It was Still too Dark to See

When I first went out, but the birds were already looking for food.

The river shore in front of the house was packed with Canada Geese. American Tree Sparrows were jingling, picking at the seed balls and fighting the cardinals for the trays.

Now there are so many assorted blackbirds the box elders look like Halloween Christmas trees.

Because snow. A lot of snow. I came downstairs between four and five, and the boss, who takes Becky to work between three and four said, "It hasn't started yet."

However, I had just passed the stair landing window...and it had. Now it is snowing fine sparkly snow, very pretty in the glow from the yard lights. There is already at least three inches and it supposed to get a lot worse.

Every job that anyone works at off the farm is shut down for the day....except one. Jade is off anyhow, as it is his regular day off, but the trucking company he works for told the other drivers to stay home.

Mappy and Alan are both home from their construction jobs in the big cities. Too much snow. I am thankful they were both able to make the drive before this all got started!

The boss has wood piled up and under canvas and the kids have extra hay in the barns and stables so everyone can be fed without starting the skid steer.

However, one of the crew had to go to work and will have to get home somehow in what will probably be the worst of the storm. All those truckers holed up in the village truck stops, all the people pulling off the Interstate for respite, all the locals who like the good coffee she makes, are relying on Becky and the rest of the crew at our local McDonald's to have the sammiches and milk shakes and coffee going.

And so they are. And before you pick on a college graduate for working fast food....she can't see well enough to safely drive so she needed a job within a mile or so of the house.....and she has worked her way up to manager too. No complaints from this quarter.

In other news friends of Ralph lost their machine shed in a nasty fire yesterday. Neighbors and local businesses rallied, so even though they lost feeding equipment, tractors and some hay, they should be able to get the cows fed. Rural people are like that as can be seen in the incredible response to the needs of the farmers and ranchers devastated by the wildfires in Texas, Colorado and Kansas.

Napoleon of the Henhouse

With a feather in his hat.

Glug, glug, glug

Somebody get a snow brush...there's a Camaro under there

As if the snow wasn't enough, we had other fun too. Jade and Liz came out into the kitchen where I was writing just in time to hear the oddest and most alarming gurgling noise you could imagine.

Oh no! Sounds like it's coming from the refrigerator. 

It's an oldie and a not-so-goody and we quickly concluded that it was dying.

Or even dead.

Just what we needed with feet of snow in the driveway, more still falling, more on the way and the potential for high winds.

We kept listening to it.

Not running.

We kept feeling it.

Not running.

We made plans to put the stuff in its freezer in the big freezer and the regular foods in the front hall where it's cold but not freezing.

I worried. Not that it is the biggest deal in the world, but there have been so many things...we just didn't need another one. We plotted and planned and puzzled for quite some time.

I was standing by it fretting about how we would deal if it really was dead, when the gurgling sound came again.

From a bucket full of bunny waterers that was sitting in front of it thawing and occasionally letting out some bubbles and giggles. 

Then the refrigerator motor started up...it was just idle because the house was pretty cold.

I may have threatened Liz with GBH when I realized that was where the sound came from.

Anybody seen a Border Collie around here?

Dogs above the Ground

Side pass

Levade

Starting the Capriole

Who's a good boy?

It Ain't Easy Being Green

Thank you, Scott and Jen, for an amazing evening.....complete with flying monkeys....plus a great score, wonderful choreography, and the best lighting I have ever seen.

Balmy Spring Breezes

Took Mack the Jack out for a walk only to see a hundred or so Canada Geese trying to put down on the river. Normally they tumble a bit to dump the speed at which they fly and then cup and land, feet outstretched like little pontoons. That is fun to watch especially when there are thousands.

Today however, they hung suspended, unable to dump the speed thus unable to land easily. There sure was some tumbling and side slipping going on out there.

Some of them gave up and headed north over the mountains....

Then I went out to put some extra seed down under the Honey Locust tree. With the cold and wind even Red-winged Blackbirds are coming to the feeders. There are dozens of hungry birds out there.

