Last Day

Time to go home. After so many years we are fairly good at packing in and packing out. The only thing we forgot was my sangria and that was quickly remedied. Hopefully we will manage not to leave anything behind when we go....

Best bird of the week...Barred Owl. Only heard it once just before four AM, but once is enough.

Best fish....a good-sized Fall Fish. My, how they fight.

Best day..... Thursday

Worst day...yesterday. I nearly froze and almost went home early. It was nasty.

So now home to paying bills and cleaning house and all that fun stuff. One good aspect of aging is that time flies. Next year will roll around soon enough I guess.

Storm

Close all the windward windows.

Move the boat to the leeward side of the dock.

Tie it up good.

Even the ducks are getting out of the water

Rogue Weather

Last night the wind got up and it rained every which way and was not nice.

Something made me bring everything inside...even chairs and "drying" bathing suits.

Good thing. I don't think it rained sideways but the fog is flowing everywhere and even the screens sheltered by the porch are rimed with water droplets.

Spider webs are dew strung floating on the rising wind like filling sails on spider ships.

I woke to fog this morning cotton candy pink, then orange, then green. But now just grey and chilly.

I will brave the porch for a while do a bird list...maybe fish a little, but then I'm going in I guess....Mack doesn't like it out here in the almost rain.

Scarlet Tanager for excitement this morning, singing in the woods behind the cabin.

Fishy

Caught a Fall Fish yesterday night during an entertaining visit from a favorite nephew.

Man oh man how they fight,  considering that they are just over sized minnows. They were biting thick and fast but it was hard to hook 'em. They tend to mouth the hook and drag out line and just let go.

My little pole got a workout though.

Alas Alan and Amber had to leave.....miss them a lot.

Mack is loving camp though. Lots and lots of walks while I try to get mt 10,000 steps.

Have a good one....

Just an Everyday Thing

Rainy morning but....walking back to the wee hoosie in the woods.  Right by the driveway a Veery is singing.

If you have never heard one it is worth a quick search. The song echoes off the cabin and rolls out over the lake rich,  and clean, and poweeful.

Then standing at the porch door, toothbrush in hand, as a loon goggles for minnows right off the dock. He is stark and serious against the hammered metal surface of the rainy lake.....

It would be impossible not to love the woods and waters even on a wet day....and. so I surrender.

Please excuse terrible formatting and all. Learning to do this on my phone, which is not so very elegant.  Thanks. And it is worth chasing tiny keys and missing buttons to sit here writing with a fishing pole in my lap and the waves tugging at the porch pilings...... I just got a nice bite but missed it...prolly cause I was holding the phone

Dawn Chorus

Awesome

Fish are biting.  It is all I can do to count birds with a line down. Was just reeling last night when a largish Rock Bass nailed with a splash.

Goodish birds.

Dog likes it now. Just one long walk with all the wild woods scents and he was as hooked as that fish.

I love this place.

Water Light.

We are here...at Cabin 2 on my favorite lake in the world.     There was thunder in the morning and rain and humid misery but now the air is sweet and cool, the wind is clean and soft, the light is pouring off the water...........and the birds are good.   However........                                                The very definition of folly....taking a Jack Russell Terrier camping.     He accidentally put himself in the lake thinking that it looked solid enough to him...alas it wasn't. Anyhow he is not a terribly happy boy alrhough I am sure he will get used to it.......in time.                                        

Happy Birthday, Mappy

If you see this guy...which is kinda unlikely, but always possible....wish him a wonderful birthday. Hope he and the family are having a great time.

By the way, he is the guy who will always come to the rescue whenever you need a knight in shining denim, an all around great guy, and a wonderful brother.

Love you, Matthew.

Thanks

Dancing moose with a tambourine and a kilt, with Christmas lights in his antlers,
being pecked by a crow so he can kick higher. He says thanks

For all those good thoughts. The boss got the hay baled and he and Liz got it unloaded just before it started to sprinkle. I can't say the same about me and the laundry, but that is not so very important.

Sun

Just a couple of hours worth plus some cooperation from the equipment and they will maybe have another couple of loads of hay. They got two yesterday. Good thoughts appreciated.

Hay, Man

Looks like today or tomorrow will mark the shakedown cruise for most of the hay equipment. We could use your good thoughts. 

