Category Archives: pets

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, Family, Farming Update, Health, home, pets, Uncategorized, work

Pause

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Today’s Farm Update is from Ben.

Felt like a rather quiet week on the farm.

I did get snow fence installed, and driveway markers are in.

Hauled in the last of the scrap Iron I wanted to do for this year. I’ll be curious to see what my total was for scrap iron this year. Several thousand lbs. This last load was 3500 lbs and was an old disc, a bit of the old elevator frame, and some misc pieces. Price was still $100 / ton so it paid for the gas anyway.

I did an (almost) final cleaned up behind the shed one day just scraping all the brush into a pile; I wish I had done a before photo but there’s the after.

Just image it full of trees and junk and crap collected over 40 years. I’d love to put an overhang back here to shelter some machinery like the rear blade, the snow blower, the brush mower, etc. Got a pile of cement blocks to move yet.

Met our banker one day and made a plan. I’ve got most of the big bills paid. Signed the last of the papers for crop insurance, but don’t know what that’s going to pay yet.

Had two nights of Holiday Concerts at the college this past week. The choir sounds really very nice. The band is small but growing, and they’ll be really good in another year or two. The one photo is the designer, Paul, with Santa.

We’ve had a little issue with Luna and Bailey lately. They really got into a fight the day I was working on snow fence. Like a ‘to the death’ type fight. I had to separate them three times, finally putting Bailey in the gator.

We can tell Bailey seems jealous, yet she’s picking fights she doesn’t want to be in. They’re equal size and weight. It almost seems like Luna is trying to find her place in the order. Bailey is spayed, we don’t think Luna is yet. We’ve had Luna for 2 months now. She’s really settling in. Which might be what’s putting Bailey off. Any thoughts on 2 female dogs getting along would be appreciated.

Need to get the final paper submitted for class this coming week and the semester is over on the 15th.

The Rep Theater has the next phase of heating and AC going on so that will take some of my time. They have a lot of old photos out as part of the 40 year anniversary. This was me at about 20 years old at the Rep. PHOTO

I should get going on 2023 bookwork one of these days… I’ve been really lazy on that this year.

HAVE YOU GOT THINGS WRAPPED UP?

100 Words, animals, Food, pets

Pate

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YA picked up some free samples of kitty pate at Costco last week.  Nimue doesn’t like chunks in her wet food at al – she is a pate gal all the way.

I pulled one off the shelf this morning and was startled to see the flavor listed as “Mouse Pate with Chicken”.  Then I looked more closely.  “Mousse”.  Then I laughed out loud.  Not sure why I was put off by mouse pate – not like Nimue is unfamiliar with that delicacy!

Any unusual “delicacies” that you’ve tried?

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, books, Family, Fantasy, home, Kids, pets, Uncategorized

Sit Behind The Stove

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A favorite book when our children were growing up was “Louhi, Witch of North Farm” by Toni de Gerez with illustrations by Barbara Cooney. It is a story taken from the Kalevala about Louhi stealing the sun and the moon and hiding them. The hero, Vainamoinen, eventually gets them back with the help of Seppo the smith.

A minor character in the book is Sit Behind the Stove, a character from Russian mythology, who lives in Louhi’s cottage. Husband sketched pictures of Sit Behind the Stove, which our children loved. I imagine Louhi’s kitchen looking like this:

I hadn’t thought about this until recently when Kyrill our Cesky Terrier found a small red ball in the yard and brought it in the house. It is an official Minnesota Twins T-Ball that he loves to chase. At times the ball seems to have a mind of its own, as it is ultrasensitive to even the smallest imperfections and dips in our laminate flooring in the dining room and living room. It gains momentum for movement with every dip in the floor and then rolls. Kyrill has learned that if he tosses it under the furniture it will eventually roll back to him. He watches intently to see where it might emerge, and then pounces on it.

The other day the ball rolled under the buffet in the dining room. When that happens, we usually have to retrieve it for him. After a minute or so, though, it magically rolled back out! It was rather unsettling, I admit, and I imagined that Sit Behind the Stove or perhaps a tomten must have tossed it back out.

Who or what are your favorite mythological characters?

2023, Food, home, pets, Seasons, Uncategorized, Weather

The Nose Knows

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Yesterday was a snow day for me as my agency was closed. Husband had a morning Zoom meeting for his Bismarck agency, which he did on his computer at the kitchen table. It didn’t last long, and we made a somewhat treacherous trip to the grocery store before the snow got any deeper. The city plows hadn’t been out and it was very slippery.

