Yesterday I finished cooking a large pot of brodo, a turkey/beef stock from The Splendid Table cookbook. It calls for 9 pounds of turkey wings that simmer for 14 hours with lots of vegetables and 4 pounds of beef shank. I get about 3 gallons of stock from it.
I get my turkey wings from a butcher shop that gets a case of them for me directly from the meat packing plant. They are enormous and meaty. After simmering for 14 hours, however, there is not much taste left in the meat. I can’t make myself throw them away, so I freeze the meat in small bags for our dogs. They get a few pieces of the turkey in their daily kibble. They love it.
They also get roasted butternut squash and beef protein sprinkles every day in their kibble. I roast the squash with our Turkish olive oil brushed on it. At least once a day they get gullet strips, and they have collagen chews to gnaw on. Yes, we have terribly spoiled terriers. They get so excited it is hard to stop since they seem so happy.
I think we spoil our dogs with snacks because we spoil ourselves with good food. They don’t seem to get fat on these snacks, but they are busy, active dogs who race around and burn off lots of calories. By the end of the day they collapse and sleep soundly all night.
What are your favorite snacks? How do you spoil the people and creatures you love? How are you spoiled?
My great grandfather, Oscar Elmer, was sent as a missionary to start a Presbyterian church in Moorhead, MN in 1871. In May of 1874 his brother, John, came to visit from New York. Unfortunately, John Edger Elmer fell into the Red River and drowned. The normal procedure would have been to have his body returned to New York to be buried in the family plot in a cemetery in their home town, but John’s body was not recovered from the river until nearly a week after he disappeared and had deteriorated past the point where it could be shipped East. The town did not have a cemetery and the typical burial in Moorhead at the time would be on the property of the deceased’s family. Since Oscar did not own property he recruited some men from the town to help him bury his brother in a temporary location between two trees, with a rope tied to the trees to mark the grave.
The lack of a proper burial site prompted Reverend Elmer to organize a committee of residents to establish Moorhead ‘s first cemetery. In 1875, a railroad company was persuaded to sell a 5-acre parcel of land to the city for $1 and the cemetery came to be. John Elmer’s body was moved from the tree-marked grave and re-buried in the new cemetery.
Fast forward to 1971 when a 29-year-old man from St. Paul was giving a poetry reading at Moorhead State University. While walking through the town the next morning he happened upon Moorhead ‘s Prairie Home Cemetery. He had been trying to come up with a title for the radio program he was planning, and Prairie Home caught his attention. He changed Cemetery to Companion and the rest is history.
The photo of John Edger Elmer’s gravestone was taken by my cousin’s daughter on recent visit to Moorhead. She is a genealogist and John Elmer’s great great grandniece and Oscar Elmer’s great great granddaughter.
Any family cemetery stories? Where do you want your final resting place to be?
Despite the limitations due to my wrecked shoulder joints, I continue to attend my twice weekly exercise class. I adjust the arm movements so I can at least approximate them. I try to put more emphasis on my core and my legs. I feel it is really important to keep moving.
I have some pretty stiff leg/hip joints. My doctor recommended chair yoga, and I finally got around to printing off some exercises. I tried them yesterday and my are they difficult! I think they will be pretty helpful through the winter if I make myself do them daily.
Boommate dragged me up to the high school the other day to get a pass for walking the school hallways in the evenings once cold weather hits. I think that will be helpful, too. We can walk from 6:00-8:00 pm any day school is in session.
I noticed that there is a place in Sioux Falls that offers goat yoga. I think goats are a lot of fun, but I don’t think I would want one to jump on me while I was exercising or to nibble on me. I would probably trip over one and break my hip!
Ever done an exercise class with animals? How do you keep physically active? Any experience with goats?
Well, it is that time of year when people try to predict how severe or mild the coming winter will be. Winter is coming, you know!
Our Arikara Indian friend from Twin Buttes, ND likes to use buffaloberries for prediction. Buffaloberries, aka Shepherdia or Bulberries, are a pictured in the header photo. They are tasty, tart, native berries that grow on shrubs that make lovely jam, jelly, and pie. You can order plants for your yard. Deer, elk, and bison love them. Our friend Bruce says the more productive the buffaloberries, the harsher the winter. I haven’t had a chance to ask Bruce what he has observed as yet. I trust his judgment, but it may only be relevant for north central North Dakota.
