2023, animals, Farming Update, Food, Kids, Nature, pets

Knock Knock

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The weekend Farm Report comes to us from Ben.

I used to have dad stories, and I am disappointed in myself that I don’t remember as many of them as there really are.

These days I have mom stories. Mom is 97 1/2 years old and in pretty good health, and while not diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, she’s 97 1/2 years old, and she forgets things, and she’s blind, and she gets anxious. I cut her some slack when she calls me for the sixth time to ask if she should get out of bed yet. Might be 9 AM, might be 10 PM, might be 2 AM.  I’m also very lucky there’s five kids; four of which live around here (one of whom was a geriatric nurse practitioner) and we all share daily texts on how mom is doing. Mom’s Alexa has been a lifesaver; it’s what allows her to make those phone calls. But mom mumbles and Alexa hears all sorts of random things. And she turns the music up and down, up and down, up and down, and then it’s so quiet she can’t hear it when she calls us. Mom started using it a few years ago when she was still in her apartment, so it kind of got ingrained. Social workers and nursing staff have complimented us on how helpful Alexa is to her. And my mom, true to form, has become a bit of a trendsetter because other residents in her senior place have gotten Alexa’s of their own. Attaway Mom! Makes me think of one of my favorite jokes. “Mom says, ‘If everybody else was jumping off a bridge, would you jump too?’ ‘Mom, you taught me to be a leader, not a follower.’ ” 

Typically I do a rough draft of the blog on Thursday, then proof-read (which clearly doesn’t always work) and clean it up on Friday. My computer ate Thursday’s draft, but the second draft is always better anyway. As I was writing Thursday night, daughter was making a couple of fried eggs. Time management is not her strong suit. She will set the burner to low medium heat, put a couple eggs in, and then go back to her room. I was writing, I got distracted, at some point 20+ minutes later, I said, “have you checked your eggs“. (She says she likes them crunchy)  And I hear her door, and hear her in the kitchen, from where she will yell, “I got it, Dad“ Yep, she’s always got it.

I haven’t talked about the chickens lately. They are just hanging in there. Egg production is down a bit, which is to be expected this time of year. These layer hens were born in April 2022, so they are past peak production. This year’s chicks, which I got in June 2023, may start laying about January or so, and will hit peak production along about March or April. 

Crops are still standing, ten-day forecast looks good, so I’m trying not to stress about that either. I did get the outside of the shop windows trimmed and sealed. Then I walked into the shed and saw the box with the foam sealer strips that I bought specifically for that project.

Sigh.

I did some more work on the inside getting two by fours on the wall so I can finish the interior steel.

Took the carburetor off my old 630 tractor, I’ve watched a few videos of how to rebuild it and I’ve ordered the overhaul kit. (Got a hat for $0.99!) Fixing that carburetor has been on my list all summer, so I look forward to getting that checked off.

I’ve dragged up some scrap iron. I need to get some of that cut up so it fits on the trailer, and while it isn’t the end of the scrap, (because do we ever really get an end?), it is the last of the piles right around the shed that I wanted to get done. I will be able to cross that off my list shortly. 

Luna the dog really has settled in. She and Humphrey have a good time wrestling and playing tug-of-war.

Friday afternoon, we took all the dogs out for a run/walk/ride,

way out in the East pasture where we don’t often go. So many new smells for Luna! And that’s when we lost her. Thankfully she had gone home, but we drove a long way looking for her, calling her, and met some neighbors, and saw a lot of pasture (header photo by Kelly) looking for her. And Kelly and I were both stressing. I don’t know if we got out of her sight, or earshot, or what. But thank Goodness she knew enough to go home.

Sigh.

ANY DEVICES LISTENING TO YOU AT YOUR HOUSE?

51 thoughts on “Knock Knock”

  2. No devices. Something always listening and connected to the internet just doesn’t seem to me to be a good idea. I don’t even have Siri activated on my phone or iPad.

    Talking to robots creeps me out. Our supplemental health insurance has a robo-caller they call “my advocate” that calls each of us about once a month. We never pick up the phone for it. I don’t know what sort of conversation would ensue with the machine but if the company is trying to demonstrate personal concern for its customers a robot is the wrong way to do it.

