2025, animals, Automotive, Farming Update

Say What?

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Today’s Farming Update comes from Ben.

I was watching Luna’s ears the other day and got to thinking about how dog ears can move so much considering how thin they are. Down the rabbit hole I went. Dogs have eighteen muscles in their ears, humans have six. They are born deaf as the ear is sealed up for about the first three weeks. You can get dog hearing aids! I’ve always loved how soft a dogs ears are.

I was headed to Plainview the other day, updating and getting quotes for a new farm insurance policy, and I had time so I took one of the scenic back roads. I don’t know if y’all have noticed these silhouette Bigfoot cut outs that are becoming popular. I see a few here and there, and I drove past one farm that must have a dozen of them. I frequently pass one farm that has one painted red, white, and blue, but for sheer volume this place was the winner. They have one life-size with two child size ones tagging behind, then there’s one in the yard carrying a couple of steel wheels, there’s another one by the shed, and there was a few others in the pasture. I guess we’ve just never got the appeal of yard art like that. We never had the bent over butts, although we have done the pink flamingos, and I do have an old road grader parked in the lawn now and mostly it’s just a pain to mow around. A friend of mine said he liked to put art in his yard because he didn’t have to mow the grass under it, which is a worthy point, but every couple of months I have to move this road grader to a different spot or the weeds get so bad you can’t see it amongst the weeds. I know we could do some landscaping around it. ‘It’s on my list’ ™.

The oats is heading out, a little area went down one day last week. And with the storms this week, more went down. It’s still green so that’s a little unusual.


Looks like some of the peas have started to be harvested by the canning companies. They sure make a mess when it’s raining like this. The canning companies don’t stop for weather. As I understand it, they have a schedule and they need to stick to it. Again, it’s all about those Growing Degree Units. Stop for the rain and they’re behind next week. We’re about 160 GDU’s over normal.

We got .8” of rain Wednesday, then 2.4” on Thursday. That makes over 6” in June. Ok, that’s enough, FOR NOW- I say that carefully. Down in our valley we can’t tell how windy it is. There have been two tornado warnings for us this week. Course I was standing in the machine shed door watching the rain come down. Ever been in a steel building while it’s raining? Rain on a steel roof is so loud you can’t talk over it. And it sounds much worse inside than it really is outside. But in my new shop, it’s quiet and cool and nice. Except for a few leaks… We’ve caulked all the roof nail heads, sealed all the joints and the sides and roof peak, and I still get drips.

After the first day of all three padawans, I split them up the next week. I’m better with them one at a time. Although it depends what’s happening. Next week we start some summer projects at the theater and I may be able to use all three.

We cut brush down around the barn and got rained out and did a bunch of stuff in the machine shed. Still working on that ‘to-do’ list. Finished a few odds and ends in the shop. Got plywood on the new pallet racking, took the battery out of the Farmall ‘C’ and found the smoking wire on that, literally. Working on the 630 and the new air cleaner, muffler, fan belt, radiator hose, throttle plate, ect. The four bolts that hold the muffler are all corroded (they’ve been there since 1959) and I believe I’m gonna have to drill and tap new holes for those. I did take the tractor down and power wash it.

Ordered parts for both tractors. And I thought before I get too far into this I better call a friend of mine that works on old tractors and get his opinion. He’ll be out one of these days.

The corn is a good knee high and just about canopied, meaning there shouldn’t be any weed pressure after this. And I can’t see the water standing between the rows now. The soybeans, the ones the deer haven’t eaten, yet, are looking good. They’re about 8 inches tall, but when you look across the field it looks very ragged and uneven and upon closer inspection it’s because the dang deer keep eating them right down to the ground. It’s so darn frustrating! The weed pressure is getting pretty bad on the beans and I know they need to be sprayed, and the co-op knows it, too. We need a little less rain and wind so they can do that.

We’ve let the little chicks out and they’re very happy about that.

WHAT PARTS OF YOUR BODY CAN YOU WIGGLE INTENTIONALLY?

38 thoughts on “Say What?”

  1. Oh dear, I see what you mean! Looked up Bigfoot silhouette yard art, and you can get everything from standard to a middle finger one (wouldn’t you know it?).

