Today’s post comes to us from Barbara in Rivertown.
Our 2008 Prius finally gave up the fight on Sunday, September 7, thankfully on the way HOME from our Unitarian Church Service. It started up from a stop light hesitantly with little power, made it a couple blocks and then I had to pull over. After I turned it off and on again, it got us home, but I didn’t trust it farther than around the block.
uckily, we had already been looking at a used Prius at Hi-Tech Auto on the edge of Rushford, MN, half an hour from here. We got through the the rest of the week through the kindness of friends – getting rides and borrowing cars – and managed to buy our “new” 2015 Prius on Friday, September 12th.
Parts of those 5 days were spent cleaning out the old car, and after 16 years of ownership, just imagine what we found! The following list is mostly from the glove compartment, and that “well” between the seats.
5 partial packets of Kleenex
15 plastic forks and/or spoon sets
35 take-out napkins
5 pairs of pierced earrings (for when I forget)
2 first aid kits and one sewing kit
my spare pair of glasses (former prescription)
4 emery boards
2 tire pressure gauges
lotion and hand sanitizer, Chapstick
tiny tape measure
corkscrew, church key
packets of Off repellent
and of course, loose change
If you cleaned out your car, especially the glove box, what items might you find?
On Saturday we had our plumber over to fix a couple of leaky faucets preparatory to our home inspection. He did a good job, as usual, and then I had him look at the dishwasher.
I noticed about a couple of months ago that I could pull the dishwasher forward and back almost 3 inches. This was a new development. It never moved like that before. Daryl the plumber took a look and noticed that the four screws that secured the dishwasher to the sides of the cabinets had all been pulled out. He also showed me how short they were. He got four much longer screws and secured the dishwasher back in place. He was at a loss to explain how the short screws could have been pulled out like that.
On Sunday I was loading the dishwasher with the usual assistance of Kyrill the Cesky Terrier. He likes to do the pre-rinse on the dishes on the bottom rack and lick any delectables off the open dishwasher door. He has done this since we got him. Kyrill is a short dog of great length who can only get to the farthest dishes and door surface by standing with his front paws on the door. Sometimes he even jumps up so his whole body is on the open door. Did I mention he now weighs 30 lbs? Bingo. Mystery solved. I believe Kyrill, in his selfless attempts to help us as much as he can, stripped the dishwasher screws by putting his weight on the door. I am afraid he isn’t allowed to help us with the dishes anymore.
What repairs have you had to make due to animals? Any mysteries in your life lately? How are you at setting limits with pets?
I read for a lot of reasons. One of them is to find new ideas or to be reminded of ideas I may have had in the past.
The book I just finished (not revealing the title as there would be spoilers otherwise) had a fairly absurd premise but then managed to present several trains of thought that were tantalizing. A huge asteroid is heading for Earth and scientists have determined that it will wipe out everyone and everything in two years, six weeks.
One character, who works in banking, came up with a scheme that basically defrauds people but will make the bank a ton of moolah. His theory is that by the time folks figure out they’ve been defrauded, the world will be ending. Sadly the other members of the board agreed with him.
Another character, an aging rock and roll star, was facing terminal cancer and decided to end his life so that his music royalties would go to his first ex-wife as soon as possible. He also made an extremely heartfelt apology to her for how he had treated her back in the day.
A third character, an anthropologist, was worried about the end of civilization before the end of the world. Why, he postulated, would be the incentive to keep working? Who would do the jobs that keep us all fed and clothed?
This last character’s questions have remained with me for days now. Whenever there is some news of an asteroid that’s coming close to the planet, I do muse about the end of days. But I have never considered what would happen if we KNEW it was end of days for sure. How could we keep civilization going? How would I personally get by until the end? Would I feel the need to atone for my “sins”? I’m not sure, but I think I would definitely make a trip to Alaska, the only state in the union I haven’t visited.
Anything on your bucket list you’d like to do if you knew the world was ending in two years and six weeks?
When I started the rough draft of this blog Thursday, I didn’t have much farm stuff to talk about. Now Friday afternoon and I’ve got a few farm related things.
I needed some straw bales for Friday. First of the 2025 crop to be used and climbing up into the straw pile and trying to hit the truck bed was a challenge.
Trying to aim under the rafter and get the bales in the truck bed.
We hosted daughters group, PossAbilities, and gave them a wagon ride through the fields. Kinda cold and windy, but they had blankets, Kelly made hot chocolate for them when they returned, and they enjoyed it.
I hauled in the scrap iron on Thursday. The wagons I pulled out of the trees and scrapped last week.
The net weight of the scrap was 3200 lbs.
The cranes are always fun to watch. My goodness, the amount of scrap is overwhelming. Juxtaposed with such a pretty blue sky!
