The weekend farm report from XDFBen
ONE OF THESE IS NOT LIKE THE OTHER
Wow, Man, what a week again. Thursday night I hit a gumption trap so hard, I had a rootbeer float and popcorn for supper…
We have baby guineas! I had seen one sitting on a nest behind the machine shed a few weeks ago, and we talked about getting the eggs into an incubator but never got too it. Next time I looked the nest was empty and there were broken eggs. Momma was nowhere to be found, and we feared the worst. A week later I saw her and a bunch of chicks heading into a corn field. Typically, guineas are not the best moms. But this group seems to ‘community parent’ and they’re doing surprisingly well.
As you can image, the real world is a tough place for a little chick. They could fall into a hole, they could get eaten or lost. It’s a tough place. But yeah, they’re doing well and getting big enough they might just make it. They’re not quite pigeon sized, and they hop and flutter and there’s always that one that’s six feet away and running to catch up.
I cut down a bunch of box elder tree’s growing over a fence down around the barn yard. Treated all the stumps. Then tore out the old feed bunk augers and cement bunks. Don’t need them anymore and it will help open up the yard.
Dad built the first silo in 1968 and installed these augers. When the second silo was built in 1976, the whole feed bunk was turned 90 degrees and the cement bunks installed. Then it was 1978 when I stuck my leg into this.
As I tore it out, I thought about that. I don’t harbor any resentment. These bunks fed a LOT of cattle over the years and provided for two families. They served their purpose well.
I put the forklift extensions on and used the loader forks to lift the old bunks out. I expected animals to be living under them, but nope, nothing. I’ve been asked why I’m doing this, and to what end? Just to clean up. There is no end goal. It would never be used again, why save it?
The oats got harvested Friday and Saturday. Yield wasn’t very good, the oats didn’t even fill a semi. Ended up at 735 bushels, meaning about 31 bu / acre. According to the oat people on FB, oats has been all over the place this year. At least the test weight was 34.6 meaning the elevator would take it. Wasn’t heavy enough to be food grade, nor was it enough bushels to mess around with.
Lots of straw! I ended up with 900 small square bales. Put 700 in the barn.
I had the three teenage boys helping and I couldn’t have done it without them. They were great. The one doing the most work, number 3, (and treated as the odd wheel out by the first two for some reason), had a broken toe (dropped a barbell weight on his foot). Ah, the teenage mentality.
I baled 3 loads of straw on Monday, the boys came out Tuesday and we unloaded the first two, just throwing them into the empty barn. Then we put the elevator up and unloaded the third. I baled three more loads Tuesday afternoon.
Wednesday, I started back at the college. You know what that means. Sleeves.
The boys came out at 5PM and we unloaded those three loads. 700 in the barn. Full enough. Haven’t had it this full in a few years. The boys rode in the wagon and we went to the field to bale up another load. And to stack this one as it will sit for a few months until the neighborhood berry farm is ready for it. I’d put one kid in the tractor with me, and the other two stacked on the wagon. I only hit one kid with a bale. He moved! I was aiming to the side and as the bale kicked, he stepped to that side. Oops. He was OK. Straw is light.
I’d have them rotate positions so they all got to ride in the tractor (and the AC) and they all thought it was pretty neat in there too.
I noticed on Friday, one of the rear wheel bearings on a wagon is gone. So that wagon is out of service until I can get new bearings. Hopefully it hasn’t damaged the wheel hub or axle.
And then Wednesday night, backing the stacked wagon into the shed, and the front wheels are not aligned. What the heck?? Tie rods are bend. Jeepers. Not sure when or how that happened. And I moved it a bit more to back it in and one wheel goes completely sideways. Well heck.
So, I pulled that wagon in backward to at least get it under cover and out of the way. More repairs. Add it to the list.
AND THEN- Thursday evening and I’m taking down the bale elevator and the lift cable snapped and it all fell to the ground. Words were said. It didn’t break anything. It was about 8’ up and I was lowing it to transport height of about 6’ when it dropped. I dragged it to the shop and Kelly and I worked on it for an hour. Gumption traps were hit several times until I blocked it up with an old pallet and we called it a night. So that’s three things. I should be done now for a while. Right?
Corn and soybeans look great! We have reached the point we cannot make any more management decisions to help the crop. The last thing done was aerial application of fungicide. Now the crop just has to finish out the season. One neighbor called me upset about aerial application too close to his house. I understand that and will take steps in the future to create a buffer zone. However, by the time it gets from me to the agronomist to the company to the pilot, I’m not sure what will actually happen. Not an excuse, just warning him a lot is out of my control.
DID SOMEONE HAVE THEIR EYE ON YOU AS A CHILD?
WHAT WOULD YOU TELL YOUR TEENAGE SELF?
Trail Baboon 
Boy, that’s a lot, Ben! Amazing the number of things that can “need work”. Glad to see the guinea chicks.
My mom stayed at home till my sis and I were both in school, no pre-school back then, to speak of. So yes, we had someone watching. I remember her leaving us with a next-door neighbor Gladys sometimes, while she went on errands (I presume).
What to tell teenage self – You don’t have to try and please everyone all of the time.
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I also remember some early baby-sitters we had – Mrs. Pete who lived in an apartment across the street, Mary McNerney (high schooler), another old lady who crocheted…
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Rise and Shine, Baboons (after the rain stops),
I am not surprised that stuff broke this week, Ben, with the amount of work you accomplished. I got tired just reading this. Many people had an eye on me during childhood. Some were actually kind and helpful, providing guidance and support–several ministers, my band teacher, 4H staff, neighbors. When i was a young child, my dad often had his eye on me and provided good counsel. My aunt and uncle were especially attentive. They both died in 2022 and 2023. It was hard to see them go, although I do not miss their conservative political views which my uncle shared too willingly.
What I would tell teen me? Trust your good sense and you will be fine. Other people often do not know what they are talking about.
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Think! Think! Think!
Or as Norwegian Grandma Ann would say, “Tink! Tink! Tink!”
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Ja, ja, ja!
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Wow, Ben… You’re kind of amazing! Too bad about the sleeves.
Yes, I was strictly supervised until it was impossible for my mom to watch me all the time. Strict control was the definition of my childhood, especially since I was the oldest and a girl. We did have babysitters when we were young. Later, at the lake, we had my “sister” Lori, who was so much fun, and loved to hang out and be goofy with us. She was one of the best things of my youth.
I would tell my teen self that I really was being stupid about some things. My parents didn’t say that just because they had so little respect for me (being female). They were actually right some of the time, and I was stupid about some things. I would tell myself, “Don’t do it.”
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I skipped sleeves one day, it’s pretty quiet on campus yet and I didn’t figure on seeing anyone….
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In some respects my parents were very protective. In other respects, not. I was allowed to run around all over the neighborhood as a child unsupervised. I was left home alone for hours during the day to do basically whatever I wanted to do.
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Starting at what age, do you think (home alone)?
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8 or 9
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I remember once in the summer when I was about 7 that I had somewhere seen or heard that children were supposed to be in bed by 8:00 every night. I was allowed to stay up as late as my parents. Mom and I often watched Johnny Carson. One summer evening I put myself to bed at 8:00 so I could be like the children who went to bed at the “right” time. I remember lying in bed as the sun was still up and I could hear the neighbor children playing and thinking “boy, this is really dumb”. I got up and went out and played until dark.
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My mom gave herself a curfew when she was in high school – to be more like her friends. She was 4th of seven kids, and her folks had given up on keeping track of that sort of thing.
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That is funny!
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My mom did not work outside the house until I was in fifth grade. At that point, my father was opening up his own law practice and we needed the money. They didn’t say that at the time, I’m just assuming it from hindsight. However, I remember my childhood as being wild and free. On my bike off here and there — down to the park with friends, up to the drugstore for Shirley Temples, to the local pool, an awful lot of time where no one was keeping an eye on me at all.
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Yes, I remember the first time I was allowed to walk myself downtown to a summer theater matinee – it might have been only 8 blocks, but I remember feeling so grown-up. And we could ride our bikes all over town… nobody batted an eye.
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OT. I totally spaced off publishing the Blevins information. So sorry.
Sunday, September 14
2 PM
Minnehaha Falls our regular spot
After You’re Gone by Maggie O’Farrell
Coming Home Crazy by Bill home.
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after you’d gone
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What he said….
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my mom was a telephone junkie when I was a kid and talk to her friends and her kaffeeklatsch mom group as I did my two year-old thing I remember that she was concerned about leaving me out in the backyard alone so she attached a dog leash to my belt only to discover when she came out that I had crawled over the fence and was hanging by my belt loop on the other side of the fence trying to figure out how to get luce my brother two years younger was very quiet and unassuming, and I was not instead of a tricycle I had a tractor and I wore the wheels off it driving around Brainerd when we moved to Bloomington at age 3 I had free run of the universe we lived about a mile from the Minnesota river in the epitome of the sprawling suburb with cornfields across the street and kids everywhere. I basically woke up in the morning and went out and played and came home maybe for lunch certainly for dinner and was really upset that my parents had a strict bedtime of 8 o’clock. It made it impossible for me to get to sleep on summer nights until about sixth grade when they finally caved in and said that we could stay out until dark babysitters were difficult to come by because they all liked children who behaved correctly and I was not that we had a couple of angel teenage girls that would come over and hang out and we had one old lady who would come and sing a Taketake and play card games and teach us to build houses of cards and learn all the nursery rhymes, etc. in my early childhood. I was two years older than my brother and he was two years older than my sister and then we polished it off with another sister two years younger so by the time I was 10 we had 8 , 6 and four year-old
as kids we never hung out together, my brother was two years younger and every now and again he’d run into a problem and I would come to his rescue, but for the most part, we all had our own group of friends, and there was no crossover at all
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Ben, I’m glad to see that you’re getting things cleaned up around there. I can’t imagine leaving that bunker in place all these years as the scene of the accident that you don’t hold any resentment towards however here we are 50 years later and it’s good to get that out of there. Maybe you can plant a flower garden there to replace the scar from the bunker. I can’t believe school is starting for you. My daughters are both teaching school in Chicago and it begins on Monday. Also they go until the middle of June then basically get off in July and have to get ready for August return
I thought of you when we had the last storm blow through with the big lightning storm in the middle of the night finished off with a small sampling of hail. I was hoping it didn’t get your crops. I’m glad you got the oats up. I’m sorry you didn’t get more
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Can’t get logged in, but I would like this post if I could. If I could talk to my teenage self. I would tell ker to buy some shares in Apple and hold them for a few decades.
I like the comment about “Words were said,” I have often been in the position where words were said and I was thankful no one heard them.
Linda
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