We stopped in to see our son and his family in Brookings, SD on Saturday on our way back from Wisconsin. Son loves to cook, and had a great meal planned for Sunday night, but asked me to make mashed potatoes. I obliged, and after I got the potatoes peeled and on the stove I started to clean up after myself.
No one told me that the garbage disposal doesn’t work very well, and that son never puts potato peelings down it. It clogged up, and the grinders seemed stuck and wouldn’t turn, either. Son said that he put a bunch of coffee grounds and egg shells down the disposal earlier that morning, and blamed himself, not me, for the problem. He said he knew that he shouldn’t have put those down the disposal.
Son and I tried our best to fix things. Son tried using the plunger to loosen whatever was jammed in the grinders. We also used a shop vac to suck any debris out. I figured out we needed a 1/4 inch Allen wrench to stick in the bottom of the disposal under the sink to loosen the internal grinder blades, After multiple treatments, we actually got it to loosen up and keep running. Then, for some odd reason, the dishwasher automatically started and began discharging water in the disposal and filling the sink twice with water full of potato peels and coffee grounds.
The dishwasher is programmed to turn on if it senses water collecting in the bottom. Our efforts to get the disposal running had apparently caused the water we poured into the disposal to back up into the dishwasher. A special code kept appearing on the dishwasher electronic display indicating that it was trying to rid itself of excess water. We couldn’t see any excess water in the dishwasher. The dishwasher was our of commission. At least the sinkswere cleared and the disposal worked.
Son called a real plumber who came out the next day and who cleared out any peels and grounds clogging the dishwasher. It still flashed the special code. The plumber said it was an electrical programing issue, and to call the appliance store to send out a technician. That person will arrive next Monday. I told our son to order a better garbage disposal, and that I will pay for it.
What activities did you like doing with your parents?Ever considered being a plumber or electrician?
We took a long weekend last week. Daughter has been saying we needed to take a vacation, and we fully agreed with her. But May through July is Kelly’s busiest time, and of course spring is bad for me, and, well, we can always come up with an excuse NOT to go somewhere. Spur of the moment, we decided, let’s just take a weekend. We asked daughter what she thought we should do; I mean are we renting a cabin on a lake or are we going to a hotel. Well, she wanted swimming, and rides at Mall of America. OK, sounds like we do the Embassy Suites, which has been a family favorite over the few years because they do complimentary breakfast really well. They set the standard for hotel breakfasts! Fruit, yogurt, Sausages, bacon, eggs (not as good as ours of course), hashbrowns, bagels, made to order omelets, cereal, drinks: milk, juice, coffee.
We got there late evening Thursday and had supper at the hotel restaurant. Friday we all slept in and took naps and didn’t leave the room until 3:00 PM. Over to “THE” mall and had lunch, then walked around a bit and bought some ride tickets. We waited in line for an hour so we could all do the log flume ride. Because there was some bad weather in the area, the rides were going at half capacity, so the wait was longer than it should have been. Boy, if we didn’t get covid waiting in that line. Then daughter and I did a crazy spinning loop de loop roller coaster and I think I learned I might be too old for those rides. Woo boy. A couple times I had to just put my head back and close my eyes and I’d think, “DON’T CLOSE YOUR EYES!” There was a young boy about 8 years old who was on the ride with us; he said he had two little sisters and mom had to stay with them. After the first spinning loop he said “That was unexpected!” Yep, sure was! When it was over, I told him I had no idea what had happened in the last 40 seconds.
Even daughter, who’s a daredevil, was a little shook up after that. We all went to the Ferris wheel from there. And then Daughter and I went on our favorite roller coaster from 10 years ago; the one that goes straight up, then straight down. And upside down and right side down and over this way and around and back upside that way. Aye aye aye. Whew. That was easier last time I did that. Kelly and daughter did the carousel and we decided that was enough. I saw a sign that read, ‘Barking Lot stroller parking’, and I thought it said ‘Barfing lot’ which I thought was really appropriate.
