All posts by xdfben

Ex dairy farmer, theater guy, Husband, Dad and email addict...

2026, Computers, crops, Farming Update, Nature, pets, Uncategorized, Weather

DIGGIN’ IN

February 14, 2026 xdfben 61 Comments

This week’s farming update from Ben

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY.

How about this weather!

Way too warm for February. But the chickens sure enjoying having some grass and sunshine. The dogs, too. And if we can get rid of some of the ice between the house and shed, maybe Luna will chase the ball over that way instead of standing here watching it go.

I’m thinking I’ll use the tractor loader and try to move some of the piles of snow and gravel from the grass back onto the the road. Although I’m pretty sure we’ll get some more snow this winter. I mean, it’s only February. We just never know anymore.

At the college I had to create a new computer password. The muscle memory has not formed yet and it takes me four tries to log in.

At the local school district, their passwords have to be 15 characters plus all the special stuff. Seems like sometime last summer I couldn’t get logged into email and I kinda forgot about it. I don’t get that much email on that account so it didn’t really matter. Every now and then I’d try to log into a computer and get frustrated and just give up on it. Eventually I got around to trying to get the password reset. I can’t do that from home, it has to be on a district computer. So I tried that, and it still didn’t work. I talked to my boss who had me contact IT. That guy looked me up in the system and said “Huh!”. Hate it when people say that in regard to me… He said I wasn’t in the system and eventually sent me to HR. HR said I wasn’t assigned to a department and therefore, I ceased to exist. Well, I beg to differ! I use to exist. Yep, they knew that, but I don’t anymore. So it was a whole thing to start over and get back in the system. I got a new ID badge complete with a photo of my choosing from my phone, because the lady in HR readily admitted their camera takes lousy photos. So that was nice.

Another guy in the room said he hadn’t seen an ID badge as old as mine in a long time. I was two versions behind. Huh!

So now I’m able to log in, using a password that’s a practically a short sentence. And no way to see it as you type (they’ve had some security issues in the past). I check my email more often and I get a lot more emails too. Be careful what you wish for.

This weekend is the 60^th Annual National Farm Machinery show in Louisville KY.

https://farmmachineryshow.org

It’s the largest indoor farm show in the world, with over 900 booths on “27 acres of interconnected indoor exhibit space”. Admission is free if you’d like to pop in. Expect to be overwhelmed. Many of the YouTube farmers I watch are there. Of course this has all the newest big shiny equipment on display. Oh, there’s a few older tractors for show, but this is the place to show off the latest and greatest.

I spent a couple hours Friday in a meeting at the local Soil and Water Conservation office meeting with Angela and Jenna. After clearing all the tree’s and reshaping the waterway two years ago, I learned I really should have talked to them first. So last year Angela and I looked at a few areas of the farm and she put together a plan to stop the erosion and repair this gully in the pasture.

At the top, a small dam would be built, about 4 feet tall and 150 feet long. An upright pipe would be installed at the front with a drainage line running about 50’ downhill. That structure would collect the water funneling into this area, slow it down, and release it over several hours. That in turn, would prevent the erosion happening further downhill. At the bottom, the gully would be filled in, the area re-shaped, and a proper waterway built. There are some springs down there which would be directed into the new waterway once fully seeded and established.

Because our farm is in the Zumbro Valley Watershed area, cost sharing would bring our actual cost down to about 10% of the total. Well that sounds like a plan!

I also asked about a program called RCPP. Regional Conservation Partnership Program. I heard about this program last week at the soil health meeting. I have part of one field edge that has a pretty good slope too it, and every spring I get a small gully along the edge. The edge of a field where a person turns for the next pass, those areas are called headlands. I’ve tried to create a berm to keep the rainwater off the headland rows, but every spring I get a new gully. The RCPP program would do some cost sharing to create a permanent grass area there so rather than working up the ground of the headlands, I’d be turning on the grassy area.

And since the office is having their annual tree and shrub sale, Kelly and I were discussing where we could plant some trees. One thing we thought was to plant a wind break where we put the snow fence. Guess what? Cost sharing for that too! It was a very good meeting!

Check out the spurs on this rooster.

You’ll poke your eye out with those things!

He is one of the roosters who’s kind of a bully to the hens. He’s pretty though. And isn’t that the way? All looks, no class.

Last weekend I got the new shop exhaust fan wired up, and I put a new gasket under one toilet this week (a project I put off for two months because I’d never done it before and I had some concerns.) In the end, I spent more time cleaning off the old wax gasket and cleaning the floor around the toilet than the actual repair took. This weekend I’ll be changing the kitchen faucet spray wand and tubing. This is the fourth one I’ve ordered. The first three were wrong. Now we’re changing the hose as well. Kudo’s to Moen and their lifetime warranty for admitting their mistake and shipping parts to me no charge.

WHAT WAS YOUR CHILDHOOD PHONE NUMBER?

WHAT WAS THE FIRST THING FOR WHICH YOU NEEDED A PASSWORD?

Uncategorized

DIRT IS DEAD

February 7, 2026 xdfben 54 Comments

This week’s farming update from Ben

I attended a soil health meeting on Thursday. It was a program known as the ‘I-90 Soil Health Tour’ with four stops across Southern Minnesota. A real nice free lunch was included. And this wasn’t a “free” lunch with the purchase of something, it was a free seminar WITH a free lunch!

There was a lot of data presented. We talked a lot about what makes good healthy soil. How much is water, how much is open space, minerals, and how a plant is able to use minerals once they’re bound with the soil. We talked about how quickly some fertilizers or minerals bind with the soil, which means the plant has to use a different process to utilize those minerals.

