*A working title that was as good as anything else.
This week’s farming update from BEN
Spring is coming. The female cardinal is fighting with her reflection in our car mirrors. She did that last year too. (Remember when having that right side mirror was a big deal? They were not standard.)
The maple trees are getting buds on them. Crocuses are coming up. The chives are coming up. And the snow fence is falling over, so it must be time to be done with that. Fingers crossed. I saw a turkey vulture Friday morning and Kelly heard a killdeer.
Last weekend Kelly traveled to San Antonio for a work thing. Spent 12 hours in airports on Saturday. Had two layovers, three flights, and every flight was late for one reason or another. Left RST at noon, got to SAN at midnight. And then couldn’t get to the gate because there was some sort of medical emergency inside.
At least her luggage showed up! She had time to walk around Sunday afternoon. Saw the Alamo and did the river walk downtown.
Did her work thing, had supper with a co-worker, went back to the airport at 3AM, no trouble getting through TSA at that point, and was back in Rochester with no issues at 11AM Monday. She slept the rest of the day.
Man, air travel… I’m gonna ask you about that at the end so give it some thought.
Really haven’t done much on the farm this week. I’ve seen several posts from the Oat Mafia group on FB of guys out planting oats. One guy did it before the blizzard. Another guy remarked when he got to the field at 2:00AM it was 31degrees and a little wet. By 3:30AM and 27 degrees it was perfect. I read that and I think to myself, honestly, I am just playing at this farming thing… Yeah, they got 1400 acres total, and 300 acres oats, while I got 25 acres of oats, So, it doesn’t compare, but still… it’s hard not to compete. My equipment doesn’t do what their equipment does. I have to do tillage before I can plant. They’re doing no-till. I looked up some no-till drills. A brand new one, six feet wide, lists for $17,000. My current drill is 15’ wide. Ok, here’s a used no-till 15’ drill, 1996 model. $35,900. Whistle. That’s a lot of oats to make that pay. Plus having the field ready to plant last fall in order to plant this spring.
Last week I mentioned jumping through hoops at the local Farm Service Agency. Somehow, after 10 years, they decided the Hain Trust and me were not the same people. I had to get a lawyer to draw up some paperwork to show I am indeed part of the Hain Trust. And that made FSA happy and this week I got a nice deposit from them. Evidently, it’s tied into that Big … Bill the orange president created. Yeah, more bail out money since he screwed up all the markets. And this is how we’re saving money, right?
And the check from the corn I sold so I had a really nice bank balance.
Then I paid the first half of rent on two fields, $2000. And paid the diesel fuel and gasoline bill. $2300. And Farm insurance $1200 quarterly. And the monthly electric bill, and, and, and… easy come easy go! But hey, at least I could make those payments.
Working on a show at the college. We open in about 3 weeks and I am busy building stuff. I clean up as I’m working because I hate walking through sawdust and tracking it all over the rest of the shop. And that’s why I vacuumed up the remote for the dust collector on the table saw. And because I have a bag in the shop vac, I had to sift it to the top and fish it back out the hole. I knew it was in there because I turned it on while fishing it out, haha. I’m gonna add a board to it so I don’t do that again. This was the second or third time I’ve done that.
I took a walk along our creek last Sunday. Me and the dogs.
I heard some sandhill cranes calling. A flock/siege/construction/swoop of 12 or 14 of them made a loop and head off south. I hope a few spend more time in our area. I thought of our Steve.
I had a lot of township business this week. Lots of phone calls and fact-finding. Relinquished my chair of the town board and don’t have to chair that board again for 4 years. And Thursday night was the annual meeting of the People’s Electric Cooperative. Supper was provided and it was… food. I wore sleeves and a jacket.
As chair of the nominating committee I presented the election results and read the oath to the winners. And that’s over for another year. Shedding projects left and right!
WHERE WAS YOUR FIRST FLIGHT?
RIDDEN IN ANY KIND OF VINTAGE PLANE?
MILE HIGH CLUB ANYONE??
Trail Baboon 
My very first flight was in a six-seater Piper Cub over the Grand Canyon. I was in the eighth grade on a long family vacation out west. It was pretty cool. I still remember the feeling as we were flying along with trees and ground underneath us and then suddenly we went over the edge and there was the Grand Canyon underneath us. A little bit of stomach bibble for a minute, but otherwise fine.
I flew in an open air bi-plane in Africa. I’m pretty sure the plane itself was not actually vintage (although I don’t know for sure), but it looked vintage. So I’m gonna count that.
And no mile high club for me — not even any risqué dreams while flying along.
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First flight was one-way from Los Angeles to MSP in the 50s when my parents had not yet started going broke. Didn’t fly again until 1969 when the Army sent me from California to Missouri. After that, a life in the air began. Now, I take trains.
Vintage plane was probably one or the other of the C-123 planes that I sometimes rode as a passenger in Vietnam.
If there’s a parallel to the mile-high club that involves an Amtrak sleeping car….
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Road in a 1944 T-6 Texan. That type were used primarily for pilot training. The real pilot let me make a slow right turn.
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Rode
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First flight was in the mid 60s back to MSP from Seattle. We took the Great Northern out, it was a grand adventure (I suppose that plane is vintage today😃). We also rented a Toyota while out there. My conservative 6’4″ dad did not love it.
I flew a lot in the 90s, but never in this century. We’ll see if I get to keep that record.
No mile-high club for me! I was never good at flying and usually just hoped to land with my stomach and head still in one piece. Never got sick on a plane either, just mostly wretched. Winning!
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First flight, summer of 1967, from Des Moines to Mpls – I think we were in the air for all of 45 minutes… This was to visit the college roommate I’d shared a dorm room with the previous year. I remember she took me to Southdale, the Old Log Theater, and the Lincoln Del for hot apple pie with cinnamon ice cream.
No vintage planes, and no Mile High Club.
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1973? I was 9 yrs old. Flew out to Maryland to visit my oldest sister who had just moved out there.
Probably first flights for my parents and my grandmother.
I don’t remember much except the took me to the cockpit and the pilots talking with me. And I remember visiting DC.
Been in some small Cessna’s, and a couple helicopters.
I’m betting tim will have a story…
And waiting for somone else to surprise us with their adventures! Jacque? PJ? Bill??
Who will admit it 🙂 ?
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No flights with my parents. First one was probably the flight to San Francisco from Minneapolis with Robin in the early ’70s. Later in that decade, when I worked in advertising, I flew quite often.
No vintage aircraft but once in a small float plane over Canadian wilderness.
Recalling my most recent flight in economy seating, where there wasn’t even room enough to bend down and reach the floor, the notion of Mile High Club makes me laugh.
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