Category Archives: Farming Update

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What Mystery is this?

August 16, 2025 xdfben 46 Comments

The weekend farm report from Ben

Welcome to the sick house. We all have colds. You should buy stock in tissues. My head is all fogged up so who knows what may come out in this…course that hasn’t stopped me running heavy machinery.

After last week and breaking things, I made some progress on repairing things this week. And I don’t think I’ve broken any more. Yet. (Never say never). I replaced the lift cable on the bale elevator and got that repaired. On the hay wagon I got the remaining pieces of the wheel bearings out of the hub, meaning I got both the inner and outer bearing race removed, which, thankfully, had identification numbers on them, and a local place could use that to find the correct bearings. We double checked dimensions and I got four bearings; a set for both back wheels and the plan is to have one of my padawans help me install on Saturday. It will be a good experience for him to ‘pack’ grease into a bearing. It’s not hard, but there is a process, and it is messy.
It’s supposed to be hot on Saturday, so I’m planning a shop day. We’ll put the old John Deere 2 cylinder tractor, the 630, in the shop, drain the coolant and replace a radiator hose, take off the carburetor (for one of my friends to deep clean) and we’ll see what else we can get into. I’d like to replace the exhaust manifold, and those bolts will be difficult to remove as I’m not sure they’ve been out in 50 or 60 years, and through innumerable heating and cooling cycles. I’m told to heat the area red hot, let it cool for a few hours, then smack it with a hammer. That may work on some of the bolts, but on two of them, the heads are broken off, meaning the usual method is to weld a nut to the broken off bit. I’ve never tried that. I’ve seen it done successfully, just never tried it. We shall see.

Looks like we’ve lost 1 baby guinea. Still got 11.

Some of the baby guineas. They’re pigeon sized.

And they sure get around. Often when I leave in the morning, the three mom’s and them are half a mile up the road, hanging out on the edge of a corn field. By evening they’re all back home. Weird. And there’s been one pheasant hanging out around the barn.
Now that the oats is out and straw baled, I’ve been mowing the edges of those fields. Cutting down weeds I couldn’t get to while the crop was growing. And I mowed the new waterway. The barn swallows sure loved me doing that. It was fun watching a couple dozen of them flirting around.

You can kinda see the barn swallows fliting around.

On Wednesday this week I drove to the twin cities to pick up some lighting stuff for the college. I have mentioned before that my favorite Bob Dylan song is ‘Tangled up in Blue’. I don’t often listen to song words or meanings, but that one appeals to me. I love a good story, and one of love lost tugs at my heartstrings. I was aware of two versions of the song, Dylan’s and Joan Osborn’s. Then I heard of this guitar player who was recently in the cities by the name of Billy Strings, and he does a cover. So I started looking for his version. It’s on YouTube, but not Apple music yet. However I found several other versions.

I spent half the trip up, and the entire trip back listening to these different versions of the same song. The differences were really interesting to me. I really like the rhythm of the song, the tempo, the structure, and, depending on the version, the instrumentation or harmonies. A group called Grain Thief has a bluegrass version. The Indigo Girls have a section that drops into a solid blues verse. KT Tunstall’s gritty, throaty voice gives it a different vibe. Then there’s Mary Lee’s Corvette, who I hadn’t heard of before this, and she’s got a good rocking version. Jerry Garcia’s Band has a version complete with guitar jam. Bob Malone does a ROCKING bluesy version that I really liked (And a solo piano version available on YouTube). Robyn Hitchcock is just guitar and piano with a very folk / blues sound. A few are simply guitar, one starts as piano before adding the full band (and I really like a song that grows like that.) There was one version that seemed to be punk rock or something. I only got 20 seconds into it before deleting. Overall, the different guitar sounds, the slightly changed lyrics, the interpretation of each artist was fascinating to me and I still am not tired of this song after listening to it 58 times.

