Muscle memory is an amazing thing. On Saturday, YA and I had our next-door neighbors over for lunch. Just veggie burgers and corn on the grill. At the last minute, we decided it was a little too chilly to eat outside, so I set the table inside.
I set out seven little bowls in the kitchen. Onion slices, tomato slices, pickles and Boston lettuce to get started. Just as I started to squirt ketchup into the fifth bowl, YA walked in and immediately said “what are you DOING?” I told her I was putting the condiments in bowls and she pushed back with “WHY?” It took me a few minutes of standing at the counter, looking at the bowls before I realized why I was about to put ketchup, mustard and mayonnaise in little bowls.
When I was growing up, condiments went into little bowls. Not just for when we had company, but all the time. Even when we had dinner at my Nana and Pappy’s on Saturday nights, condiments went into little bowls. In fact, if condiments ever went on the table in their bottles, it was called “pinkert style”. It wasn’t until I was in high school that my mom told me why. When she was growing up, they lived a few houses down from the Pinkerts. Apparently the Pinkerts never put their condiments into little dishes… they always just set the bottles out willy nilly. So it turns out that my grandparents calling that “pinkert style” was actually quite pejorative – I never knew.
While I almost automatically put out little bowls when company comes over, YA and I do not do this when it’s just the two of us. Of course, YA and I eating a meal that requires condiments on the table is fairly rare.
On Saturday I put out the bottles; I really don’t need to be the third generation getting little bowls dirty in the name of shaming some family up the block from my grandparents!!
Any habits that have come down the generations in your family?
I sent a couple emails last week that I probably shouldn’t have. My brain was filled with too many other things and I was having trouble forming a coherent thought and missing details, which I have trouble with on a good day. One email I just said right up front “this is all a jumble and I’m sorry about that. See if it makes sense.” The other email I had to send a clarification follow up.
It’s a crazy time.
Like, when isn’t it.
Been busy at both the college and home. It helps when spring isn’t so early. Course then I fuss it’s late. We open the college show next Thursday, so I’m in the final week of painting and tweaking things. Working on lighting and fixing all the little things I forgot I told the director I’d have. I’ve had Padawan coming in to help me. He needs something to do anyway and I can give him life advice while we’re at it. And then I go home and work in the shop for a while. I sure am glad I added the outside lights. I’ve used them a few times this week.
Read an article today about increasing fertilizer prices. (due to the Iran … “Conflict”.) USDA Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins says farmers have pre-purchased 80% of their spring nutrient needs. The article I was reading did an informal survey and they got a 65% response to having pre-purchased. Thirty three percent have most of it purchased, and it’s just what’s needed for the final spring decisions. Only 2% said they haven’t purchased anything. All prices are up of course. I pre-purchased everything in December, and I’m sure the co-op has a lot of it on hand already. But jeepers. I’ll bet there’s gonna be fuel surcharges if nothing else. I mean how can you plan for these kinda jumps??
I’ve seen the sewage treatment plant trucks out applying / injecting waste …”sludge”? on fields. Did you ever think about that? You flush the toilet, it’s gone, right? But gone where? At our house, to the septic tank. And then the liquids go to the drain field and every few years we dig up the cover and have the solids pumped out of the tank. (I wrote about that last fall when we had a taller cover installed on the tank. See : https://trailbaboon.com/2025/08/16/what-mystery-is-this/ )
I’m not sure how the city plant works, I’ve never asked. I know our township doesn’t allow for applying sludge. Well, technically it’s “allowed”, but you have to get a license and pay $10 / acre to apply it. So the farmers in our township don’t do it. Some of the township supervisors created that rule quite a few years ago because they didn’t know what risks might be associated with spreading the sludge.
I took some time Monday afternoon and moved machinery around and took the stuff I put inside for winter, back outside. Like the scrap iron tote. I hooked the soil finisher to the big tractor. I got the flat trailer hooked to the truck and loaded up some scrap iron so I could get that hauled in because I needed the trailer to pick up seed and it had scrap on it from last winter. I worked in the shop until 10:00 PM. Got three of the new LED headlights on the 6410. There are three plastic clips on the old lights, that aren’t supposed to be removable. I managed. Cut my finger, again, with the grinder.
