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FALLING

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This weeks farming update from Ben

This week’s country living update brought to you by dogs barking in the middle of the night. Three different times! In one night! Bailey barks at whatever, Luna barks, daughter yells, someone has to let Luna and Humphrey out, then let them back in later. It’s a whole big stupid thing that’s been going on for the last couple months. We suspect Bailey does it as her passive aggressive revenge on Luna. She doesn’t know it’s worse on us.

Last night I Iocked Bailey in the garage overnight. It was a very restful night.

Geese are moving. Leaves are falling. And Orion is back in the night sky. I don’t know why I have such an affinity for Orion, however, what sticks in my mind is a play that I did 40 years ago called The Young Mayo Brothers. Written by a local director and it was performed for several years. And there was a scene where the two young Mayo brothers were standing outside on a summer night and they commented on Orion. I said to the director Orion is a winter constellation and he didn’t care. And that really kind of put me off, and it made me very aware of the different ways directors may go about something. Just like reading a book, you have your protagonist and does he have a complete backstory? What got them to this point? And are they fully flushed out or just kind of slapped together?  No, the line didn’t make a difference in the play, but it made a difference to me (because what else is the playwright making up?) and I love to see Orion coming up now and I think to myself, “There you are.”.

It’s been a good week.

Got the soybeans harvested on Thursday and that’s always nice. Yield was up from previous years, and the price is $3 / bushel higher than last year. Yay! Normally I’m stressed over snow and the weather, and this year it was just another beautiful fall day.

My ride along
Unloading while still combining. It’s all the rage now. Everyone does it!
Tractor and cart

I got the rye planted last weekend. The seed tender had a dead battery so I swapped out my lawnmower battery to make it work. Then put the old one back in when I took the seed tender back. I accidentally left my good battery sit on the machine for the 20 mile drive back to Potsdam. The dealer asked me the next day if I was missing a battery. I don’t know, am I? Man, I sure would have been scratching my head trying to figure out what I did with that battery if it had fallen off on the road.  

I took all the dogs to the vet. They got vaccines, and Bailey got antibiotics for a UTI (or possible kidney stone. We’ll follow up in 10 days and see if there’s a change on the ultrasound.) Humphrey needed a check up to stay on the aspirin he takes for his arthritis. They’re all healthy. Luna got her nails trimmed. She didn’t like it there any better than us doing it.

And then I picked up my tractor and drove it back home. Took 55 minutes on back roads. It seems to be all better now with a new radiator and cooling fan clutch. Still haven’t seen the bill. And that’s OK. I can wait. I did get Padawan to change the theater furnace filters in the morning, then we took the dogs to the vet, I bought him lunch, and he drove the dogs and the truck home. And he cut grass and did a few other things.

Next to my tractor was a new Fendt brand tractor. It was unlocked so I sat in that one.

A joystick and a screen and lots of buttons

One of these days I’ll hook up to the chisel plow and get it ready for fall. It needs new points before fall tillage.

Diesel fuel prices have started to come back down. A few places are $5.99 now. Like that’s a bargain!?? I finally drained the diesel tank. The gauge said it was empty a while ago yet I filled the smaller tractor, and got 50 gallons in the big one before the pump finally started to sputter and it did run dry. Shoot, I was hoping for a miracle tank. I’ll be good until the corn is harvested and I start chisel plowing. And hopefully the price of diesel will be down a few more pennies by then.

I’m always complaining about the deer. Check out this picture:

And that was just a FEW of them! I didn’t take a picture of the bunches further up the road… seriously, I lose hundreds, if not thousands of dollars to them every year.

ANY PASSIVE AGRESSIVE BEHAVIOR?

NICE WEATHER THIS WEEKEND. WHAT ARE YOU GONNA DO WITH IT?

33 thoughts on “FALLING”

  1. We’ll probably do some more “putting the garden to bed”, and then I hope we can go someplace special for a walk in the woods.

    Our speaker Sunday at UU is Welshman Daniel Morden, part of the Sandbar Storytelling Festival that takes place this weekend in Winona. I got to hear him Thursday eve, and was totally enthralled. I’d like to get to one more of the programs, but we’ll see.

    Thinking about the passive aggressive behavior – I’m sure there’s SOMEthing I do…

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  2. I’ve started cleaning out the garage and taking plants to the city compost piles. I might do some more of that. I’d like to go for a hike, and maybe over to Stockholm, WI. I have Spanish homework and knitting class homework to do too.