We have these fuel barrels for the farm: a 300 gallon barrel of gasoline that’s up on a stand so it’s gravity fed. And a 500 gallon for diesel fuel that’s electric and has a pump. The automatic nozzles like you use at the gas station don’t work on gravity feed, the only work with a pump, so it was a big deal when, however many years ago I got a used barrel from a neighbor and went from gravity to a pump on the diesel barrel. I rented a trencher and ran an electric line across the driveway from the shop to the barrel and then could buy one of those automatic shut off nozzles. When I needed to refill the tractor the other day, I started the fuel flowing, went to the house to grab a snack, and got back to the tractor two seconds before the fuel stopped. I remember a few times with the gravity system and we used a big square nut to hold the lever up and then I would go to the shop and get distracted and I spilled a few gallons… I appreciate not having to worry about that anymore.

The header photo and that hole in the ground? I dug up the cover of the septic tank. Bailey helped.

We got the tank pumped out. It’s been on my ‘to-do’ list for a couple years. Also got a riser installed so the cover isn’t 2 feet underground anymore. Digging it up on Thursday I was thinking that is going to be a really good thing.

SIMPLE CONVIENCES YOU APPRECIATE?

AND MUSIC-

FAVORITE COVER SONG?

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ONE OF THESE IS NOT LIKE THE OTHER

August 9, 2025 xdfben 21 Comments

The weekend farm report from XDFBen

ONE OF THESE IS NOT LIKE THE OTHER

Wow, Man, what a week again. Thursday night I hit a gumption trap so hard, I had a rootbeer float and popcorn for supper…

We have baby guineas! I had seen one sitting on a nest behind the machine shed a few weeks ago, and we talked about getting the eggs into an incubator but never got too it. Next time I looked the nest was empty and there were broken eggs. Momma was nowhere to be found, and we feared the worst. A week later I saw her and a bunch of chicks heading into a corn field. Typically, guineas are not the best moms. But this group seems to ‘community parent’ and they’re doing surprisingly well.

As you can image, the real world is a tough place for a little chick. They could fall into a hole, they could get eaten or lost. It’s a tough place. But yeah, they’re doing well and getting big enough they might just make it. They’re not quite pigeon sized, and they hop and flutter and there’s always that one that’s six feet away and running to catch up.

I cut down a bunch of box elder tree’s growing over a fence down around the barn yard. Treated all the stumps. Then tore out the old feed bunk augers and cement bunks. Don’t need them anymore and it will help open up the yard.

Dad built the first silo in 1968 and installed these augers. When the second silo was built in 1976, the whole feed bunk was turned 90 degrees and the cement bunks installed. Then it was 1978 when I stuck my leg into this.

The augers I stuck my leg in. Hard to visualize from this picture how it was set up when working. I’m just really lucky.

As I tore it out, I thought about that. I don’t harbor any resentment. These bunks fed a LOT of cattle over the years and provided for two families. They served their purpose well.

I put the forklift extensions on and used the loader forks to lift the old bunks out. I expected animals to be living under them, but nope, nothing. I’ve been asked why I’m doing this, and to what end? Just to clean up. There is no end goal. It would never be used again, why save it?

The oats got harvested Friday and Saturday. Yield wasn’t very good, the oats didn’t even fill a semi. Ended up at 735 bushels, meaning about 31 bu / acre. According to the oat people on FB, oats has been all over the place this year. At least the test weight was 34.6 meaning the elevator would take it. Wasn’t heavy enough to be food grade, nor was it enough bushels to mess around with.

Lots of straw! I ended up with 900 small square bales. Put 700 in the barn.

The hole in the middle is where the elevator was.

I had the three teenage boys helping and I couldn’t have done it without them. They were great. The one doing the most work, number 3, (and treated as the odd wheel out by the first two for some reason), had a broken toe (dropped a barbell weight on his foot). Ah, the teenage mentality.

I baled 3 loads of straw on Monday, the boys came out Tuesday and we unloaded the first two, just throwing them into the empty barn. Then we put the elevator up and unloaded the third. I baled three more loads Tuesday afternoon.

Wednesday, I started back at the college. You know what that means. Sleeves.

