Cities make me Itchy

This really isn't bad as cities go. Although we are in a motel and commercial district it is dead quiet...at least in the daytime.....

Although there is enough concrete to make the point that this is indeed a city, it is mitigated somewhat by the surrounding hills, just beginning to put on a scarf of fall color.

And of course the Mockingbird.





I wake up stupid early here. Different time zone. Different circumstances. Early riser anyhow. I used to scoff at my maternal grandparents who saw every single sunrise from the dark side....and then I got that job walking hots at the race track...and then I married a dairy farmer.... 




And now I can't sleep late.....not ever.

So I lie awake in the morning waiting for him

 He does not fail me.




Our own mockers up north.... at least the ones on our farm...there is infinite variation in a mockingbird....sing local songs. The one that used to live by the house was a true virtuoso and knew every call from gull to jay to Jake brakes. This fellow does wrens, jays, cardinals and car alarms. 

I wondered as I listened to him singing well before dawn today, if anyone else was enjoying his marvelous performance.

When I went out, having finally become confident that the key card will indeed let me back into the room, so now I can go out and walk around, I found his lovely lady sitting just down the wire taking it all in. 

So yes, he is appreciated even when this parking lot birder is up in New York.

Good to know.

Birding Parking Lots

Alabama rainbow at sunrise for Linda

That's my super power. Oh, and fixing motel toilets, but that's just a farm wife thing. Ours was leaking pretty badly when we arrived. It is no longer doing so and I didn't even use my Swiss Army knife.

The place we are are staying is in a flat area surrounded in the far distance by rocky hills. The sky is spectacular. You don't realize that it can be like this when you live in a valley surrounded by hills and mountains and have trees everywhere you turn. Sunrise is 360 and sunset ditto. I like it!

Anyhow, back to the birds...

Before the sun even thought to come up a Northern Mockingbird was whistling loudly right outside our room. As it happened I had counted him after dark last night....he was sitting on a wire bracing himself for race weekend. What a singer! He was ripping out a mad chorus of Carolina Wren and Northern Cardinal and sounded very happy about it.

Then came a flock of Fish Crows cawing in their nasal, high-pitched manner. They were soon evicted by some American Crows.

Right now though all the birds seem to have followed the myriad, mostly white, mostly extended cab, mostly very large, pickup trucks that filled the parking lot last night, off to the race. Folks were even tail gating last night, which seemed pretty cool to me.

It's just me and the House Sparrows and the motel workers here right now.....

And that is just fine....

Alabama sunset

Sweet Home.....Tennessee.....

We made it to Alabama a short while ago and checked into our motel....where there is lovely, lovely WiFi....

 Alabama is lovely too and I am delighted to be here....

However, today I fell in love with Tennessee. I have only been here once before, more than four decades ago.......at night....we picked up a kid in Virginia and drove him home...but that is another story for another day....

Virginia is oaks and evergreens and corn and soybeans, so pretty it almost seems staged.

Georgia is fascinating. I have always liked it there. We stopped at about the nicest rest area I have ever visited in North Carolina...even the crickets chirped with a sweet southern accent. It was so quiet and green and peaceful...

But Tennessee has everything. We came upon the Great Smokies just at break of day. The mist covered them like a mysterious blanket and offered an almost absurd contrast to the Snowbird Snares that jostled all glitzed and gaudy along the flatlands. It was easy to see where they got their name.

Then we were climbing, bumper to bumper, curve to curve, a 360 once as the road swallowed itself with a tunnel and then spit itself out higher up.

Words cannot describe the beauty, but thankfully there are cameras to take care of that.

Even outside the mountains I found the part of the state we crossed to be utterly enticing, enchanting....and fun. From ruby mines and whitewater rafting places every few yards....I could come back and do that some day, the mining, not the rafting. No zip lines for me either.....to hearing a Carolina Chickadee on top of a mountain...I was entranced and full of joy.

A new favorite state to add to Florida...and of course, NY, which is home, after all.

All photos taken in Great Smokey Mountains National Park

Packing

Been running here and running there, buying this, finding that, laundering something else, thinking, planning, fretting and worrying.

And then it came to me. As long as I'm clean and fed, all I really need are the essentials.

Nat Geo field guide

Binoculars

Camera

Heck, I'm already good to go.

By the way Alan is making one of those lifetime trips and taking his old parents along because he is a really nice guy. I am a little nervous about the back seat of the Camaro for all those miles...and I don't do racing, so I am filling my NOOK up with free books off Bookbub....but I'm sure it will be fine.

We are going HERE

Leaving in a couple of days and I am hoping to blog from there....if not....well, we'll be back soon.

