All Right Already

After a rainy start to the day yesterday, the sun actually came out, setting the situation up for a real hammer and tongs of a thunder and wind storm in the afternoon.

Since it was nice for a few hours, we put down landscape fabric in the small garden I have kept for myself this year, having let the kids have all the big ones. They get ahead of me camp week.....

Then the biggie hit. We were at the kitchen window as it happened and watched a doe scuttle for cover under some heavy bushes and trees along the ridge. She looked like a little kid, hurrying to get out of the rain, head ducked, ears tucked, high stepping it as fast as she could. (This morning she was in the same spot...might be a fawn there...)

We were expecting our best hay customers at the time, but of course they waited until the worst was over to come, and rightly....who wants to mess with hay in the middle of a thunder storm?

Then, the phone rang. The boss was over at the barn and Liz was calling to let us know that our customers couldn't get here because there was a tree down in the driveway!

It was a big box elder, but these ladies are so intrepid that before the boss had time to even get the skid steer started they had broken off enough branches...by hand...to squeeze their truck through under it! Farm girls!

I am sad for all the folks around the country who are too darned dry and I apologize for this area having all your rain. Wish we could share.

Later in the day we hit the parks, which were pleasantly empty, and saw this little mama Common Merganser with what looked like either 11 or 12 babies. Boy, could they ever move! 

Today was the big find though. We went to Yankee Hill because there have been Brants seen and photographed there. There were plenty of Canada Geese, but nothing unusual.

On the way home I suggested we stop just for a couple of minutes at Lock 12 because you can see a lot of river there. I didn't even bother to start a list, although it is rich with birds, because the river was bare.

Then, just after I tucked my binoculars and camera into the case, 60 or so small, black, fast geese flew right in front of the car, singing a much different song than the Canadas do.

We found the Brants. Or they found us. Wish I had the camera out, but I did get a good look at them..binoculars first, camera second. That was a big deal for me I'll tell you.

Made my day!

Marshmallows

Imagine my delight when writing the Farm Side this week led me on a tangent that turned out to be a lot of fun. 

I guess I shouldn't have been surprised though...that is often the case. I will start to do a bit of research to flesh out an idea and discover something I had never imagined. There is often more to the history of things than appears on the surface.

This week it was the history of marshmallows....

Pretty unexpected, huh? I figured they were invented maybe in the 19th century or so, by some confectioner in a room behind a candy store somewhere, but the reality is much more interesting.

And it has been heartening a way to read that Congress, as well as the mainstream and alternate press, are finally taking notice of this story. This has popped up on farm pages for ages and I have written about the "mini'mountain range" nonsense several times, here, as well as in the Farm Side in more detail. Bout time the bigwigs took notice of the egregious stuff going on in the name of environmentalism.  Maybe now things will get better, although I should know better than to expect that.

A-a-and...it's raining again as usual. I got up to write while the house was quiet to find it sprinkling lightly. The birds were doing a mighty dawn chorus, although the dawn itself was darned thin soup. Suddenly, with a crash, it began to pour. Now it is steadily sploshing down, drip, drip, drop, drop, drizzle, drizzle, drizzle.

Enough already! I feel like Forrest Gump. (thanks Rich)

 "One day it started raining, and it didn't quit for four months. We been through every kind of rain there is. Little bitty stingin' rain... and big ol' fat rain. Rain that flew in sideways. And sometimes rain even seemed to come straight up from underneath. Shoot, it even rained at night..."

Some Gave All

The boss's best high school friend did not come home...he still tells stories of their adventures as lively young men. We visit the cemetery every now and then...

Mason Lake

We tried Pecks for a boat rental and fishing trip, but there was no one at the marina, so we headed North.

Open freshwater mussels like this were scattered everywhere. Raccoons been busy maybe...

There we discovered a road, heretofore unmarked, which took us to a little kayak and canoe launch on Mason Lake, which is a really nice little gem south of Indian Lake.

12 little Mallards swimming in a row

The kids fished for a while, while I hunted for birds, as I had forgotten my fishing license (it is now in my camera case). They hooked some bullheads, which promptly dragged their lines under rocks, and saw a nice Small Mouth Bass as well.

The birds were enthusiastic, and included the first Veery of the year, Ovenbirds, and Red-eyed Vireos.

