2026, animals, chickens, crops, Farming Update, Movies, Theatre, Travel, Uncategorized

Where in the world has Ben been?

38 Comments

This weeks farming update from Ben.

We’ve been gone for a week. Returned to one last day of nice weather before it gets hot again.

Where were we?

Every restaurant was so loud you couldn’t have a conversation. We postulate the ambient noise level was so loud that everyone else has to get louder.

A cool ceiling at this resturant.
Decor at the same place.

There are many wonderful parks, lots of free green space, art, and statues.

It seems like we had a hard time figuring out the subway ticket system but we got around and managed to make do with the kindness of strangers and only losing money on one ticket system I still haven’t figured out what I bought that didn’t work. Que sera sera

Took a Commuter train to visit a couple attractions. First time for that for us. 

Sunday after the World Cup finals, one train was packed, but everyone was very nice. We laughed about how tight we were crammed in there. Kelly and I joked a full train on Sunday is probably different than a full train on Thursday at 5:00 PM. 
The Wednesday 5 PM train was full, and seemed to skip one stop, and at the next stop, which was the one we wanted, only one door opened and we couldn’t get there before it closed and the train moved on. Daughter was VERY put out. A guy on the train said “I have missed so many stops…”

Traffic lights seem to only be a suggestion to some people.

 A few more street signs would be really helpful. 

I didn’t pack any shirts with sleeves! 

We travelled there as Kelly had a work conference. We all had a few vacation days together before she had to ‘work’ work. 
Daughter and I made our own fun after that. Saw some movies – in 3D!- and had a good time. 

Ice cream coma

My steps the last week average about 8500. Daughter, constantly moving, averages 12,000 a day. 

We had lots of help on the farm to keep things in hand.

The chicken from last week still has some chicks left; I haven’t gotten a good count as they’re hiding in the tall grass. But maybe 5 out of her 13. We’ve always said, the real world is a tough place for chicks.

And now we have multiple baby guineas. 

At least guineas are good at co-parenting.

We want more guineas, but didn’t want to stick a guest with baby chick care. So we’ll see. The photo was from Tuesday when the Palawan’s saw them. I haven’t found them yet on Friday. Kelly saw them briefly, and then the mom seems to hide them so she can get out and eat. That’s kind of unusual.

Padawan 1 is broke, so I left him a list of projects. Darn if those missing soft skills don’t make it harder than it had to be for both of us as I had to remind him to do a few jobs, and offer help by text when he’d ask questions. And he made a few jobs harder. Which is how we learn, right? 
P2 came out few times too. I’m not sure how much I’m paying them for work, or how much was goofing around. 
Well, QSS all over again.

Thanks to Rick and Betty for picking up the mail. Thanks to John and Tamsin for taking care of the chickens, Tamsin, and the dogs, John. Gracie and Evan house sat and watered flowers.

I’m hoping to get the oats harvested Saturday. It’s still standing good, which is great, but the grass in it is getting bad. That only means it will combine a little tougher (because a combine harvester doesn’t like green stuff) and the straw windrow will have to dry out before I can bale it.

The corn got sprayed with fungicide by helicopter. Corn fungus’ have become a big issue the last few years as they move up from the south and the hot weather acerbates the issue.

I’ll post a few more photos after the location has been determined.

EVER HOUSE SAT? OR HAD HOUSE SITTERS? TELL US ABOUT IT

WHAT DECOR DO YOU MISS FROM THE 1950’s or ‘60?

Extra photos:

JFK Library
Steinway
Aquarium
“The Embrace”
The other side of “The Embrace”
USS Constitution from the harbor tour
Washington statue in the Public Garden.
Cool doors

38 thoughts on “Where in the world has Ben been?”

  2. At first, I thought you might be in Europe as I saw the sign in what I think was German in the subway system. But then you mentioned World Cup and while my friend in Madison did have the final game on TV while I was there, I wasn’t paying much attention (reading) and I wouldn’t have bet my life that it was in New Jersey, but I thought it might be.

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

  3. This is just a wild guess, but New York? If only I was a sports fan and followed things like World Cups, and other popular events. I’m not, so I can only guess. It looks like you had a lot of fun! Cute photos!

    I came home from the north yesterday. My neighbor watered my plants for me while I was gone. Unfortunately, many of my fast-growing, productive plants look really tired. My peppers and slicing tomatoes are dying on the plants. The peppers seem to rot right on the plant, and the tomatoes develop blossom end rot. My little yellow pear tomatoes are good, so are the Amish pastes. My basil flowered while I was gone. I had been cutting it and pinching flowers off daily. It has also suffered from repeated attacks by Japanese beetles. I think the zucchini grew so fast and produced so much that it has used up the soil in the too-small grow box. I cut 2/3 out of it before I left, and now the final 1/3 looks very tired. Well, I was enthusiastic this spring. Lessons for next year.

