Faster than a Speeding Bullet

Grazing in the rain...just after dawn

Life is taking lessons from Superman around here, changing so fast we feel like we are spinning in circles, trying to catch a glimpse of our world as it flashes by. Looks like the boss will be taking an off-farm job for the first time since he was a kid, except for auctioneering of course...just for a few days, for a good friend...but a huge change.

If all things work out we will be getting a new calf probably this weekend. Haven't heard from Al yet about the details, but I guess he is buying one for the new beef operation.

Speaking of beef, you should see those little bulls and steers go for the new-made hay. Heifers too. Even the old cows go nuts for it and they have all the grass they can eat, all night and all day, out in the pasture.

Meanwhile, we are still planting garden. Got to replant two rows of beans after I get over to Sunnycrest for some new seed. I always grow a Dutch bean, Slankette, or Slenderette, depending on who's selling it. Must be my seed got old, because not a single one germinated. And then it's on to squash and kohlrabi and radishes and, and and...

 Most days I pot up an herb seedling or two for the next poultry and small stock swap.

But it's raining again today. Have a good one. 

Just Family Stuff

Four generations, Montgomery, Friers, Schultz and Shultz

Between hay we visited Mom and Dad yesterday.

And got some photos. Peggy is teething and was not in a particularly good mood.

Great Grandpa of the Peggy person

Hay

Black locust trees in bloom

Some nice bales made this weekend, with help from most everybody. It is so soft that I carried a bale, while wearing shorts, and didn't tear up my legs. Sure smells good.

Brown Thrasher. I accidentally pished out a pair
while chasing warblers and they weren't happy with me much.

A bale fell out the mow door and the two cows and Cinnamon went nuts. Mind you they spend all day and night on grass that used to feed fifty head...and then they come in and go crazy over baled hay.

You should have seen the calves. Most of them are too young to have ever tasted freshly baled, early, first cutting before. As soon as I started feeding out a bale they were practically jumping out of their stalls. And yet they had enough haylage left from morning to probably last another day. The hay smelled just that good.

Squashed beetle....Six-spotted Tiger Beetle, I think

Very nice....I don't think there is a farmer alive that doesn't love feeding animals, and then watching them eat. And we have more to feed them this morning.

Serendipity and a Great Showman

Liz 'n' Jade's horse, Sunny, who now lives here

We used to hit every fair we could drive to between milkings. When Liz was a baby we happened to be at the Morris Fair when legendary horseman, Dick Sparrow, stopped and put on an amazing show with an 8-horse hitch of Belgians.

It was a day to remember. From flying at a fast gallop, up and down the narrow race track, to docking the wagon, he did everything you could imagine doing with a pair and then some, only he had eight. Too bad Liz is too little to remember and digital photography wasn't available, so we have no pictures. Here is a video though.

Sunday Stills...In the Air

Ruby-throated Hummingbird

This challenge was a lot of fun, and took me all week. There were bubbles discussed and I went so far as to purchase some bubble stuff, but we were just too busy to play with them.

Male Bobolink,
member of a mating frenzy for the record books...
maybe fifty pairs in one field

However, the birds were busy in the air all week and I did capture a couple of them.

Red-winged Blackbird upset about my presence in our hay field

For more Sunday Stills....

Two male Bobolinks fighting over a female.
There were as many as five for each one.

A Near Disaster

The boss started baling today. I had a feeling that I ought to go up on the hill where he was working...so I finished up what I absolutely needed to do, put a bottle of water, the camera and binoculars in a tote and headed out.

There was so much to see! I was hoping for bobolinks, not having seen any for my count this year. Before I even crested the hill into the hay fields I could hear them. We must have fifty pairs just in the 30-acre lot. What a wondrous singing and dancing they made.

Alas, as I went up, I met the boss coming down. Problems. There are always problems, but especially the first few trips. Since I was already up there, I decided to wander around for a while and see what there was to see.

Hey there, honey, wanna see my etchings?

Then he came back and started baling. It went well for a few bales and he got mostly out of sight of where I was waiting to take a pic of him coming back..

Suddenly I saw him coming, stomping across the field. For a while I just thought he was mad because of a breakdown. Then I saw that he had blood streaming down his face. He had been trying to unjam a bale that got stuck and the bale kicker released and hit him right in the head!

He hurried off down the hill, leaving me way behind and by the time I made it down off the hill...I can walk all day, but not very fast, Jade and Becky had him all cleaned up and he was reading on the computer.

It is a nasty wound, but he was really lucky. A few inches and it might have killed him.

