Saturday, August 29th...The start of Today is Rainy, Gloomy and Cool...Like Fall....

A lost beauty!

Not long.... It certainly won’t be more than weeks until we start to see more and more color beginning in the maple trees. I’ve noticed that leaves are falling more and more frequently...gathering in our swimming pool, causing me more and more of a mess.
I really don’t know what to do with the pool this year. Cover it and the snow collapses it.... leave it open and it fills with dirt and collapses anyway. Cover the pool with a cover suspended from the deck and it still collapses. Perhaps I should just slam it with a pick on the side away from the house and dump the water before it collapses anyway. Jeeze ummm, makes you think of our choices mentioned in the new health care plan doesn’t it. Hemmmmmmm, collapse is collapse...no matter how you say it. Ah, we’ll see...we’ll do something and hope for the best. (I mean with the pool)
Tomorrow, is the twenty eighth day for the eggs in the incubator and we should have chicks beginning to hatch. We have a brood which is about four to five weeks old in there already, so we will have enough replacements for the ones we lost to the cold epidemic of last week. Also, yesterday afternoon, Vick saw all the chickens and ducks running for the barn, so she yelled for me and I grabbed the 12 gauge shotgun and headed out the door. I saw nothing, but hobbled to the area all the birds had run from and I found feathers near the little barn. I followed a feather trail out into the woods and found the chicken kicking and taking its last breath. It was a beautiful Brahma layer, which had the usual several teeth marks on each side of her back....indicating a fox. Several months ago, I shot a male fox with a hen in its mouth. I suppose this is the female. I hate shooting her, but I cannot allow her free access to all our chickens either...and if I don’t shoot her...that is exactly what will happen. She will return again and again, until we have no chickens left.
Jeeze em... I just email the DEC about the decimation of the beaver colony on route 81, and now I’m blogging about snuffing a fox here. Seems contradictory doesn’t it? I guess here, I am trying to eradicate one for many and I can’t see where that applies to the pond along the road. If it had been a question of endangering the welfare of the public with water running across the road from the dam, I could see tearing it out, but it wouldn’t have. The water would simply breach the breast of their dam and gone where it now flows down the creek bank.
Life is so unfair at times.....so unfair.

Friday, Aug 28th... The Good...the Bad...and the Ugly...Right here in our lives...

The good has magnified today in many ways here on the farm... We have a handle on the bird sickness in the barns. All the chickens were looking better this morning, with only one bird showing an eye pasted shut. Even at that, it only had one eye closed; this allowed it to see and eat, then go out with the other birds. Yesterday, we had at least a dozen such birds and several with both eyes closed. We treated them heavily with the VetRX liquid and sprayed heavily with the antiseptic spray we use. We are keeping a close eye on today’s progress too. More good news is that we found out what is wrong with Snavely Mill (our Sheltie) which has had a urinary infection for two weeks now and has been on antibiotics for almost two weeks and still peeing with a tinge of blood present. This morning she had an X-ray at the Vet’s and we found that her bladder is full of approximately forty to fifty kidney stones! Now that’s the bad news...but on Monday morning she will have them removed surgically and be on the mend. (It’s a good thing I just developed a web page... that will pay the bill)
Now for the UGLY news..... On our way home from the Vet’s office, we passed by my favorite beaver pond beside route 81 and to my utter disgust, I witnessed the worst disaster in nature. Someone...be it road crew, state, county or township...completely decimated and destroyed the beavers pond, the landscape and the innocent beavers life. They simply ripped the dam out and drained the pond, removing natural habitat that didn’t compromise or endanger anyone or anything. It would have been better to simply shoot the beaver family and put them out of their misery as to destroy their life’s work, their home and food source. There are turtles, snakes, fish and many other creatures that will suffer the loss also. Why the D.E.C. allows this to happen, is a mystery to Vicki and I. If we wanted to drain the swamp out back, (which is a wetland) we would be informed immediately that it is a wet land and if we disturb it, we will be fined, yet these clowns not only disturbed this wetland....they destroyed it. I will write to them and forward pictures of the area before and after the senseless attack on these defenseless creatures of nature.

My Favorite spot ever... the Beautiful bever pond on route 81.

Such Northern Beauty....

Look at the lovely purple flowers and the image on the water......

