Here And There Around The Farm

Autumn is a beautiful time of year around the farm. Things are slowing down and I'm battening the hatches for winter. Our leaves turn colors, then begin to fall. The temperatures drop, and staying indoors becomes a delicious luxury. 

Little Bugsy, now neutered, found a cough drop wrapper on the floor and played with it for hours:

 I took the dogs for a ride and stopped along Lake Ozonia, just south of me, to snap this photo:

 The white fantail pigeons, who went all summer long without reproducing, began nesting in the autumn. The last successful hatching were these two in a nest built of feathers on the floor:

 An older nest of one baby, high up on a narrow shelf, was developing nicely:

 I bought Georgette a new bed to use on the kitchen table because she insisted on spending her days there. This happy scene, with Seamus looking on and Bramble snoozing on a chair in the background, was on a typical autumn afternoon:

 The dogs still enjoyed much time in their fenced back yard:

 The cattle spent almost two weeks in the north field, where I got to see them all day, every day as the leaves behind them turned brilliant colors and then began to fall. They'd eaten just about all the grass by the end of that period and I moved them back across the road into the south field with the horses:

 I was out in the south field when I took this photo, looking northeast across the gravel road to the north field. That bale feeder is now being kept filled with hay:

 We had two days of cold, autumn rain and this was the northeastern sky on the morning of the first day. As they say, "Red sky in morning, sailors take warning:"

 But at the same time, we had a pink and blue sky with a rainbow in the northwestern sky:

I dug PeeWee's old bed out of a closet and brought it downstairs for Georgette. Then, after she got a new bed, I put the old one down for the other dogs and cats. As you can see, it was a big hit with Bramble, Clover and Bugsy:

 The Rugosa roses put on a spectacular display of color as they began to slow down for winter:

More Chickens, More Painting, More Hay, Our First Tornado

The nine remaining hens enjoyed their days of leisure, pecking and scratching around the yard:

The fantail pigeons have freedom too but seldom take advantage of it. But one day I got a call that the baby chicks were in at the Post Office. I'd made a brooder out of a plastic bin, a light bulb and reflector - so I turned it on and picked up my chicks. Their first few weeks will be spent in the pigeons' room:

 This time I ordered bantam (miniature) Easter Eggers, the chickens who lay blue and green eggs:

 They were cute little things and arrived thirsty, hungry and raring to go:

Like their eggs, their feathers come in all colors. One can't tell what color they will be from the chick color except that I felt sure the yellow chicks would be white adults:

 I had nine yellow, four chipmunk colored, three black and two slate gray chicks:

The local teen finished painting the trim on my barn and it made a big difference. Here, you can see that the right three windows and door are finished but the windows on the left are not:

The day after the chicks arrived was warm, so I opened the pigeons' window. But it soon began to rain off and on. I took a nap in the afternoon and awoke to find we were having a torrential downpour - sideways because the wind was so strong, and it was blowing the rain through the pigeons' window, across the room and onto the chicks' brooder. I ran out into the storm to close the window. Later, the wind and rain stopped and I captured this rainbow over the south field. I later learned that a tornado had passed through only a mile north of me, taking down trees and flattening part of a big corn field:

But our beautiful summer returned and things went back to normal. The chickens enjoyed basking in the sun:

 And searching for bugs beneath the apple trees:

At four days old, the baby chicks were already developing wing feathers and the yellow chicks' wing feathers were black. So now their final coloration is a mystery:

And as if things weren't busy enough, the neighbor showed up to hay my southernmost field. He'd just purchased a haybine and wanted to cut and bale my hay. He'll take half of it and help me get my half into the barn so I'll have it this winter. I'm already looking forward to winter as a time of rest:

A Busy Two Day Visit

My sister visited for two days this year and both days saw a lot of rain. So we decided to do some indoor activities, such as visit the St. Lawrence County Museum in Canton, New York. We began in the John Rushton room. Mr. Rushton built "The Stradivarius Of Canoes" in Canton from 1875 to 1906:

And the museum included the Silas Wright House. He was a governor and senator in the early 1800s:

It was interesting to see how the wealthy lived in the early 1800s:

Upstairs, I remembered from my previous visit, was an entire room filled with hand sewn quilts from the 1800s:

When we left the museum, we took a brief driving tour of the incredibly pleasant village of Canton and then to Days Mill Road in Nicholville. It was there that the rain ended and we saw this lovely rainbow:

It was one of the broadest rainbows I've ever seen, and arching over the autumn leaves added to the dramatic effect:

We also wrestled no-longer-so-little Rosella, tying her between two posts and putting an ID tag in her ear. I took this photo just after we'd finished and Rosella was still a little dazed, wondering what had just happened:

And we checked out the two day old fantail pigeon:

Here's a close-up. Truly a face which only a mother could love:

We fed apples to the cows:

And we took this photo of the St. Regis River in Nicholville:


The next morning, I went out to do the chores and found the eastern sky lit up with pink and gold. Vees of geese honked by overhead. We were planning a hike for day two, but I'll post about that tomorrow:

Around The Farm In Autumn

It's been a beautiful autumn thus far, and this double rainbow over the north field is a good example:

And the fantail pigeons are healthy, happy and breeding rapidly. This photo was taken from inside the barn, looking out their window:

One pair has produced all the babies this summer. They have raised four babies in three nests and are currently working on a fourth nest. One parent sets on the eggs of the new nest while the other parent feeds the babies from the previous nest:

In the early morning light when I first open up the barn and let the birds out:

New England Asters bloomed profusely, all along the roadsides:

This handsome caterpillar looked like one I'd read about and I vaguely remembered that it had poisonous spines. I photographed it but didn't touch it. Then I went indoors and looked it up. Indeed, I am pretty sure that it was a Yellow-Spotted Tussock Moth caterpillar and they do indeed have bristles which are irritating and some people are allergic to them:

The Mountain Ash leaves turned bright yellow, contrasting nicely with the red berries:

The bantams covered every inch of the yard. The bigger of the two roosters was looking for his hens in this photo:

Here are two of his hens, pecking around at the old silo base:

Another was giving the lawn beneath the apple trees a good going over:

I was on my way to the feed store when I passed a neighbor's hay field, backed up by trees in autumn color:

Indeed, it's been a wonderful autumn thus far. Now we are all hoping for a mild winter. After what we endured last winter, we deserve a break: