Working Wednesday

What with that BSE case in California (the fourth EVER in the US) and the nearly non-existent presidential primary here in NY, I am hard at it on the Farm Side. So until noon, when I hope to be done, here are a couple of photos, just to keep this space from echoing empty all day.


***If you right click on little Mrs. Robin and then click the magnifier, you can see that she was glaring at me for daring to walk around the yard.

BSE in California

No cause at all for alarm. This disease is so rarely transmitted to humans that coconuts are  more dangerous. Even up here in the north country.


Link to announcement: HERE

Hawk Cam

Got sucked into the Cornell Red-tailed hawk live cam this morning. I need to work. I need to step away from the computer screen.

But, but, but.......


It is simply incredible to watch the hawk brooding her young and incubating her still-hatching eggs...even when she is just sitting there with the wing tugging at her wing and tail feathers and rustling the greenery in her nest.

Check it out! for yourself

Dew Drop In

Well, actually it's rain. Click to enlarge

More Evidence that Eating Meat is Good for Us

With a H/T to Chuck Jolley, who posted the link on Facebook

Taste for meat aided human evolution.

Lesson Learned

Over the past few years I have learned not to wish for rain.....ever....

So I didn't wish for this rain, even though it got pretty darned dry over the past few weeks.

Everything is wet now and I am ready for it to move along. Rain scares me.

Sunday Stills...Happy Birthday Ed!

Besides wishing Ed a very happy birthday, I would like to take this opportunity to thank him and Linda for keeping this going. Sunday Stills has been a great lot of fun for me, I have learned many unexpected things, and I look forward to it every week. It was really hard to pick a favorite, but here is one that I liked. I copied a couple pics and posted them, but there are more at the link.


For more Sunday Stills.....


To wish Ed Happy Birthday


Or say Howdy to Linda......

Grandpa Lachmayer's Rhubarb

I worked with my grandpa this morning, if only in my mind. It's the rhubarb that does it-it was his and now it's mine. We work on it together every year, and have for as long as I can remember.


It was a fine morning to be out there in the garden  with my memories of him and the songs of the High Kings on my iPod. 


Down behind his house, gone now too, alas,he had a long bed of rhubarb and current bushes. All the grand kids loved the pies and jellies that resulted from those plants and loved the hours pestering him while he worked on them too.

When he was getting older and I finally had the horse I wanted all my life, Magnum, I used to load my little orange Chevy up with horse manure and haul it down to him. It made the rhubarb just burst out up of the ground and the stalks grew as thick as my wrist.


Somewhere during that time he gave me a few root cuttings and I have dragged them from house to farm to house to farm as I moved, and cared for them just as he taught me.

This morning while I was cleaning the nasty reed canary grass roots out of the bed and piling on composted horse manure, then mulching with half-rotted hay, he was there. 


The scent of meadow hay and warm horse; the sound of the song sparrows, the green of the valley...they all brought him close again. It was nice to spend a while out there with him, making things right after the ravages of winter.... I love you Grandpa...thanks for the memories and the rhubarb.

Pasture

The Kateri Shrine right across the river

Can't get enough of it. The grass is sparse because it has been so cold and dry, but we turned the girls out for the night last night just the same. How they are enjoying it, lined out all over the hill in the pink and gold of the morning sun. I love to watch them graze...I think any farmer or rancher gets a deep down satisfaction from watching their animals eat. I love to stand in the barn last thing on a winter night and listen to our ladies rustling through their hay...it brings a great sensation of contentment and comfort.

I keep one ear awake all night during pasture time though, when they are turned out, listening for hooves where they don't belong, the phone ringing, mooing in strange places or the sound of grass being torn up beside the garden pond....all signs that the cows are out. That is NEVER good news, but especially not at night.

And I forgot to do this the other day, but JB put up a really great post about a talk he heard that you really should read. It is right here. So much of what is drummed into us night and day about the food we eat is bull...and that is putting it nicely.

Now, off to invite the girls to come down off the hill and into the barn for some nice tasty grain and an appointment with the milking machines. Have a good one.

The Girls on Grass

These were taken a few days ago...they have slicked up and the grass is a lot better now.

Ice Washed

We had temperatures in the nineties just a couple of days ago...and now....now we had a killing, hard, hard frost last night and morning brought ice on everything. Glad we don't have anything planted.

However, the Ice Follies daffodils, which have naturalized all over the long lawn hill, look a bit the worse for wear.

And oh, happy day, Google was busy last night. I now have both the new post editor here and the new Gmail. I can't help it, I hate change just for the sake thereof. I will learn to use them, but I wish I didn't have to.