All destroyed for what? So needless...to destroy an entire beaver colony.

See the beaver lodge out of the water now?

Now it is a mudd hole and mosquito den....

Thurs Eve Aug 27th... Lousy day on the Farm...Sick Birds and Sore Knee...Phew...

This is certainly becoming a lousy summer. (What’s left anyway?)
We have sick birds in the big barn, with eyes becoming pasted shut. It starts out as a cold like thing, where they have a clear discharge from their beaks, causing them to shake their heads. Then their eyes paste shut, which makes it impossible to see to eat or drink and the other birds peck at them, slowly wearing them down or causing severe injury to them. We have been running around, treating them with VetRX and swabbing their eyes, which will then open and they seem to want to eat and drink then. The other birds don’t peck them then either, and they seem to recover in about a day or so. We have however lost about 15 birds to it so far. It’s really a bummer trying to tend them on a crutch too, so Vick has been doing a lot of it herself, which I hate. She doesn’t like to be around the sick birds because she feels so bad for them and the deaths are really upsetting her. I try to do away with the dead ones so she doesn’t have to, but she has been doing it too. Man, we just can’t seem to catch a break.
The results were back from the Doppler and showed the Baker’s cyst, just like the guy said... and Julie and a few others called that one right long ago. Now what to do for it? Perhaps surgery.....if they say so. I don’t care... had the torn meniscus operated on years ago in Pa. and it was nothing...and now it must be better. Just like when they give the Cortisone...Everyone years ago said it hurt so badly when they administered it. Well, a few years sure makes a difference, because I felt nothing. I felt a little sting when he first jabbed me with the Lidocaine, but that numbed it immediately and he just popped the syringe off and stuck the Cortisone syringe on and injected it in without me feeling a thing. I’ll do that every six months for a good while before I have both knee joints replaced and give up six months of my life while they heal.
I just stopped writing to go out and help Vick get all the critters in and there is a marked improvement in all the sick birds. Obviously the VetRX oil is working. Its holistic medicine consisting of oil of Rosemary, Canada Balsam, oil of Origanum, Camphor oil, all blended in a corn oil base, so we don’t have to worry about the egg production of the birds. Besides, we want to be as organic as possible here, so giving them chemicals deemed unnatural isn’t good according to the tree huggers and such. Perhaps they’re too stupid to realize that there are only chemicals and elements which make up everything in nature and if I remember correctly chemicals are made up of natural elements.

Wed Aug 26th... Back from the Doppler appointment... with new News!

Hello again..... We’re back from Greene County Imaging where I had the Doppler done on me. It has now been diagnosed that I have a Baker’s cyst...right where I felt and heard the pop. Obviously I super compressed the knee joint and forced fluid out of the joint causing an accumulation of blood or knee fluid into a membrane sac which is called a cyst. (Good call Julie) Now back to the primary care Doc to see what we’re gonna do about it!
No county fair today... Too late today, anyway. Maybe we’ll go tomorrow.

Got the chiropractic site up and operating on-line so we can see what we do and can make changes. That way the physician can follow the work and guide me along the way. I’ll post the address when we’re ready and that will give him a start on the search engines, because we show up everywhere with this blog. Anyway, I hope Mike is happy with the preliminary results of his site.

Now we’re off to visit another neighbor farmer down the road. We’ll be back later this evening....

Wed Aug 26th... Off to the Doctor for a test or two...

The animals will have to stay inside today, because we have to go to Catskill, for me to get a doppler performed on my leg. It will take place at the Greene County Imaging. They want to be sure there isn't a blood clot in popliteal area (behind the knee) of my knee, where I felt the pop when I injured my leg. Maybe they should wait a bit longer and if there was one, it would maybe go away.... nothing like waitng a month after the injury to look for clots! I never went to the doctor until three weeks after I did it, so I'm just as guilty. Oh well. You live and then you die. That's how it works.

Today, after the doppler... we're going to the Washington County Fair. That's the living part! I'm goin even if it kills me too. The animals are pissed though, cause we won't let them out since we will be gone.

Tues Aug 25th... Sunrise, thoughts, desires and a time alone to achieve them......

