The Riley Factor #96

The Riley Factor Fort Plain, NY
April 21, 2011, Issue No. 96
(All the Rock Creek Farm news that's fit to print, along with unfit to print rumors, prognostications & bloviations.)

The Rains -- Really not much weather to report.  In typical Upstate NY fashion, it was sunny and 65 degrees yesterday and this morning it is in the 30s and snowing/sleeting.  Eli, Michael and Raphael were screaming like little girls today because their morning hay was put out in the open and not next to the barn under the run-in overhang.  Rio was wandering the pasture toughing it out.

Auction Season -- We went to a farm auction on Lattimer Hill Road in Ames, NY, where an old time farmer had decided to reture.  Benuel Fisher Auctions ran the affair, and about 400 people were there on Friday, April 15, including a number of equipment dealers from around the country.  There was a huge selection of small farm stuff, too much, too arcane and too inane to list.  And there were also the requisite half dozen hay wagons, a couple of tractors, several hay rakes, hay mowers, hay balers, a hay elevator, a couple of feed wagons, hay feeders, bush hogs, buckets of all shapes and sizes, shovels, and a manure spreader (which had as one of its sale conditions that the buyer leave it behind for four weeks so the farmer could continue to spread the manure produced daily by the remaining dairy cows).  My favorite item was a "1,500 unit" bull semen tank -- thankfully it was empty, however they did sell separately several dozen doses of semen, complete with donor description, age, etc. (but no photos).  My two favorite lines from Benuel Fisher, the auctioneer, during the event were both uttered when some electrical device or another was being held up for the crowd to see and bid on.  The first line occurred when Benuel asked the farmer if the device worked -- after a long pause, the farmer yelled back, "It used to".  And the number one line of the day was when some other electric device was being auctioned.  Benuel was taking bids and paused and asked his helper what the tag said that was hanging on the device.  The helper paused, read the tag, and shouted back, "It says 'Might walk, but definitely does not run'".

Visitors -- Stevie was here the past couple of days, along with her sidekick Bruin, the Black Lab/Bluetick Coonhound/Beagle puppy mix.  Keith MacGregor stopped-in to do a little plumbing and spend most of the morning postulating with us on the current down-trending economy in America.  Late yesterday, Stevie, Riley and I went over to Chris King's to visit Lady.  Her training is coming-along very well.  Chris has asked us several times if we want to sell her, commenting on what a great carriage horse she would make.  Our current plan is to keep her from making the English to Amish conversion.

Planting and Plowing -- We decided to double-stack the raised beds this year, so we have 15 beds that are 14" high instead of twice-as-many boxes that are half-as-high.  We roto-tilled the freed-up ground, future use to be determined, probably cucumbers, several types of squash, green beans, peas, carrots, parsnips, cabbage, peppers, radishes, some melons and rowed onions.  Yesterday, Susan planted 150 strawberry plants in six rows of 25 -- who knew that you can't allow strawberry plants to produce fruit their first year?  This allows strengthening of the root runners.  The garden area above the greenhouse will be mostly potatoes, with some kidney beans, pinto beans and who knows what else.  The remaining raised beds will likely be used for various herbs, lettuce & spring greens, cabbage, eggplant, broccoli and some experiments.  On April 15, Susan planted 400 large candy onion sets, the first official in-ground planting of the season, in five of the raised beds.  Candy onions are a big favorite of the Amish -- they are large and sweet, and may be harvested at various sizes over a couple of months.  Except for their large round shape, they are similar to Vidalia onions.  We plan to place hinged glass windows on some of the raised beds, which enable earlier-in-the-year planting and also allow vegetables to be harvested later in the year.  Here, the average date of last frost is May 20 -- last year, we had an overnight hard frost of 25 degrees on May 27, which killed many plants that gardeners and farmers had put int he ground early -- it also killed a great percentage of apple and pear blossoms, resulting in greatly diminished fruit crops in 2010 in this area.

