2026, animals, chickens, crops, education, Farming Update, Music, Uncategorized

Chickens Love Popcorn 

54 Comments

This week’s Farming Update from Ben 
 
I mean who doesn’t love popcorn, right? (I know there’s a few of you).  

Daughter went to a movie the other day. It was Tuesday so we did the Large Value popcorn (we usually have the refillable bucket, but this came up spur of the moment).  Shortly after she got home it was already soggy. Dang, we love leftover popcorn. I threw it out to the chickens the next morning. You know, back in the ‘70s, when I was in the hospital for three weeks with my leg injury, my mom would make popcorn, put it in a leftover bread bag, and freeze it. Then she would bring it to me in the hospital. You don’t often hear about people using bread sacks anymore, do you? They worked for boot liners and they worked for leftovers.  

See this video of me calling the chickens; they love leftovers, and popcorn all the more.  

https://youtube.com/shorts/P4e7q77LJ1c?si=dfzfUz5Dq5WL9T67

Finally got the last of the straw baled on Sunday. Saturday, I baled and stacked 110 bales in a wagon for the strawberry farm in the neighborhood. He’ll take them in November just before it gets really cold or snows. He’s got a shredder / blower type machine that he can stack about a dozen bales on, then wife or child feeds them into the chute to chop it up and spray it over the berries while he drives down the rows. Looks pretty slick for that job. On Sunday, Neighbor Craig was over and round baled the rest. Got 18 large round bales, called 5×5’s. Five feet wide and about five feet diameter. At some point I’ll get out with the tractor and loader and bale fork on the front and bale lift on the back and pick them up and put them in a row until neighbor Dave picks them up for use as bedding this winter. As I’ve said before since there’s no under seeding planted with the oats, they can sit there for a bit. If there was something planted underneath, and they were left sitting, the bales would smother whatever was growing. I do want to get these fields dug up and planted to rye, so I need them moved sooner than later.  

I called John Deere to come out and check why the big tractor is overheating. I pulled the side panels off.

Hmmm. Maybe this pipe?

And I decided, yeah, let’s call a guy. I don’t have that much time right now anyway being back at college and all. I bought this tractor used. It has 11,000 hours on it, which is equivalent to 50,000 miles on a car. And I put about 100 hours on it per year. It came from a local farm, so my local dealer might have some history on it. I don’t. I can tell the radiator hoses are soft, meaning they should be replaced, and it probably needs a water pump and new thermostat. I’m guessing $3500 parts and labor. Will let you know in a month.  

Got new lights installed on a trailer, then went to pick up rebar and a 6″x6″x16′ green treated post for a fence down in the cow yard.

Fancy new lights

We’re also prepping for more concrete in the shed. Padawan and I excavated dirt this week. Got two loads of gravel delivered for the base. Rented a plate compactor for the weekend. Padawan was out for a couple hours, and he and I worked on digging out the dirt and gravel next to the existing concrete. Man, I am so looking forward to having concrete in here! Another one of those things I wish I’d have done 20 / 30 / 40 years ago! But, you know, money. And life. And I’ll appreciate it more now. (Padawan 2 is back at college).  

Another project
This looks like work.

I changed the spark plugs in the swather, and then I was tired of looking at it. Remember I said I’d drive it around for an hour so it felt needed? I drove it for 20 minutes and called it good. It worked, it made all the scary noises I’ve come to expect, and I parked it back in the shed for next summer. I’ll try to start it once a month and move it back and forth until winter. I say until winter because usually I have something parked in front of it, so I can still start it, but not be able to move it after that.  

At the college I am taking two classes: Music Fundamentals, and Introduction to Humanities. I don’t usually do two classes. But music only has 11 students and I was afraid it would be cancelled so I registered for Humanities and now they’re both going. I signed up for music because I wanted to learn more about WHY I like the music I like. How is a song created? What makes rock sound like rock and country sound like country? And what do they mean when they say, ‘This is in the key of A’?  

And the teacher for Humanities is a great teacher. I’ve taken 3 of her classes before. Both these are online and so far, so good. From what I’m learning so far in chapter 1, I’m pretty good at the Humanities already. I am mostly open minded, and I use a Socratic method of teaching. (Trying to get others to think and answer questions themselves and not simply lecturing).  

Anyone familiar with Rhaphidophoridae? Otherwise known as Camel Crickets?  

Eww!

We have had them in our house the last few years. They’re creepy. We have an exterminator / bug guy that does bait stations outside to control mice and rats, so we had him spray the basement too.  

The ag co-op had me apply for my crop loan for next year. Got that approved. Saved a $250 application fee. Looks like I can farm again next year.  

I’m seeing a few soybeans starting to turn yellow. Haven’t seen anyone chopping corn silage yet, but that will be happening soon. I picked a few ears of corn the other day. It is well dented. Counted 14 kernels around, and 38 long. Usually they’re 16 around, a really impressive ear will be 18. They were both filled all the way to the end, meaning the plant had everything it needed and didn’t need to abort any kernels to survive. Now that was just this one place in this one field. I could go to another field with more rocks and it would look worse.  

Acorns are falling too. They are good sized this year. Must have been a good year for acorns. And it seems like some of the barn swallows have started to leave. The world just keeps going around.  

THINGS YOU USED TO USE FOR LEFTOVERS YOU DONT USE ANYMORE?

2026, Family, home, Kids, Uncategorized

New Digs

31 Comments

It was fun to be in Brookings this past week. Brookings is the home of South Dakota State University. Both our son and DIL work for the University, he as a mental health counselor and she, in a new position, as a Freshman student advisor.

Classes started on Monday. Last weekend Son helped students move into their dorm rooms. Golf carts were involved, and Son also helped direct campus traffic. DIL helped students rearrange and tweak schedules. Though they can’t and didn’t give us any individual details, both stated the incoming students were pretty anxious.

I started at Concordia in Moorhead in 1976. I had never lived away from home before. A band trip to Europe that summer seemed to have cured me of any homesickness. As an only child it was rather disconcerting to have to share a dorm room with someone, though. I was in the oldest dorm, Fjelstad Hall. My roommate was tolerable enough, but a local girl and more interested in her hometown friends than she was in developing a relationship with me. I quickly found friends on other floors.

Concordia had very strict rules for students. Freshmen and Sophomores had to live on campus. The school openly acknowledged taking an in loco parentis role with students. You couldn’t have a vehicle if you lived on campus. That meant taking the Fargo-Moorhead transit system around town. There was, of course, a total ban on alcohol in dorm rooms. (All that meant was that people got really sneaky.)

I wish all the first year SDSU students well. I am glad they have my son and DIL for support.

What were your first digs like when you moved away from home? Ever live in a dormitory?

2026, Food, Seasons, State Fair, Travel

It’s That Time Again!!!

35 Comments

You all know where I am, right?  That’s right – the VS State Fair Fest has begun!

Tickets purchased (actually bought them in November for last year’s price).

Blue Ribbon Coupon Book purchased.  Both YA and I have added our post-it notes.

Food list assembled and printed off.  This includes traditional items that we like every year (corn, cookies, crepe, Hawaiian shave ice, etc.) as well as new foods. 

Trial drive to parking lot done.  I do this every year to make sure there isn’t any surprise road construction.

Turtle bag “packing list” updated… actually just printed out this year – we didn’t make any changes from last year.

Turtle bag packed (bandaids, Tylenol, pad/paper, address labels, collapsible container for cookies, coupon book, cash…).

Depending on what time you’re up and reading this, I’m either feeding the dog/cat before I leave, driving to St. Paul, waiting in line, on the Park & Ride bus.  Once the bus gets to the transit hub and I get through the entrance, who knows what the day will bring for me!

You’ll have to talk among yourselves today.  Anything planned for YOUR day?

2026, Family, home, Uncategorized

Is That Smoke?

32 Comments

Our son’s dishwasher has been making the most dreadful noises all summer. He was hoping to wait until September to get it looked at by the appliance repair folks.

We are currently staying with our son and Dil looking after our grandson. Yesterday I started the dishwasher after I had finished making some Franzbrotchen, a Hamburg pastry. The dishwasher made its usual grinding noises. Not too far into the cycle it stopped and a warning signal began beeping and a special code popped up on the display to indicate what the trouble was. Husband and I were the only adults home. We contacted our son and he sent us the on-line information of what to do in this circumstance with this particular warning code. It said to unplug the dishwasher for 5 minutes, then restart it.

I followed the instructions. After I restarted the machine it no longer made the awful noise. Then, however, I noticed that something that looked like steam but had a burning, electrical smell was wafting out of the top of the door. I checked, then double checked and decided it was actual smoke. I immediately turned off the dishwasher and unplugged it. I removed the bottom access plate to see if anything was burning under the machine, felt all around on the floor and cupboards to see if anything felt hot, then checked the ceiling in the basement where the dishwasher was perched. It was ok.

