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What Mystery is this?

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The weekend farm report from Ben


Welcome to the sick house. We all have colds. You should buy stock in tissues. My head is all fogged up so who knows what may come out in this…course that hasn’t stopped me running heavy machinery. 


After last week and breaking things, I made some progress on repairing things this week. And I don’t think I’ve broken any more. Yet. (Never say never). I replaced the lift cable on the bale elevator and got that repaired. On the hay wagon I got the remaining pieces of the wheel bearings out of the hub, meaning I got both the inner and outer bearing race removed, which, thankfully, had identification numbers on them, and a local place could use that to find the correct bearings. We double checked dimensions and I got four bearings; a set for both back wheels and the plan is to have one of my padawans help me install on Saturday. It will be a good experience for him to ‘pack’ grease into a bearing. It’s not hard, but there is a process, and it is messy. 
It’s supposed to be hot on Saturday, so I’m planning a shop day. We’ll put the old John Deere 2 cylinder tractor, the 630, in the shop, drain the coolant and replace a radiator hose, take off the carburetor (for one of my friends to deep clean) and we’ll see what else we can get into. I’d like to replace the exhaust manifold, and those bolts will be difficult to remove as I’m not sure they’ve been out in 50 or 60 years, and through innumerable heating and cooling cycles. I’m told to heat the area red hot, let it cool for a few hours, then smack it with a hammer. That may work on some of the bolts, but on two of them, the heads are broken off, meaning the usual method is to weld a nut to the broken off bit. I’ve never tried that. I’ve seen it done successfully, just never tried it. We shall see. 


Looks like we’ve lost 1 baby guinea. Still got 11.

Some of the baby guineas. They’re pigeon sized.

And they sure get around. Often when I leave in the morning, the three mom’s and them are half a mile up the road, hanging out on the edge of a corn field. By evening they’re all back home. Weird. And there’s been one pheasant hanging out around the barn. 
Now that the oats is out and straw baled, I’ve been mowing the edges of those fields. Cutting down weeds I couldn’t get to while the crop was growing. And I mowed the new waterway. The barn swallows sure loved me doing that. It was fun watching a couple dozen of them flirting around.

You can kinda see the barn swallows fliting around.
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The new waterway.
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The chickens like it when I mow, too.


On Wednesday this week I drove to the twin cities to pick up some lighting stuff for the college. I have mentioned before that my favorite Bob Dylan song is ‘Tangled up in Blue’. I don’t often listen to song words or meanings, but that one appeals to me. I love a good story, and one of love lost tugs at my heartstrings. I was aware of two versions of the song, Dylan’s and Joan Osborn’s. Then I heard of this guitar player who was recently in the cities by the name of Billy Strings, and he does a cover. So I started looking for his version. It’s on YouTube, but not Apple music yet. However I found several other versions. 


I spent half the trip up, and the entire trip back listening to these different versions of the same song. The differences were really interesting to me. I really like the rhythm of the song, the tempo, the structure, and, depending on the version, the instrumentation or harmonies. A group called Grain Thief has a bluegrass version. The Indigo Girls have a section that drops into a solid blues verse. KT Tunstall’s gritty, throaty voice gives it a different vibe. Then there’s Mary Lee’s Corvette, who I hadn’t heard of before this, and she’s got a good rocking version. Jerry Garcia’s Band has a version complete with guitar jam. Bob Malone does a  ROCKING bluesy version that I really liked (And a solo piano version available on YouTube). Robyn Hitchcock is just guitar and piano with a very folk / blues sound.  A few are simply guitar, one starts as piano before adding the full band (and I really like a song that grows like that.) There was one version that seemed to be punk rock or something. I only got 20 seconds into it before deleting. Overall, the different guitar sounds, the slightly changed lyrics, the interpretation of each artist was fascinating to me and I still am not tired of this song after listening to it 58 times. 


We have these fuel barrels for the farm: a 300 gallon barrel of gasoline that’s up on a stand so it’s gravity fed. And a 500 gallon for diesel fuel that’s electric and has a pump. The automatic nozzles like you use at the gas station don’t work on gravity feed, the only work with a pump, so it was a big deal when, however many years ago I got a used barrel from a neighbor and went from gravity to a pump on the diesel barrel. I rented a trencher and ran an electric line across the driveway from the shop to the barrel and then could buy one of those automatic shut off nozzles. When I needed to refill the tractor the other day, I started the fuel flowing, went to the house to grab a snack, and got back to the tractor two seconds before the fuel stopped. I remember a few times with the gravity system and we used a big square nut to hold the lever up and then I would go to the shop and get distracted and I spilled a few gallons… I appreciate not having to worry about that anymore.


The header photo and that hole in the ground? I dug up the cover of the septic tank. Bailey helped.

Those eyes!
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We got the tank pumped out. It’s been on my ‘to-do’ list for a couple years. Also got a riser installed so the cover isn’t 2 feet underground anymore. Digging it up on Thursday I was thinking that is going to be a really good thing. 


SIMPLE CONVIENCES YOU APPRECIATE? 

AND MUSIC-

FAVORITE COVER SONG?
 
 

46 thoughts on “What Mystery is this?”

  2. We have never pumped our septic tank. It’s 25 years old. Every once in a while I’ll take plugs out of final cleanouts for inspection. No standing water.

    We have separate blackwater/greywater plumbing in the house. The septic does not receive flow from anything except toilets, one shower, and the kitchen sink.

    No bleach. Very little detergent. Drain your cooking grease in a can and put it out with the trash.

    The setup is supposed to make your septic tank run hot. I know where the lid is, and I have no desire to dig it up. Fingers crossed.

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  3. Boy, you got a lot done considering you have colds!
    Nice to see the swallows flitting… and is Bailey the most photogenic dog that ever lived?

