Category Archives: Family

2025, Family, Farming Update, gardening, Government, Nature, News, Science, Seasons, Technology

CORN SWEAT SEASON AGAIN

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This weeks farming update.

Sure, blame the corn for the humidity. 

According to the weather channel email I received on Thursday, an acre of corn releases 3000 gallons of water into the air every day. It’s “evapotranspiration”. A quick google search shows multiple newspaper articles blaming corn for the humid weather. I am tempted to call it misleading. I mean I don’t like the humidity either, but is it really all the corn’s fault? Data from the Ohio State University Extension office in 2024 says corn sweat is not contributing MEANINGFUL levels of humidity. More humidity is brought in by weather systems with southerly winds and bringing humidity from the Gulf of Mexico. The greatest amount of water usage by a corn plant is during tasseling and flowering, which is where we are at in SE MN. My corn just started tasseling this week. (And again, I am so amazed at how it all works! The silks emerge at the same time!) After tasseling, water usage in the corn decreases. All plants have some form of transpiration and evaporation. Don’t blame it all on the farmer and  my corn. 

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The header photo by Kelly is soybean flowers. Soybeans are looking good and coming along.

This week I have been either finishing the projects at the Rep, or down in Chatfield lighting ‘Shrek’, the musical for Wits End Theater. Lots of road time. And with the main route to Chatfield, Highway 52 South closed at I90, I’ve been taking other routes. Sometimes Highway 7 through Eyota to 52, sometimes Highway 10 through Dover to the East side of Chatfield. Usually County Rd 19 through Marion to 52, or my favorite, County Road 1 through Simpson, past the Root River County Park, down in the valley over the North branch of the Root River and Fugles Mill, through Pleasant Grove, and into the west side of Chatfield. I try not to take the same road home as there. 

I still haven’t gotten the oats harvested. It got mostly ripe but still had some green in it and that’s where it’s been sitting for 2 weeks. Rain and thunderstorms the last few days have caused more of it to go down. A lot of oats has been taken out. The Oat Mafia FB  page says a lot of guys are finding it wetter than preferred. And there are some photos that show a stark reminder of the benefits of applying the fungicides. Fields without are broken and flat, while the fields with it are standing well. 

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No fungicide on left, fungicIde on right. PHOTO COUTESY OF THE OAT MAFIA FB PAGE

Oh, then our refrigerator died on Wednesday. I had noticed the freezer temp was 33 degree’s in the morning, and I thought maybe it was just defrosting. That afternoon it was at 39. We took everything to the basement chest freezer and I put a thermometer in the fridge. I laid on the floor and vacuumed off the coils and used the long narrow cleaning brush to dig out as much dust and gunk as I could. A repair guy was consulted and it was not given much hope. By that night, Kelly emptied the fridge, taking it to the downstairs smaller fridge. That little basement fridge was originally purchased as the “egg fridge”, but it has since become the pop fridge. Thanks goodness we have it. It’s a little no-name fridge that just keeps chugging along. Daughter is very put out that we don’t have the regular fridge upstairs. She insists it is still working and I’ve had to rescue her food and take it to the basement fridge a couple times. Thursday morning I went fridge scouting. The salesguy, Randy, his first question was counter depth or regular? “Uh….” Then he asked me what color? “Uh….” Did we want ice and water in the door? “Uh….”  I didn’t have any of that information. My only question to him was ‘”Which ones have the better interior lighting like our old one?” That local store is where we’ve purchased appliances since we got married. They had a delivery slot open for Friday afternoon. I’ll take that one! And I sent Kelly some photos. We met there in the afternoon and agreed on a fridge for Friday.

Priorities, you know? When I checked with Kelly, her only priority was double doors. Yep, that was all I looked at. And freezer at the bottom. And good lighting. Beyond that, I didn’t know. 

I hate having too many choices, so thankfully that only left us three choices, and if you remove the $12,000 model, well, I sent Kelly photos of those two. 

By Friday evening daughter should be back in her happy place and we’ll have a new fridge with nice interior lighting.  

IS YOUR REFRIGERATOR RUNNING?

