Birdy Extravaganza Weekend

 Montezuma ...there are birds in this shot, but you will have to look close

Friday the Schoharie. A nice walk on a lovely day.

Saturday, we drove up to Montezuma only to find it closed. We could hear thousands of birds right on the other side of the gate....other people drove around it, but they looked like they might have business there...... so we just sat in the parking lot for an hour or so trying to pick ducks, geese and swans out of the fog.

We did see a lot of birds there, but IDs were tough. It was pretty foggy and dark.

We hit some other favorite hot spots on the way home, but they were all pretty darned dead. Saw a few gulls and an absurd number of grey squirrels.

Then today was the Christmas Bird Count. We split into two sets, Matt, Lisa and Alan did one side of Turkey Farm Road and Mike and I and later Kegan, did the roads on the other.

A portion of the huge flocks of Snow Geese we saw on the Skiff Farm up the road from my folks

Tonight we watched the Big Year just to top it all off. I know it is grossly inaccurate in its depictions of the personalities involved, but the story is fun, and the birds are amazing.

We were laughing out loud at the guys hooting for owls, as we were driving around before the sun came up this morning hooting out the Camaro windows trying to pick up an owl....no such luck though.

We did see a massive flock of Snow Geese, and, between the two sets of us, a LOT of Canadas, some Bluebirds, Cedar Waxwings, and lots of other goodies, plus we had fun chasing a lovely flock of somethingorother out in a corn field, which turned out to be about fifty guinea fowl of every color known to the breed. They sure do look wild!

We finally found out what was behind that elaborate fence we have been driving past for years on count day

Just up the road from the guinea hens

It was a great weekend all in all.

The Peggy Channel

Schoharie Morning

We bird walked Christmas morning  down at Schoharie Crossing boat launch after the fun with Peggy was over. I wanted to play with my new toy...... Leupold binoculars.

 Alan gamed me good, calling me up and telling me how he had finished his shopping, but, oops, he had forgotten me. We'd get something after the holidays.

I was entirely fine with that and told him so. There comes an age when it actually is better to give than receive, and I have gotten there.

Then he walked in the door and handed them to me.

I was thrilled. I still am. I have never owned good optics....they make a world of difference and bring the birds close and clear. We walked along the bed of the river where the water has receded since they opened the dams for winter. It was only a little bit muddy and very interesting.

We saw an unusual perspective of the old Erie Canal aqueduct from the riverbed and then climbed up to the towpath and looked across the top. Amazing structure. it is a shame that so much of it has been destroyed by floods or taken down for safety.

We saw only ordinary birds, Tree and White-throated Sparrows, several kinds of gulls, Chickadees and such, but we sure got a good look at them.

Schoharie Henge

Tomorrow if all goes well, Montezuma, and Sunday the Christmas Bird Count. Alas it is supposed to rain......

Size 11 1/2 earthworm in the parking lot....someone needs to explain to him about winter

Merry Christmas from Northview

To friends and family and all of you who brighten our days in so many ways.......
hope you all have a wonderful day.

Twas the Night Before Christmas

A certain small someone has been introduced to Santa. She has no idea why he might be exciting, but she is excited anyhow. She showed me her Santa dance last night....it was too late and too dark for video but maybe today. 

In the meanwhile, Merry Christmas.

Start your Day

The Jack Russell way. First thing in the morning, dismal, dark, and foggy. Massive dog fight in the center of the kitchen floor.

Teeth! 

Snarling ball of fur!

Swirling, snapping, biting, yapping.

Over a single leaf of Romaine lettuce.

 Mack loves lettuce. He kills it first, then shreds, teds, chops, minces and dices. He could make his own infomercial for late night TV.

Then, when there is lettuce confetti from one end of the floor to the other, he eats every tidbit as if it was steak and gravy.

Daisy has no interest in lettuce whatsoever, being more inclined towards Milk Bones and cheese cubes....

Unless, of course, Mack has the lettuce. Then its allure increases exponentially.

Faster then a speeding camera

Fortunately an old 12-pound dog quarreling with a new, but still possessing only milk teeth, 10-pound dog, does not make for much of a dog fight.

I nudged them apart with my toe and went back to making coffee. 

Four and Twenty

A huge flock of starlings is visiting our woods and the neighbor's woods every couple of days.
I would hesitate to estimate how many, although I keep trying to come up with a rough number. What you see here might be a quarter of them. They are very loud and busy

Farm Toys for Tots

Toys? Did someone say toys? Can I have a toy, can I, can I, can I?

Remember this? 

Here is how it all turned out.

I am awed by the hard work of the young folks who made this all possible and the many donors and elves who contributed and got the goodies where they needed to go.

What a wonderful and positive effort to promote agriculture and to make Christmas special for children in need.

Please try to find time to read the blog at the second link....in fact, here's another link to the story. It will bring tears to your eyes and a smile to your face all at the same time. That's a great feeling, and what the season is all about.

Sunday Stills.....Home

Home is so many things...... The structure itself...we live in a monstrous Victorian that is still full of surprises after all these years.... Like the Easter Eggs in movies and games...you never know what little carving or molded strike plate or such that you might find.

