The Riley Factor #67

The Riley Factor June 6, 2010
(All the Rock Creek Farm news that's fit to print, along with unfit to print rumors, prognostications & bloviations.)

FORT PLAIN NY, June 6 -- Planting and Plowing -- The planting and plowing is done for this spring.  In the fields are an acre each of barley, oats, buckwheat and rye, each destined mostly for animnal feed, but some for baking flour.  Also from last fall are four acres of hard red winter wheat and an acre of semolina (soft white wheat).  There are also 20 rows of corn and 13 rows of soybeans in field no. 1.  And  around the greenhouse in the garden are 100 tomatoes, 200 hills of potatoes (Yukon Gold, Red Cloud, Swedish Peanut Fingerlings and Russian Banana), 75 peppers (various types), 75 cucumbers, various herbs.  In the raised beds are lettuce, sweet potatoes, green beans, navy beans, broccoli, cabbage, onions, and some other stuff.  Still growing in the greenhouse are the two lemon trees, two lime trees, two olive trees, lufa gourds, some watermelons, a few cucumber and some other long forgotten and unlabeled stuff.

Riley's Antics -- Riley sustained a minor abrasion Thursday, while riding in the back of the Ute -- trail brush whacked him in that long Golden Retriever snout.  He took it like a man/dog, with no whimpering as the golden blood dripped from his noggin.  On Sunday, he found some sort of egg somewhere -- looked like it might be a turkey egg -- and he carried it round for an hour or two before succumbing to dog hunger and eating it raw.   Yum.  (Or yuk).  At 100 pounds more or less, the nine-month old still thinks he is a lap dog.  Can you say "ouch"?

The Herd of Five -- The Fearsome Fivesome have become less cooperative lately at dinnertime, requiring a rodeo round-up of sorts (which they seem to thoroughly enjoy) to get them back into the barn.  Susan normally mounts an ATV, as the herd runs for the other side of Rock Creek, and chases them around the pasture a bit before they eventually make it to and through the barn door.

Fowl Weather -- The newest shipment of 20 Jersey Giant Chicken chicks (which should have been Narragansett Turkey chicks) are becoming accustomed to their new surroundings, although it's tough to tell a complaining 'peep' from a 'we love this, you people rock' peep.  Although one newbie was overheard saying, "This Fort Plain place is much better than our last flea bag of a chicken coop -- now we're living the turkey life, in style.  Hope that the humans don't find out that we're chickens, not turkeys."  Brownie, the newly-coined name for the senior turkey that spent an unauthorized night away from the farm last week, has taken to wide wandering during the days.  Her two sisters spend the days calling and searching for her, but it usually takes a Susan Search to locate the happy wanderer.  Saturday, two cars beep-beeped her out of the middle of Cherry Valley Road, after which we had to go get her and turn her around from what looked like the beginning of a stroll to the Village of Ames.

Mowings, Musings and The Woods-- Friday morning, we cut down 25 poplar trees in the woods next to the north trail by the fourth field.  Left to lie in the summer sun, they'll be good fire wood by this fall.  We have started seeing deer most days while out riding the trails.  So far, all doe, with perhaps a fawn or two.  And with the May 31 end to turkey hunting season, we have started seeing more wild turkeys running around the fields. And finally, there is no truth to the rumor, well maybe a little truth, well might be sort of indicative of what might have happened, if it ever did happen, of which there is no proof, well no remaining proof, and no witnesses, and no driver admission, that Chris crashed one of the tractors through the fence again.  A 'not guilty' plea was entered for the defendant.