Mr. Stinky

Seen across the river yesterday

The boss met us at the milk house door last night with a silly grin on his face. (He went over first to let the cows down in to eat).

We wondered why he was smirking until he said, "Stick your heads in the barn."

And so we did. OMG! You could NOT breathe. Or at least not without gut-clenching, miserable, nose-rending disgust.

You know how there's been a skunk around lately annoying and worrying us? Well, I don't know if he had actually been in the cow stable or if he just left a calling card outside the old silo room door, but he sure had been somewhere nearby and he hadn't been discreet about his personal problem. 

The whole place reeked. We sent Becky to the house, after Alan made a short foray into the stable to turn on all the ventilation fans (turning the whole place into an icebox.) When he came out the aroma was clinging to him. She works in food service, so......

After maybe half an hour of the fan treatment you could stand it in the barn.

Sorta. I felt sorry for Liz, as the worst of it seemed to emanate from somewhere on her side of the place. It wasn't too awful on our side. I mean you could smell it and all, but it seemed to wax and wane like a stinky moon in our normally cow-scented universe.

I don't know why the darned thing is hanging around over there but I sure wish he would take a hint and move along. Meanwhile, it will soon be time to venture over and milk the cows again. I hope for fresher breezes. Maybe this cold snap will freeze his stinky parts.

The Cold

Becky took this shot of box elder bugs working over a dead  wasp

As you probably remember both our furnaces blew up or burned last fall, in a series of disasters I don't ever want to see again.

Alan built a wonderful little coal boiler, but it didn't warm the house because of problems of which we were not aware, such as bent blades on the furnace fan, and explosion damage in places we couldn't see. Thus, although I tended it faithfully and learned all over again how to burn coal, it was a horrible, horrible winter, about the most demoralizing misery I have ever experienced.

We had the outdoor wood boiler refurbished and finally got it back in January. I can't describe to you the relief of not shivering. 

To this day there are problems with the system; we can't get heat to the peripheral rooms and the rest of the place is more than slightly chilly. Still, we are not in danger of freezing to death and that is easy to like.

However, a big topic of conversation here is the poor souls in NYC and NJ still impacted by hurricane damage. We had electricity. Although the little heaters that our wiring could sustain didn't do much they did something. I ran the shower every morning to let a little warm steam into the house and turned the electric oven on a few times a day to warm the kitchen a little.

We routinely work outdoors so we have warm clothing and know how to wear it. We learned long ago of the virtue of filling a two-liter soda bottle with hot water and tucking it inside your snuggly blankie when you are sitting in your refrigerated home.

In the city they have none of these things and probably do not have the clothing for the situation either. How are they surviving!?! They have no electricity and NO heat.

There are babies, elderly, sick and so on. Many of them don't have and can't by law have any way to protect themselves from "goblins", the looters, the bad people who will take advantage of their helplessness. At least we were and are armed.

The cold makes you sluggish and slows your brain and brings on fear and sadness. I pray that heat and light and comfort and safety are restored for our neighbors to the south, the sooner the better.

Thank You Milk

I'm not sure how many sixty-year old women could withstand a full force, apex of the swing kick from a 1300+ pound cow, without significant damage...... I did just that this morning though, and although I have a dent and a bruise and they heard the crack all the way over on the other side of the barn and came running, I think I will be okay. At least I finished milking and chores and am not limping much more than usual.

I blame the milk I have drunk at almost every meal, almost all my life. I also thank the kind Lord that she caught me in the best possible spot, mid-way up my thigh, so no joints or tender bits were damaged. She even missed my cell phone.

I am not too happy with the cow though. She has always kicked out behind at men, although not usually women and we handle her accordingly, not scraping up behind her or working on the gutter chain without putting her outdoors first. 

However, Becky and I have milked her for years....she is seven years old...and always been kind and gentle with her. I spoke to her as I was walking behind her. I was watching for her so I wouldn't get kicked, staying close to the wall, but she spun sideways and nailed me for no obvious reason other than that she could. 

The boss will be milking her for a while I guess.

Sunday Stills....Up Close

I love macros, but the constant wind this week mostly drove me indoors for this one.

For more Sunday Stills.......

The sun, that tantalizing old tease, is peeking in and out a bit today, while the wind asks me if I really, really, really want to take some macro shots while its buddy is shining.....after what feels like weeks of gloom and doom...Well, yes I do, but it sure doesn't want me to.

Everything is bobbing and jiving to the rhythm of its breath and all the best shots are blurs. It's cold enough to make you want to head indoors, but it's hard to leave the light. Even the prosaic old box elders are silvered by the passing light, and look plumb valuable up there in the breeze.

