This weeks Farming Update from Ben
We got a little bit of rain last week so the driveway and yard, being a little bit snow-covered, got pretty slippery. I went out with the tractor to try and rough up the ice and scrape some of it off. Using both the front loader and the rear blade I got 90% of it. At least we’re not sliding sideways across the yard.
And then we got a whole bunch of rain Thursday night. I know they were predicting over an inch, I don’t have any gauges out so I don’t know what amount it amounted too, but jeepers we don’t need rain in January.
Still a bit of an adventure getting down to the chicken coop and over to the feed room.
At the college I’ve had an outside rental this past week so that took up my evenings.
Out in the shop I enjoyed the time last weekend just putzing around out there. Stocked up the new fridge I got for Christmas, and finished assembling the pallet rack.
I moved the 630 out and brought the gator in. Swept the floors creating a cloud of dust. Something I should’ve thought of when I was building the shop was a fresh air intake and an exhaust fan. It sort of flitted through my mind once, but I wasn’t listening. I’m not running equipment inside very often but by the time I start up a tractor, open the door, bring in something else and close the door, the CO2 alarm is going off. And then when I sweep, a cloud of dust fills the air and then I wish I had a filter. I have a ventilation guy coming to the farm next week to give me some ideas. Whether I have them do it or whether I do it myself remains to be seen, I just need to figure out what to do.
I was cleaning up my desk at work. I threw out a bunch of magazines from 2007. It shouldn’t take that long to throw out a magazine, but you know, you put something down, and there it sits.
But I’m saving the kazoo’s. The theater conference I attend every so often has a kazoo parade through the venue at some point. Organized by a group called the ‘Long Reach Long Riders’ LRLR.org.
It’s a bunch of people who ride motorcycles and raise money for theater related causes. From their website:
Long Reach Long Riders are a collective of strangers, friends, and families alike; who share a common passion for the entertainment arts.
For over 20 years, we’ve come together once a year to ride motorcycles together and raise funds for the Behind-the-Scenes Charity, which provides essential support to entertainment technology professionals who are seriously ill, injured, or in need of mental health or substance use support.
Each year the ‘ride’ takes place in a different area of the United States, where good roads and good sights are to be discovered.”
It’s a fun bunch of people. So I’m keeping the kazoo’s.
Our big dog Humphrey turned 11 on January 5. He is such a good dog. Luna-tick, keeps him engaged and young and he has no qualms telling her when he’s done playing.
Bailey is still trying to prove she’s the number two dog.
Let’s take a pause here and I’m just gonna do some fun photos.
WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE?
MAKE UP SOMETHING FUN.
Trail Baboon 
The original Minnesota Gophers football team. Very progressive by including women on the squad.
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Before kids, mom used to be huge.
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Members of the Society for the Prevention of Cats.
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Also a chapter of the Society for the Prevention of Amusement.
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Snort!
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Excellent.
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the neidermeier family had a problem. no matter how hard they tried they couldnt stop making their mouths look just like everyone else in the familys mouth looked. this has been a tragic hereditary gene passed down for years.
mr neidermeier thought if he married someone with a very different gene pool maybe they could overcome it .
but no
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Meeting of the original ribbon-cutting society. It takes years to learn the subtle art of finding just the middle of the ribbon and making one swift cut. No sawing. You have to start early and no left handers.
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Rise and Shine, Baboons,
Dour, long-faced family is unhappy with woman wearing a light-colored dress for picture. It ruined the look for generations so they decided to be anonymous.
Love the chicken picture, Ben.
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N
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They are the members of my doctoral dissertation committee. It explains why it took me so long to finish it.
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Good one!
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When they say having kids wears you down, they’re not kidding.
Anne Shirley would die for those leg-of-mutton sleeves. Maybe a glass of Marilla’s red currant wine would cheer them up.
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Yes, that’s an outstanding group of photos. I can see why some of y’all have a hard time resisting puppies!
Thinking…
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This group just heard the outcome of the 2024 presidential election.
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It is the North Dakota Psychoanalysis Society.
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Snort!
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you guys!
So I put that old photo in google image search and of course it gives me ‘old photo’ and then I click on ‘Exact Search’ and IT GIVES ME THE EXACT PHOTO! And a long German Emigration page about the Kienholz family coming to America! It’s moms side of the family. The Kienholz cemetery is outside of Lacrosse. Seems like I’ve talked about that with someone here. Man, the internet is amazing!
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Does it identify the year of the photo? I would guess 1870s.
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I would guess a little later- late ‘80s or early ‘90s.
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That would be me. You and I are distant cousins at least once removed through the Keinholz family. I remember when this last came up I tracked the exact connection and could do it again if you knew which Keinholz your mother was attached to. My great great grandmother on the side of my maternal grandfather was Magdalena Keinholz and, if I remember correctly without consulting the tree, her father was Ulrich. They were definitely of the La Crosse Keinholz family around Mormon Coulee.
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The Keinholzes were Swiss, not German.
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and Keinholz means “no wood”. I wonder how that name originated.
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Wow! Cousins.
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The tiny woman is also a Magdalena Keinholz but her father is Peter Keinholz whereas my Magdalena is the daughter of Ulrich, a younger brother to Peter. They recycled certain names, notably Peter, Barbara, and Magdalena, attaching them to successive children who died young until one survived. How would you like to be the owner of a third attempt at a name?
Incidentally, the tiny Magdalena died in 1900. Her husband, Johannes Flück Jr. lived until 1937.
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Anonymized while I was typing that, I guess.
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Wow!
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Eleven is exactly the number of children in my Dad’s family. Unfortunately, we have no pictures of the whole group together. Grandma Ann was much larger than Grandpa Axel so flip the picture. Only one aunt.
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