Riley --Happy this spring, still much the puppy at only a year and a half years old.  At his recent annual physical, he weighed-in at 86 pounds, destined to be his forever weight.  His favorite past time is "greeting" the many visitors who grace our doorstep daily.  If you are of slight build, in the five foot, hundred pound neighborhood, The Riley Pounce may knock you back a bit.  All told, The Riley is becoming very well behaved.  Although when it comes to the chickens, Riley can't help himself and chases them like toys put out for his enjoyment -- not a good thing.  The French Guinea Fowl, those loud little soldiers who travel around in tight formation, do not stand for any of Riley's antics, and he has realized that they are not to be trifled with.

Horses -- Lady has been spending her days and nights at Chris King's farm, on Clark Road in Danube, Herkimer County, about 15 miles away.  Chris King took her on April 12 to convert her from green-broke into a bona fide riding horse.  Everyone who sees Lady remarks on her good looks; it's that cross-breed of Morgan and American Saddlebred which give her such a prominent profile as she poses and prances, which she often does.  She is very calm thees days, and even puts her head on top of Susan's head, when they are walking no less.  It is interesting that the King family was the first Amish family to settle in this area, done back about five years ago (followed soon after by Melvin Miller and his extended family and the large John Fisher extended family).  Now, there are about 500 Amish families in the area (Fort Plain, Minden, Palatine Bridge, Canajoharie, Nelliston, Little Falls, St. Johnsville, Danube, Herkimer).  Rio is definitely missing Lady, jumping around and making a lot of horse noises, where he has generally been quiet and peaceful since his December arrival art Rock Creek Farm.  We have visited Lady ar the King Farm, where she shares a new small barn with 4-5 other horses.  She has her own stall, and seems to get along great with the other horses, one of which is a 10-year old Morgan that has won many awards.  Lady and the other horses also share the pasture with a dozen working mules, which pull various farming implements at the dairy farm.  The Kings milk 66 cows and have another 30-40 heifers and other head of cattle, along with producing their own hay and growing 37 acres of corn for feed.  Chris King, 21, is the second eldest of 11 King children, 10 of which are boys, all living at the King Farm.  His brother, John, is a dog lover, and has a dozen dogs running around the place (all very friendly and a big hit with The Riley when he visits).

The Herd of Three -- Eli, Michael and Raphael are happy that the pasture grass is growing and also for the reprieve from being chased around by Lady, the Prairie Boss(ette).

Fowl Weather -- We moved a rooster and three hens into Lady's stall to attempt some chicken breeding.  A chicken will lay a few eggs, say 3 to 6, and then sit on them for 21 days until hatching -- gestation period measured from start of sitting, not day of laying.  We are using the turkey hutches that Israel Kanagy built, for the chickens to use to sit on their egg clutches.  The turkey hutches are large and mobile, vs. the chicken hutches which are a bit smaller and mounted on the walls of the chicken coop.  The chickens use these chicken hutches for laying their daily egg quotas.  Believe it or not, one may actually purchase little chicken necklaces with sequential numbers on them so a true egg farmer can number each chicken and observe and make notes as to which hens are laying eggs and which hens should should be scheduled for the broiler -- thankfully, we have not devolved to this practice.  On April 15, one of our hen turkeys began sitting on a clutch of eggs -- a combination of 4 turkey eggs and 4 chicken eggs -- it is probably a bit too cold for true breeding and brooding to occur.

Mowings, Musings and The Woods -- All quiet in the Shire.  We did acquire a new heavy-duty wood splitter to allow for producing 15-20 cords of firewood for use next winter.  One of our goals is to heat as much of the house as possible with wood.

Blog -- The Riley Factor has entered the 21st century, and its own official blog site is located at http://the-riley-factor.blogspot.com/ and you can see all 94 issues to date.  (If you actually spend the time and do this, you may need more help with your life than we are able offer.  But I digress.)

Quotes of the Month --

     In my many years, I have come to a conclusion that one useless man is a shame, two useless men are a law firm, and three or more useless men are a congress.  --  John Adams

     The government who robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul.  --  George Bernard Shaw   If you take from Peter to pay Paul, you will always have the full support of Paul.  Obama has it figured out ... in the United States, there are more Pauls than Peters.  --  Bernard Goldberg

The Riley Factor #95

The Riley Factor Fort Plain, NY
April 13, 2011, Issue No. 95
(All the Rock Creek Farm news that's fit to print, along with unfit to print rumors, prognostications & bloviations.)

