My gardening juju goes away in September. Gardening in May and June really gets me going but by fall, I’m so done. I think it’s because the stuff that needs doing in the fall is just clean up – nothing is going to leaf out or flower or even green up due to my work and attention. And I detest the leaf situation the most.
My house and yard are in the middle of a weird neighborhood vortex; for some reason, even though most of the neighbors have the same number of trees as I do, way more leaves end up in my yard than the others. I’ve documented this over the years. So so many leaves. I’m not rabid about cleaning up leaves; I understand about leaving some leaves and plants for pollinators. However if I don’t clean up some of the leaves, then I end up with masses of wet and sometimes moldy mess in the spring.
But I hate raking and bagging leaves. I’ve always hated it. In high school, I was part of a church group that did chores for seniors and even then, I told everybody I would do any odd job but raking. Once YA was old enough I bought her a child-sized rake and I co-opted her into helping — some years I even paid her.
Now at the ripe old age of 29 she has decided that dealing with leaves is something important to her. She adores our electric lawn mower and she’s been out several times now, mowing, mulching and bagging. After a session over the weekend, she informed me that she will probably do at least one more pass in the backyard and once more out front. I haven’t asked her even once to do any of this and she hasn’t even hinted at any money crossing her palm. It’s just amazing.
And don’t worry, believe me when I say all this activity does not denude our yard of leaves. Plenty left for the pollinators!
Do you have anything you like to do in fall (or NOT like to do) to get ready for winter?
One of my little next-door neighbors is turning six this week. Since her mom will be out of town for a work trip on her actual birthday, Marie (name changed to protect the innocent) had her birthday party yesterday.
Apparently her first choice for a theme party was Ghost Spider. I had no idea who this was – had to look it up – a Marvel friend of Spider Man.
One component of the party that had been promised was to be a visit from a real-life character. Unfortunately there are no Ghost Spider impersonators in the Twin Cities. Marie had a choice – Ghost Spider theme party with no real-life entertainment or a different theme.
I got a text yesterday afternoon that said “if you want to see a princess coming up the walk, go to the window now”. It was Tiana from Princess and the Frog. I have to say, she was beautiful and the costume was quite luxurious. (She also traveled with a “handler” which I thought was pretty funny.) As she was going up the front steps to the house, you could see all the little girls crowded onto the porch, waiting to greet her. Apparently, not only did she read to the girls, she also sang; Marie’s parents, who are both music teachers, reported afterwards that Tiana had a really nice voice. Win win all around.
YA had quite a few theme birthdays growing up but we never had any live-action characters. If we had, we would have had Barney, a pirate, a cat, a dog, a surfer dude, Pocahontas and a cupcake! Thank goodness she’s past the stage where I have to keep up with the Jones’ now!
Did you ever have a theme birthday party as a kid? If you didn’t, what would you have liked?
Got the corn out on Thursday and I got to ride around in the combine for an hour. It was fun and satisfying and a weight off my shoulders and a bright spot in the day.
The dogs and I observed them finishing a field, then they moved up along the road, and that’s when I got in. I watched them unloading on the go, and it was good to see there wasn’t many ears on the ground. A nice surprise for this year.
Their combine is only a few years old, so it has a lot of bells and whistles. Like a back up camera when he shifts to reverse, and a warning screen and tone when the grain tank is ¾ full, and another when it’s ‘full’, but they can still go for a while after that. The grain tank is right behind the cab, (keeping it in the center of gravity) and there’s a window behind the operators head that is about the middle of the tank (and it’s always so dirty you can barely see through it) however there is so much corn that can be held above the window, and most guys have tank extensions, so you really can’t see how full it is until it runs over the front and hits the top of the cab, and then you get ‘Cab Corn’. That’s a thing the guys try to avoid. Evidently it’s a rather tongue-in-cheek sign of failure. “Ope! Bop got cab corn!” Hence, the sensors that tell you the tank is full. There’s also a ‘low fuel’ warning and it went off several times before they sent one guy back to get the fuel trailer. Here they are refilling with fuel and DEF. (Diesel Exhaut Fluid – an emissions product).
