2024, Family, Farming Update, gardening, home, Kids, Uncategorized

Almost Farming

55 Comments

Today’s Farming Update comes from Ben.

We’ve had some nice rainfall, and I’ve got the show open, and I’m trying to stay home and get ready to farm. Yet, every day seems to be interrupted by minutiae and farming has not become the priority it should be. Yet.

My brain cleared enough I found the three things I couldn’t find last week. Kelly pointed out to me the extra chicken waterers behind the house. Yep, that’s exactly where I put them last fall when that chicken hatched those eggs under the deck. And I found the rain gauge in the garage right where I thought it should have been last week. And it turns out the dog’s tick medication is good for 12 weeks, not four, so I had only bought one dose. And that’s why I couldn’t find more. There’s usually a rational explanation, isn’t there.

Over the weekend Kelly and I got 2/3 of the seed wagon cleaned off. (The “shed remodeling tool storage wagon”) so at least I have room for oats and corn seed and the oats will be gone before I pick up the soybean seed and then that can go on there. Daughter and all three dogs and I picked up oat seed on Monday. I also picked up another ton of the layer ration for the chickens. One ton, in 50 pound bags, equals 40 bags, so they are good for about eight months.

On Friday I got the tractor hooked to the soil finisher. If you park something in a field over winter, you need to put a board under the jackstand, otherwise it will sink into the dirt and the hitch of the implement will not line up with the tractor drawbar. I had a board under the jackstand when I unhooked it back in October, but the implement shifted and the jackstand slipped off the board. And then Friday it was 8” down in the dirt. I took a regular jack out to lift up the tongue to get it hooked to the tractor and that jack pushed down into the dirt as well. I had a board to put under the jack, but it was stuck under the hitch at first. Eventually I got that out and under the jack, and was able to raise it up, get the hydraulic lines hooked to the tractor, and attach the tractor and implement. See? I’m making progress!

I moved the chicks out of their first, smaller tank, and into the larger pen. They are about robin sized now.

The spring play at the college will close this Saturday afternoon and next week is a band and choir concert. We need to be out of the theater by about 5:30PM on Saturday, so we don’t have much time to dismantle the set. I hope to get things off the bookshelves on the set, and the small grand piano (it’s an electronic keyboard) off the stage. I’m hoping to get three or four strong young kids to carry it up the steps rather than tipping it on its side, taking off two legs, and trying to get it through a doorway sideways, like it came in. Goals.

I started delivering some straw this week.

Speaking of Straw, I was talking with a family friend about the hayrides that we used to do with 4-H or church groups. It used to be a very popular thing to take a tractor and wagon, make a pile of loose straw on the wagon, and then at night, in the dark, 15 or 20 kids would pile on the wagon and you’d go out in a field and drive around and push each other off, and by the time you got home again there was no straw left on the wagon. We don’t do that anymore. Can you imagine? What could go wrong?

I don’t know how come nobody got seriously hurt. My folks did it for the church youth groups for a lot of years. The only accident I remember is when one kid jumped off a wagon early and was going to cut across a corner of the driveway to catch a second wagon, and he ran into a barbwire fence. After that, the kids were told to stay on the wagon until they got to the field.

There is a story in my grandmother’s diaries of a 4-H hayride mid 1950’s, when the tractor slipped into a ditch. The wagon tipped over and several kids were hurt – none seriously by some miracle, but my uncle, who was driving the tractor, had several cracked ribs.

When our kids were young, the daycare would visit the farm and we used a hayrack with the tall sides, and they sat on bales, and we went in the daytime, and it was just a wagon ride. Not a hayride in my sense of the word.

I googled “hayride” to see if I could find examples of our type of hayride. Wikipedia says it’s a traditional activity consisting of a recreation ride which has been loaded with hay or straw for “comfortable seating”. They say it harkens back to farmhands or kids riding the load of hay back to the barn for unloading. And has since become a tourism gimmick to generate income for the farmer. I guess that’s one way to do it.

READERS CHOICE!

