Category Archives: Seasons

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

Brevity? None Here!

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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

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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.)

Rooftop
Ladder
Tractor Time
Harvesting
Harvesting
Harvesting
Machinery
Losing the Light
Tractor at Night
Night Equipment
Corn
Soybeans

ANY CORRELATING CIRCUMSTANCES IN YOUR LIFE LATELY?

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, home, Nature, Seasons, Uncategorized

Favorite Hangouts

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We have purple grapes hanging all over the place on our deck. They were particularly plenteous this year because of our snow last winter and the summer rains. You can see some of them in the header photo. The late fall migrants as well as the birds who stay around all winter have been gathering in droves to eat them. I used to make grape jelly but we don’t eat that much jelly, and a little grape jelly goes a long way, so we leave them for the birds. The grapes will dry and be a nice food source for them and the squirrels all winter. Squirrels have also made off with all the nuts on our hazel shrubs. I hope they ate them and didn’t just bury them in random places like they usually do.

Birds like to congregate in our yard with all the shrubs and protection from the wind as well as the feeders. We use black oil sunflower seeds in the feeders. I don’t care if the squirrels eat them, since they get hungry, too. I like our yard being a favorite hangout. Husband and I sat on the deck this afternoon in the calm, sunny weather listening to all the bird song after finishing our winter preparations for the yard. It was lovely.

Where were your favorite hangouts as a kid and as a teenager?

2023, Family, Food, home, Seasons

Throw In Whatever You’ve Got Soup

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½ large white onion (or one medium), chopped
1 green pepper, chopped
2 macho nacho peppers (a smidge hot), chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 Tbsp. olive oil
1 can sliced carrots (including liquid)
1 can yellow corn (including liquid)
¾ c. frozen peas
3 veggie bouillon cubes
3 brandywine tomatoes, chopped
Salt & pepper
1 tsp. Penzey’s Justice spice
½ tsp. chili pepper flakes
Chopped fresh basil
2 c. cooked rice
2 c. water (to make it soup)
2 veggie hot dogs (completely optional), sliced

I’ve told the story of the kitchen sink stew that I took to a church potluck – just threw in what I had and it was a big hit.  Well, I did it again!

On my to-do list Saturday was “cook something”.   YA and I are staring down the barrel of a large home-improvement project and have discussed some economizing so I decided to just use what I had on hand, from the pantry and the garden.   Cooked the onion, pepper and garlic in olive oil, then threw in everything else… finishing up at the last minute with a couple of veggie hot dogs.

Not to toot my own horn, but it is FABULOUS.  I mean, stand-in-front-of-the-fridge-with-a-spoon-eating-it-out-of-the-pan good.  Even better warmed up with a piece of cornbread.  Unfortunately YA agrees so it’s not lasting long.  Hopefully I’ll be able to re-produce it again some day.

What was the highlight of YOUR weekend?

2023, education, Family, gardening, Kids, Nature, Seasons, Uncategorized, Weather

Fall

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Yesterday was the first day of fall, and it was cool and cloudy, I noticed this week that the leaves were just starting to change color. The garden is finally slowing down. I am done canning tomatoes.

Fall has always been my favorite season. Not too hot, not too cold. (We won’t talk about the Ocober 5, 2005 snowstorm that shut the area down for three days and broke off hundreds of tree limbs.) I like the cooler nights.

Things at work always pick up in the fall, especially for those of us who work with children. Bad news at parent-teacher conferences means the phones start ringing at my agency from calls from frantic parents wanting help for their ornery children. Fall is a time of truth and reckoning for some of us.

What are your favorite things about fall? Any favorite fall songs or poems? Did your parents ever get bad news at parent-teacher conferences?

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

There’s Always Hope?

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The weekend Farm Report comes to us from Ben.

Maybe the crops won’t be as bad as I feared. I was looking at the soybeans this past week and there are a fair number of pods higher up the plant. The plants are about knee high, and it looks like the weather will hold for a few weeks yet. We’re at 2845 growing degree units. 368 above normal for Rochester. Mind you, I’m not saying great crops, but not as bad as I thought. Ha, probably just be good enough not to trigger a payment from crop insurance, which is based on 70% of expected (average) yields. I did get a $700 credit on the premium for hail damage. So, I only owe $600 rather than $1300. Which is better than a poke in the eye with a sharp cornstalk.