I took secondary roads there, and I took gravel back roads most of the way home. I saw two Bald Eagles eating something that left a pretty good sized red spot in the field. I saw more of those ‘Bigfoot’ silhouettes. A few farmers are starting to chop some corn, and lots of guys are doing 3rd or 4th crop hay.
A couple months ago when our fridge died, we purged a lot, and moved a lot to the basement chest freezer and spare fridge downstairs. I still haven’t figured out why the new freezer section upstairs is so empty. What happened to all that stuff?? I thought we needed it? Isn’t that a story for our times…”But, I need that!” No, evidently, no you don’t.
One of the things missing from the upstairs freezer was the last loaf of chocolate chip Amish friendship bread I had made back in March. Most of us freeze and savor those summer time flavors in January. Here in September I’m remembering last winter. I didn’t think I’d have thrown it out as I know the chocolate is bad for dogs. The chickens would have loved it, but I just didn’t remember doing that. Took a month, but I found it in a bag in the chest freezer and I’ve been enjoying it. It’s not as dried out as I thought it might be, and I look forward to baking more this winter.
When I was researching how to remove those old tires last week, I saw one video where the guy talked about using diamond tipped cutting blades. The cheap abrasive cut-off blades I can buy at big box stores wear away quick. They’re about $3 each, but as the name implies, ‘abrasive cut off’, meaning they wear out as fast as they’re cutting. Cutting off the 16 tires I used 4 small, 4” wheels, and one 7” wheel. So I went shopping online for diamond tipped wheels. An “Indestructible” wheel comes in a 5 pack. Well, Huh. You see where I’m going with this? If… then why…?
I ordered a 3 pack of diamond tipped cut off wheels. We’ll see what happens when I get to the next set of old tires.
(There might be a photo here if I remember to go out to the shed and take a photo)
I REMEMBERED!
Abrasive disc on the top, diamond disc on the bottom
Kelly and I have a joke that I can’t find anything if you’re going to put it under my nose. This morning it was my cell phone. It was 6” away from where I was looking. No wonder I couldn’t find it. I had to borrow daughters phone to call mine and track it down. I was the kid with my mittens attached to my sleeves…Why is that getting worse instead of better?
We’ve talked before about that magic ten minutes in the morning. Every. Morning. It was later than usual one morning. Daughter and I got in the car to leave and she says “I was pretty fast this morning, wasn’t I.” Uh. Not really. But I don’t know why. Maybe it was petting the dogs longer than we should have. Which seems like a pretty good excuse. One night she was mad at me for not letting her do something. She begged and pleaded and then stormed off yelling “YOU’RE NOT MY REAL DAD!” I replied, “Actually, biology has nothing to do with this.” and then I got the giggles. She didn’t think it was so funny but a few minutes later we talked it over. She gets over stuff quick. I like that. 
Last weekend Kelly and I attended a wedding in St. Paul. It was at a relatively new wedding venue called Le VENERÉ. A pretty nice place. Newly remodeled. The Groom told me when they toured it in February it was full of scaffolding. It is an old building with a really cool stone foundation. They had a 1920’s ‘Speakeasy’ theme and encouraged people to dress the part. I wore sleeves. And after looking up 1920’s styles, just decided to order a cheap 1970’s style ruffled shirt like I had in high school. It came with a bow tie that wouldn’t fit around my fat neck, so I just wore it on my sleeve. Kelly and I drove up Friday and had a weekend vacation. We had a great time at the wedding with friends.
You all know I have an affinity for Godzilla movies. I don’t know why. Most of them aren’t all that well made and of course they are pretty violent. But like many of the mysteries in life, Godzilla and I seem to keep crossing paths.
It happened again last week when I stumbled across Godzilla Minus One, which came out in 2023, written and directed by Takashi Yamazaki. This is the 37th film in the Godzilla franchise and I’m pretty sure I’ve seen most of them. While Minus One got great reviews, I wasn’t holding my breath.
There is much more of a human element to this one, although seeing the aftermath of WWII on the ordinary Japanese citizen was depressing. Then this massive, basically indestructible monster comes and destroys what little is left. And, as always, nobody can ever say why Godzilla does what he does.
I noticed right away that this Godzilla is a really good match for the earlier Godzillas. Of course, much better CGI and photography but his spiny back and the shape of his head and neck were just like the classic. And then towards the end, I thought “this music sounds so familiar”. After the movie was over, I found the original 1954 Godzilla with soundtrack composed by Akira Ifukube. This is apparently now known as The Ifukube March and has been used in several of the movies over the years:
The composer for Godzilla Minus One (Naoki Sato) did a great salute by incorporating the march into the final “battle scene”:
If you had suggested to me when I was younger that someday I would know enough about Godzilla to recognize his classic form and his classic music, I would have laughed until I cried. Guess I’d better get out the tissues.
Going to work early one morning and there was the football team, under the stadium lights, all in uniform, having practice. Whew, I think early morning practices would be tough. Like getting up to exercise.