A female Downy Woodpecker startled off the suet ball feeder and was dashed to the ground at my feet. She huddled there for a moment, crest raised, practically blowing away, and then flew up into the tree.

Yow! Poor bird!

On the other hand....the zinnia seedlings are up in the living room. There are chicks in the brooder and lambs in the pen. The hens are falling all over themselves to supply eggs for hatching and eating, and the sun is slowly trending north....

Tooth and Claw

We had deadlines in the afternoon and the morning to waste spend as we wished yesterday, so we hit three river birding spots. Yankee Hill Lock was less than thrilling, several hundred Canada Geese, a scattering of Mallards, American Black Ducks, and American Crows, but nothing new or exciting.

It's been weeks since we saw anything interesting at the boat launch, but there were at least three hundred American Crows, a large crop of Ring-billed Gulls, some Herring Gulls and a few other  birds there. We did get the first Killdeer of the year there, which was wonderful, as I was very jealous of my mama who has been seeing them all week up on Lake Montgomery.

Then we hit the river by McDonald's. We immediately saw a mess of Common Mergansers, which are so pretty, and a single Hooded Merganser.

I had the camera trained on the hoodie, hoping for a semi clear shot, when, wham! a Bald Eagle splashed into the scene and swooped off with something in its talons. It landed a few feet from where it grabbed its catch and proceeded to dismember it to the accompaniment of a mess of mobbing crows.

We thought for a long time that it got the hoodie, but photos....admittedly awful, thanks to distance and bad light....seem to indicate a fish. It sat there calmly crows and all, eating for quite a while, and then flew off leaving just a few bites for the crows. Right place, right time.....weren't we lucky!

Long Lake

On the wall outside Hoss's

Marathon trip last Sunday, involving going to Hoss's in Long Lake to shop, taking a few photos of the lake itself, and then driving to Bath and back. 

Midnight was also involved, as was a little bit of Moose Questing. We saw a lot of deer, but no moose.

It was still a wonderful trip. Such fun to shop for Peggy's third birthday at such an amazing store. Alan got her a fuzzy bunny puppet, very cuddly, and I found a children's book about a Snowy Owl.

Alan also bought me a Redwall book I hadn't read before. Beck and I stumbled on Brian Jacques books via his other series about a haunted ship, which alas, was never finished due to his death.

It took me a while to get into Redwall, but now I love them, particularly the GUOSIM. 

Meanwhile the weather is nuts. Cold and windy, dark and gloomy and there are rumors of a potential blizzard for next week. Yay. March needs to get back on its meds.

In Like a....

If March comes in like a dragon, will it go out like a gecko? I sure hope so

What crazy, windy weather! A friend drew this to our attention....train derails in wind. A friend of Liz's came home to the back of her house blown off. Others have lost huge trees and all manner of sheds and buildings. So far just small branches, chairs, and other odds and ends here. We keep hoping.

Meanwhile, we are becoming almost accustomed to phones jingling with warnings from weather services and power utilities, and to the house shaking and things blowing around all over.

Finn about lost his stuff this morning seeing objects that were closer than they appeared yesterday. Oh, how he hates anything out of place out in the yard! If only he had opposable thumbs he could be my gardener and keep it all tidy!

Thought I heard the first woodcock last night. In fact I am nearly positive. Alas I was taking photos on the wrong side of the house and when I went over to the best listening place it had stopped. Nothing this morning, but then what creature in its right mind would sing in this tempest. (Of course the cardinal was....)

Anyhoo, hang on tight and hope for the best. If this wind were to by chance dry up the ground so a little less mud was tracked into the house and coated every hair on our very hairy Border Collie, I guess I would let up on the complaining.

At least a little.

The Big Three, no O

Happy Third Birthday, Peggy Ann Marie!

