Happy Birthday, Mappy

If you see this guy today

He's probably smiling

Or helping somebody in some way

Or messing around with these things

Cause that's what he does

Whatever he's doing I hope you will join us in wishing him a very Happy Birthday
Love you, Mappy!

Getting Even

Bête noire of the back yard

Mama doesn't know it, but she got a little revenge this morning. 

I was born a tomboy and liked to scare her with critters, frogs, toads, snakes, and the like. I loved em. She didn't.

Anyhoo, this morning I finished hanging out towels and stopped to work on the garden pond. Filter was shrouded in string algae and barely running at all.

Leaning over to lift it out of the water I came face-to-face with a huge small-to-medium Green Frog. 

Inches away.

I screamed. Stumbled backwards and nearly fell over. I'm not afraid of frogs, love em in fact, but I was so darned startled.

Of course there was an audience. The boss was standing right behind me. He is a fine man and only laughed a little.

So mom, I hope you enjoyed your small revenge via Karma. She is, as ever, well, you know.

Guess I'll go fill the pond now.

A Day in the Valley

What's this Birb?

Saw this on a log down on the mighty Schoharie.
Thought at first that it was a mammal. Then, after a minute, I had an idea what it might be...

Oops, I disturbed her nap

"What are you, a peeping mom or something!?!"

Her kiddo was perched nearby

* Green Heron

God Bless the USA

Happy Birthday America

Hey, Grandma, Watch This

Oh, Rats

Not a bad wake for a rodent

Muskrats that is. Although Lykers Pond hasn't given us any new birds in ages...last new bird for the year anywhere was May 28, it does offer interesting mammals sometimes.

Stuff,stuff, stuff

The other day a muskrat swam over to the road/dam where we were standing, came ashore right at our feet, ate grass and cattails about a yard from us, and then swam away with a snack for later.

Om, nom, nom

Pretty tame little fellow for some reason. 

See you later, Upstate New York pond alligator

A Blinger

Shortly after five today, just as it came out of the camera

Or actually a whole string of them.

Brown Thrashers dusting in the driveway and panting from the heat

A blinger is what the boss's mom used to call a day like this when the sun comes up like a big copper gong, bangs out its song of summer heat all day, and then refuses to let things cool down in the evening.

We are maintaining some semblance of normalcy just the same. The boss has to do hay, weather or not and all. Animals need to eat and drink and be paraded in and out all day. The garden makes its feelings known about heat as well.

We open doors and windows at night and close them to hold in the coolishness. Strategically placed fans whir day and night. We drink a lot of water and eat freeze pops and sherbet...we had sherbet for supper last night in fact...

And we just wait for the weather to break, which may happen Wednesday night.

This one is edited, but it is just how it feels outside

Heartbreaking

Farm Side research was enough to make me cry this week, as I worked on a column a few yards from our empty cow barn. Taken in total, bookmarks saved over the week  amount to a bushel and a peck of sadness and hard times for hard-working people who did little to cause this situation.

I'm grateful that the mainstream media has finally taken notice of what is happening in the dairy industry, but it is too late for far too many.

The first farm in this story once belonged to my late best friend's family. So sad to see the parlor we often took the 4-H kids through, back when they were learning about dairy, on television for such an unfortunate reason. We all spent a lot of time in those very barns just a few years ago, teaching kids, talking to our friends, admiring their cattle, and enjoying their dogs.

This article tells the same story in perhaps less emotional terms. "Sell out as fast as you can."

Here's another.

Locally, empty barns have become the norm unless they are Amish  or big enough to ride out such a precipitous downturn. The boss recounts who owned each place when we drive by. What was once a vibrant community of small farms is fading fast, although our county is fortunate to still have a fairly strong farm economy and a good many well-run dairy farms still, including the one on our old friends' place.

This situation spills into every aspect of the rural economy, from the closing of independent grocery stores, soon replaced by national chain convenience stores, to local folks who lose their farm jobs as milk checks contract. 

Prices for beef and hay go down too, as more and more farmers try to use their lifelong learning to stay in some form of agriculture. It's ugly and grim and probably not going to stop soon.

A Small Kindness

I truly hope that this makes you feel just a little bit better today.....cooled me off just looking at them.

Meanwhile, stay hydrated my friends, stay hydrated.

Foiled by Chipmunks

Cute, fuzzy, stripey, little b*st**ds darlings.....

We are overrun this summer. Five, six, a dozen, twenty, all boiling around the yard intent on mischief.

