Category Archives: Travel

2025, Business, Family, Farming Update, Food, gardening, Nature, Science, Technology, Travel, Uncategorized, Weather

WHERE IN THE WORLD IS FARMER BEN?

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This weeks farm report from Ben.

I finished lighting the show in Chatfield last week, in time to fly out on Saturday with Kelly and our daughter. Kelly had a work conference and we got to travel along and amuse ourselves for a few days.
 I was under the impression that taxi drivers were always better than Uber / Lyft because they are more professional and know the roads better. But that plan falls apart if they’re all independent taxi’s and they all seem to need to enter the address in their phones anyway. And they tell me they’ve lived here multiple years, so it makes me wonder why they don’t know their way around yet? But whatever. Our first driver was crazy; drove like a maniac and told me he liked American women and big boobs! Second taxi was a nicer driver, but his car broke down and when daughter and I came out of the Butterfly Pavilion he was sitting right where he had left us. He called a friend of his to take us back to town. And the taxi back to the airport was a nice guy with sheet metal screws holding his car door together. Resourcefulness! 

Daughter and I had a good time walking around downtown and there was lots to see. I took lots of photos of old buildings. The day we saw the butterflies, that only took an hour. We never got going too early in the day, because we were on vacation after all. I was surprised that I could out-walk daughter. It was as hot there as it was back in MN, but less humidity, so that was nice. I didn’t expect it to be that hot. I found it interesting so many restaurants and bars had wide open windows or garage doors and yet there was very few bugs. One bartender told us they really spray the place down at night, but she said there was less flies this year than usual.

On Wednesday Kelly gave a presentation on Laughter Yoga. I snuck in the back and watched. It was well received, the group liked it, and she had several good loud laughers, so that got the rest of the group going. 

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She picked up some swag for me with the catch phrase: “Wicked Smaht Pathologists” and a link to their group. It makes me laugh. If you need a pathologist, you’re gonna want one that’s Wicked Smaht.

We had a young lady staying at the house to deal with dogs overnight while we were gone, and some other friends that would take care of chickens and eggs and amuse the dogs during the day. They said, “Bailey and Humphrey make us want dogs. Luna reminds why we don’t have a dog.” 

And on the way home, in the MSP airport, the gate agent was a girl I went to high school with and hadn’t seen in 40 years. We had a little reunion right there at the gate for 15 seconds. It was nice to see her again.

Last week as I was headed to Chatfield one night, I saw, walking on the side of the road, three nuns in full black habits with the veil and headpiece. I had to double take, and double take again. This was out in the country. A few days later, Facebook, of course, provided the answer. There is an old order Catholic Church in the area and they have been seen coming from there. Well that explains it. Sure did make me wonder though. And then, ten days later, I saw two more nuns in full habits. But that was outside a Catholic Church, and they were selling baked goods at a street fair. Although when I saw them, they were packing up. I saw them pulling the totes with the collapsible tents up the street. I hadn’t seen a nun in full habit for years and now here was twice!

You all had that big storm come through on Monday night with high winds… the oats got beat up. Yep, sure did. Maybe 50% of it down. We didn’t get any hail so nothing threshed out on the ground, it’s just broken off and lying down and it makes it more difficult to pick up for harvest. 


The plan is to start harvesting Friday. Going to try taking it straight- meaning I don’t swath it and lay it in windrows first. A lot of guys do take it straight. When we have tried it in the past it didn’t work so well… we shall see. I have the swather ready just in case. 


The soybeans are waist tall and looking good. At least some of them. They don’t all look this good, but some of them.



There’s a guy on YouTube goes by ‘Bushel Billy’, from the Ohio area and he was talking about a corn issue with a certain variety, in extreme weather conditions, having “tassel wrap” meaning the last leaf doesn’t unwrap from the tassel. So of course if the tassel can’t open up to shed pollen, it’s going to be tough to get all the kernels (silks) pollinated. It takes 90,000 kernels to make a bushel. Hence 90K pollen grains to 90K silks are needed. He pointed out how after pollination the silks turn brown and detach from the kernel after pollination. I didn’t know that and I had to check it out myself. 

