Category Archives: Nature

2026, animals, crops, Family, Farming Update, holidays, Nature, Seasons, Technology, Weather, work

BY THE NUMBERS

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This weeks Farming Update from BEN

On Thursday I collected the mileage and hours from vehicles and tractors then put it all in my ‘Yearly Mileage’ spreadsheet. Everything was about average. We used the lawn mower 31 hours, put 43 hours on the big tractor, and 127 hours on the other tractor. Drove the 4-wheeler 22 miles, and put 306 miles on the gator using it 48 hours.

Egg count for 2025 was 419 dozen. 5028 eggs. Plus a few dozen that froze or got broken.

On Tuesday daughter and I took a road trip to Potsdam and Meyer’s Seed, then John Deere in Plainview. And got sundaes at DQ and then back to Rochester for a stop at Barnes and Noble. She thanked me for the adventure. 

At Meyer’s the oat seed for 2026 is ordered and paid for, and corn and soybean seed has been ordered and financed, at 0% interest with a 4% savings. (6% savings would have given me prime -2%). $11,700. A bag of seed corn now is over $300. I ordered 25 bags. That’s a separate loan from the $43,000 for fertilizer and spraying. I got TWO free seed corn hats!

You know how you’re supposed to save receipts for seven years? I brought up a box from 2002 and sorted through that. Oh my goodness. We’d been married 12 years. Kelly was making $17 / hour. We had 2 kids in daycare, and $36 in our savings account. I’d get a milk check twice a month. It totaled maybe $2200. I owed the vet $1000, the breeder $500, the feed co-op $500, plus there was always other bills and expenses. I got anxious just looking back through this stuff. Once I saved the important stuff, I took the unneeded stuff out in the snow and burned it. 

It was a small fire; not much stuff. And I just used my gloved hand to ‘swish’ it around to get all the papers to burn. Evidently the cheap nylon mechanics glove I was wearing have a lower melting point than the flame of even a small fire. I didn’t get hurt or anything, it just melted the sides of the fingers of the glove. Daughter came over to see what I was doing. I pointed out that she shouldn’t use her hand to stir up a fire. She looked at me like I was a complete idiot. And she basically said, “Well duh!”. Oh good. A win on the parenting front! She knows enough not to stick her hand in a fire. 

The wedding we attended on New Years Eve was really very nice! The bride was stunning, the groom looked sharp in his black tuxedo. They were both relaxed (or at least looked that way) and the ceremony was low-key and they wrote and read their own vows and had fun. We had a full three course meal, and there was a live band. I got a lot of compliments on the fact I was wearing sleeves. I did have to dig to the back of my closet for this shirt, and one cuff was a slightly different color than the other. Solved that problem by rolling them up a bit. 

For Christmas Kelly gave me this hat:

I picked up oil filters and grease tubes at John Deere. I changed the engine oil and filter in the 630. I was looking in the operators manual for the tractor and realized I’ve never checked the oil level for the transmission. On modern tractors there’s the engine oil dipstick, and then a dipstick, or sometimes a site tube, showing transmission and hydraulic oil level. On the 630, there’s a dipstick for the engine oil, and one for the hydraulics and I remember always checking that as a kid. I don’t know what fascinated me about that dipstick, but I checked it often. And then there’s a check “LEVEL” plug for the power take off. And on the side, according to the book, another check “LEVEL” plug for the transmission.

HUH!

Never seen that before.

I had to scrap some dirt off to find this.

You take the plug out and add oil until it starts to run out the plug, then it’s full. I don’t remember Dad checking that. I’m sure he did, I just didn’t know about it. Now the tractor is good to go come spring.

And the 1940’s music station is back on my car radio.

Life is good.

WHAT DO YOU DO WITH YOUR RECIPTS?

HOW ARE YOU AT RECORD KEEPING?

