Category Archives: Nature

2022, animals, Family, Farming Update, gardening, Health, Nature, Weather

This and That

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This weekend’s Farm Report comes to us from Ben.

Two weeks plus post-surgery and putting socks on is still kind of a process. Picking black raspberries was harder than I expected, too. But I’m getting there.

Last Monday the two corners of CRP got planted to a ‘pheasant habitat’ blend of wildflowers and grasses. And we got three loads of crushed rock delivered for the farmyard. One dumped in a pile for use as needed and the other two spread on the road.

We have a brush pile of sticks collected from the yard since December, and we’ve been meaning to burn it all spring. Several times Kelly has said “This would be a good night to burn the brush pile” and then we fall asleep on the couch.

But the other night we were out there ready to do it! Aaaand there’s a duck nesting under it. Sigh.

A few years ago, we started a pile of sticks on fire and there was a good blaze going before a chicken came running out from under it. So, we look before we light it now. The duck only has three eggs… not sure they’re even fertilized. But the fire is still on hold.

I’m delivering straw this weekend with my friend Paul, and we’re going out in the middle of nowhere. It’s a Winona Address…and it’s a great drive on lonely gravel roads and hills and valleys and S-turns and I have a printed map because there is no cell phone reception down in there. I love going there.

Crops are looking good. Two weeks ago, I had a photo of Kelly on July 4 and the corn was up to her waist. In 10 days, it’s doubled in height.

Soybeans are up to her knees.

I’ve talked about 15” rows vs. 30” rows and how we like the crops to canopy to help prevent weeds growing. Compare these photos: first is the neighbors 30” rows and second is my 15” rows.

Growing degree units are 1384, 94 above normal for my area. The hot weather coming helps, but the plant actually shuts down above 86 degrees, so we don’t actually gain GDU’s after that.

See this corn plant growing in the middle of the soybeans.

That’s called ‘volunteer corn’ and it can be a problem in soybeans. Because we use crop rotation, usually a bean field this year was corn last year. If a storm or disease knocked down the stalk of corn, depending how much it’s fallen over, it can make picking it up at harvest that much harder. A lot of ears may fall to the ground and grow voluntarily in the field next year. Hence the term, volunteer corn. It doesn’t generally reach maturity with full ears, but depending on the amount, it’s competing with the soybean crop and it can be a problem at harvest.

Kelly let the little chicks out to run at large. Padawan and I took down the fence and they’re enjoying all the room. Of course, a new pecking order will need to be established eventually between the old hens and the new ones.

A friend of mine in town had given me some chickens a few years ago and was ready for more, so I took two of the laying hens and one of the younger chicks to her. At her place, the two laying hens went to her outdoor run and settled right in. The younger one made a break for it. Out the coop door, through the garden (The entire backyard is garden) into her garage, out the big door, across the street, and under the neighbor’s car. Two adults and my young Padawan in pursuit. Padawan really does not have much interest in the chickens, so the last thing he wanted to do was chase this one up the street. Eventually, the young chick reversed its course: back into the garage, back into the garden, in and around all the plants, and eventually, got stuck in a narrow spot between a retaining wall and a fence.  Was captured, and returned to its new home. I really wanted a photo of all this, but I had left my phone in the truck. Use your imagination. Remember, the backyard is all garden so they’re dodging all that too. It was as funny as you imagine.

USE YOUR IMAGINATION AND GO OFF THE BEATEN TRACK. SAY WHAT YOU WANT HERE.

2022, Family, gardening, home, Kids, Mysteries, Nature, Technology, Weather

It’s Not Nice to Fool Mother Nature

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Mother Nature is just messing with me. 

With my front and back yards full of flowers, I do need to think about water during the summer months, especially if there are going to be so many 90+ degree days.  I watch the weather forecasts like a hawk to try to determine if Mother Nature is going to gift me with any free precipitation.  If it’s going to rain, I really don’t to pay the City of Minneapolis for extra water.

It seems that almost every forecast of rain the past month has been a chimera – it shows as 50% or 60% and the radar shows the dark green riding right over my location – then nothing!   Or else it does a very insulting sprinkle for 3 minutes.  Last night I had the sprinkler on in front and when I went to water my baskets in the back, YA gave me grief.  She said “it’s going to rain… it’s 80%”.  I continued along, watering all the baskets and the bales while she made fun of me.  As I finished up, it started to lightly sprinkle.  She smirked as I came in the back.  Then 5 minutes later I smirked when it hadn’t even rained long enough to wet a tissue. 

