A Morning Snort

This morning, as I like to do on those mornings I'm not milking, I walked up the hill behind my house to practice Tai Chi. Up there, I leave my worries behind. They are insignificant as I look out on the expansive view. The bright sun and clouds work together to accent the fields, farms, and the Adirondack mountains in the distance.

I had finished my warm ups and began the Tai Chi form when I heard three loud snorts below me. A red deer had been watching me and was startled when I faced him/ her. The deer ran to the edge of the field and continued to watch me do the form from this safe distance. Animals can enjoy the soft movements of Tai Chi as well as us humans.

As I returned home, I took some time to look about the yard. New flowers had blossomed since last night when the day lilies looked so spectacular in the evening sun. Today new lilies had blossomed as well as roses, violets, hostas, honeysuckle, and other flowers on shrubs, squash, and tomatoes. The coneflowers were getting ready to blossom and the spike like flower shapes were as beautiful with iridescent green as they will be later in full colors.

My favorite flower is the day lily. Each blossom is with us for one day only. This is a reminder to me to take note, as tomorrow, these blossoms will be forever gone, as will so many other aspects of the day.

Footstep and Steppin are happy with their rotational grazing program. Each paddock has trees for shade and is edged with flowers. Please see the blue batik of cow and calf below trees.

Haymaking is an art

The summer season is upon us. The brilliant early green replaced by golden heads of grasses and the yet unmowed fields, hold many colored flowers from the blossoms of red and white clovers, yellow trefoil flowers, blue vetch and purple/ blue alfalfa with mixes of wildflowers around the edges.

There is no part of mechanized farming that I like to see as much as a field being mowed. As the mower moves through the field the grasses fall silently to the ground in a pattern that reflects the lay of the land. Quite a beautiful pattern, especially as seen from a birds eye view.

The hay will later be stirred by a tedder to help it to dry. As time passes it will be raked up before being ready to bale. Haymaking is an art and requires a great sense of timing to mow when the grass is still leafy without heading out. It also requires a good sense of how dry the hay needs to be at baling time. With all this control, many an excellent bale has been lost when a crack of thunder, brought winds that tossed the hay about and heavy rain that pounded it into the ground. Mother Nature is our ultimate boss!

There is no sweeter smell than that of a freshly baled, early cut bale of hay. It is gold to the lucky animals who get to eat it. Some bales are turned into large round bales and dot the countryside looking much like the haystacks of days of old.

Turning back to the batik in the dyebath. It has been in the dye for close to an hour (this is the final dyebath and is a deep red). The batik is brought out of the dye and submersed in a large tub of water. The fabric is gently swirled through the water, then the tub is dumped, refilled, and the process is repeated until all dye that can be removed, is. After the rinse, the piece is placed between layers of plastic that will ensure it dries slowly (this helps the dye to stay as brilliant as possible.)

Finally the day of ironing out the wax will come. I'll pick a nice morning or evening outdoors. I'm looking forward to what the wax and I have created.

Steppin' Up

Steppin' grazing happily close by to the house now. We are now in the 3rd trimester of the pregnancy, relaxing and growing hopefully a healthy calf!

So I am trying to encourage a calm environment for all of us. She is surrounded by flowering bushes, wildlife and fields. Unfortunately, I missed the shot of her sleeping in the iris bed earlier this week. Of course, any gardener would have a heart attack to have cows sleeping in their flower beds, but I think it is great!!! Maybe a design for an upcoming batik......

Stretching With Cutest

I awaken with the usual stiffness and pain in my back and look out at the fog. This morning I will not be milking and take time to do some extra stretching and limbering exercises with Cutest, our eleven year old cat, who also has her stretching routine. The stretching helps Cutest and me to feel really good. We aim to stretch every part of our body, and after, I practice my Tai Chi, which helps to open my joints and ground me physically and mentally as Cutest circles at my feet, we both feel great!

Very little batik work has been done this past week which was filled with milking, planting my small garden , and asparagus plants. I never suspected it would be so difficult to plant asparagus. Deep holes were dug through the sod, and now will be slowly refilled as the tiny spears grow. Chunks of sod are still waiting to be shaken out and cleaned up.

The fence close to our house was finally ready for Steppin, my cow, and Footstep, her yearling heifer. It's nice to be able to see them nearby grazing with beautiful trees and flowers around them.

I will be spending the coming week mixing dyes, and dyeing some of the many winter-spring pieces I have waxed.

Additional Batik Photos

May 12

The spring storms the past weekend seemed a bit violent. Today and yesterday began below freezing. I hope our orchards escaped unharmed. There is still a need to lay low. The woodstove was back in use and the animals took shelter from the strong winds and driving rain.

Being forced to be indoors provided the opportunity to do some cooking, and the fiddleheads I had picked were steamed and dipped in butter, combined with mushrooms, onion, garlic and peppers and served over fetticini, and finally used in a pasta primevera with lots of ricotta.

Today was sparkling again and as the sheep headed up the hill before Will (the sheepdog) and me in the cold early morning sun, I felt lucky to be alive.

Every spring I can't help but be reminded of the strong relationship between farmers and the seasons. Spring of course is the beginning of the cycle. The season of optimism. Farmers forget their troubles of winter. There is the frozen water, the cold machines that take so much coaxing to get going, the broken and frozen manure chains that had to be freed and fixed at twenty below zero. The cows were not especially happy at the feeding delays and not being able to go out doors because of the ice and wind chills that could freeze their teats, as well as the barns that would freeze without their large warm bodies.

Yes, farmers forget all this and are lured to the fields by the warm spring air and brilliant green. The farmer must be the eternal optimist, always thinking that this year will go better than last, and willing to gamble again with mother nature as this years crop is planted.

The growing brightness of the spring skies propells the farmers to the fields. The herds and flocks are cast far and wide over the green hills. Strips of land are plowed and make patterns that will change a little bit each day as seedings and planted corn grow and change the landscape while summer comes on.

Upstairs in my studio I'm working on "Farmscapes".There are many sketches and first waxings for my summer batik inspired by the beautiful countryside of Washington County, New York.

Spring - End of April

Spring is like falling in love. That is how I feel on the warm spring sunny days in late April and early May.The soft breezes,sweet smell of the earth awakened, flowers and tree blossoms; every blade of grass, leaf, and shoot from the ground completely fresh and new.
Sometimes love does turn cold however. The past days have been 30-40 degrees with rain, sleet and snow. Not a peep from the spring peepers, and the birds barely chirped. The sun managed to peak momentarily and cast a golden light under the clouds at the day's end. It's light gave a few minutes of warmth.
Our cute little calves at Butch and Yvonne Parkers have grown into beautiful heifers. It does seem like the manure they produce from all that good feed, gets heavier every day. They are being trained to respect the fence and spend time outdoors on good days.
The sheep at Dancing Ewe Farm are happily grazing the lush pastures and producing a lot of their super valuable
milk. The golden milk is turned into Italian Artisan cheeses.
On the days Jody and Luisa are off at the markets, I help by milking the sheep. Will, the young sheep dog helps me take the sheep from field to parlor and back.
Last night the sky cleared and the full moon shone brightly through the window. This morning it is 30 degrees, but the sun promises a warm day. Despite the snow, everything is green and fresh. The frost slowed the growth but nothing can stop the spring cycle. The pastures will turn lush and the fields of Washington County, New York will be filled with herds of cows, horses, sheep, goats and lamas.
Lots of ideas for batik.