Category Archives: Family

2024, Family, Food, Mysteries

Much Ado About the Birthday

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Today is YA’s birthday.  A whooping 29 years old today!!

YA is one of those folks who likes a little fuss but doesn’t like to admit they want a fuss.  This is hard for me because #1: I love making a fuss and #2: when you don’t want to admit to wanting fuss, then you don’t admit to what you actually want.  I have to figure what she MIGHT like and not go beyond that!

The first thing we have is a banner that says “Happy Birthday” that I made a few years ago; I hang it up across the arch between the dining room and living room.  I added two big balloons, one on each end of the arch.  A “2” and a “9”.  (YA’s dog Guinevere is twenty years younger than YA so we will keep the “9” for the end of the month!).  That’s it for décor.

Goodies are harder.  Most of the time YA is not a cookies/cake/cupcake kind of person. Most of the time.  But you can’t count on her birthday being a day that she’s in the mood.  She does however like brownies most of the time – as long as they don’t have frosting… so I can make those.  I have two big candles (again a “2” and “9”).  I did get a can of cream cheese frosting so I can write “Happy Birthday” on the brownies.  That will be OK with her. 

For a gift, she’s saving up for a new laptop so there is a giftcard for her.  Not exactly original but it’s what she really wants.  She is fairly particular about what she wears, so I would never buy her clothing. I can never guess what she might like to read so no books.  Between us we got four jigsaw puzzles for the holidays so that’s out.  Giftcard it will be.

All this fuss will be set up during the day while YA is at work so she’ll come home to the fun.  Hopefully I will have gotten the fuss to non-fuss ration correct!

What kind of birthday fuss to you like?

2024, Family, Gatherings, Mysteries

Dressed to Impress

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YA and were invited to a nice party over the weekend – a surprise 70th birthday party for a friend.  The invite didn’t mention any particular dress code but the party was held in a big lovely home up in Kenwood and it seemed like dressing up would be the right way to go. 

Dressing up is not something that I’ve ever been good at.  Pandemic, furlough and retirement has not helped.  I do have a pair of black palazzo pants so I started there but was struggling with a top to go with the pants.  Static didn’t help.  At one point YA came in and said “why don’t you just wear a dress?”  

Well, because I no longer own a dress.  I decided to look in the attic to make sure I wasn’t forgetting about any dresses but no, nothing.  I don’t even remember the last dress I owned or when it left the house, presumably in a goodwill/value village bag. 

I did find a top to go with the palazzo pants and the party was great but I kept thinking the rest of the weekend, “should I invest in a dress”?  Probably not a good use of income since I also can’t remember the last time the thought of wearing a dress even crossed my mind. 

When was the last time you dressed up?

2024, Family, Media, Technology

Cellular Meltdown

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I used to watch that show “Monk” with Tony Shalhoub.  When someone would marvel at his talent for solving crime, he would say “it’s a gift…. and a curse”.  That’s how I feel about my cell phone.

After four years, YA wore me down about getting new phones.  I didn’t remember any angst about the last time we did phones, but it was four years ago.  The purchase of the phones was pretty straight forward; YA had done all the research so after we dickered with the salesperson about the pricing a bit, we bought the phones.  If it had been up to me, I would have coughed up the $25 to have them transfer all my stuff from the old phone to the new but YA was adamant that she could do this.

Aiy yi yi.  That’s when it got ugly.  Since we were using the old phones for trade-in, YA said I had to log onto all my various apps/accounts to make sure my logins worked before she “wiped” the old phone.  This turned out to be not as easy as you’d think…. too many times I’ve reset a password and then not written it down when I got home (think the bagel place and the gym).  So there was a fair amount of password resetting to get through.  She wasn’t exactly patient about this.

Then it turned out that my sticky note app isn’t available any longer from the app store.  At this point YA was tired of me and my techie problems.  She suggested I use the Notes that is already on my phone.  “What Notes?” was my question.  She took the phone from my hand, did a few clicks and voila… there it was.  However because she had done it instead of telling me how, I couldn’t get it back a few minutes later.  Suffice it to say we had words.  AND as I’ve looked at it, I don’t like the Notes anyway… guess I’ll have to go find myself a new sticky note app that I like.  Sigh.

It took about 90 minutes for all this – not a lifetime of suffering, but I do feel like I need to check myself into a convalescent home for a good rest!

Do you have a “technie” helper?  Do you need one?

Family, Food, holidays, home, Nature

Maple Syrup

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The son of my BFF is what we used to call “a gentleman farmer”.  He and his family live in the big farmhouse and they have goats and chickens, a massive garden and maple trees.  Every fall he taps the trees and boils down the sap to make syrup.  He also has black walnut trees which are harvested.  I don’t understand the science behind any of it but the output of the maples and the black walnuts varies greatly from year to year.  I try never to get my expectations up about whether I will see the syrup and about whether any of the syrup will be “maple black walnut”.