One way to test the biological activity in the dirt is to bury a pair of cotton underwear about 6” deep. Dig it up a couple months later and see how far it’s degraded. Healthy soil with lots of microbes will have it just about all gone. I may have to try and remember that this spring.

Once the soil gets to a certain point and we begin to understand the different ways minerals are accessible, a farmer can use less fertilizer, which means less money of course, which everybody likes.

One of the speakers was a soil scientist. He works with farmers all over Southern Minnesota. This gentleman really needed to just lighten up and have a little more fun with his entire presentation, because while the subject was interesting, his presentation was about as dry as dirt. This guy started off trying to get the group to speak up and throw out some answers and apparently he was gonna stand there and wait until he got them. Come on buddy, read the room. Are we just gonna sit here and stare at each other while you’re waiting for an answer? It was during his presentation that I spent a lot of time looking around the room and thinking about what I can use to write this blog.

He talked about a drop of rain, falling at potentially 45 MPH and the impact that drop can have on one grain of sand, but that got me thinking, how fast DOES rain fall? So I googled that. Generally rain falls at 15-25 MPH.

There was maybe 150 farmers in the room. I had a good time watching the room, the body language (the guy across the table from me was drifting), a lot of arms crossed, hands on chins, a few elbows on the table with head resting on palm. There was 5 women in the group. One guy limped in with a cane. Maybe he was 85 years old. He had good comments. One thing he pointed out was to get a soil potentiometer first thing. Check for soil compaction and a hard pan before anything else.

It felt good to see all these farmers interested in improving the soil.

One of the things I always hope when I write these blogs are to give you some knowledge of farming and how much farmers do care. We have to take care of the soil.

For our farm, I’m looking at how long I think I could be farming yet, knock on wood, (I’m 62. Have I got 10 years left? 20?) and what I can afford to implement and change. Of course we always hope the farm and soil diversity would outlast us.

These quotes were said at the meeting:

“In the end, we will conserve only what we love, we will love only what we understand, and we will understand only what we are taught.” – Baba Dioum, Senegalese forestry engineer.

“Dirt is dead, soil is alive”.

“We’ve always done it this way” are the most expensive words in agriculture.”

These quotes I found online:

“To be a successful farmer one must first know the nature of the soil.” — Xenophon, Oeconomicus, 400 B.C.

“There are two spiritual dangers in not owning a farm. One is the danger of supposing that breakfast comes from the grocery and the other that heat comes from the furnace.” — Aldo Leopold

And of course these:

“Man, despite his artistic pretensions, his sophistication and many accomplishments, owes the fact of his existence to a six-inch layer of topsoil and the fact that it rains.”

—Attributed to Paul Harvey

“One teaspoon of soil contains more living organisms than there are people in the world.”

=================

Out in the shop, I got the new ventilation fan wired up last weekend, and I replaced the jaws on the vice on the welding table. Years of beating on things had broken off the ends.

New jaws, broken jaws, and tools used for replacement.

Took me a while to find 4.5” Craftsman jaws for replacement. But then I lubed the bolt and frame and it’s just like new.

The table this vice is bolted too, I made in 12^th grade welding class. Still using it.

The current chickens have started laying a few more eggs, and I’m even getting a green one now and then. I don’t know what’s become of the green egg laying hens. Have they just been taking the winter off? We’re back to just one chicken in the garage.

The coyotes seem to be making the rounds again. The dogs are often out barking at 3AM or 5AM. And then sniffing around the crib. Course it’s too dark to see anything. I may just start shooting into the dirt to scare off whatever is out there.

I started looking at ordering chicks for spring. My usual place doesn’t have any available until May. That’s later than I like. There’s another place I have used a few times and I’ve got some coming on March 31^st. $260 for 50 chicks. Four different breeds including 20 ‘Easter Egg’, ten ‘hatchery choice’, ten Silver Laced Wyandotte, and ten Lavender Orpington. Mabel from a few weeks ago, I think she is a Lavender Orpington. The chicks will be coming from Willmar, MN.

EVER DUG UP ANYTHING UNUSUAL IN YOUR GARDEN?

READ ANYTHING BY ALDO LEOPOLD?

2026, animals, Farming Update, pets, Science, Theatre, Uncategorized

Shades of Grey?

January 31, 2026 xdfben 58 Comments

This week’s farming update from Ben

Everyone has survived the cold spell. The chickens have even started laying some green eggs again. Maybe the worst thing coming out of this cold spell is how stir crazy our dog Luna has gotten.

We do go out and play fetch for a while, and she is so excited she can’t wait for me to get my coat on. Isn’t if funny the clues dogs / pets will pick up on? Just like Renee wrote yesterday. They figure us out fast.

At night, if Luna hears the click of my pill box, she’s there and ready to go outside. Well, really she’s there to get her nighttime treat, but she knows we go outside before the treat. I can get up off the couch twice and she won’t move, but the pill box and she’s there.

And if I’m getting ready to go outside, she’s watching, soon as I put on my hat, her excitement is ramping up. And I reach for my coat and she just can’t help herself. I know I should probably work on her training but she’s just so dang excited! Bouncing on her back legs and jumping up and down and bouncing off the walls. She just can’t wait! And it’s hard to contain that much enthusiasm! Once outside, and I have the ‘chuckit’ ball and stick and she is just full run getting the ball back. Unless she misses the throw. I’ve never seen a dog so bad at finding the ball. It’s a bright orange ball. In the white snow. She’ll walk right by it. She’s sniffing for it. Takes her a while to find it again.