2025, animals, Business, Family, Farming Update, gardening, History, Nature, pets, Science, Seasons, Uncategorized, Weather

Thinking Ahead

54 Comments

This week’s Farm Update from Ben

I took a walk on Christmas morning. Me and the dogs, out through the fields. Saw a bunch of pheasants, tree’s I need to cut down, and lots of deer tracks. The header photo is from our walk. 


Weatherman Mark Seeley has a weather forecast and article on the back page of The Farmer magazine. In the last issue, he talked about January of 2006 being the warmest January in MN weather history. “January 2006 started a remarkable trend of warmth in Minnesota. Fifteen of the 19 Januarys since that time have brought warmer-than-normal temperatures to the state. Of further note, seven Januarys since that of 2006 also rank among the warmest 20 in state history.” — https://www.farmprogress.com/farm-life/january-2006-started-warm-and-never-wavered

There are many reasons to be appreciative of the deep-freeze cold we normally get in winter. It kills off harmful bugs, it helps breakdown the soil for better working conditions in the spring, helps break up compaction layers in the soil, it helps keep stored grain in condition, to name just a few benefits. The worst thing is repeated cycles of freezing and thawing. That’s hard on certain crops, like alfalfa. Ice sheeting, and the repeated freeze thaw or a lack of snow cause winter kill. I bet you master gardeners have examples of the problems repeated freezing and thawing can cause in the gardens. Not to mention how tough the warmer temperatures are on cattle that have a winter coat and are prepared for cold. Respiratory issues can really become rampant. 


We’ve had this one chicken living in the garage all winter. During the day she has taken to perching on the bottom rung of a sawhorse and looking at herself in a mirror. 

Mirror Mirror…

And then the other night, there were 5 chickens in the garage! OK, seriously, the poop from the one chicken is gonna be bad enough come spring, and at least she’s over in a corner. Having five of them: one in the rafters, two more on recycling containers, and one on the dogwash wall are too much. 

An unneeded bonus chicken in the garage

 The next day I kept the garage door closed. I figured they’d just go back down to the coop. Three spent the night around the corner perched on the bird seed containers. Why have they moved up here in the first place? I don’t know what their problem is. I’ve got several spending the night in the nest boxes where they lay their eggs. They’re not supposed to do that either. They’re not too crowded as some are in the right side space, some are in the left side space (and they all pile up on top of each other for some reason), some are up in the rafters, and the rest are in the main coop area. I did add another board in there if they need another place to perch. Is it too many roosters? I think we have 5 roosters these days. And maybe 55 hens? I don’t know exactly how many, they are too hard to count. Really 2 roosters would be a good number. There’s a couple that seem extra ornery to the chickens. How come they never get picked off by coyotes?

Christmas day late afternoon I forgot to shut the garage door in time and had to chase out 3 chickens. Yeah, even being Christmas, I chased them out. I had given them extra corn and layer ration in the morning. They’re fine. The one in the corner, she’s earned it, she can stay. 

Out in the shop, I added a metal top to the work bench. Dad built this work bench after the shed was built, so maybe in 1982 or 1983. When I started on the shop project two years ago, the guy doing the insulation wanted me to pull the bench off to redo the insulation behind it. I said no. Dad had put styrofoam and fiberglass insulation on that wall before he added the bench. I tore the top four feet off the wall as part of the shop project. The old insulation was pretty bad. Yeah, I probably should have redone the bottom four feet too, but I was already in over my head on this project and didn’t think I could handle any more. Hindsight you know. The bench is pretty well built, and the top is 2×8 boards with a gap between them. Stuff is always falling into that gap. Maybe it was Dad’s way of cleaning off the bench, to sweep the dirt and dust into the gap. Which then ended up in the bolt storage he had underneath. A couple weeks ago, I lost a screw down that gap and I decided that was it! I am covering this! I bought two sheets of 16 gauge steel (about 1/16th inch thick) 2′ x 4′ from a big box store. ($70 each! Jeepers!) Thanks Obama! (That’s a joke you know) And I rounded over the front edge. I need to get some different screws to hold it all in place, but it looks real professional. I’m glad I did that. 


