Oh, Bull

A couple of weeks ago we turned Bruce, Broadway's last year's bull calf, in with the four heifers. He has always been very quiet.

Frankly, I am not crazy about the quiet ones...bulls that is....because you tend to get complacent around them, and then bad things happen.

Bruce has been a little off the past week so the boss went into the pen to doctor on him, got it done, and turned to leave. The little bull instantly attacked him, drove right into him with his head and nearly put him on the ground.

I was hobbling across the  barnyard in my usual lame-footed gait and saw it all.

The boss hollered, "Bring me a stick!", but by the time I got there, the bull had gone after him again, and he had grabbed him by the head, turned him into the gate and got him to stop.

Yowsa! He is just a little bitty bull. He has always been very calm and timid. But wow!

Next time we handle him he is going to get a ring in his nose if I have any say about it.

Of course, his behviour is pretty understandable. A bull is a bull is a bull. I have been violently attacked by day-old calves when they feel threatened or frightened. And getting medicine is probably scary. 

But the barnyard rules have changed now. No going across without a stick when the young stock are out of the pen. And not the plastic water pipe we usually use to deter violent stock either. Noisy, but totally harmless. Nope, this requires a real stick!

Somebody's Watching the Calendar

I asked Alan to hold my camera and he asked me to smile

Normally the equinox passes without much involvement from the weather. The sky does not keep a calendar.

However, yesterday, the last day of summer, was gloriously summery. Even late in the evening when the sun was nearly gone from the sky, the air was balmy and soft, almost liquid with sweet, gentle warmth. A really nice day for Sundae on the Farm and a nice day for birding and such. Alan sat with me on the porch for a while, just talking and watching the catbirds and phoebes fly by. 

Made for a sweetly poignant end to summer. 

Then this morning we awoke to cold, scudding clouds, and bristly winds, raking the seed heads of the done-for-the-year rudbeckia, and tossing the cottonwood like a champ. The sky was lit from before dawn until the sun was high with the weirdest light you could imagine.

It was a nearly perfect segue from summer to fall, with no interval at all in between.

The late blight, which has decimated nearly everyone's tomatoes, has finally come herre. I can't complain, as we have picked a lot of tomatoes, but I hate to see the end of the harvest. Homemade sauce is such an asset in the winter. I season it when I make it, with fresh herbs off our plants, which I chop right up in the food processor with the tomatoes. Then when we add it to spaghetti sauce or soup in the winter, there is a taste of summer in every bite.

And with the cold and wild, wet wind comes inertia. I need to do stuff.

I don't want to.

Sunday Stills....Orange

Orange milk mustache

Orange bull

Orange dog, looking for trouble

Orange wheelbarrows for picking pumpkins

Orange pumpkins

Orange Camaro, orange skid steer, young man creating orange milk mustache

Orange flowers

Orange center

Orange squash

For more Sunday Stills.....

Road Trip....Bellinger's Orchard

Alan took me to visit our favorite orchard this morning, and then for a little drive around the countryside.

Apples

Lots of fun,tasty apples, cider donuts, it was great. Alas there are no photos of the donuts, because we ate them. If you go to Sundae on the Farm, stop by on your way....... 

More apples

The kind we bought

Maple products

Palatine Cheese, made by some other good friends of ours

Montgomery County Sundae on the Farm

Will take place tomorrow at the Dygert Farm 243 Dygert Road, Palatine Bridge NY.

It starts at noon and will run until 4 PM with wagon rides, face painting, a farmer's market, live animal exhibits, tours of the milking parlor, the giant free ice cream sundae (while supplies last....which is usually as long as they need to) and much, much more.

Don't miss it! 

Directions: To reach the event from the west head east at the intersection of St Hwy 80 & St Hwy 5, for .5 miles, then turn left on Dygert Rd. From the east, at the intersection of St Hwy 10 & St Hwy 5 head west 2 miles, and then turn right on Dygert Rd.

Magic 8-Ball Tomato

When she was little we called her "Miss B". She picked out and purchased the seeds for the German Orange Heirloom tomatoes and helped me plant the seeds last spring.