Notice how many silks are loose. Just a few on the tip still stuck. 

HUH!
Sweet corn would be so much easier if the silks would detach. 

Read more about it here:

https://images.app.goo.gl/FEkAcj9D6XXozUvV9



YOU THINK I’M GOING TO ASK ABOUT HABITS, BUT THAT’S LOW HANGING FRUIT. 

HAVE WE TALKED ABOUT CRAZY TAXI DRIVERS? GOT ANY TO SHARE?

2025, Family, Travel, Uncategorized

Canoe

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Yesterday Husband declared that after we move to Minnesota we are taking a trip to Alexandria so he can buy a canoe.

Husband has wanted a canoe for decades. He chose the Alexandria shop on the recommendation of someone from the Wenonah Canoe Company. While Luverne isn’t close to any reasonably sized lakes, there are several navigable but smaller rivers nearby that he is excited to explore. The rivers in our current location are either too shallow or too big (The Missouri).

He wants a one person canoe. That is fine with me. I had a truly wonderful and exhilarating experience on a BWCA canoe trip with my church youth group in 1974, and that was all I needed to have a happy life. We canoed in Manitoba during our courtship and early marriage, but my canoeing days are over. He can take his day excursions on the Rock River and Big Sioux River, and I will sit comfortably at home with the dog, drawing on my Dutch roots and practicing niksen.

What are your most interesting canoeing or boating experiences? Does niksen hold any interest for you?

2025, Family, Health, home, Travel, Uncategorized

One Step At A Time

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I have often written about Husband’s frets and worries, but if I am completely honest, his anxiety doesn’t hold a candle to mine.

This has been a sleep deprived week for me due to progress we made toward moving to Minnesota. A local realtor is coming to the house today to give us the lowdown on what we can sell this place for, and I got some financial stuff done so that we can contact a realtor in Luverne next week to start looking for a place for us there. We plan to buy in Luverne before we list this place in Dickinson. I even found a Dickinson moving company that will move us.

My anxiety comes from getting too far ahead of myself. I woke up at 1:00 am on Wednesday worrying how my best friend, who is moving in with us, would get a Real ID driver’s license if none of the utility bills in Luverne are in her name. This is completely irrational, and it shouldn’t be a problem, but that is how far ahead of myself I am getting. I keep telling myself “One step at time!” to slow myself down. The progress we made toward moving is good, but it also makes real all the unknowns about what is going to actually happen. I hate not being in control!

Do worries wake you up at night? Who have been memorable control freaks in your life?

2025, animals, Business, Family, Gatherings, Travel, Uncategorized

As the World Turns…

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Having YA living here makes me ruminate on almost a daily basis about how much the world has changed. 

She’s in San Antonio now, at a conference.  For once she is a participant, not a staff and she is enjoying that juxtaposition.  One of the things that has changed significantly in the travel/meeting/conference world is the choice of activities.  I organized a group in San Antonio once and the activity options were golf, tennis and the San Antonio city tour (with lengthy stop at the Alamo).  Golf was the activity of choice on almost all trips except Hawaii, where the catamaran tour was always the big winner.  As the years went by, people got more adventurous and wanted more options.  Golf fell out of favor and “experiences” got more popular.  Cooking classes, art encounters, biking, kayaking, horseback riding, ATV adventures. Zipline infrastructure grew and grew as did the number of folks wanting to try it.

The activities that YA had to choose from included morning walks, morning jogs, the traditional city tour, Seaworld and…. puppy yoga!

I’d never even heard of yoga until I was in college – heard a talk about transcendental meditation and Ram Das and yoga.  That was it for probably over a decade.  Once onboard a ship with a client, I did a session of yoga with her and promptly pulled a muscle in my back that took weeks to feel better. 

Now there are multitudes of yoga types (Kundalini, Kharma, Buti, Tantra) but lots of stranger versions that I’ve seen.  Hot yoga is done in an overheated environment that encourages sweating.  Naked yoga – well, I don’t have to explain that.  Goat yoga.  And, of course, the popular puppy yoga.  YA signed up for puppy yoga on both of her allotted activity days.  She has sent quite a few photos and it doesn’t look like any yoga is getting done at all.  That’s my girl!