Kelly helped me get the last screen back in the 630 grill and I have that all reassembled. 

Reassembled 630. Runs and sounds Great!

Needs an oil change yet and it will be ready for next summer’s work and projects. Next summer’s project I think will be rebuilding the belt pulley assembly. Clyde probably knows what a belt pulley is. You’ve seen pictures of back in earlier days, a long canvas belt ran between the tractor and an implement to provide power before the advent of power-take-off on the rear of a machine. That’s the belt pulley.

Not my photo. Courtesy of https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmpuWNcqF2s

On the 630, that belt pulley is also the hand clutch assembly. And it rattles like some of the plates inside there are broken. I remember Dad adjusting it once in a while, but I don’t recall him ever pulling it all apart. The tractor also hasn’t had a working tachometer / speedometer / hourmeter for as long as I can remember. A few hundred dollars will get me a new gauge, new cable, and I don’t know yet if I’ll need a new gear inside the governor assembly or not. It’s all only money. 

I’ve done my crop rotation maps for next year and got the acres figured out. Talked with Nate at Meyer’s Seeds and I’ve got until January 16th to lock in the early order discount pricing on oats, corn and soybean seed. I was approved for $43,000 in loans for chemicals and fertilizer from the Co-op. That doesn’t include the loan for seed. I’m really hoping I don’t need all of that loan as the crop prices aren’t that good. The first few years I farmed I stressed out a bit more about the crop loans. Of course 35 years ago I probably spent $10,000 on everything and it was still big money. Now days it’s just part of the deal. I don’t stress over it so much.

I thought for sure Kelly and I were gonna win the lottery the other night. And what would we do with all that money? As the old joke goes, keep farming until it is gone!

EVER BEEN THROWN OUT? TOLD TO LEAVE? EVER THROWN SOMEONE OUT?

I know tim will have a story….

2025, Business, crops, Farming Update, History, Nature, Science, Technology, The Future, Theatre, Weather

Straight Screens in Curved Holes

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This week’s farming update from Ben

Guess it’s winter on the farm. I even wore a T-shirt under my sleeveless shirt one day.  

I don’t think the chickens have come out of the pen all week. They peer out the door, but none of them has much interest in actually going outside. I picked up one chicken that was still living out in the pole barn and carried her back with the rest. And the garage chicken has moved down with the rest. For body heat I presume. Found 4 of the 7 chicks. It’s unfortunate it worked out the way it did for them. I’d have liked them to get a little bigger, or the weather to stay a little warmer, or momma to take a little more care of them a little longer. Any of those options would have served them better.

I got the starter put back on my 630 tractor and it started right up. I can’t get over how quiet it is now. Evidently having a hole and crack in the exhaust manifold is like a hole in your muffler. It’s surprisingly loud. And repairing it was very educational and gave me a great feeling of accomplishment. My dad would be so pleased. That thing has been cracked and loud for as long as I can remember. For a tractor from 1959, it’s getting some much needed attention.

I’m still working on some cosmetic repairs. I have new screens for the front grill and I picked up a cheap spot welder to repair part of the hood. Welding class from 12th grade comes through again!

Dad must have run into something to dent it and break off all the welds on one side. And now I need to figure out how to fit this straight piece of corrugated screen into the slots and curves on the corners.

img_5124
I know it bends, it is just a matter of fitting it all together.

I worked on it for a while one night and decided this was something to ponder and come back too. The dogs all run into the shop and get a drink, and I played ball with Luna while Bailey gets in my face. Humphrey likes having a warm place to lie down and he’s happy. But the others get bored after a bit and Bailey pee’s on the floor and out they go. Kelly lets them back into the house. Out in the shop is my happy place. Have I mentioned that? As I closed the toolbox and turned off the lights, I thought to myself, this has been 35 years in the making. We took over the farm when we got married, 35 and a half years ago. And I’ve been collecting or buying tools and gaining experience since then. If I had it sooner, I wouldn’t appreciate this so  much. Or I’d want something bigger.