We saw a “V” of geese flying over one day.
Later I listened to about 2 dozen barn swallows gathered on an electric line chittering and chattering and having quite the discussion about when and where to go. Although the ‘where’ is pretty well defined, at least in general. South. Everybody. Just head south.
Kelly got one of those hotel sales calls that would take us someplace south if we just listened to a sales pitch. We don’t like to make hasty decisions, and I didn’t realize the salesperson was on hold while Kelly and I talked a few times. Then the salesperson’s manager came on and tried to shame Kelly for keeping the person on the phone for so long and not immediately just saying ‘Yes’. Snort. Give her attitude, will you? Click.
We will not be going south.
I had my first day of class. Forensic Chemistry. It’s a hybrid class, meaning a lot of it is done online, then we meet Wednesdays for lab. My friend Paul is taking a writing class. Here’s our first day of class photo.
FIRST DAY OF CLASS
I got the front end off the wagon where the wheels went wonky.
It’s not supposed to look like this. I have a nephew, Matt, who is a welder. He’ll be coming to look at it and see if it’s salvageable. A lot of cracks and old welds where the axle attaches to the frame. Old welds must be mine, but I don’t remember fixing this.
Mid-September there will be another online auction in Plainview. Last week when I dragged all the old machinery out of the trees, I pulled out a pretty nice disc. I had used it for several years until I got something bigger and better. I cleaned the disc up, greased it, and towed it to the auction.
WIDE LOAD COMING THROUGH
It is 20’ wide so I took up most of the road and part of the shoulder. I try to take the back roads when I do this sort of thing, but I have to get to the back roads first. Most traffic was pretty respectful. I had the SMV sign on the back, and I bought two magnetic flashing lights, one for the front corner, and one for the back corner. I travelled about 25 MPH. When able, I’d pull over and let traffic pass me.
Then I got to the road where they were painting new lines on the road. And putting cones down. I knocked over the first two cones before I figured out how far I needed to move over. And I scared a couple garbage cans. But I got it there in one piece.
The next day I took in a 24’ bale elevator, but that was on a trailer and wasn’t any big deal.
Several times, Kelly and I would go outside planning to do “this” and we’d go off and do “that” instead. And we’d laugh, “This isn’t what I came out to do…” Yep, but it needed doing anyway.
I picked an ear of corn.
THAT is a nice ear of corn
It’s filled to the tip, which means it had ideal growing conditions. Any stress and the plant aborts the kernels at the top. This one was 40 kernels long, and 16 around. (It’s always an even number around). So 40 x16 = 640 kernels x 30,000 (plants / acre) = 19,200,00 kernels in an acre / 90,000 (kernels in a bushel) = 213 bushel / acre. Never in my life have I had a crop that good. This won’t be either. Factor in the deer, the raccoons, the clay or rocky spots, the trees on the edges… and I might actually make 180 bu / acre. We shall remain cautiously optimistic.
The soybeans are looking great.
BELLY BUTTON HIGH!
TOP EXTRA TENDER LEAVES
Notice these extra leaves and pods on the top? Again, terrific growing season. The deer just haven’t found this plant yet… that’s what they’re eating off is all the tender bonus growth on the top.
One evening I burned a brush pile. Later, Kelly and I sat in the gator and enjoyed the fire.
BON FIRE DATE!
I removed the tires from the rims on the old junk wagons. I watched some YouTube videos how to do this quick and easy. They were using car tires that didn’t have innertubes, and they hadn’t been sitting in the trees for 30 years. But I figured it out. Cut it open with a Sawzall, then use a grinder to cut the bead cable. Removed 16 tires.
One didn’t have a tube! Just about every farm tire has an innertube in it. And most of the tubes had patches on them. It made me smile, and feel a little nostalgic. Dad or I had these tires apart before and patched a hole. If you don’t know, getting a tire off the rim is difficult if you don’t have the fancy tire machines. The bead, that inner ring of the tire, has a steel cable in it, and that’s what holds the tire on the rim. And it seals tight and it’s a pain to get off with hand tools. Dad took off a lot of tires, patched the tube, and put the tire back on. You have to get the bead to seal. I have done a lot of tires, too. But now days, with the tire goop stuff you can just pour inside, I don’t take so many apart; I’m not subjecting the wagons and tires to the wear I did when milking cows and making hay. And, like I mentioned last week, I’ll often just go get a new tire before replacing the tube. Working smarter, not harder.
Some of the junk was two old flare boxes. Wagons we used for hauling ear corn or oats. I haven’t used them in a lot of years. The floors are rotted out and frames are too small and lightweight to be reused. It’s just scrap.
Mothers’ warnings and bits of advice run through my head. I’m assuming (hoping?) I’m not the only one.
