animals, Business, Farming Update, Nature, pets, Seasons, Uncategorized

Early March Farming

40 Comments

Today’s farm report comes to us from Ben.

Pants! I’m wearing pants. I can’t button pants with only one hand (I’m not sure anyone can) so it’s nice to have two (almost) working arms again and have pockets and I have my flashlight and micro Leatherman and all my accessories. It’s nice.

Not much happening here yet. We are into the first mud of the season. Every time the dogs go out, they come back with muddy feet that need to be cleaned off. Humphrey is pretty good: he waits on the step, “foot” means he gives me his left front paw, “other foot” is right paw. Bailey sure wants to be a people dog, she loves people. Every time I come home she will be on the step with a paw in the air so she can climb in my lap; a problem when she’s muddy. Front door or side door, she runs ahead of me and gets up on the edge to look into my eyes. That’s her in the header photo. We got her from an Amish family. Her mom is a Blue Healer, Dad was a Pomeranian. She’s just over 3 years old.

Allie, the Queen of them all, finally used her new pillow.

She’s all attitude for 15.

The chicken’s feet are muddy which means the eggs are muddy (unless I get them before they step on them to lay another). They are enjoying the warmer weather and taking dust baths in the pen.

The driveway is getting mushy, snow is melting fast, and that one room in the basement has got a little bit of water on the floor again. I put the extension on the gutter downspout for a few weeks while the snow is melting off the roof and the water in the basement goes away.

The duck pond is getting bigger every day as the ice melts, but it’s going to be a month yet before I can reset the drain outlet and regain the 6 inches of depth they’ve lost due to a leak. It’s just a homemade pond, made when the tile guy was replacing a drain tile, he just excavated a hole and dumped a little dirt at the end to make it pond up. Didn’t take much for the water to cut a trench and to that I added a piece of PVC pipe, but it’s still hard to keep it sealed up at the end. We’ve got good green clay, known as Decorah Edge for the outlet. It just needs an hour with a shovel.

The other morning, I went out to do chores and the ducks were not in their usual place at the pond. Then they weren’t in their second usual place with the chickens, nor their third usual place under the trailer. I found them in their fifth usual place out behind the pole barn. And a few hundred yards beyond them, coyotes are howling. Saw a coyote some 400 yards away and took a shot at it. He jumped and spun in circles about three times and then trotted off. The ducks came home, back to the usual spot without any casualties. I wish you would stay closer to home ducks.

Spring also means the yahoo’s are dumping ditch trash; the township guys have picked up 2 batchs of trash in the last week. First load was just plain junk and trash. Second load was two box springs, two different size mattresses and a door. Idiots.

Which body part would you like to be bionic and what features would you have?

40 thoughts on “Early March Farming”

  2. Since I’ve had chronic back problems for 45+ years, I’d like a bionic spine. Just to go a week without any tweaks, twinges, spasms, strains, or pains would be heavenly. It’s not a debilitation sort of thing other than the rare nerve spasm that takes my breath away. Thankfully I haven’t had one of those in years, but I’ve been close a few times. The threat’s always there and I have to be careful.

    After that, bionic ears so I wouldn’t have to deal with tinnitus. Then, bionic eyes so I’d have the 20-20 vision of a teenager but could also zoom into telephoto mode and have the sight equivalent to a high-powered telescope.

    Pretty modest requests, wouldn’t you say? 🙂

    Chris in Owatonna

    **BSP** If you’re in the Owatonna area this morning, stop by Little Professor Book Center, 110 W Park Square, from 10- Noon and pick up a signed copy of my new book Dangerous Straits. I’d love to meet some other Babooners and we won’t have snow here today, just rain starting this afternoon.

    Then you can stop in for coffee and a goodie at either Central Park Coffee (great muffins) or OTB Cafe (best bagels in Southern MN), two of my favorite writing haunts here in town. They’re only a block and two blocks away from the bookstore, respectively on North Cedar. **End BSP**

    Liked by 5 people

    Reply

  3. Snorting tea at “It just needs an hour with a shovel”… you make it sound so easy, Ben! Good luck with that pond… and the ducks! Uffda.

    I would like to be able to do that gymnastics move I’ve seen where they’re on their back and somehow spring up onto their feet. Or maybe it was in some movie… So I guess upper lets, and upper arms so I could do all those handstands baboons were talking about the other day.

    At this point a bionic brain wouldn’t hurt, either.

