Drowning

Or maybe she's just taking a little drink....silly peony

Tails

No sunrise again this morning. It just won't stop raining...

This means, of course, that there is no sense in even thinking about haying. The boss can't even get the stuff that the weather has ruined chopped back on the ground.

The weeds and grass are growing though. 

At the sink at five AM I saw something moving atop the tall stuff next to the horse yard.

Wave, wave, wave.....looked like a baseball game out there. 

And then with a pop they went over the fence.

Deer. In greenery so high all you could see was their tails. Time for the kids to protect their garden up there I think.....

Uninspired but Restless

It's cold. It's been raining...a lot....and I am faced with too darned much bookkeeping of the not much fun kind. Thus I find it hard to write about much of anything. 

We are shipping our red heifer today. I hate to do this, as I really like her, but we need beef and I hate to buy it in the store. We have one more beef animal in the pipeline so to speak and then we are going to have to buy one.

Kind of an odd prospect for us. 

Another odd thing. In Florida this New Year I decided I wanted to do better by myself. If I ever got to do other such cool things in the future maybe I could do them better. Faster. Stronger.

I decided to eat less...no diet...just less.

And to do do more. Just do it, you know.

I had done pretty well too, up until Alan got me the phone with the pedometer. Clothes fit better. Felt better. More energy and all.

Then the pedometer entered my life, with that ten thousand step goal each day. I won't lie. Most days I average between 6 and 7 thou...... Mostly because of being busy doing stuff that doesn't involve walking. Haven't figured out yet how to walk and write or keep books.

However, the more I walk the more I want to walk. Talk about restless! I hopped up from the kitchen table yesterday in the early evening, grabbed Daisy's leash, and walked...quickly mind you...up to the Thirty-Acre Lot and back. Just to get moving.

And for the first time in my life I am fitter than my dog!!! There was plenty more walk left in me, but the little sausage ran out of steam. The prospect of carrying a wet, muddy, dog back to the house daunted me so we quit while we were ahead. Of course previous dogs (and hopefully future dogs) were Border Collies, and any and all of them would have still been raring to go even if we walked all the way to the top of 7-County Hill. Dachsies, not so much.

Ain't goals cool though? Whoda thunk it?

My Favorite Month

Busy weekend. Teeth replaced on the double rakes. Tire on the tedder. Little tractor delivered, torn down, frozen-up engine freed and various other efforts towards its eventually running the hay elevator undertaken. Rumor is that it will be a Father's Day present when it is ready to roll.

Photo bombed up on Lusso Rd. I wanted a pic of the mountains
and there were hundreds of Bobolinks and some Meadow Larks.

Some hay was loaded out. Visits from family and friends enjoyed. (Mom, the driveway is not really all THAT bad......)(we love you). A rooster was sold. All chicken houses cleaned.

Gardens weeded and rototilled and a couple more planted. Discovered to my utter amazement two little canna plants up in the asparagus bed. At least ten years ago, before I planted it to asparagus, I had a big bunch of them up there.

I thought I dug them all and in all those years there hasn't been a sign of them. Cannas do not overwinter here even in mild years and the past few winters have been anything, but mild...but there they are. 

Even Miss Catty Fach was busy

The only thing we can figure is when Jade rototilled over the bed he pulled them up from somewhere deep underground where they had somehow escaped the heavy frost.

The Camaro got an oil change and a bath after the guys went to the races and it was turned an interesting new color by all the dust.

And, then, alas, it headed back to Washington for a while...but we sure had fun while its driver was home. The rains came in and finished all possibility of baling the hay that is down.....oh, well....

This was at the car wash ......

Sunday Stills....Circles

For more Sunday Stills.......

Rain

Not today

None in the forecast until Monday, but a steady drizzle on that which is mowed up in the Thirty-Acre Lot. 

Alas. Glad he didn't mow any more than he did. 

Oh, well, it was pretty much a shakedown cruise for the machinery anyhow......

Wot no Santa Maria?

The Pinta out of Wilmington, Delaware

I am doing my darndest to give that pedometer a workout, so I was at the bottom of the driveway ......walk, walk, walk......looking at little flycatchers and deeming them phoebe.... when Liz rumbled down the hill in the pickup.

She was bound for Cumby's to return a movie and buy some milk.

She told me that Jade had seen some kind of ship tied up in Fonda and suggested I join her since I had the camera anyhow. Maybe we could get some pictures.....so I clambered up in the cab...no mean feat for someone of my limited height and flexibility......and off we went.

The ships were tied up at the state barn where we go to photograph geese every now and then. I was delighted to see my favorite Greylag, which hangs out with the Canadas there....and on the river no less. First time I ever saw it actually swim.

See the Greylag on the far right?

And there they were. Two ancient-looking sailing ships tied up alongside the state tugs and tenders. What a divergence! Modern river boats, all red and white and blue and yellow paint. Two vintage ladies, all dark timber and hard lines.

We hurried home for supper and to look them up. Turns out they are museum ships, said to be the best replicas in existence of the ones Christopher Columbus sailed in search of our wonderful continent. They will be docked in Rochester for tours next week.

There was a welcoming committee on the sitting porch

I am so glad Jade spotted them! Who would expect to see a Caravel in Fonda?

A little goose at sunset

Flower Power

You could make a wedding bouquet just walking along the driveway picking the wild flowers that grow there. 

Good thing because in a couple of weeks we will celebrate 30 years together. We won't have to spend a dime.

Our bouquet on that first day was a surprise provided by a dear friend who is gone now.


