Category Archives: Gatherings

2024, animals, Farming Update, Gatherings, Uncategorized

Corn Sweat

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Today’s Farming Update comes from Ben

We’ve certainly gained some Growing Degree Units lately. The Pioneer Seed website shows 2450 GDU’s to date for Rochester. 2288 would be normal. Not as hot as last summer, and higher than 2022.
Sure, blame it on corn sweat…

From an article in USA Today, they state: “During the growing season, an acre of corn sweats off about 3,000 to 4,000 gallons of water a day, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
In Iowa, corn pumps out “a staggering 49 to 56 billion gallons of water into the atmosphere each day” throughout the state, the National Weather Service said. That can add 5 to 10 degrees to the dew point, a measure of the humidity in the air, on a hot summer day.”
Farming always gets the rap.

This year’s crop is pretty much what it is now; outside of weather conditions, not much we can do to either kill it or improve it, but we still need to manage what’s there, and continue to hope for the best, and plan for next year’s crop.

The corn and soybeans honestly look pretty good, and some scouting shows a decent crop, knock-on-wood. Hail or an early frost can still put a kink in that. And the prices are the lowest they’ve been in several years. So the best we can hope for is quantity. Which, of course, makes a surplus and drives the price down.

I went to turn on the chickens fan last week, and it ran for 4 seconds and quit. I banged on it and jiggled all the cords and it wouldn’t go. Dragged out the old barn fan that I used to use, and it ran for 4 seconds and quit. A minute later it would run for 4 seconds and quit again and that’s how that went. Neither of those really was much help then. I found an old box fan under the seats at a theater the next day and hung that up for the chickens.

The last couple nights I’ve been out digging up the oat fields. I wanted it done before it rained again. (We got an inch of rain Thursday night.) The grasses have gotten ahead of me and it didn’t work up as well as it might have had I done this two weeks ago. Foxtail mostly, comes on fast and thick and it doesn’t flow through the digger too well.


Kelly came with me one night. This tractor has the ‘buddy seat’. Kelly was my buddy for a change.


Man, so many bugs! I hate turning the lights on…sure glad I’m inside the cab!


I put the alternator put back on the swather, got it running again, and mowed the weeds along the road and over at the edge of some fields. I’ve backed it into the shed and will worry about it next July I guess. I got the generator put back on the ‘C’, but haven’t got it started again yet.
One day I had to drive to St. Charles, about 20 miles East of Rochester. I had lunch at Del’s Café and sat at the counter and had soup and a cheeseburger.


From St. Charles, I was head to Plainview about 20 miles to the North. I didn’t want to take the old, boring route up to Plainview, so I went through Whitewater State Park to Elba, and then that great gravel road through Whitewater’s lowlands, to Hwy 30, and through Beaver to Plainview. I had the road to myself, and I sighed contentedly several times. It was a great drive.


Back when I was ‘only’ farming, this was a good time of the year to take some day trips. Oats and straw are done. We’d be between hay crops, the crops are growing, and we’d drive to Wanamingo and look through the machinery dealerships or something fun like that. (machinery dealership lots; the farmers friend) Then we’d find lunch in a diner someplace.
We attended another wedding on Saturday. Kelly’s cousin. Second wedding for each, and they’ve been together 13 years, with 6 kids between the two of them. From Junior in high school to finishing college. The kids have pretty much grown up together, and they’re such a fun family and all get along, and it was a happy, fun, beautiful wedding. Bride and Groom read vows to each other, the kids read vows to both of them, and they gave all the kids their own rings. Everyone cried. It was a great time.


Here’s a photo of Luna trying to encourage a rooster to play more. They did chase each other back and forth a few times before Bailey, the peacekeeper, would break them up.



I’ve been listening to jazz lately. I have a subscription to Jazzradio.com, and Modern Big Band is my go-to.
https://youtu.be/hNbsnBZOwqE?si=IiyHaWbD2oDMslRY

HOW QUICK ARE YOU WITH THE CAR HORN?

2024, animals, Automotive, Farming Update, Gatherings, Uncategorized, work

Alternating Tired and Startled And Stuff

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Today’s Farming Update comes from Ben

There’s so much stuff going on, I don’t have time to get to the other stuff.

One day I met a friend in the grocery store, and he was carrying a bag of coleslaw mix. I’ve always liked coleslaw but never made my own. The friend told me how easy it is to make coleslaw and I started making my own and it is enjoyable and quite tasty. Last week I bought a fresh cabbage, and carrots, and this batch is even better than ever. Summertime goodness.

I took the generator off Kelly’s tractor, the C, and the alternator off the swather and took both of those to a local small business to be repaired. Once I get them back and reinstalled, I’ll be able to check them both off my To-Do list and hopefully both those things will stay charged and ready to start.

