I have a Confession to Make

See these guys? Back in the day I had dogs that would put them right in your lap if you so desired, and sometimes even if you didn't desire. Mike would work the worst bulls and meanest cows we had...except number 171, who had it in for him...and he did the best he could with her. We had dogs that got 'er done. Even Gael, who was pretty much a wienie, at least wanted to work, and tried her darnedest.

However this guy.....this cute, fluffy, nicely housebroken little leg breaker....butter wouldn't melt in his mouth and all, but he will knock you over in a heartbeat.

Yeah, he is scared spitless of them. Good thing I don't need a good stockdog, because I sure don't have one.

Evolution

One by one the porches on this place...this house has more porches than a toad has warts....and pretty darned warty porches at that....are being rebuilt and painted and made all spiffy and nice, mostly by Alan with help from his dad.

This rebuild was somewhat more exciting than is necessary from a mother's point of view.

I didn't get photos, but before this was started the porch decking was completely rotted and falling off the house and there wasn't a whole heck of a lot holding the roof up. At one point an inopportune movement of the skid steer tore the roof loose from the house and nearly dropped it on the kid.

Not good.

It is pouring today, so the mostly finished....some flashing needs to be placed...photo looks kind of grim. However, it is a gigantic improvement over its previous state.

They had an extra railing post and set it on the front like the figurehead on a ship so I can hang plants on it next summer too.

Ain't it handy having a guy who works construction hanging around with nothing to do but fix our stuff? And a handy dandy assistant too.....

The Peggy Channel

S-T-R-O-N-G Coffee

We were innocently drinking our instant coffee just a little bit ago, when Finn decided that we needed something a little stronger.

So he tossed Snoopy up in the air and with utterly perfect aim, landed him in the coffee water.

As you can see, Snoopy is barely recognizable as himself after a couple months of entertaining Finn. I'm afraid that coffee will be a little too strong for me.....

Thunder in Autumn

Last night about bedtime I saw a news report from up west in NY. Lightning strikes at the rate of 200 in a short time!

By the time it got here a bit later it was impressive enough, but nothing like that. Prolly only 199 strikes for us. It was bright enough that when I stopped at the window on the stair landing I was blinded by a flash and had to stand for a bit until I could see again. It was such a humdinger of a storm that poor Peggy had to come upstairs for a hug.

Cape May lighthouse

This morning the Internet was all jumbled up and it took a while to get connected and get the Farm Side off to the paper. Was the UN or our trusty government messing with my connection or was it just the storm? Probably the latter, since I don't have much damaging information under my control.

This week's Farm Side is about a new ballot initiative in Massachusetts, which will ban a number of traditional animal confinement systems.

You can read about it here

And here

And here. Note the sources and amounts of money involved here. Who says you can't buy votes? Even if buying votes is technically illegal, you can buy advertising and sometimes that amounts to the same thing.

Meanwhile, it's foggy and warm and pretty quiet this morning, perhaps because of the fog.....have a good day as you go about your travels. With my writing job done for the week, I'm not sure how I'll spend the day, but no doubt there is something that needs doing.

Beach bling

Running Away to Sea

We've been talking lately about Cape May, NJ.

How the hawk watch is there, and fall migration is supposed to be pretty spectacular.

This tiny, thumbnail-sized crab really made my day

Saturday night, Alan said, "Let's go tomorrow."

So we did. 

The drive down was uneventful if long. Cape May is something pretty unexpected for New Jersey, more like you might expect a small town in Maine to be. Lots of sea food restaurants, wonderful dunes, people on bikes and walking, and the sea......

Green-winged Teal

Yeah, that does it for me. The sea. You could see the light from miles away...

You don't want to know how much sun block, plus hat, flannel shirt, etc. was needed to get me through a day of tromping along sea shell and sand paths, wading down the deep sand to the beach, and staring up at eagles and warblers. Let's just say on the way home the sunblock melted and ran in my eyes.

It hurt.

However, what a beautiful place. The birding didn't really measure up to Montezuma. Maybe the time of day...noon is not the best for birds....

Or the big crowds....there were a lot of people.

But for whatever reason, we saw few species that we don't either see at home or at the swamp. They were tame and close though, all the better for photography,

And it was so pretty...so unexpected....so nice. On the way home we listened to a Harry Potter book on Audible and a good thing too. As nice as the drive down was the return was equally horrendous. Traffic! Terrible, terrible traffic!

