Northview Diary

Tire Trouble Time

2013-05-24T12:14:00.003-04:00

Earlier this week.....

Swimming

2013-05-24T06:27:00.001-04:00

When we were tadpoles we always insisted on swimming on Memorial Day. It marked the traditional beginning of the summer season and the whole clan on Mama's side of the family spent the weekend opening up camps up on Caroga Lake.

Then sometime on the day itself us young 'uns begged and pestered and nagged and annoyed until someone took us over to East Caroga beach for a swim.

I do NOT remember being cold on those magical, if slow-moving weekends way back when.

I do remember aunts and uncles who aren't all that much older than we are joining us for all sorts of horse play and the wondrous accomplishment of finally swimming out to the floating dock and hauling out like a seal on the beach.

I do remember doing the whole whining thing in reverse when it was time to return to the cabin.....I do NOT remember being cold.

I remember building elaborate miniature forts and farms and fences and fields with twigs and slabs of bark that took up half the clearing around grandma and grandpa's cabin... They were amazing places with little houses snugged up under the roots of the trees and roads from the campfire to the wood pile and beyond. Our toy dime store horses and cows and trucks and cars set them off to perfection.

I remember a certain fine uncle, who bent his dignity to play with us little kids, just for that weekend.

He had the amazing magic of firecrackers. After the forts were all built and played with until the shine wore off he got them out of wherever he hid them so the little kids wouldn't find them.

While we watched in goose bumpy anticipation, from the windows in the main room of the cabin...that was as close as we were allowed to get...he set his charges and lit his fuses and blew them all up KABAM!

I do NOT remember being cold.

So take THAT Global Warming. Anybody who goes swimming this weekend is either nuts or at the Y. Brrrrr.......

1+1= -1

2013-05-23T07:03:00.002-04:00

One

Plus One

=Minus One

How do you like the devil horns on that grackle?

A Net of Lightning Across the Sky

2013-05-22T05:30:00.004-04:00

Yeah, it's been a while since I have seen anything like last night's storm...or set of storms... So much lightning, it would flare all across the whole sky, and crash down all around us all at once.

I watched for a long time...almost got blown off the porch before I came in and watched from the stair landing instead, and it was a bad one. I am hoping and praying that everything works when we get to the barn. It takes a whole mess of electrical equipment to milk and confine cows...unless you are Amish... and a storm like last night's can cost a bundle and cause a real mess. The last one took out the agitator motor, to the tune of $300.

Anyhow, I hope all you local folks came through all right. I saw some pics of small tornadoes in a couple of local areas. This morning the air is heavy and humid and pregnant with new storms I'm afraid, so brace yourselves for another round today.

Shrinking the World

2013-05-21T07:07:00.002-04:00

The Internet, the television that beams everything, everywhere right into our living rooms, they bring it all so close. Thus when horror happens, I find myself poring over maps, looking for the hometowns of the folks I feel as if I know, comparing, measuring. How close are they?

Are they okay? With the world getting so darned small, we know people in the states where the news vans are all perched with the microphones crammed in the faces of the damaged, we know people, or feel like we know people, who live so near....

So morning finds me looking for posts telling me that people I will never meet have made it through the night...

Are you okay? I hope so...

Birding News

2013-05-20T12:58:00.000-04:00

Awakened before dawn this morning by some unfamiliar bird song right in the tree outside the window. By the time I got the old dog to the door...quite a project just now...whatever it was, was gone.

Yellow warbler

However, the willow flycatchers are back, down in the same bit of old pasture they select each year. Some barn swallows swooped into the cow barn while we were milking, then slid right back out. I saw them going into the heifer barn, which we are not using this summer, so maybe they will nest and stay. There used to be a large population here, but a boy long ago tore down all the nests and they never returned except for an occasional straggler.

I always think of my late mother-in-law when I see them. She loved them and banished that town boy from the place after his vandalism. We sure hope they stay.