When I opened this one for a sandwich I saw that it was calling her name.

A Fingernail Moon, Many Goose Kind of Morning

The driveway cottonwood sings his death song and dances his last dance. Hear him rushing and rustling, all urgent in the chilly wind. He bears cold truth on singing shoulders and renders unto autumn what it earns.

Oh, there are tomatoes grinning gold and red all on the ground. And beans blushing and squashes swelling.

And a thousand blazing blackbirds sit, creaking, in the honey locust.

But don't misremember cottonwood song. He sings of things impending.

On hot summer thunderstorm days he sings of fear of lightning.

And beats a racing leafy counterpoint to the rumbling and the flashing.

Like the heartbeat of the weather.

Watch his top to gauge the wind, its speed, direction, 

The depth of its intent.

But now, alas, he is letting go of green and bringing on the long dark cold.

I will close my ears and listen only to the Carolina Wren. Bright soldier of good cheer, he is singing on the shady porch, lighting the air like a flying candle.

Slow down, old autumn, and linger warm and cozy. Keep as close as burdocks to your sister spring and bring her this way quickly....

Thank you, that is all.

***Listen and you can hear the geese in the background under the din of the assorted blackbirds

Birthday Week

Happy Birthday, Mom, hope you have a fantastic day.

Love you!

Happy Birthday Gramps

Yeah, and one of your little grandbabies shares your day, so a big happy birthday to her too.


Hope you catch some Zzzzzs on your special day, as I know you are tired from cleaning pens and splitting firewood yesterday.

Many Happy returns....love you.....

Lookin' at the Ten Day

Starting cow handling training early

Weather forecast and it looks as if Thursday will be the next chilly one. Never got below forty here in Montgomery County last night, probably thanks to a thick blanket of fog that rolled in some time after I went to bed.

I'm gonna get her

Sure was clear at 10 though, with stars like beacons. Man were they bright! Even down near the horizon they were utterly brilliant. Spent some time on the stair landing just looking....and hoping that it wouldn't freeze.

Ma....I can't crawl yet and she won't come over here....ma........

Every week without frost has its good points for nearly everyone. Corn and soy beans are still maturing across much of the nation. Here in the valley we saw a lot of crops yesterday that would benefit from a few more weeks of growing season to be their best. A hard frost would have turned a lot of grain into silage fit only for cow feed....

I'll try keyboarding instead

Spent yesterday frantically busy between visiting our longtime veterinarian's customer picnic, which was about the best it has ever been, what with great food, and wonderful friends, and lots and lots of serious farm discussion, catching up, and Peggy sharing. Thanks, Midvale for hosting this annual get together for area farm folks.....

And then there was the bringing in of the house plants...always a marathon!....and the picking of a lot of pinkish and whitish and greenish tomatoes. The table covered with them is now joined with two big bowls full. Guess there will need to be another picking Thursday afternoon....and family members and friend NW, I need to share with you. Does anybody want to come and get some?

Ooohhhh....so that's what happens when you press control alt delete.

The yard looks so bare without the geraniums everywhere.....

The boss got a pretty special birthday gift from our boy yesterday too. I won't go into detail, but it is something he has always wanted.....and deer season starts real soon. 

   

No, not this one but......

Sneaky, Sneaky

When we were growing up in this valley it was not uncommon for the first frost to occur during the fair. In fact that was fairly normal.

However, over the past couple of decades it has become much more usual for frost to occur the first or second week of October or even later.

And we have gotten plumb spoiled.

Thus I am utterly not ready for the frost advisory for tonight....at least from some prognosticators. Weather Underground has been saying 40 all day, while other sources are warning of low 30s. Now WU is dropping their low forecast every little while.

I brought some plants in and picked all the ripe tomatoes, but there are so many more. So many plants. So many green tomatoes.

I hope it doesn't freeze.

Sunday Stills....Clouds

Moonset over starlings....with clouds

For more Sunday Stills...

Contrails

More contrails

Storm moving in...with sundogs

Clouds of smoke at the chicken barbecue