Category Archives: work

2024, Farming Update, Theatre, Uncategorized, work

Oh, And One More Thing

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Today’s Farming Update comes from Ben

I got a lot done this past week. Last Saturday I finally got the snowfence up. You know, I can’t figure out why 100’ this year, doesn’t fit the same posts as 100’ did last year? Which didn’t match the posts from the year before that! Sometimes I think I’d like to put wood posts at the ends of the sections, but seriously, it never lines up the same way two years in a row and I just don’t get it. We put in 500’ this year. Plus, another twenty feet in a different location that can drift. I guess I am expecting it to snow this year.

Sunday, I moved a bunch of equipment around; I got the lawnmower cleaned up and put away (I used it to mow a path for the snow fence. It wouldn’t work when I tried a month ago, because the grass was too green and wet. But now it was all brown and dried out and cut much better). Moved the scrap metal tote inside the shed, and stuff like that. And then I finally built a little door for the chickens, so I don’t have to leave the big door open six inches for them. Ready for winter!

On Monday, the contractor showed up and started tearing out trees and reshaping a waterway. It’s not the best timing for dirt work, but by spring either I’m gonna have the gully in the field where it’s been running, or in the waterway where it’s supposed to be. To fix it, they had to tear out a LOT of trees. Tree’s that have come up in the last 60 years. Which meant the area didn’t drain properly. It looks a lot different.

Before :

After:

There is one GINOURMOUS brush pile!

This photo doesn’t give you any perspective. It’s HUGE This whole project came about when I hired the contractor to bury the ash from an area where I’ve been having brush piles for years and years. And then I asked if he could reshape the waterway, which turned into tearing out trees IN ORDER to redo the waterway.

And I finished the steel inside the shop. It turned out really well. I have a few details to finish yet, and the outside steel, and the electrician will have a lot of work to do, but it really is a functional shop area. I don’t often think about if my Dad would like whatever it is I’m doing. But the shop and the waterway, I really think he would approve of those things. Friday night Padawan, still in shorts, was able to put his car into the shop to work on it. I’m kinda glad I can offer him a place like this. I have been spying on them with the shop camera. My goodness, two teenage boys can be so annoying to be around.

I’m beginning to clean up the shop area. I don’t need the scaffolding anymore, and I need the room, so I dragged that outside and disassembled it. PHOTO

Holiday concerts at the college this week too.

Pretty soon I can get the 40’s station back on my car radio. The one they take off in November to play TWO MONTHS of Christmas music. Bah.

PICK A HISTORICAL FIGURE TO BE ANNOYING WITH. WHAT ARE YOU TWO UP TO?

2024, Health, Uncategorized, work

Peer Support

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I was on my way to work the other day, driving behind a small, blue, rather dented up vehicle that was driving way too fast and was tail gaiting the slower vehicle in front of it. The blue car and I both turned into my work parking lot, and I saw that the driver was one of our Peer Support specialists.

Peer Support specialists have two qualifications to be hired at my agency-they need to be high school graduates, and they need to have successfully overcome their own addictions and mental health issues. They work directly with our clients, providing support, sobriety tips, and rides to appointments. They visit clients in jail, accompany them to court, and give them sage advice. The Peer support specialists are very proud of themselves, and it is kind of funny to hear them announce at staff meetings the good news that their felonies have been expunged from their records.

I was thinking the other day that Baboons could provide quite wonderful peer support in helping others with a myriad of skills. Gardening, cooking, writing, home repair, art projects, pet care-we could help novices and those struggling with learning how to do new and unfamiliar things. We are a talented and kind bunch.

Who are some of the natural helpers you have encountered? What would you like to help people with? Who have been your biggest supports?

2024, home, Uncategorized, work

The Good Plumber

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Monday night we noticed that the kitchen faucet was listing drunkenly to one side. It was an all in one, pull down faucet we had installed about 20 years ago. Something that stabilized the faucet rotted away under the granite counter. The faucet still worked, and there were no leaks, but it needed replacement, so on Tuesday I phoned Daryl.

Daryl is a plumber who has helped us out for 30 years. He really loves being a plumber. He is retired now and has handed his very successful business to his son. Daryl works for his son part time. We have Daryl’s personal cell phone number. I phoned him. Daryl met me at home Tuesday afternoon and told me the kind of new faucet to get. We bought one at Ace Hardware Tuesday night, and Daryl came over on Wednesday afternoon to install it. It is beautiful and works like a charm. You can see it in the header photo.