If you sit a few minutes in the chair where I set the laundry while I hang it out you can see or hear at least a dozen species very quickly. I just stole one of those moments and saw or heard cedar waxwings, gold finches, tufted titmice, robins, turkey vulture, starling, grackle, barn swallow, chimney swift, yellow warbler, grey cat bird, rock pigeon, mourning dove, song sparrow, house sparrow, Baltimore oriole, and probably others I am forgetting. It is a little bit of paradise and I wouldn't mind more time to sit still and enjoy it.

However, dinner won't cook itself, the weeds need thinning, laundry is swishing away and will require another trip out there, and I am once again gambling on putting some house plants out. Have a good one.

Cevin

2013-05-20T05:51:00.001-04:00

Hi mama

Had a baby bull last week. The boss and I spent a whole morning and part of an afternoon keeping an eye on her so she would jump the fence and leave for parts unknown. Sure messed up plans for the day, but she was determined to get away from the discomfort of calving and we were determined to keep her safely in the yard.

Looks more Holstein than shorthorn doesn't he?

We won, but she was pretty stubborn. Good thing we did too, because having him wore her plumb out and the boss had to help her, just a little bit. He thought she would have had him eventually, but it was a lot easier on her to have help.

She is a much nicer animal than her old mother, 171, who would love to stomp somebody someday. Cevin is a little wild, but doesn't seem mean. And her half shorthorn calf has very interesting markings.

Friendly little guy was mooing at me as if I was his mama.
All the old cows loved him too

Sunday Stills......Dubbya...I mean the Letter W

2013-05-19T07:00:00.001-04:00

Water

Water vapor

White...with black

Walking

For more Sunday Stills.....

Name that Calf

2013-05-18T10:17:00.000-04:00

Asaki as a baby

Yesterday, my cow, Asaki, had a bright red and white heifer calf. Asaki herself was named in a name the calf contest back in the day, by Mrs. Mecomber.

Now it is time to name her new baby. I hope you'll all help! She is milking shorthorn and Holstein, and because she is red, out of a red cow, she can be shown. The kids are talking about showing her even though she wasn't really born in one of the "good" months.

Becky has suggested Abunga, going along with the, "This is my cow....Asaki...." theme. I hope you will have some great ideas too..... Please leave suggestions in the comments. We will pull one out of the trusty old hat and that will be the baby's name.

Second breakfast

Girls on Grass

2013-05-16T13:26:00.002-04:00

Farm girl opens the gate

Hurry, before it's all gone

Keep em coming

Rosy, on the run

Beam me up Scotty...up to the hill that is

Is the opposite of shorthorn tallhorn?

Girls on grass

Round is a Shape

2013-05-16T06:17:00.000-04:00

The cows have been at grass for a couple of weeks, but only in a smallish temporary pasture. Yesterday morning we fed them two whole, large round bales of last year's first cutting hay and then turned them out into the big old heifer pasture.

They spent about six hours gobbling all they wanted of lush, green grass...that btw is why we give them the dry hay. If you let them eat all the lush pasture they want they can get grass tetany, which can kill the heck out of them...filling them up with old feed first can mitigate that problem.

When they came in...well, actually, when Ralph and the girls went out and chased their reluctant, racy-chasey selves in off the hill, they were at least pretty good about coming into the barn. We've been giving them just a little taste of Calf Manna on their corn meal and they LIKE it. They will walk a mile for a mouthful.....(Once you point them in the right direction)

Milking them was fraught with peril. They were SO full of grass that there was no room in the stall beside them. They were SO full of grass that they didn't want to move over to accommodate company in their stalls either. Crowd, crowd, crowd.....

They were so full of grass that they would pause with a mouthful of the hay we feed in the manger at night and just forget to chew....just stand there with it dangling down, looking kind of tired and contemplative. Nevertheless the ones who spend the night in the barnyard for one reason or another headed straight for the hill gate the minute they went outdoors. We put an extra tie on it to make sure they stayed where they belong.

Meanwhile, mama never stops birding. I was watching a massive robin war over the old silo while I waited for cows (somebody has to "be" the gate until they learn where the temporary lane fence is). And pishing a little brown warbler out of the bushes...which will forever remain just a little brown bird, as I never got it close enough to identify.

And then sitting at the kitchen table with Becky after work, just relaxing a little...when we heard the rapid fire chatter of chimney swifts......

