Category Archives: Nature

2023, animals, Farming Update, Nature, Weather

Bet the Farm On It!

36 Comments

WordPress, for all its various issues, is good about keeping track of statistics.  They send me emails every month which I usually just blow off.  Since the point of the Trail is not to increase traffic and make a big deal of ourselves, it doesn’t seem like we need to pay too much attention.

We are up to 13,524 subscribers.  This isn’t as exciting as it sounds… it just means that at some point in the past decade, 13K folks have hit the subscribe button.  It does not mean that 13K folks are reading the trail every day.   Far from it.  But we still have readers from all over the globe – in fact, we have had a “Like” from Mongolia in the past six months – that’s new.

The most fun news is that the Farm Reports are by far the most popular bits on the trail.  For the past six months, the most viewed, liked and commented post of each month belongs to our Ben!  I even got WordPress to cough up the most popular post of the last year.  You guessed it.  September 10, 2022 – Is It Fall Already? 

So kudos to Ben for livening up the trail every weekend and for giving us all a fabulous picture of farm life!

Your fantasy farm?  Tell me all about it!

2023, animals, Farming Update, Nature, pets, Uncategorized, Weather, work

Top Of The Hill

48 Comments

Today’s Farm Report comes from Ben.

Finished baling straw this week. Terrible yields there too. Got 320 small square bales total, and it should have been 1000 bales off 20 acres.

It is what it is. Everything worked well and it’s nice straw. Kelly and I unloaded one load, I’ve go the last 100 bales stacked in a wagon for the strawberry farm that buys it, and there’s one load in the shed yet that we’ll get unloaded next week.

I am going to plant a cover crop this year on the oat ground. With the hail we had, there should be plenty of oats there to germinate and re-seed, but rye actually produces deeper roots and is a good cool season crop, so there should be a good winter cover. the same program that was paying for oats this year (separate from the ‘food grade’ oats program) is paying for cover crops. It’s funded by the USDA.

Every time i take my boots off this year, I’m leaving a trail of oats or straw chaff in my wake. Occupational hazard, i guess. I’ve got a cordless Dewalt vacuum in the mudroom specifically for this reason.

Walking on stacked bales is a bit of a challenge. It’s better when they’re stacked proper and tight, but that doesn’t always happen and I was curious how it would go for me and my new knee. And it went pretty well!

I was probably 16 or 17 when Dad announced his sore feet wouldn’t allow him to walk on the bales anymore and I was given the important job of stacking hay bales in the barn. Anyone can unload the bales and put them on the elevator, but stacking, that’s special and takes some skill. Right Clyde? (Or did you only handle loose hay?)

Basically, when stacking, you alternate the direction of the row, and you get the bale in place, then give it a good shove with your knees. Repeat several hundred times. Course, maybe you’re working 3 or 4 rows high in a corner and depending how much room there is as the bales come off the elevator into the hay loft, depends how fast you need to keep moving. All this to say, it was a big deal when Dad had me take over stacking. Just as big of deal it was last year when I wasn’t able to stack myself and my brother did it. The bales got in there, but walking over them the rest of the fall, winter, and this summer reminded me of the skills he missed out on over the years.

The one day last week, just as they finished combining oats, and it rained pretty hard and I had run up the road with the gator to open the truck tarp so the combine could dump the last of the oats. The dogs came running up with me and neither one of them likes the rain. They scrambled into the gator, and they sat in there for 20 minutes after we got home while I was out doing other stuff.

The young guineas are out and learning their ways. Festus, the guinea with the bad leg seems to have disappeared. We knew he’d have a tough time of it and we don’t know what became of him.

Here was a big ragweed plant growing out of the side of the silo, about 8’ in the air. ‘Was’ because I plucked it right after taking this photo.

The first few days at the college have been rough this year. Something about a ‘licensing issue’ means I don’t have access to Outlook, Word, Excel, or any of those Microsoft programs. Plus it seems like my computer – heck, none of the computers, want much to do with me. It’s been a rough few days.

