2025, animals, Farming Update, Gatherings, Government, Mysteries, Uncategorized

General. Walz.

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The weekend Farm Report comes to us from Ben.

The robins have been snowed on twice now. Once more and we should be good to go. I see the turkey vultures have returned, we’ve seen and heard sandhill cranes, I’ve heard there’s rhubarb coming up, and we’re starting to see hints of green in the lawn and in the rye that I planted as a cover crop. Spring is coming. Oh, and nettles are growing. Why do the weeds always get the upper hand?

One day last week I found both the lost pen and pencil from two days before, and a water bottle from about three weeks ago. The water bottle was in the office at our Townhall. I remember stopping there to look through some files, would not have remembered that I had a water bottle with me, I just knew that there used to be two in the refrigerator and now there was only one. And I was pretty sure I had put the pen and pencil in my pocket one morning, but that afternoon they were gone. Three days later I found them in a box I had bent over to pick up. There’s always, usually, almost always, a rational explanation for missing things.

Last Saturday, Governor Walz held a Townhall meeting in Rochester at the largest high school auditorium we have in town. Three days before, I got an email asking if I would be free on Saturday to work lights and sound for this event. Details were still being ironed out, and on Thursday I found out they were asking about various locations at the college, as well as various high schools in Rochester. Buried in an email someone said they were not expecting a very big crowd. I had to laugh at that. I don’t know why anyone would’ve thought that. A few years ago, yeah, small crowds, not these days. 

One of my jobs is doing technical support for community education events, or anything that’s not school related, in the public school auditoriums. So it’s pretty basic lighting and sound. We don’t do anything fancy, I don’t do video, but I can get him a microphone and turn on the stage lights.

I train in college kids to do this job and then ideally they can cover many of these events, most of which are dance recitals or various meetings. I keep the interesting things for myself. Like governors. But I did bring along a college student to train.

The large high school was finally selected and we did a walk-through there Friday afternoon with security and the governor’s staff. Saturday morning we were there at 7:30 AM and I observed this meeting of security personnel out in the hallway:

It sounded like this crew was searching purses and bags. I hope the big guy got to do more than search bags. I know the local police department was around, and I’m sure there was other security person that went unnoticed by me. From my position up in the balcony I really couldn’t see much.

I worked an event for Governor Walz several years ago at the college and it was much more low-key than this one.
As we finished up and were leaving, we saw the black SUVs with the tinted windows.

Some of you know Governor Walz would stay and take questions all morning if he could. He was only scheduled to speak for an hour, and they had started to make some indications they needed to wrap up. Shortly after the one hour mark, his wife Gwen, who had been sitting on stage, approached him and placed her hand on his shoulder. Governor Walz finished his thought and quipped, “You can see who holds the real power around here.“ and gave her the microphone. She spoke, she got the crowd up and on their feet and cheering and they both waved and exited. What a perfect way to wrap this up. The governor never had to say he had to go, no one had to cut them off, nobody plays the bad guy. Just smile and wave. Smile and wave. Well done. 

I make a show file on the lightboard for these events, and I have a ‘general’ file, which I then created a sub folder, ‘Walz’. Hence, GENERAL WALZ, which sort of made me giggle.

On the farm front, I didn’t get much accomplished this week on the farm. I hope to clear a down tree off the field on Friday, before it rains and gets muddy again. And I’m hoping to get some straw spread where I had the dirt work done last winter so that I don’t get any more erosion from the snow melting and spring rains.
Still sorting bolts, but I am just about done with that, they don’t quite fit back where they were so I’m still figuring it out as I go.

Electricians should be there on Monday to get the electrical done in the shop. I picked up the electricians scissor lift and will get the lights mounted on the ceiling prior to their arrival.

I’m looking forward to having a door opener installed, plus some exterior lights and more outlets in the shed.

And then I really need to stop spending money on this place.

The chickens followed me to the barn one day, eager for corn. And they got a drink while they were there. The ones with their head up are swallowing.

POISON IVY? STINGING NETTLES? POISON OAK?

EVER MADE A RASH DECISION?

37 thoughts on “General. Walz.”

  2. Rise and Shine, Baboons,

    So, Ben, did you salute General.Walz or Mrs. Walz? Their relationship sounds like a relationship with some real functional give and take. How rare is that? Following my visit to Urgent Care Tuesday evening, I finally seem to be back on my feet and functioning again, thank goodness.

    Well, of course ALL my decisions are well-reasoned and cogent; except that first marriage, but we don’t acknowledge that. And that house we bought, then sold at a devastating loss during the Ronald Reagan years.. Then moving to S. Minnesota to a small town after falling in love with city life. But let’s not discuss that one either.

    Let’s talk about the weather….or rashes.

    This was not a rash but it was a really strange phenomenon 6 years ago. I was in the garden and somehow a rose thorn injected itself into my leg. But I did not notice. When in the garden I frequently get stung or scratched and it is just part of the deal. Several weeks later there was swelling and redness on my leg surrounding a lump. It was tender and when I pressed the lump, a large rose thorn shot out of my leg. I never did go to the Dr. because it healed up with no more rash-like symptoms. I hate getting into nettles. Years ago I helped a friend who was dying of cancer with her garden, not realizing that she had nettles in the weedy patch. They got into my hands creating an uncomfortable, itchy rash that lasted forever. Ugh.