There are some other minor plumbing things we need done, such as replacing the mixer in the main bathroom shower. That was installed by Daryl about 15 years ago. While he was at the house Tuesday I showed Daryl the shower problem and he asked if we had kept the manual and UPC from the box the mixer came in. I had it, and, sure enough, there was the UPC, cut out and stapled to the manual by Daryl when he installed it. He gave me detailed instructions as to what internal mechanisms to order, and to let him know when I got the parts so he could install them. He has lots of tips to get these companies to honor their warranties, too, as he wants to save us money.

It is so refreshing and hope-instilling to run across people like Daryl who do their best and love what they do. After this I think our plumbing needs will be met until we move., but it is reassuring to know I can phone Daryl in an emergency.

Who would you phone in an emergency? Who are the Daryl’s in your life?

2024, Family, Uncategorized, work

Well, That Explains It!

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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?

2024, animals, Family, Farming Update, Uncategorized, work

Heatin’ Up

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Today’s Farming Update comes from Ben.

It’s that time of year that the butter in the kitchen is hard. I haven’t turned the heat on yet, even though we did have a hard frost earlier in the week. 21° at our house. I had pulled a few plants into the garage, unhooked the hoses, and I have the pressure washer in the feed room with a bucket over it, which is good enough for now. Starting to think about what needs to be picked up and moved before we take the next drastic turn into winter. But I’m not gonna talk about that. Yet.

Got the soybeans out on Saturday.

The yield was a little below average which is what most guys were saying. And the prices are down to so that’s not helpful. Remember, prices are all based on the Chicago Board Of trade (CBOT) and then the local elevator subtracts an amount called the “basis“ to cover their costs like shipping and operational expenses, which gives me the local price. Every morning at 6AM, I get an email from DTN (I don’t know what that stands for) and the subject line at least tells me if corn is up or down for the day. Most of the time that’s all I need to know because I don’t market my grain throughout the year, other than maybe a few thousand bushels that I might hold onto until March or June (depending on the yield, the price, and if I can pay all my fall bills)

I think all farmers are using operating loans of some sort for all the spring inputs, and some of those are due in December, so I just sell everything right away. Typically harvest time is when the price is lowest, but if I store grain at the elevator I have to pay for storage. I don’t have bins at home and if I did, I’d still have to dry it, keep it in condition, and ship it, so there are always expenses. The best local price is hauling it to the river. Around here a lot of guys deliver to Winona or ethanol plants but they’re talking of hundreds of thousands of bushels.  Even if the price went up a dollar, my 5000 bushels, that difference, isn’t gonna make or break me. It’s hard to justify storage and the time it takes to make a difference. And that’s why I sell everything in the fall.
Remember, every farm is different, and everybody does it their own way. Farmers may not have a lot of cash, but we have good credit ratings!

So- corn on Friday was $4.06 on the CBOT, and soybeans rallied $.20 to $9.88, they were down yesterday because it rained in Brazil. Remember it’s a global market.
At the local elevator, the basis on corn is $.43, the basis on soybeans is $.65, meaning the local price is about $3.65 for corn and $9.25 for soybeans. Soybeans in November 2025 are priced at $10.32. I could contract some soybeans for a year out and make a dollar more, however even this year I had less than 2000 bushels so it’s really not that much money. And If I don’t produce enough to cover what I contract, I have to make up the difference. I always say, a few more zeros on both sides of the equation and we’re talking real money! There is a lot more to marketing that I don’t know.

I have a heater in the shop! We had to do some redneck engineering to move a pallet rack, and Kelly and I had to coordinate hand signals for part of it. No one yelled, and we got it moved. Only once did she have to give me a hand signal of her own…


The thermostat isn’t hooked up so it’s kind of hotwired, and it’s powered by an extension cord hanging off the wall at this point, but I have a heater in the shop!

Still got the four ducks. And they can all fly!  

DO YOU TALK WITH YOUR HANDS?

GOT ANY HAND SIGNALS

2024, Uncategorized, work

Don’t Be So Bossy!

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Today is Bosses Day. I have been quite lucky in my work having, for the most part, good bosses who did their best to protect us and make our psychology department as functional as it could be. That isn’t an easy thing to do in State government. Over the years we had some upper level administrators and directors who weren’t so great, and who were eventually walked out of the building in the middle of the day by State HR people from Bismarck and told not to return. That was sure something to see! I also always have got along better with male rather than female bosses. I am not certain why that is. (Probably something to do with my relationship with my somewhat overcontrolling mother!!)

I don’t remember an official boss when I worked as a corn detasseler for Dekalb when I was in high school, just middle aged women who detasseled with us and yelled at us if we worked too slowly. My first real psychology job was at the local hospital. My immediate supervisor was a great guy, but the CEO of the hospital was a heavy drinker who liked to party with the nurses in local bars. That wasn’t exactly the image that the board of directors wanted for a Catholic Hospital. He was eventually replaced.