    Wiggling – just about anything but my ears. There’s a 1950s home movie of me and my sister in Halloween costumes; I’m Bugs Bunny, and I turn around and wiggle my cottontail for the camera… so there’s that.

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  2. I’ve seen the bigfoot silhouettes. I don’t really get the point.

    In addition to the usual wiggly parts, I can wiggle my ears, both together and individually and without moving my scalp. I can raise and lower (or wiggle, if you can describe the motion as such) each eyebrow independently, although I have slightly more facility with my right one for some reason. I can flare my nostrils. Is that a wiggle?

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  4. I have 6 muscles in my ears? They are wasted. Cannot move them. Cannot move eyebrows independently. On my whole body I have a limited range of motion.
    Sandy could not move her ears but could do her eyes and her nose. Speaking in past tense because she is past doing such things.
    Vets love ears. Easy way to get at blood vessels on some animals or attach things if you miss the vessels. The way dogs love being scratched behind the ears, must be more nerves than we have and they can be very sensitive about their ears.
    Clyde

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    1. l read an article that commented on all the nerve endings in dogs ears. Yes, very sensitive and important.

      I thought too, how can I have six ear muscles?? To what end?? For those that can wiggle: up, down, forward, backward…then what? Can you fold the top, the bottom?

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  5. I can raise and lower my eyebrows independently, and wiggle my ears. There are genetic markers for those skills. I don’t understand the Bigfoot cutouts, either.

    Things are finally quieting down here, as the big photo shoot of the house was Thursday and went well. Our house should be listed next week. We have made a point living anonymously here in terms of not having our home address in the phone book for security purposes so disgruntled or otherwise disturbed mental health clients wouldn’t know where we live. Now photos of our home interior will be all over the internet!

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    1. This originated as a bawdy lyric to “Turkey in the Straw” sung by British soldiers in the First World War. Somewhere along the line it got sanitized (bowdlerized). Big Rock Candy Mountain, which was written as a hobo song, was similarly sanitized. Both reemerged as children’s songs. Big Rock Candy Mountain at least has its own tune. This, on the other hand, is a derivative of a derivative and lacks wit. I wonder why it has persisted.

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      2. it persisted because its a great song
        the sanatized version paints great images and if you dont know the original you think its to be accepted for what it is
        like the star spangled banner

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  7. There used to be a bigfoot silhouette down on 66th street — I think I wrote about it a couple of years ago but I’ve noticed this summer that it is gone. I figured either the people moved and took bigfoot with them or maybe they got tired of how silly it was (IMHO).

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  8. I can wiggle my nostrils. Not the wiggle of Samantha in Bewitched but I am the only one in my family who can do it so it felt special, almost magical. Growing up I could reduce my middle sister to snorting food up her nose at the table by doing my wiggle. My parents weren’t crazy about this so I had to time it so that neither of them was looking. She never ratted me out.

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  9. Geez Louise. By the time you turn off the alert on your phone, grab a blanket, scoop the kitty up from under the bed, roust your reluctant daughter out of her bed and coax the dog into the basement, it’s over!

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  11. I can wiggle my left ear but not my right. I’m not sure what that means, if anything. I can raise one eyebrow at a time and flair my nostrils, but I can’t just wiggle my nose without scrunching up my whole face.

    I enjoyed a peaceful week up near Lake Superior last week. It was really busy here for a couple of days since I got home. It’s quieter now.

    I have a huge abundance of nasturtiums. I’ve never had such huge, vigorous nasturtiums before. I’m looking at recipes for them. I think I might try dolmades with nasturtium leaves instead of grape leaves.

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    2. I have sixth nerve palsy, a condition in which the nerves and muscles in my left eye are paralyzed. If ever I look at you over my left shoulder you will notice the problem. My left eye will not move, but my right eye will over-compensate by turning in toward the left, giving me a cross-eyed look. If I try to cross my eyes while facing forward, only my right eye will move toward the center. My left eye continues to look straight ahead.

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    3. I haven’t thought about this for a long time, but yes, I can cross my eyes and then move one to the outside and then do it the other way as well. I actually worked at this when I was in high school. I’m not sure why I thought this was a useful talent to cultivate.

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  14. I can bend my fingers at the top knuckle. I’m better with my left hand than my right hand for some reason …and again why would anyone need to do this?

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