And if I live to tell the tale, next week's Farm Side will feature Alabama.

How Many Cows?

Gathered around the purloined salt block? Look closely now....

And baby makes three.

Chickens can Swim..and other Tales of Autumn

One tends to think of the falling of leaves in autumn as a process. It certainly is with cottonwoods, maples, elms, and oak. A few here. A few there. Until suddenly one day the trees are bare and the view turns dull and grey.

However, when it comes to mulberry trees it is more of an event. At o' dawn thirty this morning you could hear them pattering down so thickly that it was almost like popcorn popping. Jade said they were doing it when he left for work before dawn and it took him a while to figure out what he was hearing.

By noon there were only a few stragglers left, when this morning the trees were in full foliage.

Crazy.

And about that headline. Since we got the pup there has been an ongoing battle to keep him from eating chicken poo.

He loves it like I love maple sugar, but it makes him barf.





The result is singularly unappetizing.

Thus I try to discourage the loose chickens from coming up to the bird feeders.

This morning I thought I would kill two birds...no wait, that is a terrible choice of terms..... 

I thought I would use the dog to remove the chickens. I mean why not? Other than that I probably shouldn't encourage him to go after chickens.

But still....I am sick of the whole poo issue, and he thought it was a great idea. Even better than eating....well, you know.

The chickens were not happy to be assaulted by a Jack Russell Terrier though.

The rooster took to the air and landed in the middle of the garden pond, whereupon he promptly swam to the side...sort off...and flew off.

It made for a rather pretty tableau. An almost maroon Rhode Island Red rooster, his comb brilliant in the late season sun. The pond surface nearly covered with shining golden honey locust leaves like thousands of glittering coins...him splashing around in the middle...it was like poetry in a puddle.

Plus it was really good for a laugh.

Perhaps the last laugh of the season as the boss and I drained the pond this morning, Jade caught all the goldfish for me and I am refilling it for winter......

Salt of the Earth

Salt block map..click for detail

Jade and I conspired to put the cows' salt block way up on the hill, where I could see the cows from the kitchen window when they come down to partake each day.

I never got to see them up there one single time.

The very first night they took their new toy and rolled it down the hill.

And now they just keep shoving it closer and closer to the barnyard even though it is no longer on the hillside where gravity aids in their project.

I don't know what is up with them. Do they want to bring it down to the barn so they can enjoy it this winter?

Do they want to bring the deer real close so we can get lots of ticks?

Are they just perverse and annoying beasts?

Or do they want to make sure I get lots of exercise looking for them?

I dunno, but I do know when I went out to get their picture four deer were partaking with them.

And I do know in the past couple of days we have picked one tick off Daisy and TWO off our tiny itty-bitty puppy who never leaves my personal walking places right next to the house.

Dagnabbit. Venison for dinner this winter, cows.... you might want to give that formula some thought.

First Frost

A strange dark rainbow I saw while birding the other evening

Last night, and late for it. West and north of us there was a noticeable accumulation of the four-letter "S" word.

Horrific photos have been shared all over, making me glad to come downstairs and still see green and gold and brown and not that awful white stuff.

I am going to miss stopping at the garden for a handful of fresh, raw green beans.

And flowers....I'm gonna miss them too.

Crank 'er Up

A surprise awaited us when we visited Bellinger's Orchard for a half peck of apples this morning. 




The parking lot next to the old dairy barn was entirely full of lovely vintage autos. As we watched and took pictures they drove away, a fine parade for a lovely fall day. It would be good to turn up your sound.....

It's International Peggy Day

Crayons

Found out about them yesterday

Dragged Grandma straight to them as soon as she got up today

Hey if pancakes can have their own day, why not Peggy?

Heartsick

It is rare any more that I get up before dawn and write the whole Farm Side at a sitting. I've been at it 17 years. It usually takes me three mornings to come up with a topic, research, write, rewrite, proofread and rewrite again. 

I used to do it faster...there were lots of new topics and new ideas and I was younger and quick to make up my mind. Nowadays there is much more careful consideration involved in each week's effort....questions like who will read, how will it make them feel, how will it reflect on agriculture, is it helpful and informative, or hurtful and unkind?

However, this day my mind was full as soon as I awoke. I came downstairs, walked the dogs, and started pounding the keyboard.

For next week's column. This week's was filed yesterday and took the usual three days to write about pumpkin pies and rancher arson convictions.

For next week I already have well more than my allotted thousand words and must prune and pare.

You see, three young children were killed in a farm accident Tuesday in Alberta, Canada. Instead of grieving with the young family, a certain percentage of people commenting on the tragedy preferred to point fingers in judgement.