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  3. Yes. All my kitchen appliances are bugged. China, FBI, CIA, NWO, Illumin-naughties and Builderburglars now know every food expiration date and Biden campaign voter fraud plan I’ve developed.

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  5. Only if you count the centipede I just found and put outside. I’m already spooked by the fact that I’ll mention something in an email, and soon an ad shows up for that on my Facebook feed…

    A book club I’ll go to Monday has Alexa, and I admit it is fun to ask her random questions that come up in the conversation.

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  6. Rise and, “Hey, Google, Play Emmy Lou Harris” Baboons,

    We have 2 Google speakers that we use for radio listening and music. Usually they work fairly well, but now and then something in the speaker stops understanding anything, then it produces weird stuff I don’t want to listen to. Then I tell it to “Shut the F UP.” Once when I did that it told me to be nicer to it. I don’t have the speakers set up to do anything but play music. I don’t worry much about the speakers spying on me. If Google really wants to be aware of me sniping at Lou because he left a mess in the kitchen, so be it.

    I also have a blue tooth speaker attached to my ipad that is handy. That speaker is my favorite because it works consistently well, and I don’t have grudge matches with it like the Google speakers. If I push the stop button it just stops. In my little art room behind the furnace I have a now outdated analog radio CD player. There I return to the joy of a push button life in which it just plays. Or not.

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  7. I have two of the little round Amazon Dots, is that what you call them. I have to soak my eyes every morning when I first wake up. I tell Alexa to set a timer for ten minutes. When she chimes I sometimes say Alexa, turm off alarm. She says, Sternly, as I imagine it, there is no alarm set. So I have to say turn off timer. She is so literal. I have one in the kitchen I use as a timer. I have to shut the beroom door to use one or the other or they both get the message. It’s a small apartment.
    On rare occasions I have them play music. If they both hear it, they both play, but ,alas, they are not in sync. I have come to like silence. At the moment I am listening to waves. It’s a track on my meditation app on my ipad. Two of my guided meditations say to imgine ocean waves, but I imagine I am by Superior of course.
    I never talk to Siri. My computer has someone to talk to. Cortana? I keep her silent. My computer has a touch screen but it’s hands off for me. My daughter uses my computer and points to things on the screen and then remembers it’s a touch screen.
    One day I was in the dining part of the big room and said something that sounded like Alexa. My two Dots and my Fire TV all responded. They have very good ears.

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      1. I probably ask Alexa for the temperature more than anything else although there is the occasional “play salsa music” or “play enya”. YA does “play classical for pets” whenever we leave the house together.. can’t have silence for the dog and cat when we’re gone!

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  9. I have a friend who has Siri. She says once her dog was making some suspicious scratching noises in the next room, and she called out “Sweetie, what are you up to?” “Sweetie” was misheard as “Siri”, apparently. Siri responded “I’m pondering eternity. It’s taking forever.”

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  11. I occasionally make use of Siri on my phone and watch, but no smart speakers – no Alexa or Google here. Just, as Renee said, the dogs. Who can hear a cheese wrapper from anywhere in the house and will come running. And drooling.

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      1. Yes, Phoebe has an ice cube fixation, too. If I put ice in a glass she comes running from the corners of the house. She turns herself inside out for those.

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      2. Pippin loves ice cubes too. I also make frozen treats out of canned dog food processed with some water and frozen in little bone shaped ice cube trays. He comes running when the freezer door opens. Plain ice cubes work for him but he really loves those frozen treats.

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      1. Forensics is another, rather old fashioned term for competitive speech. It’s an NCAA event. They sponsor more than sports. It’s like what is called “Speech” in high school. There are multiple categories to compete in, say like in a track meet. There are tournaments held. You qualify for the nationa event by scoring points at these events, the higher the position, the more the points. I assume only the top five get points. You can compete in multiple events. Concordia in Moorhead usual has a very good team. Jonah even has a small scholarship for forensics.

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        1. I did DI (dramatic interpretation) for a couple of years in high school. Some solo and some duo. Got to State once doing “The Chalk Garden” but didn’t win anything at that level.