The boys came out at 5PM and we unloaded those three loads. 700 in the barn. Full enough. Haven’t had it this full in a few years. The boys rode in the wagon and we went to the field to bale up another load. And to stack this one as it will sit for a few months until the neighborhood berry farm is ready for it. I’d put one kid in the tractor with me, and the other two stacked on the wagon. I only hit one kid with a bale. He moved! I was aiming to the side and as the bale kicked, he stepped to that side. Oops. He was OK. Straw is light.

I’d have them rotate positions so they all got to ride in the tractor (and the AC) and they all thought it was pretty neat in there too.

Number 2 and 3 Padawan’s stacking in wagon. Number 1 is in the tractor with me.

Pretty proud of themselves. I couldn’t have done it without them.

I noticed on Friday, one of the rear wheel bearings on a wagon is gone. So that wagon is out of service until I can get new bearings. Hopefully it hasn’t damaged the wheel hub or axle.

And then Wednesday night, backing the stacked wagon into the shed, and the front wheels are not aligned. What the heck?? Tie rods are bend. Jeepers. Not sure when or how that happened. And I moved it a bit more to back it in and one wheel goes completely sideways. Well heck.

So, I pulled that wagon in backward to at least get it under cover and out of the way. More repairs. Add it to the list.

AND THEN- Thursday evening and I’m taking down the bale elevator and the lift cable snapped and it all fell to the ground. Words were said. It didn’t break anything. It was about 8’ up and I was lowing it to transport height of about 6’ when it dropped. I dragged it to the shop and Kelly and I worked on it for an hour. Gumption traps were hit several times until I blocked it up with an old pallet and we called it a night. So that’s three things. I should be done now for a while. Right?

Corn and soybeans look great! We have reached the point we cannot make any more management decisions to help the crop. The last thing done was aerial application of fungicide. Now the crop just has to finish out the season. One neighbor called me upset about aerial application too close to his house. I understand that and will take steps in the future to create a buffer zone. However, by the time it gets from me to the agronomist to the company to the pilot, I’m not sure what will actually happen. Not an excuse, just warning him a lot is out of my control.

DID SOMEONE HAVE THEIR EYE ON YOU AS A CHILD?

WHAT WOULD YOU TELL YOUR TEENAGE SELF?

2025, Business, Family, Farming Update, Food, gardening, Nature, Science, Technology, Travel, Uncategorized, Weather

WHERE IN THE WORLD IS FARMER BEN?

August 2, 2025 xdfben 23 Comments

This weeks farm report from Ben.

I finished lighting the show in Chatfield last week, in time to fly out on Saturday with Kelly and our daughter. Kelly had a work conference and we got to travel along and amuse ourselves for a few days.
I was under the impression that taxi drivers were always better than Uber / Lyft because they are more professional and know the roads better. But that plan falls apart if they’re all independent taxi’s and they all seem to need to enter the address in their phones anyway. And they tell me they’ve lived here multiple years, so it makes me wonder why they don’t know their way around yet? But whatever. Our first driver was crazy; drove like a maniac and told me he liked American women and big boobs! Second taxi was a nicer driver, but his car broke down and when daughter and I came out of the Butterfly Pavilion he was sitting right where he had left us. He called a friend of his to take us back to town. And the taxi back to the airport was a nice guy with sheet metal screws holding his car door together. Resourcefulness!

Daughter and I had a good time walking around downtown and there was lots to see. I took lots of photos of old buildings. The day we saw the butterflies, that only took an hour. We never got going too early in the day, because we were on vacation after all. I was surprised that I could out-walk daughter. It was as hot there as it was back in MN, but less humidity, so that was nice. I didn’t expect it to be that hot. I found it interesting so many restaurants and bars had wide open windows or garage doors and yet there was very few bugs. One bartender told us they really spray the place down at night, but she said there was less flies this year than usual.

On Wednesday Kelly gave a presentation on Laughter Yoga. I snuck in the back and watched. It was well received, the group liked it, and she had several good loud laughers, so that got the rest of the group going.

She picked up some swag for me with the catch phrase: “Wicked Smaht Pathologists” and a link to their group. It makes me laugh. If you need a pathologist, you’re gonna want one that’s Wicked Smaht.

