Scenic, Rural Bangor Road - Part 2

I was touring Franklin County Route 53, running north from West Bangor, NY to North Bangor, NY, and had turned off onto Mill Road, a short stretch which soon dead-ended. It was interesting, though. Even though the day was warm, the horses down the hill had their quilted blankets on:

Another old stone house, this one part of a family farm. The colorful blobs in the front yard were deflated Christmas decorations, not yet brought indoors for storage until the next Yuletide:

And the barns and equipment which accompanied the above house:

Mill Road was exceedingly short, so I was soon back on Bangor Road, where I stopped at this family alpaca farm:

The alpacas were out back, so I used my zoom lens to get a look at them:

A pleasant, country home with the usual big front porch. The scenery around here is so nice that most homes, it seems, have a spacious porch on which to sit and ponder the view:

As I headed north, I began to see more farms. This one, for instance, which was immaculate:

An old brick farm house with sap lines running between the Sugar Maples in the front yard:

Out behind the brick farm house was this corn crib for ear corn:

The last farm I photographed on Bangor Road was this sprawling collection of barns and sheds:

I stopped for a closeup of the big, red barn, with hay elevator and hay wagon. It was part of the collection of outbuildings in the above photo:

And an equipment shed and lean-to for livestock. But this was the end of the road, so I put my camera away and continued on to Walmart to do some shopping:

Small Animal Swap Meet In Louisville, New York

The Northern New York Poultry Club morphed, over the winter, into something called Country Thyme Living. There were several changes of name and purges of former members. I kept my head down until it was over and was eager to attend their first function this spring, a swap meet. Last autumn's swap meet was filled with small animals - chickens, ducks, goats, pigs and rabbits:

This year's swap meet, however, had only five people with animals. There were three tailgate venders outdoors, including this one with lovely Roller Pigeons. I was still hoping to find some Fantail Pigeons, but this man had none:

This woman had crossbred roosters and two Turkens (bald chickens). I suspected that neither would be hot commodities, but I kept my opinion to myself and wished her well:

Three of her roosters. They were handsome birds, but people with chickens usually already have more roosters than they know what to do with:

The third and final outdoor vender had three cages of chickens. I thought the white ones might be Phoenix because of their long tails, but the guys were so busy chatting that I never got to ask. The little black hens in the center were a breed unknown to me:

I went inside to see what else they had and was surprised to find that it was a hockey arena. This is far northern New York, almost Canada, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised to find that hockey is a major sport here:

There were vender's booths set up everywhere. This one had plants for sale:

A woodcraft booth:

Birdhouses and lamps made of birdhouses:

Wool, yarn and wool crafts, with a woman spinning:

Alpaca wool and crafts. I wished I'd have looked at this one more carefully:

There were only two tables with animals. One had fish, mice and hamsters. And this one had baby chicks and Ameraucana (a chicken breed which lays blue and green eggs) eggs, sold by the dozen. But that was about all there was to see, so I walked back out to my car and headed for home:

Part Two - Lovely Obrien Road

I'd turned onto Obrien Road in order to get myself into Massena but had found it so lovely that I was snapping photos left and right. This friendly old farm house really appealed to me:

And I passed a small group of Alpacas (or were they Llamas?) who watched me with curiosity as I took their picture:

And these handsome ponies. After some internal debate, I decided that their stout bodies, relatively short legs and large head made them ponies instead of miniature horses. I could have been wrong, though:

Another comfortable home under the big winter sky:

And a collection of barns and out buildings in active use:

This old barn and silo would have been at home on any Midwest prairie. It looked friendly and welcoming to me, but then I'm quite a lover of country life:

More old farm equipment parked in fields:

And a curious pony who looked like he'd be quite friendly. He was considerably larger than the spotted ponies I'd just passed and might have been a Welsh:

A magnificent old barn. Simply magnificent:

A cozy cluster of house and out buildings:

And another old farmstead:

I thought this split rail fence all covered with snow was the quintessential image of Obrien Road. I had found it to be rural, beautiful, comfortable and friendly. But I was supposed to be on my way to Massena, so I turned east onto County Route 49 to get me there. But I'll post about that tomorrow: