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To Park or Not to Park

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The weekend Farm Report comes to us from Ben.

Wrapped up another academic year by celebrating commencement this past Wednesday. I will be employed at the college until June 2 as I have some rentals coming through. I’ll be going to half time to allow myself a little more time farming while I still finish up odds and ends at the college before starting back this fall.

The oats are up! And I see the neighbor’s corn is coming up. Mine will be coming out any day now.

We’re at 452 GDU’s – ‘Growing Degree Units’ for our area for 2025. About double what normal is considered. I did get some corn planted last weekend and the co-op spread the last of the corn fertilizer and I’ve gotten all the fields dug up at least once. Mechanical tillage helps with weed control, and I was afraid if we got too much rain the next few days the weed population would explode. There was a few late nights with me and Bailey in the tractor.  

I planted oats and grass in the waterway that was built last fall. A little rain would be nice and helpful, and it would be especially helpful if we didn’t get any heavy rain for, well really, the whole summer, but at least the next couple of months until it is established and gets some good root structure down. Before I could get the waterway planted there was a couple of logs out there that needed to be picked up. I had told Kelly “We’re only doing the ones as big as my head and 4 feet long.“ But, of course then it’s hard to pass up the ones as big as my arm and 2 feet long. And if you’re gonna pick up those, you may as well pick up the ones as big as my wrist and a foot-long.

Kelly picked up a lot more sticks than I did just because I was in the tractor dealing with other stuff. She did several loads like this.

Kelly and I celebrated our 35th wedding anniversary on Monday. It was a pretty low-key celebration as I spent the day at the college getting ready for commencement and she was working. Back in 1999 I wrote a card for her, wrote on the front not to open until 2025 and tucked it in my dresser. I kind of forgot about it over the years and every now and then I’d find it again. I know I looked at it just a few months ago, and then I put it… “somewhere safe”. It took me a good half an hour to find it on Monday. Life was sure different for us 25 years ago. I kind of wish I had written more about just what was going on in our lives. I’ve wondered if I should do the same thing again? Do I dare do I make it for another 25 years? I realize no one is guaranteed tomorrow, and as we are both in our 60’s now, 25 years might be pushing our luck.

I planted corn Saturday and Sunday.

The load in for commencement was pretty uneventful this year, both for me and the IT guys hanging a large projector, screen, and setting up multiple cameras, and the sound system. Monday was the biggest part of that job for me as I picked up the rental lights, got them hung and cabled, and set up the laptop and lightboard to control them.

It kind of turns into a free-for-all on Monday and as I parked, I thought ‘Well if this doesn’t completely sum me up”:

Tuesday was stage decorations, curtains, banners, flowers, my floor lighting for all those things, and finalizing cues, and making sure everything worked. Wednesday morning was a walk-through, a nurse pinning ceremony, the main event at 6 PM, and it all came back down and packed up in about two hours and I was home by 10 PM

The obligatory ‘Head in the clouds’ photo:

I’ve got a lot of stuff to put away back at the theater, and I’m still checking my budgets and verifying expenses the Business office has compared to my Excel spreadsheets and catching up on things that I’ve let slide the last couple weeks. Depending on the weather, I may get out and do some more fieldwork this weekend. I might be able to finish planting corn if everything goes smoothly.

Chicks are growing and doing well.

Found a couple deer antlers while doing fieldwork.

And that one field that always ALWAYS grows big rocks came through yet again. Kelly and I dragged it home behind the gator. It took a long bar, two shovels, a chain, a 20’ long ratchet strap, and Kelly’s ingenuity, but we got it home and added it to her collection. “What are you going to do with it?” asks my one sister. We’re gonna admire it! …what a question… like everything needs to be practical.

You can tell it was a busy week because I needed a pen, pencil, red sharpie, and chrome ‘dress’ sharpie.

SIGNS WITH RED AROUND THEM ARE OPTIONAL. TRUE OR FALSE?

19 thoughts on “To Park or Not to Park”

    2. “I don’t think I should have to pay my parking fine, Your Honor. After all, the No Parking sign had a red border, which means it’s optional.”

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      1. I’m not sure I’m reading what I’m reading. Is everyone taking Ben’s question to be anything but a whimsical attempt to justify a moment’s skirting of the law?

        Lighten up…

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        1. I’ve asked our sheriff deputy about the optional signs. He doesn’t agree with me. But he’s gotta catch me first, right?

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        2. I took it not as a whimsy of Ben’s, which perhaps it was, but as a reference to some persistent but absurd urban myth.

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        3. Hopefully this post won’t go viral, and we’ll all be contributors to the next horrible conspiracy theory about signs.

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  2. What a delightful report this morning, Ben. Thanks. And happy anniversary. I love that you wrote a card to Kelly back in 1999 not to be opened until this year. What a romantic. I think shorter intervals between future opening date might be wise, just in case.

    I love the photo of Kelly and her rock. Your attitude about rocks – and so much other stuff – well, rocks!. So does your photo of your pocket indicator of a busy week. What a hoot!

    Yes, rectangular signs with red around the edges are optional; it’s the triangular ones that can get you in trouble.

    Have a great weekend all, and for those who celebrate: Happy Syttende Mai!

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  3. I did not know that about red-rimmed signs. Right – why?

    Agree with PJ – nice idea to write another letter, maybe open in 10 years or something like that.

    We have the same anniversary, Ben, and we went out for a drink and dinner at El Patron, which was a delightful change of pace. Nice to do before my three busy days with college reunion…

    Don’t miss Linda’s post last night, with a link to an article about why we can’t remember why we came into a room…

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  7. Better Late than Never, Baboons,

    When you live in a city, and parking is dog-eat-dog, you do what you need to do. Signs outlined in red are just suggestions, really. (And no, I do not have a long history of parking violations). You just must be smart about it. I will admit that Lou’s handicapped parking permit has come in really handy for the last 3 months!

    Ben, the picture with your head in the clouds made me dizzy just looking at it. Yikes. I do not know how you do that, but then my feet belong on the ground. I also love the rock-growing field. Who knew?

    Today, at the direction of my PT, I walked halfway down the block with my walker. Tomorrow I walk a bit further.

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  10. Handicap parking signs and no parking signs not on the street: are they ever enforced? In Mankato people seldom violate the handicap signs but some people use gramma’s tag. At our mall Barnes & Noble has 2 handicap spots in front of it. Sheels sporting goods has 28. A long empty Sears store has 12. But handicap signs don’t hand any red on them.

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  11. I treat the stop signs in parking lots as optional. I feel like they try and steer traffic in many of the people who are trying to steer traffic are idiots. I did have a cop pull me over a month ago for not coming to a full stop or turning on my blinker but I drive so much that if I look and see that there are no cars coming that’s not a problem in my mind, but the carpool is behind me. Didn’t see it quite the same way happy anniversary Ben. I think you write the 25 year card but maybe also write a 10 year card with a secret hint at what she’s gonna find 15 years later. I hope you were able to get the corn in over the weekend and get finished up with that. It’s kind of an interesting part of your job description is that you can try and figure out how to get everything done but in your field, no pun intended you also have the time window that is there to deal with which makes it even more interesting you can put it off maybe for a day but maybe that’s not a good idea if you look at the weather forecast and discover that the weather that’s coming up infer that you should get off your butt and get out and get done what needs to be done now rather than waiting a day or two thanks for another wonderful weekend post I love reading about your take on the week gone by and the week coming up it’s one of the highlights of my week Sorry to be checking in at the last minute, but it was that kind of weekend.

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