Category Archives: Weather

2023, home, Uncategorized, Weather, work

Wrapping Up February

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Today’s post comes from Ben.

I took the header photo last week before the snow. Daughter, dogs, and I took a ride in the gator and stopped for this photo. The dogs run halfway, then we load them in the back, and they ride the rest of the way home. Humphrey is not a jumper; I need to find a snow drift or bank so he can get in there.

The news this week is all about the snowstorm.

I spent some time getting things ready: put the gator in the shed, filled the tractor with diesel fuel, made sure the chickens had plenty of food and water. And filled the corn feeder and wall feeder so I wouldn’t have to do it during the snow. At one of the theaters, I hauled out garbage because I knew it would be easier before the snow than after.

An East wind snowstorm is always a problem. There were some deep drifts.

I didn’t hook the blower up at first because I wondered how bad it would really be. It didn’t take many steps to decide I needed the blower– there was no way I could have done it with the blade. Took a few hours, but got it done. Same as the rest of you, different equipment but we’ve all moved snow before.

The guy who drives the road grader for the county, and plows roads for our township, is on a beach in the Dominican Republic this week. Not a bad deal for him. The guy who drives the big county truck with a wing blade on each side to plow roads, he retired a month ago. Kudos to all those truck drivers filling in and keeping the roads clear.

I’ve spent a few days working on lights for a show this week. I’m climbing ladders again! Left leg, right leg, left leg, right leg… just like the old days! It’s pretty cool. Honestly, I feel 20 years younger!  And fun to be back in the saddle so to speak. Also redoing some storage rooms and an assortment of odd jobs around the theater. Busy busy busy.

I’m trying to get book work done. I meet my accountant for taxes on March 17th. Twenty years ago, I was always behind on book work, too. The snow days were good for getting book work done.

I go to a business and there’s this pillar that isn’t square to the room. I hate it.

It’s square to the entire building, but not the lobby. It makes me crazy.

One other thing I did last week was move the tank that we use to raise the baby chicks.  It normally sits behind the chicken coop, and it can get buried in snow. Last week it was out of the snow and I moved it to a trailer so when I need it this spring, it won’t be frozen down and buried.

If I’m thinking baby chicks, spring must be coming.

WERE WINTERS REALLY WORSE WHEN YOU WERE A KID?

HOW DID YOU GET TO SCHOOL?

2023, animals, Farming Update, home, Nature, pets, Seasons, Weather

Slip Slidin Away

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Today’s farm report comes from Ben

This week has seen warmer temps, snow melting, mud coming, and more daylight!

It has also seen a loss of some ducks. February 5th, we were missing Rosencrantz, one of the new ducklings from last summer. The next day, the two older black ducks were gone and there was a pile of feathers just off the pond. Next day the white poufy duck was gone. The next day three mallards were gone. And the next day, another mallard. There are only 2 left, a male and female mallard.

Shucks. It’s really kinda sad… This happened late February last year too; lost several ducks then. The pile of feathers would indicate an owl (just because it seems to happen at night). I’ve only seen a hawk attack a duck once, and that was middle of winter and the pond was iced over and the hawk had it right there. Possibly bald eagle, we have them flying around, but never seen one try to get a duck, and again, not sure they could carry it away. So, we always assume coyotes when our critters are ‘gone’. But we don’t understand: the mallards can fly! Why don’t they fly away?? Are they sleeping that hard? To lose two or three in a night, is it a pack?
There doesn’t seem to be any disturbance; Bailey isn’t raising a fuss, Humphrey isn’t trying to get out. One night, just as we went to bed, there was a fuss and Kelly went out with the flashlight and she could see some ducks flying around. I still hope those are just hanging out somewhere else for a while.

