Got Milk?

As predicted the snow has fallen and accumulated to a point where the Kubota was needed to shove the stuff aside.

Santa should have an easy time this year getting his sleigh around from roof to roof top. Although he has not been sighted yet in Millsburg, there is a constant watch for his jolliness to appear.

 

 

 

The cookies are baked and all through the house

Not a crumb or a morsel are left for the host

The boxes are stuffed and dispatched to all

Now munching and crunching on Cookies for All!

 

Misers and Monkeys in Millsburg... Oh My!

We are waiting for Santa to arrive in Millsburg.

LKD has decided the wait is over. She has traveled far across the sea to get Santa motivated for his annual journey to Millsburg.

The jolly old elf was last seen departing from Waikiki Beach and is on the way to Millsburg.

Back at the house in Millsburg, the Blue Monkey is trying to keep things jolly and cheery between  two annual miserly guests.


In an unusual turn of events the Heat Miser is begging not to burn any Yule logs in the fireplace. The Heat Miser is worried that Santa might set his butt on fire.

On this issue the Snow Miser agrees. The colder the better!

It appears that the misers are on their best behavior.



Not amused by the freezing rain falling this morning in Millsburg, it appears that the Snow Miser will be added to Santa's list of mischievous misers. Later this afternoon, the six o'clock news will be reporting on all the fender benders and cars in ditches.

Millsburg Misers

 

This is the day that the kitchen turns bakery. Soon amazing cookies start to pile up on the countertops. For the next couple of days the taste testers will be working overtime.

Santa Sighted in Millsburg

Santa Claus arrived in Millsburg on the tail of the Thanksgiving Turkey. The house in Millsburg has been transformed in anticipation of the annual Christmas festivities.



LKD has planned the cookies, sent off some cards and put some lights on the tree.








Having the need to pick up some mysterious electrical parts on Thanksgiving eve I went to the Home Depot.

It was getting late and the aisles were filled with carts and pallets wrapped in black plastic.

The neon signs on each proclaiming "Do not release inventory until Black Friday at 5AM".

What could all this stuff be under these wraps?
I knew then that I would be coming back on Black Friday morning.

I was greeted at the door by a  guy in a tuxedo.

He was happy to pour customers free coffee and direct them to the mountains of products, black plastic removed and lined up and down the aisles.

The tuxedo clad guy expertly informed the throngs of customers "Stuff over there is mostly wood. That side of the store over there are items not made of wood."


The store was busy and it seemed like there were two Home Depot staffers for each shopper.

Needing some assistance I quickly found a couple of associates who were all over getting the stuff needed and into my cart.

Then there was a guy walking around to the Black Friday Specials and using a hand held scanner checking on the various items.

He stopped at one pallet full of some clever tool. Scanning the barcode and looking quizzical he took a black magic marker and put a lower price on the price card.

Now satisfied, he went on down the line of specials and soon was marking another item down to a new lower price.

I followed him until he came to a pallet full of quick release clamps. Packaged six clamps to a set he put a new price that was five bucks lower than the already low Black Friday price.

A new set of quick release clamps have moved to Millsburg.

Some of the specials were evidently a big hit. A Christmas Tree with the lights already trimmed was a hot item.

There were people tying several to the tops of cars and stuffing them into the already full SUV's.

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What's the first thing you know?

Think back to recall the earliest memories. Consider the very first thing you know.

As it turns out there is a universal nugget of knowledge that ninety-nine percent of the population claim to be the first thing you know.

Happy Thanksgiving to my faithful readers. The weather in Millsburg has turned colder.

The news of a big storm dumping snow on Dallas Texas and heading east has the bakeries in hyper dough mode.

The flour is flying as they crank out extra bread that will likely sell out over the next day or two.

We learn at an early age that if there is any snow in the forecast it is critical to have extra bread on hand.

The very thought of warm toast buttered and with jelly triggers an old memory.


Could this be the first thing you know?


Imagine the bread cubes needed to stuff those enormous Thanksgiving Turkeys.

The meteorologists  urgently proclaim that although the various forecast models all seem to have the storm moving away from Millsburg they are quick to cite the historically inaccurate hybrid European Las Vegas forecast model. The constant Thanksgiving Day Blizzard updates urge the eastern seaboard to rush out and get more bread.

On a recent day the lure of an estate sale in Sparrowbush, NY provided an afternoon to look for some eagles up at the Rio Dam. Although no eagles were spotted on this trek we did get to check out a new stretch of road.

Near one end of the Rio Dam there is an intersection in the road. A left turn onto S Plank Road winds through the woods and soon cuts across a camp that is owned by our utility company here in Millsburg.

This camp has been a retreat for Utility Company employees for decades. In between bringing electricity to the house in Millsburg, these folks get to enjoy an amazing spot next to the water.