Farm Photos for the Week

 Ephemeral

 Phoggy

 Phar away across the river

Phirst light

Farm Side Finally Finished....Yeah! So here are some photos from around the farm this past week.

Is it Possible to Outsmart a Dog?

Well,  you can try. As usual, yesterday, I would really rather have done something interesting, like hoe up the garden for some peas or see how the men are coming along with the big fence. However, bookkeeping is relentless and I have writing chores to complete if I want to get paid.


So, inside it was for most of the day. And a crazy little puppy who wanted me to playplayplayplay was not much help. I needed to go through two checking accounts for a certain set of checks, work which I hate with a passion, plus at least start the Farm Side. 


It is not, however, fair to keep Gil in his crate all the time while Becky is at work...and he is an unbelievable distraction, barking, peeing, and dragging everything he can get his teeth into all over the place.


He was driving me nuts. (I know, I know, it's not a long trip, )


Finally I took a plastic milk crate, stuffed every single one of his toys inside, and set it in the middle of the kitchen floor.


Wow! It kept him busy for hours, digging out his favorite towel, finding his nasty elephant man so he could grind his teeth on its eyeballs, unearthing his tennis ball, and extracting his yogurt cup so he could make sure for the thousandth time that there wasn't any yogurt left inside. He totally entertained himself, without a single bark or hose down of the kitchen floor. For ages.


It was great. It was also so funny that I still didn't get much work done, but what are you gonna do? That's what puppies are for.

A Robin in Your Ear

Yesterday I opened the sitting porch door, which is sealed with plastic and blankets all winter, because it hit nearly ninety here. However, just as I was doing so the cows got away from Alan and had to be rounded up and I never got around to spending more than a minute out there.


This morning though I indulged in one of the nicest things about spring and summer, sitting in my red metal chair out there, with the camera and the sunrise......ah....


The birds were busy shuttling back and forth across the long lawn and I was just settling in comfortably, when whir-buzz-bizz-a robin flew up over the railing beside me and darned near ended up in my ear. I don't know which one of us was more surprised, but I can tell you that I sure ducked and covered. 


As you can see he is up to important business and once again I will be sharing the porch this summer...half pleasure, half pain...as it is nice to be close to the birds, but I hate to disturb them and feel guilty about using "my" porch. I was going to put a few sunflower seeds out there to see if I could have "cardinal in a box" again, but maybe I shouldn't. 


And I have a question...if you get a robin in your ear, how do you get it out?

What's Wrong with this Picture?

(You can right click if you want to look closely at men wearing tool belts and carrying hammers)

Or should I say these pictures? Hmmm, a farmer in his sixties, his son in his twenties, out working on the land, building new fence where the deer took it out over the winter. Alan has worked beside his dad since he was a wee lad. Along the way he learned how to do an amazing number of things from working on machines to driving them to doctoring cows and planting and harvesting crops. He learned to know our land...where the boundaries are, what fields have wet holes, which ones grow what crop the best and the myriad things a man (or woman) needs to know to be a farmer. The girls can feed and doctor and milk and raise calves and more other jobs than I can even think of to list. All three of them choose the bulls to make the matings on their cows. They could among them start running the place tomorrow and do it well.


There was a lot to learn while they were growing up. Each and every single farm is different from every other one in the world. Heck, each field is different from the one next to it. Farming can be and is taught in college and at seminars and all sorts of such places, but the kids who grow up learning by doing bring more to the table than students who didn't benefit from farm background.


Funny how these on the farm lessons translate so well out in the "real" world. All three of our farm-grown kids are valued out in the public workplace for the skills they learned and the attitudes and work ethic they bring with them. Across the USA thousands of farm and ranch families are raising kids who work along side them every day and have been since the dawn of agriculture, which is pretty much since we started planting seeds in the ground with sticks and rocks. 


Funny how our government in its infinite wisdom wants all this to end. Sadly kids have been hurt and killed in farming accidents over the years and the Department of Labor wants farmers to stop allowing our children to help us on the farm to ensure that kids don't risk getting hurt.


The way the new regulations are written, when our own grand babies come along, if we are  still farming or the kids are farming after us, those impressionable children, who could grow up to be the next generation of land-learners, food producers, capable, hard-working, useful folks, will be prevented by law from doing so. 


They won't be allowed to feed bottle calves, ride horses, show calves at the fair, participate in 4-H livestock projects, or much of anything but sit in front of the TV, cocooned in bubble wrap and safe from everything but drugs and drivebys.  


This safe-from-all-possible-danger mindset of the government, if it is going to take away our lifestyle and our right to raise our kids the way we think is right, will be a terrible thing for farm families and for the whole nation. How will anyone learn to manage the land and grow our food, if we are not allowed to teach our children? How many generations of know-how will be lost, ending with the generation that is farming now if we can't let them learn what we do?


