2024, Business, Farming Update, Food, Mysteries, Nature

Spring Approacheth

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The weekend Farm Report comes to us from Ben.

Evidently at some point last summer, I took the corn planter seed units, the thing in the planter that picks up an individual seed, and drops it in the ground, I took the seed units up to my dealer to be inspected and upgraded as necessary. I say ‘evidently’ because I forgot about that until he called asking what I wanted done with them. Gosh, I’d have been ready to run out and plant some day and sure been surprised by the hole in the bottom of the tank where these go. And I’d have spent a long time digging around in the shop trying to find them!

They are getting new backing plates and brushes. $600 roughly.

I was watching an online auction last week and I had bid on a couple used corn planters newer than mine. I have a John Deere 7000 planter. Had been completely rebuilt when I bought it 20-some years ago. I think I paid $6000 for it. The 7000 planter was made from 1974 to 1986. At the auction were two John Deere 1750, 6 row planters. The same size as mine, but much newer than mine. One was in pretty good shape, and one was pretty beat up. But I figured if I could get it cheap, I could fix it up on my own time. They sold for $16,185 and $14,259 respectively. Plus, commission. Wowzer! A couple nice tractors: a 2020 front wheel assist with 4000 hours, sold for $181,500. A 2012 4-wheel drive with a blade sold for $178,000. I didn’t even bid on those. I should have, early, just to say I did. Golly.

So anyway, $600 for planter unit overhauls is a good deal. The important thing about planting, is having each seed dropped in the right place, 6” apart. That’s called “singulation”. And looking at the fields last year, my singulation wasn’t very good. Lots of misses, or doubles. The repair should help with that.

If you think about an ear of corn, next time you’re having corn on the cob, pay attention to the kernels. Notice the kernels at the bottom are sort of large and round? While the middle ones are flat? Seed is sorted like that, and some guys ask for ‘flats’ or ‘rounds’ in particular. Clyde, did you sort out seed like that?

I did get the starter put back in the  630 tractor. Bailey helped.

A hot air balloon landed at our place on Sunday. The dogs alerted me to it first and I saw it was way off to the south. A little later I noticed it really high off to the south. A little while later, it was very low and close to us, then it went up a bit again, then back down and landed at our place. He took off from the college, which is only a couple miles as the balloon flies, but there was no wind and it took him 90 minutes to get to our place and he didn’t have enough gas to go too much further. It was a real fun crew of people and for the first time in the multiple balloon landings at our place, they actually had champagne and did a toast.

That night I picked up pizza from a new place in Rochester, Red Savoy pizza. I picked it up wearing a John Deere cap, and the owner told me he worked at John Deere in Waterloo for a lot of years and he and I talked about tractors for 20 minutes. It was fun to meet these two diverse groups of such nice people. It felt good to reaffirm there are just fun, nice people out there.

WHAT HAVE YOU FORGOTTEN? HAVE YOU MET FUN PEOPLE LATELY?

48 thoughts on “Spring Approacheth”

  2. Just last night during intermission at the Arts Center (performance called the First Ladies Trilogy), a woman and I looked quizzically at each other as we tried to figure out where we’d met. We hadn’t, it turns out, but we wave at each other from our cars when we’re picking up Meals on Wheels containers on Friday mornings. : ) It was fun to meet and get a name…

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  4. Jacque-

    Rise and Shine, Baboons,

     I think, Ben, you and Kelly are the only people I know who had balloons land on your property. That is pretty great. WHat happens next? Do they go get gas and lift off again?

    What have I forgotten? This terrible week I have forgotten so much. I am sure I will be gathering my wits back together, then try to make a list of what got left behind. Last Saturday when son and DIL helped me get organized, my DIL got information organized that I used the last 2 days IN A TYPED LIST of medical providers and medications. I never could have come with that alone. I was so proud when I handed the hospital pharmacist the typed list. I also sent her the pdf of Lou’s insurance handbook, then all week she sends me the part I need to know at the moment. So last night I received the benefits of a Skilled Nursing Facilty. I did not read it until this morning. Earlier this week she sent “Hospital ER Admissions.” Another friend is managing the Long Term Care Insurance as Lou’s “Medical Advocate”. Thank Goodness, because all this information is just falling out of my ears and not staying in my brain. 