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  3. I’m not sure what yesterday‘s post triggered and probably in combination with YA coming home with stories from the office. But I had a long complicated dream last night about being three days away from retirement, but still having one program to push out the door with all the attendant paperwork. And in the midst of this, I decided I wanted a different cube in another room that required the tech guys to come over and deal with computers and printers. It was bizarre. No anxiety in the dream but I do remember that one of the reasons I wanted to move my cube is because in the other room in the cube farm, no one had any personal stuff in their cube and it made me kind of mad, that corporate America wasn’t letting people put stuff in their cubes

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  4. About rash. The only rash I’ve had in my life was one that I got after getting penicillin as a kid. The doctor told my folks that there wasn’t really any test for penicillin allergy, but that we should just go forward assuming that I was allergic. I have no idea if that’s changed over time but I dutifully write penicillin under allergy on every form I fill out the require requires it.

    I got the shingles vaccine the very second that my doctor would give it to me because I saw what happened when Nonny got shingles and I did not want to go there.

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    1. Re: Shingles vaccine. YES. I got it too for the same reason. A friend got it, then the virus lodged in her spine. It was painful. This was one thing I could manage with a vaccine.

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    2. I’ve read that people were often diagnosed with penicillin allergy when it wasn’t necessary and they weren’t actually allergic. I would talk to your doctor. I think the only way to find out would be to have a dose of penicillin, though, and that could be risky.

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      1. I am sure that there’s a possibility I may not be allergic to penicillin. But since there are so many other good alternatives, I just haven’t messed with it. I figure at this stage of the game if it turns out I haven’t been allergic to penicillin, it hasn’t really affected my life one way or the other

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  5. As a child I was allergic not only to poison ivy but also to other unidentified weeds and spent periods of my childhood swathed in gauze and some sort of vinegary medication.

    As an adult I seem to have acquired an immunity to those allergies and even in situations where Robin or other compatriots contracted poison ivy rashes, I have not reacted at all.

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  8. I’m managed to avoid poison ivy and oak, but not nettles. Once when on a walk in the woods, nature called. I pride myself in being able to answer the call just about anywhere, but this time I didn’t see the nettle patch… it was painful, but didn’t last as long as I feared it would.

    Last summer we sat in the weeds at an outdoor music venue, and got a good case of chiggers. THAT was miserable – just so much itching, and seemed to go on for weeks.

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  10. We don’t seem to have poison ivy around our property. I remember seeing some at the neighbors when I was a kid. And I wouldn’t know poison oak if I saw it.
    But stinging nettles; we have lots of them. I try to warn the summer helpers, and daughter, but I’m not sure it will ever sink in until they get into it themselves.

    I had a bad bad case of nettles on my hands. The backs were blisters and draining. And once, chasing cows I had mom helping me. She was in shorts and asked if she needed to change. I, being young and arrogant and panicked about the cows, said no, she was fine.
    He had blisters on her legs. I felt terrible later, but of course never said anything to her about it. Neither her to me.

    These days I seem to be fairly tolerant of them. If I brush into them and it starts to itch, if I can avoid scratching for a minute or so, it goes away and nothing develops. Knocking on wood and not pressing my luck.

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  11. I been stung by nettles lots of times as a kid, so I always wear rubber gloves when I harvest them. Young nettles make wonderful soup, one of my spring favorites. I also use them in pesto. Once you blanch them in boiling water they are harmless. They are rich in various nutrients, though I’ll admit I like them because of their taste – and the fact that they are free.

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  12. OT
    Just now I received an apology from MLB for the baseball Opening Day fiasco. If I spend $25.00 at their online shop, I get $10.00 off.
    Wonderful.🙄😒

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    1. That is the lamest kind of an apology. I’ve had it happen to me twice when a product didn’t live up to its reputation and was told that the companies don’t do returns, but if I spend some more money they’ll give me a discount. Makes me insane and of course I’ve never done business with either of these companies since.

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  13. I’ve never had a reaction from any of those plants. I usually wear long pants when I know I’m going to be out in the woods or in an area where I could be exposed to ticks, mosquitoes, and poison ivy though. I’ve been in nettles plenty of times, as well as poison ivy. I don’t think I’ve been around poison oak, but I could be wrong. It looks similar to poison ivy, I think. Nettles grow in open areas of woods, or near giant ragweed in impacted areas. I think that’s pretty common on farms.

    The only rashes I’ve ever had were from chickenpox and mumps.

    I made a rash decision yesterday when I bought a new car, a Toyota Corolla Cross, on impulse. I did like my Civic, but the low profile was making me nervous in traffic, and I was afraid to drive in bad weather. The only real drawback will be loading my kayak on the roof. It’s so hard for me to shove it up on the roof of a vehicle that is taller than my head. I might have to figure out a new method for hauling my kayak. I’m still second guessing myself, but I like Toyotas and I will make this work. At least I bought it before the tariffs kick in next week!

    So nice to hear the rain on the roof…

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  16. OT but I’m quite proud of my postings to political site Mediate. This was one of several I posted yesterday ripping off the SNL George Washington’s Dream.
    “I have a dream that one day our great nation will put tariffs on all imports. The tariffs will make us rich.”
    “Imports, sir? Like tea?”
    “Yes, but this time we will not have Tea Parties. We shall have Tariff Parties.”
    “What other imports, sir?”
    “Eggs and bacon.”
    ” Canadian bacon?”
    “No. We shall call it American bacon.”
    ” And how will these tariffs make us rich, sir.”
    “Nobody knows “

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  17. I was told that when I was a baby I had rashes that were recurrent, and no one knew why. A doctor said it was eczema.
    Another relative asked my mother, “Are you giving her eggs?” I had been fed a lot of eggs, so my mother stopped giving me eggs and fed me other stuff, and the rashes went away.

    I don’t have any allergies to eggs today It’s possible the rashes just would have gone away anyway. But at the the time it seemed to be a solution.

    Stinging nettle has bothered me in the past, but I think the reaction lessens over time with repeated exposures.

    I think I’ve only had poison ivy once. That was enough, I don’t want to encounter that again.

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