Category Archives: Family

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

Ready, Set, Go

34 Comments

Today’s Farming Update comes from Ben.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

College classes begin Monday.

WHAT WAS / IS YOUR FAVORITE AMUSEMENT PARK RIDE?

WHAT RIDE SHOULD THERE BE?

2023, books, Family, Food, home, Media, Uncategorized

The Curator

39 Comments

We find recipes from numerous internet sources, and are rarely purchasing cookbooks these days. I subscribe to the The New York Times Food app, and that has tons of great recipes as well. We like to have paper copies of the recipes, however, and a week doesn’t go by that we aren’t running recipes off on the printer.

Husband loves putting the recipes in plastic slip covers and filing them in their respective three ring binders. He has the binders labeled. There is one large binder devoted solely to rye breads and sourdoughs. I am not allowed to rearrange the binders. That is his role.

When a sufficient number of new recipes have accumulated on the buffet, Husband puts them in their binders, culling older recipes we either didn’t like or never made in the first place. There are fewer and fewer of those. His devotion to the recipes does not extend to our bank and tax papers, however, and it is my thankless task to organize those.

How do you store your recipes? What is your filing system for important papers? What kind of a librarian or museum curator would you have been?

2023, Family, gardening, Uncategorized

The Wild Garden

24 Comments

The other day we got a call on our landline from a neighbor on the next block letting us know that the Postie delivered our Bismarck Tribune to her house instead of our house. We walked down to get the paper, and realized that neither of us remembered exactly what house the neighbor lived in. Husband asked someone in the yard next to the place we thought was the correct house if that was where she lived. The person indicated it was and then said “Oh, you are the people with the wild garden”.

I suppose our garden does look pretty wild in comparison with the tame and typical lawns and flower beds in the rest of the neighborhood. It looks particularly wild these days now that the butternut squash and cantaloupes are running amok. The butternuts are taking over the flower bed on the north side of the driveway.

If you look closely toward the back of the last photo, you can see cantaloupe vines growing up the red rose close to the house

This is the view from the street looking south and west.

The pole beans look sort of wild, I think.

My last name, Boomgaarden, conjures up visions of exploding vegetables and flowers, although the name is just the Dutch word for apple orchard. I suppose there are worse things to be know for than having a wild garden.

What are you known for in your neighborhood? How has your mail delivery been lately? Any garden updates?

2023, education, Family, Food, Gatherings, Travel, Uncategorized

Certified

31 Comments

Daughter came up with an interesting proposal for a winter family gathering this year. She thinks that we should go to Hawaii with her, her brother, and his wife, and all take a class being offered there in November to become Certified Barbeque Competition Judges. I don’t know how much call there is for Barbecue Judges, or how rigorous the one day training is. I suppose we could fine other things to do as long as were there. I would rather go to Paris and work with a master baguette maker.

Ever since I lived in Canada I giggle whenever I hear that something or someone is certified, as it has a different meaning in Canada and England than it does in the States. Those who we call Certified Public Accountants are called Chartered Public Accountants in Canada, as being “certified” there can mean that you have been declared seriously mentally ill, and may have been involuntarily committed to a psychiatric hospital. Perhaps one would have to be a little crazy, though, to become a barbeque judge.

What would you like to become certified as? What are your experiences with judges or being a judge?

Family, Fantasy, Kids, Mysteries, Travel

Apple of My Eye

25 Comments

I know I’ve talked about this topic before, but it’s fascinating when I see glimpses of myself in YA.  She is in Dublin for two+ weeks for work and the morning of her flight, I found the clipboard (in the photo above) sitting on the counter downstairs.  In an interesting twist on the apple-not-falling-far-from-the-tree, I note that she has used three colors of highlighters.  I am a one-highlighter gal when it comes to my lists; it looks like the yellow highlighter is for her backpack but I’m not sure about the fuchsia or even the dots. 

My list-making has evolved in the past couple of months.  My weekly spreadsheet went by the wayside around the holidays last year; it was a gradual decline but I realized it wasn’t doing it for me any longer.  I actually went “list-less” for several months with the occasional list of errands on a post-it or groceries on my phone’s note app. 

Then a few weeks ago, after I re-retired, I wrote out a list of things for the next day.  Just on a pad of paper I had laying around and only a few items, nothing that is part of my regular routine.  It felt nice to take a highlighter to the list at the end of the day so I did another list for the next day.  Again – just written by hand and just a few items.  It’s become my new routine — for the most part.  There have been a few days with no list and I survived!

YA doesn’t do daily lists (that I ever see anyway) but it’s nice to have evidence that every now and then she’s takes a page from my playbook.

Would you rather have a pet dragon or a pet unicorn?

2023, Family, History, Kids, Uncategorized

Summertime Cousins

26 Comments

Our son and DIL and grandson were in Alabama last week for the baptism of our DIL’s niece. I was glad our grandson got to spend time with his only cousin. It was really hot there, though, and between the weather and the politics, Son said he could never live there. I wish our grandson had cousins who lived closer.

I remember summers as the best times to hang out with my cousins. We all lived within 30 miles of each other. As an only child, my cousins were the closest people I had to siblings, and I got to spend weeks in the summers at their various farms. They all lived on farms. They were mainly boys, and I learned how to set gopher traps and set off fire works and play rough and tumble football and baseball. We played and messed around and had a great time. When I was in Middle School and High School I spent summers with a married cousin and she taught me to sew for 4-H.

