Category Archives: Nature

2024, animals, Family, Farming Update, Nature, pets, Seasons, Weather

Almost There

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The weekend Farm Report comes to us from Ben.

The chickens and us survived January’s cold spell and the only casualties were my truck batteries and the electric bill. The truck, being a diesel, takes two batteries. I’ll replace them next week when it’s in positive temperature digits. Last Friday, as the storm was winding down, Kelly and I took the truck up the road just to see how bad it was. (It was only bad in spots) Then Tuesday when I needed the truck, it cranked pretty slow, but I ran it for a few hours and figured it would be fine on Wednesday. Nope. Just the dreaded click. Changed my plans and took the dog to the vet in the back of the car. (Humphrey tore a toenail and needed that trimmed off).

The chickens did fine hanging out inside and waiting for me to bring them more food and water. They didn’t seem to mind either way. Egg production went down a bit; 18 eggs per day rather than 24.

From this photo, you’ll see many of them seem to prefer this one nest box. They still like their groups of 3 and I often find nest boxes with three eggs in them. And nine is a variant of three, so it still works I guess. Production will recover as it warms up. I was taking corn to them by their pen as they didn’t venture outside very far. Above zero and a nice calm, sunny day and they do pretty good. Below zero and they just stand peeking out the door.

Kelly saw five male pheasants down by the barn and it’s always so fun to see them. There should be about 10 or 11 or, at least, there was last year. I assume the rest will find the corn eventually as word spreads in the pheasant community.

The deer community has come together in this cold weather. Here’s a picture of a herd spotted in our fields this week.

And a little further down the road, another group this large. I’m telling you, we have too many deer. Stupid deer.

This fall I put a smaller tank heater in the water tank down by the barn. It works fine when it’s above about 10 degree’s. It isn’t worth diddly in temps below that. When I put a frozen water bucket in the tank, I have to chip it out of the ice again in the morning, but the bottom will be thawed and I can knock the ice out and refill for the chickens.

I think by Monday I’ll be able to turn off the wellhouse heater. (see electric meter) I put 25 bales of straw around it last Thursday before it snowed.

Doesn’t seem to help hold the temp above freezing when it’s less than about 10 degree’s outside. Which makes me wonder: I’d think with the cement floor, the ground inside should be warmer, so am I losing that much heat out the roof? Should I put bales on the roof too? I rebuilt three of the four walls in 2013. The fourth wall is against a tree so it was too much trouble to rebuild.

I am lucky I didn’t need any tractors this week, but I kept the one plugged in just in case. (again, see electric meter). Kudo’s to all the people working in this weather and doing what needs to be done.

Next week I’m going to wash the car!

WHAT WILL YOU DO NEXT WEEK?

2023, animals, home, Nature, Uncategorized, Weather

Brrr!

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Last Saturday we reached a milestone in our community of a record breaking windchill of -70° F. I can’t say I was glad to be a part of this. The cold interfered with a lot of things. The guy who is putting new carpet in our basement had to beg off from coming over as his diesel vehicle was completely frozen up and he couldn’t haul the things that he needed. We didn’t leave the house from Friday afternoon until Monday morning. We kept the curtains and blinds closed to keep the heat in and the cold out. I can’t imagine how hard it was for ranchers to keep their cattle safe out in the pastures.

The dog has suffered the most with the cold. He finally got a walk yesterday. Last Friday he went in the yard and got so cold that he couldn’t move and Husband had to rescue him. That was after only a minute or so outside. He wouldn’t be cooperative with booties, and the enforced inside stay has made him constantly begging for attention and doing zoomies around the house since it was too cold to go for walks.

Daughter tried to explain to her West Coast friends how cold it was here, but they just couldn’t relate. It is hard to explain that the cold interferes with the pressure in vehicle tires, and how hard it is to put air in tires when exposed skin will freeze in less than a few minutes. Warmer weather is predicted for next week. I think the dog will be relieved he can finally go for walks.

How do you cope with extreme cold? Any experiences with frost bite?