Just beyond the camp, abandoned in the woods are ruins of an old pipeline. Constructed of wood planks that have been precisely milled and fitted these ruins are visible for quite a distance along the road.

The planks are held together in a pipeline formed by iron rings spaced about six inches apart.

There are thousands of these iron rings. Some sections of this pipe have only the rings left, leaning now against the next, fighting gravity together.

Gravity.

Is this the source of knowledge that almost all people can claim to be the first thing you know?


Unsure of the reason that this pipeline was constructed. It was pontificated that it transported water from the business end of the Rio Dam.

It is clear that the origin or purpose of this pipeline is not the first thing you know.

After making some inquisitions with an engineer familiar with the area it turns out that the ruins are actually an oil pipe. The pipe was constructed to carry oil from the drilling sites in Pennsylvania and through small towns actually named Oil City.

David McFeaters took a picture of this snowy scene in Oil City, Venango County, Pa., where more than a foot of lake-effect snow fell. Roads were shut down with accidents occurring on slick roadways on Sunday, Nov. 24, 2013.

The snow has reached Oil City in Pennsylvania over the past weekend. With Thanksgiving only a few days away the prospects of having snow in Millsburg seems likely. Dave McFeaters will have to somehow dash out to get more bread as soon as the snow stops falling in Oil City, PA.

The old pipeline in the woods provided some jobs for the residents of Oil City, PA. Getting oil inside the pipe must have required a lot of labor.

Once the oil was removed from the ground it was put into the pipe. Gravity takes over again and the oil runs down hill toward more populated locations to the east.

Oil City in the town of Minisink, near Millsburg, is one of these locations.

The pipeline that we saw in the woods many miles from Millsburg carried most of the oil from Pennsylvania to refineries in the Hudson Valley.

Some of the oil of course was returned to the ground along the way.

So what does all this have to do with the first thing you know?

Bread sales during snowstorms and the benefits of gravity both seem to spark very early childhood recollections.

But what about people who live in areas where there is no snow?

Do you really know if gravity is real and permanent?

There is one real fact.

One absolute universal and irrefutable bit of truth that is the first thing you know.

Find out more by clicking on the link below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_XAPku7SgE

 

Mini has returned to Millsburg

After a couple of weeks at the auto spa, the Mini has returned to the house in Millsburg. Sporting a new hood, door, windshield and all the shiny chrome bits the Mini is back in the garage.

The Kubota is cleaned up and ready for the winter season. The years of crud, mud, grease and grime have been scraped off. Plenty of new grease put back inside the tractor where it belongs.

In the operator's manual there is a recommendation to "turn off the engine before changing the oil."
This is good advice and I am glad that I read the instructions before beginning the work.





LKD has been trying out some new baking implements for the annual Christmas cookie fest.

The job of  taste tester is difficult. This task is only a small token of gratitude for my faithful readers.

Unfortunately the initial blind taste test was not conducted according to the Canadian Council of Cookie Connoisseurs. Thankfully there is time to repeat the tests until all the demands of the Canadian Cookie folks are satisfied.

 

 

 

 

 

 

First Snowflakes of the Season

There were snow flurries in the parking area for the D&H Canal Trail in Summitville. This is the highest point on the D&H Canal where the water either flows to the Hudson River or the Delaware River.

In the foothills of the Catskills, tucked into the shadow of Shawangunk Ridge, Summitville is northwest from Millsburg in Sullivan County.

As the D&H Canal yielded to the new O&W Railroad a new station was located next to the canal.

Seeing the snow up there,  did not instill any thought that Millsburg could have snow soon as well.

Shortly after returning to Millsburg there was a brief show shower.


With the coming season the morning temps are generally in the thirty degree range. This is a perfect time to get the tractor ready for any snow buildup on the driveway. The Mini has vacated a space in the garage and is not expected back from the spa for a week or so. After fifteen years of mowing, plowing, pulling and pushing all sorts of stuff at the house in Millsburg the tractor could use a good clean up and lube job.

The monkeyman offered his assistance to clean up the tractor. When his relatives heard that he was going to do some actual work they all piled on and went out to breakfast.

Persistant Cows Promoting New Highway Texting Areas

In a previous posting there was mention of a  texting teen plowing into a pack of cows crossing the road. An astute reader of this blog found that the name of the teen was ironic. Ms Cowit has now been arrested and charged with many acts of committing cowmageden.

In support of the Bovine Safety Commission, some cows have decided to conduct educational seminars geared toward ignorant texting motorists.

The article below has been published in our local newspaper, The Middletown Times Herald Record.

Cows on the run alongside Rte. 17

GOSHEN — Three cows saw the grass alongside Route 17 in the Town of Gos­hen as a good place to graze Friday eve­ning, startling rush-hour drivers.

State Troopers Nicholas Piazza and Michael Moran were at the scene near Exit 122A on Route 17 West, trying to corral the cows, which, police say, es­caped from a farm with an open gate about a quarter-mile up the road.