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        1. I don’t know how others do it but I have a button for emojis at the bottom left of the keyboard that opens on my phone. I don’t have that selection on the actual keyboard that I bought for my iPad. 😊

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  4. It’s Bird Big Day. I’ll see how many species I can identify.
    It’s also 10/10 Metric Day. I’ll look at US history again and our stubborn resistance to logic.
    And Double Tenth Agreement of 1945. Chinese history is a bloody mess.

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    1. What classifies as a ‘big bird’?
      When I was working as a stagehand, for several years the Sesame Street tours would practice for 2 weeks in Rochester, then do a few shows before heading out on tour. Backstage, Big Bird would hang, by a strap on the neck, when the actor was taking a break. You never wanted kids to see that.
      One set had an arch that would rise and lower from the front of the stage. It was called the “muppet slicer”.

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  6. Rise and Shine, Baboons,

    We have a 40th birthday party this afternoon, preceded by a very quick drop in at a memorial for a friend who died recently. We will see how the party holds up in 80+ degree weather. Then tomorrow I will probably mow the grass and finish taking down my pots. My son and his wife celebrate their 5 wedding anniversary tomorrow, so maybe we will do something with them to say congratulations.

    Passive Aggressive behavior is a sore subject with me. No one does it better than husband’s son who has not yet been here to visit in the three years since his father became ill. He just has not gotten around to it, and “these things are really hard for me.” I can’t even… So I just try not to think about it. My son and step-daughter have been really helpful and supportive, so I just try to think about that and leave the rest alone since I cannot change the situation. BUT REALLY?!

    Rant over.

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      2. There was some sort of update last week (hence these nice reply boxes) so maybe check your settings to make sure “allow third party cookies” is turned on….

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  7. Glad to hear you had a good week, Ben.

    We started the weekend yesterday by driving to Red Wing for a play at the Sheldon Theater. It’s a small theater group from the UK who do Shakespeare will all-male actors, as it was done in Shakespeare’s time. It was excellent; the actor playing Desdemona was especially good.

    The play was in the evening, and when we arrived we discovered it’s the weekend of Red Wing’s fall art festival. I’m kicking myself for not arriving earlier so we could do that before the theater.

    It’s going to be hot and windy, which means lots of dust and junk blowing around. Husband is sneezing already and the wind makes it worse, so we probably won’t tackle any outdoor projects. Planning a family brunch for tomorrow and possibly the last paella of the season.

    My mom is a master of passive-aggressive tactics–or was before dementia. As a result, I’m very aware of it and try to avoid it in my own behavior.

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  9. We spend weekends in Luck, Wisconsin. The lake was much lower this year. Plenty of fish…we catch and release .

    Ann in Mendota Heights in Minnesota.

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    1. When I was a kid my half brother and his wife had a cabin on Devil’s Lake, near Webster. I always remember going through Luck when we visited there. I think there was a Dairy Queen. A highlight of the car trip.

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  10. I decided to look up examples of passive agressive behavior, and AI presented this (I usually look elsewhere, but this was quick):
    Common passive‑aggressive behaviors include backhanded compliments, sarcasm, lateness, avoidance, silent treatment, withholding affection, subtle criticism, procrastination, and intentional inefficiency. These behaviors express anger or resentment indirectly while allowing the person to deny hostility.

    I am sarcastic sometimes, and probably use subtle criticism with husband (well, and not-so-subtle…), but I don’t do as many of them as I thought.

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  11. I used to say that I was raised by the Queen of Passive/Aggressive but reading through the AI definition, I’m wondering if she was really the Queen of Subtle Manipulation. Or not to subtle sometimes!

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  12. Rough weekend here. 4 hours at the emergency vet (she’s fine…. but my Care Credit card took a hit). This was preceded by a night with not much sleep. Then followed by another night of not much sleep, although not for the same rough reasons as Friday night.

    We went down to our favorite orchard this morning to discover that this isn’t a good picking year since there was a “blossom freeze” this past spring. I whined enough about Connell Reds that they said we could pick if we wanted; they had not been offering them for other pickers. We were diligent and managed to get about 3/4 of a peck! The Frostbite variety was plentiful but they are so small, we passed them by for some Sweet Tango and HoneyCrisp.

    After we both laid around for a couple of hours, we hit the grocery store to make sure I have what I need for hand pies. Fingers crossed for a good night’s sleep so I can bake in the morning!

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