Sure glad it didn't. They are back up there now, trying to get the thing working....

Somebody Stop Me

The view from the kitchen window. Those stakes mark garden rows

If I post too many pictures of the greenery and wildlife around here. We are surrounded by so much that you just can't help noticing.

For example, we were resting a bit before afternoon chores yesterday. While putting my shoes on to walk Daisy, I glanced out the window. (After all the bird feeders are right there.)

"Tell me I'm not seeing what I think I'm seeing."

The boss got up to look too. 

Tempting huh?

Yep, a woodchuck on top of a fence post. Right over the garden. Those stakes in the photo mark the rows. No doubt he was counting the peas and beans to make sure there are enough to fill his larder. I actually thought about getting the pellet gun and burning his butt just a little, but instead I took the camera out.

Fool thing was so tame I walked right up to him before he nonchalantly sauntered down the post and vanished into tall grass.

If you look close you can see the worm changing beaks, so to speak

Since I was already out there I decided to check on the barn swallow nest in the barn behind him. And almost stepped on a gigantic milk snake. Wow, he was a bruiser!

Most of our local snakes are whippy little garter snakes, kind of like thin, green and brown spaghetti. This guy was as muscular as a professional wrestler, shrugging big shoulders through the grass, which bristled in his wake. He was still too quick for a photo though.

Seems as if every time you go out in the barnyard or walk out on the lawn you see some new critter. This is both good and bad.


The kids built a new hen coop in the barn you see behind little Chuckie there. They offered to build a flight coop for the Peahen. I am sure she would really like one...but I am concerned about the many foxes and coyotes.....

Taken through the kitchen window...so kind of blurry

Playing Catch Up

*****this was written for yesterday, but it was just too hectic here to get it proofread so......

The garden  should really be all planted by now, but this is a late spring.

Thus we are doing what the title says, playing catch up. The boss and I put in fifteen tomatoes that Becky and I started way back when and TWO zucchettas this morning. That's right. Only two. Last year we planted ten, and although we made good use of them, we really couldn't eat that many.....in fact we are still eating on them.

 Speaking, of which, hey Mappy...we have one saved back for you, as promised. Plus one tomato plant for Sean. Plus more herbs than I know what to do with. What was I thinking anyhow?

We turned Cinnamon up the hill with the old cows yesterday. She was out all last summer and pretty much knows the routine.Of course she immediately came into season and was abusing the old cows terribly. We kept her for beef, so that is just another thing to deal with.....

Huge coyote hit by car at the bottom of the driveway. Alan says sixty pounds at least. I knew those tracks we've been seeing in the barnyard weren't from any little puppy.

As I was talking to our boy, who came home last night, while walking out on the long lawn, I happened to glance up....felt someone watching me...and there she was, that same old doe. The boss saw a fawn up in the field yesterday, but this old girl doesn't look as if she has one again this year...time will tell.

My other project for the day is keeping an eBird list of the birds I see today. Up to 28 species so far and a fair number of individuals. Numbers already dropping off from may though.

See ya later, alligator 

Some Favorite Flowers

 

How Now, Black Cow

The girls were bickering World Cup vs. Stanley Cup
I told them that this was the only cup I was concerned about

Moon is giving the boss fits. She doesn't seem to have any physical issues, such as a nicked teat or too many fly bites, but she is kicking him every time he milks her. She is a great big cow, so she nails him every time. And really hard too, not just a casual brush off. Not much fun.

She also doesn't want to come in from the barnyard to get her grain. Lots of green grass out there, why bother? Oh, well, it's always something.

Can't wait until Bama freshens. I thought I was going to be able to milk Moon and take some work off his hands. I am smaller than he is though and have to get even closer. Plus I can't reach the pipeline without a step stool back there. Nobody wants to be up on their toes on a stool while a cow is trying to kick them.

Bama on the other hand is so gentle that she likes to lick the people doing the milking and LOVES to be brushed and scratched and petted. Hopefully she will come through the transition from dry cow to milking mama okay and I can at least milk her. If all goes well, we may need to buy a couple more bob calves to use the milk.....crossing my fingers here. We have four on milk to use up what Moon makes, but they are all plenty old enough to wean...plus she keeps the house and cats in milk. Not a bad cow at all, just mean for some reason.

Da Dog

Ren

Wordless Wednesday

Cow Pictures

Om, nom, nom

For ellie k.