    I just posted on CB, which includes a picture of the Pies I retrieved after missing VS’ party. Lou could hardly remember where he was at the end of the day yesterday, but he was quite clear with me that he wanted me to go him some pie. He will get it today. Meanwhile I am resting today, visiting Lou WITH PIE, and taking Phoebe to the dogpark. She has been a very good girl during all this.

    The staff at the hospital, especially the Hospitalist Dr. and the CNAs are just wonderful. They are friendly and open, and they are very good at coaxing Lou to do what needs to be done. 

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    2. I hope you get a chance to take a breath for yourself! I’m glad you found someone who can help with the insurance too. The list of medications is a great thing to have. It sounds like you have good people supporting you.

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    3. Jacque- regarding the balloons. There are several chase vehicles following the balloon. They all arrive and deflate the balloon, fold it up, stuff it in a bag, and load it all in the trailer that we are pictured in front of. Twenty six years ago when my dad took a hot air balloon ride, that pilot had champagne back at his shop. We’ve had 4 or 5 balloons land here over the years and this was the first to have drinks. One pilot told us if they landed three times in a year we’d get a free ride. That didn’t happen.

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  5. There’s quite a bit of dust

    In the attic of my mind

    I never thought they’d rust

    Those little things I’d find

    But now it seems they’re absent

    I can’t imagine where to look

    And not looking I have found them

    In the pages of my book

    I don’t know why it double-spaced the paragraph like that, just because I used a hard return. Sorry.

    Yes, I have lost my marbles. I put them somewhere, but there’s just so much junk around here, all covered up with dust and craft projects and books and musical instruments and dog hair, that those marbles are around here somewhere. I’ll go find some new ones at the thrift store.

    And yes, I have met a lot of nice, fun, new people lately. It’s nice to have new friends everywhere. I’m grateful for all my old friends too.

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  6. I met some wonderful people at a city job fair last week. Holland, MI (where I reside) has a windmill from the Netherlands that was disassembled long ago and installed on site. (The Netherlands no longer allow that.) It still runs, and the city is looking to hire people to fill out the crew who keep it going through tourist season. I’m applying. I figure that next to cowboy, firefighter, race car driver and hot air balloon pilot, it’s about the coolest thing to have on one’s name card. ”Windmill Operator”, now, that’ll get some attention!

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        1. with all your various and unusual talents, I have no doubt you could wrangle spiders if you set your mind to it.

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        2. I had been hired by a photographer to construct a spider web to use in a TV advertising. I made several out of monofilament and brought them to the film shoot. The spider that was to climb across the web was supplied by a professional spider wrangler who had flown out from Hollywood. It was he who supplied and managed the spiders used in the film Arachnophobia.

          To my relief and gratification, the spider accepted my web and crawled across it as required. I used to have a business card from the wrangler but I doubt I still have it.

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        3. I think constructing a web that a spider will actually crawl on is more impressive than getting the spider to crawl. So does that make you a web wrangler?

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        4. …or a web architect. Still not as interesting as flying from California with a box of spiders.

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        1. There is a small enclave here of Dutch Roman Catholics. They live next to the Quebecers in the far western part of our county. It is a mystery to me how they ended up here.

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  8. From the Poetry Foundation website,

    Forgetfulness

    BY BILLY COLLINS

    The name of the author is the first to go

    followed obediently by the title, the plot,

    the heartbreaking conclusion, the entire novel

    which suddenly becomes one you have never read, never even heard of,

    as if, one by one, the memories you used to harbor

    decided to retire to the southern hemisphere of the brain,

    to a little fishing village where there are no phones.

    Long ago you kissed the names of the nine muses goodbye

    and watched the quadratic equation pack its bag,

    and even now as you memorize the order of the planets,

    something else is slipping away, a state flower perhaps,

    the address of an uncle, the capital of Paraguay.

