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WARNING: TWENTY FOOT CIRCLE OF EXASPIRATION!*

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*Thanks to JimEd Poole for the phrase and T-shirt suggestion.

The vacation is over. Farming sucked this week. 

The highlight of my week was putting a new windshield wiper on my car because it actually clicked into place and stayed there when I turned on the wipers. I’m calling that a win.

To sooth my mood, I listened to the music of Les Paul. Are you familiar with him and his wife, Mary Ford, and their multi track recording of “How High The Moon? It’s really pretty cool.

He’s a pioneer of the solid body electric guitar, and his use of recording techniques such as over dubbing and multi track recording was revolutionary. 

Mary Ford was an outstanding musician herself. Reading about her reveals 4 marriages, alcoholism, and sadly, died at age 53, of complications from alcohol abuse, after eight weeks in a diabetic coma. Kind of broke my heart…

One of my favorite recordings is “Chester and Lester”, Les Paul and Chet Atkins. Which leads me to “Neck and Neck”, Chet Atkins and Mark Knopfler. Which takes me to Mark Knopfler and Emmylou Harris and “All The Roadrunning”. 

And that’s all the duos’s I can link because I don’t have any other Emmylou Harris. 

So the farm. 

Last Saturday the neighbors came out to combine oats. They made a round and a half, plugged up the combine with the grass, (remember, I said that was going to be a problem) And then, I think they were hot and dirty and mad and they went home. I’m sure he was as hot and frustrated as I would’ve been. I said that I thought they started on the worst field, and they should try some of the other fields because there was a lot less grass in them. And I don’t know why, but they never came back and they told me I’d have to cut the oats, sort of the traditional way of swathing it and then picking it up from there. That gives  the grass a chance to dry out. Well if I’d have known I was going to swath it, I’d have got my swather ready before we went on vacation for a week. I tried Saturday afternoon to get the swather started and it’s always a bugger to get going at first. Sunday I was working on a show all day. And Monday was hot and humid and miserable and it was a Monday all over. I went to three different auto part stores, and I know I’ve talked about this before; the swather has a Chrysler ‘slant 6’ engine in it. These things were bulletproof and there was a million of them around back in the 70s. But the trick now is finding a mechanic old enough to know what a slant 6 is. And that’s been my problem. I’ve gotten a lot of parts that don’t fit and we can’t seem to find ones that do fit. John Deere doesn’t carry parts for the motors anymore. And I was in quite a foul mood most of Monday. By Tuesday I had mellow out a bit and by Wednesday hired a couple of guys to come and swath the oats for me. What’s a couple more hundred bucks to hire them…

Hired guys swathing oats

And now, of course, after a month of no rain, now it’s raining on Friday. Need the rain, just not right now. Because now my oats is laying down. But at least the oats was standing well when it was cut! Yay! I’m afraid it’s dried up to nothing, so maybe some rain will help it rehydrate. And then eventually the swath will dry and then we’ll get it combined and then I’ll get some straw baled. The neighbors have had their Oats and Straw done for two or three weeks. But we’re not talking about that. 

It was a nice gentle all day rain, and we have over an inch. I did bookwork, and other computer stuff, then organized the pencil drawer in the shop, and fixed a crack on the hood of one of the lawn mowers.

That’s better

I did take a couple hours of one afternoon, when I wasn’t doing anything else, and painted our downstairs bathroom that’s almost done being remodeled. It’s done except for the countertop and sink, and toilet. The countertop is coming August 10 and I would expect a plumber a day or two after that. And while I was painting over the pink bathroom I was singing to myself Lou and Peter Berryman’s “Why Am I Painting My Living Room“.

The padawans were out and we started replacing boards around the bottom of the pole barn. It was hot and one of them complains a lot. Eventually I give him a new rule: “No Bitching”. Then he gets moody but I can handle that. 

Front boards done; working on the side. And the door needs to be rebuilt.

I had rock delivered for the road. Ten loads of 18 tons each. Spending money hand over fist again. Can’t take it with you.

Never underestimate the value of a good driver who knows how to spread rock.

I also got stung by a bee working with the boys. Cripes. No allergies or anything, just another annoyance.

I cleaned the radiators on the big tractor, (AC, hydraulic oil, and water radiators) and worked up a small field that a friend plants for a deer plot. (His theory is the deer will eat that instead of my crops. It’s a nice thought that doesn’t work). And after the oats and straw is finally done, I’ll be planting cereal rye as a cover crop.

cleaning the radiators.

Chicken mama is down to 3 chicks… but the co-parenting guinea mom still has around maybe 15? She keeps them out of site most of the time and it’s hard to get a good count of them.

Guinea moms and babies

I mowed some more weeds. I finished lighting one show and started another, and this one is a drag show and a lot of fun.

There was a turkey buzzard sitting on a fence post one day. I thought, ‘well if that doesn’t sum up my week.”

