Good Folks helping other Good Folks

Amish people are rebuilding the garage of the couple who brought the kidnapped children home.

Deadly Doilies

Drape the drooping grass, durable diligence waiting on destiny. 

Dew displays the dastardly details; by noon they are invisible. 

Did our grandmothers learn lace from spiders?

Dragonflies tremble and shiver off the wet, darkened by the dampness of the day. 

All is softened by twisting fog. It swirls knee-deep over old red grass, knotting and loosening in the eddying air.

 Birds are visible only by voice. A blur of racing yellow darts into the big oak tree. No sound, no name, no way, no how

Absence makes the walk grow harder. When there were cows out here, more cows than two, plus a heifer and a calf, the grass was short, the hummocks and divots visible.

Now they are sand traps and water hazards, or mud traps and tangle hazards if you will, covered in a pelt of clinging green.

You cannot walk and look up at the same time, atall, atall.

The light is mysterious this time of year. Colors glow within. Shadows burn three-dimensional, tangible; shadow suddenly a color of its own.

Thank you cows, for lingering in the woods this morning. My knees and bad foot will ache later from walking up to get you, but memories of morning will surely light the day.

Something's Up

Out on the sitting porch. The Carolina Wren has been going nuts out there since I got up. I crept out and peeked out the door, and he was over between the chairs up to something.

He saw me and flew out under the railing, but now he is back. Guess I will leave him alone. I disturbed a sleeping hummingbird when I opened the door...can't have that.

Meanwhile, in other news, today is truck-in for the fair. The ponies, old Black Jack, bought on a whim, around twelve years ago or so, and Diamond, the princess pony.

Me:
"I want to get a black pony that looks like Magnum, so I will see him in the pasture and not miss the old guy so much."

Ten minutes later
Becky: "Well, here's one in the want ads."

Phone call. 

Frantic race to be the first ones there. Little pony that is too much for his current owners. All bluff and fake out.

Fast forward all those years, still a little pony, still full of bluff, but we have his number, so off to the fair he goes.

And another spur of the moment purchase, Diamond, AKA McCall's KL Crimson.

Who else but Liz could be looking for lawnmowers and find a pinto Shetland from way out west?

Diamond has been to the fair before, but this is the first time for Jack. Should be interesting, as he is small but feisty. 

Sunday Stills...Flower Gardens

For more Sunday Stills....

Albany Implosion

Along with many others we waited all week to watch the implosion of the Hotel Wellington in Albany NY today.

We did chores a little early to make sure we were done in time.

Then we sat through what seemed like interminable political back-scratching and chest puffing....all that free advertising right there on TV for all to see.

Just as impatience nearly sent me back to the kitchen it began.

It was pretty cool. Lots of fireworks, a little dynamite, lots of dust and booming and all that stuff...nearly made up for the politics.

But all I could think was that there will be a lot of confused pigeons tonight...homeless even....I wonder where they will roost. 

Again with the Flooding

The calm before the storm

Ridiculous. I have no idea how Jade got home last night, as he was hauling up in the western part of the state when the really heavy rains hit.

It began raining night before last. It is raining now. It rained most of the time in between. There were horrible thunderstorms, wind, and lashings of rain, some of the hardest we have seen all summer.

All the roads were closed in front of the farm when we went to bed last night. Mud slide across the river. State of emergency for the whole county. Don't know if the report is true, but I saw on FB that someone was struck by the lightning.

I know I took the cows up the lane a lot faster than I normally do. Metal gates. Metal umbrella. Metal fence wires. Tall trees all around. Normally I meander a bit listening for good birds and staring up at the branches. Not last night.

It was nasty. It has been nasty all year. Our hay supplier from when we had the cows called to chat last night and said he was down 500 bales this year....500 big round bales that is. If we still had the cows, he would not have been able to supply us!

California, and anyone else who has come up short, come get your rain. It has outstayed its welcome.

See What I Mean?

BouncyTwirlyLightsNMusicNoisyFunThing

Took about ten minutes for her to figure out that she could bounce and dance and have a ball. Thank you Aunt Jen and Uncle Scott

Shortcut

What happened?

Through the old feeder wagon.

What do I do now?

Maybe this will work

Dang

Banzai! 

Ma-a-a-a, ma-a-a-a, you'll never believe what just happened to me

Cruel and Unusual

The stolen calves were finally found, but four were dead and the three remaining are not in the best of shape.

This just makes me sick. From photos of the barn where they were stolen, they lived in the best of conditions before they were taken. The place looked clean and bright and comfortable.