Make Way for Ducklings -- A pair of Mallards paddled around the lower pond for a day in early April, before winging their way on to parts unknown.  Only to be replaced a day later by the return of the great blue heron, now here for his fourth year.  In spite of our many sightings of this peculiar creature, I can never help thinking, "there is no way that that bird should be able to fly".  It is the size of a small person and stands peculiarly still in the shallows, or this time in the orchard, before jumping up and flapping its giant wings as it slowly takes-off, rising about a foot per second until it manages to get 15-20 feet above the ground and flies away.  And at dusk last night, as I was taking a short walk around the place with The Riley, four Canada Geese lined-up over the pasture and came-in to the lower pond like they were landing on an aircraft carrier.

The Snows -- Finally done.  Although we did get a bit of snow on March 31 and April 1 - only an inch or two, and quickly melted.

Auction Season -- Continued on April 2 with the annual spring equipment auction at Springfield Tractor in Ridgefield Springs.  A host of tractors, gators, mowers and other farm equipment, and about 500 people, twice what the auction brought a year ago.  We bought a new 74" tiller, needed since we annually rototill all the fields and gardens before planting, anywhere from 5 to 15 acres, depending on what we are up to, and our original tilling machine is beginning to show its wear.  Ephraim Blank welded the old tiller twice last year, and it still drips a bit of gear oil now and then.

Visitors -- Lo, it can be a lonely life here in Middle-of-Nowhere.  Nary a visitor from the civilized world in over a month.  Although Susan has made several pilgrimages to Hopkinton in recent weeks.

Solar Project -- Pretty much a fait accompli.  Except on the darkest of gloomy days, the photo-voltaic panels charge the batteries to 100% by day's end, which is enough power to run everything for over 48 hours with zero additional light from the sun.  And even those dark, cloudy, stormy days provide some light for charging the batteries.  Finally, with all the calibrations final and adjustments made, the back-up generator is being engaged only rarely.  And when it does kick-on, an hour-and-a-half running charges the batteries and power the house and barns for an entire day and night.

Planting and Plowing -- Still a bit muddy out in the fields, but yesterday, Susan tilled-in the manure that had been spread on the fields over the winter in the first field and in the garden area around the greenhouse.  So the 2011 farming has begun.

Riley -- For some unknown reason, the Golden Boy has taken to chewing paper.  Not all paper, but he is especially fond of napkins, tissues and the like.  When so occupied, Riley is impossible for one human to apprehend, and the two of us frequently chase him around the house like maniacs, until capture is achieved.  Who here is really running the asylum?

Horses -- Two days in a row, both horses escaped from the pasture - first times ever.  On March 30, they pushed through the lower 16-foot gate, which had been damaged a bit over the winter and was not latched tightly.  We saw Lady and Rio wandering around the back of the pasture fence and on the south circuit trails rolling in the still remaining snow.  A capture was accomplished by calling them calmly and shaking a bit of grain in their direction.  The cows were not amused at the horses being rewarded with mid-day grain for misbehaving, and the Herd of Three chased me around the field in search of some of their own feed.  (Editor's note: Always remember that time-tested, very wise, fundamental rule of the cattleman -- 'Never turn your back on a bull.')  Next day, March 31, we walked outside to run some errand, and saw both horses calmly grazing in the backyard near the fire pit, like it was perfectly normal.  Again, shaking some grain in a feed scoop called them back into their pasture.  This time, they had barged right through the four-foot upper people-gate and broke the wooden piece holding the latch.  (It must be admitted that some errant tractor operator snapped off two of the nearby fence posts over the winter while plowing snow off the roadway, and perhaps damaged the latch, so there may have been some human culpability involved.  But this has never been proven.).  (We asked Aaron Miller from E&A Fence to return and repair the two gates, which he has done.)  And then on April 3, Lady ducked-out of the pasture behind me when I left the pasture in the UTV, and I had to spend 10 minutes coaxing her back to within my reach as she pranced back and forth on the roadway in front of the pasture and down around the pond.  Finally, a carrot in one hand and a horse-lead in the other did the trick.  I hope she didn't learn anything.  All followed by a bit of melancholy on April 12, as Chris King came to take-away Lady for a month of horse/riding training -- to convert her from green-broke to rider-ready.  Last weekend, we put saddles on both Lady and Rio, without incident, and rode Rio a bit, and decided that it was time to train Lady to be ridden.  She should be back home in about a month.  Unlike her arrival last December, she got into and out of the horse trailer without incident, after only a few minutes of coaxing.  But it is amusing to see a horse stand still, a foot from the trailer door, and refuse to move an inch for ten minutes, despite the best efforts of all involved.  She stood firm, looking calmly from side-to-side, letting everyone know who outweighed whom, and who was really in charge.  Finally, apparently when satisfied that everyone knew she was the boss, she walked up and into the trailer.

