Sunday Stills....Circles

For more Sunday Stills.......

Rain

Not today

None in the forecast until Monday, but a steady drizzle on that which is mowed up in the Thirty-Acre Lot. 

Alas. Glad he didn't mow any more than he did. 

Oh, well, it was pretty much a shakedown cruise for the machinery anyhow......

Wot no Santa Maria?

The Pinta out of Wilmington, Delaware

I am doing my darndest to give that pedometer a workout, so I was at the bottom of the driveway ......walk, walk, walk......looking at little flycatchers and deeming them phoebe.... when Liz rumbled down the hill in the pickup.

She was bound for Cumby's to return a movie and buy some milk.

She told me that Jade had seen some kind of ship tied up in Fonda and suggested I join her since I had the camera anyhow. Maybe we could get some pictures.....so I clambered up in the cab...no mean feat for someone of my limited height and flexibility......and off we went.

The ships were tied up at the state barn where we go to photograph geese every now and then. I was delighted to see my favorite Greylag, which hangs out with the Canadas there....and on the river no less. First time I ever saw it actually swim.

See the Greylag on the far right?

And there they were. Two ancient-looking sailing ships tied up alongside the state tugs and tenders. What a divergence! Modern river boats, all red and white and blue and yellow paint. Two vintage ladies, all dark timber and hard lines.

We hurried home for supper and to look them up. Turns out they are museum ships, said to be the best replicas in existence of the ones Christopher Columbus sailed in search of our wonderful continent. They will be docked in Rochester for tours next week.

There was a welcoming committee on the sitting porch

I am so glad Jade spotted them! Who would expect to see a Caravel in Fonda?

A little goose at sunset

Flower Power

You could make a wedding bouquet just walking along the driveway picking the wild flowers that grow there. 

Good thing because in a couple of weeks we will celebrate 30 years together. We won't have to spend a dime.

Our bouquet on that first day was a surprise provided by a dear friend who is gone now.


 I was so tickled when she gave it to us...all unexpected, thus all the more welcome. Our elopement plans were shared only with my brother, who had to be roped in to milk for me at the farm where I worked, and her and her husband, who went with us. 

We went out for Chinese afterwards...I had never had Chinese before that, having led a sheltered life.

It is the only way to get married.  

After the Storm

I heard that we got over two inches of rain over the weekend. It has been dry. Now it isn't.

Of course, as always, that volume of water flowing down the hills in a short period of time, was rough on the driveway.

All fixed now.

Now to tackled the jungle of weeds that are taking over the gardens.

Fondness

Alas the Riverbank Grapes are about done for the year.
I love the way they smell

They do say that absence makes the heart grow fonder. I hope it's true. The recent hiatus here was caused by our boy being really sick with a bad wisdom tooth and his mommy being too darned worried to feel like writing.

Top Onions are getting their tops.
 I need to start a new pot to use indoors for winter

The culprit was finally removed yesterday, along with one of its mates and he is back to work. Now his worry wort mom can brood about the nasty pain relievers and horrific antibiotics he must take......reading the inserts that come with medicines these days is worse than starting a new Steven King at midnight on Halloween with a storm rumbling in the background and werewolves howling on the hill.

After an April emptying and cleaning the garden pond has finally balanced itself
and is clear.
 First time it's been emptied in ten years or more
because it had such a nice balance of water lilies and pond plants.
Alas two horrible winters in a row killed all but one iris.
That one had to be lifted out by three people and chopped up with and axe before being hauled away by the skid steer.
Maybe a heater this fall....keep my new lilies from going the way of the old ones.
 Nice to see the little fishies

Meanwhile, it has been raining and has turned off cold, shutting down garden work , and leading to the furnace running full blast even as we speak. Here are a few sunny pics from before the weather reversal.....

Water Canna roots

Ponies

Gambit

Jack

Yeah, Jack was invited onto the back porch for a short visit the other evening. Having pretty much seen it all, he was unimpressed. No hay here, ho, hum....

Peggy, however, who was sitting in her highchair nomming some supper, went wild, screaming with joy to see a horse....not quite, but almost....in the house.

She is her mama's daughter for sure.

The kids brought old Deranged Richard into the kitchen once when this was their grandma's house and they thought she wouldn't notice.....

Deranged Richard, teaching the girls about ponies, back in the day

Wake Up Sleepyhead

Unedited...just as the morning was given to us.

A slow-moving cow rising from her bed to meander down to the barnyard gate.

Cardinal talking
Catbird
Crow
Black-throated Blue Warbler
Yellow Warbler
Common Yellowthroat
Willow Flycatcher

And too many more to remember or mention.....

It was just a little foggy and mysterious and more than a little amazing and wonderful.

Liz reported a doe with twin fawns over in the cow barnyard when she went to get hay.....looked brand new. Safety in numbers or safety by farm dogs.....

It is hard not to love this amazing land...as long as I stuff all those horrible memories of winter into the closet along with the down vests and snowmobile pants. 

June and Dairy Month is almost here.

Country of Origin Labeling

These are places where American food is grown

Or COOL.

Are you one of those people? Who read every label and peruse every sticker on every single bag of fruit or package of vegetables or Styrofoam container of sausages to see where the food originated?

I am and I don't regret it one bit.

We have good friends who farm in this area

I want to know that when I serve a bowl of strawberries to Peggy or bite into a crisp Granny Smith that it was grown by American farmers and picked and shipped and processed under American food safety regulations.

Having been a dairy farmer for the majority of my life, working in what may be one of the most regulated of food industries, I have first hand knowledge of what goes into making our food safe....I have been forced by milk inspectors to pressure wash the gutter behind the cows......I know ten thousand ways to clean a bulk tank and keep it that way.

Having been an ag  columnist for 17 years I have learned a lot about what is done to inspect food being imported. There is NO comparison! A lot of food that comes into this country comes in on a sort of honor system...an inspection here and there, but by no means ubiquitous oversight.

It is one thing to import from neighboring nations that also work under stringent rules....but our new food trading buddies are going to be Pacific Rim nations...possibly including..... you know....China....thanks to the TPP

Those stickers and labels are probably going bye-bye. Since the World Trade Organization has once again struck down US COOL laws and Congress is scurrying to comply, I have one simple, homegrown solution to not wanting my apples and chicken to come from China...where we all know feed safety is not exactly paramount.

We are making plans to remove the old cement sink that clutters up the back porch and buy another freezer. We already raise our own beef, turkeys, get venison off our own land, and grow and freeze a lot of vegetables. We get strawberries locally and apples and other things we don't yet grow ourselves.

Black locust in bloom Town of Glen

Once the old sink is gone we are going shopping for another medium-sized freezer. Storage space has been one of the constraints holding us back from growing more of our own....we can fix that.

Jade's grandpa is giving him his rototiller, which makes expanding the gardens quite possible. 

A river flats cornfield in the Town of Glen

We can do this.

And Congress and their donors and their caving in to world interests at the expense of American interests can all go to Hell.

Maybe this little farm can't feed the world, but we can sure go a long way towards feeding ourselves.

Some tasty food stories for your enjoyment and enlightenment:

Donkey Meat recalled
It hasn't worked for Mexico
Or pets

The Chinese stories...horror stories that is....never end.

McDonalds
Yummy....we can get chicken there now
And pork (Meanwhile on American dairy farms water sources are inspected several times a year and water samples pulled and tested by official inspectors)

I could do this all day. The stories of tainted food from countries that will now be our best buddy trading partners and won't have to say so on the packaging are everywhere you care to look. Overseas newspapers are on them like white on rice so to speak. You won't see much here.

Been Farming too Long?

No doubt you've seen that cute little photo of two farm boys in overalls, "You been farming long?"

The little fellows have long since grown up, but the meme is iconic.

Sometimes I get to thinking that it is possible to have been farming too long though.

Like last night.

Things have not been going well recently. Our boy is horribly ill with tooth trouble and hundreds of miles from home. Jade's truck died an unwelcome death, leaving them scrambling for transportation. And on and on. As we all know, there's always something.

Thus last night when I heard a metallic trill as I sat at the kitchen table wishing that it was dark enough to call it a day and go to bed, I was horrified.

OMG, the fan on the refrigerator  freezer is dying too. I'm a farmer's wife. I know what machinery death sounds like.

Oh, no, oh, no.....

But wait! I've heard that sound before. I probably should have recognized it but it was so ridiculously loud that I couldn't believe it that it was animal rather than mineral in origin.

I went right outdoors to try to sneak up on the culprit. He was just a few feet off the ground in the Winesap apple tree that the boss's mom planted so long ago, but it was too dark to see him. I sure could hear him though.

Once I started paying attention I realized that he had plenty of buddies all over the fields, singing the same old song too. How wonderful to be moving slow enough to notice all the firsts of the year.

Boy, was I glad it wasn't the freezer though!

Happy Birthday, Liz

Some Gave All

This weekend we remember.......

Sunday Stills.....Babies

Baby Peggy

Tis the season of babies.......

Baby Lambs

Goslings

 For more Sunday Stills.......

Hey, Grandma, I know you're out there!!

Listen to the Mockingbird

Savannah Sparrow

Well, actually, listen to the Bobolinks and Red-Winged Blackbirds. This field was seething with birds yesterday when I went up. Savannah Sparrows dotted the edges singing their sweet little raspy songs.

Two hen turkeys took off at my passing.






An Upland Sandpiper called almost right in my ear to make sure I noticed his passing.

Common Yellowthoat, the little masked bandit of spring

Cardinals sang, Common Yellowthroats, Yellow Warblers, Willow Flycathcers everywhere....a Harrier passed, rocking low over the grass, pursued by half a dozen smaller birds that didn't like the look of her.

Great Crested Flycatcher seen from the sitting porch

I took a short video so you could hear some of the din. Turn your sound up to experience the techno music of a hay field in spring. The actual video quality is negligible...this is just for the songs.

Brown Thrasher on the Long Lawn

Oh, and I drove this too....although that is not me in the  photo.....

Friday on the Farm