Our low to the ground Cesky Terrier needed a bath last night. His furnishings and skirt are easier to comb through if he has just been bathed and conditioned, and he was a dirty, tangled mess. His breeder recommended Pantene shampoo and conditioner since it doesn’t dry the dog’s skin. My dog has nicer shampoo than I do!
Our dog loves his baths. We keep dog towels in the entryway closet, and when he sees me take them down he races to the bathroom, sits by the tub, and looks expectantly at me. I have never seen a dog who liked baths as much as our current terrier. Our previous Welsh and Fox Terriers hated their baths and tried to avoid them. I attributed it to their bring earth dogs and being uncomfortable in deeper water. They hated going to lakes. Our Cesky is as earthy as they come, but we have never had him to a lake to see how he would approach the water.
There were after-bath zoomies, of course, and then I brushed and combed out his tangles. He seemed pretty happy.
Any interesting pet bath stories? What is your philosophy on hair care products?What sort of bathtub would you like in your bathroom?
I got a farm magazine the other day and one of the headlines is: “Baby kangaroo poop may hold the key to reducing cows’ methane emissions”. Huh. I googled ‘baby Kangaroo poop’ because I was curious about how many hits there would be on that and how much research has been done on baby kangaroo poop. 2,070,000 hits. I didn’t venture past page 1, and most of the sites are what it’s like inside a kangaroo pouch and how to they stay clean? Which is a good question that I hadn’t thought about before. (The mama ‘roo licks it out to keep it clean. Plus, she produces antimicrobial substances which helps it all stay OK in there.) The things you learn.
And in regard to cows’ methane emissions, “… previous studies had already shown that instead of producing methane, the kangaroo microbes produce acetic acid. Further research revealed that the bacteria only occurs in baby kangaroos, not adults.” *
And the acetic acid prevents methane from producing. It’s been tested in the lab. The next step is testing in live cattle. And the hope is to add it to the diet of cattle. Hmm.
When does a dog start to shed? What triggers that? Bailey still has her thick winter coat and she’s not shedding yet. We’ve been brushing her, and she hasn’t lost much yet. I know other years, it was hot and well into summer before she started to shed. We should just take her to a groomer and get her a haircut.
The crops need a rain. We’re at 770 GDU’s; +245 over normal.
Oats is shorter than we’d like considering it was planted April 14. Corn is doing OK yet. And the soybeans… well, they need a rain to get going. If a seed is sitting in dry dirt, it won’t sprout. It’s hard to believe just a few weeks ago I had wet fields, but the top 3 inches are dry now and the fields are rough looking.
They always say to get seed in the ground ASAP. Beans that were planted two week before mine had the moisture and look good.
This year, just for the heck of it, when planting soybeans with the drill, I left two rows open, plugged one, left two open. That makes 2 rows 7.5” apart, then a 15” gap, then 2 more 7.5”. Why not try it I figured.
We had a baby chick hatch in the incubator last Sunday evening. (S)he was a week early! I wasn’t expecting any until next Monday, the 12th! It’s usually 28 or 29 days to hatch baby chicks or guineas. Guess the mom had been sitting on this one a few days already.
Well, s/he did fine and it’s in the pen with the mail order chicks which arrived on Tuesday. Everyone is doing well so far.
Other projects at home this past week, I got the corn planter and drill cleaned out and put away, outside for now. The concrete guys are here working on my outside slab. I am VERY excited for this outside slab!
I’ve also got the new pump for the pressure washer, I’m rebuilding the fuel sediment bowl on the old 630 tractor, I’ve cut grass, I’ve ordered lumber and picked up some ‘re-stock’ windows for the shed project. I returned my extra seed, and I hauled that fertilizer wagon to the auction site. Normally, you can’t really exceed about 25 mph when towing a wagon. They don’t trail very well and will sway left and right. I could do 26 mph with the fertilizer wagon and only have a little sway. Any faster than that and it swayed crazily. Get that sway bad enough and it will flip the wagon over on it’s side and mess up your day.
I was 15 miles from home with 5 miles to go and in the mirror, I saw a mouse climbing up the wagon frame. Wow! I thought, 1) Where did he come from; where had he been hiding?? And 2) he’s going to be so confused when we get there! But about then he lost his grip and fell to the road. He failed to scamper away for the few seconds I could still see him. Yeah, some trip.
We had one guinea chick hatch on Wednesday, I could hear it cheeping before s/he even got out of the shell. Number one, he’s a crazy chick! Kelly calls him ‘Speedy’. I think s/he, the chick, really just want’s a friend.! Thursday another started to hatch, but s/he didn’t get out very fast, and that membrane dries up and gets hard and I finally cut him out. He took a long time to come around, but he’s doing real well now. And Friday morning we had 2 more. They’re all crazy!
