Let the snow begin!

There is just enough snow to get me in the Christmas spirit...and to give Husband a practice run with his new John Deere riding snowblower. We fired our regular snowplow guy so that Husband could play with his new toy.

Start practicing mister, my Irish Siri is predicting 18" just before Christmas!

With a lot of help from my Christmas elves, I got the tree up and the lights on. Monkey was the only one who didn't help. 

I still need to decorate the tree, buy some wreaths, and write all the cards.

Mother Nature has taken care of decorating the outdoors. Thank you, Mother.

Sun and moon

Autumn started late and ended early, at least it seemed that way. The warm weather hung on longer than usual, and it left us pretty quickly with just the cold and frosty stuff.

It is not officially winter, but picking up the Christmas cards and Christmas tree yesterday definitely put me in winter mode. And I finally retrieved all my winter clothes from the cedar chest that Grandma gave me back in the 1990s. It still smells like mothballs even though I left it out on the porch opened up for several weeks before I dared put any clothes in there.

Winter is just fine with me, especially on the sunny days like today. Clouds in the sky with the full moon at night are just as pretty.

They told us we would hate the winters up here. 12 years in and I still love them.

All snug in their bed and jingle bells

These 2 are becoming quite the comedy team. When they are not attached at the hip wandering the house, they can often be found snuggling together in the Cadillac dog bed. They have come a long way from when the brave kitten first came down the stairs and was pawed to the floor by a curious WoodMan.

Now that The Husband finally came through with our Christmas card concept, I guess it's time to start thinking about the upcoming holidays. Later this week (I hope) we will make our annual visit to Edmeston to pick up the cards and our tree from Salo's Tree Farm.

To improve my Christmas spirit, Tara invited me to the Fenimore Chamber Orchestra's Festive Strings concert yesterday at the very pretty Christ Church in Cooperstown. Conductor Maciej Żółtowski followed some of the more serious pieces with an encore of Christmas carols, including the one with those jingle bells he was ringing all the way...

A bird obsession: Part 1—The American Goldfinch

I have already talked about the Bird Buddy feeder/camera that I got in October. It forces you to obsess about the visitors you get, because it reminds you every time it takes a pic, or 10.

I think the most frequent visitor currently, is the house finch. I have 253 house finch pics in the gallery, and that's not counting the similar amount that I deleted. After that it is probably the cardinal. 

The blue jay might have been the second most frequent, but someone suggested adding safflower seed to the sunflower seeds, and that did the trick. The blue jays still come by now and then, but they are disappointed when they see the safflower is still in there. They throw them on the ground and carefully pick out the sunflower seeds.

Today's feature is the American Goldfinch. According to the Bird Buddy, they are day fliers, involved parents, and loyal lovebirds. It says they don't like the cold, so will be flying south soon, unless the food supply is tempting enough. I don't think either of these seeds will be enough to keep them through an Upstate winter.

For now we only have a dusting of snow and it's not all that cold. We'll see how long they stick around.
 

A few last nice days before the fun begins

A few sunny days after Thanksgiving gave me some time to play in the backyard with the dogs. I was using that wheelbarrow to move dirt from the patio excavation to places where it might be more useful—like filling in that big hole that Woody has been working on where a garden used to be...

And over the garlic that I finally got planted before the ground was completely frozen...

I probably won't be playing in the backyard again for awhile, unless of course I make a roaring bonfire in the fire pit. Cold, windy and raining here today. This is more typical November, almost December! weather.

Long summer, short fall

The temperatures were in the 60°s (almost 70° on Friday) and then they came crashing down over the weekend. We got about 6" of wet snow overnight on Tuesday. Most of it has melted, but I think summer has finally taken leave.

The Bird Buddy has been doing its job as photographer very well, but my Sibley Guide is much better at identifying bird visitors. Supposedly the BB is "learning" as all of the photos are coming in, but I was really hoping that my Buddy would be the one teaching me.  

The 2 birds who frequent the feeder most often, blue jays and house finches, are usually either misidentified or they ask me to ID them. Oh well, it was still worth it for the cute close up photos of some very alien-looking birdies. Can you say Coneheads?

And I finally caught a short video of the Monkey/Woody parade that happens just about every morning. Not sure why that is fun for them, but it is definitely fun for me. :)

Bird Buddy and the posers: A review

Female cardinal

White-breasted nuthatch

I pitched in some cash to a Kickstarter project about a year and a half ago. I received my Bird Buddy about 2 weeks ago. Overall, I am very happy with this little bird feeder with camera that also identifies the birds for you.