I did find another pile of feathers up the road, but that seemed to be a pigeon. I just hope these two ducks survive. Our ducks have never learned to come in at night. You may remember when they were little, the trouble we had trying to get them inside. And then once they’re older and out on their own, they just never have come in. Some stay closer to the house, and you’d think this batch would have figured that out by the second attack. I hadn’t seen the flock of wild ducks flying around lately, but then Thursday afternoon, eight of them were here. It was so interesting to watch them circle. First one came down by the other two, then two more came down. Then 3 went over by the barn and the corn I spread over there. And another with the first ducks and the last one back by the barn. “You go first!” I don’t know, but once the ducks are gone, we can only assume the predator will move on to the chickens.

I walked back to the pole barn one morning and all those pheasants that had been coming in and eating corn were back there in the barn. Sure surprised us when they came flying out, goodness.

As we’re all dealing with ice, our driveway has become an issue.

Those of you that have been here may remember how long and twisty it is just before the house. We joke it keeps the riff-raff out. It also keeps us home when the weather is bad. As we’ve all been saying, the multiple snows, some rain, some packed snow, it’s all combined to make ice on the entire driveway. A few days of sunshine and nice temps this week helped a lot, and I used the loader bucket on Monday and managed to scrape a lot of ice off. Bet you didn’t know I had a sun screen in the tractor. It was an extra.

But it was also extra slippery, and I almost got myself into trouble on one of those corners. We call it “Above the barn” and we mean it literally. There’s a good row of oak trees along the fence line, and then a 30’ drop down to the barn and cow yard. The trees are there to stop you going over. More than once I’ve been in a tractor that has slide over into the fence and trees. Once I broke the entire glass door of my Deutz tractor. Once I ripped out a fence. This time I didn’t hurt anything; just had to stop, and catch my breath, and make a game plan. Took two tries, and I was out. No issues.

The snow melting off the shed roofs either makes a frozen lump on the ground or puddles up until it comes into the shed. I’m hoping next year, after the concrete project, I’ll get some landscaping done enough to prevent this.

Sometimes the entire side of snow will slide off the roof and then I have a huge pile of snow to move. Thank goodness for tractors and loaders.

And as the ice melts, the mud isn’t necessarily better. I’d venture it’s slipperier. And I’m not sure how well zak-traks work on mud.

It’s gonna get better. Another few weeks, and it will go fast and soon we’ll be smelling the rain and seeing the grass greening up.

EVER BROKEN A WINDOW IN YOUR HOUSE? NEIGHBORS HOUSE? CAR? STORE?

2023, Family, Seasons, Uncategorized, Weather

Chopping Ice

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Our winter has been quite septic this year, with far more ice accumulation than we have ever had before. There is a 4 inch thick layer of ice on our driveway, with lesser amounts on the front stoep and sidewalks.

Since Husband hurt his wrist we are very wary of walking on the ice, and for the first time we bought a container of Ice Melt to help with ice removal. The temperatures have been in the 30’s and 40’s, and that has led to a gradual melt with refreezing at night when the temperature drops. Although it works well, I hate to use the commercial Ice Melt too much since it is mostly salt and I don’t want the salty ice that I manage to remove with the ice removal blade to get into our garden beds. That means pushing the salty ice chunks to the end of the driveway. That is very tiring.

I am the primary ice remover in the family right now, and I am really stiff and sore from the ice removal process. I think of creative and probably illegal or impractical ways of quickly getting rid of the ice when I am out there in the driveway, but I am afraid we are stuck another month of this nonsense. Bring on the Ibuprofen!

What are some creative ways you would get rid of ice, legal or otherwise? How do you manage sore muscles? What are your remedies for cabin fever?

2023, animals, Family, Farming Update, Food, pets, Uncategorized, Weather, work

Made It!

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Today’s Farming Update comes from Ben.

Should be warming up by the time you’re reading this. My mom’s mother’s birthday is February 8, 1899. (She died on February 8, 1990.) and mom always said, by her mom’s birthday you could tell spring was coming and the days are getting longer.

But boy, the wind on Thursday. Blowing out of the North and it’s COLD, yet the sunshine is so nice.

15° but there’s mud on the south side of the shed, and that’s what’s so cool about the weather. The sun sure is getting powerful as we move toward spring and April showers and it will be here before you know it.

