Category Archives: animals

2023, animals, Farming Update, Music, pets, Uncategorized, Weather

Lost And Found

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Today’s Farming Update comes from Ben.

It was hot. How hot was it? It was so hot Wednesday, I stayed at the college until 8:30 PM. The air conditioning units for the Theatre were recently repaired, so except for the fact there is no thermostat, (it’s either on or off), at least there’s air conditioning here as opposed to home where there’s only fans. Well, there’s not AC in the shop at the college, but I open the doors to the stage and turn on some fans and it’s very comfortable.

The chickens hang out under some bushes or somewhere in the shade from mid-morning until mid-afternoon. You can tell they’re hot when they lift their wings a bit. I’ve had their fan running all summer and the back door open for more ventilation the past week.

The cattle hang out in the shade too. By evening, everyone is moving again and having a drink.

Humphrey is really in a conundrum; he wants to be with us, but it’s cooler outside than inside. Decisions, decisions.

Back this spring as I was getting machinery ready for planting, I used my favorite wrench in one of the tractors, and I kind of remember setting it above the steering wheel and telling myself, “Don’t put that there“ and then, of course I couldn’t find it again all summer. I was delighted to find it in the toolbox of that same tractor recently. Putting a wrench in the toolbox? That was pretty good thinking at some point.



Has anyone else noticed all the dragonflies around lately? They were swarming all around the yard earlier this week and out in the fields. And my brother commented on seeing them at his place. I did some reading and they peak in July and August, they sure are fun to watch. And all the barn swallows are sweeping around; there’s a couple nests here that are working on the third batch of babies. That’s really impressive and these poor kids are hardly gonna learn to fly before they head south.

Was up to John Deere last week getting some parts and there is a new parts lady behind the counter. It was interesting that while she was still learning the system, and she didn’t know some common parts like a cotter pin, she seemed to know a lot of the customers and they would call her by name, and someone made a comment about her staying in the industry. Later, as we were trying to find some of my parts, (they were right here, and then they were put somewhere by somebody who wasn’t there now, and nobody else knew where they were) she and I had some time to talk. She ran the auto parts store in Plainview with her dad for 20 years.  So, she kind of knew the business, just not this particular system, and some of these parts. I don’t recall, in all the years I’ve farmed, I’ve ever seen a woman behind any of the parts counters that I frequent. There was a female in a welding place several years ago, and she knew what she was doing. And I know this lady will figure it out too. Even the guys, when they start, they don’t know much. It takes a long time to get into the swing of things.

I’ve been listening to a jazz station a lot lately. I have a membership to Jazz Radio and primarily I listen to modern big band, but lately I’ve done Latin jazz too. It’s a fun change. I’ve learned that I don’t like hearing the same music over and over. And while that rarely happens on Radio Heartland, it happens even less frequently on Latin jazz. I get some Maynard Ferguson on the modern big band station and I like that.

Last week at faculty duty day at the college, I saw this shirt and it made me laugh. I hope you get the joke.

That momma hen still has 13 chicks. She’s a good momma and she’s smart. There’s been a hawk trying to grab the chicks. Bailey actually chased it away a few times. We made a straw bale shelter for them to hide under, but she figured it out on her own and moved them down to the trees and taller grass during the day, and at night takes them back into the pen. I take corn down to them. Keep your fingers crossed.

One night Kelly and I burned up a bunch of brush we had accumulated. A bonfire on the second hottest day of the year? Why not.

GOT A LUCKY NUMBER?

EVER WON A LOTTERY?

2023, animals, Family, Farming Update, Food, Gatherings, Kids, Travel, Uncategorized, work

Ready, Set, Go

34 Comments

Today’s Farming Update comes from Ben.

We took a long weekend last week. Daughter has been saying we needed to take a vacation, and we fully agreed with her. But May through July is Kelly’s busiest time, and of course spring is bad for me, and, well, we can always come up with an excuse NOT to go somewhere. Spur of the moment, we decided, let’s just take a weekend. We asked daughter what she thought we should do; I mean are we renting a cabin on a lake or are we going to a hotel. Well, she wanted swimming, and rides at Mall of America. OK, sounds like we do the Embassy Suites, which has been a family favorite over the few years because they do complimentary breakfast really well. They set the standard for hotel breakfasts! Fruit, yogurt, Sausages, bacon, eggs (not as good as ours of course), hashbrowns, bagels, made to order omelets, cereal, drinks: milk, juice, coffee. 

We got there late evening Thursday and had supper at the hotel restaurant. Friday we all slept in and took naps and didn’t leave the room until 3:00 PM. Over to “THE” mall and had lunch, then walked around a bit and bought some ride tickets. We waited in line for an hour so we could all do the log flume ride. Because there was some bad weather in the area, the rides were going at half capacity, so the wait was longer than it should have been. Boy, if we didn’t get covid waiting in that line. Then daughter and I did a crazy spinning loop de loop roller coaster and I think I learned I might be too old for those rides. Woo boy. A couple times I had to just put my head back and close my eyes and I’d think, “DON’T CLOSE YOUR EYES!” There was a young boy about 8 years old who was on the ride with us; he said he had two little sisters and mom had to stay with them. After the first spinning loop he said “That was unexpected!” Yep, sure was! When it was over, I told him I had no idea what had happened in the last 40 seconds.

Even daughter, who’s a daredevil, was a little shook up after that. We all went to the Ferris wheel from there. And then Daughter and I went on our favorite roller coaster from 10 years ago; the one that goes straight up, then straight down. And upside down and right side down and over this way and around and back upside that way. Aye aye aye. Whew. That was easier last time I did that. Kelly and daughter did the carousel and we decided that was enough. I saw a sign that read, ‘Barking Lot  stroller parking’, and I thought it said ‘Barfing lot’ which I thought was really appropriate. 

I bought the 30 point arm bands, but no one put them on our arms, so I’d just show them to the ride operator. The first ride scanned them all. The second person was talking and looking away and only scanned one, and the third ride just put us on without even scanning the tickets. We gave them to a young couple and told them to have fun. 

Daughter also wanted Red Robin for supper. We don’t have one of them in Rochester. At some point in her brief past, she had a shake at a Red Robin she really liked and wanted another. Supper was really good there and my vanilla malt was yummy. I don’t know about hers. 

Saturday, we got the swimming in and had the pool to ourselves for an hour. We saw the Barbie movie, (and got a free icy drink), and had supper at Giordano’s pizza with a hostess named Joy who was super helpful and sent us back to the hotel with plates, drinks, and plastic ware. 

Sunday, we stopped to see our son and daughter in law. When we got home, the dogs were glad to see us, (our neighbors took care of the dogs and chickens while we were gone) and Humphrey just had to stay outside for a couple nights. Once in the house, he had a big drink of soft water, and slept for several hours on his pillow. 

Everyone survived on the farm, and Monday morning, daughter said she wasn’t ready to go back to her program. None of us are kid, none of us are.

We called this our ‘practice vacation’ to remember what works and what doesn’t when travelling together.    

The soybeans are looking good, you know, for 6 weeks behind. They’ve finally started to canopy and, to add insult to injury, the weeds are coming too. A few buttonweed, lambsquarter, and ragweed are towering over the soybeans. Plus, a lot of volunteer corn. Which doesn’t really hurt anything, it just looks bad in a nice field of soybeans. 

I started working on the shop again and started getting 2×4’s put on the walls and removed from the work bench an old radial arm saw that I haven’t used in I-don’t-know-how-many years. Back on Amazon Prime day I ordered one of those 360 degree green laser levels. It is pretty cool!

Remember a few months ago I showed a bunch of eggs under the deck? Well, the chicken hatched out 13 baby chicks the other day. She’s a good momma and moved them down to the main pen and she’s keeping a good eye on them. Thirteen chicks?? Don’t hold your breath for all of them. The other chickens seem jealous: ‘How come YOU got chicks!??’

My brother came out and we unloaded the last load of straw into the barn. 600+ bales in there again. Coming up, planting winter rye as a cover crop! Deep roots good for the soil, but it will over winter so it will have to be killed off in the spring before planting corn.

And back at the college, all my computer stuff is working this week! Yay! 

College classes begin Monday.

WHAT WAS / IS YOUR FAVORITE AMUSEMENT PARK RIDE?

WHAT RIDE SHOULD THERE BE?

2023, animals, Farming Update, Nature, Weather

Bet the Farm On It!

36 Comments

WordPress, for all its various issues, is good about keeping track of statistics.  They send me emails every month which I usually just blow off.  Since the point of the Trail is not to increase traffic and make a big deal of ourselves, it doesn’t seem like we need to pay too much attention.

We are up to 13,524 subscribers.  This isn’t as exciting as it sounds… it just means that at some point in the past decade, 13K folks have hit the subscribe button.  It does not mean that 13K folks are reading the trail every day.   Far from it.  But we still have readers from all over the globe – in fact, we have had a “Like” from Mongolia in the past six months – that’s new.

The most fun news is that the Farm Reports are by far the most popular bits on the trail.  For the past six months, the most viewed, liked and commented post of each month belongs to our Ben!  I even got WordPress to cough up the most popular post of the last year.  You guessed it.  September 10, 2022 – Is It Fall Already? 

So kudos to Ben for livening up the trail every weekend and for giving us all a fabulous picture of farm life!

Your fantasy farm?  Tell me all about it!

2023, animals, News, Uncategorized

Goats In the News

29 Comments

I saw this notice on our city police FB page.

We have had a proliferation of these rental electric scooters around town, and the police wanted to remind the public that there are certain ordinances to be followed when operating them. You have to be at least 14 to drive one. If under 18 you need to wear a helmet. You can’t drive on the sidewalk, and you have to ride on only 2-lane streets. DUI laws are applicable, and you have to ride as close to the curb as possible.

I never got into skateboards. I had roller skates that you attached to your shoes with a crank key. My main mode of transportation was my bicycle until I was old enough to drive. Husband rode a bicycle longer than I did, since he didn’t get his drivers license until he was 21.

What are your experiences on skate boards, roller skates, electric scooters, or electric bicycles? What was it like for you to get your first drivers license?

2023, animals, Farming Update, Nature, pets, Uncategorized, Weather, work

Top Of The Hill

48 Comments

Today’s Farm Report comes from Ben.

Finished baling straw this week. Terrible yields there too. Got 320 small square bales total, and it should have been 1000 bales off 20 acres.

It is what it is. Everything worked well and it’s nice straw. Kelly and I unloaded one load, I’ve go the last 100 bales stacked in a wagon for the strawberry farm that buys it, and there’s one load in the shed yet that we’ll get unloaded next week.

I am going to plant a cover crop this year on the oat ground. With the hail we had, there should be plenty of oats there to germinate and re-seed, but rye actually produces deeper roots and is a good cool season crop, so there should be a good winter cover. the same program that was paying for oats this year (separate from the ‘food grade’ oats program) is paying for cover crops. It’s funded by the USDA.

Every time i take my boots off this year, I’m leaving a trail of oats or straw chaff in my wake. Occupational hazard, i guess. I’ve got a cordless Dewalt vacuum in the mudroom specifically for this reason.

Walking on stacked bales is a bit of a challenge. It’s better when they’re stacked proper and tight, but that doesn’t always happen and I was curious how it would go for me and my new knee. And it went pretty well!

I was probably 16 or 17 when Dad announced his sore feet wouldn’t allow him to walk on the bales anymore and I was given the important job of stacking hay bales in the barn. Anyone can unload the bales and put them on the elevator, but stacking, that’s special and takes some skill. Right Clyde? (Or did you only handle loose hay?)

Basically, when stacking, you alternate the direction of the row, and you get the bale in place, then give it a good shove with your knees. Repeat several hundred times. Course, maybe you’re working 3 or 4 rows high in a corner and depending how much room there is as the bales come off the elevator into the hay loft, depends how fast you need to keep moving. All this to say, it was a big deal when Dad had me take over stacking. Just as big of deal it was last year when I wasn’t able to stack myself and my brother did it. The bales got in there, but walking over them the rest of the fall, winter, and this summer reminded me of the skills he missed out on over the years.

The one day last week, just as they finished combining oats, and it rained pretty hard and I had run up the road with the gator to open the truck tarp so the combine could dump the last of the oats. The dogs came running up with me and neither one of them likes the rain. They scrambled into the gator, and they sat in there for 20 minutes after we got home while I was out doing other stuff.

The young guineas are out and learning their ways. Festus, the guinea with the bad leg seems to have disappeared. We knew he’d have a tough time of it and we don’t know what became of him.

Here was a big ragweed plant growing out of the side of the silo, about 8’ in the air. ‘Was’ because I plucked it right after taking this photo.

The first few days at the college have been rough this year. Something about a ‘licensing issue’ means I don’t have access to Outlook, Word, Excel, or any of those Microsoft programs. Plus it seems like my computer – heck, none of the computers, want much to do with me. It’s been a rough few days.

MOTIVATIONAL POSTERS. DO THEY WORK FOR YOU? SEEN ANY GOOD ONES?

2023, animals, Farming Update, Uncategorized, work

A Little Bit of Everything 

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Today’s Farm Update comes from Ben.

Sunday afternoon and evening, Monday night, and Tuesday night I was in Chatfield finishing lighting for ‘Hello Dolly’. Wednesday night Kelly and I sat on the deck and we each had a beer, and we ate re-heated cheese curds, and it was nice. Thursday night I raked straw until 9PM.  
 

I got a new iPhone last week. It sat in the box, unopened, for a few days as I just didn’t have the energy to deal with it. I finally got it activated and I’m still trying to get the Bluetooth synced to the tractor radios and there are random passwords that didn’t carry over and I didn’t write down. Plus, some text messages don’t give me a tone while others do. And this is why I don’t like change; it is just such a hassle.  
 

The week was filled with a lot of random activities.  

The teenage chicks were out of their fence more than they were in, so we just took the fence down and let them have at it. They are loving it.

A helicopter sprayed fungicide on our corn; he was fun to watch swooping around.

I smacked myself in the side of the jaw because of the ‘kick-back’ from a 5/8″ drill and the plastic side handle; it bled a bit. And hurt for a day or two. No photo of the blood trickling down my chin.  

I cleaned up more behind the shed; it had become an out of the way place to dump stuff and pretty soon the box elder trees were 30 feet tall. It didn’t start with me, Dad started it. I certainly contributed to it over the years, but it ends now. The plan is to get the stumps out and be able to mow back there. And eventually build a ‘lean-to’ in order to park some machinery back there under cover.  

I finished cutting oats last Saturday. Kelly took this photo.  

After the electrician buried the electric line and we got that inch of rain, the trench settled some, as expected. We used the tractor and ran the tires over the trench to pack it a bit more, and then the clay gave way, and it was stuck.

Notice the guineas inspecting the situation.  

It wasn’t stuck so bad at first, but I had to see if I could get it out. I should know better. They say when you find yourself in a hole, the first thing you should do is stop digging. Using the other tractor pulled it right out mostly unharmed. Or, at least, nothing permanently harmed…The tire guy was out on Monday, and I was able to straighten the step, and all is right again.  

Between the machine shed and the home office where Kelly works, is a large maple tree. Conveniently, it blocks her view of the shop and machine shed and things I’m doing. As Brent Olson would say in his column ‘Independently Speaking’, I don’t always need a witness and I often look to see if she can see me before I do something questionable. And yes, that also means sometimes I need to call her to get me out of a situation. I am still working inside the shed. Started putting 2×4’s on the walls in order to attach the wall steel. The bills have started coming in so we’re done spending money on it for this year.  
 

I used the fancy grapple bucket and pulled all the loose straw out of the pole barn and I’ll re-bale it before heading out to the field with the baler. It’s kind of a lot of work for the 10 or 12 bales I get, but it needs to be done. (Mice get in the straw and, for some reason, 90% of the time, only chew through one string of a bale.)  

Speaking of the grapple bucket, technically it’s called a ‘rock bucket’ because it’s like a giant sieve- with a claw. I’ve used it for hauling trees and brush and straw, I’ve picked up junk machinery with it and just the other day realized I could actually pick up rocks with it! Scoop up a pile of dirt, let all the dirt sift out, and then dump the rocks somewhere else! How about that!?  

Half my oats were combined on Thursday. The test weight is OK at 38 lbs / bushel, but the yield is terrible. Once finished I’ll have an accurate number. Hopefully they can finish combining Friday as they’re talking rain this weekend. I was out Thursday evening raking the straw windrows double in preparation for baling on Friday. The oat plant was short this year, so there isn’t much of a windrow. That’s why I was raking two into one, to make better baling conditions and less trips around the field. 

I was using the old 630 tractor and rake. This used to be one of the main tractors on the farm and it was used every day for hauling manure, pulling wagons, cultivating corn, planting crops, picking corn; all sorts of farm jobs. You can see how open it is and the rear tires right next to me. It was a tractor similar to this that ran over my brother when his jacket got snagged by the tire and pulled him off.  

I’ve spent a lot of time on this tractor bundled up in winter coat and gloves.  

But that was a pretty nice day to be out there. I wear hearing protection. Lots of farmers were deaf in their left ear, because they turned their heads to look over their right shoulder watching the machine behind them.  

Some people call these tractors ‘Johnny Poppers’ as their large diameter piston and two-cylinder engines make a distinctive popping sound.  

I’m back to work at the college on Monday. Classes start on the 21st. I’ve signed up for class 1118 Reading and Writing Critically II. It’s all online, which I still don’t like so well, but I know the teacher and she’s good.  

WHAT SOUND DO YOU MISS FROM THE PAST?  

2023, animals, Automotive, Family, Farming Update, gardening, Nature, Seasons

Summer “Farming”

51 Comments

The weekend Farm Report comes to us from Ben.

Thankfully theaters are equipped with AC these days.  This week was all about theater.  

I was at the Rochester Repertory Theater Monday and Tuesday evenings finishing lighting and dress rehearsals for ‘I and You’ by Lauren Gunderson. That opened on Thursday with a preview audience on Wednesday so that Wednesday night I was headed to the town of Chatfield, 20 miles South of Rochester to begin lighting ‘Hello Dolly’. I drove down on Monday with my friend Paul to scope out the place since I didn’t work there last summer, and the building had a lot of renovations done. Potter Auditorium, built in 1936, is attached to an elementary school built in 1916. 

The theater was renovated in 2016. The renovation done to the school revealed the original skylights and main beams in a ‘great room’. It removed a lot of steps and ramps and various levels and added more bathrooms and elevators. It’s pretty nice.

I started working in Potter Auditorium in 1986, building the set for ‘Annie’ for $500. My dad and brother helped me carry 40 sheets of 4×8 particle board up from the basement to cover the gym floor (because of course it was a ‘gymnatorium’) and we couldn’t mess up the basketball floor.  

The next year I built the set for ‘Barnum’, and the next year, some kind of original talent show.  

Working in Chatfield always feels like going home. Lots of good memories there. There wasn’t AC until the 2016 renovation. Back in the 80’s, hornets would come in and buzz around on their backs on the floor. I’d walk over and step on them. Good times.  

I recently heard someone mention how, when they were a young kid, their dad talked about hunting and outdoor sports so that’s why they hunt now. And I thought, I got mail order books, and Disney records of Musicals. Mary Poppins, Robin Hood, Bedknobs and Broomsticks. Hmmm.    

I mentioned we had hail last Saturday. I notified crop insurance, and they assigned an adjuster. Haven’t met with him yet.

It knocked some oats out and beat up the corn and soybeans a bit. Left some marks on our cars too.  

The ceiling insulation for the shop was blown in on Wednesday. The ball is back in my court to start working again.  

I started cutting oats on Tuesday. It was so hot the swather wouldn’t run right and it left me walking home twice. And then we got an inch of rain Tuesday night. Because of course now it would rain.

Also Tuesday the electrician buried the new electric line to the shop. He cut the phone line, which I didn’t need to the shop anymore. He also found the phone line from 1968 when we lived in the machine shed while the house was being built.  

And then he found the current electric line to the old shop. The one my dad buried in the 1950’s and the one being replaced. It was 30 feet from where I thought it was. So, he changed course. Oops; found it again. Thinking back; there was a ravine and a tree there, so I guess Dad had to go around the tree. Maybe that’s why it was way over where it shouldn’t have been.  

But this guy is an electrician, and he was able to fix it; no harm, no foul.

Here is Kelly posing with her new Gator.

We like it better than the old one already.  

WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE DISNEY MOVIE OR SONG?   PLEASE RESPOND BY SINGING IT.  

2023, animals, Fantasy, home, Medicine, Mysteries, Uncategorized

Mysteries

28 Comments

There have been some strange happenings here in usually dull ND that could be the basis of some interesting mytery or science fiction stories.

The first event was in Fargo. A couple of weeks ago there was a story in the Fargo Forum about a spat between a local hospital system and a medical waste disposal company It seems that a human torso showed up in a bin at the medical waste company, and the company blamed the hospital and the hospital blamed the medical waste company.

https://apnews.com/article/human-remains-medical-waste-fargo-9d5434b46441ec5e03275186a3de2887

No one has indicated the identity of the body, or where the rest of the body is. Hmm.

The second mystery is closer to home, in our driveway. About two weeks ago, Husband found the decapitated, eviscerated corpse of a small cottontail rabbit. The head was lying right by the body. All the entrails were gone. Our dog is never in the front yard. We have no roaming cats or dogs in the neighborhood. Who (or what) could have done this? We live in the middle of town. Hmm.

Come up with some hypotheses for these strange events. Could they be linked?

2023, animals, Business, Family, Food, home

Adieu to the Milk Man

32 Comments

This weekend, for the first time in 25 years, I’m going to have to go pick up milk at the grocery store and lug it home.  YA and I (well, it was mostly “I”) made the decision this week to discontinue our dairy delivery service. 

The combination of YA and I doing a little less dairy these days along with the reduction of items available from our dairy guy (thanks SO MUCH Kemps… she says with her voice dripping with sarcasm), it just isn’t worth it.  I find myself adding things to the order form that we don’t really need because I feel guilty not having as big an order as we used to have.  This is how I ended up with six rolls of cinnamon rolls in my fridge and four bags of tortilla chips in the cabinet.

It’s going to feel weird to not put the cooler and order form out on Wednesday night (my guy delivers to our house at 3 a.m.) but I’m looking forward to not having to get up at the crack of dawn on Thursday morning to get everything out of the cooler and into the fridge.  We’ll see how long before this wears off as I’m dragging cartons of milk home!

How much does a cow have to eat and drink to produce my gallon of milk every week?

2023, animals, Automotive, Family, Farming Update, Nature

Summer Lemons

49 Comments

The weekend Farm Report comes to us from Ben.

There should be a lemon law for gators. Our gator, the utility vehicle we’ve grown to love, seems to develop some kind of coolant leak every 3 or 4 months. We got it in November of 2020. It went to the shop for the 4th time Thursday. When “Tim” came to pick it up, Kelly told him to bring back a better one, and we all laughed. “Brady” called at 7:30AM Friday morning working on numbers for a trade. We better wait for the mechanic to see what he can find first. Actually, dump it now and make the deal BEFORE the mechanic finds out what’s what.