I know weather is capricious but I would have thought that by now, forecasters could get a better grasp on this.  I’ve said many times that if I were to look for another job, it would be as a weather forecaster.  Then I could get a big salary to be on tv and the fact that I was wrong half of the time wouldn’t count against me on my annual review!

I guess for the rest of the summer, I’ll just assume there will be no rain, unless I wake up to it in the morning!

How much do YOU believe in weather forecasting?

2022, animals, books, education, Food, gardening, Nature, Uncategorized

Tomato Paradise

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Bill mentioned a few days ago that his first little tomatoes had been swiped right off the vine.  Now I’m paranoid about my first ripening beauties.  There are 3 cherry tomatoes and 2 romas that are in various blushing states; I hope they survive until I pick them.

My cherry tomato plant is now taller than I am.  Granted, it has a 24” start since it is in a straw bales, but I’m thinking that even without the bale, it’s going to give me a run for the money. 

You all know that I started gardening in straw bales after someone here talked about Tomatoland by Barry Estabrook.  I hadn’t grown any veggies for years prior to that, but the book was horrifying enough that I started casting about for ways to raise my own tomatoes and that’s when I discovered straw bale gardening.  The rest is history. 

I have the book The $64 Tomato by William Alexander on hold at the library.  Actually it’s “paused” and I keep pushing the pause date back.  It’s subtitle is “How One Man Nearly Lost His Sanity, Spent a Fortune, and Endured an Existential Crisis in the Quest for the Perfect Garden”.   But now I’m a little worried.   What if it makes me re-think my straw bale protocol?  What if it makes me do the math?

I’m hoping it’s just a fun read with some laughs.  Fingers crossed.

Have you ever had a book upend your plans?

Nature, Travel, Uncategorized, Weather

In Memoriam – Our Little Jail Bird

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It was this week three years ago that we lost our Little Jail Bird, Edith.  In her memory, I’m running her most iconic posting on the Trail.

Until last fall, I had never been to Banning State Park. I had driven by it dozens of time, because when I head up to my sister’s house, I always turn off 35W and take Highway 23 into town. I didn’t know much about Banning, but when I was looking for a day trip, it seemed to fit my needs perfectly.

First, I wanted a park where I could drive there and back in one day without getting too tired. Second, I wanted a park that didn’t involve driving several back roads, because I knew that I would be driving in the dark due to the shorter fall days and my night vision and sense of direction is bad enough that I would get lost unless I kind of knew where I was going. And third, I wanted a state park because I had a state park sticker and wanted to use it as much as possible to get my money’s worth out of it. Banning fit all of those qualifications. Plus it has a waterfall, which is a big plus in my book.

So, off I went, one sunny morning in October. When I arrived, I stopped at the visitor center to get maps and ask where the best spots were. I was so excited. It seems that often when I go north, I am early for the fall colors and often find myself driving home just a few days before “peak”  and this time I was not too early! I said something about that to the woman at the desk (while trying to not jump and down in excitement) and she shook her head woefully and told me in a discouraging tone, “You’re going to see LOTS of brown out there.” Gee thanks, way to burst my bubble.

Of course, since I drove all the way up there, I figured I better go on the hike anyway even if I would see mostly brown. I drove to the parking area and when I stepped out of the car and looked up, I knew it was going to be a good day (see header photo).

I hiked all the way to the falls and back and shot lots of photos. It was an incredibly beautiful day: that clear, deep blue sky that you only seem to see on autumn days and – surprise! – lots of colorful leaves on the trees. It can be a challenge shooting in bright sunlight, but I was so overcome by the beauty of it all that I just took that in my stride. There was that wonderful northwoods smell in the air – pine trees and dead leaves. Nothing like it! and nothing else invigorates me like that does.

It was getting pretty cool and the sun was going down quickly by the time I was heading back on the trail but the golden evening light only made things more beautiful and the colors more intense. I went home pleasantly tired and very happy and glad that the woman’s prediction of “lots of brown” wasn’t true.

Any comments / reflections welcome!

2022, animals, Family, Farming Update, gardening, Nature, Weather

Summertime

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The weekend farm report comes to us from Ben.

