For my birthday, my dear friend Susan got me a javelina cookie cutter. Pretty niche gift, right? You wouldn’t think there would be enough javelina fans in the world who need a cookie cutter, but I’m glad somebody thought this was necessary.
Took me a few weeks but I finally decided last Friday to fire up the oven and make a batch of cookies. The first aha moment was how large the cookie cutter actually is. It came packaged in it’s own little box so I didn’t really have it in my brain how large it was until I opened it; it’s a good six inches long. Basically the size of three medium-sized cookies together.
The second surprise was related to the first. Being so large, I only got 17 cookies out of the entire recipe; I didn’t roll them too thinly because I was planning on sending a small package to Susan when they were finished.
The third revelation was also related to one and two. I didn’t have a tin or tupper that I could fit the cookies into. This wasn’t an irrevocable problem as the Dollar Tree is ten minutes from my house.
They baked up nicely but there turned out to me one more shock. Instead of making chocolate icing from scratch, I grabbed a can of chocolate icing that I had in the cabinet. It was clear almost immediately that this ooey gooey icing, while being quite yummy, was never going to set up nicely for stacking them into a tin and sending them via the postal service. I considered stopping mid javelinas and making a sturdier icing but I didn’t want to waste the icing I had. The cookies went straight into the fridge and even after sitting overnight, still too sticky to mail.
Oh well, best last plans. Guess I’ll have to do another batch at some point this fall and think it all through a little more.
The cookies are quite nice and very cute. I even bought a cheap comb at Walgreens to give them that javelina-y look.
What kind of “out there” cookie cutter would you like to see made? What kind of icing do you prefer on your cookies?
I don’t know what happened to this week, it was one of those weeks that feels like it just kind of disappeared even though last weekend was a long time ago.
I did the usual college stuff, plus homework, went to play rehearsals Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday nights. Saturday morning I have a theater board meeting and I’ll do some work at the theater Saturday afternoon. Sunday we’re going up to see “Back to The Future” the musical. It got a pretty decent review with special emphasis on the technical stuff so that will give me something to look forward to.
tim was in Rochester so he picked up some eggs.
I did finish planting rye last Sunday afternoon, and on Thursday I returned the seed that I didn’t use.
I took Thursday off from the college so I could work on my machine shed. I snapped a chalk line on the floor from the two existing exterior posts that will be the ends of my new wall, and then I spent quite a while figuring out the bottom plate and where doors will be and how much room there will be in the middle between the doors. I decided I need to get going on this wall because I was getting anxious about it, and I’m avoiding it, and doing a lot of putzy other little things, and walls don’t get done that way. Meaning there’s nothing to do but to do it.
A few dairy guys have started chopping corn silage (something I always enjoyed and I kinda miss), and I’ve seen a few bean fields that are losing their leaves. It means Fall and harvest is coming. Daughter was talking about Christmas the other day; she’s got a few items in mind. I had to laugh that I wasn’t thinking about Christmas yet, but she pointed out Halloween is next month, and then it’s just 2 months. Yes, yes it is. The circle is coming around.
This spring when I ordered all those baby chicks, remember the batch of roosters that I mistakenly ordered? I guess I was too busy most of the summer to really pay much attention, and now at night when I’m throwing out corn and all the chickens are gathered around, I’m starting to count quite a lot of roosters.
They are kind of pretty, but I think I’ve counted 13 new roosters, not to mention the four older roosters we already have. And that’s far too many roosters. I had found a place that would butcher them, so maybe I really need to get back in touch with them and get something on the schedule. These are called Blue Lace Wyandotte and they’re really pretty. Although the females are large and kind of ornery. There’s been one sitting in a nest box most of the summer and even with daughter’s milk jug shield, she won’t usually reach under that one for eggs.
I went to Savers for more shirts. I thought I was going to have to use the sleeve I cut off to add the second pocket, (I have one shirt that has very shallow pockets. I can’t even put a pen in the pocket. Eventually I cut a hole in the bottom of that pocket so my pen and pencils will fit.) That’s why I need a second pocket.
Monday night, Husband and I were sitting on the stoep after work, when we noticed a very populous flock of birds flying southwest over our neighborhood. They were pretty high flyers, but appeared to be blackbirds of some sort.
it soon became apparent that there were tremendous numbers of birds overhead. The line of flyers went on and on for almost 20 minutes, and we estimated that there must have been at least a thousand birds in the flock. I can’t imagine why so many of them were travelling together like that. I don’t think it was coincidence that only a few hours after they flew over, we started to get smoke from northern and western fires.
