Category Archives: Farming Update

2024, animals, Art, Farming Update, Mysteries, Nature, Seasons, Uncategorized

John Barleycorn Must Die

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The weekend Farm Report comes to us from Ben.

I struggled with the question of “why” this week. Since I broke the brush mower last week, (did I mention I broke it? I talked about it rattling, and the bolts coming loose, and then… I don’t know what happened, but it started to shake itself apart. I couldn’t see anything obviously wrong, and I just parked it and walked away. I gotta deal with other stuff for a while and then I’ll come back to it.)

Consequently I was mowing weeds with the lawnmower and was asking myself why I felt the need to mow these weeds. There are some places I can justify, like in the oat fields the waterways are full of tall grass and weeds and they make it a problem for swathing, they’re a problem for combining, and they are a problem for baling, so it makes sense to mow them. But then I get off in the pastures or field roads and yeah, there’s some weeds that it’s good to take down like thistles, buttonweeds, (velvet leaf), ragweed, and wild parsnip, but if it’s just grass, why am I mowing it?

The larger question of “why“ can be applied to illness, sicknesses, the political party of your choice, or any host of things. 

So that’s what’s been on my mind.

Daughter and I also talked about making decisions and why that’s so hard sometimes. It’s a learned skill, isn’t it? 

Earlier this week, I was a bit anxious because I should have already been cutting oats. I was anxious about how the swather was going to run, I was anxious about the weather, I was anxious about how the Oats would do, and how to get it hauled to the place in Iowa. 

And let’s face it, I was scared. Scared the swather would break down, scared I wouldn’t be able to fix it, scared of just the whole thing. But eventually I put on my big boy pants, and started cutting oats. And yep, it quits after an hour and a half. It’s like it got a vapor lock or something. An hour later I can start it again and cut some more. And I’m working on a trucker, so we still just wait to see on the weather and how the oats does and it will all be OK, won’t it? 

 A few of the ducks were out one morning and having a good time in the taller grass, so the next morning we opened the fence and let them all out. Generally, that’s kind of how it works; They get out themselves and then we decide it’s OK to let them go.   And they are having a really good time in the deep grass and finding bugs and they look very very happy. I know I counted 26 ducks one day and then there only seemed to be 24, and the next day I counted 26 again. I don’t know how that works.

The dogs cornered a raccoon up in a tree for the third time in about two weeks. They appear to be fairly small raccoons so they must be young. I suppose along the same lines of me wondering where the ducks go when they get freedom, some raccoon mother somewhere is wondering what becomes of her children when they venture out on their own someplace.

The show in Chatfield that I’m lighting is “SpongeBob SquarePants The Musical”.

You’re probably not familiar with SpongeBob, we are all too old to have seen it as kids, you might be aware of it from Mall of America, or grandchildren, or neighbors, and it’s just silly fun. I haven’t looked too hard for a message in this musical. (turns out there are some!) I’m just making big bright colors. The woman who is designing some of the scenery, Vicky, did some really cool things with pool noodles and expandable spray foam. The guys who built the structure run a welding and machine shop and they can build just about anything. (They can fix my brush mower too!) It’s not done the way I would do it as a “theater professional” but it is certainly good enough for a show.

Driving to Chatfield gives me 20 miles of country roads to see how the crops are doing. There are a couple different ways I take to get there but generally, I take the straight shot back home on Hwy 52. Especially when it’s dark.

I started working in Chatfield’s Potter Auditorium in 1987 and I built the sets there for about three years, then took a break for a long time before coming back to light a few more shows. I feel a deep connection to this place. The people are great to work with. It is a true community theater in every sense of the word. There will be a big potluck lunch on Sunday before we have our first dress rehearsal.

WHAT MESSAGE OR STORY FROM A SONG HAS ALWAYS STAYED WITH YOU?  

2024, animals, Farming Update, Nature, Uncategorized

Round & Round

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The weekend Farm Update comes to us from Ben.

I’ve got the brush mower on and I’ve started mowing weeds. We have a good crop of thistles. They’re taller than the tractor!

I went around the mullen’s.

As always though, majority rules.

Mowing waterways is a good opportunity to go down the middle of the field and see the crops. The corn is taller than me and the tractor in places.

