2023, animals, Family, Farming Update, gardening, Nature, Weather

On and On It Goes

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The weekend Farm Report comes to us from Ben.

It rained again a bit. We got another 0.44 Wednesday morning; a nice gentle rain pretty much all morning. Is it too little too late? We wait and see.

The soybeans that didn’t germinate back in May are coming in and we are just starting to see the rows. Man, they’re gonna have to hustle to amount to anything by fall. 

The corn looks terrible; it’s just all over the place for height. I’ve seen some barely as tall as me just beginning to tassel.

And some is only knee high… I don’t know… it will be what it will be. It’s interesting on the edge of a field, the trees use so much moisture, the plants are only a couple feet tall in a patch matching the canopy of the tree. There is something called ‘Field

Edge Effect’ meaning the field edge suffers from winds or herbicides from neighboring fields. Must be nice to have huge fields with no trees around the edges.

The agronomists are saying we should still think about applying fungicide to the corn because it will actually help prevent senescence (and cannibalism) even if it stays dry. Too much science behind it to get into it, but it’s always interesting what is happening in the corn plant to create an ear!  

The oats are turning color. I’m not quite sure what’s going to happen with the oats and it’s stressing me out. I don’t expect it will have a good enough test weight to meet the requirements for human food grade, and we won’t know until we start harvest. I don’t know if ‘those guys’ are going to combine it all anyway, or if they’ll start, find out it’s crap, and bail, meaning I’ll have to get my other guy to combine. And who’s hauling it anyway? I’m working on answers to all these questions, just haven’t gotten them yet. 

We had a family reunion / potluck last Saturday. Twenty-six people attended. It was a far cry from the 50 that were there in 2007, and sad how many people we’ve lost since then. And it’s hard to get the next generation interested. I better stop before I sound like an old fart. 

I’ve had the 20′ scissor lift rented this week, so it’s all been about the shed. Added the 2×4 ceiling joists under the roof trusses, the ceiling steel will be attached to the 2×4’s. 

That went quick; however, the rental lift is being temperamental and only works when it wants too. Course it worked when the repair guy was there. 

My brother has helped, my friend Paul has helped, our son came done one day and helped and of course Kelly is always helping one way or another; moral support, ideas, helping move things, and even driving the lift.

And the teenage helper from last summer, young padawan, has come back, bringing a friend with him. Two teenage boys…I tried not to roll my eyes too hard. But they did good. When we took a break, padawan took this year’s new kid around the farm in the gator. 

They’ve all been good help. We got the last big window in, and some of the ceiling steel installed. And my brother and son were impressed with the cool tools I have; like the metal shears that attach to a cordless drill. I didn’t know it was anything fancy. 

Course I also poked myself in the thumb, twice, using a dental pick like thing while working on something. Not cool.

Black raspberries are out, and right by the shed, so they’ve been a nice snack for us.

The lift was supposed to go back Friday,but I paid an extra day to keep it over the weekend. The ceiling steel goes fast once we get going. And I need to finish sealing off the one truss to keep the birds out. Half done with that.

Once all that is done, it’s up to the contractors to do the wall insulation. I called them the other day to let them know I’m ready and to get on the schedule. I have an ‘attic access’ panel, but I wasn’t sure how much they need to get around up there. Turns out they need more than I had, so I used some old 20′ sections of pipe to make walkways in the rafters so they can get to all the corners. Use what you have available. Dad would be pleased. 

Funny story about the lift. It doesn’t take much for the battery to get weak and it won’t go up. It tries, it goes up about 6″, then stalls. Oh, it whines and makes noises, but it doesn’t go ‘up’. So, the boys would jump in the air, thereby fooling the lift about how much weight it’s lifting, and it would raise another 6″. They’d jump again, it would gain another 6″, and then it would lift the rest of the way. So stupid it was funny and it made us laugh. 

The boys also cleaned out an area next to the shed where we’ve been dumping stuff for years. They dug out some old wire, cement blocks, even bricks! No idea where the bricks came from. I need to smooth it out a bit, and it will be nice to mow in there eventually. 

I’m hoping next week to start mowing weeds. And oats will be ready soon. And I’ve got a show to light in Rochester opening 7/25 and another to light in Chatfield opening 8/4. And then I’m back at ‘work’ work 8/10. 

But let’s not get ahead of myself. 

HOW MANY CANNIBAL JOKES DO YOU KNOW? DO YOU GET RIGHT UP OUT OF BED IN THE MORNING?

41 thoughts on “On and On It Goes”

  1. I don’t get out of bed as soon as I (slowly) wake up. I check the news, emails, do puzzles, cards online…and read the Trail Baboon!

    Sent from Yahoo Mail for iPhone

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  2. I’m usually out of bed soon after the eyes open. Pit stop down the hall, then my morning puzzles (connections, octordle, quordle, wordles), advice columns. From there, the routine can vary… most mornings reading for awhile.

    Can’t think of one single cannibal joke… hopefully Bill will be online today and help out!

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  4. I wake up about 5:00 and usually try to stay in bed until about 5:30, not doing anything, just trying to extend my sleep a little. Then I get up, make myself a cup of tea and put away the dishes from the night before, then read—the news, the Trail, a book—until Robin stirs, whereupon I make her coffee and bring it to her in bed, where she likes to do her morning reading.

