2026, Family, Farming Update, work

ARE YOU COLD OR IS IT JUST ME?

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  This weeks Farming Update from Ben

You know those colds going around? Kelly, daughter, and I all took sick days this week. Just colds, but foggy head, stuffy nose, and Kelly has a low grade temp. Naps are good. 

Last weekend one of our neighbors had their annual barn dance. Music was provided by a funk band from the twin cities, ‘Tyte Phitt’. They were a lot of fun! When contacted to play here, they were interested because they’d never played a barn dance before. And the hosts said they wanted to see how a bunch of farmers would like a funk band. It was loud, but it sure was good!

Last Saturday Kelly and I mixed up 17 bags of concrete to add a little berm to the new concrete and fill in a low spot

Just enough at the door to keep the water out. Kelly learned a lot about mixing and working concrete. She says it was interesting. And it bugged her that I can smooth better than her. I’ve just had more practice is all. Someday I’d like to put an overhead door here. We’ll see.

And then Tuesday morning we had another Thunderstorm with a lot of lightning and about 6AM the electric co-op calls and tells me our power is out. I’m barely awake. It is?? (And isn’t that something; they’re telling ME it’s out.) He says there was a lot of lightning and they’ve had some meters fail. I was up with the dogs at 4AM and we had power then. Wasn’t long before a truck shows up and tells me there’s actually a tree down in the pasture, it tore down the line and broke off a pole. Yep, that would do it. One of the guys and I drive back there with the gator. Glad the neighbors took their cattle out after the previous storm because then we don’t  have to worry about fences. And I had to take down part of the temporary fence we put up this spring. Then hooked up the tractor and generator and went to work. It was about 2 PM when they had everything fixed and back online. 

img_7534
That’s not supposed to be there…
img_7535-1
This should be vertical
Nice oak tree. Daughter and I talked about counting rings on trees.

You can see an old manure spreader to the right of the tree. Dad used to park old worn out machinery along this tree line. Some has rotted away, some has been hauled out. I wonder why he did that? I remember a few places there used to be junk parked. Probably saving for possible parts.

I’ve mentioned before that my dad would talk about he and his brother pulling the  electric lines through the pasture with horses. Then WWII put a hold on it. If I remember correctly, the farm got electricity in 1946. Mom and Dad were married in 1948, and first daughter, Ellen, was born in 1949. Mom had told Dad she didn’t want to be pregnant and using an outhouse. He finished the bathroom in 1949…before the baby, but I think it was further into the pregnancy than mom wanted. 

I ordered myself an “indestructible pen”. I always carry a pen in  my pocket, and often doing farm work I break them by leaning over things. Typical plastic pens don’t last long. I found this one. It comes with a titanium tip to break glass. Never in my life have I had to break out a window. Except for fun. Or as part of a show. And being how this tip is so sharp, after I gouge my palm on it a few more times, I’ll be grinding that off. 

Glass breaking tip on the left.

(Preliminary question: got any good stories about breaking glass?)

I picked up 55 bushels of rye seed on Wednesday. The dealer let me borrow a seed tender, so it’s in bulk, not in bags, and I was really excited to play with that. It has a scale too! And then we got .4” rain Wednesday night and Thursday was cloudy and misty. Heck, Thursday was supposed to be nice, before it rains for a week they say. It’s all still in the shed. The point of using a seed tender, is to avoid all the bags plus it’s quicker and easier. There’s a conveyor that can be used both to add seed to the cart, then turned around and unload the cart into the grain drill. Maybe next week I can get pictures of that. 

A seed tender

I spent Thursday and Friday in the office instead. I meant to do bookwork. By 2:30 in the afternoon I still hadn’t quite gotten to that. Several times I moved the keyboard and moved papers, then saw a bill or two to pay. Did that. Remembered a few more emails to do, remembered some theater stuff to do. Started a draft of this blog, moved the keyboard again to start bookwork and got an email about certifying the oat crop for an extra payment for water quality. Spent an hour doing that on my phone (Because they said it would be easier on the phone. Well maybe if you don’t have fat fingers like I do!) Had to call for help once. Had to quit and start over twice. I managed. It was worth it for the $1600 bonus payment planting oats provides for water quality grants from the SWCD. Maybe I’ll order a couple gallons of diesel fuel with that… 

CAN YOU HOLD PENS / PENCILS IN YOUR HAIR? BEHIND YOUR EAR? 

