2022, animals, Farming Update, home, Uncategorized, Weather

April Farming?

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Today’s post comes from Ben

Man, this weather. It’s probably normal for early April to be undecided about what it wants to do… it just doesn’t feel like it after last year’s early spring. And I think I say that every year.

But the turkey vultures have returned! And the Killdeer! And I’ve put the pot of chives out on the step. And just this morning, we heard Sandhill Cranes! (Aw, Steve…sure miss you. )

The other day, the day before it started raining, I got out in the fields with the tractor and loader and started pushing trees off the edges. Most of these down trees were from the December storms and since that was a South wind, these were on the North side of the fences. Meaning It was muddy there and the frost maybe wasn’t out, and it was kind of a mess. Only once did I scare myself thinking I probably shouldn’t have really gotten down in this muddy corner hillside, but I got out and it was all fine. Had three of the tractors running, which always feels good, pulled the seed wagon out, and hooked onto the soil finisher with the big tractor. Made me feel better that I was at least getting a start on things. Doesn’t take too long to get things greased up before getting into the fields.

Also, finally found the lid from the big garbage can that we keep salt and sand mix in. It blew off during that December storm and I figured it was gone for good. Nope, found it thirty feet away in some trees.  

When I left for work one day this week there was a car parked on the township road, just off the highway. I took a photo of it and told Kelly about it. Figured maybe it was someone walking, maybe it broke down, maybe it was a couple high school kids hooking up and left one car here. Didn’t think much of it. But 6 hours later when I came home, and it was STILL there I called the deputies. Turns out it had been stolen. No other details.

Not the first stolen car we’ve found. Thirty years ago there was the car on a field road, but the tires were gone and ignition was ripped out and the dealers lockbox was in the back seat.  We found it before the dealership reported it stolen.   

On the duck and chicken front, all is holding steady. One Phoenix chicken is broody so she’s in a nest box all day. Since I collect the eggs every day, she’s moving daily to sit on someone else’s eggs. And I haven’t had to give them any water the last few weeks (because there’s water everywhere!) But otherwise all is well for the moment. I’ll need to start cleaning up the pen I use for the baby chicks. They’ll be here before I know it.   

What was your biggest accomplishment or disappointment last week?

78 thoughts on “April Farming?”

  1. That’s an easy answer for me. I got my two program from double hockey sticks out the door and done. And the house got uber-cleaned (well, uber for us anyway).

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  3. Not much. Polished up a PowerPoint presentation I’ll be using at library and social group events discussing my writing career and books. First version was okay–this one is MUCH better . . . I think. We’ll see–it debuts today at the Owatonna Public Library.

    Chris in Owatonna

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  4. It felt like this past week was one challenge after another for both me and my friend. We met them successfully, but I sure wouldn’t want to meet challenges like this all the time. I think we will haveva less stressful weekend. Friend’s knee and increasing mobility are progressing nicely.

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  5. Thanks, to VS for her technical assistance inserting the photos in today’s post after the Howard Lake Library closed and I wasn’t able to do it.

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  6. Discovered tea tree oil treatment for folliculitis. Might cancel a visit to a dermatologist.
    Pancakes without milk.
    Bugs Bunny cartoon theme song, This Is It, was written for the show.

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  7. Rise and Shine, Baboons,

    Most of my “achievements” are in the medical realm, and they only involve getting accurate diagnoses. Last fall I had reacted to a medication, no longer on my list, that raised blood pressure and caused some blurry vision. My blood pressure is back down to normal, and the vision blip I experienced last month was caused by a cataract that is doing its thing. Phew. No impending blindness, thank goodness. Then yesterday an X-ray confirmed that indeed I need a hip replacement. Monday I will schedule this.

    The ortho appointment took a long time because the Wi-Fi and computers were feeling pokey and would not produce the digital images. The staff, from the student Xray tech to the surgeon were feeling frustrated and they were all apologizing. It looked like the tech problems were creating a very long, frustrating day for them. I was sympathetic.

    The big accomplishment was at home though. Lou bought an ipad as a way to transition away from a laptop computer that is old and decrepit, to a shiny new ipad. He has an iPhone, but is otherwise Apple illiterate, and he did not want to accept my help setting it up. I TOLD him to write down the device passcode. He did not. I decided to let it all happen….so he lost/forgot the passcode, then locked himself out. I tried to restore the device through iTunes, but this would not move forward, despite me having done this before. So then he had to try to get an Apple repair appointment. He could not even understand how Apple works with all this. I got him an appointment for which he had to pay for.

    Yesterday evening he let me assist him in setting up and allowed me to provide some education, and by the end of the evening he was whizzing around the internet. I tried to tell him. Really, I did.

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  8. I’ve been working on some business cards for my daughter. There’s no particular deadline and the goal is nebulous, so it’s a process.

    I’ve been trying to solve a mystery in Robin’s family tree on Ancestry. The person in question also appears in 81 other family trees on the site and every single one of them is demonstrably wrong. Obviously they’ve copied each other.