We were at supper with friends the other night and comfort food came up. I hadn’t thought of an actual food to call comfort food and I was kinda stumped. Popcorn was a big one though. Lately I’ve been making coleslaw at home. Met a friend at the grocery store one day and he had a bag of cabbage mix in his cart, and I thought that sounded good. A little vinegar, sour cream, mayo, pinch of sugar, some salt and pepper, garlic and onion, and Kelly and I are really enjoying it. I can’t figure out why. I think it’s such a good mix of crunchy, creamy, with just a little ‘zing’ too it. Some of you that know your way around the kitchen better than us; should we replace the bay leave that’s been in our flour container since 1997??

Egg production is down a bit with these temps, but everyone is surviving. I’ve got my new hooded jacket, zak-traks for my new insulated boots, and wearing nitrile gloves under my regular gloves and were doing fine.

This cold weather has me thinking of watering calves when I was growing up. Baby calves were kept in the barn with the cows. (Which is frowned upon but now; too many germs spread from cows to the calves that the calves are not old enough to handle yet.) They were warm and I had a simple float on a bucket for their water. When they were about 3 months old, I moved them up to the other barn. They’d be about 300 pounds and boy, that was a rodeo. It’s only 50 feet from here to there, but they didn’t know where they were going, and after burning the horn buds off they were all riled up and it was all I could do to get them up there. It was uphill. Both ways. I just hung on for the ride and tried to head them in that direction. Course once in that barn, I still had to get the rope halter off them. I was younger then thank goodness.

And in this barn was an old metal water tank. 400 gallons or something. One of those galvanized oval metal tanks you’ve all seen. In the summer it was outside with a hose and a float to keep it full of water. In the winter, it was inside. Dad didn’t believe in electric waterers nor was there an outlet in the barn and the calves would have gotten into it and that would be a whole big thing.

Sometimes I would use a hose to fill the tank. And then drain the hose and it hang inside the feed room door, so it was on the warm barn side. But if I didn’t want to use the hose, I used 5 gallon buckets. Carrying those buckets of water built muscle and character. Carrying 2 did it even faster. Remember it was uphill. Depending on the weather, it might take 4 or 6 buckets to fill it. When it was this cold it all froze solid except maybe a depression in the middle so it would only hold 5 gallons. Eventually I’d have to knock out the ice to make more room. The calves, like any outdoor animal, is fine in the cold as long as they can get out of the wind, and they have enough food and water to keep their energy up. When it got to the point they couldn’t drink I could bang on the outside using the backside of an old axe, then chop out a bunch inside, then pound some more on the outside. Mind you, eventually I’d cut a hole in the metal. Sooner if I forgot to turn the axe around. Then it held less water…

As the weather got warmer, eventually Id be able to get the water tank out of the frozen manure, and flipped over all ALL the ice knocked out of it and those ice chunks would last a long time.

So now in winter I haul water in 8 quart buckets to the chickens. It’s downhill all the way to their pen. And a longer walk of 150 feet. (summer we use a hose and multiple buckets) I can carry two buckets in one hand, and corn and water in the other. I have strong fingers. Maybe from all those 5 gallon buckets?

Chickens don’t like bread crust either. But they didn’t eat the cantaloupe, which is weird. We’ve always said we have fussy chickens.

I’ve mentioned we have electric heat. When its below zero, it might cost us $12 / day and I have to think, how much is heat worth to me? Do I want to be cold or do I want to pay the $12.

Good thing this cold spell didn’t last too long.

What Is your favorite cabbage recipe? What is the longest cold spell you remember? What is your ice removal strategy? What do you do with old spices?

2023, animals, History, Nature, Uncategorized, Weather

Keeping Warm

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There have been some pretty cold temperatures this winter. I have a heavy, down coat I only wear if it is colder than -20, and a lighter but warm Columbia jacket with a lining that I wear most of the winter. Sweaters help.

I am the happy owner of three Norwegian wool sweaters, a really warm wool sweater daughter got for me in Iceland, and a thick, cable knit Irish wool sweater I got in Dublin. They all keep me nicely warm.

