St. Lawrence County Fair - Part 1

It was a lovely Friday and I was in no mood to be doing chores, so I drove to the village of Gouverneur to see the St. Lawrence County Fair. It was a fifty mile drive to Gouverneur, where I turned down a pleasant neighborhood road and and continued on it until I saw the fairgrounds:

I paid my admission, parked my car and walked toward the action. When I saw the words, "Free Petting Zoo," however, I made it my first stop:

There were Ring-Tailed Lemurs and screeching parrots:

Camels, sheep and goats:

A kangaroo:

And spotted Llamas:

Zebu miniature cattle:

Miniature horses and these partial albino, miniature donkeys. Unsurprisingly, the donkeys were the friendliest of all the animals:

This is dairy country and I toured several barns filled with cattle of various breeds:

And, of course, lots of Holsteins:

I arrived early, before the big crowds arrived, so the barns were busy with people cleaning their animals and stalls:

This woman was washing her Holstein heifer. But I still had lots to see at the fair, and I'll post Part 2 tomorrow:

August Scenes From Around The Farm

The Wild Cucumber began blooming in August. Next month they will produce fruit for me to photograph:

The local corn fields grew extra tall this year - well, at least some of them did, and looked stunning, bordered with Cattails, Goldenrod. Black-Eyed Susans and Queen Ann's Lace:

The recently mowed hay fields looked lovely, and smelled good too:

This dirt lane took the farmer down between his corn field and a woodland. I would have loved to find out where it went, but I didn't know who owned the field. It's right down the road from me, though, so I hope to find out:

My own little orchard was looking good this year, as well as providing a shady spot for nesting birds and my little flock of Barred Rock Bantams:

This was the view from my upstairs bathroom window one morning. What a wonderful way to begin the day:

One pair of fantail pigeons raised two babies this month:

They were growing like wildfire so I wanted to photograph them quickly, before they were indistinguishable from the adults:

Several hens went broody, but this little lady was the most persistent, refusing to leave the nest box unless I lifted her out and set her down on the floor (which I did twice a day):

My project for the month was to build a calf pen/trap at the end of the cattle area. I began by salvaging that pile of boards from up in the hayloft and throwing them down through the bale feeder hole so they could be used in the construction:

Then I added two gates and cattle panel wire to allow me access but deny the calves an exit when I wanted to detain them. I used pipe to lock the two wider gates so they'd have a big enough gap for the calves, but not for the cows. The calves can go in for grain and, if I want to capture one of them, I merely close and lock the entrance gate:

The verdict is still out on its success, but I quickly got the two older calves to go in there for grain. Alas, they weren't the calves I was hoping to catch: