Obstacle

Look who got roped into offered the amazing opportunity to help set up one of the draft obstacle courses.

All the while this was going on the horses in the previous post were being groomed or readied for the class or exercised in the arena nearby. They seemed utterly unperturbed. 

The nefarious noodles.
These are placed so ponies have to walk between them with them touching on both sides
Ooh, scary!

Sheer Terror

Horse in close proximity to a train. Train had stopped for a few minutes, but was starting up making lots of train noises..
Liz says this was a truck-in horse that had just arrived. You can see by his ears that he is noticing the train behind him. His driver is off to the side...you can see the reins going off to the horse's right

There has been a particularly irritating little meme going around the Interwebs lately showing a smug, self-satisfied, young fool standing next to a NYC carriage horse while holding a poster saying, "Horses are terrified of traffic and loud noises".

No problem

She may even believe it.. The horse is resting, hip-shot, head at a comfortable half mast, eyes drooping, ears akimbo, obviously to anyone who has ever been around a horse...or for that matter watched a John Wayne movie...half asleep and perfectly contented.

Another one.
She was at the fair all week...you can see just how worried she is about the trains and commotion there.

And yet a visit to this girl's page yields reams of comments of the same ilk. Poor, poor frightened horsie, he needs to walk in green meadows with unicorns, far away from awful human beings and their scary stuff.

I just love self-proclaimed equine experts.

But they don't know nuttin. Can't even tell a sleeping horse from a runaway. I actually stepped outside the boundaries I usually set for myself on this stuff and confronted a couple of people about care of the NY horses. It is a damned shame that they want to remove this last little bit of actual nature from the stone and concrete jungle because of their own ignorance.

I ain't afraid of no ghosts...or trains...or much of anything

I also took a few pictures over at the fair of horses in conjunction with railroad trains. The tracks abut the northern edge of the fairgrounds and run right past the stables....mere feet away from hundreds of horses, every single year.

If I were a horse...alas I'm not but....I would think that thousands of tons of hurtling, whistle-shrieking, thunder rumbling train racing past might just be a little scarier than a few cars and taxis....well maybe the taxis are worse but...

Anyhow, within a day or two, usually even in just a few hours, most horses grow accustomed to the trains and the noise from the midway and the hundreds of people pushing strollers and trailing broods of noisy kids and ignore them completely.

Just like people do. They are adaptable beasts, not too stupid to learn to cope with their surroundings. The anti-animal-interaction activists cannot, in my opinion, make the same claim.

This is worth a look too.

Draft Horse Show

The judge awaits his class

Standing for the National Anthem

Here they come

We visited the fair yesterday for the last day....end of summer..it is now autumn in the Great Northeast, no matter what the calendar says....and enjoyed the six-horse hitch class at the draft show. 

Turn your sound up to get the best of this little video. There is nothing like the pounding of the hooves and the jingle of the chains.

Sunday Stills....Happiness Is

I could fill this post with photos of family, cows, plants, birds, frogs, road trips to exciting places, babies, and everything around me. They all bring joy every single day. It has taken over six decades but I am contented a good deal of the time and happy often.....something some people are born with and others have to work for. I work for it because it is worth it. Oftentimes I fail. I fight with fear every day, irrational but powerful. I expect most folks do. Prayer helps with that, but it is always there. We are so terribly fragile....

Anyhow I had to think about this for a while....and finally decided that I am closest to how I imagine Heaven might be on the porch at the cabin on the lake at sunrise.

So, here are a couple of the sunrises of fire and tinfoil that I enjoyed this summer.

Hope your day is happy.

For more Sunday Stills....

Almost a Mystery

Steers waiting for the fair rodel

There is a pony show halter in the dining room. Bags of decorations...Halloween decorations at that is..... in the kitchen. Eggs on the counter and tomatoes everywhere.

The evening meal is being cooked now...roast beef to slice for sandwiches....so when it is done people can eat when they need to....whether it is evening or not. Big events going on at the fair so getting in and out or even over to Fonda to the store is problematic.

We all know what's up.

It's fair time. 

Summer is over. 

People are coming and going at oddly random times and the things that come in and out of the house are strange indeed.

Next week it will all be so dull....

A tiny dragonfly decided to sit on Alan's hat
 while we were talking at the fair horse barn

The Halloween decorations are for the pony stalls....orange and black with spider webs...fake ones that is, the ponies must feel right at home, but here we have real ones....and they look pretty good.

Liz had some time to take them all around the back of the fairgrounds yesterday to see the sights and get used to the excitement. Diamond is an old hand but at barely three it's a big deal for Gambit.

Tommy!

Me, I just stay home and pick stuff and put stuff in the freezer and do a lot of laundry and pick up at least some of the oddities that have cropped up. The rest will have to wait until the fair is over. Soon now.

Between a Rock and a

Hard place....that is my title for this photo of some stones in our bird bath....or if you watch Police Academy, it also reminds me of this quote, which is oft repeated around here in all sorts of circumstances....some of them cruder than others.

Scarlet Runner Beans are about done blooming

Busy week. Alan's home. Fair's on. Guys are trying to bale some second cutting but it is so humid that it stays a little tacky. Tomatoes have started. Hooray for tomato sandwiches.

I froze some corn a friend gave us and picked our beans again and must freeze the result. Can't say enough about Slankette or Slendrette green beans. They just bear and bear, nice long, straight, beans of excellent texture and flavor. There are some other kinds in the patch this year, as folks bought me seeds and I planted them. Not gonna happen next year except for a few yellow beans and some of the purple ones. No need to mess with success. I am gonna have to rip the other bean plants out and feed them to the hens, as they are done.

Looks as if we may be able to save Scarlet Runner Bean seeds
 this year and not buy them next spring.

Anyhow, with all the coming and going and tag team people there isn't much time for posting. Sorry. I'm sure things will get back to what passes for normal soon.

Fine Farmall Tractor Lineup

At the Fonda Fair

But I liked the Case the best....because....Case....yeah

Fonda Fair

This fair stuff is all well and good but I wanna play with stones

Went over yesterday for a few hours to enjoy Peggy's reaction and get some notes for this week's Farm Side.

There is nothing that compares with an agricultural fair. From the scent of cotton candy and the ring of carnival music to the mooing of the dairy cows and the clucking of the artificial chickens in the poultry barn it has to be experienced to be understood.

Seriously, stop taking my stones!

We had a great time, from eating the first tasty apples of the year that we bought at the Dairy Promotion booth, to talking to some of our dearest friends that we only see once a year.

Di looks like a wild thing, but she is really very sweet

I'm not sure how often I will go back, as I didn't enter anything this year, so I don't have a pass....and I'm lazy.

However, the kids are there with the ponies, Miss Peggy is having a great time, and I'm sure you will too if you stop over.

Have fun!

Look, a stone, Uncle Alan, let me go!

Sixty-Four

Years ago today, my folks tied the knot. They were very young.....just kids really....starting out together in the fast-changing and exciting world after World War Two.

They started a family quickly....me first....and began an epic journey that would take them from here to Scotland and many other bits of Europe, chasing down Montgomery lore and tracing family roots, from Indian village archaeological digs to clan tents at Scottish games, from mineral collecting expeditions in Canada and all over the Northeast to digging gold in the Carolinas just a couple of years ago.

After the memories of birthday parties downstairs where Grandma and Grandpa Montgomery lived when I was tiny....I swear I remember my first one...and homemade French Fries and spaghetti in Grandma's kitchen, as their large family gathered around...came memories of the antique store on Main Street in Fonda.

I always thought of it by its full name...Montgomery's Antiques, bought and sold. They started it when we were just little kids and Dad's collection outgrew their apartment. Then came the book store, Tryon County Books, which was right next door and is still in business.

Then we moved to the farm house just down the road from here, where this city-born country girl got the first taste of rural life.....btw I liked it....I remember having just moved in and discovering Barn Swallows....still one of my favorite birds....and Barn Owls and Bobwhites, in the barn and in the fields....oooh, that was an exciting place.

Dad carved wood well enough to exhibit at national shows, Mom painted wonderful portraits, they made jewelry with handmade settings with stones they collected, cut and polished themselves. It was always fun, but it was always business too...there were livings to be made.

They were always deeply involved in something fascinating, besides running the businesses and Mom having high responsibility jobs for various companies, including one multi-national one.

Along the way they raised us....which is of course, an incredible accomplishment. I won't say there weren't hard times, because of course there were...everyone has them and we had our share.

However, when I look back on growing up in such an interesting atmosphere, I can't help but thank them for teaching us passion and an abiding love of learning. We all have it....they taught us well.

So Happy Anniversary, Mom and Dad. Keep up the good work.

Sunday Stills...the Letter T

For more Sunday Stills......

GoAmateur

Tractor and Baler

If you don't GoPro. Alan and I went up to look at the hay field his dad has been cutting and to pace off the distance in some target shooting he had been doing (inch and a half groupings at 330 yards, shooting prone on a hay wagon at gong targets on the hay bale in this story. His new .223 the tool involved.)

Same tractor from the top of the hill, through the gateway using full zoon

Then we went up Seven-County-Hill to take some photos and just look over the valley and the mountains beyond. I have been trying forever to get shots that give an idea of just how high that hill is and how far you can see.

Tractor from the top with no zoom.
Gate is between the two large trees in the center,
one being the hickory tree that Hickory Tree Field,
 to our right here, you can just see the corner of it is named after.
Tractor can be seen through the gate....sorta

It was pretty clear last night, lighting and shadows were good, so you can kinda get the idea from the photos.

And I got the idea to make a GoAmateur video so you can really get a feel for it. The video was shot over Alan's shoulder as we descended the hill on his quad. The blurry parts are because I had to keep my distance glasses on...not enough hands...so I couldn't see at all what I was shooting.

Hang on! That blob in the center of the cut field is a bale of hay...the target holder.