Home is also family of course and ours is busy and close and full of interactions all day, every day.

These guys are important to our home...but sometimes we tend to think of them more as home wreckers

It is also favorite objects, plants, animals, the tangible things that make up our world.

And the land....can't forget about the land.

Then there are the intangibles that make up our spirit lives....home is a huge thing there. I love to be home so much I am nearly a hermit.....I am looking forward to other people's takes on home as well.

Don't Drop 'Em

Note the turkey egg in the right foreground

Hen fruit bruises easily.

As you can see the kids' egg raising operation isn't going too badly. The chicks they brooded this spring are laying well and Liz is selling eggs right and left. We also have as many as we want to eat, which is downright nice. I never much liked eggs, although I do like to make a cheese omelet in spring when the first vegetables come.

However, the other day she fixed Peggy an egg in a way she has...we call them Peggy eggs, oddly enough, and Peg wouldn't eat it so I did. It kinda looked good.

And it was, so she has made me several lately.

Don't these look good too? Liz is selling them very reasonably if you are interested in a dozen.

Alas the dear, sweet tom turkey that I have pictured here several times passed away yesterday. A ^%$$##@% Rhode Island Red rooster squeezed under the turkey pen gate and beat him up very badly a couple of weeks ago.

Liz treated him as best she could but his injuries proved too severe for his delicate turkey system. We were fond of that silly bird. Whenever people walked up to the pen he would fan and strut and chortle with pride, yet he was so gentle you could pet him.

 Peggy loved him too and went in with him all the time, even though he was as tall as she is. She is such an animal lover....you know what they say about apples? Well she is the third generation to fall from that tree..

Sadly I don't see him being replaced by any other bird as sweet as he was, although they have plenty of other turkeys.

And....winter is here.  Lots of snow up by Buffalo. I planted a batch of Dutch iris, alliums and some other things, the name of which I cannot for the life of me remember, but they look like skinny hyacinths, yesterday though. The kids found them in the discount bin and perhaps because it is December they were discounted heavily indeed. But, hey, why not? It isn't any colder right now than many late Octobers have been and I wouldn't hesitate to plant then. And at that price, if they freeze they freeze. 

If they don't they will have to be moved though, as I stuck them in the garlic bed. My flower patch is so full of bulbs that when I planted tulips during the more traditional season I dug up as many as I put in. Don't want to risk that this late in the year.

Anyhow, happy shopping and all that. We are for the most part done...I guess....

However we aren't having much fun, whine, whine, whine, because our boy is stuck out on the road working. And what is a weekend without Alan? A weekday, that's what. And prolly a Monday at that.

Bah humbug. 

The Magic Blanket

The original pink blanket, back when it was still recognizable as such

Like ever so many little ones, Peggy has a blanket, to which she clings as if it was her furry  mother. Should she ever lose her grasp upon it, the world as we know it will end.

It was given to her way back before she was born....at her baby shower...by a loving cousin who somehow knew just what she would like.

It is pink.

Of course it is pink. Little girls love pink dontcha know.

Our floors, alas, are neither pink nor particularly clean. I sweep. I require that boots be left in the kitchen...or maybe the dining room at worst.

I am much ignored

Pink blanket+ our grubby floors= nasty grey blanket that makes you cringe when you see it parading by in Peggy's loving arms.

Liz washed it the thing the other day and the baby actually stood with her arms around the washing machine sobbing. We don't have a drier either, so you can imagine how that went.

Thus we have been looking for a similar blanket since the attachment began.

Finally we found one on Amazon, but it was absurdly expensive, plus shipping and handling. 

We checked every store around here, some of them  more than once. No dice. No blanket either. Then yesterday we were at the local Walmart finishing up some last minute stuff when we checked the baby blanket display..........

And there it was! For less than half what it cost on Amazon.

You should have seen her when we took it out of the bag. It was still all stuck in a folded square the way they do with fancy blankets, but she stroked it and hugged it and ran all over the house with it.....

And then she hugged her grandpas knee and grinned up at him and it was worth all the looking and shopping, and most of the listening to screaming over the old one....... which, at least in theory, can now be washed regularly.....although I think it will never quite make pink again.

Babies-ya gotta love 'em.

Chinese Fire Drill

Yeah, we could have used revolving doors this morning as Alan and Jade left for work around three AM. 

Kinda left me not up for as much puppy walking and fooling as normal days. Oh, well. sleep is for the weak.....and I could....sleep for a week that is. 

Christmas Shopping

I hate it.

Gift cards....I love 'em. Alan and I knocked out half my shopping yesterday in just a couple of hours.

Mades me smile.

And they are easy to wrap too.

I'm working on a Farm Side for Christmas Eve. How did those of you who have, or once had livestock, cope with little kids who can't wait and animals that come first?

We have our own stories of course, like the year that foolish Mrs. Santa left half the presents in the cluttered nightmare of a closet under the stairs and when the kids finally.....after all the cows were fed and milked and bedded and the barn cleaned.....opened their gifts and a lot was missing....but we would love to read yours as well.

Thanks!