We had a young lady staying at the house to deal with dogs overnight while we were gone, and some other friends that would take care of chickens and eggs and amuse the dogs during the day. They said, “Bailey and Humphrey make us want dogs. Luna reminds why we don’t have a dog.”

And on the way home, in the MSP airport, the gate agent was a girl I went to high school with and hadn’t seen in 40 years. We had a little reunion right there at the gate for 15 seconds. It was nice to see her again.

Last week as I was headed to Chatfield one night, I saw, walking on the side of the road, three nuns in full black habits with the veil and headpiece. I had to double take, and double take again. This was out in the country. A few days later, Facebook, of course, provided the answer. There is an old order Catholic Church in the area and they have been seen coming from there. Well that explains it. Sure did make me wonder though. And then, ten days later, I saw two more nuns in full habits. But that was outside a Catholic Church, and they were selling baked goods at a street fair. Although when I saw them, they were packing up. I saw them pulling the totes with the collapsible tents up the street. I hadn’t seen a nun in full habit for years and now here was twice!

You all had that big storm come through on Monday night with high winds… the oats got beat up. Yep, sure did. Maybe 50% of it down. We didn’t get any hail so nothing threshed out on the ground, it’s just broken off and lying down and it makes it more difficult to pick up for harvest.

The plan is to start harvesting Friday. Going to try taking it straight- meaning I don’t swath it and lay it in windrows first. A lot of guys do take it straight. When we have tried it in the past it didn’t work so well… we shall see. I have the swather ready just in case.

The soybeans are waist tall and looking good. At least some of them. They don’t all look this good, but some of them.

There’s a guy on YouTube goes by ‘Bushel Billy’, from the Ohio area and he was talking about a corn issue with a certain variety, in extreme weather conditions, having “tassel wrap” meaning the last leaf doesn’t unwrap from the tassel. So of course if the tassel can’t open up to shed pollen, it’s going to be tough to get all the kernels (silks) pollinated. It takes 90,000 kernels to make a bushel. Hence 90K pollen grains to 90K silks are needed. He pointed out how after pollination the silks turn brown and detach from the kernel after pollination. I didn’t know that and I had to check it out myself.

Notice how many silks are loose. Just a few on the tip still stuck.

HUH!
Sweet corn would be so much easier if the silks would detach.

CORN SWEAT SEASON AGAIN

July 26, 2025 xdfben 37 Comments

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.

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.

img_4137-1 — **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, Farming Update, gardening, Medicine, Nature, Science, Theatre, Weather

NAILING THE WEEDS

July 19, 2025 xdfben 51 Comments

Nailing the Weeds

The weekend Farm report from Ben

I finished mowing weeds this week. Last year the mower was being repaired so I wasn’t able to mow much at all. $2600 later it’s back and better than ever. I mow the edges of the road next to the fields to keep the weeds down, (and the crops always look better when the weeds are cut). Lots of wild parsnip, and thistles. Sometimes when it’s just grass I’ll leave it standing and I think to myself ‘What is the point of mowing all this?’ What is the point of mowing if it’s not noxious weeds? The waterways that go through the oat fields, I mow them off because it’s easier to harvest the oats and bale the straw without the weeds and grass in there. But it really does look nice when it is mowed down. I don’t worry too much about cover for wildlife, there’s plenty of cover yet.

I practice my side hill acrobatics too. It helps to remind myself how low the actual center of balance is on the tractor.

All the weight is under my feet. There is a bit of a ‘pucker factor’ but I’ve done this before so I know it’s OK. I worried more about these hillsides when I was a kid. Dad always told me it was OK. And I only ever tipped over one wagon and that was due to a badger hole.

Down in the pasture there is a lot of parsnip. Back when we had cattle, they kept the weeds and buckthorn down. Or maybe buckthorn hadn’t taken over 30 years ago.

While down in the pasture I found some wild flowers growing. At risk of stirring up the flower debate again, I present them here. I used the ‘Plant Net’ app to identify them. Wild bergamot, Giant St. John’s wort, American blue vervain (which we had bought some seedlings from a friend selling native plants, and I didn’t realize we have this), mullein, and lots of Goldenrod coming. I try to save most of that. Again, majority rules, so I’ll mow some off to get the parsnip.

And Kelly took this picture of milkweed in the yard.

We learned about ‘Beggars Lice’ too. For years, the dogs would get these little stickers in their fur and I didn’t know what they were or where they came from. Ah. It’s this plant.

Work at the theater went well. I won the ‘Power Actuated Nail Gun’ on the auction, and made good use of that. It was fun to use. I nailed 2×4’s and foam to the north wall for some insulation. We are attaching plywood to the 2×4’s. Nailing 2×4’s to concrete with a .22 blank! Awesome!

Crops are still looking good. Corn has nearly doubled in height since July 4^th.

Beans are filling in and getting blossoms on them. The oats should be ready for harvest in another week or so.

I put a new fanbelt on the 630 tractor and I replaced the throttle plate so the throttle lever will hold its position. One of the padawans and I changed the oil in Kelly’s C tractor.

A little bit of everything this past week.

Next week I’m working on ‘Shrek’, the musical, down in Chatfield.

FAVORITE SOUR FOOD THAT MAKES YOU PUCKER?

OR QUESTIONS OF YOUR CHOICE BECAUSE I GOT NOTHING!

2025, Farming Update, Food, Kids, Nature, Seasons

Corn Time!

July 15, 2025 verily sherrilee 33 Comments

When I was down on the farm last Friday, Ben took me on a tour around the fields – it’s one of my favorite things about visiting. The corn was tall but weren’t showing any ears yet. Ben explained about where the ears start to form and we also talked about the difference between field corn and sweet corn. He commented that sweet corn is a bit ahead of field corn and in Iowa, there might be sweet corn already. I’m such a city girl – I love earning about farm stuff.

He was proved incredibly on the mark. As I was driving home, YA texted me that our former neighbors had dropped off some sweet corn for us; they had been visiting the grandparents in southern Iowa!

YA and I both love corn but for some reason the first sweet corn of the season is really special. We dragged the grill out of the garage on Saturday and roasted all the corn along with some veggie brats. Ate on our little patio in the backyard – it was perfect weather for the first corn lunch.

Yesterday, I used up the last of the ears. I was too impatient to drag out cookbooks and look for recipes so I just kind of made it up as I went along. This is what I made:

Corn Salsa
2 ears of corn, kernels removed from the cob
½ red onion, finely chopped
1 hot pepper, finely chopped (I used a pepper from our garden called “salsa pepper” – it was hotter than I anticipated, but not too hot to eat. A less hot pepper would be fine.)
3 T. chopped cilantro (also from garden)
Juice of one lime
Salt & pepper to taste
Mix it all together. Eat.ll

Elote Off the Cob
2 ears of corn, kernels removed from the cob
¾ c. cotijo cheese, crumbled
1 roma tomato, finely chopped
About 1/3 c. mayonnaise (not Miracle Whip because YA doesn’t like it)
2 T. cilantro, chopped (from garden)
2 T. chives chopped (from garden)
¼ tsp. tajin (if you don’t have tajin, you can use chili pepper & cumin)
Juice of half a lime
Salt & pepper to taste
Again, mix it all together!

Neither of these were big recipes, so I don’t expect the corn will last long. We’ll do plenty more corn this summer, but these first six ears were the best!

Favorite summer foods?

2025, animals, Automotive, Farming Update, Nature, pets, Uncategorized

NIGHTLIFE

July 12, 2025 xdfben 40 Comments

The weekend Farm report from Ben

Every day this week, five AM pretty much right on the dot, Bailey barks outside. Luna and Humphrey bark inside until I can get to the door and get them out. And then everyone runs in separate directions and Bailey quietly wanders back to the garage, thinking, “suckers”. Pretty sure there’s been a coyote around for all the sniffing the other two are doing. Luna, she’s just running in circles barking. Humphrey is on the trail of something along the trees and around the crib, and down the field road. He’s got his nose to the ground and his tail is up and going. Bailey may sit and watch a bit, but mostly she’s letting the others take care of it. She will not engage until she has back up. Raises the alarm well, but not going to do anything about it on her own.

An hour later, they’re ready to come back in. Luna with a gentle bark. Humphrey with a scratch at the back door. Very randomly Humphrey might get locked in the feed room and he will not bark for attention. We realize he’s not around, call and call him and he will not bark. Eventually we backtrack enough we find him in the feed room, just waiting for someone to let him out. Not a sound from him.

And every night for the last week, there’s been barn owls calling. The first night, there was one in a tree right in the back yard and I had a flashlight and it just bobbed back and forth looking at me. I didn’t know what the noise was; I thought Kelly was whistling in her sleep. Sometimes they’re further away from the house, and Thursday night there was two of them right here, plus at least one more further away. A soft, whistling, screeching noise.

Daughter and the dogs take their daily walks. Sometimes, especially in this hot weather, daughter will text us asking for a rescue pick up. And Humphrey, just because he’s 10 years old and has a sore leg, sometimes we just go pick him up to give him a break. Bailey and Luna don’t always go for the walk. Bailey especially, as Luna is a bully to her, she’ll opt out just to get a break from Luna. And Luna sometimes thinks there are more interesting things happening at home with me. But Humphrey always ALWAYS goes for that walk, sore leg or not. I went to pick him up one day, and, not thinking, took the 4 wheeler, rather than the gator. He does not like being picked up, which is the only reason I was able to pick him up and put him on the front rack of the 4 wheeler; he didn’t expect this! And he sat there quietly and didn’t have to walk home. A win-win.

Last week on one of those hot days, the fan in the chicken coop stopped working. What was in there was an old box fan from the theater because their other fan had stopped working last summer. And that fan was a replacement for a previous barn fan. I’ve always thought electric motors were interesting what with stator and rotors, the windings, the capacitors on some of the bigger ones, brushes, ect. We have had a lot of electric motors on the farm, many more when milking cows and they were vital to daily operation. Big 5 and 7.5 hp electric motors on the silo unloaders, a 5HP on the feel bunk, a 5HP on the vacuum pump, a ¾ HP on the milk pump, and any of them failing was a bad day. The ones on the silo unloader might be 35 feet up in the silo, so if it failed, it was a pain in the butt not to mention an expense. I learned how to check and change capacitors, and most of the time that was the only problem. They could be replaced in the silo. Getting the motors out of the silo was a much bigger deal. Ropes and pulleys were involved.

So the chicken’s fan. The box fan I threw out. I took the one motor apart, found decayed wires deep inside and tossed it into the scrap bucket. The old barn fan motor; it would run for ten seconds, quit for ten, run for another ten, repeat. I pulled it apart. Well, first I watched some You Tube videos, then I pulled it apart, which first meant getting the fan blade and the cage guard off. (A torch was involved, just to heat up the set screws and shank to facilitate removal, not to cut it off.) I remember Dad buying this fan as an exhaust fan for the dairy barn, maybe 40 years ago, and it was too powerful; it got too cold in the barn in winter, so he took it out and it collected dust for a lot of years. Then I rescued it and hung it in the middle of the barn alley so I had a fan on those hot humid summer days milking cows. And I sold the cows 22 years ago and it’s been gathering dust again. Not really surprising the motor had quit working. I got it apart, found a wire shorting out on the windings, added a piece of heat shrink tubing to protect it, and Viola! It works! The chickens are pleased to have a fan back.

The padawans managed to get the theater boiler apart and out on the boulevard. One of the neighbors asked if he could have the metal. I said “If you can move it, you can have it”. And he did! I don’t know how, but it’s over in his yard now!

One of the padawans brought his car to my shop.

He was replacing some part of the exhaust, to make it louder or sound “cooler”… I didn’t follow the full explanation. He and a buddy spent many hours removing the old parts. Started at 8PM, went for supper and came back, left at 2AM, back at 4AM, left at 7AM. Every time they came back the dogs barked. By 9 PM the next day it was reassembled. Padawan’s girlfriend drove him out. She hung out in the shop, played with the dogs, made a chicken friend that she sat with for an hour, and helped daughter do chores. We like her a lot.

