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A LITTLE BIT OF EVERYTHING AND THEN SOME

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This week’s farming update from Ben

It was a work at the college, work at home, Some travel, and some storms kinda week. 

Last weekend Kelly and I prepped the spot for concrete. Just working ahead to have it ready. 
I rented the plate compactor, picked it up on Friday, and, like so many things, it goes better the second time around. Last year, when I rented it the first time, it kicked my butt. But now that I know how to run it and how it really only goes one direction, it was like walking a dog. Just pull it around by the leash / handle. I did a better job scraping out dirt, and adding gravel. Using the laser level and a stick with marks on it, Kelly and I raked and shoveled, and compacted, and checked and added more or scraped a little bit out. So it’s “level”, meaning within a 1/2” one way or the other, which is good enough for the base.

Ben walking the dog
Kelly pushing the dog
Kelly is feeling my muscles.

Just need to get the rebar laid in there, and wired together, and a form on the open South side. The other three sides are against existing concrete so they’ll get a barrier glued them, to allow for frost movement if needed. All of that will happen next week. Got concrete planned for the 11th. 

On Sunday I moved all the round bales of straw. Something wasn’t adjusted right and twice I lost a bale off the back lift when going up a hill. I tried to adjust the bracket, but I didn’t have a big enough wrench in the tractor and I just tried not to go up the hill at such an angle. We managed. 
So here is a bunch of pictures of that process.

Rear carrrier
Front spear
Net wrap

A comment was made last week about the long rows of white plastic bales. That’s a bit different system. This is called ‘Net wrap’ and it does shed some water from rain. Sometimes the hay will be baled when it’s still green and wet and then, to prevent mold, it has to be sealed, oxygen free, in those white tubes, or individually wrapped in white plastic. Takes special machines to wrap the bales individually or in the tube. And if wrapped separately, the farmer would use a sort of ‘squeezer’ on the front of the loader to pick up the bales with out poking holes in the plastic. Silage, or haylage, or even shelled corn can be stored in those white tubes. Animals or hail can cause holes and that’s a problem of course, because then you’re gonna get mold. 

Early Wednesday morning about 1:30AM a heck of a storm blew through. We knew there was a chance of rain, but holy cow, this was coming sideways through the open windows. Got them closed and there was a crackling noise. I thought Kelly was doing something and I asked her what that was and then there was a CRACK and  large tree branch was down on the deck. Missed the house by “this much”. We were all awake anyway, because, well, we’re idiots. I think there are a couple chairs on the deck under that branch. And maybe a metal deck table. 

The deck is under this.

Considering we’re flying out at 5:30 AM, I figure I better go check the road for other trees. The rain was letting up so I get in the car and head up the road and i don’t make it about 100 yards before there’s a large branch blocking the road. OK, back for the tractor. Oh. Power had gone off too. Figures. 
I’m out in the shed with a flashlight, unlocking the doors and sliding the doors open and I can hear the tornado sirens going off. And I’m about to get in the tractor and head up the road. Good thinking Ben. 

Looks like a good time to head out…Good Job Ben.

I clear the first branch, then up to the woods, and there’s a couple small branches down, and only one large tree blocking the road. I move it enough that we can get out. Then back home, and sit in the dark for another hour and we finally all get up and head to the airport. 
Flying out of RST is always easy. It’s a small airport and at 4AM security is easy. Up to MSP and I made a few phone calls and sent some emails to other township supervisors about the situation. We have a really good tree service the township uses, Olson’s, and they were out first thing clearing the roads. When I talked to the owner on Thursday he said there wasn’t a lot of devastation, it was just such a widespread area. And for the people complaining he hadn’t picked up the pile of brush on the shoulders yet, he’s trying to get tree’s off people houses first!
Add in the holiday weekend, and he’s got crews leaving for the holiday, and they’re doing what they can. 
Our power came back on about 8 AM according to the electric coop website. Our friends who are house sitting had to reboot the router for the internet a few times but I guess we’re back in action. 
I’ve heard there are some corn fields that are flat. Like steam roller flat. Beans looked a little rough, from what I could see in the dark, but they should be OK. And there was some hail, but that missed us too I guess. I take out a hail policy on the crops and that has paid out a few times. Guess I don’t need it this time. 

HOW MANY TIMES HAS YOUR CAR BEEN HAILED ON?

ANY EMERCENCIES JUST BEFORE FLIGHTS?

15 thoughts on “A LITTLE BIT OF EVERYTHING AND THEN SOME”

  1. Wow! You’ve had quite a week! I love the photos of you and Kelly in the barn. What a team!

    It sounds like you really got hit from that storm. I hope your deck didn’t suffer any damage.

    Thanks for the explanation about the bales that are wrapped in white plastic. I’ve seen both the tubes and the individually-wrapped bales.

    I’ve been fortunate – no hail damage on any cars. I haven’t had any pre-flight emergencies either.

    I was on a return flight from Mexico once which was forced to land at Rochester airport because the president (I think it was Bush) was visiting the Twin Cities and they were clearing the air space around the metro area. We sat there, in the plane, on the tarmac, for a few hours. We weren’t allowed to leave the plane. I was thinking it would have been easier and more pleasant to just walk home from there! When we finally took off from Rochester, the pilot never even tried to reach any sort of altitude. We were able to see our familiar landscape from several hundred feet in the air. I wondered what people were thinking of this low-flying jet. I’m sure they’re required to be a certain minimum distance high to avoid collisions, but I could clearly see and identify several communities that I know well, including Northfield. Once we arrived back at MSP, we had to circle for a while because other flights had been delayed too.

