A widow in Holladay, Utah recently contacted the authorities to find out how to dispose of some “ancient dynamite”. Apparently her recently deceased husband had inherited a fair amount of explosives from his father four decades back. The explosives were 60-80 years old.
The bad news, besides it not being worth anything, was that several state agencies agreed that the only way to contain the situation was to conduct a controlled explosion, which, as you can imagine, was going to destroy the house. The family had 24 hours to remove some of their possessions before the charge was ignited, which went off as scheduled at midnight on April 24. Some damage to neighboring properties was reported (blown-out windows and minor fires). Yikes.
I’m hoping the family is feeling lucky that they didn’t blow themselves up in the past 40 years!
Have you ever collected anything dangerous? How much do you think you could get out of your home in 24 hours?
When I took a leave from college during my junior year, my first job supporting myself in Northfield was as a waitress at Country Kitchen. Yea, I know, glamorous. My next job was also waitressing at Ole Piper Inn – a little better money and closer to my apartment. When Ole Piper went other (rather abruptly), my friend Deana found a job at the Ole Store and managed to squeeze out a job for me as well. That job was a combination of waitress/baker/cook.
I’ve heard people say that everyone should be required to spend a year being a waiter or waitress as they’re starting out-kind of like compulsory armed services requirements. I’ve always thought that was a great idea.
Convention Grill in Edina closed down during pandemic and then for a variety of reasons, never got around to re-opening until this past week. The family who owns it has been telling us for years that they were going to be back in business eventually so I’ve been keeping tabs on their progress for awhile now: when I saw the ads for staff last month, I was ecstatic and YA thought we should go right away.
It was during this trip that I was reminded about everyone needing food service background – especially YA! We had a wait, which was expected. A very pushy gentleman managed to get the young guy monitoring the waiting list to seat him before us. This outraged YA. I was more mad at the pushy guy but we got seated immediately after that and it turned out to be a better table. YA was not mollified.
Then it turned out that they didn’t have a veggie burger. My guess is that they will eventually bring that back but the thin paper menus made me think that they might be opening on a restricted listing. YA was in a huff about this, announcing right as my Diet Coke showed up that she didn’t want anything else. I said “OK, then let’s go.” This took her by surprise and she backed down quickly. She said we could stay but she wouldn’t have anything. I replied that this wasn’t my idea of a good time and we should go. Grumpily she said she’d have the triple-decker grilled cheese. She didn’t want an order of fries, said she’d have “10” of mine. The one thing you can still count on at Convention Grill is the size of the orders of fries. One side order is good for two. YA ate her entire sandwich and about half the fries.
Luckily getting food into her helped a lot but she continued to point out things that could be better, including the wait for the food, the fact that the waitress only checked in with us once, the wait for the check. When I suggested that the restaurant had only been open for three days and it was chock-a-block full of customers and unsurprisingly they had a few kinks to work out, she was unconvinced. I also told her it was likely that 100% of the staff were new, she retorted that most of them probably had experience elsewhere, I told no… probably 80% of the staff probably didn’t. If they had prior experience, they most likely couldn’t afford to work at Convention Grill. At this point I told her she needed to spend a year working in a restaurant and that she was “harshing my buzz” (quote from Big Bang Theory. Rest of the time was uneventful.
Anyway, my review is that if you enjoyed Convention Grill before pandemic, you’ll most likely enjoy it now. If you’ve never been but like retro dining experiences with a variety of burgers, malts and fabulous fries, you’ll most likely enjoy it. If you’re YA – maybe not.
Tell me about a favorite place that has re-opened since pandemic!
When I walked into the bathroom yesterday, I noticed that YA’s toothbrush is wearing a space helmet. I asked her about it and she said it’s to keep the toothbrush clean if it falls on the floor. Apparently when she plugs in her hairdryer to dry her hair, she often knocks the toothbrush over. Another one of those items you never knew you needed.
Occasionally I see lists of these kind of “needed” items, usually on Amazon. Things like: Dill Pickle Lip Balm, a 12-pack of Flying Rubber Chickens, 101 Pooping Puppies Jigsaw Puzzle (1000 pieces no less), Fridge Jar Fork Caddy (this is a holder with a plastic fork/grabber that attaches to a jar in your fridge like olives or pickles) and my favorite – the Light-Up St. Patrick’s Day Shamrock Headband.
It’s amazing to me what people can get a production loan for; I’ve always wanted to be a fly on the wall listening to whoever first pitched “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles”.
My first thought about the toothbrush helmet was how silly it was. Now I’m wondering whether MY toothbrush ends up on the floor when YA dries her hair.
Do you think I should get a toothbrush space helmet? What color should it be?