A couple weeks ago I grazed the 8” bench grinder wheel with a knuckle. The next week I hit the wire wheel of the bench grinder with a different finger. Just took the skin off. And this time was my left index finger with the 4” hand grinder. They don’t hurt at the time it happens, it hurts for the next week.
Scars, right? Yeah, some scar stories are better than others…
A burn on my thumb, a fresh cut on the finger, and the healed one you can’t hardly see anymore. Oh, there’s some red paint too.
Wednesday I hauled that scrap in and went to pick up seed oats. The guys at the seed house weren’t so sure about the guys who were out there planting oats before the blizzard. That made me feel a little better. Got 50 bags of oat seed. Worked at the college until 7PM, then home and got the seed wagon in the shop and got Kelly’s C tractor running. Unload the oats using the loader and pallet forks. Another late night and glad to have those outside lights.
Last Saturday was a gala at the Rep theater announcing next seasons shows. I got to give a little welcome speech. That’s fun. I appreciate that I’m comfortable talking in front of people.
Showing how I’m running lights through the phone remote.
The chicks are a week old now. We’ve lost some, it always happens.
And this second chicken that’s moved into the garage and is nesting in this basket…
I have ordered Oat fertilizer to be applied, that should happen either late Friday or Saturday. If we get enough rain to soak it in that’s fine, and if it doesn’t rain and I can get out with the digger, that works too.
The wind on Wednesday. Jeepers. This is why I’m glad we live in a valley. A few tree’s blew over in the fields. Always something. I’ll add it to my to-do list.
It’s angry goose season at the College again. Caution tape and cones have been put up and emails have been sent out warning us of the danger. The first day as I passed the pair in the parking lot, the male goose just opened his mouth at me. Didn’t even hiss, but he was warning me off in no uncertain terms.
Last Friday Kelly and daughter and I drove to Alexandria. I went to pick up the Track Wacker for use this spring. We took Highway 14, stopped in Mankato for a bathroom break and filled the truck with diesel fuel. $132 later we headed for New Ulm where we stopped to see Hermann the German. I’m pretty sure I was there with my parents when I was a kid. Really didn’t remember anything about it, and on Friday it was 30° and windy and we didn’t linger very long. He’s closed for renovation anyway.
Two lane roads the rest of the way to Alexandria and a very nice drive. We got adjoining rooms at the hotel so daughter could have one room and Kelly and I could have the other. It was a pretty slick way to do it, and I would sure try it again in the future. I got up early the next morning, had a mediocre breakfast at the hotel with French toast sticks so tough I couldn’t chew through the crust on the bottom, but the sausage patties were good and I headed half an hour northwest to Millerville to pick up the Track Wacker. I knew it would fit in the back of the pickup. Then for good measure, I bought a fire ring as well.
I got back to the hotel just as the other two finished breakfast and we packed up and were back on the road. Drove to see Theater L’Homme Dieu where I spent a few days with a show back in 2010. Again, quiet two lane roads home, probably didn’t have any traffic for 20 or 30 miles. Saw some really long trains. I couldn’t get over how long some of them were. Being a sucker for a historic roadside marker I had looked up a few before leaving. A few miles outside of Grove City we stopped at the Acton State Monument. The battle of Acton, the Acton incident, and the Ness Cemetery. They mark the beginning of the U.S. – Dakota War of 1862. You know, it’s one thing to read about it in the books, it’s another to stand there and realize it happen RIGHT HERE.
And then to the Ness Cemetery and see the monument: one of Minnesota’s oldest monuments (Dedicated September 13, 1878) marking the burial of those first victims. It was a very deeply moving experience for us.
Twelve hours of driving and about 600 miles. We got home about six in the evening. A couple neighbors had come over to feed the dogs and collect eggs. They call the dogs their “dog grandchildren” and gave Bailey extra food “because we love her“. Sure is nice to have neighbors like that.