There is a special treat in greeting the sun...it’s almost as if you’re accepting a business card from the earth upon meeting...perhaps to preview the days itinerary and voice acceptance of the planned events. You wait for its arrival, the same as a business man with an appointment, awaits his reception with the intended liaison. All the while I wonder if the day will appear happy (sunny) with my proposal to spend my time with him, or will the day frown (rain) all over my parade? Each sunrise begins a new business meeting between me and the day and I’ve come to enjoy the day’s calling card with its beautifully colorful display of the day’s best.
This morning was no different... as the agent of the day arose to the occasion, spreading happiness over the surrounding area of our meeting place. Who in their right mind would not eagerly meet and enjoy the warmth and comfort spread by the day’s agent, who is a professional at announcing the arrival of its principle? Just take a look at the priceless picture and you will see the day’s calling card, which changes from day to day...every meeting.

Today I will try to contact my service rep at Offset Paperback Mfrs., Inc. of Dallas Pa. to see if my latest file for the cover of my poetry book is acceptable. Vick’s brother was gracious enough to bail me out on the pixilation problems, making the cover quite nice. Thanks Richie... you’ll never realize how much I appreciate it!

After that is put to bed and the book enters the physical proof printing, we will be able to go over it and comb the pages...again proof reading and checking it as a final works in the finishing stages of birth. After approval of the proof, it goes to the printing machine for the first 100 books. Then efforts will begin more seriously in the marketing area and submissions endeavors.... Should be fun...or at least an education.........

Also today I will email about a new webpage I am designing. I need to cover a few items of legal interest and necessity with the owner’s agent. The name of the newly created domain will be www.spinalaidguild.com which is solely in the birthing stages at this point. It is going to announce the excellent services of Dr. Michael C. Paster, D.C., of Guilderland. He performs brilliantly in the area of Chiropractic and physical care, using traditional therapy and the amazing, revolutionary, new technique of spinal decompression. Dr. Paster used this amazing therapy on Vicki with great success in healing her herniated disc last summer.

I am designing this site with great passion and resolve to get the word out and help Dr. Paster cure back pain patients. I know it works...I have the proof right in front of me. Vicki was incapacitated with horrendous pain and constant agony until Dr. Paster treated Vick and gave her life back to her.

Sunday August 23rd... Summer’s fizzling out...as thoughts turn to Oktoberfest...

Hard to believe when I went out to leave the animals out awhile ago, that fall will be here shortly. There is a stifling, choking, heat and humidity out there that certainly doesn't lead one to even think about fall being so close. I look around me as I do different things or go different places and I am starting to see fall’s calling card in more and more places. The large sugar maple at the Hilltown Agway in Dormansville is starting to turn amber and red. A tree out beyond the Pupskill is slightly turning colors and this morning, I stood at the barn door entryway and watched the walnut tree beside the barn, while it was raining. That tree was slowly shedding leaves in the gently shower of rain. I noticed last evening when I was on the rear deck cooking the sweet corn, that the berry bush on the other side of the fence, was dropping leaves onto the deck and three burner stove we keep in that corner. This is truly the beginning of the end for summer. All too soon the chill of winter will hurry the fall season past us in the blink of an eye.
I suppose that September through October and into the beginning of November will last just as long as the summer months did, but why do the four months before April seem to last ten months?
Last winter, I enjoyed the scenery, the snow and the coziness of the house. We did what we liked as the snow and wind swirled and blew.....Vicki creating art work and I my books and websites, yet the four months still seemed like ten. None of the other months do that...spring rushes into summer, which rushes to fall and on to winter again, then just as years before... everything moves at a snail’s pace to the next spring. I have never understood why it is so, but fortunately, we can find enough beauty and things to do to fill the time until spring does arrive, and then we are ready for the usual down hill, high speed rollercoaster ride again.....over, before it really begins.

I think we should look into the Quadra centennial dealing with the discovery of the Hudson River by Henry Hudson in 1609. They have many celebrations and programs planned throughout the year and we haven’t check out any of them. We should check to see where the remainder of them is and go to a few. I would kind of like to see the Half Moon, Henry Hudson’s ship, if it is on display somewhere. That would really be interesting and knowing that you can ride it....actually excites me, even though it is a replica. At least I would have an understanding what it was like some four hundred years ago, to be cooped up on such a large...but small vessel. AH yes..............wishes and dreams... of silly things.