The other day, Son was filling up his car with gas in Pipestone, MN where many of my cousins lived, and saw a really tall, thin, older blond man filling up his car. He looked like one of my relatives, and after Son introduced himself, it turned out he was one of my cousins, who asked when I was moving back to Minnesota! He lives in Norfolk, NE, and he is going to move back, too, when he retires. I don’t think he still traps gophers.

Where in the US wouldn’t you want to live? If you had cousins, what did you like to do with them? What are some of your favorite summer memories from childhood?

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

Summer “Farming”

51 Comments

The weekend Farm Report comes to us from Ben.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Here is Kelly posing with her new Gator.

We like it better than the old one already.  

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

2023, animals, Business, Family, Food, home

Adieu to the Milk Man

32 Comments

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

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

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

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

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

Summer Lemons

49 Comments

The weekend Farm Report comes to us from Ben.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2023, animals, Family, Farming Update, gardening, Nature, Weather

On and On It Goes

41 Comments

The weekend Farm Report comes to us from Ben.

It rained again a bit. We got another 0.44 Wednesday morning; a nice gentle rain pretty much all morning. Is it too little too late? We wait and see.

The soybeans that didn’t germinate back in May are coming in and we are just starting to see the rows. Man, they’re gonna have to hustle to amount to anything by fall. 

The corn looks terrible; it’s just all over the place for height. I’ve seen some barely as tall as me just beginning to tassel.

And some is only knee high… I don’t know… it will be what it will be. It’s interesting on the edge of a field, the trees use so much moisture, the plants are only a couple feet tall in a patch matching the canopy of the tree. There is something called ‘Field

Edge Effect’ meaning the field edge suffers from winds or herbicides from neighboring fields. Must be nice to have huge fields with no trees around the edges.

The agronomists are saying we should still think about applying fungicide to the corn because it will actually help prevent senescence (and cannibalism) even if it stays dry. Too much science behind it to get into it, but it’s always interesting what is happening in the corn plant to create an ear!  

The oats are turning color. I’m not quite sure what’s going to happen with the oats and it’s stressing me out. I don’t expect it will have a good enough test weight to meet the requirements for human food grade, and we won’t know until we start harvest. I don’t know if ‘those guys’ are going to combine it all anyway, or if they’ll start, find out it’s crap, and bail, meaning I’ll have to get my other guy to combine. And who’s hauling it anyway? I’m working on answers to all these questions, just haven’t gotten them yet. 

We had a family reunion / potluck last Saturday. Twenty-six people attended. It was a far cry from the 50 that were there in 2007, and sad how many people we’ve lost since then. And it’s hard to get the next generation interested. I better stop before I sound like an old fart. 

I’ve had the 20′ scissor lift rented this week, so it’s all been about the shed. Added the 2×4 ceiling joists under the roof trusses, the ceiling steel will be attached to the 2×4’s. 

That went quick; however, the rental lift is being temperamental and only works when it wants too. Course it worked when the repair guy was there. 

My brother has helped, my friend Paul has helped, our son came done one day and helped and of course Kelly is always helping one way or another; moral support, ideas, helping move things, and even driving the lift.

And the teenage helper from last summer, young padawan, has come back, bringing a friend with him. Two teenage boys…I tried not to roll my eyes too hard. But they did good. When we took a break, padawan took this year’s new kid around the farm in the gator. 

They’ve all been good help. We got the last big window in, and some of the ceiling steel installed. And my brother and son were impressed with the cool tools I have; like the metal shears that attach to a cordless drill. I didn’t know it was anything fancy. 

Course I also poked myself in the thumb, twice, using a dental pick like thing while working on something. Not cool.

Black raspberries are out, and right by the shed, so they’ve been a nice snack for us.

The lift was supposed to go back Friday,but I paid an extra day to keep it over the weekend. The ceiling steel goes fast once we get going. And I need to finish sealing off the one truss to keep the birds out. Half done with that.

Once all that is done, it’s up to the contractors to do the wall insulation. I called them the other day to let them know I’m ready and to get on the schedule. I have an ‘attic access’ panel, but I wasn’t sure how much they need to get around up there. Turns out they need more than I had, so I used some old 20′ sections of pipe to make walkways in the rafters so they can get to all the corners. Use what you have available. Dad would be pleased. 

Funny story about the lift. It doesn’t take much for the battery to get weak and it won’t go up. It tries, it goes up about 6″, then stalls. Oh, it whines and makes noises, but it doesn’t go ‘up’. So, the boys would jump in the air, thereby fooling the lift about how much weight it’s lifting, and it would raise another 6″. They’d jump again, it would gain another 6″, and then it would lift the rest of the way. So stupid it was funny and it made us laugh. 

The boys also cleaned out an area next to the shed where we’ve been dumping stuff for years. They dug out some old wire, cement blocks, even bricks! No idea where the bricks came from. I need to smooth it out a bit, and it will be nice to mow in there eventually. 

I’m hoping next week to start mowing weeds. And oats will be ready soon. And I’ve got a show to light in Rochester opening 7/25 and another to light in Chatfield opening 8/4. And then I’m back at ‘work’ work 8/10. 

But let’s not get ahead of myself. 

HOW MANY CANNIBAL JOKES DO YOU KNOW? DO YOU GET RIGHT UP OUT OF BED IN THE MORNING?