Woolybears. The caterpillars that develop into Isabella Tiger Moths. Well, if the black stripes on them are near the front end of the caterpillar, winter will be early. The more black stripes, the more snow and the harsher the winter. The more brown stripes, the more mild the winter. I wonder through, what if the woolybears all have different stripe allocations? Which one do you believe?
I think I have a better source of prediction. Saturday we noticed a house down the street that was having a Christmas light service install their lights. I had no idea such services existed. Humbug Christmas Light Services was on the job. We don’t put up Christmas lights, but how nice for people who want lights but who can’t manage ladders. I think the earlier the lights go up, the earlier the first snow.
What do you think we should use as winter prediction? Be creative. Do you put up outdoor Christmas lights?
This week’s country living update brought to you by dogs barking in the middle of the night. Three different times! In one night! Bailey barks at whatever, Luna barks, daughter yells, someone has to let Luna and Humphrey out, then let them back in later. It’s a whole big stupid thing that’s been going on for the last couple months. We suspect Bailey does it as her passive aggressive revenge on Luna. She doesn’t know it’s worse on us.
Last night I Iocked Bailey in the garage overnight. It was a very restful night.
Geese are moving. Leaves are falling. And Orion is back in the night sky. I don’t know why I have such an affinity for Orion, however, what sticks in my mind is a play that I did 40 years ago called The Young Mayo Brothers. Written by a local director and it was performed for several years. And there was a scene where the two young Mayo brothers were standing outside on a summer night and they commented on Orion. I said to the director Orion is a winter constellation and he didn’t care. And that really kind of put me off, and it made me very aware of the different ways directors may go about something. Just like reading a book, you have your protagonist and does he have a complete backstory? What got them to this point? And are they fully flushed out or just kind of slapped together? No, the line didn’t make a difference in the play, but it made a difference to me (because what else is the playwright making up?) and I love to see Orion coming up now and I think to myself, “There you are.”.
It’s been a good week.
Got the soybeans harvested on Thursday and that’s always nice. Yield was up from previous years, and the price is $3 / bushel higher than last year. Yay! Normally I’m stressed over snow and the weather, and this year it was just another beautiful fall day.
My ride along
Unloading while still combining. It’s all the rage now. Everyone does it!
Tractor and cart
I got the rye planted last weekend. The seed tender had a dead battery so I swapped out my lawnmower battery to make it work. Then put the old one back in when I took the seed tender back. I accidentally left my good battery sit on the machine for the 20 mile drive back to Potsdam. The dealer asked me the next day if I was missing a battery. I don’t know, am I? Man, I sure would have been scratching my head trying to figure out what I did with that battery if it had fallen off on the road.
I took all the dogs to the vet. They got vaccines, and Bailey got antibiotics for a UTI (or possible kidney stone. We’ll follow up in 10 days and see if there’s a change on the ultrasound.) Humphrey needed a check up to stay on the aspirin he takes for his arthritis. They’re all healthy. Luna got her nails trimmed. She didn’t like it there any better than us doing it.
And then I picked up my tractor and drove it back home. Took 55 minutes on back roads. It seems to be all better now with a new radiator and cooling fan clutch. Still haven’t seen the bill. And that’s OK. I can wait. I did get Padawan to change the theater furnace filters in the morning, then we took the dogs to the vet, I bought him lunch, and he drove the dogs and the truck home. And he cut grass and did a few other things.
Next to my tractor was a new Fendt brand tractor. It was unlocked so I sat in that one.
A joystick and a screen and lots of buttons
One of these days I’ll hook up to the chisel plow and get it ready for fall. It needs new points before fall tillage.
Diesel fuel prices have started to come back down. A few places are $5.99 now. Like that’s a bargain!?? I finally drained the diesel tank. The gauge said it was empty a while ago yet I filled the smaller tractor, and got 50 gallons in the big one before the pump finally started to sputter and it did run dry. Shoot, I was hoping for a miracle tank. I’ll be good until the corn is harvested and I start chisel plowing. And hopefully the price of diesel will be down a few more pennies by then.
I’m always complaining about the deer. Check out this picture:
And that was just a FEW of them! I didn’t take a picture of the bunches further up the road… seriously, I lose hundreds, if not thousands of dollars to them every year.