Bama and Moon enjoying the grass

Bama Breeze in all her glory

Housing Boom

This sturdy barn swallow nest is just across the aisle from the robins below

There is a large and rapidly-growing housing development to our east. You can see the cookie-cutter houses from the horse pasture and the McDonald's sign from everywhere. Amish are moving in and subdividing all around us, and there's a racetrack up to our west. We frequently wonder how long this place will stay as farm land after we are gone. Probably not long.

 However, the biggest housing boom seems to be going on right here on the farm.

Last night Becky nearly stepped on a litter of sylvilagus floridanus that were out for their first perambulation of the lawn....just in time for a nibble in the garden, I'll bet. Those newly sprouted peas and green beans...Yum!

And grey fox pups in the driveway....who probably look at the bunnies with that same thought in mind.

Right inside the heifer barn door

The crows up in the hedgerow fledged, but they still defend the area where the nest is. Ditto robins in the heifer barn, robins in front of the house, robins in the lane, robins, robins everywhere. And the song sparrows near the old corn crib have a newly-fledged brood following them around. They get so anxious and scold if we walk near.

At least two grackle nests, one in the blue spruce, one in the cedar by the porch. Barn swallows in the barn...the list goes on. Phoebes in the front yard. Starling nests stuffed everywhere. Something with a big, fat, ball of grass up in the eaves of the heifer barn. Never seen anything quite like that before. Red-bellied woodpeckers up in the cow lane. Many others, obviously nesting, but good at hiding their housing sites. We hear their songs though....

We haven't seen any fawns yet, but I'll bet they are out there. We are overrun by deer near the buildings...all the poaching pressure up in back has them literally right on the doorstep and a herd sleeping in the barnyard. Turkeys are nesting somewhere right behind the house too....we see them every day when they come out...Poults any day now I suspect.

While enduring the sterile wasteland that is winter in the freezing Northeast, it is hard to even remember that all this activity takes place during our short summer months. However, as June swings into Dairy Month and the cows revel in lush green grass, we are reminded hourly how very fertile the land is...growing everything that is needed for the birds and animals that live here...and hopefully some for us as well.

All grown up and flown already. Second brood soon, I'll bet.

Short Stories from a Valley Weekend

Some merchandise going home from the auction the boss sold at last week.
You can't see them, but there are Amish kiddies in those seats. Photo by Liz

If you could see sounds, the dawn chorus would look like a carnival...all lit up and glowing. It sure sounds like one. Picking out the threads of this call and that is a challenge worthy of Sherlock.

 Still pursuing that elusive little flycatcher that sings between the Phoebe and the Willow. Who is he? What is he? A puzzle for sure. And there is enough variation in the empidonax calls out there that there may even be TWO species besides the ones we know for sure.




The male Ruby-throated Hummingbird sleeps on a piece of baling twine on the sitting porch. Such a friendly little fellow. The carpenter bees attack him every time he comes in to feed, so he likes it when we are on the porch and they stay away a bit.

 I am grateful for the tennis racket Alan bought me as a joke back when the bat was coming in the house last winter. It makes a great bee swatter.

Speaking of the bat....I thought we had no bats left until I went out at one in the morning to see if the boy was home. (He is! He is!) Almost caught one of them on the head....him, on my head, I mean. Yowsa! That woke me up.


Asparagus for breakfast. Sauteed in butter. Either you love it or you simply don't, but if you do. WOW.

People give me strange presents...like the heart of a Romaine lettuce...I am easily pleased

A surprise gift of a bag full of goldfish for the garden pond. For joy, for joy. No present could have made me happier. ALL the water lilies....years and years and years worth...froze out last winter, as did the curly-leafed pond weed, an invasive I know, but not a problem in the stock tank I use for a pond. 

The fish add interest to the now barren waterscape. At least the wild yellow iris survived.

Gardening, gardening, gardening. Yesterday potting up herbs to sell or give away. Sweet basil assortment, parsley and marjoram. Plus some pansies, marigolds and geraniums Becky and I grew from seed. Lots more to do when I can find the time.

Daddy's girl

Flirting with Peggy is always important. She has found her hands, and alternates between staring at them in amazement and stuffing them both into her mouth at once. Does all that drooling mean a tooth on the way? I'll betcha.

Some little starlings fall out of the barn roof into Sunny's bucket. Not good for anyone concerned.

Photo by Liz

Diamond gets some time outside, as does Jack.

Diamond in the Sky...no Lucy
Photo by Liz

Sunny and the cows are great buddies and commune across the fence all day. If either horse or bossies are not out the other species is not pleased.

And then the weekend is over. Our boy safely back to DC, Jade and Becky are back to work, and the boss mows the first hay of the year in the Old Spreader Field.