=====================

At the college I’m getting ready for Holiday Concerts next week. My friend Paul is designing again, so it’s fun to have him back in the shop.

I added a few more LED lights over the stage. Just some plain LED wash lights. They don’t move or wiggle, they just change colors. Over the stage are pipes called ‘battens’ and they’re all counter weighted so they’re balanced as they come up and down. Called “flying in or out”. Our stage has 19 battens. Three are for lighting (called ‘Electrics 1,2 and 3′ front to back). Several are curtains, and some are open to hang scenery. The counterweight is achieved using metal bricks that weigh about 15.5 pounds. We add or subtract them to balance whatever is hanging. When I added the lights to the 1st Electric, I had to add 8 more bricks. This is the main lighting batten. I counted 58 bricks. 899 pounds. This batten is rated for 1000 lbs.

img_5107
These are the counter weight bricks. The yellow brick is empty base weight.
img_5108-1
The First Electric and it’s 23 various lights.

*********************************************

I read an article in a farm magazine recently about the next generation of autonomous farm equipment. The technology is out of testing and is available for sale.

A little background: As with all technology, this has been coming for a few years. First it was the GPS mapping. Then row sensors so machinery could follow the rows by themselves. Then the machinery started to incorporate the equipment and technology to put all this together and the tractor could follow a line through the field. Then it was automated so that the tractor could raise and lower an implement, slow down at the ends, and all the driver had to do was make the corner, find the next line and hit ‘Go’. From there, multiple implements or tractors could talk to each other. The tractor could pull up next to the combine, and the combine would take control of the tractor and unload at a constant speed. So simply removing the driver really wasn’t that big of a leap, it was kind of the next logical step. That said, I’m not sure I’m ready for a driverless car yet.

 This information is from an article in Successful Farming Magazine from November of 2025, called ‘How Farmers Are Using Autonomous Equipment to Do More with Less’. It cites labor shortages, changing weather conditions meaning smaller productivity windows, or maybe just not having enough time in the day to get it all done. Some of the jobs open to autonomy are planting, spreading fertilizer, tillage, or pulling grain carts.

Wanna know what it costs?

There are two big companies: John Deere and AGCO. John Deere doesn’t list prices.

AGCO: 

Capabilities: grain cart duties and tillage; planned for 2026 

Compatibility: AGCO and PTx’s OutRun system is compatible with 2014 or newer John Deere 8R tractors. Compatibility with Fendt tractors is to begin in 2026.

OutRun for tillage has a $54,000 one-time hardware cost and a $9,000 annual recurring payment; OutRun for grain cart has a $55,000 one-time hardware cost and a $15,000 annual recurring payment. 

If using the same tractor and base OutRun Intelligence kit for both grain cart and tillage, it has a $65,900 one-time hardware cost and a $15,000 annual recurring payment.

Carbon Robotics: 

Capabilities: tillage, mulching, mowing, and LaserWeeder

Compatibility: Carbon ATK is compatible with John Deere 6R, 8R, 8RT, and 8RX model tractors. Installation takes under a day, with no permanent modifications. Carbon ATK is a $60,000 one-time add-on kit that Carbon comes out and installs.

John Deere: 

No price listed

Sabanto: 

Capabilities: mowing and seeding

Compatibility: The Sabanto autonomous kit is compatible with 2015–2024 Kubota M5 Series tractors; 2015–2024 John Deere 5E, 5M, and 6E Series tractors; and Fendt 700 Vario tractors. The kit costs $70,000, and is available on cab and open-station models. 

https://www.agriculture.com/how-farmers-are-using-autonomous-equipment-to-do-more-with-less-11838003

[Whistle]

First off, I don’t even have a tractor new enough to put this on. Second, [Looking at my bank account]… Nope, there is nothing to say here.