Sunday I unloaded the truck, took the rear blade off the tractor, hauled the snowblower out, I even got the lawnmower out and mowed down some grass and weeds before I put the snowblower in its summer parking spot. Daughter and I picked up driveway markers, (but I haven’t taken the snow fence down yet, I don’t wanna jump the gun too fast), and I got the four wheeler running and drove that around a while. Drove down in the pasture to check things out after winter.
I also picked up branches along the road and Kelly picked up branches in the yard. I think the spring mud is pretty much done. The fields are really drying out, or at least they were before it rained all day Thursday. It could be an early spring here doing fieldwork. If I was a little more prepared I might’ve been able to get out and do a little fieldwork in March. I remember one year doing some on March 31. That doesn’t happen very often.
I spent a few hours in the Shop one night putting a couple new LED lights on the back of the 8200 tractor. Took me an hour to do the first one and five minutes to do the second. Standing on a work platform and reaching over the outside dual tire was another instant of wishing I was 6 inches taller or my arms were 6 inches longer. But I managed. The 6410 tractor that I use for the majority of the work, I’ve replaced a bunch of lights with LED and I have four more to replace and two more to add on the back. It only has two rear work lights at the moment and really could use two additional. It was on my to-do list but apparently will be a summertime project.
Baby chicks arrived on Wednesday morning. I had gotten their pen ready so once they were delivered and we did the usual pictures and videos of them in the box, I could take them right down and dip their beaks in the water and get them all settled in. I ordered 50 this year for $260. Last year I ordered 40 and it was $170. Twenty of the Easter egg blue and green layers, 10 of the Silver Laced Wyandotte,, 10 Lavender Orpington, those gray ones like Mabel from a few weeks ago, and 10 of Hatchery choice. Could be anything.
So far so good on them.
My summer Padawan came to the college a couple of days and helped me paint the set. He tries to educate me on what’s hip these days. When I took him back home he showed me all the different kinds of cologne he has and told me in the winter you wear something warm and spicy and for example he wouldn’t wear this certain cologne at this time of year. I stared at him quizzically. Why not? And he stared back at me. Like, because everybody knows that. Well, you have to learn that somewhere I said. I mean did he read that in GQ magazine? (He doesn’t read magazines.) Well, just everybody knows that he said. I laughed. Well, I don’t.
HAVE YOU EVER ATTACKED A GOOSE?
WHAT IS THE PROPER NUMBER OF CONES TO PLACE AROUND SOME GEESE?
Yesterday about 9:46AM… the vernal equinox. The sun crossed over the equator. i stood outside and watched it.
No. Not really.
Not indicative of any actual person. This was an AI generated cartoon image.
(I started this at work (( Don’t tell!)) and the college uses ‘Co-pilot’ as their AI tool. It won’t use political figures to create an AI image. But it would make a cartoon! Great. Have at it! )
The equinox happened at 9:46 AM for us here in the central time zone. From my daily Weather channel email, I learned an “upright stick in the ground (called a “gnomon,” from the Greek word meaning “to know”) on the equinox, the shadow from an upright stick will mark a straight line East to West.” I marked a shadow and compared it to the compass app on my phone. Hmmm. Is science wrong? I got a shadow about 60° off of North. Hmmm.
You hear about the astroid in Ohio? Also from my daily Weather email:
We now know more about the asteroid that fell from space and shook northeast Ohio on Tuesday morning with a loud boom that grabbed the attention of many residents of Cleveland and beyond.
According to NASA, the asteroid was 6 feet in size, and weighed roughly 7 tons. As it fell, it was seen by eyewitnesses from at least 10 states, plus the District of Columbia and the Canadian province of Ontario, and when it broke apart, it unleashed energy equivalent to 250 tons of TNT.