I went to graduate school Winnipeg, and lived there through six winters. Although I was used to cold Fargo temperatures, the winters in Winnipeg were much colder. The main reason for Winnipeg’s existence was the fur trade, and as an animal lover, it was disconcerting to go to what was known as The Exchange District and see all the stores selling fur coats and fur pelts, retail and wholesale. I could never in good conscience wear a fur coat. Wool and down keep me warm enough.

The only person I knew in Winnipeg who owned a fur coat was Vuyo, a fellow graduate student who was a refugee from South Africa. This was before the end of Apartheid. Her husband was a freedom fighter who had been killed by the South African security forces, and she had fled to Lesotho with her children and somehow ended up in one of the coldest cities in Canada. Her father was an Anglican priest, and she knew Desmond Tutu very well. She had a beautiful leopard coat she got from a friend in London, England. The friend was verbally harassed in the London streets for wearing fur, so she gave Vuyo the coat. Vuyo wore that coat without a shred of guilt, as it kept her very warm in that very cold place. She had a far different attitude about animals and their utility for humans than the rest of us did.

What is your strategy for keeping warm in the winter? What are your favorite kinds of sweaters? Have you ever known anyone who had a fur coat?

2023, animals, History, home, pets, Uncategorized, Weather

Pet Guilt

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Husband is an oldest son with younger siblings, and is a real caretaker. This extends to a sense of duty that he has toward our pets. He is currently feeling very guilty because he can’t give our dog the three walks a day that he has become accustomed to. Husband just doesn’t think that vigorous indoor play is sufficient. The problem is that there is so much treacherous ice coating the sidewalks that it isn’t safe for him to walk the dog right now. He cracked his wrist last Friday by falling on the ice while walking the dog.

Kyrill is very spoiled, in terms of the dog treats he gets and the attention that he is paid, by both me and Husband. Husband carefully reads the ingredients of the treats we buy, and we seem to make weekly trips to Runnings and the pet store in search of just the the right chews and toys. I don’t remember Husband spoiling our children like this, although he was always playing with them and keeping them busy.

Husband decided to brave the ice last night and try to walk the dog. He made it half way down to block and came back home as he was afraid of falling. I am afraid that there will be terrible ice for some time, as there is tons of snow, and as the weather warms during the day it is just going to melt and then refreeze into more ice.

I heard from a friend yesterday that the city street department has sixteen vacant positions that no one will take due to a reportedly toxic work environment. I don’t foresee the city stepping up to remove the snow and ice, so Husband is going to have to deal with his pet guilt for many weeks.

How does guilt factor in how you deal with your pets? How well does your municipal government function? What are the best and worst city governments you have dealt with?

2023, animals, Business, Farming Update, Food, Nature, pets, Seasons, Weather

Leaving Off January

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The weekend Farm Report comes to us from Ben.

It was nice to see the Sun on Monday for a while. Feels like that was a month ago. Then Thursday it was sunny for a while. Maybe some sun coming…along with the cold. Man, February, I’m telling ya.
It was nice to see the Sun on Monday for a while. Feels like that was a month ago. Then Thursday it was sunny for a while. Maybe some sun coming…along with the cold. Man, February, I’m telling ya.

I signed a contract for concrete this summer. I’m excited about that and looking forward to it. It’s going to be really nice. I also plan to get new electrical service run to the shed instead of the rube Goldberg way it gets there now. (Thank you Dad) And then next year will be insulation and walls. But it’s gonna be nice.

I meant to start writing this well before I did. I went to get something, and I got distracted vacuuming the entry way and mudroom. That area is always dirty. Between the dogs’ wet feet and me and my boots bringing in bits of straw and chicken manure, plus dirt, and gravel (That’s why it’s the mudroom). Doesn’t help that our 15-year-old dog Allie is suffering incontinence and often pees down there. Good thing it’s tile and in floor heat. We’ve tried the doggy diapers; can anyone make them stay on??  We can’t. Put it on, turn around, it’s off. Maybe it’s the shape of the dog.

