Did Ja Miss Me

The correct answer to that in this family is, "Were you gone?"

Well, not far. The boss went to the hospital healthy, for a meeting about the care of an elderly relative, and came home carrying a bug.

THE BUG really. It deserves such emphasis, believe me. 

He got sick first and was miserable for several days. Misery loves company and all that stuff, so we all joined him in his endeavor. A revolving door on the loo would have been a fine thing indeed.

Worst part of this particular plague is that the tummy symptoms, which are savage by themselves, are followed by respiratory distress in sad proportion. Alan and Becky both called in sick and if you know them that is not their norm.

Anyhow, somehow, here we are, all of us for the most part past the worst. I am still substituting Gatorade for morning coffee, but rumors of my demise...etc.......Not well by any means but healthy enough to sit at the computer wasting time when there are deadlines to meet, even though inspirations are scant.

If you have any ideas for a Farm Side that I can whip up by tomorrow noon I am open to suggestions. Thanks

Snow

This ragged old cherry tree on our eastern boundary doesn't look like much.

The snow has the exact texture of shaving cream. Frozen shaving cream. Round puffs of it stick to everything, but it is so cold that it is as solid as a meringue cookie. Only much less tasty.

However birds love it.
There was even a Rough-legged Hawk in it a couple weeks ago

It was so cold and windy this morning that the birds didn't even come in when I fed them. I don't think I will be going walking today....

Horse Pasture pond. Not so very fluid these days

Pretty Kitty

Becky's kitties like to watch me birding in the yard. I think they wish they could join me. No dice.

Cool Goose

Not an unusual goose...just our common Rock Pigeon

Every day I do my eBird list, usually walking out as far as I can on our own land, taking into consideration ice and temperatures. And wind. Almost every day I count Canada Geese. Some days there are only one or two. Some days there are hundreds. 

This morning I was out on the front lawn when they started straggling up off the river. With this open winter they sleep in front of the house many nights so I get to see them when they go off to the cornfields, north and south.

About the second gaggle one individual caught my eye. Even in the poor light this miserable morning it was very pale. At first I thought that it was the lone Snow Goose we have been seeing, but it looked too large.

I put the binoculars on it and to my surprise it appeared to be a leucistic Canada. It was pale tan from the neck back; only the head was normal colored. I tried for a photo but the group flew off behind the heifer barn and by the time they were back in sight they were too far off in the dim light to get more than a blur. I will be looking for this bird when we go down to the river to count.

Ice Storm

So, last night it was supposed to sleet and freezing rain a bit, then warm up and not amount to much. Then suddenly an ice storm warning was announced. Shortly thereafter my folks called that their power was out. They were not alone. There were trees down and transformers on fire all over the region.

Well, dang. They assured me that they would be okay, but I worried. No heat. No water. No way to make hot coffee. I offered to send a farmer or a professional driver to bring them here, where we have all of the above, but they declined.

So I am waiting until it is late enough to call and check on them. If they don't have power then action must be taken. 

Meanwhile the doggies cannot be outside and are very aggravated about same and thus being very aggravating. So far I have rescued my woolly hat, a receipt, which is now and forever dead and partly eaten, plus sundry other kitchen floor artifacts. I have also stopped several loud games of bitey face, prevented the tossing around of metal food dishes, also very loud, (some people who get up at three every day are napping for a bit) and finally given up and put "Who's NOT a good boy," back in his crate.

If we get the snow storm they are predicting tonight, at least they can go outside and tire themselves out in that. 

M. O. S.

More of the same that is. Liz and the baby are sick with the tummy bug. It is freezing rain outside after a goodly bout of sleet. I dropped my ring in the garbage yesterday (Becky rescued it). The geese fly out. The geese fly in. Sometimes the river teems with them, sometimes it is as barren as a banana peel. Not much new going on, just the slow passing of February days.

The doggies are here to keep complacency at bay, while I await my turn at the plague.

Who's the good doggy?
And, incidentally, who hates the skid steer?

Before I lose my Farmgirl Card

I had better share some farm stuff. Above we have the kids' old turkeys, the kids' new turkeys, the kids' newest turkeys and some of the hens and roos. Oh, and one Guinea Hen.

