Late October

Leaves play in the breeze, one last frolic before fertilizer. Their dance echoes each eddy and lays it out for all to see....air outlined in flying colors, samaras swirling and twirling in a seedy sort of swift ballet.

Blackbirds bolt north like compass needles, flock upon flock upon flock of them, bent on business, hurry, hurry.

Are they lost I wonder? They straggle by all morning, all headed north, all flying fast and furiously. I think maybe somebody on the other side of the river has a big corn field that has not been harvested yet.

 Why else defy the natural scheme of things and fly in the wrong direction? If every one of them eats fifty kernels there is going to be a lot of corn heading south to roost this afternoon.

A spit of snow snarls across the sunshine, a curtain of smokey cloud cools the sky.

The wind is a tangible solid, scented with melted leaves, strong with the colding North, good to breath and bracing, but sharp with the threat of winter..

It is an exhilarating day, but shiverish and shaky. 

The last time I was ready for winter I think I was about ten and had a pair of wooden skis with leather strap bindings we snagged out of the antique shop and wanted to try out. They were awful, btw ruining me forever for sports involving fluffy frozen water droplets and elevated places on the earth.

Nowadays the advance of adversity is given the treatment it deserves, respect and grudging acceptance, but not much joy.

Sunday Stills....What Inspires Me

Male purple finch, blowin' in the wind

It all does, from the dew drops on the grass, cows on the hillside, dogs in the kitchen...but I guess bird shots are my favorites.

His lady

Male Downy Woodpecker

Female Baltimore Oriole/archives

RT Hummingbird/archives

For more Sunday Stills.......

Juv. Common Mergansers/archives

Listening to the Rain

Can be nice sometimes, at camp on a lazy afternoon. On a Sunday when there are no crops waiting.

I don't like it much when there is haylage to bring in and cows in the mud though. It just makes everything a misery.

Yesterday it poured. It showered. It drizzled. It gloomed and grumped and grizzled.

It was still dripping when I got up this morning and I was dreading another dumpy day, but by the time old Sol arose the rain was gone, and although everything is wet, it all  shiny and pretty too.

Alas, sad news has come our way from several sources.....when you get to be our age it gets to be that way.

The Farm Bill and the Dairy Margin Insurance Boondoggle

Hermie

Read an excellent opinion on the topic here. I can't believe everyone is so complacent about this matter.

Panoramic Panic

 It's a pretty time of year, although lately it seems as if we don't get to stand still to look at it much. Alan, the boss, and I spent quite a time getting the stables all spiffy yesterday and moving heifers. A big one named Boondock was bullying in her pen, driving the other heifers back from the feed and getting fat while they languished in the corners. They were all the same size at birth, but her mother was a huge cow and looks as if she is going to follow in mama's hoof prints. She is now outside with four older heifers.

She tried it on with them too, but things seem pretty evenly matched and the little ones are very happy to get a turn at the feed. We added a little red shorty out of Bama Breeze, named Cayenne, to the pen in her place. She is of a size with the others and seems to like the freedom to gallop around at will.

The kids decided to name yesterday's new calf, Hermie, for obvious reasons. He/she joins quite an assortment of other calves, some Holstein, some milking shorthorn crosses. 

Egypt has a big shorty steer, we named Cleopatrick.....couldn't call him Cleopatra after all.

The Shortcake half of summer's Strawberry/Shortcake duo is a good sized steer now, all caught up with his age mates and growing well. 

Strawberry, the tiny red heifer, is quite large now too, and quite a character. She has her own big girl stall next to Lemonade and harasses me mightily when I go in to milk the old lady.

Then there is  another big shorty bull, destined for a steer, out of Liz's little Fred heifer, Clare. Clare is named after the Irish county of that name, so he will be called Kilkenny. 

Since we started using milking shorthorn bulls on our Holstein heifers and sharing our experience, it seems as if a lot of folks are turning in that direction. There is a real demand for the calves, which are a lot like black Angus if fed for beef, only rangier and longer. Holstein heifers can calve them easily as well. We sure don't have any trouble selling them if we decide to.