This year the maples did fine but not the black walnuts our holiday gift was maple alone.  This is not a problem for me and I was looking forward to a couple of months of fresh from the farm syrup.  (This is particularly good when paired with Ben’s fresh from the farm eggs!)  YA tends to shy away from foods that are “different”; this means that farm eggs and fresh maple syrup are usually left completely to me.  Last years black walnut syrup was all mine.  Delicious.

For some reason YA decided to taste this year’s syrup.  Then she decided to make pancakes that night.  She’s now made pancakes four more times since Christmas – she even went out and purchased a new box of Bisquick after she used up the box in the cabinet.  I’m thinking I’d better make some pancakes of my own pretty darn quickly or I won’t even get to TASTE this year’s syrup!

How do you like your pancakes?  Is there a place that makes particularly good pancakes?

2024, Family, home, Seasons

Welcome 2024

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We’re putting away all the holiday decorations today.  Normally we do everything today but YA has been chomping at the bit so started cleaning up “around the edges” the last couple of days.  She doesn’t do more because, of course, she’ll leave most of it to me.  Not a problem… pretty much everything goes into the plastic bins that are currently sitting on the front porch.  Only takes about an hour or so. 

Except for the wreath.  I like to leave it up until after Chinese New Year.  Not entirely sure why – except that they are darn expensive and I like having it on the front door with our welcome sign.

Still “discussing” whether to put the tree out in the back.  YA wants to but I’m a little skeptical that it might lure little critters into a false sense of security when there is a killer beast let loose in the yard several times a day.  I’m campaigning for the front yard but YA thinks that will look messy from the street.  It’s pretty much the last thing that will be done today – plenty of time for more “discussion”.

Other than that, no particular acknowledgement of the beginning of the new year.  We used to write bad habits that we wanted to leave behind onto flash paper and burn them up but haven’t done that for years.  I’m not even sure the magic store, where you can find flash paper, is still in the Mall.  As I suspect is the case for most of us on the Trail, it’s an arbitrary day and if you’re not already in the mood to make changes to your life, circling this day on the calendar probably won’t do it.  Don’t tell the weight loss companies who are right now flooding the market with ads that I said so. 

Will put up all the 2024 calendars today as well!

Do you still write checks – how long does it normally take you to write the correct year in the date?

2023, animals, Business, Family, Farming Update, holidays, Nature, pets, Uncategorized

Poof

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Todays Farming Updates comes from Ben.

Just like that, another year gone. 414 dozen eggs sold in 2023. April was the highest with 63 dozen sold. September was lowest at 20 dozen. I’m thinking in 2024 I’m gonna try recording how many dozen I box up rather than sold.

2023

We lost some really good friends. We made some new ones. We got a new dog. We finally took a weekend trip after a few  years of hunkering at home. We saw some fantastic theater,  (I was even in a show), had a visit from my friend Keith for the first time in 25 years, and got so much stuff done at home! Most of it had to do with the shop remodeling, but still, it’s a wonder to look over the list and see how much got checked off! Just for fun, I put the list in a spreadsheet and there was 221 line items. Twenty of them aren’t done yet. There’s always next year.

I was grateful to not fight major health issues this year, and to revel in the simple joy of walking up a hill or carrying some feed. Or just to wander up the road from barn to shed!

We got some concrete poured and started work on the shop. The crop year wasn’t the best. And if you enjoy snow, the year didn’t end well for you. There was a lot of snow at the beginning of 2023, but it melted fairly quick.

I’ve been rebuilding the carburetor for the 630 tractor. (Line item #192) I had a good start on it early this week, but the last few days I’ve been busy elsewhere. But in my “New Heated Shop”*‘ (*sort of) I can keep working. I try not to think about how the tractor itself is out in the UNHEATED part of the shed. But that’s just 8 bolts and a couple fittings… right? Easy Peasy. Might be the first thing of 2024 to check off that list! I think I’m even gonna use most of the parts. I spent an hour on the phone with the oldest parts guy at my John Deere store, and another guy who restores antique tractors, to figure out one piece on my carburetor that’s not in the pictures. They figured it out. Surround yourself with good people. That might be my goal for 2024.

2024- I need to renew my private pesticide applicators license. I haven’t used it more than a few times in the 25+ years I’ve had it, but I’ll renew it again, simply because it’s one more link to farming I want to keep.

Monday, 1/1/2024 I’ll go round up the mileage and hours on all the vehicles and tractors and fill in my annual mileage spreadsheet. I always enjoy that. I’ll need to start finding numbers for our assets page. That too is pretty interesting. I had a young lady tell me how rich farmers are. She didn’t know we farm. I had to explain a few things to her. We have a lot of ASSETS, and we have good credit. We may or may not have a lot of cash in the bank. Sometimes were rich in daughters only*, or dirt. Just not cash. Every farm is different.