Summer on the farm (GDU’s are 80 above normal giving us 1282 currently) and we’re just watching everything grow. Had my young padawan out mowing the lawn and doing a few projects by himself.

Which is good for me; I’m 10 days post surgery, feeling better every day, and just not doing much but sitting and recovering. A friend of mine said “Healing is SUCH a process”. And I told somebody “recovering is hard work.”

The other day I walked out to the machine shed and then rode in the gator up for the mail. That night I really hurt. Holding myself upright so my back doesn’t rub on the seat might be part of the problem, but the walk was the most exercise I’ve had in a week too. 

The next day I took my car for a drive. With the lack of control of my legs, I haven’t driven my car since early May. Daughter asked me if I should be doing that, the driving. I told her that’s why I practice on the driveway. First, I went from the house to the machine shed, just to make sure I could stop. Then I went down to the barn, then I went up the driveway. That’s another bonus to having a mile long driveway, lots of room to practice your driving skills.

The oats is all headed out, it goes from such a nice green color to more of a pale green once headed out, and then as it dries up, it will turn yellow. Compare this photo to the header photo.

The corn was almost waist high by the Fourth of July, 

 and the beans are looking good. Everything has been sprayed for weeds, and using the 15 inch rows on soybeans, they’ve started to canopy enough that there really shouldn’t be any more weed pressure. We will continue to monitor for bugs, around here that is soybean aphids. But those can vary from year to year and then you still need enough bugs to cause enough damage to justify the cost of spraying: the ‘economic threshold’. We don’t spray for just a few bugs. Sometimes soybeans get weather related funguses that can cause issues. So we keep an eye on all the crops. 

We put out the hummingbird and oriole feeder last week, we’ve seen some hummingbirds around on flowers, and one morning I saw an oriole on the feeder and that made me happy.

The black raspberries are just getting ripe, picked a few of those. I enjoy them on ice cream very much. And they will be really good in yogurt.

Rooster number three had a wound on his leg last week, kind of upper thigh area. Enough that he was dripping blood. Don’t know what he was into or up against, but he’s recovered and still chasing off rooster number one. Of our three guineas, two must’ve been on nests as one was by itself for several days. Now there’s two again. It would be nice if they could hatch out a batch. They make their nests in tall weeds somewhere and I generally only find them by accident. And they’re terrible mothers as a rule. The one Guinea we have has done real well the last couple years. As with the ducks this spring, it will be Kelly chasing them down and trying to catch them if we get that far. But it would sure be nice to have a dozen guineas around. May have to order babies next year. 

2022, gardening, Nature, Uncategorized, Weather

Flash Flood

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We had around 2 inches of rain on Sunday night in the space of 70 minutes. That is pretty unusual for us, and resulted in a lot of flash flooding in town. The photo below shows a flooded underpass. You can see the railroad bridge at the top of the photo. The street goes under the bridge, and the flood waters are about 12 feet deep.

Photo by DJ Miller

The following photo is of a main street in town that I drive on every day to work. I never really noticed the low spot where the yellow car is sitting. There are apparently lots of these low spots on the street, and they all flooded briefly. I have lived here for 35 years and I never noticed them. Now I notice lots of these low spots all over town.

Photo by DJ Miller

Someone from the fire department also took a photo of the underpass. The fire department is always called when the underpass floods, as it seems someone tries to drive through the underpass during a flood, and they like to have a rescue truck available.

Photo by Dickinson Fire Department

We had another .20 inches today, and it seemed like it soaked in much better than the downpour on Sunday night. It is interesting how less can be more when it comes to rain.

Have you ever been in a flood, flash or otherwise? When, in your experience, is less really more? What are some experiences when you have seen but not really noticed ?

2022, Automotive, Business, Farming Update, gardening, Nature, Seasons, Uncategorized, Weather

GROWING AND CUTTING AND STUFF

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The weekend Farm Report comes to us from Ben.

