The Riley Factor
Fort Plain, NY
August 6, 2012, Issue No. 121
(All the Rock Creek Farm news that's fit to print, along with unfit-to-print rumors, prognostications & bloviations.)
Fort Plain, NY
August 6, 2012, Issue No. 121
(All the Rock Creek Farm news that's fit to print, along with unfit-to-print rumors, prognostications & bloviations.)
Riley and the Littles -- No news is good news. Daily runs, daily swims, daily lying on the kitchen's tile floor in front of a fan. Ahhh ... the life of a dog.
Plowing and Planting -- After it rained on the afternoon of June 12, we had no rain, except for a one-hour pre-dawn shower, for the next five weeks. As such, we engaged our 300-gallon tank trailer. which we hadn't had to use since 2009, and had to water the potatoes, corn, squash and tobacco out in the fields. Over a few days in the sweltering 90-degree heat, we put about 12,000 gallons of water taken from the lower pond on the vegetables to tide them over until the next rainfall. The wilting leaves were restored and hopefully the crops saved. On July 16, for the first time ever, we baled hay from The Deerfield (so named since deer frequent the place and we have left the field undisturbed until now). It is a two acre or so field in the middle of the trails area, hard to get baling equipment into and out of. We gathered 109 bales. Until now, that field has been a weed field, but starting last year we mowed it monthly, and over-seeded it with clover and rye. Now it's hay. We plan just this one hay cutting of The Deerfield in 2012. Perhaps we'll get to two cuttings next year.
On July 19, a date a few weeks early in comparison with prior years, owing to all the hot and dry weather, we combined the acre-and-a-half field of barley, generating about 1,500 pounds of barley grain, to be cleaned and stored for feed for the horses, cattle, chicken and turkeys. A day later, we combined the two oats fields, also about an acre and a half in total, and harvested 2,000 pounds of oats. We then raked and baled 105 bales of straw from the barley and oats fields, and stacked the bales in the barn, for use throughout the year as animal bedding in the stalls. Next up, the rye field, our last remaining grain for 2012. No wheat this year.
And They're Off -- I think Blondie and Rio are dating. She follows him everywhere - they are always side-by-side. Neither wears the pants in the family. And since Rio is a gelding, there will be no little Rios or Blondies. And we had another break-out, the night of July 18. Near midnight, Susan was reading and watching TV in the family room when she heard some noise at the window right behind her. Surprise, it was Rio watching TV over her shoulder. Of course, she sounded the alarm and we went outside to find Rio had broken through the side gate and was now prancing around in the street. But a quick call and he came trotting and we lead-walked him back into the pasture. Blondie, Eli and Lilly had not strayed, but stood by and watched with great interest. We hope it wasn't a dry run, planning for the great escape. For now, the Bigs have been relegated to pasturing during the day and into their stalls at night. And we have installed chains on all four pasture gates.
The Herd of Five -- On the weekend after the Fourth of July, we noticed Lily limping and a rear foot swollen to about twice its normal size. A call to Midvale Vets brought medical help that included applying Ichthammol Salve and a bandage to her foot for a few days. Cured. We had the vet back a week later to burn-off the just-growing horns of Abraham and Isaac, our two Jersey calves, born March 29 and April 7 this year.
Lily's due date of July 22 came and went without a birthing, but a week later, she delivered. Unfortunately, the birth was a tough one, and we needed a vet to assist. After an hour and a half, Susan, Nancy and the vet delivered a stillborn calf, thought by the vet to have died a day or two earlier. Lily was fine. The next morning, Susan made the rounds to a number of local farms in search of a newborn calf that was unwanted or unneeded or rejected by the mother, and was lucky to find an available 10-day old female calf at Amos Fisher's place, and we now have little Abby, a 30-pound Jersey that quickly bonded with Lily and began nursing right away.
Mowings, Musings and the Woods -- Owing to the lack of any substantial rain, the trails and old logging roads in the woods are as dry as we have ever seen them. Great for hiking and ATV riding.
Fowl Weather -- Birds are everywhere. The Narragansett and Standard Bronze turkeys, acquired in mid-April are now in the 6-10 pound range. The April Red Star chicken chicks are nearly full-sized and ready to lay eggs.
Visitors -- Stephanie dropped-in for a surprise three-day visit the second week of July. At her urging, we dyed the upper pond blue. Now Gabby and Riley look cold every time they leave the pond, since their lips are blue. Well, dogs don't actually have lips, but if they did, they would be blue. They do, however have butts, and they are blue.