And at the theater, we finally have working AC in the theater! It took 10 months from when we first moved the seats and painted ductwork.
Volunteers painted that in August and it got hung up, got beams on the roof in January, the rooftop unit arrived in May, and then it was just finishing the ductwork connections. And I’ll tell ya, that was far more complicated than I expected! It was really interesting observing the guys doing it.
But now it’s so cold in the theater, I may need sleeves!
Oh. terriers!! Ever since we got our Cesky Terrier in May, 2022, we have kept the basement door shut to keep him from going into the basement to chase the cat and do indiscriminate marking to claim the territory as his own. This rather isolated the cat, but we tried to give her as much attention as we could.
Being a terrier, Kyrill turned getting to the basement into a game and a challenge. He would wait for any opportunity to get down there, lurking to see if we forgot to shut the basement door, then racing down the stairs, chasing the cat, and eating her food.
We picked him up from the boarding kennel yesterday, and I decided to change strategies regarding the basement. Before we picked him up I put a gate in front of the basement room where the litter box and cat food resides so the cat could get in but Kyrill couldn’t. He was so excited to see us when we got him home that he didn’t even notice the basement door was open. Once he noticed, he immediately ran downstairs, but, because we didn’t chase him and because he wanted to be with us he came right back upstairs. He ran up and down rapidly a couple more times, but eventually settled on the sofa with me. The cat walked into the livingroom several times and he ignored her.
I could kick myself for not doing this earlier. Now I have a much happier cat who can wander upstairs as she wishes, and a dog who is probably waiting for an opportunity to make some other activity into a game.
Why is it we want what we can’t have? What have you wanted and then regretted once you got it?
Another week of life being relentless… I’m tired and I can’t keep two coherent thoughts together so this week’s blog will be basic highlights and a bunch of photos.
*I did finish planting corn. Except for about 2 acres that are wet. But I’ll get to them soon.
*Working on planting soybeans. Hoping to finish on Saturday.
*The college show opened on Wednesday and the paint was dry and it’s a good show. The set isn’t my best, but it works.
*We’ve had 4 sandhill cranes hanging around.
*The lilacs are looking – and smelling – so good!
*Every morning, I let Humphry out, and Bailey comes in to get a morning greeting and some attention for a minute. Then she’s happy to go back out.
*For the first time ever, I kinda got tired of music in the tractors. I listened to podcasts: Moth Radio hour, The New Yorker Radio Hour, Radiolab, and my frequent standby: Light Talk. (Imagine the Car Talk guys, doing a show about lighting).
*Kelly and I picked up some very large limestone rocks using an old thing called a ‘Slip Scraper’ or ‘Buck Scraper’. Clyde, you ever use one of these? This has been behind the shed for years. It’s missing some handles, but we made it work carrying rocks.
*The coop applied fertilizer for soybeans.
*Next week is all about lighting the next show in my schedule.
*My last day at the college for this academic year is May 31. I probably won’t have all my work done; I may have to stop in the next week just to finish what I don’t get done this week.
But then, THEN, the pace will slow down and I can start working on my new shed space.
Have a safe and peaceful Memorial Day weekend!
Here are photos:
Planting CornTracks in the DirtTractor BuddyViewViewViewMinnesota RockKelly with RocksBuck ScraperLoaded Buck ScraperGoofballCoop SpreaderLoading SeedAnother Tractor BuddySeed Camera View
Planting corn, the tracks in the dirt, my tractor buddies one day, my view from the tractor front and back, a rock shaped like Minnesota (that was really heavy!), Kelly and her second load of rocks, the “buck scraper”, A goofball, the coop’s fertilizer spreader, loading soybean seed from the trailer, Another tractor buddy, and the camera’s showing the seed in the drill.
Where and what was the best burger you ever had?
(The first time I had a ‘blue Burger’ ((blue cheese on a burger)) was at a bowling alley and it was FANTASTIC and none have compared to that one.)
Baboons, meet Phoebe our Corgi puppy. We are getting to know her. Corgi puppies are reputed to be terrors, and that would be true of this puppy. She is now 9 weeks old. Ever curious, she gets into all possible crevices and under and behind furniture. Her little hind end is really cute sticking out of whatever trouble she has just found. When I let her come outside with me to “help” me garden, she discovered digging. She also appears to be a food-driven dog, stealing Bootsy’s food at every opportunity. She is smart. She is learning to ring the dog bells at the front door, and already gets that anytime she is outdoors, she should do her potty duty.
The morning frenzy is a challenge. When I get up in the morning she wants to be fed, to be petted and cuddled, sit on my lap, bark and yip. And bite. This dog’s baby teeth are razor sharp resulting in little cuts and abrasions on our hands. A short walk down the block and back seems to help a lot.