I bought the 30 point arm bands, but no one put them on our arms, so I’d just show them to the ride operator. The first ride scanned them all. The second person was talking and looking away and only scanned one, and the third ride just put us on without even scanning the tickets. We gave them to a young couple and told them to have fun.
Daughter also wanted Red Robin for supper. We don’t have one of them in Rochester. At some point in her brief past, she had a shake at a Red Robin she really liked and wanted another. Supper was really good there and my vanilla malt was yummy. I don’t know about hers.
Saturday, we got the swimming in and had the pool to ourselves for an hour. We saw the Barbie movie, (and got a free icy drink), and had supper at Giordano’s pizza with a hostess named Joy who was super helpful and sent us back to the hotel with plates, drinks, and plastic ware.
Sunday, we stopped to see our son and daughter in law. When we got home, the dogs were glad to see us, (our neighbors took care of the dogs and chickens while we were gone) and Humphrey just had to stay outside for a couple nights. Once in the house, he had a big drink of soft water, and slept for several hours on his pillow.
Everyone survived on the farm, and Monday morning, daughter said she wasn’t ready to go back to her program. None of us are kid, none of us are.
We called this our ‘practice vacation’ to remember what works and what doesn’t when travelling together.
The soybeans are looking good, you know, for 6 weeks behind. They’ve finally started to canopy and, to add insult to injury, the weeds are coming too. A few buttonweed, lambsquarter, and ragweed are towering over the soybeans. Plus, a lot of volunteer corn. Which doesn’t really hurt anything, it just looks bad in a nice field of soybeans.
I started working on the shop again and started getting 2×4’s put on the walls and removed from the work bench an old radial arm saw that I haven’t used in I-don’t-know-how-many years. Back on Amazon Prime day I ordered one of those 360 degree green laser levels. It is pretty cool!
Remember a few months ago I showed a bunch of eggs under the deck? Well, the chicken hatched out 13 baby chicks the other day. She’s a good momma and moved them down to the main pen and she’s keeping a good eye on them. Thirteen chicks?? Don’t hold your breath for all of them. The other chickens seem jealous: ‘How come YOU got chicks!??’
My brother came out and we unloaded the last load of straw into the barn. 600+ bales in there again. Coming up, planting winter rye as a cover crop! Deep roots good for the soil, but it will over winter so it will have to be killed off in the spring before planting corn.
And back at the college, all my computer stuff is working this week! Yay!
Finished baling straw this week. Terrible yields there too. Got 320 small square bales total, and it should have been 1000 bales off 20 acres.
It is what it is. Everything worked well and it’s nice straw. Kelly and I unloaded one load, I’ve go the last 100 bales stacked in a wagon for the strawberry farm that buys it, and there’s one load in the shed yet that we’ll get unloaded next week.
I am going to plant a cover crop this year on the oat ground. With the hail we had, there should be plenty of oats there to germinate and re-seed, but rye actually produces deeper roots and is a good cool season crop, so there should be a good winter cover. the same program that was paying for oats this year (separate from the ‘food grade’ oats program) is paying for cover crops. It’s funded by the USDA.
Every time i take my boots off this year, I’m leaving a trail of oats or straw chaff in my wake. Occupational hazard, i guess. I’ve got a cordless Dewalt vacuum in the mudroom specifically for this reason.
Walking on stacked bales is a bit of a challenge. It’s better when they’re stacked proper and tight, but that doesn’t always happen and I was curious how it would go for me and my new knee. And it went pretty well!
I was probably 16 or 17 when Dad announced his sore feet wouldn’t allow him to walk on the bales anymore and I was given the important job of stacking hay bales in the barn. Anyone can unload the bales and put them on the elevator, but stacking, that’s special and takes some skill. Right Clyde? (Or did you only handle loose hay?)
