2024, animals, Farming Update, Nature, Uncategorized

Round & Round

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The weekend Farm Update comes to us from Ben.

I’ve got the brush mower on and I’ve started mowing weeds. We have a good crop of thistles. They’re taller than the tractor!

I went around the mullen’s.

As always though, majority rules.

Mowing waterways is a good opportunity to go down the middle of the field and see the crops. The corn is taller than me and the tractor in places.

Soybeans are not quite up to my knees yet, but they’ve got blossoms on them. The oats are up to my waist, but the quackgrass is quickly taking over. My neighbor who combines the oats, will be out of town this weekend and next. The oats aren’t quite ready to swath, yet it’s starting to go down (from the rust fungus weakening the stalk) plus the grass taking over, so I hate to wait too much longer. I’m thinking by the end of next week I’ll want to be cutting it. It will need to lay and dry for a few days before it will be ready for combining.

I had an email this week from the oat growers who market it for food grade vs animal food. The price at the food grade plant is $4.30 / bushel. At the local elevator, it’s $3 / bushel. That’s pretty hard to pass up the higher price. Yet I need to get it hauled down to the plant in Iowa, and the grain needs to be heavy enough for them to accept it. All things that are harder for a small operator like me to coordinate. Not impossible, but harder. And, of course, it costs money to haul it to Iowa, too. So there’s always a trade off. I’m still working out details.

The ducks are doing well. We bought them a kiddie pool last week and they’re big enough to get in, but not big enough to get out, so there’s a big rock in the pool.  They’ve figured out how to go into their pen on their own at night. They’re fun, when I go out there and call to them, they all call back to me. It isn’t quite a ‘quack’ yet, still more of a ‘peep’. I call out “Hello ducks! Hey Kids!” and they’re all “peep, peep, peep”. They know I’m bringing food. They don’t want to be picked up or anything, but they come over closer too me. This sure is an interesting looking bunch. I can’t wait to see what they look like when grown up. Notice the black spots on the feet of some of them.

I spent most of the week working on the Rep Theater stage again. I’ve had good help from my buddy Paul, and Chris, Michael, Doug, Max, and Noah. Max and Noah are the teenage boys helping me this summer. Max hasn’t done anything like this construction before. He’s learned and used a lot of new tools (and found the chalk line really fascinating- although he doesn’t come out and say that). He’s a good kid, a hard worker, smart, and good to have around.

The majority of the work is done, the main stage is done and has one layer on it. Next up will be the second layer of 3/4″ plywood and a top layer of 1/8″ plywood. We call it ‘lauan’, but the lumber yards don’t know it by that name. And it used to be $10 / sheet. Double that now. Jeepers. And 3/4″ plywood is $40. And that’s not even the fancy sanded stuff.

I did get a little bit done in the shed at home and replaced the windshield washer pump and one nozzle on my truck. Cut some grass one night.

A couple years ago, four of the bolts holding a gear box on the brush mower got loose. My brother and I tightened them up. They came loose again. This summer we replaced the bolts and put ‘lock-tite’ on them. After mowing for a day, they’re loose AGAIN. I need another helper to tighten them up again, but I’m afraid this might turn into a bigger repair job requiring a piece of steel welded underneath or something. I dread adding it to my list again.

It’s finally drying up around the barn and yard a bit, so that’s good.

Ever had a pedicure? What color would you paint your toenails tonight?

40 thoughts on “Round & Round”

    2. I have never heard that! Boy, they got that right.

      When refilling the water and pool (by the way, fresh water lasts about an hour before it looks like mud again) I sprinkle the ducks. They love it. I even set up the sprinkler for them sometimes.

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  2. Is it unusual for the corn to be that tall, Ben?
    Thanks for the ducks… glad they have a stone to help them out.

    One pedicure, and that was given by a friend of mine. Deep red (wine colored) polish… I would never do my fingernails, but with toes you don’t have to be quite as particular when it starts to chip off.

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  3. Never!
    I am rarely barefoot. I might have sandals somewhere. So no paint.
    Were I at the Last Supper and it was my turn at the footwashing, Jesus would say, “Next! I’m not touching those toes!”