55 thoughts on “Almost Farming”

  1. Ah, we get to pick our question? I want to know what everyone’s having for dinner.

    I remember hearing about hayrides from my friend who lived on a farm, and I’m pretty sure they were the tame version with the comfortable seating… may have been singing involved. Wish now I’d gone on one, just to see.

    Ben – that board under the jackstand muddle is the kind of thing that would drive me nuts – you did what you were supposed to do, and it wasn’t enough. Not fair, and the amount of work involved… Uffda.

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

  2. My mother considered hayrides as hazardous as riding in the bed of a pickup. I rarely was allowed to do either. Several kids at my school were killed when they were riding in a pickup bed and the pickup rolled.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  3. I have a snapshot I found among my parent’s photos of a hayride undertaken by many of the neighbor adults on the block, probably sometime in the 1950s. It was that kind of block—they would all do things together. As with so many of those old photos not many of us are left who can identify the participants, especially since some of them moved away in the ‘50s. Everyone was so young.

    I showed it to a childhood friend, whose parents were in the group depicted and he said, “I think that’s the hayride where my Dad fell off the wagon and broke his arm.”

    Liked by 5 people

    Reply

    1. Don’t know about dinner yet. I have a small chuck roast thawing in the refrigerator but I don’t think it will be ready today. Last night I grilled some tilapia with lemon butter and thyme and smoked paprika.

      I try to vary the menu and at the same time use ingredients that need to be used up and at the same time keep the dinners fairly light. I’ll think about it today and come up with something.

      Liked by 3 people

      Reply

  4. Rise and Shine Baboons,

    I frequented hayrides as a child and teen, usually for church youth group or 4H. Ben, they were as you described–very dangerous and somewhat uncomfortable. Itchy. Very itchy. When I was 13 or 14 years old, my cousins set me up with a tractor and manure spreader. They thought this was really funny, to have me spread manure. I had not driven anything before. I do not know how I lived through that one, having taken a corner way too fast. My mother’s family really did not understand the need to supervise kids and teens. What were they thinking? What was I thinking?

    Liked by 6 people

    Reply

  5. A friend who grew up on a sugar beet farm just across the MN/ND border from Grand Forks recounts that when she was learning to drive a tractor her father told her to focus on some point on the horizon and drive toward it, thereby assuring she would steer in a straight furrow. She did that but the spot she steered toward turned out to be a piece of equipment working a neighboring field.

    Liked by 6 people

    Reply

  6. OT: Thursday evening our bathroom was finished. In the words of Leonard Cohen, Hallelujah! It turned out well and has only a 2″ lip in the entry so it is truly walk-in rather than “Step Over.” During the week our in-home services were established with OT, PT, and a Personal Care Attendant in place, so that I get some time off. I was delighted to find that Lou really enjoyed his time with the PCA, a Tibetan Immagrant/refugee from China. Lou just loved this guy. I did not expect that. They spent the day outside raking leaves and cleaning up the garden. Thursday and Friday were demanding days which is why I was absent from the Trail yesterday. But we moved this home care plan forward.

    Liked by 5 people

    Reply

      2. Thank you. Wednesday is the first neurology appointment, so I hope we have a diagnosis soon, which will make it easier to plan. It surely is a degenerative condition.

        Liked by 2 people

        Reply

  10. I always loved hayrides. I’ve been on both the kind Ben described in which hay or straw has been loosely strewn onto the bed of a wagon, and the kind when straw bales were placed in rows or sort of a square for more comfortable seating. I always thought they were cold due to the time of year. There were always hay rides around Homecoming, and some of the Homecoming floats were a hay wagon pulled by a tractor. I was on a really fun one once with a church youth group. The driver used a tractor and hay wagon and we just stuck to the gravel roads in the country and someone’s long driveway and field roads. We didn’t actually go into the fields. I had a great time. I never felt like it wasn’t safe.

    I’m trying to get rid of all my food so it doesn’t spoil while I’m gone, so I’ve been eating leftovers and weird mash-ups. Yesterday I warmed up some tomatoes, peppers, chiles, and black beans with cumin and ancho chili powder. I put them in Flat-outs (instead of flour tortillas), added a little sour cream and some cheddar cheese. Today I think I’ll have a salad and possibly some leftover vegetable curry with rice.

