2024, animals, Family, Farming Update, Nature, Theatre, Uncategorized

Party On!

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The weekend farm report comes to us from Ben.

Menards has Christmas decorations out. Oh my…

We got a little rain Thursday night. For the heavy storms, large hail, and wind they were predicting, we got about 3/10 of an inch. It was a nice rain and we needed it.

I’ve been seeing some of the neighbors chopping corn, and some of the YouTube farmers I watch are chopping, and it’s amazing how much the technology has changed in this regard in the last 30 years. While many large dairy farms are still using bunkers and pits for silage, a few are going back to cement upright silos. One place I watch on YT had 3, 100′ tall silos built this summer. Two for corn silage, and 1 for haylage. (Haylage or silage is the entire crop all chopped up; The stalk and ear, or the alfalfa, rye, sorghum, whatever, all chopped up, and packed and allowed to ferment. It may be in an oxygen limiting silo ((the blue ‘Harvestore’ ones)) or the plain cement ones.) Bunkers are faster to fill, but take more manpower and equipment to fill, pack, cover, and unload. Upright silos fill a bit slower and take a little more routine maintenance, but they settle on their own and pack strictly from its own weight, and they seem to be automated enough, especially nowadays, that feeding takes a lot less work.

And now they have cameras in the silos to monitor operation, and the electrical cable travels inside and doesn’t need to be moved from door to door. It’s been kind of fun to see and reminisce. There’s a young man climbing the 100′ silos– keyword “young man”… Not sure I’d be doing that anymore.

We used two 18′ diameter, by 50′ tall silos. One for 1st crop hay chopped and filled in June, and the other for corn, filled in September. Usually the primary ingredient for dairy cattle ration is corn silage. Course it depends on geography. In some places it’s grass or hay. Every farm is different. Our cows got ground corn inside the barn, (plus minerals and protein supplements) but they got hay and corn silage outside, plus grass in summer.

The hay silage is dusty, and once a month I’d have to go up the chute and open up a lower door and move the unloader arm down, and every couple of months move the electrical cable and it was just a dusty dirty terrible job. Corn Silage wasn’t as dusty, but still had to open the doors and move the cable and do regular maintenance on the unloaders, and chop off what was frozen to the walls in the spring… it was a whole big thing. I don’t miss a lot of it.

The Custom guys are chopping with these huge eight or ten row choppers that can go across the rows if needed, they don’t have to follow the rows. Then it’s loaded into trucks, or tractors and wagons that follow the chopper and are filled almost automatically, and it’s so much easier than it was 30 years ago when I was doing it with our 2 row pull type chopper. Again, just fun to see

I managed to have one afternoon and a couple hours one other day to work in my shop. Got some sill plates bolted to the concrete floor and I have one post up.

Here is old technology mixed with new. A plumbob and a laser!

I took in some fire extinguishers to be renewed. This one from 1995 still worked great!

I showed daughter how to pull the pin and spray it around. Got a new one to replace this old one.

This week is Tech rehearsals for a 1920s jazz musical called ‘The Wild Party’ at the Rep Theater. Spending a lot of time here getting the new lights hooked up and the lightboard talking to the laptop. (Had to call in an expert to help do that). Here’s a picture of the lighting board from the tour ‘Back to the Future’ at the Orpheum.

Here is our new board at the Rep.

Their board has more knobs and screens. They win.

I did get a new battery put back in Kelly‘s tractor and had that running for a while. But there was a few wisps of smoke coming from under the dash, and the lights don’t work, so I assume I’m not done working on that yet.

And the 630 starter is making a funky sound.

And the 4-wheeler that I put the new carburetor on isn’t working again.

And the lawnmower still quits after it gets hot.

I have some things to work on yet.

Thursday night the dogs met a skunk.  I wasn’t there, Kelly and daughter were. We thought Bailey got the worst of it and she got a special bath (thank you Kelly), but this morning it was Humphrey that smells. Everyone is just staying outside for now.

Can you snap your fingers? Did I ask this before?  The musical director for this show, snapped her fingers LOUDLY, with a real good SNAP for almost the entire 2 hour rehearsal! After rehearsal I asked to see her fingers. I wanted to see if those fingers were twice as big as the rest. No, but she has a callous on that one finger. It’s interesting how that must be a young person’s thing. Daughter can snap good, too. I get a muffled little snap.

Not counting groans and moans, how many noises can you make with your body?

45 thoughts on “Party On!”

  4. Well, we all know about the ones that come out of the back end. But I can whistle again – for a while I couldn’t, so I’m pleased about this. There’s singing of course, but that’s getting kind of gravel-y. Finger snapping. Thigh slapping. Tap dancing maybe. And of course snorting.

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  5. Laughed out loud, Ben!

    I used to be able to whistle a shrill blast but I can’t do it anymore. If you don’t practice a skill, you’ll lose it.

    I’m going to have a laryngeal stroboscopy at United Hospital on Monday. This will give me some insight about why I’m always so hoarse these days. The ENT doctor said there’s some scarring on my vocal cords but it isn’t too bad, so I’m going for this stroboscopy. If I understand correctly, I’ll have to return for voice therapy.

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      1. Yes, thanks Jacque! I confess to feeling intimidated and a bit anxious about it. I don’t think the video stroboscopy is going to be the worst thing I’ve ever gone through, but I’m still a bit nervous about it. I think I will inhale (snort) a numbing agent through my nose, then they will insert a scope into my nose and down to my larynx, where a video will be taken as I vocalize. I’ve had a miniature version of this once at the ENT office.

        I’ve been asking myself why I’m doing this. Why not just let it be and age gracefully? The answer is because singing makes me feel good, and lately it just makes me feel tired. If I can sing again, I’d like to.

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  7. Rise and Shine, Baboons,

    Are the sounds really countable? I doubt it. I do know that I can still snap my fingers, but now it hurts. Arthritis!

    I used to love to see Victor Borge on TV, but I am unsure which shows he was on. But he used to just reduce me to helpless giggling. His comedy stands up pretty well over the years. Bobby McFerrin also seems to make sounds that are creative and percussive.

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    1. But remember the silent flapping of a butterfly wing might trigger a hurricane across the globe. So if you wiggled your ears who knows what you set off elsewhere.

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  18. Made and froze 16 jars of Marcella’s pesto after church. That is 32 cups of firmly packed basil leaves. We have lots of basil left and I am giving it away at work. I ran out of pine nuts.

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