I’ve mentioned a few times before how much fuel these big machines hold. The combine might hold 300+ gallons. Same with the tractors. And that’s why they pull a fuel trailer to the field rather than running the machine back home or hauling in 5 gallons cans.
They corn yielded better than I predicted. Roughly 180 bushels / acre, which is REALLY impressive for our farm. Imagine what it would have done without all the deer and raccoons out there! I got a little over 7000 bushels. Test weight was good, and moisture was between 16 and 17%. It needs to be dried to 15% for storage, and that will cost a bit, but not as much as drying it from 22%, which has happen as well.
This photo from the coop website showing each load, total bushels, moisture, and testweight. From this total, I had a couple thousand bushels put into storage to sell in a few months. I’m being optimistic the price will come up. Maybe it will, maybe it won’t. But I can always use the money.
Many nights when daughter and dogs are walking, the dogs pick a fight with a raccoon out in the corn. I expected to find 20’ diameter circles of flat corn from their fights.
I hadn’t seen the ducks in a week and I was hoping maybe they had flown south, vs being eaten. I was very excited to see them out in the yard Thursday afternoon.
I was able to spend a few nights working on the shop.
Course Tuesday was elections so that was a full day.
And now I’m hoping to spend a couple days doing fall tillage and I’m excited about spending time in the tractor.
We had the last school show on Friday morning. After the show while the kids are waiting to get out, I have a moving light slowly sweeping around the stage and audience. I figured the kids would enjoy that. This audience loved it even more than I had hoped. Every time it hit them they cheered. I was standing by some kids who were getting restless so I was talking to them and telling them about that light. One asked if I could make it purple. I pulled out my phone and showed them how I could control it through my phone. Well. Game on. “Make it red!” “Make it yellow!” and I changed patterns and the kids shrieked with delight. It was a wonderful moment and it filled me with joy.
Our dog Bailey, she suckers Luna into something so often, I can’t believe Luna falls for it every time. Bailey will bark at nothing, but it gets Luna all excited. She’s pawing at the doors and climbing the walls to get out. It might be 3AM, but she’s ready to go. And she runs out barking, not even sure which direction she should be going. And Bailey comes to the door and gets petted and she’s happy. Eventually Luna will come back. Sometimes Bailey can get both Luna and Humphrey out, and they’re all barking different directions. Ya know, it would help if we all knew what we were barking about, don’t ya think? Life lesson there.
WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE A WARNING LIGHT FOR? BE WHIMSICAL!
(I Need a warning light telling me I’ve walked away from my water bottle again. )
I’m thinking it might be a healing thing to have a day where we each post something that gives you peace or hope. I’ve seen tons of good stuff lately, and it feels good to share it. These already showed up on Wednesday’s blog:
Do something you can do and enjoy doing to focus your mind on the positive. Chris
Remember, be the light you want to be, shine it on others. Ben
Love for others and ourselves are acts of resistance to oppression and fascism. Let us begin there. Renee
I’m sure there’s more from out there in Baboonland…
Please share today:
– a poem, phrase, or quote
– a song
– a book, author, or story that inspires you, or calms you
– a random act of kindness performed
– a random act of kindness you’ve been the recipient of
– a link to some beautiful piece of art
– a meditation, prayer, or other piece of wisdom
Tuesday at work I had a giggle during a meeting with the crisis team for a case I was involved with. Two of the crisis team members are locals who grew up in a small community about 10 miles from here. A third crisis team member asked why the client’s family member involved in the case was acting in a particularly unhelpful way. This family member also was from the same community as the two crisis team members. The crisis team members replied “Well, you know, she was a Hapsburg before she got married!” (name changed to protect privacy) as though that explained everything about the family member’s behavior.
The funny thing about that exchange is that it did explain everything! One delightful thing about working in a sparsely populated rural area for 36 years has been getting to know all the quirks and peculiarities of local families. By local, I mean people who live in an 80 mile radius of where i work. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree out here. It isn’t even necessarily pathological. It’s just that if someone is a so and so from Belfield or a such and such from South Heart, they often act the same as the other members of their families, and you can predict how they might respond to you. “Oh, she was a Hapsburg” gives us all sorts of information to know how to proceed.