Last summer Husband bought four tarragon plants to put in the big front garden bed. We had never grown tarragon before, and I hadn’t cooked with it that much. We found it a delightful addition to the garden and to our cooking. I was sad to see Autumn come and the plants die in the first freezes. I also thought the same thing about the spinach, a late season Italian variety called Gigante d’inverno, that we plant once the peas are done in August. It is a dark green, highly savoyed spinach with large leaves. It is pretty fast growing and cold hardy. It doesn’t like heat, but likes it cool, even if it gets snowed on.
Much to our surprise, all four tarragon plants survived the winter and are growing nicely. The same is true for the few stray spinach plants we didn’t harvest last year. I never realized that a tender herb like tarragon was hardy to Zone 4, and that if well mulched, the spinach can winter over even in North Dakota. I find that amazing.
Husband plans to have lots of herbs in the garden this summer. It is also a basil summer, as we are getting low on pesto in the freezer. Can you tell I am excited about getting into the garden?
What herbs do you like to grow? What do you like to use tarragon for? How are your garden plans coming?
Year after year people I know have been dumping their land lines.
For awhile I kept ours because I hate putting all my eggs in one basket, even if it’s a mobile-phone-basket. Then right about the time I was ready to let go, my mom decided to drop hers. Why would this matter you ask? Well, my land line was saved in HER cell phone contacts and no matter how many times I said “you know, you should probably just call my cell….”, every 3rd or 4th call went to the land line. Along with a voicemail saying “Oh, I guess I’ll try your cell”. Except for picking up calls from Nonny, I’m not sure eitherYA or I have touched the handset in over a year. Sigh.
Finally I took things into my own hands in January when I was visiting. I deleted my land line from her contacts and changed “She” to “She-Cell Phone”. One and done. If she has even noticed that I don’t have two numbers any longer, she hasn’t said anything.
That was the easy part. Now I have to figure out all the various reward programs that still have my old phone number attached to them. Every time I think I have them all, I stumble across another. The Container Store just two weeks ago still had the land line!
The last two days have been gardening days chez nous. When you have massive numbers of flowers (instead of grass), spring clean-up is a bear. Monday we did a few hours in the front and yesterday we spent in the backyard so Guinevere could be outside with us. (Still LOTS to do… but that’s for another day).
As we were getting going yesterday, YA brought out what I thought was a sunglasses case. I’ve seen this around, usually when she’s getting packed up for a trip. Turns out it’s actually a little bluetooth speaker that she got on a client trip. I wasn’t too excited about this as our choices of music don’t usually sync up but the first song was something I recognized and then the second and the third. I asked her if it was a specific station or if she had asked it “to play old stuff my mom would like”. She responded that she had asked for music from the 70s.
I graduated from high school in 1974 so I guess you could say I came of age musically in the 70s. Abba, Kansas, Fleetwood Mac, Simon & Garfunkel, Moody Blues, Heart, Gordon Lightfoot, Neil Diamond. I was fond of many folk singers in the late 60s as well but I got my first radio of my own when I was in 10th grade. (I never did have a record player of my own until I got married!) I suppose a lot of nostalgia is wrapped up in that music for me.
As the gardening went on, more and more songs that I recognize played on. I don’t know the name of many of those tunes or even the artists, but I know a lot of the lyrics. YA did suggest at one point that I didn’t have to sing along quite so loudly.
I did eventually thank her for playing “old mom music”.
If you can stand the 70s rock stuff, do you have a particular tune you like?
I’ve been in cookie production mode for a couple of days.
A dear friend of mine lost her husband in January; it was expected but still quite sad. Al loved my sugar cookies. For the last couple of years while he was in his decline, I made cookies for him every few weeks so that he could have cookies but my friend wouldn’t have to bake. I made different kinds but the frosted sugar were always his favorites. So for his Celebration of Life I am making them in his memory.
At the same time I am doing my spring bonnet sugar cookies for a shower this weekend as well. My oh my – everything always falls at the same time.
I figured I’d be safe with six batches of the dough. I made that, two batches at a time, on Wednesday. I laid everything out ahead of time so I could whip through – only took me about 25 minutes. The dough does need to chill for a while; that’s why I made it on Wednesday.
Then yesterday morning I rolled out all the dough, cut all the cookies and baked them. 206 fluted squares, 16 large bonnet bases, 16 bonnet cops and 20 llama/alpaca shapes (new cookie cutters that I just got a couple of weeks back). Took about 4 hours from set up to clean up. No burned batches and no dog sneaking cookies off the counter, although I did have to keep a close eye on YA every time she wandered into the kitchen.