    I think I have my packing figured out. I’m bringing one medium checked soft-side suitcase and a carry-on backpack. I have a large, lightweight tote stuck in for all the stuff I’m probably going to acquire in Ireland. A friend posted pictures of their recent trip to Ireland. They were all wearing sweatshirts and jackets. She told me not to bother packing sweaters. She said the lovely Aran sweaters are everywhere and I will probably buy one. Wise. So I pulled a bunch of stuff out. I might even pull more out. We have washer and dryer in both of our AirBnBs.

    I went down a rabbit hole yesterday. My brother had given me a RFID pouch that you wear around your neck for your passport and credit cards. In it were some Euros and 12 pounds British coins. I didn’t want the coins around my neck so I had taken them out and stashed them in one of my tennis shoes in a baggie. I forgot where I put them and had to pull everything out and search. Finally I looked in the shoes. The coins were way deep in the toe of the shoe.

    Starting to feel ready to go and like this whole trip might actually really be happening! My heart really stops to think that this time next Thursday I will be in Ireland. We leave at 3 on Wednesday!

    Liked by 5 people

    Reply

    1. I’m so excited for you, Krista. I hope you have a great time. Are you putting Pippin in a kennel while you’re gone, or is someone taking care of him for you?

      Liked by 3 people

      Reply

      1. I found someone in Northfield who has two of her own dogs in her home and takes boarders if you schedule in advance. I’ve been to her home. Her dogs are calm and happy and friendly. They have a fenced backyard with a garden, which is different for Pippin. I’ve had him stay there once in February for three nights and it seemed to go very well. I feel confident that she will take good care of him. (I think she thinks I worry too much and that Pippin’s anxiety comes from me. She’s probably right.)

        Liked by 4 people

        Reply

  11. I’m torn about dinner. I’m debating whether to make a red lentil vegetable stew for it’s warming qualities, or stick to my original plan for tonight: pulled pork enchiladas. We shall see.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

  13. Since Ben opened it up, here is one of his chickens playing with one of his dogs. I know all of you Baboons have seen it Now it’s personal.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  14. We used up our last bag of shelf stable gnocchi. Now I have to order more from Sogna Toscana along with tagliatele with white truffles and Brescia. Darn!!

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

  18. I had some turkey meatballs in the freezer, so I made a roux and then used chicken broth to make gravy and added fresh mushrooms and the meatballs. With mashed potatoes and fresh green beans plus a green salad it made an ample and comforting meal.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

    2. We decided to go to Everest on Grand for dinner. Hans had Chicken Curry and I had Palak Chicken (Chicken Spinach Curry). Mine was delicious; the chicken curry Hans had was a little dry. Hope to be more inspired tomorrow. Just couldn’t get myself motivated today.

      Liked by 3 people

      Reply

  21. i’ve actually been on a fair few hay rides. Partly because apple orchards and cut your own tree places used to have them as a staple. The apple orchard that I used to take Y2 in Northfield is closed now, but it was a large orchard and so they took you around to different parts on a hay wagon. Same with the tree place that we went to several times at the holidays. Now both of these hay wagons had sides on them so they felt a little safer….

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  22. Our late friends, Ann and Mike Mikkelsen, once lived in an earth-sheltered house, they had built themselves, on beautiful acreage a few miles south of Northfield. Over the years, we joined them for many spirited celebrations there; hayrides were an annual tradition for a while.

    Another annual celebration that includes a hayride is the Danish American Center’s annual midsummer celebration. It’s held on the beautiful farm in Rosemount. That hay wagon is pulled by a couple of big Belgian horses. At the end of that evening, we burn a witch.

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

    2. In effigy, I hope.

      I found out that a grandfather 10 generations back turned in his sister-in-law as a witch. He was Nicholas Jackson of Salem. His SIL was Elizabeth Howe Jackson. She was hung during the trials. In researching this I found most were hung, not burned.

      Lou and I were in Rome in 2004. They burned George Bush (the second) in effigy while we were there. It did my heart good.

      Liked by 2 people

      Reply

Leave a reply to billinmpls Cancel reply