MOTIVATIONAL POSTERS. DO THEY WORK FOR YOU? SEEN ANY GOOD ONES?

2023, Gatherings, History, Nature, Uncategorized

Refuge

27 Comments

A couple of weeks ago Husband and I went to a barbeque in the Killdeer Mountains. The Killdeer Mountains are about 45 miles north of our town. They are really two mesas formed by wind, and river and lake erosion. The highest point is only 975 feet. There are lots of trees there. It was a sacred place for our native tribes. There also are badlands on three sides. One of the last battles of the Civil War was fought there in 1864, when General Sully fought some Sioux who who the government wanted removed from the Upper Missouri area to protect communication lines to the gold fields in Montana and Idaho. It was also part of punishing any natives for the Dakota War of 1862 whether they had participated in it or not. You can see the remoteness of the area, despite oil drilling activity.

You can see a mesa from the plains that surround it.

A nurse friend of mine and her brother inherited 4000 acres of land in the Killdeer mountains, part of a ranch owned by their great grandfather. We had the barbeque at a lovely, old hunting cabin there, where my nurse friend goes for rest and relaxation. She doesn’t hunt. A neighbor runs cattle on part of the land. The bulk of the 4000 acres has been turned into a nature preserve by my friend and her brother with the help of the Nature Conservancy. There is a mountain lion there as well as elk in the tall spruce and pine trees that grow all over the place. It is peaceful and quiet. We didn’t see the mountain lion, but it was fun to know it was in the area. Some friends brought their bird dogs to the gathering, who had a blast running around and looking for the wildlife. Other friends brought their children, who did the same thing.

Where would you like to have a rustic cabin? What sort of animals would you want in your nature preserve?

2023, animals, Automotive, Family, Farming Update, gardening, Nature, Seasons

Summer “Farming”

51 Comments

The weekend Farm Report comes to us from Ben.

Thankfully theaters are equipped with AC these days.  This week was all about theater.  

I was at the Rochester Repertory Theater Monday and Tuesday evenings finishing lighting and dress rehearsals for ‘I and You’ by Lauren Gunderson. That opened on Thursday with a preview audience on Wednesday so that Wednesday night I was headed to the town of Chatfield, 20 miles South of Rochester to begin lighting ‘Hello Dolly’. I drove down on Monday with my friend Paul to scope out the place since I didn’t work there last summer, and the building had a lot of renovations done. Potter Auditorium, built in 1936, is attached to an elementary school built in 1916. 

The theater was renovated in 2016. The renovation done to the school revealed the original skylights and main beams in a ‘great room’. It removed a lot of steps and ramps and various levels and added more bathrooms and elevators. It’s pretty nice.

I started working in Potter Auditorium in 1986, building the set for ‘Annie’ for $500. My dad and brother helped me carry 40 sheets of 4×8 particle board up from the basement to cover the gym floor (because of course it was a ‘gymnatorium’) and we couldn’t mess up the basketball floor.  

The next year I built the set for ‘Barnum’, and the next year, some kind of original talent show.  

Working in Chatfield always feels like going home. Lots of good memories there. There wasn’t AC until the 2016 renovation. Back in the 80’s, hornets would come in and buzz around on their backs on the floor. I’d walk over and step on them. Good times.  

I recently heard someone mention how, when they were a young kid, their dad talked about hunting and outdoor sports so that’s why they hunt now. And I thought, I got mail order books, and Disney records of Musicals. Mary Poppins, Robin Hood, Bedknobs and Broomsticks. Hmmm.    

I mentioned we had hail last Saturday. I notified crop insurance, and they assigned an adjuster. Haven’t met with him yet.

It knocked some oats out and beat up the corn and soybeans a bit. Left some marks on our cars too.  

The ceiling insulation for the shop was blown in on Wednesday. The ball is back in my court to start working again.  

