Category Archives: Seasons

2024, Art, Nature, Seasons

Neither Snow Nor Rain….

February 21, 2024 verily sherrilee 35 Comments

One of my holiday projects is a handmade calendar in a 6 x 6 format; I make four of them every year. You may think that it’s a little early to start worrying about this but 3 layers of paper per month times 12 months times 4 versions comes out to 144 pieces of paper. One of my rules is that I can’t purchase anything but the paper to make these calendars. All the stamps, die cuts and assorted accessories have to come from my stash. But 144 pieces of paper is still a chunk of change so I do have to keep an eye on cardstock sales and since I almost always get the paper at Joanns (they have the best selection), I start watching the sales early on.

The best sales are the 50% off sales but this year Joann’s went all out for President’s Day and offered 10 sheets for $3 on all the open cardstock (normally .79 to .99). Even though it’s only February, I haven’t seen a price this good before so I didn’t want to let it go by. I kept the sales mailer on the dresser waiting for the first day of the sale. It was listed as a Doorbuster, which sometimes means the sale price is only good for the first morning, so my plan was to be there Thursday morning at 9 a.m., when they open.

Then on Monday the forecast said we would get a dusting on Wednesday. Then on Tuesday, the snow jumped up to a possible inch. By Wednesday afternoon they were talking 3-5 inches. Yikes! By bedtime on Wednesday it was snowing but now they were only predicting 1-3. Woke up to about 4 inches and a big pile at the bottom of the driveway. I waffled for about an hour about how much I really needed cheap paper and then headed out. Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night can stay me from a good paper sale!

What will you brave the elements for to get your hands on?

2024, Farming Update, Seasons, Technology, Uncategorized

Something Something

February 10, 2024 reneeinnd 67 Comments

Today’s Farming Update is by Ben

Something Something

As I started writing this, I wasn’t sure yet what I had to write about this week, so I was not sure where this was going to end up.

We got some rain Thursday morning and evening. I don’t think it amounted to much. It didn’t help the muddy areas. I did spread out four bales of straw in front of the chickens’ pen as it was just a muddy mess down there. And the mud over by the shed is full of tracks and ruts. That’s worse than usual because it was fresh dirt last fall after the concrete work. Maybe I can get it smoothed out as the weather gets colder in the coming week so it’s not frozen ruts, and it will be better next year, but for now, Ish-da.

I have a young man helping me on weekends; I got to know him as a college student. He’s really interested in working with his hands and willing to try anything. And he never gets frustrated or gives up. He’s working a delivery job now, and he says he’d love to get into one of the trades like electrical or sheet metal or construction, but he really has no experience. It’s kinda cute, whenever we do a job, at the end of the day he says, “OK, what tools did I learn today?” We’ve talked a lot about which companies would hire him “green”. Meaning no school. And as I’ve talked with the HVAC guys working at the theaters or my nephew who works with a remodeling company, they are all willing to give him a chance as long as he’d plan on sticking around for a few years. And it helps I that tell them this young man isn’t a jerk. His biggest issue right now is he only has 1 pair of shoes. Loafers. Which have been terribly impractical in this mud. I’ve got nothing that fits him. I do pay him; he really should buy some boots.

Last week he and I put new batteries in my truck, we mounted some more 2×4’s on the shop walls, and we worked on changing an electrical box. Then I had him frame up the electrical box and add trim steel around it. Then I could add the “J” channel and get the pole barn steel around it.

There was an old, old fuse box here from when my Dad built the shed. I had new electrical service installed to the shed last summer

but I still need the old service. I had bought this new circuit breaker box 10 years ago and never got that installed. So, this was the time. A job well done.

I plan on working hard on the farm financial bookwork this weekend. I meet the accountant on April 9^th, but I should have 3 months of 2024 done by then, not still finishing 2023.

WHAT HAVE YOU GONE INTO GREEN?

SAY SOMETHING ABOUT SHOES.

2024, animals, Farming Update, home, Nature, Seasons

The Rabbits

January 27, 2024 verily sherrilee 48 Comments

The weekend Farm Report comes to us from Ben.

The weather is warming, the chickens are back out in the grassy areas, I can work in the shop comfortably again, and I turned off the well house heater and unplugged the tractor block heater. Whew. It felt like January in Minnesota. For a week. And now it’s not dark yet at 5:00 PM, and we just need some sunshine. I don’t want to get too anxious or excited about all this, we still got February and March to get through, but there is hope on the horizon.

When it’s so cold the chickens don’t come to eat the corn we put out down by the barn, there are deer, pheasants, and rabbits that still come around to clean it up. Plus, a variety of birds. I really hate the deer eating that corn, I feed them enough out in the fields, they don’t need to eat this corn, too. At least we haven’t had so many wild turkeys around the last few years.

I’ve never been very good at identifying animal footprints. Yet again, an example of missing our Steve. We could use his help on this. It’s not hard to know the deer tracks, but Steve would know male from female tracks, and how old they were. He’d know what a pheasant track looked like, and probably know the difference between the tracks of a crow, robin, and mourning dove, as well as how many, what they had for breakfast, and where they were headed next. I can identify rabbit tracks, they’re not hard. No details mind you, just, you know, ‘wabbit twacks’*. And of course, if there’s rabbits, there’s rabbit pellets.

When I was a kid, I had several different sling shots. Homemade ones that never lasted, simple wooden ones, and I think I had a couple different versions of the ‘Wrist Rocket’ sling shot. Those little rabbit pellets made good ammunition. They were all over the backyard. And they were perfect little balls for shooting! I didn’t know they were rabbit poop. Until my big brother told me. (Older siblings, they spoil everything.) When I see all those pellets down by the barn, I remember that. I googled ‘wrist rocket’ to see if they were still around. They are! My gosh, slingshot technology has advanced! Names like the “Laserhawk”, the “Daisy B52”, the “P51” (The B52 and P51 are well known airplanes). They have molded finger grips and can have multiple ‘launching’ bands! And magnets to hold steel pellets in the pouch! And mounted flashlights!! You can buy targets, or you can buy clay-based shot called “Clod Poppers”.

The most expensive slingshot I could find was $99.99, the “Scout LT PRO”. According to their advertising, it comes with “additional thumb screws because they look awesome”. Well, there ya go. It looks awesome.

There are Slingshot tournaments. There’s a Slingshot Association International.

Say it like Elmer Fudd

EVER HAD A SLING SHOT? WHAT TOURNAMENT DO WE NEED?

2024, Family, home, Nature, Seasons, TV

Freak Out!

January 23, 2024 verily sherrilee 24 Comments

I spent a week with Nonny in St. Louis the second week of January. While I was there, they had some bad weather. First there was “wintery mix” the night before I arrived which necessitated my brother-in-law picking me up from the airport instead of Nonny. As far as I could tell, the wintery mix was a dusting of snow. But a dusting of snow in St. Louis is a much bigger deal than it here.

Then as we headed into the weekend, the forecast was for “bitterly cold” temperatures – in the single digits with some below zero wind chills. Again, for St. Louis this is out of the ordinary and very alarming. St. Louis was freaking out. On Friday night, Nonny had the tv set to local news for about 90 minutes and at least 60 of those minutes were spent on the weather. What the temperature had been, what temperatures were predicted, instructions to stay in, recommendations for how to be prepared if you need to go out.

As a Minnesotan of 45 years standing, it struck me as funny although I kept my mouth shut. If we’d had weather in the Twin Cities the last few days like Renee experienced last week, we’d be freaked out too. It’s all about what you’re used to.

My sister, who has appointed herself the arbiter of what Nonny should and shouldn’t be doing, made sure to give me advice about keeping Nonny inside and making sure Nonny had enough food “stocked up”. This was even funnier; if you know Nonny then you’d know that even at the age of 91, nobody gets to be Nonny’s arbiter except Nonny. In fact, when I did a quick run out to the hardware store for some magnetic catches (fixing her bathroom cabinet doors), she insisted on coming with me. So then we went to the grocery store as well. The roads were pretty well deserted, even at noon. St. Louis was indeed staying inside!

Caroline sent me this picture that day – what a great laugh since I was actually in St. Louis. Of course it’s photo-shopped. While ice does form on the Arch (and is actually a danger as it sheets off – they sometimes close the area underneath the Arch because of this), it never looks like this. Too bad, it’s pretty this way!