I feel like I spent so much time doing other “stuff”, I don’t get much crossed off my list.

Last week, coming back from Chatfield, my truck seemed to be making a thumping noise. I was trying to decide if it was the road, but no, got off the highway and it was still there. Then I was going through the dash gauges trying to find the tire pressures and there was a BANG and the tread came off a rear wheel. Bent both sides of the wheel well and ripped off a mud flap.

But the tire wasn’t flat, so I slowly drove the 10 miles home, took both rear wheels off, and took them to my tire place, Appel Service, in Millville. It was Monday so all the bars and restaurants were closed, but one place let me buy a bottle of pop. I walked around town and sat on a bench and enjoyed the weather while they put on new tires. Glad this happened close to home and not on the way to Minneapolis or something.

The coyotes have been back in the early mornings. One bark from Bailey, and Luna, sleeping in our bed, goes bezerk. That sure wakes us out of a sound sleep. And I stood outside trying to figure out what they’re barking at. And then I saw …‘something’…100 yards away down on the swamp road. And then it turned, and it was a coyote. Back in the house for the rifle and of course it was gone by then. I don’t think it got any breakfast that day. I fired one shot, just to warn it, and it hasn’t come back for a few days.

We got the barn painted. Here’s a before and after photo:

It looks real nice and I didn’t have to be involved. Well, except to write a check.

A former college student got married on the Rep Theater stage last week. It was really nice.

Cutting grass one night and the mower started running rough. That just about sucked all the wind out of me. “Can’t things just work??” And the next day I cleaned the spark plug, air filter, filled it with gas and thank goodness the lawn mower fairies must have been in because it worked fine. Then the belt came off the deck. Sigh.

The next day I went to John Deere and got both a new deck belt and a new drive belt and we’re back to cutting grass again. Until the next thing happens.

Classes start Monday at the college. I have one online class this fall, “Interpersonal communication”. I know the instructor and I asked him how communication could be online? He said this is about learning the “theory” of communication. He said I can still be a jerk if I want to be after class, but at least I would know HOW to communicate.

Watching the DNC convention and they had a huge balloon drop on the last night. Back in my stagehand days, I was part of an event that included a balloon drop. I remember whomever was in charge showing us what rope to pull. They were very specific about giving us a signal when it was time. Myself and another guy up in the catwalks waiting. We can’t find our guy, no one on the intercom, no idea what we’re supposed to be doing. But they’ve hit the climatic high point and it seems like this would be a good time, but again, they were very specific about telling us when. And yet there’s no sign of our guy. But once everyone started staring at the ceiling, we decided now’s the time and we released the balloons. You really do need a LOT of balloons to make it look like something. That group didn’t have that many.

I’m adding some 10’ tall, 6×6 posts next to some rotted posts in the pole barn.

Too many years of manure have rotted out the bases. The shed was built maybe in the 1970’s?

Dig a hole and bolt the new post to the old post. It takes 6 trips with the gator to get all the tools and bolts and drills, and back for a step ladder and sledgehammer, and another trip for the tractor and some gravel, and then another trip because a 5/8” bolt doesn’t fit in a ½” hole.

So it goes.

Mom used to say, “What your brain forgets your feet will remember”.

I’ve got three posts to fix and then I can check that off the list and move on to something else.

WHAT’S YOUR CLIMACTIC ENDING TO A BIG PARTY?

2024, Family, Gatherings, Uncategorized

Lost In Walmart

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Our city has a Walmart, a Menards, a Runnings, and a Tractor Supply. We also have two grocery stores. For the fancier shopping experiences at places like Target, Sam’s Club, and Costco we have to drive 100 miles to Bismarck. Macy’s is 300 miles away in Fargo.

For some reason, our Walmart store has done a complete redo of their building, with aisles in places where there were none and super polished floors. There are different, somewhat more “upscale” products, and more self checkouts. They also moved things from where we were accustomed to find them to new and strange places. The pet supplies are where the infant section was, just across from the frozen food. Shampoos and toiletries are where the pet supplies used to be. Office supplies are where the craft section was. Even in aisles that still have the same products, the products have been rearranged differently, so if we go to, say, where the distilled water used to be, we find it has been moved to the other end of the aisle from where it had been.

It has become a community joke that shopping at Walmart now takes twice as long because people can’t find what they need since it has all been moved. People laugh as they pass each other for the third or fourth time unsuccessfully finding what they are looking for. One problem is that the signs telling what are in the aisles haven’t been changed yet and the old signs are still there.

We don’t go to Walmart all that much. I go more often than Husband. He can’t stand the store as the noise is hard for him to take because of his hearing aids. I had seen some of the renovations, so when we both went to Walmart yesterday, I was somewhat prepared for the changes. Husband wasn’t at all prepared, and was bewildered by the rearrangement of items. We laughed and waved at people as we passed them multiple times as we searched. Husband says he will never go there without me, as he is afraid he will get lost and we will have to send a search party to find him.

Any bewildering changes in your big box stores? Where do you like to shop and where do you loathe to shop?

2024, animals, Games, Gatherings, sports, Uncategorized

Team Goose

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As I was leaving the gym yesterday morning, there was a large group of geese walking away from the building.  I’m not sure why but all I could think of was a group of teenagers having just finished a quick basketball game at the gym, heading off for a burger and a pop. Made me laugh.

For a very short time in high school, I was on the track team.  Very short.  My trail leg didn’t quite clear a hurdle during practice and while it was a life-threatening injury, it was pretty gruesome and it ended my extremely short track career.  That was my only foray into team sports. 

What about you?  Any team sports for you?

2024, animals, books, Gatherings, Kids, Uncategorized

Llama Llama Day

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You all know I have a co-dependent relationship with my local library.  Nothing new about that.  One of the things I appreciate is that it’s on the right-hand side of the street, heading south from my house.  This means that I drive by it on almost ever errand I run so stopping to return books or pick up something that is on hold is incredibly easy.

Two Saturdays back, returning a couple of books was the first item on my to-do list.  As I was putting the books on the return belt I noticed that there were a bunch of Llama Llama signs along the garden side of the building as well as a massive banner across the front window. 

I might have talked about the Llama Llama books back when I discovered them but in case I didn’t – they are kids books, a long series of them, about a young llama and his family.  They’re quite cute.  This is the first one:

Anyway, I texted YA as I got back in the car that they were having a Llama Llama reading.  As I headed south from the parking spaces in front of the library, I saw that the parking lot was blocked off with some kids games.  Then I saw a couple of tents.  Then I saw the llamas.  At the light I texted YA again that there were live llamas at the library.  Her response… “You’re going around the block right now, aren’t you?”  Aaah, she knows me well.

I know the head librarian so after I had waited in line (the only adult without a kid in tow), we chatted a bit about Llama Llama Day.  This was the third Saturday in a row that one of the Hennepin County libraries had hosted the llamas.  Apparently there are a few more scheduled over the summer.  I asked him if the library system was moving the Llama Llama books around so that there were plenty to check-out at each library who was having the llama party.  He was surprised that I knew that; I reminded him that I’m an event planner by trade.

I got to pet all of the llamas before I returned to my list of errands.  Later when I got home, I pulled my Llama t-shirt out and wore it the rest of the day as I considered all the various events that I might have planned if I’d been a library planner instead of an incentive travel planner.

What book do you think would make a good library event?

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

Playing Catch Up

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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, Gatherings, Kids, Music

The Recital

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My neighborhood has kids in it.  This may not seem remarkable to you but for several years, there were no kids, YA being the youngest of the previous bunch.  But now there are four girls and two boys spread among four households.  It’s fabulous.

Just next door are Minnie and Marie (names changed to protect the innocent) who are 9 and 5.  Both a bit on the dramatic side (compared to YA at that age anyway) but very entertaining.   As with most kids these days, they have lots of activities; both their parents are music teachers, so music and dance are pretty high up on the list.

Last summer Minnie did a drama camp for a couple of weeks and at the end they put on the musical “The Little Mermaid”.  At one point Minnie invited me to see the show although I’m not sure she really expected my attendance.  YA and I both went and had a fun evening.  Lots of little kids playing undersea critters, including Minnie who was a crab.  She sang and danced in three numbers.  Both her folks were extremely grateful that YA and I attended.

So it wasn’t a surprise when Saturday afternoon, as I was heading to pick up an order at Target, Minnie called me over to the fence and asked me if I wanted to go to her piano recital.  I said “Sure, when is it?” to which she replied “2:30”.  As in 2:30 that same day, in fact, just 45 minutes from right then.  Yikes.  I told her I’d try my best.  Luckily not too much traffic to Target and back however I did need to change as I was wearing the dirty shorts and t-shirt that I had been gardening in earlier in the day.  I never changed so fast in my life.  If you’d been my other neighbor looking out the window at 2:20, you would have seen me pulling a shirt over my tank top as I was heading across my backyard to the car!  But I made it with a couple of minutes to spare (music school is just 5 minutes from the house – phew)!

