When Life Hands You...

Sunset...no filters

...spring, you have no choice but to get out and get going. Thus time to do things like write blog posts dwindles in relation to the amount of sunshine and warm breezes that are occurring.

Sunset does Arthur Rackham

Yesterday I went outdoors with the dogs at dawn and barely came back into the house until dark. Even drank my morning coffee sitting on the snowmobile trailer.

Delta

In the sand pile

We saw good stuff in our travels. Boys with baseballs. Boys with footballs....skate boards too...boys walking and talking. All manner of kids playing outdoors, just doing stuff in the bright spring sun.

We met dads with little ones down at the river getting the poles out, ready to fish. Dozens and dozens of people walking, biking, grilling, wearing shorts and tee shirts. Some not wearing tee shirts atall...and some of them certainly should have been. 

I'll bet TV viewership was the lowest it has been since last summer except during power outages.

We drove around seeing the sights and raked the yard and enjoyed a heaping helping of outdoors. It was nice.

Plus we got to see our boy and his young lady for a little while on Saturday too! That was nice....

Even more, a heaping serving

Of little things....

Waking up way before dawn and suddenly remembering that you forgot to bring in the bird feeders last night....

Gettinguprealquick and going downstairs to find them still there. Untouched. 

Look like raccoon tracks to me....dagnabbit....

Something has been carrying them away. Something with hands dexterous enough to grasp a thin string, from which one was hanging in the Honey Locust, and drag it up into the tree to eat the suet. Something that carried away my little green Linda feeders and left them dismantled and empty. Something....I am thinking coon. This has been quite frustrating.

Washing the dog jackets to put them away. A dog in a coat is a little bit embarrassing for this farm wife...but he hasn't much fur and it has been a long, cold winter.

Roses and wine from our middle daughter...just because. Orange roses, carefully chosen because she thought the color would suit me. They are both vibrant and elegant and so pretty, like lights on a lighthouse shining out to sea....only they are shining from the windowsill over the kitchen sink where I seem to spend so much time. And sangria. I do like me some sangria now and then.

A clean, freshly-bedded, nice and fluffy, wonderfully welcoming dog run in which to park a lively Border Collie for a couple of hours until he runs off some energy. Yay, oldest kid. Good job!

A dawn chorus. Oh, there are only a few singers represented so far, a dozen or so American Robins, Song Sparrows, Northern Cardinals. and not much else really, but the joyous noise is sure welcome. In a few weeks it will be a challenge to pick out all the notes, but for now the simple country songs are easy on the ear and promising of spring, even though it is frog belly cold and windy as Kansas out there.

And last but not least....

Good coffee....

Still more Little Things

The boss is quite enamored of this building, the former Putman Lock Grocery. He remarks on it every time we visit. I tell him we can't build a house this style to live in because I need to get farther from the TV than that would allow. A LOT farther.

Pigeons in an abandoned building across the river. We thought it amusing that they were looking out at us looking in, but the state of the building is no joke!

A cheerful little waterfall up near Canajoharie

Tiny plants, reaching for spring...and a little horsewoman, riding Pepper at sunset.

Unlikely Ephemera

Ephemera ...usually a word used to describe printed material that isn't expected to last too long.

However, this ephemeral rock sculpture sure has something to say, even if it is piled rather than printed....perhaps about patience and skill and time invested, which provides pleasure to strangers passing by. It probably isn't going to last nearly as long as some of the printed kind, which can be found for sale everywhere from Etsy shops to antique stores.

Situated as it is in the flood zone of the river, and with more and more and more rain on the way....

It may already be gone, but it certainly added to our enjoyment yesterday when we found it. 

Nature ain't Nuture

All winter I have been counting what is probably the same single Snow Goose, which has been traveling with a gaggle of Canada Geese. I first saw it flying over the house, then down at the Mohawk in Fultonville, and now for several weeks it has been hanging around at Yankee Hill Lock.

Yesterday it was off by itself and oddly humped and still. At first I thought there was another goose with it, but when it swam out into the river I realized that it has a broken wing.

I know that in lots of places there are so many Snow Geese that they are pests. Alan sees thousands whenever he passes Montezuma on the Thruway. They are listed as a species of least concern and this is just one bird in a gigantic population

Still I was sad....however, life in the wild is rough and it doesn't pay to form attachments with wildlife...

I got a lot of enjoyment out of seeing this goose all winter though.

Saw this flock once down near town

You had to be There

A thing speeding along the shores of the Schoharie Creek

Before picking up the freshly repaired chainsaw yesterday, we briefly went to our favorite birding spots.

Buffleheads

While perusing Buffleheads and Wood Ducks I spotted a....thing....racing down the Schoharie.

It was moving so fast...everything is at or near flood stage...that I could barely get it in the view finder before it was gone.

Next we went down to Yankee Hill Lock, which is on the Mohawk River, to look around some more. The boss soon found a lovely and intricate kinda cairn of carefully stacked stones atop a riverside boulder. He called me over from where I was peering at ducks to take some pictures of it.

Just before I got to him I found myself laughing incredulously as the same....thing...came racing, even faster, down the river towards us. I hadn't mentioned it at Schoharie Crossing, so he thought I was nuts...but we are both used to that.

Anyhow, once again I had to click pretty fast to capture it, but as it was on the same side as we were this time, we got a bit of a better look.....any guesses? And what are the odds we would see it sailing by in both places?