I did plant some rye on Monday and more on Thursday evening. The rain predicted for Friday morning isn’t going to a mounted to much. We wait and see. I spotted a couple sandhill cranes while out planting on both days. They must like this field. It was interesting: On Monday I had gone around the field once, turned around at the end of the field and was coming back when I saw them in the middle of the field. Were they there on the first round? I was maybe 150’ from them and they didn’t pay me too much attention. But then as I came around the corner and got closer, they flew off. Sorry kids, you didn’t get much of a rest here. Thursday was the same thing; didn’t see them on the first pass and then there they were. I adjusted how I planted that field so they could hang out longer. When the time came and I had to go their way, they had flown off.

I was working at the college one day and I dropped a cable down a ventilation shaft. Course it wasn’t a plain old power cord, it was a special 4 pin data cable. I can see it down there and maybe with a long stick and a hook on the end, I’m thinking I can retrieve it. Stay tuned.

I’ve been scraping gravel from the machine shed approach.

Over the years I’ve added a lot of gravel to the road. Now with the cement pad being the same level as the shed interior, the driveway is 8” too high. I’ve mentioned before the water running in the shed door. So, I’ve been scraping. Man, it’s packed hard. Some rain would help that too. I’m not real good at being an excavator operator. And using the tractor loader isn’t ideal either, but it works. I can’t quite tell yet if there’s just dirt under there or still gravel. Dad must have had rock there when he built this shed in 1981. I may have to go an extra 4” deep and put gravel back on top. I’m using this rock to fill in some holes and the extra will go on the other end of the cement where it is more dirt.

Daughter likes to do her chores: whether it’s hauling out garbage, doing her laundry (I know, right??) collecting eggs, and last night she even threw out corn for the chickens and chicks. Mother-Clucker is down to 12, lost one. The kids are getting pretty independent, and mom is giving them their freedom too. It’s not unusual to see them running 20’ away from mom. They’re between robin and pigeon sized.

Ever had a cement pond at your house? How was that?

(Are you aware Irene Ryan ((Granny)) was a Tony nominated actress and has an acting scholarship in her name?)

2023, Family, Food, Nature, Seasons

Summer Kitchen

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Today’s post comes to us from Barbara.

Some of you have expressed curiosity about my summer kitchen. When the weather gets too warm, I do everything I can here to stave off using the A/C.  This summer, though, it’s been used more than usual.

There is a small stand on the patio, just outside the back door, and next to it a former potting table/cart (on wheels) that a neighbor left out on the boulevard when they moved.

You can see from the photos some of the appliances and their homes. The toaster oven, when I bring it out for baking, stays on the stand to the left. There’s a large ceramic tile on top of the potting cart surface.

I do most of my prep work in the kitchen, and then bring the food out to cook outside. The flaw in this system is that in “high summer”, the back patio is not in shade except in early morning, and late afternoon. In the sun on a hot day it’s just too hot to be out there at all – I need to rig up an awning of some kind. So this works best in early and late summer, like later this week when temps will be low 80s.

We tried several chilled soups this summer, one of them being this one:

Chilled Cantaloupe Mint Soup
1/2 Medium cantaloupe, cut into chunks and pureed in blender with several mint leaves

Add and mix well:

1-1/2 Tbsp honey    (less if you used sweetened yogurt)
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1 – 8 oz container plain yogurt  (or sweetened yogurt and reduce the honey)
1/4 cup buttermilk , or 1/4 cup fruity white wine

Cover and chill 1 -2 hours before serving.
Garnish with fresh mint leaves, and float some blueberries if you have them.
Serves 2

What experiences have you had with outdoor cooking?
Have any good non-heated recipes to share?

2023, Farming Update, History, Nature, Seasons

Still Dry

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The weekend Farm Report comes to us from Ben.

No rain to speak of around here yet. We had some mist a couple different days, and at least it’s cooler now and I like that. 

I see some farmers chopping corn silage. I miss doing that; it was a fun job. It smelled good, it unloaded easy, and it was a very satisfying job. The loads were heavy and if it was muddy that made it harder with the small tractor I used to pull the wagons. For a lot of years, Dad ran the chopper and I pulled the wagons home to unload. There were a few years I did it myself because he was working or retired. Maybe that’s why I just feel like doing things myself so much these days. Yes, fall is coming; I have seen some corn crops really drying out and turning brown both because of reaching physical maturity or because they’re on lighter soils and it’s so dry, the crop is just done. (Especially noticeable in rocky ground; that dried out sooner). 

Soybeans are starting to turn yellow and will soon be losing leaves. Not mine, but most or the better-looking crops. My weeds are flourishing in the bean fields. My sister made the comment that she was glad to see some weeds because that meant I wasn’t “drowning the fields with herbicides”. Hmm, Well. All those weeds will be going to seed and making that many more weeds next year. And if the beans dry out but the weeds haven’t frozen yet, that makes harvesting more difficult. Plus the nutrients they’re using that the crop should be using. We can be pro or con to herbicides and chemicals, but we have to be sure we’re looking at both sides of the situation. Crop rotation helps with weed control too, so these fields being corn next year will stop next year’s weed, but those seeds…you know they just hide out and wait. 

A few weeks ago, I talked about planting winter rye as a cover crop. I haven’t planted yet because it won’t grow until it gets some moisture in the soil. It’s just hot, dry dirt right now. Chance of rain again Sunday, but that’s the only rain in the forecast. And if it gets too late in the season, is it worth planting? I don’t know yet. 

The barn swallows have moved on. It sure is quiet with them gone. We miss them a lot. 

Lots of acorns falling. And walnuts. We have one horse chestnut tree I planted from a seed that I picked up outside of our church when I was a kid. Mom says it’s a wonder it ever grew as I was always digging it up to see if it was growing yet. Well, boy, it has a lot of nuts on it now and it seems like 60% of them sprout in the spring. I’ve used the chestnuts for barnacles in plays. And I used to fill my Tonka dump truck with acorns. There are oak trees around the college theater and every morning as I walk in, I step on the acorns and have warm memories. 

Mother-clucker still has her 13 chicks!  

The John Deere Company stopped making moldboard plows this year. A moldboard plow is the traditional looking plow that you’d picture in your mind. The name ‘moldboard’ comes from the biggest metal curved piece that tips over the dirt. That fact it was metal is what made the man, John Deere, famous. From 1837 to 2023, the John Deere company made plows. It’s what started and made the company. It’s a big deal to let that go and there’s been some online debate over it. But that style of farming has changed. The benefit of the moldboard plow was how it could cut the plant roots and turn over that virgin soil. For a lot of years, that was the tool that was needed. These days, as we do more conservation tillage and have equipment that can plant into more plant residue, turning the soil over completely isn’t as critical. At the bottom of the moldboard was the ‘share’. The tip of that was the first piece to wear away from the soil contact. (Isaiah 2:4, “…and they shall beat their swords into plowshares…”)  

Here’s a website with more about plows and plowing than you knew you needed to know: 

Click to access The%20Moldboard%20Plow.pdf

I still have a 4 bottom plow at home. I used it when I took some Conservation Reserve ground out of the reserve program and put it back into cropland. Using a chisel plow on sod ground– (“sod” being alfalfa hay, grass, or pasture. Basically, any kind of grassland with the deep, tangled roots) — using a chisel plow, it takes about 2 years for the soil to really break down enough to be workable because it doesn’t turn it over completely or cut the roots so cleanly. I also use the moldboard plow when a neighbor wants part of his hayfield plowed up in order to reseed the next year. 

Plowing makes a ‘furrow’ after the last row. That furrow is a trench about 5” deep and 16” wide that you put the tractor tire in for the next round. (If everything is lined up right). At the last round of the field, you try not to make such a deep furrow. That last round is called the ‘dead furrow’. You want to remember how you plowed this year, so the next year you can go the other direction, therefore moving the dead furrow to the other side of the field. Clyde, what would you like to say about plowing? At the end of the field, how did you turn with that? Did you have to lift it or roll it on the side?

Any songs about nuts?

home, Mysteries, pets, Seasons

The Single Life….

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The last couple of weeks Guinevere and I have repeatedly passed by a house on the parkway with one toddler’s pink shoe sitting on the front post of someone’s house.   It is still in good shape (despite a couple of storms) but it does look a little forlorn.  If YA had lost this shoe as a toddler, I might have re-traced our steps to find it but there are probably several good reasons why the shoe remains all by itself.

It makes me think about the socks that go missing in life.  This time of year I spend more time thinking about socks; winter socks are bigger and harder to mis-placed.  I mostly wear little no-show socks (if I’m wearing shoes) and I often find one of the missing when I fold up my weekly laundry.  I’ve developed a short process when this happens.

As I sort and fold laundry, I tend to shake it out a bit.  If a sock is missing, I may unfold, shake and refold any likely suspects who might be holding onto a sock, especially the fitted sheet.  If that doesn’t turn up the missing footwear, then I head down to the basement to check the dryer and the washing machine.  If I am still single-socked, then I put the lonely sock into a little box that I keep in my closet.  Then when its mate shows up, I put them together and replace them in the sock drawer. 

Eventually I go through the single sock box and get rid of any inmates who have been there for a long long time.  Right now there are four socks in the box and none of them are likely to get paired up again.

How to you deal with lost socks, shoes, gloves?  Do you have a process?  How long to you keep single items before despairing of finding their mates?