Category Archives: crops

2026, Business, crops, Farming Update, Uncategorized, Words

IT’S A WHAT?

32 Comments

This weeks Farming Update from Ben.

If I was smart, I would’ve ordered 500 gallons of diesel fuel a few weeks ago.

I called the supplier on Tuesday and he said diesel was six dollars a gallon. I didn’t even blink. Then he laughed and said he was just kidding. Well, let’s hope so. The price is up and was up more that day. Sometimes I fill the tank in the fall, sometimes in the spring, it just sort of depends. I won’t really need it for another month, but honestly, it’s anybody’s guess if it’s gonna keep going up or come back down at some point soon enough… my gut says I should just fill it now. Thankfully 500 gallons will last me the year. One farmer I watch on YouTube uses 7000 gallons / week. Ouch!

I got to the big parts sale at John Deere. I may not have mentioned a couple of weeks ago when I was picking up trees how I got the tractor over a stump and bent the driveshaft to the front wheels.  At first, I was hoping it was just a shield but no, it was the whole shaft that was bent.

That’ll buff right out!

That made it hit the bottom of the tractor with every revolution, and it was kind of sickening.

(I had to go back and look; I did very briefly mention it two weeks ago, cause I am embarrassed to talk about it.)

I knew the stump was there…but it was muddy, and dark, and frozen underneath, and one thing led to another and…. so it goes. But still.

Sigh. 

If only I had cut the stump 3” shorter.

Good thing there was a sale, saved a little money anyway. Which I spent on lawn mower belts and blades, digger shovels, chisel plow points, filters, rubber boots for the tractor steering knuckles. All that was about $1700.

Stopped and picked up the new bathroom door for the basement bathroom remodeling. It’s a few weeks out yet, but getting stuff around. Paid for that.

And then on another website I ordered some new LED lights for the tractors; just about have them all replaced now I think.

Got home and installed the new driveshaft. It’s really pretty.

Ooooo. Shiny!

Installation is easy; slip it over the splines in the back, four bolts in the front.

Forgot to get new bolts for the shields. They’re metric. I found a few at home, and then stopped and bought an assortment of metric bolts… knew the day was coming I’d need a collection of both standard and metric.

Try not to break this one, Ben.

I need to plan a road trip to Millerville MN. About five hours from Rochester, past Alexandria. I’ve purchased a ‘Track Wacker’. Everybody outta have a TRACK WACKER! (I can think of a few people I’d like to use a track wacker on.) I will mount it on the back of the 6410 tractor, and it covers up the tire tracks before drill comes behind planting oats. It was fairly cheap at $450.

There’s an online auction up in Plainview. The auction goes until Tuesday evening. I’ve marked several things to watch including a 32-foot wide, Brillion brand, Pulverizer / packer. One would use it to help break up clumps of soil, and firm the soil for planting. I knew it would be out of my price range, and as of Friday afternoon it’s at $13,000. That’s $12,000 more than I wanted to spend. 

I’m watching a 30′ drag / harrow. I use one after oats, and soybeans, again, just to help smooth the field. It’s over $1100 now…I’m still bidding on it, but by Tuesday I bet it will be $2800 and I can’t convince myself it’s worth that. My old drag is going to disintegrate someday…I bought it from a neighbor 40 years ago. Every year, I add another piece of chain to it, trying to hold it all together. 

Man… I am spending money like a drunken…. something. 

Included in the auction is one lot containing both a “Wood Duck Call and Vintage Anal Weather Station”. Yep, you read that right. And I checked, and that’s what it’s called. I think we all know what they really mean with the weather station and the three gauges, but it does give you pause, doesn’t it. I mean, it sort of boggles the mind! I really want to know what one would do with an anal weather station.

And there is always ALWAYS a dozen guns and boxes of ammunition. I asked up there one day and they said most of the guns come from estate sales. I bought a shotgun off this auction once, and a box of shells, if they sell cheaper than buying at a local store. All that stuff is officially transferred at a gun shop; you don’t just carry it off from the auction site. And the gun shop calls the state and I filled out forms, so it’s as safe as it can be, for what it is.

Among the shells this time, is an ice cream bucket, of 300- .223 caliber bullets. Called a FREEDOM BUCKET! Picture of a Revolutionary Minute-man and a US flag on it.

Give me a second while I put my head in my hands.

————-

A former student came to visit. She met a guy online, moved to Ireland, and has two of the cutest little girls.

Help me come up with an adjective for a bucket of bullets referred to as a FREEDOM BUCKET.

ANYTHING YOU’D LIKE TO SAY ABOUT WEATHER STATIONS?

2026, Business, chickens, crops, education, Farming Update, Gatherings, Nature, Science, Uncategorized

AN OAT-STANDING DAY* 

65 Comments

This week’s Farming Update from Ben

You know, it was so warm last week, it was so freaking muddy. It was terrible. And I know it’s gonna happen the next time it warms up again. But that’s next month’s problem!

I’ve always found it interesting the clumps of snow and ice that accumulate on the far side of railroad crossings. When a vehicle hits a bump like that and the ice chunks fall off and skid up the road a ways. Newton’s first law about an object in motion I think. It’s kinda cool to me.

Wednesday this week I went to an oat producers meeting. Got another really good free meal! 

It was a very good meeting. Lots of good speakers and interesting topics. I did critique the font of one guy’s slides… I’m such a snob. The meeting started at 10:00, and people wandered in for another hour. And it reminded me how hard it was to get anywhere before about noon  when milking cows and doing chores in the winter. Feed the beef cows, feed the dairy cows, milk, chase the beef out of the yard, let the dairy cows out of the barn, clean the barn, haul out the manure, throw down hay from the haymow, spread out straw bedding, spread out the hay, and put the cows back in when they’re done eating outside. It all took a while. 