Have you ever tried yoga?   Do you have a favorite activity when you’re traveling?

2025, Government, Travel, Uncategorized

ND Scofflaws

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Several of the most remote and sparsely populated counties in ND were included on a list of municipalities across the country alleged to be “Sanctuary Jurisdictions” by the Department of Homeland Security.

This came as quite a surprise to the generally law abiding citizens of Slope, Billings, and Golden Valley counties. Those counties are just to the south and west of where we live. Slope County has a whopping 703 residents, and boasts the second least populated county seat in the country with a population of 24. (Brewster, NE beat them out with a population of 17.) There is no police department in Amidon, the county seat. There is a police car parked on the side of the road on the main highway into town, with a mannequin seated in the driver’s seat. It always reminds me to slow down when I drive through! I guess that is how all those immigrants are sneaking to and fro.

Golden Valley County has 1700 residents. Billings County has 1000. These are mainly ranchers and farmers. Townspeople are the service providers for the agricultural sector. Some of the towns don’t even have schools. I am sure they are all scratching their heads wondering where all the immigrants are hiding. The sheriffs of all three counties are demanding apologies and retractions from Kristi Noem. She used to spend a lot of time in Pierre as SD governor, and you would think she would know something about southwest ND. I hope Clyde can comment today, as his daughter was the pastor for several churches in those counties and he is familiar with the places.

What laws are you most likely to bend? Do you obey the speed limit? What is the population of your county seat?

2025, books, Family, Mysteries, Travel, Uncategorized, work

Packing

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When I packed for the book festival, I went about it like usual.  I printed out my packing list (that I keep on the computer), filled it out and started to pack.  I was gone two and a half days (six hours of which was driving) and two nights.  Since I was wearing jeans and t-shirt to drive down, all I really needed was two t-shirts, two undies, two pairs of socks, pjs, a pair of zorries for relaxing at David’s and assorted personal hygiene stuff.

Obviously I didn’t need a big bag for this so I pulled a small bag from the attic and threw everything in.  15 minutes from beginning to end.  Except then the conversation started:

YA: Are you taking that bag?
VS:  Yep.
YA:  What are  you taking (picking up the packing list and perusing it).
YA:  No extra socks or underwear?
VS:  Nope.
YA:  What two t-shirts?
VS:  The coral t-shirt with books on it and the black rocket sheep for breakfast with the boys
YA:  Nothing else?
VS:  Nope.
YA:  What if you decide you want a different shirt?
VS:  Then I’ll suffer from my poor choices.l
YA:  What about shoes?
VS:  My blue tennies.
YA:  No other shoes?
VS:  Not for 48 hours.
YA:  (sighs and walks away)

When I was traveling for work, I packed a little more robustly.  Having an extra shirt or pair of socks can’t hurt when you’re on a business trip, but I’ve always been a fairly minimal packer.  YA is completely opposite.  She packs her work uniforms then at least one full non-work outfit for each day.  Multiple pairs of shoes.   For a couple of years she used that cube system, in which you packed all your stuff into individual cube/cases and then put the cube/cases into your bigger suitcase.  Personally I never thought this was a big help to the packing process, but to each their own.  She got the cases free from work; they were popular as pre-travel gifts a few  years ago and there were always extras laying around.  I haven’t seen her using those the last year.

My packing strategy worked out perfectly.  When I got home from the festival, all I had to do was dump the contents of the bag straight into the clothes hamper.  Hygiene stuff all lives in one zipper pouch together so that’s easy to put away as well.  Two minutes to unpack.

I’m pretty sure I packed and unpacked in less time than it took to talk to YA about it!

What about you?  Over-pack or under-pack?  Do you have a “process”?

2025, Art, books, Gatherings, Travel

The Book Festival

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Barbara said last week (Where in the World is VS) that there was a book festival in Viroqua the weekend before.  Did anybody make the connection?

The first weekend of March I spent some time with my friend David, who lives in Viroqua.  His cousin lives in the Twin Cities, so I do get to see him several times a year.  In March he mentioned that this year he was the chairperson of the Ridges and Rivers Book Festival – he’s on the “board” and this year was his turn.  Is this right up my alley or what?

