Category Archives: gardening

2024, animals, Family, Farming Update, gardening, Nature, Technology, Uncategorized

False Fall

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The weekend Farm Report comes to us from Ben. 

First false fall, I believe that’s what we’re in. 
I’ve seen a few soybeans turning color, the leaves are starting to drop, and it sure is getting dark sooner. The temperature has been very nice the last week. I don’t know if the barn swallows have all moved on, or if it’s just because I’m at work and I don’t see them so much. I did notice a couple flying around the other day.  

The deer are really doing a number on the soybeans. It’s surprising how many leaves and beans a herd of deer can eat overnight. Most of my beans are over my knees, but that one field I rent, the beans are barely to my knees there, and the top of the entire field has been nibbled by the deer. It’s a lot of dollars they’re eating.   

I spent a few hours in the tractor Thursday night going over the oat ground a second time. The second time, I worked the field perpendicular to the way I worked it the first time. All an effort to work it up better. And I used the boating app to find my way again.  

I’m hoping to have started planting winter rye by the time you read this. I use it as a cover crop to keep some roots in the ground over winter, and to hopefully provide a little extra nitrogen come spring. 
Daughter and Bailey joined me in the tractor as my tractor buddies for a while. That gave us some nice time to talk about her day and I shared random tidbits about the crescent moon.  

 I’m sure I’ve mentioned before how I have the entire audio recording of the movie All That Jazz in my music library. I hadn’t listened to it for a while and I had it on the tractor that night. I can recite it line for line and every time I hear it I pick up something different. It’s loosely based on the life of actor, dancer, choreographer, director Bob Fosse. He wasn’t a real nice man, but he was a very talented man. In the tractor, and later, wearing earbuds, I could hear subtle background noises I hadn’t detected before. It makes me appreciate him more as a director for the details he added.  

Sometimes while driving down I35 or Highway 52, I wonder how many of my fields a highway like that would take up.  It makes me a little sad, to think about how quickly a bulldozer can change the landscape and erase any memories of a farmstead that may have lasted years and raised generations. It should still be called progress that it doesn’t take as many small farms to produce the food we need, but the lost memories still make me sad.  

* * * * * * *
 
I feel fortunate that I’ve made some pretty good business connections over the years and I’m lucky that one businessman has let me borrow his scissor lift for a few days. Kelly and I used it to paint the front of the theater last Saturday.  

A year ago we did this with an extension ladder on a day it was about 90°F And the whole thing was just hot and miserable. This second time around we were much more prepared and it was almost fun. My nephew let me borrow his paint sprayer and we knew how to tape off things a little better (or at all)  and it went pretty well.  I’m also using the lift to swap some lighting in the theater. The Rep Theater was fortunate to receive large grant to purchase a new Lighting Console and some LED lighting. I’ve been having a good time getting that set up, and when I got the lights to turn color the first time I let out a big “YEAH BABY!”.  

At one point I knocked over a riser section and wedged it under part of the scissor lift. I swear, there are days I should not be left alone.  

At home I am rarely left alone thanks to my white shadow. 

Unless she’s on a walk with daughter, she’s not far from me, hoping I’ll be doing something interesting soon.  

DO YOU SWEAT THE DETAILS? I’VE ALWAYS THOUGHT THEY’RE NOT IMPORTANT.  

2024, Food, gardening, Mysteries

Tomato Time!

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For a couple of years, my tomatoes have struggled and I haven’t had the massive numbers coming off the plants as I’ve had in the past. The same issue (inconsistent watering) came up over and over again when I discussed it with experts and searched on the internet.  But I know my bales and I know myself and my habits and I just couldn’t accept this was the issue.  I did find just a couple of sites that talked about calcium deficiency due to the high nitrogen that is needed in getting the bales conditioned at the beginning of the season.

Ignoring the experts, I changed back to the ammonium sulfate conditioner that I used to use, added some organic calcium-rich Tomato-tone supplement and I really ramped up the egg shells added around the base of each plant.  I’m happy to say that my intuition was correct… with these changes I am now rolling in tomatoes, especially my little cherries. 

That means it’s time to start coming up with tomato recipes. 

I made my favorite pasta/onion/cherry tomato skillet dish.  So so easy and yummy.   Salsa is up next; I have a few hot peppers left to add.   I bought a baguette yesterday for a panzanella salad; I certainly have enough basil for this too. (Made several jars of pesto last week.)  I’m thinking about a nice tomato and corn salad as well.

There will most likely be plenty of tomatoes left after that so I will probably freeze some and maybe make a couple of jars of tomato sauce.  Too many tomatoes is a nice problem to have after the last couple of years!

Can you think of a time that intuition has served you well?

2024, animals, gardening, Nature, pets, Uncategorized

Herb

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Today’s post comes to us from Krista.

A couple of years ago, sometime in October, I decided it was time to bring my rosemary plant in. I was just kind of quickly grabbing plants – some would go down to the garage and a couple would stay in the house. I grabbed the rosemary plant and was stunned at what I saw. A fat, little tree frog snuggled up next to the stem of the rosemary plant!  

It was cold! I was surprised to see him there, hunkered down next to the plant in the soil. He was about the color of the soil, very well camouflaged. He was already in a state of torpor.  I knew a bit about the overwintering habits of tree frogs. I knew he needed to be in a wooded area, down beneath the thick leaf litter, maybe under a partially rotten log. I knew he needed to find that shelter himself and that he wouldn’t have time anymore, especially since he was already sleeping.  

I considered my rosemary plant. I knew life would be just fine for me if I didn’t keep it. I knew his life depended on it. But how could I use it to make him a safe place for the winter?  

I took the pot outside near my driveway. In the corner of the front wall of the house and the front steps there’s a terracotta sunny face and some prairie agates. This corner is sheltered and when the sun is out, it’s warm enough to melt ice even if the air temp is in the 20s. The corner also has an abundance of oak leaves.  

I pulled all the leaves and debris out of the corner, set the rosemary plant in the corner, and gently buried it with leaves. Then I placed another empty terracotta pot upside down over the top of all the leaves. The frog was still in the rosemary plant when I buried him, sleeping soundly. I placed the terracotta sun face in front of it to hold it all in place. He had air to breathe through the loose leaves, even though he would be breathing very infrequently. He was covered and had plenty of shelter. He would freeze almost completely in the winter and thaw out again in the spring.  

I asked my friend TeeJay if he thought the frog would make it. I also wanted to name it. TeeJay suggested “Herb” since it clearly loved the rosemary plant. He said he had no idea if it would make it or not, but the shelter I’d made might work. 

I thought about Herb all winter. I wondered if the shelter would protect him. It got awfully cold and we had a lot of snow. Sometime in April I took the shelter apart and looked in my dead rosemary plant. Herb was gone. He’d gotten out on his own.  

Disclaimer: I don’t know how to sex frogs. I have no idea if Herb is female or male. And the frog I saw sunning himself for several hours on my deck rail today may or may not be Herb. It might be one of Herb’s kids! There are lots of tree frogs here. I hear them calling a lot. I haven’t seen one since Herb left though. It was very nice to see Herb today! I know how silly it is but I thought maybe he was going to get too hot so I set him in my herb and flower garden. He can choose which plant he wants. For now, he’ll be catching lots of mosquitoes and flies. He’ll be getting fat for winter. I’m happy to have him here.  

Any unusual pets? Pet names?

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, Fantasy, gardening, History, Kids, Seasons, Uncategorized

Viking Daze

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After all the days of rain, YA and I couldn’t wait to get out into the yard and get dirty.  I decided that it had been too long since I cleaned up the edges of the yard and boulevard along our front sidewalk.  This is a two-part job.  First I run my edger along where I think the sidewalk should be ending.  Second I sit on the sidewalk and pull up the bits that are overgrown. 

So there I was sitting on the sidewalk when a neighbor from up the street, along with her son, stopped to chat.  Since they had their dog, who is on the small size, I stayed on the sidewalk to pet the dog while we talked.  Blake (son) and I talked about llama day, which had happened at the library the week before.  Blake had been to the farm where the llamas come from and knew one of the llamas that was at the library. 

We also talked about school finally being over for the summer and I asked him if he had any plans.  He’s 10 so his short “just camps” answer didn’t surprise me; I followed up with “what kind of camps this year”.   He mentioned a science camp and a viking camp.  I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t know all the kinds of camps there are, but a viking camp seemed different.  I asked if it was a football camp or some kind of history camp.  He laughed and said “BIKING”.  If I’d had any liquid, I probably would have snorted it up on the spot.

When I was a kid you just hung around the neighborhood for the summer and bothered your mother.  Maybe if you knew someone who knew someone you might end up at a vacation bible study camp for a few days.  If kids were doing organized anything, I never knew about it.  So even though Blake will be biking for one of his camps this summer, I love the thought of viking camp.  Not even remotely sure what we would do at viking camp, but I’m positive I would love the outfits!

How did you spend your summers as a kid?  Any camp you WISH you could have gone to?