I made banana bread when we got back from the store, which filled the house with a wonderful aroma. Smells can be so evocative. The smell of Charteuse brings me back 45 years to memories of warm summer evenings in Moorhead having a drink after dinner with friends. I wouldn’t touch the stuff now with a ten foot pole, but the memories are good ones.

Kyrill has a very powerful sense of smell, and he can tell whenever we have been to the pet store and picked up treats for him without even taking them out of the bag. He mobs us when we walk in the door and tries to get to the bags. He can smell wrapped hard candy in my pants pockets, and tries to put his nose down my pocket to extract them. He may not see the bunnies as he walks past them, but he can smell where their holes are and tries to dig them out. I think it would be very distracting to have such a keen sense of smell.

What smells and tastes are evocative for you? What are your favorite smells to have wafting through your home?

2023, animals, Family, Farming Update, Health, home, pets, Uncategorized

Appreciate it

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Today’s Farming Update is from Ben

It’s been a rough week.

My mom was diagnosed with Covid Sunday. Nothing serious, (well, for a 97 yr old, anything is serious) but she just had cold symptoms. I visited her Sunday afternoon to help with supper and see how she was doing. I used extra precautions. And by Thursday she was pretty much back to her normal.

Monday morning, we learned of the death of one of Kelly’s coworkers. A woman who was the party planner and team cheerleader at work, and usually Kelly’s confidant and meeting co-giggler and chief conspirator. “DD” had become a good friend of the family and she was the first to bring cookies and lemonade when I had shoulder surgery and back surgery. She’d been fighting cancer for 8 years and nothing was working. She started some last-ditch efforts this fall, while being told all the side effects, and the possibility of having about 6 months left. Her son is in 11th grade, and her plan was to be here through his graduation. And then, well, the plan changed. She’d been in the hospital for a few weeks and breathing had become an issue. Then she was diagnosed with Leukemia. She never could get a break. Kelly and I always said she just needed a ‘do over’. Her son is the young padawan who worked with me over the summers. There’s a lot of support and family around and we all hope he realizes that and overcomes all the forthcoming obstacles. Mom and son had talked about this possibility and things are set up well for him.

Tuesday evening, I tested positive for Covid. Made it through 3 years! Just cold symptoms; stuffy nose, a bit of a cough. Tired, with some body aches Wednesday. Right after I told Kelly I shouldn’t be running heavy machinery, I went out and used the tractor and loader and ripped out some stumps and moved some junk, leveled some gravel, and hauled more in, and scraped up some dirt and filled in a hole in the yard that had been there since July. Sometimes we just need to do it, right?  It didn’t involve physical labor, and I needed a nap afterward. By Friday I’m feeling pretty good, still testing positive, and I can tell I have covid brain.

Wednesday, I got word of another death. A fellow theater technician in Rochester. Janet was a lighting designer and technical director at the civic theater for years. She had told me her cancer was back and she had started treatments. She said it was terminal, but she might last 10 years, and she laughed. Two weeks later, she had died. I don’t know details, but it’s another reminder we need to be grateful for each day.

Do the thing! Say I Love You! Make the call! Get past the bitterness!

DD and Janet were just such great people. And it sucks so much they’ve left us too early.

——————————————————————————————-

Nothing harvested yet. I’ve said the soybeans should be OK. “There will at least be a crop there” is what I said last week. That’s still true, but they need to actually be harvested and sold before I can count them. Mine still have some green in them. While we had 27 degrees last week, that was only in the low spots and many plants and weeds are still green. And with the damp, cool weather we’re having, harvest of soybeans isn’t happening. According to the USDA production report and statistics, as of 10/15, 76% of soybeans had been harvested. About average. Soybeans are very susceptible to moisture, so these cool days makes them hard to get dry enough to combine, and the more we get into November, the more cool days we get. So, we keep our fingers crossed.  The corn won’t be an issue getting harvested. Barring windstorms knock-on-wood. I’d like it before the ground freezes so I can do tillage work.

The puppy. We’ve named her Luna. She’s pretty much decided to stay here.

She’s very food oriented and will do anything we want if there’s a treat offered.

The last few days we haven’t had her on a leash. Humphrey has decided she’s not much of a threat. They don’t interact a lot, and he’s got his pillows, which she doesn’t use, and he just kind of accepts this is what it is now. We give him a lot of extra attention. Bailey and Luna play a lot together. I think Bailey is more annoyed that even Luna gets to go in the house! Luna doesn’t pay much attention to the chickens. She can run 25 MPH! We’re in the gator timing her. She’s crazy fast!

I’ve been working out in the shop the last few days getting the door put on the gator. It’s getting colder out, and we want doors. Our first gator had doors, but it was a lemon. This gator showed up without hard doors; it had the net half doors. I ordered the door kit, which showed up in a box 4’ wide and 6’ long on a pallet just as big. While I worked on them, the dogs either hung out inside with me or outside where Luna chewed up a bunch of sticks.