What is your family known for?Any interesting peculiarities or quirks? Where do you look to for answers?
Hasn’t been much farming happening at our place this week. It’s tech week at the theater. So, all day every day there.
We got almost an inch of rain Wednesday and Thursday so that was really nice. Haven’t got my corn out yet, even though they had thought maybe Sunday and then he said maybe Tuesday but they’ll get to it one of these days. The weather doesn’t really hurt it at this point, I mean as long as we’re not talking blizzards or anything, the corn can take some rain.
The header photo is a view we haven’t had in twenty years. Kelly has done such an impressive job cutting and clearing all the buckthorn on this hillside. Once she got done working from the top down, I cleared some of the bottom of the hill and she started from the bottom up. It’s a good workout for her and it’s so great to be able to see all the way through again!
I did get all the hydraulic hoses replaced on my chisel plow a couple weeks ago.
I opened the big, fancy, new, garage door and backed onto the concrete and replaced or turned over the shovels so they all have good sharp points on the bottom. Two bolts in each, and I was smart enough not to hold it with my thumb as I mentioned a few stories back where I sliced open both thumbs doing this job. You might have to tell me things twice, but you don’t have to tell me three times. A couple of shovels were broken off, so I replaced those. There’s a point on each end that will wear off. Sometimes you can just turn them over and use the other point. They’ve got a slight twist to them so they either throw the dirt to the left or the right.
I was short a couple of bolts so I picked them up one morning, and then while home for an hour one afternoon, I finished all the shovels and now it’s ready to go once the corn is out.
I really like having the concrete in the shed and outside, and what I’m learning about having concrete is that it’s always dirty. I’m beginning to realize why the farmers with these concrete shops all have floor sweepers. Trying to keep it clean is an ongoing battle. In the shop, at this point without the fourth wall and the dirt floor just outside that, I use a leaf blower and just blow all the dust back out on the dirt. Same thing outside, although sometimes I use the lawnmower and drive back-and-forth with that to funnel the dust off one edge. Soon I’ll be buying more tools to keep it clean. Power broom? I’ve got shop brooms, they’re boring and too much work. Industrial vacuum? Drivable floor sweepers?? Industrial vacuum!!
Hopefully once I finish the wall and keep the door shut more it won’t be as dusty in the shop, but you can see from the photo that when I’m working on something I might bring a lot of dirt.
Speaking of buying more tools, the soybean check is in the bank and I’ve been shopping. (Yeah, yeah, I’ll get to the bills too.) I bought a few more deep well, impact rated, metric sockets to finish off the rack. Twenty mm – 26mm
And I ordered the wifi bridge so I can send the wifi signal from the house to the shop, and then put my remote thermometer and camera in there, and get the wifi thermostat hooked up, and the wifi-garage door. 😊
Also, I always get a couple new pairs of work boots with the soybean check. My lousy feet, I wear out a pair of shoes in a year.
The first college show is Saturday at 2 o’clock. “Still Life with Iris”, by Steven Dietz.
Sunday is the final open house at our old Haverhill Township Hall before the Rochester Fire Department uses it for a training burn. More on that later.
Next week we have two shows per day at the college with the final show on Saturday the ninth. I hope to be home working on my shed in the afternoons. This weather isn’t going to hold forever.
When I was nine, the St. Louis Arch was completed. Not the whole she-bang (viewing room, elevator, greenway, museum) but the structure of The Arch. It took 2½ years from breaking ground until October 28, 1965, when the last piece was put in place.
Although my family was actually living in Jefferson City at the time of the completion, we were St. Louis folks through and through. The Arch was a big deal back then and we had been down to the site a couple of times during the build; it was exciting to see the two legs each inching up.
As a child it seemed impossible to me that they could build each leg separately and actually have them meet in the middle. The day that they put the last piece in place, joining up both legs, it was big news and as a family we watched it on television. Here’s a short version:
At the time there were a lot of folks who thought once they put the last piece in place, The Arch would just fall down. My father was not in that camp, asserting every time it came up in conversation that it would be an engineering marvel. I guess he’s right – it’s been standing 59 years now. Growing up mostly in St. Louis, I’ve actually been up in the Arch about a dozen times; it was always on the agenda when folks visited from out of town. Since it’s my “home-town” monument, I’m pretty proud that it’s still standing!