Anyway, after vacuuming the entryway, I realized I should vacuum the basement steps. I know I’ve vacuumed them once or twice before, but it’s been a while. Plugged it up with a big chunk of something and pulled out a LOT of dog hair. And that led me to vacuum the bathroom downstairs. I don’t ever recall vacuuming in there although someone must have at some point, and then it was full and I had to dump it out again after I was done. Then I had to mix up the next step of the Amish Friendship bread batter, and in a round-about way I finally got around to writing this.

Wednesday, I needed chicken layer ration and I drove to Stewartville to pick up it up. Stewartville is about 10 miles south of Rochester. Back when I was milking cows, it was almost a weekly thing to pick up bags of something for the cows. Protein supplements, soybean meal, trace minerals, salt, mineral barrels, something; and it was all in 50-pound bags and I loaded and unloaded many many tons of bags by hand over the years. So, when I called Elgin Elevator to order the layer ration and they told me they don’t carry bagged feed anymore, well, I was filled with dysphoria. When I was a kid, I’d go there with Dad to pick up feed. It probably had a few other names, and I recall picking up feed in Viola MN, and Zumbro Falls MN, but usually it was Elgin. There was a merger last year and I can only assume that’s why they’re not carrying bagged feed anymore. Or perhaps it’s so many people moving to bulk products instead of bags. And that’s how I ended up in Stewartville getting a ton of layer ration.

It’s so easy these days- they put it in the truck with a folk lift, and I use the tractor and forks to take it off the truck and put it in the shed. ‘Work smarter not harder’ they say. But it’s hard to build muscles that way, the weaklings.

I did get to drive some nice roads that I don’t often get on. Drove past Fugles Mill, over the Root River, and past the Root River Park. But getting around or through Rochester is such a hassle. (I know, try Minneapolis you say).

It was fun to meet Krista and Pippin and move some eggs. 36 dozen so far in January!

With the cold weather coming in I’ll have the wellhouse heater on for the next week and will be trying to collect eggs before they freeze and crack.

Doing chores the other day and I had a bit of a traffic jam.

Didn’t get a chance to watch any movies this week. Kelly and I are trying to watch an episode or two of ‘Orange is the New Black’ every night.

Music has been a random assortment of my phone playlist, Radio Heartland, the XM 1940’s station, or ModernBigBand on the Jazz channel. Although on the drive to Stewartville my playlist was various songs by the band YES. Roundabout, South Side of the Sky, Yours is No Disgrace, I’ve Seen All Good People. It was nice. Course I had the dogs with me. Humphrey just lays in the back seat. Bailey spent the first half of the trip with her nose in my ear, and the second half in the front seat staring at me.

One thing I forgot when using the snow blower last week; I forgot about how blown snow lands and packs harder than falling snow. Here’s me digging out one door with a garden trowel I had in the gator –

There was another door I was going to leave for Kelly, but I found a shovel and dug that one out and got it open. Yep; forgot that part.

Bundle up for a while now and be careful out there.

Traffic roundabouts. What about them?

2023, animals, Automotive, Family, Farming Update, Nature, Seasons, Weather

Another Week, Another Snowstorm

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The weekend Farm Report comes to us from Ben.

We got a good 6 to 8 inches Wednesday night into Thursday. They were predicting that, so I unhooked the rear blade and hooked the snowblower on the tractor on Tuesday. I hadn’t used the blower this year, so I had to put the hydraulic cylinder on it to rotate the spout, check the oil, grease the power takeoff shaft, and I was fairly impressed with myself that I could get in amongst the linkage and frame and get the power takeoff shift connected to the tractor. I would not have been able to do that last summer. BULLY FOR ME!  

It was kind of fun to blow snow again, I do things a little different with the blower than I do with the blade and it’s just been the last few years that I started using a blade for snow, so the skills for this came back pretty quick. I remembered it would be slower, but I forgot how much it makes my neck hurt because I’m looking over my right shoulder to do it. The seat swivels a bit, and I sit as sideways as I can, but it’s still looking over my shoulder. My next tractor will have heated mirrors so they stay clean. Or maybe my next tractor will have a blower on the front!

