This week’s Farming update from Ben
I think it’s really interesting that aluminum foil in the oven doesn’t get very hot. I can pull it out with my fingers. So I googled it. And learned this:
- Extreme Thinness (Low Mass): Standard foil is incredibly thin (about 16 micrometers). Because there is so little metal, there isn’t enough total heat energy to warm up your thick, water-filled skin. The instant you touch it, your cooler fingers absorb the tiny amount of energy, dropping the foil’s temperature immediately.
- High Conductivity: Aluminum is an excellent heat conductor. Heat passes through it and dissipates into the cooler room air almost instantly.
Isn’t that interesting!
Wednesday was my first day of half summer vacation. I work half time at the college until June, then I’m off for a couple months. I worked at home ALL DAY Wednesday.
I had my annual performance review at the college the other day. As I prepared for that and looked for a paper copy of last year’s review I found a phone book on my desk. I guess I kinda knew it was there. I haven’t opened it in a while. It was from 2014. I put it in the round file finally.
I finished planting soybeans last Saturday.
Sunday I drove over it all with the drag. The fields look great! Smooth and even. Hopefully they get lush and green soon.
It was sprinkling late Sunday evening when I was out with an old hand cranked seeder spreading grass seed on one of my new field boundaries.
This thing has hung in the basement as long as I can remember. Asking my siblings, we all played with it but no one remembers seeing anyone actually use it. I’m thinking dad used it to seed grass around the house after it was built. But I’m sure I’m just making that up.
The directions are on the bottom:
I have a few thoughts. I don’t know what 2.5 MPH is when walking, and a spread of 18 feet?? You gotta really be cranking that thing to get 18 feet! Man, I don’t know how the old guys did it back in the day seeding acres and acres with this thing.
I am planting ‘BLM #4’. It’s a quick growing pasture mix commonly containing ryegrass, tall fescue, and Kentucky bluegrass.
At home Padawan and I got a lot done this week. Cleaned out the seed and power washed the corn planter. Parked it outside for the moment and pulled out the seed wagon. Cleaned that off and parked it away. As we were rounding up flowerpots for Kelly, we got sidetracked by crap in a corner of the old shed and ended up hauling out a gator load of scrap iron and a gator load of garbage.
I’ve wanted to clean up that corner, just didn’t intend to do it then. It was clean back in 1968 when we were living in the machine shed, then it turned into the tire storage corner. I’m down to about 5 old tires to get rid of, and 3 good spares I store there. And once you start a spare tire corner, it becomes a junk corner real quick. Padawan cut the top off a tote while I was cleaning the planter so we can use a second tote for scrap iron. I forgot about a zoom meeting on Wednesday. Had it on my calender… even knew about it in the morning. Then got a text from someone asking if I was coming to the meeting. I joined from the tractor.
Padawan and I made a fence and got the adolescent chicks out.
We put mulch around the seedling trees and starting making a, sort of, ‘tent-fence’ to keep the deer from eating the tree’s and peeling bark off the tiny little things. Stupid deer! These little tree’s are costing us a lot of money! Water totes, pump, hose, fencing, Mulch was free, then more fencing and more posts… jeepers. And who knows how they’ll survive next winter. I don’t have high hopes.
I need to clean out the grain drill yet.
Right up at the end of our driveway there’s this gap in the oats field.
It’s the first thing you see driving in. I’ve seen it coming all spring, I need to get out there and replant that. Course it will always be a month behind. But a bare spot allows weeds to grow. And I have several bushels left in the drill to clean out so I may as well go plant that and fill in a few light spots in another field.
Padawan has gotten a new job. He’ll be working 11:00 AM – 8:00PM Tuesday – Saturday. I’m gonna miss him. He and I have really connected the last few months. I enjoy having him around and he kinda likes having us as his surrogate family. In fact, he listed me as “Family Friend / Dad” on the job application. Awwwww…
Happy Memorial Day Weekend! Welcome to summer!
ARE YOU A FAST WALKER OR A SLOW WALKER?
EVER CRANK STARTED ANYTHING?
Trail Baboon 
In my early 20s, when I thought it was cool to drive a roadster, I had an MGA, which came with a crank. It was NOT a good car, and I spent lots of time fixing things. (Because I fixed them, there was always a lot to re-fix.) I used the crank to start it a few times when the batteries (there were 2 6V ones behind the seat) were dead.
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I’m a slow walker. In addition to not really liking to walk fast, I have a long torso (for my height) which means short legs. And, of course the knees haven’t sped anything up.
No crank starting that I can think of. I assume I can’t count the old gas mower or snowblower?
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The pull cord on a mower or snowblower does the same thing as a crank. It manually turns over the engine, causing the spark plug to fire. Since the engine is oriented horizontally on that equipment, a crank on top would be awkward.
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Can’t say I have ever crank started anything.
I’m a reasonably quick walker, mainly because I like to get where I’m going, but I do get passed by most walkers when I’m out, so🤷.
I have never really thought about the heat retention of aluminum foil, so thanks for looking that up. Now we know.
I continue to live in the construction zone. Kind of glad to have the break this weekend, but also starting to look forward to being done.
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Oh man, I love this about the zoom meeting: “…asking if I was coming to the meeting. I joined from the tractor.” Talk about a sign of the times!
I’m not sure if I’d throw out that phone book, Ben… some day you’ll want to know what was some number or location in the distant past. (Now you know why I have a hard time with downsizing…)
I probably used to walk a 20-minute mile, but Husband walks slower, so I’ve gotten used to slower, at least when I’m with him. I find I use your muscles differently with a slow walk than with a fast one.
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I use my muscles differently…
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Grandson and I went to the History Center in Luverne yesterday and saw two Luverne Automobiles, one from 1909, the other from 1913 and a Luverne firetruck from 1917. They were all manufactured in Luverne. Grandson was fascinated by the crank starters in the front of the vehicles.
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Strictly from a physics aspect it seems to me that one uses the same amount of energy and burns the same calories whether one walks fast or slowly. It’s just a matter of moving a mass (one’s own) a certain distance. I understand there may be aerobic considerations but we’ll let that go.
One is a fast walker or a slow walker only in comparison to another walker. What is normal walking speed? Who decides that and on what basis? I am probably a relatively slow walker. I am slow at accomplishing many things. I can walk faster when necessary but only if I concentrate on walking fast. When I think about things other than my walking speed my pace falls into a more relaxed and natural one.
I am occasionally cranky but don’t get me started.
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Rise and Shine, Baboons,
Ben, can you take that hand-crank seeder and use it to patch up the oat gap? And you are right–the old settlers were far tougher than me! I can only imagine the wear and tear on their bodies. We have a plastic, “updated” version of that. I have used it to seed Bee Lawn instead of turf. It does a pretty good job of even application of the seeds. But I do not want to walk 18 feet doing that. Yesterday I found a 5 leaf clover in the patch I seeded. That was a new one–is it extra good luck?
I dimly remember that my grandparents had a crank on their old fashioned phone. But it was not in use when I came along, we just played with it. There was something similar on a fan, as well. It had a pull chain that started the fan and needed to be re-pulled about every 20 minutes. The other thing with a crank was a hand operated mixer-egg beater. The crank did not start anything, it just turned the mixer. There were hand operated drills like that, as well.
I am a leisurely walker. I do not like to dawdle while walking, but I do not want to speed walk either. This puppy is a dawdler when walking, sniffing every little thing. My walking has slowed considerably during this arthritic hip phase of life. I can easily walk two miles now following hip replacement, but not as speedily as I used to walk, pre-arthritis.
I am finally finished planting my gardens here, so today I am being lazy. I may read and watch a movie
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