Last week was really windy here, with gusts up to 61 mph all day Wednesday. It looked like we were back in the Dustbowl, with the sky obscured by blowing dirt.
Kyrill, our Cesky Terrier puppy is a pretty intrepid boy with the usual terrier bravado, especially when the fiends (neighbors and pedestrians and the Postie) are outside and he is looking through the bay window. He even tolerates the vacuum and electric floor sweeper. He gets afraid, however, whenever he hears flapping noises, like those made when garbage can liners are shook out preparatory to going into the empty garbage can, or when the neighbor’s flags are flapping loudly in strong winds like we had last week. He wanted to get past the neighbor’s flag pole as fast as he could as we were buffeted by the Wednesday winds.
Our children didn’t have many fears, aside from our daughter when she was about 4 not wanting to go to a new doctor named Dr. Wolf because she was afraid he was a real wolf. My mother said I was afraid of the vacuum cleaner when I was little, and she had to wait until my father got home to hold me so she could clean the house.
There are several “Haunted” venues in our community to get good and scared at before Halloween. The mall and the old hospital building have been turned into such places. I don’t like things like that at all, but most of my coworkers have been to them and enjoyed getting terrified. I fly into Bismarck late in the afternoon from Washington DC. on October 31. That is scary enough for me!
What scared you when you were little? What is the scariest book you ever read? What are your experiences with “haunted” venues?
Today it’s snowing. I’ve learned from meteorology class this happens because the air is cold from the cloud all the way to the ground. I think I kinda figured that.
Glad my soybeans got harvested last week. They started late Friday afternoon and finished on Saturday. They ran better than they have in the past ending up with about 52 bushels / acre. I heard one guy complaining about his crop and the drought and how they were only running about 45 bushels / acre and not 80. Must be nice. I’m happy with 45 so to get 52 is very satisfying!
Could have been the fungicide applied this year, could have been the good growing weather. If it wasn’t for all the trees shading out the edge rows, and if it wasn’t for all the deer eating off the tops, maybe I could get 80 bushel beans too. It is what it is. Price is good and we got $12.81 / bushel. It made a real good check. And it will almost cover all my expenses this year for fertilizer and chemicals. Once corn is harvested, (and that looks to be a good crop too, and price is good on them yet at around $6/ bushel), I’ll be able to pay off the seed bill and make some loan payments and have some left over. I spent a night this week figuring out next year’s crops and I’ve already ordered some fertilizer before a price increase. Urea (nitrogen) fertilizer price is down a little this year, other things are up even more than they were for this year. Man that hurts. And I need to order 500 gallons of diesel fuel one of these days. That’s over $5/ gallon.
Sigh.
Oh well!
The ducks, Rosie and Guildy, and the poofy and the two black ones, and the other mallard looking ones are all good. R&G still spend most of the day inside. That’s a good place to be today. Kelly had to rescue another upside down chicken.
I’m busy at the college building a set for our fall show, “One Snowy Night” by Charles Way. Based on a Norwegian Folk tale, I’m building an ice block and a fire ball that they drag across the stage.
I heard a song on the radio by the band Traffic. The song was ‘Am I What I Was or Am I What I Am’. That’s a fun question so we’ll let them set the tone. Last week we had The Turtles, this week it’s Traffic.
FAVORITE MUSIC FROM THE 1970’S? ARE YOU WHAT YOU ARE OR ARE YOU WHAT YOU WERE?
I look up lots of recipes on-line, and I somehow got signed up for the free delivery, multiple times a day, of recipes from a German-based Instagram site that sends me baking recipes. The recipes show up in German, and then are translated into English when I click on them to read them. The site is called Einfach Backen, which means Easy Baking.
I love the German descriptions of the recipes. One yesterday was:
Kirschpfannkuchen-Wie bei Oma. Soo fluffing & aromatisch!
I think that means cherry pancake just like grandma used to make, light and tasty. I don’t speak German, but some of the words are easy to figure out. I have never made any of the recipes. I just like trying to figure out what they are before they are translated into English.
The other day, one of the recipes was described as being blitzschnell, which I take to mean lightening fast to prepare. I just love that word! Our terrier is very blitzschnell, Husband less so. He is amused when I say “Mach Blitzschnell!!” when I want him to speed it up. I love it!
What are some of your favorite non-English words? What are your favorite English words or phrases?Learn any new words lately!
l get occasional updates from Ancestry on various things related to my genetic history. For example, they have recategorized my genetic makeup to reflect that while many of my ancestors are from coastal Germany, a substantial amount of my DNA is from Sweden, Norway, and Denmark. They used to say I had all this DNA from the British Isles. I guess they decided that people from the British Isles have Swedish, Danish, and Norwegian DNA because the British Isles were invaded by the Scandinavians centuries ago. They also invaded and raided coastal Germany, hence my DNA similarities to the British.
