Husband and I decided that our Cesky Terrier’s political leanings would be Socialist. He feels best as part of a pack. He thinks we need to share our food, our space, our time, with him and each other.
Our Welsh Terriers would definitely have voted Libertarian. They disliked regulations and any rule they considered too restrictive. They wanted to be left to their own devices, running free.
Our cats would have had varying political leanings but all would have gleefully participated in dirty tricks against their opponents. Our son’s cat would be in favor of an absolute monarchy with herself as the Queen.
Where have your pets been on the political spectrum?
Our daughter phoned the other day to tell me that her friends are shocked and appalled that we never took her to an amusement park when she was little. To make up for this neglect, Daughter and three friends are planning a trip to Disney World next April for Daughter’s birthday.
We live rather a long way from any amusement parks. Even the Cities was kind of far to go just for that. When we traveled, we visited family, and they lived in Minnesota and Wisconsin. There aren’t that many amusement parks in those locations. Summer was for work, summer activities, and gardening. We just weren’t that family that has big summer vacations. Husband remembers being unutterably bored on his family vacations, usually taken by car. My parents drove to Florida when I was about 12, but there was no Disney World then.
Two of the friends going on the April trip did college internships at Disney World, and they are devising elaborate spread sheets for daily schedules and activities. We agreed to atone for our neglect by contributing to lodging expenses, so it is shaping up to be a pretty fun trip.
What kind of vacations did your family go on? Any vacations with friends?
Yesterday morning I received the following text from our son:
Your grandson just woke me up with a bugle. I hope you are proud.
I told him I was very proud! Son said he was in the middle of a pleasant dream in which he was eating gelato when the bugle went off .
In March of 2023 our then 4 year old grandson was stranded at our house for three weeks due to weather. While he was here we let him play my father’s bugle. He got a pretty good buzz on the horn. My dad was a bugler in the Army Air Corps. Of course, the bugle went back to South Dakota with him. I hadn’t heard that he was doing much with it until yesterday. I am delighted he woke up his dad with the bugle. That just made my day!
My first instrument was the clarinet. I quickly switched to the bass clarinet and played it all through high school and college. Piano lessons started at age 8. Son was a trombonist. Daughter played piano, French Horn, and violin. Husband has his cello and also had piano lessons as a child. I don’t know what grandson will play, but at least he has a bugle to make great noises with for now.
What were some mischievous things you did as a child? Did you learn to play an instrument?
Sometimes, the day doesn’t go as planned, does it.
Our power went off Monday morning at about 6:30AM. I was leaving to take the rented post hole digger back when I met a truck from the power company on the other side of a down tree over the road. That guy cut up the tree while I went back home for the tractor, and I pushed the tree off the road. He and I talked about how to check the electric line. (Our house is the only house on the mile long electric line from the North road to the South road, and it’s through the pasture and across a creek, and up a steep hill). They found a tree down on the steep hill that took out the line, but they were able to get to a flat spot and cut the line and isolate it so they could feed us from the North end. One of the guys commented that this must be an old line from the first few years of the electric co-ops. (The Rural Electrification Administration, REA, was started by President Franklin Roosevelt in 1935) My dad would talk about using horses to pull the electric lines and poles through the pasture in about 1940, and how they laid there until WWII was over.
Getting to the North end was a little more difficult for the guys. It was muddy, and still raining, and the first truck got stuck, and they had to get a ‘track style’ bucket truck in to make the connection and pull the first truck back out. Meanwhile, I got the generator out—hadn’t used that in 10 years, so it was a good time to make sure it still worked. As I was pumping up the tires with a cordless air pump, the power came back on. Of course. But I ran it for an hour anyway. Still works! It was 1:30PM. I teased the electric guys –they didn’t know what they were getting into when they stopped at that downed tree at 7AM.