Which led me down a rabbit hole of how dogs see.

And this scene from the movie ‘UP’:

Research shows dogs have bi-chromatic eyesight, while humans have tri-chromatic eyesight. Meaning we can see three colors (and combinations) but dogs mainly only see two colors.

And after the first couple throws, she doesn’t like going over towards the machine shed to get it, because there’s a little ice over there. And I don’t blame her for that. Thursday morning after a few throws, the ball went over there. She trotted over there a bit, slowed down, and came back, like ‘What else you got?’. Thursday afternoon we went and got the ball. She grabbed it, and took off across the field to follow Bailey sniffing out some deer tracks. She left the ball lay in the snow again. I get more exercise going after the balls than I get from throwing them.

Still doing farm bookwork. Finally started a 2026 set as I don’t want to let that pile get too far ahead of me.

I had a crew come to the farm shop one day and install a large bathroom fan. I need to get electrical to it yet, but the fan is installed. They said they were looking for inside work this week. Glad to be of help.

At the college we got a new computer in the sound booth. Trying to hook that up and all the connections have changed. And the jumble of wires under the sound board finally got to me. Over the years, things have been changed, and new wires added and no one ever pulled out the old. I asked one of the managers come offer advice. Are we ever going to back to this video connection that is old and outdated? Do I Have your permission to cut it off? Yes. Cut it off, no, we’re not going back. But some of the wires go through the wall and up into the catwalk where the projector is. They said just cut them off close to the wall and this summer, that crew will pull up what they can.

I didn’t think to take a before picture, but here’s after.

Before was all these cables, but half on the floor.

There’s one area of my shop that’s a dark corner. Looking for something one day finally upset me enough I ordered an outlet with a remote switch. Found an LED light bulb with a mogul base (looks like a regular household lightbulb base, but bigger) and a socket to fit that and put that back there.

And after we talked about plumbing the other day, wouldn’t you know I was doing some plumbing at another theater. It’s an old sink with two faucets. One faucet is for washing paint brushes, the other one I have a hose on it for filling the mop bucket. Then I added a gizmo for washing out paint rollers. I have one at the college and I love it! It need some modifications here.

ANYBODY COLOR BLIND?

EVER HAD A PROBLEM WITH COLOR?

2026, Family, Farming Update, History, pets, Stories, Uncategorized, Weather

THE WAYBACK MACHINE

January 24, 2026 xdfben 27 Comments

This week’s farming update from Ben

At least it’s not muddy.

I mentioned the opera movie on Saturday. Kelly and I are going. Lots of video and looks like some fun scenery so I’ll enjoy that part. And having a date with Kelly. And popcorn. And I’ll get a nap during the rest of it. But the projections look cool!

Same old, same old here. More snow, more cold. It hasn’t been this cold in a few years. Anything above minus 20F doesn’t really count you know. Minus 20, OK, now we’re talking cold. It’s rather exhilarating isn’t it? It was -21F Friday morning.

I made sure the chickens had extra feed and I filled their water and they puff out their feathers like wild birds do and they’re fine. The two chickens living in the garage usually walk down to the crib during the day, but today everybody just stays inside.

You know, I can give them a bucket of fresh water and they’ll still drink out of the bucket of dirty water. The dogs do the same thing. Here’s a pail of fresh water and they’re over drinking out of a mud puddle.

I was part of a zoom meeting this past week on cover crops, and in a few weeks is a meeting on food grade oats. A lot of continuing education happens in winter for farmers. Because, you know, we don’t have anything going on… (sarcasm!)

I thought I’d talk about the history of our farm.

My Great Grandparents came to the farm in 1898.

My grandfather was 4. They arrived from Germany in 1882 and had moved around this area a bit before ending up in our valley. Gustave and Ernestina Hain arrived in the US with 3 girls. Three more girls and my grandfather Carl were born here. My grandfather wrote an autobiography in 1973 and I’m getting some photos from that and some photos I have at home. He loved cutting the head off one picture and glueing it onto another. The original photoshop.

Here is the oldest photo of the farm.

The dairy barn in the background was built in 1920. There’s a granary out of sight behind the house that was built in 1899. Can you see a child playing in the road in the foreground? One of my uncles, never been sure who that was.

This next photo was taken sometime in the 1950’s.

The dairy barn in the lower portion has been expanded twice. My grandpa, uncle, and dad added to one end in the early 1940’s. Then in the 1950’s dad added the lean-to on the back. That allowed a second row of cows inside the barn.

The granary in the upper right corner was originally twice as big as I remember it. Grandpa writes that when the barn was finished, people wanted a dance. “I remember that nice floor, 24 x 48 of clear space. There was a big crowd, about four boys to each girl. Everybody was having a great time until a fight started. After the fight was stopped, Father was very angry. He said “You better all go home now.” and nobody stopped to ask questions. So you see even in the good old days, a few can always spoil a good time.”

Dad had torn off the front half by the time I was around. He said the back of the barn was so dark the calves would end up blind. There was part of a stone wall standing until I pushed it over last summer. I wanted to push it over 25 years ago and dad didn’t think that was a good idea. So I kept working around it. After I pushed it over, it was too dang big and heavy to move and I haven’t managed to break it apart yet, so I’m still working around it except now it’s lying flat and ten feet further into my way. The granary collapsed in 2013 with a heavy snow. We’ve salvaged some boards from it. The frame was built with wood pegs. Kind of a cool old barn.

In the left middle of the photo are two old buildings I don’t remember. Dad said there was a machine shed there, because after every rain I’d pick up nails in the road. So many tree’s around the house! And notice the one silo by the barn.

