It's the Little Things 2

Yesterday's little thing is a plastic shepherd's whistle, dedicated to directing distant herding dogs in their pursuit of wayward livestock. I have carried one since there actually were three collies, although none of my pups was sophisticated enough to actually work on whistles. 

More on loud yells and frantic screaming sometimes. They did come to one though...you can hear the shrill screech from a long ways away.The two old dogs knew their "sides", "come bye" and "away to me". Mostly minded "That'll do." And "lie down" and "stay" and "walk up". "Get back" or "get out" were harder. Oh, how Mike loved to be too tight to the stock. Worked well with cows, where sometimes he had to swing off a nose to get his point across......but he utterly terrified sheep.

Anyhow, for years and years I never seem to have a whistle with an intact "handle". They still function perfectly well without one, and it's not like my dogs do any work other than studying and shredding newspaper. I do use it to get the boss's attention when he is driving the noisy skid steer sometimes. I should buy a metal one, which would prolly stand up better, but just color me cheap.

However, I was utterly delighted to find the intact, complete, and in fact almost perfect one in yesterday's post, in the upstairs bookcase of all places. Becky and I are culling books for donation, sale, or discard, and there it was lying on the shelf.

I was pleased indeed.

Today's little "things" are little girls. One of them comes to the backdoor screen to call in "Gramma, I need my horse." (Stick horse...a great little traveler that one, a palomino with incredible stamina.)

Or, "Gramma, I need my milk." "Gramma, Where's mommy?"

Upland Sandpiper

The other photo I came across while looking for photos of Upland Sandpipers for eBird. She is a manager at a local restaurant now.....

Aunt Becky BITD

It's the Little Things

A Great Honor

As you know, we added a Border Collie, Finnbar, to our pack last summer. And yes, I did spell his name wrong at first.

He turned out to be quite a dog. He can fetch toys, jump up on the snowmobile trailer when asked..... 

.....as well as when not asked. He can paw you on the head when you try to sit there with him, because he is a big boy for a BC, and he is over endowed in the paw department.

He can also bark.

Play bitey face with his brother. And eat newspaper. His hefty fur coat can collect mud like your best sneakers when you have to go to the barn to calf check after you go out to dinner.

However, what we haven't mentioned is his degree in veterinary medicine. Finnbar Friers, DVM. 

He already had his Masters degree when we got him, majoring in Cow Control, along with minors in house breaking and kibble cleanup. It was astounding to bring such an astute dog into the household. Mack was resentful at first.

However, like all Border Collies, he was bored without a job.

Thus he has been sharing my computer to do online classes in large animal medicine. He also took extra courses whenever he could in artiodactyla obstetrics. That is not an easy elective but he aced it. 4.0 across the board!

His grades were so outstanding that he has been given a singular honor. He has been asked to observe and attend when April the Giraffe finally delivers that long awaited baby. Although he is not qualified to assist they want his opinion on technique. 

He is much calmer about all this than we are! Just lying in his kennel chewing a Milk Bone.

It all seems so fitting. Her name. The name of the month the baby is expected. Today's date. It's like karma, serendipity, and fate all wrapped up in one big taco.

****Update, alas and unfortunately, Finn was forced to decline this singular honor. Turns out  I need the exercise he offers with his mud. I get a lot of steps toward my 10,000 sweeping the kitchen after he comes indoors. Mack needs him to wear him out playing bitey face when they can't be out on the cable and in the run because of said mud.

And what would the House Sparrows do without him to keep them honest by barking at them and chasing them? Sadly we will never know what fame he might have attained.....

BTW, someone stole all our ducks, so we are not making the big bucks like we thought we would. The police have been aggressive in their hunt for the culprits as in the wrong hands they could do terrible damage! Do go read about them if you missed the news last year. They were very special to us and we miss them....although judging by the weather there are at least of few of them hanging around still. And there are a LOT of mallards down on the river....

On the Other Hand

Out like a....

As we all know March came in like some kind of mythical monster, wind storm after windstorm, staggering depths of snow, and just plain cold, bad, weather.

We were hoping it would go out in a somewhat more gentle manner but alas, I awoke to sirens and fire whistles on this, the last day of the month.

I am not sure what you might call it. No lions involved, but no lambs either unless you count the one down in the barn, which has grown big enough to move into the pen the pig vacated when he went away to freezer camp.

I guess there are wires and trees down all over town and not surprisingly. The snow that fell earlier is heavy and wet and now some sort of rain-like substance is falling in great soggy blobs that soak you before even the first of the doggies is properly drained.

Poor man's fertilizer be darned...enough is enough....

And you thought....

That farming was boring. Zombies? Spooks? ZOMG!   

Seen on the way back from birding Yankee Hill Lock, where we found Buffleheads and many other goodies, plus meeting a nice local birder that I had been hoping to meet.

On your Mark, Get Set

Go!

Click to enlarge

Habituated

Went out birding as the sun was rising, since I didn't need to watch Peggy today. Didn't even bother with a sweater or jacket....just went out crunching around in the snow and slogging through the mud.

The first Eastern Phoebe of the year obligingly showed itself right in the honey locust and the ducks and geese were busy over the river. It is pretty cool to be able to pick up waterfowl right in your backyard, Common Mergansers, American Black Ducks, and Mallards, besides the Canada Geese this morning.

But talk about getting used to winter. I didn't even get cold and it was about 35 degrees. You know it's been pretty cold lately when that feels downright balmy.

