Water

A serious water main break under the truck stop parking lot down in town left the whole village without water last night. There were concerns that it might not be fixed until Monday.

Although there are those among us who have lived in a cabin in the 'Dacks for several years with no running water, when you have stock it's a problem. Thanks to the several people who offered to bring us in water today if it wasn't fixed.

Also thanks to the crews from village and others who worked well into the night to get it fixed shortly after midnight. When I got up at four AM and heard the pipes hissing and rattling I was a very happy camper.

Having lived through this scenario before I knew enough to open faucets and let 'er rip until it was reasonably clear and not too turbulent. However, I suspect it will be a while before all the air works out of all the pipes all over town.

In the meantime, there is, of course, a boil water advisory. Not a big deal as we bought several gallons of drinking water yesterday. Most importantly, the animals will have what they need.

So happy dance....and some video of Canada Geese taking advantage of the fact that the river now has water too. 

Triggered Like a Snowflake

Yes, I was indeed and now I am sorry for it.

Worst thing is I KNOW better than to react in such a manner. 

No excuses, except I will offer that everything is just so damn bad now that it is hard....really hard...not to react inappropriately.

But, as I said, no excuses.

Just I'm sorry and hopefully love will trump anger at some point.

And meanwhile, back to our regular programming, to which I truly try to stick.

We stumbled on a nice back road yesterday upon which to pursue the local avifauna. 

Neither saw nor heard anything of note, but the sheer numbers and variety were comforting in these ugly times. Were it not for the boss taking me birding I don't know how I would get through the endless days when nothing ever goes right. 

Been trying, somewhat lazily, as I am a morning person and don't do nights, to see the comet.

I think either I am looking wrong place/wrong time or there is too much light pollution and too many clouds for it to be visible. Meanwhile I am loving everyone else's photos. Stunning is too weak a word for them.

Maybe if we get a cool, clear night and I can stay awake, the boss and I will hit some of the really dark back roads with open vistas and see what we can see. Heaven knows, we spend enough time on them.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch.....Tonto, not knowing that the Lone Ranger was disguised as a pool table, racked his balls.

See you next week, same time, same station.

Photographing Life Birds

Not the guy we were looking for, although we would have liked to get a better pic

We found a real good sparrow up on Dingman Road in Fort Plain the last day of May. Others have seen it too since then and we go up that way every now and then, seeking a better photo than the less than stellar ones I have.

Then the other day another birder alerted me that someone had seen a Grasshopper Sparrow there. Oooooooohhhh....

I wanted one...having never seen one except when I was young and the fields were full of birds and eBird and record keeping were a long, long way in the future. Way back then I saw them occasionally over the course of many miles traversed on Magnum back. Birds don't mind horses much.

Anyhow, back to the current bird....Liz had yesterday afternoon off from one of her jobs so off we went.

It was a lovely afternoon until about ten minutes after we got there. The Clay-colored Sparrows we found in May were singing obligingly from several spots, but was that soft, insect-like buzzing from the middle of a hay field upon which I didn't wish to trespass a GRSP or was it not?

Hmmm....tiny fluttering tan thing floofs across the field and vanishes.

Probably, but certainly not an adequate ID to report.

We move up the road a bit and sploosh! the rain comes down in a wall.

Heh, not going to let that stop me. Ralph and I both hear little buzzes. From outside the car I can pick them out from three different places.

I refresh my memory of the sound by playing the Audubon version of it. A bunch of Savannah Sparrows come boiling up through the deluge.

Hmm, they also have a weak, buzzy call, but I am pretty familiar with them. Am I deluding myself? It's been known to happen.

But no, hot on their tails is a tiny football-shaped ball of feathers. Buffy, with a slightly darker back, open face, yep, orangey-yellow brow, it's him!

I flip my already already too-damp camera up and actually manage to find the thing in the view finder. Snap, I've got him, but before I could click again, he vanishes among the clover blossoms.

Wait til you see the picture....you won't have to wait long, it's right below. There is...or was...a bird in this photo, but I think you will have to take my word for it. 

It kinda got my goat if you know what I mean

Come and Go with Me

*click me*

Spare tire

See the dog?

Birding and road farming this lovely county in Upstate NY. Some music for your trip.

Tragedy Remembered

The Eugene Ferrin in this story was my great grandfather:

THE ALFRED SUN, WEDNESDAY, March 21, 1900

A Terrible Fire.

Eugene Ferrin’s Home Burned To the Ground Early Sunday
Morning and Two of His
Children Perish in The Flames

Last Sunday morning the inhabitants of this community received a shock,

Which, while it excited the sensibilities, at the same time touched the

Inmost hearts and sympathetic natures of all, when it was learned that the home

Of Eugene Ferrin, who lives in a house belonging to Wm Ostrander, situated almost three miles from this village on the McHenry Valley road, was burned to the ground together with the entire contents, and two of Mr. Ferrin’s children had perished in the flames.

