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WHEW

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Today’s Farm Report comes from Ben.

Man, this week. Or this month. Or this year. Or maybe this Spring. Whoosh. There it goes…

I had that equipment up at the online auction that ended on Tuesday. But the corn head for the chopper (the part used when chopping up corn. Just like it sounds I guess) was in a part of the old shed that I never try to get into until June. It was quite the deal getting the corn head out on Sunday evening. (Saw Hamilton Sunday afternoon. Yes, it was as fantastic as I expected).

There was still ice and snow back on Sunday. Remember that? I chopped and dug and eventually cut 6” off the bottom of one door before I got them open. Then moved the hay rake, and thank goodness the swather started, and I had to chop out more ice because the swather has no traction. Then moved some other junk, THEN was able to get to the corn head out and load it on the trailer. It was kind of a process.

Hauled that to the auction lot on Monday, went to the vet’s office across the street and spent too much money on tick prevention and heartworm pills for the dogs. Talked to the agronomist about getting fertilizer spread for the oats, ordered diesel fuel, and picked up oats seed. Had a township ‘Board of Appeals’ meeting regarding property taxes in the afternoon.

After the meeting, Daughter and I picked up driveway markers, I moved the snowblower out of the shed, and Kelly and I cut some brush behind the shed. It was a good day.

The auction. My stuff didn’t sell as good as I wanted it too. But the chopper was 40 years old and been in the shed unused for the last 20 years, so at least it’s gone. The rear blade sold pretty well. And the old tools of dads went for a couple bucks.

The ‘vintage’ item I had were old cultivator shields. Sold for $2. Scrap price might have been $3 or $4…I thought someone might have a unique use for them. No one would use them as cultivator shields anymore. And I bought a rock “grapple” bucket for my loader.  It’s like ‘fingers’ to grab trees and rocks and “stuff”. Always wanted one. I’ll need to add some more hydraulics line to run it… you remember how the last hydraulic project went. I will pay more attention to this one.

The killdeer have returned. The Sandhill Cranes are back (Hi Steve!) and Kelly has been listening to them call during the day since she has the windows open in this warm weather.  The chives are coming and Kelly found a deer shed on one of her walks.

I haven’t seen the female duck lately, and there’s two males here. I’m hoping she’s sitting on a nest. I saw eggs in the pond and when I googled “Why are there duck eggs in my pond”, the thought is ducks are lousy moms. Eggs just sort of ‘pop out’ where-ever they are. Like the pond apparently. Google also said not to eat them.

When the diesel fuel was delivered, I was talking with the driver that the gauge has been broken since I got this tank and I couldn’t get the old one out. He said it shouldn’t be that hard; “get a hammer and chisel.” And those, along with an 18” pipe wrench and a pipe extension handle, we did get the old one out. The new gauge is nice.

Been hanging lights and started programming lights for the musical ‘Spring Awakening’ at the Rep theater, and finishing up set stuff for ‘Boy Gets Girl’ at the college. Both open next Thursday and luckily college rehearsals are afternoon and the Rep’s are evening.

And I farm between things.

Started planting oats Thursday night! Hope to finish on Friday. It’s even a little dusty. I keep forgetting the thermometer to check the soil temperature, but I know it’s warmed up.

CAN YOU TALK LIKE AN AUCTIONEER?

45 thoughts on “WHEW”

  1. No, I would love to be able to do that, though – very much like singing, I think.
    We’ve been watching old Gilmore Girls episodes (very entertaining fantasy!) – the two main characters could, I think… they talk so fast we can barely make out what they’re talking about.

    Questions: I just figured out that “deer shed” means the antlers… (At first I thought of a shelter they’d created, but that didn’t sound right… 🙂

    And do you know why Google says to not eat the duck eggs? I see them sometimes at the co-op.. (I could probably look it up, but…)

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    1. I think the reason is that eggs can be prone to contamination, and the eggs in the pond might have frozen, gotten very warm, cracked and be prone to any number of germs, etc, that would make you sick.

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        1. Good point. Although since they were not floating, they wouldn’t be spoiled. And the water is cool enough they should be ‘fresh’. But the shells are a little permeable, that you don’t know what bacteria or germs could have gotten inside. I certainly did wonder if they’d be OK though…

          Liked by 2 people

        2. Just binged on a delightful gardening show on Britbox. At one point the gardener Carol Klein dumps a barrow load on top of her compost pile. Then she decides some of the chard looks fine so she digs it out of what she dumped and breaks some off and says she will have it for dinner. Approve or disapprove?
          Clyde

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  2. Only auctions I’ve participated in have been ebay auctions and there are no glossolalic narrators there. Auctioneer patter seems so unnecessary anyway. It’s just one of those weird traditions that has gotten stylized beyond all utility.

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        1. My understanding of this is that the patter gets a hypnotic rhythm going among the crowd, similar to poetry, but without the poetic meaning. It is strange experience at an auction because I feel drawn in, then I want to raise my paddle even if I don’t want the item being auctioned—the patter response and point is reinforcing. And then I find myself wanting to win the bid! It seems intuitive and primitive.