I got my post holes all dug. Surprisingly, only hit rock in 3 of the 12 holes. Then down to the pole barn and dug some holes there to add support posts to three posts that are nearly rotted off at the ground. It has rained most of the week. I haven’t got much done on the fence because I need to pack the dirt back around the posts, and it doesn’t pack when it’s mud or clay. My summer padawan has helped pull the first wire and tear out the old fence. Maybe next week, when it’s not raining so much, we’ll get back to installation.
We’ve gotten enough rain, for now, almost 6” for June, not counting whatever we get Friday evening here. Growing Degree Units are just over 1000, about 180 above normal. The crops mostly look pretty good. The oats have some color change on the different soils, the corn is almost canopied, and the soybeans are coming along. There are some wet spots in some fields, but thankfully, that lake isn’t in my field.
Got the 4-wheeler running with the new carburetor.
Ducklings arrived Friday morning.
WOULD YOU RATHER GO WITHOUT RUNNING WATER OR ELECTRICITY?
Today marks the anniversary of the introduction of the 33-1/3 LP album in 1948 by Columbia Records. It was so popular that 78 rpm records soon were out of production.
My parents had scads of 33’s, many of which I still have. We have loads of CD’s, but as you can see there are some 33’s that Husband and I will never want to part with. It means that we will need an actual turn table for the rest of our lives. At this point, we have three of them.
As I contemplate moving in the next year or so, I groan at the thought of moving those record albums. They will have to be moved in our minivan since it will be too hot in a moving van and we don’t want them to warp in the heat. Many of these albums have moved with me from Moorhead to Winnipeg to Columbus, Indiana to western North Dakota. We have reduced the number of LP’s by about three quarters, so we will have far fewer to pack and move. The photo shows the bulk of them. There are a few more, plus some really old 78’s, in the basement.
I don’t remember what LP album I bought first, but I imagine it was one by the Monkees or some other late 1960’s music group. I remember reading the MPR Building a Classical Record Library and getting lots of the suggested recordings. Husband has lots of classic jazz recordings that are still wonderful to listen to.
I believe there are Baboons with hundreds of albums, far more than we have. We are a musical bunch, even if our musical medium is pretty old.
What were some of your favorite 33’s growing up? How many albums do you still have and what are your plans for them? Any favorite cover art?
I read a lovely article in the Rock County Star Herald this week about Jim Brandenburg, the nature photographer who grew up in Luverne. Jim wanted to give something back to the community, as he has felt so supported by people there.
Luverne was one of the communities featured in the Ken Burns Documentary The War. Jim found an American jeep in a barn in France near Omaha Beach that had been driven during the D-Day invasion. The Jeep had been stored in a shed and hadn’t been used for 72 years, Jim sponsored the restoration of the jeep, costing about $100,000, in time for it to be driven on Omaha Beach for the 80th anniversary of D-Day invasion. Relatives of two local men who served in the war and who were featured in the documentary were there and drove the restored jeep through the streets of Normandy. The jeep, named Willy, will arrive in Luverne in September. I don’t know where they will display it. There is a military museum in Luverne at the courthouse, so perhaps there is room for it there. Here is a photo of Willy.
I guess that in France, the restoration of WWII memorabilia is quite a popular pastime. I know that people in Luverne are so excited about this jeep. What a wonderful gift to the community!
Ever restored anything? What would you like to restore if you could?
About 30 years ago, Husband and I planted raspberries in the back yard against the north fence. Our neighbors to the north had four green ash trees in the corners of their yard. The trees weren’t all that tall and didn’t shade our yard much at all. The raspberries did well, and we feasted on raspberries every summer for years.
The green ash trees in the yard to the north of us have grown really tall and shade the whole north side of our yard now. I have written before about the conflicts we have had with the neighbors regarding the trees, and how the branches hang over our yard and house. The neighbors got really angry every time we tried to trim the branches that hung over our side of the fence, so we just gave up. The trees just kept dropping branches and looking really sick.