The Herd of Three -- Cattle live a simple life.  Theirs is to seek and ingest food.  Grass preferred, hay a close second and, if offered, grain a close third.  Our three steer, Eli, Michael and Raphael, are now each over 1,000 pounds, and are perfectly comfortable throwing their weight around.  But they are very gentle.  They do not, however, like the horses very much, and Lady is especially vexing to them, running the steer off of their hay each morning until she has had her fill.  Even with hay distributed in two or three locations in the pasture, Lady still keeps the steer away from all hay until she is ready to allow them to feed -- Dances with Cattle (and Horses, but no Wolves).

Fowl Weather -- Egg production is increasing fast as the temperatures warm.  Now the 36 hens are laying about two dozen eggs per day, soon to be three dozen.  I have no idea what the two roosters do all day, but they do manage to run around the yard and fields and crow once in a while.  The five remaining hen turkeys are kept in the outdoor pen now (no great torture, since it is plenty big enough) and they can roam back into their coop if they desire.  We borrowed a Wild Palm tom turkey from friends to use for breeding, so the turkey hens could mate and produce some turkey chicks.  That experiment worked-out well -- for about three hours.  The tom turkey mated several times with one hen or another (who can keep track?).  But when we returned to the turkey coop at day's end, one of the hens had the tom's neck tightly grasped in her beak, so hard that the tom's neck was bleeding.  He must have committed some great turkey breeding infraction.  (And thus he learned that time-tested axiom, that there is no scorn so great as that of a jealous girlfriend).  Well, in any event, we had to return the tom turkey to its owner before he became a homicide victim at the hands/claws of one or more of his lady friends.  In other news, the nine French Guinea Fowl (known as Keets to their close friends, so I call them French Guinea Fowl) go wherever they want, whenever they want, squawking as loud as they want, as often as they want.  To date, they have always returned to the barn each evening.

Mowings, Musings and The Woods -- Still too wet to get up back to the woods much, but we do occasionally make a ride around the perimeter of the place.  A few trees fell over the winter, but no real damage done anywhere.  Plenty of wild turkey sightings, but the deer are still in hiding -- it is birthing season, so the fawns will soon be wandering the place with mother does close by.

Blog -- The Riley Factor has entered the 21st century, and its own official blog site is located at http://the-riley-factor.blogspot.com/ and you can see all 94 issues to date.  (If you actually spend the time and do this, you may need more help with your life than we are able offer.  But I digress.) 

Quotes of the Month --

     Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in.  Aim at earth and you will get neither.  --  C.S. Lewis
     Aim small.  Miss small.  --  Benjamin Martin, The Patriot
    

     It seems inconceivable to me that a nation of 300 million cannot replace 555 people who stand convicted, by present facts, of incompetence and irresponsibility.  --  Charley Reese

     It is a rare problem that is so great or so grave that it can not be diminished by a good cup of tea.  --  Miss Jones, NCIS LA
     I don't live in fear of life or of death, but I do I live in fear of having to go five minutes without talking about myself.  --  Don Imus

     On average, the human foot sweats a cup of fluid per day.  --  P.J.  Thyne, Bones
     A man's reach should exceed his grasp.  --  Robert Browning
     A government bureau is the nearest thing we'll ever see to eternal life here on earth.  --  Ronald Reagan    

     I am Obama's worst nightmare.  --  Donald Trump (April 12, 2011)

Facts of the Month --

     Most people know that 75% of the earth's surface is covered with water.  But of the earth's total mass, or weight, only 0.06% comes from water.

     And, this just in -- If a billiard ball were enlarged to the size of the earth, its surface would be more mountainous and cavernous than the earth itself is.