WHEN WAS THE LAST ALL-NIGHTER YOU PULLED?

WHAT WOULD IT TAKE FOR YOU TO DO IT AGAIN?

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

July

July 5, 2025 verily sherrilee 39 Comments

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, animals, Automotive, Farming Update

Say What?

June 28, 2025 reneeinnd 38 Comments

Today’s Farming Update comes from Ben.

I was watching Luna’s ears the other day and got to thinking about how dog ears can move so much considering how thin they are. Down the rabbit hole I went. Dogs have eighteen muscles in their ears, humans have six. They are born deaf as the ear is sealed up for about the first three weeks. You can get dog hearing aids! I’ve always loved how soft a dogs ears are.

I was headed to Plainview the other day, updating and getting quotes for a new farm insurance policy, and I had time so I took one of the scenic back roads. I don’t know if y’all have noticed these silhouette Bigfoot cut outs that are becoming popular. I see a few here and there, and I drove past one farm that must have a dozen of them. I frequently pass one farm that has one painted red, white, and blue, but for sheer volume this place was the winner. They have one life-size with two child size ones tagging behind, then there’s one in the yard carrying a couple of steel wheels, there’s another one by the shed, and there was a few others in the pasture. I guess we’ve just never got the appeal of yard art like that. We never had the bent over butts, although we have done the pink flamingos, and I do have an old road grader parked in the lawn now and mostly it’s just a pain to mow around. A friend of mine said he liked to put art in his yard because he didn’t have to mow the grass under it, which is a worthy point, but every couple of months I have to move this road grader to a different spot or the weeds get so bad you can’t see it amongst the weeds. I know we could do some landscaping around it. ‘It’s on my list’ ™.

The oats is heading out, a little area went down one day last week. And with the storms this week, more went down. It’s still green so that’s a little unusual.

Looks like some of the peas have started to be harvested by the canning companies. They sure make a mess when it’s raining like this. The canning companies don’t stop for weather. As I understand it, they have a schedule and they need to stick to it. Again, it’s all about those Growing Degree Units. Stop for the rain and they’re behind next week. We’re about 160 GDU’s over normal.

We got .8” of rain Wednesday, then 2.4” on Thursday. That makes over 6” in June. Ok, that’s enough, FOR NOW- I say that carefully. Down in our valley we can’t tell how windy it is. There have been two tornado warnings for us this week. Course I was standing in the machine shed door watching the rain come down. Ever been in a steel building while it’s raining? Rain on a steel roof is so loud you can’t talk over it. And it sounds much worse inside than it really is outside. But in my new shop, it’s quiet and cool and nice. Except for a few leaks… We’ve caulked all the roof nail heads, sealed all the joints and the sides and roof peak, and I still get drips.

After the first day of all three padawans, I split them up the next week. I’m better with them one at a time. Although it depends what’s happening. Next week we start some summer projects at the theater and I may be able to use all three.

We cut brush down around the barn and got rained out and did a bunch of stuff in the machine shed. Still working on that ‘to-do’ list. Finished a few odds and ends in the shop. Got plywood on the new pallet racking, took the battery out of the Farmall ‘C’ and found the smoking wire on that, literally. Working on the 630 and the new air cleaner, muffler, fan belt, radiator hose, throttle plate, ect. The four bolts that hold the muffler are all corroded (they’ve been there since 1959) and I believe I’m gonna have to drill and tap new holes for those. I did take the tractor down and power wash it.

Ordered parts for both tractors. And I thought before I get too far into this I better call a friend of mine that works on old tractors and get his opinion. He’ll be out one of these days.

The corn is a good knee high and just about canopied, meaning there shouldn’t be any weed pressure after this. And I can’t see the water standing between the rows now. The soybeans, the ones the deer haven’t eaten, yet, are looking good. They’re about 8 inches tall, but when you look across the field it looks very ragged and uneven and upon closer inspection it’s because the dang deer keep eating them right down to the ground. It’s so darn frustrating! The weed pressure is getting pretty bad on the beans and I know they need to be sprayed, and the co-op knows it, too. We need a little less rain and wind so they can do that.

