2022, animals, Automotive, Farming Update, Nature, pets, Uncategorized, Weather

Finally – Farming!

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This week’s farm report comes to us from Ben.

Well, as I write this, we’ve had one nice sunny day. Finally got some ground worked up. It does dry faster once you open it up, but it’s pretty sticky yet. It is always interesting to me how different soil conditions can be in the same field. I took the ‘First Day of Spring Work’ selfie, packed my tractor snacks, and had my tractor buddy.

I did plant one field of oats; it wasn’t perfect but at least it’s in the ground. Hopefully the weather stays sunny and nice as predicted, and I will finish oats. The co-op called me and we’re coordinating corn fertilizer. Things are moving! Doing some tweaks on the new camera system inside the drill, but I think it’s going to be pretty neat. The photos show the empty tank, and then with seed getting low.

I have one neighbor whose fields are adjacent to mine. Met them along the fence line so we talked for a few minutes. Not any drier on his side of the fence.

 Baby chicks are looking good. They’re about Robin sized. We moved them to a bigger pen and I got them a bigger feeder. All they do is eat and drink.

I found a nest behind a building. It’s a mix of duck eggs and chicken eggs. I’m not quite sure what I’m gonna do about that yet. If I want them to have the best chance at hatching and surviving, I need to collect them all and put them in an incubator. I’ve already got a pen of baby chicks, so I’d have to find another pen for this batch. I can try to let the mama hatch them, and then moving them somewhere safe, but that means keeping an eye on her and the nest and trying to catch them some morning when they’re all on the loose (before the dogs catch them). 

Happy Birthday on the 6th to my wife. Happy Mothers day, too!

Any snacks you need for the road?

59 thoughts on “Finally – Farming!”

  3. Almost every week you send me waves of nostalgia. Baby chicks, brooding hens, the smell of turned earth. And the dog. On our Farmall mounted below the seat was a shelf about 18 inches by 20 inches. It’s purpose was to allow you to step up from the hitch deck onto the seat. Or so we ignorant humans thought. Boots KNEW its true purpose, for him to lie on it and ride along.

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    1. Snacks. Fat me has lost my taste for sweets. Could eat some salty snacks but easy to pass then by, too. Not sure why. But a part of my 40 lb. Weight loss ver 11 months.

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  4. https://photos.app.goo.gl/ZqBneA8JFcvFUBkbA

    Trying to share a photo. See if this works. It’s just a better photo of the camera showing the drill almost out of oats.
    And I would like to clarify, the bag of tractor snacks will last the whole spring. Lemon drops, root beer drops, and cherry drops, hard candies. That’s not one day, that will get me well into summer. By which point they will be melted and sticky and yucky.

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  6. We usually pack more than we actually eat. Last weekend we drove to Cedarburg, Wisconsin, just north of Milwaukee. In our cooler, in addition to sandwiches we had made for lunch when we arrived, we had packed apples, sparkling water, and a pack of McVities digestive biscuits. We discovered digestive biscuits thirty-two years ago when we went to Scotland. The biscuits are mildly sweet and good with coffee or tea. They can be found coated in chocolate or plain. We prefer the plain. They’re hard to find locally, so we have started to order them online, particularly when we are planning a road trip.

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      1. Although graham crackers are the closest cousin to digestive biscuits in this country, I doubt that modern graham crackers much resemble the historic ones. Digestive biscuits have a more pleasing texture and a more complex flavor, in my opinion, than modern graham crackers which like most everything else, are oversweetened.

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        1. I like graham crackers, but they taste nothing like the traditional digestive biscuits, and their texture is completely different. I grew up with the Oxford Biscuit company’s version called Marie Kiks. I’ve seen them everywhere I lived, so I imagine that kids all over the world have grown up with some version of them. I, too, like the plain ones the best.

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        2. Agreed. They haven’t ever suppressed my sexual appetites. We used to buy digestive biscuits in Thunder Bay which were fun around a campfire. But a checkout clerk who was raised in Yorkshire said they were quite different from real thing.
          Bill, kicking around idea of binding my own books. See there are kits. Books out there. How naive am I, how steep the learning cliff to climb?

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        3. Lordy, Clyde! Now you’ve got me wondering. It never entered my mind that either graham crackers or digestive biscuits would in any way interfere with my sexual appetites. At this stage of the game, though, I have to admit that suppressing them isn’t an issue. What I want to know, does anything enhance them?