Blog -- The Riley Factor's official blog site is located at http://the-riley-factor.
Quotes of the Month --
We are going to relentlessly pursue perfection, without ever achieving it. But in doing so, we will hopefully capture excellence. I am not interested in just being good. -- Vince Lombardi, to Bart Starr, 1959
Freedom is not the right to do what we want to do; it's the privilege to do what we ought to do. -- Rev. Renzo Ventrice
It's true. Under Obama, the middle class have become poor. Equality through destruction. -- Greg Gutfeld
America's first black president hasn't arisen yet. Obama is the first mixed-race president. -- Morgan Freeman
This is my last election. After my re-election, I have more flexibility. -- Barack Obama, to Russian President Dmitri Medvedev, March 26, 2012
Obama's re-election would be national suicide. -- Mark Levin
You can't trust anyone whose loyalty has a price. -- Ziva David, NCIS
Don't be pushed by your problems. Be led by your dreams. -- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Most people see what is, and never see what can be. -- Albert Einstein
Live as if were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever. -- Gandhi
There are no good guns. There are no bad guns. Any gun in the hands of a bad person is a bad thing. Any gun in the hands of a decent person is no threat to anybody, except bad people. -- Charlton Heston, May 18, 1997
Whiskey for my men, beer for my horses, and guns for our readers. -- The Daily Caller
Bumper Stickers of the Month --
DON'T SPREAD MY WEALTH ... SPREAD MY WORK ETHIC
SOME DRINK AT THE FOUNTAIN OF KNOWLEDGE. OTHERS JUST GARGLE.
IF GUNS CAUSE CRIME, MATCHES CAUSE ARSON.
Facts of the Month --
Farmers receive 14 cents out of every food dollar that goes through the grocery stores.
Half the jobs in America pay less than $34,000 annually.
93% of guns used in crimes were acquired illegally. -- BATFE
In June, 80,000 new jobs were created in the U.S. That same month, June, 85,000 people were added to the rolls of the disabled. That's right ... more people became disabled than began employment in a newly created job. The Obama recovery marches on.
Since going public in August 1972, Wal-Mart's stock has risen an incredible 121,900%. A $1,000 investment in Wal-Mart the day it went public would be worth $1,220,000 right now.
"A bipartisan group of senators led by South Carolina Republican Jim DeMint introduced the Pay for Printing Act Thursday, which would require senators to pay for celebratory 'simple resolutions' with money from their own budgets. During the 112th Congress, the Senate has already passed over 350 simple resolutions, and introduced over a 100 more. They have mostly been symbolic, feel-good declarations including, as The Daily Caller reported in June: 'National Chess Day,' 'National Safe Digging Month,' 'Year of Water,' 'National Inventors Month,' 'Collector Car Appreciation Day,' and 'The Year of the Family Caregiver.' DeMint’s office points out that each resolution page costs an estimated $1,200." -- The Daily Caller
Commentary of the Month -- Just the facts -- Increasingly in recent months, the administration has been seeking ways to act without Congress ... Each time, Mr. Obama
has emphasized the fact that he is bypassing lawmakers ... aides say many more such moves are coming. -- New York Times, April 22, 2012
The Deadliest Growth -- New York Farming Deaths
Recent NY non-animal-related farming fatalities:
2010 27 deaths
2009 14 deaths
2008 20 deaths
2007 22 deaths
2006 25 deaths
1994-2005 287 deaths, an average of 23 farming-related deaths per year
Details for 2010 deaths: 13 tractor-related, including nine tractor roll-overs and four tractor run-overs, asphyxiation (3), machine entanglements (2), struck by a machine (2), drowning (2), and fire, ATV, MV, suicide and unknown, one each. Victim ages ranged from 1-month to 85 years.
And, there were 17 animal-related farm deaths from 2002 to 2008, nine from cows or bulls and six from horses. Animal -related farm fatalities included those deaths from being attacked by a bull, thrown off a horse, kicked by an animal, crushed by an animal, punctured by a sharp object caused by an animal, and pushed against a solid object by an animal.
And then there's this --
A New Amish Saying
A man does work from sun to sun,
It almost makes one dizzy.
A woman's work is never done,
So why don't she get busy?
A man does work from sun to sun,
It almost makes one dizzy.
A woman's work is never done,
So why don't she get busy?
A great soul --
Barbara Arlene Paige Fuchs
April 26, 1922 - July 23, 1978