*Thank you, Greg Brown.

Looking ahead, I’ve ordered a textbook for next semester’s class on creative writing which begins on 1/8. An in-person class so that should be fun. Got crops planned, will be ordering seed and inputs soon.

12/31/23 – There’s a lot of numerology regarding that. It’s interesting to consider. https://www.almanac.com/123123-meaning-123123

PHOTOS

Take some time to ponder this weekend. Ponder 2023. Ponder 2024. Remember and imagine.

WHO WOULD YOU CHOOSE TO SUROUND YOURSELF WITH?

2023, Family, Uncategorized, Weather

New Moon

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There was a beautiful full moon on Tuesday night,. I believe it was called the Cold Moon by the Farmer’s Almanac, from a Mohawk tradition. I always wonder who names the moons, and why, and who decides what the names will be. If I were to name the moon tonight it would be the Fog Moon. It is really foggy here in Brookings. I am glad we reached our destination by dark. Grandson thought that we should name the moon the Cat moon.

I don’t know what the track record for accuracy is for the Farmer’s Almanac. I don’t seem to think it is that accurate. We have a native friend who thinks he can tell how bad the winter will be by how thick the chokecherries are in the spring and how high up from the bottom of the draws some of the flowering prairie plants are growing. He is never right, but he likes to try anyway.

Come up with some new names for the full moon this year. What is your go to source for weather prediction?

2023, Automotive, Business, Family, Food

Mixing Your …. Metaphors

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YA and I don’t do much fast food but we do like Taco Bell.  I’m probably in the drive-through at the Edina location every couple of weeks. 

Two weeks ago our fridge was filled with ingredients for party food so I stopped by Taco Bell on the way home for lunch.  We almost always get the same thing so it wasn’t a very eventful  stop until I came around the back of the building.  Right in front of me was a Papa John’s delivery car, complete with the sign on top.

I thought it was pretty funny and understandable.  Even if you get all the pizza you want to eat for free when you work at Papa John’s, every now and then you probably need something else to tease your tastebuds.

Hopefully his management thinks it’s funny too and not poor advertising!

Do you ever do the drive-through for anything?

2023, Family, Food, home, Uncategorized

Caramel Rolls

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Our daughter had an inexplicable yearning for a caramel roll the other day and went out to find one in Tacoma. No one she asked knew what she was talking about. Some people suggested sticky buns, but they didn’t look right to her. The ones she likes are available in every little café around here. The caramel is at the bottom of the pan, and the rolls are dumped upside down when they come out of the oven and the caramel drips down over the hot rolls.

She did some research and found that the caramel rolls that she was familiar with as well as the name caramel roll are peculiar to the Dakotas, Minnesota, and maybe parts of Wisconsin. She phoned some friends from California and they confirmed that they had never heard of caramel rolls. They had sticky buns. A Bismarck friend who lives in Virginia said no one there knew what caramel rolls were. Her best friend from childhood now lives in Reno, NV, and she said no one there spoke of caramel rolls, either. That led to her friend getting her aunt’s recipe for the caramel rolls that she bakes at her restaurant called The Cowboy Café in Medora, ND. Daughter sent me the recipe. It makes six pans of rolls, and the girls are hoping I can reduce the recipe to a single batch so they can make them. Her friend’s mother also sent them a caramel roll recipe from a cookbook published by a Lutheran church in Sharon, ND.

Husband found the cookbook from my Lutheran Church in Luverne. It had two caramel rolls recipes. He also found caramel roll recipes in the New Prague Hotel Cookbook and in The Norske Nook Cookbook from Osseo, WI. I sent the recipes to Daughter and her friend in Reno. They are thrilled. They both like to bake. Now they have multiple recipes to choose from when they are feeling homesick.

What do you miss most when you are away from home? Ever had genuine homesickness?

2023, Family, Gatherings, holidays, Uncategorized

Wrapping Woes

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Merry Christmas! All the Baboons have presumably opened their gifts by now. W e have always been Christmas Eve present openers. This year we are we are waiting until Thursday when we arrive in Brookings to open the family presents our daughter in Tacoma sent us to transport to South Dakota. We had to wrap them.

My mother was an expert wrapper, as is my best friend. I am a so-so wrapper. I find it annoying to wrap a gift that is only going to be ripped open in a fraction of the time it took to wrap it. I am just not meticulous in that way. Don’t even talk to me about gift tags, ribbons, or bows!

Husband is left handed and right eyed, and watching him try to wrap gifts is painful. He insisted wrapping my gift from our daughter, even though I offered to. He admits everyone will know he wrapped it. There are tears in the paper and an unusually large amount of tape. He is just happy he could do it.

When do you open Christmas gifts? What kind of a wrapper are you? How is your Christmas Day shaping up?