2025, Farming Update, home, Theatre, work

Twist And Shout

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Today’s Farming Update comes from Ben.

Another week that zipped by at breakneck speed.
I feel like I barely get time to comment on the blog these days. The next month and a half will be this way. Maybe longer, depends how the spring goes.

Monday my friend Paul and I drove to Minneapolis to pick up some lighting fixtures that had been repaired. We enjoyed lunch at Doolittle’s Woodfired Grill, and had an uneventful drive to and from the big city. Tuesday was a trip to Northfield, with just me and loud music and my mind wandering. It was fun to see the farm fields and I saw a little snow in one ditch, and nobody doing any fieldwork yet. It’s early, it’s only April 12th, but when the snow melts and the temperatures are above average, everybody sure gets antsy. And when the weather is all over the place like this, who knows what’s gonna happen in two weeks. Crop Insurance doesn’t kick in until April 15th, so most people won’t start planting corn before then.

I do plan on picking up oat seed and corn seed Saturday afternoon. Remember I talked about that wagon frame a couple weeks ago and moving the flatbed wagon from one frame to the other? I haven’t done anything further with it yet but maybe this weekend. Especially since I use it for seed. Won’t take long once I get my butt in gear.


Our play at the college, Swimming in the Shallows, will open on Thursday. I’ve been busy with that. I painted the floor with a base coat of white one night after rehearsal. I don’t consider myself a good painter, my style with the floor is to thin down some paint, and use a couple hand sprayers and just have at it. It’ll look like something!
Often a show will take place in multiple locations so the floor may have to cover all the bases. Not always, sometimes it is just a house, and I can put a rug down, but often it needs to be rather neutral, and I don’t ever wanna leave it just plain black. A couple of the themes in this show are water and a beach. So first I mixed up some white paint, put it in a typical garden variety sprayer, and just based the floor white.

It’s kind of fun to watch the dots fill in the floor. It’s oddly satisfying. Then I’ll come back with blues and browns…or something. I feel a little like Georges Seurat, a little bit of pointillism.

I’m working with the marketing department for this show because they have a large format printer and I’m making tessellations. Repeating patterns.
My original thought was to use objects from the show like shoes, purses, cigarettes, but I couldn’t exactly make tessellation from those items. I found a free website where I could create and modify repeating patterns and then I include approximations of those items inside the pattern.


This was a sample as the marketing department and I worked out scale. There are six freestanding walls that will have six different patterns on them. I don’t want them so busy the audience is trying to figure out what it is, I just want to turn it into a texture. We talk a lot about texture in lighting and scenic design.
Two of the walls closest to center will have patterns that are just squares with some images inside.
The next two walls are more like diamonds but slightly skewed. And then the last two walls, centered on each side, are very skewed. It’s a visual metaphor for the twisted relationships in the show. Or the way real life can be twisted sometimes.

The electricians have finished in the shop. Three and a half days.
The outlets and the lights are wonderful.


I have lights over the bench!

And I have exterior lights that I’m excited about.

We had some kind of issue with the garage door opener, but on Friday I had the door company come back and fix it. I wasn’t home, but from my phone, I was able to open the door, pull up the shop camera, and watch the door open! I cackled gleefully. Then I watched it close again. From my phone. I giggled.

I got the stereo moved out there last weekend, and I have a Bluetooth adapter for it and now I just need to get the speakers mounted.

It’s all coming together!

PATTERNS IN YOUR LIFE?

WHAT’S YOUR TEXTURE?

2025, animals, pets, Uncategorized

Luna The Brave

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Ever since we got our dog three years ago, our cat, Luna, has chosen to stay in the basement during the day. She only comes up at night when I and the dog are safely ensconced in the guest room with the door closed. She sleeps with Husband in the master bedroom, and wanders freely around the house. In the morning she returns to the basement for the day. The dog has no access to the basement.