The Pros

There is nothing like a professional. Yesterday Alan took me to get my first professional haircut in at least ten years. I am kind of a do-it-yourselfer that way.

 Wow, it is really nice. I had no idea how much just a little tidying up could do, although I should have known. Just clearing off one counter does a lot for the kitchen, every single time.

Then Beck made me a sammich for breakfast...well, elevenses...or tenses, so to speak. She is a manager at a local fast food establishment and has worked in food service in other sorts of restaurants as well. It tasted as good as my haircut looks. Of course getting up at o'dark-thirty, walking half a mile or so in search of birds, taking the battery charger off the skid steer, multiple airings of the doggies, and sundry other interesting tasks, does make for a good appetite...but it really was a great sammich.

***I'll bet you thought I was going to write about football. Nope, the only calls in the game I watched last night were zzzzzzzs. Been spending a lot of time outdoors in the cold lately and by pretty darned early I am ready to sleep.

Dense

We have been having a lot of sammiches and mac and cheese and the like lately...all well and good, of course. We are at the mercy of an excellent cook and when she gets in the mood we surrender happily.

However, this morning I decided that it was time for some serious protein. Thus there is a gigantic block of venison sausage baking in the oven. Yeah, after this debacle I decided to try something different.

Since I have never in my life remembered to get out sausage to thaw it before cooking, and since it is packaged in very large blocks, due to people being sick and tired of vacuum sealing all day for two days, I am baking the whole darned frozen block with a little butter. I imagine that I will be able to cut it into squares pretty soon.....

It is in the oven in a big broiler pan tucked in nicely with a bit of foil. That stuff is dense. I figure we will be eating it in various form for a week, but as long as I get some for breakfast this morning I am good with that. 

Sapcicles

As you can see from the previous post, today is woodchuck....er....Groundhog...day. Not that that means anything, really. All our local marmota monax critters are hibernating and will be for a good while yet. Around here all the shadows in the world won't bring spring in six weeks, no way, nohow.

Of course when spring does come they will emerge from their burrows, make more burrows, gobble garden, and generally be annoying. You gotta take the bad with the good.

Anyhow, we took a little ride yesterday evening, looking at Amish farmsteads on the back roads around our area. There are certainly plenty of them!

As we passed under some sugar maples, which line the roads in many places around here, dripping down from some twigs broken by some passing tall truck...probably a milk tanker out there...were sapcicles.

Yay! The sap is running! There can be a lot of winter yet, but still.....

Happy

Day

The Peggy Channel

Peggy is quickly learning numbers and colors and how to sort things, like her Go Fish cards featuring fish, crustaceans and sea mammals. And of course, it is always fun to play blocks with Uncle Alan.

Riverbank

I have always wanted to get down to the river at dawn to see how the sun plays on the mist and the water turns to copper and gold.....

Yesterday I did. 

Neighboring

Don't tell anybody, but when I went out for my daily bird count and walk today, I came back munching a lovely cookie.

Yeah, the barnyard gate was open so I went down that driveway instead of up the hill or down the house drive. I am usually too lazy to go find the key, open the big gates, and then re-close them when I get back. It was kinda neat to take a different route.

Just as I was almost to the bottom, a neighbor, who was passing and saw me, pulled in to talk farming and neighbor stuff...and birds of course, since I had bins and a camera hanging around my neck. Geese are grazing his cornfields, but not too many of the gazillion Mallard Ducks that are hanging around this year. And little brown jobs...we all seem to have a lot of those around.

And then, just before he headed out to finish his errands and deliver a box of homemade cookies to someone, he opened the box and gave me one.

Yep, a groundhog cookie. And a frosted groundhog cookie at that. I wanted to take a picture to share with you but my hands were so cold I had to eat it so I could put them back in my pockets. Delicious.

Ain't small town life great though? 

Goal Birds

My good friend, Linda, of Life on a Colorado Farm sent me these lovely photos of Sandhill Cranes. In Colorado where she lives, they are not rare. Here in NY they make the rare bird alerts all the time, and I will probably never count one on our farm count, although we do see them up at Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge. Thanks, Linda for making my day!

To the Quiet One

Happy Birthday, dear one. Hope this is a good day for you.....glad you liked the surprise.

Love you!