    Whatever it is you are struggling to remember,

    it is not poised on the tip of your tongue

    or even lurking in some obscure corner of your spleen.

    It has floated away down a dark mythological river

    whose name begins with an L as far as you can recall

    well on your own way to oblivion where you will join those

    who have even forgotten how to swim and how to ride a bicycle.

    No wonder you rise in the middle of the night

    to look up the date of a famous battle in a book on war.

    No wonder the moon in the window seems to have drifted   

    out of a love poem that you used to know by heart.

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    2. Entertaining and reflective, as Collins’ poems generally are, but that’s not exactly how memory works in my experience, or at least not how it always works. Some items do drift away, never to return, and how one’s mind chooses what to keep and what to discard is a puzzle.

      I’m also intrigued by those things that are utterly inaccessible one day but spring readily to mind the next. We haven’t forgotten them but we can’t find the pathway to recall them. It’s embarrassing sometimes, when you are face to face with persons whose name you’ve misplaced. As geezers we all have so much we could remember if our retrieval systems were better. I was lying in bed the other night, waiting for sleep to overtake me and to amuse myself I was recalling the names of people I worked with back in the ‘70s. None of those people are ones I’ve seen or had any contact with in over 45 years. Some of them are likely dead. But I still could name a couple dozen of them. Curiously, some of those were people I had had little or no personal contact with while I’ve forgotten the names of some I saw every day. None of that information—those names—is of any use to me but it takes up space in my brain.

      It’s not just the names of things and people that we seek to remember. We also carry in our memory where everything is in our house and in our lives and what is running low in the refrigerator and what is upcoming on the calendar and myriad other details of daily life.

      I know many people are ardent makers of lists. I am not one of them and still reflexively trust to my memory for most things, including grocery lists and calendar items. That, no doubt, makes me painfully aware of the caprices of recall.

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      2. Jacque–

        I am a mid-level list maker. VS’ lists, which work well for her and provide us with wonderful parties and entertaining social interactions, including this Baboon HIking Trail, would cause me no end of distress. However, a small post it note with three things to get done that day–magic. When I cross off the items I get a little rush of satisfaction. Ahhhh.

        Several weeks ago son, DIL, Lou and I planned to get a meal from Standish Cafe in S. Mpls for St. Pat’s Day. We decided to do this, despite Lou’s hospitalization. They will bring the meal which I will heat up in the oven, we will do several tasks, including setting up the new Memory Phone, then take the meal to Lou and have a visit. 

        Honor your Irish today! ☘️. I feel my Newell, McGill, and Antriim genes humming along with Danny Boy.

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      3. Coincidentally, in a book I am reading I just encountered a quote from a letter by Henry Thoreau:

        I am sure to answer you sooner or later. The longer I have forgotten you, the more I remember you.

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    1. Jacque–

      No kidding. There just has to be a better way to assure security than passwords. I love the sites linked to my fingerprint which works unless my finger is wet or if I have little gobs of art materials or a bandaid on my thumb!

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  10. I can’t think of any fun people that I’ve met recently. However, I have been reminded that so many of my people are fun. After Pi Day on Thursday, I’ve had several people contact me talking about other people who they had met that night. It’s been a lot of fun.

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  12. Ben how is it that you think you paid about $6000 for your corn cedar, but you know to the penny what the other two corners sold or and what the tractors sold for you must have notes written down somewhere in your files as to what those auction items sold for is the only thing I can think of what have I forgotten? I forget lots of stuff I met the interesting people I love interacting with folks everywhere I go, and so I meet lots of interesting people. I’m kind of a surface level, but don’t get much of an opportunity to delve deeper

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  13. some of the most frequent forgotten items are the everyday items keys, wallet telephone, and it occurs to me that I’ll mention for those of you who are in a similar situation, but unfamiliar with this option that if you have an Apple phone with Siri available when your phone is missing you can simply say hey Siri where are you and Siri will yell at you from across the room as to where her location is

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