Excuse me, can you keep your heads down…

There were 159 farmers in attendance (because the host said now she knew how long it took to get 159 people through the line for lunch.) 

One guy kinda looked like Robert Duvall. 

I wore a peach colored shirt. I was the most colorful person there. A lot of plaid and dark colors. And a fair number of women at this meeting too. 

It was mentioned that 26% of the farmers in Olmsted County planted cover crops last, involving 20,000 acres. 

As one speaker went through his slides, he’d show a field of oats and call out ‘Eye candy!’

*He’s also the guy that said it was an ‘Oat-standing day’.

I saw them in concert back in 1984 just to impress a girl. I Broke up with her anyway.

Several of the speakers, and many of the farmers, are growing a few hundred acres of oats. They talk about their 40’ air seeders and stripper heads for oats and growing 140 bushel / acre oats and I sit there quietly with my 30 acres, and 40 bushels / acre and think ‘You don’t have any deer do you?’ I asked a question if anyone is dragging their oat fields. Crickets. One speaker finally said they do no-till planting. Oh. yeah meaning they don’t have bare dirt like I do. Several said that. One of the benefits of no-till, is being able to get out and plant in March without needing to wait for the ground to warm up and dry out to do tillage before planting, like I do. 

Several of these farmers are responsible for the surge in oat growers. They’re the founders of the oat mafia.

One guy shared his spreadsheet for his crop input and expenses. If input costs are going to be high, and crop prices are going to be low, then we hope for high enough yields to make up the difference. One example was a 1400 acre farm. If he does 700 acres corn and 700 acres beans, expenses will be this much, income theoretically this much, and they’re losing money. However, if they do 466 acres corn, 467 acres bean, and 467 acres oats, they can make some money. Oats cost less than corn to produce. Remember, less yield or a thunderstorm or a lower price and it’s all out the window. 

Jochum Wiersma, from the U of M is always a good speaker. He’s from the Netherlands, and he’s got a bit of an accent, and he is funny, and a very intelligent good speaker. He asked the group if we thought farming was more like NASCAR or a European Rally race? Obviously, a rally. “NASCAR is all left turns, you always know what’s coming.” If it was easy, everyone would be doing it. That’s why farming and raising oats is all about managing risk. 

I took home several good lessons. My crop rotation has been soybeans, corn the next year, then oats the next. Repeat. I do it that way because soybeans add nitrogen to the soil meaning I spend less on nitrogen for the following corn crop. When our son was in high school, he did a report for some class, comparing corn after oats and corn after soybeans. Surprisingly, the corn after oats did better. and I don’t really recall when or why I changed up the rotation order, but it was said several times, DO NOT PLANT OATS AFTER CORN, it’s more susceptible to crown rust disease. And maybe that’s why my oat crop has been so lousy lately. So, we’ll try planting oats on the fields that were soybeans last year. 

I cut down a bunch of dead Ash trees last Saturday. Thirty years ago, I planted two rows of ash trees and some arborvitae shrubs, hoping to create a windbreak in which I planned to put calf hutches on the south side. It turned out to be a pretty wet area. All the arborvitae died off a few years later. The ash trees got to be 40′ tall and were kind of a pain to mow around, now they’re all dead from Emerald Ash borer. There’s a few I’m waiting for a tree company to take down as they’re too close to the feed storage building for me to cut down. I left the stumps about two feet tall for the moment. I’ll trim them off at ground level this summer. 

Using the tractor and loader I was pushing the trees into a pile, and that’s when a tree branch rolled around the inside of the rear tire rim and snapped off the valve stem. Have I mentioned the chloride fluid I have put in the rear wheels for additional weight and traction? It sprays out when you break off the valve stem. My friends at Appel Service and $650 fixed that on Monday. I put the grapple bucket on the loader and picked up the rest of the trees to move them.

I need to remember, a tractor is not a bulldozer.

That worked much better. Until I got the tractor I over a stump. Not really sure how I did that. Bent a shield underneath…

I parked the tractor in the shop and let it dry off and warm up for a couple days, then I rolled under with wrenches and removed the shield. Trying to bend the shield enough to reach the bolts and I remembered Newtons third law: me on a rolling creeper pushing against a larger tractor…doesn’t move the shield, it moves me. An equal and opposite reaction! SCIENCE!

I’ve had chickens living in the garage again. I chased three out of the rafters one evening. The chickens hop from one rafter to another, and the dogs got all riled up and daughter thought the whole thing was hysterical. 

Chicken!

TALK ABOUT LEARNING TO RIDING A BIKE.

TALK ABOUT BIRDS / THINGS YOU’VE SEEN PERCHED IN ODD PLACES

2026, Art, books, crops, Food, History

Spice of Life

37 Comments

I’m having fun churning through a bunch of “listicle” books in preparation for Blevins.   Shipwrecks, Nellie Bly, plants, more plants and Phineas Fogg.

The latest is The History of the World in 100 Objects, which was a BBC radio show awhile back.  I found the CDs through Interlibrary Loan and it’s prodigious – 20 discs!  It comes with a pamphlet that have 100 teeny little black and white photos of the items.  Luckily I was able to find a website that has nicer photos of the objects, so I’ve been keeping that open while I listen to the CDs.

It’s well done – not nearly as stuffy as I was expecting – and I’m enjoying it, although I’m having to keep at it since you can’t renew ILL items.

