2024, Farming Update, Nature, Uncategorized, work

The Busy Busy Week

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Today’s Farming Update comes from Ben

It’s been a busy week. I’ve gotten a lot done and multiple things checked off my ‘to do’ list. A couple things I even had to add so I could cross them off.

Crops are looking good, it’s a little cooler than it should be, (I sure like the temps), and plenty of moisture, borderline too much, but we’re not gonna talk about that. The corn is already knee-high and there’s some weeds coming.

It was sprayed Tuesday. Counting the plants in 17’6” (1/1000th of an acre on 30” rows) gives me an estimate of the number of plants / acre. It’s also a good way to check singulation and spacing of the seeds. I planted at a rate of 36,000 / acre. I counted 30 plants in the 17’6”. More double plants than I should have – we want them all 6” apart. I have blank spaces, then two plants. That’s an issue of the planter meter that I had overhauled this past winter. Next year I should order large flat seeds, rather than medium mixed, as the meter’s seem to handle those better.

I read an article saying that when corn isn’t actively growing, (dense soil, too wet too long) it’s not making the energy to stay green, which explains the yellow spots in fields.

Oats is knee-high and I can feel the kernels half way up the stalk. They’ll be out shortly. The wet weather has already caused some fungal growth in the oats, called rust, and I had the co-op spray for that on Monday. (left untreated, the stalk gets brittle and break off before harvest and it’s really dusty come harvest. Everything turns orange). There are a few short spots and a little bit of lighter green color in places – different soil types might hold a little more moisture and oats doesn’t like wet soil and it’s showing that.

The soybeans are coming along nicely. They have some pre-emergence herbicide applied with fertilizer so they’re pretty clean yet at this point, except for the thistles, I have a lot of thistles.

I got the corn planter and grain drill cleaned up and put away last Saturday and then I got the haybine ready to go and cut the road sides.

 Monday I raked the Roadsides, meaning turned it over so the bottom could dry.

I was able to bale about 4:00 Monday.

I have added an idler wheel to the pick up on the baler. It’s something I’ve had for about two years and have been meaning to do it, and it was one of those jobs that I put off, and then it only took five minutes to do. 

I have my camera on the baler so I could see the strings on the bales.

I spent time thinking about how haying has changed over the years: from dad cutting with a 6 foot sickle mower and pulling a crimper behind it, (which is all combined in this one machine now) And the different haybines that I’ve had over the years. This machine was one of the first things I bought on my own under my name. I’ve mentioned before how good mom was at getting my credit established and getting machinery in my name. 

I had a new summer helper out. He’ll be a senior in high school, he’s a friend of a friend, lives in an apartment in Rochester, neither of his parents grew up in the country, he really doesn’t know anything about mechanics or farming, but he is a good worker, and he’s willing to try anything, and he doesn’t seem to stop. Plus, he’s just plain INTERERESTED in learning! He was only here on Tuesday, because we got rained out on Wednesday, but I think he’ll do real good.

With his help Tuesday, we got the four bolts replaced on the gearbox of the brush mower, and took the blades off and sharpened them. Then I was able to mow a path for the new fence, and we dug a hole for the first post. You want to set your fence posts about 2 1/2 to 3 feet deep. Easier said than done when it’s rock and clay in the bottom 2 feet. 

But we got the first post set. On Thursday, I tore out a short section of fence, dug two more holes, and never hit any rock! It was clay and sticky and slow going, but not all that hard with My two-handed manual post digger.


It looks brand new because my friend Paul painted it after he borrowed it. I used it making fence with my dad so it’s been around a long time.
I was today years old when I learned they make longer handles for post hole diggers.

Mind. Blown!
This has 48 inch wood handles, and the metal part is about a foot, so it’s 5 feet tall but when you’re digging a hole 2 feet deep the handles are down at your waist and it’s hard on a body. And then I saw a video with a guy using one with 6 foot handles. Meaning it’s still at chest level when you’re digging the hole and I thought that was the most amazing thing! Why has that not dawned on me before?? I’ve always said, I am not the idea man, I’m the one that makes it happen. So I don’t often think of things like that.  I can order some on Amazon, but of course I would like them today, not next week, so they’re on my wish list. 



Anyway, I dug a couple holes at the ends of the fence, and ran a string line and I am renting one of those hydraulic “dingo” post hole diggers on Saturday. Need to dig about 10 more holes. Today’s job is laying out the posts and marking the post locations.