Bootsy, the elder Corgi, seems to have recovered from the deep offense of this puppy moving in, graduating to sniffing and stealing the puppy’s chew bones, then hoarding them on the couch. At least I know where to find them. She also makes forays into the dog bed we acquired for Phoebe. Bootsy had her own which she snubbed for years. She is making friends with the puppy.
She is fun and challenging in the manner of puppies. The neighbors are noticing her and come to play and admire Phoebe, too.
Have you heard the phrase “If you want something done, ask a busy person”. That’s been in my head lately. I heard it a long time ago and I think it’s true. The reasoning behind that must be that a busy person will fit something else into their schedule. Good time management I guess… when it matters anyway, maybe not so much when it doesn’t (as evidenced by how much time I spend watching YouTube.)
I found out on Monday, that the two slabs of concrete I am expecting this summer, the indoor slab will be coming Friday. Uh…. Crap! I mean GREAT! I spent Tuesday moving machinery out of the shed. I pulled out the fertilizer wagon and that will have to sit outside for a while. I condensed the 5 boxes of crap my dad put in the shed when they moved out of their house, into one small tote worth saving and the rest went to metal recycling or garbage. Sorry Dad. I put some pallets out and sorted lumber into nice piles, and I moved some down to the barn where there’s another pile of 6×6 posts and left over Trex Decking.
I moved all the machinery out, moved the two smaller tractors out, moved the lawn mowers out, moved the 100 gallon oil totes, then started replacing machinery in such a way I can still get to the seed wagon, and have room for the corn planter and soybean drill and still be able to get them out, while keeping the North end of the shed clear and open.
There was a lot of smaller stuff to move yet. Wednesday I moved Ladders, storage racks, jacks, wood blocks, the old oil barrel stand, and cut 4’ off the end of the work bench.
FYI, I have a LOT of wood blocks.
It’s always surprising to me how many wood blocks I have. They are one of those things you just never know which one you’ll need, or how many of what size, so we have lots. It might be out in the field and the ground is soft, so I need multiple long blocks to make a base, then a few to support the jacks. It might be blocks to support four corners of a wagon box while I change the running gear under it. Sometimes that’s a 6×6, sometimes it’s a 4×4, and sometimes it’s just a 2×4 to block a tire. It’s crazy that I have this many blocks. Perhaps I won’t put them all back. Bet I will.
As the day went on, I found myself spending more time sitting in the tractor, ‘thinking’, when I moved to the next job…I’d sit there for several minute before I could get myself out and moving.
Keith, the man who was Best Man at our wedding in 1990, stopped to visit. He lives out in Stamford New York now, but had a business meeting in Minneapolis, so he spent an extra day and came down. We hadn’t seen each other since about 1995. It was really nice to see him. And he helped me move some of that extra stuff.
Circa about 1990 and 2023.
As the day went on, there was less ‘sorting and stacking’ and more just tossing it out of the way. Like any home remodeling project, I won’t be able to find what I want for the next month…
There’s been a pheasant strutting through the yard like he owns the place. The dogs lie behind my car and watch him. We hear a lot of pheasants calling not too far away. They don’t come out for corn anymore like they do in winter. And I’ve seen some out in the fields that don’t seem to be too scared of me or the tractor. But this one in the yard, he’s strutting his stuff and he doesn’t seem to care who sees him.
Saw a couple Sandhill Cranes in a field. Saw the Northern Lights on Sunday night. Happen to look down between the back door and the deck and discovered 30 or 40 chicken eggs.
Shoot. Someone is gonna have to shimmy under there and get them. Come July, I don’t see this being a good situation. I blocked the hole on the side of the deck that I suspect is where the chicken(s) was getting in. Maybe that also explains why Bailey hasn’t eaten her food in 3 days and I found an eggshell in the front yard.
I got the road graded using all three hydraulic options on the blade and it was very nice. Tilt, angle, shift. I cut down the edges so rain water will run off the road, pulled in gravel from the winter, and I unintentionally pulled in a lot of dirt too. Left it all on the edge of the road to settle for a few weeks, then will grade it all back onto the road.
One of my former work study students from the college stopped to visit with her 2.5 month old baby girl. That was a nice visit. And Krista made the egg run and it was good to see her.
Last of the college shows this weekend. Music concert at the college next Thursday with Choir, Band, World Drum Ensemble, and a new Chamber Group. And then it’s onto Commencement. I’ve been coordinating, scheduling, and doing paperwork for that. We’ll hang a few lights next week before the stage is placed.
I don’t know about farming this week or next. We shall see what we shall see.