It is kinda cool! I can see the advantage for some farmers. Kelly suggested I could have the tractor doing fieldwork while I was at the college. Yep. Suppose Bailey would still get in the tractor without me? From the video’s of the systems I’ve seen, the operator is monitoring it from his phone or tablet. Inside the tractor you set the field and boundaries. Then once you’re out of the tractor, depending on which system  you’re using, either you start it remotely and the tractor honks and the lights flash and it uses all the exterior cameras to make sure you’re not around, and off it goes.

If it “sees” something not right, it will stop and alert the operator, who can view the cameras and decide the best course of action.

Crazy stuff.

JOKE DAY! SHARE A JOKE:

Q: WE WERE SO POOR—

A: THAT FOR BREAKFAST WE HAD ORDINARY K.

2025, crops, education, Family, Farming Update, Kids, Nature, Technology, Uncategorized, Weather

Concrete Herring! or What Color is Your Herring?

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This weeks farming update from Ben

My schedule has been a little crazy lately. Next week will be better.  🙂

I hear there are places in the country where the weather on the evening news doesn’t take ten minutes. I don’t need the full ten minutes, I just want to know the 12-48 hour forecast, and the 7 or 10 day forecast, Which I know is just a guideline. Especially this time of year, when the forecast has some pretty drastic changes coming.

No, the corn still isn’t out and I don’t want to talk about it. The grain elevators are closed on the weekends now, because 99.8% of the harvest is complete. So I don’t expect anything this weekend unless they finish everything at their place and they just come in and fill up the trucks on Sunday. 

I wrote a long story about the thermostat in my shop and I threw all that away and tried to make this a shorter story. A red herring was involved and suffice it to say human error played a part. Because of course it did.  

I use a wifi thermostat so I can monitor it from the house. It worked last year. This year, it worked while I’m out there, but it didn’t work when I came to the house. 

One day it died completely so I bought a new one.  Installing that and I blew a fuse up in the heater itself. Another trip to town for an ‘E’ fuse. An E fuse? Never heard of an E fuse. Oh, it’s a ‘3’ not an ‘E’. Thank goodness I figured that out on my own and didn’t say that to the guy at the auto parts store. Then of course there was a new app and all of that rigamarole. And that night in the house and it wouldn’t connect again. 

The day we poured the concrete, including the slab outside the front door, I used a side door, and a different light switch. Turns out, the outlet I have the heater plugged in to is tied into the 3 way switch for the lights. And I hooked that up myself, this wasn’t the electricians fault. Other than they didn’t know I wanted an outlet for the heater, which is why I did it myself. But how come it worked last year?? Because the heater was plugged into a wall outlet and because the electricians weren’t here until March, and I didn’t get the heater outlet installed until April.  So now, when I come into the shop and turn the lights on, the thermostat works. When I leave and turn off the lights, the thermostat turns off. Well, don’t I feel like a dunce. How could I tell the thermostat was off once I left the shop?? I thought the problem was the wifi. Nope, that was the red herring. The problem was the thermostat wasn’t even ON.

I have it plugged into a regular outlet again and I can tell you, by the app, it’s 46 degree’s out there at 56% humidity. 

We did get the concrete done on Tuesday. Yay! Check that off the list! A big job, and I had the easy job in the tractor hauling the cement from the truck outside, to the pad inside. 

(Two reasons; the truck wouldn’t fit inside the shed, and I didn’t want him backing onto the existing concrete slab). When they poured the inside slab a couple years ago, they used a little “buggy” to haul the concrete. This was the same thing, only different.) The truck driver was great! Randy. 65 yrs old, been driving a concrete truck for 38 years. We joked before he got there, would he know we were amateurs? I told him right up front, feel to offer advice. He just picked up the bull float and got right in there helping. 

Took about 2 hours to get it all dumped and leveled. I was a little bit short of product and left a bit of a gap on one end of the walkway pad. I expect to finish that with 10 bags of concrete mix I picked up.  