And all we had was a lousy blizzard. Last weekend during the blizzard, I made steaks. Got them out of the freezer earlier in the week. Since grilling was out of the question, I said to Kelly I’d fry them. She’s not a fan of frying foods due to the smoke and grease splatters. I said we grew up with our moms frying meat: I can still picture mom smacking them with a knife to tenderize them. (It wasn’t the best cut of meat in the first place being that it was usually some old milk cow that was butchered and it was mostly made into hamburger), so I grew up not liking steak because I had to smother it with ketchup and it was tough as shoe leather.)
I got the potatoes going, frozen sweet corn going, and poured some olive oil in the hot pan. Oops. The house, like, immediately filled with smoke. All the new smoke alarms, conveniently wired together, start going off upstairs and downstairs. Daughter downstairs was upset, Luna the dog was upset and cowering in a corner. I was trying to get the pan in the sink and rinsed off and cool it off. I opened some doors and windows. Kelly opened windows and was fanning the smoke detectors.
About then I looked at her and said ‘What was it you were saying about smoking up the house?’ And we got the giggles.
I do remember reading something about using a high temp oil. But heck, I don’t have any frame of reference to that; maybe it should have said “Don’t use olive oil, Ben.” Anyway, now I know and they were good and I’ve got left overs for the week.
Daughter still got her walk in during the blizzard. It was a struggle just to get to the shop. And then I had to go out and clear the snow to get the door shut again.
Yep, there was a lot of snow. My family was texting on Monday about cleaning up and digging out. My brother, the keeper of the family history and all the old photos, provided this photo of Dad:
This was taken in the 1970’s. He’s on the upper half of our driveway. I had never seen this photo before and I’m more interested in who trekked out there to take the photo.
I knew of this one:
Man, those guys back then were so much tougher than me.
Here was me dealing with the snowstorm:
Yeah, it was a lot of snow. What that means is it took me an extra hour in the tractor with Bailey and my coat unzipped and the radio on. Oh, woe is me.
The Red Wing Blackbirds are back.
The dogs are enjoying the sunshine.
The chickens are out and about. And it’s muddy all over. Again.
Pretty much got my farm bookwork done for 2025 and need to get that to the accountant.
I got re-elected in the township elections last week and will serve another 3 year term. That will get me 30 years on the board. It’s a good group and I still enjoy doing the work.
One night I couldn’t sleep. My brain was very busy. And the next night I slept hard and had a long-involved dream about being in a tractor with several implements hooked behind me. Some kind of tillage tool, then a wagon, and then a tank of something behind that. I was in a big four-wheel drive tractor. John Deere of course. Headed to a field, driving in Rochester and decided not to go down Broadway, even though I’d seen another tractor there recently. (in the dream). And then took a short cut through someone’s garage. About halfway through realized I was just a little too tall for everything to clear. Backed up (and backing up several things is nearly impossible, but in the dream I did it). Got back out, started to pull away and wasn’t hooked up to the first implement anymore. Got that hooked back up, started to move and the next thing was unhooked. Got that hooked back up. And then the third thing was unhooked and I couldn’t’ understand it; I know it had been hooked up before. It went on from there. Perhaps it was my brain thinking about all the stuff I need to be working on in preparation for the spring play, for planting, for general spring work, or who knows.
Thursday night I spent a few hours in the shop disassembling a massage unit that was getting wonky. It was really interesting and there was some creative and ingenious engineering. Plus I saved all the copper.
It was another Friday the 13th. Any issues for anyone?
And did everyone hang onto their hats Friday? Man, it was windy.
We had a few branches down, nothing serious. One tree down on a township road at 7:30 AM, and I was lucky one of the other supervisors took care of that.
I finally ordered 400 gallons of diesel fuel and 100 gallons of farm gas. The longer I waited, the more it was stressing me out. Prices on diesel fuel are up a about dollar from a year ago. Four hundred dollars isn’t going to make or break us.