This photo is from 1969.

The new house was built in 1968, and in the bottom right corner is the outhouse we used while living in the machine shed. The old house was torn down and the new house built in the same place. I was only 4 at the time, so I don’t remember anything about the old house, and just a few tidbits of living in the machine shed. There’s a corn crib, which is now the chicken coop in the middle right. A new silo behind the barn, built in 1968. And you can sort of see the granary minus the front half.

My parents sold some land in 1967, i think that’s how they afforded a silo AND a new house in 1968.

My dad was one of 5 boys. The three oldest served in WWII. Dad, being the youngest, had to stay home and help on the farm. He always regretted that. He had a collection of rifle shells and bullets used in the war. I heard he had them mounted on a board. Apparently they were live shells. Mom never liked it, especially with kids in the house, and when the new corn crib was being built, she took the board down and threw it in the cement. Eventually Dad forgave her.

Notice all the tree’s behind the barn. They will be missing in the next few years. There’s a pole barn back there now and I haven’t figured out yet when that was built. The old silo in the front was torn down about 1975. We remember that because my brother and dad used a sledge hammer to knock out silo blocks and I sat on the hill with my brothers girlfriend and he met her in ’75. It is always fascinating that you need to knock out 3/4’s of the blocks before the silo will fall over. Dad hauled the refuse back behind the barn where the pole barn is.

Quite a jump to his photo taken about 1995. We added an addition to the back of the house just before our daughter was born. The pile of trees in the field in the bottom was from that project. The second silo from 1976 is there, the pole barn is there.

With all the internet mapping these days, a photo of your house is no big deal. It used to be *quite* the deal when the airplay would fly over and a month later some guy would drive in with a photo of the farm. Farmers were suckers for those photos. And think about it; everything you worked for, all in one photo to show off. With any luck they took it from different directions over the years so you could see the background. It wasn’t cheap; it was a few hundred dollars it seems like. Less if you didn’t buy the frame.

Somewhere I have a photo with me standing in front of the barn. I heard that low flying airplane and walked out there and got into the picture.

This picture is grandma and grandpa and my four uncles. Taken before dad was born. He came around in 1925.

Grandpa didn’t write about this photo. Not sure I believe he was only 16 here.

Grandpa wrote, “When I was 17,18,19,20, and 21, I call them my fun years. The less said about them, the better. I wll say they passed by very quickly Oh yes, those were the days.”

I’d sure like to know what was up, that rascal. He and his fiancé eloped to Red Wing and got married in about 1918. Being the only boy, he also had to stay home and farm and missed WW1.

I’ve always said I have really deep roots. 128 years in one place.

I’ve got shirts almost that old.

EVER WORN CHAPS? FUZZY ONES? EVER NEEDED CHAPS?

2026, animals, crops, Farming Update, pets, Technology, Travel, Uncategorized

Boy, Chef-

January 17, 2026 xdfben 86 Comments

This week’s farming update from BEN.

Man, it feels like it was a tough week. The emotions are all over the place. We know a person who is a Sergeant in the Minneapolis police force. That person cares so much for the men under their watch; making sure they get rest, and standing up for them when admin says they’re not responding to 911 calls fast enough. Thankfully things didn’t get too crazy for them, shifts returned to normal after a few days, and everyone got some time off. Still, it stresses us out and I have a hard time staying focused and we find ourselves grumpy all day.

As has been said, this is supposed to be our escape, our safe place, our happy place.

So here’s some chicken pictures!

This is a Phoenix chicken we got from a friend several years ago. They’re really nice chickens.

This is Marge. I just made up that name. Go ahead and suggest names for her.

I asked the computer to generate two chickens in a photographic style. They sure look grumpy. Next time I’ll ask for happier chickens.

I asked the computer to generate a cartoon chicken..

I’ve been doing a lot of bookwork. And I got a new desk lamp that’s really nice. I have been using a farming specific software called ‘PCMars’ since getting our first computer in 1994. Getting it all entered in the computer is one thing. The other half of the job, after I pile the receipts on top of the second desk drawer, (and throwing away anything not farm / business related) is sorting them out and putting them in the tote that I’ll put downstairs for the next 23 years. I couldn’t get the drawer shut anymore, so I sorted out what I had. Then I can enter some more into the computer. I don’t save as many receipts as I used to, because so much is available online.

I haven’t decided if it’s easier or harder having electronic receipts. Those receipts I move to a file that’s either farm or home related. Then I go through them and enter them into the program. And some still need to be saved, so they go to another E-file. We talked about paper checks on here one day. Kelly wrote four checks out of her home checkbook in 2025. And three were for the bathroom remodeling.

Which, by the way, we’ve finally signed a contract and written another check, to redo the basement bathroom from 1968. So long pink wallpaper.

I know this will be an affront to Renee and some of you, but I picked up two cans of Chef Boyardee Beef Ravoli. Haven’t had it since I was a kid. When I’m out shopping, saving big money, I’m tending to buy more and more groceries there. I bought soup, Spam, and the ravioli. I made soup for supper that night and Kelly asked me how my discount soup was. It was brand name chicken and dumpling, but, it wasn’t that great. Too many carrots and not enough dumplings. The broth was good. With the cold weather predicted this weekend, I may have to make a can of ravioli as comfort food.