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        4. Supposedly Dr. Graham thought sex was bad for health and that spicy foods aroused people. So he then, it is said, made the original crackers to be as dull as possible.

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        6. Clyde RE: bookbinding~
          There are a lot of different styles of bookbinding, hundreds of them I’m sure. Many of them require few special tools and are easily achievable. Many of the small press fine printers use those binding techniques for their limited run limited page artist books.

          I’m not sure what a kit would include but I imagine the instructions would be oriented toward one or more of those basic binding styles.

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      1. Actually, Goya Foods is an American company, headquartered in New Jersey, but you’re right, the founder was a Spanish immigrant. There has been quite the controversy over the company’s CEO support of DT in recent years, and lots of people are boycotting their products.

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  7. M&Ms and/or roasted, salted mixed nuts. I also like to have apples cut up into bite sized pieces. Plain water in my bottle. I enjoy your farm posts, Ben!

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  10. Completely OT. 32 hours, 10 hours of gardening, 22 bags out on the boulevard, one lunch with friends, three showers. Spring is here!!

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  11. We are finally home with our pup after a 500 mile drive today. He slept almost the whole way. Our cat is not happy, but allowed some nose bumping. We drove in horrific winds all the way from Fargo. It made stopping at rest areas for puppy breaks miserable. The winds were a steady 30 mph gusting to 44.

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        1. Oh dear! He was in the guest room bed with me last night, and he slept all night. Tonight he will be in the crate.

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        2. He was in the crate this morning while we played bells in church, and he did splendidly. We havevhad a very successful potty day today.

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        3. He is so snuggly! I sleep on my side, and he positions himself between my shoulder blades, and rests his terrier snout on my neck. He doesn’t move all night!

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        5. Oh Margaret! He is so sweet! I will need to be a Hard Hearted Hannah tonight to not rescue him from his crate!!

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  12. Gourmet GORP on my canoe trips: Cashews, almonds, pecans, walnuts, dried cherries, dried cranberries, and dark chocolate M&Ms. I don’t believe I’ve EVER lost weight on a solo canoe trip when I bring that snack. 😦

    Chris in Owatonna

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  13. Sitting on patio in 53° with bit of a breeze and drizzle falling around me. Lots of sudden leaf development.
    Clyde
    (My fingers often make my name Vlyde. Maybe I should make it that.)

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    1. Daughter and family coming over. We have ordered take out from Olive Garden so Sandra can have her favorite shrimp scampi. We will eat in her room with her and she can catch up with kids. Both kids camp counselors this summer. With change over lately 19 year old Lily’s three years experience have raised her to head counselor position, at which she will thrive.

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    2. I’m having a glorious Mother’s Day so far. Read some this morning, managed to solve all of my Wordle, quordle, octordle games, baked a lemon chip cake and now I am in my studio. And because I finished all of the spring cleanup yesterday I can look out into the yard and feel extremely content. And my goodness is stuff growing. I think some of my lilies in the backyard grew 3 inches overnight.

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  15. If I’m driving someplace more than three or four hours then I do pack snacks. Because if I don’t I eat the most appalling crap from gas station shops. When packing I take string cheese, individual slices of American cheese, peanut butter/jelly sandwich. If I’m starting in the morning I take milk as my first beverage.

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    1. i wish i had put a couple thousand on the king shot
      fun story
      they were saying that because of the pandemic and limited race exposure lots of unknown details of horses in the derby
      that horse can run

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  18. My snack option is usually a bag of chips from aldi
    those kettle chips are wonderful reg and bbq

    that apart of tea a bag of grapes or an apple with peanut butter is all I need to make it through the day while I’m out driving around I often times hit Taco Bell I was so sad when my seven layer burrito went away but they replaced it with a fiesta vegetable burrito that’s wonderful

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  19. i love bens farm update
    martha stewart used to amaze me with her week 1 week 14 week 26 calendar organization . it’s a remarkably straightforward way to make sure you don’t forget anything. bens getting his tasks done one step ahead of the due date is impressive
    i hope to implement an organizational skill set like this when i grow up
    thanks ben
    i see the pouffy duck is top center again this week
    who’d have thought we’d replace goats with ducks

    the pouffy duck is our marker this week once again
    state fair duck building will hold special stuff this year forward

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