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

  4. I have arthritis in my thumbs, and lumbar scoliosis, which causes regular issues with sciatica. Bionic thumbs and spine would be welcome.

    It dawned on me this week that the people on my Youth and Family treatment team view me as old. They are young enough to be my children, but I never felt “old”. The case manager and I drove to a small town about 20 miles away for a school meeting, and she drove the state car. There was freezing fog, and our colleagues warmed her to be careful.”Oh, I will. I have precious cargo” (referring to me) and made sure she dropped me off in front of the school before she parked the car so I wouldn’t slip and fall on the ice. My actual children think I am going to live forever. Sigh.

    Liked by 4 people

    Reply

    1. Renee, there is a young man on our consultation team who views me as “very wise and soooo experienced.” Then he stops and says, “I am not saying you are old.” Yes, I believe he is saying I am old. 🤨🙄

      Liked by 5 people

      Reply

  5. Since I have both tinnitus and presbyopia, I would like the same bionic ears and eye that Chris wants. It would sure be nice to experience actual “quiet” again and to read books or music without needing glasses.

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

  6. Rise and Shine Baboons.

    I am in line for a bionic right hip. Like Chris, I would like to be without the twinges and spasms. While we have been here in AZ, I suspect most of the cartilage which was i the joint once upon a time, is gone. Features I want: superhuman strength and flexibility that then transfers itself to the rest of my body. I also agree with Barb. A bionic brain might be helpful at times.

    Liked by 6 people

    Reply

  11. I’d really like an extra strong, extendable arm. If I get a new shoulder some day, I’m not sure they can make that part extendable or not.

    Eyes would be cool, the telephoto part especially. And night vision. And maybe they could make the bionic knees extendable too?
    Hmm, extendable arms, or extendable knees / legs? Would one be better than the other?

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

  12. If I had bionic legs, could it make me a little taller. I’d love to have two more inches so I can get to the top shelves in the kitchen more easily. If that’s not doable then I’m gonna go the ear and eye route. It would be very useful to be able to see in the dark and not have to turn up the sound on the television or the book on tape too loud.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  13. OT. YA and I made the painful decision last night to forgo Pi Day again this year. Three years in a row. It’s killing me. But even though things are relaxing, we’re not quite ready yet. So please everybody keep your fingers crossed for Pi & 1/2 Day in September.

    Liked by 5 people

    Reply

  14. Like others, I have lumbar scoliosis and arthritis in my lumbar spine. It’s started to show in my footsteps. Every morning there is severe pain in my lower back when I get up and I deal with it by sitting for awhile with a hot cup of coffee. It really hurts. I’m having more trouble getting through a shift at work due to this pain. By the end of the evening, I’m really suffering. So, I’ll take a bionic spine, please. Throw in a bionic right knee and bionic eyes and I’ll be set for life!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    2. try an inversion table they are available on Amazon for about $100 I bet that will make a huge difference contact me before you get into it after you set it up it’s very easy but I want to show you how to do it the gentle easy way and five minutes a couple times a day will make a big difference

      Liked by 3 people

      Reply

        1. Wow! Thanks for the advice, tim! And for the offer Barb! How big are they? I really don’t have a lot of space here and I keep trying to downsize my stuff. Usually I make a deal with myself that if I really want something, I have to get rid of something else. I’m guessing this is a relatively large thing, like a large chair? I would like to try it but I’ve been thinking of trying a chiropractor. I also try to do a little yoga every day and I find that ‘cat-cow’ stretches really help create space between the vertebrae – I suspect that might be the point of inversion. I wonder if inversion tables are available in chiropractic offices. I’ve been considering dropping some money on my allergies/asthma. Maybe I will check out what they can do with my spine, if anything. I also think that dropping a bit of weight would help. That’s easy to say but I find it challenging to do.

          Like

  16. my secret power would be to rotate my bionic part as needed with a max of 7 parts in use at on time
    ears eyes hands back legs neck shoulders and since surgery on the prostate that part too
    running 70 mph flying and esp all good add ins too

    Liked by 5 people

    Reply

  17. Nice photo of Bailey.

    Hope the ducks and chickens don’t fall victim to this bird flu that’s going around lately.

    I’m not sure about a particular body part I would like to make bionic, but it would be nice to have a full set of completely unbreakable bones. Icy out there today! Be careful, friends!

    Liked by 4 people

    Reply

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.