Kelly took some video of me, and I put my first video on YouTube.

One day I had to stop at Fleet Farm as I was looking for insulated winter boots. I found them over in the ice fishing section. You all know I’m not much of a sportsman so I don’t think I’ve ever walked through that area before. It was a little bit fascinating!

I found some boots; they’re keeping my feet much warmer than the plain rubber boots I had been wearing.

Then I went to Menards and walked around there for a while. After that, I had a meeting on the far end of the college campus, and by the time I got home I was pooped out. Nothing hurt! Just pooped out.

Kelly counted 17 pheasants in the yard one morning. The most we’ve ever had, and I love seeing them. I have one neighbor that always asks if he can pheasant hunt and I always tell him no.

My chickens from last spring are just coming into their peak. It’s not unusual to get 16 or 20 eggs a day lately. If anybody was up for a road trip again for eggs, this would be a good time. Although we should wait for the driveway to get better than glare ice.

After that rain we got on Monday, our yard and driveway became pretty slick. It’s been packed snow all winter, not thick, just a half-inch maybe, but that’s what rain does to it. I went to a meeting Monday night. I was impressed that I was even able to get out. Years of practice I told Kelly. After I got home, I used the loader and tried to scrape the ice on the hills and corners on the driveway. It didn’t do much, but it did rough it up a bit and that helps.

I went out to do chores while it was raining on Monday, I tried Kelly‘s yak traks, but they didn’t fit my boots, and I lost them on about the third step. Again, I’ve been doing this for years, I know how to aim for the gravel or bare ground or walk through the snow. Once I got to the feed room, I threw out a bunch of corn, and that gives some traction. Then I carried a bucket with me and scattered corn in front of me to make a path to walk on. A win for the crows and chickens and ducks, and a win for me.

I remember an old movie called Angel In My Pocket, Andy Griffith and a host of character actors that you would recognize. It came out in 1969, and a gentleman playing the church caretaker, Parker Fennelly, reminds me of my grandfather Hain. That was the only movie I was able to watch this week. I couldn’t find it online anywhere so I ordered the movie off eBay and it came from Australia. Spent a week in customs in Chicago. It a long way for some entertainment, but I really enjoy this movie and it makes me think of Grandpa.

I was filling the birdfeeders one day, and I love the fact that the chickadees don’t even wait for me to finish, and they don’t appear to be very scared. I was standing right there filling things and they just come and sit on the birdfeeder.

And here’s Humphrey breaking the corn cob into bits.  PHOTOS

Do you, or did your family do home movies?

100 Words, 2023, home, Kids, Mysteries, Nature, Seasons, Weather

Destined to Fail?

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I looked out my bathroom window yesterday to see the scene in the photo above of my neighbor’s house to the north.

Based on having been a homeowner myself for 40+ years, I’m guessing Brian tried to knock down some icicles.   

Now YA and I have a pool going to see how long it takes for the balls to return to earth.  I say four days; YA says two.

Any projects that with hindsight just weren’t going to work out well?

2022, Family, home, Nature, Seasons, Uncategorized, Weather

The Weather Outside….

44 Comments

Yesterday while it was still snowing, my neighbor to the north got his snowblower out and worked on his driveway.   A couple of hours later YA headed out with a shovel to do the steps and back sidewalk.  Across the street my neighbors were struggling to get their snowblower going.  One neighbor to the south was out doing her steps as well.

Me?  I’m sitting inside in sweatpants and fat socks, watching tv and sipping my beverage.  For some reason I have always been and “wait until it’s over” kind of person.  I would rather do 8” once than 4” twice. 

And this works out rather well for me most of the time.  For example, as I type this, my other neighbor to the south is currently doing OUR driveway (for which he will be rewarded generously with homemade cookies).  My neighbor to the north did our front sidewalk when he was out (cookies for him as well).  So by the time this ends and I finally venture out, I’ll have less to deal with!

How do you like to deal with winter’s excess?