Husband came home Wednesday from his work day in Bismarck to find his right big toe was swollen from gout. He drives to Bismarck on Tuesday nights, stays at a hotel, and works at the Human Service Center all day on Wednesday. Sometimes he takes lunch with him from home in a cooler, but he often just scrambles for lunch on the fly from the grocery stores. Wednesday it was hummus.
Chickpeas are really bad for gout. He knows this, but really loves hummus. He still eats it. He also is seriously allergic to cats, but we have had cats in our home for 35 years. A dripping nose and sneezing are more tolerable to him than the absence of purring. A swollen toe is worth some hummus. I know I could never give up down pillows or comforters if I became allergic to feathers.
My Uncle Alvie, the poker player, always broke out in hives when he ate fresh strawberries. He always feasted on his wife’s homegrown strawberries though, no matter how itchy he got. I know that allergic reactions can be serious. I had a graduate school friend who would go into anaphylaxis if she walked into a home with gerbils or guinea pigs. A work friend recently got a bunny for her son and after a few hours her eyes swelled shut and poor Coco had to go back to his breeder. They were heartbroken.
Do you have allergies? What would be hard for you to give up for allergies or health issues?
I was sitting at the computer at home Friday afternoon when I heard a loud crash outside. Some investigation led to the discovery that a very large chunk of ice had fallen onto the deck from the pergola atop the deck where there are lots of grape vines.
One of our snowstorms deposited more than two feet of snow on the deck and west roof of the house. The warmer weather over the past couple of weeks had melted the snow which turned into solid ice, which now was falling through the open spaces on the pergola.
The ice chunk that fell could have injured us or the dog. There were lots remaining atop the pergola, so I stood in the doorway and poked the ice through the pergola with a broom handle until it all fell down .
I have always loved doing things like this. It was so oddly satisfying, poking those ice chunks so they crashed onto the deck, comparable to clearing blocked channels of water and unstopping clogged surface storm sewer grates. Odd, I know, but there it is. I would probably love doing demolition work. I also love shooting off fireworks. Perhaps they are related.
What do you find oddly satisfying? Ever been in an avalanch or had a concussion?
Another sign of pending spring is the ice at my machine shed walk-in door finally melted enough I could get the door shut again. It’s works all winter, but then, due to some poorly executed land grading that I did without forethought, as the snow starts to melt it runs into the shop and the door freezes shut. I used to play a guessing game on when all the doors would freeze shut and try to get them opened the day before. There were a few times I missed that day, and it took a lot of chopping ice with an axe to get the door open enough I could get in. And, more importantly, out.
Three years ago, I added an overhang that solved the ice problem at the big doors. This summer we will regrade the driveway and that will fix the water running through the walk-in door.
We had a Thunderstorm and some hail on Monday.
The drain tile down by the barn that fills the duck pond is running heavy. It doesn’t run this heavy very often. Usually that means the frost is out. The tile is a good thing as all this water would be coming out on top of the ground otherwise and it would be all spongey down there. I’ve had that other years prior to the tile.
Kelly and the dogs took a long walk around the pastures and fields on a warm day. The dogs found a hole they were VERY interested in, and they’ve gone back the last couple days to dig more.
Humphrey got a shower after this. He doesn’t like them. But he doesn’t figure out he should stay clean either.
For some reason, I’ve got a chicken laying smaller eggs. They look like beginner eggs. Shouldn’t be any beginner chickens at this point in time but maybe we’ve got a late bloomer. I know I’ve mentioned before how they seem to like groups of three. More often than not, I find a clutch of eggs in batches divisible by 3.
(Photos this week all from Kelly)
WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE NUMBER?
DOES BRIGHT SUNLIGHT MAKE YOU SNEEZE? WHY IS THAT?
One of the most trying aspects of our Grandson’s two week stay has been managing his interactions with our dog. Kyrill is a terrier, therefore terribly intrusive and curious. Grandson doesn’t like the way the dog invades his space and hovers. The dog just wants to be a part of everything. He also seems to be anxious, and when he isn’t following Grandson he is sitting in my lap. I am never alone. That has been stressful.
I found that the best way of helping Grandson understand the dog’s behavior is to talk in what I imagine the dog’s voice would be, explaining my (the dog’s) motives and feelings. The dog’s voice is lower than my regular speaking voice, with some difficulty saying his L’s. Grandson is young enough to suspend reality and have conversations with the dog (me), explaining how he feels about the dog’s behavior. Sometimes Grandson will say something, and then tell me “Oma, I am talking to Kyrill”, letting me know I have to answer him in Kyrill’s voice and from Kyrill’s point of view. Like us, the dog has been glad for our Grandson’s stay, but, like us, also looking forward to having things back to normal.
Do you have a particular voice you use for your pets? What would your pets say to you if they could talk?What were your best and worst childhood pets?
Trail Baboon 