I’ll end with this:

WHAT GETS YOU OUT OF A FOWL MOOD?

HOW MANY YO-YO’s DID YOU HAVE AS A KID? COULD YOU DO TRICKS? 

23 thoughts on “WARNING: TWENTY FOOT CIRCLE OF EXASPIRATION!*”

  1. What gets me out of a fowl mood? Fish or beef usually.

    I had a red Duncan yo-yo. I could make it go up and down sometimes.

    Anyone remember the brief vogue for tops? You would wind them with string and could cast them down spinning on the floor. Sometimes there would be top battles where two tops were cast.

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  2. When I think of Les Paul and Mary Ford, this is the first thing that comes to mind:

    As I recall, Les Paul had limited use of one arm as the result of an accident. Like Django Reinhart he overcame that disability in a big way.

    I’ve said this before: Lou Berryman has a voice that could peel wallpaper but I like their songs. I think my favorite is “Similes”.

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    1. I seem to recall that Les Paul built his turntable using the flywheel off a Cadillac or some other car. Apropos of nothing, just a random recollection.

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  4. Thanks for the music, too, Ben. I remember being at Elitch’s amusement park in Denver, circa 1958, and my folks trying to figure out how they could get tickets to Les Paul & Mary Ford who, were playing that night somewhere. It’s occurred to me lately how much of this era’s music will be lost in the mists of time. I’m remember some of the 78s we had – i.e. Hoagy Charmichael’s Buttermilk Sky

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  5. my wife taught me about getting out of a foul mood. prior to her i would talk and reason and work my way out of a problem by thrashing it into submission.
    my wife would have no part of that. she would stay unconsolable in spite of all my fix attempts. then poof … it was gone. time is her thing and by golly it seems to work. it works for her.
    i have asked my mom to stop mentionin trump because everytime his name comes up the mood sours but she is a news junkie.
    i heard once that negative news sells because it creates a strong response. so does positive news but its harder to find.
    yo yo was never my thing. waxing the string by rubbing candle wax on it i could get it to do the sleeper but that was it. i worked on rock the cradle forever to no avail.

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  7. I haven’t had luck copying and pasting YouTube lately. I tried to paste Tommy smothers yo-yo man clip. It was always interesting to me that Tommy chose the yo-yo as his vehicle for exhibit he sang he told jokes, but to blow off steam he was yo-yo man, and he was pretty good.

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  8. Lots of the toys we had as kids were shared. I never had my own yo-yo, but we had one together. I could barely make it go down and up.

    Dogs always help me out of a bad mood. The best thing for me is a long walk with a dog.

    Sorry about your frustrating week, Ben. Being hot all the time doesn’t help. That oats situation sounds really frustrating.

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  9. Rise and Shine, Baboons,

    Ben, what a cruddy week you had! I hope things are better now. Yesterday with the cool temps and rain was such a welcome change. I felt great all day. Today, though, a migraine started, so I took a pill (Nurtec, a miracle drug) and rested awhile. Then voila, life is better. If I am in a foul mood, usually it is part of a migraine starting. . Those also occur after a big weather change.
    Otherwise it is frustration about something big, or anxiety about something.

    I could make a yo-yo bob up and down as a child, back and forth and walk a bit. My maternal Grandpa had a yo-yo and practiced/showed off his tricks from the couch. He taught me the few tricks I knew. He could make it dart out to the front and back, pause in the middle of going up and down, walk on the string, and many other tricks. Scaring us with his false teeth and allowing us look at his severed forefinger scar and the yo-yo were how he interacted with the grandchildren. But I never like to get too close to him or sit on his lap because he smelled bad. (This was unlike my other Grandpa, who had a permanent spot for me on his lap where I frequently dwelled. He smelled like Burma Shave, Vitalis hair oil, and cigarettes and lighter fluid).

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  10. I had several yo-yo’s. (Stringed instruments is how I got to yo-yo’s…)
    I had several Duncan ones, and then you weren’t cool unless you had the Butterfly one. Trying to get my finger in the loop at the top was my biggest issue. I never could do many tricks. I didn’t often get it to even come back up.
    I have an uncle that could do quite a few and he was always a hit at family gatherings.

    Sometimes yo-yo’s are still given away as swag.

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  11. I live with The Birds so I am rarely in a fowl mood.
    I do get irritated by cultist Trumpists at the media sites I visit. Tuesday’s I take time off for Taco Tuesday.
    My only yo yo was wooden.

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  12. A couple of times I had a yo-yo when I was a kid, but I never learned to do anything with it except the basic up and down so it wasn’t very interesting to me.

    I am really enjoying walks with Freya. I walked Guinevere a lot, but it wasn’t as enjoyable because she was so reactive to everything. I felt like I was always on guard. So like Krista, walking the dog is helping can help with a fowl mood for me. And yes, I know that I could have been out walking without a dog all these months, but that’s just not how my brain works.

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