Don’t run with scissors. You sound like a cow chewing her cud (usually with gum). You two girls quit fighting – you sound like fishwives. Close the door – were you raised in a barn? Money doesn’t grow on trees. If your friends jumped off a bridge, would you? Your face with freeze that way. All of these were heard during my childhood.
You’d think that with all these tropes running through my head, that I would be more careful.
Between YA being out of the country and me having blown my knee out, the grass got out of control. YA was eager to get to it last Friday and I was happy she wanted to work on it. Since my knee was tender from going to State Fair the day before, I did the knee-friendly stuff. Moved the aidirondack chairs and little table, wound up the hose and then the exciting poop patrol. I headed out in my shorts and zorries. Easy peasy.
Since it had been so long between mowings, the grass has overgrown the sidewalk so I decided that I would do some trimming. No knee bending for this. You’d think that getting an electric edger out of the garage would set off some of my mom’s advice in my head, but…. Nope. While YA was still mowing, I started on a few edges along the flower gardens. Almost immediately a piece of cedar mulch whipped up and took a chunk out of my ankle. I decided to move to the sidewalk at that point. After I did the sidewalk, I tackled the little patio. It was then that I twisted a bit and in reacting to the knee objecting to this move, I ran the edger over my toe. Ouch was an understatement. Luckily no nearby little children were out in their yards to hear me swearing. The cut wasn’t deep but was about two inches long, going from the tip of my big toe, diagonally down the length of the whole toe.
I have two pairs of gardening shoes that live on the back porch. If a smart person were living at my house, they would have grabbed a pair of those shoes before plugging in the weed whacker. And if my mother had been around she also would have admonished me to put on a pair of those shoes. But once again, no Nonny and no smart person either! I liberally applied antibiotic cream and bandages for the first day or so and both injuries are healing up nicely. But I feel a little sheepish admitting this.
Done anything silly/stupid lately that you should have know better about?
Imagine my surprise as I was heading out to run some errands and discovered the little robot vacuum at the back porch door.
As I carried it back into the house and hit the “dock” button so it would return home, I felt a little bad. Was I keeping it from its freedom? Had it been trying to escape from the onerous duty of trying to keep the fur and dust at bay in our house? Did it hear the clarion call of others of its kind? Was it a quashed robot uprising?
What do you think? Should I have given it its freedom?
I had a fun surprise yesterday morning. As I stood in my kitchen, thinking about breakfast, I got a text from one of my donut haunts, telling me that I had a reward coming – a free donut or a free coffee. So much more exciting than eggs and toast. Since I was going out for a couple of errands anyway, I decided to go the donut route for breakfast.
In order access this reward, I had to use my phone but since I didn’t have a younger person with me, I sat in my car until I got onto the right screen, or so I thought. The young man waiting on me was very patient when holding the phone to the “register” didn’t seem to work. He said he’s do it the “long way” and put my phone number in. He then said I had a $5 off, free donut or 5% discount. Which did I want? And then he said “or all three?” You all know what I said. He started punching in stuff; on my side, the screen was showing 3₵. I kept waiting for it to get to a higher number and it never did. When he confirmed the 3₵, I told him I’d have to go to the car to get a quarter since I didn’t have any cash on me. He smiled and said “let’s take it out of the penny jar” which was on the counter.
So I had my donuts and diet pop for free. And it was a gorgeous morning to boot. What could be better?
Cantus refers to itself as a low-voice vocal ensemble. Sounds a little sterile; it is anything but. They do a wide variety of mostly a cappella offerings: a lot of internation, classical, commissioned pieces. Yesterday it was an entire program of Frank Sinatra covers – amazing.
My BFF and I have been attending Cantus concerts for 30 years; we do six to seven concerts a years, depending on the season’s program. We attended their concerts all over the place – St. Thomas, a church in Excelsior, the McPhail Center, the Ordway. Yesterdays was at Westminster Presbyterian downtown. Over the years we’ve been to the Westminster dozens of times; it’s a great space with wonderful acoustics.
Two thirds of the way through the program, Chris Foss, a bass, stepped up and began a beautifully rendition of I’ll Be Around by Alec Wilder.
About a minute into his performance, which had a piano accompaniment, the bells of Westminster began to rang. It was just loud enough that you could certainly here it but not loud enough to completely drown Chris out. The bells ended very shortly before the song ended. In all the times I’ve been in Westminster for concerts, this has never happened before. Not sure why the bells were ringing at noon on a Thursday. I’m guessing that many performers would have stopped and waited for the bells to stop, but Chris kept his composure and kept going. He got wild applause after his number; I guess because it was a great song but also as acknowledgement of a rotten situation.
I didn’t see Chris in the lobby after the show but I hope that anyone speaking to him praised the other song he did during the concert – not just for his calmness during the bells.
Do you live near a church that still rings their bells?Would you have stopped singing?
Trail Baboon 