 Kelly and I finished the steel ceiling in the shop late Sunday evening. Got in the house about 9:30 PM, but it was done. And Monday morning, the rental company called asking when I was bringing the lift back. I did that right away. The insulation guys had dropped off their lift, so it was nice to have two lifts for a while. 

Tuesday afternoon, a young man named ‘Blaze’ did all the prep work for the spray foam insulation. He added nailing strips to the walls (to support the 8′ wide fiberglass batts of insulation), he put cardboard in the attic to fill the gap at the wall, he taped over the windows, door, and covered the work bench. Then he put plastic on the floor too. He was back Wednesday morning to spray 1″ of closed cell foam on the walls. Thursday morning another crew was in and installed the fiberglass insulation on the walls and covered it all with plastic.  Now, just waiting for yet another crew to do the blown insulation in the attic.

The electrician is planning on running the new power line to the shop on Tuesday. 

 I need to order more steel for the walls. And install 2×4’s on the walls to attach the steel. But that won’t be in the next few weeks. 

Young Padawan was back this past Thursday and we pulled down an old fence, loaded up some scrap metal, and he used the weed wacker and mowed weeds while I was in a zoom meeting. He learned to drive the tractor more and I showed him how to use the oxy-acetylene torch to cut steel. Like most teenagers, he lives in shorts. I mentioned it would be nice if he owned some long pants as I showed him how sparks fly everywhere while cutting steel. I showed him once, then gave him the torch. He didn’t like the sparks.

In the tractor, I explained, and showed, and helped him take the forks off and put the bucket on. Later in the day, we took the bucket off, and put the forks back on. I got him going, then I walked away. I don’t like to give all the answers, I really want the kids to figure it out. I’m the dad who would help you practice swimming once, then throw you in the pool. It’s surprising how many people, kids and adults, are afraid to try things. I told him multiple times, “You can’t break anything. Give it a try.” “Wiggle it more”. “Keep pressing buttons until it works”, “Try something.” That’s a big one for me. Try SOMETHING! You can’t just sit there, TRY SOMETHING! 

I unhooked the latches on the bucket and I walked away. I heard them snap back into place as he struggled and I went over and helped get the bucket off and directed him to the forks. They snap into place all by themselves once you’ve got it hooked. I stood there and never made eye contact with him. I wanted him to figure it out. Took a while, and a little direction from me, but he did it. He’s a city boy, and this stuff is all really new to him. He’s getting there. 

He’s also got a habit of walking away before getting the full instructions. “Over between the sheds…” and off he goes. I stopped talking. Eventually, from over between the sheds, he says “What am I looking for?” Good question. Maybe wait for the full instructions next time. And he walked back. 

 We let the teenage chickens into their outside pen last weekend. They love it. And they spend a lot of time hopping up on the fence, going outside the fence, then hopping back in. Usually. Sometimes we have to help some figure out how to get back in. And Monday morning, one of our baby guineas was behind the house. Don’t know how he got out. And he sure made a lot of cackling noises. But he ran really fast and could fly enough, we couldn’t catch him. Later in the day he was pretty quiet. In the evening we feared the worst. Hadn’t heard him all afternoon. Suddenly there he was by the chicks. And we could catch him and get him home again. Guess he wore himself out having adventures. He’s stayed in the pen the rest of the week. There’s been a few movies about the big, bad, cruel, world outside. He learned. The older guineas chased him around a bit, too. There’s no place like home.  And Friday morning, they’re up on the wall to the teenage chicks. So now they’re all together. And our gimpy one, (We call him Festus. Or maybe Walter) I put him over the fence with them. They’re all doing OK together. 

CROPS: Corn will get the fungicide applied by helicopter any day now. Prevent cannibalism, you know. The soybeans look pretty good for June 1. Oats should get cut and harvested next week.

 Stay cool next week. I hope none of you are riding a bike across Iowa like my friend Simon. 

HOW ARE YOU AT TAKING DIRECTION?  WHAT CAN YOU SAY ABOUT LEMONS? ARE YOU SOUR OR SWEET?