ANY PASSIVE AGRESSIVE BEHAVIOR?
NICE WEATHER THIS WEEKEND. WHAT ARE YOU GONNA DO WITH IT?
I was quite amused this week to read that the Federal Communication Commission is worried about our robovacs as threats to national cyber security.
Thats right. Along with certain routers and drones, the FCC has banned the importing of many robovacs unless they meet certain criteria. This means there will be fewer robovacs on the market, and, of course, prices for the government approved ones will rise.
We have a Shark robovac that we put to good use on our upstairs wood flooring. We named her Good Clean Bess, or just Bess, for short. Shark products are included in the current government ban, although already purchased or other units currently on the shelves haven’t been banned. She is parked in the dining room on her charger. Now, when I walk by her I wonder “What is she telling foreign spies about me and my home? What does she tell them about the dust and dirt she collects? Our cat ignores Bess, but what about cats who like to ride on robovacs as they travel over our floors? Do we need to worry that our cats are sharing State secrets ?
I know I am being a little over the top about this. I can understand concerns about routers and drones, but vacuums?
What would a hostile foreign government learn about you and your home from your vacuum? What would you do with a drone?
As always happens the first week of October, the email from the ND Board 0f Psychologist Examiners arrived reminding us that it is time to renew our licenses. Husband has been licensed since 1991. I have been licensed since 1994.
This year is different for us, since neither of us is renewing our licenses. We are retired. We no longer live in ND, and we haven’t accrued the 40 hours of continuing education over the past two years necessary to maintain our licenses., which formally expire January 1, 2027. We plan to email the Board office this week to let them know we aren’t renewing. Husband will also step down as the Board Investgator of ethical complaints against licensees on January 1.
I have mixed feelings about all this; happy to be retired and not having to pay for relicensure, wistful about letting go of a huge part of my identity. Husband notes with great irony that the Board is trying to enlist two licensees to do the complaint investigations that he did all by himself.
I was the Board president for 8 years, and I remember hearing from the Board office about people who initially decided to let their licenses expire when they retired, who then decided at the last minute to renew, and needed an extension from the Board to complete their continuing education hours. That will NOT happen for us. Done is done, but my, I will miss it.
Did your employment or some other aspect of your life form your identity? How has your identity changed over the years? Ever file a complaint against a licensed. service provider?
Husband and I read aloud to our children countess hours when they were little. We were both really good at expressive character voices.
I was a little disappointed realizing that our new church here in Luverne had a much reduced music ministry compared to our ND church. The choir sings only perhaps once every couple of months instead of every Sunday. We have found a new and fun niche, however, in being readers of the scriptures, Psalms, and prayers during services. The pastor reads the Gospel passages.
Our fellow church members really like the way we read. Husband says I speak very clearly and read expressively as though there are children listening (which there are). Some people who had my mother as a Grade 3 teacher or knew her well tell me my voice is just like hers. They seem to find it comforting. When Husband reads you can tell he understands everything he is reading and imparts that meaning. Last Sunday I had to read a selection from Isaiah in which the writer had God speak in a really pissed off voice. I used that sort of voice as I read. People were very appreciative and complimentary.
We have choir rehearsal twice in the next two weeks for the Reformation Day service later in October. We only read in church about once a month. Now if we can only figure out how to get more reading time in with our grandchildren.
How would describe your reading voice? What might you like to read aloud in public if you got the chance? Who read to you when you were a child and what were your favorite things to hear?
i don’t know what got into me this weekend, but I fulfilled one of my priorities and did all the ordering for my Christmas baking. It involved ordering:
Glaceed orange peel, glaceed lemon peel, glaceed cherries, and glaceed citron, 4 lbs of pecans from an orchard in Georgia, my yearly purchase of 10 lbs of a really nice chunk of parmesan from Italy (it is cut from a wheel and lasts for a year), eight 2-cup containers of leaf lard from a Pennsylvania butcher shop for pie crusts and lefse, Swedish pearl sugar, sliced almonds, black currants, golden raisins, Danish marzipan, and a gallon tin of Turkish olive oil.
