Powerful Post

Over at John Bunting's blog. He really gets the dilemma of life as a small dairy farmer. Go, read.....

Eerie

What am I?

Strange sky this morning. Despite thick clouds the moon was so bright that everything kind of glowed. Then, where the sun was coming up, little slits in the clouds let in thready rays of spooky, white light.

It was as if the sky was torn and leaking.

Sort of Martian.

At least it isn't raining yet. The dog barometer was dry when he came in, always a good sign. And Simon, AKA Seismo, the seismological cat, (due to his twenty-poundage and thunderhooves) flung himself in through the door for a dish of cat food, then flounced back out after he ate, with all his many furry, fat, belly folds flopping. Guess he has solved the problem of winter care and feeding for us.

If you know what the "who am I" bird is, please let me know. There are so many exotic LBBs around this fall that it is driving me crazy! There were several of these flitting around the roof eating something...probably spiders or box elder bugs. They are so fast that even though I took several pics, this is the best I could do. Help with ID would be much appreciated. I know it looks a bit house finch-ish, but I am pretty sure that it is not.

Dum da Dum Dum..Messing with the Template

Just checking to see if folks who have been having trouble accessing Northview can get on now. Over the past few days some people have been unable to get on at all, others have slow page loads and still others get a message about the Stumbleupon script running slowly.

And others, including myself and Liz, can get on just fine. Go figger.

Of course I contacted the folks responsible for that script. Of course they did not reply within the time frame promised and of course nothing I could find on the Net gave me the details on how to get rid of the darned thing.

So, I boldly went where I have never gone before and cleared all changes to the widget part of the code.

And would be most grateful if you let me know in the comments if it worked, if you are having problems, but can still get to the comments. Etc. Thanks

Gilboa Dam Hearing

Called for by Assemblyman Lopez. Seems like a good idea to address concerns about this century old dam when rains of biblical proportions are not actively falling.

According to the article water was coming over the dam at one point at nearly the rate of Niagara Falls. That's a lot of water to dump into rural upstate towns and farms.

Eastside Lewisdale Gold Missy

Baby pic of our Bama Breeze,

who will never go to Expo,

but she is a nice cow just the same

Supreme champion at World Dairy Expo.

Why do I always love it when a Holstein wins it? Cow partisanship I guess. Someday.....someday....maybe we will get to attend WDE. They are said to have had a record number of entries this year. Imagine all those beautiful cows all together in one place. Wow.

Here are a couple of pics of her.

Sunday Stills...Vanishing Points

Corbin Hill Road, a huge family favorite

Had a couple of ideas for this one, but then the car coughed up a pinion seal and we were suddenly earth bound and not flying the roads....so here is a pic from the archives. We are not too flat around here, so some aspects of this are a real challenge....which is what it is all about.

For more Sunday Stills......

Running in Place

Amish horse looks a little short of groceries

Good weather. You gotta grab it. So the men are running in all directions at once trying to make up for our mostly lost summer. Building fences, mowing and chopping, cleaning pens, welding, patching tires that keep getting cut because the rushing water exposed sharp slate ledges and so on. Yowsa, it makes my head spin just keeping track of them.

The days sure have been pretty too. You just have to be outdoors all that you can. The air is so fresh and sweet it seems drinkable, the sun just warm enough to feel like a gentle blanket and the migrants are passing through, unwinding their coils in the north to thread south like fabric unwoven...

Song sparrows in flocks, cedar waxwings ditto, turkey vultures soaring past and one pair even seeming to play, drifting lazy over the river, then dive bombing one another over the barn. Ubiquitous little brownish warblers, calling from all over and flitting through the trees, plus the birds that will winter with us coming back from wherever they go.

I was picking tomatoes when I heard a creaky chickadee, calling half-heartedly from the mountain ash. I pished a little because I wasn't even sure that it was a chickadee and not a catbird or mocker. The thing bolted straight toward me like a bullet on a mission and barely swerved aside before it hit my head. Then it sat in the honey locust cussing me out in no uncertain terms. I ran into the house for seeds, but it had moved along when I came out. I am guessing that one of last winter's tame birds may just be back from its summer adventures.

I am not ready for winter, even though we are running in place getting ready for winter, but still....it is nice to see my friends again.

Holy C**p update! Liz just saw people throw two dogs out of a van, a little chihuahua and a lab. She got their license number and called the police on them....wonder if they will pursue it. I'll bet you can all think of some suitable punishments for such &^%%$^&*. Makes me sick. A dog is a commitment, a long commitment, but if you have to end it there are better ways. Geez.