Wednesday, we met our attorney to sign a paper regarding the Farm Trust, and I took that to the Farm Service Agency to see if that makes them happy. Sometimes you have to play the game and jump through the hoops. (And that afternoon I had a talk with summer padawan about bureaucracy and hoops, and you can either deal with it or fight everything all the way. That’s part of life. At some point there will be a person in charge of hoops, and they either take care of your hoop paperwork, or your hoop paperwork will never get approved. You get to decide what would be easier in your life. A couple pieces of chocolate and a smile sometimes helps. )
Had a “discussion” with John Deere about the big parts sale. The pitch of my voice went up, and I used a couple bad words. I got all riled up for the hour it took to straighten things out. Ag parts are supposed to be tax exempt, and I didn’t get the discount I expected WHICH WAS THE WHOLE REASON I ORDERED THE PARTS! It was one of those things where the local dealership works different than the online parts order place. I told the guy I wasn’t mad at him; I was mad at the situation. And the local guy was as frustrated as I was. I said they better make sure all the sales people understand because it was not presented to me that way when I called two days ahead to see how to make this work.
The Solution was to return everything (electronically) and redo it through the local dealer. And I filed a tax exemption form to John Deere Parts.com. That was how I spent Thursday morning. By Friday morning it was all straightened out and I saved $250. Almost made up for the diesel fuel! I told the parts manager I appreciated his work and we laughed about some stuff.
I sold the corn I had in storage at the elevator. Price wasn’t really moving. Probably lost money compared to selling it last fall, and I had to pay storage now anyway. As I wrote last week, I am spending money hand over fist, so can always use the money.
The anal weather station sold at the auction for $24. The Culti-packer / roller item I was watching sold for $17,000. Jeepers.
I did get the drag I wanted. Paid more than I wanted. It looked like just me and one other guy bidding on it. I fully expected someone else to come in at the last minute like they do…but they didn’t. Isn’t it something how an item may not have much value until two people want it. Suddenly it’s valuable.
But. It’s mine now. Went with my buddy Paul, and all the dogs, and picked it up Friday morning and pulled it home. Bailey stuck her nose in Paul’s ear for a while, and we learned Luna likes ice cubes.
I’m not exactly sure yet how it unfolds or stands up. There’s a crank and a cable…I’ll figure it out at some point. In the field it will look like this, except not so shiny, or clean, or new, or big, and not such a fancy tractor.
Courtesy McFarlaneag.com
Kelly and I were watching the news the other night. Lamenting ordering diesel fuel and the price, lamenting how prices are going up on crop inputs like Urea, lamenting the cost of the drag, lamenting selling the corn I have in storage. And she said to me, “Are we having fun yet?”. Then we got the giggles.
I said that would be good in the blog and as I added that note to my phone list, I saw another note from a while ago:
“Doris Day, annunciation, nice work if you can get it.” Hmmmm. Was Doris Day annunciated? Kelly thought maybe I met “enunciation” and that rang a bell.
I remember hearing her sing ‘Nice Work if you can Get it’ on the radio and how well she enunciates her ‘T’s. An internet search says:
Key aspects of her vocal style include:
Precision and Clarity: She was known for her ability to deliver lyrics with exceptional clarity, often compared to jazz singers in her phrasing.
Breathy Quality: Some listeners identified a distinct, “breathy” quality in her voice, which was a hallmark of her singing and speaking.
Emotional Control: Day was noted for her ability to convey deep emotion in ballads without sacrificing vocal control.
Technical Skill: Her technique included an impressive ability to manage breath control and blend her belt register with her head voice. *AI Overview, Reddit*
Listen to her sing this. Crisp and clear!
And then I go to Mel Torme because he’s just so cool!
I love that twinkle in his eyes when he’s having fun singing.
From there I think to myself, “What is up with you and these singers??” As a kid, I wouldn’t have touched music like that or those performers with a 10’ pole. And now I love it.
Halfway through my BritBox “gift”, I have not yet developed a British accent, but wouldn’t be that surprised; the majority of the voices I’m hearing these days are British (or Australian).
