Wednesday, July 4, 2007

Happy 4th of July!Forget about "knee high by the 4th of July," we're waist high!
I milked with Neil on Saturday. He is hilarious. The cows were staring at the floor because it was buckling because of the heat, and I was saying to them, "Don't look at the floor, just walk." Neil said to Ralph, "You should see Tonie in the parlor! She says to the cows, that floor is none of your business, quit sniffing it and get your butt in the parlor so I can throw the milker on you!!" He made up all kinds of tall tales like that about our shift. He was telling Blake and Ralph all of them while we were having break and we were all dissolving in gales of laughter.

On Sunday, we drove up to Rouse's Point to see their parade and fireworks. This is the view across the lake (that's Vermont over there!). I hadn’t been to a parade in years so I was pretty excited. It was a good one, too. Not something you see in parades back home...
You can't have a 4th of July parade without local politicians.
There were three pipe and drum bands. This was the first one.
There were more tractors than I could count, old...
And new...Every firetruck from miles around...ever seen a blue firetruck before?

There were firetrucks from Vermont, and even one from Canada.
This is our very own Chazy, NY firetruck. Shriners are another parade staple. There was another group after this one, driving miniature racecars. What are Shriners anyway?
This was a jazz group that called themselves the Blues Brothers.
There were 2 marching bands, both from Canada, a high school band and a middle school band. Afterwards there were fireworks, which I always enjoy no matter what. This was a small town with a proportional display but I still loved it.

I'm feeding with Ralph this week. I like riding around with him, but boy is it early (I get there at 3:30 AM). It took 10 days of getting up at 3:30 but they finally made a coffee drinker out of me. On Monday we pulled 2 calves in quick succession, one upside down and one with its leg and head tucked back. Both were bulls, which is always sort of a disappointment. Another bull was born in the afternoon. I clipped my show heifer Monday afternoon. It’s a much bigger job than you expect, but she was very good and now she looks sparkling clean. A thunderstorm went through and there was a rainbow when I was heading back to the dorm. It went all the way across the sky and there was a second one starting.

More corn pictures...my old picture-taking spot does not show off the corn to its best advantage.

Here you can really see how tall it is.

Yesterday I watched a DA surgery after lunch. DA stands for displaced abomasum. The abomasum is the part of the cow's stomach that is on the bottom, and it can sort of float up and flip over the top of the stomach. It's uncomfortable for the cow and has to be corrected. Dr. Terry was the vet. I asked her about the finances of vet school and she said, if it’s what you want, don’t worry about it. You’ll make it work somehow, even if you have to live like a student for another 5 years.