By the time you’re reading this, I’ll have gotten my gold spec implanted, and had back surgery to remove a cyst. Give me a couple more days and I’ll be up and around like I was back in April! Although the left knee still hurts; the one I was supposed to get replaced in June before I started down this other path. Got the knee on the schedule for December now. The Pessimist in me says, “By August I’ll be back to where I was in April!” The optimist says, “Look what you’ve learned and the people you’ve met and the time you’ve had and the new perspective on things!” Yeah, well. Stuff a sock in it Mr. Optimist. …some days I’m more pessimistic than others…

The agronomy news lately is about side dressing the corn with extra nitrogen. Recently saw this chart showing nitrogen uptake by the plants based on what stage of growth it’s in. Honestly, the more I learn about this stuff, the more fascinated I am. Many farmers have started doing split applications of nitrogen. Anhydrous or liquid nitrogen as starter to get the plant going, and then coming in about now and applying more when it needs the growth spurt and has higher nitrogen needs. I’d like to try it next year when, hopefully, fertilizer prices won’t be so ridiculously high.

We’re over 1000 GDU’s, about 80 about normal.

Kelly and I were driving around the other day, just checking out the neighborhood and seeing how the neighbor’s crops were doing, and we drove through the small town of Viola; home to the Viola Gopher Count. We saw Shea Stadium and the local chapter of this motorcycle club.

There was some discussion among the locals when the club moved in, but you know the old adage, ‘Don’t mess where you sleep’ and this place hasn’t caused any issues. Viola is a town of maybe 25 people. Three streets, two avenues, some gravel, some blacktop. A church (next to the club) and a park with a beer hall (available for rent! But mostly used for Gopher Count) and a townhall.

My brother and I have both played 4H softball at Shea Stadium.

Made the final payment on one of my tractors this week. That’s a good feeling.

Got the roadsides cut last week. Then it rained.

Got it raked and baled on Monday. Thank goodness it was mostly grass and that dries thin and quick. Got 70 bales total.

Oats started heading out on Sunday, June 26th.

Every year, I report what I plant for crops to the local FSA (Farm Service Agency). Any government payments I get come from there. FSA is the agency responsible for keeping track of all that stuff. I’ve written before about government payments, and how that works. In typical government fashion, it’s not always easy. They provide maps and they have measured the fields (by satellite imagery) so they tell me the acres. I may or may not completely agree with there acres, but it’s hard to get them to change their minds. Again, I’m a small farm. I have about 20 fields, and some they have measured individually so I can just say, for example, field 4 is 4.5 acres. But sometimes they lump 5 fields together and give me one total acreage and then I have to break it out by field. Again, not a problem. The fields are measured to the 100th of an acre. But the report they want back only goes to tenths. Just round up or down. Yet it still has to all match. And generally, the fields stay the same from year to year, but some change a bit. (For example, the two corners I put into CRP this year have to be deducted from the rest of the field). And corn ground is ‘worth’ more on the reports than oats. So, round up on the corn, and down on the oats. Play the game.

Way back mid 1980’s I worked for this office when it was called the ASCS office. (Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service). Everyone I worked with there has retired.

When we got the gator in the fall of 2020, it came with a yellow flashing beacon on the top. We didn’t order that, but this one happen to come with it. Last week I broke it off. By accident. I was backing into the garage to pick up garbage and just as I’m about to go through the door I thought to myself, “There’s no reason this won’t fit, right?” And that’s when the beacon hit the garage frame. Crap. Broke off the amber globe. There is a bolt, and if it was loose enough, it would have bent out of the way rather than breaking. Well, a year and a half it lasted. Longer than I expected. We have too many trees and low branches and something sticking up or out doesn’t usually last long around here.  

How do you find the silver lining?  

Any stories about gangs?

2022, gardening, Nature, Seasons, Uncategorized, Weather

Summer Garden

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In most summers, we would be at the height of flower and fruit production. The roses and peonies would be at their best, the veggies in the garden would be thriving, and we would have an abundance of strawberries and rhubarb . Well, this summer is different.

Our garden beans are finally setting out new leaves after the hail storm last week. The rhubarb was shredded by the hail, and it has been pulled and cut back. The strawberries that we just planted in May survived the hail, and are in their first year of setting out runners. We are clipping the flowers off to stimulate runner production, and there will be no fruit until next year.

Depending on where the flowers and shrubs were planted, they either were shredded or are in full bloom. Prior to the hail, Grover Cleveland, our earliest and most lovely peony, was in bloom.

I love his very deep red color, which is rare in peonies. Grover was hailed out. We also have some Japanese peonies in the front yard, which are spare and ascetic and a contrast with more traditional peonies. They were protected from the hail by the house.

We planted more traditional peonies in the church garden a couple of years ago, and they were protected from the hail by some Siberian elms.