About twelve o’clock Saturday night Mrs. Ferrin arose and put a chunk

Of wood in the stove to keep the fire until morning. She then retired again and her attention was soon attracted by a reflection of light which proved to be a fire which had started around the stove pipe hole down stairs. Mrs. Ferrin gave her husband the alarm and went to the stair door and called the three older children who were sleeping overhead, two boys in one room and a little girl in another. They answered and the little girl came down. The fire was at first apparently not very serious and Mr. Ferrin, endeavored to extinguish the flames with two pails of water which were handy; but this amount being insufficient and the water privileges being very inconvenient, he was obliged to abandon the effort.

When it became apparent that the house would be destroyed, Mrs. Ferrin rushed out of the house with her baby and little girl.

Seeing that the boys did not come down stairs in response to the call, Mr. Ferrin became alarmed for their safety and started up the stairs to rescue them but was met by a wall of seething flame which caused him to retreat. He then rushed out of the house and after procuring a ladder, climbed tot he chamber window which was located near the bed in which the boys had been sleeping. We are informed that when Mr. Ferrin broke through the window he found that the children had left their bed and were in the opposite corner of the room cut off from him by the flames so that it was impossible to effect their rescue. In his efforts to save the children he was very badly burned, the hair being burned from his head and his hands and one side of his face being entirely blistered. 

 The two boys who were cremated were aged 9 and 3 years. Mr. and Mrs. Ferrin and the other
two children escaped with nothing save their night clothes and walked on third of a mile to Mr. Ostrander’s in their bare feet. 

 The night was severely cold, the thermometer standing at eight below zero, and their feet were badly frozen from the exposure. They are at present at the home of Mrs. Ferrin’s parents, Mr. and Mrs. Henry McIntosh, and it will be some time before they recover from the burns and effects of exposure. 

 Mr. and Mrs. Ferrin have the sincere sympathy of the entire community in their great calamity and bereavement, and several parties are busily engaged in collecting effects to aid them in their time of need. Surely this is a Christian duty, and we trust that all will join in bearing these heavy burdens that they may be made as light as possible for those on whom they will fall with crushing weight. The remains of the little ones were placed in a casket “together” and interred in Woodlawn Cemetery Monday afternoon.

A Theory

At least there is now water in our river
The dragonflies are celebrating
with an orgy of epic proportions

It's mid-July and so far the year has unwound like a Tasmanian Devil on crack.

Nothing has gone well. Nothing resembles normal. Nobody is having fun yet.

Besides the plague, food and supply shortages, rioting, and being cut off from most of the people and things and activities we love, there is a movement afoot to do away with our money in favor of turning complete control of our lives over to banks and government.

To me that is the worst thing yet. You have all read the reasons why so I won't repeat them.

However, I figured out yesterday WHY all this is happening.

2020 is the year of the rat!

 Sneaky, destructive of all things whether it needs them or not, tireless, relentless, and riddled with disease. 

Yep, it's all about the rat.

Am I wrong? 

I don't think so.

Factors

The eastern sky is a fire opal, molten sun rising from the depths of its midnight mine to burn away the fog by nine.

Will hay be baled by five?

A yesterday's worth of repairs, in the furnace of the season, spell we hope so in bold type.

Wish us luck and thank you. 

Ladies of the Summer Shrubbery

"Seriously, Mabel, did you hear about the Wood Duck down the canal? Dumped her
eggs in a Hoodie's nest. No better than she should be."

Grey Catbird, grumpy old dowager, all hump and rump.

Ruby-throated Hummingbird like a needle, embroiders the air over the rudbeckia....stitching up some bugs, then darting to the feeder to wash them all down.

As she turns this way and that her little motor sounds like the rumbling drum of summer.

Catbirds chatter from the ditch and goldfinches shriek about potato chips all day long.

Gossiping, gossiping, gossiping, needlework, and rocking babies in an oriole cradle. Singing about it all season long. "Swing me the cradle, cradle, cradle," calls the male from the top of the old spruce.

It's almost like a ladies' sewing circle only with feathers and flowers and all outdoors. With bugs, berries and grass seeds in place of the cakes and the cookies.

And then comes the Eastern Towhee, "Drink yer tea. Drink yer tea."

I feel so welcome out there with them all.

Actually these are hungry baby Green Herons.

I think they were clattering beaks together as if begging parents for food.
I knew there had to be a nest in the tree above, as a sheet of birdlime covered whole branches all
summer long.

However, it was another birder who first found these cute fledglings. I was happy to see them
a couple of days later. 

Gotta Love 'em

Be careful about taking that tempting bait.
 Sometimes the barbs are not visible at first

Bureaucrats that is. It appears that if one is in NY and has a business...any business, including selling a few bales of hay in the barnyard...one must certify, testify, and codify what one is doing to prevent the spread of the Asian Plague. File a plan and all....

Being a law abiding citizen I have started several times to pursue this process. Suffice to say it is absolutely asinine  not what anyone would call simple. In an effort to squeeze everybody into the same compliance box the above mentioned demons have created an apparently endless and certainly intrusive web of pages that have absolutely no relevance to tossing hay out of the mow and throwing it onto trucks. Each page takes you to another and another and another, until you feel as if you are filling out a tax return. And not on Turbo Tax either. 

