The Riley Factor #88

The Riley Factor Fort Plain, NY
November 24, 2010
(All the Rock Creek Farm news that's fit to print, along with unfit to print rumors, prognostications & bloviations.)

Lily -- A big welcome to Lily Johnson, who has just joined us, working at Rock Creek Farm.  She grew up in Cobleskill and now lives in Sharon Springs.  Lily is a Beef and Livestock major at SUNY-Cobleskill, and knows much about horses, cattle and the animal life. 

Planting and Plowing -- Dormant until spring.

Riley -- The French Guinea Fowl are becoming less leery of The Riley, staying in their tight band of nine and wandering ever closer to that great golden nose when he is tied-up outside.  The other day while out for his morning run, Riley came across a half dozen wild turkeys in the fourth field and began the obligatory chase (although in his still young life he has never caught more than a cold).  By the time he crossed into the third field, his quarry had grown to a bona fide flock of over 30 of the wild birds, all making their final dash in avoidance of Thanksgiving.  Eventually, the turkeys all flew into the woods and escaped, several landing in nearby trees and gawking down, mocking the Golden One.

Horses -- Rio and Lady are fitting-in more and more, no longer chasing the steers off the morning hay feed but mingling-in, almost creating a herd of seven.  During the day, the horses graze run around the pasture, frequently flipping on their backs and rolling in the grass and mud with legs in the air.  They spent some time the other day strolling back and forth in Rock Creek, stopping in the middle of the watering hole and splashing each other.

The Herd of Five -- The bovines are gathering their courage and standing firm among the horses.  For the first few days, they would scatter, especially from Lady, whenever their two new barn-mates were in close proximity.  Now, the herd is less afraid, and Gabe even wandered into Rio's stall early one morning trying to see if the newbies got better rooms in the Horse & Cow Hotel than the old tenants have.  As a welcoming gift, Gabe left Rio a warm, steaming cow-pie.

Fowl Weather -- Alack and alas, after a month in his private suite, Lefty, our one-legged turkey, succumbed to being pecked-and-pecked by his brethren turkeys, in the ever-continuing battle for survival of the fittest in the animal kingdom.  And just before Thanksgiving, we had 11 of the turkeys and three of the roosters butchered to cover the demands of sales and requests from the family.  That leaves us with a 'flock' of one lone Tom and five hens for breeding next spring.  And lately the geese have been around overhead in record numbers - on Sunday, we saw the largest flock of geese in flight that we have ever seen, at least 100 of the Canadians honking their brains out and winging southward.

Mowings, Musings and The Woods -- We have quite a large population of wood ducks living in the back two fields and trails.  Interesting creatures, they much prefer to run away when confronted, rather than fly.  Long beaks and fast legs.  Also living out on the back trails are a few ring-necked pheasants, mostly running around here and there.  Very beautiful creatures.  Even though deer hunting season launched on November 20, we have seen more and more deer wandering the fields and trails, all does and fawns.

Rock Creek Farm Records -- A new Rock Creek Farm record was set on the day before Thanksgiving ... by those cutest of identical twins, Babs & Betts Slate, who departed for home at 7:50AM Wednesday morning, earliest departure time ever for a visiting guest.  Other existing notable Rock Creek Farm records include ...

     Briefest Visit ... Ames and Peter Slate, who stayed for one hour on one visit, summer of '09
     Most Butcherings in a Single Day ... 14 (11 turkeys, 3 chickens) on Nov. 22, 2010
     Traveled Farthest for a Visit ... Uschi & Achem Gottschalk, who came all the way from Sardinia, Italy, October 2010
     Largest Turkey ... 45 pounds, Domestic American White, butchered for Easter, 2010
     Smallest Turkey ... 6.5 pounds, Narragansett Heritage, butchered for Thanksgiving, 2010
     Best Shot ... Susan, in the barn, with a rifle, taking out a red fox that had killed 9 of our chickens over a 10-day period, May, 2010
    
Quotes of the Week --

    Google is the best resource since the wheel. -- Lily Johnson      

    Thanksgiving with Obama and his group ... now we are all sitting at the kiddie table.  The problem is that the American Dream has been in the hands of Day Dreamers for the past 22 months.  And that Pelosi, she is one bat-crazy chick - I guarantee that she sleeps hanging upside down. -- Dennis Miller

    They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. -- Ben Franklin

    Terrorists are not caught by technology or by touching. -- Isaac Yeffet, former head of security, El Al Airlines
   
    Don't retreat, just reload. -- Sarah Palin   

    Money always does more good for the world when it is in the hands of individuals, than when it is in the hands of government. -- Judge Andrew Napolitano

    Obama and his administration are determined more than ever to control every aspect of our economy and of our lives. -- Rush Limbaugh

    Here's how to resolve that Korea bombing situation - Fire-up the Enola Gay and drop a little advice on those North Koreans. -- Don Imus