One day out in the shop, I made a storage place for my really large sockets. These are 3/4” drive sockets. I got tired of them being all in a jumble in the drawer. Sockets can be 1/4” drive, 3/8”, 1/2”, 3/4” or even 1” drive. I use 3/8” and 1/2” most often. The 3/4” drive stuff is for the big serious stuff. The square hole of these is the 3/4″ I was referring too, and the related ratchet or handles have a corrresponding drive on them. The largest I have are 1&7/8” and 46mm. I have a whole set of standard and metric 1/2″ drive sockets in a different tool box.

I need better labels than the sharpie that was going dry.

Monday is a holiday for some of us. The college is closed. I wonder what I can find to get into.

ANY COMFORT FOODS PLANNED THIS WEEKEND?

2026, animals

Happy Thoughts

January 10, 2026 xdfben 35 Comments

This weeks Farming Update from Ben

We got a little bit of rain last week so the driveway and yard, being a little bit snow-covered, got pretty slippery. I went out with the tractor to try and rough up the ice and scrape some of it off. Using both the front loader and the rear blade I got 90% of it. At least we’re not sliding sideways across the yard.
And then we got a whole bunch of rain Thursday night. I know they were predicting over an inch, I don’t have any gauges out so I don’t know what amount it amounted too, but jeepers we don’t need rain in January.
Still a bit of an adventure getting down to the chicken coop and over to the feed room.

At the college I’ve had an outside rental this past week so that took up my evenings.

Out in the shop I enjoyed the time last weekend just putzing around out there. Stocked up the new fridge I got for Christmas, and finished assembling the pallet rack.

Frozen Little Debbie crunch bars are the best!

I moved the 630 out and brought the gator in. Swept the floors creating a cloud of dust. Something I should’ve thought of when I was building the shop was a fresh air intake and an exhaust fan. It sort of flitted through my mind once, but I wasn’t listening. I’m not running equipment inside very often but by the time I start up a tractor, open the door, bring in something else and close the door, the CO2 alarm is going off. And then when I sweep, a cloud of dust fills the air and then I wish I had a filter. I have a ventilation guy coming to the farm next week to give me some ideas. Whether I have them do it or whether I do it myself remains to be seen, I just need to figure out what to do.

I was cleaning up my desk at work. I threw out a bunch of magazines from 2007. It shouldn’t take that long to throw out a magazine, but you know, you put something down, and there it sits.

But I’m saving the kazoo’s. The theater conference I attend every so often has a kazoo parade through the venue at some point. Organized by a group called the ‘Long Reach Long Riders’ LRLR.org.

It’s a bunch of people who ride motorcycles and raise money for theater related causes. From their website:

Long Reach Long Riders are a collective of strangers, friends, and families alike; who share a common passion for the entertainment arts.

For over 20 years, we’ve come together once a year to ride motorcycles together and raise funds for the Behind-the-Scenes Charity, which provides essential support to entertainment technology professionals who are seriously ill, injured, or in need of mental health or substance use support.

Each year the ‘ride’ takes place in a different area of the United States, where good roads and good sights are to be discovered.”

It’s a fun bunch of people. So I’m keeping the kazoo’s.

Our big dog Humphrey turned 11 on January 5. He is such a good dog. Luna-tick, keeps him engaged and young and he has no qualms telling her when he’s done playing.

Humphrey enjoying his birthday treat. (Bacon strip)

Bailey is still trying to prove she’s the number two dog.

Let’s take a pause here and I’m just gonna do some fun photos.

My sister making a snowman for her granddaughter in South Carolina who wanted a snowman.

“Fred is up to his neck. Snowflake is trying to pull him out.”

From the site: ‘Disappointing affirmations’ on Instagram or FB

Must be long lost relatives. Check out the tiny mom! Eleven kids from Tiny Mom! My mom had this picture, but we don’t know who it is. Nothing written on it.

WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE?

MAKE UP SOMETHING FUN.

2026, animals, crops, Family, Farming Update, holidays, Nature, Seasons, Technology, Weather, work

BY THE NUMBERS

January 3, 2026 xdfben 33 Comments

This weeks Farming Update from BEN

On Thursday I collected the mileage and hours from vehicles and tractors then put it all in my ‘Yearly Mileage’ spreadsheet. Everything was about average. We used the lawn mower 31 hours, put 43 hours on the big tractor, and 127 hours on the other tractor. Drove the 4-wheeler 22 miles, and put 306 miles on the gator using it 48 hours.

Egg count for 2025 was 419 dozen. 5028 eggs. Plus a few dozen that froze or got broken.

On Tuesday daughter and I took a road trip to Potsdam and Meyer’s Seed, then John Deere in Plainview. And got sundaes at DQ and then back to Rochester for a stop at Barnes and Noble. She thanked me for the adventure.

At Meyer’s the oat seed for 2026 is ordered and paid for, and corn and soybean seed has been ordered and financed, at 0% interest with a 4% savings. (6% savings would have given me prime -2%). $11,700. A bag of seed corn now is over $300. I ordered 25 bags. That’s a separate loan from the $43,000 for fertilizer and spraying. I got TWO free seed corn hats!

You know how you’re supposed to save receipts for seven years? I brought up a box from 2002 and sorted through that. Oh my goodness. We’d been married 12 years. Kelly was making $17 / hour. We had 2 kids in daycare, and $36 in our savings account. I’d get a milk check twice a month. It totaled maybe $2200. I owed the vet $1000, the breeder $500, the feed co-op $500, plus there was always other bills and expenses. I got anxious just looking back through this stuff. Once I saved the important stuff, I took the unneeded stuff out in the snow and burned it.