For some reason when I woke up yesterday morning I distinctly remember thinking that Son needed to get that dishwasher replaced because the awful noise it made could mean it might start a fire. How weird is that? PI never have had a premonition, but this is pretty close. We helped him choose out a new dishwasher late yesterday afternoon.

Ever had a premonition? Any memorable appliance fails?

2026, books, Family, History, holidays, Uncategorized

You Call This A LIbrary?

24 Comments

This week we have encountered two external references to our former region of ND. At church on Sunday we spoke to some fellow parishioners who had just returned from a cattle buying trip to Montana. They stopped in Medora, ND on the way there. Medora is about 40 miles east of where we used to live. It is a small town of about 120 people adjacent to Theodore Roosevelt National Park and home to the newly opened Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library. Daughter’s best friend’s dad owns a ranch there, and she spent a lot of time there as a kid. It is also home to the Medora Musical, an outdoor theatre that has a cast of singers and dancers all summer for shows every night. The various attractions of the place have been promoted by a foundation started by Harold Shaefer, the manufacturer of Mister Bubble.

Our church friends were quite disappointed by the library, due to the pushy crowds and the fact that they saw no books in the library. We thought that perhaps all the books were digitized, but had no other explanation.

The other Medora connection was an article by Rachel Monroe in the August 17 edition of The New Yorker describing what is was like to be there during our current president’s visit on July 4th. It was, of course, a disaster. The musical had to be cancelled because the tech crew couldn’t got the stage ready in time to support heavy protective barriers for presidential security. She had much better experiences at the Mandan Rodeo and the 250th Celebration at the Sisseton Wahpeton pow wow. I encourage you to read the article if you can.

I know there is a special Teddy Roosevelt department at the university in our former town. Maybe they have some books. Who knows?

Ever been to a Rodeo, a pow wow, or a presidential library? What sort of books might Teddy have had?

2026, Family, Food, Kids, Uncategorized

Summer Treats

36 Comments

On Friday we brought our grandson back to Brookings. The first thing he said to his dad when he got home was to describe the wonderful frozen yogurt bars he had at our house and he hoped his dad would get some right away. He also was happy that we sent a box of Effie’s Oatcakes home with him. He had never eaten those before and loved them.

I love frozen treats, especially Popsicles. I would devour them by the bag or box when I wasa child. My dentist was quite unhappy with me since I was also a random tooth brusher and had lots of sugary liquid in my mouth during the summers. I had lots of cavities as a result.

It is my understanding that frozen yogurt bars are all the rage these days. I still prefer icy treats, and I was excited to find mangonadas in the Hispanic grocery store on Luverne’s Main Street. They are enormous and icy with sweet and sour and spicy flavoring. You can see them in the header photo. They had no paletas, though, which are also wonderful Mexican frozen treats. They are my absolute favorite.

We are in Brookings this week, taking care of grandson until school starts. The Walmart store here has paletas, and if they have the yogurt bars grandson likes we will get those, too. It is still summer and it is still hot.

What were your favorite treats when you were a child? How about now? Any memorable childhood dentist experiences?

crops, Farming Update, Nature, Uncategorized

IS IT A HARD KNOCK LIFE? REALLY?

40 Comments

This week‘s farming update from Ben

No, the Straw isn’t baled yet. Keeps freaking raining every two or three days. I checked it Friday morning and it’s wet underneath, so I’ll be raking it, AGAIN, and planning to bale my last 100 bales on Saturday. I have a neighbor lined up for Sunday to round bale whatever is left. I am optimistic for Saturday though. Monday evening I double raked the one field that had not been raked yet, and then I re-raked the field I had Padawan do and then it rained on Tuesday, about half an inch, the wind came up and the temperature dropped and something happened somewhere because our power went out for about an hour. But according to the electric co-op website, there was like 400 people out of power, so something major happened somewhere, but it didn’t take long to fix. And Friday afternoon I raked it all again.

Yeah, So anyway the straw is not baled yet.

I did get the new spark plug wires made and put on the swather and went to change spark plugs and discovered the guys at Zumbrota NAPA, that seemed to know everything, evidently do not know what kind of spark plugs the swather takes. The ones they gave me sure didn’t fit. I picked up the proper ones in Rochester the next day. Haven’t gotten them replaced yet. Maybe Saturday. I greased most of the swather last Saturday, so will finish that and run it around for awhile just to make it feel needed.