About 6:00 PM I was able to start smoothing off the concrete with the hand trowels. (I Learned the difference between magnesium floats and steel floats. You use magnesium when you’re first leveling, and steel to do the final finish.) 

It was about 8PM when I was trying to finish the big slab and smooth around the drain. The concrete was getting too firm by that point and it was a little too late to be working it. All in all, it’s not bad for the first time for a bunch of newbies. It will look better when it gets some dirt on it to cover the imperfections.

I spread out tarps and covered the outside ones with straw. 

A few days later I pulled off the tarp and moved the dumpster over there. This right here was the original point of all this. 

I wonder how much snow will blow in here?
My brother using the bull float on the first piece.
Working on the big slab inside the shed.

Our son helped, my brother helped, Padawan’s girlfriend helped, (Padawan was at work) and Kelly helped. They all admitted this was harder work than they imagined.  And we all learned a lot. Next summer’s plan is to do another slab inside. My brother isn’t sure he’ll help again next summer. Son says he will find more younger helpers.

I’m just glad it’s done. I had a beer that night. I’ve been waiting to finish the concrete to have that beer. 

We thought for sure we’d have a dog footprints in it somewhere. Or Luna was gonna drop a ball into it. We locked them in the shop at one point.

Inside slab done. Won’t drive on it for a week yet, and will get it backfilled shortly.
You haven’t seen the chickens lately. Here’s the chickens eating some left overs.

I have a new appreciation for the people doing concrete work and making it look easy.

HAVE YOU STOPPED MISLEADING PEOPLE?

2025, Food, home, Nature, Seasons, Uncategorized

Bye Bye Summer

29 Comments

I swear I’m not doing yet another blog about hand pies, despite the header photo. 

A discovery was made a couple of weeks ago that if I ask Alexa to play “You Butter My Bread” by the Divers, I will get a nice mix of songs that remind me of TLGMS.  Some of the songs are actually TLGMS favorites.  

Yesterday morning, while I was making something that I’ve promised I won’t mention, I made my request and one of the songs that Alexa coughed up was “Canned Goods” by Greg Brown.  You all know I adore this song; this morning, looking out a the slight dusting of snow on the neighbor’s roof, I realized that it’s official that summer is over. 

So going into fall/winter, this is what I’ve put up this year:  strawberry jam, raspberry jam, pesto, applesauce, tomato sauce, basil/oil cubes, chive/oil cubes, mint/lime juice cubes, strawberries, raspberries and grapes.  Somehow it doesn’t seem like I’m keeping up with Greg Brown’s grandmother!

Any favorite summer songs to tide us over?

2025, Family, home, Kids, Nature, Seasons, Uncategorized

Crimson and Scarlet Trees

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Our son and daughter loved listening to Rabbit Ears productions of children’s stories narrated by famous actors accompanied by wonderful musicians. One of their favorites was a story about Paul Bunyon narrated by Jonathan Winters with music by Leo Kottke. It was funny to hear Paul Bunyan talk about the assignment he got from the president to clear off all the trees from North Dakota. We could certainly relate, as we had a dearth of trees in our region.

Husband has really enjoyed walking the dog and seeing all the crimson and scarlet maple leaves in the neighborhood. We didn’t have these kind of maples in ND. He said the last time he lived in a place that had maples like this was 46 years ago in Madison, WI. The trees in Dickinson were mainly Green Ash and Cottonwoods. Their leaves were pretty blah in the fall.

We have a maple and an oak in the our front boulevard. We also have a Birch in the backyard, along with a Blue Spruce and a Flowering Crab. There are also all sorts of Arbor Vitae. We are well set for trees and bushes. The header photo is a tree across the street from us

What trees do you have in your yard? Any favorite Jonathan Winter or Leo Kottke creations?

