Just Make Yourselves at Home

And I don't mean on my rosy red lips

Sunday Stills...the Color Yellow or Wild Flowers

Look closely, there's a Goldfinch in there

Do you see him now?

Not much in the way of wild flowers around here, yet, although the daffodils are coming up. There was plenty of yellow and lots of flowers around last summer though

For more Sunday Stills.....

The current state of Upstate NY spring flowers, alas

Siblings Day

Was yesterday or so they say. I kind of missed it being caught up with poor little Peggy being sick and all.

However, I have the best. Siblings that is.... a brace of wonderful brothers, who are truly good men. Got to give my folks credit for raising gentlemen who choose to do good in the world...to be honest, caring and giving people. They have true compassion and are both much better people than I can claim to be.

I am grateful that our son is growing up so much like them.

I know I'm lucky to have them but I don't tell them so often enough no doubt.....

Love you Mike and Matt....you are the best.

Dairy Markets and Good Neighbors

Several of our neighbors are losing their milk market....just being told, "We don't want your milk any more. There's too much on the market". 

These are good folks, who work hard for our community, provide scholarships to students....Liz won one for college, which helped a lot...and create jobs for dozens of people. The economic contribution to our area made by these farms is immeasurable. Plus they grow a LOT of food. Each farmer in the US feeds 155 folks..... losing these farms will matter

Although many answers to this milk marketing problem spring quickly to mind, the reality of the situation is that most of them won't work.

They can't really sell milk to their neighbors.

It is for the most part illegal and dangerous to sell raw milk. It is possible to jump through a lot of hoops and do it. However, just one sick person or one high count and the farmer is in trouble fast.

It is possible to process, bottle, and sell your own milk. Not easy or cheap to start up and no guarantee of success, but some people manage. 

I can't imagine how they find time to add milk processing and marketing and delivery to their daily work. Dairy farming is by nature all consuming. It demands pretty much everything the farmer can give and then asks for more. Animals and crops demand schedules, but they don't respect them in the least.

Work hard all day getting crops in or getting things cleaned up or fixing machinery? Too bad, that first calf heifer isn't going to wait to have her baby because you are tired. You can just stay up all night and do it all again tomorrow. That top producing cow isn't going to wait until you are rested to go off feed and need you and your vet. An unexpected high count isn't going to wait for a better day to send the milk inspector around to your door, clipboard in hand, and expecting the problem to be fixed yesterday.

There are always unexpected events adding to the farm schedule, which is of necessity already crowded beyond imagining. 

When I was a kid visiting my dairy farming aunt and uncle or playing with neighbor kids who lived on farms I swore I would never have anything to do with dairying. Imagine having to milk twice every day! Every single day. Every Christmas. Thanksgiving. Birthdays. Sick days. Having to milk cows when you have the flu or a broken foot or a concussion from a pipe to the head. (All of which I have done.)

Not this kid. No way, no how....or so I thought. Of course we all know how that turned out.

Anyhow, there are no easy answers for these good, strong, farm families. 

We lost our own milk market...twice...both times were nightmares of hundreds of phone calls, hours of begging, calls to legislators, Farm Bureau, anyone who might somehow give us a hand. Eventually we found places on trucks for our milk, but it wasn't easy or fun.

I hate imagining what our neighbors are going through.

The cows don't stop making milk just because the milk truck isn't picking up any more. They have to be milked without fail. And the bills don't stop either.

I hope they find a market and fast. 

This Nest

The boss spotted it the other day when we were walking the fence. Not a squirrel drey...crow maybe? I wonder. 

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.