I can’t imagine where such a large number of birds would land to get water and food. They would need a huge forest of trees to roost in. I am not sure where blackbirds go for the winter, but I hope there is room for them all.
What are some of the more amazing natural phenomena you have witnessed? Seeing many migratory birds now?
First false fall, I believe that’s what we’re in. I’ve seen a few soybeans turning color, the leaves are starting to drop, and it sure is getting dark sooner. The temperature has been very nice the last week. I don’t know if the barn swallows have all moved on, or if it’s just because I’m at work and I don’t see them so much. I did notice a couple flying around the other day.
The deer are really doing a number on the soybeans. It’s surprising how many leaves and beans a herd of deer can eat overnight. Most of my beans are over my knees, but that one field I rent, the beans are barely to my knees there, and the top of the entire field has been nibbled by the deer. It’s a lot of dollars they’re eating.
I spent a few hours in the tractor Thursday night going over the oat ground a second time. The second time, I worked the field perpendicular to the way I worked it the first time. All an effort to work it up better. And I used the boating app to find my way again.
I’m hoping to have started planting winter rye by the time you read this. I use it as a cover crop to keep some roots in the ground over winter, and to hopefully provide a little extra nitrogen come spring. Daughter and Bailey joined me in the tractor as my tractor buddies for a while. That gave us some nice time to talk about her day and I shared random tidbits about the crescent moon.
I’m sure I’ve mentioned before how I have the entire audio recording of the movie All That Jazz in my music library. I hadn’t listened to it for a while and I had it on the tractor that night. I can recite it line for line and every time I hear it I pick up something different. It’s loosely based on the life of actor, dancer, choreographer, director Bob Fosse. He wasn’t a real nice man, but he was a very talented man. In the tractor, and later, wearing earbuds, I could hear subtle background noises I hadn’t detected before. It makes me appreciate him more as a director for the details he added.
Sometimes while driving down I35 or Highway 52, I wonder how many of my fields a highway like that would take up. It makes me a little sad, to think about how quickly a bulldozer can change the landscape and erase any memories of a farmstead that may have lasted years and raised generations. It should still be called progress that it doesn’t take as many small farms to produce the food we need, but the lost memories still make me sad.
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I feel fortunate that I’ve made some pretty good business connections over the years and I’m lucky that one businessman has let me borrow his scissor lift for a few days. Kelly and I used it to paint the front of the theater last Saturday.
A year ago we did this with an extension ladder on a day it was about 90°F And the whole thing was just hot and miserable. This second time around we were much more prepared and it was almost fun. My nephew let me borrow his paint sprayer and we knew how to tape off things a little better (or at all) and it went pretty well. I’m also using the lift to swap some lighting in the theater. The Rep Theater was fortunate to receive large grant to purchase a new Lighting Console and some LED lighting. I’ve been having a good time getting that set up, and when I got the lights to turn color the first time I let out a big “YEAH BABY!”.
At one point I knocked over a riser section and wedged it under part of the scissor lift. I swear, there are days I should not be left alone.
At home I am rarely left alone thanks to my white shadow.
Unless she’s on a walk with daughter, she’s not far from me, hoping I’ll be doing something interesting soon.
DO YOU SWEAT THE DETAILS? I’VE ALWAYS THOUGHT THEY’RE NOT IMPORTANT.
Today’s post comes to us from Barbara in Rivertown!
I have a friend with a Twin Cities daughter, going through a transition, who needed at least a temporary place for two lovely parakeets. Since my friend travels too often to have any pets, her first thought was to seek info about possible Animal Shelters, etc., that might take them, and I said I’d help her with research. Our PJ gave us a couple of leads (that eventually proved unsuccessful).
Meanwhile, our weekly “happy-hour-healing-group” of four women met at Friend’s house, where the parakeets were staying. We noticed that the more we all talked, the more the birds chattered. I started watching them more closely and sort of “bonded” with them. There was wine. By the time we left, I had decided to give them a trial run.
We’ve had them for a whole week! The green and yellow female is about 5 years old; the other is a white male with a bit of blue “trim”, 7 years. They’re good friends, keep each other company; I’m told they have had clutches of eggs in the past, but not in the past few years. (Maybe she’s gone through menopause.)
So Husband and I are now the “parents” of two parakeets. It’s good to see him curious about these tiny things, and we’re enjoying having something else alive around here. They seem to go through periods of quiet, followed by chatty sessions. If we read aloud, they’re right in there with their opinions!
