2026, Art, Farming Update, Nature, Songs, Theatre, Uncategorized

Ya Varmint!

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This week’s farming update from Ben

The coyotes start howling at 4AM. That gets Bailey barking which gets Luna barking ad running around inside the house. Soon as we step outside Bailey runs over to us, like ‘The coyotes are out there!’ It sure does disturb our sleep.

I’m not gonna talk about the fact it’s almost March. I have had so much stuff going on lately I can’t remember when I get out if I’ve turned the car off. One day I restarted the car when I opened the door. The next day I got out while the car was still running.

Last Friday was a student potluck at the college for my boss, Jerry, who will be retiring in May. There were students from the last 20 years and it was really good to talk with them and see them again.

One traveled from New York, and one came in from South Korea.

She who traveled furthest.

Last Saturday I took a friend to Red Wing. I thought it was just gonna be a quick drop off and home again. Not so much. Too much to get into, but it took the whole day.

Sunday…I don’t even know what was Sunday. I guess I did some stuff. 

Monday we had a touring show come through the college. A quick easy one woman show called ‘The Gun Show’.  It was written in 2007 by E.M. Lewis and presented both sides of the gun debate. The character in the show grew up in Oregon, everybody hunted, her brothers were in the military. Then Her husband shot himself and the one line that sticks out, she says “I don’t want to take all your guns away. But I sure wish I would’ve taken his gun away.” Gut punch.

Tuesday morning the Rochester Symphony had two concerts at one of the local high schools. Fourth graders from all around the area attended. It was a great way to get the kids interested in classical music and they learned how different instruments work. Then the superintendent of the Rochester Schools narrated Peter and the Wolf. It was a nice event to work.

A few weeks ago, I mentioned a meeting that I had with Soil & Water and all the projects we were planning for the farm. Three of the technicians came out to the farm on Wednesday with their GPS survey stick and we looked at five different areas. The main project that started all this; filling in a gully in the pasture, involves a spring that tends to run all winter, and I wanted to make sure they had the right idea for that. And it was good to look at it because we changed it a few things. It was decided we need to add a tile for the springs to control that water while not holding back water that might come from further uphill as part of a different project. 

We talked about adding grass headlands in two spots, filling in another gully that I hadn’t even thought about, and we talked about what shrubs to plant for a wind break. The dogs got a lot of exercise running all over the farm.  Poor Humphrey was pooped out. He was ready to go home, and our last stop was only about 100 yards from the house and I figured they would go home. But of course, that’s when daughter left for her walk and the dogs all have FOMO – Fear Of Missing Out, so off they went. Eventually I went and picked them up on the road and brought them all home.

I offered daughter a ride but she insisted she was fine. Later, after she did get home, she was kind of wishing she had taken a ride. The wind was a bit cool.

A tree company was out on Wednesday and cut down the last of those dead ash trees.

It sure looks different down there.

Thursday night I had an event at the college for what’s called the P-Tech program. It’s for the public school kids in grade 8-12 to attend classes at the college. A cooperative program between public and private, IBM and Mayo Clinic also contribute. The classes focus on IT or healthcare. It gives the kids a good headstart on college.

Saturday this week is technical rehearsal for a show at the Rochester Repertory Theatre called “Perfect Arrangement“ by Topher Payne.

Set in the 1950s during the red scare, this is the lavender scare. I read the script several months ago and it’s so frustrating to think they thought none of this would matter in 20 years and here we are 70 years later still fighting about it.

It’s a good cast, and the director has a good handle on it. It’s staged like an old TV show from the ‘50s. Bright expressions and brightly lit and one character turns to the audience and says ‘I used Foster’s Furiture Creme. There’s no waxy residue!”. I expect to see a sparkle flash and hear a ‘TING’ as she says that. That show opens on March 5.

There’s an online auction of farm machinery starting on February 28 in Plainview. I saved a handful of items to watch. I’m sure I won’t be able to afford any of it and it’s always fun to window shop.

There’s a big parts sale at John Deere on March 4 and 5th. Certain things like digger shovels and tractor filters might be on sale throughout the whole month, but then everything else is on sale those two days.

I have a list for shopping.

Speaking of old TV, I heard on the 1940’s radio station, Count Basie’s version of the song, ‘Open the Door Richard’. Course, my first knowledge of that phrase is the Bugs Bunny cartoon with Bugs and Yosemite Sam on a high diving board. Bugs has a door up there and Sam pounds on it yelling “OPEN THAT DOOR!” then turns to the camera and says, “You notice I didn’t say, ‘Richard’?” (I just learned, Sam’s mouth moved from inside his beard to under his beard for easier animation).

I remember in the 1980’s and VCRs were just coming out and I’d stand up on the second floor of Dayton’s in Rochester and watch old cartoons on a TV / VCR with a bunch of little kids. I was 18.

“Notice I didn’t say Richard!”

And all those voices by Mel Blanc!!

FREE CHOICE TODAY!

TALK ABOUT PEOPLE DOING VOICES.

HOW MANY VOICES CAN YOU DO?

FAVORITE OLD CARTOONS?