Basically, when stacking, you alternate the direction of the row, and you get the bale in place, then give it a good shove with your knees. Repeat several hundred times. Course, maybe you’re working 3 or 4 rows high in a corner and depending how much room there is as the bales come off the elevator into the hay loft, depends how fast you need to keep moving. All this to say, it was a big deal when Dad had me take over stacking. Just as big of deal it was last year when I wasn’t able to stack myself and my brother did it. The bales got in there, but walking over them the rest of the fall, winter, and this summer reminded me of the skills he missed out on over the years.
The one day last week, just as they finished combining oats, and it rained pretty hard and I had run up the road with the gator to open the truck tarp so the combine could dump the last of the oats. The dogs came running up with me and neither one of them likes the rain. They scrambled into the gator, and they sat in there for 20 minutes after we got home while I was out doing other stuff.
The young guineas are out and learning their ways. Festus, the guinea with the bad leg seems to have disappeared. We knew he’d have a tough time of it and we don’t know what became of him.
Here was a big ragweed plant growing out of the side of the silo, about 8’ in the air. ‘Was’ because I plucked it right after taking this photo.
The first few days at the college have been rough this year. Something about a ‘licensing issue’ means I don’t have access to Outlook, Word, Excel, or any of those Microsoft programs. Plus it seems like my computer – heck, none of the computers, want much to do with me. It’s been a rough few days.
MOTIVATIONAL POSTERS. DO THEY WORK FOR YOU? SEEN ANY GOOD ONES?
Sunday afternoon and evening, Monday night, and Tuesday night I was in Chatfield finishing lighting for ‘Hello Dolly’. Wednesday night Kelly and I sat on the deck and we each had a beer, and we ate re-heated cheese curds, and it was nice. Thursday night I raked straw until 9PM.
I got a new iPhone last week. It sat in the box, unopened, for a few days as I just didn’t have the energy to deal with it. I finally got it activated and I’m still trying to get the Bluetooth synced to the tractor radios and there are random passwords that didn’t carry over and I didn’t write down. Plus, some text messages don’t give me a tone while others do. And this is why I don’t like change; it is just such a hassle.
The week was filled with a lot of random activities.
The teenage chicks were out of their fence more than they were in, so we just took the fence down and let them have at it. They are loving it.
A helicopter sprayed fungicide on our corn; he was fun to watch swooping around.
I smacked myself in the side of the jaw because of the ‘kick-back’ from a 5/8″ drill and the plastic side handle; it bled a bit. And hurt for a day or two. No photo of the blood trickling down my chin.
I cleaned up more behind the shed; it had become an out of the way place to dump stuff and pretty soon the box elder trees were 30 feet tall. It didn’t start with me, Dad started it. I certainly contributed to it over the years, but it ends now. The plan is to get the stumps out and be able to mow back there. And eventually build a ‘lean-to’ in order to park some machinery back there under cover.
I finished cutting oats last Saturday. Kelly took this photo.
After the electrician buried the electric line and we got that inch of rain, the trench settled some, as expected. We used the tractor and ran the tires over the trench to pack it a bit more, and then the clay gave way, and it was stuck.
Notice the guineas inspecting the situation.
It wasn’t stuck so bad at first, but I had to see if I could get it out. I should know better. They say when you find yourself in a hole, the first thing you should do is stop digging. Using the other tractor pulled it right out mostly unharmed. Or, at least, nothing permanently harmed…The tire guy was out on Monday, and I was able to straighten the step, and all is right again.
Between the machine shed and the home office where Kelly works, is a large maple tree. Conveniently, it blocks her view of the shop and machine shed and things I’m doing. As Brent Olson would say in his column ‘Independently Speaking’, I don’t always need a witness and I often look to see if she can see me before I do something questionable. And yes, that also means sometimes I need to call her to get me out of a situation. I am still working inside the shed. Started putting 2×4’s on the walls in order to attach the wall steel. The bills have started coming in so we’re done spending money on it for this year.