I am happy that our raspberry bed was protected from the hail, and we anticipate a stunning raspberry harvest in a month or so. They are only a few feet from the rhubarb, but they were protected by the hail by our neighbors’ awful ash trees. How ironic!

What are your favorite summer flowers? If you were to redo your yard, what would you plant or change? Any good raspberry recipes?

2022, animals, Farming Update, Kids, Nature, Uncategorized

Still Growing

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Today’s post comes from Ben

I’ve got this young man helping me out this summer. Fifteen years old and has his drivers permit. Great kid and we get along well and he’s just fun to have around and I guess he enjoys being out here too.

On his first day he was stumped by the shift lever on the steering wheel of the truck. It’s an automatic, and I hadn’t realized that was unusual, but I guess most cars are on the center console now. Lucky it wasn’t a ‘three-on-the-tree’. Although I do wish I had a clutch for him to learn.

And then his second day, we were driving around in the gator and he said, “Doesn’t this thing have windows?” I said yes, and he realized it had a crank and it was “Oh. OOOOhhhhh!” yeah, I knew the crank was a pretty far out concept for kids today.

I talk about crop development and since he’s always in shorts, he better learn what nettles look like. He knows wild parsnip. Nettles: I got a bad rash from them as a kid, but nowdays, if I don’t scratch it when it first burns, it goes away and doesn’t bother. I’m not sure that works on everyone and I told him I don’t want him to find out. Anyone know about nettles?

We measured out 17.5’ on the corn the other day. (that being 1/1000th of an acre on 30” rows. Then count the plants in the 17.5’) Actual stand is about 30,000 plants / acre. Theoretically I was planting corn at a rate of about 33,000 plants / acre based on gear ratios used, which dictate how fast it drops seeds, and the amount of seed I used on the acres I had. Then you expect some won’t germinate and the planter skips a few here and there, and that’s why I measure out the final stand to see what the actual rate is.

We dug up some soybean plants and it was really interesting to see the root development in comparison to the size of the actual plant. And there are already nodules on the roots that are converting nitrogen to the plant from the air.

I cut open an oat plant the other day. The kernels are coming; they’re in the top third of the plant and I’d expect them to start heading out any day now.

Corn is growing fast, it’s already knee high, and can be considered ‘lay-by’ in another week or two. Not that it matters to me; I’m not in there doing anything with it. The header photo is a few days old the corn is twice this tall.

The chickens enjoy making holes in the yard and taking dust baths.

Ducks are still doing well. This photo doesn’t show all of them, but it does show two guineas, a dog, a chicken, and some ducks A little bit of everything.

We’re cutting the roadsides this week and hope to get them baled up in the next few days. Hoping the rain predicted for Saturday doesn’t happen just so I can bale. My helper and I got the haybine out and greased up, and got the baler greased up.

Any fun stories about getting into the weeds?

2022, animals, Family, gardening, home, Nature, pets, Seasons, Uncategorized

Yard Work

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Last night after work, Husband and I finally got our cabbage and cantaloupe plants into the home and church gardens. It has been a weird, late, planting season. I hope it isn’t too late for them. The replacement tomato and pepper plants go in tonight. We have to work quick, as our puppy has learned to scale his outdoor play pen walls, and we can’t have him outside with us in the front yard anymore. He howls if he leave him safely in the back yard. He just wants to be with us, but, being a terrier, he might dash across the street to get some prey, and we need to keep him safe.

One reason we have a vegetable garden in the front yard is so we don’t have to mow the lawn. Husband got a reel mower last year, but decided a cordless electric one would work better, and he got that last week. He still has this odd sense of pride about a neatly manicured lawn (although we have very little lawn to manicure). I am Dutch enough to pull every weed I see, but I don’t feel too overburdened with them.

I was saddened to hear that ND Senator Cramer is convalescing at home after a serious accident while he was doing yard work. I don’t agree with his politics, but any Senator who does his own yard work and gets his hand crushed by a boulder while moving it has my sympathy. He may need fingers on his right hand amputated.

I would like to see the neatly manicured lawn go the way of the Dodo’s. I detest the chemicals and water that are wasted on them. What grass we have looks awful, but people see our vegetables and flowers, not the turf.

What do you think is a good alternative to a lawn? What are your favorite and least favorite yard tasks?