Family, Food, holidays, home, Nature

Maple Syrup

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The son of my BFF is what we used to call “a gentleman farmer”.  He and his family live in the big farmhouse and they have goats and chickens, a massive garden and maple trees.  Every fall he taps the trees and boils down the sap to make syrup.  He also has black walnut trees which are harvested.  I don’t understand the science behind any of it but the output of the maples and the black walnuts varies greatly from year to year.  I try never to get my expectations up about whether I will see the syrup and about whether any of the syrup will be “maple black walnut”.

This year the maples did fine but not the black walnuts our holiday gift was maple alone.  This is not a problem for me and I was looking forward to a couple of months of fresh from the farm syrup.  (This is particularly good when paired with Ben’s fresh from the farm eggs!)  YA tends to shy away from foods that are “different”; this means that farm eggs and fresh maple syrup are usually left completely to me.  Last years black walnut syrup was all mine.  Delicious.

For some reason YA decided to taste this year’s syrup.  Then she decided to make pancakes that night.  She’s now made pancakes four more times since Christmas – she even went out and purchased a new box of Bisquick after she used up the box in the cabinet.  I’m thinking I’d better make some pancakes of my own pretty darn quickly or I won’t even get to TASTE this year’s syrup!

How do you like your pancakes?  Is there a place that makes particularly good pancakes?

2023, animals, Business, Family, Farming Update, holidays, Nature, pets, Uncategorized

Poof

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Todays Farming Updates comes from Ben.

Just like that, another year gone. 414 dozen eggs sold in 2023. April was the highest with 63 dozen sold. September was lowest at 20 dozen. I’m thinking in 2024 I’m gonna try recording how many dozen I box up rather than sold.

2023

We lost some really good friends. We made some new ones. We got a new dog. We finally took a weekend trip after a few  years of hunkering at home. We saw some fantastic theater,  (I was even in a show), had a visit from my friend Keith for the first time in 25 years, and got so much stuff done at home! Most of it had to do with the shop remodeling, but still, it’s a wonder to look over the list and see how much got checked off! Just for fun, I put the list in a spreadsheet and there was 221 line items. Twenty of them aren’t done yet. There’s always next year.

I was grateful to not fight major health issues this year, and to revel in the simple joy of walking up a hill or carrying some feed. Or just to wander up the road from barn to shed!

We got some concrete poured and started work on the shop. The crop year wasn’t the best. And if you enjoy snow, the year didn’t end well for you. There was a lot of snow at the beginning of 2023, but it melted fairly quick.

I’ve been rebuilding the carburetor for the 630 tractor. (Line item #192) I had a good start on it early this week, but the last few days I’ve been busy elsewhere. But in my “New Heated Shop”*‘ (*sort of) I can keep working. I try not to think about how the tractor itself is out in the UNHEATED part of the shed. But that’s just 8 bolts and a couple fittings… right? Easy Peasy. Might be the first thing of 2024 to check off that list! I think I’m even gonna use most of the parts. I spent an hour on the phone with the oldest parts guy at my John Deere store, and another guy who restores antique tractors, to figure out one piece on my carburetor that’s not in the pictures. They figured it out. Surround yourself with good people. That might be my goal for 2024.

2024- I need to renew my private pesticide applicators license. I haven’t used it more than a few times in the 25+ years I’ve had it, but I’ll renew it again, simply because it’s one more link to farming I want to keep.

Monday, 1/1/2024 I’ll go round up the mileage and hours on all the vehicles and tractors and fill in my annual mileage spreadsheet. I always enjoy that. I’ll need to start finding numbers for our assets page. That too is pretty interesting. I had a young lady tell me how rich farmers are. She didn’t know we farm. I had to explain a few things to her. We have a lot of ASSETS, and we have good credit. We may or may not have a lot of cash in the bank. Sometimes were rich in daughters only*, or dirt. Just not cash. Every farm is different.

*Thank you, Greg Brown.

Looking ahead, I’ve ordered a textbook for next semester’s class on creative writing which begins on 1/8. An in-person class so that should be fun. Got crops planned, will be ordering seed and inputs soon.

12/31/23 – There’s a lot of numerology regarding that. It’s interesting to consider. https://www.almanac.com/123123-meaning-123123

PHOTOS

Take some time to ponder this weekend. Ponder 2023. Ponder 2024. Remember and imagine.

WHO WOULD YOU CHOOSE TO SUROUND YOURSELF WITH?

2023, animals, Business, Family, Farming Update, home, Nature, Theatre, Uncategorized

Wrapping Up

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Today’s Farming Update comes from Ben.

Sunday we saw ‘Aladdin’ at the Orpheum. It was big and fun. Everything you would expect of a Disney musical. Bright costumes, lots and lots of colorful lights, and a lot of magic. I still haven’t figured out how the carpet flew. It must have been magic.

I had feed delivered to the farm Monday. I had cracked corn put in the bulk bin by the barn and I feed it to the chickens. It wasn’t empty yet, but I didn’t want the truck coming down when the road gets icy or snow covered. I was planning ahead. The bin holds maybe 6000 lbs. I usually order 100 bushels (remember, 56 lbs / bushel, so 5600 lbs) about every 8 months. Because the bin wasn’t empty, I was gonna order 50 bushels. But the elevator / coop, wanted at least 4000 lbs to deliver. As long as the weather forecast was decent, we postponed for two weeks, and the corn fit with a little room to spare. The corn is from the ‘grain bank’; Corn I have the elevator store specifically for use as feed. (It’s not MY specific corn, it’s just an amount of bushels, so when I need corn, I don’t have to purchase that. I pay for the hauling and the cracking. $30 to crack it, $100 to deliver it.

I wish I had taken a picture of the truck unloading. Nothing has gotten smaller in the last 30 years…The driver said they have 5 bin trucks, and 7 bin trucks. This was a 7.  

The chickens are doing well. So well they’re doubling up on box space.

Maybe this is where the double yolkers come from!

One of our summer chickens turned into a rooster. So far, he hangs out with the hens and keeps to himself and hasn’t caused any trouble.

I’m not sure the other roosters even pay him any attention yet. Funny to think ‘They don’t know he’s around’, but maybe.

I stepped out one morning and everyone came to see what I had for them. The usual table scraps.

Crop insurance payment came in. It was enough I bought myself a new ladder. And I went for the heavy-duty fiberglass. I often see aluminum extension ladders on auctions, but not fiberglass.

I got a call from Samantha, my agronomist talking about 2024 crops. Input costs are down a bit from 2023, thank goodness. I expect Nate, my seed dealer to call soon. Early orders get discounts. Can I please just not have debt for a few weeks before taking out next year’s loan?

College semester is over. I finished the class with 94%. Whew. Creative Writing begins January 8th, and that will be an in-person class with a teacher I know well. Need about 22 credits yet and I’ll have a degree!

I baked the first batch of Amish Friendship Bread on Wednesday night. I had a bottle of Grape pop, I had my headphones on and I was listening to the first album of Chicago, when they were “Chicago Transit Authority”. It turned out OK.

WHAT WAS YOUR MUSIC THIS WEEK?

2023, Food, Nature, Travel

Henrietta Makes a Pig of Herself

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I love bakeries – you all know this.  Luckily most of my close friends are also bakery fiends, so I never have to worry about any bakery withdrawal when I travel.

Long before I visited Pat in Nashville last month, she had emailed me a link from a bakery that she wanted to try with me.  Most mornings we made breakfast at her house but one morning we did save for The Franklin Bakehouse.

Franklin is a small community about a half hour from Pat’s home in Nashville.  I expect that the folks in Franklin would bristle at being labeled an outer-ring suburb, but as Nashville has grown, that’s exactly what it has become.  It is the epitome of a small town – lots of little shops, wide sidewalks, picturesque streets.  It didn’t hurt that it was a beautiful fall day in Tennessee, making the drive very pleasant.  There were huge pots of chrysanthemums at every corner of the “downtown” – just gorgeous.