Anyhow, I take the camera to the barn every morning now, just in case something interesting happens and I can steal a minute to record it.

He She Errrr

Went out this morning to find a Silky Cousteau heifer, Calamari, with a new calf. This was not a huge surprise as she was due and had the look the night before.

In fact before I left the barn I bedded her deeply with hay and chaff and filled the gutter behind her with lots more of same.

When we came in for chores, the boss, who went out first to feed and set up, told us that we had a new baby heifer, so we went back to look. It was a nice husky black one, standing up and taking nourishment already.

However it looked like a bull to me so I lifted its tail and decided that it was indeed a bull. Later Alan swore it was a heifer.

And so it went until mid-afternoon when we were cleaning the stable. Deciding to settle the question once and for all, he took a real good look.....

And, well, we were all right. It had rudimentary female equipment and small, but unmistakable male apparatus as well.

It is not uncommon to find heifers that are born twin to a bull to be infertile because male hormones shared in utero mess up their reproductive systems. They are called freemartins. This calf was obviously a singleton.

I guess we will just pretend that it is a regular bull and raise it for beef.

Wordless Wednesday

Lakota

The last remaining daughter of the best cow I ever bred, Frieland LV Dixie. Dixie was grand champion Holstein twice at Altamont and won numerous other awards that have slipped my mind. I gave her to Liz to show, so Lakota belongs to her.

Lakota is nine years old and is a daughter of Four-of-a-Kind Eland, a bull that has done quite well for us over the years. She has had seven calves, alas mostly bulls, and is on service to Carnation Counseler. Hopefully she caught and will give us a heifer, but you simply never know in this business. Every thing is a gamble with no guarantees. 

Backyard and Barnyard Spring Summer 2012

1)       Red-tailed hawk

2)       American kestrel

3)       Turkey vulture

4)       Coopers hawk

5)       Sharp-shinned hawk

6)       Blue Jay

7)       Common crow

8)       Northern flicker

9)       Downy woodpecker

10)   Hairy woodpecker

11)   Chipping sparrow

12)   White-crowned sparrow

13)   Song sparrow

14)   House sparrow

15)   Brown-headed cowbird

16)   Red-winged blackbird

17)   Baltimore oriole

18)   Common grackle

19)   Mallard duck

20)   Canada goose

21)   Common merganser

22)   Great blue heron

23)   Spotted sandpiper

24)   American turkey

25)   Barn swallow

26)   Tree swallow

27)   Chimney swift

28)   Ruby-throated hummingbird

29)   Black-capped chickadee

30)   Tufted titmouse

31)   White-breasted nuthatch

32)   Rose-breasted grosbeak

33)   Northern cardinal

34)   Grey catbird

35)   American robin

36)   Eastern kingbird

37)   Indigo bunting

38)   House wren

39)   Cedar waxwing

40)   Northern mockingbird

41)   Killdeer

42)   Wood thrush

43)   Purple finch

44)   House finch

45)   American goldfinch

46)   Common yellowthroat

47)   Yellow warbler

48)   Eastern phoebe

49)   Willow flycatcher

50)   Great crested flycatcher

51)   Rock pigeon

52)   European starling

53)   Ring-billed gull

54)   Blue-headed vireo

55)   Magnolia warbler
56) Brown thrasher
57) Mourning dove

No exciting rarities here. Birds were seen or heard either from our house, house yard or barnyard. As we overlook a river and are surrounded by woods, pastures and assorted brushy habitats, there are plenty of opportunities. Perhaps the birds we missed are more notable than the ones we saw. Every time I saw a bald eagle I had the puppy on the leash, no binoculars, couldn't get a positive. No pileated woodpeckers until the first day of fall, now they are all over the place. Thought we saw a Merlin several times, always too fast to be sure. 

***Update 2017. Check out the Lincoln's Sparrow, which I didn't recognize back then. Hung out all summer right next to the back door! We are south of their summering range, but I guess they liked it here.

Many birds were seen back in the field, such as Northern harriers, which generally nest here and bluebirds, ditto. Didn't count because they were outside my area.