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  2. We got some rain Wed. overnight, Ben, but at bedtime there was also a lightning show that couldn’t be beat! Sorry about your tree limb…

    I have no hail stories – I guess just small hail experiences.
    I almost missed a flight home to Iowa, summer of 1970, from San Francisco when I somehow lost may (paper, folks) ticket in SFO airport. I don’t remember how it got resolved, but some kind airport official helped me, and I made it on that plane. I remember the panicked feeling, though.

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  3. Hope the rest of your trip was pleasant, Ben!

    In February, we were scheduled to leave for vacation, taking an early-morning flight from MSP on February 19. Overnight on the 18th, we had one of the biggest snowfalls of the winter. In our area, we had about 7 inches of wet, sloppy snow with a layer of ice underneath. When we left in the dark about 5 a.m., the streets were mostly unplowed and the highways had received minimal plowing. Son was driving us first to daughter’s house and then to the airport. It was a slow, treacherous trip. Getting Daughter, Grandson, and all their luggage down their long driveway and into the car required wading through a river of snow.

    We’ve had several road trips that have taken us through challenging weather conditions, including monsoon-like rain on our drive to Virginia last summer. Over the years, return trips from Florida, Chicago, or Wisconsin have taken us through white-out conditions, forcing us a couple of times to throw in the towel and find a hotel room. One thing we haven’t experienced is hailstorms, at least nothing that would cause damage.

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  4. Western ND is known for hail storms. We had to get new shingles a couple of times after hail storms. Our vehicles rarely got hailed on since they both fit in the garage. Sometimes people at work would go home to put their vehicles in their garages if they heard a hail storm was coming.
    I hope the Birch tree by our deck gets blown over onto the deck and wrecks it so we can get a new deck that insurance would pay for.

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  6. Just once did a car of mine get a little hail damage. The insurance company sent me a check almost overnight, before I even had a chance to take the car to the shop. When I did take the car in, the guys were surprised. It wasn’t that many dents and they suggested I just pocket the check. The more cynical me now might have done so, but the younger me was aghast and I insisted they fix the dents since the insurance company had already paid me. It took them about 10 minutes and they didn’t charge me. Something about restoring their faith in humanity…..

    That same storm did get me a new roof!

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  7. I’ve had a couple of airplane “issues”. Departed from Madrid and after about 20 minutes, as we were already over the ocean, it was clear that we were circling back. The pilot eventually came on and told us that while the landing gear had come back up, the landing gear door was not closing. We couldn’t go that far, across the ocean with that door open – gas usage, drag, etc. Ended up spending six hours at the airport and then overnight at a hotel, in the smallest hotel room I’ve ever been in. Flight the following day went like clockwork.

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  8. The biggest airplane issue happened on my way home from a trip to Ireland/Scotland. The flight was supposed to be non stop to MSP. We departed on time and were approaching Iceland when a medical emergency occurred. The weather was bad in Iceland so we had to return to Dublin where we were on the ground for over two hours while the patient was deplaned. Once back in the air, the pilot announced we would be landing in Boston for a crew change. The original crew had timed out and couldn’t continue on to MSP. We spent another long time on the ground while the change occurred and for paperwork to be filed. Both in Dublin and Boston we were not allowed off the plane but we could move around. The crew did clean and restock the toilets as well as restocked snacks and drinks. I arrived in Minneapolis 6 hours late. Lousy was to end a wonderful trip.

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    1. I am, of course, with my travel industry hat on, thinking how many ways this could’ve been much much worse. I am very sorry you were six hours late but gosh, the fact that they cleaned the toilets and restocked snacks and beverages is way more than folks would report on delays.

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  9. I haven’t ever had a car damaged by hail, despite having cars parked mostly outside for the past 40 years or so. Maybe there could have been a little dent here or there, but since my cars have always been at least ten years old when they became mine, little dents were not worth mentioning.

    No insurance claims for hail, either.

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  10. We had a serious hail storm a few years ago. The car was mostly OK- I parked it under a tree. After the storm, roofing companies from who-knows-where descended on the neighborhood to promote their services. On any given block there were several houses being re-shingled or contracted to do so.

    Not knowing the reputation of any of those companies, I contacted my insurance agent to ask if there were any roofers he liked to work with and he gave me two names. I contacted one of them and they sent out an appraiser, a young man, who climbed on the roof, inspected it thoroughly, marked problem in spots with chalk and took pictures. His company, which already had a working relationship with my agent, communicated those findings to him. The insurance company then sent out an adjuster. The young man from the roofing company came back out to meet with the adjuster, point out his findings and generally advocate for us.
    As a consequence, the insurance company replaced the roofing and the gutters, which had some superficial denting. Some other allowances, like cosmetic damage to a window air conditioner, we opted not to use and those unused allowances paid for most of our deductible.

    In addition, our chosen roofing company was exceedingly prompt and finished our re-roofing while many of our neighbors were still waiting for theirs to begin.

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