2024, gardening, home, Uncategorized

Let The Sunshine In

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About 30 years ago, Husband and I planted raspberries in the back yard against the north fence. Our neighbors to the north had four green ash trees in the corners of their yard. The trees weren’t all that tall and didn’t shade our yard much at all. The raspberries did well, and we feasted on raspberries every summer for years.

The green ash trees in the yard to the north of us have grown really tall and shade the whole north side of our yard now. I have written before about the conflicts we have had with the neighbors regarding the trees, and how the branches hang over our yard and house. The neighbors got really angry every time we tried to trim the branches that hung over our side of the fence, so we just gave up. The trees just kept dropping branches and looking really sick.

The raspberry bed became more and more shaded, and there were fewer and fewer canes until this spring. Over the past year our northern neighbors changed their intense love of the ash trees to extreme loathing after they realized that their 45 year old fence needed to be replaced, and that the ash branches could possibly damage the new fence when it is put in. They sent one of their adult sons to start trimming the tree branches. They will eventually need a professional tree removal service to take the trees out, but the trimming their son did provided all sorts of light to the raspberries last summer. This spring we noticed that there were more raspberry canes than we could have possibly imagined. You can see how thick they are.

It is amazing what a little sun did. It was as though the raspberries were biding their time until the situation improved. Here is the tree that did all the mischief.

What songs, plays, literature, or movies come to mind when you hear the word “Sun”. What are your favorite sunny or shady spots in your yard?

2024, Food, gardening, Uncategorized

Powwow Prep

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Yesterday I took half the day off from work for two reasons: My physical therapist had beat me up pretty good in the morning and I was too sore to sit at my desk all afternoon, and we had to get ready to go to the powwow on Saturday.

This weekend is the Twin Buttes Powwow. We go every year, and spend time with dear friends who are tribal members of the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation. The reservation is north of us about 60 miles.

The most important part of going to a powwow is sitting around and talking and eating with friends and family. Watching the dancers is just icing. We have known our friends’ grandchildren, now college age, since they were little. They call me granny. (They call all older women granny. It was a little hard to get used to, especially when I was in my 50’s. I understand it is done out of respect.) One asked our friend Linda last week if we were coming and if we were bringing our homemade French bread. Those kids just devour the bread. I am bringing two loaves this year so poor Linda gets some, too. We are also bringing rhubarb bread from our own rhubarb, as well as chili made with our home canned tomatoes and Hidatsa red beans we grew in the garden. Linda’s Husband is Arikara and is pretty dismissive of the Hidatsas, but I think he will like the chili.

Kyrill is at the kennel this weekend. He isn’t rez dog material, and gets upset with the drumming and commotion. We are only going Saturday, but it will be a nice holiday, and the weather should be sunny.

What food do you like to share with others at gatherings or at picnics? Where do you like to go for close to home holidays?

2024, animals, gardening, Nature, Uncategorized

Rabbit Proof Fence

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Our gardening chores were a lot more onerous this year due to a proliferation of rabbits in the neighborhood. It is not only in our neighborhood. I hear people from all over town complaining how the rabbits are eating flowers and garden plants.

Last year the rabbits devastated our strawberry bed in the back yard. They seemed to leave the front garden alone. This year we counted at least five rabbits at one time in our yard. We decided to take no chances and put up bunny proof fences around both garden beds consisting of wooden stakes and poultry netting with garden staples at the bottom to prevent any enterprising bunny to try to sneak under a slack part of the fence. Here is a bunny in the driveway last evening. I took the photo from the stoep, which accounts for the black metal railings.

The Australian movie Rabbit Proof Fence is about institutionalized racism, but it also highlights what can happen when non-native species are introduced into a new ecosystem. Some British guy in the mid 1800’s let loose twenty four rabbits into Australia so he could hunt them, and by the early 1900’s they had to build massive fences across Australia to keep the rabbits from decimating western Australia. There were no natural predators. I don’t like coyotes, but I sure wouldn’t mind a rogue animal to slip into town now and then to dispatch a few rabbits. Kyrill tries to catch the rabbits but they are too fast for him. I am hopeful our fences will do the trick, but they sure made for a lot of work.

What rabbit themed music, literature, or films are you familiar with? What kind of predators in your neighborhood?

2024, Family, gardening, Kids

Strolling Along

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This is not my normal rant about strollers.  I promise.

Over the weekend, as I was driving down Penn, I passed Wagner’s Garden Center.  There was a family leaving: two smaller kids, maybe 5 and 6 on their little scooters.  Behind them was Dad with the stroller, full of plants and flowers.  Behind Dad was Mom pulling the wagon full of bags of potting soil and mulch.