I used the fancy grapple bucket and pulled all the loose straw out of the pole barn and I’ll re-bale it before heading out to the field with the baler. It’s kind of a lot of work for the 10 or 12 bales I get, but it needs to be done. (Mice get in the straw and, for some reason, 90% of the time, only chew through one string of a bale.)
Speaking of the grapple bucket, technically it’s called a ‘rock bucket’ because it’s like a giant sieve- with a claw. I’ve used it for hauling trees and brush and straw, I’ve picked up junk machinery with it and just the other day realized I could actually pick up rocks with it! Scoop up a pile of dirt, let all the dirt sift out, and then dump the rocks somewhere else! How about that!?
Half my oats were combined on Thursday. The test weight is OK at 38 lbs / bushel, but the yield is terrible. Once finished I’ll have an accurate number. Hopefully they can finish combining Friday as they’re talking rain this weekend. I was out Thursday evening raking the straw windrows double in preparation for baling on Friday. The oat plant was short this year, so there isn’t much of a windrow. That’s why I was raking two into one, to make better baling conditions and less trips around the field.
I was using the old 630 tractor and rake. This used to be one of the main tractors on the farm and it was used every day for hauling manure, pulling wagons, cultivating corn, planting crops, picking corn; all sorts of farm jobs. You can see how open it is and the rear tires right next to me. It was a tractor similar to this that ran over my brother when his jacket got snagged by the tire and pulled him off.
I’ve spent a lot of time on this tractor bundled up in winter coat and gloves.
But that was a pretty nice day to be out there. I wear hearing protection. Lots of farmers were deaf in their left ear, because they turned their heads to look over their right shoulder watching the machine behind them.
Some people call these tractors ‘Johnny Poppers’ as their large diameter piston and two-cylinder engines make a distinctive popping sound.
I’m back to work at the college on Monday. Classes start on the 21st. I’ve signed up for class 1118 Reading and Writing Critically II. It’s all online, which I still don’t like so well, but I know the teacher and she’s good.
I do a lot of note taking in my job. I administer tests of personality, intelligence, cognitive functioning, and adaptive functioning to people through the age span and I have to record their anwers verbatim, quickly. I conduct in-depth interviews and have to get the information jotted down. My favorite writing instrument is a 0.7 Pentel mechanical pencil. I have used them since grad school. I am spoiled at work since I am the only person there who uses mechanical pencils, but the Business office person manages to find a State approved procurement source for them.
Husband does exactly the same work I do. He prefers ink pens, preferably a Pentel Energel Needle Tip 0.7. He buys his own at a local office supply store. Our dog prefers either pen or mechanical pencil, since both are so delightfully crunchy when he steals them out of briefcases and off tables and chews them up.
A friend of mine with MS used to see a neuorologist who would dictate his progress notes for each session during each visit simultaneously while he interviewed her. She said it was rather disconcerting to talk to him while he was repeating everything he wanted in the note into a dictaphone. I am sure someone else transcribed the note. We used to dictate our evaluations using dictaphones, and then into voice recognition software when that became available, but at this point we type reports right into the computer into an evaluation template. No wonder Husband got carpal tunnel issues from all his years of typing. I have been lucky in that regard.
What is your favorite writing instrument? What is the first typewriter you ever used? How fast could type in your prime? Ever read your medical chart?
2 trips to Menards
2 trips to the hardware store
9 stones from the original “patio”
16 new stones
7 bags of sand
2 Carter women
9 hours of labor
2 rounds of ibuprofen
1 new patio big enough for our table AND chairs
Once again YA was the impetus behind this project. The initial little patio used the blocks that I had saved when we got our new sidewalk two years ago, but it wasn’t quite big enough to accommodate the chairs around the table.
And YA was very thorough. She insisted that we dig up the initial stones, lay down a layer of sand underneath everything and was scrupulous about making sure all the stones were level as we laid them down and then she spent considerable time sweeping sand into all the spaces between the stones.
Phew… hopefully no more major projects by ourselves this summer!
