Treasure Hunt

Winter just won't let up. It is well below forty today, rainy, sleety sometimes, and just plain nasty. 

A good day to stay indoors.

A good day to treasure hunt.

I have already started three trays of seeds, mostly tomatoes, but a few other odds and ends, including the apple mint I paid a ridiculous price for on Amazon. Tiny package, hardly any seeds, if indeed the chaff sort of stuff in the package was even seeds.....

And no germination. If I hadn't already given them a bad review I'd give them another one. My old plant froze off winter before this one and I simply can't find a new one. Dagnabbit. I had the thing for at least 30 years and moved it several times. We really missed it last year....my favorite mint for mint apple jelly.

Last year we grew some other herbs with the intention of selling them at the swaps. They didn't do too good there so we kept them and discovered that there is no such thing as too much sweet basil....

Thus I went spelunking for seeds. 

Score! Now to plant them. 

Wordless Wednesday

Easter Weekend

We had a sweet Easter with much busyness....Alan cut down the dead box elder behind the house, scaring his mother out of ten years' growth and causing much worry and consternation. 

It was threatening to come down on the roof though, and thanks to the mud we were pretty much out of firewood so.....

It did land right where he it wanted to...and he worked really, really hard chunking it  up and dragging it to the stove with his quad. And he built a great fire and got us all warm and toasty.

He also changed my stuff onto an old phone of his. Nothing wrong with the phone I had, but it was older and didn't do a lot of things that this other one will. Now I can play 2048 on my phone!

And I have a new, improved iBird Pro ap.

But what is it with me and pedometers!!! I have tried several kinds and I walk so softly I don't trigger them. Not that I'm a stealth farmer or anything, but I have nasty arthritis and need to treat the old joints gently.

I was hoping that he could put a pedometer ap on this phone, and I could finally set fitness goals and do better for myself. He has one on his and walks like 8000 steps a day.

No luck, I walked almost all the way around the heifer pasture yesterday, plus lots of short trips out to bird, going up and down the stairs and all...

And the darned thing, at the end of the day, said that I had taken 7 steps. Back to the drawing board I guess. 

Still, I like the "new" phone....it does stuff.....

The kids took a lamb with them to Easter at the other grandma's too. They lost one of the Blackface, but the other needed to be fed at noon so they took him and his bottle along and he spent the day on the porch...

There is something fitting about a lamb at Easter.

Cornbread for the Living

My youngest brother, ever one for adventure and innovation, has always beein into old engines and the machines they run.

He called me Sunday to ask if I wanted any of the cornmeal that he ground using these old farm tools. 'Why, not?' I thought, so he sent some that he made from whole grain corn last week.

Yesterday I made a double batch of cornbread with it, and all I can say is, good thing I took a photo before the locusts descended. Guess I will be making another batch today. 

We had it last night with leftover Easter ham and a little butter and maple syrup.

Yum.

Outstanding in his field

And speaking of maple, I kept smelling a sweet, warm, scent yesterday when we were out walking fence...kind of like hot cotton candy at the fair.

I couldn't see anything in bloom and wondered for a little bit what it might be. Then I realized...the box elders, members of the maple family, are already in bloom. This will probably mean an awful short tapping season alas, but they sure do smell great. 

Except to Liz, who is allergic to maple tree pollen.

He is Risen

Happy Easter to all.

Sunday Stills...100+

The old Johnstown Court House

This week's challenge is things over 100 years old. Not hard to do in this area, where the Revolution is as close as hundreds of historical sites everywhere you travel. We hunted up a couple. 

The weather vane

Johnson Hall

Home, sweet home, well over 100 years old

For more Sunday Stills......

A Dream come True

Since I met the boss and came back to this valley where some of the happiest times in my childhood were spent I have dreamed of being able to stand near the river and photograph the conventions of birds that occur in winter and spring.

Hoodie in good company

However, the busy traffic off the Thruway and the narrow, steep, river bank made doing so downright dangerous, if not illegal. I have spent plenty of time in the parking lots on the other side of the road, as have a number of other birders, if the people you see standing outside cars with binoculars and cameras is anything to go by. However, it is hard to see down into the river from there. 

This block of ice was speeding down the river in the racing current
the geese seemed to think they were all that and then some

Yesterday the snow was melted enough and the river opened up enough to go down to the new observation/boat docking spot the village put in and look at the hordes with binocs and camera....and yes, the old Bushnells with the broken eyepiece work just fine if you are the sort who only looks through one eye of binoculars anyhow.

Lesser Scaup (with hoodies)

There were swarms of geese, a nice assortment of gulls, and good ducks. Hooded Mergansers, Lesser Scaup, and such. I constantly see flocks of small, fast ducks hurtling up the river, but I am just not good enough on ducks to id them from up here at the house. They are just speedy brown blobs. It was nice to ID at least a couple.

I am hoping to get the boss to take me down at least once a week until they shut the dams to see what is hanging out down there. 

Good Friday

It is a good feeling to reflect on the reason for this day and the coming Sunday of Celebration, as the valley awakens from winter and the warming air seethes with birds and smells of earth and last year's leaves.

