Category Archives: Kids

2025, animals, Business, Family, Farming Update, gardening, Health, Kids, Nature, pets, Science, Seasons, Stories, Technology, Weather

ONE OF THESE IS NOT LIKE THE OTHER

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The weekend farm report from XDFBen

ONE OF THESE IS NOT LIKE THE OTHER

Wow, Man, what a week again. Thursday night I hit a gumption trap so hard, I had a rootbeer float and popcorn for supper…

We have baby guineas! I had seen one sitting on a nest behind the machine shed a few weeks ago, and we talked about getting the eggs into an incubator but never got too it. Next time I looked the nest was empty and there were broken eggs. Momma was nowhere to be found, and we feared the worst. A week later I saw her and a bunch of chicks heading into a corn field. Typically, guineas are not the best moms. But this group seems to ‘community parent’ and they’re doing surprisingly well.

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As you can image, the real world is a tough place for a little chick. They could fall into a hole, they could get eaten or lost. It’s a tough place. But yeah, they’re doing well and getting big enough they might just make it. They’re not quite pigeon sized, and they hop and flutter and there’s always that one that’s six feet away and running to catch up.

I cut down a bunch of box elder tree’s growing over a fence down around the barn yard. Treated all the stumps. Then tore out the old feed bunk augers and cement bunks. Don’t need them anymore and it will help open up the yard.

The cow yard, before.
The cow yard after.
Tree’s before
No more tree’s. Looks better.

Dad built the first silo in 1968 and installed these augers. When the second silo was built in 1976, the whole feed bunk was turned 90 degrees and the cement bunks installed. Then it was 1978 when I stuck my leg into this.

The augers I stuck my leg in. Hard to visualize from this picture how it was set up when working. I’m just really lucky.

As I tore it out, I thought about that. I don’t harbor any resentment. These bunks fed a LOT of cattle over the years and provided for two families. They served their purpose well.

I put the forklift extensions on and used the loader forks to lift the old bunks out. I expected animals to be living under them, but nope, nothing. I’ve been asked why I’m doing this, and to what end? Just to clean up. There is no end goal. It would never be used again, why save it?

The oats got harvested Friday and Saturday. Yield wasn’t very good, the oats didn’t even fill a semi. Ended up at 735 bushels, meaning about 31 bu / acre. According to the oat people on FB, oats has been all over the place this year. At least the test weight was 34.6 meaning the elevator would take it. Wasn’t heavy enough to be food grade, nor was it enough bushels to mess around with.

Lots of straw! I ended up with 900 small square bales. Put 700 in the barn.

The hole in the middle is where the elevator was.

I had the three teenage boys helping and I couldn’t have done it without them. They were great. The one doing the most work, number 3, (and treated as the odd wheel out by the first two for some reason), had a broken toe (dropped a barbell weight on his foot). Ah, the teenage mentality.

I baled 3 loads of straw on Monday, the boys came out Tuesday and we unloaded the first two, just throwing them into the empty barn. Then we put the elevator up and unloaded the third. I baled three more loads Tuesday afternoon.

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Wednesday, I started back at the college. You know what that means. Sleeves.

The boys came out at 5PM and we unloaded those three loads. 700 in the barn. Full enough. Haven’t had it this full in a few years. The boys rode in the wagon and we went to the field to bale up another load. And to stack this one as it will sit for a few months until the neighborhood berry farm is ready for it. I’d put one kid in the tractor with me, and the other two stacked on the wagon. I only hit one kid with a bale. He moved! I was aiming to the side and as the bale kicked, he stepped to that side. Oops. He was OK. Straw is light.

I’d have them rotate positions so they all got to ride in the tractor (and the AC) and they all thought it was pretty neat in there too.

Tractor view
Number 2 and 3 Padawan’s stacking in wagon. Number 1 is in the tractor with me.
Pretty proud of themselves. I couldn’t have done it without them.

I noticed on Friday, one of the rear wheel bearings on a wagon is gone. So that wagon is out of service until I can get new bearings. Hopefully it hasn’t damaged the wheel hub or axle.

And then Wednesday night, backing the stacked wagon into the shed, and the front wheels are not aligned. What the heck?? Tie rods are bend. Jeepers. Not sure when or how that happened. And I moved it a bit more to back it in and one wheel goes completely sideways. Well heck.

Huh!

So, I pulled that wagon in backward to at least get it under cover and out of the way. More repairs. Add it to the list.

