This week on the farm / in the theater from Ben

Thursday we got 1.23” of rain. Then Friday was cool and windy and partially cloudy with a freeze warning for the evening. It’s MEA weekend and we had scheduled hayrides for daughters PossAbilities groups on Thursday and Friday. Well, first we postponed Thursday’s, then that evening, figured it was going to be so cold and windy that it would be miserable for riding out on a wagon. I’d be fine in the tractor, but it’s not about me. I suggested we postpone Friday as well. Next week looks to be a much nicer week.

It’s troublesome that it’s dark by about 7:00 PM these days. It’s hard to get much done at home. Good thing Padawan 2 added those extra lights to the back of the one tractor this summer. Last weekend Kelly was picking up sticks. I was using the tractor loader and grapple bucket to pluck larger branches and piles and move them to the burn pile. The plan might be to move “this” pile, but then there’s “that” log and pretty soon I’ve moved quite a bunch of other stuff. Once again, I had to remind myself, the tractor and loader is NOT A BULLDOZER. I told myself that right after a hydraulic hose started squirting oil. A very lovely arc six feet tall. But only when I closed the grapple. Turns out just a connection had come loose. No damage done. Whew.

Then down to the barn and the cow yard and the old, worn out fence separating the former calf pen, from the cow yard. There’s about 5’ of elevation difference, the calf pen being higher, and the fence had tilted over the years and posts broke off and it was just a mess. Covered in weeds because of the hill and rocks and it was hard to get mowed. This wasn’t a barb wire fence, it was cattle panels, sixteen feet long (that’s a standard) and about five feet tall. They were all beat up. Some random cow or bull trying to climb over once too often. I used the grapple and just lifted them up out of the weeds. Made a pile that I’ll crush down and haul into the scrap yard at some point. I picked up some new (to me) cattle panels at an auction, just need to get this fence out. And make new holes. And build a new fence. Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy! I have a trailer with scrap on it, I’m just trying to decide when to fit that into my schedule. Won’t be until after I get this play at the college open.

Over MEA, I painted the stage floor a light blue color base. It was a five gallon bucket of discount paint from one of the big box stores. Then my usual texture over it. Mostly brown, then some red, green, and blue. Have I mentioned, we’re doing “Dragons Love Tacos”, which is a pretty popular kids book. And there are Red, Green, and Blue dragons.

I was talking to Kelly one morning about how daughter will try to tell you something and her explanation goes back to yesterday and lunch or something that, in my mind, has nothing to do with what we’re talking about now, or the question at the moment, and I can’t figure out how it’s relevant, and I said to Kelly my attention span isn’t that long and I never know what we’re talking about. Kelly said daughter is definitely mine. And I blinked. And the reality smacked me in the face. I sort of tried to object, and Kelly said we were both very verbose in our explanations of things. Huh. Damn.

Verbose: wordy, long-winded, talkative, effusive, garrulous, rambling, bombastic, pompous, pretentious…

I saw a FB post the other day that said “I didn’t know parenting the Me out of my kids would be so hard” Yep. I have said before that daughter is stubborn and opinionated and thinks she has to have the last word, just like me and it makes me crazy. Just hadn’t thought about the talking thing before.

I picked up some new shirts from Savers the other day. Took them down to the costume shop. I didn’t have time to be pulling seams and swapping sleeves, so I just hemmed some up and cut some off. When I was a kid, I liked having the western style shirts with snaps. I have found a few of those lately and it’s kinda fun to have the snaps again.

YOU EVER HAVE BUTTON FLY JEANS? (I Had one pair on some army surplus pants. What a pain!)

WHAT HAVE YOU GOT FROM YOUR PARENTS? OR GIVEN TO YOUR KIDS?