It is impossible not to feel great gratitude for all we have been given and so we do. 

Hamb and Jamb and Lamb a Lot

The young shepherdess

Devoted to their mama....these will not be dog sheep for sure

Notice the river in the far background...not even an open channel yet!

Daddy's little lamb

96 Days

The weather folks are saying that it has been that long since the temperature in our region hit fifty degrees. Even yesterday, with the bright, bright sun, migrants pouting in like a wave over the land, and all the beauty that we associate with spring, it didn't get anywhere near that mark.

A few minutes outside without a heavy coat was plenty enough for sure.

Today we are supposed to hit that fifty milestone. If the wind isn't blowing hard enough to defeat the finest clothespin that is going to feel pretty nice.

To give you an idea of how late our spring has been so far, the Daffodils that Grandma Peggy planted near the house foundation are nowhere to be seen! They normally pop out a few shoots as early as January and certainly by March they would be a couple inches high.

I cut my fingers digging down into the soft earth right at the corner of the house...nothing...

I hope they are still down there somewhere.

Kickin' Butts and Takin' Names

Geese coming down the valley, taken looking at our place from across the river
That white triangle below the distant mountain is our Hickory Tree Field on Seven County Hill

I didn't want to come in this morning when it was Daisy walking time. In fact I went back out while she had her breakfast to fill the feeders and linger.....and linger.....

It is deadline day, year end tax time, and not bird watching, sunrise slurping, gobble-up-the-outdoor-glory time.

However....malingering and procrastinating are arts I have long perfected.

As always, when I walked away from the feeder the local birds, plus all the blackbirds that have been arriving daily, descended on the stump feeder the boss made me and began to hoover up the seeds.

Down came one of the lovely male cardinals we have enjoyed all winter.

Wham! An LBB, that is little brown bird, slammed out of the tree and nailed him.

He left in a flashing flurry of ruffled feathers. The little brown stinker proceeded to peck and nip and stomp everything that came while I watched. The light wasn't the greatest, but from inside the house I finally saw that diagnostic stripey breast and central breast spot.

Song Sparrow. First of the year. Usually they stay all winter, but this year has been so bad I haven't seen one since freeze up. Several of them nest around the house and barnyard every summer, hosting far too many Brown-headed Cowbird young, alas.

I'll bet he figures this is HIS yard and everybody else better get outta town. Now if only a Carolina Wren would come.

Another look at our land from the hills above Fonda

The boss pointed out yesterday that it has been just a year since we sold the cows. I try not to think about it and to just live this new life of scrambling to pay taxes on the land and watching the birds come in and the baby grow.....and the new ventures the kids are taking up. 

Even the migrants have learned to wait for the feeder lady mornings..took them about a day to find out about it.

Lake Sturgeon in NY

Lake Sturgeon

Road trip Saturday to Bass Pro in Utica. They have the most impressive fish tank there, full of large, fat, sassy individuals of all sorts of native fish.

Alan suggested I take the camera into the store with me, and I was glad I did, as there were all sorts of opportunities to take pictures of all these cool fish.

I enjoyed the big catfish, the various trout and salmon, crappies, sunfish and other critters, but I was enthralled with the Lake Sturgeon. They are just not something you see every day.

I was raving about it to Al at the firearms counter and a nice young store employee began to tell me about the sturgeon in Onieda Lake. Of course they are protected, and he said that they have become so successful that it was hard not to accidentally catch them when jigging for walleye.

He also told us about modern stocking programs and how successful they had been.

It was fun to talk to this knowledgeable young man and to come home and learn about these interesting fish.

Sunday Stills...Rivers and Creeks

Most of the water around here has been frozen for a while, although things are beginning to open up a bit. The river is still largely ice-covered so we went down the other afternoon to take some pics of the converging water fowl in the open bit in town.

Do click and enlarge to see the many species of birds

There are many species of birds hanging around there. Great Black-backed Gulls, Herring Gulls, Ring-billed Gulls, Canada Geese, Mallard Ducks, a single Lesser Scaup, Common Mergansers, many sorts of blackbirds and American Crows, Bald Eagles, and lots more.

It was dark and snowing, but the birds didn't care

We didn't see all of these, but there were a lot of them to see. It is as if there are two rivers this time of year...the river of water, mostly still iron clad in ice...and the river of birds, moving ever more north.

The one that got me

One of the geese left me a nice reminder not to stand under water fowl when they are flying by....had to race home to the washing machine. I guess you are truly a birder when you can get crapped on by a large goose and not really care all that much.

For more Sunday Stills.....

A river of ice, where the water seeps out of our slate banks

It's Lambing Season

And Northview has more bum lambs...which is fine with me. I like sheep.

Wanna share my bink?

These new babies are Scottish Blackface, and the cutest lambs I have ever seen. They look like stuffed toys...too cute to believe they are real.

At least it is warm enough for this lot to live in the barn. They have the softest wool you can imagine...and Peggy is wildly a fan.

When she went to the farm where they were born yesterday she went wild when she saw all the dogs and sheep. She is a farm girl for sure. 

Cat for size and scale comparison....the infamous Kiwi...you've heard of fruit bats?
She's a fruit cat.