HOW DO YOU CARRY YOUR CELL PHONE? 

(I’ve seen women walk around with them under their arm or stuck in their bra. I don’t like them in my pockets; again, I’ll break it)

2026, Family, Food, gardening, Seasons, Weather

A Cooking Day

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A cool wet morning yesterday was perfect for some time in the kitchen.  Especially since my tomato plants are still going gangbusters.

Normally I look for easy recipes but for some reason I was drawn to a complicated Macaroni & Cheese with Roasted Tomatoes and Chilis that I found in my Tomato cookbook.  It had several steps that needed to be combined at the end, which always spooks me.  I’m usually fairly casual about cooking so having to get everything to come together at one point isn’t my favorite modus operandi.  But with nothing else on my to-do list, I thought I could handle it.

Part of the recipe was a layer of roasted tomatoes; the recipe called for big tomatoes but I have tons of cherry tomatoes, so I looked up an alternative recipe.  I made this first and as the tomatoes were roasting, I laid out all the other ingredients on the counter.  It felt like I was doing a cooking show!   Then the poblanos got roasted over the gas flame; it’s so much fun to hear the peppers popping and sizzling!  Added the peppers to the tomatoes with a couple large cloves of garlic.

Next up was the cheese sauce; it’s been quite a while since I made a roux and then a cheese sauce from scratch.  SO much cheese – sharp cheddar, fontina and parmesan.  And so much stirring!   Managed to get the pasta cooked so that it was done right when the cheese sauce was ready.  (leaf-shaped pasta that YA and I found at Trader Joe’s last weekend.) 

Laid the tomato/poblano mix in the bottom of my 8” square cast iron, then layered the mac and cheese over that.  Then came the breadcrumb topping – breadcrumbs and melted butter – and finally popped the whole thing in the oven for 25 minutes. 

Looking at this description, it doesn’t seem as complicated as it felt at the time.  The whole dish, including roasting the tomatoes and peppers, took about an hour and a half.  I had thought it would take longer.  I managed to clean as I went, so there wasn’t a massive mess when I was done.

It smelled heavenly and tasted heavenly as well.  YA liked it as well, which isn’t always guaranteed.  I guess this means I’ll have to keep this recipe in our roster for another cool rainy day!

Any foods you’re trying to eat up (or put up) this fall?

PS: The left-hand photo is before it went into the oven and the right-hand is the finished product.

2026, Gatherings, History, Uncategorized

Reunion

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Last weekend we attended my 50th high-school reunion. Boommate and I were in the same class. There were two parties-one on Friday night at a local brew pub, and a catered dinner on Saturday night. The Saturday night party was held at The Lake, a small spring fed pond that has been converted into a picnic and camping area with indoor spaces for dining.

The Friday night party was held out of doors at the brew pub. Our class had tables reserved, but it was open to anyone in the community to come and hear the live band, get a beer, and eat at the Polish food truck that had pulled up. Much of the evening was spent trying to figure out who was who. The women were easier to identify than the men since male hair loss and beard growth really changed the men’s appearances. I could hear frequent exclamations of “That’s _______? You’re kidding!”

The Saturday night gathering was fun. Husband noted that not a single person smoked, even though much of the time was spent out of doors. The main organizer had displays of our class pictures from elementary through high school. We were the largest class to graduate from Luverne High School, with around 110 students.