As you can imagine, I’m getting my fill of Sherlock Holmes and Agatha Christie. It’s been years since I saw all of the Jeremy Brett/David Burke episodes. I do think they are my favorite. No offense to Benedict Cumberbatch/Martin Freeman or Basil Rathbone/Nigel Bruce but the Brett/Burke are more accurate to the original stories.
I’m a little hit and miss with Agatha Christie. Some of her stuff I can’t get to because it’s “Premium” and some of the stuff I’m finding is just dreck. But I’m getting enough. “Why Didn’t They Ask Evans” was excellent and I’ve watched a lot of David Suchet as Poirot. One of the most fun things was a documentary that followed the Christies on a worldwide trade mission trip around the world in 1922-23. Archie Christie was on the trip as an assistant to the British envoy and the Agatha was part of the mission to support the support. Although her first book (The Mysterious Affair at Styles) had been published two years earlier and was a huge success, she still wasn’t the wildly famous author she was later to become.
The best tidbit in the documentary was that Agatha Christie learned to surf in Muizenberg, South Africa during that trip. In fact, she is believed to be the first Western woman to stand up on a surf board. She apparently adored surfing. This is an excerpt from a letter to her mother:
“Oh, it was heaven! Nothing like it. Nothing like that rushing through the water at what seemed to you a speed of about two hundred miles an hour. All the way in from the far distant raft until you arrived, gently slowing down, on the beach, and foundered among the soft flowing waves.”
There were also trips in her life to Hawaii, where she again spent time riding the waves. It’s wonderful to think of Agatha as young and vigorous, since most of her fame came after this and most of the photos we see of her are from her older years.
Makes me hope that some of my favorite authors have a secret life that we don’t know about. Maybe John Scalzi has swum with dolphins. Maybe Andy Weir has time traveled to another planet and back. Maybe Naomi Novik has flown dragonback.
What fun facts would you love to know about your favorite authors?
I’m having fun churning through a bunch of “listicle” books in preparation for Blevins. Shipwrecks, Nellie Bly, plants, more plants and Phineas Fogg.
The latest is The History of the World in 100 Objects, which was a BBC radio show awhile back. I found the CDs through Interlibrary Loan and it’s prodigious – 20 discs! It comes with a pamphlet that have 100 teeny little black and white photos of the items. Luckily I was able to find a website that has nicer photos of the objects, so I’ve been keeping that open while I listen to the CDs.
It’s well done – not nearly as stuffy as I was expecting – and I’m enjoying it, although I’m having to keep at it since you can’t renew ILL items.
All the items are in the British Museum, including a statue of Chicomecoatl, the Aztec of Goddess of Maize and Sustenance. The narration starts out with an overview of food having a divine role throughout history and then moves on to the history of maize, the plant it derives from and where it grows (just about everywhere). Then came this funny bit:
“But crucially, maize is a rich carbohydrate that gives you a rapid energy hit. But it is, let’s face it, pretty stodgy, and so from very early on, farmers also cultivated an ingenious – and tasty – accompaniment, the indigenous chili. It has virtually no nutritional value but, as we all know, it’s uniquely able to liven up dull carbohydrates – and it shows that we’ve been foodies for as long as we’ve been farmers.”
I laughed out loud especially since I had just added a slug of frozen poblanos to a dish I had made about an hour before. Now I want to go to Penzey’s to see if they have any good chili mixtures.
I mentioned the opera movie on Saturday. Kelly and I are going. Lots of video and looks like some fun scenery so I’ll enjoy that part. And having a date with Kelly. And popcorn. And I’ll get a nap during the rest of it. But the projections look cool!
Same old, same old here. More snow, more cold. It hasn’t been this cold in a few years. Anything above minus 20F doesn’t really count you know. Minus 20, OK, now we’re talking cold. It’s rather exhilarating isn’t it? It was -21F Friday morning.
I made sure the chickens had extra feed and I filled their water and they puff out their feathers like wild birds do and they’re fine. The two chickens living in the garage usually walk down to the crib during the day, but today everybody just stays inside.
