Rushing waters sparkled and danced, flickering diamonds flowing in smooth jade. Or molten glass or dark green taffy, pulled this way and that by the spinning, whirling world.
Clean and clear as the air that rushed along ruffling our hair and tugging at the fly lines, like a happy child might fluff a doggy's ears.
Chuckling gently over the smooth places, it laughed as loud as a drunken party where the rocks tossed and tore it.
You could see inside the rolling waves as if they were glass cases for mobile morsels of whatever the water found along the flow.
Lovely, peaceful, wild and gleeful, this little river is like a shining light upon the land it bisects.
Before the floods this pretty little stream had sand, gravel, and stones on the bottom and moss and plants lining the bank. It was a nice place for trout and sometimes we caught one.
Now the creek bottom is bare blue limestone, scoured clean by the waters, and the banks sport massive rip rap stones the size of dinner tables, only a lot thicker and heavier.
The many floods that have hit the region over the past decade haven't done much for the trout fishing either. We didn't see a fin. Of course the waters were really moving thanks to spring melt and rains, and the breeze was enough to snatch a fly and fling it right where you didn't want it, so we only fished there for a little while this morning.
It is still a lovely spot though....our favorite little pull off on Route 80 south of Fort Plain...and we had a nice time.
And here...multiple annoying clicks but..... There are lots more articles on this out there, but they all pretty much say the same thing in different words. I am not a one issue voter by any means, but this is a matter with meaning for agriculture and it hasn't exactly been given center stage.....
Visited the accountant yesterday and when returning up the driveway something walked slowly across in front of us. At first we thought it was a particularly tall, mangy cat, but we quickly realized that it was a fox. Silhouetted against the light as it was, I am not sure if red or grey. It was tall like a red, but very dark in color. It was also in rough shape. Fur was ragged, head drooping, tail almost dragging, and as I said, it was walking even though the car was coming closer.
Jade has had his mow-jo on up in the old horse pasture
At times like these you start reviewing rabies vaccination records. Doggies are all good, as are the ponies. There are a couple half-wild or wholly wild cats around though. Ack.
Is no more. When the boss and I went birding this weekend we saw that it has been demolished and cleanup is under way. Sad to see such an icon of architecture falling into disrepair and dying in such a manner. It must have been beautiful in its day, but in recent decades it has decayed to a grotesque reminder of what once was. It was little more than a grandiose eyesore the last few times we passed it, and no doubt dangerous in the bargain....such a shame.
This weekend's Farm Side will delve a little deeper into emergency preparedness for regular both folks and farmers. Here are a couple good links I found for getting prepared on the farm. Dairy and Livestock Plan
A long, long time ago, when we lived in the house down in town, we enjoyed a nifty little workbench in the cellar. It was a big favorite of mine and I outfitted it with lots of tools and screws and nails and....stuff. One fall the boss and I started some projects down there. They involved careful design and much effort in the building. Of course our eager offspring wanted to come down in the cellar to help....or at least to see what was up.
........there was an important holiday coming up...... So we told them that we were building a spanking machine.....
They drove us nuts all winter, but whenever we had a few minutes we sneaked down there to work on our projects....we even made little hay and straw bales out of sections of 2X4 painted green or yellow with pinkish orange strings. Come Christmas the girls got homemade barns for their toy horses and Alan got a machine shop for his tractors. At one point Liz donated her original one to Mom's Morning Out nursery school, which the kids had attended. She and her dad built a new one to replace it...this one....which now is a favorite of another little girl.Liz just brought it downstairs for her today. The original barns were painted a bit more formally, but Liz did this one herself and she was just a little girl. Peggy doesn't care.
After our boy left for the Keystone State on Sunday, the boss took me birding. He likes to drive around the countryside and I like to stare at bodies of water looking for fowl, so a good time was had by all.
We tried the pond on Goldman Road, but there was nothing to see other than a couple of setting geese on muskrat houses and a muskrat hustling across the road where the beaver excluder excluded him too.
There IS a Great Blue Heron in this photo
We saw some harriers along the way, a few kestrels, but nothing very interesting until we hit Bowmaker Pond. The place was fairly boiling there. A single swallow, looked like a Northern Rough Winged, lots of Canada Geese, at least 22 Common Mergansers squabbling up a storm, a single Great Blue Heron, and a pair of Wood Ducks that whistled in and settled obligingly against the cattails.
It was fun. I spent a lot of time wandering around the little meadow near the water peering at this and that and taking pictures. Suddenly I felt someone watching.... And there, just a few yards from my feet, was a goose, giving me the stink eye and just daring me to come closer. I didn't. But you can count on geese.....