We’ve let the little chicks out and they’re very happy about that.

WHAT PARTS OF YOUR BODY CAN YOU WIGGLE INTENTIONALLY?

2025, Automotive, Family, Fantasy, Farming Update

Into The Concrete Weeds

June 21, 2025 reneeinnd 41 Comments

Todays Farming Update comes from Ben.

Well I didn’t start anything on fire this week so that’s a win.

The co-op was out on Wednesday to spray the oats for broad leaves and apply a fungicide. They used a drone! I wasn’t there to see it but they took some video and had it in their newsletter:

https://youtube.com/shorts/wgsNnr2c6fo?si=tQ4SKhqTutv07eX-

According to the newsletter, the drone carries a 10 gallon tank, meaning it can cover about 5 acres, and the spray pattern covers about 25 feet at a pass, so they did my 25 acres of oats in a couple hours.
I think that’s pretty cool! I don’t know if they were flying it manually, or were able to upload GPS field maps from their other machine passes earlier in the year, allowing it to fly, mostly, itself. I think this is such cool technology. It didn’t make tire tracks through the oats, and it didn’t leave ruts in the soft ground with the recent rains. Some of the big farmers are starting to buy their own spray drones. It’s another tool in the toolbox.

Me and one of my summer padawans cleaned out two corners of the machine shed, rearranged machinery and got the corn planter and the grain drill put away, and moved the haybine to a different spot. Just about every day I spend an hour or two in the shop, “organizing”. I’m still rearranging and sorting out things. I sure am glad I put that used AC unit in there. I just run the dehumidifier and it’s staying about 64 degrees. I love it. I’m happy to putz out there as much as I can.

I’m trying to do some of my home ‘honey-do’ projects, as well. A couple years ago, Kelly took all the landscape rock out of an area and we added compost large rocks for a walking path, and planted some grasses. That only survived one year, and the biggest problem was keeping the dogs and the chickens out of it. Daughter and I went to the local compost site and got half a pick up load of compost on Wednesday. Thursday afternoon was pretty warm, but I waited until this area was in the shade and then I dug out the old stuff. Padawan and I will unload the truck on Friday.

I ventured off into the weeds one day. I knew there was an old cement mixer out there, and there was supposed to be a second one that I couldn’t see at first. A tree had fallen in front of it. And I mean I hadn’t used either one in 25 years or more. For all I could remember, I let someone borrow it. But I found both of them.

I don’t remember using the sliver one, but it was fun to spin the handle and make the barrel turn. I remember playing with it often. The header photo is a plate on the side of it.

And the red one Dad got from a neighbor. I know we used that one. Whichever one I pick to use now, it will need a little grease… but the innertube on one tire is still holding air!

Might need a new tire, but the tube is good!

Heck, it doesn’t even need tires, I’ll be using it right by the shed.

One of the projects on the list is a concrete pad outside the shop walk in door, and a concrete pad for a garbage dumpster. Figured the summer padawans could learn about pouring concrete. I’ve done just enough to be dangerous. I found a concrete calculator online, which gave me a total of about 3 yards or about 170 bags at 60lb each. Wow, that’s a lot of bags to mix up even with an electric mixer. Checking some big box stores, a bag is $4 – $6 each. I sent an online message to a local concrete place just to see what the deal is with small batches. I’m in no hurry for this. Could be a month or two.

Also back in the tree’s was the old combine that Dad bought in the 1950’s and I parked in the tree’s in 1990 something. Time to haul that to scrap iron.

My brother and I both learned to drive a standard clutch in the 1967 Chevy pick-up truck following dad and this combine around the fields. Times were different back then. I’m guessing I was maybe 10 yrs old. I can picture it like yesterday though. He would have been pulling this with the 630 tractor (that I still have) and combining oats and would dump it into the truck. Today’s huge combines are bigger, fancier, self-propelled versions of this.

MONTGOMERY WARD IS SELLING FLYING CARS. WHAT COLOR IS YOURS AND WHAT OPTIONS DOES IT HAVE? GOT ANYTHING TO SAY ABOUT WARDS?

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