When I was a freshman in high school, PBS aired The Six Wives of Henry VIII – a one-hour segment for each wife over the course of six weeks. I do not remember why I watched the first one – it could have been because one of my folks turned it on, although neither of them were big history buffs. It could also have just been a happy accident – by the end of the first episode, I was completely hooked. That was the day that my interest in the Tudors was born. About a year later, Masterpiece Theatre showed Elizabeth I, another six-part series. Glenda Jackson was fabulous in this. It was also about this time that I saw Anne of a Thousand Days. Any time I think of Anne Boleyn, I also see Genevieve Bujold in my minds’ eye. Even when I hear this:
I would not call myself an expert in Elizabeth or any of her Tudor relatives, but I’m pretty sure I know more than your average Joe. I remember being amazed when one of my Metro State professors, who I’ve always thought was just the smartest guy ever, didn’t know the order of the six queens. Didn’t everybody know that. Guess not.
Six, a musical that is currently playing on Broadway hasn’t piqued my interest yet – I still have to get around the weirdness of having a lot of singing and dancing based on what are almost all pretty tragic stories. Truly, Anne of Cleves (#4) was the only one of the six who managed to come out ahead of the game. I know a few people who have seen the musical and they say it definitely is good but I’m not ready yet. Maybe one of these days.
Yesterday, in 1558, Queen Mary passed away and Elizabeth came to the throne. I thought I’d mark the occasion by reading Elizabeth I CEO: Strategic Lessons from the Leader Who Built an Empire. It isn’t a new book but I’ve avoided it because “CEO” and “strategic lessons” aren’t on my favorite words list. For some reason this week I’m thinking I might enjoy this – maybe give me some insights that I haven’t considered before. We’ll see.
When was the last time you pushed yourself to read a book you weren’t sure about? And how did that turn out?
This blog was going to be all about the practice burn the fire department did at our old Haverhill Townhall. But then I looked at the weather forecast and my farming priorities changed. Talking snow in the 10 day and some cooler temps and I rearranged things. I’m still not sure if it’s snow to stay, but I decided I better get some outdoor things done and suddenly the blog turns into all this other stuff.
When I’m working in the machine shed, because we already have spotty cell phone service down in the valley, and then inside a metal building, I can’t get cell phone or Wi-Fi in there. 30 years ago it was a big deal when I ran a phone line out to the machine shed. I could call John Deere right from the shop while I was working on something and that was a big ass deal. It wasn’t long after we all had cell phones and the wall phone became irrelevant but still, I thought having a phone in the shop made me pretty hot stuff. It’s along those lines that I need to have, well I feel like I need to have, well I WANT internet out there. It’s not like I’m installing a TV and turning it into a man cave, but texting is a major line of communication for us and I’m always looking up something or other, so it’s a need more than a want. Therefore I am installing a Wi-Fi bridge to send the Internet from the house wirelessly over to the machine shed. A cable from our basement modem through the garage and to a device on the side of the garage, and another device at the peak of the machine shed and a cable that will plug into a router in there. It’s good that I have friends that know this stuff and could point me in the right direction, and it’s good to have YouTube to show you how to do it. The one on the garage is done and working and Wednesday morning I was mounting the one on the machine shed when I got a phone call that my second garage door would be installed the next day. Well crap, I thought that was coming next week and while I’m mostly ready for it, I wasn’t completely ready. So I spent two hours putting a couple supports in place and getting flashing installed where the tracks will be. I had to work an event Wednesday evening and then another hour Wednesday night to finish the door up before the gentlemen arrived Thursday morning and installed the door.
Kelly said it best: “It’s like ‘Let’s Make a Deal!’ Do I want Door #1 or Door #2??” This is called vertical lift garage door. It all came about because I bought a used garage door and opener at an auction for this location. My thought is this will be a good place to park the lawnmowers or the gator or the small tractors while leaving the big door and opening for the big tractor. But then the loft hasn’t materialized and regular garage door tracks would be in the way, which led me to a vertical door. Which also means of course, the door that I bought cheap at auction doesn’t work. Well heck, it’s only money.
I’m heading out to chisel some more, want to try and get that done before the temps get too cold and I should be able to finish that before the weekend.
I’ve also had a contractor out to look at moving some dirt and fixing a waterway. A spot that’s always wet in the spring and the last several years the water runs down the edge of the field rather than staying in this grassy area. That area has overgrown with Willow trees and Box Elder and really, to fix it right, we need to tear out about 200 yards of trees. The contractor is hoping to get too that early December.
I think I have this weekend open, so I shall work on picking up hoses and taking off the outdoor faucet, and until they predict a snowfall amount, I’m not gonna worry about picking up the buckets and such for the chickens yet. I suppose I might have to move a water bucket inside if the temps stay cool. I did put the back on the chicken coop this week.
I’ve seen the three ducks flying overhead. I’m not sure where they’re hanging out, but I’m glad they’re still around.
Next week I need to start lighting another show. And it’s a Christmas show of all things. Knowing my love of Christmas music should make me a joy to live with. And then the second week of December I will have holiday concerts at the college. I should start stocking up on alcohol now.
