2026, animals, Automotive, chickens, crops, Farming Update, Music, Nature, Theatre, Uncategorized

WARNING: TWENTY FOOT CIRCLE OF EXASPIRATION!*

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*Thanks to JimEd Poole for the phrase and T-shirt suggestion.

The vacation is over. Farming sucked this week. 

The highlight of my week was putting a new windshield wiper on my car because it actually clicked into place and stayed there when I turned on the wipers. I’m calling that a win.

To sooth my mood, I listened to the music of Les Paul. Are you familiar with him and his wife, Mary Ford, and their multi track recording of “How High The Moon? It’s really pretty cool.

He’s a pioneer of the solid body electric guitar, and his use of recording techniques such as over dubbing and multi track recording was revolutionary. 

Mary Ford was an outstanding musician herself. Reading about her reveals 4 marriages, alcoholism, and sadly, died at age 53, of complications from alcohol abuse, after eight weeks in a diabetic coma. Kind of broke my heart…

One of my favorite recordings is “Chester and Lester”, Les Paul and Chet Atkins. Which leads me to “Neck and Neck”, Chet Atkins and Mark Knopfler. Which takes me to Mark Knopfler and Emmylou Harris and “All The Roadrunning”. 

And that’s all the duos’s I can link because I don’t have any other Emmylou Harris. 

So the farm. 

Last Saturday the neighbors came out to combine oats. They made a round and a half, plugged up the combine with the grass, (remember, I said that was going to be a problem) And then, I think they were hot and dirty and mad and they went home. I’m sure he was as hot and frustrated as I would’ve been. I said that I thought they started on the worst field, and they should try some of the other fields because there was a lot less grass in them. And I don’t know why, but they never came back and they told me I’d have to cut the oats, sort of the traditional way of swathing it and then picking it up from there. That gives  the grass a chance to dry out. Well if I’d have known I was going to swath it, I’d have got my swather ready before we went on vacation for a week. I tried Saturday afternoon to get the swather started and it’s always a bugger to get going at first. Sunday I was working on a show all day. And Monday was hot and humid and miserable and it was a Monday all over. I went to three different auto part stores, and I know I’ve talked about this before; the swather has a Chrysler ‘slant 6’ engine in it. These things were bulletproof and there was a million of them around back in the 70s. But the trick now is finding a mechanic old enough to know what a slant 6 is. And that’s been my problem. I’ve gotten a lot of parts that don’t fit and we can’t seem to find ones that do fit. John Deere doesn’t carry parts for the motors anymore. And I was in quite a foul mood most of Monday. By Tuesday I had mellow out a bit and by Wednesday hired a couple of guys to come and swath the oats for me. What’s a couple more hundred bucks to hire them…

Hired guys swathing oats

And now, of course, after a month of no rain, now it’s raining on Friday. Need the rain, just not right now. Because now my oats is laying down. But at least the oats was standing well when it was cut! Yay! I’m afraid it’s dried up to nothing, so maybe some rain will help it rehydrate. And then eventually the swath will dry and then we’ll get it combined and then I’ll get some straw baled. The neighbors have had their Oats and Straw done for two or three weeks. But we’re not talking about that. 

It was a nice gentle all day rain, and we have over an inch. I did bookwork, and other computer stuff, then organized the pencil drawer in the shop, and fixed a crack on the hood of one of the lawn mowers.

That’s better

I did take a couple hours of one afternoon, when I wasn’t doing anything else, and painted our downstairs bathroom that’s almost done being remodeled. It’s done except for the countertop and sink, and toilet. The countertop is coming August 10 and I would expect a plumber a day or two after that. And while I was painting over the pink bathroom I was singing to myself Lou and Peter Berryman’s “Why Am I Painting My Living Room“.

The padawans were out and we started replacing boards around the bottom of the pole barn. It was hot and one of them complains a lot. Eventually I give him a new rule: “No Bitching”. Then he gets moody but I can handle that. 

Front boards done; working on the side. And the door needs to be rebuilt.

I had rock delivered for the road. Ten loads of 18 tons each. Spending money hand over fist again. Can’t take it with you.

Never underestimate the value of a good driver who knows how to spread rock.

I also got stung by a bee working with the boys. Cripes. No allergies or anything, just another annoyance.