All the items are in the British Museum, including a statue of Chicomecoatl, the Aztec of Goddess of Maize and Sustenance.  The narration starts out with an overview of food having a divine role throughout history and then moves on to the history of maize, the plant it derives from and where it grows (just about everywhere).  Then came this funny bit:

“But crucially, maize is a rich carbohydrate that gives you a rapid energy hit.  But it is, let’s face it, pretty stodgy, and so from very early on, farmers also cultivated an ingenious – and tasty – accompaniment, the indigenous chili.  It has virtually no nutritional value but, as we all know, it’s uniquely able to liven up dull carbohydrates – and it shows that we’ve been foodies for as long as we’ve been farmers.”

I laughed out loud especially since I had just added a slug of frozen poblanos to a dish I had made about an hour before.  Now I want to go to Penzey’s to see if they have any good chili mixtures.

Do you have any “go-to” spices?

2026, Computers, crops, Farming Update, Nature, pets, Uncategorized, Weather

DIGGIN’ IN

61 Comments

This week’s farming update from Ben

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY.

How about this weather! 

Way too warm for February. But the chickens sure enjoying having some grass and sunshine. The dogs, too. And if we can get rid of some of the ice between the house and shed, maybe Luna will chase the ball over that way instead of standing here watching it go. 

I’m thinking I’ll use the tractor loader and try to move some of the piles of snow and gravel from the grass back onto the the road. Although I’m pretty sure we’ll get some more snow this winter. I mean, it’s only February. We just never know anymore. 

At the college I had to create a new computer password. The muscle memory has not formed yet and it takes me four tries to log in.

At the local school district, their passwords have to be 15 characters plus all the special stuff. Seems like sometime last summer I couldn’t get logged into email and I kinda forgot about it. I don’t get that much email on that account so it didn’t really matter. Every now and then I’d try to log into a computer and get frustrated and just give up on it. Eventually I got around to trying to get the password reset. I can’t do that from home, it has to be on a district computer. So I tried that, and it still didn’t work. I talked to my boss who had me contact IT. That guy looked me up in the system and said “Huh!”. Hate it when people say that in regard to me… He said I wasn’t in the system and eventually sent me to HR. HR said I wasn’t assigned to a department and therefore, I ceased to exist. Well, I beg to differ! I use to exist. Yep, they knew that, but I don’t anymore. So it was a whole thing to start over and get back in the system. I got a new ID badge complete with a photo of my choosing from my phone, because the lady in HR readily admitted their camera takes lousy photos. So that was nice. 

Another guy in the room said he hadn’t seen an ID badge as old as mine in a long time. I was two versions behind. Huh!

A while ago.

So now I’m able to log in, using a password that’s a practically a short sentence. And no way to see it as you type (they’ve had some security issues in the past).  I check my email more often and I get a lot more emails too. Be careful what you wish for. 

This weekend is the 60th Annual National Farm Machinery show in Louisville KY. 

https://farmmachineryshow.org

It’s the largest indoor farm show in the world, with over 900 booths on “27 acres of interconnected indoor exhibit space”. Admission is free if you’d like to pop in. Expect to be overwhelmed. Many of the YouTube farmers I watch are there. Of course this has all the newest big shiny equipment on display. Oh, there’s a few older tractors for show, but this is the place to show off the latest and greatest. 

I spent a couple hours Friday in a meeting at the local Soil and Water Conservation office meeting with Angela and Jenna. After clearing all the tree’s and reshaping the waterway two years ago, I learned I really should have talked to them first. So last year Angela and I looked at a few areas of the farm and she put together a plan to stop the erosion and repair this gully in the pasture. 

Another project in the works

At the top, a small dam would be built, about 4 feet tall and 150 feet long. An upright pipe would be installed at the front with a drainage line running about 50’ downhill. That structure would collect the water funneling into this area, slow it down, and release it over several hours. That in turn, would prevent the erosion happening further downhill. At the bottom, the gully would be filled in, the area re-shaped, and a proper waterway built. There are some springs down there which would be directed into the new waterway once fully seeded and established. 

Because our farm is in the Zumbro Valley Watershed area, cost sharing would bring our actual cost down to about 10% of the total. Well that sounds like a plan! 

I also asked about a program called RCPP. Regional Conservation Partnership Program. I heard about this program last week at the soil health meeting. I have part of one field edge that has a pretty good slope too it, and every spring I get a small gully along the edge. The edge of a field where a person turns for the next pass, those areas are called headlands. I’ve tried to create a berm to keep the rainwater off the headland rows, but every spring I get a new gully. The RCPP program would do some cost sharing to create a permanent grass area there so rather than working up the ground of the headlands, I’d be turning on the grassy area. 

And since the office is having their annual tree and shrub sale, Kelly and I were discussing where we could plant some trees. One thing we thought was to plant a wind break where we put the snow fence. Guess what? Cost sharing for that too! It was a very good meeting! 

Check out the spurs on this rooster. 

You’ll poke your eye out with those things!

He is one of the roosters who’s kind of a bully to the hens. He’s pretty though. And isn’t that the way? All looks, no class. 

Last weekend I got the new shop exhaust fan wired up, and I put a new gasket under one toilet this week (a project I put off for two months because I’d never done it before and I had some concerns.) In the end, I spent more time cleaning off the old wax gasket and cleaning the floor around the toilet than the actual repair took. This weekend I’ll be changing the kitchen faucet spray wand and tubing. This is the fourth one I’ve ordered. The first three were wrong. Now we’re changing the hose as well. Kudo’s to Moen and their lifetime warranty for admitting their mistake and shipping parts to me no charge. 

WHAT WAS YOUR CHILDHOOD PHONE NUMBER?

WHAT WAS THE FIRST THING FOR WHICH YOU NEEDED A PASSWORD?

2026, animals, crops, Farming Update, pets, Technology, Travel, Uncategorized

Boy, Chef-

86 Comments

This week’s farming update from BEN.

Man, it feels like it was a tough week. The emotions are all over the place. We know a person who is a Sergeant in the Minneapolis police force. That person cares so much for the men under their watch; making sure they get rest, and standing up for them when admin says they’re not responding to 911 calls fast enough. Thankfully things didn’t get too crazy for them, shifts returned to normal after a few days, and everyone got some time off. Still, it stresses us out and I have a hard time staying focused and we find ourselves grumpy all day.

As has been said, this is supposed to be our escape, our safe place, our happy place.

So here’s some chicken pictures!

This is a Phoenix chicken we got from a friend several years ago. They’re really nice chickens.
This is Marge. I just made up that name. Go ahead and suggest names for her.
Hello girls. And boy.
I asked the computer to generate two chickens in a photographic style. They sure look grumpy. Next time I’ll ask for happier chickens.
I asked the computer to generate a cartoon chicken..

I’ve been doing a lot of bookwork. And I got a new desk lamp that’s really nice. I have been using a farming specific software called ‘PCMars’ since getting our first computer in 1994. Getting it all entered in the computer is one thing. The other half of the job, after I pile the receipts on top of the second desk drawer, (and throwing away anything not farm / business related) is sorting them out and putting them in the tote that I’ll put downstairs for the next 23 years. I couldn’t get the drawer shut anymore, so I sorted out what I had. Then I can enter some more into the computer. I don’t save as many receipts as I used to, because so much is available online.

I haven’t decided if it’s easier or harder having electronic receipts. Those receipts I move to a file that’s either farm or home related. Then I go through them and enter them into the program. And some still need to be saved, so they go to another E-file. We talked about paper checks on here one day. Kelly wrote four checks out of her home checkbook in 2025. And three were for the bathroom remodeling.

Which, by the way, we’ve finally signed a contract and written another check, to redo the basement bathroom from 1968. So long pink wallpaper.

I know this will be an affront to Renee and some of you, but I picked up two cans of Chef Boyardee Beef Ravoli. Haven’t had it since I was a kid. When I’m out shopping, saving big money, I’m tending to buy more and more groceries there. I bought soup, Spam, and the ravioli. I made soup for supper that night and Kelly asked me how my discount soup was. It was brand name chicken and dumpling, but, it wasn’t that great. Too many carrots and not enough dumplings. The broth was good. With the cold weather predicted this weekend, I may have to make a can of ravioli as comfort food.

One day out in the shop, I made a storage place for my really large sockets. These are 3/4” drive sockets. I got tired of them being all in a jumble in the drawer. Sockets can be 1/4” drive, 3/8”, 1/2”, 3/4” or even 1” drive. I use 3/8” and 1/2” most often. The 3/4” drive stuff is for the big serious stuff. The square hole of these is the 3/4″ I was referring too, and the related ratchet or handles have a corrresponding drive on them. The largest I have are 1&7/8” and 46mm. I have a whole set of standard and metric 1/2″ drive sockets in a different tool box.

I need better labels than the sharpie that was going dry.

Monday is a holiday for some of us. The college is closed. I wonder what I can find to get into.

ANY COMFORT FOODS PLANNED THIS WEEKEND?

2026, animals, crops, Family, Farming Update, holidays, Nature, Seasons, Technology, Weather, work

BY THE NUMBERS

33 Comments

This weeks Farming Update from BEN

On Thursday I collected the mileage and hours from vehicles and tractors then put it all in my ‘Yearly Mileage’ spreadsheet. Everything was about average. We used the lawn mower 31 hours, put 43 hours on the big tractor, and 127 hours on the other tractor. Drove the 4-wheeler 22 miles, and put 306 miles on the gator using it 48 hours.

Egg count for 2025 was 419 dozen. 5028 eggs. Plus a few dozen that froze or got broken.

On Tuesday daughter and I took a road trip to Potsdam and Meyer’s Seed, then John Deere in Plainview. And got sundaes at DQ and then back to Rochester for a stop at Barnes and Noble. She thanked me for the adventure. 

At Meyer’s the oat seed for 2026 is ordered and paid for, and corn and soybean seed has been ordered and financed, at 0% interest with a 4% savings. (6% savings would have given me prime -2%). $11,700. A bag of seed corn now is over $300. I ordered 25 bags. That’s a separate loan from the $43,000 for fertilizer and spraying. I got TWO free seed corn hats!

You know how you’re supposed to save receipts for seven years? I brought up a box from 2002 and sorted through that. Oh my goodness. We’d been married 12 years. Kelly was making $17 / hour. We had 2 kids in daycare, and $36 in our savings account. I’d get a milk check twice a month. It totaled maybe $2200. I owed the vet $1000, the breeder $500, the feed co-op $500, plus there was always other bills and expenses. I got anxious just looking back through this stuff. Once I saved the important stuff, I took the unneeded stuff out in the snow and burned it. 

It was a small fire; not much stuff. And I just used my gloved hand to ‘swish’ it around to get all the papers to burn. Evidently the cheap nylon mechanics glove I was wearing have a lower melting point than the flame of even a small fire. I didn’t get hurt or anything, it just melted the sides of the fingers of the glove. Daughter came over to see what I was doing. I pointed out that she shouldn’t use her hand to stir up a fire. She looked at me like I was a complete idiot. And she basically said, “Well duh!”. Oh good. A win on the parenting front! She knows enough not to stick her hand in a fire. 