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  6. Rise and Shine, Baboons,

    I don’t remember many jokes at all, so cannibals don’t show up in the two jokes I do remember.

    I do get up right away in the morning, usually at 6:30am. Once I am awake it is the most productive and enjoyable part of my day. One day during the time I stayed at my sister’s home for mom’s Memorial Service I slept until 7:30am. That rarely happens. But by that time it had been weeks of traveling and being with family, which exhausted me. After it was all over it took almost two weeks just to get beyond the fatigue I felt. This week I finally felt a bit better.

    I like to walk or exercise in the morning, too. During the spring I developed bursitis in my right heel. It requires me to stay off of it, so I hired a neighbor to walk Phoebe, who needs a lot of exercise as a puppy. I have been going to the gym and doing a seated cross trainer to strengthen my right leg while my heel is off-limits. Thursday or Friday I hope to resume walking Phoebe.

    I am finally going to be home for the rest of the summer into September. I have Memorial Thank you notes to write on Mom’s behalf, and retirement plans to tend to now. What a year of endings this has been.

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  7. I wish I could remember jokes but I can’t. I’m completely lacking cannibal jokes. I’m sure I’ve heard one at some point. I hear a joke when it’s told, I laugh, it’s gone – just that quick!

    I’m usually very slow in the morning. Pippin is much more excited about being awake and getting up than I am. He will decide it’s time to get up and start being restless. Finally he will shake really hard, jingling his tags loudly, as if to tell me I’m just being lazy. I try to remember to remove his collar and tags before bed but I often forget.

    I usually do get up around 6, take him outside for his business, bring him back in and give him his breakfast and meds. Then I spend a long time just sitting, thinking, reading, breathing, and drinking coffee. If I didn’t have Pippin, I would probably not move at all until mid-morning.

    I like to walk about mid-morning but I can’t do it when the air quality is bad. Neither Pippin nor I can tolerate the hot, humid weather for vigorous walking. This summer hasn’t been great for getting outdoor exercise.

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  8. So in what way can corn be susceptible to cannibalism, Ben?

    I often try to sleep a little longer (if I’ve had to get up more than once during the night), but am usually up between 6:30 and 7. Then I do my 7-minute yoga while tea water is heating (I don’t allow myself tea until after the yoga). Then before Husband is up, I try to check the emails and the blog, and get breakfast at least started. If we need to be out someplace early, I may not get on to the blog till afternoon.

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    2. I was hoping someone would ask. 🙂

      The ear size has already been determined at this point, so now it’s just getting each silk fertilized by the tassel to create the kernel. But if stressed, the plant will cannibalize some of the kernels; using the energy to survive rather than make the kernel.

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  9. Ben.
    For a measly $10, I won’t turn you over to the OSHA cops. 😃
    Nah! You’re safe being you’re self-employed and have no employees. Having worked under the watchful eyes of health and safety people, I know that on a regular construction site, they would have a heart attack seeing anyone jumping up and down on a lift. Heck, I was written up when my hard hat fell off while crouching down to work flooring under a cabinet toekick. Many construction companies now wear helmets with chin straps. The PPE, Personal Protective Equipment, regulations can be tough.

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    1. Ha! Never thought that jumping in a lift would be an OSHA violation.
      “But I’m just trying to get the job done!”
      We are careful, I hook the safety chain and everything. And only sometimes do I stand on the railing…

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  10. I am not a morning person. Never have been. And working from home has only made it worse… I tend to stay up late and then sleep until the very last possible minute before I need to be upright and moving for work. Most of the time I can take my team’s morning check in from my phone, so I can wander around and make coffee, let the dog out, etc. while that meeting happens. I usually don’t need to be on camera for anything until later in the morning, so no one is the wiser if I am still brushing my teeth while I listen to updates from my teammates. If I don’t have an event to be awake for on weekends, I will sleep even later… the critters here are more likely to snuggle in and be cozy than bother with getting up until I actually start moving. None of this is helped by the occasional insomnia that wakes me in the middle of the night…

    …so if I am on a lot less than I used to be, it’s because I have become a teenager in my sleep habits in my middle age. TB used to be part of my morning routine when I actually left the house for work. Would read while I had breakfast. Breakfast often now happens while I am hearing from my co-workers in India instead. And then the day starts and a couple weeks go by and… oof.

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    1. I hear ya. I do a lot better in the mornings when I have a deadline, like getting daughter to programming. Left on my own… I take forever.
      And the whole family has become night owls. It’s just dumb.

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  14. The Waking
    By Theodore Roethke

    I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
    I feel my fate in what I cannot fear.
    I learn by going where I have to go.

    We think by feeling. What is there to know?
    I hear my being dance from ear to ear.
    I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.

    Of those so close beside me, which are you?
    God bless the Ground! I shall walk softly there,
    And learn by going where I have to go.

    Light takes the Tree; but who can tell us how?
    The lowly worm climbs up a winding stair;
    I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.

    Great Nature has another thing to do
    To you and me; so take the lively air,
    And, lovely, learn by going where to go.

    This shaking keeps me steady. I should know.
    What falls away is always. And is near.
    I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
    I learn by going where I have to go.

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