crops, Farming Update, Nature, Uncategorized

IS IT A HARD KNOCK LIFE? REALLY?

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This week‘s farming update from Ben

No, the Straw isn’t baled yet. Keeps freaking raining every two or three days. I checked it Friday morning and it’s wet underneath, so I’ll be raking it, AGAIN, and planning to bale my last 100 bales on Saturday. I have a neighbor lined up for Sunday to round bale whatever is left. I am optimistic for Saturday though. Monday evening I double raked the one field that had not been raked yet, and then I re-raked the field I had Padawan do and then it rained on Tuesday, about half an inch, the wind came up and the temperature dropped and something happened somewhere because our power went out for about an hour. But according to the electric co-op website, there was like 400 people out of power, so something major happened somewhere, but it didn’t take long to fix. And Friday afternoon I raked it all again.

Yeah, So anyway the straw is not baled yet.

I did get the new spark plug wires made and put on the swather and went to change spark plugs and discovered the guys at Zumbrota NAPA, that seemed to know everything, evidently do not know what kind of spark plugs the swather takes. The ones they gave me sure didn’t fit. I picked up the proper ones in Rochester the next day. Haven’t gotten them replaced yet. Maybe Saturday. I greased most of the swather last Saturday, so will finish that and run it around for awhile just to make it feel needed.

We added the 250 bales from last week to the pole barn on Sunday.

Padawan did OK. He’s not a rockstar at this and he sure complains a lot. I asked him later why does he think everything is supposed to be easy? And I thought to myself ‘where does that come from’? Did he not have enough challenges in his life?

He has really nice hair!

The straw this year sure isn’t that bright golden color you’ve come to expect. And there won’t be much oats left in it after the rain and all the raking. That tends to knock out all the loose oats that is left after harvesting. The strawberry farm likes it better that way. I’m just trying to get the stupid stuff done. At least I don’t have anything planted with it that would be getting smothered. In the old days, and sometimes still, oats is just a cover crop to get alfalfa started. Meaning with all the rain and the straw windrow laying out there for a month, it could be smothering the alfalfa underneath. As it is, the grass and weeds are coming on strong and I need to get it dug up soon in order to plant cereal rye. Too much grass and it won’t go through the tillage machine very well.

I started doing some tillage Friday, made three rounds and the tractor overheated and I had steam coming out under the hood. So that took care of that.

If you look at the header photo, it’s interesting that this year there’s so many soybeans right around here. The farm out on the highway is soybeans, our neighbors are soybeans, and then the fields along our driveway are soybeans. It doesn’t mean there’s more soybeans than corn this year, it just means these 50 acres right here are soybeans. Still, interesting.
Next year the neighbors will be corn and mine might be oats. Crop rotation. Corn and soybeans for some guys. Soybeans, oats, corn for me.

On Tuesday when the cold front came through, I was standing out on the college theater loading dock talking on the phone with Kelly and I realized there were bees flying around me. Yellow jackets were coming back to the nest. They knew the weather was changing. It was kind of interesting watching them all return.

The college name is The Yellowjacket’s.

There was an online auction that ended in Plainview on Tuesday. I picked up a couple of small things: some barb wire and a wire stretcher tool, and also a couple lots of assorted tools that Padawan can use. It’s always interesting how things sell.

I’m just about out of diesel fuel and gasoline for the Farm. I keep watching the prices, especially on diesel fuel, but it sure doesn’t seem like it’s going down. I filled the truck in Plainview at an off brand station, saving $0.10 / gallon compared to the name brands.

Driving into town one morning and the shadow of my car was directly in line with the lane of the road. I chuckled at the Vehicle / Stonehenge similarity.

WHY DOES PADAWAN COMPLAIN SO MUCH? *

WHO TOLD YOU LIFE WOULD BE EASY?

*I’m beginning to realize sometimes he’s just talking, but it’s his tone. And I told him, If I didn’t know him, I’d fire his ass because his attitude sucks.

He is waiting to hear about another job…

34 thoughts on “IS IT A HARD KNOCK LIFE? REALLY?”

  1. I just finished reading (again) through the “fool” trilogy by Richard Russo. There’s a Padawan-type character in there, a fellow known by the name Rub Squeers, who has a constant monologue going about the things he wishes for. Observations made by other characters are that he always wishes for such modest things… a ‘big ole cheeseburger’, a steady job as a maintenance man at a park, a cold beer. He’s a modest man, who doesn’t talk to himself, but seems to consider that, by keeping up his monologue of wishes, he is doing others the favor of not having to work in silence.

    I recommend the books, all three of them. If, for nothing else, the incomparable voice of Richard Russo, and his way with characters.

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  2. Please send rain! It is so dry here but at least it’s not hot, for which I am grateful.

    Maybe Padawan complains because he still thinks it will do some good. I do not envy someone trying to “become” right now, there isn’t much encouragement in the air. Those of us who can remember when “trying” seemed worthwhile and know such a world is possible (anyway, that’s what keeps me going).