Now some jerks, for want of a better term, are alleged to have neglected them unto what was undoubtedly a horrible death.

Calf care is a highly skilled task. They are babies and need consistent and appropriate feed, care, and housing. Every little detail is important. You can just bet the farmer knew what height to place their feeders, what temperature to feed their milk, and what to watch for in the way of problems.

No doubt he understood the necessity for the esophageal groove to close so that the milk went into the abomasum and not the rumen, and how to achieve this goal.

And the need for warm, clean, dry bedding and freedom from drafts and damp. He surely understood animal husbandry. These brutes certainly did not. 

 I hope they throw the book at whoever did this ugly thing. 

Is it Wednesday Already

I can scarcely believe it. 

So busy. 

It has been nice, so the boss has made hay. The mow has been slowly filling up all summer, as he fought with the horrible weather, week in and week out. He has worked more Sundays this year than he ever did when we had cows. The weather pattern has had only Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday having any dry weather, so he has had to bale and store on Sunday...just no choice.

Rainbows for Linda

I've been putting up squash and beans, moving things off the honey locust tree, which alas, has to be cut down in a couple of weeks, moving my rock and herb garden, which live among her roots, and watching over the coordination of moving a pony east, the two ponies we already have to the fair...and...and...and.... The big blue spruce is going too, but I am not so attached to that one.

The air has been autumn-cool, and nights downright chilly. You can see your breath and that of the cows if you walk to the barn in the morning. Fat little Marv goes to pasture each day with his mother and Moon and his big sister, Cinnamon. He is like a little piglet, round, robust and red, red, red.

Fall migration is kicking in big time. Warblers are much in evidence, grackles are gone, haven't seen a swallow in weeks....they should be leaving this week or next, but the boss says he hasn't seen one when he's been raking hay, for ages. They are great company when you are alone out there on the tractor, swooping right across the hood and whirling over the windrows, as they seek out the bugs your wheels and equipment stir up. I just watch and enjoy, but he used to like to auction them off, taking each fleeting bird as a bid, as he practiced his bid calling.

Turns out that the darned chipmunk can climb the arbor, to which I have been moving the bird feeders from the honey locust. The chickadees aren't thrilled and neither am it.

Yesterday was interesting. I did beans on Monday, so Tuesday was squash day. I was right in the middle of boiling up a big bunch of them, when Becky called home from the restaurant where she works. Something was up with the village water, and they were having to replace all their water with purchased water.

Oh, now isn't that just grand? As it happens we have village water....

I was darned if I was going to quit in the middle and dump all that work, without more information, so I just labeled all the bags of squash that I made. 

And, sure enough, along about ten PM we finally heard that there is a boil water advisory for the village....always nice to be the first to know and all.


Seems it's an issue with the chlorination though, so I will wait to toss the squash...and the beans I did the day before..... as this has been ongoing I guess...until I hear the results of the tests for bacteria. Because everything is probably actually fine. 

Meanwhile...bottled water...and trying to be very careful for the baby's sake.

Peggy Fix

She eats carrots like a starving wolf. Not quite as crazy about applesauce and bananas. 

This Works

Really well too. I use my phone to play music while I am working, but ear phone cords are annoying, and without them it doesn't have the greatest sound, nor is it very loud.

However, I saw somewhere on Facebook, no idea where, the idea of putting the phone into a glass to amplify it.

I used this big measuring cup instead, and not only was it louder, but the bass was much richer, and the sound was improved all around.

So easy.

So effective.

Twenty-five Years is not Enough

Forever would not be enough. Besides the evil perpetrated against the poor little children, kidnapped by these alleged fiends, a terrible crime has been committed against the whole culture of the Amish people, and against the rural mindset everywhere.

If they are not safe in their own yard, then where is there safety and sanctuary?

In the same segment of Upstate NY, where, when a neighbor loses their barn to a terrible fire, everyone, even strangers, pitches in to help in any way possible, including the Amish, who will help with the rebuilding, monsters prowl, hunting small children as if they were prey.

The court system cannot protect the innocent in this case, but I surely hope it can prove the guilt and provide the punishment for the alleged jackals among us.

Sunday Stills....Flashback

One of my brothers telling fortunes

My dad, who was known as "Big Chief Step in....yeah that..."
because of an incident with the floor in the bathroon, which was full of Yatha's puppies

Aunts

Look, a horse, a Standarbred I once took care of, name Sheepshead

One of these is not like the other....it's an uncle.
Five extra points if you know which one, and which uncle it is.