What do you like to have when you’re dining al fresco?
I realized yesterday morning watching our Cesky Terrier shake, tug, and try to destroy his various toys that he is a frustrated scent hunter who wants to find, shake, and kill vermin. His play was very serious. When he insists we tug with him, he tugs as if his life depends on it, with all the accompanying growls and snarls. I wished we lived closer to places that had barn hunts for Kyrill to use his scent skills and have fun working.
We have had terriers for about 35 years, and their one defining characteristic is their turning work into play, as well as games.
Kyrill has turned getting taken for a walk into a game. He sees the leash taken out, and immediately runs twice around the dining room table, evading all efforts to catch him, and then dives under a living room lamp table and waits for Husband to grab him by the collar, attach the leash and go for the walk. Sorting laundry is also a game, as he waits for any opportunity to steal a sock or bra and chew it up. He is on tiptoes the minute he hears the dryer or washer open, follows us, and creeps up stealthily as though the clothing is vermin.
I can’t for the life of me figure out how we have behaviorally reinforced these things. We are psychologists, you know, and we ought to know this. Terriers can outsmart anyone!
What animal has outsmarted you? How do your pets turn things into games? How do you turn the everyday into games?
We’ve got the 5 little guineas in the entry way yet, but one of them jumped to the top of the water bottle, and it’s only one more hop out of the box, so we’ll need to get them in the big tank down in the crib soon. (In fact, an hour after I wrote that, it was out) One of them has a bad leg; seems like it’s up at the hip, and it’s out sideways. We’ve tried to make splints for it, and we tried wrapping the leg up to the body. That was something; the chick sure didn’t like any part of this. Didn’t like being picked up in the first place, didn’t like being manipulated, and didn’t like the wrapping job. I got the wrap to stay on for about 3 minutes. Course I was holding onto it for 3 minutes… once I set it down the wrap was off.
Google has lot of suggestions on this. We need to try it again.
We’ve been watching a red headed woodpecker mom and dad feed their family. A maple tree with one large dead limb full of holes and the woodpeckers climb halfway into this hole and we can hear the babies chirping.
And one morning, I saw a heron flying away. It was right by the barn and it wasn’t very high yet; not sure where he came from. They’re always fun to see.
I was mowing some grass the other day down behind the barn and knocking down some tall grass that had been too wet to mow earlier this year, and one of the roosters killed a large mouse. He was pecking at something and backing off, then going in again. I’ve heard of chickens getting mice before, yet I’d never seen one. They didn’t eat it.
The lightning bugs are back. It’s fun to watch them at night over the corn fields. There’s an article in this month’s Smithsonian Magazine about a guy studying fireflies. Did you know they’re classified as beetles? They’re not “bugs”.
Bailey has finally started to shed and she loves being brushed. Except back on her hips; she doesn’t like that. Humphrey loves being brushed too and he’s got a bit of undercoat coming off, but not as much as Bailey.
The auction is happening this week where I took the fertilizer wagon. It runs through next Tuesday. I’m bidding on a few things too. With any luck, I’ll come out ahead on this deal and not in the hole. Normally it’s the last hour the bidding frenzy happens so we’ll see.
Crops:
I talked with crop insurance last week. Soybeans can be replanted, and still covered by insurance, until July 5th. Of course the shorter season varieties produce less too. And unless it rains, there’s no point planting anything. The co-op is ready to spray for weeds, which is the only thing making the fields look green right now, lambs quarter and velvet leave. Stupid weeds. The wild turkeys are out there digging up soybean seeds, and the deer are eating the tops off the corn. Stupid turkeys, stupid deer.
I’m at a point, I’d almost rather it didn’t rain until mid-July. By then, we could skip the expense of spraying the beans, declare them a loss and plow it up. Just be done with it. If we do get rains this weekend, Then I will need the co-op to spray so I’ll have that expense, and we’ll see what kind of stand I get going. Replanting in July is tougher as it all depends on the weather this fall. PHOTO
I just read an article from the University of MN Extension service, saying you can tell how stressed the corn is by what time of day the leaves curl up. The sooner they curl, the more stressed it is. Here’s my corn at 10:00 AM.