I had only attended our 10 year reunion prior to this one. Some had been to every reunion in the past. For some, this was the first. It was interesting to hear people confess how anxious they were prior to the Friday night party, wondering if people had changed, worrying that the same cliques would be evident. I admit that I was somewhat uneasy to begin with, as was my friend Mary, who has an M.Div degree from Princeton Theological Seminary and another female friend who was a community organizer and mediator in North Carolina, and who has worked for years to get minority individuals registered to vote. The early lessons are the hardest to unlearn, I guess, no matter what you experience later on. I am happy to report that the cliques had disappeared, Everyone was happy and friendly and incusive. Phone numbers and Facebook addresses were exchanged. As one classmate commented “I think we finally grew up”. After 50 years I should certainly hope so.

Have you attended any class reunions? Why or why not? Are you in touch with high school friends?

2026, Automotive, Family, Uncategorized

Karma!

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One of my mother’s life lessons for me and both my sisters was “who said life was fair”?  This was in direct contrast to the lessons most of us absorbed from cartoons, television and movies; usually, the bad guys get their comeuppance in the end.  Considering how little comeuppance a lot of current bad guys are getting, I’m glad my mom taught me some balance to always expecting fair.

Yesterday I had to run an errand over to St. Paul.  On the way over, I had to go north on Highway 280 – a left exit off 94.  There was quite a bit of traffic, so the last 2 miles before the exit, I just hung out in the left lane.  Even though I was going about 5 miles over the speed limit, there was one person behind me who was really impatient and got pretty close.  I ignored them.

Then on the way home, I had to go south on 35W, another left exit.  Same scenario – about 5 miles over the speed limit and again, somebody on my butt.  But this one was really aggressive and even flashed their lights at me.  Good grief.  They did a quick rush into the lane to the right to get around me.  The car that was already in that lane actually put their brakes on.  The impatient car swerved back behind me; the car in the right lane sped up a bit.  The impatient car tried again to swerve over and around; again the right lane car put on their brakes.  There was some long laying on of the horn and more flashing lights.  When we got off at the 35W exit, I slowed down a bit so my right lane friend could get ahead of me.  As we got onto 35W, the impatient car finally was able to swing out and pass us both.  I was wondering if he would pull in front and then stomp on his brakes, but he just left us inn his dust.

I completely get that things like this can turn into road rage but as impatient guy raced off, I realized I had a big smile on my face, having seen some instant karma.  I’m sure we didn’t make him late – the whole thing only took about 2 minutes, but I’m hoping the exasperation and anger he felt was a bit of karma coming his way (yes, I did eventually see that it was a guy).  So at least for two minutes yesterday I got to see a little bit of fairness in the world!

Have you ever seen someone get their comeuppance?

2026, In Memorium, Music, Songs

Keepers

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Over the weekend I was surprised at the emotions that welled up when Renee posted Waltzing with Bears.  Boy, I still miss the Late Great Morning Show.

I do have all the Keepers CDs and often ask Alexa to play a few songs from the show, but it’s just not the same.  If you go to The Current/Radio Heartland online and search Morning Show Dale Connolly or Keepers Request, you can find the Keepers on Request show that Mike Pengra did for us back in 2015.  I haven’t listened to it in a while but probably will today.

Another of the songs that always chokes me up a bit is The Mary Ellen Carter by Stan Rogers

And I don’t just love the mushy ones.  Another of my favorites is this one:

And this one, of course.

Now I gotta go get all the Keepers CDs from the stereo cabinet.

Any favorite songs for you today?  LGMS or otherwise?

2026, Automotive, Business, Food, Gatherings, Kids

Vroom, Vroom…

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Apparently, I am too easy to please.  Despite the State of Minnesota spending a gazillion dollars to entertain me at the fair this year, YA says my threshold is too low.  Why, you ask?

On Saturday, the company that watches over my investments (my, doesn’t that sound grand?) had a Shredding Event.  They’ve done this in the past but I was never free; this year there was space on my calendar so I filled up a bag of papers to be shredded and headed to St. Paul. 

It was an absolutely beautiful day and they had everything well organized; there were a couple of guys directing traffic and parking and then there were a couple more guys helping folks unload their shreddables.  Since all I had was one bag, I was easy!