As you can see, most of these pictures are very high quality. When the bird sits in the right spot, just in front of the camera, it takes beautiful photos.

The IDs, however, leave something to be desired. It asks you to identify the birds, unless it is a very clear and obvious picture, so it isn't the best if you are looking to learn which birds are using your feeder. But if you use the close-up photos and a good bird book (like The Sibley Guide to Birds) you will be very happy. 

Blue jay. My most frequent visitor/marauder

The images of all those birds you normally would see are so close up and so damn cute, that it is well worth the exorbitant price you will pay for the little feeder. The fact that you have to charge the battery every day, or maybe every 2 days, is a bit annoying.

In my humble opinion.

Male cardinal

Tufted titmouse scaring off a house finch. It worked.

Black-capped chickadee

American goldfinch

Female house finch

Male house finch

House sparrow: I did not know, until I saw this pic and looked it up, that male house sparrows have yellow beaks, not black, and mostly lose the black spot on their chest, during non-breeding season, September–March. American goldfinch in the feeder. I did know that they lose most of their brilliant yellow coloring in the winter.

 

Friends, birds, and the old retired lady

When good friends swing by on their way back from the Finger Lakes, well we just have to celebrate with a portrait on the front porch. Most of the autumn colors are gone here, but we still had and have some beautiful weather for this time of year.

As mentioned in the last post, I finally received my Bird Buddy feeder which includes a camera that also identifies the birds. Since Saturday, only the bluejays are posing. I have 35 great bluejay photos, and only 2 of what might be a nuthatch. I see plenty of chickadee and goldfinch visitors, but they are too sneaky to be captured on camera.

I finally retired from my job at The Freeman's Journal/Hometown Oneonta. Last night was my last Ugly Tuesday. Even though it's November, there are a few more days of warm weather to spend outside with the bluejays and not have to worry about going into work. But I will miss my other good friends, Tara and Larissa! :)

Old friends, an ex-car and a bluejay

Just this weekend I was going through my photo albums so that I could share some pics with 2 old friends who stopped by for a visit.

This is not one of the photos I was looking for, just a sad reminder of when my favorite car ever, a Toyota Corolla SR5 with the flippy headlights AND a sunroof, was stolen from in front of my house and "recovered" in Camden.

The police called me on Easter weekend and told me to come "pick up" my car, and to be sure to have my registration and insurance cards (both had been in the glove compartment) and my driver's license.

Not sure how I was supposed to pick it up... :(

After a year and a half of waiting, I finally received my Bird Buddy bird feeder. This was a Kickstarter project that I supported—a bird feeder that takes a photo and identifies the birds.

I am having a minor problem so far—only the bluejay sticks around long enough to pose. The chickadees flit in and out of the frame. I have about 10 photos of the same bluejay. Hoping that will change as more birds become aware of the new feeder.

Finally, I am waiting for those old friends to post some photos they took while they were here. I will share in a later post.

Autumn

We were feeling cheated by the fact that the weather changed suddenly to cold and rainy on the very day of the autumn equinox, but Mother Nature gave us another gift with a few perfect days since then. The trees are showing off their best colors ever.

I thought our visit from Don on the Hill last week was going to be the last for the year, but he and Gracie found another nice day for a visit with the boys. Even Farmer Husband, masquerading as Business Man Husband, managed to join us.

Better now than later, those little white snowflakes are starting to appear in the weather forecast.

A weather gift

Hurricane Ian sent some warm temperatures from the south. After the clouds and rain had passed, we had an absolutely perfect day on Thursday—sun, a few clouds, trees changing colors, and warm!

The pigs were back to sunning themselves in the mud holes, and Don on the Hill came back down the hill for a beer in the backyard. Woody is always Don's best friend when he comes here. (That's a piece of cheese in Don's left hand.)

So we had a beautiful gift of a summer day in fall, and then by Saturday it was winter! Our jammin' buddies, now known as Fast Friends, played in the afternoon at the Cooperstown Rotary Fall Fling. It was 44°, cloudy, and very windy.

Professionals that we are (insert laughing emoji here) we made it through an hour-and-a-half set. The musicians all had frozen fingers, and the singers were struggling not to let the shivers be heard. Even so, much fun was had by all.