Soybeans are not quite up to my knees yet, but they’ve got blossoms on them. The oats are up to my waist, but the quackgrass is quickly taking over. My neighbor who combines the oats, will be out of town this weekend and next. The oats aren’t quite ready to swath, yet it’s starting to go down (from the rust fungus weakening the stalk) plus the grass taking over, so I hate to wait too much longer. I’m thinking by the end of next week I’ll want to be cutting it. It will need to lay and dry for a few days before it will be ready for combining.

I had an email this week from the oat growers who market it for food grade vs animal food. The price at the food grade plant is $4.30 / bushel. At the local elevator, it’s $3 / bushel. That’s pretty hard to pass up the higher price. Yet I need to get it hauled down to the plant in Iowa, and the grain needs to be heavy enough for them to accept it. All things that are harder for a small operator like me to coordinate. Not impossible, but harder. And, of course, it costs money to haul it to Iowa, too. So there’s always a trade off. I’m still working out details.

The ducks are doing well. We bought them a kiddie pool last week and they’re big enough to get in, but not big enough to get out, so there’s a big rock in the pool.  They’ve figured out how to go into their pen on their own at night. They’re fun, when I go out there and call to them, they all call back to me. It isn’t quite a ‘quack’ yet, still more of a ‘peep’. I call out “Hello ducks! Hey Kids!” and they’re all “peep, peep, peep”. They know I’m bringing food. They don’t want to be picked up or anything, but they come over closer too me. This sure is an interesting looking bunch. I can’t wait to see what they look like when grown up. Notice the black spots on the feet of some of them.

I spent most of the week working on the Rep Theater stage again. I’ve had good help from my buddy Paul, and Chris, Michael, Doug, Max, and Noah. Max and Noah are the teenage boys helping me this summer. Max hasn’t done anything like this construction before. He’s learned and used a lot of new tools (and found the chalk line really fascinating- although he doesn’t come out and say that). He’s a good kid, a hard worker, smart, and good to have around.

The majority of the work is done, the main stage is done and has one layer on it. Next up will be the second layer of 3/4″ plywood and a top layer of 1/8″ plywood. We call it ‘lauan’, but the lumber yards don’t know it by that name. And it used to be $10 / sheet. Double that now. Jeepers. And 3/4″ plywood is $40. And that’s not even the fancy sanded stuff.

I did get a little bit done in the shed at home and replaced the windshield washer pump and one nozzle on my truck. Cut some grass one night.

A couple years ago, four of the bolts holding a gear box on the brush mower got loose. My brother and I tightened them up. They came loose again. This summer we replaced the bolts and put ‘lock-tite’ on them. After mowing for a day, they’re loose AGAIN. I need another helper to tighten them up again, but I’m afraid this might turn into a bigger repair job requiring a piece of steel welded underneath or something. I dread adding it to my list again.

It’s finally drying up around the barn and yard a bit, so that’s good.

Ever had a pedicure? What color would you paint your toenails tonight?

2024, Family, Farming Update, Nature, Seasons

Summer Heat

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The weekend Farm Report comes to us from Ben.

The weather is changing. The rain has stopped and the temps and humidity are up. I’ve turned on the chickens fan, and got the ducks in their outside pen.  The ducks are at that awkward stage where a gallon of water last them half a day, everything‘s wet, and they chewed off the string on the bottom of a brand new sack of feed so then I had an open tube that used to have 50 pounds of feed in it. It was time to get them outside.

This was a mixed assortment of ducklings so I don’t really know what I’ve got yet, although six of them are all black, a couple are twice the size of a couple others, and like most teenagers, we just gotta get through this phase. 

It takes a while for the ducks to learn how to get back in again at night, which means for now, Kelly and I have to wrangle them back inside. Everything is still wet down there, and it is stinky mud, and they’re not the smartest animal on the farm, so it’s kind of a whole big thing, but this too shall pass. Eventually. 

I went out with the tractor and loader and moved the downed trees off the edge of the fields. The soybeans were sprayed with fungicide and broadleaf preventer on Thursday. I wanted the tree in the bean field out of the way for that. I’ll be mowing weeds in a week or two, and oats will be ready in 3 weeks or so. I moved two trees out of the oats field.  I saw the neighbors cornfield just starting to tassel Friday afternoon 

I’ve been spending a lot of time rebuilding the stage at the Rochester Repertory Theater. The old stage had been there since we moved there in 2007, and it was built of used lumber then, so it was squeaky and kinda wonky and wore out. Last year’s ‘Give to the Max’ campaign raised money for this new stage. I had a good group of volunteers come in to cut up and haul out the old one. We loaded it on a trailer and I hauled it to the recycling center. I didn’t expect it to cost $450 for disposal. Ouch. There went my budget. 

 Of course, what’s a project without a few extra items thrown into the mix? We are creating a tool room out of the former elevator room, we are insulating some windows, and we are making the control booth window larger too. All good stuff! 

Except that I’m not getting much done on my machine shed shop project. I get a little done, it’s just slow going.  I got steel wrap and the window trim done on one window, so I can get back to the steel siding. I did change the windshield washer pump on my truck and I need to replace one nozzle. And I cut off a tree root and reset some rocks interferring with the wellhouse door. And I got to use a pickax and a grub hoe. 

I’m just not getting the shop work done. 

Thursday, Kelly and I took a road trip to Golden Valley to ‘Monkey Wrench Productions’ and picked up some lighting stuff.

A new lighting console for the Rep theater (thanks to a very nice grant from the Carl and Verna Schmidt Foundation) and with all the construction on Hwy 52 that we ran into, we decided to take a different way home. Came back through Hastings, and had lunch at the ‘Lock and Dam Eatery’. Walked down to the river, and had a nice talk with a photographer. 

A few days ago we took the four wheeler down through the woods. There’s a trail that a neighbor keeps mowed and I had been on part of it, but not all of it before. Although there were places I remembered checking fence 35 years ago when I still had beef cows down there. Like this gate; people would open it in the winter and if not closed again, cows ended up in their yards and they didn’t like that. Guess they never learned the rule to leave the gate like you found it. But that only works for the first person. 

You gotta take your adventures where you can get them. 

What’s the most money you’ve paid to get rid of something?

2024, Farming Update, gardening, Technology, Weather

Survey Says

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Man, it just keeps raining. Thursday afternoon, we were headed to my sister’s house a few miles away, and it rained so hard we could barely see to drive. We had gotten .2″ of rain in the morning, came home to see we gained another 1.6″ which came hard and fast. I could see where it overflowed some culverts, and backed up behind others. We had some washouts on a couple township roads, and I was out Friday putting warning signs up to alert drivers until we can get them graded on Monday. And I said it was wet LAST week. This latest rain came with some wind too and the oats are a little ruffled. Once it starts to turn color and the stalks are dying and turning yellow, it becomes more brittle, and the oats are more likely to shell out. It may rebound a little bit at this point. About a month to go yet before the oats are ready to harvest.

The corn is nearly as high as an elephant’s eye, to quote Oscar Hammerstein.

The soybeans are looking good, but that one low spot has been wet long enough, and a couple acres are turning yellow. There is water standing in a lot of fields now. It’s just plain wet enough, for now.

I finally finished that fence. Glad to have it done.

Building that brought back a lot of memories. One of the things I bought in preparation of making this fence, was 3 pairs of leather gloves. Good cowhide leather gloves. Deer skin is too soft for working with barb wire. As are plain cotton and canvas gloves. I bought extra pairs in smaller sizes for my helpers. (Photo credit to Kelly)

To attach the wire to the steel ‘T’ post, I use wire clips.

They used to be included with each 5-pack of posts. Now they cost extra, of course, and are not nearly so well made. I found it curious, the previous batch wasn’t made as well as the batch before them, either. I can see the companies cutting costs with each manifestation!

The clip should hook on the fence like the previous photo, then I use my pliers to bend the end around the wire.

The new ones are lighter wire, and they don’t snap on like the old ones. Cheap, cheap, cheap.

Course, we didn’t always have the clips. In that case, we would cut a piece of wire about 20″ long, separate the strands of wire, (barb wire is two strands twisted together: one with barbs, and one without) wrap one end on the wire, go twice around the post and over the fence wire, and attach to the wire again on the other side of the post. Doing that on a post this week, I heard my dad’s voice teaching me how to do it. The old fence ends up in a heap and will go to scrap metal.

A new roll of barb wire is 1320′ long. I used two full rolls and was about 150′ short. Good thing I had an old roll left in the shed. I think it was from Kelly’s Dad. I had to use that to make the gate, and to finish one narrow end of the fence.

1320′ is 80 rods. 80 rods is a quarter mile. One rod is 16.5 feet. Dad used the term ‘rods’ when describing the size of fields, but I don’t think anyone uses the term anymore, maybe not even surveyors.

When I was measuring fields for the ASCS office, I had an actual metal wire that was 66′ long- a “chain”. And a rod is a 1/4 of a chain. And I had a belt pack with 10 metal hooks in which to pass the wire through as I walked a field. I only used it a few times because it would snag and slip out of the loops and it was a huge pain in the tuckus. Mostly we used a measuring wheel that counted in chains. The wheel itself was maybe 2 1/2′ feet in diameter, so I don’t know how it figured out the distance, but it was the official tool for measuring fields.

Curiously, most township roads have a 66′ right of way. Thirty Three feet from the center of the road including the ditch. 33′ is two rods. Coincidence??

The ducks are doing well and enjoying their new pen.

Wild black raspberries are turning ripe. Yummy on vanilla ice cream. 

Any unusual units of measurement you use?

2024, animals, Farming Update, Nature, Uncategorized, Weather

Rusty Summer

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Today’s Farming Update comes from Ben


As I started writing this on Thursday I wrote, “Well, it hasn’t rained yet this week, oh wait, it’s sprinkling now.” And now late Friday afternoon, we’ve gotten another inch. I think it sprinkled Monday, it sprinkled Tuesday, sprinkled Thursday. Never amounted to much but it’s just kinda
damp everywhere. I’ve got springs down by the barn, got springs around back, got a wet spot in front of the duck pen, got a big lake in the neighbor’s field with several ducks in there. Nothing we haven’t had before, it’s just been a few years.

I did notice the rust on the Oats really came out earlier this week. It’s a fungus that overwinters on Buckhorn, (yet another reason to hate Buckhorn), and then it’s moved by wind, and loves high humidity and moisture. Although I’ve never seen it turn a field brown like it has in a couple of spots. The end of one field seems worse than others, and that could be because it’s sheltered by trees, so maybe it doesn’t get much sunshine, plus some different soils. It was a little stressed in the first place. Of my 25 acres of oats, this is just a few acres in that field.


The rest of it is waist high, and there could be a lot of grain out there. Not gonna count the bushels before they’re in the truck or weighed at the elevator, but it’s looking good right now.


Corn is waist tall as well.


The ducklings are growing fast, and as expected, everything’s wet in their pen too. This weekend, I will probably get them out of their starter tank and into a larger pen. More room to spill water and find dry spots.

We made good progress on the fence this week. Last summer‘s Padawan came back to help this summer’s Padawan. I forgot what two teenage boys are like together. (snicker, eye roll, fart noises). As of this writing, the fence is about 80% done. I have to set four or five wood posts yet, and grass, and the whole thing is just a pain. Not to mention I’m a lot older than I was the last time I made a fence. It’s been strangely fun using the old rope wire stretcher (to pull the wire tight before attaching it to the posts). My brother was skeptical that it is still the original rope. And I used the new , longer handles on the post hole digger!


Back to some theater projects for a while. Tuesday, myself and ten volunteers tore out the old stage at THE REP. New stage will be roughly the same size, just a few inches taller, and built so it doesn’t squeak. The biggest change is backstage: tearing down a bunch of shelves, and
platforming the whole thing from end to end and wall to wall. Also insulating some walls, and blocking off some tall windows that are kind of a problem.


After the fence, after the stage, then, THEN I’m gonna start working on my machine shed shop again. Honestly, one of these days. And in a month, I’ll be down in Chatfield working on a show there, “SpongeBob SquarePants, the musical”. Friday afternoon, myself and another guy were out cutting up another township tree blocking a
road. In the rain.



It wasn’t too bad. We cut it up and I called a neighbor who used his skidloader to push it off the road. A tree company will be out Monday to pick it up. I was going to have them take this tree down anyway as it was leaning over the road. Guess I can cross that one off the list. I’ve got at least 4 trees down in the fields. At this point, I’d knock down more crop trying to clear up the tree than if we just harvest around it. So probably leave them until this fall.


Here’s some chickens:


Here’s a butterfly on a flower:


WHICH NEIGHBOR, LIVING OR DEAD, ARE YOU CALLING FOR HELP?

2024, animals, Farming Update, History, home, Nature, Uncategorized, work

Quackers

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Today’s Farming Update comes from Ben

Sometimes, the day doesn’t go as planned, does it.

Our power went off Monday morning at about 6:30AM. I was leaving to take the rented post hole digger back when I met a truck from the power company on the other side of a down tree over the road. That guy cut up the tree while I went back home for the tractor, and I pushed the tree off the road. He and I talked about how to check the electric line. (Our house is the only house on the mile long electric line from the North road to the South road, and it’s through the pasture and across a creek, and up a steep hill). They found a tree down on the steep hill that took out the line, but they were able to get to a flat spot and cut the line and isolate it so they could feed us from the North end. One of the guys commented that this must be an old line from the first few years of the electric co-ops. (The Rural Electrification Administration, REA, was started by President Franklin Roosevelt in 1935) My dad would talk about using horses to pull the electric lines and poles through the pasture in about 1940, and how they laid there until WWII was over.

Getting to the North end was a little more difficult for the guys. It was muddy, and still raining, and the first truck got stuck, and they had to get a ‘track style’ bucket truck in to make the connection and pull the first truck back out. Meanwhile, I got the generator out—hadn’t used that in 10 years, so it was a good time to make sure it still worked. As I was pumping up the tires with a cordless air pump, the power came back on. Of course. But I ran it for an hour anyway. Still works! It was 1:30PM. I teased the electric guys –they didn’t know what they were getting into when they stopped at that downed tree at 7AM.

I got my post holes all dug. Surprisingly, only hit rock in 3 of the 12 holes. Then down to the pole barn and dug some holes there to add support posts to three posts that are nearly rotted off at the ground. It has
rained most of the week. I haven’t got much done on the fence because I need to pack the dirt back around the posts, and it doesn’t pack when it’s mud or clay. My summer padawan has helped pull the first wire and tear out the old fence. Maybe next week, when it’s not raining so much, we’ll get back to installation.


We’ve gotten enough rain, for now, almost 6” for June, not counting whatever we get Friday evening here. Growing Degree Units are just over 1000, about 180 above normal. The crops mostly look pretty good.
The oats have some color change on the different soils, the corn is almost canopied, and the soybeans are coming along. There are some wet spots in some fields, but thankfully, that lake isn’t in my field.

Got the 4-wheeler running with the new carburetor.


Ducklings arrived Friday morning.


WOULD YOU RATHER GO WITHOUT RUNNING WATER OR ELECTRICITY?

2024, Farming Update, Nature, Uncategorized, work

The Busy Busy Week

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Today’s Farming Update comes from Ben

It’s been a busy week. I’ve gotten a lot done and multiple things checked off my ‘to do’ list. A couple things I even had to add so I could cross them off.

Crops are looking good, it’s a little cooler than it should be, (I sure like the temps), and plenty of moisture, borderline too much, but we’re not gonna talk about that. The corn is already knee-high and there’s some weeds coming.

It was sprayed Tuesday. Counting the plants in 17’6” (1/1000th of an acre on 30” rows) gives me an estimate of the number of plants / acre. It’s also a good way to check singulation and spacing of the seeds. I planted at a rate of 36,000 / acre. I counted 30 plants in the 17’6”. More double plants than I should have – we want them all 6” apart. I have blank spaces, then two plants. That’s an issue of the planter meter that I had overhauled this past winter. Next year I should order large flat seeds, rather than medium mixed, as the meter’s seem to handle those better.

I read an article saying that when corn isn’t actively growing, (dense soil, too wet too long) it’s not making the energy to stay green, which explains the yellow spots in fields.

Oats is knee-high and I can feel the kernels half way up the stalk. They’ll be out shortly. The wet weather has already caused some fungal growth in the oats, called rust, and I had the co-op spray for that on Monday. (left untreated, the stalk gets brittle and break off before harvest and it’s really dusty come harvest. Everything turns orange). There are a few short spots and a little bit of lighter green color in places – different soil types might hold a little more moisture and oats doesn’t like wet soil and it’s showing that.

The soybeans are coming along nicely. They have some pre-emergence herbicide applied with fertilizer so they’re pretty clean yet at this point, except for the thistles, I have a lot of thistles.

I got the corn planter and grain drill cleaned up and put away last Saturday and then I got the haybine ready to go and cut the road sides.

 Monday I raked the Roadsides, meaning turned it over so the bottom could dry.

I was able to bale about 4:00 Monday.

I have added an idler wheel to the pick up on the baler. It’s something I’ve had for about two years and have been meaning to do it, and it was one of those jobs that I put off, and then it only took five minutes to do. 

I have my camera on the baler so I could see the strings on the bales.

I spent time thinking about how haying has changed over the years: from dad cutting with a 6 foot sickle mower and pulling a crimper behind it, (which is all combined in this one machine now) And the different haybines that I’ve had over the years. This machine was one of the first things I bought on my own under my name. I’ve mentioned before how good mom was at getting my credit established and getting machinery in my name. 

I had a new summer helper out. He’ll be a senior in high school, he’s a friend of a friend, lives in an apartment in Rochester, neither of his parents grew up in the country, he really doesn’t know anything about mechanics or farming, but he is a good worker, and he’s willing to try anything, and he doesn’t seem to stop. Plus, he’s just plain INTERERESTED in learning! He was only here on Tuesday, because we got rained out on Wednesday, but I think he’ll do real good.

With his help Tuesday, we got the four bolts replaced on the gearbox of the brush mower, and took the blades off and sharpened them. Then I was able to mow a path for the new fence, and we dug a hole for the first post. You want to set your fence posts about 2 1/2 to 3 feet deep. Easier said than done when it’s rock and clay in the bottom 2 feet. 

But we got the first post set. On Thursday, I tore out a short section of fence, dug two more holes, and never hit any rock! It was clay and sticky and slow going, but not all that hard with My two-handed manual post digger.


It looks brand new because my friend Paul painted it after he borrowed it. I used it making fence with my dad so it’s been around a long time.
I was today years old when I learned they make longer handles for post hole diggers.

Mind. Blown!
This has 48 inch wood handles, and the metal part is about a foot, so it’s 5 feet tall but when you’re digging a hole 2 feet deep the handles are down at your waist and it’s hard on a body. And then I saw a video with a guy using one with 6 foot handles. Meaning it’s still at chest level when you’re digging the hole and I thought that was the most amazing thing! Why has that not dawned on me before?? I’ve always said, I am not the idea man, I’m the one that makes it happen. So I don’t often think of things like that.  I can order some on Amazon, but of course I would like them today, not next week, so they’re on my wish list. 



Anyway, I dug a couple holes at the ends of the fence, and ran a string line and I am renting one of those hydraulic “dingo” post hole diggers on Saturday. Need to dig about 10 more holes. Today’s job is laying out the posts and marking the post locations.



I went to Fleet Farm on Thursday and picked up two rolls of Barbwire, at $104 per roll, I don’t know what I paid for barbwire 25 years ago, the last time I built a fence, but it wasn’t that much. And 50 steel posts, called T posts, and 10 wood posts and that was about $800. Jeepers, sure glad I don’t have miles of fence to build, this is doing about 500 feet. 

It will be real nice to have done. I also will have to tear out the old fence. I went up Thursday night to mow along the old fence, until I wrapped barbwire around one of the blades. Came back home, took the mower deck off, took the old blades off and remove the jumble of wire, put new blades on, put the deck back on, and will mow again another day. 

Got in the house at 9:30 PM.

Got the carburetor off the Kawasaki 4 wheeler and ordered a new one off Amazon. Hope to have that running soon.

FENCING: DISCUSS

2024, Farming Update, Gatherings, home, Nature, Uncategorized

Playing Catch Up

38 Comments

Today’s farming update comes from Ben.

We’ve had 5.5″ of rain since May 1. They’ve all been pretty decent, gentle rains I thought. And then I was out picking up some rocks and there are some wash-outs in the fields. It doesn’t take much slope, and especially right now with so much bare ground, a hard rain for few minutes will wash. 

Farmers do so many things to try and prevent it. Obviously we don’t want to lose the top soil; it’s how we make our living too, and it really hurts my soul to see a field wash like this. Thanks goodness they’re not deep ruts. On the rolling hills like our farm, they’re hard to avoid.

I had picked up rocks before planting too, but there’s always more. 

I finished at the college on Tuesday. 

I finished lighting the play at the Rep on Tuesday, and Wednesday evening I cut some grass. Got rained on, which led to a beautiful double rainbow. 

Still trying to catch up on mowing. 

We let the little chicks out. They’re not so little anymore. Luna was very interested in them. She never bothered them, she just had to investigate really really closely. 

Daughter had her 29th Birthday. Four girlfriends from PossAbilities took her out to eat. I sent them a note of appreciation; it seems like such a small thing, but for her, that’s a pretty big deal! She doesn’t have the opportunities for those little things, like lunch with girlfriends. These four are pretty cool and we’re all lucky for the people that come into our lives. 

I put away the last of the 2023 receipts that were in a pile hiding in a desk drawer. Seriously, I’m going to get going on 2024 bookwork soon. SOON! 

I really want to get going on the shed again. I also need to get the roadsides mowed in the forecasted week without rain, so that should be the priority. And there’s a fence along the road that I want to rebuild. It’s embarrassing to drive by and look at every day. It’s just wore out. Been there a lot of  years. I’ve fixed it a lot, but it’s time to be rebuilt. Which means mowing the grass in there first. And since it’s 3′ tall, I need the brush mower. Which needs four bolts holding the gear box on replaced before I use it again. Need to cut / grind them off and replace. And I should do that soon, so they guys can get the cattle in that pasture.

I’m a little hesitant to build a fence again. I figure I need to dig holes for 11wood posts, plus put in 100 steel posts. That was hard work when I was younger. And I know this a rocky area (because it’s all rocky on our farm) Digging a hole is hard work involving a 6’ iron breaker bar, and the manual post hole digger. I don’t know anyone with a tractor mounted one. Kelly said I should I go rent one of those ‘Dingo’, motorized post hole diggers. “Do it for me so I don’t need to listen to you moan and complain.” A pretty compelling argument. I’m working on a summer helper again. I’m not sure they’d come back after a day of this.

I cut down some dead trees, and planted 6 oak seedlings. They were given to school kids for Arbor day. A friend is an elementary school teacher, and she got a bag of seedlings, but many kids are in apartments, so I got 6 of the left overs. I could cross those couple things off my to-do list.

Spent Wednesday riding in big trucks and directing the drivers applying dust control on the township gravel roads.

You know, this happens every summer: more on the list than I can get done. This is:

WHAT EVENT WOULD YOU DO AT A RODEO? OR HAVE YOU ALREADY?

2024, Farming Update, Uncategorized, work

Lost And Found

34 Comments

Today’s Farming update comes from Ben.

So far, so good this year. Even the last planted crops are coming along. The soybeans are just coming out of the dirt. Most guys, or maybe it’s just the bigger farmers, ‘roll’ the soybeans, with a big steel roller, to push rocks down and make a good smooth seedbed (important at harvest), and also to create optimum seed-to-soil contact. I don’t have a roller, but the last few years I’ve run over the fields with a ‘drag / harrow’ to try smoothing it out. This year it kept raining right after I finished planting, so I didn’t get it done. Not the end of the world.

In the Header photo, the oats are on the left and looking good. Corn is the upper right and it’s coming along. The lower right is soybeans. Can’t quite see rows yet, but it’s coming.

Here’s a photo of my “Parts Shelf” at home.

Most of the boxes are filters for two tractors. Then there’s a new set of lawn mower blades, and a ‘throttle plate’ for the old 630 tractor, and some clips for the gas strut on the passenger door of the gator, and a new beacon to replace the one I broke off when I forgot it stuck up higher than the garage door is tall. There are also some wall brackets for tool storage, and brackets to attach the posts to the concrete when I get to building the fourth wall in my shed.

I am gainfully employed at the college through Tuesday June 4th, then off for the summer. Maybe then I can get the tractor unhooked from the drill, and clean up machinery, and return seed, and cut grass, and get back to working on my shed.