The wedding we attended on New Years Eve was really very nice! The bride was stunning, the groom looked sharp in his black tuxedo. They were both relaxed (or at least looked that way) and the ceremony was low-key and they wrote and read their own vows and had fun. We had a full three course meal, and there was a live band. I got a lot of compliments on the fact I was wearing sleeves. I did have to dig to the back of my closet for this shirt, and one cuff was a slightly different color than the other. Solved that problem by rolling them up a bit. 

For Christmas Kelly gave me this hat:

I picked up oil filters and grease tubes at John Deere. I changed the engine oil and filter in the 630. I was looking in the operators manual for the tractor and realized I’ve never checked the oil level for the transmission. On modern tractors there’s the engine oil dipstick, and then a dipstick, or sometimes a site tube, showing transmission and hydraulic oil level. On the 630, there’s a dipstick for the engine oil, and one for the hydraulics and I remember always checking that as a kid. I don’t know what fascinated me about that dipstick, but I checked it often. And then there’s a check “LEVEL” plug for the power take off. And on the side, according to the book, another check “LEVEL” plug for the transmission.

HUH!

Never seen that before.

I had to scrap some dirt off to find this.

You take the plug out and add oil until it starts to run out the plug, then it’s full. I don’t remember Dad checking that. I’m sure he did, I just didn’t know about it. Now the tractor is good to go come spring.

And the 1940’s music station is back on my car radio.

Life is good.

WHAT DO YOU DO WITH YOUR RECIPTS?

HOW ARE YOU AT RECORD KEEPING?

2025, Business, crops, Farming Update, Government, History, Music, Science, Technology, Theatre, Uncategorized, Weather

INTEREST-ING

60 Comments

This week’s farming update from Ben

Brrrr. We are hardy Minnesotan’s but it’s still cold out. Hope you can stay inside and warm for the weekend. 

Honestly, how did people do it 100  years ago? Or 500? Or 1000?? 

We have so much to be thankful for. 

I got my corn check from the co-op last week and put it in the bank. And this week I paid off the loan I borrowed from a month ago to pay the bills. And the co-op emailed about setting up the loan and credit for 2026 crops. Easy come, easy go. Repeat. I spent some time this week comparing interest rates. It’s kinda hard to find out what the actual Prime rate is. Course it varies by bank and how much money you have. And it was kind of interesting how that works. One of the companies the co-op uses does Prime minus 0.5% until August, then Prime + 0.5% until Feb of 2027. Another company has different rates on some of the products and zero interest on some, but then Prime +2% on fertilizer. In the end, it doesn’t amount to that much money. It would be a different story if I was spending $450,000 at 7.5% interest. (That’s $33,750 @ 7.5% if you’re curious. Now we’re talking real money!) And the government is going to bail me out with the poor prices on soybeans. So they say. I don’t know what that’s going to amount too yet. It won’t be $33,000 I can tell you that. I’ll bet I can take off a couple zero’s there and be more like it. I always say the difference between me and the big farms is a couple zeros on the expenses and the income. 

I’ll fill out the forms this weekend and figure out next years crops. Samantha, the agronomist I work with at the co-op sent out a rough worksheet of next year expenses for my planning purposes, and I’ll get things ordered and prices locked in by mid January for the best rate. 

Yesterday on the blog we were talking about things from the past. I had a guy at the farm the other day who had a front wheel drive car and was almost stuck on the bare, but snow covered driveway. He clearly didn’t know how to drive on snow. His wheels were spinning and he blamed the posi-traction. I can still hear my dad’s voice “DON’T SPIN YOUR WHEELS!” Our mantra in winter back in the day of rear-wheel drive cars. “Sit heavy! Don’t spin your wheels.” And my family jokes that Dad would say, “NO TALKING! BE QUIET BACK THERE!” I don’t remember that, but I’m sure it was so Dad could hear the wheels not spinning. Shift to low, back up to the garage so you can get a run at it, and don’t spin your wheels. And the guy got out. Our driveway is long and starts right off with an uphill “U”. (So right, “get a run at it” but you’re making a corner at the same time. You learn a lot about friction doing that.) Then you’ve got a flat 75 yards to gain some speed before the next uphill corner to the left. Most people, if they get around the U, can make the next corner. Although there was some days I had to back up 50 yards and get a run at the second corner again. But a front wheel drive car? Dude. Learn to drive. I remember years ago, the guy who would come in to breed the cows. He had a little tiny car. Rear wheel drive. He couldn’t get out. And he turned around and went backwards really fast around both corners. I was very impressed. But he made it. 

Last weekend Padawan called me about 10:00 at night to see if I would help pull a friend of his out of a ditch. So I went. Because we’ve said Padawan is our second son, so, that’s what you do for your kids. The friend had a new sporty little car. Still had the temporary plates. Skidded on the snow and slid into a ditch. Another kid who needs to learn how to drive. He was only a little stuck. Pulled him out with the truck.

Haven’t had much time to work in the shop this past week. Concerts at the college, homework, (had the last ‘in person’ class. I have a couple tests to take yet and some online lectures to watch. Last day of classes is next Friday) And I’ve been moving snow. 

Our mailbox is out on the highway. It’s on a swinging post so the snow launching off the snowplow doesn’t damage it, the box just swings out of the way. Meaning it WHIPS the mail out into the ditch…More than once we’ve found the mail under that pine tree behind the mailboxes. Sometimes we may not find it until spring. Hopefully it wasn’t the check we’ve been waiting for. There are three mailboxes as there used to be three homes down our road. The third, unused mailbox our neighbor named “S. Lamb”. The sacrificial lamb. Our neighbors are very witty.

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The choir sounds really nice this year. It’s a new conductor and he’s doing a great job with the students. At rehearsal I heard him ask the kids, “Are you ready for the concerts Friday and Saturday?” And they responded, “Thursday and Friday!” 

“Good. What time is the concert?” 

“7:00”

“Good. What time are you going to be here?”

“6:00” 

“Good. Saturday and Sunday concerts, It will be fun!” 

“THURSDAY AND FRIDAY!” 

“Good.” 

Clearly, he’s worked with teenagers before.  

In my happy place.

HOW YOU GONNA STAY WARM THIS WEEKEND?

HOW DO YOU THINK YOU WOOD HAVE STAYED WARM 500 YEARS AGO?

2025, Business, crops, Farming Update, History, Nature, Science, Technology, The Future, Theatre, Weather

Straight Screens in Curved Holes

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This week’s farming update from Ben

Guess it’s winter on the farm. I even wore a T-shirt under my sleeveless shirt one day.  

I don’t think the chickens have come out of the pen all week. They peer out the door, but none of them has much interest in actually going outside. I picked up one chicken that was still living out in the pole barn and carried her back with the rest. And the garage chicken has moved down with the rest. For body heat I presume. Found 4 of the 7 chicks. It’s unfortunate it worked out the way it did for them. I’d have liked them to get a little bigger, or the weather to stay a little warmer, or momma to take a little more care of them a little longer. Any of those options would have served them better.

I got the starter put back on my 630 tractor and it started right up. I can’t get over how quiet it is now. Evidently having a hole and crack in the exhaust manifold is like a hole in your muffler. It’s surprisingly loud. And repairing it was very educational and gave me a great feeling of accomplishment. My dad would be so pleased. That thing has been cracked and loud for as long as I can remember. For a tractor from 1959, it’s getting some much needed attention.

I’m still working on some cosmetic repairs. I have new screens for the front grill and I picked up a cheap spot welder to repair part of the hood. Welding class from 12th grade comes through again!

Dad must have run into something to dent it and break off all the welds on one side. And now I need to figure out how to fit this straight piece of corrugated screen into the slots and curves on the corners.

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I know it bends, it is just a matter of fitting it all together.

I worked on it for a while one night and decided this was something to ponder and come back too. The dogs all run into the shop and get a drink, and I played ball with Luna while Bailey gets in my face. Humphrey likes having a warm place to lie down and he’s happy. But the others get bored after a bit and Bailey pee’s on the floor and out they go. Kelly lets them back into the house. Out in the shop is my happy place. Have I mentioned that? As I closed the toolbox and turned off the lights, I thought to myself, this has been 35 years in the making. We took over the farm when we got married, 35 and a half years ago. And I’ve been collecting or buying tools and gaining experience since then. If I had it sooner, I wouldn’t appreciate this so  much. Or I’d want something bigger.

=====================

At the college I’m getting ready for Holiday Concerts next week. My friend Paul is designing again, so it’s fun to have him back in the shop.

I added a few more LED lights over the stage. Just some plain LED wash lights. They don’t move or wiggle, they just change colors. Over the stage are pipes called ‘battens’ and they’re all counter weighted so they’re balanced as they come up and down. Called “flying in or out”. Our stage has 19 battens. Three are for lighting (called ‘Electrics 1,2 and 3′ front to back). Several are curtains, and some are open to hang scenery. The counterweight is achieved using metal bricks that weigh about 15.5 pounds. We add or subtract them to balance whatever is hanging. When I added the lights to the 1st Electric, I had to add 8 more bricks. This is the main lighting batten. I counted 58 bricks. 899 pounds. This batten is rated for 1000 lbs.

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These are the counter weight bricks. The yellow brick is empty base weight.
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The First Electric and it’s 23 various lights.

*********************************************

I read an article in a farm magazine recently about the next generation of autonomous farm equipment. The technology is out of testing and is available for sale.

A little background: As with all technology, this has been coming for a few years. First it was the GPS mapping. Then row sensors so machinery could follow the rows by themselves. Then the machinery started to incorporate the equipment and technology to put all this together and the tractor could follow a line through the field. Then it was automated so that the tractor could raise and lower an implement, slow down at the ends, and all the driver had to do was make the corner, find the next line and hit ‘Go’. From there, multiple implements or tractors could talk to each other. The tractor could pull up next to the combine, and the combine would take control of the tractor and unload at a constant speed. So simply removing the driver really wasn’t that big of a leap, it was kind of the next logical step. That said, I’m not sure I’m ready for a driverless car yet.

 This information is from an article in Successful Farming Magazine from November of 2025, called ‘How Farmers Are Using Autonomous Equipment to Do More with Less’. It cites labor shortages, changing weather conditions meaning smaller productivity windows, or maybe just not having enough time in the day to get it all done. Some of the jobs open to autonomy are planting, spreading fertilizer, tillage, or pulling grain carts.

Wanna know what it costs?

There are two big companies: John Deere and AGCO. John Deere doesn’t list prices.

AGCO: 

Capabilities: grain cart duties and tillage; planned for 2026 

Compatibility: AGCO and PTx’s OutRun system is compatible with 2014 or newer John Deere 8R tractors. Compatibility with Fendt tractors is to begin in 2026.

OutRun for tillage has a $54,000 one-time hardware cost and a $9,000 annual recurring payment; OutRun for grain cart has a $55,000 one-time hardware cost and a $15,000 annual recurring payment. 

If using the same tractor and base OutRun Intelligence kit for both grain cart and tillage, it has a $65,900 one-time hardware cost and a $15,000 annual recurring payment.

Carbon Robotics: 

Capabilities: tillage, mulching, mowing, and LaserWeeder

Compatibility: Carbon ATK is compatible with John Deere 6R, 8R, 8RT, and 8RX model tractors. Installation takes under a day, with no permanent modifications. Carbon ATK is a $60,000 one-time add-on kit that Carbon comes out and installs.