I started cutting oats on Tuesday. It was so hot the swather wouldn’t run right and it left me walking home twice. And then we got an inch of rain Tuesday night. Because of course now it would rain.

Also Tuesday the electrician buried the new electric line to the shop. He cut the phone line, which I didn’t need to the shop anymore. He also found the phone line from 1968 when we lived in the machine shed while the house was being built.  

And then he found the current electric line to the old shop. The one my dad buried in the 1950’s and the one being replaced. It was 30 feet from where I thought it was. So, he changed course. Oops; found it again. Thinking back; there was a ravine and a tree there, so I guess Dad had to go around the tree. Maybe that’s why it was way over where it shouldn’t have been.  

But this guy is an electrician, and he was able to fix it; no harm, no foul.

Here is Kelly posing with her new Gator.

We like it better than the old one already.  

WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE DISNEY MOVIE OR SONG?   PLEASE RESPOND BY SINGING IT.  

2023, Food, Nature, Travel

The Cauliflower That Ate New York

25 Comments

I didn’t mean to come home from Madison with a cauliflower the size of my head.

But there it was – gloriously purple and calling to me.  Never mind that I know full well that YA is going to be gone for two weeks.  Never mind that we still had the entire capitol to walk around with this monster in my bag.  Never mind that I only brought my smaller cooler for dragging stuff home and I had already bought 4 loaves of Stella’s Chili Cheese Bread.  I had to have it.

It’s ways too big for just one recipe of anything (I put the can of water next to it for the photo so you can see how big it is).  The first thing I’m making is Savory Cauliflower Salad from Twelves Months of Monastery Salads by Brother Victor-Antoine d’Avila-Latourrette.

SaladVinaigrette
1 good-sized head cauliflower, cut into florets¼ c. olive oil
3 hard-boiled eggs, peeled, coarsely chopped3 Tbsp. hazelnut oil
2 shallots, finely chopped3 Tbsp. white wine vinegar
2 Tbsp. capers, drained1 tsp. Dijon mustard
 1 tsp. chopped fresh or dried tarragon
 Salt & pepper to taste
  1. To make the salad, put the florets in the top of a double boiler set over simmering water, cover, and steam until tender, 15-20 minutes, o cook in a large saucepan of boiling salted water for about 5 minutes.  Drain and allow them to cool.

2. Put the cauliflower in a good-sized salad bowl and add the eggs, shallots and capers.  Toss gently to combine.

3. Whisk the vinaigrette ingredients together in a measuring cup or small bowl until thickened.  Pour over the salad and toss gently to coat evenly.

Not sure what I’ll do with the other half of this giant.  Maybe a Parmesan Roasted Cauliflower.  Maybe a soup.

What was your last impulsive purchase/acquisition?

2023, animals, Automotive, Family, Farming Update, Nature

Summer Lemons

49 Comments

The weekend Farm Report comes to us from Ben.

There should be a lemon law for gators. Our gator, the utility vehicle we’ve grown to love, seems to develop some kind of coolant leak every 3 or 4 months. We got it in November of 2020. It went to the shop for the 4th time Thursday. When “Tim” came to pick it up, Kelly told him to bring back a better one, and we all laughed. “Brady” called at 7:30AM Friday morning working on numbers for a trade. We better wait for the mechanic to see what he can find first. Actually, dump it now and make the deal BEFORE the mechanic finds out what’s what.

 Kelly and I finished the steel ceiling in the shop late Sunday evening. Got in the house about 9:30 PM, but it was done. And Monday morning, the rental company called asking when I was bringing the lift back. I did that right away. The insulation guys had dropped off their lift, so it was nice to have two lifts for a while. 

Tuesday afternoon, a young man named ‘Blaze’ did all the prep work for the spray foam insulation. He added nailing strips to the walls (to support the 8′ wide fiberglass batts of insulation), he put cardboard in the attic to fill the gap at the wall, he taped over the windows, door, and covered the work bench. Then he put plastic on the floor too. He was back Wednesday morning to spray 1″ of closed cell foam on the walls. Thursday morning another crew was in and installed the fiberglass insulation on the walls and covered it all with plastic.  Now, just waiting for yet another crew to do the blown insulation in the attic.