During the cows’ escapade, they lay down on the grass by the shoulder while a state Department of Environ­mental Conservation forest ranger and a good Samaritan who said he worked on a dairy farm helped, trying to get them away from the traffic and back home safely.

Two cows were coaxed back home, but the third seemed set on making a night of it for a time. Finally, the troop­ers, the forest ranger and the good Sa­maritan managed to get that last cow back safely inside her enclosure. Amy Berkowitz

---

AMY BERKOWITZ/ Times Herald-Record State Troopers Nicholas Piazza, left, and Michael Moran corral the last of three cows Friday that escaped from a farm about a quarter-mile from Exit 122A in the Town of Goshen. The troopers – and two helpers – managed to round up the cows before they strayed into traffic.

Coming to a roadside near you......

Due to the powerful Bovine lobby initiative in Albany, the NYS Thruway Authority have completed installing new signs along the highways.

These new signs provide the number of miles to the next Text Area.


These new Texting Areas, funded using our tax dollars, used to be called Rest Stops. Often these roadside facilities would also have toilets and vending machines.

Now that these are designated areas for Texting it is probable that the bathrooms will be converted to mobile device charging stations.  It is better to text while crapping than texting and driving.

A lot could go wrong however if you are distracted while crapping.

Cows sent flying towards Millsburg

The Road from Millsburg to Mount Hope is a short distance. Driving up the ridge and over Obrien's Hill there are soon sightings of livestock.

In the immediate area around Millburg camels, horses, cows, geese, deer and bear are inclined to use the roadways.

The same roadways that lead to Millsburg. On occasion at the same exact time the Mini would like to use the roads.

 Now the Mini is angry and not at all disappointed that the bambino is no more. The not yet street wise vermin decided to run out of the woods and across the double yellow line. The side of the Mini happened to be on the other side of the yellow lines.


It is possible that this young doe was distracted.

It appeared that those big brown eyes were more interested in twittering about twerking at the Halloween trick or treating the nearby sub-development.

Bambi was sexting and using the road at the same time.

Is that a smartphone laying in the road?

Now that the Mini has had a taste of some roadside gore for Halloween it is time to visit the body shop for a facial.

Texting while stampeding through the woods is indeed dangerous. Also dangerous is a herd of cows crossing the road.

In our local newspaper, The Record, it has been reported today that a young driver experience an even bloodier Halloween livestock encounter.



 

The driver mentioned in the below article was texting his pal (and I quote):

"LOL! Where's the beef? 

###steakfordinner.com

 Driver checking on call slams into dairy herd crossing road

BY MICHAEL RANDALL


Times Herald-Record MOUNT HOPE (Near Millsburg) — Farmer Mike Hosking might lose three of his milk cows after a distracted driver slammed into his herd as it crossed the road between the two parts of his farm Monday evening.

The accident happened about 5 p.m. Monday – when there still was plenty of light.

Witnesses at the Hosking farm claimed the driver was texting. Mount Hope police Chief Paul Rickard said the driver, Daisy Cowit, 21, of Wawayanda, denied that but said she was looking down to check an incoming call, but in any event “it wasn’t like a quick glance down.”

Or as Hosking put it, “If you don’t see 50 cows in the road, you’re doing something (you shouldn’t be doing).”

Cowit struck a total of six or seven cows, three of whom were seriously hurt. She also nearly hit one of Hosking’s farm hands, who desperately tried to signal her to stop. One witness told police the impact knocked one of the cows five feet into the air.

Hosking said he’ll be closely monitoring the seriously hurt cows in the days ahead.

“It’s going to take a week or two to see” how their health pro­gresses and how they respond to the medication they were given, Hosking said.

No criminal charges were filed against Cowit, but Rickard said the investigation remains open.

Hosking, who’s the third gen­eration of his family to farm that land, said traffic on the road, known alternately as Mountain Road and County Road 35, is much heavier now than it was years ago, and many of the driv­ers can be seen using their cell phones.

Some time ago, another driver lost control of his car and plowed into one of Hosking’s silos – and would have ended up inside if the silo hadn’t been filled.

Adding insult to injury, Hosk­ing said someone who came to pick up Cowit – whose car was totaled by the impact with multi­ple animals weighing an average of 1,500 pounds each – didn’t un­derstand why so much fuss was being made over a few injured cows.

Aside from the financial val­ue – they can be worth $3,000 or more – Hosking and his crew said the cows have names and become like part of the family.

“I think more of those cows than I do of some people,” Hosk­ing said.

Rickard is hoping the crash serves as one more high-profile reminder why it’s important not to use your cell phone in any way while driving.

Hosking concurred, noting it could have been worse. At an­other time of day, he said, “She could have hit kids who were waiting for a school bus.” mrandall@th-record.com