I went to Fleet Farm on Thursday and picked up two rolls of Barbwire, at $104 per roll, I don’t know what I paid for barbwire 25 years ago, the last time I built a fence, but it wasn’t that much. And 50 steel posts, called T posts, and 10 wood posts and that was about $800. Jeepers, sure glad I don’t have miles of fence to build, this is doing about 500 feet. 

It will be real nice to have done. I also will have to tear out the old fence. I went up Thursday night to mow along the old fence, until I wrapped barbwire around one of the blades. Came back home, took the mower deck off, took the old blades off and remove the jumble of wire, put new blades on, put the deck back on, and will mow again another day. 

Got in the house at 9:30 PM.

Got the carburetor off the Kawasaki 4 wheeler and ordered a new one off Amazon. Hope to have that running soon.

FENCING: DISCUSS

67 thoughts on “The Busy Busy Week”

  1. I may have written about this in the past. Probably 10 years or so ago a couple of the posts of my backyard fence started to rot at the ground level. I measured, we went out and bought a new post, we detached the top of the old post from the chain-link and then started to dig down to get out the bottom of the post and as we discovered, the concrete. YA and I together spent a total close to 12 hours doing this. I hired someone to do the other two and it took him three hours. Aarrgh.

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  2. I was 16 the year my folks decided to put in a pool instead of going to leach when weather allowed. Part of a pool is the fence. My dad decided on a 6’ dog eared cedar fence. It went around the back yard and used about 100 4×4’s that required post hole digging in clay rocks dirt and roots depending on where you dug. We’d be digging and find a big rock or root we had to decide to tackle or deal with in other fashions, moving the hole an inch or two did it sometimes. Pickaxe to pull roots and rocks is okay at 6” but a bear at 2 feet. We had an expression that became a running joke. Make it up on the next one if the hole got moved to be a little longer or shorter left or right. Make it up on the next one followed me through life. Not what you want the engineer of the high rise to be hollering but handy in life.
    we lived there about 30 years after fence install so I got to see the 4x4s get old and need to be replaced. Cement in the holes made that a real challange. My sister had me help with her fence with about 30 posts. Someone told her to put pea gravel in the hole instead of concrete so we tried that. That’s been 30 years now and it’s still fine.i guess pea gravel allows for drainage where concrete themes to promote rot. Who knew? Had to get concrete poured for pool deck before closing up the fence.
    I sold dog eared pickets and wire fencing and t posts to mills and Menards for years. Fencing is a thing. When you need it you need it can’t help but think of those range miles with fencing for cattle and sheep. I love my fence tool with snips pliers and hammer all in one.
    doesn’t rain allow you to take your helped into the shed with a wrench to do covered projects?
    enjoyed the update ben

    keep the rust off them oats

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  3. I’ve built fences at three of our four houses. The first fence was chain link and enclosed the perimeter of the back yard. The second was a fence around our large garden—perhaps 20’ by 30’. When we moved into our present house, there was a tall fence along one side that the previous owner had had constructed to block out the view of the neighbor on that side. I completed the fencing along the other two sides of the back yard so the dog could roam freely there.

    In each case the first challenge was to get holes dug for the fence posts. For the chain link fence, I rented a two-person gas powered digger and Robin and I dug the holes. It seems unbelievable now but we were much younger then. A two person post hole digger is unwieldy in the best of conditions and if you hit a rock or big tree roots it can spin both of you around. After a couple of holes just lifting the driller back out of the hole becomes arduous.

    For the garden fence and for the fence at our current address, I rented a one-man post hole digger. This comes on two wheels and with a trailer hitch. The drill is on an arm that levers down and if you hit a rock or root you don’t get yanked around. I was especially grateful for that when drilling the holes for our latest fence. The soil beneath the topsoil here is either heavy clay and rocks or what appears to be class five fill.

    As I mentioned, the first fence was chain link. The garden fence was wire fencing with a wide wooden top. The fence in our current back yard is cedar. Each presented its own challenges.

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  4. In our first Winona house, we had a totally fenced corner lot, a combination of chain link and antique wrought iron, the spiky-top kind. We got offers from folks for the wrought iron, and I see that someone caved between our ownership and now.

    Robbinsdale house had a fully fenced back yard – chain link. We only had to deal with that when a huge limb from the old box elder came down on it, and we must have had a professional replace it because I have no memory of how that got repaired.

    Current house had white plastic fencing, which Husband and Neighbor took down when we moved in, as it was actually on his property and prevented him from properly snow-blowing his driveway… It’s just replaced on that side with galvanized garden fencing (some of it from tim! ). I’d love to replace the remaining white plastic stuff with something wood, esp. because the latch on the gate is problematic at this point.