Or maybe I'm just balmy. You never know.

Anyhow, it's great to have the sun shining for the first time in lo these many days.

Lost Valley Birds and Perils

We were birding  exploring this morning when we found this guy on the side of the road, just mindin' his own.

He gave us a good looking over.

And then warned us to get the heck off his road, as best he could within the limitations of his species and size.

 Suitably chastened we hurried away.

Off to brave the terrors of Lost Valley Road. This road circles a small community, which was pretty much devastated during the floods of recent times. You can still see many signs of the damage. I had only been down there once or twice many years ago. The road loops around some buildings right next to the mighty Schoharie. I didn't take photos of the unprotected drop right off the edge. The photos I did take are of the good part.

I was afraid to look away from the road down at the bottom for more than a second even though I wasn't the one driving. However, it is listed as a county hotspot on eBird and from the birds we saw it deserves the designation. However, I think I will stick to Schoharie Crossing.....

Close Encounters of the Corvid Kind

"Do you have anything on the 'I don't have a dollar' menu?"

Or with corvid kind as the case may be.

Everybody loves take-out

However, some things are harder to take out than others

During our bird excursion yesterday we stopped at a new spot, Riverfront Park in Canajoharie. There we saw hoodies, geese, Common Mergansers, Turkey Vultures, Mallards, and some crows.

At one section of the park we came upon this bandit vandal entrepreneurial crow.

Upstate's answer to the bag lady

He was working over a trash receptacle for the McDonald's "goodies" inside, and was waving around a food bag when we arrived.

Although we parked quite close to him, he completely ignored us in his quest to find something tasty among all that paper and cardboard. He had already emptied most of the bin and there were wrappers everywhere.

"I think I dropped my cell phone in here"

When he finally managed to wrestled the last bag, which was nearly as large as he was, plus a few sandwich boxes, onto the ground, he proceeded to tug and shake the bag until the treasure inside was revealed.

We were expecting french fries, or at least an old burger bun, but what he relished the most was a mustard sauce container....as you can see. A lot of work for a condiment if you ask me.....

"What??? I LIKE my mustard with a little texture. And maybe a little plastic lid. Adds fiber dontcha ya know?"

TWTweekendTW

We soon  discovered the reason for the mysterious sound and light show last Saturday. The boss went to the barn to feed the bull.....

And there was no power over there. Evidently a tree limb had been blown against the wire to a nearby transformer, loosened same, and shorted everything out. Sparks flew and the thunder rolled...hence my weird wake-up call.

We reported the outage via our online power bill. Seemed far too easy..... just a few clicks and it was done. (We still had power at the house.)

A little while later a NatGrid truck pulled up the driveway. The driver was soon directed to the problem, but we didn't hang around to watch.

See, our boy and his girlfriend were taking us all out to dinner and we had to get ready. We almost never eat out other than to go to my cousin's lovely little restaurant for breakfast sometimes.

We soon headed off to Romana's Italian Kitchen in Johnstown. We have been going there since it opened when I was in my early twenties. 

What a good time we had. It is hard for me to drag myself out of my hermit shell and do such things, but the food was great...they have really stepped up their game, and it was fine to begin with...and the company was stellar.

Peggy was a good little girl, drinking glass after glass of milk until she wasn't very hungry, but pretty darned quiet and polite for someone who is only three. Our server even thanked us for being such a nice polite table. 

I jokingly offered the kids all something from the vending machine. When we used to go to the laundromat, I always gave them quarters to spend on treats if someone complimented them on their good behavior. It happened pretty often too.....

Bribery will get you everywhere......

Sunday was spent seeing some country and counting some birdies. Ring-necked Ducks were seen at Schoharie Crossing, for a FOY for me. Not a bad weekend all in all.

And as a bonus the barn power...and the electric fence...was back on when we got home Saturday.

What was that!

I wake up early this time of year...four at the latest.

I don't come downstairs though, because taking the doggies out is noisy and I don't want to wake the rest of the house.

Thus this AM I was waiting for daybreak when the oddest sound came. It was a repeated loud thumping like the pup banging his kennel to go out, but accompanied by flashing lights on the window. And louder.

I came downstairs to find the dogs and all the people sound asleep and thus not responsible and no sign of whatever it was. And of course by then it had stopped.

But it was loud! And the lights!

I simply have no idea. Anyhow, come on daylight so I can get these pups aired and fed.

You can't make this stuff up

I screen calls. Once you answer Bridget from Cardholders, she's on your back like a six-legged monkey......

However, it's tax paying, hay selling time, so sometimes I answer callers with out of area phone numbers just the same. Alas, it's usually Bridget or one of her cohorts.

Today, since Liz had bumped all the hay ads, I did so. It was an area code I've never seen before, but it was indeed a potential hay customer. The person on the other end was named Omar. He began to quiz me about hay quality, what grass was in it, and such. Then he asked if we deliver. 

Um....no....

Sorry...

So then he explained he was from the circus and looking for hay for the animals. Probably this one.

Omar from the circus. If you put that in a story no one would believe you. I pointed him at some places that might be able to help and we said pleasant goodbyes. You just never know.....

Last Year on this Day

Jade was rototilling the asparagus bed while wearing a tee shirt.

At this moment it is frozen under perhaps two feet of icy snow with freezing rain in the forecast.

March is a fickle friend. Or fiend as the case may be.