Early last week in the grocery store, Husband and I ran into a couple we have know for years who are famer/ranchers and live in a small town near ours. They are truly salts of the earth, having been foster parents for decades, raising their own large family and adopting a couple of their foster kids, working as school bus drivers, and maintaining their ranch. They are near retirement now, as are we. Frank, the rancher, asked me what I was going to do after I was done working. Frank is a really funny fellow, and said that he heard that Trump was considering me for a cabinet post. I told him that my criminal record would prevent any such appointment, and Frank said that probably made me a shoo-in.
The cabinet picks continued all week, becoming increasingly and astoundingly weird, even that of our own Governor as Secretary of Energy. It seems like anyone, no matter how inappropriate, could be a contender. This got me to thinking who the Baboons would nominate for cabinet posts.
Make some interesting cabinet picks. What posts do you think fellow Baboons would do a good job at? Know any foster parents?
I was on my way to work the other day, driving behind a small, blue, rather dented up vehicle that was driving way too fast and was tail gaiting the slower vehicle in front of it. The blue car and I both turned into my work parking lot, and I saw that the driver was one of our Peer Support specialists.
Peer Support specialists have two qualifications to be hired at my agency-they need to be high school graduates, and they need to have successfully overcome their own addictions and mental health issues. They work directly with our clients, providing support, sobriety tips, and rides to appointments. They visit clients in jail, accompany them to court, and give them sage advice. The Peer support specialists are very proud of themselves, and it is kind of funny to hear them announce at staff meetings the good news that their felonies have been expunged from their records.
I was thinking the other day that Baboons could provide quite wonderful peer support in helping others with a myriad of skills. Gardening, cooking, writing, home repair, art projects, pet care-we could help novices and those struggling with learning how to do new and unfamiliar things. We are a talented and kind bunch.
Who are some of the natural helpers you have encountered? What would you like to help people with? Who have been your biggest supports?
One thing I am very thankful for is that we don’t have very many food allergies in our family. Our daughter-in-law was diagnosed with both lactose and gluten intolerance earlier this year, but those diagnoses were determined to be false, so she can eat what ever she wishes. Our daughter is allergic to capers, but that doesn’t impede her eating at all.
I was fascinated to read about a Minnesota dairy farm that has specially bred cows that produce milk that many people with lactose intolerance can drink. I was also glad to read that area schools are starting to use the milk for their students. Here is the Fargo Forum article.
I guess this is one way genetic engineering can be quite helpful. I can’t imagine not being able to consume dairy. I also wonder why we hear so much more about food allergies now than we did years ago. Are people just more sensitive, or weren’t food allergies in the news back in the day?
Any food allergies in your family? When was the last time you ate capers? Make up some goofy conspiracy theories for the upswing in food allergies?
Husband really came through on Saturday and got all the garden hoses rolled up and into the garage before the snow came on Tuesday. There were quite a few hoses.
Sunday he carried them downstairs and piled them in large plastic bins in the room where the freezers and canned goods are. They take up a lot of space. I suppose we could rig up a more space efficient method, but just getting them rolled up and out of the yard was a work enough.
I am the packer in the family. I am efficient, and I can get lots more things into boxes, freezers, and suitcases than Husband can. This also extends to the dishwasher. I am glad Husband isn’t offended when I tweak the placement of things in the dishwasher after he has gone to the trouble to load it in the first place. Packing is not the same thing as organization for daily use, and I must admit I am not the best at putting things away after I use them. I am grateful that Husband spent an entire day a couple of weeks ago vacuuming and reorganizing things in the garage for winter. We have too many tools, garden implements, fencing, stakes, and miscellaneous things. When my father lived with us he took great care in organizing all the tools and things that we brought with him from Luverne. I am afraid neither I nor Husband have kept Dad’s things as organized as he would have. Now we will be hauling most of it back to Luverne when we move.
I leave storage of Husband’s grilling/smoking equipment and supplies entirely to him. His usual solution to storage issues it to just buy another plastic storage bin for all his wood, smoking chips, and briquets whether or not the ones he has are full. The bins annoy me, but at least they are stackable. I hope that we can have a better organization and storage strategy for all our things after we move. Maybe it will be easier starting from scratch rather than obtaining things and storing them as they are acquired. People keep asking me what I am going to do with my free time after I retire. I tell them I am going to spend my time cleaning the house. It will be nice to have time to organize and not have things stored haphazardly as we do now.
What storage/organization strategies do you use? What sort of dishwasher loader are you? Ever rented a storage unit?
Monday night we noticed that the kitchen faucet was listing drunkenly to one side. It was an all in one, pull down faucet we had installed about 20 years ago. Something that stabilized the faucet rotted away under the granite counter. The faucet still worked, and there were no leaks, but it needed replacement, so on Tuesday I phoned Daryl.
Daryl is a plumber who has helped us out for 30 years. He really loves being a plumber. He is retired now and has handed his very successful business to his son. Daryl works for his son part time. We have Daryl’s personal cell phone number. I phoned him. Daryl met me at home Tuesday afternoon and told me the kind of new faucet to get. We bought one at Ace Hardware Tuesday night, and Daryl came over on Wednesday afternoon to install it. It is beautiful and works like a charm. You can see it in the header photo.
There are some other minor plumbing things we need done, such as replacing the mixer in the main bathroom shower. That was installed by Daryl about 15 years ago. While he was at the house Tuesday I showed Daryl the shower problem and he asked if we had kept the manual and UPC from the box the mixer came in. I had it, and, sure enough, there was the UPC, cut out and stapled to the manual by Daryl when he installed it. He gave me detailed instructions as to what internal mechanisms to order, and to let him know when I got the parts so he could install them. He has lots of tips to get these companies to honor their warranties, too, as he wants to save us money.
It is so refreshing and hope-instilling to run across people like Daryl who do their best and love what they do. After this I think our plumbing needs will be met until we move., but it is reassuring to know I can phone Daryl in an emergency.
Who would you phone in an emergency? Who are the Daryl’s in your life?
Tuesday at work I had a giggle during a meeting with the crisis team for a case I was involved with. Two of the crisis team members are locals who grew up in a small community about 10 miles from here. A third crisis team member asked why the client’s family member involved in the case was acting in a particularly unhelpful way. This family member also was from the same community as the two crisis team members. The crisis team members replied “Well, you know, she was a Hapsburg before she got married!” (name changed to protect privacy) as though that explained everything about the family member’s behavior.
The funny thing about that exchange is that it did explain everything! One delightful thing about working in a sparsely populated rural area for 36 years has been getting to know all the quirks and peculiarities of local families. By local, I mean people who live in an 80 mile radius of where i work. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree out here. It isn’t even necessarily pathological. It’s just that if someone is a so and so from Belfield or a such and such from South Heart, they often act the same as the other members of their families, and you can predict how they might respond to you. “Oh, she was a Hapsburg” gives us all sorts of information to know how to proceed.
What is your family known for?Any interesting peculiarities or quirks? Where do you look to for answers?
Husband and I have rarely watched much TV the 40 years we have been married. Our TV has always been in the basement. We rarely hang out in the basement. The TV is currently completely disconnected from the cable because we had a basement remodel in the spring. The only news we hear is NPR and the local papers we get. I avoid any news that comes up on my phone regarding the election.
I am in Dallas right now at a conference. Husband is back at home. I have turned on the TV in the hotel room, and I am so glad we don’t watch much at home. I was struck by Jacque’s comment about a self imposed news desert during the election weeks right now. I am stressed enough by the election news, and if I was regularly watching TV I would be a complete mess. Self care is important. When our children were little, we would often say “Scary Bears! ” when something frightening happened. Self care actions like Jacque’s can reduce the Scary Bears in our lives.
How are you coping with the current election stresses? What do you do for self care?What will you and won’t you watch on TV?
I see that the Badlands Opera Project, our local opera company, is putting on Amahl and the Night Visitors again this December. They staged it last year, with our church choir director and her 12 year old daughter as Amahl’s mother and Amahl. Both have wonderful voices. This year’s production will have a different Amahl and mother, this time a mom and son duo.
All the singers are local, except for the guy who sings the part of the tallest King with the deepest voice. He sings that part and other low, cameo roles such as Zarastro from The Magic Flute, all over the county. I am not sure where he is from, but he isn’t from ND. Imagine having a specialty voice like that. He’ll be back for this year’s production. I guess he really liked singing with our local company.
If I could magically have a voice other than the low alto voice I have, I would want to be a belter like Patti Lupone in Anything Goes. Of course I would also have to be able to dance, which would be a problem, I’m afraid. Oh well, I suppose I could magically make myself a dancer, too.
If you could magically get an operatc or musical theater voice, what roles would you want to perform?
Yesterday was Reformation Sunday, a big day in the Lutheran Church. At our Lutheran congregation it was also the day for the 9th graders to get confirmed. Husband and I are both choir members, and we sang at both services.
I am a lifelong Lutheran, but I have never liked the Lutheran penchant for singing every single verse of every hymn. Even though I am a church musician, singing verse after verse is annoying and exhausting. Yesterday was particularly annoying, since many of the hymns had five verses. We barreled through A Mighty Fortress and Built On A Rock. I was thankful, that the slow, emotionally expressive organist had the day off. When she plays, she takes us slower and slower through each verse and song. She has no understanding of the difficulty of breath support for singers during slow hymns. I was also thankful that for the second service when confirmation was held, they cut all the hymn verses to three to save time. What a relief! Husband and I came home and took three hour naps.
What do you find annoying about the organizations you belong to? What songs do you like to sing?
We got some rain on Thursday. Lots of thunder and lightning, and 0.12”. Well, better than nothing.
As I write this on Friday morning, I’m getting the big garage door in my shop! Twelve feet tall and twenty feet wide.
I am positively giddy about this! The main tractor I expect to put in here is about 8 feet tall. When I add a loader bucket to it the the front and a rear blade to the back, it’s about 23 feet long. The shop is only about 24 feet deep, so not a lot of room for error. And I may have to park kitty corner some days. So now I have heat, and the big Garage Door and I’m almost ready to install the double walk-through door, and then it’s just the small garage door that will be here in November. Of course I can’t really call the shop ‘heated’ until I get the rest of the steel up and the insulation done. And then steel on the outside to finish it. The steel goes pretty fast. I do have to finish the west wall, which is a little harder because it’s got two windows with angled tops, an odd corner, and working over the workbench, and the first thing I have to do is finish the jams and the trim on the windows. Again, not really hard, just something I’m not proficient at, and a couple of angles, and so I find myself avoiding it because I’m afraid it’s gonna be hard. Another one of Robert Pirsig’s gumption trips. Fear that makes us afraid to start.
I found myself doing that at the college this past week, I decided I should build a window that would move inside a wall just for a sight gag, the window would be too tall for a person to climb through at first and then they could just lower it to a height that worked. Although I made some sketches and knew what I wanted to do, I had a real hard time starting. I called Kelly and told her I needed a motivational pep talk. (Remember the old window weights inside the walls? I picked up some of them for counter weights for this window.)
I’m hopeful they’re gonna start picking my corn soon. They’re working on their ground right next-door so it’s certainly convenient, but that’s not how it always works, it just depends on their schedules. I don’t know if they’ll be able to finish, but they might get a start this weekend.
We might be down to three ducks. I took this photo a couple days ago, and now I haven’t seen the black duck in two days. Dang it.
Soil compaction is a big deal in the agronomy world. Really big tires, called ‘LSW’s, meaning Low Side Wall are the latest and greatest. They’re supposed to reduce the ground pressure of pounds / square inch. Same reason a lot of things have tracks these days. Better traction is part of it, but less ground pressure is the main reason.
Saw this tractor being unloaded at my local John Deere dealer the other day.
Luna loves her frisbee.
In this photo she’s shaking it like Renee’s wubba. We can play frisbee for 20 minutes before she tires out.
We did hayrides for daughters group on Tuesday. Two groups. Each got about a 35 minute ride. It was a beautiful day for it.
I parked next to a retaining wall and they could walk right into the wagon without having to climb steps. Two clients in wheel chairs could walk enough to manage that. Half way through the ride, I’d stop and let daughter talk about the farm. It’s always interesting to put a kid on the spot like that and see what they come up with. Anytime she says, “Well Mom and Dad….” My heart always skips a beat because one never knows what’s coming next…
Kelly has spent the last two summers cutting buckthorn. She’s got maybe 2/3rds of this area done and it looks fantastic!
You couldn’t even see through this area anymore, it was so thick. I’ve been cutting out the old fence between the trees. Course lately, by the time she finishes work and gets out there, it’s almost dark, and it’s … more of an adventure.
Trail Baboon 