Pasture Bouquet and Herd Greeters

An ideal clover patch for the cows to produce lots of high energy milk. It has a beauty all of its own before the teeth and hooves make their trek through the field.

The herd greets the camera as they graze the new strip along the ever moving fenceline of the Alice clover field.

Here are the photos of our herd from years past that show the actual reality of how the cows cast themselves across the fields while they are grazing.

They start at the back of the barnyard on the hillside and then make the trek out to the field over their stream crossing. But the payoff if the ability to graze the lush, tender clovers and grasses to produce the golden milk.

Cast Off to the Fields

They eagerly pass through an alley after milking and bypass several closed gates. As they reach the pasture of the day and step through the gate, the line of cows or sheep spreads out happily in all directions. The pasture has been growing for three weeks since it was last grazed and is full of fresh tender grasses, clovers, vetch and trefoil about six inches high. The pasture calls the hungry herd and in the warmth of summer they are cast off to the fields, away from the barns, out into the fresh sweet air to eat and relax in the fields. The cooler evening air is also a pleasure to all and the sky is accented by high fluffy clouds in the setting sun.

The pasture contains the freshest and healthiest of nutrients and typically the milk turns golden after eating this freshest of feeds.

I am struck by the pattern the sheep or cows make as they spread out in the field. This is one of my favorite sights and I am pondering some batik that will be inspired by this theme to add to my collection of farmscapes.

Cow and Calf below Trees

Here is the batik I mentioned before in the blog post.

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......