The birds don’t require as much time or hassle as some other pets we’ve had; we’re sharing the chores, and getting to know our way around them. The books from the library are at least 30 years old, but there is plenty of more-current info online. [Wes – I plan on asking you occasional questions – will email you if you’re not on the Trail.]
Since their former names are both names of close relatives or friends, we’ve decided to re-name them.
What shall we name the parakeets? Got any bird stories?Any advice for us?
You all know I’m of two minds where the squirrels are concerned. Honestly I don’t mind that when I feed the birds, I’m also feeding the squirrels; I just don’t like when the little rodents get piggy.
Over the years I thought I had come to some balance – one feeder that I think of as the squirrel feeder and three others that I think of as for the birds. Two of these feeders have little ledges for the birds can perch on but if a heavier squirrel tries to get on, it pulls down the outer part of the feeder to close up the holes. The third has very small holes so the squirrels can’t get their noses or paws in. I was feeling that we had finally achieved equilibrium – until I looked out the window and saw two squirrels shaking the little-holed feeder from side to side so that the seed was spilling out onto the ground. Aaarrggghhh.
A few days later I was at Gertens to take my terrarium class and I was checking prices in the birdseed section when one of the associates asked me if I was finding what I wanted. As I was still a bit raw about the squirrels, I made some off-hand remark about something the birds like but the squirrels don’t. Her eyes lit up and she said “I have just the thing for you”. She led me over to an section and showed me something called Flaming Hot Feast by the Mr. Bird company. It has hot sauce in it and this gal explained that birds don’t register capsaicin but squirrels do.
I was extremely skeptical but since I was still mad I thought I would at least try it. I bought a small cylinder and because I wasn’t willing to risk more money, I didn’t even buy the cylinder holder; when I got home I jerry-rigged a holder and hung it up on one of the shepherds poles in the backyard. I was amazed that it lived up to it’s name and hype. Not only did the squirrels completely ignore it, the birds clearly loved it. In fact it has led to an explosion of birds on all the feeders. That first week when YA and I were sitting out back, I counted 35 birds at one point.
I did eventually go get the cylinder holder and I’ve moved up to the larger cylinder as it’s a better per ounce price. I also sourced a rain cover. It’s like a little hat that sits above; rain is the only enemy of Flaming Hot Feast as it washes the “sticky” off and the cylinder kind of melts. Luckily they sell FHF at Bachmans just down the street so I don’t have to go all the way to St. Paul for it. I’ve sourced it online and have found it a bit cheaper but to get the better price you have to purchase at least 4 at a time and it hurts my pocketbook to spend that much money on birdseed at one time. Since I had initially jerry-rigged the cylinder holder I thought maybe I should made my own hot sauce for the feeder but knowing myself, this will be much easier.
So the squirrels are still getting fed in my backyard but for now, the birds are benefitting the most, which is more to my liking. I am sure that with time, the squirrels will figure out a way to get around the Flaming Hot Feast but for the time being I’m happy.
We’ve certainly gained some Growing Degree Units lately. The Pioneer Seed website shows 2450 GDU’s to date for Rochester. 2288 would be normal. Not as hot as last summer, and higher than 2022. Sure, blame it on corn sweat…
From an article in USA Today, they state: “During the growing season, an acre of corn sweats off about 3,000 to 4,000 gallons of water a day, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. In Iowa, corn pumps out “a staggering 49 to 56 billion gallons of water into the atmosphere each day” throughout the state, the National Weather Service said. That can add 5 to 10 degrees to the dew point, a measure of the humidity in the air, on a hot summer day.” Farming always gets the rap.
This year’s crop is pretty much what it is now; outside of weather conditions, not much we can do to either kill it or improve it, but we still need to manage what’s there, and continue to hope for the best, and plan for next year’s crop.
The corn and soybeans honestly look pretty good, and some scouting shows a decent crop, knock-on-wood. Hail or an early frost can still put a kink in that. And the prices are the lowest they’ve been in several years. So the best we can hope for is quantity. Which, of course, makes a surplus and drives the price down.
I went to turn on the chickens fan last week, and it ran for 4 seconds and quit. I banged on it and jiggled all the cords and it wouldn’t go. Dragged out the old barn fan that I used to use, and it ran for 4 seconds and quit. A minute later it would run for 4 seconds and quit again and that’s how that went. Neither of those really was much help then. I found an old box fan under the seats at a theater the next day and hung that up for the chickens.