Seems like November leapt the fence this year and galloped all over October. We haven't seen the sun in quite a while.


So even though this isn't really a nice day, after recent weeks it looks pretty good.

And it IS an invigorating breeze.....

Shenanigans

Take that you cad!

Zombie Dogpocalypse

Airs Above the Kitchen

Buckin' Junction

Smile

Butter Wouldn't Melt

It Happens Every Time

Or at least it often has. I wasn't even going to attempt the Farm Side yesterday. Too much week for the number of days available to put stuff in.

However, I had what I thought was a sorta clever idea while setting up calf milk in the barn yesterday morning. My brothers, cousins, and I grew up on stories of a horrible hurricane that trapped my father and grandfather on Long Island, where they were working in an engine plant, and wrecked NYC.

I would write the story as if it were happening now...as if it were Sandy...and then segue into the actual recent storm, for a comparison that would be stronger because at first I didn't explain which hurricane I was describing.

I even called Mom and Dad and interviewed them for details and asked the boss about it. He is four years older than I and actually remembers it. I was two at the time.

The hurricane was Carol in 1954.

I felt pretty self-satisfied when I was done and submitted it.

Then last night on Fox News O'Reilly or somebody like that...I was reading Winter of the World (which is btw, well-written and riveting) and not paying any attention...compared Sandy to several hurricanes in the early fifties, including Carol.

Dagnabbit. By the time mine runs on Friday it will be an old story. Is this an example of fools thinking alike or the other thing? Dunno, anyhow, it has happened a dozen times with farm magazines too. I have to laugh.

Wicked Wednesday

Happy Halloween

Crazy Glad

That Alan is working up here in the Capital Region rather than in NYC, where he normally is. And so sick and sorry for the city. Some of the most horrific photos whirling around Facebook are of places he was working as recently as a few weeks ago. Bad enough up here but...

As you can see we came through the storm all right. Milked a couple hours early last night in case we lost power, which we didn't but a LOT of people did. It is still too dark to see what else happened out there, but I don't think too much.

Really, right here, where we usually catch the very worst of winter storms coming up the valley, last night wasn't much worse than a normal winter storm, only warmer, for which I am most grateful.

Sorry on the other hand for the loss of life and devastating property damage in other areas. I actually sat up for a while watching TV with the boss..sort of stupefied with horror at what was happening in the city...

Hope wherever you are, you are warm and dry and sheltered.

Prayers for my dad would be appreciated. He is having another surgery today. Thanks

Waiting for Sandy...and Daylight

After a weekend of intense attention to the storm we wait. What will we get from the potential mess offered by the storm? What will our friends in other states get?

Well, I hope not much, but some of the latest maps show it pointed right our way. Meanwhile I am waiting for daylight before I walk the old dog because he seems to be leaning toward just wandering away willy-nilly.

The boss will get out early and chop if he can. Not much more to be done. We let the stove go out in case we lose power. The damper is supposed to shut it off, but I don't trust it and after last winter without heat I would rather be chilly now than burn the stove up again and suffer that misery.

And so, I hope that you all are safe and out of harm's way and that the storm isn't as bad as threatened. Take care.

Puppy Love

Darn You Bambi

C'mon Marge, the coast is clear

The boss is pretty sure the Amish are coming on our posted land to hunt. This probably means the deer herd is getting thinned, fast, hard, and out of season.

I see you, but you don't scare me a bit

It also means that such deer as are still standing upright have moved to the house and environs.

Om, nom, nom, if you used weed killer on your lawn I wouldn't find all these goodies to eat

It also means, although perhaps not through direct cause and effect, that we are overrun with ticks. These photos were taken from the back porch, midday. I hooted and hollered and made silly talk while banging the wall to try to get some action shots.

None of them did more than lift their heads while chewing whatever that is that they are eating.


Then Alan ran after them like a wolf.

Run away!!!!

Then they got shifting. Don't they realize that while obeying the law of the land and waiting for season to open, we DO like venison?

Somewhere a Spotted Owl

Is wondering what happened to the tree he slept in last night.

Ready for Sandy?

Hard to know whether you are ready or not. The obvious things, such as bottled water and bathroom tissue can be taken care of today. We live high on a hill, out of reach of most of the effects of flooding, although too much water interferes with our ability to green chop for the cows. During previous floods our road has closed early and often so we must plan on that happening again this time.