I’ve seen strollers full of kids, all the various stuff you take with you when you leave the house with kids.  I’ve seen strollers with dogs and even a stroller once with two cats.  But never a stroller full of plants.  It was a charming scene – it made me smile all through the rest of my errands.

Anything charming in your life lately?

animals, Family, Farming Update, gardening, Nature, Uncategorized

Lilacs & Farming & Parts, Oh My!

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The weekend Farm Report comes to us from Ben.

Oh, the lilacs! What a wonderful smell. It’s one of my favorite things about springtime.  

The neighbors who got corn planted before the rains, that corn is up. My oats is up and looking good. 
 
Every week I say what a crazy busy week the previous week has been. Same again. Life. It’s just relentless…  

I mentioned how Saturday I got most of my corn planted.

It makes a huge difference having the coop spread fertilizer before I plant. I do pay a little more for them to apply it, and it’s broadcast over the entire field, rather than when using the planter, it’s applied right in the row, but it also saves me refilling the planter every 7 acres. Seed I can plant 26 acres before refilling.  
 
I hooked onto the chisel plow one day.  I had one field that was soybeans last year, and never got harvested because the soybean crop was so poor due to the drought, and this field had weed pressure, so it needed to be plowed up this spring. It’s interesting the different weed pressure two fields right next to each other can have. Here’s the one that was beans last year:

And next to it is this field covered in lambsquarter.

Down the road, there is a guy who has a food plot for deer and turkey hunting, and since it’s next to a field I plant anyway, I work that field for him. And because he wants it to stand over winter, I have to make an extra trip back in the spring to chop up the corn stalks or plow up the stubble. He covers my cost, and it’s just and extra hour or two.

 Both those fields worked up really nicely. I was afraid they’d be a little wet yet, but it worked exceptionally well.  Then I switch back to the soil finisher to level off all the chisel plowed corn stalks, so the coop can spread fertilizer for soybeans. The plowing leaves the fields rough, and if they applied fertilizer on that ground, it would get buried too deep after being worked smooth. Now that it’s smooth, I’ll just work it a couple inches deep to incorporate the fertilizer. I have two corn fields to plant yet. They were a little wet when I planted the others.  

 A hydraulic hose blew out while digging. That hose lifted one wing of the digger. I was able to keep going, and finish what I wanted to finish, there was just a sag on one end when I lifted it to turn on the ends.  I took the hose off, and also replaced a broken shank that night.

The shovel on the new shank is worn a bit. When new, they have a much sharper point. But this one is good enough for another season. Seems like lately it’s been 9PM before I get in the house at night. Kelly is stage managing a show and has rehearsal every night, so we have a late supper together. Wednesday morning, the dogs and I made a trip to Plainview for parts. It was busy at the parts counter. The guy helping me answered the phone: “Jack, swamped! Five deep at the counter. Call you back!”   

Hydraulic hose is expensive. This was 1/2″  hose and it’s almost $9 / foot. I needed 10′, they cut it to length and crimp on the needed ends, $120. I also picked up some bolts for the gear box on the brush mower, some extra clips for the shovels on the soil finisher shanks (for when I lose the next one), an oil filter for the lawn mower and gator, plus cab filters for both tractors, engine oil, fuel, and air for the tractors, and some grease, and it was $998. The air filters are $100 each. Good thing they last for 3 years. 

I added 104 gallons of diesel fuel to the tractor, added 2.5 gallons of hydraulic oil that was lost due to the broken hose, and finished working up the corn stalk stubble. Course I had my two tractor buddies.

Luna doesn’t whine in the tractor, and once in a while she sits on Bailey. But otherwise, she just stands the whole time.  

I appreciate my tractors so much. I think I wrote once about not wanting junk, and that’s part of what I appreciate about the tractors so much. I enjoy being out in the field and driving them and when I get home and get out, I pat them on the hood. They make me happy, and I feel lucky to have them. 
 
Thursday the coop applied fertilizer.

End of the school year and I’m trying to spend down my budget. I do a lot of scenic painting using a hand pump sprayer. This yellow one has been here since I started here in 2006. I’ve used a lot of cheap ones, and this year I bought two new ones. They’re German, and they’re $90 each, but they are good! Spezial-Druckspruher! “Special Pressure Sprayer” indeed!

I have the Rochester Montessori School bringing ‘Annie Jr’ into the college theater, so I’ll be working here a few days. 
 
Mom turns 98 Sunday. More on her next week.  

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