AND THEN- Thursday evening and I’m taking down the bale elevator and the lift cable snapped and it all fell to the ground. Words were said. It didn’t break anything. It was about 8’ up and I was lowing it to transport height of about 6’ when it dropped. I dragged it to the shop and Kelly and I worked on it for an hour. Gumption traps were hit several times until I blocked it up with an old pallet and we called it a night. So that’s three things. I should be done now for a while. Right?

HUH!!

Corn and soybeans look great! We have reached the point we cannot make any more management decisions to help the crop. The last thing done was aerial application of fungicide. Now the crop just has to finish out the season. One neighbor called me upset about aerial application too close to his house. I understand that and will take steps in the future to create a buffer zone. However, by the time it gets from me to the agronomist to the company to the pilot, I’m not sure what will actually happen. Not an excuse, just warning him a lot is out of my control.

DID SOMEONE HAVE THEIR EYE ON YOU AS A CHILD?

WHAT WOULD YOU TELL YOUR TEENAGE SELF?

2025, Art, Kids, Uncategorized

Chalk It Up

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This is a late “tradition” story.

Eight years ago, my new neighbors moved in.  Two parents, one daughter; later a second daughter rounded out the family.  Early on it was clear that Minnie (the older daughter) and I had a clear affinity for chalk.  Often when Minnie was out doing chalk artwork on their driveway, I would go over for a bit and join in. 

When my next birthday rolled around, Minnie and her folks came over and did chalkwork all over my front sidewalk.  It was wonderful – lots of colors, flowers and rainbows.  After that, every year, we would have a chalk party.  A couple of other kids in the neighborhood joined in.  I even found glitter chalk online to add to the festivities.

This summer, the family moved a few blocks away and while I briefly thought about asking if the girls wanted to come over, I let it go as they are so busy with camps until school starts.  On Monday afternoon, YA texted me from downstairs (she was working from home and I was upstairs) that Marie (younger daughter) was at the door.  I hurried down and found the whole family outside, working on a spectacular birthday chalk display, down the whole sidewalk, up and down some of the driveway, even on the steps up to the house.

There is a fun “dance zone”

An exhortation to sing

And the obligatory hopscotch

Marie and I did the hopscotch several times and after some more chat and hugs, they all headed home.  That’s when I teared up a little – it was so special that they came over to do this for me.  Hopefully this tradition can keep going for a few more years.  I’m assuming that once Minnie and Marie hit their teenage years, coming over to do art on their “neighborhood gramma’s” sidewalk won’t be all that appealing!

When was the last time you jumped hopscotch?  Any notable chalk artwork in your  past?

2025, Farming Update, Food, Kids, Nature, Seasons

Corn Time!

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When I was down on the farm last Friday, Ben took me on a tour around the fields – it’s one of my favorite things about visiting.  The corn was tall but weren’t showing any ears yet.  Ben explained about where the ears start to form and we also talked about the difference between field corn and sweet corn.  He commented that sweet corn is a bit ahead of field corn and in Iowa, there might be sweet corn already.  I’m such a city girl – I love earning about farm stuff.

He was proved incredibly on the mark.  As I was driving home, YA texted me that our former neighbors had dropped off some sweet corn for us; they had been visiting the grandparents in southern Iowa!

YA and I both love corn but for some reason the first sweet corn of the season is really special.  We dragged the grill out of the garage on Saturday and roasted all the corn along with some veggie brats.  Ate on our little patio in the backyard – it was perfect weather for the first corn lunch.

Yesterday, I used up the last of the ears.  I was too impatient to drag out cookbooks and look for recipes so I just kind of made it up as I went along.  This is what I made:

Corn Salsa
2 ears of corn, kernels removed from the cob
½ red onion, finely chopped
1 hot pepper, finely chopped (I used a pepper from our garden called “salsa pepper” – it was hotter than I anticipated, but not too hot to eat.  A less hot pepper would be fine.)
3 T. chopped cilantro (also from garden)
Juice of one lime
Salt & pepper to taste
Mix it all together.  Eat.ll

Elote Off the Cob
2 ears of corn, kernels removed from the cob
¾ c. cotijo cheese, crumbled
1 roma tomato, finely chopped
About 1/3 c. mayonnaise (not Miracle Whip because YA doesn’t like it)
2 T. cilantro, chopped (from garden)
2 T. chives chopped (from garden)
¼ tsp. tajin (if you don’t have tajin, you can use chili pepper & cumin)
Juice of half a lime
Salt & pepper to taste
Again, mix it all together!