John Deere: 

No price listed

Sabanto: 

Capabilities: mowing and seeding

Compatibility: The Sabanto autonomous kit is compatible with 2015–2024 Kubota M5 Series tractors; 2015–2024 John Deere 5E, 5M, and 6E Series tractors; and Fendt 700 Vario tractors. The kit costs $70,000, and is available on cab and open-station models. 

https://www.agriculture.com/how-farmers-are-using-autonomous-equipment-to-do-more-with-less-11838003

[Whistle]

First off, I don’t even have a tractor new enough to put this on. Second, [Looking at my bank account]… Nope, there is nothing to say here.

It is kinda cool! I can see the advantage for some farmers. Kelly suggested I could have the tractor doing fieldwork while I was at the college. Yep. Suppose Bailey would still get in the tractor without me? From the video’s of the systems I’ve seen, the operator is monitoring it from his phone or tablet. Inside the tractor you set the field and boundaries. Then once you’re out of the tractor, depending on which system  you’re using, either you start it remotely and the tractor honks and the lights flash and it uses all the exterior cameras to make sure you’re not around, and off it goes.

If it “sees” something not right, it will stop and alert the operator, who can view the cameras and decide the best course of action.

Crazy stuff.

JOKE DAY! SHARE A JOKE:

Q: WE WERE SO POOR—

A: THAT FOR BREAKFAST WE HAD ORDINARY K.

2025, crops, education, Family, Farming Update, Kids, Nature, Technology, Uncategorized, Weather

Concrete Herring! or What Color is Your Herring?

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This weeks farming update from Ben

My schedule has been a little crazy lately. Next week will be better.  🙂

I hear there are places in the country where the weather on the evening news doesn’t take ten minutes. I don’t need the full ten minutes, I just want to know the 12-48 hour forecast, and the 7 or 10 day forecast, Which I know is just a guideline. Especially this time of year, when the forecast has some pretty drastic changes coming.

No, the corn still isn’t out and I don’t want to talk about it. The grain elevators are closed on the weekends now, because 99.8% of the harvest is complete. So I don’t expect anything this weekend unless they finish everything at their place and they just come in and fill up the trucks on Sunday. 

I wrote a long story about the thermostat in my shop and I threw all that away and tried to make this a shorter story. A red herring was involved and suffice it to say human error played a part. Because of course it did.  

I use a wifi thermostat so I can monitor it from the house. It worked last year. This year, it worked while I’m out there, but it didn’t work when I came to the house. 

One day it died completely so I bought a new one.  Installing that and I blew a fuse up in the heater itself. Another trip to town for an ‘E’ fuse. An E fuse? Never heard of an E fuse. Oh, it’s a ‘3’ not an ‘E’. Thank goodness I figured that out on my own and didn’t say that to the guy at the auto parts store. Then of course there was a new app and all of that rigamarole. And that night in the house and it wouldn’t connect again. 

The day we poured the concrete, including the slab outside the front door, I used a side door, and a different light switch. Turns out, the outlet I have the heater plugged in to is tied into the 3 way switch for the lights. And I hooked that up myself, this wasn’t the electricians fault. Other than they didn’t know I wanted an outlet for the heater, which is why I did it myself. But how come it worked last year?? Because the heater was plugged into a wall outlet and because the electricians weren’t here until March, and I didn’t get the heater outlet installed until April.  So now, when I come into the shop and turn the lights on, the thermostat works. When I leave and turn off the lights, the thermostat turns off. Well, don’t I feel like a dunce. How could I tell the thermostat was off once I left the shop?? I thought the problem was the wifi. Nope, that was the red herring. The problem was the thermostat wasn’t even ON.

I have it plugged into a regular outlet again and I can tell you, by the app, it’s 46 degree’s out there at 56% humidity. 

We did get the concrete done on Tuesday. Yay! Check that off the list! A big job, and I had the easy job in the tractor hauling the cement from the truck outside, to the pad inside. 

(Two reasons; the truck wouldn’t fit inside the shed, and I didn’t want him backing onto the existing concrete slab). When they poured the inside slab a couple years ago, they used a little “buggy” to haul the concrete. This was the same thing, only different.) The truck driver was great! Randy. 65 yrs old, been driving a concrete truck for 38 years. We joked before he got there, would he know we were amateurs? I told him right up front, feel to offer advice. He just picked up the bull float and got right in there helping. 

Took about 2 hours to get it all dumped and leveled. I was a little bit short of product and left a bit of a gap on one end of the walkway pad. I expect to finish that with 10 bags of concrete mix I picked up.  

About 6:00 PM I was able to start smoothing off the concrete with the hand trowels. (I Learned the difference between magnesium floats and steel floats. You use magnesium when you’re first leveling, and steel to do the final finish.) 

It was about 8PM when I was trying to finish the big slab and smooth around the drain. The concrete was getting too firm by that point and it was a little too late to be working it. All in all, it’s not bad for the first time for a bunch of newbies. It will look better when it gets some dirt on it to cover the imperfections.

I spread out tarps and covered the outside ones with straw. 

A few days later I pulled off the tarp and moved the dumpster over there. This right here was the original point of all this. 

I wonder how much snow will blow in here?
My brother using the bull float on the first piece.
Working on the big slab inside the shed.

Our son helped, my brother helped, Padawan’s girlfriend helped, (Padawan was at work) and Kelly helped. They all admitted this was harder work than they imagined.  And we all learned a lot. Next summer’s plan is to do another slab inside. My brother isn’t sure he’ll help again next summer. Son says he will find more younger helpers.