The last couple nights I’ve been out digging up the oat fields. I wanted it done before it rained again. (We got an inch of rain Thursday night.) The grasses have gotten ahead of me and it didn’t work up as well as it might have had I done this two weeks ago. Foxtail mostly, comes on fast and thick and it doesn’t flow through the digger too well.
Kelly came with me one night. This tractor has the ‘buddy seat’. Kelly was my buddy for a change.
Man, so many bugs! I hate turning the lights on…sure glad I’m inside the cab!
I put the alternator put back on the swather, got it running again, and mowed the weeds along the road and over at the edge of some fields. I’ve backed it into the shed and will worry about it next July I guess. I got the generator put back on the ‘C’, but haven’t got it started again yet. One day I had to drive to St. Charles, about 20 miles East of Rochester. I had lunch at Del’s Café and sat at the counter and had soup and a cheeseburger.
From St. Charles, I was head to Plainview about 20 miles to the North. I didn’t want to take the old, boring route up to Plainview, so I went through Whitewater State Park to Elba, and then that great gravel road through Whitewater’s lowlands, to Hwy 30, and through Beaver to Plainview. I had the road to myself, and I sighed contentedly several times. It was a great drive.
Back when I was ‘only’ farming, this was a good time of the year to take some day trips. Oats and straw are done. We’d be between hay crops, the crops are growing, and we’d drive to Wanamingo and look through the machinery dealerships or something fun like that. (machinery dealership lots; the farmers friend) Then we’d find lunch in a diner someplace. We attended another wedding on Saturday. Kelly’s cousin. Second wedding for each, and they’ve been together 13 years, with 6 kids between the two of them. From Junior in high school to finishing college. The kids have pretty much grown up together, and they’re such a fun family and all get along, and it was a happy, fun, beautiful wedding. Bride and Groom read vows to each other, the kids read vows to both of them, and they gave all the kids their own rings. Everyone cried. It was a great time.
Here’s a photo of Luna trying to encourage a rooster to play more. They did chase each other back and forth a few times before Bailey, the peacekeeper, would break them up.
I’ve been to the Fair in all kinds of weather. Granted, no snow but light rain, heavy rain, serious winds, tornado watches and heat. Lots of heat. In fact, last year there were five days that were 90 degrees and higher. I was there for two of those days. The other three days were no slouches either, temperature wise.
So on Monday bringing in a forecast of 90, we weren’t too worried. We took our fans and headed out, getting on the first bus and arriving at the fair at 7:45 a.m. Got a cold bottle of water right away (along with a crepe and cookies….) before heading to the animal barns. We thought it would be a good strategy to get the barns done before the day got too crazy. This was a good strategy but after an hour or so petting cows, lambs, goats and horses in non-air conditioned barns, we were squirming. At that point it was only 80 degrees but the humidity was 85% and you could feel every percent of that. We were both dripping.
Walked up to the Pet Pavilion to find that the German Shorthair Pointers were not doing any of their demonstrations. We did pet the dogs that were there and wandered about looking at a few displays but it was brutal. I would have been willing to sit in the sun (with my fan and my baseball cap) to watch the dog dock diving, as it didn’t require any movement on my part, but YA didn’t want to. It was nasty enough that neither of us was too interested in food and we’d filled up the water bottle three times. YA didn’t even last through one level of the Grandstand, which she normally loves – if there was air in there, you couldn’t tell.
I wasn’t too happy either and I didn’t want to do anything in particular enough to try to coax YA into it. So for the first time EVER, we headed back to the bus at noon. Didn’t even pretend that we might come back so skipped getting our hands stamped on the way back. When the bus arrived, the folks getting off said “it’s freezing on the bus”. I said “great”.
When we got home we lounged in the backyard in the shade, filled up Guinevere’s little pool, soaked our feet and tried not to feel completely defeated.
There’s so much stuff going on, I don’t have time to get to the other stuff.
One day I met a friend in the grocery store, and he was carrying a bag of coleslaw mix. I’ve always liked coleslaw but never made my own. The friend told me how easy it is to make coleslaw and I started making my own and it is enjoyable and quite tasty. Last week I bought a fresh cabbage, and carrots, and this batch is even better than ever. Summertime goodness.
I took the generator off Kelly’s tractor, the C, and the alternator off the swather and took both of those to a local small business to be repaired. Once I get them back and reinstalled, I’ll be able to check them both off my To-Do list and hopefully both those things will stay charged and ready to start.
I feel like I spent so much time doing other “stuff”, I don’t get much crossed off my list.