    I will say I appreciate faucets and running water. Know someone who recently had to carry in their water – not fun.

    Thinking about the music cover… WOW that’s a lot of research in to Tangled, Ben!

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  4. Rise and Listen to It Over and Over, Baboons,

    When I had my psycotherapy practice we had a tiny waiting room and played music there for relaxation and sound control. When I started in 2004 everything was on CD, so I had a 5 CD player on repeat. After streaming services came online we switched to that method, and purchased a stream. I needed a stream that did not feature Christian music, because the neighborhood in which I practiced had a large Jewish population. Some of those clients did not enjoy Christian music. I was able to get the algorithms to work with that. But the ongoing problem was Leonard Cohen’s piece, Hallelujah. I could not believe how many people covered that. The service played it repeatedly, several times without another song between the versions. I now really dislike that song.

    Favorite cover? Probably Sea of Heartbreak with Roseann Cash and Bruce Springsteen. So fine.

    The picture of Bailey is terrific. I would frame that one, Ben. Bailey does not seem to have a cold though?

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  5. Bailey is one handsome dog!

    I would be hard pressed to come up with a list of favorite songs, let alone covers of them by different artists, there are simply too many of both. But I do like to listen different artists’ rendition of the same song; in fact, I even like to listen to the same artist’s different renditions of their own songs. A good cover can make you hear a song in a whole new way.

    Here are three samples of great covers of Rowland Salley’s Killing the Blues:

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  6. Well, you all can laugh… I had to have “covers” explained to me about a year ago. So I’m not exactly up on today’s topic. However, I do have a big crush on Christian Kane, who has recorded Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car”.

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  7. Simple conveniences? I’m still trying to figure out who can be canonized for inventing the Mute button on my remote. OK, and the remote also!

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  8. I think I know 5 of the names mentioned on here to day.
    Almost every day at some point I appreciate water faucets especially the hot water faucet. Today I am also appreciating a hospital bed, even a basic one.

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    1. Yes, hot running water and indoor plumbing in general are wonderful things to have.

      I’m guessing this Anon is Clyde… I hope everything is okay and the hospital bed is only necessary for a very short stay!

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      1. Yes me. Clyde. She has been on it for 5 months.
        One of my favorite albums is one in which Nancy Griffith only covers other songs. I think it’s called Other Voices Other Rooms. I quit listening to music 4 years ago. With my bad hearing I was afraid I would miss calls from her care facility. And they have called me many times.

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  9. dont think twice its alright is the guitar piece ive been playing most often when picking up the guitar and i love hearing other peoples take on that but eric satie and bachs cello concerto are my two favorite pieces bachs cello is suites 1-6
    2 hours long and while i can tell a little difference between cello players its not a variation like you get with covers on regular good ol rock and roll.

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    2. I recently discovered the Mavericks through one of my Wednesday night guitar group guys and I absolutely love them and a change is gonna come is one of my favorite songs. Thanks for the listing linda I wasn’t familiar with this, but I just love it.

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  15. As usual, WP won’t let me post a video. I don’t know if it’s my favorite cover – there are so many – but it’s the one I think of most often when I think of covers: Bonnie Raitt covering John Prine’s Angel from Montgomery. It’s just incomparable. I also like the K.D. Lang version of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah.” I guess I usually like to hear the original version played by the songwriter. This includes singer/songwriters that most people might agree can’t actually sing, like Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen. I so admire the genius of songwriting, especially when it seems to come so easily for the artist. Joni Mitchell is truly incomparable, and I usually prefer her versions of her own songs. She sings like an angel too.

    Bailey worships the ground you walk on, Ben. It shows in her eyes in that photo! Great photo of a great dog!

    Oh, conveniences… I don’t know… of course hot and cold running water, indoor plumbing, electricity, and heating/cooling systems have become necessities for most of us. They certainly are for me. I do remember having only an outhouse in our lake cabin when I was young. It was cold in the winter and scary after dark. I remember Mom boiling water on a cookstove for cooking, cleaning, and washing some clothes there.

    I don’t like some of the new technology in cars though. My ‘24 Toyota Corolla Cross can almost drive itself. It will start braking for me long before I would do it, and it applies the brakes harder than I would, stopping quite a way behind the car in front of me. It also keeps me squarely in my lane, which is helpful once you get used it, but I’d prefer to be the driver. I don’t know how to turn these features off, or if it’s even possible. But why did they take CD players out of newer cars?

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    2. I find the voices of both Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen to be, for the most part, a good fit for their songs. In the case of Hallelujah, though, I found Leonard Cohen’s version sort of dirgelike. My favorite version was Jeff Buckley’s, which was recorded in 1994 and touched off the sudden global fame of a song that was then already ten years old. Jacque, if you are looking for someone to blame, blame Jeff Buckley.

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      1. I agree about the voices of both Dylan and Cohen. I actually like them. Hallelujah was dirge-like when Cohen did it but I think that was intentional – or so it seems to me.

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  16. And of course, you all know that I want to canonize Art Fry, the inventor of my other favorite convenience (whose birthday is Tuesday by the way):

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  18. then I discovered by accident that the way that you deep clean a carburetor is to put it in a pressure cooker so if you’re out garage sailing or they probably sell them regular retail for not that much money you get a pressure cooker you put a little water in there and stick your pressure cap on there at whatever pressure you want probably the highest and get the water boiling and the water blows through all of the orifices of the carburetor and cleans everything out. You may not want to be cooking your rice in that pressure cooker afterwards, but it’s good to have something like that in your toolbox

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    2. I’m mystified. Are you sure you mean a pressure cooker and not a pressure washer? This make zero sense to me, but what do I know about carburetors?

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