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  4. I have never had a pedicure. My excuse is that I couldn’t justify the expense (although buying cooking equipment and garden supplies, which are far more expensive, seems totally reasonable. The real reason I have never had a pedicure is right there in the good old DSM-5 in the Obsessive Compulsive section. I can’t stand having noticeable toe nails and cut them real short or just peel them off. I have done it since childhood.

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  5. OT-In reference to Thursday haiku, I wrote one about a window washing college student. Well, our windows glisten today. The college student is an enterprising business major and member of our local college basketball team from Lethbridge, Alberta with a US wife and a Green Card. He invested in state of the art equipment and has a couple of employees, and did a great job. He charged a paltry $150. It was sure worth it.

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  6. Rise and Shine, Baboons,

    I get regular pedicures because it prevents cracking heels. I get thick callouses that crack without the pedicure and that is so painful. I have one scheduled Monday and I am going for a pink color this time. In the winter I forgo the polish. Ben, the ducklings are so cute.

    OT: Phoebe continues to recover but she wants to eat too much which gives her “digestive issues”, so she is now on a bland rice and broth diet, with Pepcid for her tummy. She seems happy and we are seeing more of her personality.

    OT2: Last night we went to Lyle Lovett and his Large Band at the State Theater with friends. It was, again, beyond fabulous. The musicians in the Large Band are all virtuosic, and Lyle Lovett himself is generous with the time they get to show their stuff. His songs and lyrics are also wonderful. He announced that the Brown Family (Greg Brown’s daughters) were in the audience. There seems to be an important friendship there. The organizers announced the concert would be 90 minutes, but it was three hours with no intermission. Lovett lost his voice at the end.

    Ben, I thought of you due to the stage lighting. When the concert started they were lit with black and white which appeared to be a B and w photo. Then various colors appeared through out the evening, then ended with black and white again. So creative. Tomorrow night they appear at the Big Top Chautauqua in Bayfield, WI which makes me think of our Late, Great Steve who loved that venue.

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        1. It was the Blue Canvas Orchestra. It was Steve’s favorite show from the Big Top. They were the house band. It was great!

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  8. I’ve never had a pedicure. I’ve never felt the need or desire. I tried painting my toenails a deep red color once. Every time I glanced down, it looked like my toes were all bleeding. It freaked me out and I couldn’t stand it. I took it off and never did it again. It would be tough to apply toenail polish tonight. If I had to do it, I’d use clear polish.

    I do like your comments, but I can’t seem to tell you so right now.
    ~Kristanon

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  9. I’ve had four pedicures that I’m sure of, there may be one more that I have sort of a vague recollection of.

    I was sixty-five when I had the first one, and I was surprised how much I enjoyed the pampering of my feet. I had a bright red polish put on, and I loved it. I had that pedicure a day or two before going to Mexico on vacation. It delighted me to walk barefoot on the beach and look down on those painted toenails. The polish lasted a surprisingly long time, too.

    All of the pedicures I’ve had were Groupon deals, so each was at a different salon, at a really good price, and offered different services. One included a foot massage and a hot wax treatment. What a treat that was.

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  11. A few pedicures in my lifetime. A couple of years when YA was in high school, at the end of the school year, we celebrated with mani/pedis. And I think I’ve had three or four over the years when I’ve traveled. It’s always something the hotel likes to do, offer a spa treatment for a VIP and that sometimes spills over onto the planner as well. I think every single one of my pedicures has been a French pedicure.

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  13. Yeah, ain’t that something… I knew he really had too; the party wasn’t going to let him keep on going.
    I hope there isn’t some underlying medical condition or something.

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    1. I don’t believe there’s anything wrong with Biden. He’s known to have immaculate timing, knows when to strike when the iron is hot. The timing of this announcement couldn’t have been more perfect. The Republicans have locked on to the DT/Vance ticket, and the Dems are free to choose their opponent. Hold on folks, this is going to be interesting. I see light at the end of the tunnel, and I don’t think it’s an oncoming train.

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  14. Never had a pedicure, though I used to do toenail polish now and then. Coral is a good color.

    Joe Biden may be an Obi-Wan Kenobi figure, More powerful after having been struck down.

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