And so it goes. I wasn't going to count fall and winter this year, but birds abound. Can't resist. Already at 19 and only started a day or so ago.

Alan's Warbler

I have been trying for weeks to get a picture of one of these little guys to no avail. Alan borrows the camera to take a pic of an lbj in the bushes next to us and this one flies right onto the house and starts noodling around for spiders. Doesn't it just figure.

 He did a pretty good job, didn't he? I think I'll let him do my bird photography after this.

We know what we think this is, but positive ID from all you experts wouldn't go amiss. Thanks in advance.

Sunday Stills...Then and Now

Gonna have to go short with this one. No time all week to dig under the cupboard in the dining room for old photos for the "then" part...so here is Ranger Gilan of Northview, then and now. Please take note that in both shots he is having something to say. This is a dog with attitude and a big mouth....but we love him anyhow.

For more Sunday Stills......

The Little Ones

Pumpkin

The river of our lives flows mainly around caring for the big animals, cows, calves, and heifers, and a couple of horses too. Everything there is has to be scheduled around twice daily milkings, thrice daily feedings, cleaning of stables etc. It is such a habit...I have worked in situations where I at least had to feed animals morning and night since I was sixteen...even when I have time off I get restless at 6 in the morning and 5 in the evening.....

However, it is often the little animal tributaries that bring the most fun and drama to our world, payback in triplicate for all that we give them.

The pup, Gil, is a devil dog, bowling people over with his fat, fluffy bum, tossing milking inflations, about the only toy he can't destroy, through the air with gay abandon, endangering all and sundry, and barking at everything and nothing.


However, just a few minutes ago, he managed to get his collar off. It lay on the floor, collapsed and lonely. 

Cat-riona

At first he was astonished to see such a thing. Then he bowed to it, twisted his head all sideways and pawed at it.

Barked at it, nudged it, nosed it, pounced, danced, paraded in circles around it with one foot in the air in case it might run away and need to be smacked down.

It stayed all sullen and grumpy there in a heap though all his efforts until he decided he had gotten all the good out of it and went on his merry way.

 We were hooting and gasping by the time he was done.

And those kitties our logger brought are pips. The little cats are hilarious, spending hours playing in a pile of sand we keep in an empty stall for shoveling on the floor to keep the traction good. There must be ten thousand kitty tracks in it now, from pouncing, digging spaces in which to hide, all the better to jump out and and surprise you, and hours and hours of patty-paw. They are the happiest, funniest kittens we have seen in years.

 Mama is a fine hunter. She wasn't here three days before she was up in the overheads and mows ratting and mousing.....clearly a business cat and good at her job. We like them all a lot.

Yesterday they were missing at evening milking. Normally they are right there waiting for noms and chances to hide in Alan's pockets and drink fresh, hot, milk, and other such fine kitty activities. However, there wasn't so much as a flash of tortoiseshell to be seen anywhere.

I had a sad. I figured mama, who is an enterprising big, black and white cat, had taken the kids and headed back home. Their former location is just a few miles away and cats do what they want to. I called and called. 

No kittehs.


At the end of chores I came in to cook dinner and get things ready for the boss to head off to an auction. Just as I was getting washed up Becky came in and reported that Alan had seen the cats, all up in the overheads with mama. She is starting them young and starting them right I guess. At least they are safe from big cow hooves up there!

National Farmers Day

Cinnamon

Is today. We are celebrating in the usual way...we're farming.

Boss is debating on trying to chop sorghum this afternoon. We have had a lot of rain lately. It is so muddy that he could wind up stuck and do more harm than good. 

It was so darned dry all summer it really didn't get a start and is very short, so he has to weight the risks against potential benefit. A hard freeze is predicted for tonight. You can't feed it for a while after a frost, as it develops toxins that will kill cows, so it's now or much later, or possibly even never. Hate to lose the investment in seed and planting, but also hate to bury tractors. 

It's good stuff though and I sure would like to see how the girls would milk if they got some along with their thrice-daily feedings of green chopped grass.

Anyhow, happy Farmers Day to you all. 