My brothers are special men, capable of many things. From making music, to making buildings stand up, to raising wonderful families, they have done much with their lives and still are......They have been good to me and for me all their lives. Happy day guys....this one's for you.
Deuce and a half of Red-tailed Hawks, quartet Turkey Vultures.
Brace 'o Blue Jays, pair of Bluebirds, Robins robbin' fruit-macs One Red-winged Blackbird, nope, there's two,
No today's turkeys...that snow is all gone
A six pack of Turkeys and a dozen or so crows. One big gull, way up eagle-high. Was it a Great Black Backed? Maybe Or not. A dozen dozen Goldfinches, a couple of Pine Siskins. Red-bellied Downy Hairy......you know whats. White-breasted Nuthatch Carolina Wren House Sparrows, Grackles, Starlings, Mourning Doves, Kestrel for a year bird, Song Sparrows, Tree Sparrows, White-throated Sparrows, Juncos, and a big fat woodchuck hustling for his burrow.
Bunny, bunny, four fat deer.
'Yote tracks, deer tracks, turkey tracks and mine. Spring has come to the 30-Acre Lot and by golly so have I. And though the lilacs appear to be toast and the daffadowndillies are nothing but compost, Pseudacris Crucifer has made it through..... Peeeeeepppp.....peeeeeppp.....peeeeepppppp..... *** I have to look that name up every single time. Why did they change it from Hyla Crucifer, which I could never forget? Same reason they took Richmondena away from the cardinal I guess, and gave him two last names. If you turn up your sound and play the video below you can get an idea of the number of American Goldfinches living here this year. This isn't even all of them as there were many down by the barn and by the house.
Well, really, it wasn't boring, and we learned a lot.We are pretty old though.... Last night the boss and I attended a citizen preparedness meeting up at the school. It was sponsored by our local state legislators and presented by the National Guard. We may think we know how to be ready in a disaster....... I heard someone talking behind us....."Construction workers and farmers are more prepared than the entire community...." In some ways that it is probably true. As the man said, people who work outdoors in real and unpredictable situations learn to cope with them. However, there is always room for more information. I read everything I can get my hands on about prepping, getting ready for emergencies, and all that, but reading isn't everything. First of all, you have to actually do some of the things suggested. Thinking about doing them won't help...and that is my problem. My middle name isn't procrastinate, but it surely could be. Then there is the new stuff that you didn't know that might turn out to save a life someday. Like turning off utilities...a good "how to" and information on necessary tools needed were offered last night. The guys know...me, not so much....except for circuit breakers. I have flipped those switches quite often over in the barn. We learned about fire extinguishers too. We got to hear how well those sanitizing drinking straws work from someone...a National Guards woman...who actually uses one regularly. She said she has sometimes had to drink from mud puddles and has never gotten sick. We learned that if you put a tourniquet on someone you must write a "T" on their forehead so responders can act accordingly. We learned about ten-year smoke detector batteries, and making provisions for pets in emergencies...hint...they should have their own "go kit" with vaccination paperwork and more. Righty Tighty Lefty Loosey was mentioned. I knew that one and use it often, but it never hurts to be reminded. We learned that some of the most basic things you might need are a whistle, a phone, and matches. I carry all of those all the time, plus a Swiss Army knife.....I have read To Build a Fire too many times. The whistle is a shepherd's whistle left over from Border Collie days, but it is good and loud. You can sign up for all kinds of emergency alerts on your phone at NY Alert. Areas for alerts can be adjusted to suit your region or even your travels. We heard an anecdote from one of the presenters about how such a warning certainly saved lives when he was running an adventure camp for kids. He received a high wind warning on his phone, a mere 15 minutes ahead of severe weather. Had he not been able to rush those kids to a safe place deaths would probably have occurred, as the area where they had been was devastated. Instead no one was injured. If you get an opportunity to attend one of these classes, I highly recommend it. Here are links to some of the information: Prepare NY Montgomery County Emergency Management
But they don't look too happy. We have had a lot of robins all winter, eating the leftover fruits and flying around all bright and beautiful. Although many people don't notice them, it is not uncommon for robins to winter in the north.
It is interesting to me how many birds use the house structure to soak up sunlight and get warm. I hope the wind doesn't come up today......
A poor little Eastern Phoebe is sitting on the black rocking chair on the sitting porch. He does not look too great in this terrible cold weather and the insects he eats are surely unavailable. I sure hope it warms up this afternoon.
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