Last week, coming back from Chatfield, my truck seemed to be making a thumping noise. I was trying to decide if it was the road, but no, got off the highway and it was still there. Then I was going through the dash gauges trying to find the tire pressures and there was a BANG and the tread came off a rear wheel. Bent both sides of the wheel well and ripped off a mud flap.
But the tire wasn’t flat, so I slowly drove the 10 miles home, took both rear wheels off, and took them to my tire place, Appel Service, in Millville. It was Monday so all the bars and restaurants were closed, but one place let me buy a bottle of pop. I walked around town and sat on a bench and enjoyed the weather while they put on new tires. Glad this happened close to home and not on the way to Minneapolis or something.
The coyotes have been back in the early mornings. One bark from Bailey, and Luna, sleeping in our bed, goes bezerk. That sure wakes us out of a sound sleep. And I stood outside trying to figure out what they’re barking at. And then I saw …‘something’…100 yards away down on the swamp road. And then it turned, and it was a coyote. Back in the house for the rifle and of course it was gone by then. I don’t think it got any breakfast that day. I fired one shot, just to warn it, and it hasn’t come back for a few days.
We got the barn painted. Here’s a before and after photo:
It looks real nice and I didn’t have to be involved. Well, except to write a check.
A former college student got married on the Rep Theater stage last week. It was really nice.
Cutting grass one night and the mower started running rough. That just about sucked all the wind out of me. “Can’t things just work??” And the next day I cleaned the spark plug, air filter, filled it with gas and thank goodness the lawn mower fairies must have been in because it worked fine. Then the belt came off the deck. Sigh.
The next day I went to John Deere and got both a new deck belt and a new drive belt and we’re back to cutting grass again. Until the next thing happens.
Classes start Monday at the college. I have one online class this fall, “Interpersonal communication”. I know the instructor and I asked him how communication could be online? He said this is about learning the “theory” of communication. He said I can still be a jerk if I want to be after class, but at least I would know HOW to communicate.
Watching the DNC convention and they had a huge balloon drop on the last night. Back in my stagehand days, I was part of an event that included a balloon drop. I remember whomever was in charge showing us what rope to pull. They were very specific about giving us a signal when it was time. Myself and another guy up in the catwalks waiting. We can’t find our guy, no one on the intercom, no idea what we’re supposed to be doing. But they’ve hit the climatic high point and it seems like this would be a good time, but again, they were very specific about telling us when. And yet there’s no sign of our guy. But once everyone started staring at the ceiling, we decided now’s the time and we released the balloons. You really do need a LOT of balloons to make it look like something. That group didn’t have that many.
I’m adding some 10’ tall, 6×6 posts next to some rotted posts in the pole barn.
Too many years of manure have rotted out the bases. The shed was built maybe in the 1970’s?
Dig a hole and bolt the new post to the old post. It takes 6 trips with the gator to get all the tools and bolts and drills, and back for a step ladder and sledgehammer, and another trip for the tractor and some gravel, and then another trip because a 5/8” bolt doesn’t fit in a ½” hole.
So it goes.
Mom used to say, “What your brain forgets your feet will remember”.
I’ve got three posts to fix and then I can check that off the list and move on to something else.
I am driving to Brookings, SD tomorrow for a week to look after my grandson while his parents work and the elementary schools haven’t yet opened and his usual child care center is closed for the week. Husband is staying home to look after the garden and the dog. He will meet us in Detroit Lakes for Labor Day weekend at a lake cabin we have rented.
I bought a crate of peaches yesterday to bring along. The local fruit man had some lovely looking freestone peaches from Utah, of all places, He usually has Washington peaches this time of year, but the orchard he goes to was busy with the apple harvest. Grandson loves to cook so we will make peach pie fillings to freeze and maybe make peach sorbet or ice cream. His parents have requested peach crisp. I am also bringing pesto and home canned tomato puree. We shall eat well.
In a continuing effort to declutter our home I am bringing all the children’s books we have to our grandson. These are books that our son and daughter had as children. Grandson and I can sort through and keep the ones he likes and discard the others. I also expect I will do leggo construction and we will visit the public library and the wonderful local children’s museum. It will be a nice break for me. I will even have a terrier to care for since Son and DIL have a Westie.
I have very fond memories of the times I spent with my grandparents on their farms, and I want my grandson to have some fond memories of us, too. I am glad Husband can meet us at the lake next week.
What activities would you plan for a week with a 6 year old boy and a terrier? What are some favorite memories of your grandparents or older relatives? Ever had peaches from Utah?
Trail Baboon 