Crazy pooches and a red sky

I think all 3 of these pictures deserve to be the leader, but I just can't get enough of the crazy Woody in his golden years.

Cyrus is running a close second for the crazy bit, but he is not quite as golden.

We had the red sunset a few days ago, the day after some of my New Jersey friends were posting red skies. I think these were the initial clouds coming north after Hurricane Ian. We are thankful that our friends and relatives in Florida have all reported being safe, and with minimal destruction to property.

Ian is now raining pretty hard over New Jersey. Please be safe everyone. Wishing you all red skies again!

 

MonkeyCat and the WoodMan

The WoodMan is certainly looking his age, about 14YO as far as we know. All the brown parts are turning white, even while most of the black is still black. But he is definitely not acting older, even with that awful diagnosis a year and a half ago where they offered to euthanize him for us.

We didn't accept the offer.

I am not sure what is going on with MonkeyCat and the WoodMan. It has come to be a daily thing where Monkey walks to get ahead of Woody, and then cuts him off, repeatedly. It is quite funny to watch. Even funnier because Woody doesn't care.

Monkey will even walk underneath him while Woody is still walking, and somehow neither one gets tripped up or stepped on.

Fall is definitely here. Our 80° days are gone and replaced by temps in the 60°s.

The black-eyed susies just outside the windows are going to seed. The goldfinches and other small birds are out there for most of the day eating as much as they can.

And the Monkey is just sitting there, wishing he was an outside cat. When it gets to be too much, he swats at the window and sends them all flying. But they always come back.

Autumnal equinox

To celebrate the first day of Fall, Mother Nature sent us a crazy mix of weather. Earlier there was a good drenching rain, then some sun, then some more rain. We are still alternating, but with the addition of some strong winds and much cooler temperatures. At 2:30 in the afternoon it is only 59°, when yesterday it was up to 75°. 

Change is good. I love Fall!

And, for all you pumpkin haters out there—I get it. No spiced pumpkin lattes for me. Just a nice crop of New England Sugar Pie Pumpkins grown by Farmer Husband, and 1 little mum to make up for the shabby condition of my window boxes this year.

The big flat white-ish pumpkin is the only one of my favorite Long Island Cheese Pumpkins that grew this year. It will be a good year to see if the New Englands are just as sweet and tasty in a pie or some pumpkin butter as the Cheeses. The little green pumpkin is just that, a youngster, little and green.

 

Home, home on the range

I wanted to wait until I got the article in the newspapers before I broke the news about the rodeo that took place here on Sunday morning.

A total of 7 cows got loose from a nearby farm about a month ago. Two of them have been roaming around Don on the Hill's hill, which means they were most likely on our property as well. With the creek for water and plenty of weeds for forage, they landed in a sweet spot.

The owners hired some New York cowboys to come and round them up. I heard when the first bunch came out a week or so ago that they were wearing chaps and spurs, but these 3 looked pretty casual in their jeans and baseball hats.

Of course they showed up when I was back at the house, even though I had waited in the Firemen's Field for over an hour. Friend Erin took that first shot while I was making a nice cup of tea back at the house.

It took a few hours of searching our property before they figured out that the 2 young heifers were hiding exactly where Don said they were, in the swamp at the bottom of his driveway. They caught the first one fairly easily, but her sister managed to escape the 3 dogs and 3 men on 3 horses. Magically, she found her way home all by herself the next day. I guess she missed little sister.

Nice story for our little local newspaper that is struggling with no editor and no reporters—just 3 tough ladies who work really hard putting out a paper every week.

Katydid and the 3 cowboys

I don't want to spoil the fun and post too much about the cowboys, because we are going to make it a newspaper story this week. 

So I am featuring Miss Katy (I didn't even take the time to check if this is a katydid on my hydrangea) and I will fill you in later, with more photos, about the cowboy story.

So much excitement at Lester's Flat!

Down on the farm

The Husband gets credit for these blue-sky farm photos from yesterday. 

Beautiful weather continues down on the farm. The leaves are just starting to change on the one red maple, but I think the warmer than usual weather will keep the rest of the green in place for awhile.

We haven't had any recent daytime visits from the fox, so we finally moved the broody hen and her 4 grown chicks to the big coop. Daddy Roo was probably happy to have some more companions, but he seemed a bit puzzled when I opened up the crate this morning.

Mama came out immediately and took a prolonged dust bath. The kids stayed inside, not quite sure what was going on.