It was a small fire; not much stuff. And I just used my gloved hand to ‘swish’ it around to get all the papers to burn. Evidently the cheap nylon mechanics glove I was wearing have a lower melting point than the flame of even a small fire. I didn’t get hurt or anything, it just melted the sides of the fingers of the glove. Daughter came over to see what I was doing. I pointed out that she shouldn’t use her hand to stir up a fire. She looked at me like I was a complete idiot. And she basically said, “Well duh!”. Oh good. A win on the parenting front! She knows enough not to stick her hand in a fire.

The wedding we attended on New Years Eve was really very nice! The bride was stunning, the groom looked sharp in his black tuxedo. They were both relaxed (or at least looked that way) and the ceremony was low-key and they wrote and read their own vows and had fun. We had a full three course meal, and there was a live band. I got a lot of compliments on the fact I was wearing sleeves. I did have to dig to the back of my closet for this shirt, and one cuff was a slightly different color than the other. Solved that problem by rolling them up a bit.

For Christmas Kelly gave me this hat:

I picked up oil filters and grease tubes at John Deere. I changed the engine oil and filter in the 630. I was looking in the operators manual for the tractor and realized I’ve never checked the oil level for the transmission. On modern tractors there’s the engine oil dipstick, and then a dipstick, or sometimes a site tube, showing transmission and hydraulic oil level. On the 630, there’s a dipstick for the engine oil, and one for the hydraulics and I remember always checking that as a kid. I don’t know what fascinated me about that dipstick, but I checked it often. And then there’s a check “LEVEL” plug for the power take off. And on the side, according to the book, another check “LEVEL” plug for the transmission.

HUH!

Never seen that before.

I had to scrap some dirt off to find this.

You take the plug out and add oil until it starts to run out the plug, then it’s full. I don’t remember Dad checking that. I’m sure he did, I just didn’t know about it. Now the tractor is good to go come spring.

And the 1940’s music station is back on my car radio.

Life is good.

WHAT DO YOU DO WITH YOUR RECIPTS?

HOW ARE YOU AT RECORD KEEPING?

2025, animals, Business, Family, Farming Update, gardening, History, Nature, pets, Science, Seasons, Uncategorized, Weather

Thinking Ahead

December 27, 2025 xdfben 54 Comments

This week’s Farm Update from Ben

I took a walk on Christmas morning. Me and the dogs, out through the fields. Saw a bunch of pheasants, tree’s I need to cut down, and lots of deer tracks. The header photo is from our walk.

Weatherman Mark Seeley has a weather forecast and article on the back page of The Farmer magazine. In the last issue, he talked about January of 2006 being the warmest January in MN weather history. “January 2006 started a remarkable trend of warmth in Minnesota. Fifteen of the 19 Januarys since that time have brought warmer-than-normal temperatures to the state. Of further note, seven Januarys since that of 2006 also rank among the warmest 20 in state history.” — https://www.farmprogress.com/farm-life/january-2006-started-warm-and-never-wavered

There are many reasons to be appreciative of the deep-freeze cold we normally get in winter. It kills off harmful bugs, it helps breakdown the soil for better working conditions in the spring, helps break up compaction layers in the soil, it helps keep stored grain in condition, to name just a few benefits. The worst thing is repeated cycles of freezing and thawing. That’s hard on certain crops, like alfalfa. Ice sheeting, and the repeated freeze thaw or a lack of snow cause winter kill. I bet you master gardeners have examples of the problems repeated freezing and thawing can cause in the gardens. Not to mention how tough the warmer temperatures are on cattle that have a winter coat and are prepared for cold. Respiratory issues can really become rampant.

We’ve had this one chicken living in the garage all winter. During the day she has taken to perching on the bottom rung of a sawhorse and looking at herself in a mirror.

And then the other night, there were 5 chickens in the garage! OK, seriously, the poop from the one chicken is gonna be bad enough come spring, and at least she’s over in a corner. Having five of them: one in the rafters, two more on recycling containers, and one on the dogwash wall are too much.

The next day I kept the garage door closed. I figured they’d just go back down to the coop. Three spent the night around the corner perched on the bird seed containers. Why have they moved up here in the first place? I don’t know what their problem is. I’ve got several spending the night in the nest boxes where they lay their eggs. They’re not supposed to do that either. They’re not too crowded as some are in the right side space, some are in the left side space (and they all pile up on top of each other for some reason), some are up in the rafters, and the rest are in the main coop area. I did add another board in there if they need another place to perch. Is it too many roosters? I think we have 5 roosters these days. And maybe 55 hens? I don’t know exactly how many, they are too hard to count. Really 2 roosters would be a good number. There’s a couple that seem extra ornery to the chickens. How come they never get picked off by coyotes?

Christmas day late afternoon I forgot to shut the garage door in time and had to chase out 3 chickens. Yeah, even being Christmas, I chased them out. I had given them extra corn and layer ration in the morning. They’re fine. The one in the corner, she’s earned it, she can stay.

Out in the shop, I added a metal top to the work bench. Dad built this work bench after the shed was built, so maybe in 1982 or 1983. When I started on the shop project two years ago, the guy doing the insulation wanted me to pull the bench off to redo the insulation behind it. I said no. Dad had put styrofoam and fiberglass insulation on that wall before he added the bench. I tore the top four feet off the wall as part of the shop project. The old insulation was pretty bad. Yeah, I probably should have redone the bottom four feet too, but I was already in over my head on this project and didn’t think I could handle any more. Hindsight you know. The bench is pretty well built, and the top is 2×8 boards with a gap between them. Stuff is always falling into that gap. Maybe it was Dad’s way of cleaning off the bench, to sweep the dirt and dust into the gap. Which then ended up in the bolt storage he had underneath. A couple weeks ago, I lost a screw down that gap and I decided that was it! I am covering this! I bought two sheets of 16 gauge steel (about 1/16th inch thick) 2′ x 4′ from a big box store. ($70 each! Jeepers!) Thanks Obama! (That’s a joke you know) And I rounded over the front edge. I need to get some different screws to hold it all in place, but it looks real professional. I’m glad I did that.