RED / LAVENDER SCARES?

47 thoughts on “Ya Varmint!”

  1. Re: varmints.

    My neighborhood, between downtown St Paul and the airport has (had, not sure at this point) coyotes. Like, across the street. Probably why the flock of 10 turkeys from last winter has disappeared.

    I heard them this fall, and my neighbor confirmed she saw one in her backyard. I guess we are closer to the river than I realize. I confess, I hope it stays on the wild side.

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    1. We’ve seen fairly large turkeys down near the Southdale YMCA the last two days. I don’t even know where there’s a wild area nearby for them.

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      1. Birds of prey work, as well. 7-8 years ago our yard was over-run with rabbits who decimated a lot of our garden foliage. Things became quiet in the yard one day. I looked up to see a very large hawk perched in the tree in the back yard. He was there often for about 6 weeks, and voila, rabbits were gone.

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    1. My dad could do Donald Duck. We kids pestered him all the time for it. The only other imitation he ever did was a loon call. And he was a very good at that.

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  6. Rise and Shine, Baboons,

    I cannot do voices, just my own. I have no talent for accents or learning languages. I am entertained by voices and accents, though, real or imitated. Every night at bedtime I put on a British show called “The Repair Shop.” Bill told me about this show years ago. It is one of those experiences in which you know by the end of the show everything will turn out beautifully and everyone is happy. Husband loves this show, and it puts him to sleep in minutes. The guy that repairs musical instruments of every sort except strings, has a pronounced Cockney accent that entertains me enormously.

    RE: cartoons. Almost all cartoons are desirable. My mother forbade cartoons in our childhoods. Cartoons were on the “foolishness” list with arcades and pinball machines, comic books, art or doodling on my school papers, and certain people who had too much fun. This was a pointless exercise that simply emphasized that forbidden activities were terrific fun. It also set up a certain dynamic in the household.

    Every Saturday morning, mom would go downtown to shop for groceries and household items. At that time clerks were still handwriting grocery receipts so this chore took a long time. We were left at home to do our cleaning chores. The second the car was out of the garage we turned on the TV for an hour or two of cartoons while we rushed through the hated chores. One of us always served as “the lookout” for the car coming back home. Upon getting word that she was nearly home, the TV was turned off, the vacuum was plugged in and running, and we all got busy. Dad tacitly agreed to not inform on us. The forbidden cartoons became a prized experience.

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    1. i can do peter lori , mister rogers and if i do my john wayne and cross it with mr rogers i get george w bush (thanks dana carvey) i do mickey mouse goofy and my wife taught me to do east indian accent by starting with thirty five millimeter film as the prompt. surprises me how eell it works every time. ill think of others im sure

      i miss jim eds vouces on the morning show and prairie home companion

      used to love rich little, al gorshen was it al?, dana carvey did good voices too

      mighty mouse sang opera only ,
      i liked the flintstones and later southpark and sponge bob, my 40 year old don watched teenage mutant ninja turtles ans we all love all the disney animated movies , snow white bambi fantasia right through to alladin lion king and pocohontus

      my hand therapist is the newist violinist in the rochester symphony orchestra. rachel graves, oriental woman, ive seen two of her solo recitals but not yet with the symphony. when i met her she wasnt involved in community music and i pushed her and she is into it big time now. very cool.

      so do you need to be concerned about the ash borers or are they gone after they drill their holes?

      thanks again ben good stuff

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  15. My earliest exposure to cartoons was through Disney movies. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Pinocchio, Fantasia, Dumbo, Bambi, and Cinderella are among the ones that stand out in my early memories. Lady and the Tramp and 101 Dalmations came later.

    Later on, once I learned to read, I became acquainted with cartoon magazines. I didn’t encounter TV cartoons until my sister told me about the Flintstones.

    Also, during my youth and childhood, newsreels, commercials, and cartoons were shown in cinemas before the screening of the main feature. Bugs Bunny, The Road Runner, Tom and Jerry, and the Pink Panther were among the ones I remember.

    My freshman year in college, our next door neighbors, Frisch and Corinne, introduced me to some of the Saturday morning TV cartoons that most American kids grew up with. I’m not sure I ever really “got” what they were all about, but I came to appreciate their cultural significance. Those Saturday mornings, enjoying a breakfast of eggs, bacon, toast, Danish pancakes and lots of coffee while we watched Rocky and Bullwinkle, were the highlights of the week, and I still think of them fondly.

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  18. Paul Frees was another “Man of 1000 voices”. Once you have a sense of his voice, it shows up everywhere, and disembodied announcers and narrators in movies and on TV and especially in cartoons. On Rocky and Bullwinkle he was the voice of Boris Badenov.

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  19. Have any of you seen The Animaniacs? My granddaughters were watching it for a while. It’s done in a classic cartoon style, very fast-paced and wacky, but a lot of the dialog and references are aimed at an adult audience, things kids would never pick up.

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    2. I loved Animaniacs (we’re crazy to the max there’s baloney in our slacks!).

      I’m not sure it was a kid’s show any more than Moose and Squirrel.

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