Anybody remember who said “if you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs…”? How do you keep calm when everyone else is freaking out?

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

Almost There

January 20, 2024 verily sherrilee 72 Comments

The weekend Farm Report comes to us from Ben.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Next week I’m going to wash the car!

WHAT WILL YOU DO NEXT WEEK?

2024, animals, Farming Update, home, Seasons, Technology

January

January 13, 2024 verily sherrilee 64 Comments

The weekend Farm Report comes to us from Ben.

Well, now it looks and feels like January in Minnesota. Snow and cold and we haven’t seen the sun in weeks.

Days like this, I don’t miss the cow chores. Taking care of the chickens fills me with a sense of satisfaction like I used to get from the cows, without nearly the amount of work. With the cold weather predicted I’ll need to pay more attention to keeping the chickens water bucket filled. They drink a surprising amount in a day. It’s fun to watch them drink; they take “sips”, then tip their head back to swallow. Repeat. Just now I googled “how do chickens drink” and it says they don’t have an epiglottis, and their tongue isn’t helpful in this regard, so,… gravity. Google also says chickens drink about a pint or more per day. That means my 45 chickens are going through 5.6 gallons / day. Which seems about right. And with them staying inside more with the snow and cold, it’s a good thing we have a heated bucket. And I’ll need to collect eggs more often before they freeze.

I’ve ordered seed, fertilizer, and chemicals for spring, so that’s encouraging and exciting and a sign this snow and cold will end. Prices, jeepers. Corn seed is about $300 / bag and plants about 2.5 acres. Soybeans are $60 / bag and does about 1 acre. Oats is $13/ bag and does less than an acre. I don’t even want to tell you how much the fertilizer and spraying totals. It’s over $26,000. Sigh. And I’m a small farmer! It’s crazy.

Last week talking about clocks and I should have included this one. I inherited this clock at the college. It was in a cabinet, so it came with the place.

Peter Max design. Ebay shows them at $600. That’s the thing about Ebay; just because they list that amount doesn’t mean anyone has PAID that amount.

This cleaver (knife) has been hanging in the machine shed for years.

I recently found it hanging on a nail in a back corner. And considering it’s been there a long time, it’s in really good shape. What’s the best way to ‘preserve’ it or save it? Oil the wooden handle? Remove the rust on the blade? I don’t know what I would ever do with it besides hang it on a wall, and I’m not up on my antiques. The only printing on it says “Genuine Warranty” and below that a numeral 8. Eight inch blade. I suggested to my family that it’s the actual knife dad dropped on his head when he was 4 years old that he said his mother poured Absorbine Jr. on his head and wrapped it with brown paper, see the scar?? My siblings were dubious and pointed out it was a hatchet, not a knife that he says he split his head with. Spoil sports.

Tell a story about being groovy. Or a knife story.

2024, Automotive, Business, Seasons

Mailbox Euphoria

January 3, 2024 verily sherrilee 25 Comments

I’m guessing that I care more about mailboxes than your average Joe. I’ve done the math and on average, I send out a card every day. Most days when I send something, I just leave it at my mailbox for the mail carrier to take. But quite often, if I have three or more cards to send in one day, I like to drop them at the post office. Seems safer and easier on the mail carrier.

Drive-up mailboxes are my preference, since it’s meant to be a quick errand (usually in the midst of a list of errands) and that means Richfield or Nicollet. But I’m fussy (I know, you’re shocked, right?) The Nicollet box is curbside but on the right side of the street, so I have to get out of the car to put the envelopes in. That leaves Richfield as my drop-off point of choice.

To my shock and horror, early last spring, they removed the three drive up boxes! There was a note on the post office door explaining that they were taken out due to the road repair that was taking place. The note did ensure that the boxes would be replaced when the roads were finished. Considering all the problems in the world, this wasn’t the biggest deal, but it was a pain in my patoot. The road near the post office seemed finished up to me in early fall but the mailboxes didn’t come back AND the note about the boxes was gone as well.

I’d pretty much resigned myself to always having to get out of the car to put something in the mailbox until two weeks ago, when I turned the corner into the Richfield lot… AND THERE THEY WERE… all three of them in the same spot they were before. You would have thought I’d won the lottery – it made my day!

Any small happinesses in your world to report?