WHAT ARE YOUR APPLIANCE PRIORITIES? 

2025, Family, gardening, home, Music, Uncategorized

Bob

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I can’t remember a more rainy July than the one we are having this year. In addition to keeping the house interior spotless, we are intent on getting rid of garden weeds. The weeds have been horrendous because of the rain.

Weeding for us entails crawling through the garden beds on our hands and knees with dangerous looking implements to remove the weeds, and large buckets to put the removed weeds into. We rarely use herbacides. Husband is currently limping around with a walking stick due to a strained knee muscle from weeding. With apologies to Bob Dylan, this song keeps going through my head every time I pull weeds.

Buckets of weeds,

Buckets of shears.

Got all these buckets coming

Out of my ears.

Buckets of bind weeds in the yard.

Why does weeding always have to be so hard?

I have not seen the new Bob Dylan movie. Husband reminds me we saw him in concert at the Bismarck Civic Center about 30 years ago. He only had a bass player and a drummer with him. I don’t remember the concert very well. I never was a big Dylan fan, but some tunes just stay with you.

Did you ever see Bob Dylan live? What Dylan tunes stick with you? What is your weeding strategy? At what age is a person too old to weed?

2025, Family, gardening, home, Uncategorized

Swing Time

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There has always been a vision in my mind for the backyard.  Over the years we’ve added a patio, then a little bigger patio.  A table and chairs for the patio.  An umbrella for the table.  A friend of mine gave YA a fire pit years ago.  Another friend gave me a swing when they moved to an apartment.  Of course, there are all the flowers and the bales.  About 15 years ago I had enough credits at work to purchase a hammock, which I installed toward the back of the yard.  Over the years I’ve had to replace the fabric several times as well as having to MacGyver the suspension a couple of times when the fabric wasn’t exactly the right size.

YA has always detested the hammock.  First is that it is a collection spot for leaves and twigs that come off the trees.  Then there is the issue of having to mow around it, requiring moving it about.  YA thinks it makes the backyard look “cluttered”.  When I suggested we get right of her Adirondack chairs and little table, she didn’t respond well.  She has a point.  We use the Adirondacks quite a bit and truth be told, I probably only lay in the hammock once or twice a summer.  It’s not actually all that comfortable and I get impatient really fast.

As I’m pursuing my pre-downsizing project, I decided that I really needed to pay attention to the reality of the hammock instead of my emotional attachment to the idea of a hammock.  To that end, YA and I carried it down to the boulevard.  When we got down to the boulevard with it, YA had to shore up my determination.  The miracle of my street worked as usual – within an hour someone was taking it apart to shove in their truck. 

I thought I might be unhappy in the first few days after the hammock was gone but that hasn’t happened.  That says to me that I made the right decision.

Tell me about something you have an emotional attachment to. 

2025, Family, Food, State Fair

Too Soon

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You all know I’m a little obsessed with a certain event each August.  I like to be organized but normally don’t start getting going until a couple of weeks before (athough before retirement I used to request the days off several months in advance).

YA and the State Fair, on the other hand, are rarin’ to go now.  In the past couple of weeks there has been a barrage of emails.  Grandstand announcements and ticket offers. Highlighted fair beverages (of which there seem to be A LOT).  New vendors and new foods. 

YA has definitely inherited some of my love of lists; over the weekend she came into my room with a pad of paper and announced that it was time to make our food list.  She started doing this a few years ago so that we remember what we want to get while we are at the fair.  This list includes our favorites as well as items from the new foods email that look interesting to us.  It looks like a long list but it’s spread out over several days and we don’t always get to everything.  I did notice that nothing from last year’s new items have jumped to our “old favorites” list.

The floodgates are open now.  I printed off all our tickets as well as my fair packing list.  Can’t go off to the fair without all we need in the turtle bag.  We even started a little pool of cash for the big event.

Anything you’re preparing for (or obsessing over) this summer?

2025, Art, books, Family, Government

Time for Coffee

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On Friday YA made our annual trek to pet deer and goats and llamas at Fawn-Doe-Rosa.  The route to get there is straight through Lindstrom, which is a pretty little town with deep Swedish roots and one of the cutest water towers ever (see photo above).  But it turns out that it’s not actually a water tower any longer. 

Back in 1992, the city built a new water tower because the original was no longer able to meet the demand.  At that time, the older water tower was “repurposed” as the world’s largest coffee pot.  A local business owner funded the conversion – adding the spout, handle and knob along with repainting it.  Initially there was a steam function but it hasn’t been working for years.

Several months ago the city council approved an initiative to spruce up the paint job and also to restore the steam function.  This time around, much of the cost was raised by the said of small water tower replicas.  Four weeks ago, the steam poured out of the pot again for the first time in years.

Just by luck, we were driving through Lindstrom at exactly 10 a.m., which is one of the two times per day that the steam functions.  YA was telling me about all this so I did a quick u-turn so we could circle back and get a good look.  There were folks hanging out on the street corners to watch as well.  It was cloudy, so while we could see the steam, I think on a clear day it would be more impressive.

A fun tangent, I recently read Off Main Street by Michael Perry and one of the essays is called “You Are Here” which is about water towers in the Midwest.  It was entertaining and I learned there’s more to a water tower than meets the eye.  Highly recommended reading.  Fun confabulation of reading and traveling!

Have you seen any fun water towers?  Ever climbed up one?

2025, Family, Health, Kids, Medicine, Mysteries, News, Stories

A Little Hard to Swallow

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In weird news this week, it’s been reported in the South China Morning Post that a 64-year old man has undergone surgery to remove a toothbrush from his stomach.  The kicker is that he swallowed the toothbrush when he was 12.  Apparently he was afraid to tell his parents and figured that it would just dissolve.  Turns out even stomach acid is no match for hard plastic – his stomach started to bother him last year.

It took the surgery team 80 minutes to remove the 7-inch toothbrush – it was stuck in “a crook of the intestine” where it had been living happily for decades.  Yikes.

I’m not sure how you can swallow a toothbrush but as Hamlet said “more things in heaven and earth”.  Maybe he is one of those folks who brushes their tongue with their toothbrush and got a little carried away?  Maybe the dog surprised him in the bathroom while he was brushing?  Maybe he was practicing to become a sword swallower?

What kind of toothbrush do you use?  Toothpaste?  Floss?

2025, animals, Family, Nature

Tapir Zoomies

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When YA and I go to the zoo, we normally follow a particular pattern of what we see in what order.  I’m not sure why, it’s just a habit we’ve fallen into. 

There’s been a lot going at the new zoo (Minnesota Zoo – it will always be the new zoo to me – unless a third zoo opens up in Twin Cities – then I’ll have to revise).  There is the sea lion show which has been getting good reviews, new Bennett’s wallabies from Australia, a new Black Water Monitor, the new Red Panda / Crane exhibit, the summer Llama Trek AND the bird show has moved outside for the summer. 

You can’t just show up at the zoo and get in these days – you have to get reservations ahead of time (this is a post-covid thing) and you also have to get reservations for the sea lions and the bird show.  No charge for these.  For the sea lion show if there are still seats at 5 minutes before the show, you can get in without the reservation.  For the bird show, YA and I were there fairly early to get the seats we wanted and to settle in and drink the pop we had just bought – if they were asking folks to show their reservations, we didn’t see it.

SO… with all this going on, we had an agenda and as the day went on, we adjusted as needed.  First Tropics.  This took longer than usual because the tapir had just gotten out of its pool and decided to do zoomies:

I’ve hardly ever seen a tapir walking around much less running.  Clearly nobody else had either, judging by the crowd it was drawing.  Even the two zoo staff were filming!

We had time to do the Minnesota trail before we headed over to the sea lion show.  YA got some good photos of the coyote and the mountain lion.

Sea lion show was great and so was Llama Trek.  It was almost as if the llamas had all had a “Photo Op” seminar over the winter:

The tiger waterfall was turned on and the bird show was very nice, ending with a flurry of beautiful macaws free-flying into and out of the exhibit.  We got to everything we wanted and at the right times. Fabulous day at the zoo!

When was the last time you had to keep to a schedule?

2025, Automotive, Business, Family, Farming Update, Nature, Seasons, Uncategorized, work

July

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The weekend Farm Report comes to us from Ben.

Happy day after July 4! Everyone still got all their fingers and toes?

Corn and oats both made knee high.

It’s been a busy week for a lot of different reasons. Monday morning I got a call from the co-op asking if I could pull out a stuck sprayer. No, I couldn’t, I was about to head to town with daughter and I also had an appointment. They called neighbor Dave, and he ran right over. I was pretty sure where the sprayer was stuck: a field that was wet when I tried to plant it a month ago, and that was before we got 6 inches of rain.
I talked to Dave later and he said all he did was get the sprayer more stuck. The sprayer driver had gotten out and looked before he drove into the field, and Dave agreed, it was dry on the top. But you broke through that crust and it was muck underneath. And he didn’t get more than about 10’ into the field. Heck, I didn’t even think that was the wet spot.

Eventually a tow truck was called to pull the sprayer out. This was one of those fields that neighbor K wanted for a deer food plot and it’s the first time it had been worked up in 20 some years. I kept telling the neighbor there’s a reason this field was put in the Conservation Reserve Program back then, but I don’t think he’s figured it out yet.

Sunday afternoon Kelly and I had our usual Sunday Farm Gator Tour and we also found a wet spot in a field. Didn’t get stuck but close enough.

When I came home Monday afternoon there was another drone at the farm. neighbors Dave and Parm, who rent our pasture hired a company that uses a drone to spray for weeds. They used the drone to spray the wonderful crop of thistles. It was really pretty cool to watch. The pasture is so rugged, with so many gullies, and steep slopes, that you can’t drive it with a tractor and mower, so this was an absolutely perfect application for a drone. Talking with the operators, the drone will cost you about $25,000. They also have $75,000 in the spray trailer, complete with a 30 kW generator on the front, landing pad on the top, room for a second drone, chargers, chemical storage tanks, etc. Maybe we could all chip in and buy one. Then what should we do with it? Oh, you also need the drone operator’s license, which is fairly involved, and a license from the federal government allowing you to spray chemicals from a drone.

I did cut the grass on the sides of our road, and the one small field here in the front of the shed. I put the exhaust pipe and the new muffler on the 630 and used that for raking. That thing is as loud as ever. I never really thought about it before but evidently John Deere two cylinder tractors were not known for being quiet. I got it baled Wednesday afternoon. The baler worked perfect, never missing a knot on the bales, and my camera to watch the knots, is still slick to have.

Kelly’s tractor and the smoking wire I still haven’t completely diagnosed but I’ve ruled out a few things.I replaced a couple wires and I’ve disconnected both the rear light and the front lights and the wire still gets hot, so now I’m not sure if it’s the switch, or there’s something else wrong. I don’t really know what it could be, and adding to the mystery is a blown fuse on the dash. And if the fuse is blown, why is anything still working?

There’s a couple different places I order old tractor parts from. Lind Brothers included a bag of microwave popcorn in their box. It was really good popcorn. Steiner Tractor Parts always puts “Cow Tails“ candy in with their parts. When I order theatre stuff from Monkey Wrench, they throw a handful of candy in their boxes, usually something banana shaped. And Sweetwater, of course has to put candy in their box too. Can’t have a name like that and not include candy.

The padawans and I spent three days working on summer remodeling projects at the Rochester Repertory theatre. One day I painted the bottom of the balcony black.

We are adding a few more hanging racks in the costume room, and trying to remove an old boiler that was original to the building,1959. I asked a few plumbers how to get it out and they’d all groan and roll their eyes and say get a sledgehammer and a couple young men. Every day I bring a new Implement of destruction, we are working on it, and it’s slow going.