Ancestry has started looking at genetic traits like risk taking and remembering dreams. I am supposedly average for those traits. Just this week, though, I got another update that says I am more likely than 80% of the population to be a night owl. I really believe it.
I have loved staying up late my whole life. I love sleeping in. I guess there are 24 genetic markers for sleep patterns like this. How on earth they can find out these things is beyond me, but it is nice to know I have an excuse for being so different from my early-bird husband and children.
Are you are early riser or a night owl? What personal traits would you like to blame on genetics?
Daughter has made some wonderful friends in Tacoma, and they all seem to have a shared interest in good food. Daughter tells me weekly what she is cooking, and has really expanded her cooking repertoire.
The other week, Daughter and a friend realized the extent of their food obsession when Friend and her husband went out to eat at a favorite restaurant and found that a beloved spinach artichoke dip with sun-dried tomatoes had been discontinued permanently. Her friend was horrified to find herself actually bursting into tears at the disappointment. Her grandfather had died quite recently, but Friend said that had nothing to do with her reaction to the loss of the dip. That dip was really special to her.
Daughter is always eager to point out when I haven’t been a perfect parent, and the spinach dip incident reminded her of the time she phoned me in tears because a friend had forgot to put a pan of enchiladas that Daughter had made in the fridge overnight, rendering them somehow spoiled. She admits she reacted to it like a 13 year old girl. Her takeaway from the phone call, though, was her hearing me say “You talk to her, Chris. I can’t deal with her right now.” Husband proceeded to say all the right things to her, about how this wasn’t about the enchiladas but about her disappointment that her friend had been careless. Dad 1, Mom 0.
What foods do you have an emotional reaction to? How did your parents differ in their ways of interacting with you?What is yourfavorite artichoke recipe?
Husband and I both work for separate Human Service Centers right now. His agency is in Bismarck. Mine is in our town. The magic of technology means that he only needs to go to Bismarck one day a week, and all the other days he can work out of my office building. The State calls it “Hoteling” when you set up like a squatter at another State agency building. He works in an office I occasionally use for testing, just across the hall. We spent part of yesterday scoring Rorschach Inkblot Tests together. How romatic, right?
This isn’t the first time we worked in the same building. We worked together in the same department at my current agency for 15 years before he retired the first time. I suppose it is fortunate we get along. We have spent a lot of time together over the decades. At least neither of us had to supervise the other at any time.
The people at my work tell me they think it is so “cute” when they see us at work together. I don’t quite know what they mean by that. We aren’t lovey-dovey or anything like that. I suppose it is sort of unusual to have a married couple at the same agency. I can only imagine the drama had we been at odds or openly hostile with each other.
How do you think it would have turned out if you had to work with your partner or spouse? Any stories about couples working together at the same place?Were you a Turtles fan in the 60’s?
A friend of mine recently re-located here and just moved into her new townhouse; she invited me to come down for a few days to visit. Although I have been to this state, I’ve never been to this city before, despite having sent a few groups here over the years. I’m looking forward to a few relaxing days of sightseeing and entertainment.
The city is named after a Continental Army general during the American Revolutionary War.
The person who first called the U.S. flag “Old Glory” lived here.
The largest songwriter’s festival in the world is held here.
There is a full-scale replica of the Greek Parthenon in this city.
President Theodore Roosevelt coined the phrase “good to the last drop” here.
This was the first city in the nation to be granted an FM-broadcasting license.
The first seeing-eye dog training school in the U.S. was founded here.
Where am I? And if you know, what should I see while I’m here?
There was supposed to be a hard freeze Thursday night. Only got to 35°. We’re down in a valley so whatever the TV says the low will be, we’re going to be about 10° colder. It’s coming. Sooner or later. Minor cold spells, I unhook the hoses and put the pressure washer in the barn. Once it gets seriously cold, I’ll have to get more things picked up and put somewhere warm.
Driving to Plainview for parts last week showed a lot of farmers harvesting soybeans. Sounds like they might get to mine in the next few days. Good to hear. It was fun to see all the different combines. Some John Deere’s, some Case IH, even one Claas. You don’t see many of them in this area. I’m not even sure who the dealer is for Claas. That’s a big thing when buying equipment; who’s going to support it when needed. I really liked the Deutz tractor I bought back in 1986. But eventually it was hard to find mechanics or parts locally. There was a shop over in Wells MN that did good work on Deutz tractors, but 86 miles is a long ways to go for parts or service.
I’m bummed all the sweetcorn froze last week so that’s done for the season. What a shame; one cold night and that’s it. Glad we got some froze a month ago. It felt early when we did it, but this is why I guess.
We drove to Plainview so I could pick up some oil filters for the lawn mower and gator. My local dealer has most of my equipment in their records, but they didn’t have the gator for some reason, and I have a hard time remembering all the equipment model numbers. I knew it was an 835, but was it an “E”, “M” or “R”? And there’s a serial number break that uses different oil filters… shucks. I don’t remember. Eventually I found an email on my phone from the insurance company that had the VIN number so we got the right one. I wrote it down. In my phone where I have a file of oil changes on equipment.