Now I will be set for any baking needs for Christmas and for the year. Then I started to think about other winter preparations. I filled the water softener with salt and changed out the furnace filters. We have two furnaces in our home due to an addition to the house a few years ago. Did you know you can get furnace filters with small batteries that will alert you when the filters need changing? Husband did some yard and flowerbed clean up yesterday. I heard from a foster parent I know from western ND who told me she had to scrape frost off her truck windows Sunday morning. The bison at the park here are getting furry. Winter is coming and I couldn’t be happier.
What winter preparations do you need to complete? How good are you at changing furnacefilters?Watch Game Of Thrones?
I got a massage the other day and the salt wall in the header photo is the wall of their waiting room. It has a nice amber light that is very calming, and they say it supports relaxation to help reduce stress. I just like the look of it. Daughter has a salt lamp that is the same color. It sweats due to the higher humidity in our house, and kinda makes a mess, but it is a very nice warm light.
It’s been kind of a busy week.
There was no farming this week, unless you call cutting the grass and picking up sticks and feeding the chickens and collecting eggs farming. And that was done by Kelly and daughter respectively. I got diddly squat done at home between Work work, tech rehearsals for Sweeny Todd, several meetings, homework, and yes, the massage. That’s how I spent the week. Well, at least until I got to Friday. I got a few things done Friday.
Filling the drill with the seed tender
I must say, I am acing the humanities class. 100%. And this comment from the teacher: “You know you’re going above and beyond, right? I mean that you’re writing 2-3x as much as your classmates… but you’re probably also having 2-3x as much fun!” I wrote to her and said I knew I was writing too much and I felt sorry every time I submitted a paper to her. She responded, ” No, it’s fine. Write away! At least I can hear YOUR voice in your writing and it’s both personal and wise. Plus, you really enjoy doing it.”
That made my whole day…
Music class… eh. 8/10 on a workbook and that’s the only grade posted so far. I go see the teacher weekly and we have a good time talking. It always makes so much sense when she tells me. It doesn’t sink in from the book. Course it would help if I actually read the book first and didn’t just jump into the middle. I can “wing” a lot of things, but evidently not this so much. Geez, sounds like high school all over again.
At college one day I made an electric cable. You know, lighting fixtures used to come with a cord, and you just put on the end you needed. It might be either of a couple specific theater kinds of ends like, ‘Stage Pin’ or ‘Twist Loc’ (new or old style) or regular old Edison like at your house.
Stage Pin
Twist loc, new style, tab in
Then they, “They”, stopped putting cables on the light. You get a ‘receptacle’ on the back of the light fixture, and you hook up a power cable. They were ‘powercon’. So, I made powercon cables and adapters and couplers, because you couldn’t simply hook one end to the other. And from powercon, now they created ‘True 1’ connectors. “New and Improved!” Here I am making MORE cables. But at least this connector can hook end to end without a special coupler.
Power-con
New and improved! True 1
A few years ago I learned if you read the printing on the cable, the female connector will go on the right hand side, because the woman is always right, and that way you don’t need to twist the wires to connect to the proper terminal. HUH!
Sweeny Todd opened last night, Friday, at the Rep in Rochester. I’d seen the show once before, never saw the movie. I know the plot, but I didn’t know the show that well. This version, this director, Philip, really brings out the humor in the show. There’s a lot of sarcasm. Sweeny goes off on this big song of bringing vengeance on all those that have ruined his life, and Mrs. Lovett sits for a moment and finally says, “Well yes, that’s all well and good…”
Lighting it has been fun. We ended up with 206 lighting cues. A handful of those are before the house opens; turning on house lights, checking all the fixtures are working, etcetera, but the bulk are during the show, when Emilie, our stage manager, is also triggering 200 sound cues. It’s OK, she has 2 fingers; one for sound, one for lights. We don’t have an orchestra for this show, we have recorded music. (Musicians are busy, and it’s often hard to find enough to cover the run of a show. If they’re in a band, they’re usually playing weekends as well). Emilie is busy! And she does a fantastic job.
Here’s some looks from the show.
I love these colors on Mr. Todd
There was an auction again. See how this newer tractor sold for so much less? It has a lot more hours, and it needs tires. Looks like its been ‘rode hard and put away wet’. Tires will be about $20,000 for all 8 of them.
The top tractor only has 5000 hours. The bottom one has 11,000 hours.
I didn’t buy anything. I watched a few things, didn’t buy any.