The big job will be insulating a north wall which is just concrete block. 
I have two by fours and blue insulation board and I’m bidding on a power actuated nail gun on an auction. It’s a “hammer“, that uses a 22 blank as a charge to drive a nail. I’ve seen them, never used one. Sounds like fun. I think that would be faster than trying to use cement screws. This is the auction that I took that old cultivator, running gear, and garage door to be sold. As of Friday the cultivator is at $41, the wagon is at $6 and the garage door at $7. Drifting off to sleep one night I bid on a really nice 26 foot cabin cruiser, and a mower. I need to not open the auction page as I’m falling asleep. Thankfully I was outbid on both within a day or two. The boat was gonna be a steel at $6!  Kelly said I should at least go up to $10. It jumped to $96. We thought we could make a B&B out of it. Park it out on the lawn. 

REMEMBER CRACKER JACK’S? WHAT SURPRISES WOULD YOU LIKE TO GET IN A BOX?  

2025, Family, gardening, home, Nature, Uncategorized, work

Pavers & Bricks

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Yesterday YA had the day off so we decided to tackle a couple of outdoor projects first thing in the morning before the heat took over the day. 

I started with putting some paving stones on the south side of the house under the water spigot.  The pavers were left over from when we expanded the little patio two summers ago so I thought I’d put them to better use than just being stacked up in the garage.  Unfortunately the ants didn’t think this was a grand project and it took a bit for them to give it up and I did get a couple of good bites out of it before they moved their party elsewhere.

By the time I was done, YA had made a good start on edging our northern “garden” with bricks that we inherited from our neighbor who just moved.  She asked which of the jobs I wanted – digging or placing the bricks.  While placing the bricks seemed like the easier of the two jobs, I know my daughter well.  If I placed the bricks, she would eventually come behind me and “fix” what I had done.  I admit freely that she is more patient with a lot of home projects and therefore does an overall better job.  This made it an easy choice – I dug and let her place the bricks.  It was a great decision.  As I dug I watched her running her hands along the bricks to make sure they were even and using her finger as a measurement tool to make sure they were all the same depth.  I would not have thought to do either of these steps. 

We didn’t finish yesterday.  It got a bit too steamy so we knocked off about half way through and vowed to finish in a couple days when it’s a bit cooler.  Looks good so far.

Any projects for you over the holiday weekend?

2025, Family, home, Mysteries, Uncategorized

Is YA really ET?

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YA works in the office on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.  Occasionally she also goes into the office on a Monday or a Friday.  When she has a big project, she likes the quiet of the office as well as the big screen on her desk. 

There is a fairly complicated (from my perspective) process for her to get ready for work.  During her junior high and high school years she started wearing make-up and taught herself how to apply it.  As part of her beauty routine, she has a massive number of products, from masks to foundations to mascara to eyelash curlers to lip glosses.  Massive.  She can sit at her make-up table for upwards of 30 minutes some mornings.  It’s exhausting just to watch.

She learned none of this from me.  Not one smidge.  I think I’ve told the story of when I quit wearing make-up; it was well before she was born.  Even when I DID put on make-up it wasn’t anything as robust as YA’s routine.

Every now and then, when she is in a rush (usually when we’re going some place on the weekend or if she’s gotten up really late), she can cut the time down but very very rarely goes without.  On work mornings, I don’t usually pay that much attention.  I have my morning stuff to do (feed animals, make bed, eat breakfast, gym, errands, etc.)

Last week on Friday, she came rushing down and out the door before I even had a chance to look up.  After 15 minutes, our ring doorbell dinged my phone, which was in my pocket and as I was opening the app, I heard the front door open and YA’s footsteps running up the stairs.  She didn’t come down for almost 10 minutes, way too long for a forgotten key card or computer mouse.  When she was headed for the front door I asked what she had forgotten and she replied “I forgot to put on make-up.”

I’m still thinking about this.  First off, how do you forget something that is so much a part of your every single day routine.  And mostly, why get 10 minutes from the house (about half way to the office) and turn back to put on make-up when it’s Friday and there’s next to no one in the office?  Her answer when I asked her later was “just in case”.  When I asked “just in case what?” all I got was a shoulder shrug.

So, yet one more instance of my certainty that I live with an alien from another world!

Do you have anything that is an every-single-day-no-matter-what routines?