2026, crops, Farming Update, Medicine

Two Right Feet

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It’s so hot—

It’s so hot that I renamed my pig “Bacon.”

It’s so hot that I’m using Celsius instead of Fahrenheit just to have a lower number.

It’s so hot I saw the Devil buying an air conditioner.

It’s so hot I almost called my ex so I could be around something shady.

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Another busy week just doing stuff. Meetings and stuff. I didn’t even have the padawans come out.

We had a hen hatch out 13 babies.

13! What was she thinking!!??

I cut grass one afternoon, I watered our new trees. Twice. I cut the grass around the trees.

I got the new steering hose back on the tractor and added 1.5 gallons of hydraulic oil that had leaked out, and I found and tightened a loose bracket underneath from when I ran over that stump earlier this spring, and we’re good to go again. 

The corn just keep growing. 

The height doesn’t equal better yield, (unless you’re chopping the whole plant for silage), but it doesn’t make the ear or grain any better. It just means the plant had good soil and good moisture. 

The oats is ready to be harvested anytime. The sooner the better as the quack grass is overtaking the oats in places. Early reports of harvest is fairly positive. We’ll see. 

I get an email every week showing the price of gasoline and diesel fuel.

It was going the right direction…I was starting to think about filling our farm barrel again.

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I have a problem. Well, more of an inconvieniece than a problem: I have a hard time making the peddles work on our lawn mowers. Or anything with a foot pedal operated by the right foot. 

Yellow is forward, teal is reverse, and red is brake.

Because that’s the leg I hurt when I was 14 years old. In fact it was July 17 of 1978 when I did that. Forty eight years it’s been broken / messed up. But that stuff never bothers us so much when we’re young does it. 

Anyway, my foot doesn’t move much. It’s sort of stuck out at a 45° angle to the right. And I wear a brace to support the ankle. I can’t twist the foot in, or move it up and down much. Meaning on the lawn mower, with the two peddles for forward and reverse next to each other, depending how exactly its built, I can’t twist my foot in to get ONLY the forward pedal, or I can’t push it down enough to move. I’ve made various modifications over the years including attaching a three inch block of wood on the pedal. If I take the brace off, I have more movement, but the foot hurts more too. I’ve tried scooching over and sitting sideways in the seat, but that’s not the best solution.

All this to say, I am working on modifications to the pedals on one of our lawn mowers to get my foot on there. 

We use this one for mowing between the trees because it’s a little smaller and fits between the rows better. 

This is modification version 3.3 and it’s almost there; I need a vertical block on the right end. That would provide both a stop for my foot, and room to push down without hitting the reverse pedal. 

Need a heel rest too.

In a perfect word I’d move the reverse pedal out to give me more room. But that’s a little more involved. 

WHAT INCONVIENCES HAVE YOU IN YOUR LIFE? Go ahead, complain for a day. You’re allowed.

17 thoughts on “Two Right Feet”

  1. It’s hot! There is only one window my apartment The air conditioner fits there in the kitchen. There’s an opening into the living room where I set up a fan to push cool air into that space. It’s not enough to cool the bedroom. To conserve energy, I’ve closed the bedroom door and the bathroom door. I minimize using the computer as the processor puts out a lot of heat. Now I have a mattress on the kitchen floor! And can keep the living room between 78 and 80 degrees. I’ve done this in prior years. I lack nothing and can read more. The Birds are unbothered.

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  2. After all this heat, it’s downright comfortable out there this morning so I have both doors open wide and took water out to the tomatoes. I see rain possible on Monday (oh please, oh please).

    The kitties just sleep the day away.

    Ben, that corn looks pretty spikey, so I hope you get rain soon too.

    Bring on the oats! I am still getting raspberries to throw in CC with them and a bunch of grainy, nutty stuff + berries and almond milk makes a good, cheap breakfast.

    I can move my right foot around just fine, but lack of feeling in that side is a real bother.

    I’m just glad the smoke has lifted for now.

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  3. The wild fire smoke is a real pain. It’s not bad at all this morning due to the wind blowing it to the east, but the wind is switching back around and the rest of the weekend is going to be very smoky. I’m really hoping for rain. Lots of it!

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  4. In a perfect world, Ben, you could get a lawn mower that used the left foot for those pedals… Or it came with an option for something hand-operated!

    One of the major inconveniences here is that this house came without a full time cook! We’ve been reading aloud a Kat Holloway (1880s)mystery series, where the protagonist is a cook in a large English house…

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  6. We just had our first ceiling light bulb burn out. They are large, recessed lights that are too high for us to change, so I have to phone the electrician to come and replace it.

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    1. That was 1975 in that skit. Chevy and Gilda look so young and beautiful. They are/were just several years older than me. Sigh. But there was a time I would have given anything to know I would be old, with all the challenges.

      I walked the puppy for the first time in three days because it was cool and clear enough. He needed it. Last night he would not leave me alone because he was so bored. This morning he found a locust in the front yard which entertained him for a long time. Aaaahhh.

      My main complaint–husband’s symptoms have worsened in the last 4 months. Hard to see.

      My secondary complaint–I see dust on and under the side table I am looking at.

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  8. I hope you find a solution for your foot pedals, Ben.

    The heat has given Charlotte, our one-year-old cat, cabin fever. She would usually be spending much of her summer days on the deck, watching birds, squirrels, rabbits, and everything else that passes by in the neighborhood. But it’s so hot she only stays out for a few minutes. And the heat is keeping all the critters away too, and there’s not much to watch. So she’s bored, bored, bored and looking for someone to play with (me or my son). When everyone is busy, she’s just looking for trouble.

    It’s temporary, and minor compared to all the other things going on in the world to complain about (which I won’t get into, or I’d be here all day).

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  9. It’s so hot they installed a fan in the debt ceiling.

    It’s so hot I actually escaped from the Twin Cities for a few days. I’m here in Madison visiting my friend and we went to the farmers market this morning around the capital. It was glorious and I now have five loaves of the chili cheese bread that I like so much to go into the freezer when I get home. And a bunch of corn!

    I started to feel a little guilty last night, leaving YA at home with the puppy wearing the cone of shame and having a bad reaction to being clipped for her IV last week. Then it occurred to me that she was gone all of last week and I had to deal with all of that stuff by myself so the guilt has evaporated.

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  10. It’s too bad that this isn’t a science fiction/ fantasy world or you could get a new cyber foot and be the “couple of million dollar man”!

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  12. My blindness increases. My right eye makes things worse. The world gets darker.
    I took a shower this morning but my thighs would not hold me standing through the showering and then the toweling off process.
    My mind seems good, but then I walk out of Cub without paying. My son-in-law caught me. He is wonderful.
    Struggling to get cardiac care, care of my pacemaker. I call and get blown off.
    I try to think of these as inconveniences.
    Lots of things are good.
    Clyde

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  13. Inconveniences – peanut butter that separates, even when it says “no stir”… I used to have a gadget that you inserted in the jar to stir it up, but must have left it behind when we moved…

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