percentage of his goats to a mountain lion's wanton killing spree.


And the Crying Wolf video offers a chilling glimpse into what may well be an anti-human agenda, which may be behind the Endangered Species Act and wolf re-introduction in the Greater Yellowstone area. Beck and I watched it last night and were both enthralled and appalled by much of what we saw. Whatever you believe about man's place in the ecosystem and the positives or negatives of wolf introduction, you should really take the time to view this video.


There are always two sides to everything. Here is another side. 

Danger Wolf at Large

Gil

Gil playing with a milking machine liner...a cheap and sturdy dog toy, And we have an endless supply.

Such a Starry Night

Another calving last night around nine-thirty. Booth had a heifer calf by Leadfield Columbus. It was one of those times when things went south fast. It was a good thing we knew what she was up to and Becky went over and checked after supper. 


The calf wasn't too big, no difficult presentation, but delivery slowed down right after the head was born and the baby inhaled some amniotic fluid. We laid her over a bale to drain her lungs and worked hard at stimulating her to breathe.


 Mama worked hard too, licking her and nudging her.


I thought she was a goner, but then she took a couple of gasping breaths and shook her head, always a welcome sign. We went through a lot of paper towels cleaning out her mouth and nose and a lot of hay rubbing her ribs and ears and head, but by the time we left the barn she was trying to stand up.


Booth was gobbling hay as fast as she could stuff it into her mouth and licking the baby in between bites. Hopefully they will both come through all right.


On the way back from the barn we stopped to admire the stars and planets. With Mars, Jupiter and Venus all showing their stuff each night it is quite a show. The latter two are so bright they are like a big neon sign in the sky.....I don't know what they are selling, but I had a glass of wine when we got it.....seemed well earned somehow.