2025, animals, Farming Update, Music, Mysteries, Nature, Uncategorized

Who???

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The weekend Farm Report comes to us from Ben.

I heard on the radio the band ‘The Who’ is beginning their farewell tour. I thought back in 2016 they were on their farewell tour. Which isn’t anything new, the Rolling Stones are still out there and how many farewell tours have they had. Anyone seen the Stones? 

I saw The Who in 1982. I think it was my second big rock concert and as an 18-year-old, driving with a State Farm atlas in my lap from Rochester up to the big city of St Paul and the St Paul Civic Center, it was a pretty big deal. I’m sure my folks were concerned sending me out into the world like that, even if it was just two hours away. I know I’ve told the story before but I like to brag about it so I’m gonna say it again: My first rock concert was Queen 1982, when Freddie Mercury was still strutting around the stage. My brother says Queen was the warm-up act when he saw the band Chicago right after Bohemian Rhapsody had come out.

So I set the bar quite high to have Queen and The Who as my first rock concerts. I know I have programs from them both, might even have tickets stubs in a drawer somewhere. And that’s when you had to go to a ticket office on the second floor of Dayton‘s department store. I feel like I found out about both of these fairly late so it’s not like I was waiting at the doors the first day tickets went on sale and a bunch of us rushed to the window. And then I found out you could call in to get tickets, so you called, getting the busy signal, hung up, and called again. In 1986 when tickets for Pink Floyd went on sale at the old Metrodome, I was home sick in bed and Kelly, while at work, was able to call and get tickets for us.

I digress.

The Who on a farewell tour.

They were well past their prime in 2016 and I decided I was not gonna remember that concert, I was gonna remember the 1982 concert.

You probably all remember the rock opera Tommy, and a really bad movie that was made after that. I always liked the Quadrophenia album better. Pete Townshend, the arm-windmilling guitarist, is married to Rachel Fuller. A singer-songwriter, musician, and composer. Together they created an  orchestral version of Quadrophenia and I recently saw it’s a ballet in England. I enjoy the sound of an orchestra behind a rock band. And the climactic final song of Quadrophenia called “Love Reign O’er Me“ sung by a full throated, powerful opera singer like Alfie Boe, is really something.

How long should you keep doing something?

I am sure they don’t need the money, and if you love it, and you are able to do it, I guess you should keep doing it, right? I mean should I quit farming because I’m “too old“? But I’m not farming in front of tens of thousands and charging an obscene amount of money for people to come see me struggle to climb up into the tractor and make crooked rows across the field.

But I’ll be skipping this tour.

Farming.

I’ve finished all my spring work. Although I am remembering now I’m supposed to plow up a couple fields and plant some corn as deer food plots for a neighbor. I kind of forgot about that. But the important fields, the ones that I’m trying to make money and survive on, they’re done.

I was hoping to finish soybeans last Tuesday, which is still two weeks later than all the neighbors, but… life.

It rained just enough on Tuesday that I had to quit. Once the dirt starts getting sticky, which only takes a couple of hundreds, it sticks to the gauge wheels on the planter. The gauge wheels control the depth of the seed, and sticking an extra half inch of dirt on the wheels changes the planting depth, and you’ve heard me say before, the depth is pretty critical. I  quit for a little while.

I spent most of Monday out working up all the ground, me and Bailey, and was a little bit sad to be done. Only because I enjoy my time in the tractor. The next morning I realized I had forgotten a field. So while it was a little bit too sticky to plant, it wasn’t too muddy to do fieldwork. Bailey and I got another hour of tractor time.

And then later on Tuesday I was able to go out again and I planted until 9:30 PM when it was again raining lightly and I was out of seed. I finished planting Friday afternoon. I started going over the fields with the drag, just like I did with the Oats, but the point of this is to smooth it out so that the combine header, when harvesting the soybeans, can ride as low as possible. Because soybeans pods will grow very low to the ground.

I had my last event at the college on Thursday evening. Tuesday will be my last day and I can haul out the garbage, and lock up cabinets, and take the rest of the summer off. So to speak.

The question was asked why my eggs are different colors. It’s different breeds. Some breeds of chickens lay white eggs, some brown eggs, and then there’s a couple breeds that lay the green eggs. I have Araucana’s.

Got the chicks outside and they’re enjoying that.

ORCHESTRAL ROCK MUSIC? DO THE STONES HAVE MOSS?

41 thoughts on “Who???”

  1. Rise and Shine, Baboons,

    Hey, Ben, now I am satisfied with the answer about egg color. Different breeds must metabolize minerals differently. Grandma’s chickens produced mostly white eggs, with a few brownish eggs. That must have been the breeds she selected.

    I am amazed at the longevity of these rock bands. I don’t know that I would be interested in a Farewell Tour either. Remembering them in their prime is more satisfying. I gotta say, I never expected these rock stars Mick Jagger, Ringo Starr, Graham Nash, would still be operating. The drugs they did alone should have gotten them by now. But then if I look at the generation of stars before (i.e. Bing Crosby, Dean Martin, Johnny Cash) played until the bitter end until their health gave out. I suppose these guys are doing the same thing. These Stones do not gather Moss. But they must have a lot of brain fog.

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  2. Wrong kind of music for me.
    I look at old actors shilling products. Do they need the money?
    Brain fog? Hey don’t get personal!
    I buy the eggs from free range chickens, hoping they are. The eggs are always brown. Wonder why. We never had a breed that laid anything but white. There was some special about picking eggs my mother taught me. She said they were like surprise gifts hidden in the straw of the nesting boxes. About as rhapsodic as Adeline got. Well, that and feeding milk to calves out in calf pasture.
    Clyde

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  3. Wrong kind of music for me as well. I recognize the names of some of those bands but the mention doesn’t elicit any memory of specific tunes.
    Brag all you want. It’s likely as meaningful to me as if I told you that I actually saw Mike Auldridge and Bob Brozman on the same day or that I saw Jorma Kaukonen twice.

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  4. When I was a high school senior, we would go to dances at the Duluth armory. Usually they were area bands, one of which was from Two Harbors. But once it was The Beach Boys when they were early in their fame. I think it had something to do with the terrible acoustics of the place or my bad ear, but they did not sound any better to me than the local bands. Even then I was not much of a rock fan. I think they were a band that hung on too long.

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  5. For some reason a few years ago I had a gaggle of middle school girl therapy clients who wanted to play the electric bass. I brought my Fender bass and amp to work, and if they did their therapy homework I got “Pinball Wizard” up on my computer, and we practiced the bass riff along with the song. They had never heard of the Who, but loved the song.

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  7. We also had Jesus Christ Superstar, the other rock opera I’m familiar with. My dad actually liked that album – some of the lyrics matched what he had learned in Sunday School as a child, I think.

    Ben, I’m glad you got an extra hour or so with Bailey in the tractor… And I love how you call your summer labor having “the rest of the summer off”. : )

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  10. Not too many concerts.
    Best was Tina Turner and Joe Cocker.
    I’ve started following some of the Mexican bands. It’s been interesting that singing in Spanish means you’re “illegal.” Audiences risk ICE but are selling out.
    Listening to music in Spanish is a great way to learn the language.

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  11. I liked Tommy and Jesus Christ Superstar. I liked Freddy Mercury and Queen – they weren’t technically a rock opera but they certainly sounded operatic. Meatloaf did late seventies rock opera, ie Paradise by the Dashboard Lights. I didn’t care for him very much. The music was compelling at that age, but it was never my favorite.

    I admire the Stones. Pretty amazing the way Mick Jagger can still strut around the stage like he always did. I’ve read that he exercises and does yoga and works out to stay fit. Keith Richards is truly astonishing. That guy just shouldn’t be walking around anymore. No, no moss growing on those Stones.

    WP was giving me the business when I started reading. We’ll see who I am when this posts (if…)

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