I Can See

Baby brother and his wife cooking at the wedding.

Why so many longtime farm and ranch bloggers have slowed down or stopped lately. There is just so much to do each and every day as we segue into fall and winter that there is barely time to think.

Got to clean the milk house for one thing...a never-ending job, but the inspector is due so it has to be better than usual. The last few plants need to come in before Friday night when a hard freeze is predicted. The suet feeder needs to be filled. Barn cats sure are eager for breakfast this time of year. The door is heavy when opened with big green eyes peering through the screen as they look in urgently.


It's tax time at least here in NY. Scrambling to come up with that pound of flesh, moving stock, dealing with new calves and new mothers, shortened days, getting the heat working properly, selling that big old bull, it never seems to stop. Yesterday the yard was awash in birds again and I couldn't even find time to go out with the camera. I think I've taken about five photos since last week when we went to the cemetery. And they are still in the camera.

Poetry and meaningful prose will be in abeyance until things slow down I guess....they will I think....slow down that is.

Meanwhile, I'll post when I can. Take care.

Bull

I wonder how many cattle are changing hands this week and the next couple to pay property taxes around here.....

Anyhow, I am here to tell you that it is not one bit comforting to be loading a bull of which you are downright afraid and have the stanchion, which has of late confined him, crumble to bits when opened.

I was glad that there was also a neck collar, two chains, and lots of other stuff holding him in and it together.

I am also very glad that he is gone. Kudos to the loading crew, especially the young man on the halter.

I ain't a gonna miss that big red so and so.....

Local Folks Shine at WDE

NY youth wins Merle Howard award. We have bought a couple cows and one bull from this young man's family over the years. Congratulations to all.

Saddened

Shocked and saddened to read this morning of the death of Shayne Walters, Chairman of the county Board of Supervisors. I only met him a few times, but I liked the way he thought, the way he acted on his beliefs, and felt that he was a genuinely nice man. RIP.

Breathtaking Cows

You can see the 2012 Supreme Champion at World Dairy Expo at the link. RF Goldwyn Hailey is some spectacular cow.

Our weekend was spent with cows, that although nothing near the caliber of cows like Hailey, are still pretty special to us. Liz's Dixie Rose had a little shorty heifer Sunday, causing much consternation as she needed to be moved to the cow barn to get treated for impending milk fever.

We brought along all her cohorts and she and the other two springers are in the cow barn, while a shorty we are going to sell and a big old Elevation Pete that isn't that close up are out with the cows. The latter, Blaze, used to run with the cows and I think she is happy to be back out with them.

Then one of the better milk cows, Camry had a calf either yesterday or last night. There is some debate. She came into the barn last night to eat and didn't look like she had had her baby yet, but this morning she was at the barn with a great big Juniper Rotate Jed heifer trotting along at her side. This made us wonder if we had missed an important event somewhere.

She had a Jed last year too, and we bred her back to him because we liked that one, so we are feeling lucky to get another girl.

On a sad, and really rather sickening note, a young woman was charged with inattentive driving for allegedly texting while on the road and hitting a trailer full of World Dairy Expo cows, killing one of them and injuring others.

Sunday Stills...on the Road

Found this nearby

I rarely go much of anywhere so this week's challenge required a special trip. The boss took me over to Evergreen Cemetery where his parents are at rest. It is always a beautiful place and was all the more so in the late in the day, hazy autumn sunlight. We saw pileated woodpeckers, blue jays and great big grey squirrels, plus we found a cannon neither of us have happened upon before. Such tranquility. Such peace.....

For more Sunday Stills.....

World Dairy Expo

I have never gone....odds are I will never get there....but thanks to the wonders of the Internet we crowd around the kitchen table watching classes live and exclaiming. 

"Too posty for me."

"Bulgy fore udder."

"Ooh, look at that one!"

Yeah, you can watch too, right here. And there are archives of all the previous videos right here.

Enjoy, but just so you know, these things are worse than potato chips. You can't watch just one and if you get sucked into that live feed, forget about it. Don't say I didn't warn you.