The electrician is planning on running the new power line to the shop on Tuesday. 

 I need to order more steel for the walls. And install 2×4’s on the walls to attach the steel. But that won’t be in the next few weeks. 

Young Padawan was back this past Thursday and we pulled down an old fence, loaded up some scrap metal, and he used the weed wacker and mowed weeds while I was in a zoom meeting. He learned to drive the tractor more and I showed him how to use the oxy-acetylene torch to cut steel. Like most teenagers, he lives in shorts. I mentioned it would be nice if he owned some long pants as I showed him how sparks fly everywhere while cutting steel. I showed him once, then gave him the torch. He didn’t like the sparks.

In the tractor, I explained, and showed, and helped him take the forks off and put the bucket on. Later in the day, we took the bucket off, and put the forks back on. I got him going, then I walked away. I don’t like to give all the answers, I really want the kids to figure it out. I’m the dad who would help you practice swimming once, then throw you in the pool. It’s surprising how many people, kids and adults, are afraid to try things. I told him multiple times, “You can’t break anything. Give it a try.” “Wiggle it more”. “Keep pressing buttons until it works”, “Try something.” That’s a big one for me. Try SOMETHING! You can’t just sit there, TRY SOMETHING! 

I unhooked the latches on the bucket and I walked away. I heard them snap back into place as he struggled and I went over and helped get the bucket off and directed him to the forks. They snap into place all by themselves once you’ve got it hooked. I stood there and never made eye contact with him. I wanted him to figure it out. Took a while, and a little direction from me, but he did it. He’s a city boy, and this stuff is all really new to him. He’s getting there. 

He’s also got a habit of walking away before getting the full instructions. “Over between the sheds…” and off he goes. I stopped talking. Eventually, from over between the sheds, he says “What am I looking for?” Good question. Maybe wait for the full instructions next time. And he walked back. 

 We let the teenage chickens into their outside pen last weekend. They love it. And they spend a lot of time hopping up on the fence, going outside the fence, then hopping back in. Usually. Sometimes we have to help some figure out how to get back in. And Monday morning, one of our baby guineas was behind the house. Don’t know how he got out. And he sure made a lot of cackling noises. But he ran really fast and could fly enough, we couldn’t catch him. Later in the day he was pretty quiet. In the evening we feared the worst. Hadn’t heard him all afternoon. Suddenly there he was by the chicks. And we could catch him and get him home again. Guess he wore himself out having adventures. He’s stayed in the pen the rest of the week. There’s been a few movies about the big, bad, cruel, world outside. He learned. The older guineas chased him around a bit, too. There’s no place like home.  And Friday morning, they’re up on the wall to the teenage chicks. So now they’re all together. And our gimpy one, (We call him Festus. Or maybe Walter) I put him over the fence with them. They’re all doing OK together. 

CROPS: Corn will get the fungicide applied by helicopter any day now. Prevent cannibalism, you know. The soybeans look pretty good for June 1. Oats should get cut and harvested next week.

 Stay cool next week. I hope none of you are riding a bike across Iowa like my friend Simon. 

HOW ARE YOU AT TAKING DIRECTION?  WHAT CAN YOU SAY ABOUT LEMONS? ARE YOU SOUR OR SWEET?

2023, Kids, Nature, Poems, Words

Shadows

67 Comments

My kitchen windows look out over my neighbors’ driveway, so I often get a front row view of the comings and goings.  Yesterday I saw the youngest (she’s almost 5) dancing with her shadow while waiting for the car to get loaded for the day.  She was completely entranced, lifting first one arm and then the other, then pointing one toe to the side followed by the opposite toe.  She shimmied and wiggled and eventually began to sing.  It was charming.