 I was so tickled when she gave it to us...all unexpected, thus all the more welcome. Our elopement plans were shared only with my brother, who had to be roped in to milk for me at the farm where I worked, and her and her husband, who went with us. 

We went out for Chinese afterwards...I had never had Chinese before that, having led a sheltered life.

It is the only way to get married.  

After the Storm

I heard that we got over two inches of rain over the weekend. It has been dry. Now it isn't.

Of course, as always, that volume of water flowing down the hills in a short period of time, was rough on the driveway.

All fixed now.

Now to tackled the jungle of weeds that are taking over the gardens.

Fondness

Alas the Riverbank Grapes are about done for the year.
I love the way they smell

They do say that absence makes the heart grow fonder. I hope it's true. The recent hiatus here was caused by our boy being really sick with a bad wisdom tooth and his mommy being too darned worried to feel like writing.

Top Onions are getting their tops.
 I need to start a new pot to use indoors for winter

The culprit was finally removed yesterday, along with one of its mates and he is back to work. Now his worry wort mom can brood about the nasty pain relievers and horrific antibiotics he must take......reading the inserts that come with medicines these days is worse than starting a new Steven King at midnight on Halloween with a storm rumbling in the background and werewolves howling on the hill.

After an April emptying and cleaning the garden pond has finally balanced itself
and is clear.
 First time it's been emptied in ten years or more
because it had such a nice balance of water lilies and pond plants.
Alas two horrible winters in a row killed all but one iris.
That one had to be lifted out by three people and chopped up with and axe before being hauled away by the skid steer.
Maybe a heater this fall....keep my new lilies from going the way of the old ones.
 Nice to see the little fishies

Meanwhile, it has been raining and has turned off cold, shutting down garden work , and leading to the furnace running full blast even as we speak. Here are a few sunny pics from before the weather reversal.....

Water Canna roots

Ponies

Gambit

Jack

Yeah, Jack was invited onto the back porch for a short visit the other evening. Having pretty much seen it all, he was unimpressed. No hay here, ho, hum....

Peggy, however, who was sitting in her highchair nomming some supper, went wild, screaming with joy to see a horse....not quite, but almost....in the house.

She is her mama's daughter for sure.

The kids brought old Deranged Richard into the kitchen once when this was their grandma's house and they thought she wouldn't notice.....

Deranged Richard, teaching the girls about ponies, back in the day

Wake Up Sleepyhead

Unedited...just as the morning was given to us.

A slow-moving cow rising from her bed to meander down to the barnyard gate.

Cardinal talking
Catbird
Crow
Black-throated Blue Warbler
Yellow Warbler
Common Yellowthroat
Willow Flycatcher

And too many more to remember or mention.....

It was just a little foggy and mysterious and more than a little amazing and wonderful.

Liz reported a doe with twin fawns over in the cow barnyard when she went to get hay.....looked brand new. Safety in numbers or safety by farm dogs.....

It is hard not to love this amazing land...as long as I stuff all those horrible memories of winter into the closet along with the down vests and snowmobile pants. 

June and Dairy Month is almost here.

Country of Origin Labeling

These are places where American food is grown

Or COOL.

Are you one of those people? Who read every label and peruse every sticker on every single bag of fruit or package of vegetables or Styrofoam container of sausages to see where the food originated?

I am and I don't regret it one bit.

We have good friends who farm in this area

I want to know that when I serve a bowl of strawberries to Peggy or bite into a crisp Granny Smith that it was grown by American farmers and picked and shipped and processed under American food safety regulations.

Having been a dairy farmer for the majority of my life, working in what may be one of the most regulated of food industries, I have first hand knowledge of what goes into making our food safe....I have been forced by milk inspectors to pressure wash the gutter behind the cows......I know ten thousand ways to clean a bulk tank and keep it that way.

Having been an ag  columnist for 17 years I have learned a lot about what is done to inspect food being imported. There is NO comparison! A lot of food that comes into this country comes in on a sort of honor system...an inspection here and there, but by no means ubiquitous oversight.

It is one thing to import from neighboring nations that also work under stringent rules....but our new food trading buddies are going to be Pacific Rim nations...possibly including..... you know....China....thanks to the TPP

Those stickers and labels are probably going bye-bye. Since the World Trade Organization has once again struck down US COOL laws and Congress is scurrying to comply, I have one simple, homegrown solution to not wanting my apples and chicken to come from China...where we all know feed safety is not exactly paramount.

We are making plans to remove the old cement sink that clutters up the back porch and buy another freezer. We already raise our own beef, turkeys, get venison off our own land, and grow and freeze a lot of vegetables. We get strawberries locally and apples and other things we don't yet grow ourselves.

Black locust in bloom Town of Glen

Once the old sink is gone we are going shopping for another medium-sized freezer. Storage space has been one of the constraints holding us back from growing more of our own....we can fix that.

Jade's grandpa is giving him his rototiller, which makes expanding the gardens quite possible. 

A river flats cornfield in the Town of Glen

We can do this.

And Congress and their donors and their caving in to world interests at the expense of American interests can all go to Hell.

Maybe this little farm can't feed the world, but we can sure go a long way towards feeding ourselves.

Some tasty food stories for your enjoyment and enlightenment:

Donkey Meat recalled
It hasn't worked for Mexico
Or pets

The Chinese stories...horror stories that is....never end.

McDonalds
Yummy....we can get chicken there now
And pork (Meanwhile on American dairy farms water sources are inspected several times a year and water samples pulled and tested by official inspectors)

I could do this all day. The stories of tainted food from countries that will now be our best buddy trading partners and won't have to say so on the packaging are everywhere you care to look. Overseas newspapers are on them like white on rice so to speak. You won't see much here.