Category Archives: animals

2024, animals, education, Farming Update, Nature, Uncategorized

Randomness

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The weekend Farm Report comes to us from Ben.

Well, as the monkey said when he got his tail caught in the screen door, it won’t be long now. It’s been raining enough in the last two weeks. I haven’t missed any fieldwork. And commencement was on Wednesday, so that’s over,

my writing class is done, (I got an ‘A’) and on Thursday I worked around home with a wonderful sense of free-time. I will still be employed at the college, going halftime until June 4, as I have three rental events coming through. And a lot of stuff to clean up, and the paycheck is always welcome. I’m leaving out a long uninteresting story of the 40 foot tall scissor lift, which is crucial to a few of us at commencement, and the problems it was having and why one department can’t seem to talk to another department, and how come it was the last day before anybody told us, there was another lift a quarter-mile down the road. But it’s over now, we all survived, and it’ll be a good story we can laugh about. I’ve picked up soybean seed so all the seed is home now and I can take the loader off the tractor.

I moved the snowblower out of the shed too. The co-op should be applying corn fertilizer on Friday, maybe Saturday I can start doing some corn planting. One of our guineas got under our deck somehow, and then she couldn’t figure out how to get back out. I had to remove a piece of lattice on the side for her escape. Propping it open and making a bigger hole, didn’t seem to work. I thought guineas were smarter than that. I refilled our birdfeeders in the yard, and it’s been fun to see Orioles eating suet, I didn’t know they did that, (I haven’t got the regular oriole feeders up yet), Grossbeaks are pretty, and today I’m looking at an eastern bluebird, which I didn’t know ate seeds. We even had a pileated woodpecker on an electric pole here in the yard.

The baby chicks are doing well, they are pigeon sized and they sure do eat a lot.

A 50 pound bag of feed last about five or six days. Remember a few months ago, I wrote about some of the college kids coming to the theater and helping me out. And I mentioned the ring leader, Jessica. This is me and her. She’ll be around one more year.

WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU FELT REALLY RELAXED?

2024, animals, education, Farming Update, gardening, Nature, Seasons, Uncategorized

Barn Swallows

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The weekend Farm Report comes to us from Ben.

The worms sure did come out after the all-day rain on Thursday. I even had some inside the doors at the theater. 

And the Barn Swallows are back! Kelly saw some on Tuesday and they immediately started hauling grass to the nest on top of the wind chimes by our front door. Pretty cool they come back and reuse the old nesting spots. We sure do enjoy hearing them chatter.

No fieldwork done in the last week since it’s been raining. I worked in the shop a bit, and I’ve been doing a lot of prep work for college Commencement next Wednesday. 

Here’s my ‘patch’ for the lighting; the document in the lighting controller that says how each light is addressed so the lighting console knows which light it’s talking to, and so I know which light is which.

 The number in the first column is how I refer to the light. The 5th column is the actual ‘patch’. Those first fixtures are 21 channels each. A channel is a parameter, for example pan, tilt, red, green, blue, intensity, zoom, strobe, ect. and a universe can handle 512 channels. Some lights are only 6 channels. Intensity, red, green, blue, white, amber. All the lights are in universe 1. The first light is address 1. (1:1) It uses 21 channels, so the next lights is also universe 1, address 22. (1:22) Repeat until all the lights are patched. If I have more than 512, I go to the next universe. This Hog console can do 4 universes. Bigger events might have dozens of universes of lighting.

Thursday I was over in the sports center hanging the lights over the stage (which I can’t get too once the stage is in place) and doing a little other prep work.

I meant to get a better picture of the lights, but the genie lift I was using wouldn’t go back up in the air. Huh. Thanks to the training I had back in Seattle in March, I knew enough to check the batteries. Three of the four were low on water. And I heard it’s had some other issues lately. Thank Goodness somebody in charge agreed we better rent another lift just in case. Both the video guys and I will be using lifts for commencement and not having one will be a problem. 

While working on lighting, I heard there was water coming into a back room. The sump pump was working, but water was coming through the floor or something. It wasn’t my concern. 

Friday, I picked up the other rental lights, and it was quiet in the sports center, the batteries have been topped up with water and recharged, and I was able to finish hanging my stuff. It should make Monday an easier day for me. I have more lights on the ground to install, but I can’t do that until the stage is set.

The overheard door to the sports Center has been broken and is scheduled to be replaced Monday. The same day EVERYTHING loads in for commencement; chairs, band equipment, food, staging, ramps, ect. And it all goes back out that door Wednesday night. 

Sounds pretty exciting doesn’t it. Or a cluster. One of the two… 

I sold some straw to the Rochester Fire Department. They add a bale to their practice fires because it makes a good amount of smoke.

Had a good talk as the two of us loaded the trailer. He said some of their ‘turn out’ gear (the typical fireman’s hat, coat, pants, and boots) need to be replaced as it’s nearing end of life. $8000 for one outfit. And the guys have a second pair to wear while the first outfit is being washed and dried after a fire. Takes 8 hours to dry, and they can’t wear if wet as they could get steam burns. The things you learn! 

Creative Writing at the college is almost over. I’ve submitted my poetry project and now the last thing dues is the final portfolio, which are revised versions of things we’ve submitted earlier in the year. When things get slow I’ll just recycle some of them here. 🙂

The chicks are doing good. They’re not afraid of an open door anymore so I have to pay attention while I’m in there filling their water and feed. The dogs are right at the door, so they’re paying attention for me.

I had 55 dozen eggs in April! Zoiks!

WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE CONSTELLATION OR CELESTIAL EVENT?

2024, animals, Family, Kids

YA Appreciation Day

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Zoos and animal parks are some YAs and my favorite places to visit. Minnesota Zoo, Como Zoo, Fawn-Doe-Rosa, Carlson Llama Farm – these are our local haunts.  Zoos and animals parks are also, in my experience, the places with the highest percentage of child meltdowns around. 

YA was a very easy child (we’re just talking child here, not teenager!) so I have zero experience with a melting down child.  She abandoned the idea of the stroller by the time she was three and never looked back.  She never ran around in a zoo restaurant.  She never banged on the glass to get the attention of the spotted leopard on the other side.  She never pushed another child out of the way to get a better look at a penguin.  She never had a tantrum of any kind when we were out and about.  Never.

Over the years, YA has heard me extol her virtues as a child a lot.  Way too much from her experience.  So I work hard to keep my lips zipped because these days any time I say something I get a massive eye roll and usually an exasperated “I know”.  But it’s difficult because every visit guarantees some bad behavior on the part of children who are over-tired, over-stimulated and probably hungry to boot.  The examples in the second paragraph all happened yesterday at the Zoo. 

So I stroll along with YA, thinking to myself what a wonderful child she was and what a terrific young adult she had turned out to be, all the while saying NOTHING.  NOTHING.  I wonder if one of these days my head will just explode.

Occasionally she will let me take her picture, although sometimes bribery is involved.  The above picture cost me a trip to Dairy Queen.

What summer treat would I need to bribe you with for a photo?

2024, animals, Farming Update, pets, Seasons, Uncategorized

Fieldwork!

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Today’s Farming Update comes from Ben.

It’s been another crazy busy week and all the farmers have been pushing hard planting corn in the neighborhood, trying to stay ahead of the weather. Not me, but everybody else. I have finished planting oats and I picked up corn seed. Considering last week I hadn’t even gotten out in the fields yet, things picked up fast and went pretty well.

I got the old tractor, the 630 running. That’s the one I rebuilt the carburetor on last fall, and while it’s not perfect yet, it does run, and I used it to re-arrange machinery to get the grain drill out.

I started planting with 48, 50lb bags of oats

I can tell I’m getting older as my fingers are getting stiffer as I lift them up to dump in the drill.

Meyer Seeds, where I’ve been getting seed for years, and where my dad even got seed, didn’t have oat seed this year, so they got it from another local place. There are not many places selling seed oats around here. The Albert Lea Seed House is a good source, but they’re an hour away from me and much more expensive that Meyers. Meyers have done such a good job cleaning seed over the years, on the rare occasion they don’t have any, other seed is dirty and dusty, and I even found a shriveled up, desiccated mouse carcass in a bag this year. I mean, what the heck?? Do better other people. 

I had planned to  finish planting oats late Wednesday night, and wouldn’t you know I ran out of seed with about half an hour left at 9:30 PM. Every year I tell myself, “order extra seed”. It’s not a problem to return it and it’s better to have extra than to run out with half an hour left, and I don’t know, next year comes and I forget. Thursday morning I picked up 8 more bags of oat seed, and got the corn seed, too.

I use the “Boating” app to track myself in the fields. I helps to find that corner I need to get back too, especially at night.

Everything in yellow is what I planted on Wednesday. I covered 12.9 miles, averaging 4.5 mph, and was out just over 4 hours. The time also includes stops and refilling.

The closer photo show every pass. Compare that to the actual tracks in the field.



It has been fun to be back in the tractors again. My brother usually helps do fieldwork, but he’s on vacation this year. My young helper is still in school, and the other helper has become gainfully employed. I don’t mind doing it myself, it just takes a little longer. My left arm gets tired because I run all the controls with my right arm, so the left arm is constantly steering. Building up my endurance I guess. I have acquired a second tractor buddy.

We don’t all fit into the cab so well.


Luna doesn’t look happy to be left home and she doesn’t look happy to be in the tractor. I don’t know what she wants. Bailey just lays on the floor, rests her head on the door, and sleeps. Luna moves back-and-forth and is in the way of either the clutch or the brake. And if I stop in the field and we all get out, she barks and barks to get back in. I think it’s still anxiety about being left behind.
I saw bald eagles, pheasants, turkey vultures, lots of deer, turkeys, and we’ve been hearing the sandhill cranes, I just haven’t seen them yet. Waiting on the first barn swallows. Should be a scout around any day now. They usually arrive about May 6.

Soil temperatures are in the 50s and GDU (Growing Degree Units) are at 177; 123 above normal at this point. The cereal rye that I planted as a cover crop last fall greened up but never got very tall. I had it sprayed this week to terminate it. It needed to be 12 inches high to get paid for planting it. However, because those fields are gonna be corn, having 12 inches of grass there was going to be a problem with residue, and I wanted it sprayed and terminated before it started to rain and I lost control of it. So it goes. It will still add organic matter to the soil.

Late next week I’ll start dealing with lighting for commencement on May 8th, so I’ll be busy with that for a few days. The experts says 100% of potential corn yield (in our area) comes from corn planted between April 22 and May 6th. I still got time!

FAVORITE FAMOUS LAST WORDS?

2024, animals, Food, History, Travel, Uncategorized

Where In The World Are Renee And Chris Heading?

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Greetings from somewhere that I hope is not North Dakota. Despite all of us, including the dog, being under the weather, we got the dog to the boarding kennel yesterday and managed to get ourselves and our bad colds to Bismarck last night. If everything works out, we will be in the air winging our way to a somewhat far off destination when this posts.

I have to attend the world’s most boring psychology conference again, (all about licensure and professional regulation) and Husband tagged along to take in the sights.

We will be in the home town of an actor noted for the portrayal of an iconic alien. The first chocolate factory in this country was here, as was the first subway. A city park is famous for its role in a beloved children’s book about ducks, and the city is noted for its legumes. The header photo is a clue regarding the main ingredient of a famous confection named after a nearby suburb.

This should give you all some research to do.

Have you ever had to travel when you were ill? Who are your favorite Sci-Fi alien characters? Chocolate?

2024, animals, Family, Health, Medicine, pets, Uncategorized

As Sick As A Dog

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Husband and I are pretty anxious right now to find out how our dog is doing at the vet. We had to take him there Thursday after three days of constant hurling after meals. The vet did x-rays and found him to be constipated and dehydrated. There is the possibility that he has an upper intestinal blockage of some sort, perhaps from the shards of an Icelandic lamb horn, or the Kong Wubba he chewed and destroyed over the weekend, or a mixture of both. He hasn’t had anything different to eat for the past couple of weeks. He has been drinking water like crazy, though. He typically doesn’t swallow what he destroys, so we can’t think what would have plugged him up.

It is hard to tell when a terrier is under the weather, as they typically don’t let you know they aren’t feeling well until they are half dead. Even before we took him to the vet he wanted to tug, steal things, and go for walks. They are giving him special IV’s to hydrate him and get his digestive system flowing, as it were. They will do surgery if that doesn’t work. I refuse to take as on omen that the flock of vultures on the local butte were circling our home as I wrote this.

What health issues have your pets had? How can you tell your pets or human companions aren’t feeling well?

2024, animals, Farming Update, Uncategorized, work

The Price Is Right

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Today’s Farming Update comes from Ben.

Got the latest show open at RCTC. The Curious Savage. It’s a nice group of kids.


The paint was even dry. I finished the set, oh… tens of minutes before the doors opened.

There are always last-minute things to do, and I even added some set dressing bits after I finished the last of my set notes. I used the ‘rollerwall’ painting stencil to make wallpaper. It takes some practice, but it’s pretty cool.

“Rollerwall.com” – there are hundreds of patterns available. I also used two different rollers to make a pattern on the carpet. (There are plot points in the script regarding following a pattern on the carpet. “If people walked around the outside of the carpet… it would save wearing out the middle.”)

I’m Behind on a weeks’ worth of newspapers and evening news, which isn’t really such a problem to be honest. 


The grass is turning green, we’ve gotten some nice rain, the temps are warming up, and it really does look like spring is here. Should be a really nice weekend here in Minnesota. I’m starting to think it might be OK to take the snowblade off the tractor and hook up some tillage equipment.

Last Sunday Kelly and I went to Tractor Supply and picked up another dozen chicks. Supposed to be girls. Pullets. The sign said “pullets”, but when we went to check out, 8 of the 12 were marked ‘straight run’, meaning boys and girls. Time will tell. All the chicks are doing really well. Sixty of them sure do eat a lot.

I went to Fleet Farm and picked up two new feeders, plus another small waterer for the chicks, and a large 7-gallon unit for outside once they get a little bigger.

I know I have / had more waterers around. Evidently, I’ve put them somewhere. They’re the same place I’ve put the dogs tick meds, and some other things from home I can’t find lately. Maybe next week my head will be clearer, and I’ll find them. Especially now that I’ve purchased replacements.

I bought a flat trailer at an online auction this week. This trailer has open sides so it’s easy to load and unload pallets.

This was a construction equipment auction, and it was astounding to see the prices some of the equipment brought.

The dogs had to come along on the drive to pick up the trailer. It’s Luna and Humphrey in the header photo. Luna is an anxious traveler. Bailey was in the passenger seat with her nose on my hand.


This trailer is one of those things not critical to daily operation, but it helps at certain times, to make life easier. And I’ve been thinking about that lately. I watch a YouTube channel of a young lady that works on a dairy farm in Maine. https://youtube.com/@tayfarms?si=lFN-zT3XcZzWxrM9

They run some older equipment, and it doesn’t appear they have a lot of money. This spring they were having trouble with the barn cleaner chain. That’s the mechanism that takes the manure out of the gutters and, in their case, pumps it too a lagoon. One morning she said the chain had come off 3 times. And they’re always fixing something with the pump, and it just makes me sad. Life is too short to spend so much time fighting with stuff like this. And yet, replacing costs money too, and it’s a tough situation when you don’t have the money for some needed repair or upgrade. 

We’ve probably all been there. I certainly remember being young and newly married and trying to get ahead. But at what cost? 

Dad was proud to leave me with decent equipment when he retired. He always said his dad had left him junk and he spent more time fixing than farming. And I guess he instilled that in me. I’ve kept up his habit of having decent equipment and not ‘junk’.

WHAT HAVE YOU PURCHASED THAT YOU REALLY COULDN’T AFFORD?

2024, animals, Family, holidays, Nature, Uncategorized

Up Close And Personal

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One highlight of our trip to Tacoma was a side trip we took to the northern part of Puget Sound to Orcas Island to see. . . orcas!