We added the 250 bales from last week to the pole barn on Sunday.

Padawan did OK. He’s not a rockstar at this and he sure complains a lot. I asked him later why does he think everything is supposed to be easy? And I thought to myself ‘where does that come from’? Did he not have enough challenges in his life?

He has really nice hair!

The straw this year sure isn’t that bright golden color you’ve come to expect. And there won’t be much oats left in it after the rain and all the raking. That tends to knock out all the loose oats that is left after harvesting. The strawberry farm likes it better that way. I’m just trying to get the stupid stuff done. At least I don’t have anything planted with it that would be getting smothered. In the old days, and sometimes still, oats is just a cover crop to get alfalfa started. Meaning with all the rain and the straw windrow laying out there for a month, it could be smothering the alfalfa underneath. As it is, the grass and weeds are coming on strong and I need to get it dug up soon in order to plant cereal rye. Too much grass and it won’t go through the tillage machine very well.

I started doing some tillage Friday, made three rounds and the tractor overheated and I had steam coming out under the hood. So that took care of that.

If you look at the header photo, it’s interesting that this year there’s so many soybeans right around here. The farm out on the highway is soybeans, our neighbors are soybeans, and then the fields along our driveway are soybeans. It doesn’t mean there’s more soybeans than corn this year, it just means these 50 acres right here are soybeans. Still, interesting.
Next year the neighbors will be corn and mine might be oats. Crop rotation. Corn and soybeans for some guys. Soybeans, oats, corn for me.

On Tuesday when the cold front came through, I was standing out on the college theater loading dock talking on the phone with Kelly and I realized there were bees flying around me. Yellow jackets were coming back to the nest. They knew the weather was changing. It was kind of interesting watching them all return.

The college name is The Yellowjacket’s.

There was an online auction that ended in Plainview on Tuesday. I picked up a couple of small things: some barb wire and a wire stretcher tool, and also a couple lots of assorted tools that Padawan can use. It’s always interesting how things sell.

I’m just about out of diesel fuel and gasoline for the Farm. I keep watching the prices, especially on diesel fuel, but it sure doesn’t seem like it’s going down. I filled the truck in Plainview at an off brand station, saving $0.10 / gallon compared to the name brands.

Driving into town one morning and the shadow of my car was directly in line with the lane of the road. I chuckled at the Vehicle / Stonehenge similarity.

WHY DOES PADAWAN COMPLAIN SO MUCH? *

WHO TOLD YOU LIFE WOULD BE EASY?

*I’m beginning to realize sometimes he’s just talking, but it’s his tone. And I told him, If I didn’t know him, I’d fire his ass because his attitude sucks.

He is waiting to hear about another job…

Uncategorized

I’LL TAKE MINE ON 8-TRACK PLEASE

28 Comments

          

So Columbia House is calling it quits.

I know, we’re all saying, “Columbia House was still around??”

Yep, although now it was 2 DVD’s for $9.95 each.

They even have a Facebook page, last updated in 2015.

I remember joining Columbia House, probably in the late 1970’s, and probably without mom’s permission. Wikipedia says the 8-track tape had mostly disappeared by 1982, so I belonged before that. I can’t remember if I went to records or cassettes after. I got 8-tracks because my older brother had 8-tracks, and mom and dad had a Telex AM/FM Record player, 8-track player. Kelly and I were talking about music in the house when we were growing up. I’ve mentioned Dad always had the radio on down in the barn, ‘for the cows’, I don’t remember a lot of music besides that. Even having purchased the Telex unit, they didn’t seem to play it alot. Mom did encourage me by getting me all the Disney movie records. And Kelly doesn’t remember a lot of music around either. It’s curious then, I always have music on and love music so much. And Kelly likes music, she just doesn’t have it on as much as I do. Interesting.

Back to Columbia House. I had no idea they’d been around for 70 years!

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1BiZAtgdNR/

Information here taken from Wikipedia:

Columbia House was started in 1955 by CBS / Columbia records as an experiment for direct mail marketing. But they wouldn’t offer new titles for 6 months, to give the brick and mortar stores the first chance. The operation grew quickly, and soon moved to Terre Haute Indiana, because there was a rail way there and Columbia had opened a record pressing facility. Columbia House grew quickly, and within a year, had sold seven million records and had 10% of the recorded music market by 1963.

They offered select reel to reel recordings until 1984. I didn’t know anyone with a reel to reel deck until I started doing theater. We did sound effects on reels into the mid 1980’s as it was easy to splice in a leader tape, and cue it up. Easier than trying to cue up a cassette tape anyway.