It reminded me of a favorite childhood poem, My Shadow, by Robert Louis Stevenson

I have a little shadow that goes in and out with me,
And what can be the use of him is more than I can see.
He is very, very like me from the heels up to the head;
And I see him jump before me, when I jump into my bed.

The funniest thing about him is the way he likes to grow
Not at all like proper children, which is always very slow;
For he sometimes shoots up taller like an india-rubber ball,
And he sometimes gets to little that there’s none of hi at all.

He hasn’t got a notion of how children ought to play,
And can only make a fool of me in every sort of way.
He stays so close beside me, he’s a coward you can see;
I’d think shame to stick to nurse as that shadow sticks to me!

One morning, very early, before the sun was up,
I rose and found the shining dew on every buttercup;
But my lazy little shadow, like an arrant sleep-head,
Had stayed at home behind me and was fast asleep in bed.

I still have this poem in The Illustrated Treasure of Children’s Literature.  There are several poems in this collection that I remember and treasure.  I didn’t have a huge number of books when I was little but this was one of them and I had my mother read to me from it quite a bit.

Do you have any favorite childhood poems?

2023, animals, Family, Farming Update, gardening, Nature, Weather

On and On It Goes

41 Comments

The weekend Farm Report comes to us from Ben.

It rained again a bit. We got another 0.44 Wednesday morning; a nice gentle rain pretty much all morning. Is it too little too late? We wait and see.

The soybeans that didn’t germinate back in May are coming in and we are just starting to see the rows. Man, they’re gonna have to hustle to amount to anything by fall. 

The corn looks terrible; it’s just all over the place for height. I’ve seen some barely as tall as me just beginning to tassel.

And some is only knee high… I don’t know… it will be what it will be. It’s interesting on the edge of a field, the trees use so much moisture, the plants are only a couple feet tall in a patch matching the canopy of the tree. There is something called ‘Field

Edge Effect’ meaning the field edge suffers from winds or herbicides from neighboring fields. Must be nice to have huge fields with no trees around the edges.

The agronomists are saying we should still think about applying fungicide to the corn because it will actually help prevent senescence (and cannibalism) even if it stays dry. Too much science behind it to get into it, but it’s always interesting what is happening in the corn plant to create an ear!  

The oats are turning color. I’m not quite sure what’s going to happen with the oats and it’s stressing me out. I don’t expect it will have a good enough test weight to meet the requirements for human food grade, and we won’t know until we start harvest. I don’t know if ‘those guys’ are going to combine it all anyway, or if they’ll start, find out it’s crap, and bail, meaning I’ll have to get my other guy to combine. And who’s hauling it anyway? I’m working on answers to all these questions, just haven’t gotten them yet. 

We had a family reunion / potluck last Saturday. Twenty-six people attended. It was a far cry from the 50 that were there in 2007, and sad how many people we’ve lost since then. And it’s hard to get the next generation interested. I better stop before I sound like an old fart. 

I’ve had the 20′ scissor lift rented this week, so it’s all been about the shed. Added the 2×4 ceiling joists under the roof trusses, the ceiling steel will be attached to the 2×4’s. 

That went quick; however, the rental lift is being temperamental and only works when it wants too. Course it worked when the repair guy was there. 

My brother has helped, my friend Paul has helped, our son came done one day and helped and of course Kelly is always helping one way or another; moral support, ideas, helping move things, and even driving the lift.

And the teenage helper from last summer, young padawan, has come back, bringing a friend with him. Two teenage boys…I tried not to roll my eyes too hard. But they did good. When we took a break, padawan took this year’s new kid around the farm in the gator. 

They’ve all been good help. We got the last big window in, and some of the ceiling steel installed. And my brother and son were impressed with the cool tools I have; like the metal shears that attach to a cordless drill. I didn’t know it was anything fancy. 

Course I also poked myself in the thumb, twice, using a dental pick like thing while working on something. Not cool.