NEXT week I’ll get to the burning of the townhall.
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?
A couple of weeks ago, we hit the 512th anniversary of when the Sistine Chapel was first opened to the public for viewing; Michelangelo Buonarotti spent seven years working on that ceiling between 1508 and 1512.
The story of his work on the Chapel and his relationship with Pope Julius II is pretty well documented by Irving Stone’s The Agony & the Ecstasy, which came out in 1961. I haven’t read it but reviews have always said that it’s a fairly well done biography, using mostly primary sources including a lot of Michelangelo’s letters and writings.
I’ve seen the movie several times – it got hugely good press when it came out in `65. I think it portrays a pretty accurate look at the times although modern reviewers wish that the movie had been more “spicy” and suggest that Michelangelo’s life was more passionate than shown– that he wasn’t just a roboton with veins of paint (a great line by Rex Harrison in the movie – “What runs in Michelangelo’s veins is not blood – it’s paint”).
I’ve been lucky enough to visit the Sistine Chapel and it IS incredible. However I can’t help but wonder at how Michelangelo could have labored for seven years on the project. In fact, it turns out that a couple of decades later, he returned to work on The Last Judgments of Popes paintings. So technically MORE than seven years.
A project taking that long would make me crazy. My “all flowers, no grass” program in the front yard was a 20-year endeavor, but it was short spurts each year, nothing in comparison to hand painting an entire chapel. The front porch project took four years but except for the two LONG days that tim and I spent sand-blasting the old stucco off, it didn’t seem like an overwhelming to-do.
I’m not sure how I would keep up my motivation for such a big job that would take so long.
I’m re-reading Fried Green Tomatoes for Sunday – not sure the first time I read it but it was quite some time ago, before the movie.
In the chapter about Stump and his friend Peggy taking a picture of the dead Harold Pinto, Fannie Flagg writes that “Peggy screamed … and Stump squealed like a girl.” I did a double-take and re-wound the CD a bit to make sure I’d heard it correctly. Ticked me off.
That made me think about the end of Sahara, a movie that I adore even though it has so many plot holes that you could strain rice through it, when the Matthew McConaughy characters says “you do throw like a girl”. This pisses me off every time I watch the movie. Since it’s the very end of the movie, often I just turn it off at the beginning of that scene.
Guess I have trouble with phrases ending “like a little girl”. I don’t even like the Bob Dylan song although “she breaks just like a little girl” isn’t quite as derogatory as the usual “like a girl” comment.
Run like a girl, cry like a girl, squeal like a girl, throw like a girl, drive like a girl (one of those Allstate Mayhem commercials) – these all drive me crazy.
I guess don’t really have anything else to say – just ranting today.
Any words/phrases that make you nuts? Anything you need to rant about?
My gardening juju goes away in September. Gardening in May and June really gets me going but by fall, I’m so done. I think it’s because the stuff that needs doing in the fall is just clean up – nothing is going to leaf out or flower or even green up due to my work and attention. And I detest the leaf situation the most.
My house and yard are in the middle of a weird neighborhood vortex; for some reason, even though most of the neighbors have the same number of trees as I do, way more leaves end up in my yard than the others. I’ve documented this over the years. So so many leaves. I’m not rabid about cleaning up leaves; I understand about leaving some leaves and plants for pollinators. However if I don’t clean up some of the leaves, then I end up with masses of wet and sometimes moldy mess in the spring.
But I hate raking and bagging leaves. I’ve always hated it. In high school, I was part of a church group that did chores for seniors and even then, I told everybody I would do any odd job but raking. Once YA was old enough I bought her a child-sized rake and I co-opted her into helping — some years I even paid her.
Now at the ripe old age of 29 she has decided that dealing with leaves is something important to her. She adores our electric lawn mower and she’s been out several times now, mowing, mulching and bagging. After a session over the weekend, she informed me that she will probably do at least one more pass in the backyard and once more out front. I haven’t asked her even once to do any of this and she hasn’t even hinted at any money crossing her palm. It’s just amazing.
And don’t worry, believe me when I say all this activity does not denude our yard of leaves. Plenty left for the pollinators!
Do you have anything you like to do in fall (or NOT like to do) to get ready for winter?
One of my little next-door neighbors is turning six this week. Since her mom will be out of town for a work trip on her actual birthday, Marie (name changed to protect the innocent) had her birthday party yesterday.
Apparently her first choice for a theme party was Ghost Spider. I had no idea who this was – had to look it up – a Marvel friend of Spider Man.
One component of the party that had been promised was to be a visit from a real-life character. Unfortunately there are no Ghost Spider impersonators in the Twin Cities. Marie had a choice – Ghost Spider theme party with no real-life entertainment or a different theme.
I got a text yesterday afternoon that said “if you want to see a princess coming up the walk, go to the window now”. It was Tiana from Princess and the Frog. I have to say, she was beautiful and the costume was quite luxurious. (She also traveled with a “handler” which I thought was pretty funny.) As she was going up the front steps to the house, you could see all the little girls crowded onto the porch, waiting to greet her. Apparently, not only did she read to the girls, she also sang; Marie’s parents, who are both music teachers, reported afterwards that Tiana had a really nice voice. Win win all around.