The aroma inside The Bakehouse was amazing and the array of pastries and sweets made it really hard to choose.  I ended up getting a massive cinnamon roll and a beautiful blueberry tart, knowing I couldn’t possibly eat it all (I asked for the to-go container right away).  Pat had the dutch apple pie/bread pudding.  It’s in the picture above and was almost as big as her head.  She also ended up taking some home.  We also ordered coffee and sat at a window table and watched the world go by.  It was a fabulous was to spend an hour that morning.

Henrietta didn’t really make a pig of herself; she actually bristles at the idea as she is a peccary, not a pig!

When was the last time you were able to really relax over a nice meal?

2023, Automotive, Family, Farming Update, Nature, Seasons, Uncategorized

Brevity? None Here!

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The weekend Farm Report comes to us from Ben.

I hope everyone was able to have the kind of Thanksgiving they wanted.

My friend Jia, teaching English over in South Korea, didn’t get a Thanksgiving this year and she missed it a lot.

Someday I need to learn brevity. But not today!

I figured out how to get 10 pounds in a 5 pound bag (from last week), you just get rid of 5 pounds. That happen when my truck had a dead battery. Or two. (because it’s a diesel, it uses two batteries to start) so the whole trip to Northfield and then John Deere got postponed and instead, I went out and finished chisel plowing.

This picture is the last bit of ground to be worked up. And that was a ‘mic drop’ moment. Whew. If you notice the line on the hood of the tractor, I scrubbed the left side to remove the grime, but not the right side. It DOES look nicer, and make a difference and I’d like to get the rest scrubbed off. Depends on the weather. I used the hose and washed off the chisel plow and some of the tractor, since the pressure washer is already tucked away for winter and too much trouble to get back out. (Boy, next year, with my new heated shop, it won’t be such an issue! Maybe!)

A highlight for this last day of fieldwork was adding a steering wheel spinner. Dad had them on all the tractors. Back in the 1990’s, my hand would cramp up (already had carpel tunnel, evidently) and I took them all off. Now, making all the turns on the ends of the fields, with my fingers tucked around a steering wheel spoke, makes my fingers sore. And since I had carpel tunnel surgery several years ago, I put spinners back on. It worked well.

When you look at this photo, you’ll see two fields planted to rye:

on the left and right of the tractor. It’s hard to tell how much of that is oats regrowing or the rye I planted late. The oats will not over-winter; it will die off. The rye will survive and grow again. Meaning come spring, and these fields will be planted to corn, I’ll need to have the rye “terminated”. Plowing it up won’t stop it. And if it’s a warm wet spring and it’s late spraying, it will be really tall, meaning there ends up being a lot of trash (plant material) to move through the equipment and it makes a tough seed bed. So, we’ll see. I look at this photo and I see a potentially difficult spring, and a leaking hydraulic hose on the chisel plow, and how I should replace all the hydraulic hoses on it, and the chisel shovels I need to replace. But the sky is pretty.

Doing the fieldwork really is meditative. I had my tractor buddy with me and I saw bald eagles. Boy, there was a lot of ears of corn on the ground this year, in some fields more than others. Damn deer, they tear off a lot of ears and nibble on it a bit. And it was a mixed bag this year because of the drought. The stalks were shorter than normal, and more brittle than normal, and then because the stalks and corn dried out sooner, it was easy for the deer to reach them, easier to pull off, easier for all the kernels to pop off the ear.