Something new this year was a “car show”.  It was extremely low-key – about 18 cars, all just sitting out.  Each one had a tag with make, model and year.  Other than that, no other hoopla, although I did find a few owners standing around next to their cars.  I did ask before I took the photos in the header!

I noticed the red things (my car equipment vocabulary is not robust) on the wheel so the two Mercedes-Benz’ that were there.  Luckily one of the Mercedes owners was there so I asked him what the red things were.

He explained, in very simple words that even I could understand) that they were the brakes/brake pads; he even used hand movements to illustrate how brakes/brake pads work.  I asked why they were red and got the answer “because that’s what Mercedes-Benz does”.  Hmmmm.  Sounds a bit like grandstanding to me.  Another MB owner who was standing nearby commented that you can now order black ones.  Guess some MB owners don’t want to stand out? 

After seeing the cars, there was a complimentary food truck, so I had a nice black bean burger with kettle chips for lunch and talked to another couple at my table who were new clients.  Followed that up with some cookies `n cream ice cream and conversed a bit with my two financial guys.  Then I headed home – I was there about 30 minutes.  Have I mentioned what a lovely day it was?

When I recounted my experience, I got a big eye roll from YA with the comment that some folks are easily pleased.  I think that’s better than being HARD to please.  I had a fun time, had good reading time on the way there and back (CD audio book) – what’s not to like ab out that?

Any classic/vintage car stories?  Are you easy or hard to please?

2026, animals, crops, Family, Farming Update, Kids, pets, Travel, Uncategorized, work

BACK IN THE SWING OF THINGS

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This week’s farming update from Ben

The soybeans are turning yellow and dropping their leaves. Another week will make a huge difference.

We spent a week outside of Charleston SC visiting my niece and her husband and their two cute little girls, age five and two. Boy, that two year old: She never stops moving! Better them than us. And a wonderful dog, Maggie. A female Doberman. I’ve not had anything to do with Dobermans before, but she was a sweetheart. 

These people love their hot weather. I was hot for the whole week we were there. They made a fire one night in their fire pit. IT WAS 80 DEGREES! I kept moving my chair back. But, it was a lovely night and It was a great, much needed vacation. 

Our first night and I got to take the five year old to bed. I was pooped out.
Who doesn’t love chasing seagulls?
Daughter loved the beach.

While we were gone, our house sitters, G & E, did a fabulous job keeping our dogs occupied. They left the house cleaner than it was when we left. E does a lot of cooking, which was evident by the washed cookie sheets and bread loaf pan on the counter. We need to get them to leave some left overs. And G works at a local nursery and we always come home to fresh cut flowers and even some new plants on the front step. Great people. We’re not sure the dogs were glad to have us come back or not. 

Plus our other neighbor, B, collecting eggs and taking care of the chickens. She said she loved her the dogs protected her from the raccoons.

The tree branch that fell down on the deck just before we left got cut up and hauled away. We are so lucky it missed the gutters and missed the lights hanging off the gutters. It broke a leg off one plastic deck chair, and bent one tiki torch. Driving around the farm, there are trees down all over. Lots of trees in fields, which will make harvest difficult. It’s hard to clean them up without damaging more crops. Our neighbors took their cattle out as there was so many trees down on the fence it was easier to take them out than to fix the fences. At least for now. They’ll be fixed before next spring.

And we’ve had a bunch of weird electronic issues since the power was out with that storm. Course the router needed to be rebooted a few times, and the extenders, and the security cameras… got most of them back, but it’s been a process. 

The Soil and Water (SWCD) people, and contractor Clint built the new structure to stop erosion. 

The front side with a tile inlet.
The back side. The tile drains down in the tree’s to the left.

Clint also built a ‘low water crossing’ at one of our waterways. It tends to be wet in the spring, (that’s why it’s a ‘water way’). He excavated down, placed geo-textile fabric, large rock placed underneath, smaller rock on top, and that way the water can still pass through but the equipment has a place to cross without creating ruts in the soft spring soil. 