Alas, the blackflies were even more eager at their work and Alan wanted to barbecue, so we came on home fairly early. Fun trip though. I have always liked that little lake and it is even better to actually be able to access the shoreline and adjacent woods.

There was even a Ruby-throated Hummingbird enjoying an apple tree plumb laden with bloom
And with bumblebees, as it is finally warm enough for them to be out pollinating.

Week of Birds

Baby Grackles. Their parents have utterly fouled...or should it be fowled...my garden pond,
dumping fecal sacs into it. Can't wait until they fledge.

LOTS of these around this year

Brown Thrasher. They nest in the wild roses near the lawn

Baby Starling, yippee skippy

Right Place, Right Time

Got lucky with this photo of the dam at Lock 12...it was so pretty there that evening.

To our favorite Farmer Chick

You know, the young lady who has an incubator in the dining room and lambs and ducks and turkeys and chickens and guinea hens and quail and a calf etc. in the old heifer barn.

Happy Birthday!

Too Late for Photos

Sunny Destin, Florida, a place we really, really liked

Bought some grapefruit in sunny Florida when Alan took us down the last week in December. We ate a bunch of them...so much tastier than the kind in stores up here...and then I FORGOT THEM!!!

They languished in the crisper drawer until this morning, when I realized that I should probably throw them away. I hauled them out to the compost but then decided to cut one in half for the Catbirds.

It was perfect! Juicy, fragrant, and lovely. The Catbirds think so too.

So I hauled the nicest ones back in and am eating one with fresh May strawberries. Awesomeness in a bowl, I gotta tell you. Two seasons and two states combined to make a breakfast surprise that is certainly going to be duplicated on the morrow.

How about that? Who knew?

The combination is so delicious that it is too late for photos.

Sun dappled NY. We like it here too...at least this time of year

Toasting the Tanks

One of the watermen said that this is 100 feet longer than a football field
with each barge being 190 feet long, plus the 1200 hp tug

We ended up at a sort of an accidental party last night and it sure was fun. We met some nice new folks, got to catch up with farmer neighbors we live a couple of miles from but rarely actually see and had a heckin good time watching skilled watermen move gigantic beer tank barges through Lock 12 in Tribes Hill.

The pros

About the company

The story of what was going on is here. And here is a list of barge terminology, which I thought was interesting. 

These young men work really hard

We had hoped to catch the barges passing by as we are right near the river, but it had kind of slipped my mind until I saw a video of them passing Amsterdam yesterday evening. I called the boss and he was willing and off we went.

We hit all our favorite river spots, and finally decided upon Lock 12 as the best vantage, with the added possibility of watching the barges.

Pretty cool that this young man could move the whole shebang closer to shore just by stepping on this line

If you would like to see the tanks yourself, here is a tentative schedule.

And here is another story about the story.

First thing this morning I went out to hang up some laundry. Came a now-familiar rumble of a really big engine. I looked down through the trees at the Mighty Mohawk and there were the barges, going right past our house.

Peep

Eastern Phoebe

Woke up to dense fog, peeping coming from the incubator, which has been rolling eggs and popping out chicks and ducklings and turkey poults for weeks, and work to do before play.

No one knows what that newly-escaped-from-the-egg birdie is, as some hen abandoned a nest and Liz brought the eggs inside to hatch. It's black and yellow though, and that is all I can tell you.

A Northern Water Snake the boss spotted on one of our walks

My mama called last night to tell me that she is giving me a ledger kind of thing from my grandfather's brother...I think. I am quite excited about this, as such things offer a window into the past that books can't equal. I vaguely remember Uncle Jakey, who maybe wasn't quite as respectable as grandpa, but quite a guy just the same. I have childish impressions of a house that smelled of kerosene, full of clutter, and interesting objects too obscure for my young mind to intemperate. And talk among men who seemed old, but probably weren't, my beloved grandpa one of them, that was as meaningless to me as the chatter of the birds outside. Time spent sitting in an unfamiliar kitchen on a stool, behaving, but bored, and slightly intimidated by it all. There was old Jake and young Jake I think, but I was too little to really remember much about all that.....

The things you see when you go for a hike

Anyhow.....


While I was proofreading the Farm Side and getting it sent the fog lifted and the sun is shining. After days of housework and bill paying and meeting writing deadlines, I think I will go out birding.

That is all....have a great day!

Update: there are too little black and yellow chickies. No wonder the peeping was so loud.