Category Archives: Farming Update

2026, animals, chickens, crops, Farming Update, Theatre

SHELF CHICKEN

November 7, 2026 xdfben 36 Comments

Thursday night, I stepped outside before bed and it was so nice to see the stars. There was my friend Orion and I said hello. After the cloudy days and rainy weather, it was so nice to have a clear sky.
It was a bit brisk at 34°, but at least it was calm.

It has been a busy week. Saturday afternoon will be the 11th performance of the kids play at the college this week. We opened last Saturday, had one show on Monday, and then two shows a day the rest of the week for area second – fifth grade. The show Dragons Love Tacos, was well received by the visiting school children, and it was a nice cast, and I think I’ve gotten a new work study out of the deal. The young lady running lights is in the band and choir, and came in as a friend of one cast member and she’s got the right spunk and attitude to be a good match for me. She’ll start in January.
It was fun talking to the school kids as they came in. We had some college students help as ushers to meet the busses and I’d hold a door and talk to the kids: “Hi! Welcome! Thanks for being here! Enjoy the show! Where are you from? Have fun! Nice hood! Love the sparkles!” and as many other tidbits as I could come up with.

Oops! Too much smoke but it sure looks cool.

A few other meetings on top of things and some homework and I didn’t get a whole lot done this week.

Last weekend, Kelly cleaned up the flowerpots in front of the house, moved a few of the perennials over to the machine shed, pulled out the tomato plants for the chickens to work through, and put the plant stands away. I spent Sunday afternoon picking up hoses, cutting some grass and mulching leaves in front of the shed, and backing the chisel plowed into the shop to do some work on that. It was a beautiful day. I had to wonder why I’m usually picking up hoses the day before a snowstorm is coming? I think it’s because some years we’ve already had a snowstorm by now.

Of course Tuesday was Elections. I helped open the polls and worked until 9:00, then into the College for the first play, and then back to the Townhall for Elections.
Of the 570 walk-in voters that we had, our final results tape showed they were predominantly Republican. But after all the early voters were counted and added, the Democrats won. Pretty interesting. I had several discussions about why that is. Looking at the total county votes, all the rural areas go Republican and urban go Democrat. I don’t want to speak badly about the damn old farmers, but why is that??

I had to get some plow bolts before I could change the points on the chisel plow, and there’s a thing called a buster bar on the back of the chisel plow that just kinda knocks the big clumps down so it’s not quite so rough next spring. The company that made it is no longer around, but eventually, I found another company that still has parts and I was able to order some replacement teeth. However, on the first round the dealer ordered the wrong set. On the second round was they got it right.

We had an inch and a half of rain between Monday and Wednesday and I am hopeful they will get back to harvesting corn in the next few days and hopefully mine will be taken quickly. I would like to get going on plowing right away, but I also need to get updated soil samples done and they like to do that before the fields get too rough from plowed. And all the loans that I took out last December to pay for this years crops have also come due. The soybean check won’t quite cover all the bills, but once the corn is out, we should be doing OK.

I have mentioned before this one chicken living in our garage. Sometimes a second or third tries to move in and I chase them back out. Call me cruel and heartless if you want, but I don’t need chicken poop on another area. One area of poop is bad enough. Recently a second chicken moved in and while she sits on a garbage can the first chicken has moved onto a shelf. Daughter calls her the shelf chicken.
She even lays eggs in there sometimes. I don’t understand.

Padawan‘s birthday was Friday. He is no longer a teenager. We are taking him out Saturday. He isn’t making much progress on “becoming an adult”.

We provide lunch for the actors during the week. I take the leftovers home for the chickens. Tuesday was tacos. I had half a five-gallon bucket of beans, rice, and taco meat. It was dark when I got home so I left it in the garage. One of the dogs found it and ate 2/3 rds of it. If it was Bailey, at least her farting the rest of the night didn’t bother us.
Thursday, I saved some mashed potatoes and veggies. I forgot the bucket downstairs and Friday morning, maintenance had dumped it out, washed it, and left me a clean bucket. The chickens were very disappointed.

WOULD YOU RATHER GET A STOOL FOR A TALL SHELF, OR GET DOWN ON THE FLOOR FOR A LOW SHELF?

2026, animals, crops, Farming Update, Theatre, Uncategorized

GEESE AND DRAGONS

October 31, 2026 xdfben 37 Comments

Happy Halloween!

I saw a post the other day titled “How to survive Absolute chaos- Advice from a goose.” Turns out there’s a lot of advice from a goose out there if you look for it. Talk about a rabbit hole.

But here’s a few that I plagiarized. I mean I am sharing:

The Core Tenets of Goose Wisdom

Let them be wrong: Do not waste energy debating people who are committed to misunderstanding you.
Honk once: Express your frustration or boundaries clearly, then move on without over-explaining yourself like you are in a court. (I like this one)
Exit dramatically: Walk away mid-sentence if someone is testing your patience.
Remain Delusionally confident: Do I have a plan? No. Do I know where I’m going? Also no. Am I walking like I own the village? Absolutely.
Stop overthinking: Made a mistake? Embarrass yourself? It’s fine. I once screamed at a traffic cone. We all have our moments.
Lower your expectations: Not every day needs to be productive. Yesterday I stood in a puddle for 3 hours. Accomplished nothing. Absolutely magnificent day.
Celebrate small wins: Got out of bed? Brilliant! Had a little snack? Fantastic! Make it through Tuesday without fighting a garbage bin? Personal growth.
Go at your own pace: Some days you fly. Some days you waddle. Some days you stand in a field looking like you’ve forgotten why you’re there. All personally acceptable.
Accept the unexpected: Plans gone wrong? Never mind. I once followed a tractor for 40 minutes. No idea where it was going. Best afternoon of my life. (I may have done this one)
Final Goose Rule: Life is far too short to have everything figured out. Have a little waddle. Cause a minor inconvenience. Eat some grass. Tomorrow is another day.