I cleaned the radiators on the big tractor, (AC, hydraulic oil, and water radiators) and worked up a small field that a friend plants for a deer plot. (His theory is the deer will eat that instead of my crops. It’s a nice thought that doesn’t work). And after the oats and straw is finally done, I’ll be planting cereal rye as a cover crop.

cleaning the radiators.

Chicken mama is down to 3 chicks… but the co-parenting guinea mom still has around maybe 15? She keeps them out of site most of the time and it’s hard to get a good count of them.

Guinea moms and babies

I mowed some more weeds. I finished lighting one show and started another, and this one is a drag show and a lot of fun.

There was a turkey buzzard sitting on a fence post one day. I thought, ‘well if that doesn’t sum up my week.”

I’ll end with this:

WHAT GETS YOU OUT OF A FOWL MOOD?

HOW MANY YO-YO’s DID YOU HAVE AS A KID? COULD YOU DO TRICKS? 

2026, animals, Music, Uncategorized

Catbird

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We had a lovely time over the July 4th weekend in a Airb and b near La Crosse, WI. Our place was pretty remote and up at the top of some tree covered hills. We had a huge deck overlooking the forest.

One evening I was on the deck and I heard some very harsh meowing coming from the woods. It sounded like a cat in distress. I was just about to head into the woods when I remembered our grandson telling us that there were catbirds in the woods nearby, as the bird song app on his parents’ phone had identified their call. What a lousy trick for that bird to play on me!

Further research on catbirds revealed that they are really good at mimicking other birds and do so quite frequently. They like to sing when well hidden in bushes and trees, unlike other song birds that prefer to sing in the open in tree tops. Much easier to fool people that way. Their well developed vocal chords allow them to make two sounds at the same time. They are described as brave and nosy, and as liking to be around people. Sitting in the catbird seat means you are in an advantageous position and have the upper hand.

I don’t think we had catbirds in western ND. They like being where there are lots of trees. It has been really nice hearing all the different bird calls here in MN. If I were a bird I would want to be a catbird. Think how much fun it would be to mimic catalog and other birds and sing multiple notes at the same time. There is something to be said be said, though, about the nightingale.

What are your favorite bird songs or songs about birds? What kind of a bird would you want to be?

2026, Food, Seasons, State Fair, Uncategorized

That Time Again….

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Yesterday I got an email from MPR inviting me to download an e-book titled 2026 Minnesota State Fair New Foods e-book.  I signed up and they sent me the e-book within a few minutes.  Gotta love computers.  The email also said starting Saturday I’ll be getting the Minnesota Today Weekend Edition newsletter.  If there’s any State Fair news, that will be fine, otherwise it will get discontinued.

I don’t really need to have three weeks to get prepared for State Fair.  We have all our tickets already.  I have a little checklist for things to take.  But after getting the e-book, I couldn’t help but do a little more.  So I printed out the actual tickets (back-up in case the whole cell-phone-wallet thing doesn’t work) and downloaded the two fair apps.  One is the official Great Get Together app and the other is called Minnesota on a Stick.  We don’t use these heavily but every now and then they come in handy with show times and locations of various food stuffs that we’re looking for. 

My state fair t-shirts are all folded nicely in one section of my t-shirt drawer.  Back before I was retired, I would wear one every work day in August.   Guess I can still do that, just at home.  I have 11 shirts at this point – short sleeve.  I also have one long-sleeve with a loon on it, but I’m not wearing that in August, so I don’t count it. (It doesn’t even live with the other fair shirts; it lives with my long sleeves.)

I probably won’t be able to keep myself from going to Cub in the next day or so to get our Blue Ribbon Discount Coupon books.  And I might have to print out my checklist!    Good grief.

Any big events coming up for you?  How long do you need to get ready to hear VS drone on and on about state fair this year?

2026, books, Mysteries, pets, Technology

Rookie Mistake

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I made a completely rookie mistake this week.

As you know, I have a highly curated library account.   My Holds list includes books that are on order still, that I am on the waitlist for and quite a few books that I have “paused”.  Every couple of weeks I go through all the paused holds, resume a few of them and then reset the pause date to some time in the future – usually three to four weeks out.  This has been my pattern for a couple of decades.

The past month my attention span has been fairly limited to the new dog.  Paperwork, initial vet intake, spay, the cone of shame, then the sleeve of shame (she got razor burn from where they inserted her IV and she just could not leave it alone).  Now we’re through all that and have started working on preliminary training and walkies every day.  Add the early morning potty breaks and the last in the evening journey outside as well and I feel consumed.  In a good way.

So it was shocking when I opened up my library account Monday night and saw that I have THIRTY books in transit.  THIRTY!  I completely forgot to check my Holds, so everything that had been set to July 27 is now on its way to me.  How could I do something this dumb?

I called my buddy who’s the manager of my library and he said there is really no way to circumvent this process short of calling the origin library for each book and asking if they can catch it.  I’m not doing that.  In addition to being a serious pain in the patoot for me, it would be an even bigger pain for the libraries and as my buddy said, probably wouldn’t work anyway.  Sigh.

So I guess I’ll have to seriously step up my reading for August.  For fun, here are some of the titles that are on the way to me right now!

  • And to My Nephew Albert I Leave the Island What I Won Off Fatty Hagan in a Poker Game (one of the long-titled books I found earlier in the month)
  • The Chinese Parrot (a Charlie Chan novel)
  • The Concord Quartet (Alcott, Emerson, Hawthorne & Thoreau)
  • Crock of Gold (people, gods, Irish fairies…)
  • Cursed Cocktails (blood mage tries to retire)
  • Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life (“biography”)
  • Elizabeth I, CEO (what you think)
  • Ex-Wife (1925 woman finds herself after divorce)
  • Illuminations in the Flatwoods (wild turkeys?)
  • In Seven Stages (Elizabeth Bisland side of the Around the World story)
  • Kipling Sahib (Rudyard Kipling bio)
  • The Last Moriarty (Sherlock Holmes knock-off)
  • Lost Believers (novel inspired by true story… we’ll see….)
  • Margaret Fuller: A New American Life (2013 Pulitzer Prize)
  • Marie of Romania (queen consort of Ferdinand, King of Romania)
  • Murder and the First Lady (Eleanor Roosevelt solves the murder)
  • No Matter How Much You Promise to Cook or Pay the Rent You Blew It Cauze Bill Bailey Ain’t Never Coming Home Again (another long and intriguing title)
  • A Short Bright Flash (lighthouses!)
  • Enuf is Enough (a book about English spelling – yeah, I know I lead an exciting life!)

What’s a rookie mistake you’ve made?  Any good books on your nightstand?

2026, Art, Science, space, Uncategorized

Nerdy Merch

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Me being a bit of nerd is nothing new here.  At Blevins on Sunday we talked about Neil deGrasse Tyson and his book The Pluto Files.  I’ve always thought that he was one of the smartest folks out there but he’s funny about it, which makes him almost a hero in my eyes.

So I suppose it won’t surprise you that I have NdGT merch.  Of course not!   My first purchase was a t-shirt with a funny physics phrase (well, I think it’s funny anyway):

About a year after I got the t-shirt, I saw a solar system bracelet on an NdGT site and I really liked it a lot.  I don’t do a ton of jewelry but I do like to wear bracelets when I get “dressed up”.  But the bracelet had a $35 price tag on it and it didn’t have Pluto – two strikes are enough for an out in my world. 

So I did the next best thing – I made my own.  I started with a very cheap ($4) solar system bracelet that I found on line.  This had beads that I liked for most of the planets.

Then I supplemented it at my local Bead Hive and also used a coil bracelet wire (another $6).  I like the coil style because it’s comfortable, easy to put on and let’s you use way more beads!  It’s really hard to tell in the photo but I put all the planets in order after the sun and even put a star between Mars and Jupiter to represent the asteroid belt.  And, of course, I added Pluto.  Sorry to all the other dwarf planets for leaving them out.  I filled in the spaces between the planets with little black beads and more stars – not to scale obviously.

This is probably my favorite bracelet – I can wear it with just about everything except maybe an outfit all of pale pink and it only cost me $10 to make to my exact specifications.   Luckily I don’t have any all pale pink outfits, so I’m good on all fronts?

Do you wear t-shirts?  Any good slogans?  Ever made jewelry for yourself?

2026, Food, History, Mysteries, TV, Uncategorized

Let’s Cook?

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I blame Survivor.

It came out in 2000 on CBS and for reasons that I don’t understand, although it’s been 26 years, there have been 51 seasons.  I never watched it; it just didn’t pique my interest.  There was some reality tv prior to that, but I think of Survivor as the true onset of what is still just a bleak landscape to me. 

Technically I had watched reality tv for years – all in the form of cooking shows.  After Survivor, slowly competitive cooking shows began to make an appearance. Not like any competition of the past in which a few folks cooked and there was one winner.  That was it.  No throwing someone off, week after week until just one is left standing.  I hate this.  Truly hate this.  If I see any of the following words in a cooking show title, I’m not watching – bake-off, cook-off, battle, class, contender, wars.  There are probably others but this is what I can think of off the top of my head.  I did make an exception awhile back; so many folks assured me that The Great British Bake Off was “different” that I watched a couple of episodes (the season with Nadiya Hussain).  It wasn’t different enough for me.  The whole “throwing one person off” is just too brutal for me. 

What this means is that I don’t watch much Food Network or Cooking Channel these days – almost everything seems to be some sort of competition.  Throwing someone off still seems to be all the rage.  What’s left?  Shows like Carnival Eats, Pioneer Woman, Girl Meets Farm and a small handful of “how is it made” types of shows like Food Factory and “where should I eat” shows like Cheap Eats. 

I was kind of hoping that there would be a swing away from these competitive shows after two+ decades, but it doesn’t seem to be happening any time soon.  I’d even watch Julia Child’s French Chef if I could find it!

Do you watch any cooking shows?  (It’s ok if you like The Great British Bake-Off – I know I’m in the minority).  Do you ever try out anything you see?

2026, animals, chickens, crops, Farming Update, Movies, Theatre, Travel, Uncategorized

Where in the world has Ben been?

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This weeks farming update from Ben.

We’ve been gone for a week. Returned to one last day of nice weather before it gets hot again.

Where were we?

Every restaurant was so loud you couldn’t have a conversation. We postulate the ambient noise level was so loud that everyone else has to get louder.

A cool ceiling at this resturant.
Decor at the same place.

There are many wonderful parks, lots of free green space, art, and statues.

It seems like we had a hard time figuring out the subway ticket system but we got around and managed to make do with the kindness of strangers and only losing money on one ticket system I still haven’t figured out what I bought that didn’t work. Que sera sera

Took a Commuter train to visit a couple attractions. First time for that for us. 

Sunday after the World Cup finals, one train was packed, but everyone was very nice. We laughed about how tight we were crammed in there. Kelly and I joked a full train on Sunday is probably different than a full train on Thursday at 5:00 PM. 
The Wednesday 5 PM train was full, and seemed to skip one stop, and at the next stop, which was the one we wanted, only one door opened and we couldn’t get there before it closed and the train moved on. Daughter was VERY put out. A guy on the train said “I have missed so many stops…”

Traffic lights seem to only be a suggestion to some people.

 A few more street signs would be really helpful. 

I didn’t pack any shirts with sleeves! 

We travelled there as Kelly had a work conference. We all had a few vacation days together before she had to ‘work’ work. 
Daughter and I made our own fun after that. Saw some movies – in 3D!- and had a good time. 

Ice cream coma

My steps the last week average about 8500. Daughter, constantly moving, averages 12,000 a day. 

We had lots of help on the farm to keep things in hand.

The chicken from last week still has some chicks left; I haven’t gotten a good count as they’re hiding in the tall grass. But maybe 5 out of her 13. We’ve always said, the real world is a tough place for chicks.

And now we have multiple baby guineas. 

At least guineas are good at co-parenting.

We want more guineas, but didn’t want to stick a guest with baby chick care. So we’ll see. The photo was from Tuesday when the Palawan’s saw them. I haven’t found them yet on Friday. Kelly saw them briefly, and then the mom seems to hide them so she can get out and eat. That’s kind of unusual.

Padawan 1 is broke, so I left him a list of projects. Darn if those missing soft skills don’t make it harder than it had to be for both of us as I had to remind him to do a few jobs, and offer help by text when he’d ask questions. And he made a few jobs harder. Which is how we learn, right? 
P2 came out few times too. I’m not sure how much I’m paying them for work, or how much was goofing around. 
Well, QSS all over again.

Thanks to Rick and Betty for picking up the mail. Thanks to John and Tamsin for taking care of the chickens, Tamsin, and the dogs, John. Gracie and Evan house sat and watered flowers.

I’m hoping to get the oats harvested Saturday. It’s still standing good, which is great, but the grass in it is getting bad. That only means it will combine a little tougher (because a combine harvester doesn’t like green stuff) and the straw windrow will have to dry out before I can bale it.

The corn got sprayed with fungicide by helicopter. Corn fungus’ have become a big issue the last few years as they move up from the south and the hot weather acerbates the issue.

I’ll post a few more photos after the location has been determined.

EVER HOUSE SAT? OR HAD HOUSE SITTERS? TELL US ABOUT IT

WHAT DECOR DO YOU MISS FROM THE 1950’s or ‘60?

Extra photos:

JFK Library
Steinway
Aquarium
“The Embrace”
The other side of “The Embrace”
USS Constitution from the harbor tour
Washington statue in the Public Garden.
Cool doors
2026, animals, Travel, Uncategorized

What A Mess!

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I read with rather horrified amusement about a traffic problem in Fargo that occurred on July 11th. The incident took place on I-94 on the border between Fargo and West Fargo on a very busy section of the highway. The exits on that stretch of the highway lead to major retail areas and the big Sanford Hospital.

As in many communities there is a lot of construction this summer happening in Fargo. The eastbound lanes on I-94 were reduced to one lane for construction. The police and highway patrol got calls around 2:30 pm that there was a complete blockage of the one eastbound lane by debris that had fallen out of a truck.

A trucker had apparently braked suddenly for slowing traffic not realizing that the rear door to the trailer he was hauling had opened. Approximately 15 well aged bison carcasses slid out of the trailer onto the highway. The trucker seemingly didn’t know what had happened and continued driving east. He wasn’t identified until 7 hours later. It is thought he was heading to a rendering plant in Long Prairie. The available news is unclear whether he was fined for the incident.

The West Fargo Fire Department, State Troopers, and Highway Department workers all cleaned up the mess and sanitized the roadway. I can’t imagine how awful that must have been, or what they did with the debris. I just hope it wasn’t too hot out.

What is the biggest mess you have ever had to clean up?

2026, books, Food, Gatherings, Travel

Lazy Daze

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Every summer I spend a long weekend with one of my besties, who lives in Madison.  We always have a great time but I’m always amazed at how different these trips are from other trips, especially the ones I take with YA.

On Friday night we went to Susan’s favorite Mexican restaurant.  I’ve been there before with her and it’s nice.  On Saturday we went up to the capital building early for the Dane County Farmers Market.  I got my five loaves of Chili Cheese bread, a bunch of corn, a slice of purple yam pie, squeaky cheese curds, a massive cinnamon roll and a dozen peanut coconut donut holes.  Sunday night we went to her favorite pizza place – I got a tomato pie (similar to a margarita) – yummy.

That’s the most active we were.  The entire remainder of weekend was reading, doing jigsaw puzzles, yakking and then more reading and yakking.  I probably spent 10 hours sitting in a big comfy chair with my books.  I finished two books, well actually three if you count the CD that I listened to in the car on the way there and back.

Compared to my usual travels, it was a lazy lazy trip.  And I loved it.  No to-do list, no normal daily stuff.  Just relaxing.  As I was doing some errands Tuesday morning, I was already missing that comfy chair!

Where do you like to read? 

2026, Family, Food, Gatherings, home, pets

ADOPTED!!!

25 Comments

If you remember, the organization that rescued Freya would not let us adopt her until her spay was done; it’s an inviolable rule of theirs.  So technically for the last four weeks we’ve been fostering her. The rescue calls it “Foster to Adopt” and they are very serious about it.  You can’t believe how much paperwork there was.  Oh, and I got to pay the entire adoption fee right up front. 

Anyway, her spay is done and the four-day wait (to make sure there are no complications) is done.  We filled out yet one more piece of paper and coughed up one more fee of $5.00 and SHE IS OURS!

In classic fashion around here, we decided to have a little family celebration.  In case you can’t read it, the banner says “Freya’s Fur-Ever Home”.  I made a little cake (some dog food loaf iced with whipped cream cheese).  The #1 candle is because we are her #1 fur-ever home.  We put her rabies tag and her new name tag on her collar. 

Collar & Cake

She thought the little cake was just yummy; we only let her eat about a quarter of it so she doesn’t get an upset tummy.  The rest is in the fridge to be doled out over the next few days.

YUM-O!

Been to any good parties/gatherings recently?