          Liked by 3 people

        2. I think you’re right, Jacque, there’s something almost hypnotic about the auction patter.

          When I used to go to auctions, I always had a very limited budget – and no credit cards – so I had to be clear on how much I was able to spend. I’d always go early to review the items for sale ahead of time, and to size up potential competition for items I might be interested in. After a while, it was easy to identify the pros from the amateurs when it came to bidding; dealers who knew the resale value of something vs those who didn’t have a clue. Fortunately for me, a lot of the things I was interested in weren’t “hot” items at the time.

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  3. Rise and Shine Baboons,

    As a child I attended auctions with my dad, who loved any kind of auction. He also had planned to become an auctioneer as a skill to add to his farming repertoire. MS affected his speech so much he could not do that, but he used to run around the house talking like an auctioneer, pretending to auction off our belongings. It was fun.

    Ben, it sounds like a fun, productive week on the farm after all our weeks of waiting for Spring.

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      1. It was fun. Like listening to a foreign language. There is such an auction culture. Plus I loved anything my dad did. His world was so interesting tome.

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  4. I did finish planting Friday afternoon. Whew! Got that done.
    I found it interesting, soil temps at 6″ were 58 degrees in the sunny spots, on the north side of the trees, and under a thick layer of matted down grass. So the temp must be coming from underneath more than directly from the sun shining down. It will be interesting check that again Monday. And I should have checked at 3″ too.

    Headed out to pick up the grapple.

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  6. Ben, you’re just making me tired. I can’t believe all that you get done. No auctions for me except for a couple of eBay ones years and years ago. I am actually being thankful to mother nature right now. If it weren’t raining I don’t think I could keep myself from starting to clean up the yard and I think I need at least one more week of warm weather before I do that.

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      1. Last year! And it was 3 or 4 surgeries depending how you count them! Make no mistake, I am grateful everyday. We’re
        Coming up on one year since my world kinda turned upside down.
        Might explain why I feel
        So driven this year. 🙂

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  8. I loved going to auctions, and used to do it regularly both in Carbondale and when we first arrived in the Twin Cities. Some auctioneers are a lot more fun than others. Of course, some auctions are pretty sad and somber affairs, and I’d not enjoy going to one of those.

    At auctions I’ve bought several Oriental rugs, antique wine glasses, pottery, old quilts, copper pots in various sizes and much more. Once, toward the end of an auction, I bought a box of miscellaneous household gear. My favorite vegetable peeler was in there, and a plaque with six or seven different samples of barbed wire!

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  9. When my widowed grandma finally had to leave her house for a nursing home, there was an auction – I wish I had gone with my dad, because later I realized that my favorite things of hers, some of which I would have loved to have, left the family that day.

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    1. Years ago I went to a lot of estate sales. It always saddened me when I’d come across a large box of family photos, some of them quite wonderful, but mostly random snapshots of no photographic merit, that apparently no one in the “family” had any interest in.

      I went to Steve’s “estate” sale and bought three items. An old wooden cutting board with a handle, an ovenproof, enameled metal dish by Dansk, and a paper bag full of CDs.

      Hans brought the cutting board with him to Ely on one of his trips, and forgot it, and of course, it was gone by the time he got back up there. The Dansk dish I use regularly when I cook one of my one-pot dishes and think of Steve. One CD in the bag was one Steve had made as a Christmas present for Molly. It was a recording of him playing the guitar. When he returned to the Twin Cities I mentioned that CD to him, and asked he would like it back. He did, and drove over and delivered it to him.

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      1. Pretty soon my posts will be unintelligible because of all of the words I leave out. Sorry folks, but if you can decipher tim’s dictations, I’m hoping your can figure out what I’m trying to say, missing words notwithstanding.

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  11. i am barely able to do ebay auction talk i cannot do the so about the 20 dollar bill but i love it
    i love going to watch the auctions at the state fair on pigs and farm critters
    i can talk like a pirate
    duck eggs and chard perfect leftovers
    the 80 degree weather got everything growing
    fields are green here
    i’m ready

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  12. Carol Klein, the woman in that garden show I watched with so much joy, is a Ben. Her garden is more than a full time job. It is large and varied, full of trees and all sorts of plants. She must be about 60. She is always planting, propagating, evening in the fall and winter, out collecting seeds even in the wild. It is organized chaos. There is also a book. Life in a Cottage Garden.
    But you have to subscribe to Britbox to watch it.

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  13. I’ve never been to a live auction but according to ebay I’ve engaged in about 450 online auctions (and those are just the ones I’ve won) since 1998. Online auctions have their own rules and strategy but you still have to know your limit and stick to it.

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      1. In the last couple of decades it’s been mostly books and I realize now that the number ebay records is the total number of transactions, so that number also includes items I’ve sold.

        Back in 1998 when I first started exploring ebay I was buying vintage Viewmasters and packets of Viewmaster slides. I had some fun ones like Queen Elizabeth’s coronation and like the mermaids at Weeki Watchi Springs.

        Then I got interested in photographic images of theatrical personalities from the nineteenth century and managed a sizeable collection while the prices were still reasonable. I couldn’t afford them now.

        The last year or so, Robin has been buying up vintage and antique kimonos and other Japanese garments and fabric and I’m naturally engaged in that with her.

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  14. I’ve participated in silent auctions, both online and in person. Those are usually fundraisers, and for me that makes a difference. I’ve been known to pay more than the stated value for something, simply because I wanted to support the cause or the organization involved.

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