It’s been a throwback reading all the stuff about how Columbia house worked. Things I’d forgotten like, Yeah, I got a dozen 8 tracks for a penny, but didn’t remember I had to buy more within a few years or something. And they sent that monthly recording automatically unless you sent the post card back first and said not to send it.  I remember my mom getting mad about the records we didn’t want. The article also said usually teenagers intercepted the junk mail offer, and legally were not old enough to enter into this agreement. And with no consequences, they would change the names and keep ordering the free records without buying the others. And then in 2001 there was a website breech and the members private data was exposed. Oops.

When I started all this, we had a young bus driver who knew music and probably encouraged me to buy records. Thinking about what I was buying back then, I’d bet it was Styx, Ozark Mountain Daredevils, and Emerson, Lake, and Palmer. I know I have an 8-track of their recording, ‘Brain Salad Surgery‘.

Eventually I bought a Craig brand AM/FM eight track player. I thought it was pretty cool.

An EBay photo

At some point I took it into the theater for use and when it wasn’t needed anymore the guys threw it out. I’m still sad about that.

But I had also moved up to a Yamaha stereo receiver and turntable, and Omega 300 speakers. The speakers I have out in the shop now. 40+ years old and going strong.

I remember my first CD’s; I bought the double CD of the soundtrack of Jesus Christ Superstar, and the Moody Blues Days of Future Past.

WHAT BRAND NAMES DO YOU REMEMBER FROM GROWING UP?

FIRST RECORDS / RECORDINGS PURCHASED?

2026, animals, Art, books, Kids, Uncategorized

Reading Rules

42 Comments

Finishing a book that I started was a “rule” of mine for more than half my life.  If you had asked me, I wouldn’t have said it was a rule, but that must have been what it looked like from the outside.  My three copies of Ulysses are a case in point.  Ever since my college years, I have thought I should read it but could never make it more than a couple of pages.  Then I would forget I ever had a copy and eventually buy a new one. 

At some point I read some place that so many books are published each year that even if you read a book a day, you would never get to all of them.  That’s when I did make a rule for myself – if I’m not enjoying the reading, I quit and move onto the next book.  I can be ruthless about this; more than once I have dumped a book after just a few pages. 

Today I am returning a book to the library that I have not finished.  It’s a Maggie O’Farrell, an author who I normally adore.  Every one of her books that I’ve read has earned 5 stars.  But yesterday, while listening to it on CD in the car, she broke one of my rules… the dog died.  When it happened I turned off the CD immediately to think about it.  That’s when I realized that even though I was about 1/3 of the way through the book, I hadn’t really connected to any of the characters and wasn’t enjoying it.  When I got home I looked up the summary online and found that continuing was probably not going to be enjoyable to me.  That made me ponder my reading rules.  I’ve never written these down before, in fact have never really thought of them as a list before, but here things that can put me off:

The dog dying (specially if the dog is killed)

Children dying (same caveat as the dog…)

Torture/rape (I quit Rob Roy because of this)

Graphic violence (Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy went back to the library quickly)

Child abuse (a fairly long string of abandoned books for this rule – Demon Copperfield, Swamplandia, Where the Crawdads Sing….)

Vapidness.  This probably seems a silly rule, but if the main characters are all shallow and full of themselves, I don’t see a finished book in my future.  (These tend to get rejected very quickly so I can’t even think of a title!)

I realize that these are all negative rules.  I’ve been pondering if I have any positive reading rules; the only thing I can come up with is things that draw me to books and that list is way too long to put here.  Suffice it say that the list would start with dragons and fairies!

Do you have any reading rules?  What draws you to a book?

2026, Family, Government, home, Uncategorized

Signs

25 Comments

Husband and I were ND State employees for 37 years. As such, we were actively discouraged, almost prohibited, by our bosses from putting political signs in our yard.

This was the case no matter what party was in control of the State government. There apparently was great concern that State employees had to appear as neutral as possible and not be viewed as trying to influence elections.

I suppose in more populous areas inthe country people wouldn’t necessarily know if you were a State employee . In ND, where everyone knows everyone and where they work, nothing was anonymous.

This will be the first year in decades we will be able to put political signs in our yard. Husband is going to the county DFL meeting tomorrow night and I hope he brings some signs home. It is pretty exciting!

Do you put political signs in your yard? Ever run into problems with them or had them vandalized?