    Speaking of messes: As those peppers and tomatoes died on the vines, I plucked them off and simply laid them in the soil. My neighbor, Shirley, was grossed out by that and decided they had to come out of there. She fished them all out and laid them on the ground, then put them in a plastic bag and took them all the way to the gas station to throw them in the trash there! I have a compost bucket in the garage, but she didn’t know about compost. I guess if they have some kind of disease, it’s best to get them out of there, which I will do from now on, but… she didn’t need to go through all that.

    Liked by 4 people

    Reply

    1. Garden is weird here, too – I think some of the plants have had a hard time because of the sudden heat flowed by all that rain (here in SE Minn. anyway). Some of the cauliflower plants started to rot before we got to them (nothing like the smell of rotting cauli!). The roma tomatoes have little soft spots on a lot of them.

      Liked by 3 people

      Reply

    2. Krista, my veggies are doing similar things. Do not give up on them. This is their response to the hot temps and uneven water absorption. Cut them back (especially the basil), then fertilize them and keep them watered and they will give you another crop.

      Liked by 6 people

      Reply

      1. I need to do that. A friend who is a soil scientist told me to go to Menards and get a bag of pelletized lime. I looked but they only had 40 pound bags and they were all up on a shelf above my head. I don’t think I need 40 pounds and I’m not going to pull a bag that heavy down from above my head! I’ll try the egg shells. It makes more sense!

        Liked by 3 people

        Reply

  4. Nice that you got away for a bit, Ben. I haven’t followed the World Cup, so I’ll go with the flow and say New Jersey…

    I house sat (with cat) in S. Mpls for a weekend in 1989 or ’90 – sort of took a mini-vacation from home duties (son Joel was 8 or so at the time)…

    How did the 50s and 60s get in here?? (Reminiscent of Dale’s “whiplash” questions…) At the moment, I can’t think of any decor I miss from that era.

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

    1. The cats on the wall are from the 50/60’s. That’s how we got there. I learned they’re called ‘Sexton cats’.

      Lava lamps, yeah, they’re cool. I had a reproduction in the ‘90’s.

      I had a bean bag chair. Never liked as much as I thought I would. And of course I unzipped it to see what was inside. Oops. Those little white beads seemed to jump out and cling to everything.

      I always liked the Formica(?) kitchen table and metal chairs and wanted a set for the college furniture. Found one at a friends garage sale.

      Liked by 3 people

      Reply

      1. Agree about the Formica dinettes. At one point we had two of the tables, with the legs detached, stored in our garage. We didn’t have room to use them anywhere and neither did our kids and they were just going to rust out there so we let them go.

        Liked by 5 people

        Reply

  7. Rise and Shine, Baboons,

    My guess is the New Jersey suburbs of New York, given that the World Cup Final was held in those burbs near Hoboken. It looks like you had a great time, and that it must have been hot, given your neck covering headwear.

    I have had many house sitters/dog/cat sitters, but I don’t have many stories about that. it works. It is less stressful for the animals than a kennel. The plants get watered. That is it.

    I miss the living room decor in the Dick Van Dyke show (but not the single beds in the bedroom!). As I child I found that show to be the height of sophistication and elegance. I spent a lot of time in decorator mode trying to figure out how that house was laid out without understanding that it was a Hollywood set that did not need to make sense. It just needed room for lighting and cameras.

    And that show was set in the New Jersey suburbs of NYC where I think Ben was vacationing.

    Liked by 4 people

    Reply

  9. I was kind of thinking that some of you would mention decor that I miss from the 50s 60s 70s or whatever. But nothing is ringing a bell at all.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

        2. Yes, but I can honestly say I don’t miss any of those. My friend, Tia, lived in an A-frame house in Carbondale back in the late sixties. Her idea of interior decorating involved lots of scented candles, colorful shaggy rugs, bean bag chairs, and llava lamps. I can remember a friend accidentally knocking over and breaking a llava lamp during one of her parties; I thought he had done her a favor, but she lamented the loss of that lamp for years.

          Liked by 4 people

  13. If you saw the Constitution, you were in Boston.

    The S&h and gf were in NYC this weekend, seeing his old teammate in the track and field national championships. I was trying to live stream that on YouTube, but sadly, it’s all subscription. They’ve been wanting to go to NYC for awhile, so. I’m glad they went, even if the race did not end well. But apparently Momdani stopped by, so that was cool.

    Everyone’s garden woes are making me less regretful about the late start I got. This summer just seems to feel “fraught”.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

  14. The Bell telephone princess phones were pretty nice. They came in colors like pink and turquoise.

    Toilet paper also came in colors – pink, yellow, blue, turquoise.

    I was rather fond of the “Northern Girl” prints my sister and I had hanging in our bedroom in the early 60’s. There was one of a brown-haired girl cuddling a white kitten.

    Remember the ashtrays that had a fabric bottom that was filled with sand?

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

Leave a comment