From about ten feet away.

Inside the house.....

They have once again colonized the big chimney. Doesn't matter much, as we have no furnace or anything using it. They sure are loud though. They are way down at the bottom this year, right next to the washing machine. Drove the dog NUTS! He stood there staring at the wall with his head tipped and his ears cocked like there was a TV up there and he was watching CBS news. And growling....

Everybody's eating apple blossoms these days!

Sick Days

2013-05-15T10:59:00.000-04:00

We all just worked through a couple of weeks of something that closely resembled the flu. ...in fact Liz and the boss are still a bit under the weather. She just plain feels miserable and he coughs night and day.

However, none of us missed a milking. We didn't feel that we could. It is typical of farmers, who have animals and family members depending on them, to force themselves to work, no matter how sick or injured they may be.

Thus broken bones, concussions, and yes, even the flu, are not used as reasons for sleeping late and eating chicken soup. I will never forget when my late mother-in-law slipped on a grape on the kitchen floor and broke her her arm. She was in her eighties at the time. Not only did she forgo medical treatment, wrapping it in a towel and taping it up, but it was no time at all before she was prepping cows with her good arm. You could NOT keep her out of the barn.

Turns out that this situation is the industry norm. Dairy Herd had an interesting article on this study, about who takes the most and the least time off from their jobs for illness.

I was delighted, if not surprised to read that, while farmers are among the least physically healthy in the nation, they are among the most emotionally healthy. Despite the challenges offered by the industry they feel respected and valued.

And what's not to like about working outdoors surrounded by God's creatures, beautiful scenery, and since 98% of farms are family owned and run, your own family?

***Meanwhile state legislators are trying to unionize farm workers and make sure they get lots of time off no matter how urgent harvest matters may be. If this effort was being led by the NY's own farm employees I would get right behind it. However, it is downstate legislators and imported farm worker spokespeople leading the charge to promote the so-called Farmworker Fair Labor Practices Act. Here is New York Farm Bureau's take on the matter.

Organic Valley Cooperative Headquarters Fire

2013-05-15T08:56:00.002-04:00

Liz heard about this through her company this morning, as she inspects a lot of farms for Organic Valley. Fortunately there were no injuries, but the fire is going to create a rocky situation for the nation's largest organic milk cooperative, which has 1800 members in the US and Canada.

Ice Night

2013-05-14T09:26:00.000-04:00

Alan took this little lilac bush to school back in the day
It spent quite some time living in a bucket in French class.
The school didn't want to plant it, so it came back home and lives up in the yard.
Do you think it blooms with an accent?

Has been survived, no telling yet how much damage, but it doesn't look awful...at least not yet. It did get down in the twenties though, cold enough to lay even the burdocks down on the ground for a while.

Had a heifer out this morning when we went out. No idea how she got out of the fence, which is built pretty good, but we think she was looking for a boyfriend. Thus she will have to come in the barn for a while tonight.

There was ice on the water buckets this morning, although it is warming up fast. Barn is about as clean as it is going to get. I don't think the milkhouse has EVER been cleaner! Liz and I really did it up yesterday and we sent the boss out for shiny, new milk hoses. It was a nice surprise to find that they had gone down in price since the last time we bought them. You don't see that very often!

Anyhow, we are going to call it good and get on with the fencing and normal chores. My, how things pile up when you are working in the barn, and people are sick or traveling, and such.I'm glad you can't see how many dishes are stacked in the sink or the piles of neglected laundry.

Hopefully I can get all that cleared up today and cook something besides sandwiches for supper. Have a good one!

This is Ridiculous

2013-05-13T15:06:00.002-04:00

Liz and I have been working all day at the mandatory milk house and barn cleaning that comes along every once in a while. Call it spring cleaning if you will, although dairy producers have other names for it.

Anyhow, it involves a lot of water, and scrubbing, and changing of plastic and rubber parts. We have had the boss running around buying those things.

We came in a few minutes ago for a short coffee break and on my way in from the barn I filled the stove with wood, preparatory to building a fire so the house plants...and the people...don't freeze tonight when it gets really cold.