Black raspberries are out, and right by the shed, so they’ve been a nice snack for us.

The lift was supposed to go back Friday,but I paid an extra day to keep it over the weekend. The ceiling steel goes fast once we get going. And I need to finish sealing off the one truss to keep the birds out. Half done with that.

Once all that is done, it’s up to the contractors to do the wall insulation. I called them the other day to let them know I’m ready and to get on the schedule. I have an ‘attic access’ panel, but I wasn’t sure how much they need to get around up there. Turns out they need more than I had, so I used some old 20′ sections of pipe to make walkways in the rafters so they can get to all the corners. Use what you have available. Dad would be pleased. 

Funny story about the lift. It doesn’t take much for the battery to get weak and it won’t go up. It tries, it goes up about 6″, then stalls. Oh, it whines and makes noises, but it doesn’t go ‘up’. So, the boys would jump in the air, thereby fooling the lift about how much weight it’s lifting, and it would raise another 6″. They’d jump again, it would gain another 6″, and then it would lift the rest of the way. So stupid it was funny and it made us laugh. 

The boys also cleaned out an area next to the shed where we’ve been dumping stuff for years. They dug out some old wire, cement blocks, even bricks! No idea where the bricks came from. I need to smooth it out a bit, and it will be nice to mow in there eventually. 

I’m hoping next week to start mowing weeds. And oats will be ready soon. And I’ve got a show to light in Rochester opening 7/25 and another to light in Chatfield opening 8/4. And then I’m back at ‘work’ work 8/10. 

But let’s not get ahead of myself. 

HOW MANY CANNIBAL JOKES DO YOU KNOW? DO YOU GET RIGHT UP OUT OF BED IN THE MORNING?

2023, Food, Media, Nature, Words

Peppered!

52 Comments

One of my friends, Julie, is a freelance writer. She writes about a wide gamut of topics and she appears on the Eating Well site quite a bit.

Last week she penned a piece about why there aren’t ever green peppers in the multi-pepper packs you find in grocery stores. It’s a great bit (well, I think all her columns are great) and it included some fun facts about green peppers. This is quoted with her permission:

Fun Fact One: Peppers botanically are considered to be fruit, because their seeds are stored inside, but they’re culinarily considered a vegetable, like cucumbers.

Fun Fact Two: You can tell which peppers are male and female just by looking at the outside. “Males have three lobes, and females have four, sometimes five,” Schueller says. “The females produce more seeds, and that tends to make them less sweet. So if you like sweeter peppers, look for fewer lobes.”

Fun Fact Three: The peppers we call chile peppers all have spiciness, measured in Scoville units from mild to very spicy. But bell peppers don’t have any heat, and they ended up being named “bell” because a) they aren’t chile peppers and b) they’re shaped like a bell.

I had no clue that there were female and male peppers – not sure it will make me happy the next time I’m dicing up peppers for some dish.

If you’re making stuffed peppers, what do you like to put in them?

animals, Mysteries, Nature, Poems

Translation is Everything

30 Comments

Last week I was looking for something online and happened upon Basho’s famous frog haiku.  I’ve seen it before but didn’t realize that this is considered on of the most famous haiku.  This is the most common translation (thanks to Harry Behn):

An old silent pond…

A frog jumps into the pond,

Splash!  Silence again.

I couldn’t’ quite think this was the best haiku ever so I dub a little deeper.  Here is actual Japanese:

Furu ike ya

kawazu tobikomu

mizu no oto

This translates literally to this:

Old pond…

a frog jumps in

water’s sound

The translation doesn’t match the 5-7-5 syllable convention, which probably explains why there are so many versions in English.  But I still couldn’t figure out why it was so popular; then I found it narrated in Japanese:

Much prettier sounding – makes more sense why it is one of his best-remembered haikus.  Too bad it isn’t as pretty sounding in English as it is in Japanese.

Do you have form over function anywhere in your life?