Hope is the thing with udders

Over at Goldilocks Finds Manhattan, Ulla Kjarval captures a few bonding moments between cows and calves on her father's farm, Spring Lake Farm in Meredith.

Mothers. They are important to us and on our farm we breed for mothering ability just like we do other important traits. Good mama cows are the foundation of our herd and farm (thankfully being a good mother is a natural and strong instinct). In fact, on beef farms ---even on conventional cow/calf operations--calves are kept with their mamas until they are weaned.

Local beef producers like the Kjarvals are rejoicing this year at a bit of good news: In April, the USDA gave the green light to a mobile slaughterhouse in Stamford, one of the first of its kind in the country. In a region where there is high demand for local grass-fed and organic beef, good land for raising cattle, and plenty of farmers interested in reaching the bottomless NYC beef market, slaughterhouses are the most obvious missing link in the local food economy.

Topics: 

Another Marcellus well explosion

This one happened in West Virginia today and created a 70-foot tower of flame

It's the second Marcellus shale blow-out in a week.

Update: The AP is also reporting a massive explosion at a natural gas pipeline in rural Texas that has left 10 people missing and at least 3 confirmed dead.  Update, 6/8: Early news reports of multiple deaths were incorrect; this story says one worker died in the blast, which was caused by a utility company accidentally drilling into an underground gas pipeline.

Is it worth shutting down Kingston to film a Vera Farmiga flick?

Vera Farmiga is in Kingston today, filming her directorial debut, "Higher Ground." (She's been scouting for talent for the movie a while now.) As the Times Herald-Record reports, the production crew is closing down a few streets entirely. That plan infuriated Ulster County legislator Mike Madsen, who fumed about it on his blog last Thursday: 

The trouble with private parties owning publicly-built reservoirs ...

... is that those reservoirs can get bought and sold, which is what's happening right now in Sullivan County, according to the Times Herald-Record. Four reservoirs currently owned by Alliance Energy are being sold to a privately equity group with Goldman Sachs ties that has never owned or operated a hydro-electric power plant before. And although the nearby towns of Bethel and Thompson don't know many details, they dislike Alliance so much that they're happy about it anyway:

Tractors: They're so intoxicating

Summertime in upstate New York is rich in opportunities for log-pulling, pie-eating, livestock-admiring and tractor-ogling. Case in point: The Agfest in New Baltimore over the weekend. Points to the Daily Mail for their extravagant use of four-cent words in setting the scene:

Some grown-ups love huge, intricate, powerful farm equipment so much that for many it becomes a passion.

Many compete in tractor pulls while others exhibit machinery lovingly restored, refinished and preserved.

Those who lack the skill, time, money and knack for machinery flock to the festival to bask vicariously in the intoxicating glow of big motors and big machines.

If you missed out on the Agfest -- or if you just can't get enough of those inebriating tractors -- the Meredith Dairy Fest is coming up this weekend. Just sayin'.

Topics: 

Pages

Subscribe to Watershed Post RSS