YA had quite a few theme birthdays growing up but we never had any live-action characters. If we had, we would have had Barney, a pirate, a cat, a dog, a surfer dude, Pocahontas and a cupcake! Thank goodness she’s past the stage where I have to keep up with the Jones’ now!
Did you ever have a theme birthday party as a kid? If you didn’t, what would you have liked?
Got the corn out on Thursday and I got to ride around in the combine for an hour. It was fun and satisfying and a weight off my shoulders and a bright spot in the day.
The dogs and I observed them finishing a field, then they moved up along the road, and that’s when I got in. I watched them unloading on the go, and it was good to see there wasn’t many ears on the ground. A nice surprise for this year.
Their combine is only a few years old, so it has a lot of bells and whistles. Like a back up camera when he shifts to reverse, and a warning screen and tone when the grain tank is ¾ full, and another when it’s ‘full’, but they can still go for a while after that. The grain tank is right behind the cab, (keeping it in the center of gravity) and there’s a window behind the operators head that is about the middle of the tank (and it’s always so dirty you can barely see through it) however there is so much corn that can be held above the window, and most guys have tank extensions, so you really can’t see how full it is until it runs over the front and hits the top of the cab, and then you get ‘Cab Corn’. That’s a thing the guys try to avoid. Evidently it’s a rather tongue-in-cheek sign of failure. “Ope! Bop got cab corn!” Hence, the sensors that tell you the tank is full. There’s also a ‘low fuel’ warning and it went off several times before they sent one guy back to get the fuel trailer. Here they are refilling with fuel and DEF. (Diesel Exhaut Fluid – an emissions product).
I’ve mentioned a few times before how much fuel these big machines hold. The combine might hold 300+ gallons. Same with the tractors. And that’s why they pull a fuel trailer to the field rather than running the machine back home or hauling in 5 gallons cans.
They corn yielded better than I predicted. Roughly 180 bushels / acre, which is REALLY impressive for our farm. Imagine what it would have done without all the deer and raccoons out there! I got a little over 7000 bushels. Test weight was good, and moisture was between 16 and 17%. It needs to be dried to 15% for storage, and that will cost a bit, but not as much as drying it from 22%, which has happen as well.
This photo from the coop website showing each load, total bushels, moisture, and testweight. From this total, I had a couple thousand bushels put into storage to sell in a few months. I’m being optimistic the price will come up. Maybe it will, maybe it won’t. But I can always use the money.
Many nights when daughter and dogs are walking, the dogs pick a fight with a raccoon out in the corn. I expected to find 20’ diameter circles of flat corn from their fights.
I hadn’t seen the ducks in a week and I was hoping maybe they had flown south, vs being eaten. I was very excited to see them out in the yard Thursday afternoon.
I was able to spend a few nights working on the shop.
Course Tuesday was elections so that was a full day.
And now I’m hoping to spend a couple days doing fall tillage and I’m excited about spending time in the tractor.
We had the last school show on Friday morning. After the show while the kids are waiting to get out, I have a moving light slowly sweeping around the stage and audience. I figured the kids would enjoy that. This audience loved it even more than I had hoped. Every time it hit them they cheered. I was standing by some kids who were getting restless so I was talking to them and telling them about that light. One asked if I could make it purple. I pulled out my phone and showed them how I could control it through my phone. Well. Game on. “Make it red!” “Make it yellow!” and I changed patterns and the kids shrieked with delight. It was a wonderful moment and it filled me with joy.
Our dog Bailey, she suckers Luna into something so often, I can’t believe Luna falls for it every time. Bailey will bark at nothing, but it gets Luna all excited. She’s pawing at the doors and climbing the walls to get out. It might be 3AM, but she’s ready to go. And she runs out barking, not even sure which direction she should be going. And Bailey comes to the door and gets petted and she’s happy. Eventually Luna will come back. Sometimes Bailey can get both Luna and Humphrey out, and they’re all barking different directions. Ya know, it would help if we all knew what we were barking about, don’t ya think? Life lesson there.
WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE A WARNING LIGHT FOR? BE WHIMSICAL!
(I Need a warning light telling me I’ve walked away from my water bottle again. )
I’m thinking it might be a healing thing to have a day where we each post something that gives you peace or hope. I’ve seen tons of good stuff lately, and it feels good to share it. These already showed up on Wednesday’s blog:
Do something you can do and enjoy doing to focus your mind on the positive. Chris
Remember, be the light you want to be, shine it on others. Ben
Love for others and ourselves are acts of resistance to oppression and fascism. Let us begin there. Renee
I’m sure there’s more from out there in Baboonland…
Please share today:
– a poem, phrase, or quote
– a song
– a book, author, or story that inspires you, or calms you
– a random act of kindness performed
– a random act of kindness you’ve been the recipient of
– a link to some beautiful piece of art
– a meditation, prayer, or other piece of wisdom
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?
Trail Baboon 