Here it is at 4:00 in the afternoon.
I noticed on Friday, the corn was curled up at 11AM.
The oats is all headed out and we’ll see how that does. I haven’t heard much from the food oats people since spring.
My shop project progresses. I sure do have a hard time focusing on any one project and getting it done. I have my weekly ‘to do’ list, plus a general ‘do this summer’ list. And something like ‘replace tractor light’ gets more involved because the connector isn’t the same between tractor and the new light and I ordered some connectors which fit the tractor, but not the light, and so I had John Deere find the right ones and I’ll pick up. And the tractor cab roof light bezel I did get replaced. Took me about 6 trips climbing up on top of the hood as I had the wrong wrenches the first 4 times. (brain fart) then one of the wires had come loose inside. They work now.
When I write down an item like ‘Install window’ it is a lot more complicated than that. I have built all three rough opening frames. But now I need to mount them on the wall, cut out the steel, frame up the opening, and then figure out how we’re going to get this 250 lb. window up there outside. I need some strong young men or women. 🙂
I also need to remove a lot more stuff in the middle. I move something every day and it’s getting cleaner. I predict the first snow storm in December and I’ll be scrambling to finish some part of this to get machinery in the shed. I’m telling you right now, that’s what’s going to happen.
I reserved a scissor lift this morning to pick up on July 7. There, now I have a deadline to work towards; I need the floor area mostly clear, I need the walls mostly clear and with the lift I can install ceiling joists and steel and seal off one rafter, and then I can call for insulation on the walls and above the ceiling.
I made sure I dressed the part before I went into the rental place. Sometimes when I take daughter into her programming I just wear my crocs. It’s a rule, you can’t wear crocs into an industrial place like this and order big boy toys. I made sure I was wearing my boots, and a dirty enough hat, my sleeveless shirt, and I dropped enough names so they know I know what I’m doing.
I haven’t had to buy any new tools for this project. Yet. I may pick up something at this auction, but that’s not directly related to this project. I’m still using the worm drive circular saw Kelly gave me for my Birthday back in about 1992. It’s a great saw!
DID YOU HEAR ABOUT THE BLIND MAN THAT PICKED UP HIS HAMMER AND SAW?
Today we are having a pot luck luncheon at work for one of our psychiatric nurses who is retiring. I have worked with her since 1987, when we both worked at the local hospital in the now closed psychiatric unit. We both migrated to the Human Service Center after the unit closed in 1999. I will miss her.
I am bringing Mac and Cheese made from scratch, with Cabot extra sharp white cheddar, homemade bechemel, and sliced tomatoes on the top, and a nectarine crumble. It is actually a crumble, as it has no oats in the topping. Some people get pretty persnickity about the difference between crisp and crumble.
What do you like to bring to pot lucks? How do you define a crisp? Who is the coworker you have worked with the longest?
Daughters program held their second annual prom on Friday. It was fun to see the participants dressed up and waving and dancing. Daughter came out blowing kisses. That’s been her thing from her cheerleading days. She loves the limelight. She does have a tendency to light up a room when she enters. I had to laugh, staff asked me if I could tie a tie and I did that for a couple of the gentlemen. Another lost skill that means I’m old. And I thanked my dad for teaching me how to tie a tie.
On Tuesday night, Kelly and I had dinner at the Mayo Clinic Foundation house. It is the former home of Dr. William J. Mayo and his wife Hattie Damon Mayo. We were there for the Pathology Residents Graduation, the program that Kelly works with. It was a full 5 course meal with 3 forks, 3 glasses, a charger plate
and food I couldn’t pronounce, and was held up in the third floor Balfour Hall. (The Mayo’s oldest daughter, Carrie, was married to Dr. Balfour) We had time to snoop around the house and see some Frederic Remington statues, Dr. Will’s study, and wonder at living in such a place as this. The gentleman who was the guide said he’s been there for 18 years.