Kelly helped me get the last screen back in the 630 grill and I have that all reassembled.

Needs an oil change yet and it will be ready for next summer’s work and projects. Next summer’s project I think will be rebuilding the belt pulley assembly. Clyde probably knows what a belt pulley is. You’ve seen pictures of back in earlier days, a long canvas belt ran between the tractor and an implement to provide power before the advent of power-take-off on the rear of a machine. That’s the belt pulley.

Not my photo. Courtesy of https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmpuWNcqF2s

On the 630, that belt pulley is also the hand clutch assembly. And it rattles like some of the plates inside there are broken. I remember Dad adjusting it once in a while, but I don’t recall him ever pulling it all apart. The tractor also hasn’t had a working tachometer / speedometer / hourmeter for as long as I can remember. A few hundred dollars will get me a new gauge, new cable, and I don’t know yet if I’ll need a new gear inside the governor assembly or not. It’s all only money.

I’ve done my crop rotation maps for next year and got the acres figured out. Talked with Nate at Meyer’s Seeds and I’ve got until January 16th to lock in the early order discount pricing on oats, corn and soybean seed. I was approved for $43,000 in loans for chemicals and fertilizer from the Co-op. That doesn’t include the loan for seed. I’m really hoping I don’t need all of that loan as the crop prices aren’t that good. The first few years I farmed I stressed out a bit more about the crop loans. Of course 35 years ago I probably spent $10,000 on everything and it was still big money. Now days it’s just part of the deal. I don’t stress over it so much.

I thought for sure Kelly and I were gonna win the lottery the other night. And what would we do with all that money? As the old joke goes, keep farming until it is gone!

EVER BEEN THROWN OUT? TOLD TO LEAVE? EVER THROWN SOMEONE OUT?

I know tim will have a story….

Uncategorized

Well….

December 20, 2025 xdfben 47 Comments

This weeks farming update from BEN

So much going on in the world these days. Rob and Michele Reiner, the shootings in Stewartville Mn, and Brown University, and Australia. We all need to remember to “just be nice”. Sometimes it all feels overwhelming, but we can still choose to be nice.

Daughter told me the other night that she was thinking about going to bed earlier. “I’ll just give it a try”. I told her that sounded like a good idea, and yes, to give it a try. Remember, she’s a teenager. 2AM is her usual bedtime. We’ve been dealing with this bedtime for a few years and I was excited that perhaps there was a glimmer of realization that mom and dad do know what they’re talking about and maybe she finally is recognizing that she’s tired during the day. The next day she said “You know, with Santa coming and all, I thought I should go to bed earlier.” Oh. This is just because of Santa. There is no acknowledgment of consequences. Yet. But evidently she does know she should be in bed before Santa shows up at the house.

Classes at the college finished Friday and I finished my class in Forensic Chemistry. The Organic Chemistry section was hard. The DNA section was interesting, and I enjoyed looking at stuff through the microscope. The official final grades haven’t been posted but it looks like I got 93.5%. Whew. Still waiting for the note from the teacher saying “How did you get 100% on the final test??” Well, it was open book, and I finally realized the quizzes come from the book, so maybe I paid more attention on reviewing the quizzes? Believe me, I was as surprised as she was. And when I finished the test, I unceremoniously “plopped” the lecture notebook in the garbage can.

I signed up for ‘music appreciation’ for spring. It’s all online. Three credits closer to actually getting a degree. I signed up for this right after telling Kelly I was glad to be done with this class and maybe I could spend my time on the computer doing bookwork now. Man… why do I do this??

The chickens were enjoying the warmer weather and the rain melted more snow and they were all out roaming again. The pheasants have come around sharing in the chickens’ corn. I counted 14 one day. They’re skittish. Soon as we come out the door they fly away. And now I’m getting squirrels in the feedroom. They don’t want corn off the ground evidently, they want it from the bin. They’ve chewed ANOTHER hole in the bottom of the door.

The dogs always think there’s going to be a squirrel in there so if I head that direction the three of them are at the door barking and trembling. Watching all three dogs get through the door is like the Three Stooges: they all jam up in the door at the same time. Luna has taken to standing on the straw bale to the side so she can get a leap over the other two. One day the squirrel bounced off my chest and then out the door. This morning the squirrel went over my head and I was in the way so the dogs couldn’t get out.

Tuesday morning the weather warmed up so I turned off the heater in the well house. Here’s the interior.

I talk about this a lot and some of you may not know exactly what I’m referring to. What freezes in the well-house is this little pipe to the pressure switch.

The blue tank is the pressure tank. The submersible pump fills the tank to 60 lbs of pressure, and when we use some water and the pressure drops to 40, the pump kicks back on. But if that little pipe freezes, the pump doesn’t know the pressure has dropped and it never kicks back on. And that’s a terrible feeling at 6AM when you realize there’s no water… a chill ran down my spine as I wrote that. I can’t describe the apprehension of going out there to look at what might be the problem. Is the whole thing in flames? Or just cold? Are we pulling the pump out, or getting a hair dryer? In the fall of 2013 we had the pump and tank replaced and I rebuilt the well-house. It might be time to replace the pump next summer. Better to do that when planned, than in January and unplanned.