Isn’t life like that? It sure feels like it’s just rushing and scurrying. It is just relentless!

Last Saturday Kelly and I went to a wedding at the Van Dusen Mansion in Minneapolis.

George Van Dusen is buried in Rochester.

Then we saw the Vikings play on Sunday. Daughter stayed with son and DiL. The wedding had reserved a block of rooms at a very nice hotel in downtown Minneapolis. We planned on walking to the stadium but Sarah, driving a pedicab appeared and she took us to the stadium. It was fun! And the game; SO MANY PEOPLE! And so much to look at. I was often distracted. Kelly says the Vikings did win.

We returned home on Sunday evening and the dogs were glad to see us. The next morning a neighbor sent me a trailcam picture of Bailey and Humphrey half a mile from home, carrying a deer leg. Humphrey has a sensitive stomach and does not handle carrion well. The next morning daughter had a GI bug. One of those that causes multiple washes of the bedding. Then Humphrey, uh, ‘brought up’ a large pile of deer guts. In Kelly’s office. Thank goodness (for me) I had already left for work. Kelly was rather dis-pleased. And then later, while I was at rehearsal, Luna brought her meal back for seconds. Quite a contrast to our weekend.

I sold some straw bales. And took a little time to get the bales out of the wagon from the hayride, put the wagon away, then cleaned a little bit more down around the barn where I tore out the fence. That was the extent of my farming for the week.

I talked with neighbor Craig about corn harvest and they’re having a tough time because so much corn has broken off and was blown down from that September 2nd wind storm. Trying to harvest that is slow going. One neighbor told me he’s going sideways across the rows just trying to get it to feed in. Thankfully, my corn is still standing pretty well. Luck or different varieties, hard to say. I did hear that one brand of corn seemed to go down more than others. And just yesterday saw a video saying the outside rows of a field, being exposed to the wind all season, develop sturdier stalks. Whereas the inside rows, being sheltered, are more brittle. And once exposed at harvest, it’s possible they’ll break off between one round and the next. Hopefully they get to my corn soon. Sure are lucky with the weather, I’d like it to hold until I can finish doing fall tillage.

It has been tech week at the college, and our fall play, ‘Dragons Love Tacos’ opens Saturday. Long days and evening rehearsals. School shows twice a day next week, but evenings home!

(BTW, if you’re interested, there are A LOT of songs about Taco’s according to Josiah, our director and music designer. Many are inappropriate for a kids show. The things you learn!)

Home to work on music homework. Music Intervals are killing me! It’s just not sinking in. I can count the number, it’s the major and minor that’s confusing me. The teacher is doing her best with me… I think she’s rolling her eyes every time I come in. It’s too late to audit the class rather than letter grade. Hmmm. We shall see. Chords next. I wonder how that will go? THEN maybe fieldwork!

A lady said we were “cute” and wanted to take our picture. She had had a bit to drink. I’ve always gotten the best compliments from drunk people.

Padawan is over on that side of the stadium.

Remember the baby guineas from summer? Seven survived and are pretty much grown up.

Spend your extra hour responsibly.

IF THAT EXTRA HOUR WAS AT 9:30 AM ON A THURSDAY, WHAT WOULD YOU DO WITH IT?

2026, Family, Farming Update, Kids, Seasons

Second Summer

October 24, 2026 xdfben 34 Comments

This week’s farming update from Ben

Sure has been beautiful weather. I’ve seen just a couple fields of soybeans standing yet, a lot of corn has gone out. The dry weather has been perfect for the farmers with cattle on that make round bales out of the corn stalks. It’s been dry and they haven’t had a rain threat and it’s really been nice for that work.

On Wednesday we had two groups from possibilities out for hayrides. It was much nicer weather than the previous week but some of the clients still expected hot chocolate and while I am out doing the ride, Kelly is making hot chocolate. Everyone really seemed to enjoy it. Tuesday morning daughter and I saw a bald eagle as we were headed in, and then Wednesday on the hayride, they got to see another bald eagle.

Friday morning we did another group, a little windy but certainly warmer than they would’ve had last Friday. It can’t last forever, but it sure is nice while it does. This group also had hot chocolate.

After the hayride, I loaded up some scrap metal on a trailer and hauled that in. Finally got one thing off my list. Then I picked up the fence scrap that I tore out last weekend, the cattle panels, and an old bulk tank that had been used as a water tank, loaded that on the trailer and will get that delivered at some point.