Driving around, I would see ‘combine loss’ in the fields, kernels that didn’t get into the combine. Kernels on the ground is not helpful and it means money lost. There are a lot of extra attachments to help corn or soybeans get into the combine. Air systems to blow kernels in, brushes to help feed the kernels in, extra brushes so they don’t pop out. But I don’t own the combine, so… not much I can do about that. Kernels might pop off because the soybean pods are so dry, they split open just from being ‘jostled’ before the combine header gets to them. Or the corn ear might break off the stalk, hit the header, and fall on the ground, or hit hard enough the kernels fly off. Harvesting is kind of a cataclysmic process, yet it needs to be somewhat gentle not to damage the kernel. There’s a lot happening in the moment in the combine, and it’s not surprising to see kernels on the ground. But there was a lot this year, and it means money lost and it’s kinda frustrating because there’s nothing I can do about it. I’ll try calling it the angels share.

We got some mail order pork delivered In a box with dry ice. I got some hot water and we had some fun.

You wouldn’t think the most dangerous part of farming would be trying to adjust the right-hand mirror on the tractor. It’s 8 feet up, out in the middle of nothing. When at home, I use a step ladder to adjust it. Then out in the field, I hit a tree branch and it gets knocked out of place. And there I am climbing up over the three-point hitch and onto the tire trying to get this back out in place and focused right. And trying to get back down, I think about all the hard, sharp edges, and pointy things I can snag myself on, or fall on to, and sometimes I leave the mirror where it is. Newer tractors have steps to reach allow cleaning the windows and reaching the mirror. And the ‘delux’ cab, has remote mirrors. Someday.

Next week, did we make any money?

ANY QUESTIONS ABOUT ANY OF THIS?  YOUR LAST ‘MIC DROP’ MOMENT?

2023, animals, Farming Update, Food, Kids, Nature, pets

Knock Knock

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The weekend Farm Report comes to us from Ben.

I used to have dad stories, and I am disappointed in myself that I don’t remember as many of them as there really are.

These days I have mom stories. Mom is 97 1/2 years old and in pretty good health, and while not diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, she’s 97 1/2 years old, and she forgets things, and she’s blind, and she gets anxious. I cut her some slack when she calls me for the sixth time to ask if she should get out of bed yet. Might be 9 AM, might be 10 PM, might be 2 AM.  I’m also very lucky there’s five kids; four of which live around here (one of whom was a geriatric nurse practitioner) and we all share daily texts on how mom is doing. Mom’s Alexa has been a lifesaver; it’s what allows her to make those phone calls. But mom mumbles and Alexa hears all sorts of random things. And she turns the music up and down, up and down, up and down, and then it’s so quiet she can’t hear it when she calls us. Mom started using it a few years ago when she was still in her apartment, so it kind of got ingrained. Social workers and nursing staff have complimented us on how helpful Alexa is to her. And my mom, true to form, has become a bit of a trendsetter because other residents in her senior place have gotten Alexa’s of their own. Attaway Mom! Makes me think of one of my favorite jokes. “Mom says, ‘If everybody else was jumping off a bridge, would you jump too?’ ‘Mom, you taught me to be a leader, not a follower.’ ” 

Typically I do a rough draft of the blog on Thursday, then proof-read (which clearly doesn’t always work) and clean it up on Friday. My computer ate Thursday’s draft, but the second draft is always better anyway. As I was writing Thursday night, daughter was making a couple of fried eggs. Time management is not her strong suit. She will set the burner to low medium heat, put a couple eggs in, and then go back to her room. I was writing, I got distracted, at some point 20+ minutes later, I said, “have you checked your eggs“. (She says she likes them crunchy)  And I hear her door, and hear her in the kitchen, from where she will yell, “I got it, Dad“ Yep, she’s always got it.

I haven’t talked about the chickens lately. They are just hanging in there. Egg production is down a bit, which is to be expected this time of year. These layer hens were born in April 2022, so they are past peak production. This year’s chicks, which I got in June 2023, may start laying about January or so, and will hit peak production along about March or April. 

Crops are still standing, ten-day forecast looks good, so I’m trying not to stress about that either. I did get the outside of the shop windows trimmed and sealed. Then I walked into the shed and saw the box with the foam sealer strips that I bought specifically for that project.

Sigh.

I did some more work on the inside getting two by fours on the wall so I can finish the interior steel.