2025, books, gardening, Music, Nature, Poems

Autumn Musings

26 Comments

My BFF suggested we go see Ann Reed last week; I haven’t seen Ann in a live performance for many years so I was excited to go.   She has such a huge repertoire, I hate to admit that this is still my favorite:

She (along with Joan Griffith) did a great set and in between many of the songs, she shared haiku with us, some of hers and some that she had found along the way.  When I went looking on the internet afterwards, I discovered she has a book entitled Our Daily Breath: Haiku & Photographs.

During my search I found a website, Haiku Universe, that will sent you a daily haiku or short poem.  You know me, I couldn’t resist.  It’s been fun the last week or so to get a little haiku every day.  Here’s one I particularly liked (by Tomas O’Leary):

then it came to me
like a bomb in my lunch bag –
it was my day off.

So I’ve had haiku on my mind.  Here are a couple of mine:

My orthopedists
Are both about twelve years old.
Having bad knees stinks.

It’s that time of year –
All of my hard work, yard wise
Fills up many bags.

Do you have any fall clean-up/organizing that needs doing?  Any haiku or poems speaking to you?

2025, Family, home, Nature, Uncategorized

Salty Water

57 Comments

Unless you got your water from a well back in Dickinson, no one needed a water softener. Our city water came from the Missouri River, and had just the right amount of minerals and wasn’t too hard. You didn’t need a special tap and faucet for drinking water

I had forgot that back here in Rock County, everyone has a water softener, as the water is very hard. The people we bought the house from were kind enough to leave us several bags of softener salt. The kitchen is plumbed so that our drinking water comes through the refrigerator door/icemaker. It is going to be tedious to fill up the tall pasta pot with water from the fridge door. I also have to get used to feeling as though I didn’t get all the soap off when I take a shower.

There were two guys in town with the same last name of Frakes who both were friends of my dad. One ran the Culligan franchise, so dad called him “Softwater Frakes”. The other was a building contractor named Marion who was married to a woman my dad called “The Devil’s Grandmother” due to her fussy and irascible temperament. I think of them now every time I drive passed the Culligan shop.

What are your favorite songs and stories about water and the sea. Anyone who you know who could be the Devil’s Grandmother?

2025, animals, crops, Farming Update, gardening, Nature, Uncategorized

Squirrel Farming

43 Comments

This weeks farm update from Ben.

I sure am enjoying the cooler weather. We had 30 degree’s Wednesday AM. I had moved the pressure washer inside the feedroom, dumped out the hummingbird feeders, and we moved the tomato plants and flowers into the garage. 

I was using the pressure washer to clean off the haybine after cutting the weeds in the oat fields. After I hose it all off once, I start the machine up and run it slow in order to clean off the reel and get the dirt out of the sickle and cutterbar. And as I walked back around to the front, pulling the pressure washer hose, I gave the hose a ‘flip’ –and stuck it right into the reel and cutter bar and I was done washing. I can splice it back together, and it might hold (it is a PRESSURE washer after all) I just haven’t had time yet. Honestly, I kinda forgot the machine was running and what I was doing. Brain Fart.

The top drawer fell out of our dishwasher the other day too. I ordered some new parts from Amazon and the dishes are piling up in the sink. Yes, we could wash by hand…we just haven’t had too yet. 

Last week I mentioned how the squirrels were tormenting the dogs at home. They’re very busy around the college too. Right outside the theater are a couple large Oak trees. Three squirrels are often scampering around them. I call them Frank, Bob, and Jane. Frank seems to mind his own business. Bob and Jane are usually chasing each other and fussing over something or other. When she does get a break, Jane can often be seen foraging in the leaves. She doesn’t mind me and I don’t mind her. 