Going to the scrapyard, I followed a combine and a big tractor about 2 miles on a busy county road. It was quite a line going at 20 mph. Corn heads come in different widths, and a six row corn head, at 30 inch rows, is about 15 feet wide. That’s pretty much a full lane of traffic. Anything bigger than that and they take the head off before driving on the road. Many farmers have 12 row corn heads. There’s a few 16’s and 18’s. But that’s a lot of weight, and a lot of corn coming in, and you need a pretty big machine that can handle all that. The big thing now is folding corn heads. So on a 12 row head, three outside rows on each side fold up over the middle making it about as wide as the machine itself and then they don’t have to take it off to travel on the roads. They’re very popular for the convenience factor. Seems like they’re also very expensive. Google tells me a slightly used 16 row folding head is listed at $254,500. Honestly, when you think about the engineering involved to make it fold, it’s pretty impressive.

FB image. Head folded and traveling. They do seem to obstruct vision a bit.

After the Wednesday hayride, I needed to put the wagon back in the shed. Because of where other machinery was parked, I had to make an S curve backing into the shed. If you look at this photo, the purple line was my intended route. And the green line is how it really went.

I do like to challenge myself…
There’s a big difference between backing a 2 wheel trailer vs a 4 wheel wagon. Two wheels are easier.
When I was a kid, there was a tractor rodeo at the fair. It involved backing things up, two and four wheels. Around corners, and into spaces and Dad really wanted me to do it. I refused. Eventually I got pretty good at backing things up, but it takes practice and I didn’t have it at 14. I’ve never like competitions.
And judging by the green lines, I’m out of practice again. After Friday’s ride I put the wagon back in the shed. I did better. Practice makes perfect.

I’ve kinda run out of music in the theater shop lately. I just can’t find anything really interesting to me. Nothing turning my crank.
I did some Latin Jazz, I did Rush, I tried Johnny Cash and nothing is really floating my boat this week. I’m saving the soundtrack of All That Jazz for next week. That will be tech week. “Nothing is personal during tech week.”

HOW ARE YOU AT BACKING UP?

WHAT SHOULD WE FOLD?

2026, Farming Update, Theatre

LOQUACIOUSNESS!

October 17, 2026 xdfben 31 Comments

This week on the farm / in the theater from Ben

Thursday we got 1.23” of rain. Then Friday was cool and windy and partially cloudy with a freeze warning for the evening. It’s MEA weekend and we had scheduled hayrides for daughters PossAbilities groups on Thursday and Friday. Well, first we postponed Thursday’s, then that evening, figured it was going to be so cold and windy that it would be miserable for riding out on a wagon. I’d be fine in the tractor, but it’s not about me. I suggested we postpone Friday as well. Next week looks to be a much nicer week.

It’s troublesome that it’s dark by about 7:00 PM these days. It’s hard to get much done at home. Good thing Padawan 2 added those extra lights to the back of the one tractor this summer. Last weekend Kelly was picking up sticks. I was using the tractor loader and grapple bucket to pluck larger branches and piles and move them to the burn pile. The plan might be to move “this” pile, but then there’s “that” log and pretty soon I’ve moved quite a bunch of other stuff. Once again, I had to remind myself, the tractor and loader is NOT A BULLDOZER. I told myself that right after a hydraulic hose started squirting oil. A very lovely arc six feet tall. But only when I closed the grapple. Turns out just a connection had come loose. No damage done. Whew.

Then down to the barn and the cow yard and the old, worn out fence separating the former calf pen, from the cow yard. There’s about 5’ of elevation difference, the calf pen being higher, and the fence had tilted over the years and posts broke off and it was just a mess. Covered in weeds because of the hill and rocks and it was hard to get mowed. This wasn’t a barb wire fence, it was cattle panels, sixteen feet long (that’s a standard) and about five feet tall. They were all beat up. Some random cow or bull trying to climb over once too often. I used the grapple and just lifted them up out of the weeds. Made a pile that I’ll crush down and haul into the scrap yard at some point. I picked up some new (to me) cattle panels at an auction, just need to get this fence out. And make new holes. And build a new fence. Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy! I have a trailer with scrap on it, I’m just trying to decide when to fit that into my schedule. Won’t be until after I get this play at the college open.

Over MEA, I painted the stage floor a light blue color base. It was a five gallon bucket of discount paint from one of the big box stores. Then my usual texture over it. Mostly brown, then some red, green, and blue. Have I mentioned, we’re doing “Dragons Love Tacos”, which is a pretty popular kids book. And there are Red, Green, and Blue dragons.

I was talking to Kelly one morning about how daughter will try to tell you something and her explanation goes back to yesterday and lunch or something that, in my mind, has nothing to do with what we’re talking about now, or the question at the moment, and I can’t figure out how it’s relevant, and I said to Kelly my attention span isn’t that long and I never know what we’re talking about. Kelly said daughter is definitely mine. And I blinked. And the reality smacked me in the face. I sort of tried to object, and Kelly said we were both very verbose in our explanations of things. Huh. Damn.

Verbose: wordy, long-winded, talkative, effusive, garrulous, rambling, bombastic, pompous, pretentious…

I saw a FB post the other day that said “I didn’t know parenting the Me out of my kids would be so hard” Yep. I have said before that daughter is stubborn and opinionated and thinks she has to have the last word, just like me and it makes me crazy. Just hadn’t thought about the talking thing before.

I picked up some new shirts from Savers the other day. Took them down to the costume shop. I didn’t have time to be pulling seams and swapping sleeves, so I just hemmed some up and cut some off. When I was a kid, I liked having the western style shirts with snaps. I have found a few of those lately and it’s kinda fun to have the snaps again.

YOU EVER HAVE BUTTON FLY JEANS? (I Had one pair on some army surplus pants. What a pain!)

WHAT HAVE YOU GOT FROM YOUR PARENTS? OR GIVEN TO YOUR KIDS?

2026, chickens, Farming Update, Theatre, Uncategorized

GOOD FOR THE SOUL

October 3, 2026 xdfben 32 Comments

This weeks “Farming Update?” from Ben

I got a massage the other day and the salt wall in the header photo is the wall of their waiting room. It has a nice amber light that is very calming, and they say it supports relaxation to help reduce stress. I just like the look of it. Daughter has a salt lamp that is the same color. It sweats due to the higher humidity in our house, and kinda makes a mess, but it is a very nice warm light.

It’s been kind of a busy week.

There was no farming this week, unless you call cutting the grass and picking up sticks and feeding the chickens and collecting eggs farming. And that was done by Kelly and daughter respectively. I got diddly squat done at home between Work work, tech rehearsals for Sweeny Todd, several meetings, homework, and yes, the massage. That’s how I spent the week. Well, at least until I got to Friday. I got a few things done Friday.

I must say, I am acing the humanities class. 100%. And this comment from the teacher: “You know you’re going above and beyond, right? I mean that you’re writing 2-3x as much as your classmates… but you’re probably also having 2-3x as much fun!” I wrote to her and said I knew I was writing too much and I felt sorry every time I submitted a paper to her. She responded, ” No, it’s fine. Write away! At least I can hear YOUR voice in your writing and it’s both personal and wise. Plus, you really enjoy doing it.”

That made my whole day…

Music class… eh. 8/10 on a workbook and that’s the only grade posted so far. I go see the teacher weekly and we have a good time talking. It always makes so much sense when she tells me. It doesn’t sink in from the book. Course it would help if I actually read the book first and didn’t just jump into the middle. I can “wing” a lot of things, but evidently not this so much. Geez, sounds like high school all over again.

At college one day I made an electric cable. You know, lighting fixtures used to come with a cord, and you just put on the end you needed. It might be either of a couple specific theater kinds of ends like, ‘Stage Pin’ or ‘Twist Loc’ (new or old style) or regular old Edison like at your house.

Then they, “They”, stopped putting cables on the light. You get a ‘receptacle’ on the back of the light fixture, and you hook up a power cable. They were ‘powercon’. So, I made powercon cables and adapters and couplers, because you couldn’t simply hook one end to the other. And from powercon, now they created ‘True 1’ connectors. “New and Improved!” Here I am making MORE cables. But at least this connector can hook end to end without a special coupler.

A few years ago I learned if you read the printing on the cable, the female connector will go on the right hand side, because the woman is always right, and that way you don’t need to twist the wires to connect to the proper terminal. HUH!

Sweeny Todd opened last night, Friday, at the Rep in Rochester. I’d seen the show once before, never saw the movie. I know the plot, but I didn’t know the show that well. This version, this director, Philip, really brings out the humor in the show. There’s a lot of sarcasm. Sweeny goes off on this big song of bringing vengeance on all those that have ruined his life, and Mrs. Lovett sits for a moment and finally says, “Well yes, that’s all well and good…”

Lighting it has been fun. We ended up with 206 lighting cues. A handful of those are before the house opens; turning on house lights, checking all the fixtures are working, etcetera, but the bulk are during the show, when Emilie, our stage manager, is also triggering 200 sound cues. It’s OK, she has 2 fingers; one for sound, one for lights. We don’t have an orchestra for this show, we have recorded music. (Musicians are busy, and it’s often hard to find enough to cover the run of a show. If they’re in a band, they’re usually playing weekends as well). Emilie is busy! And she does a fantastic job.

Here’s some looks from the show.

There was an auction again. See how this newer tractor sold for so much less? It has a lot more hours, and it needs tires. Looks like its been ‘rode hard and put away wet’. Tires will be about $20,000 for all 8 of them.

The top tractor only has 5000 hours. The bottom one has 11,000 hours.

I didn’t buy anything. I watched a few things, didn’t buy any.

HOW MANY KINDS OF SALT IN YOUR CABINET?

DOESN’T EVERYONE HAVE A WATER SOFTENER?

2026, animals, Farming Update, Music, Songs, Uncategorized, work

ON THE ROAD AGAIN–

September 26, 2026 xdfben 47 Comments

This week’s farming update from Ben

There really wasn’t a lot happening on the farm this week.

It rained through Monday and then there was work work, and rehearsal for a show. So I still haven’t gotten rye planted and that seed tender trailer is still parked in the shed right where I left it. And it’s raining again. The new concrete has hardened and other than driving the gator across it, I haven’t gotten the edges back filled either. You’d think I haven’t been doing anything. Except homework.

I’m really enjoying the Humanities class. Lots of writing, which I can do. This week’s chapter was on Film and Television. We had to pick a movie and justify why it should be considered a classic using the themes taken from the chapter we read. (I picked All That Jazz. Honestly, I am still finding tidbits in that movie. Other student choices were Legally Blonde, The Hunger Games, and Sound of Music. Hmmm…) An upcoming project is to watch a classic film from a provided list. We can watch Casablanca or Citizen Kane, or a movie by one of these directors: Kubrick, Hitchcock, Kurosawa, Fellini, Godard, Truffaut, or Resnais. Really? I have to watch Citizen Kane again?? Well, if I must!

The music class has been a little more challenging. My music lessons were a long time ago and it’s taking a long time to get the names of the notes back in my head. And I never did learn bass clef, so that’s all new. And trying to remember what a 1/8 rest looks like. And put bar lines in 6/8 music. And there was some confusion regarding the textbook and if we really needed one or not. Turns out we do. Both classes are online so I do homework late at night.

Back to the farm.

Last Saturday, Padawan and I worked out in the machine shed finishing up some of the little odds and ends that haven’t been finished since I started the shop project. We ran some conduit and reconnected an outlet on the other side of my main shop door. The wires got disconnected during construction. I had other outlets, so didn’t really need that one, but I do sometimes need it. I practiced bending conduit and we added an upper outlet for the security cameras. I had padawan pull wires and install the outlet. I double checked it.

The pipe in the middle with the outlet at the top is what we did.

And we talked a lot. He sure makes life hard on himself. He’s not a self-starter, and I don’t know how many more times I can tell him, GET A FRICKEN JOB! Honestly, he’s a little afraid of having to become a responsible adult. He’s trying to coast through life without becoming “an adult”. It’s not working very well. He sure is a nice young man. Just dense.

Thursday morning, I drove my big tractor 20 miles to the John Deere dealer in Plainview. A few weeks ago, I had the water pump and thermostats replaced. And it still overheated. I drove it to them so they can work on it up there. They’ll hook it to a ‘dyno’; a gizmo that connects to the power take off and puts a ‘load’ on the tractor to work it. The tractor goes about 24 MPH. It took about 50 minutes. I try to take some secondary roads as much as possible to avoid the traffic. I like the wider roads better than the narrow roads.

I was lucky not to have too much traffic, and none of the drivers passing me did anything stupid. Tractors with cabs or ROPS, Roll Over Protective Structures, have seat belts. We don’t often wear the seatbelt, but I do if I’m on the highway, or I get into a sketchy situation. I went to put the seatbelt on, and the buckle wouldn’t latch. I futzed with it until I broke the latch. I was glad no one drove stupid.

And then, just before I got to Plainview, there was a dead skunk on the side of the road. You know what that means:

Listening to the 1940’s station the other day, I saw a song title, “Life Gits Tee-jus Don’t it” and that caught my attention. Sung by Carson Robison. He was a country singer from the mid 1920’s until his death in 1957. Wiki says he was a composer of ‘event’ songs that usually included a moral. Such as Remember Pearl Harbor, or The Wreck of Number Nine. The aforementioned Life Gets Tee-jus.., was a 1948 “worldwide hit” for MGM records. How about that?

The song starts off with these lyrics, spoken in a slow drawl:

The sun comes up and the sun goes down
The hands on the clock go round and round
I just wake up and it’s time to lay down,
Life gets tee-jus, don’t it

And then goes on with these verses:

Hound dog’s howlin’ so forlorn
Laziest dawg that ever was born
He’s howlin’ ’cause he’s sittin’ on a thorn
Just too tired to move over

And ends with this:

Well, the cow’s gone dry and the hens won’t lay
And my well dried up last Saturday
My troubles keep pilin’ up day by day
And now I’m gettin’ dandruff

Sheez. Talk about a downer.

I will skip songs by Bing Crosby or Vaughn Monroe. I just can’t take their voices.

WHICH CLASSIC MOVIE WOULD YOU WATCH FROM THE LIST?

ANY MUSICIANS YOU SKIP?

2026, Family, Farming Update, work

ARE YOU COLD OR IS IT JUST ME?

September 19, 2026 xdfben 30 Comments

This weeks Farming Update from Ben

You know those colds going around? Kelly, daughter, and I all took sick days this week. Just colds, but foggy head, stuffy nose, and Kelly has a low grade temp. Naps are good.

Last weekend one of our neighbors had their annual barn dance. Music was provided by a funk band from the twin cities, ‘Tyte Phitt’. They were a lot of fun! When contacted to play here, they were interested because they’d never played a barn dance before. And the hosts said they wanted to see how a bunch of farmers would like a funk band. It was loud, but it sure was good!

Last Saturday Kelly and I mixed up 17 bags of concrete to add a little berm to the new concrete and fill in a low spot

Just enough at the door to keep the water out. Kelly learned a lot about mixing and working concrete. She says it was interesting. And it bugged her that I can smooth better than her. I’ve just had more practice is all. Someday I’d like to put an overhead door here. We’ll see.

And then Tuesday morning we had another Thunderstorm with a lot of lightning and about 6AM the electric co-op calls and tells me our power is out. I’m barely awake. It is?? (And isn’t that something; they’re telling ME it’s out.) He says there was a lot of lightning and they’ve had some meters fail. I was up with the dogs at 4AM and we had power then. Wasn’t long before a truck shows up and tells me there’s actually a tree down in the pasture, it tore down the line and broke off a pole. Yep, that would do it. One of the guys and I drive back there with the gator. Glad the neighbors took their cattle out after the previous storm because then we don’t have to worry about fences. And I had to take down part of the temporary fence we put up this spring. Then hooked up the tractor and generator and went to work. It was about 2 PM when they had everything fixed and back online.

Nice oak tree. Daughter and I talked about counting rings on trees.

You can see an old manure spreader to the right of the tree. Dad used to park old worn out machinery along this tree line. Some has rotted away, some has been hauled out. I wonder why he did that? I remember a few places there used to be junk parked. Probably saving for possible parts.

I’ve mentioned before that my dad would talk about he and his brother pulling the electric lines through the pasture with horses. Then WWII put a hold on it. If I remember correctly, the farm got electricity in 1946. Mom and Dad were married in 1948, and first daughter, Ellen, was born in 1949. Mom had told Dad she didn’t want to be pregnant and using an outhouse. He finished the bathroom in 1949…before the baby, but I think it was further into the pregnancy than mom wanted.

I ordered myself an “indestructible pen”. I always carry a pen in my pocket, and often doing farm work I break them by leaning over things. Typical plastic pens don’t last long. I found this one. It comes with a titanium tip to break glass. Never in my life have I had to break out a window. Except for fun. Or as part of a show. And being how this tip is so sharp, after I gouge my palm on it a few more times, I’ll be grinding that off.

(Preliminary question: got any good stories about breaking glass?)

I picked up 55 bushels of rye seed on Wednesday. The dealer let me borrow a seed tender, so it’s in bulk, not in bags, and I was really excited to play with that. It has a scale too! And then we got .4” rain Wednesday night and Thursday was cloudy and misty. Heck, Thursday was supposed to be nice, before it rains for a week they say. It’s all still in the shed. The point of using a seed tender, is to avoid all the bags plus it’s quicker and easier. There’s a conveyor that can be used both to add seed to the cart, then turned around and unload the cart into the grain drill. Maybe next week I can get pictures of that.

I spent Thursday and Friday in the office instead. I meant to do bookwork. By 2:30 in the afternoon I still hadn’t quite gotten to that. Several times I moved the keyboard and moved papers, then saw a bill or two to pay. Did that. Remembered a few more emails to do, remembered some theater stuff to do. Started a draft of this blog, moved the keyboard again to start bookwork and got an email about certifying the oat crop for an extra payment for water quality. Spent an hour doing that on my phone (Because they said it would be easier on the phone. Well maybe if you don’t have fat fingers like I do!) Had to call for help once. Had to quit and start over twice. I managed. It was worth it for the $1600 bonus payment planting oats provides for water quality grants from the SWCD. Maybe I’ll order a couple gallons of diesel fuel with that…

CAN YOU HOLD PENS / PENCILS IN YOUR HAIR? BEHIND YOUR EAR?

HOW DO YOU CARRY YOUR CELL PHONE?

(I’ve seen women walk around with them under their arm or stuck in their bra. I don’t like them in my pockets; again, I’ll break it)

2026, animals, crops, Family, Farming Update, Kids, pets, Travel, Uncategorized, work

BACK IN THE SWING OF THINGS

September 12, 2026 xdfben 31 Comments

This week’s farming update from Ben

The soybeans are turning yellow and dropping their leaves. Another week will make a huge difference.

We spent a week outside of Charleston SC visiting my niece and her husband and their two cute little girls, age five and two. Boy, that two year old: She never stops moving! Better them than us. And a wonderful dog, Maggie. A female Doberman. I’ve not had anything to do with Dobermans before, but she was a sweetheart.

These people love their hot weather. I was hot for the whole week we were there. They made a fire one night in their fire pit. IT WAS 80 DEGREES! I kept moving my chair back. But, it was a lovely night and It was a great, much needed vacation.

Our first night and I got to take the five year old to bed. I was pooped out.

While we were gone, our house sitters, G & E, did a fabulous job keeping our dogs occupied. They left the house cleaner than it was when we left. E does a lot of cooking, which was evident by the washed cookie sheets and bread loaf pan on the counter. We need to get them to leave some left overs. And G works at a local nursery and we always come home to fresh cut flowers and even some new plants on the front step. Great people. We’re not sure the dogs were glad to have us come back or not.

Plus our other neighbor, B, collecting eggs and taking care of the chickens. She said she loved her the dogs protected her from the raccoons.

The tree branch that fell down on the deck just before we left got cut up and hauled away. We are so lucky it missed the gutters and missed the lights hanging off the gutters. It broke a leg off one plastic deck chair, and bent one tiki torch. Driving around the farm, there are trees down all over. Lots of trees in fields, which will make harvest difficult. It’s hard to clean them up without damaging more crops. Our neighbors took their cattle out as there was so many trees down on the fence it was easier to take them out than to fix the fences. At least for now. They’ll be fixed before next spring.

And we’ve had a bunch of weird electronic issues since the power was out with that storm. Course the router needed to be rebooted a few times, and the extenders, and the security cameras… got most of them back, but it’s been a process.

The Soil and Water (SWCD) people, and contractor Clint built the new structure to stop erosion.

The back side. The tile drains down in the tree’s to the left.

Clint also built a ‘low water crossing’ at one of our waterways. It tends to be wet in the spring, (that’s why it’s a ‘water way’). He excavated down, placed geo-textile fabric, large rock placed underneath, smaller rock on top, and that way the water can still pass through but the equipment has a place to cross without creating ruts in the soft spring soil.

I am very proud of the work we’ve done the last few year making the farm a better place for the future.

Including pouring concrete.

Last week Kelly and I were compacting gravel for this pad. This concrete is in the main part of the shed, right inside the main door, and is where just about everything gets parked. I’m as excited about this concrete as I have been about all the rest.

Wrap the wire around the rebar, hook the loops, and spin it five times to make it tight. Six twists will break the wire.

Rebar wired together and propped up with rocks, tin cans, empty bottles; Anything I found in the garbage that I thought would be useful. You can buy 2” plastic rebar chairs, but why would I wanna do that?

We had some good help leveling out the concrete. Our son came down with a couple of his buddies. I spent a little more money and ordered a conveyor truck to get the concrete in the shed, that way I could be in there helping and not in the tractor hauling concrete 1/2 a yard at a time in the loader bucket. I am supposedly, the ‘Brains’ of the outfit. I use the term loosely. Jokes on them!

I ordered 5000 psi concrete “garage mix” with fiber and air entrainment. See, sounds like I know what I’m talking about.

You want a bunch of help getting the cement truck dumped out and the concrete spread out. Then there’s a little more time to get it level and time for it to begin to harden before the finishing work begins. And that can be a one person job on a pad this small. It just takes several good people right at the start.

On top of the compacted gravel we get the rebar laid out and tied together using a homemade wire twister. I use fiberglass rebar. I buy wire ties with a loop on each end, then use a paint roller I’ve modified to twist them.

By the time we finished I was pooped out. Man, I am not 30 years old anymore.

The conveyor truck getting set up. We were all working so I didn’t get any pictures of it happening.

Kelly was in charge of the measuring stick and the laser level to get it level.

Looks pretty good for some amateurs. Better than our first round last year.

Humphrey walk through it first. But I’m OK with that. I left his footprints.

HOW OFTEN DID YOU FALL ASLEEP YOURSELF TAKING THE KIDS TO BED?

ANY GOOD BEDTIME STORIES?

2026, animals, chickens, crops, education, Farming Update, Music, Uncategorized

Chickens Love Popcorn

August 29, 2026 xdfben 54 Comments

This week’s Farming Update from Ben

I mean who doesn’t love popcorn, right? (I know there’s a few of you). 

Daughter went to a movie the other day. It was Tuesday so we did the Large Value popcorn (we usually have the refillable bucket, but this came up spur of the moment).  Shortly after she got home it was already soggy. Dang, we love leftover popcorn. I threw it out to the chickens the next morning. You know, back in the ‘70s, when I was in the hospital for three weeks with my leg injury, my mom would make popcorn, put it in a leftover bread bag, and freeze it. Then she would bring it to me in the hospital. You don’t often hear about people using bread sacks anymore, do you? They worked for boot liners and they worked for leftovers. 

See this video of me calling the chickens; they love leftovers, and popcorn all the more. 

https://youtube.com/shorts/P4e7q77LJ1c?si=dfzfUz5Dq5WL9T67

Finally got the last of the straw baled on Sunday. Saturday, I baled and stacked 110 bales in a wagon for the strawberry farm in the neighborhood. He’ll take them in November just before it gets really cold or snows. He’s got a shredder / blower type machine that he can stack about a dozen bales on, then wife or child feeds them into the chute to chop it up and spray it over the berries while he drives down the rows. Looks pretty slick for that job. On Sunday, Neighbor Craig was over and round baled the rest. Got 18 large round bales, called 5×5’s. Five feet wide and about five feet diameter. At some point I’ll get out with the tractor and loader and bale fork on the front and bale lift on the back and pick them up and put them in a row until neighbor Dave picks them up for use as bedding this winter. As I’ve said before since there’s no under seeding planted with the oats, they can sit there for a bit. If there was something planted underneath, and they were left sitting, the bales would smother whatever was growing. I do want to get these fields dug up and planted to rye, so I need them moved sooner than later. 

I called John Deere to come out and check why the big tractor is overheating. I pulled the side panels off.

And I decided, yeah, let’s call a guy. I don’t have that much time right now anyway being back at college and all. I bought this tractor used. It has 11,000 hours on it, which is equivalent to 50,000 miles on a car. And I put about 100 hours on it per year. It came from a local farm, so my local dealer might have some history on it. I don’t. I can tell the radiator hoses are soft, meaning they should be replaced, and it probably needs a water pump and new thermostat. I’m guessing $3500 parts and labor. Will let you know in a month. 

Got new lights installed on a trailer, then went to pick up rebar and a 6″x6″x16′ green treated post for a fence down in the cow yard.

We’re also prepping for more concrete in the shed. Padawan and I excavated dirt this week. Got two loads of gravel delivered for the base. Rented a plate compactor for the weekend. Padawan was out for a couple hours, and he and I worked on digging out the dirt and gravel next to the existing concrete. Man, I am so looking forward to having concrete in here! Another one of those things I wish I’d have done 20 / 30 / 40 years ago! But, you know, money. And life. And I’ll appreciate it more now. (Padawan 2 is back at college).

I changed the spark plugs in the swather, and then I was tired of looking at it. Remember I said I’d drive it around for an hour so it felt needed? I drove it for 20 minutes and called it good. It worked, it made all the scary noises I’ve come to expect, and I parked it back in the shed for next summer. I’ll try to start it once a month and move it back and forth until winter. I say until winter because usually I have something parked in front of it, so I can still start it, but not be able to move it after that. 

At the college I am taking two classes: Music Fundamentals, and Introduction to Humanities. I don’t usually do two classes. But music only has 11 students and I was afraid it would be cancelled so I registered for Humanities and now they’re both going. I signed up for music because I wanted to learn more about WHY I like the music I like. How is a song created? What makes rock sound like rock and country sound like country? And what do they mean when they say, ‘This is in the key of A’? 