Bailey approved

I am very proud of the work we’ve done the last few year making the farm a better place for the future. 

Including pouring concrete.

Last week Kelly and I were compacting gravel for this pad. This concrete is in the main part of the shed, right inside the main door, and is where just about everything gets parked. I’m as excited about this concrete as I have been about all the rest. 

A pack of wire ties.
Wrap the wire around the rebar, hook the loops, and spin it five times to make it tight. Six twists will break the wire.
Rebar wired together and propped up with rocks, tin cans, empty bottles; Anything I found in the garbage that I thought would be useful. You can buy 2” plastic rebar chairs, but why would I wanna do that?

We had some good help leveling out the concrete. Our son came down with a couple of his buddies. I spent a little more money and ordered a conveyor truck to get the concrete in the shed, that way I could be in there helping and not in the tractor hauling concrete 1/2 a yard at a time in the loader bucket. I am supposedly, the ‘Brains’ of the outfit. I use the term loosely. Jokes on them!

I ordered 5000 psi concrete “garage mix” with fiber and air entrainment. See, sounds like I know what I’m talking about.

You want a bunch of help getting the cement truck dumped out and the concrete spread out. Then there’s a little more time to get it level and time for it to begin to harden before the finishing work begins. And that can be a one person job on a pad this small. It just takes several good people right at the start.

On top of the compacted gravel we get the rebar laid out and tied together using a homemade wire twister. I use fiberglass rebar. I buy wire ties with a loop on each end, then use a paint roller I’ve modified to twist them.

By the time we finished I was pooped out. Man, I am not 30 years old anymore.

The conveyor truck getting set up. We were all working so I didn’t get any pictures of it happening.
Kelly was in charge of the measuring stick and the laser level to get it level. 
Looks pretty good for some amateurs. Better than our first round last year.
Humphrey walk through it first. But I’m OK with that. I left his footprints.

HOW OFTEN DID YOU FALL ASLEEP YOURSELF TAKING THE KIDS TO BED?

ANY GOOD BEDTIME STORIES?

2026, Family, Food

2026 Foods of the Fair Reviewed

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You knew it was coming.  The review of the foods that YA and I sampled at the fair this year.  I’m thinking of this as a public service announcement for any trips to the fair that you might be considering for next year!

Staples/Old Favorites (Some of them anyway)

  • Sweet Martha’s Cookies – every day. What doesn’t get eaten right away goes into my Tupperware to be dipped into as the day progresses.  Still yummy when they are warm and gooey.
  • Potato Cheddar Crepe. This is YA’s favorite.  They make the crepes to order so they are also warm and gooey.
  • The corn stand is an amazing piece of production and, of course, the corn is also fabulous.
  • Pickle Pizza. Another of YA’s staples.  They’ve added a second outlet this year so while the lines were long, they weren’t as awful as prior years.  What she likes best is that the base is a white sauce, so the pickles aren’t sparring with tomato sauce for the lead.
  • Cheese Curds. Like usual, the Mouthtrap curds in the Food Building are the best.  They also have a fabulous set-up so while the lines look long, once you’re in line, it goes really fast.  Warm, crunchy, not too greasy.  They’ve got all the other curds beat.

New Foods This Year

  • Pimento Cheese Puffs at Shanghai Henri’s (International Bazaar). Pretty good, could have been fried a bit less; the crunch was a bit much.  Nice cheesy insides, not too spicy with a nice sweet and sour sauce.  5 stars
  • Three Cheese Mac Savory Cone at Roons (near sheep/poultry barn). Like it says – mac & cheese in a waffle cone.  The mac & cheese had too many savory spices for me and the cone was a little “tough”.  3 stars
  • Vegetarian Spring Rolls at Panda Palace (International Bazaar). YA ate most of these and reported that they weren’t anything special.  3 stars
  • Sweet Squeakers at The Blue Barn (West End). White curds, battered, fried, dusted w/ cinnamon/sugar.  Topped with a lemon whipped mousse and raspberry sauce.  Header photo!  Interesting concept but WAY overdone.  You really couldn’t tell that the base of cheese curds wasn’t really recognizable.  4 stars
  • Strawberry Crunch Mini Donuts at Solem’s (North End). They looked good but most of the strawberry flavor was in the topping, so after the top layer of donuts was eaten, the donuts themselves didn’t have a lot of taste.  And I have to say, putting crunch around the edge of the bucket looks striking, it is a MESS.  3 stars.