It was a typical recital.  A couple of kids for whom this was their first public performance.  Mostly pianists but there was one guitarist and two violinists.  I would say most of the kids were between 5 and 10, although the last girl to play the violin was probably 13 or 14 (she was very good).  Several of the students had the teachers doing a complimentary part with them so no one seemed too nervous and nobody flubbed anything noticeable.  Minnie played a piece called “My Dream” and did a nice job.  I really enjoyed clapping and whooping it up for her and all the other little reciters. 

Minnie’s musical this summer is “Annie”.  I can’t wait.

Any memorable recitals for you?

2024, Family, Food, Gatherings, pets, Uncategorized

Cookies Galore!

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I’ve been in cookie production mode for a couple of days.

A dear friend of mine lost her husband in January; it was expected but still quite sad.  Al loved my sugar cookies.  For the last couple of years while he was in his decline, I made cookies for him every few weeks so that he could have cookies but my friend wouldn’t have to bake.  I made different kinds but the frosted sugar were always his favorites.  So for his Celebration of Life I am making them in his memory.

At the same time I am doing my spring bonnet sugar cookies for a shower this weekend as well.  My oh my – everything always falls at the same time.

I figured I’d be safe with six batches of the dough.  I made that, two batches at a time, on Wednesday.  I laid everything out ahead of time so I could whip through – only took me about 25 minutes.  The dough does need to chill for a while; that’s why I made it on Wednesday. 

Then yesterday morning I rolled out all the dough, cut all the cookies and baked them. 206 fluted squares, 16 large bonnet bases, 16 bonnet cops and 20 llama/alpaca shapes (new cookie cutters that I just got a couple of weeks back).  Took about 4 hours from set up to clean up.  No burned batches and no dog sneaking cookies off the counter, although I did have to keep a close eye on YA every time she wandered into the kitchen.

This morning, while you are reading this, I’m doing the icing and sprinkles.  All of Al’s cookies will have white icing but I’ll use a variety of sprinkles (I have plenty!).   I’ll be setting up in the living room on the card table so I can sit and watch tv while I work.  If I have time, I’ll do the llama/alpaca cookies and hopefully the bonnets.  I used a flow icing on the bonnets so they’ll be last.  If I run out of time I’ll finish the bonnets Saturday morning before the shower.

Phew!

Why couldn’t the Cookie Monster make his bed? 

2024, Gatherings, Health, Music, Uncategorized

In Poor Taste

37 Comments

Last weekend our local Opera group held a gala evening of a lovely meal and selections from various operas.

We have a surprisingly active opera group here, and they host a summer youth musical camp, as well as operas and recitals during the rest of the year. Our church choir director and her husband are very active in the group.

We didn’t attend the Gala, but heard plenty of comments about it the next day. An acquaintance of ours and her husband attended the Gala. She is a former piano instructor at the college. She and her husband also attend our church. Just before the end of the evening, our acquaintance’s husband collapsed and had to be resuscitated with CPR. He was taken to the hospital. There were several medical professionals in the audience who saved his life.

The final selection to be performed at the Gala was from one of the last acts of Carmen, in which Carmen is stabbed to death by Jose’. Our church choir director was to sing the part of Carmen. They decided that Carmen being stabbed to death just after Larry, the piano teacher’s husband, was hauled out on a stretcher would be in pretty poor taste, so they quickly ended the show.

I am happy to report that Larry survived and the Carmen selection will be performed at the next recital in the fall. This is just too much drama for our small community!

What are your favorite and least favorite endings to operas and musicals

2024, education, gardening, Gatherings, holidays, Uncategorized

Puff

26 Comments

Well, our bell choir played for the PEO sisterhood on Saturday. It all went fine, although dragging the tables, bell cases, and all the equipment we need from church was a lot of work. We played in a huge facility the public school district purchased from the Haliburton Oil company for middle school and high school technical education. Culinary arts students prepared the meal. They also teach building trades, health sciences, all sorts of practical technology training, large equipment operating, business methods and marketing, and agriculture training. The complex is almost brand new and is enormous, with multiple buildings. The facility and the training are amazing. It is located on the outskirts of town on the major road north to the oil fields.

We played in the lunchroom. Everyone was very appreciative, and we played well. I couldn’t help thinking, though, how silly Puff The Magic Dragon is. I thought it was silly when I was a child, too. To make the situation even sillier, Saturday was 4/20, National Marijuana day. Here we were, middle aged and older people playing a song long associated with marijuana use for a bunch of very prim and proper middle aged and older women. No one else in the bell choir realized the symbolism or association of the song with the day, and we all got a good laugh out of it when I reminded them after the performance. There is a push to legalize recreational cannabis use in our state. Who knows, maybe they will add training at the technical institute on how to grow and market recreational pot!

What was technical training like when you were in high school? What is the most ludicrous performance or presentation you ever were involved in?