The gator turned over 100 miles. And at 17.7 hours, that’s only 5.6 MPH, which seems kinda slow. With Luna, I’m sure the average will creep up.

I’ve said before how I take the dogs outside before bed and I spend a few minutes out there watching the stars. My buddy Orion is back if I stay up late enough. Jupiter has been a bright light all year. I am grateful.

HOW ARE YOU DOING ON YOUR BUCKET LIST?

2023, animals, Farming Update, gardening, Nature, pets, Theatre, Uncategorized

Nice Things

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Today’s Farming Update comes from Ben.

We finally had a hard freeze, 27° at our house Tuesday night. It finally killed off that wild tomato plant that was taking over the driveway. There was still a ton of green tomatoes on there. That was some plant.

The soybeans had pretty much reached maturity; they had lost about 50% of their leaves, so there will at least be a crop there. They’re short and the beans will probably be small, but it won’t be a total loss. The people who do my harvesting said they’re just about done with their beans, which is pretty impressive. It’s just the way this year will be: lower yields mean the combine can drive faster in the fields, lower yields mean fewer truckloads, which means it doesn’t take as long. 

I’ve been delivering some straw lately for mulch, or some to put around trailer homes, or to cover their garlic. Even some for ‘pumpkin bowling’ at a church.

The 40th anniversary for the Repertory Theatre went real well. A lot of good compliments and it was fun to see some people from when the theater first started, including one gentleman that I didn’t think would even remember me just because I didn’t have much to do with him. But he had some pretty good stories and once again, you never know the impact of your actions. I didn’t know Jeff had moved into Dave‘s apartment because Dave had moved in with Skip. I didn’t realize Kim, who was filling a sabbatical at WSU, had brought in Kris and Jeff because they were students.  Dare I say a nice time was had by all. There was a champagne reception and showing my age again, some of the people didn’t know how to open a champagne bottle. I knew. I was in a cast one that won a cast party battle of drinking more champagne / person than any other cast. 2+ bottles / person one night. I haven’t liked champagne since. Ah, to be young.

I talked about naming calves after people at the theater. The header photo is Michael, Thom, and Kim in the theater office about 1985.

The puppy. I guess we have a new dog. She does need to pass a few tests yet, Humphrey hasn’t totally accepted her and she needs to not eat chickens.

But she and Humphrey are getting acquainted, and I think Humphrey has relaxed a little. He’ll stress out again if she comes in the house. He’s the biggest dog, and he’s also the most sensitive.

This puppy, which we think looks like a German Shorthair Pointer Pitbull mix, (sometimes called Pointerbulls), has a lot of attitude. She’s only half Humphrey’s weight and size, but the attitude coupled with her puppy eagerness will be a lot for Humphrey to put up with. The vet discovered she does actually have a chip, but they said it was not registered. Then they talked to a place in Oklahoma that tracked her to someone in Oklahoma. That woman gave the puppy to her cousin, who moved to Rochester, and into an apartment building where she couldn’t keep the dog, and that woman gave puppy to someone else. The veterinarian’s office gave us this man’s name and phone number, and when we called there, a woman answered the phone who knew nothing about a dog and no person of that name. The cruelty of people dumping animals is just abhorrent. This puppy is so smart! She’s potty trained, she’s very good on a leash, she knows basic commands, she loves to fetch, and does she have a lot of energy! We’re still looking for a suitable name.

We got a truckload of dirt / mulch on Wednesday afternoon and filled in a space Kelly has been working on all summer. Wanted to get that in place before it rained. Any fresh laid dirt we have to cover with plastic snow fence to keep the chickens from rooting it up, and even the dogs from digging.

Chickens.

And this is why we can’t have nice things…

DID YOU HAVE A NICKNAME GROWING UP?

(Of course, we want to know what it was!)

2023, animals, Family, Farming Update, Nature, pets, Theatre, Uncategorized

Crisis

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Today’s Farming Update comes from Ben

“Any idiot can face a crisis; it’s day-to-day living that wears you out.” – Anton Chekhov

Sometimes near the end of the day, Kelly and I hug, and sigh, and comment on the plain, old, day to day living. And then we go do something else that needs to be done for the day.