And it was sleeting! Not a little sprinkle or a spritz of over-sized snow flakes. No, this was a full-fledged assault of great, big, icy balls of white junk. I could barely see.

The next person that tells me that we really can't expect spring in the Northeast until May is going to get pelted with a snow ball.....after all.....

It IS May!

Shiverish

2013-05-13T06:29:00.003-04:00

Farmers, old and new

Mother's Day was wonderful. Saw all our offspring. Visited mom and dad. Found a few hours to read Becky's new books, which is a favorite Sunday pastime.

Received some lovely flowers, such esoteric substances as algae killer for my pond, and Off! for my tick repelling efforts. A plastic peacock of much cuteness. A touching card from the world's most adorable grandbaby. An answering machine....no more missed calls. Our boy is safe back in Virginia after a lightning trip home to visit.

Speaking of lightning. A big strike did us a bad a couple weeks ago and toasted our phone along with a bunch of stuff in the barn, including the agitator motor.

Received kind words from all sorts of places, some all the more poignant for being utterly unexpected.

Now it's back into the fray. The weather has turned off cold and just plain nasty. Freeze warnings a bit to the north for this morning and the same for here tonight. Hoping the apple trees and lilacs make it. Ours are in riotous bloom and smell wonderful even against the tang of Arctic air. It would be an awful shame to have a late hard frost kill them, and worse still for the orchards all around us. Their livelihood depends on stable weather.

It has been suggested to the boss that he might cut us up some firewood. He keeps us womenfolk permanent hostage to the weather by only bringing wood in some of the time. I can build and tend a mean fire and have since I was maybe eight years old. However, I am not starting to study chainsaw 101 at this stage of my life.

And to think that last week I was going to suggest that he shut off the pumps that circulate water from the stove to the furnace plenum downstairs. Nope, not yet, too soon, too early, brrr....

Sunday Stills.....White

2013-05-12T05:00:00.000-04:00

For more Sunday Stills.....

Happy Mother's Day

2013-05-12T04:00:00.000-04:00

I am fortunate enough to have a wonderful mom, still young and vibrant, despite all the wear and tear we kids have put on her. You can't see it in this photo, but she is wearing a long skirt of the Montgomery tartan....she has earned that too.

Happy Mother's Day, Mom! Thanks for any and all daring and chutzpah I may have learned along the way. You know what they say about apples. Love you!

Dog Shaming

2013-05-11T12:17:00.002-04:00

If you are on Facebook with us, you already know that when the boss and I let Nick out this morning, he immediately took off.

All four of us called and looked, and looked and called, sometimes in relays, sometimes all at once. For hours.

We called the shelters and called the dog warden and even asked our milk truck driver to keep an eye out on his way down our road.

We walked the old horse pasture. The heifer pasture. The front field. Lawn. Bike path and both sides of the road for a long way in both directions.

We looked under all the porches. Under thousands of bushes. In the pond. In the well. In the creek. In the neighbor's hayfield. In town. In the housing development next-door.

He vanished at about 6 this morning. Sometime around 11:15, while the three of us were in the house charging dead cell phones and grabbing some belated breakfast he magically reappeared.

Becky looked out the window and shrieked. There he was, the old &^%%$#@.

Right next to the garden pond, looking up at the bird feeder. Hale and hearty, if wet, and certainly much better off than we were after all those soggy, miserable hours of hunting for him.

I want to thank all the nice folks I talked to on the phone this morning, the kind people at both shelters, the dog officer, the good friends who shared my wanted poster, and especially my daughters and husband who willingly and uncomplainingly joined the search. So thank to all of you!

Where the Air Smelled Like Snakes

2013-05-11T06:20:00.001-04:00

"We'd shoot with our pistols."

Well, actually I don't have a pistol and the air smells like lingering maple, burgeoning apple blossoms, and tantalizing lilacs, so sweet, that you feel as if your feet are going to lift right off the ground like Wimpy when he smells a hamburger. I swear, sitting on the porch yesterday, I could feel my toes quivering.

Anyhow, I was retrieving a wheelbarrow basin that was being used to hold down a canvas and when I lifted it up I found this little guy.

