2023, animals, Family, Farming Update, Health, home, pets, Uncategorized, work

Pause

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Today’s Farm Update is from Ben.

Felt like a rather quiet week on the farm.

I did get snow fence installed, and driveway markers are in.

Hauled in the last of the scrap Iron I wanted to do for this year. I’ll be curious to see what my total was for scrap iron this year. Several thousand lbs. This last load was 3500 lbs and was an old disc, a bit of the old elevator frame, and some misc pieces. Price was still $100 / ton so it paid for the gas anyway.

I did an (almost) final cleaned up behind the shed one day just scraping all the brush into a pile; I wish I had done a before photo but there’s the after.

Just image it full of trees and junk and crap collected over 40 years. I’d love to put an overhang back here to shelter some machinery like the rear blade, the snow blower, the brush mower, etc. Got a pile of cement blocks to move yet.

Met our banker one day and made a plan. I’ve got most of the big bills paid. Signed the last of the papers for crop insurance, but don’t know what that’s going to pay yet.

Had two nights of Holiday Concerts at the college this past week. The choir sounds really very nice. The band is small but growing, and they’ll be really good in another year or two. The one photo is the designer, Paul, with Santa.

We’ve had a little issue with Luna and Bailey lately. They really got into a fight the day I was working on snow fence. Like a ‘to the death’ type fight. I had to separate them three times, finally putting Bailey in the gator.

We can tell Bailey seems jealous, yet she’s picking fights she doesn’t want to be in. They’re equal size and weight. It almost seems like Luna is trying to find her place in the order. Bailey is spayed, we don’t think Luna is yet. We’ve had Luna for 2 months now. She’s really settling in. Which might be what’s putting Bailey off. Any thoughts on 2 female dogs getting along would be appreciated.

Need to get the final paper submitted for class this coming week and the semester is over on the 15th.

The Rep Theater has the next phase of heating and AC going on so that will take some of my time. They have a lot of old photos out as part of the 40 year anniversary. This was me at about 20 years old at the Rep. PHOTO

I should get going on 2023 bookwork one of these days… I’ve been really lazy on that this year.

HAVE YOU GOT THINGS WRAPPED UP?

33 thoughts on “Pause”

  1. Oh my…. someone actually asking me? I have a friend with whom I can share a lot but I cannot tell her where I am in terms of holiday plans. I assume it’s because she always wishes she were further along, but I’m not sure.

    I am always fairly well wrapped up (holiday-wise) by this time in December. Although the Gift Exchange is still upcoming, I have the ingredient list done and a day-by-day to-do list which doesn’t seem overwhelming to me; I don’t feel like it’s a big kerfuffle on the horizon.

    So I am firmly where I want to be – mostly enjoying holiday outings, watching Christmas movies, eating cookies and doing all my advent silliness!!

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  2. I’ve had female dogs together many times in my life and never had an issue. But they’ve always been spayed. I don’t know enough to know if that’s a factor, but I would vote for that!

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  5. Wrapping up Die Deutsche Wochenschau, the weekly German propaganda films from the Third Reich. Some have been translated into English but even the totally German language episodes are worth watching. For any students of political science, it’s a must watch series.

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  6. Love the photos, esp. the snow fence, the lighting (!), and the last one of the young pup. : )

    I need to get a package in the mail for the “California kids”, but must remember that they have now moved to Oklahoma… Oh, and my sister & son. S-i-l is visiting here Sunday, and that will get me to clean. I’d better get going!

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    1. Too true. After blithely commenting first thing this morning, I’ve realized there are two more things I need to do that aren’t on my to do list for next week.

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  9. Rise and Shine, Baboons,

    We are enjoying the sun here in the Southwest, especially when we look at the forecast for today in MN. Last night we enjoyed a light show at the Desert Botanical Garden. (Other participants were complaining about the cold and wrapped up in winter coats, gloves and stocking caps. It was 63 degrees!). Various musical concerts were included in this, the highlight being a group of four harpists in an indoor venue. Getting to watch the performance up close and watch the harps was fascinating. Groups of harps are so unusual. The sound was magical. While we were on our way here, our DIL’s father died, so this has changed our plans to see parts of the family, so today we will go visit the mountains, our favorite part of AZ.

    Do I have things wrapped up? This summer my career wrapped up, although there is some final paperwork awaiting my attention. My mother’s life wrapped up, but closing her checking account turned into the most complicated and difficult process that required more patience than I really have. Screaming at bankers was tempting, but I managed to hang on to my composure and not do that. Losing my uncle in late October was difficult because he had played such a protective role with my father. That felt like a significant loss, emotionally. I am still processing that one, feeling sad. We don’t do a whole lot for Christmas anymore, so that is mostly wrapped up due to lack of effort.