The raspberry bed became more and more shaded, and there were fewer and fewer canes until this spring. Over the past year our northern neighbors changed their intense love of the ash trees to extreme loathing after they realized that their 45 year old fence needed to be replaced, and that the ash branches could possibly damage the new fence when it is put in. They sent one of their adult sons to start trimming the tree branches. They will eventually need a professional tree removal service to take the trees out, but the trimming their son did provided all sorts of light to the raspberries last summer. This spring we noticed that there were more raspberry canes than we could have possibly imagined. You can see how thick they are.
It is amazing what a little sun did. It was as though the raspberries were biding their time until the situation improved. Here is the tree that did all the mischief.
What songs, plays, literature, or movies come to mind when you hear the word “Sun”. What are your favorite sunny or shady spots in your yard?
Friday was my strawberry day. I got to the fields just a bit after 6 a.m. and was a little surprised to see a mother/father/daughter combo in the strip next to me. 6 a.m. is normally not a kid-friendly time; I know I would never have dragged Child at that time of day. (Of course, after she turned seven or eight, I never dragged her berry-picking again.)
The young kid in the next row was adamant that her dad (not her mom, just her dad) get every single good strawberry on their side. She let him know, in a fairly loud voice, when he had missed one. She would then pick it and show it to him before putting it into their flat. The rate at which she was finding good berries led me to think that Dad was doing it on purpose. Basically keeping her busy and allowing her to think she was “winning”.
When YA was young, I did occasionally let her win at some games. Yahtzee, Cribbage, Aggravation – all those were fairly easy to lose. Monopoly was a little harder because she could spot if I was doing something stupid. Same with Checkers and Risk. It wasn’t constant – just every now and then so she wouldn’t lose interest. My dad NEVER let us win; in fact he sometimes went to extraordinary lengths to keep us from winning. He thought it was a good lesson for us to learn how to lose – that classic “character-building” thing.
Eventually I didn’t need to let her win anymore and it was about that time that she came home from daycare wanting the game “Mancala”. It looked interesting so I got her a set and then lost every single game we ever played. It took me forever to even figure out the rules and I never did really master it. I think we will have it downstairs but it hasn’t been out of the box in years!
It is budget planning time for the next biennium for State agencies in ND. The legislature meets every other year here, so the planning has to be imaginative. You have to think ahead for two years of expenses.
I was asked if there would be any major budget items for our Psychology Department apart from what they have to normally budget. There actually is one this year. There is a new version of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, 5th Ed. One test kit in a soft sided case will cost $1565.10. It is essential to have.
I sent the information to our budget person, and giggled. It struck me as funny that the company selling the test tacked on the 10 cents for the cost. Really? They couldn’t absorb the dime, or just charge an extra buck for the kit?
I suppose if your business is psychometrics and the precise measure of cognitive functioning, the 10 cents tacked on the price makes perfect sense. I still think it is silly.
What is your budgeting strategy? Any silly perfectionist things you have encountered lately?
It’s been a busy week. I’ve gotten a lot done and multiple things checked off my ‘to do’ list. A couple things I even had to add so I could cross them off.
Crops are looking good, it’s a little cooler than it should be, (I sure like the temps), and plenty of moisture, borderline too much, but we’re not gonna talk about that. The corn is already knee-high and there’s some weeds coming.
It was sprayed Tuesday. Counting the plants in 17’6” (1/1000th of an acre on 30” rows) gives me an estimate of the number of plants / acre. It’s also a good way to check singulation and spacing of the seeds. I planted at a rate of 36,000 / acre. I counted 30 plants in the 17’6”. More double plants than I should have – we want them all 6” apart. I have blank spaces, then two plants. That’s an issue of the planter meter that I had overhauled this past winter. Next year I should order large flat seeds, rather than medium mixed, as the meter’s seem to handle those better.
I read an article saying that when corn isn’t actively growing, (dense soil, too wet too long) it’s not making the energy to stay green, which explains the yellow spots in fields.