He was really tame, perhaps because he is getting ready to shed his skin...or so I suspect judging by the not-so-bright eyes and the nicks and tears around his scales. I've always liked all things herptile and this little guy was a delight to me.

We are fortunate to live on the wrong side of the river for poisonous snakes, so I can enjoy this little garter snake without a bit of nervousness.

Cevin

2013-05-10T14:00:00.003-04:00

Hey Tom

2013-05-10T08:03:00.002-04:00

Good work there, buddy....

Amazin'

2013-05-10T06:08:00.002-04:00

No, not the Mets, although they usually are...either amazingly good or equally awful...but we won't go there.

Nope, amazing May. Is there any month that is more spectacularly...well....spectacular?

Sun just creeping up at 5:30. Air chilly and damp, but sweetly redolent of the Winesap apple tree blooming outside the back door.

You HAVE to leave the door open to the bird song and foggy chill, you just have to. How could you shut all that glorious out? And in a couple of hours it will warm up enough to open all the other doors too..... Put on a sweatshirt if you're cold.

Robins on the porch hatched yesterday, welcome news indeed, as they do not like sharing and I do like setting plants out, and sweeping up winter debris, and arranging chairs in a harmonious fashion. I am not going to cry when they are fledged.

Until they lay the second batch of eggs. And the third. Oh, well, last year they eventually got used to me and came in and out as if I weren't even there. Maybe this year they will settle down again. Flighty little beasts though.

All through the day the panorama of amazement continues. Towering clouds puffing across the sky, giving a proportionate sense of just how expansive it really is. New birds one after another, new songs from the front field, new flashes of color from the trees above the lawn. New passersby way, way up high, where you can barely see them unless you look really hard. Questing north, always north...

The cows are slowly shedding out their winter woollies, turning all sleek and shiny, and recalcitrant. Oh so very. Oh, well, just like the damnfool robins they will settle down in time.

Nightfall comes late and slowly, with the sun usually still up when chores are done. And then you get to pick asparagus on the way in from the barn and saute it in butter and have it all by yourself, because nobody else in the house likes it..... Yep, May is amazin' and I wish it lasted all year.

Welcome to the Funny Farm

2013-05-09T07:14:00.004-04:00

What...?!!?? I'm just trying to keep you safe...what are you laughing at???

Liz brought Ren down today. Landlord problems...they are going to be moving soon I guess.

Anyhow, she was noodling around the kitchen, enjoying lots of pets, and driving Gil (in his crate) up the wall.

Suddenly she began to bark frantically, with her little, white muzzle pointed toward the chair in the corner.

"OMG, OMG, Woof woof, woof," (there is a photo of a border collie on the tin I keep my garden seeds in.) "OMG!! Strange dog, strange dog!!! Alarm, alarm!"

Whatta nut.

And what unusual visual capabilities for a canine.

We have had dogs that watched TV. Mike did and tried to bite all the bad guys, especially those with guns. There are still scars on the screen of the one Ralph watches, from him saving us from evil.

But to recognize a photo on a metal can.... unprecedented among dogs I've been around.

She is lying under the table right now, growling and grumbling at it.

The Honey and Cinnamon Cure

2013-05-08T11:24:00.002-04:00

For the past week the rest of the family has been down with a horrendous cold. Beck missed work. The boss huddled under layer upon layer of blankets shivering and coughing worse than a platoon of cats at a hairball party.

I avoided them as much as possible in hopes of also avoiding their godawful plague, but sure enough, three days ago, the dreaded sore-throat knocked on my door too.

I had read about the honey and cinnamon thing, and since I love both, I hunted up the formula for colds and took it for three days. I felt a bit under the weather. Slight fever one night. Scratchy throat. Kinda cruddy. But never chair-huddling, moaning, groaning, gasping and choking sick.

I pretty much sailed right through it, while everyone else was really rough.

Could it have been the cure? Or was it that I don't have respiratory allergies and asthma and they do? And take vitamins religiously?

I dunno, but I am sure going to keep honey on hand. And cinnamon. Yeah, that too.