And the teacher for Humanities is a great teacher. I’ve taken 3 of her classes before. Both these are online and so far, so good. From what I’m learning so far in chapter 1, I’m pretty good at the Humanities already. I am mostly open minded, and I use a Socratic method of teaching. (Trying to get others to think and answer questions themselves and not simply lecturing).

Anyone familiar with Rhaphidophoridae? Otherwise known as Camel Crickets?

We have had them in our house the last few years. They’re creepy. We have an exterminator / bug guy that does bait stations outside to control mice and rats, so we had him spray the basement too.

The ag co-op had me apply for my crop loan for next year. Got that approved. Saved a $250 application fee. Looks like I can farm again next year.

I’m seeing a few soybeans starting to turn yellow. Haven’t seen anyone chopping corn silage yet, but that will be happening soon. I picked a few ears of corn the other day. It is well dented. Counted 14 kernels around, and 38 long. Usually they’re 16 around, a really impressive ear will be 18. They were both filled all the way to the end, meaning the plant had everything it needed and didn’t need to abort any kernels to survive. Now that was just this one place in this one field. I could go to another field with more rocks and it would look worse.

Acorns are falling too. They are good sized this year. Must have been a good year for acorns. And it seems like some of the barn swallows have started to leave. The world just keeps going around.

THINGS YOU USED TO USE FOR LEFTOVERS YOU DONT USE ANYMORE?

crops, Farming Update, Nature, Uncategorized

IS IT A HARD KNOCK LIFE? REALLY?

August 22, 2026 xdfben 40 Comments

This week‘s farming update from Ben

No, the Straw isn’t baled yet. Keeps freaking raining every two or three days. I checked it Friday morning and it’s wet underneath, so I’ll be raking it, AGAIN, and planning to bale my last 100 bales on Saturday. I have a neighbor lined up for Sunday to round bale whatever is left. I am optimistic for Saturday though. Monday evening I double raked the one field that had not been raked yet, and then I re-raked the field I had Padawan do and then it rained on Tuesday, about half an inch, the wind came up and the temperature dropped and something happened somewhere because our power went out for about an hour. But according to the electric co-op website, there was like 400 people out of power, so something major happened somewhere, but it didn’t take long to fix. And Friday afternoon I raked it all again.

Yeah, So anyway the straw is not baled yet.

I did get the new spark plug wires made and put on the swather and went to change spark plugs and discovered the guys at Zumbrota NAPA, that seemed to know everything, evidently do not know what kind of spark plugs the swather takes. The ones they gave me sure didn’t fit. I picked up the proper ones in Rochester the next day. Haven’t gotten them replaced yet. Maybe Saturday. I greased most of the swather last Saturday, so will finish that and run it around for awhile just to make it feel needed.

We added the 250 bales from last week to the pole barn on Sunday.

Padawan did OK. He’s not a rockstar at this and he sure complains a lot. I asked him later why does he think everything is supposed to be easy? And I thought to myself ‘where does that come from’? Did he not have enough challenges in his life?

The straw this year sure isn’t that bright golden color you’ve come to expect. And there won’t be much oats left in it after the rain and all the raking. That tends to knock out all the loose oats that is left after harvesting. The strawberry farm likes it better that way. I’m just trying to get the stupid stuff done. At least I don’t have anything planted with it that would be getting smothered. In the old days, and sometimes still, oats is just a cover crop to get alfalfa started. Meaning with all the rain and the straw windrow laying out there for a month, it could be smothering the alfalfa underneath. As it is, the grass and weeds are coming on strong and I need to get it dug up soon in order to plant cereal rye. Too much grass and it won’t go through the tillage machine very well.

I started doing some tillage Friday, made three rounds and the tractor overheated and I had steam coming out under the hood. So that took care of that.

If you look at the header photo, it’s interesting that this year there’s so many soybeans right around here. The farm out on the highway is soybeans, our neighbors are soybeans, and then the fields along our driveway are soybeans. It doesn’t mean there’s more soybeans than corn this year, it just means these 50 acres right here are soybeans. Still, interesting.
Next year the neighbors will be corn and mine might be oats. Crop rotation. Corn and soybeans for some guys. Soybeans, oats, corn for me.

On Tuesday when the cold front came through, I was standing out on the college theater loading dock talking on the phone with Kelly and I realized there were bees flying around me. Yellow jackets were coming back to the nest. They knew the weather was changing. It was kind of interesting watching them all return.

There was an online auction that ended in Plainview on Tuesday. I picked up a couple of small things: some barb wire and a wire stretcher tool, and also a couple lots of assorted tools that Padawan can use. It’s always interesting how things sell.

I’m just about out of diesel fuel and gasoline for the Farm. I keep watching the prices, especially on diesel fuel, but it sure doesn’t seem like it’s going down. I filled the truck in Plainview at an off brand station, saving $0.10 / gallon compared to the name brands.

Driving into town one morning and the shadow of my car was directly in line with the lane of the road. I chuckled at the Vehicle / Stonehenge similarity.

WHY DOES PADAWAN COMPLAIN SO MUCH? *

WHO TOLD YOU LIFE WOULD BE EASY?

*I’m beginning to realize sometimes he’s just talking, but it’s his tone. And I told him, If I didn’t know him, I’d fire his ass because his attitude sucks.

He is waiting to hear about another job…

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