Kyrill is not an aggressive dog. He is just curious and wants to investigate the cat. She has always been timid around other of our pets, even the cats, and doesn’t like a long, terrier nose sniffing her all over. I didn’t want to force them to engage with each other out of respect for Luna’s discomfort. The header photo is of Luna before we got the dog. She liked using the hanging rug as her climbing wall.

Over the past several months I noticed Luna and Kyrill booping their noses together through the gate that keeps Kyrill from going in the basement. I was very surprised a few weeks ago when I came home from work and found her sleeping on the upstairs bed in the master bedroom. The dog roams freely around the upstairs all day and can hear a bug crawl across the floor, and would have heard her jump over the gate. Kyrill just ignored her and did not give chase. She spent hours on the bed. He is able to jump up on the bed, but didn’t.

Last weekend I went into our study upstairs to work on the computer, and Luna followed me in with the dog. I made Kyrill sit while I petted both of them. Both sat by my chair while I worked. When I got up to leave the room, Kyrill came with me and Luna stayed for a few minutes and then went back downstairs.

I have no idea what has brought about this new show of cat bravery. I can only hope that it continues and she can finally come upstairs and spend more time with us. I like our increasingly peaceable kingdom.

Who have been your bravest or most timid pets. What fears have you or your pets overcome?

2025, home, Mysteries, Uncategorized, Weather

Warm & Fuzzy

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Three weeks ago while I was folding up clean laundry I discovered that one of my green fuzzy socks was missing.  I’m pretty thorough about shaking out clothing to make sure socks are hiding but even after checking the usual suspects, I didn’t find it.  The remaining green sock went to live in the “single sock box”; it was the only inhabitant. 

On Saturday as I was getting ready for the day, I noticed the poor lonely green sock – usually if I don’t find a sock within three weeks, I never do and I was lamenting the loss the green sock.  I love all my various fuzzy socks.

Five minutes later, as I pulled clean sheets out of the closet, the errant green sock cascaded out of the fitted sheet.  I hadn’t found it because I cycle through my flannel sheets and had not pulled this set out since the sock had gone missing.  As I was happily re-joining the fuzzy pair I pondered the coincidence that I hadn’t thought about the missing sock for three weeks until just a few minutes before it returned to me.  Part of brain says “coincidence”.  Another part of my insists (fairly adamantly) that it has to be some weird confluence of the universe.  I can’t imagine why the universe would care about my socks.

How long do you keep a solo item that is missing its mate?  Where do you keep them? 

2025, Food, home, pets, Uncategorized, work

Loungewear

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I am afraid I made a grave error with my last purchase of loungewear. I bought a really soft and fleecy cardigan that I wear over pajamas. The texture is very similar to fluffy cotton socks. Our dog is obsessed with stealing and chewing socks. Who do you think made off with the cardigan belt the minute I got it out of the package? I got it back before any damage was done. Now, though, I am afraid Kyrill thinks the cardigan is a big sock for him to chew!

Husband tells me that I am not allowed to cook in the cardigan as it is a cream color and he doesn’t want me to stain it. I confess that I do cook in my pajamas sometimes. I never wear them out of the house, though. My usual outfit is a sweatshirt with corduroy pants and soft socks. I wear those to work, too. I only have one pair of sweatpants. I only “dress up” if I have to testify in court as an expert witness.

I am still assessing what clothing choices I will make now that I am not working full time. I don’t think I will stock up on much more “loungewear”, especially if it is soft and fleecy like socks. I am drawn to comfy but not baggy, pants, and soft sweatshirts. I am taking care to keep my new cardigan out of Kyrill’s reach, along with all the other things he loves to steal and chew like socks, pens, papers, and eye glasses. Terriers certainly are good at helping us always put things away!

What is your favorite “loungewear”? Any memorable work uniforms?

2025, Family, Food, Media, Uncategorized

Garlic Soup

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Husband found a soup recipe the other day that called for 40 cloves of garlic. We had just been to Costco where he had purchased a bag of garlic bulbs, so he felt well equipped to make the soup.