I’m just glad it’s done. I had a beer that night. I’ve been waiting to finish the concrete to have that beer. 

We thought for sure we’d have a dog footprints in it somewhere. Or Luna was gonna drop a ball into it. We locked them in the shop at one point.

Inside slab done. Won’t drive on it for a week yet, and will get it backfilled shortly.
You haven’t seen the chickens lately. Here’s the chickens eating some left overs.

I have a new appreciation for the people doing concrete work and making it look easy.

HAVE YOU STOPPED MISLEADING PEOPLE?

2025, crops, Farming Update, pets, Theatre, Uncategorized, Weather

BOO! HISS!

32 Comments

The 1940’s station I listen to on SXM has changed to Christmas music already. 

Bah. 

The neighbor guys say they should get to my corn this week. Well, we’re running out of week. I heard recently the grain elevators are full and they may not be taking corn anymore. Great. I wanted something else to worry about.

Waiting on a road repair on the township road that goes into our place. The ONLY road into our place. I’m sure they’ll do that the day we start combining. Mumble mumble mumble…

The 630 tractor I’ve been repairing on and off for 2 years now. I had it running; I got the main hood back in place and got the air cleaner and muffler installed.

Coming together. Air cleaner and muffler on the top!

And then the starter, which some times acts up, started acting up again. I knew there was a bad wire down underneath, so I pulled the flywheel cover off, got underneath the tractor and took the cover off the starter and disconnected the wires, pulled them up and out of there, pulled the four bolts out and removed the lower dash, disconnected one more wire, took out the four bolts for the upper dash and gauges, disconnected a second wire, built a new wire harness, taped it all up with heat shrink tubing to make it look all professional like, put it all back together and installed the starter cover while that voice way in the back of my head said ‘You didn’t test this yet’ but heck, I know it’s fixed. And I touched the ground wire to the frame and the starter starts to spin. Crap. Key on or off doesn’t matter, the starter spins all the time. It’s not supposed to spin until I push the start button. It doesn’t engage to start the tractor, it just spins. 

Sigh.

I took the cover off again and tapped on the starter with a hammer. GENTLE taps. Nope. Still spinning.

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Luna on the left, flywheel is the ‘X’, starter poking through in the right circle.

Sigh. 

OK, it’s just three bolts to get the starter out; will take it to the starter repair guy. 

The lights down in the feed room haven’t been working. I replaced the bulbs the other day and they still didn’t work. Hmm, it’s dark early these days you know, I’d like to have lights in there. The barn lights work. I trace a wire and know they should be powered by the barn lights meaning it’s not a breaker. There’s a box in the barn that maybe is the problem, but the box is covered with 17 layers of whitewash. 

Anyone remember or know of whitewash? Tom Sawyer was probably using whitewash on that fence he got the neighbor kids to do. 

When we were milking cows, we had a guy come out annually to white wash the inside of the barn. Whitewash is a mix of lime and a few other things mixed with water. Evidently it has mildly antibiotic properties. And it dries to a hard surface that will still rub off on your hands or clothes. In the barn, it was a nice finish the milk inspector would approve. Applying it was messy and we had to cover the pipeline (or wash it off when they were done). And once dried, it sure looked nice. Back to this electrical box; it’s covered with 17 layers of whitewash (which is also mildly corrosive on metal) and I don’t want to start digging into that electrical box because it’s gonna turn into a whole big deal. 

The next option was to see if there’s power to the switch in the feed room. I got a handful of tools and the gator since I knew it will be more than one trip back to the shop. Pulled the cover off, took the wires off, and when I touch them together, the lights come on. Yay! Back to the shop for a new (used) switch and I have lights again. That project took longer than expected. 

I finally got the drain finished in the new concrete. Only took 4 trips to ‘save big money’ to get this glued together. I haven’t finished the outside portion yet, but that’s easy; it was the inside that was the priority.

I’ve got concrete ordered for the 18th now. 

I was doing some research about concrete and cold weather. I know you don’t want it to freeze. Research shows that’s only for a day or two while it is curing. Cover it with a tarp and some straw and it’s all OK at these temperatures. Concrete gives off some heat while curing anyway. Whew! 

My schedule lately has been busier than usual. Got through the college show, then lit a small show in Mantorville (not a melodrama. Are you familiar with melodrama’s? The audience is expected to boo and hiss the villain and cheer the hero. Back in my youth ((1985)) I was the Hero’s buddy and I won the coveted Golden Oink Oink award for my performance. A big ham in other words.) Then I have another show to light at the Rep. And some outside rental events at the college in the evenings. It will be Thanksgiving soon, then it’s into Holiday concerts at the college. Plus my forensic chemistry class, and pouring concrete, and random stuff to do at home. And IF THEY EVER GET MY CORN OUT I’ll want to get some tillage done this fall before the ground freezes or it gets too muddy. I’m not stressed. I’M NOT STRESSED I SAY!This is pretty normal for fall. Kelly knows she doesn’t see me much between the first of November and middle of December. Some how it all works out. But that doesn’t mean I have to be happy about it.

You may remember we have this Joseph at home. He was rescued from a ditch and we decorate him for the holidays.

The Mantorville show has these plastic figures sitting on the side of the stage.

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Jedediah and his wife Bertha.

I sent a picture to Kelly. We laughed, This is Joseph’s twin, Jedediah, and his wife Bertha. Jed to the family. Jed has had a much more bourgeois life… “No ditch life for him” as Kelly says.

GOT A TWIN OR A DOPPLEGANGER? WHO HAVE YOU BEEN MISTAKEN FOR?

EVER BEEN BOOED?