The weekend Farm Report comes to us from Ben!
As you can see from the header photo, we felt the need to add a flag to our flagpole recently. We’re liking it.
Hope you all had a Thanksgiving dinner that couldn’t be beat.
Our son and daughter-in-law were here and I ordered a 15 lb ham, and had it on the grill for 4 hours, topping with honey bourbon glaze and it was very good. And there are many leftovers. And we sure had a good time.
Near the end of the day I received word my cousin Marcie had died. In May of 2021, she fell down some steps at her home, hit her head, and suffered bleeding in her skull. She never fully recovered from that, and after having a stroke in October, died on Thursday morning.
Marcie, Grandma Lillie, and myself in 1972 as Ring Bearer and Flower Girl at my sister’s wedding.
She was the youngest of three siblings adopted by my Uncle Stanley and Aunt Judy. Her older brother Mark died a few years ago, and the oldest sister Marie is still with us. It seemed like a pretty tough childhood for them. Judy seemed awfully stern to me. My perception was that she was pretty strict. My siblings say she was fun. I was scared of her.
Marcie married a good guy, and she had some really good years in the middle.
I basically have a functional heated shop now. It’s not done, but I hooked up the thermostat complete with conduit and not just ‘temporary’ and I can monitor it from my phone app.
I need to finish the interior wall and get the electricians back so they can do their thing, and figure out where to put the tool boxes and shelving, and, well… I could keep myself busy in here all winter.
About 2 more weeks of classes left. I’ve still got an ‘A’ going for ‘Interpersonal Communication’. We have to write an online discussion post each week and respond to a classmate’s post. We can see how many views our posts get. Mine never get many. It could be they read a few at the start, never got my Seinfeld references and old jokes and they quit reading them. Or it could just be they only read their friends. Or maybe they pick the short ones, I don’t know. It doesn’t matter to me, It’s just interesting.
Hey, how do you know if your computer is musical?
If it’s a Dell.
“Adele”.
She’s a singer.
Found this photo when looking for the above wedding photo. That’s about 1965. Dad is working on the blade of the road grader. I’m helping. It’s pretty clear I liked being out there and helping at an early age. The patches on the knees make me laugh. Was I that busy? Or hand-me-downs? Probably both.
When Dad was still coming to the farm and helping, “helping”, I’d usually have ‘Dad stories’ by the time he went home. I wish I had written them down. I sure can’t remember any these days. It seems like there’s a long tradition of the dads coming to the farm and ‘helping’ until they break something, and then they go home. Once retired, it’s not their problem anymore. And dad knew that too. He said the same thing about his dad. And my dad had picked up some part time jobs, so often, it was conveniently time for him to go to his other job when he broke something here. He’d laugh, I’d roll my eyes and grumble, and off he’d go.
But… perspective. Time and perspective. I don’t blame him.
A lot of situations improve with time and perspective.
At the theater we often end up talking about ‘Perception’. Sometimes It’s still enough to make me roll my eyes. I did a little searching and there’s a lot of talk about perception and perspective.
Mom and dad at their 65th Wedding anniversary. Dad died in November the next year.
I have much to be thankful for.
PERSPECTIVE?
PERCEPTION?
Trail Baboon 