I put the festival on my calendar and then got busy reading.  There were about a dozen presenters and I tried to get ahold of the book that they were featuring; if not, some other recent book.  I volunteered to go down on Friday and help set up as a thank you for David putting me up.  There were a LOT of volunteers so it was actually short work.  I checked out the Viroqua Co-op for dinner – very big and nice for a small town.

On Saturday, the day of the festival, I had five presentations to go to.  The first was Keith Lesmeister talking about the EastOver Anthology of Rural Stories.  Very compelling speaker.

Next up was Maggie Ginsberg, whose first novel Still True won some awards in 2023 – she spoke well but quickly, maybe a bit nervous?

After lunch it was time for Erica Hannickel who has a fascinating book about orchids – her presentation was really well put together and included a great powerpoint with lots of pictures.

The fourth author was William Kent Krueger in the Historic Temple Theatre.  WKK hasn’t been my favorite author; I actually realized on Saturday morning that all of his books that I’ve read have been his standalones.  After listening to his talk, I decided to give his Cork O’Connor series a try.

The last author of the evening was also at the theatre – Michael Perry.  I’ve read several of his books but have never heard him speak.  He was SO funny.  His presentation was over 2 hours and all of us in the audience were just howling.

In between presentations, I walked through the book vendors and author tables.  Bought a handful of items – that was a foregone conclusion.  Had Fried Sweet Potato Swirls for lunch from a food truck and fabulous gelato from a coffee/gelato shop in town.  Really the only downside of the entire day was that I couldn’t expand time to see more of the author presentations.  Oh and the very scary 30 minute drive back to David’s house in the dark.  Geez, it’s dark in the country.

Had breakfast with my godson and his family on Sunday morning before heading back to the Twin Cities.  I will definitely go again next year!

Here’s what I read in preparation:

  • The Fastest Drummer: Viola Smith by Dean Robbins.  This is one in a series of great kids books that feature women.  Great illustrations as well.
  • Forty Acres Deep by Michael Perry.  Not his usual funny stories but a remarkable look at depression at a farmer struggling with depression. Absolutely 5 star material.
  • Halloween with Morris and Boris/Morris and Boris at the Circus by Bernard Wiseman.  These kids books came out in the 70s.  There are twelve of them altogether.  Charming and funny.
  • We Could Have Been Happy Here by Keith Lesmeister.  Short stories, heavy on the theme of missing parents (literal and figurative).  Very nice.
  • Still True by Maggie Ginsburg.  Two women in a small town – one in an unusual marriage, one in a more traditional marriage.  Both have secrets that could rip their lives apart.  Really intriguing.
  • The River We Remember by William Kent Krueger.  This is his latest standalone – and it’s actually my favorite of all that I’ve read.  A not-well-liked character is found dead by the river.  Lots of secrets uncovered as the death gets solved.
  • Driftless Gold by Sue Berg.  This was my least favorite read for the festival, although it wasn’t bad.  I think this slots into the cozy mystery genre a bit, although the main character is a male – solving a mystery involving some lost gold treasure.  This is part of series.
  • Orchid Muse by Erica Hannickel.  Fabulous look at our fascination with orchids, including some history, some art, some individuals who’ve made orchids their life’s work.  No mention however of Nero Wolfe!
  • EastOver Anthology of Rural Stories.  Enchanting collection of short stories having to do with rural life. I’m not always a fan of short stories, but these were all excellent.  The anthology was curated by Keith Lesmeister and I think he did a great job.

There were a few others I would have like to have gotten to, but couldn’t get them in time.  Maybe next year I’ll start earlier!!

What’s the last “festival” you attended?

2025, Family, Government, History, Travel, Uncategorized

Newcomers

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I was fascinated to read that today is the date in 1562 that the first French settlers arrived in North America. They arrived in Florida, of all places! I may need to research further how they fared.

When we lived in Winnipeg we would talk with our friends about our and their families’ immigrant experiences. My family came over in the 1850’s and the early 1900’s. It was a little daunting to hear that some or our French Canadian friends’ families arrived in Canada in the early 1600’s.