There used to be six psychologists in our department. Now I am the only one left. I am supervised by the psychology supervisor at the Human Service Center in Bismarck. We only meet via the internet once a month. I never wanted to be a boss or a supervisor. I just do my own thing here and try to keep up my productivity and follow the rules without having anyone looking over my shoulder.

Who were your best and worst bosses? Were you ever a boss? Who was the bossiest person you ever knew?

2024, animals, Farming Update, Theatre, Uncategorized, work

Life

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Today’s Farming Update comes from Ben.

It sure does get dark early. By the time I get home from work, change clothes, and talk with Kelly a bit, it’s dusk. And it’s only going to get worse for a while yet, and I’ll be OK with that once it’s cold and “winter”, but I got too much going on right now. The world goes round, and the seasons change, and it’s OK. Even the roadside vegetable stands have all closed and that’s kinda sad. It seems to happen so fast!

I really do love fall and wrapping up the seasons. The harvest and the fieldwork and completing that circle, it all just feels right. My friend Diane and I have always talked about how we get that urge to ‘pack up’ and suddenly we’re all about organizing. Cleaned off my home office desk one day, and then at the college, I took some pillows up the prop room and spent an hour packing up greenery and organizing.

Some of you have an ‘Arts and Crap’ room, I have props. It’s kind of a disaster. In theater lingo, a ‘prop’ is something the actor handles, versus the set or furniture. If you think about it, you can imagine all the stuff a theater might have for ‘props’. Anna or Catherine might have stories about props and props people. But here, I just tell the kids to try and get it somewhere near something else that looks like it. But they don’t care, and once you go down that road, you’re headed for disaster. I’ve had several people offer to clean it up. Maybe they chicken out once they look at it. ANYWAY, I cleaned up a corner and that’s a start. A few more corners to go. One day at a time.

At home, I was supposed to get the shop heater on Thursday, but it got postponed to Tuesday. And I need to move some stuff so they can work in there. Meaning once again, half the crap is moved to another place, and I was just getting so I could find it now. The pallet rack is the biggest deal. I’m taking half of it apart and maybe I can drag the other half out of the way.

I got a lot of other stuff done. Got new hydraulic hoses for the tractor loader, and since I replaced all the rest last summer, they are all new now and good for another 20 years unless I break one.

Got some hydraulic hoses off the chisel plow and took them to John Deere. They make all the hoses as needed. It was busy at the parts counter, so I told them I’d come back on Saturday to pick those up. There are two women at the parts counter now, Belinda (Or ‘B’ as I realized they call her). I don’t know the other woman; I haven’t worked with her much. But Belinda is fun.

I also got the 630 running again so I could move that. (Had pinched a wire going to the starter and created a ‘dead short’ and had smoke coming from under the dash. Accidently let out some magic black smoke but I was able to get it back in). it’s not running well, and it needs further investigation, but at least it’s running.

I took the carburator off the ‘4-wheeler’ and cleaned it and put it back on and it ran for 100 yards, and then I limped it back to the shed and pushed it out of the way. Will come back to that later. But I’m getting good at taking the carburator off.

Sounds like my neighbors will get my soybeans out this weekend. Good to have that done, and sure glad the weather has been holding.

I’ve been listening to Kris Kristofferson this week. He wrote so many songs you know, but you’re not used to him singing them. What a talent he was.

It’s fun to hear other versions of familiar songs. These are not by Kris, butTennessee Stud or Don’t think Twice, it’s alright are two that come to mind that have multiple covers.

On the duck front, we’re down to four. Went from 22 to 11 to 8 and now 4.

The world just keeps going around.

WHAT CYCLES DO YOU HAVE IN YOUR LIFE?

2024, animals, Family, Farming Update, Nature, pets, Uncategorized, work

Progress

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Today’s Farming Update comes from Ben.

I took a few days to work at home this week.

I got a lot of work done on my shop wall. It’s basically all framed up. I need a few more boards and a lot of finishing bits, but it’s getting there. I’ve purchased insulation to install myself, the LP tank has been installed, waiting on the heater and the big garage door to be installed, and the steel siding has been ordered. Going for gray on this wall. Might make it before winter yet.

I sure do appreciate my friend at Red’s Electric letting me use his lift. This would have all been much MUCH harder without.

I sure have been dropping things and knocking things over with working on this. Good thing I’m working alone; I wouldn’t want to be around me the way it’s been going. And there’s barely room for me in the lift. Cause you know, I need all the tools.

Saturday will be adoption day for Luna. And back in 2007, it was about the same time of year we acquired Allie.