I’m still working on the shop project. I don’t feel like I got much done on it this week; Been busy with ‘stuff’, just not that stuff. Last Friday they poured the outside slab of cement and I’ve started to back fill that. It needs about 10 days before I can start driving tractors on it. I picked up some windows for the shop and hope to get them in next week.
It’s not like I’ve been busy cutting grass…
The baby chicks are doing real well, just starting to get tail feathers. Of the eggs I put in the incubator, we only got the one early chick, and then we got five guineas. Kelly spent several hours on Saturday trying to convince one of our broody hens that they’d like to be the mom they think they’re already doing in their heads. But none of them wanted anything to do with an actual live chick. We tried getting them to sit on some actual eggs over in a side pen, but they didn’t want that either. You can lead a hen to eggs, but you can’t make her sit on them. The guineas are living in a cardboard box in our entryway.
Crops are still looking pretty rough. The oats is just starting to head out, (we call that the ‘boot stage’), and, according to the seed dealers, they haven’t seen any oat fields in our area that look good. It’s about knee high. It should be almost waist high. I expect there will still be an oats crop, it just won’t be that great. And with the shorter height, there won’t be as much straw either.
The corn is still doing all right, it’s about knee-high. It will be canopied soon. But it’s coming up on a point when it will be taking up massive amounts of nutrients and moisture. Moisture requirements are between .2 to.3”/day at its peak and this will also be when the length and girth of the ear are set. Stress then makes bad yields well before the ears even show up.
My Soybeans. Ugh. They still look terrible.
There are plants out there, but they’re small, and many haven’t emerged. I drove to Northfield on Wednesday, and it appears if you were able to plant soybeans early enough, and they got some of that moisture in the ground, they got off to a good start. A lot of beans were planted in dry ground and it just hasn’t rained. I’m wondering if it wasn’t also the fact I planted with the drill, and most are planted with a planter, and that gave them better seed to soil contact than I got. Seed to soil contact is important, and most years I haven’t had a problem, perhaps because it’s rained. So, this crop feels like it’s already 3 weeks behind, even though it was planted when it should have been. We’ll see.
I baled the roadsides on Thursday. Not much there. I cut some waterways too and got 50 bales total. Most years I have 70 bales just on the road. The camera I added last year to watch the twine strings, was super helpful!
I find it interesting how the tools change by the size of the tractor. Our oldest tractor, the little, two cylinder John Deere 630, has a plain wood handled hammer, a straight screwdriver, and an 8 inch adjustable wrench in the toolbox. Our next tractor, the 6410, the one I use for just about everything, has two 10 inch adjustable wrenches, two screwdrivers, a claw hammer with a fiberglass handle, and some various adapters. Then our big tractor, the 8200, has a 12 inch wrench, socket set, a 4 pound sledge hammer, and one large screwdriver / pry bar in the toolbox. The bigger the tractor, the bigger, the tools I guess. It seems like, when I was growing up, we fixed a lot more things out in the field. Every tractor had various nuts and bolts, and chain links in the toolbox. Add a piece of wire from a nearby fence and you could repair and keep going. These days I don’t hardly fix anything out in the field. It doesn’t seem like things break as much, or it’s something I have to go home to fix.
My shadow, Bailey, has to go everywhere I go. Humphrey just keeps an eye on me so he knows where I am but then he might go sleep at the house. I was laying on the floor of the shop, on my new cement, changing the drawbar length on the tractor and there’s Bailey, right in my face to help. I can appreciate that she wants to be my friend and she’s such a good dog and she makes me laugh, but does she have to be my friend from half an inch away? Can’t she be my friend from 6 inches away?
She also had a 12” piece of barb wire stuck in her coat and trailing behind her. Eventually I was able to snip off the part of her fur holding it tight.