Neither of these were big recipes, so I don’t expect the corn will last long.  We’ll do plenty more corn this summer, but these first six ears were the best!

Favorite summer foods?

2025, Family, Health, Kids, Medicine, Mysteries, News, Stories

A Little Hard to Swallow

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In weird news this week, it’s been reported in the South China Morning Post that a 64-year old man has undergone surgery to remove a toothbrush from his stomach.  The kicker is that he swallowed the toothbrush when he was 12.  Apparently he was afraid to tell his parents and figured that it would just dissolve.  Turns out even stomach acid is no match for hard plastic – his stomach started to bother him last year.

It took the surgery team 80 minutes to remove the 7-inch toothbrush – it was stuck in “a crook of the intestine” where it had been living happily for decades.  Yikes.

I’m not sure how you can swallow a toothbrush but as Hamlet said “more things in heaven and earth”.  Maybe he is one of those folks who brushes their tongue with their toothbrush and got a little carried away?  Maybe the dog surprised him in the bathroom while he was brushing?  Maybe he was practicing to become a sword swallower?

What kind of toothbrush do you use?  Toothpaste?  Floss?

2025, Gatherings, Kids, Uncategorized

Summer Camp

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I drive past the local college every day on my way to work. Yesterday I noticed quite a few school buses in the college parking lot, signs that the week long summer high school football camp was starting.

My agency used to be housed in a former dorm at the college, and the building overlooked the college practice field. We could watch and hear the 100 or so boys as they practiced their tackles and formations. I can’t imagine what the dorms and food service were like all week.

Our children attended music camps and Concordia Language Villages in the summer. We especially liked the Suzuki Camp our daughter attended in Montreal for a couple of summers, with an added benefit that we attended with her. I usually attended church camp a kid. Husband was a camp counselor for a couple of summers at a church camp near his home in Wisconsin. One highlight was the night the Grade 5 and Grade 6 boys in his cabin caught about 50 frogs and let them loose in the cabin. Ah, Youth!

Did you attend summer camp? How did you spend your time in the summer when you were a kid?

2025, gardening, home, Kids, Uncategorized

Rewarded!

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We rolled the stump down to the boulevard.  I didn’t think that anybody driving along would see it and think “hey, we could use a big stump for something, couldn’t we?” and take it.  I was hoping however that it was small enough that the yard waste folks would take it.  Nope.  Turns out that they’re fairly strict about that kind of thing and my Plan B of rolling it into my trash can was quashed when I saw in the garbage/recycling website that it is actually illegal to put “substantial” yardwaste into your garbage can.

YA was not tricked into thinking that chopping up the stump was a fun way to spend her time so I finally decided to tackle it myself.  If I chopped it into small chunks, I could put them in my yard wastebags with my run-of-the-mill weeds.  In order to make myself do this, I had to say “just 20 minutes”.  It helps that our little chainsaw has a fairly short battery life so 20 minutes is about all I can do at one shot.  At the rate it was taking, I figured this would be a 10 or 12 day project.

While I was working on this, I noticed a woman working on the yard kitty corner to me.  She didn’t look familiar and there was a name emblazoned on her pick-up that indicated she had been hired, as opposed to living there.  As I continued on other yard projects, I noticed she was coming across the street.  Turns out she is the mother of the gal who apparently has just bought the place.  She asked about what kind of bags the city requires and I pointed out my paper bags.   I asked her if she needed a couple and I gave her two and when she asked, I gave her directions to Menards which is about as cheap as you can find the bags these days.  We talked about what you could and couldn’t put out; I told her about leaving bigger branches/small logs out for people to take.  I then mentioned that the city wouldn’t take my stump which was why she had seen me cutting bits off.  To my surprise she immediately said she could take the stump in her truck; her home is on 30 acres in Wisconsin and she has a perfect place to dump it.  I was stunned.  And grateful.  I almost offered her more bags.

So within 5 minutes, we had rolled the stump into her wheelbarrow, pushed the wheelbarrow across the street and gotten the little monster into the back of her pickup.   After three weeks of it sitting on the boulevard, miraculously and suddenly it’s gone!

I don’t think I’ve ever had a good deed of mine reward me so quickly and so wonderfully. 

Can you think of a time a good deed has paid dividends?

2025, Family, home, Kids, Seasons, Uncategorized

Freezing

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The only issue I have when we visit our son is the temperature of his home. He lives in a split level home, and the guest room is in the lower level. No matter the time of year, I always freeze in his house. I am always pretty cold in most settings, I must admit, but it is really cold for me there. (I have a space heater under my desk at work that I run most of the year, but our office building is generally experienced as a cold place and they can’t seem to regulate the temperature.)