Pulling the pump. There’s a hole in the roof for the pipe and winch cable

Luna’s newest favorite toy, after chasing a ball and before the frisbee, is an empty pizza box. (Actually I haven’t tried a full pizza box. That would probably just be a distraction).

I have figured out how to get the grill screen bent and installed in the brackets and back on the tractor hood.

End of the semester. I sat in the dark in the theater and just absorbed it all.

The ghost light, a few exit lights and aisle lights.

I thank the room for all the energy we exchanged so far. And I ponder what might happen next. It’s been another good group of kids. I hope some of them are still around next semester.

HOW DOES SANTA GET IN THE HOUSE WITHOUT A FIREPLACE? DID YOU EVER HAVE TO EXPLAIN THAT TO ANYONE?

ANY EXPERIENCES WITH A LACK OF WATER?

2025, Business, crops, Farming Update, Government, History, Music, Science, Technology, Theatre, Uncategorized, Weather

INTEREST-ING

December 13, 2025 xdfben 60 Comments

This week’s farming update from Ben

Brrrr. We are hardy Minnesotan’s but it’s still cold out. Hope you can stay inside and warm for the weekend.

Honestly, how did people do it 100 years ago? Or 500? Or 1000??

We have so much to be thankful for.

I got my corn check from the co-op last week and put it in the bank. And this week I paid off the loan I borrowed from a month ago to pay the bills. And the co-op emailed about setting up the loan and credit for 2026 crops. Easy come, easy go. Repeat. I spent some time this week comparing interest rates. It’s kinda hard to find out what the actual Prime rate is. Course it varies by bank and how much money you have. And it was kind of interesting how that works. One of the companies the co-op uses does Prime minus 0.5% until August, then Prime + 0.5% until Feb of 2027. Another company has different rates on some of the products and zero interest on some, but then Prime +2% on fertilizer. In the end, it doesn’t amount to that much money. It would be a different story if I was spending $450,000 at 7.5% interest. (That’s $33,750 @ 7.5% if you’re curious. Now we’re talking real money!) And the government is going to bail me out with the poor prices on soybeans. So they say. I don’t know what that’s going to amount too yet. It won’t be $33,000 I can tell you that. I’ll bet I can take off a couple zero’s there and be more like it. I always say the difference between me and the big farms is a couple zeros on the expenses and the income.

I’ll fill out the forms this weekend and figure out next years crops. Samantha, the agronomist I work with at the co-op sent out a rough worksheet of next year expenses for my planning purposes, and I’ll get things ordered and prices locked in by mid January for the best rate.

Yesterday on the blog we were talking about things from the past. I had a guy at the farm the other day who had a front wheel drive car and was almost stuck on the bare, but snow covered driveway. He clearly didn’t know how to drive on snow. His wheels were spinning and he blamed the posi-traction. I can still hear my dad’s voice “DON’T SPIN YOUR WHEELS!” Our mantra in winter back in the day of rear-wheel drive cars. “Sit heavy! Don’t spin your wheels.” And my family jokes that Dad would say, “NO TALKING! BE QUIET BACK THERE!” I don’t remember that, but I’m sure it was so Dad could hear the wheels not spinning. Shift to low, back up to the garage so you can get a run at it, and don’t spin your wheels. And the guy got out. Our driveway is long and starts right off with an uphill “U”. (So right, “get a run at it” but you’re making a corner at the same time. You learn a lot about friction doing that.) Then you’ve got a flat 75 yards to gain some speed before the next uphill corner to the left. Most people, if they get around the U, can make the next corner. Although there was some days I had to back up 50 yards and get a run at the second corner again. But a front wheel drive car? Dude. Learn to drive. I remember years ago, the guy who would come in to breed the cows. He had a little tiny car. Rear wheel drive. He couldn’t get out. And he turned around and went backwards really fast around both corners. I was very impressed. But he made it.

Last weekend Padawan called me about 10:00 at night to see if I would help pull a friend of his out of a ditch. So I went. Because we’ve said Padawan is our second son, so, that’s what you do for your kids. The friend had a new sporty little car. Still had the temporary plates. Skidded on the snow and slid into a ditch. Another kid who needs to learn how to drive. He was only a little stuck. Pulled him out with the truck.

Haven’t had much time to work in the shop this past week. Concerts at the college, homework, (had the last ‘in person’ class. I have a couple tests to take yet and some online lectures to watch. Last day of classes is next Friday) And I’ve been moving snow.

Our mailbox is out on the highway. It’s on a swinging post so the snow launching off the snowplow doesn’t damage it, the box just swings out of the way. Meaning it WHIPS the mail out into the ditch…More than once we’ve found the mail under that pine tree behind the mailboxes. Sometimes we may not find it until spring. Hopefully it wasn’t the check we’ve been waiting for. There are three mailboxes as there used to be three homes down our road. The third, unused mailbox our neighbor named “S. Lamb”. The sacrificial lamb. Our neighbors are very witty.

The choir sounds really nice this year. It’s a new conductor and he’s doing a great job with the students. At rehearsal I heard him ask the kids, “Are you ready for the concerts Friday and Saturday?” And they responded, “Thursday and Friday!”

“Good. What time is the concert?”

“7:00”

“Good. What time are you going to be here?”

“6:00”

“Good. Saturday and Sunday concerts, It will be fun!”

“THURSDAY AND FRIDAY!”

“Good.”

Clearly, he’s worked with teenagers before.

HOW YOU GONNA STAY WARM THIS WEEKEND?

HOW DO YOU THINK YOU WOOD HAVE STAYED WARM 500 YEARS AGO?

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