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  5. Our son is having their yard fenced with 6 ft cedar in July. Their next door neighbors just fenced in their yard with the same material, so son only has to pay for three sides of fencing. We are having a 4 ft high 14 foot length of chain link on the east side of our yard put up soon to replace a wood fence that was damaged in a wind storm. We have chain link on the south border of our yard, and soon the east. The north and west fences belong to the two neighbors. They own those fences. The fencing is very old, since the late 1970’s, and the fencing to the north is about to fall over into our yard. The neighbor insists they will replace it soon, but I am doubtful it will happen unless it collapses first. Fencing is outrageously expensive here.

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      1. 70ft from the side walk to the back yard property line, and 60 ft from the north property line to the south property line. It isn’t a very big lot.

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  6. Rise and Shine, Baboons, from JacAnon

    Lou and I were part of Ben’s busy, busy week. We stopped to pick up 9 dozen eggs Thursday afternoon and got a tour on the gator. It was really fun to get an eyeful of that beautiful property. On our tour d’eggs we dropped some off for Krista and had to drive fast to pick up Phoebe at Doggie Day Camp–we were late. Then yesterday VS came to get some of the eggs and we had another lovely Baboonish visit. Meanwhile, during our Mayo Clinic day we ran into Garrison Keillor eating lunch at the same place we ate. He needs a hair cut. I did not say hello. Let the guy eat lunch in peace.

    We have an Invisible Fence for the dog, but we have struggled with it. We have had this in place for 11 years and used it successfully with other dogs, but Phoebe’s furry ruff intermittently prevents the mild shock that communicates the edge of the property. THEEEEN, on top of that, a colony of ants moved into the electrical outlet where it was plugged in and established a nesting site. I found that a month ago when the system ceased to work at all. I vacuumed and sprayed the ants until they took up housekeeping elsewhere. Now the collar has disappeared and I am just exasperated with this. I like the system because it gives the dog so much freedom within the yard. When I find the darn collar, training will resume.

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    2. Oh shoot, I forgot to talk about the nice visit we had when you were here. I keep getting distracted, thinking about Garrison Keillor with long hair.

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    3. In 1985 I was in a Mantorville melodrama. After the play we sang this song. I detested this song. It’s become a joke to me now.

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  8. I once calculated how many miles of barbed wire were on our farm. It was a few. We would check all the fence lines every spring with four wheel wagon drawn by the horse when the ground, red clay and rock, was still wet, making it easier for my father to drive posts back into the ground, ones heaved by the deep frost, or to replace bad ones. The tractor would have bogged into the mud. My last year home my father went to the UP for work, and I did it alone the day of the prom. The next day I went back to check all the wire and any loose staples. I have very little memory of that prom but memories in detail of what it took to do that alone.

    Clyde, who’s now two armed during the day

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    1. I was hoping you’d have a story Clyde.
      Yep, every spring we checked all the fences before we could let the beef cows out to pasture. And I hated it. The fences were through woods and down steep hills and they were wore out then. It was easier to sell the beef cows than make all that fence. Call me lazy.

      I remember dad cutting oak logs, and splitting them to make his own fence posts. Seems to me now, dad wasn’t very good at making fence either. I started insisting we make corner brace posts and such. (Details next week assuming I get some fence made this week).

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      1. Our fences were mostly through woods and scrub country but my father kept a clear road next to the fences. Our farm was on or at the bottom of hillsides, so many creeks and bogs. In one corner we had to slog through a bog to get to the corner down one line, and down the other line to get out. My father wore high boots and led the horse and I walked. One creek was in a broad gorge. We had to build and reenforce a lower portion. We did not make the horse go down and through that. Today I worry about all that rusty wire and deer.
        Clyde

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  9. I don’t have any fence stories. I’ve heard they make good neighbors, but how do you get to know your neighbors if you can’t see them? (I’ve always wondered.) Building a fence properly seems like a lot of hard work.

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    1. When I was building the fence at our current house, not blocking out interaction with the neighbors was a consideration. That’s why the fence on that side is only 4’ high—high enough to contain the dog and to allow some privacy when we are sitting on the patio, but not so high that it seems antisocial.

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  10. OT: Thanks for the book suggestion, Bill. I hadn’t heard of that title, but I have heard of Edward Eggleston. I searched and found it on Kindle. I’d rather not use Kindle. There are some free digital library apps which I’ll try. There’s also Fair Trade Books over in Red Wing. They have some obscure stuff in there, and they’re helpful and will order a copy if I want one.