Loss of power is a major issue. We need to be able to extract the milk from the cows, promptly twice a day, and need to cool that milk. If the cows are not milked, best case scenario, they will dry off and stop giving milk. Worst case they will sicken and die.

Hand milking is a last ditch, bare possibility. We don't have as many cows as we used to...too many sold for taxes and such over the past few years. However even milking just one high producer by hand would be a painful experience I don't care to enjoy, especially with the acute arthritis in my thumbs. I'd do it if I had to mind you, but I don't want to have to. 


The cows wouldn't like it either. They don't like change, including change from their accustomed machines to clutching human claws.



Thus we ordered a load of diesel for today so we can keep the tractor running and use the generator if we must. We have enough hay in the mow, although we don't want to be feeding our winter supply now, and we just got a load of grain. Of course it is delivered from bin to barn by an electric auger, but the generator will take care of that, or there is a plate on the bottom of the bin for clean out from which we can extract feed if need be.

Other than that all we can do is wait. Wish the boss could get the second forage wagon fixed so he could have two loads of chopped feed ready, but I guess that is not to be.

We will hold good thoughts for our friends and neighbors in low-lying lands, who lost so much last year in the flooding. At least the canal corporation is taking action early and lowering the river, first to barely navigable levels, and then even lower. They are warning folks to get their boats out. Now if Gilboa holds and is managed for the good of the downstream folks instead of for NYC maybe the area will be okay.

Bird-mazement

A busy bunch of pine siskins took over the yard for a bit. Surely the earliest I have ever seen them. They were stupid-tame and snugged right up for photographs. Hope they are not predictors of the weather to come.

Bird-citement

White-breasted nuthatch

I know, I know, I am supposed to write about dairy farming, but birds are close to my heart. And on the farm it's the same old, same old. Feed the cows, milk the cows, pay the bills, then do it all again. Not that I mind it or anything, but there isn't much new to say about it.



However, a Facebook friend in Western NY says evening grosbeaks are turning up in banding traps out there. I haven't seen one in years so maybe this bodes well for the Christmas bird count.

A red-breasted nuthatch showed up on our feeder tree this morning. Haven't seen one in a while....well, we usually see them on the Christmas bird count, but not here in my honey locust tree.

We also are seeing purple finches every day and getting yellow-rumped warblers in the shrubbery. Thousands of red-winged blackbirds are hanging around, as noisy as if it were spring. I am pretty sure I just saw a few dozen horned larks fly over with a flock of them. I'll be keeping my eyes open. Not that horned larks are uncommon, but to count them from the backyard would be something.



I am wondering if this will be a winter for irruptions and interesting birds. So far it is looking that way.

Holy cow, holy cow!!! A whole flock of pine siskins at the feeder now. This is one crazy year!

Squash

Some friends recently gave us a gigantic neck pumpkin.....sort of the equivalent of a butternut squash on steroids, with a major curl. It is so large that it can barely be contained on our largest cookie sheet for baking.

I figure after it bakes and I clean it out of its skin and mash it and freeze it, I will have enough squash for three or four good Thanksgiving dinners and maybe a couple of evening side dishes as well. We love winter squash with butter and maple syrup. We will not run out any time soon.

I saved some seeds.

Good Morning

From gloomy Northview. This would be post was interrupted by the need to remove a tick from a bone-headed dog. He discovered that old ladies who worked in a veterinarian's office for eight years still have it when it comes to holding dogs still. He didn't enjoy the discovery but.....the tick is gone.

Rivers of Milk

With kittehs to drink them.

Quittin' the "Farm"

How I feel after wasting my time with this game

No, no, not Northview Dairy farm, although if milk prices don't outpace feed and fuel costs at some point that day may come, as it already has to far too many family dairy farms. 

Notice that now that the milk to feed ratio is hitting record lows over and over again, the powers that be have decided that it is no longer a meaningful measure of profitability. Yeah, right.

Actually I removed the game Farmville 2 from my daily round of playing pointless games. (I like pointless games for the predictable success. I need that in my life.)

However, there's pointless, but entertaining, and then there is pointless plus plumb shamefully aggravating.

FV2 had the latter covered with room to spare. Shameless and never-ending requirements that you pester people for stuff. Sneaky inclusion of people who obviously don't waste time in such a manner on all your begging lists.

Glitches that interrupted game progress occurring daily with no way to contact support and no useful response if you actually got somebody.

When they stole my cow (a longhorn by the way that kicked out milk and cheese on a regular basis...why on earth don't they do their homework?) and they wouldn't give it back, I quit.

It is so refreshing. I know they won't miss me but.....well, gee, I don't miss them either.