Still, it was a day I will remember for a long time to come. Alan is getting pretty good with that camera.....photos are labeled as to which of us took them....

The Camera Bag Saga

I promised you the story of this camera bag for yesterday, but we ended up doing a wild road trip, so here it is today.

We had done most of the big loop around the various impoundments at Montezuma Saturday, when we decided to stop at the new viewing area near the Thruway. It is a great place to look out at some previously hard to see areas around the swamp.  

There, unattended on the deck, was this nice Nikon camera bag. Alan peeked inside but didn't see any ID. We puzzled what to do. We didn't want to just leave it there to be stolen, but we didn't want to look like we were taking it either.

And yes, a guy who pulled up right after us said, "If they were dumb enough to leave it, they deserve whatever they get."

Since we didn't share his opinion, Becky found a phone number for the visitor center and Alan called them while I watched over the bag.

The nice lady at the center said to just bring it down and she would put it in the lost and found.

So we did.

Once there we turned it over and she searched the whole bag. Hidden deep inside were business cards for a photographer, whom she called right away.

The lady who owned the bag hadn't even realized yet that she had left it (with several lenses inside), at the refuge, but she sure was glad that she would be able to come back and pick it up.

And we were kinda glad that we saw it first.

Swampers

No, no, not those swampers.....just the birdie ones.. We went up to the swamp today to try out the new camera. Alan got some really nice shots with it. I stuck to old faithful and got some that I liked too. We left around 5:30 this morning so we could be there for the early light.

Well worth it. The slanting, low angle, fall light, especially early in the day, made for spectacular colors and sharpness and the array of birds was phenomenal. We pulled into the road to one water meadow where we often see eagles and saw a whole flock of Sandhill Cranes.

Northern Harrier

Ducks were ridiculous. Dozens of American Wigeons, Northern Shoveler, Ring-necked Ducks, Northern Pintails, Mallards, Gadwalls, Canvasbacks, Red Heads, Ruddy Ducks, all three teal (!!! on the Cinnamon) for a total of 36 species. Oh, and geese. There were tons of geese too flying up and down, whirling, twirling, to-ing and fro-ing. I have a video for another day with sound....

Since last week a platform at the end of the loop had a lovely eagle statue added, which can be seen from the Thruway and some of the other ponds. Really nice.

Male Northern Shoveler

Female Northern Shoveler

Tomorrow I will tell you a little story about this.

And about the one-legged Ring-billed Gull.....Photos without labels are usually mine.....

First Official Real Frost

This morning when I first went out it hadn't yet really frozen. The sky in the east was just barely brighter blue than the star-spangled midnight of the zenith. The grass was still wet with just dew, sparkling in the glow of the flashlight.

By the time Alan went to work just a short time later, his car was covered with frost and by the time the sun came up so was the grass.

Brrr......

I am tying this on a Windows 10 computer. He decided we needed one to process photos and mine is still on strike so....the obliging Downy Woodpecker above posed for him for these photos. Not bad huh?

And in big birdie news he got a good, close look at the White-eyed Vireo we have been pursuing since high summer. I have seen it too, but not the eyes, which are pretty much diagnostic. There really isn't much else quite that color, but without seeing the face I wasn't going to call it. Now if only we can get a photo so the eBird moderators will believe us.

Meanwhile, I keep trying with the new camera. It is pretty amazing, but I seem to have an inordinate number of thumbs where it is concerned. I cannot wait until I can go out in the sun and take advantage of good light!

However, here are some stained glass sumacs.

And one from the little camera

Learning Curve

I waited until Alan came home to take the new camera out of the box yesterday. It seemed to work fine so we took it out for a spin yesterday afternoon.

It takes fantastic photos...at least in his hands. He has always had a knack with cameras and this big one sure shows that. I am kinda blind and slow......

I took it out this morning to start learning it. A pretty steep learning curve after all the years with the S3IS, which is as familiar in my hands as a bar of soap. Thank you Steve for all the years with it. I have had amazing fun taking pictures with it....I don't think a day goes by that I don't take at least a couple.....It is still a great camera, although in need of a good cleaning I guess.

Anyhow, I am excited about the possibilities with the new one, although for a while Alan will probably spend most of the time in the driver's seat. 

Sure does bring the birdies in close though. 

****All photos except the potatoes taken by Alan.