The recipe only made 1.5 quarts of soup. It was a creamy style soup with chicken broth and pureed potatoes. The garlic cloves were sautéed and the pureed, too. We also added some white beans. It was really good and wasn’t all that garlicky.

I suppose some people might find that many garlic cloves in one dish kind of off-putting. Just for fun I looked up weird foods on the internet, and my, were there some doozies. Chocolate covered bacon caught my eye, as did fried caterpillars with guacamole. The recipes for these dishes were included, and people had actually made them and liked them. I don’t think we’ll be making either of those in the near future, though.

What is the oddest food you ever ate or prepared? Come up with some interesting food ideas.

2025, Art, books, Family, Kids, Nature, Poems, Uncategorized

Flower Fairies

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I got a text from our daughter the other day asking if we still had the Flower Fairy books. I told her we had taken them with all the children’s books to our grandson in Brookings. I also told her I would order her another set, and did so.

I don’t know how many Baboons are familiar with these lovely books by British author and artist Cicely Mary Barker, but they have been family favorites since our son was born. Barker wrote and illustrated the books from 1923 to 1948. There about eight of them that feature seasonal flowers and flowers in different settings. The flower illustrations are quite accurate, and each flower is set with a fairy figure whose clothing corresponds to the flower in the illustration, along with a short poem. Barker used children from her sister’s Kindergarten as models for the fairies. Most of the poems were written by her sister.

We found these poems and illustrations wonderful for bedtime reading, as well as a great way to teach our children the names of flowers. We still recite “Scilla, scilla, tell me true, why are you so very blue?” when they pop up under the bay window in the spring.

What were your favorite childhood stories and poems? How did you learn about flowers and plants?

2025, animals, Farming Update, home, Media, Music, Nature, Uncategorized

Down The Hole

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Today’s Farming Update is from Ben.

I was listening to a jazz station the other day and a song came on that I remembered.

“Li’l Darlin’”, a 1958 song by Neil Hefti for the Count Basie Orchestra. And I recall hearing it late nights on MPR with Leigh Kamman and the Jazz Image. I went down an internet rabbit hole looking up Leigh and the Jazz Image. He has a Wikipedia page. He even has a website created by his daughter and others.

https://www.leighkamman.com/

He was on MPR for 34 years, in radio for 65 years.

Born in Minnesota in1922, he grew up in central Minnesota, and spent time during WWII in the Armed Forces Radio. The last edition of The Jazz Image was September 29, 2007, and he passed away in Edina, MN, at age 92 on Friday October 17, 2014. From the look of things, his contribution to jazz music is severely understated.

He used music of Alice Babs as his ‘filler music’. But Li’l Darlin must have been in there somewhere, how else would I have known it? And that led me to Count Basie, and a recording by the DePaul University Jazz Ensemble, and down the hole I went. I had forgotten how poetic he was on the program. From a substack website by Tyler King called “From Astaire to Sun Ra: A Jazz Journey”, there’s are quotes from some of his broadcasts: “wrapped in honey and floating on a cloud” or “Here we are in pursuit of a timber wolf howling across Miller’s Bay, Leach Lake; and we are headed to Star Route, Walker, Minnesota zip code 56484.” Pretty good imagery!

And in the words of Duke Ellington, “If it sounds good, it is good.”

Thanks for the memories, Mr. Kamman.

It must be spring as the college put out the ‘Ornery Goose’ seasonal email.

The college has several nesting geese. This one has moved to a new spot in the parking lot this year.

At home, I picked up the driveway markers, and I took off the rear blade, but I haven’t taken down the snow fence yet.

I have started picking up sticks, branches, and roots from the dirt work done last fall. It’s a little too muddy in places yet, especially with the rain and snow we’ve been getting lately, but there’s a lot to pick up and we’ll get them eventually.

And before it snowed and rained last week, I cleared a downed tree off the edge of a field and pushed brush back into the trees along the edge. Trying to keep nature at bay. Or least in its place. It’s a yearly battle.