 It is not as if farming is the only danger to kids. If farm kids are no longer allowed to work on the land with their folks, then NO kids should be allowed to ride in cars until they are 18, or play baseball, or football, or go swimming, ride ATVs or any other activities wherein they might come to harm. As I contemplated this story over the past week I saw headline after headline about children killed or injured in everyday activities like those above, or murdered. Now there is an all too common cause of death to children. Why don't we outlaw that? Oh, wait.....


Here are some links to stories on this topic:


Leave our kids alone
Proposed labor changes
FB Video on the Changes


And here is a link to the Congressional directory. Call, write, email your representatives if you don't want this to become the law of the land. NYFB has an easy to use ELobby form, which will send letters to our particular representatives on their site if you are a member. I used that Saturday.


This issue needs immediate attention from every one of us, whether we simply appreciate the values of farm families, or hope to raise our children and grandchildren the way we were raised. Please, if you want to teach your grandchildren to do what you do make those calls. Thanks

Sunday Stills....Reflections

This is a reflection in the back window of the car, which was parked near the house

These three are the house and clothesline reflected in the garden pond at sunset

This pair is from the archives and are of Long Lake up in the Adirondacks

 This was a lot of fun. It made me notice that there are more reflections around even right here in the yard than you might expect...click any of these for a better look.


For more Sunday Stills.......

Tour de Cure...Stop Diabetes

I am especially blessed in the brother department. I have two and I wouldn't trade either of them for a whole case of presidents, or kings, or famous athletes, or even a gross of rock stars on the hoof. Good guys, both of them.


Every year the next younger one cycles for the Tour de Cure/Stop Diabetes. 


You can see his page and maybe even sponsor his efforts here. I hope you will be able to help with this important cause and thanks in advance.....


Republishing so we remember!

Honey, You're not Sparking

The girls went out to pasture yesterday; not much grass, but they enjoyed what there was. Old Heather, Liz's retired show Jersey, led them out and brought them in. You gotta love a lead cow... It was nice to see them out there although it would have been better if they were at least ankle-deep in nice and green.


In between working on the big fence and getting them turned out Alan did some diagnostics on the Blue Bomber, which has been running kinda rough......(ya think?) He brought that spark plug in for show and tell and the main question we had was how and why it was running at all.


And then there's honey. The same boy with that nifty spark plug has been pestering me to make beef stir fry. I had a couple steaks left over from our last beefer, which was much better than the current one, so I sliced them up into thin slabs, fried them up fast and and added fresh broccoli, diced garlic, chopped walking onion tops and lots of sliced carrots.


However, I was at a loss for a sauce....bare cupboards and all. But there is always ketchup...which with added honey, spices, and vinegar can become almost anything. 


I have several different sorts of honey. I love the stuff. It keeps forever and is good for so many things that it is a staple for us. Whenever I meet a local beekeeper at a fair or something I try to buy some. Younger brother sent down a jar from his own bees a while back and we hadn't opened it yet. It was the least crystalline of the bunch so I spooned out a bit to nuke and put in the sauce.


And a good cook has to taste. So I tasted the honey. (Have I mentioned that I love honey?) Holy cow! That is the best honey ever! Orange blossom, which is super good, and basswood (my previous favorite) move right on over. It tasted of spice and flowers and zingy sweetness that was simply incredible. It was like standing in a meadow full of wildflowers with the breeze and the bees buzzing around you and the sun shining down...plus cinnamon. How I wish you could taste just a little too, because it is totally amazing! Like the great outdoors in a spoon. Thanks bro...

Health Care Comparison

Rev. Paul has a really interesting chart right here comparing health care in nations which have national health insurance to those who don't.

Fencing And Putting on Pants

Heifer pasture is done. They would have let the ladies out yesterday, but they didn't get it done until three. They figured, and probably rightly, that the lassies would prefer to stay out once let out, and we didn't want to be milking at midnight. Maybe today.


Then they started the big pasture fence. That has sat two years unused thanks to the horrific weather and the fact that it is a b***ch to  build, up and down ravines and slate cliffs and all. Gonna get built this year though, some how, some way. Our hay guy is out of hay; last load delivered this morning. We aren't out of cows and they have to eat something.


The wooden cowboy got his pants put on yesterday. They go pretty well with his bright red shirt and  blue bandanna.  Alan figures on painting him a nice rodeo belt buckle with a bronc in the center and we still have to paint his fence and boots and hat...oh, and finish up his face. He looks kind of silly with just a white smiley face.

And that's all the news that's fit to print. Have a good one.