All the Colors of the Rain

Although it was gloomy and rainy yesterday there was much to see.

Swamps are still leafless, but twigs have begun to glow as they prepare for spring. The leftover cattails provide a charming contrast to the Addams Family atmosphere.

Even the stark and lichen-covered trees provided a fanciful foreground for the fog.

I took more photos of landscape than of birds....and you know me.....

Rainy Day People

This doesn't look all that bad, but there wasn't much road left unflooded. It looked a lot more intimidating from the other side....just room enough for a car to pass....I walked back to get these shots.

We set off yesterday in hot pursuit of some ducks Liz saw at Bowmaker Pond. She sent photos, but they were so blurry we really couldn't be sure just what they were. Of course they were gone when we got there.....

Although there is a wild and gloomy beauty about the rain drenched countryside, the alerts popping up on all my devices and feeds are unsettling. I have a Google alert set to Gilboa Dam for obvious reasons. It has been showing up a lot lately, although not in reference to flooding. However, this morning flow measurements began to appear.

Our trip took us places we rarely visit and netted us the first Belted Kingfisher of the year, although not here in Montgomery County where we are doing most of our looking.

It also showed us how much water was out there then....and it rained all night...I hope it lets up for today!

Schoharie Henge

We took a different path on Sunday and saw some new views of the old Erie Canal aqueduct at Schoharie Crossing....

It's the Little Things 2

Yesterday's little thing is a plastic shepherd's whistle, dedicated to directing distant herding dogs in their pursuit of wayward livestock. I have carried one since there actually were three collies, although none of my pups was sophisticated enough to actually work on whistles. 

More on loud yells and frantic screaming sometimes. They did come to one though...you can hear the shrill screech from a long ways away.The two old dogs knew their "sides", "come bye" and "away to me". Mostly minded "That'll do." And "lie down" and "stay" and "walk up". "Get back" or "get out" were harder. Oh, how Mike loved to be too tight to the stock. Worked well with cows, where sometimes he had to swing off a nose to get his point across......but he utterly terrified sheep.

Anyhow, for years and years I never seem to have a whistle with an intact "handle". They still function perfectly well without one, and it's not like my dogs do any work other than studying and shredding newspaper. I do use it to get the boss's attention when he is driving the noisy skid steer sometimes. I should buy a metal one, which would prolly stand up better, but just color me cheap.

However, I was utterly delighted to find the intact, complete, and in fact almost perfect one in yesterday's post, in the upstairs bookcase of all places. Becky and I are culling books for donation, sale, or discard, and there it was lying on the shelf.

I was pleased indeed.

Today's little "things" are little girls. One of them comes to the backdoor screen to call in "Gramma, I need my horse." (Stick horse...a great little traveler that one, a palomino with incredible stamina.)

Or, "Gramma, I need my milk." "Gramma, Where's mommy?"

Upland Sandpiper

The other photo I came across while looking for photos of Upland Sandpipers for eBird. She is a manager at a local restaurant now.....

Aunt Becky BITD

It's the Little Things

A Great Honor

As you know, we added a Border Collie, Finnbar, to our pack last summer. And yes, I did spell his name wrong at first.

He turned out to be quite a dog. He can fetch toys, jump up on the snowmobile trailer when asked..... 

.....as well as when not asked. He can paw you on the head when you try to sit there with him, because he is a big boy for a BC, and he is over endowed in the paw department.

He can also bark.

Play bitey face with his brother. And eat newspaper. His hefty fur coat can collect mud like your best sneakers when you have to go to the barn to calf check after you go out to dinner.

However, what we haven't mentioned is his degree in veterinary medicine. Finnbar Friers, DVM. 

He already had his Masters degree when we got him, majoring in Cow Control, along with minors in house breaking and kibble cleanup. It was astounding to bring such an astute dog into the household. Mack was resentful at first.

However, like all Border Collies, he was bored without a job.

Thus he has been sharing my computer to do online classes in large animal medicine. He also took extra courses whenever he could in artiodactyla obstetrics. That is not an easy elective but he aced it. 4.0 across the board!

His grades were so outstanding that he has been given a singular honor. He has been asked to observe and attend when April the Giraffe finally delivers that long awaited baby. Although he is not qualified to assist they want his opinion on technique. 

He is much calmer about all this than we are! Just lying in his kennel chewing a Milk Bone.

It all seems so fitting. Her name. The name of the month the baby is expected. Today's date. It's like karma, serendipity, and fate all wrapped up in one big taco.

****Update, alas and unfortunately, Finn was forced to decline this singular honor. Turns out  I need the exercise he offers with his mud. I get a lot of steps toward my 10,000 sweeping the kitchen after he comes indoors. Mack needs him to wear him out playing bitey face when they can't be out on the cable and in the run because of said mud.

And what would the House Sparrows do without him to keep them honest by barking at them and chasing them? Sadly we will never know what fame he might have attained.....

BTW, someone stole all our ducks, so we are not making the big bucks like we thought we would. The police have been aggressive in their hunt for the culprits as in the wrong hands they could do terrible damage! Do go read about them if you missed the news last year. They were very special to us and we miss them....although judging by the weather there are at least of few of them hanging around still. And there are a LOT of mallards down on the river....