Survival

It got cold last night. Not Alaska cold, but winter in Upstate NY cold. Three extra blankets were not quite enough cold. The wind even whined about it all day yesterday and all night too. I worried about the Carolina Wrens. 

They have a history of moving north, freezing out, and coming back again. We lost ours several different years, including 2015, and had to wait a while for new ones to pioneer our buildings and fields. Poor things used to come in the barn to find shelter, but even that couldn't save them.

Last summer was a bumper year though. At least nine fledged here on the farm and I think probably more than that. Some of them hatched and started flight life in the old cow barn, finding ingress and egress through the ventilation fans. I think one nest was actually in the back fan.

However, last night was perfect for killing. Very cold on the heels of a really miserable day. I put out every kind of suet and seed I have to fill everybody up good, but was still concerned.

Then this morning, before I was even up, before it was completely light, before even the doggies were stirring, that "tea kettle, tea kettle, tea kettle" call rang from the tiny elm across the driveway, the favorite singing perch of this year's local male.

Yay, they made it! There's one singing right now.

Startin' Em Right

Look who's studying the Nat Geo field guide. "What is this mommy? What is that mommy?"

And hard at work herding poultry

Dogtor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Changeable weather and variable dogs in our forecast these days. As Jekyll, Finn looks as if butter wouldn't melt in his mouth, ooooohh, pet me, pet me, pet me, but when he is out barking at Ren or challenging House Sparrows...danged Sassenachs anyhow....to duels on the lawn...he gets a whole lot fiercer and scarier.

And as a Border Collie he is bound to be strange, right? Not atall murderous though.

We'll leave that to the weather. Balmy and lovely one day, wind chill below zero and so miserable you can barely bear to go outside at all the next. My heart went out to all those affected by the massive power outages all over the county after the big wind. How awful to have to go to a shelter and leave your pets behind. Hope everyone is back home and warm and dry now!

Alan and I succeeded in an amazing feat yesterday. He needed to go down to his union hall to take care of bidness. I have gone with him a couple of times before and every single time he had to leave me sitting in the Camaro in some ungodly illegal parking place. I always wait in trepidation...when will the city's finest show up and haul me away to the pokey?

Or worse, will they expect me to move the CamCam to a legal parking place? Not that I can't drive standard or anything, but I can barely see over the dash and legal parking places in Queens are about as common as bikinis on Mount Washington. 

I have always feared that Alan would exit union hall to find both his mother and his car gone......lost in the big city.....Kinda like Home Alone.

However yesterday we found a legal parking place in Queens. I feel as if there should be a medal involved or something. His visit was longer than usual, but I didn't worry a bit!

And on a fun note I did bird lists...just little short ones...in both the big city and New Jersey. How cool is that?

There are birds in this photo....

Yankee Hill Lock

As you know the boss often drives me down to the river to bird. Alas, the past few weeks there has been not much of anything there...maybe a goose or two or a couple of gulls, but nothing worthy of note.

Last night he suggested going down to Yankee Hill Lock instead. It is only a few miles further away but someone told him that there were often birds there.

It was far from disappointing. I love the lore of the Erie Canal. I remember learning about it in grade school and reading Molly's Hannibal and just loving the story. It took me years to get my own copy but I do own it now.

Thus visiting this old lock for the first time in many moons was a treat in itself. The birds were a bonus. Nothing new for the year, but a flight of ten male Common Mergansers flew right past us at eye level. They are truly beautiful and dramatic birds.

Then the geese started alarming and popping up off the water in a scramble. I was wondering why when the boss found a Bald Eagle harassing them. It in turn was being mobbed by a murder of crows.

We spent at least an hour walking along the old canal and down by the river, just enjoying what turned out to be a very pleasant prelude to this nasty rotten storm. Guess what was going through my head as we were walking back to the car......

The Erie was arisin'

And the Gin was a gettin' low.

On a personal note the boss's mother's grandfather was a canaller and once broke his leg jumping from the roof of the cabin to the deck of his canal boat. His wife cooked at various establishments along the canal as well.