    I scanned and uploaded 20 new images of mid-nineteenth century ladies to my Flickr album “Victorian Portraits”:

    Man in ceremonial costume

    The big accomplishment: this morning Wordle in ONE! Also Quordle in six.

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    2. Wordle in ONE, congratulations! It took me three tries, and I was as surprised as anyone since I had only one correct letter in the wrong place when I ventured my third guess. Quordle: 3,4,5,6, and Octordle: 4,5,6,7,8,9,10, and 11.

      Is that a woman in the above photo? Can you post a link to your Flickr album, please?

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      1. Because my iPad is signed into Flickr, I get a different response, perhaps, to the link than you would. The album where I placed the new images already had a few portraits. The new ones are simply labeled CDV-1 through CDV-20.

        Man in ceremonial costume

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      1. The twenty ladies in hoop skirts were part of a bunch of images Robin collected as fashion reference back when we were doing living history. I was looking at them the other day and realized that many of the images were better than the vintage images available these days, so I decided to scan a few and add them to an album I already had established. Can you guess which of the twenty images has gotten the most views?

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        1. My guess would be either the one of the two women with the weird hair on either side of their heads, or the one near the end of an older woman in a black dress with a bonnet with large white things hanging down in front? They’re really all amazing to look at. I marvel at the amount of fabric that must have been needed for most of those dresses. The cover photo is really interesting, too. Some sort of official?

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  9. Biggest accomplishment was I was able to go to work every day and teach my butt off. We’re working on an in-depth research paper and my students are pretty receptive to feedback and discussion about their writing. It’s both exhausting and so much fun at the same time 😊

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  10. I’ve managed to clean the living-dining room floors. And Husband is making oatmeal raisin cookies. You would not believe what a big deal this is right now – I am thrilled that he has found a project. (For the newer baboons, he had a stroke last June and, though not totally debilitating, it’s been a slog.)

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        1. I’m voting with Ben on the chocolate chip cookie. And while I would never keep anyone from eating an oatmeal raisin cookie if they really wanted it……

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  11. Well, here’s a disappointment. My town is predicted to get 10-20 inches of snow this coming Tuesday- Thursday. I planned to drive home on Wednesday. I still plan to leave on Wednesday, but only as far as Fargo, which isn’t in the storm at all. I will stay there until the roads in the West are clear.

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    1. The heaviest snow amounts are predicted between my town and Bismarck. Of course, if the temperature goes up 5 degrees, it may all come as rain.

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  12. Yikes! I’ve tried all day to get back here and write a response. My greatest achievement in the past week was to make through the week. With work and PT and the dismal weather, I have been feeling discouraged.

    Pippin has reached a point of no return with me working. He’s an all or nothing dog and he’s become completely intolerant of me being absent from home, even for an hour or so. He has destroyed the baby gate system I have always used to keep him in the kitchen when I am gone. He’s learned to knock the gate down no matter how I try to support it. Today I left him free in the house after child proofing everything. I’ll have to see how it went when I get home. I’ll be very glad if I get home to a safe happy dog who hasn’t eaten foreign objects or destroyed anything!

    I successfully put together and set up my new grill! I used it yesterday to grill salmon.

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    1. I’m delighted to say that it worked to leave Pippin free in the main part of the house rather than gate him in the kitchen. As far as I can tell, he only pulled one of my beadwork projects off the dining room table. I can’t find anything shredded or destroyed, nothing apparent that he might have eaten, no toileting accidents! Yay!

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  13. Yesterday I lifted my left arm and applied deodorant without thinking about the arm or supporting it. A big deal since my surgery! PT is paying off!

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    1. …and still, you got it in four. Good effort.
      Wordle 295 4/6*

      🟨⬜🟩⬜⬜
      🟨🟩🟩⬜⬜
      ⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

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  15. Continued disappointment with the weather, as the storm is predictions are expanding it south and east. I do hope I can make it home by Saturday.

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  16. Got up, did few things, made coffee , sat down in chair facing out my patio window to drink it. Oops screen door across my view. Opened door, slid screen out of way, closed door, sat down and looked again. Despite my poor eyes getting worse, something looked different. I stare at these brown woods; both it and I waiting for green. Then an ear flicked. Two year old doe, known her since soon after her birth. She had to have seen and heard me and seems to accept me as no danger. My how her colors were perfect for this time of year. She started her morning ablutions lying down, grooming and scratching often checking on me. Then she stood up and continued the process, right down to tail. With tongue or hoof she can reach every part of her body. After ten minutes she stretched out each leg and her neck. She gave me one last look and wandered off. Fun part was watching her do pretty much what I had done.

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  18. Squirrel followed me to the door yesterday, looking for peanuts. This is a squirrel that became semi-tame last summer. I didn’t see much of the little critter over the winter, and it’s been around infrequently this spring. Has a stretch of skin on one side of its neck that has no fur, probably some itchy mange or fungus condition that made it scratch its fur completely off in that spot. Some areas around its back and rib area also look a little patchy.

    A Google search tells me this is not uncommon in squirrels in late winter and spring. Maybe a little peanut therapy will help relieve its discomfort.

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