2023, animals, Business, Family, Farming Update, holidays, Nature, pets, Uncategorized

Poof

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Todays Farming Updates comes from Ben.

Just like that, another year gone. 414 dozen eggs sold in 2023. April was the highest with 63 dozen sold. September was lowest at 20 dozen. I’m thinking in 2024 I’m gonna try recording how many dozen I box up rather than sold.

2023

We lost some really good friends. We made some new ones. We got a new dog. We finally took a weekend trip after a few  years of hunkering at home. We saw some fantastic theater,  (I was even in a show), had a visit from my friend Keith for the first time in 25 years, and got so much stuff done at home! Most of it had to do with the shop remodeling, but still, it’s a wonder to look over the list and see how much got checked off! Just for fun, I put the list in a spreadsheet and there was 221 line items. Twenty of them aren’t done yet. There’s always next year.

I was grateful to not fight major health issues this year, and to revel in the simple joy of walking up a hill or carrying some feed. Or just to wander up the road from barn to shed!

We got some concrete poured and started work on the shop. The crop year wasn’t the best. And if you enjoy snow, the year didn’t end well for you. There was a lot of snow at the beginning of 2023, but it melted fairly quick.

I’ve been rebuilding the carburetor for the 630 tractor. (Line item #192) I had a good start on it early this week, but the last few days I’ve been busy elsewhere. But in my “New Heated Shop”*‘ (*sort of) I can keep working. I try not to think about how the tractor itself is out in the UNHEATED part of the shed. But that’s just 8 bolts and a couple fittings… right? Easy Peasy. Might be the first thing of 2024 to check off that list! I think I’m even gonna use most of the parts. I spent an hour on the phone with the oldest parts guy at my John Deere store, and another guy who restores antique tractors, to figure out one piece on my carburetor that’s not in the pictures. They figured it out. Surround yourself with good people. That might be my goal for 2024.

2024- I need to renew my private pesticide applicators license. I haven’t used it more than a few times in the 25+ years I’ve had it, but I’ll renew it again, simply because it’s one more link to farming I want to keep.

Monday, 1/1/2024 I’ll go round up the mileage and hours on all the vehicles and tractors and fill in my annual mileage spreadsheet. I always enjoy that. I’ll need to start finding numbers for our assets page. That too is pretty interesting. I had a young lady tell me how rich farmers are. She didn’t know we farm. I had to explain a few things to her. We have a lot of ASSETS, and we have good credit. We may or may not have a lot of cash in the bank. Sometimes were rich in daughters only*, or dirt. Just not cash. Every farm is different.

*Thank you, Greg Brown.

Looking ahead, I’ve ordered a textbook for next semester’s class on creative writing which begins on 1/8. An in-person class so that should be fun. Got crops planned, will be ordering seed and inputs soon.

12/31/23 – There’s a lot of numerology regarding that. It’s interesting to consider. https://www.almanac.com/123123-meaning-123123

PHOTOS

Take some time to ponder this weekend. Ponder 2023. Ponder 2024. Remember and imagine.

WHO WOULD YOU CHOOSE TO SUROUND YOURSELF WITH?

25 thoughts on “Poof”

  2. Wow, great recap, Ben. I am continually amazed at all the record keeping you have to do farming.

    Yep, I like the line “Surround yourself with good people.” That’s been a goal of mine forever, though not always on the conscious level.

    And maybe surround ourselves with good music.

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  5. We are in Brookings with Son, DIL, Grandson, Westie, and ornery cat. We are surrounded by love, peace, and good food. Tomorrow we take a side trip to Watertown to see my 93 year old aunt. Today I make krumkake with grandson.

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  6. I’m feeling really comfortable about Baboons!

    Dogs, of course. My youngest brother and his family. Kind people.

    2023 started out cold and lonely for me. It improved a lot as spring came, then summer. I’ve enjoyed doing more with old friends. Planning our trip to Ireland has been fun.

    I hope for peace in 2024. All of the trouble in the world is bad for all of us. It’s not healthy for anyone when people are struggling, sick, hungry, or dying due to violence and oppression. I hope for optimal political results. I’m actually quite worried about it. That’s not healthy either, I know, but the angst is there and I have to acknowledge it.