Grandpa Lachmayer, one of the nicest folks you could ever know

These are by no means the oldest photos that I have taken, but they are some of the oldest ones that I still have. My aunt and uncle bought my brother and me each a Kodak Instamatic camera when we were small kids. 

I started taking photos right away, but I suspect that very few of them ever were actually developed. These are all from 1972, taken at a family Halloween party that year.

For more Sunday Stills......

Arrest Made in Amish Kidnapping

Two people were quickly apprehended in the kidnapping of those poor little Amish children.

I am glad they caught them and have them locked up, but I shudder to think what their reasoning for this abominable act might be.

And to people who reviled the parents for having the girls running the farm standwhile they did chores....they were not doing anything wrong by working right at the edge of their own yard.

 Kids play near their homes all the time, or go to the park across the street, or run over to the neighbor's for a minute. Kids can't be in their parent's sight every second of every day. We were super paranoid about stranger danger when we lived down in town, what with the Thruway exit less than a mile from the house, and motels and truck stops surrounding us. People picked on us about it all the time.

And yet the kids, by the time they were twelve, still spent a certain amount of time out of our sight. Inevitably.

The blame lies squarely on the perpetrators.

Whining About the Heat

As last winter stumbled to a reluctant halt, bringing frost into late May and leaving us kind of shell shocked from weather miseries, everyone said, "The first person to complain about the heat is going to get......" 

Fill in your own nasty fate. I heard a lot of them.

Instead, here it is the middle of August, the Dog Days. 

We should be whining about the heat, and stressing the grid with excess air conditioner use. We should be threatening to bash the first person who complains about the cold, when winter finally brings relief from the summer furnace.

Instead, last night, I asked the boss to go down in the cellar and turn on the valve that diverts hot water from the outdoor wood stove, into the furnace plenum.

Yeah, we have it going as we have used it to heat water most of the summer, but the furnace part is always shut off, as, if hot water goes through it, even with the furnace fans all shut off, passive warm air seeps upstairs.

And, you know what? It feels good.

He'll probably have to go back down in a day or two and divert it back to its usual path, but for now the house is not damp.

It is not dank. It is not chilly and shiverish and too darned cold for a little baby.

Yep. Now, where's my flannel shirt?

Found Safe

Last thing before bed last night, just as I was hollering in to the boss, Jade came running out of their part of the house with the same news...the little Amish girls were found alive, and evidently okay.

Mystery abounds though. The language barrier between people who speak modern English and the folks who speak the old version of German that they use is so great....

I hope they find the perpetrators promptly though, and that they are punished appropriately. 

Story from the Daily News

And Fox News

And from ABC

It even made the Daily Mail in Great Britain.

We all went to bed in a better frame of mind. I know the little ones were in the back of my mind all day. Poor children! No child should ever have to deal with the terror they must have felt, and they were perhaps even less prepared than their "English" counterparts might be.

So glad that they are back with their family.

Bucket List

A while back I asked Alan if he would take me to a parking lot somewhere and let me step behind the wheel of his year-and-half old Camaro.

For one reason and another, usually that I was busy, we didn't get it done until today.

Um, wow!

I grew up in the muscle car era...took my road test on a Pontiac Firebird, routinely drove a '69 Chevelle, and have driven all sorts of other cars and trucks. 

And I can drive a standard. In fact my first car was a bright orange Chevy, 3-on-the-tree 1/2 ton pickup. I even had another old Chevy that had been converted...by utterly incompetent kids...from an automatic to a standard. That one would only start on hills, and had flat tires every day. So I rotated my tires, myself, every day, and knew the location of every hill in three counties. (Normal tire rotation does include getting the one that isn't flat out of the trunk and putting on the car, right?)

However, I admit I was really nervous about driving his six-speed beast, even in a parking lot.

I did it though.

Didn't stall it a single time.

 Didn't get out of second gear either, but with more room I could have. 

The sweetest car I ever drove. So smooth, so nimble, so much more power than anyone could possibly need. It's probably a good thing that I never owned a car like that.

Magnum

He was my magical first horse. I rode him everywhere....the kids still moan when we pass down some distant back road and I say, "I used to ride Magnum here."

He came to me as a two-year-old and stayed until he was over thirty. I can still recreate him in my mind, from his one white hoof to the whorls in his hair. We were pretty good friends....to say the least.

Yesterday he was brought back to me....literally.

A dear Internet friend in a distant state conspired with Liz to recreate him as a merry-go-round horse and sent him to me as a complete surprise.

I got cold chills as I opened the box.

Isn't he beautiful!

Amazing.........and thank you.....