I’ve been seeing groups of turkey vultures lately. Sometimes around home, sometimes in SE Rochester where there may be at least a dozen sitting in a cell tower. Did you know group of turkey vultures in the air is called a kettle? I knew that a group sitting together is called a committee. I didn’t know they could also be called a volt, or venue. If they’re feeding, it’s called a wake. Who came up with these names? I’ve been on some committees that would certainly qualify as having vultures as members…

I am part of CoCoRaHS for reporting rain and snow fall. Although I only report rain. “Community Collaborative Rain, Hail, and Snow Network”. All that’s required to become a reporting member is their special rain guage that measures rain to the hundredths.

https://www.cocorahs.org/

They have a master Gardner guide:

https://www.cocorahs.org/Content.aspx?page=MasterGardener

 They have 1000+ stations across all 50 States and Canda reporting weather data, which is used by multiple agencies.

It started in Colorado in 1998. They sent out an email this week talking about “the Water Year” which runs October 1 – September 30.  So named because in Colorado, where this is based, most of the water accumulation comes from snowfall after October 1. And that snowfall is what provides water for the next year’s crops. 

The email last week showed how we can view statistics from our own locations as well as any of the others.

 I’ve been reporting since March of 2021. I see I have 907 reports. This year I’ve reported receiving 25.92” of rain. VS would like the site because there’s all sorts of fun statistics in there. 

Last week was our ‘Gotcha Day’ for Luna. I picked her up on October 5th, of 2023. Two years of that crazy dog.

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CROPS!

The neighbors got my soybeans harvested on Friday.

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I haven’t gotten the total bushels from the elevator yet, but according to the monitor in the combine, they were a little better than average. The price isn’t great, but it seems like there was a decent amount out there. Except where the deer have stripped the pods of the plants. I was out in a far corner of the farm and back there, it’s just stems. Stupid deer. I had to leave about half an acre of soybeans in one little field down by the house and buildings. They tried to get to it, but the head on the combine is 40 feet wide, and they couldn’t fit between the trees and a fence. Not the end of the world. The cost of combining that half acre would have pretty much taken all the profit from that half acre. 

The corn looks good. It’s very tall this year! But remember, the height really has nothing to do with the yield of the ears…

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There is a fungus called Tar Spot that’s becoming worse in the Midwest. See the black spots on the leaves? 

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Too much and it will kill the plant early, weaken the stalk, and reduce the yield. 

The corn is physically mature, but still drying down. typically when it’s mature, it’s still about 30% moisture in the kernels. The ears are still standing upright.

Too much rain at this point and it gets down inside the husk and can cause mold on the kernels. Some farmers have started harvesting corn and the moisture levels are all over the place. For storage, the corn kernels have to be 15% moisture. Once the ears hang down, it’s into the teens and drying it doesn’t cost quite so much.

WHAT WERE YOU DOING TWO YEARS AGO?

2025, animals, Family, Nature, Uncategorized

Hiss!

21 Comments

Tuesday Husband and I took the dog to the groomer in a little town about 10 miles west of us. I drove, and on the way back I had to swerve to avoid running over a very long rattlesnake that was slithering across the highway. We estimated it to be about four feet long. We have Prairie Rattlesnakes out here. Their markings are unmistakable. We have seen them all lengths, from tiny ones no thicker than a pencil to the long one on Tuesday. The weather has been so warm here I suppose it was a good time for the snake to check out the available mice in the ditch. We have never seen any in town.

I had some clients years ago who had to move out of their rental home on the south side of town because there were dozens of garter snakes in the walls of the basement. The house was later condemned and torn down. We heard that the lot the house was built on was a noted breeding ground for garter snakes. No other structure has been built there.

The town of Narcisse in Manitoba interlake region is well known for the tens of thousands of garter snakes that emerge from their nests in the spring and return in the fall. I guess it is quite a tourist attraction. We never visited there when we lived there. Snakes aren’t my cup of tea. I have a second cousin who I love dearly who lives near St. Peter and who loves snakes. He has bred snakes for commercial sale in the past, and loves it when his cats find garter snakes in the basement and bring them upstairs.

What are your experiences with snakes? Do you have any friends or relatives with interests you find odd?