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  14. I don’t have a smart speaker, but in my new used vehicle, there is an option to press a button on the steering wheel and talk to Google Assistant, if you have a phone with the Assistant app. I have found this very convenient, because I often think of things while I’m driving, and if I don’t make a note of them immediately I’ll draw a blank when I try to think of them later. When I press the steering wheel button, there is a plinking sound, and I can say “Remember to refill prescription”, or “Remember property taxes are due next week,” or something about an author that was on a talk show or a song I heard, or whatever it was that just floated through my mind. Google Assistant says “OK, I’ll remember that.” When I get home I say “Open memory” and it’s all saved there in a tidy list.

    One thing I use that feature for is to make notes on restaurants I’m passing by, so I can look them up when I get home. I can never remember the name of a restaurant for more than about three minutes after I’ve driven past it.

    Sometimes people tell me they get ads when they’re online that make it apparent that their smart speaker is directing ads toward them based on stuff they’ve said to it. So far I haven’t noticed that happening with my note-taking in the car.

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  15. I am still trying to give up worrying about what Big Brother knows about me. Last week I drove YA downtown to the Marriott because she had a program there. I used the GPS on my phone because I don’t drive enough downtown to be secure about which streets go which way. Now of course I’m getting all kinds of ads from the Marriott corporation.

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  16. A couple years back, our son & his wife passed along their Echo to us when they upgraded. Finding the Amazon account so we could set it up yielded the information that it had been set up to an address across the Pacific at a job from which I retired in 2018. But we got through to that without updating the account settings.
    We didn’t think we’d use it much, and left it in the kitchen as “the radio there”. Now, upon entering that sanctuary, the first thing either of us says is, “Alexa, play Michigan Radio.”

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  17. I think it’s great that Alexa is working for your mom, Ben. My mom would not have been able to figure out how to use it or even try. I can see how it would be helpful for all of you, as well as being frustrating at times.

    As far as I know, there are no listening devices in my home or car. I’m really suspicious about being listened to, even though I rarely say much except to Pippin. I’m pretty quiet at home these days; silence can be so rejuvenating.

    Once in awhile I ask Siri a question or ask her to show me a map, mostly in the car. Otherwise I try to leave her alone. I do notice emails coming to my inbox related to searches I have done. Recently a friend used the new shopping app “Temu” (I’m afraid to even type the name) and she shared an ad for it to me in Messenger. I replied with what little I know about the company without clicking the link. Then I deleted her message. Now I’m getting emails from that company constantly. I tried to unsubscribe but it won’t let me. I’m enough of a troglodyte that all of this tracking and surveillance scares the bejeebers outa me.

    I like Linda’s method of recording what ideas or thoughts are going through her mind as she drives. I have the same kind of inner dialogue but I just let my thoughts go as I drive. Using Linda’s method might help me remember to call for an appointment to get an oil change!

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  18. By putting Sandra in care and needing support to do it and all the struggles I went through to do it, the county, the state, and a couple federal agencies know all about my finances and other parts of my life. But I have so much right in my face to worry about . . .
    With my sensitivity to sound, I am tired of how music invades my life. You are probably not aware of how everything has background music today. Sandra watches Hallmark or HGTV which are that way. HGTV can find the most annoying music possible. I just go home and wash myself in silence. Many of the guided meditations I might like I cannot use because of the background music and sometimes the voice is background to the music.

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    2. When I go get a massage, I have them turn off the ‘wave’ sounds, and change the music to jazz. We all enjoy the change.
      But they are so accustomed to the wave sounds, I usually turn that off myself rather than ask them again.

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  19. Ben, I just thought I should let you know how much I enjoy reading your weekly farm reports. I’m especially impressed by your obvious love of your family, and your patience with your mom and your daughter.

    As far as forgetting your dad stories, may I suggest that you write those you still remember down. I can tell you from personal experience that some of those details will most likely grow dimmer as you age, and one day they may be completely gone.

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    1. Thank you PJ, I appreciate that. I know I’m in a good place and I try to remember and appreciate that.

      I do have a file of both my own life stories and things I remember Dad doing. The day he dropped a full chopper box rear wheel in a ditch, broke off the axle, then jumped down from the tractor, told me he had to go to work, and left. He always laughed that he came out to my place just to break stuff and go home.

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