I know this happens. The Internet makes for instant experts, who all know what's best. I know this. Still it makes me even sadder.

I thought of myself as a pretty good mother. I worked at it. For all I love farming, the kids were my first job...I was the safety Nazi here....and yet my kids did dangerous things and had close calls, and I all too often didn't even know it.

They still tell me today of what they got up to when I thought they were okay. They scare the life out of me, even now, when I hear about them, even though they are long gone by.

Thankfully the things they did are not news stories, so there is no one to judge me because I turned away to do something else and they got up to mischief.

Accidents happen. They are still accidents. I lost a high school friend in a car accident Sunday. It was an accident. I hadn't seen him in years, but it made me sad all the same.

Please say a prayer for this tragic family, and hold your loved ones close today. I know I will....

Meanwhile the farming community is coming together, as it does, to finish the harvest for the farm. If I have never mentioned how grateful I am to be a part of such a community.......well, I am.

Here is a piece written by someone directly affected by this accident. She said it much better than I ever could. 

A Plague

Notta tick, but a singularly creepy bug that came into the house
These just suck plant blood instead of battening on people

Ticks!

Good grief! I have never seen anything like it. I have gone back to wearing shorts instead of sweats so I can catchum quicker when they grab on me. Liz had one. I had one. I nabbed one off Daisy and ran it down the drain before it bit yesterday. It wouldn't be so bad but the dogs never go out of the house yard.

Now she has a great big brown dog tick on her neck and Alan, my favorite nasty critter getter offer is hundreds of miles away.

For the moment she is in her crate awaiting someone to help me detach it.

Any volunteers?

Any tick pulling professionals interested in a job?

If you get this tick off that poor little doggy I will bake you some cookies........maybe butterscotch chip?

They are really good......

You could Part your Hair

With Chickadees.  

They keep me ducking when I'm hanging out the clothes, flying so low over my head that I can feel the breeze from their wings. I jump every time. They simply do not see me as any more of an obstacle to be avoided than.... say..... a lawn chair.

The titmice aren't much wilder, letting me get two feet from them before they fly. Goldfinches ditto. Sometimes they don't move at all when I walk next to the feeder...maybe six inches away or so...and it hangs right at my head level....and I don't see them. I have nearly hit the ground a couple times when they finally fly at the last possible second.

Even the Blue Jays are tamer than I have ever seen them, although fifteen or twenty feet is close enough to suit them..

I don't know if they are accustomed to me or what the reason is for all that friendliness, but I love it....despite the adrenaline.... 

Grumpy old Nuthatches

Yesterday I was trying to take some pictures of the lettuce before I pull it out for the hens. It is bolting and pretty much past its best. 

Something grey scuttled along the edge of the porch right behind it and was scratching around in the plastic insulation next to the door.

Eek, a rat!!! I poked the plastic to get a better look at it and it ran back the way it came, right on the concrete rim of the porch. I followed it around the corner of the house with mayhem in my mind and murder in my eye.

And then....and then...I saw that it had a beak and wings. It was a tiny, greyish bird, I believe a Yellow-rumped Warbler. I think it was gobbling up the box elder bugs and lady bugs and all the other insects that were clinging to the south side of the house. They are being normal insects and trying to get in. (How I wish they were outsects.)

It didn't fly even when I walked right next to it, just scuttled off in the bushes. 

Weird.

National Farmers Day

All

Hope all our farmer friends and neighbors, a hard-working 1% of the population, have a safe and productive day as they go about the  business of growing our food and fiber.

The colors

 We are pretty much done farming for the year. Days too short to bale hay, the garden mostly finished, except for those amazing late planted beans that are still thriving as we wait for frost. Time to bring the machinery down from the hills.

of the season

The weather couldn't be much nicer. When I went out on puppy walk this morning the stars were so bright that they reflected off the upstairs windows.

do

not

necessarily

Then with the dawn came fog like smoke, shrouding the maples in mystery until they seemed to glow from within like traffic lights set on caution or maybe even stop.

And yes, I would like to stop this season right here in its glorious tracks. Pause. Halt. 
Arretez.

come from

Because it doesn't get any better than this.

The only downside to the best of October that I can see is the crick in my neck from looking up for warblers. They are everywhere. Speaking of which, dear friend from Ohio, I think I saw your warbler this morning...a pair of them in fact. But of course, no binoculars so I can't be sure. I will sure be watching for yellow with a midnight cap flitting in the honey locust. 

That and how short it is.....or at least the good part.

Anyhow, Happy National Farmers Day, whether you are a farmer or just enjoy their products.

Maple trees