Planted squash in a big bin to get it off the ground away from squash mosaic virus, which seems endemic around here. They unplanted it and replaced it with sunflower seeds they stole from the birds...

Which sprouted with great vigor and are all toppling over one another in their race for the sky. I like sunflowers and all, but tiny summer squash sauteed in butter, with a dab of green onion, a touch of garlic and Italian seasoning, with baby green beans thrown in....well, that trumps vagrant sunflowers any dinner of the season.

Weeded the tiny patch of thyme that sows itself here and there every summer. I love to cook with thyme and so does Liz. Some of the tiny, eyelash-thin plants were uprooted in the effort so I potted them in a little strawberry planter we had.

Wouldn't it be cute if they sowed themselves and ran down the sides...and wouldn't it be nice to bring the planter indoors in winter and have fresh thyme all year round.

Evidently tamias striatus didn't think so. They have dug in the top and every hole on the planter every single day since I planted them there. Big steel staples don't deter them one bit. Today I wedged the seedlings down with a big rock. Not so very elegant, but maybe it will work.

I could go on and on. Since I can't figure out how to properly seat a cartridge in my little Crossman CO2 pistol (which doesn't do much more than tick them off, but at least they run away when I go outdoors), and it is currently dead, they thumb their furry noses at me and don't even move when I walk right up to them.

At least none have come in the house....so far.... Ack!

I poked one in the fanny with a cow pole the other day and he just turned around and glared at me and went back to prising sunflower seeds out of the wire feeder in an utter huff.

Somebody help me...

Brave little Bird

That's TUTI on the left

This is TUTI, named with the code letter abbreviation for a Tufted Titmouse, which seemed to fit at the time. TUTI has twisted primary feathers on one wing, perhaps from a window strike or some other injury, perhaps from a genetic error.

TUTI is a toughie. He/she....I always think of her as a she and will write of her as such from here on in....has come to the feeder all winter  for two years. Then in spring she vanishes for a while, only to reappear leading her brood to the feeders.

Passing a seed

She has been coming back to the Jonna feeder...the only one I have out in hopes of fending off grackles...for a few days now after a prolonged absence. 

I worry.

Screechy little ball of fluff begging vociferously

This morning Miss Peggy emerged before her folks were up to urge me to come to the front porch where she announced that there were baby birds.

Too cute to be true

4-years-old and not a feather in sight, but somehow she knew that the strident peeping from the cedars was baby birds and not adults. However, we didn't actually see any of them. I couldn't quite figure out what we were hearing.

Until a few minutes ago when the yard filled with a flurry of the same sounds and a frantic TUTI racing to the feeder, quickly shucking a sunflower seed, and then flitting over to the honey locust to stuff a beak. And another beak. And another beak.

I have never gotten a decent photo of her, but today she was too busy to worry about the camera. I grabbed a few shots and came back inside to give her room to do her job.

The Downy Woodpeckers are bringing the kids in too.
Yesterday they were feeding them.
Today the kids have found the suet for themselves. Soon the parents will be ducking and dodging, trying to leave them behind on their own.

In the Cheap Seats

Admission to the Sitting Porch is a great bargain.

Free, and the show never ends.

Miss Peggy takes advantage now and then when she is bored or her folks are busy doing dangerous stuff.

I have fun with that. I had a bowl of glass thingies used in vases or aquariums. I just like them because they're pretty. She liked to play with them, so everyone was happy.

The other day I bought two more bags at the dollar store and put them in the bowl for her to find. She did and some serious play ensued.

I think she likes them.

Surprise

Brand new House Wren, fresh out of the box

It's fledge week here at Northview. House Wrens emerged in two batches, with some coming out earlier in the week and what I hope were the final ones yesterday. One hung out with me for a while yesterday afternoon, before answering his parents' calls and flying away with them.

Wrens have been joined by baby Downy Woodpeckers, new White-breasted Nuthatches, new House Finches, a plethora of American Robins of all shapes, colors and sizes, and I think maybe some new Black-capped Chickadees.

Immature American Robin

It makes looking up into the Honey Locust in the yard a lot of fun. Along with all these birds and their kids are the resident vireos, flycatchers, and warblers.

To my delight another species showed up yesterday morning. We haven't seen or heard these birds since the 22nd of April.

Singing in the yard, hotly pursued by a batch of brand new fledglings, was a Carolina Wren pair.

I've missed the loud tea kettle, tea kettle, tea kettle, and the outraged rattling all around the yard.

I wonder where they were.

The end