This morning, while you are reading this, I’m doing the icing and sprinkles. All of Al’s cookies will have white icing but I’ll use a variety of sprinkles (I have plenty!). I’ll be setting up in the living room on the card table so I can sit and watch tv while I work. If I have time, I’ll do the llama/alpaca cookies and hopefully the bonnets. I used a flow icing on the bonnets so they’ll be last. If I run out of time I’ll finish the bonnets Saturday morning before the shower.
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?
Husband and I are back from Boston, he at home and I in Brookings helping out son and daughter in law as they need an extra hand with home and grandson due to work demands.
We flew out of Boston yesterday to Minneapolis first, then to Bismarck and Sioux Falls respectively. While we waited for our plane in Boston we were delighted to watch the antics of a Minnesotan Special Olympics mixed gender hockey team heading back home. One of the members, a young man named John, held a rather large trophy his team had won at a hockey tournament in Boston, They took multiple photos with their coaches and parents, all so happy with what they had accomplished. It was so nice to see such joy and happiness. They looked so proud of themselves.
What joyous things have you noticed lately? What gives you joy in your day to day life?
We’ve had some nice rainfall, and I’ve got the show open, and I’m trying to stay home and get ready to farm. Yet, every day seems to be interrupted by minutiae and farming has not become the priority it should be. Yet.
My brain cleared enough I found the three things I couldn’t find last week. Kelly pointed out to me the extra chicken waterers behind the house. Yep, that’s exactly where I put them last fall when that chicken hatched those eggs under the deck. And I found the rain gauge in the garage right where I thought it should have been last week. And it turns out the dog’s tick medication is good for 12 weeks, not four, so I had only bought one dose. And that’s why I couldn’t find more. There’s usually a rational explanation, isn’t there.
Over the weekend Kelly and I got 2/3 of the seed wagon cleaned off. (The “shed remodeling tool storage wagon”) so at least I have room for oats and corn seed and the oats will be gone before I pick up the soybean seed and then that can go on there. Daughter and all three dogs and I picked up oat seed on Monday. I also picked up another ton of the layer ration for the chickens. One ton, in 50 pound bags, equals 40 bags, so they are good for about eight months.
On Friday I got the tractor hooked to the soil finisher. If you park something in a field over winter, you need to put a board under the jackstand, otherwise it will sink into the dirt and the hitch of the implement will not line up with the tractor drawbar. I had a board under the jackstand when I unhooked it back in October, but the implement shifted and the jackstand slipped off the board. And then Friday it was 8” down in the dirt. I took a regular jack out to lift up the tongue to get it hooked to the tractor and that jack pushed down into the dirt as well. I had a board to put under the jack, but it was stuck under the hitch at first. Eventually I got that out and under the jack, and was able to raise it up, get the hydraulic lines hooked to the tractor, and attach the tractor and implement. See? I’m making progress!
I moved the chicks out of their first, smaller tank, and into the larger pen. They are about robin sized now.
The spring play at the college will close this Saturday afternoon and next week is a band and choir concert. We need to be out of the theater by about 5:30PM on Saturday, so we don’t have much time to dismantle the set. I hope to get things off the bookshelves on the set, and the small grand piano (it’s an electronic keyboard) off the stage. I’m hoping to get three or four strong young kids to carry it up the steps rather than tipping it on its side, taking off two legs, and trying to get it through a doorway sideways, like it came in. Goals.
I started delivering some straw this week.
Speaking of Straw, I was talking with a family friend about the hayrides that we used to do with 4-H or church groups. It used to be a very popular thing to take a tractor and wagon, make a pile of loose straw on the wagon, and then at night, in the dark, 15 or 20 kids would pile on the wagon and you’d go out in a field and drive around and push each other off, and by the time you got home again there was no straw left on the wagon. We don’t do that anymore. Can you imagine? What could go wrong?
I don’t know how come nobody got seriously hurt. My folks did it for the church youth groups for a lot of years. The only accident I remember is when one kid jumped off a wagon early and was going to cut across a corner of the driveway to catch a second wagon, and he ran into a barbwire fence. After that, the kids were told to stay on the wagon until they got to the field.
There is a story in my grandmother’s diaries of a 4-H hayride mid 1950’s, when the tractor slipped into a ditch. The wagon tipped over and several kids were hurt – none seriously by some miracle, but my uncle, who was driving the tractor, had several cracked ribs.
When our kids were young, the daycare would visit the farm and we used a hayrack with the tall sides, and they sat on bales, and we went in the daytime, and it was just a wagon ride. Not a hayride in my sense of the word.
I googled “hayride” to see if I could find examples of our type of hayride. Wikipedia says it’s a traditional activity consisting of a recreation ride which has been loaded with hay or straw for “comfortable seating”. They say it harkens back to farmhands or kids riding the load of hay back to the barn for unloading. And has since become a tourism gimmick to generate income for the farmer. I guess that’s one way to do it.
Trail Baboon 