This weekend the Rochester Repertory Theater opens their 40th Season. There’s a celebration planned. Preparations for that have kept us busy for a while. Of course, there’s a committee and some people handled food, some set up lobby displays, Kelly found and organized old photos of shows and people. I mounted a TV in the lobby and some other misc things. It’s been really fun to go back through these old photos. I started at the Rep when I was 20. It was 1984. Of the four founders: Thom, Kim, and Michael had gone to college together. They brought in Jeanne, whom Michael knew, and the Rep was off and running. I came along shortly after that when I worked a show with Michael at another theater, and he invited me to help out at the Rep. Thom was one of my mentors. I learned a lot from him. Kim is the philosophical one. I learned a lot from him too.

Especially at that age! Do you remember all the stuff you did then? With the whole wide world open in front of you?? We did some crazy stuff. From the banner over Broadway, to the all night cast parties, to the floats in parades, and the acquisition of lumber. They are great memories.

We’ve all been there; young and broke and you did what you had to do to survive. It’s where I ‘courted’ Kelly. I had met her at the Rochester Civic Theater, but I got her to work on a show at the Rep. That way I knew where she’d be every night. (Another fun fact; the Rep was performing at the college that summer, in Hill Theater, where I now work. We joke we courted in the parking lot.)

But that fact we made it forty years. Wow. It wasn’t always easy, and there was talk of closing the doors a few times. Our Treasurer, Mark, had more than a few sleepless nights. It will be fun to catch up with people and visit with people we haven’t seen in 30 years. I was in some shows, as well as working backstage. When the guys gave me a key to the building, little did they know what they were getting in me. But I thought I was pretty hot stuff to get a key! I named calves after everyone. In those days before photoshop, I would make two copies and would cut out the calf photo and stick it on a photo of their theater office.

This was me in the show “Loot!”

Some of the neighbor’s cows came to visit one day. Our regular rental cows are about ready to go back home, so the guys are letting them come into the barn yard and will haul them out one of these days. So, when I saw a cow there, I wasn’t too surprised. But Kelly said it was an unusual coloring. It was an Oreo cow and I know we don’t have one of them in the pasture. Been a while since I had to chase a cow. At least it wasn’t midnight in a cornfield and chasing cows by sound. Been there done that and it’s a miserable experience. These two cows were already in the yard, so we just had to lock them in the pole barn, and call the neighbor, and he showed up with his trailer and one went in easy while the other one had to make 3 trips around the pen and scatter us a few times before she went in. I told them I didn’t miss chasing cows.

One morning as I made a sandwich for work, the bread drawer became too much even for me. I keep a supply of twist ties in there; never know when you might need one. But the crumbs, the excessive supply of twist ties (seriously, when’s the last time I used one??) and the package of tortilla shells that expired in June. Sigh. Cleaned it all out, vacuumed it, And, it made me happy. Sometimes we just hit our limit. Sometimes it’s the little things.

Picked up a stray dog for the township. She’s a sweetheart. I don’t know if we’re keeping her yet. Our existing dogs aren’t sure yet. Especially the chickens aren’t sure. No collar and haven’t found any missing dogs matching her description. I’ve told the deputies we have her. We’ll see. You’ll know if she’s still here next week.

Oh. The Farm update. A lot of neighbors are going on soybeans. Mine are still turning color and starting to lose some leaves. The rye is growing, along with the oats left in the field, (header photo) but at least it looks pretty good. The corn. It’s odd how there will be green plants right next to dried out plants. I’m not sure what’s up with that. Different maturity seed in the bag?

Fall is here. We’ll be completing the circle soon.

WHAT ARE YOU MOST PROUD OF FROM YOUR YOUTH?

2023, animals, Mysteries, Nature, pets

Ginkgo Conundrum

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I don’t think of myself as clueless but I will admit that most of the time my brain is going 100 miles an hour and I’m not always as observant as I would wish.   

Dog walking has returned to my schedule now that I’m RE-retired. We normally go for 45 minutes to an hour.  I tend to wander around Tangletown or towards Lake Harriet; I like the neighborhoods and I don’t think Guinevere cares where we go as long as we go.  So if you count all the walking we did during pandemic/furlough as well, we’ve probably trekked down Belmont Avenue 50 times in the last couple of years.  But it wasn’t until last week that I noticed the ginkgo leaves on the sidewalks.  The first one I noted, the second one I noted and after the third one, I looked up and down the street.  With few exceptions, all the boulevard trees from 51st all the way to Minnehaha Parkway are ginkgos.  And they are big, sturdy trees – obviously planted decades ago.  Just lovely.

I did a little bit of research and found that the city has always controlled the boulevard trees but I can’t find anything on why this particular stretch was planted with ginkgos.  The current policy, thanks to Dutch Elm disease and the Emerald Ash Borer, is to diversify trees on the boulevards so going forward I doubt any replacement trees on Belmont will be gingkos, although if it were my boulevard, I might petition hard to get a gingko replacement!

How should I focus so I can be more observant?