This is just one page....and to add insult to injury if you pause in the completion of any of the many tasks your session expires and you have to fill it out all over again.

Almost none of it applies to anything we do....beyond the obvious meeting of the mask requirement if getting up close and personal.

In the course of selling hay, no one goes indoors ever except the boss and sometimes Liz, who get the bales and toss them down from the haymow. We don't allow anyone in our buildings anyhow.

There is no close contact with customers beyond the handing over of money, which would appear to require masks under the guidelines...and that's easy peasy; we all have them and wear them when required just to avoid pointless conflict. 

No employees except us. I suppose I could advise myself not to carpool, but since the boss drives me everywhere that seems like overkill. I wonder if the state hands out free signage to remind everyone who has been living under a rock for the past three months to stay six feet apart.

No place to wash hands.  The only things that are touched by more than one person are the hay and the cash. Can't think of any way or any reason to disinfect the hay. They can wear gloves for the cash if they want to. A lot of people wear gloves to handle hay anyhow. Personally we keep wipey things in the car to clean hands after indoor visits. Seems as if others could do the same.

There is none of this other stuff that needs to be wiped down either: "• Shared equipment; • Counters, tables and chairs; • Door handles and push plates; • Levers and steering wheels; • Handrails; • Kitchen and bathroom faucets; • Equipment surfaces; • Equipment buttons; • Light switches; • Remote controls; • Shared phones, keyboards and electronics; • Shared sleeping areas."

Wonder what will be required if somebody pets old Moon....

I will probably figure this out eventually or we will simply quit selling hay, which would probably please the powers that be no end.

Update, Scott had the county exec give me a call and he was able to suggest just how many of the regulations we actually need to worry about...so thanks to both of them. 

Meanwhile, speaking of cash. Has anyone realized that if we turn to digital currency, every single transaction of any kind or any value can and will be tracked....and TAXED? 

Not to mention the perfectly legitimate commerce that will be stifled. How ya gonna sell a dozen eggs or a couple of tomatoes on the side of the road? How ya gonna give a homeless person a buck for a sammich?

BTW, we report every dime's worth of hay that we sell, but the whole concept is as insane as mail-in voting. Ripe for corruption, a wide open door to hackers and cheats, and not needed to please anyone but the government.

Anyhow, be careful what you wish for in the name of this disease. There are things that have the potential to be a whole lot worse than it is and that will last a lot longer too.

The whole thing was too much for this frog to swallow

Puddles

It's rained a bucket or five thousand lately, pretty much every day.

There are all kinds of puddles in the driveway and the yard.

More rain is forecast for tonight to the point that the races are already cancelled.

However, some puddles are more equal than others.

Check out these puddling butterflies at the edge of the garden the other day.

Like flying flowers right in the yard. 

High Summer

 

 The stress is higher than the heat index....but still....

Mappy

Happy Birthday, baby brother. Sorry you have to spend it so far from home. 

The chicken was incredible!

Love you!

Chick-fil....A Prime!

You can't beat locally grown chicken that goes from coop to cuisine in less than 24 hours.

My dear brother's family raised chickens this year and he and my nephew processed a few this weekend. They gave us one. (Many thanks!)

What a chicken! Eight weeks old, but it looked like a small turkey. I stuffed in some herbs from the yard, added a little garlic and the top off a walking onion, a little butter and roasted it until it was almost falling off the bone.

Delicious!

Chicken casserole with the leftovers tonight, the Good Lord willing....

Contrasts

The other day we found that the Schoharie Crossing State Historical Site had been vandalized since we had last visited, albeit in a fairly minor way. The mess was promptly cleaned up and many more signs warning visitors against everything from COVID to Zebra Mussels appeared.

Yesterday there was a big pile of empty (and incidentally illegal as heck) fireworks boxes to greet us. However, they were neatly piled for pickup by the crew. There have not been very many backyard displays this year, whether because the governor has troopers at the border to stop folks from importing them or people are afraid to travel out of state...might not be able to get back in and all...I just don't know.

However there was something else on a rock out in the river that was very different.

A bit of red and green caught my eye from some distance away and I put the bins on it. Weird.... but It was very birdy just then and I wanted to keep hunting. We had a short amount of time so I almost ignored it.

However curiosity got the better of me...I am one of those people who just HAS to know...so I moseyed on over.

What I found is pictured above, a small pack of plants, a bouquet of flowers, and two candles in glasses. My first thought was a memorial for someone's loss, so I said a small prayer for the deceased and left quickly.

Killdeer

However, as soon as Liz saw the photos she said, "Somebody is romantic! I'll betcha someone is going to get a really sweet proposal today, maybe in a kayak."

And it all made sense.

I surely do like her version a lot better. Everybody loves a romance.

Nice and tidy 

Even Here

In this majestic rural park........I feel bad for the maintenance crew, really nice fellows, who have enough to do with the mowing and trimming and picking up of all the lazy people's garbage. Now a little dose of vandalism too. Not nice.