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    1. I understand your reluctance to use Kindle, but be advised that the type size in the printed book is very small. With Kindle you can size the type comfortably.

      I have copies of the printed book and could get you one if you wish.

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  11. I worked on a library construction project at the North Dakota State Penitentiary in Bismarck. Seeing up close the razor wire on the fences was chilling. How desperate would you have to be to challenge it?!

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  12. Mending Wall

    by Robert Frost

    Something there is that doesn’t love a wall,
    That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,
    And spills the upper boulders in the sun;
    And makes gaps even two can pass abreast.
    The work of hunters is another thing:
    I have come after them and made repair
    Where they have left not one stone on a stone,
    But they would have the rabbit out of hiding,
    To please the yelping dogs. The gaps I mean,
    No one has seen them made or heard them made,
    But at spring mending-time we find them there.
    I let my neighbor know beyond the hill;
    And on a day we meet to walk the line
    And set the wall between us once again.
    We keep the wall between us as we go.
    To each the boulders that have fallen to each.
    And some are loaves and some so nearly balls
    We have to use a spell to make them balance:
    ‘Stay where you are until our backs are turned!’
    We wear our fingers rough with handling them.
    Oh, just another kind of outdoor game,
    One on a side. It comes to little more:
    There where it is we do not need the wall:
    He is all pine and I am apple orchard.
    My apple trees will never get across
    And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him.
    He only says, ‘Good fences make good neighbors.’
    Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder
    If I could put a notion in his head:
    ‘Why do they make good neighbors? Isn’t it
    Where there are cows? But here there are no cows.
    Before I built a wall I’d ask to know
    What I was walling in or walling out,
    And to whom I was like to give offense.
    Something there is that doesn’t love a wall,
    That wants it down.’ I could say ‘Elves’ to him,
    But it’s not elves exactly, and I’d rather
    He said it for himself. I see him there
    Bringing a stone grasped firmly by the top
    In each hand, like an old-stone savage armed.
    He moves in darkness as it seems to me,
    Not of woods only and the shade of trees.
    He will not go behind his father’s saying,
    And he likes having thought of it so well
    He says again, ‘Good fences make good neighbors.’

    Mending Wall by Robert Frost – Poems | Academy of American Poets

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    1. Of course there’s caveats to that, you’re not supposed to use barbed wire for horses, right? and I never had pigs so I don’t know enough about that. I am putting four strings of Barbwire on this fence, if I was really trying to keep beef cows contained in the fall ofthe year, it would have five. I could’ve opted for three but that’s pretty cheap.
      The Township is responsible for fence laws if someone challenges it. Basically, if you have the cattle, you’re responsible for the fence. Not your neighbor on the other side who doesn’t have cattle. If you both have cattle, you either share the cost or Build different sections.

      Got the fence post holes all dug, hit rock in three of the 12, and I also dug three bonus holes down in the pole barn where I need to replace some posts there.

      “Bonus holes”. Like I’m out digging a hole in case I need one…

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  17. Our native friends who we visited today used to raise bison, and they had a bull who used to jump whatever fence Bruce put up. Bruce loved that bull!

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  18. My best friend’s dad raised cattle near Luverne. And they had a Hereford bull who jumped a fence and unfortunately castrated himself in the process

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    1. Ouch!
      I had a cow crawl through a Barbwire fence and rip open a major blood vessel on the bottom of her belly. Blood to death a few yards away.
      I was 16, mom and dad had gone to Europe for three weeks and three cows died. None of them were my fault, but I was kinda traumatized by it at the time.

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      1. I can understand why. Are there still rendering works that come pick up animal caecasses? In my home town there was one located at the edge of town. It did not smell good.

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  19. When I was a kid, we lived in a house that bordered on a woodsy area. My father put up a split rail fence to mark where the mowing ended and the woods began. The fence has probably long since fallen down, but it was a nice feature for the yard.

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    2. Oh my. That really hit home Linda.
      This fence I’m building is right along our driveway. I see it every day, which is why the old fence was discouraging me so much. And as I’m working on this one, I’m telling myself, you’re gonna look at this every day, make it right. My boss is a hard man to please, so I better get it right. Then I remember my Theatre mentor Thom, and remind myself not to half-ass this.

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  22. last night we lost electricity twice (the furst time I was trying to cook supper), then later at 11:50pm. We had a total of 2.5 inches of rain.

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