Right now, working on another play, ‘Clybourne Park’ is a sequel to ‘Raisin In the Sun’. Act 1 is 1950, and the black couple is about to move into the area. Act II is 2001, and the neighborhood residents are dealing with the changes to a lot of things. It’s a good cast and well written show. The lighting is pretty simple; just general interior lighting, with some specials for the ending, and a change from 1950’s look, to 2001 look. Think ‘sepia’ for 1950, and brighter, but the house is run down, in 2001. “Dingy” lighting. I’m having fun creating that.

I’m having a problem these days keeping track of my water bottles. I have three in the fridge door, and I take one with me to work or outside. By evening there’s only 1 in the door. I joke that at the college I need a workstudy to keep track of my clipboard and water bottle. And I need a phone case that comes with a guy to carry it for me. Generally, I find the water bottle the next day, out in the shop or in a tractor, or in the garage where I set it down to collect eggs.

Are you drinking too much or not enough?

2024, animals, Family, Farming Update, Seasons, Uncategorized

Dun dun dun DONE! 

33 Comments

The weekend Farm Report comes to us from Ben. 

Had a nice rain on Friday morning. We got about 4/10th of an inch. Tuesday evening there were some strong storms, with some real strong wind gusts. No issues at our place, but there were a lot of branches down in Rochester, and power out in places, and about 6:30 PM I got a call from a township resident that just north of Rochester, several trees were down across the road. As I’m a township supervisor, part of my job is dealing with issues like this. I called the other supervisors and three of us got to work. Thankfully the county came around with a skidloader and they could push it off the road once cut into chunks. We work with a tree service that has done EXEPTIONAL work for us, and they came around and picked up the pieces the next day.

I’ll leave out the part where I got my chainsaw stuck, then John got his stuck trying to get mine out, and Paul insisted he was NOT going to have three chainsaws stuck when the county boys arrived! We didn’t. Whew! 

I finished planting soybeans Thursday night about 10:00. Here’s my last pass. 

It wasn’t quite perfect soil conditions, it was a little bit sticky, but we are getting late enough in the growing season, and with rain predicted several times in the 10-day forecast, I was willing to push it.  

The University of Minnesota Extension Service says corn should be planted by May 5th to get 100% yield. By May 25th, we’re down to 92%.  

For soybeans, it’s May 1 for 100%, and 91% by May 25th.  

Of course there’s always extenuating circumstances, but those are the general guidelines. One year, due to a loan issue with my bank, I planted soybeans before corn, and it was one of the best crops I’d had. So why don’t we plant soybeans first? Good question. Soybeans are more sensitive to cold or wet soils. Corn can sit for 3 weeks and still germinate well. (As some did this year for the farmers who got going in April. My corn came up in a week because I planted later and had warmer weather). So, it’s always a game and you just never know. 

When Bailey, my tractor buddy and I, got home from planting and backed into the shed, I discovered my extension cords glow in the dark! HUH! Never knew that before.  

The chick’s have gotten their outdoor pen.

This group seems much more active and busy than other years, and, we knew they’d need a 6 foot tall pen rather than the 3’ tall pen. I’m looking at you, Luna.  

I’ve ordered ducklings. Thirty. Will be shipped June 18th. An assortment.  

My Mom turned 98 on Sunday. The immediate family had lunch with her, and then we invited a few close friends. She enjoyed the company and liked visiting. Some church friends, and some of her nieces and nephews and it was a fun visit for all of us.

I’m going to miss having my tractor time. Everything went really well this year, and the only issue was one broken hydraulic hose. I just enjoyed the whole process.  

Using Apple Music, it was fun to pick an artist that interested me that day, and listen to a selection of their music. Some worked better than others.  

Christina Aguilera didn’t last long. Neither did Rodney Crowell. Rush, The Million Dollar Quartet, Willie Nelson, Steve Goodman, Pete Townshend, Postmodern Jukebox, and last night, the Tower of Power. They were all really fun. Meant to try ‘The Wrecking Crew’ but didn’t get there.  

Memorial Day Weekend.  Let’s try to be grateful.  

MUSIC FREE FOR ALL THIS WEEKEND! WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TOO?