Took the carburetor off my old 630 tractor, I’ve watched a few videos of how to rebuild it and I’ve ordered the overhaul kit. (Got a hat for $0.99!) Fixing that carburetor has been on my list all summer, so I look forward to getting that checked off.

I’ve dragged up some scrap iron. I need to get some of that cut up so it fits on the trailer, and while it isn’t the end of the scrap, (because do we ever really get an end?), it is the last of the piles right around the shed that I wanted to get done. I will be able to cross that off my list shortly. 

Luna the dog really has settled in. She and Humphrey have a good time wrestling and playing tug-of-war.

Friday afternoon, we took all the dogs out for a run/walk/ride,

way out in the East pasture where we don’t often go. So many new smells for Luna! And that’s when we lost her. Thankfully she had gone home, but we drove a long way looking for her, calling her, and met some neighbors, and saw a lot of pasture (header photo by Kelly) looking for her. And Kelly and I were both stressing. I don’t know if we got out of her sight, or earshot, or what. But thank Goodness she knew enough to go home.

Sigh.

ANY DEVICES LISTENING TO YOU AT YOUR HOUSE?

2023, home, Nature, Seasons, Uncategorized

Favorite Hangouts

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We have purple grapes hanging all over the place on our deck. They were particularly plenteous this year because of our snow last winter and the summer rains. You can see some of them in the header photo. The late fall migrants as well as the birds who stay around all winter have been gathering in droves to eat them. I used to make grape jelly but we don’t eat that much jelly, and a little grape jelly goes a long way, so we leave them for the birds. The grapes will dry and be a nice food source for them and the squirrels all winter. Squirrels have also made off with all the nuts on our hazel shrubs. I hope they ate them and didn’t just bury them in random places like they usually do.

Birds like to congregate in our yard with all the shrubs and protection from the wind as well as the feeders. We use black oil sunflower seeds in the feeders. I don’t care if the squirrels eat them, since they get hungry, too. I like our yard being a favorite hangout. Husband and I sat on the deck this afternoon in the calm, sunny weather listening to all the bird song after finishing our winter preparations for the yard. It was lovely.

Where were your favorite hangouts as a kid and as a teenager?

2023, Family, Mysteries, Nature, space

The Eclipse

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Of course there were clouds here on Saturday when the partial eclipse was gracing the late morning sky. 

I got my fascination for astronomy from my dad.  He loved following the space program and I remember when the Hubble started sending images back to Earth; he was enraptured. He sliced several photos out of Scientific American and kept them in a file in his living room drawer.

When I traveled to see the 2017 eclipse, I thought a lot about my dad.  Of course, as much as he would have enjoyed the eclipse, I don’t think he would have enjoyed how I experienced it (cheap motel the night before, five hours waiting in a parking lot with other folks, huge traffic issues getting home).  But it was fun to imagine sharing the observation with him, even when the clouds and rain meant there were only a few clear views that day.

For last weekend’s annular eclipse (when the moon is the farthest from Earth and you get a bright ring effect), we got only a partial eclipse here in the Twin Cities.  Since I’m making a trek to Indianapolis next spring for that eclipse, I decided to stay home for this one and enjoy the partial.  When the time came, I got my eclipse glasses and headed out onto the back stoop, which turned out to be a great vantage point.  YA followed me out, laughing at how dorky I looked.  She’s right; unless you’ve invested heavily, you’re stuck with rectangular cardboard frame glasses that resemble the cheap 3-D glasses you get at the movies. But then her curiosity got the better of her and soon she was standing out on the stoop with me, using another of my pairs of glasses (I have several).  The clouds were moving in quickly but at the apogee of the eclipse, we did get several good views, a few seconds each. 

A little later, she shared some websites she had been looking at which showed the eclipse from various locations in the west and southwest, where they could see the whole shebang.  She’d been watching for over an hour!  She says she doesn’t want to go with me to Indianapolis next year but I feel like at least for the day, I passed along a bit of my father’s interest in the heavens!

What’s the dorkiest thing you’ve ever worn?