Any monument you think is particularly impressive? Or not?
Husband and I have rarely watched much TV the 40 years we have been married. Our TV has always been in the basement. We rarely hang out in the basement. The TV is currently completely disconnected from the cable because we had a basement remodel in the spring. The only news we hear is NPR and the local papers we get. I avoid any news that comes up on my phone regarding the election.
I am in Dallas right now at a conference. Husband is back at home. I have turned on the TV in the hotel room, and I am so glad we don’t watch much at home. I was struck by Jacque’s comment about a self imposed news desert during the election weeks right now. I am stressed enough by the election news, and if I was regularly watching TV I would be a complete mess. Self care is important. When our children were little, we would often say “Scary Bears! ” when something frightening happened. Self care actions like Jacque’s can reduce the Scary Bears in our lives.
How are you coping with the current election stresses? What do you do for self care?What will you and won’t you watch on TV?
I have a fair few number of favorite fictional characters but I know it won’t surprise anybody here that Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot are tops in my book. I have the movies Hound of the Baskervilles (Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce) as well as Murder on the Orient Express (Albert Finney) saved on my TV so it’s accurate to say I’ve seen them repeatedly.
Several years ago my BFF and I decided that for our birthdays we would do experiences together rather than do more “stuff”. She does Cantus tickets for us and I do a play for us each fall. I pick three options, write them up a bit and she chooses one.
This year, a production called Holmes/Poirot was finally scheduled at Park Square Theatre. There had been discussion of it during the summer of 2023, but it never materialized. When I presented BFF with the three choices this year, I had my fingers crossed that she would choose Holmes/Poirot. Luckily she’s a sleuth fan as well. We’ve done a couple of other Sherlock “knock-offs”s as well as doing the Science Museum exhibition a couple of years ago.
The expectation was that the play would be a mash-up with the detectives pitted against each other, even though you’d have to mess with the time continuum to do this. Considering I’ve read a book with Sherlock as a dog and another with a time traveling Miss Marple facsimile, I can handle a little time continuum disturbance. When we sat down with our programs, it was clear that it was going to be two different stories…. Holmes in Act One and Poirot in Act Two. The two main actors change roles for the second act. Sherlock Holmes becomes Colonel Hastings and John Watson becomes Hercule Poirot. The other seven actors switch up characters as well.
During intermission BFF and I wondered aloud how long it would take us to re-orient ourselves to the actors changing parts. We didn’t need to worry. Within just a couple of minutes, we were all in. It was an inspired juxtaposition; both actors were excellent and completely believable in their roles. The second act was played for more comedy, which was perfect because…. well… Poirot. It’s hard not to play him with a splash of silliness.
Absolutely no spoiler alerts here but suffice it to say that the writing was great and had BFF and I guessing to the end of each segment. It was an immediate standing ovation. I’m highly recommending this if you can stlll get tickets.
Do you have a preferred detective? Fictional or otherwise?
I see that the Badlands Opera Project, our local opera company, is putting on Amahl and the Night Visitors again this December. They staged it last year, with our church choir director and her 12 year old daughter as Amahl’s mother and Amahl. Both have wonderful voices. This year’s production will have a different Amahl and mother, this time a mom and son duo.
All the singers are local, except for the guy who sings the part of the tallest King with the deepest voice. He sings that part and other low, cameo roles such as Zarastro from The Magic Flute, all over the county. I am not sure where he is from, but he isn’t from ND. Imagine having a specialty voice like that. He’ll be back for this year’s production. I guess he really liked singing with our local company.
If I could magically have a voice other than the low alto voice I have, I would want to be a belter like Patti Lupone in Anything Goes. Of course I would also have to be able to dance, which would be a problem, I’m afraid. Oh well, I suppose I could magically make myself a dancer, too.
If you could magically get an operatc or musical theater voice, what roles would you want to perform?
Trail Baboon 