Bobolink

Medicare

I'm eligible now.

And for my birthday I "got" a Scarlet Tanager singing right in the backyard. Thanks to the One what sent it!

Almanac

Still raining every day. Flooding up west and at least two tornadoes. The Chicory came in bloom today, just in time for July.

Today would have been my grandfather's birthday. He was such a good man...I still miss him.

I walked up back this morning; the roads are like quicksand, the hay over my head. You can barely see Alan's Warlock through it.

The Bobolinks have gone silent and secret. I only saw four. Guess this is what they do at nesting time. Hope they hurry up and get done, as the hay must come off as soon as the weather allows. 

For Linda and Boomer

Lots of fledglings around, finches, chickadees, and titmice among others. Just counted a dozen Chimney Swifts when the guys were loading out hay. There have only been two in recent weeks, but they may be done nesting and gathering up into larger flocks. Our nephew nearly stepping on a Dark-eyed Junco's nest up where we camp. I had no idea that any of them nested that far south.

Anyhow, I sure hope summer doesn't fly by as fast and and miserably as spring did. We are ready for some hay weather for sure.

Rain for Sale

Schoharie Creek, which is really a river, after it was over.

Cheap! I know there are those of you needing rain, and indeed even praying for it.  I would sure like to share some of ours with you........all I ask is that you take care of shipping and handling.

It's getting ridiculous. It rains every day, or almost every day, and doesn't ever dry out in between. Yesterday it poured, washed out the driveway, ruined plans, and made a mess, and that was just here. North and west of us there were tornadoes, barns leveled, power lines down.

Enough.

Just provide a shipping address and an appropriate container and all this water will be on its way to you........pronto.

Thanks. (Do turn up your sound for the video. The rain even drowned out the highway noise.)



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Week on the Farm

Fun with daddy

The seductive scent of wild milkweed

Working on a new duck pen

Getting hay for the bull

Walk on the wild side

A new cow....

Not Quite Panic

After I hollered

A strange bird called this morning at nobody-else-up-yet-thirty.  The light lay golden like a mantle over the heifer pasture hill, the sky was plumed with pretty peach and purple fog, and the air was cool and clean.... I just had to go out with camera and binoculars.....

Up on the hillside, under the boss's leaning tree, I saw a great, big, black-and-white, cow belly, but no head showing in the grass.

Oh, no! We had several intense thunderstorms yesterday and the cows are on a steep hillside. Sometimes cattle roll the wrong way up on hills and die before they can be righted. It is very rare to see one lying flat out on her side unless something is wrong. (Horses on the other hand do it all the time and can scare the heck out of you.)

I thought it was old Neon Moon. What could have happened? Lightning? Bloat from being upside down? Bad thoughts raced through my head.

I hurried up where Mack was whipping around his circle barking and hollered, "Hey, you!"

A big horned head popped up out of the grass. It wasn't Moon at all, but her big daughter, Moonshine, who was just fine, and seemingly a bit irritated at being awakened after the restless night.

I was plumb relieved! I never did find that mystery bird. 

Mack

Uncommonly Rare

Chestnut-sided Warblers are common. It says so right in their description on All About Birds.

This does not however mean that I could find one....ever....except once when I was maybe in my twenties. That notation is in an old field guide that I can't even find any more.




Thus yesterday when we were over at Lyker's Pond looking and listening and I thought I heard one I was really excited. We must have scanned the shrubbery for an hour trying to set eyes on any one of three that were singing but just couldn't. However, I made a little video of the call to run by the experts. I was darned near positive that it wasn't just another American Redstart, of which we have several pairs right around the house and barns.

I was tickled pink to find that I was right. Isn't it funny how you might see birds that show up on the NY Rare Bird Alerts practically every day and can't find a common, and relatively easy to identify warbler like that? I am so grateful for Internet technology that made it possible for me to learn the song of a bird I had never heard in person....especially with my tin ear and all.

Anyhow it made my day, as did the kids' accounts of the birds they are seeing way down in North Carolina on the Outer Banks. Black Skimmers....seriously...wow.

Sunday on the Farm

Happy Birthday, Michael

How does it feel to catch up with your old vintage sister? Hope you have a wonderful day.....

Love you!