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  7. For foreseeable future all sorts of medical folks and then county and state human services about whatever this is or whatever. Then back to even more medical folks. None of this by choice of course. Only medical folks choose to surround th selves with other medical folks

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    1. this month was carey grant month on tcm last night there was a movie called crisis with carey as the doctor and jose ferar as the dictator of a cuba like place who needs the have serious surgery but has trouble finding doctors because of all the political ramifications
      carey was a great doctor of integrity trying to help in the scenario he was thrust into
      i kinda feel that way about doctors these days
      people who’ve done a lot to get to a place where they can help us as an avocation and the challenges in making that meaningful in an ever revolving cast of characters as years roll by. it’s got to be weird to get up early for surgery do office hours visit patience in pain and in process every every every day

      bless them

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    2. In response to your last statement: most medical people are compassionate humans who have to work within a complex system of laws, rules, policies and procedures. They learn the habits and demands of others on their respective teams, and how to work with diverse groups. They have to learn the needs and preferences of each of their patients. They’re also aware of the impact of insurance companies on everything they do. Covid-19 made their jobs infinitely more complicated and stressful. I am certainly biased about medical folks, but they really do mean well.

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  9. he has a year end review rather than new year’s resolution
    you can look it up at tim ferris .com and check out a few of his shows
    i like the directions he takes his discussions in and he is interesting just in general
    his year end review
    say make list of positive and negative

    look it up or ask rather than having me just throw it out there
    it’s good simple basic stuff

    happy new year

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  10. Rise and Ponder, Baboons,

    Well, the end of 2022 and my 2023 was so full of good-byes. It all was so busy and seemed to happen fast, and I hardly had time to ponder it all. That seems to be occurring now–I find myself just sitting in my glider chair thinking about my aunt and uncle who picked up so many parenting tasks for my siblings and I, my mother who had a a troubled, sad life, and my dear little dog Bootsy who I miss every day. And then my career came to an end so my days are different. I would like to move on, but the plantar faciaitis in my foot keeps me from walking in the way I would like. HMMM. The personalized orthotic I ordered 7WEEKS ago is finally in and I can have it fitted Tuesday. That, I hope, will help. It was to take 3 weeks but the supply shortages, etc delayed it.

    Ben, I clicked into the numerology site. It says that this date indicates a powerful new beginning. My first thoughts was, “Does that mean we leave #45 behind?” I sure hope so.

    Now I am going to go down to my computer and complete some work for my “Nature Heals” certification for Master Gardener activities as an end to 2023. That got interrupted by my mother’s final days and I am just getting back to it. The other day I tried to submit my homework and the university’s online teaching program ate it. I just stopped for awhile. That is one of the downsides of online learning. My assignment is out there floating around I guess.

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  11. I am enormously, grateful that I am already surrounded by all kinds of good people. Baboons, friends, dear friends, dear dear friends, great neighbors,….

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  15. Just came across an interesting term and concept. “Thin slice impression.” The judgment people make of someone, how they react to someone in the first few milliseconds of meeting her or him. I was reading about this in relation to neurodivergents especially autistics, which makes the point of being surrounded by accepting people even more important for them because the thin slice impressions of autistics are often so strongly negative.
    Clyde

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  16. I stand in the dark with drooping eyes by the worst-suffering and the most restless,
    I pass my hands soothingly to and fro a few inches from them,
    The restless sink in their beds, they fitfully sleep.

    Now I pierce the darkness, new beings appear,
    The earth recedes from me into the night,
    I saw that it was beautiful, and I see that what is not the earth is beautiful.

    I go from bedside to bedside, I sleep close with the other sleepers each in turn,
    I dream in my dream all the dreams of the other dreamers,
    And I become the other dreamers.

    I am a dance—play up there! the fit is whirling me fast!

    I am the ever-laughing—it is new moon and twilight,
    I see the hiding of douceurs, I see nimble ghosts whichever way I look,
    Cache and cache again deep in the ground and sea, and where it is neither ground nor sea.

    Well do they do their jobs those journeymen divine,
    Only from me can they hide nothing, and would not if they could,
    I reckon I am their boss and they make me a pet besides,
    And surround me and lead me and run ahead when I walk,
    To lift their cunning covers to signify me with stretch’d arms, and resume the way;
    Onward we move, a gay gang of blackguards! with mirth-shouting music and wild-flapping pennants of joy!

    – Walt Whitman

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