You know, I can give them a bucket of fresh water and they’ll still drink out of the bucket of dirty water. The dogs do the same thing. Here’s a pail of fresh water and they’re over drinking out of a mud puddle.
Fresh water
dirty water has more flavor.
I was part of a zoom meeting this past week on cover crops, and in a few weeks is a meeting on food grade oats. A lot of continuing education happens in winter for farmers. Because, you know, we don’t have anything going on… (sarcasm!)
I thought I’d talk about the history of our farm.
My Great Grandparents came to the farm in 1898.
My grandfather was 4. They arrived from Germany in 1882 and had moved around this area a bit before ending up in our valley. Gustave and Ernestina Hain arrived in the US with 3 girls. Three more girls and my grandfather Carl were born here. My grandfather wrote an autobiography in 1973 and I’m getting some photos from that and some photos I have at home. He loved cutting the head off one picture and glueing it onto another. The original photoshop.
Grandpa and Grandma way back when.
Here is the oldest photo of the farm.
The dairy barn in the background was built in 1920. There’s a granary out of sight behind the house that was built in 1899. Can you see a child playing in the road in the foreground? One of my uncles, never been sure who that was.
This next photo was taken sometime in the 1950’s.
The dairy barn in the lower portion has been expanded twice. My grandpa, uncle, and dad added to one end in the early 1940’s. Then in the 1950’s dad added the lean-to on the back. That allowed a second row of cows inside the barn.
The granary in the upper right corner was originally twice as big as I remember it. Grandpa writes that when the barn was finished, people wanted a dance. “I remember that nice floor, 24 x 48 of clear space. There was a big crowd, about four boys to each girl. Everybody was having a great time until a fight started. After the fight was stopped, Father was very angry. He said “You better all go home now.” and nobody stopped to ask questions. So you see even in the good old days, a few can always spoil a good time.”
Dad had torn off the front half by the time I was around. He said the back of the barn was so dark the calves would end up blind. There was part of a stone wall standing until I pushed it over last summer. I wanted to push it over 25 years ago and dad didn’t think that was a good idea. So I kept working around it. After I pushed it over, it was too dang big and heavy to move and I haven’t managed to break it apart yet, so I’m still working around it except now it’s lying flat and ten feet further into my way. The granary collapsed in 2013 with a heavy snow. We’ve salvaged some boards from it. The frame was built with wood pegs. Kind of a cool old barn.
In the left middle of the photo are two old buildings I don’t remember. Dad said there was a machine shed there, because after every rain I’d pick up nails in the road. So many tree’s around the house! And notice the one silo by the barn.
This photo is from 1969.
The new house was built in 1968, and in the bottom right corner is the outhouse we used while living in the machine shed. The old house was torn down and the new house built in the same place. I was only 4 at the time, so I don’t remember anything about the old house, and just a few tidbits of living in the machine shed. There’s a corn crib, which is now the chicken coop in the middle right. A new silo behind the barn, built in 1968. And you can sort of see the granary minus the front half.
My parents sold some land in 1967, i think that’s how they afforded a silo AND a new house in 1968.
My dad was one of 5 boys. The three oldest served in WWII. Dad, being the youngest, had to stay home and help on the farm. He always regretted that. He had a collection of rifle shells and bullets used in the war. I heard he had them mounted on a board. Apparently they were live shells. Mom never liked it, especially with kids in the house, and when the new corn crib was being built, she took the board down and threw it in the cement. Eventually Dad forgave her.
Notice all the tree’s behind the barn. They will be missing in the next few years. There’s a pole barn back there now and I haven’t figured out yet when that was built. The old silo in the front was torn down about 1975. We remember that because my brother and dad used a sledge hammer to knock out silo blocks and I sat on the hill with my brothers girlfriend and he met her in ’75. It is always fascinating that you need to knock out 3/4’s of the blocks before the silo will fall over. Dad hauled the refuse back behind the barn where the pole barn is.
1995
Quite a jump to his photo taken about 1995. We added an addition to the back of the house just before our daughter was born. The pile of trees in the field in the bottom was from that project. The second silo from 1976 is there, the pole barn is there.