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    1. We are pretty sure complaining did help when his mom was around. It doesn’t help with me. 🙂

      I had to laugh, unloading straw, he complained the second load was harder than the first load. I gave him the hand shrug.
      And I kind of laughed, well, you’re more tired, and you’re still trying to get the load started, which is always a hassle. But obviously complaining doesn’t make it easier. Again, maybe he was “just sayin”.

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  3. My mother would have taken Padawan to task. When I was a kid, she had a common answer to any whining. “Who told you life would be fair?”

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  4. The first of Grumpy Old Man
    “In my day, we didn’t have these fancy pants machines to harvest our oats!
    We went out in the hot blazing sun and swarms of mosquitoes and cut down the oats with our teeth. We stuffed our pants full and walked each load back to the barn. That’s the way it was and we liked it!

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  6. I wasn’t allowed to complain about a task – just do it without complaining and get it done. When I was done, there was often another hot, sweaty, unpleasant chore to do. Nobody told me life would be easy. I was always told to expect challenges and difficulties, and more chores. At least they were honest.

    On the other hand, I was told I could do anything I wanted in life; if I worked hard I could make my dreams come true. Sometimes I simply dreamed of not being presented with so many chores. It was hard not to complain as I vacuumed the living room eight times in rows while watching my friends swim out to the raft to lie in the sun on a quiet Saturday morning like this one.

    I assume you’re paying Padawan something, or he is earning something. That’s a life/work lesson. Maybe peer pressure from a second Padawan, a more inspired work partner, would make him understand how to look at it in a positive way? Or maybe it’s just not his thing.

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  7. Yellow jackets have built a nest in the opening where the air conditioner electrical cord enters the side of the house. I don’t know if they’re doing any damage inside the siding or to the electrical wires. I’m not sure how to safely get them out, either. I hate using poison spray. Any advice?

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    1. We had a bee invasion in our AZ condo. That was considered an external problem, so the association addressed the problem. The very expensive bee specialist stuffed the opening with plastic shopping bags. Yes. Really. And it worked. No more bees.

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      1. Yes, it’s external, but I doubt very much that the HOA here will do anything about it. I’ve noticed a lot of things are considered my responsibility that weren’t mine at my old place. I did call the HOA about paper wasps at my old place, and they did come, but only after a LOT of complaining!

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      1. That’s the only thing I’m really worried about – that they might be doing some kind of damage inside the siding. Like, do they gnaw on stuff?

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  8. I dunno, when my dad was growing up, he worked on the family farm, knowing it would be his some day. Then he decided to go off to college and became a pastor. His brother grew up to be a doctor, leaving Grandpa having worked to provide his 2 sons with a farm each (their youngest sister and her husband ended up with it, then sold it off bit by bit.) only to find they made other plans. I think that must have been hard for him.

    I knew I was going to college and from there, things would work out. The s&h grew up much the same (so far so good).

    What does Padawan have to look forward to?

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  9. We got the rain storm on Tuesday that (probably) knocked out your power, Ben. It was coming down here in sheets for about 20 minutes, with a little more later… I heard someone say 2.5 inches, but I don’t know if that’s right.

    Padawan might just have come into the world with that “personality”, or worldview, or something. It’s amazing to me how differently people see the world, even siblings, or twins who have been raised with the same expectations.

    If he could get a mindfulness course, or something where he learns to focus on what’s going right instead of what he doesn’t like… And I need to take my own advice – I wake up lately sometimes with this moment of dread – is there anything I’m supposed to do today that I can’t handle?

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  10. Rise and Whine, Baboons.

    Do you want the behaviorist answer? I assume the answer is yes. Something in Padawan’s life rewards complaining. The challenge is always understanding what the reinforcer is. What rewards one person is a deterrent to another. For example, the State Fair. When I talk to people about the State Fair, people love it, people hate it. We all know VS’ is wildly reinforced by going there. BUt that very same event is aversive to others and neutral to some.

    So you have to figure out what rewards the complaining. It may be something internal that you are unaware of. When I was working we had a process called Behavior Chain Analysis that spent sessions just determining what reinforced wildly destructive behavior.

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    3. I knew there was professionals on here and I hoped / figured I’d get some professional answers. So thanks. And I realize it might be a tough question to answer not having all the information on Padawan…
      I don’t want to publicly share too much about him.

      I donated platelets the other day and watched a movie called ‘Bob Trevino Likes It’. It was a nice, sweet movie, a real tear-jerker too.

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  11. When I was a teenager, I hated having to mow the lawn. There was nothing I could imagine more boring and pointless as mowing the lawn. And it is kind of boring and pointless.
    But now I wish everything I am called upon to do were as simple and straightforward as mowing the lawn.

    A lot of it comes down to life experience and perspective.
    Padawan has a limited supply.

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