All the tractors and machinery have model numbers. I know a lot of them but sometimes I forget. Is the soil finisher a 714 or 716? Wait, it’s a 724. The chisel plow is a 714. Or 716… Know there’s a 7 in there. Maybe this weekend I can get the oil and fuel filters changed in the truck too.
We quit filling the bird feeders this summer when the avian flu was going around. I filled them again this week, but so far nothing has come back.
Rosie and Guildy are still fine. The chickens seem to think those two have better food than they do. It’s all the same food, but it’s inside a pen so it must be better. One of those ‘grass is greener’ things. Right up until this happens.
See what happens when you do things you shouldn’t be doing? You get hung up and need to be rescued. She wasn’t there long. Kelly and I were out picking pears and then having a gator date when we spotted her. Once rescued she ran off to the pen and didn’t even appear too dizzy.
I haven’t seen anyone harvesting corn yet. The kernels are probably a little too wet yet and it’s early enough no one wants to pay for drying the corn yet if they don’t have too. Shelled corn (really, any crop) must be 15% or less moisture to store without spoiling. I’m guessing most corn is still upper 20’s. The ears are mostly still standing upright. The old timers used to wait until the ear had tipped down, then it was ready to harvest. I was just reading that corn on the stalk loses about .5% moisture / day. Course that depends on the weather. It dries a lot more at 70° than it does at 40° of course.
This is a good looking ear because of how it’s filled all the way to the tip. If the plant had any stress it would abort the kernels at the upper end. And there are some ears in the field that are not filled. But it’s neat to see this ear and know the crop had everything it needed to make good ears. Enough rain, the right nutrients, and no stresses. Think about how we could all do if we had no stresses and everything we needed to prosper?
We try to limit our trips to Walmart to once a month, and I hit the jackpot there last weekend.
The Redken company ceased production of a certain hair product called Thickening Lotion. I have used it for decades to lend body to my hair so it doesn’t hang in my eyes. Well, this has reportedly been a rather unpopular move nation-wide, and I am quite unhappy about it. My hair dresser is beside herself about it.
My hairdresser has tried to find an alternative for me, like this weird foam stuff that sort of works, and hairspray, which I really dislike. I looked on-line for it, and found they were selling it for $100 a bottle on ebay.
As Husband and I left Walmart Saturday I spied two bottles of my beloved hair goop on the shelves in the Walmart Beauty Salon. It was on sale for 20% off, and cost me $20.00 a bottle. I was elated! Now I am set for another 4 months of happy hair styling and clear vision.
Remember Dipity-do? What hair products have you used in the past that you would never use again?What is the most embarrassing hair style you ever had?
On Sunday, I texted a friend to see if I could drop off a book for her. I knew she’d be there but figured I should give her a heads’ up anyway. She returned my text and asked if I would mind helping her with a quick project when I stopped by. I said “sure” because any time she does ask me for assistance, it’s not usually much assistance. And, of course, my schedule is now “fluid”….
The project was changing the lightbulb in an outdoor light fixture. Sounds easy enough but the light fixture is above the side door, which is itself at the top of four stairs. We needed the tall ladder for this. Opened up the ladder didn’t fit on the top step. It didn’t fit over the steps either. Leaning the ladder up right under the light fixture didn’t seem like a good idea since its full weight would be on the glass of the side door; we ended up shifting half of the weight to the left door lintel (is that the right word?).
My friend was nervous about this procedure and although I volunteered (it wasn’t quite high enough up to trigger my fear of heights) she insisted. Unfortunately it did frighten her and her hands shook enough that she dropped the screw a couple of times. After the second drop we decided we’d better test the light before trying again. She came down the ladder and I swiveled it out of the way so she could go inside to flip the light switch. It was then that I got a very hard and painful thump on the head – she had left the screwdriver on the top of the ladder and it tumbled right off onto me.
It broke the skin and my friend was really worried that I’d been stabbed with the business end of screwdriver (it was a Phillips). We applied a paper towel and a small ice pack. I was sure I’d been thumped by the handle. There wasn’t all that much blood and a good stab would have bled more. The physics were also on my side. It was about a 4 foot drop from the top of the ladder to my head and the weight of the handle was enough that, like a cat, it would have righted itself and hit me handle first.
After a few minutes we finished up the job. Fourth time was a charm; I tried again to take over the ladder climbing but after I’d been injured helping with her project, she was adamant that I stay off the ladder.
No headache, no pain, no other symptoms. I do have a scab now that I’m trying to avoid with the comb and the shampooing but my brush with the screwdriver doesn’t seem to have damaged me permanently.
What hand tool would make the best weapon if you needed to protect yourself?
Trail Baboon