We took a ferry to the island and stayed in an Air B and B that was up a single lane, vertical dirt road to a place that was lovely and that afforded a gorgeous view of islands and the Sound. Vancouver Island was quite close.

The crew of the whale boat were three marine biologists who loved their work and who loved to tell us all about the animals. There were about 30 people on board, including some very lively children. We were very lucky to encounter a pod of seven orcas, including a young orca. We saw them chase a harbor seal, but we didn’t find out if they caught it. At one point the pod divided into two groups and we had orcas on both sides of the boat. The marine biologists somehow knew the lineage of the pod, and showed us the pod family tree going back to the great grandmother. We were also thrilled to see the largest and oldest orca in that part of the Sound, a huge 62 year old with a notch in his dorsal fin, probably from the bite of a Stellar’s Sea Lion.

With regard to the sea lions, they were the only animals stationary long enough for me to get a photo. They were lying on a large rock, grunting and bellowing, and roaring. You can see them in the header photo. They smelled terrible!

The orcas leaped and swam but were too fast to catch on camera. So were the otters. It was nice to just sit and watch with my eyes and put my phone camera down for a while.

What are some memorable “up close” wildlife encounters you have had? Did you ever want to be a marine biologist?

2024, animals, Family, Farming Update, Uncategorized, work

Chicks!

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Today’s Farming Update comes from Ben.

The college says it’s ‘Aggressive Goose Season’. Proof of Spring if I nothing else is.

There are two pairs of geese. One pair in the courtyard on the West side of campus and they will fight you. And another pair on a median in the middle of the East parking lot. The male stands in the middle of traffic keeping watch. It’s down to single lane there and security has put cones around them.

I picked up chicks from the post office on Thursday. Poultry chicks I mean.

I ordered 50 this year. And because details are a problem for me, somehow I got 15 male ‘Blue Laced Gold Wyandotte’. I didn’t mean to order boys. Still don’t know how I did that. And I looked at this order several times last week to watch the ship date and I never noticed. Details. They’ve been vaccinated for coccidiosis.

So. Guess I’ll have fresh chicken to eat this summer. My mom showed me how to butcher chickens several years ago and that’s when I decided I’d rather collect eggs. I think I’ve heard the neighbors says there’s place I can take them to be butchered. It’s not a good idea to have adult 15 roosters. The poor hens don’t get a chance as they boys never give them a break. And they fight amongst themselves. And believe it or not, we’ve never had a whole chicken to bake, so that will be something to learn and experiment with. Baby chicks are kind of expensive depending on the breed. Somewhere between $4.55 (for the boys) to $5.19 for the green egg layers. I’ll be ordering baby ducks later this summer and they’re $8.36 for a mixed variety, to $9.52 for mallards. Minimum order is 15.

We heard the sandhill cranes this morning. I hope they stick around a while. Saw a turkey vulture too.

Our dogs, Luna-tic, and Bailey are getting along better. Bailey has realized she can fight back, and when she does, she can hold her own and not let Luna push her around, and now they are playing more than just fighting.

TIPS FOR BAKING CHICKEN?

WHAT’S YOUR POST OFFICE LIKE?

2024, animals, education, Words

Laughing Matter

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Some days it’s all about laughing.

On Duolingo yesterday morning, I started a new section – with words such as lazy and messy.  Clean and dirty have come up before so it was nice to have a few more to go with them.  Then came “stinks”.

Several animals have made it into the lessons: cat, dog, bird, penguin, snake, duck, elephant (the very first lesson!).  But yesterday was the first appearance (after 3 years) of hamster.

Duolingo doesn’t just give you words, they put all the words together in sentences and stories for you.  After all these months, I should have seen this coming.

I tuoi criceti puzzano

This translates to “your hamsters stink”.  Not a euphemism for anything that I can find although it does remind me of the Holy Grail line “your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries”.

I can’t imagine that stinking hamsters comes into conversation too often in one’s lifetime.  My sister had hamsters and I don’t remember them stinking….

What pets did you have growing up?  Did they stink?