This isn’t by any means all the foods we plied ourselves with but a good overview.  Sad to say that there were no new foods that received 5 stars from us.  Next year when we print out our food list, it won’t include any of them.  But the old favorites didn’t disappoint.

If you do the fair next year, hopefully our research will be helpful to you!

What cheese is never yours?

2026, animals, Nature, pets, Uncategorized

Stickers And Prickers

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On Sunday evening Husband took our terriers for their third walk of the day. They have rather elaborate hair styles, with skirts, beards, long brows, short hair on back and tail, and longer, curly hair on their chests and legs. They have short legs with long bodies that are pretty close to the ground.

Husband is usually careful to only walk them on paved paths and not let them stray into long grass. They both got into some longer grass Sunday night though, as Husband gave some other walkers wide berth as they passed one another. He doesn’t want the dogs to jump on other people. The grass was full of tiny burrs the size of BB’s that stuck to the dogs’ coats in every place imaginable. It was impossible to brush them out as they stuck so securely.

Boommate is a former vet tech and also worked for a groomer for a while. She came to the rescue with a small electric clipper. Husband and I held the dogs securely while she patiently cut the burrs out of their fur. The dogs were very unhappy being manhandled and restrained. She said she had encountered these burrs before, and they can cause severe problems if animals ingest them or get them stuck in their mouth or throat.

After about an hour of clipping and brushing, the dogs were burr free. In the event this happens again I ordered a portable dog grooming table for easier management. The dogs go to their regular groomer next week so they can get their coats all evened out and trimmed.

Who has come to your rescue? Any incidents of burrs or stickers on you or your pets?

2026, Computers, Fantasy, home, Kids, work

The New Office

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During Covid, once I got un-furloughed, YA and I were both working from home – she was fulltime and I was half-time.  She had a desk in her room with the big monitor and I had my big monitor in my studio.  Most days I moved the big monitor onto the floor in the corner so I could use my desk for crafts.  YA left her big monitor up on her desk all the time.

When I retired (and permanently excised the big monitor from my studio), YA began to do her work-from-home Mondays and Fridays from the dining room.  The big monitor in her room didn’t get turned on for MONTHS.  It was occasionally problematic with her in the dining room.  She is very sensitive to background noise when she is on calls so if I doing anything downstairs (like cooking), it bugged her.  And me. 

About two months ago she casually mentioned that we should probably get rid of the old day bed in what we call the sunroom.  It’s a small room, windows on three sides – no closet.  Since I’ve been slowly but steadily de-cluttering the house, I probably said “uh huh” and nodded my head.  Then about a week later, she said that she’d like to make the sunroom into a home office.  The light bulb about the day bed flashed on at that point. 

We had to take the day bed apart to get it to the boulevard.  The city took it off our hands in three different trucks over three different days and then YA went to work.  Cleaned, vacuumed, moved her desk into the new office and positioned the big monitor front and center.  Then of course, she had to fill the empty space in her room – more cleaning and vacuuming.  The little vanity that she moved looked swamped so off she went to IKEA and came home with a new vanity.  It looks good. 

The little old vanity sat on the boulevard for about 45 minutes before somebody stopped and scooped it up.

The curtain fiasco took about a week since first the curtain rods she ordered didn’t work and then the first set of curtains was too short.  I think, as of this writing, she’s all set.  Friday will be the inauguration of the office so we’ll see how it goes.  Hopefully I won’t make too much noise in the bathroom if I keep the bathroom door shut!!

Have you ever worked from home?  What would be a necessity for you in a home office?