Oats is knee-high and I can feel the kernels half way up the stalk. They’ll be out shortly. The wet weather has already caused some fungal growth in the oats, called rust, and I had the co-op spray for that on Monday. (left untreated, the stalk gets brittle and break off before harvest and it’s really dusty come harvest. Everything turns orange). There are a few short spots and a little bit of lighter green color in places – different soil types might hold a little more moisture and oats doesn’t like wet soil and it’s showing that.
The soybeans are coming along nicely. They have some pre-emergence herbicide applied with fertilizer so they’re pretty clean yet at this point, except for the thistles, I have a lot of thistles.
I got the corn planter and grain drill cleaned up and put away last Saturday and then I got the haybine ready to go and cut the road sides.
Monday I raked the Roadsides, meaning turned it over so the bottom could dry.
I was able to bale about 4:00 Monday.
I have added an idler wheel to the pick up on the baler. It’s something I’ve had for about two years and have been meaning to do it, and it was one of those jobs that I put off, and then it only took five minutes to do.
I have my camera on the baler so I could see the strings on the bales.
I spent time thinking about how haying has changed over the years: from dad cutting with a 6 foot sickle mower and pulling a crimper behind it, (which is all combined in this one machine now) And the different haybines that I’ve had over the years. This machine was one of the first things I bought on my own under my name. I’ve mentioned before how good mom was at getting my credit established and getting machinery in my name.
I had a new summer helper out. He’ll be a senior in high school, he’s a friend of a friend, lives in an apartment in Rochester, neither of his parents grew up in the country, he really doesn’t know anything about mechanics or farming, but he is a good worker, and he’s willing to try anything, and he doesn’t seem to stop. Plus, he’s just plain INTERERESTED in learning! He was only here on Tuesday, because we got rained out on Wednesday, but I think he’ll do real good.
With his help Tuesday, we got the four bolts replaced on the gearbox of the brush mower, and took the blades off and sharpened them. Then I was able to mow a path for the new fence, and we dug a hole for the first post. You want to set your fence posts about 2 1/2 to 3 feet deep. Easier said than done when it’s rock and clay in the bottom 2 feet.
But we got the first post set. On Thursday, I tore out a short section of fence, dug two more holes, and never hit any rock! It was clay and sticky and slow going, but not all that hard with My two-handed manual post digger.
It looks brand new because my friend Paul painted it after he borrowed it. I used it making fence with my dad so it’s been around a long time. I was today years old when I learned they make longer handles for post hole diggers.
Mind. Blown! This has 48 inch wood handles, and the metal part is about a foot, so it’s 5 feet tall but when you’re digging a hole 2 feet deep the handles are down at your waist and it’s hard on a body. And then I saw a video with a guy using one with 6 foot handles. Meaning it’s still at chest level when you’re digging the hole and I thought that was the most amazing thing! Why has that not dawned on me before?? I’ve always said, I am not the idea man, I’m the one that makes it happen. So I don’t often think of things like that. I can order some on Amazon, but of course I would like them today, not next week, so they’re on my wish list.
Anyway, I dug a couple holes at the ends of the fence, and ran a string line and I am renting one of those hydraulic “dingo” post hole diggers on Saturday. Need to dig about 10 more holes. Today’s job is laying out the posts and marking the post locations.
I went to Fleet Farm on Thursday and picked up two rolls of Barbwire, at $104 per roll, I don’t know what I paid for barbwire 25 years ago, the last time I built a fence, but it wasn’t that much. And 50 steel posts, called T posts, and 10 wood posts and that was about $800. Jeepers, sure glad I don’t have miles of fence to build, this is doing about 500 feet.
It will be real nice to have done. I also will have to tear out the old fence. I went up Thursday night to mow along the old fence, until I wrapped barbwire around one of the blades. Came back home, took the mower deck off, took the old blades off and remove the jumble of wire, put new blades on, put the deck back on, and will mow again another day.
Got in the house at 9:30 PM.
Got the carburetor off the Kawasaki 4 wheeler and ordered a new one off Amazon. Hope to have that running soon.
Trail Baboon 