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    1. PS, Ben, that young, baby-faced guy in the picture looks very proficient at operating that now dated equipment. I especially noticed the reel-to-reel tape recorder.

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      2. Yep, I learned to splice tape together for editing and putting in leader tape. Times have changed. And two cassette decks patched into a third to mix sounds.
        I still have a reel to reel tape deck at the College up on a shelf in my office.

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  10. I am so sorry that you’re having dog fighting trouble, Ben. That’s heartbreaking and scary.

    Ten years ago we had a spayed one year old Corgy. We had her since she was 8 weeks old. She grew up with our eleven year old neutered male Dachshund. All was bliss until she one day attacked him, completely out of the blue. She was bigger and stronger than him, and she did real damage to him. After the fourth such unprovoked attacks over a period of six months, we had her euthanized. It broke my heart to do it, I still feel terrible about it, but we simply couldn’t trust her; she was literally trying to kill him.

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    1. After 4 such incidents there is little choice beyond that. Last week at puppy “Holiday Manners” class another dog attacked Phoebe and bit me when I got between them. Phoebe was not injured. The bite did not break skin on my leg but it left a big bruise. The offending dog was not in class this week but the trainer said they had a plan. The dog appeared to have some behavioral problems and it was hard to get her attention.

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  11. Wrapped up? No… I haven’t even started shopping yet.

    I don’t do much though, to be honest. I don’t buy many gifts anymore. No one in my family wants to exchange gifts anymore and my family is pretty small. I’m going to an ugly sweater white elephant gift exchange next Friday, another on Saturday, and that will likely be all of my celebrating for this year.

    I’m really sorry to hear about the trouble between Bailey and Luna. That must be difficult to deal with. Maybe Bailey is jealous because she wants to be your one and only? Dogs are such pack animals. There is usually an alpha female and maybe that’s what is going on with Bailey – a simple struggle for supremacy. She sees you as the alpha male and she’s going to be the alpha female of the pack! I don’t know how you feel about spending more money on Luna but maybe having her spayed wouldn’t hurt.

    I enjoy your farm reports, Ben. Your eggs are good too!

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  12. We have an appointment to get Luna spayed in January. Of course because we got her as a stray we don’t know her history and the vet doesn’t see any scars or a tattoo so we don’t assume she is. We were waiting to see if she showed a heat, But she didn’t have any blood, but we also think that could explain the behavior.

    The other thing about the snow fence that I forgot to mention, was that it was my first time with the new knee. And it was remarkably unremarkable! The pasture where the snow fence goes is a side hill, full of gopher mounds, and its rough ground, and it has been really terrible for me. 2021 I had the shoulder problem, every year was the knee, and this year, it was just really unremarkable. I could just do it!
    And the driveway markers; daughter and I would do together and we drove and she pounded in posts. But she wasn’t interested this year. And I parked the gator and walked up the road and pounded in markers, and then I walked back to the gator and drive up a ways, get out and walk some more. And that was also unremarkable!
    It was remarkable! And so nice.

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  13. And remember, we also have Humphrey, but he’s twice Luna‘s size and they’re both in the house and generally they’re both either playing or both sleeping. Humphrey will be nine in January, hard to believe. We sure wish we could clone him.

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  14. I must have had a premonition that there were difficulties ahead of me because I got the house decorated, nearly all the Christmas shopping done, and 3 of 5 packages mailed before Thanksgiving. It’s been a LONG 16 days since the injury. Surgery was done Wednesday to insert a plate and screws to stabilize the injury. Post op was awful – lots of nausea and lightheadedness. Nearly had to spend a night at a hospital. Instead I was taken to my sister’s house for the night. After a long nap I was able to finally keep some fluids down. By morning I felt 100% better and am now back at home. I have a bulkier plaster splint on until I see the surgeon on the 19th. By then I should be able to transition to a boot, though still no weight bearing on that leg for a couple weeks. Friends and family have been great at getting me out and about when needed.And I am becoming quite proficient with a knee scooter. I finished shopping online and only have 1 gift to mail. I stopped baking cookies many years ago and won’t contribute anything to Christmas Eve dinner this year. Tomorrow I’ll finish up my cards and then I’ll be done with Christmas stuff. There are two concert performances this week – THEN I’ll have lots of time to concentrate on resting and healing.

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  15. Saw Kevin Kling, Dan Chouinard, and Simone Perrin at O’Shaughnessy last night. It was a lovely show. Getting home was a little icy and dicey. All’s well, though.

    December is always so busy, so I will have nothing wrapped up till the last possible minute.

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