With all the internet mapping these days, a photo of your house is no big deal. It used to be *quite* the deal when the airplay would fly over and a month later some guy would drive in with a photo of the farm. Farmers were suckers for those photos. And think about it; everything you worked for, all in one photo to show off. With any luck they took it from different directions over the years so you could see the background. It wasn’t cheap; it was a few hundred dollars it seems like. Less if you didn’t buy the frame.
Somewhere I have a photo with me standing in front of the barn. I heard that low flying airplane and walked out there and got into the picture.
This picture is grandma and grandpa and my four uncles. Taken before dad was born. He came around in 1925.
Grandpa didn’t write about this photo. Not sure I believe he was only 16 here.
Grandpa wrote, “When I was 17,18,19,20, and 21, I call them my fun years. The less said about them, the better. I wll say they passed by very quickly Oh yes, those were the days.”
I’d sure like to know what was up, that rascal. He and his fiancé eloped to Red Wing and got married in about 1918. Being the only boy, he also had to stay home and farm and missed WW1.
I’ve always said I have really deep roots. 128 years in one place.
I am sure it comes as no surprise that I have had this as an earworm all week.
This got me thinking about the history of protest songs, which I learned goes back centuries. It wasn’t until the 16th century and the invention of the printing press that protest songs were written down. They existed word of mouth before this. After Guttenberg, protest songs were often printed as broadsides and handed out in the streets. They were also sung in taverns and other meeting places. They were composed in response to religious and political upheaval as well as poor working conditions and economic inequality.
I found a recording of a very early German protest song from the 16th Century Peasant Revolt. It champions freedom of thoughts and ideas. It has been somewhat modernized, of course. It is amazing to see how many centuries-old protest songs are available to listen to on-line. One good source was the website for The First Amendment Museum, a museum located in Maine.
Yankee Doodle and A Mighty Fortress are protest songs. I imagine Baboons are most familiar with protest songs from the 1960’s and 1970’s. Husband recomnended this one:
I hope there are protest songs being written right now, and that we get to hear them. They are the earworms we need to have.
What protest songs you are you familiar with? Do some research and find older protest songs from other centuries.
The holidays brought me a nice cache of giftcards so yesterday I had a “gift card day”. Dunkin for breakfast on the way to knee therapy. Blicks Art Supply. Barnes & Noble. Taco Bell. A great day.
I spent about an hour wandering around Barnes & Noble. As a dedicated library patron, I have to admit that I haven’t been inside a bookstore since last year when Jacque’s sister was signing her latest book at Once Upon a Crime. Nothing against bookstores but my pocketbook prefers the library system.
Anyway… as I was checking everything out, I found two tables that had various history books piled up. I’m assuming that B&N stores get table recommendations from headquarters with a few title suggestions but that most of the books are picked for display by store employees. (That’s how it was back in my day in the bookstore.) The history tables had the look of employees having a bunch of fun. History of the World in Twelve Shipwrecks, History of America in Ten Expeditions, History of the World in Six Glasses. Clearly this is a trend and it reminded me of a couple of titles I’ve read – A History of the World in 100 Objects and Orchid Muse: History of Obsession in Fifteen Flowers. 100 Objects started as a BBC radio series – I stumbled upon in once it was published in book form. It looks at objects from all over the world, from as long ago as 2 million years. It was absolutely fascinating. Orchid Muse was a book I read last year as part of my Rivers & Ridges Book Festival experience. The author was at the festival so I got to hear her speak – a lot of extra little details that weren’t in the book.
I didn’t realize that history in a set number of lessons was a thing but if you do a quick internet search, you can find a glut of these books. 47 Borders, 50 Books, 50 Failures, 12 Maps, 500 Walks, 50 Lies. I could go on but this is enough and it makes me wonder if authors are starting out to do a “number of things” or if they have an area of interest and publishers/agents push them in that direction?
Any other suggestions for “History of the World in”…….?
Trail Baboon 