Last weekend I burned a brush pile. I need to dig the metal out of it and then I’ll have the ash pile buried after that.

It was time for a new ‘everyday-in-town’ hat. Not so dirty to be a farm hat, and cleaner than the farming hat, but dirtier than my ‘going-to-church’ hat. This is a hat I got for free at the theater conference USITT. It’s a seating company that I won’t be able to afford anyway.

I lost half the ducks last week. Friday afternoon I counted 22 ducks. Saturday morning I saw something white laying down by the barn. It was a dead duck. And there was another. And another. I picked up 6 carcasses. Four outside and two in their pen. And we have 11 ducks remaining. We’re pretty sure it was a weasel as there was a bite mark on the back of their heads. I have found some piles of feathers out in the fields. The dogs never reacted, and I never heard a fuss, so I’m not sure what happen. But it’s very discouraging.

The mallard ducks have discovered they can fly. And if you think about it, how would you know you COULD fly, if no one told you or showed you? You’d have to figure it out by accident. Maybe instinct, but again, no examples… so… what will they do?

I often listen to a 1940’s station and one of the things I enjoy are the songs you don’t hear anywhere else. I heard Hogie Carmichael singing ‘Huggin’ and Chalkin’. It’s considered a novelty song.

“I gotta gal who’s mighty sweet

With blue eyes and tiny feet

Her name is Rosabelle Magee

And she tips the scale at three o three

Oh gee, but ain’t it grand to have a girl so big and fat that when you go to hug her

You don’t know where you’re at

You have to take a piece of chalk in your hand

And hug a way and chalk a mark to see where you began”

….

….

One day I was a huggin’ and a chalkin’ and a beggin’ her to be my bride

When I met another fella with some chalk in his hand

A comin’ around the other side of the mountain

A comin’ around the other side

Oh my gosh.

HOW DID YOU LEARN TO LIGHT PAPER MATCHS?

WHO WAS RESPONSILE FOR TEACHING YOU BAD HABITS?

2024, Family, Travel, Uncategorized, work

Big Wind

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Monday we drove to Bismarck to meet with the State Retirement people. That went well. My official last day of work is 01/31/2025. I had lots of questions answered and was very relieved when we left the office.

The day was utterly stressful and overwhelming, however, because of the wind. I drove. We travelled east to Bismarck with a full tank of gas and a steady 36 mph northwest wind with 49 mph gusts at our back. We used very little gas on the 90 miles to Bismarck. The indicator was still on full when we arrived. We ran several errands after the Retirement appointment, always making sure the wind didn’t take the vehicle doors and rip them off, and struggling in and out of stores. The air was full of dust that was being blown around. It was a cold wind. Sunday the temperature was 95. Monday it barely reached 61. When those big temperature swings happen, the wind always starts up.

The drive back home was the worst. Passing on the interstate was really tricky because the northwest wind blew vehicles toward me in the passing lane as I tried to get around them. There seemed to be a large contingent of rackety campers and motor homes, all high profile vehicles, traveling west, all going way too slow and needing to be passed, all swerving into the passing lane. The wind was so loud we couldn’t hear the radio playing, I was so tense when I got home I could hardly move. We used half a tank of gas going west into the wind. I know there is wind in Minnesota, but I don’t think it ever gets as bad as we had here on Monday.

What is your favorite music, poems, or literature about the wind? Favorite wind band music? What is the worst wind you have had to travel in? Ever had to drive a “High Profile” vehicle in the wind?

2024, education, Family, Uncategorized, work

Continuing Education

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In order for me and Husband to maintain our licenses to practice psychology in ND, we need to complete 40 hours of approved continuing education every two years. At least twenty of the hours must be from live presentations (which can be accessed either in-person or on-line). At least three must be on ethics. This is pretty standard for most licensed mental health professions.

We needed to have our 40 hours completed by this October 31. I started out September with only 12 hours, so I had to scramble to get the rest completed. It wouldn’t look too good if the president of the licensing board didn’t have her hours done on time. I spent time doing some on-line trainings, and spent most of last week in Bismarck at a conference that got me to a whopping 51 hours for the biennium. Husband was ahead of me in terms of hours, and completed his final three hours in an ethics workshop last week.

This is probably the last time we need to complete the continuing education requirements for licensure, since we plan to be fully retired two years from now, and have no intention of remaining licensed after we move to Minnesota. Husband commented that now we can do whatever trainings we want, whether in psychology or other topics, and this made me wonder what I want to continue to learn about. I want to learn to speak German. i want to delve more into my family history and the history of Ostfriesland. This could be really fun. I might want to learn more about the history of psychology, but we will see about that.

What are you learning about now? Did you have to attend required trainings for your job? If so, what were the best and the worst?