Son got heat stroke a couple of summers ago and keeps the house very cool ever since, especially at night. The design of the house means that the cold air stays in the lower level and the hot air rises to the upper level. There is a big ceiling fan on both levels, but they don’t seem to do much in terms of drawing the warm air downstairs or pushing the cold air upstairs. Son and DIL spend most of their time on the upper level. Son closes the vents in the lower level in the summer, but I am still cold. I wore a down vest around the house on Sunday.

I sometimes resort to surreptitiously turning up the thermostat when no one is looking, but Son notices and turns it back down to 70°. That doesn’t sound cold, I know, but 70° there feels a lot colder than 70° in our house. I am thankful he has nice down comforters on the beds so I am warm enough when I sleep.

What are your standards for house temperatures?Where have you visited or stayed where you been the most uncomfortable? Ever had heat stroke or heat exhaustion?

2025, Family, Food, Gatherings, Kids, Uncategorized

Positive Peer Pressure

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The Baby Sprinkle held at our Son and Dil’s home on Saturday was a lot of fun. It was attended by us, Dil’s mother, and six couples and their children, the couples being family friends. Their children are all the same age, between Grades 1 and 4. .

The women spent the Sprinkle coloring funny pictures on diapers and onesies, while the guys were in the downstairs playing a new, baby-oriented Dungeons and Dragons game Son had developed. Many of the families have children who attend the same Boys and Girls Club daycare as our grandson.

It was really funny to hear the moms talk about their amazement at the vegetables their children eat at Club and not at home. The children have been coming home asking for “those crescent-moon shaped green beans” (lima beans) and the little cabbages (Brussels Sprouts) that they get at Club. Grandson declares he loves romaine lettuce as long as it has French dressing on it. He is a very picky eater, and the lettuce is a real surprise. He has never eaten lettuce at home prior to this.

These kids are eating vegetables because they see their friends eating vegetables! How wonderful! No amount of parental pressure could accomplish this at home.

What were your favorite and least favorite vegetables as a child? How were you positively influenced by your peers? Ever play Dungeons and Dragons?

2025, Family, Kids, Music, Uncategorized

First Instrument

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Our 7 year old grandson has taken a keen interest in his mother’s Ibanez acoustic guitar, and spends up to an hour at a time trying to pick out chords and play tunes on it. His dad taught him the tune “Nothing Else Matters” by Metallica that he likes to pluck out.

Grandson isn’t big enough for a full size guitar, so yesterday we went to Sioux Falls and got him a three-quarter size Yamaha guitar. It fits him really well, and has just the right sized neck and fretboard. He is very excited! His parents have been in touch with a Brookings guitar teacher and are going to sign him up for lessons this week. His new sibling will arrive in August, and he will need something to keep him occupied when all the attention is on the new little one.

My first instrument after the piano was a B flat clarinet. Son had a trombone. Daughter was so excited to get her French Horn in Grade 5 that she marched around the block blasting on it. The first time she saw a violin that a friend had brought over to the house to jam with Husband, she almost wrestled him to the ground to get it away from him. She was 5. Husband set up violin lessons for her the next day. Husband had a cello, and still has one he loves to play. Daughter in law is a piano and flute player.

Grandson assures me that practicing won’t be a problem. We shall see. It is lovely, though, to have another musician in the family.

What was your first instrument? If you are an older sibling, how did you adjust to your younger siblings’ arrival. If you have older siblings, how did they react to your arrival?

2025, Baboon Achievers, gardening, home, Kids, Uncategorized, work

Young Entrepreneurs

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Husband had just finished mowing the lawn on Monday when two boys, looking to be about 11 or 12, came by offering to mow for us. They had their own mower. Husband explained he had just finished mowing, but they would certainly be welcome in the future to do it for us. Their asking price was reasonable.

I never had a “business” as a kid, unless you count babysitting. Girls in Luverne didn’t hire out to do lawn work back then. The boys who came by on Monday looked energetic and excited. There aren’t as many older people in the neighborhood as there used to be, so I hope they don’t get discouraged if they don’t get as much business as they hoped.

Husband has arthritis in his hands. I am having increased mobility issues with chronic sciatica, probably caused by lumbar scoliosis. I can see us hiring more yard work done in the future.

Did you have a business as a kid? What tasks do you see yourself hiring others to do in the future? If you were 12 right now, what business would you start?