I have become rather close with the Newfoundland Psychology Board representatives who attend the licensing board conferences we just went to in Montreal. We were lamenting the current political strife between our countries, and two of them told me that they were registered with the Canadian Government as formal refugee sponsors, and said with all seriousness that if we needed to claim political asylum they would be happy to have us come to St. John’s and stay with them. I told them I was very touched by their offer, but that I was sure there were far more people in need of asylum than we would ever be. Since Son was born in Canada, and since that means Canada will always claim him if he fills out all the proper paper work, he could sponsor us in. I don’t see that as happening, but it is nice to know there are options out there.

What were your families’ immigrant experiences like?

2025, Food, Travel, Uncategorized

Fine Dining

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One thing I have always loved about Montreal is the quality of the food in grocery stores and restaurants. You may have difficulty finding Diet Mountain Dew, as a couple of our ND colleagues lamented, but in terms of other “real food”, it is Nirvana.

We had wonderful Punjabi food our first night there at a restaurant called Le Taj. The naan was the best I ever had, and now I want a tandoor in the back yard! There are scores of great restaurants serving any ethnic food you might want. We had an early supper one night at a Portuguese restaurant and had lovely lamb sandwiches on panini. That restaurant was wedged between a sushi restaurant and a Spanish restaurant. Many delis are open after midnight.

The hotel where our conference was located fed us breakfast and lunch most days, with a really big dinner on Friday night. The food was always served buffet style, and was wonderful in its opulent diversity. I never saw caviar at a conference buffet before, but on Friday night one of our options was poached salmon covered in about 3 inches of black caviar. I am not exaggerating the amount of caviar that was piled on that salmon. You could take as much as you wanted. I have never eaten caviar and probably never will, but it gives you an idea of the food we were offered. The French pastries and breads were superb. The Vegan and Vegetarian attendees told me they were very happy with the food choices they were offered, too.

Husband stocked our room fridge with great cheeses and cold cuts from a small grocery store for late night snacks. He didn’t find the time for a smoked meat on rye sandwich, though, something Montreal is famous for. It just means we will have to go back.

Eat much caviar? Tell about your travel dining experiences.

2025, Family, Travel, Uncategorized

Airport Schedules

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We are finally home from Quebec after a wonderful time. The Montreal airport is quite fascinating, made even more so by my very poor ability to make a cogent travel itinerary and a computer glitch by Delta Airlines.

For reasons even I cannot fathom, I scheduled our return flight to Minneapolis and thence to Bismarck for 6:10 am on Sunday morning. That meant we needed to be at the airport at 3:10 am according to Delta Airline’s advisory to be at the airport three hours before take off for international flights. I had no idea that just about everything at the Pierre Trudeau airport closed at 8:00 pm.

It is hard to sleep knowing you have to get up at 2:00 am to catch a taxi to the airport. We decided to go to the airport at 10:00 pm on Saturday night and try to doze as we could. When we arrived we were informed that the Delta ticket booths and most everything else were closed until 3:00 am. We signed in to our flight when the ticket agents arrived on the dot at 3:00am.. That entailed a wait until 3:30 am until the folks who operated the baggage conveyor belt arrived. That is their regular schedule. We were then shepherded into another large room with several hundred people to wait until 4:15 am until the TSA staff arrived, and thence until 4:30am when the US Customs staff arrived. I am happy to report we had no issues at US Customs.

I made our flight reservations in late March, and the Delta computer miscalculated our arrival and departure times in Minneapolis because it didn’t take the time change from the Eastern time zone to Central time zone into account. Even the Montreal ticket agents were fooled. Our Montreal flight arrived late in Minneapolis. We feared we had only 15 minutes to catch our Bismarck flight. We tore to the gate. The door was closed, and we feared we were too late to board. The rather confused ticket agent told us that the plane didn’t leave for an hour and 15 minutes. That hour from from Eastern to Central time made a huge difference!

We arrived home in Dickinson at 12:00 pm on Sunday after no sleep since we got up at 8:00 am Saturday morning. I am surprised I could even drive the 100 miles home. I vowed after this that I will engage a travel agent in the future for any domestic or international travel.

Travel horror stories or happy accounts? Know any rigid schedule adherents?

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