2024, Family, home, Seasons

Welcome 2024

January 1, 2024 verily sherrilee 30 Comments

We’re putting away all the holiday decorations today. Normally we do everything today but YA has been chomping at the bit so started cleaning up “around the edges” the last couple of days. She doesn’t do more because, of course, she’ll leave most of it to me. Not a problem… pretty much everything goes into the plastic bins that are currently sitting on the front porch. Only takes about an hour or so.

Except for the wreath. I like to leave it up until after Chinese New Year. Not entirely sure why – except that they are darn expensive and I like having it on the front door with our welcome sign.

Still “discussing” whether to put the tree out in the back. YA wants to but I’m a little skeptical that it might lure little critters into a false sense of security when there is a killer beast let loose in the yard several times a day. I’m campaigning for the front yard but YA thinks that will look messy from the street. It’s pretty much the last thing that will be done today – plenty of time for more “discussion”.

Other than that, no particular acknowledgement of the beginning of the new year. We used to write bad habits that we wanted to leave behind onto flash paper and burn them up but haven’t done that for years. I’m not even sure the magic store, where you can find flash paper, is still in the Mall. As I suspect is the case for most of us on the Trail, it’s an arbitrary day and if you’re not already in the mood to make changes to your life, circling this day on the calendar probably won’t do it. Don’t tell the weight loss companies who are right now flooding the market with ads that I said so.

Will put up all the 2024 calendars today as well!

Do you still write checks – how long does it normally take you to write the correct year in the date?

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

Brevity? None Here!

November 25, 2023 verily sherrilee 70 Comments

The weekend Farm Report comes to us from Ben.

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

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

Someday I need to learn brevity. But not today!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Next week, did we make any money?

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

2023, animals, Business, Farming Update, Seasons, Uncategorized

Ten Pounds in a Five Pound Bag

November 18, 2023 verily sherrilee 51 Comments

The weekend Farm Report comes to us from Ben.

This week has been a little nuts.

Sigh.

Really, the last few weeks have been a little nuts. I’m burning the candle at both ends, and I need more hours in a day.

CROPS ARE OUT!

And I had a few hours alone in a tractor, with hopefully more to come.

Big Sigh.

Nice.

Kelly and I spent some time on the roof of the machine shed caulking trim pieces and looking for loose nails and trying to figure out why I have water dripping in my new insulated shop area when it rains. Remember, earlier this summer, when I couldn’t get up on the roof? I bought these new ladder extensions, which give me a hand hold 3 feet above the ladder, and they were worth the money. But it also led to a discussion about ladders. I have an old 24-foot aluminum extension ladder that I’m pretty sure dad got used, and it is better than the old wooden ladder we had been using. I bought a really nice 24-foot fiberglass ladder, but of course, that’s at a theater and used for lighting. It has my name painted on the side, meaning I’ll get it back at some point, but it’s more important to have it at the theater now.

I feel like I should replace this aluminum ladder. It’s got a slight twist on one leg. And it doesn’t have a top step where most ladders have a step now days. As good as fiberglass ladders are, they’re really heavy. And because I don’t expect to get any stronger as I get older, I will probably buy a new aluminum ladder.

It seems fitting that by the time you shouldn’t be climbing on the roof, you’ve also reached the point where you can’t pick up the ladder to get on the roof anymore.

The corn went surprisingly well, averaging 120 bushels per acre, 16 or 17% moisture and 57 or 58 pound test weight.

Remember, corn has to be at least 56 pound testweight to not get docked by the elevator. And it needs to be dried down to 15% moisture to store long term, anything above that incurs a drying cost. I know a couple of my fields were only doing about 55 bushels per acre, and some fields were doing amazingly well to get 120 bushels average. That is pretty good this year. Last year I had about 150 bushels per acre.

Soybeans were terrible, but I knew that. 55 pound testweight, soybeans need to be 60 pounds. And typically, moisture is not a problem, they need to be not over 13% and mine were 11%. They averaged about 20 bushels per acre. Again, considering some years I get 50 bushels/acre, and some places can get close to 100b/A, this growing year is good to have over. We will see what Crop Insurance does with all this.

Pictures tell a thousand words, so here’s a bunch of pictures. (Click on each photo to see the best view.)