The weather was so nice Friday evening, Kelly and I and the dogs sat out on the veranda for an hour. We didn’t have wine or even chairs; we just sat on the steps and talked and watched the chickens and the clouds and the world go round.

I’ve had three electricians working in the shop this week. One journeyman and two apprentices. There is so much planning and forethought required in this, it is one of those situations where I’m paying for his 20 years of practice, in addition to the 3 days of work. Look at the skill it takes to create concentric 90-degree bends. Plus, all the code requirements, and the cleanest way to get all the wires where they need to be with the least amount of conduit.

Part of me wonders why I hired this out and didn’t do it myself? All the aforementioned is why. Plus, he has a scissor lift.

I did pick up the lift early and mount the lights to the ceiling, and I’ll install the ceiling fans myself, but they’re doing the hard work.

It will be nice to have the large garage door opener hooked up, and outside lights when needed, and better inside lighting, and outlets all over, and a dedicated outlet for the air compressor, and two welder outlets! One inside, one outside!

Can’t wait. It’s gonna be SO COOL! And then really, I’m gonna stop spending money. On this.

I moved some tractors on Tuesday. I was going to hook up the big tractor to the soil finisher, my main spring implement, but decided it wasn’t quite time for that yet.

Moved the scrap metal tote outside so I can get to the grain drill. And it will be time to pick up seed shortly.

It’s interesting the chives growing wild are greening up, but the chives in the pot are not yet. The ground stays warmer than the cold air surrounding the pot I suppose is the reason.

JAZZ MUSIC IS THE THEME THIS WEEKEND

2025, Fantasy, Movies, News

Val Kilmer – RIP

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The sad news showed up late Tuesday that Val Kilmer has passed away.  He was just 65 and it was apparently pneumonia that got him in the end, although he did have quite a horrific battle with throat cancer 8-10 years back.

He had a fairly prolific career although I have heard many stories about him being notoriously hard to work with.  I can’t say that he was anywhere close to a favorite – I’ve really only seen a handful of his films, almost all of them from early in his career. 

Two of his early works I’ve seen repeatedly are Real Genius and Willow.  In Real Genius he plays a top of the charts college genius – kind of hard to tell the plot without some serious spoilers.  The movie is not even remotely realistic but it’s fun and the good guys win without guns, fistfights or even any blood. 

Willow is an amazing fantasy with witchcraft, brownies, trolls, fairies and an epic battle.  Spoiler alert – the good guys win.  In addition to Val Kilmer playing a charming rogue, the movie is graced with an incredible performance by Warwick Davis.  Here is my favorite scene (although I love lots of scenes in this film). This is as Willow (Davis) is leaving his village on his quest.

Kaya gives Willow a Braided Bush

Given my track record, the next couple of weeks will probably see me tracking down some more of his movies that I haven’t seen.  Hopefully I won’t be disappointed.

Any Val Kilmer movies that you particularly like?  Particularly dislike?

2025, home, Uncategorized

Light Bulb Fashions.

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We had new lighting put in the bathrooms we had remodeled last year. The lights had these newfangled clear bulbs in them. I imagine they are considered more decorative than regular bulbs. They are nice and interesting, but were a bit of a problem to replace when one burned out last week.

There was no indication on the bulb as to its wattage except some gold writing on the top of the bulb that was completely unreadable. We could discern they were a Sylvania product, though.

We headed to Menards with the burned out bilb as a reference. I was astounded by the varity of light bulb shapes and sizes. When did this happen? I guess I just haven’t been paying attention to lighting trends for the past few years. In fact, I am guilty of not paying attention to much when I buy light bulbs except the wattage, which probably explains the variety of light bulb colors in our house. Some are “soft white”, some are “bright white”, and sometimes it looks pretty odd with white and yellowish bulb colors in the same light.

We encountered a helpful young woman clerk in the lightbulb department who was able, at a quick glance at the burned out bulb, to tell us we needed 40 watt soft white replacements. Now we know. I decided I like bright white bulbs in the other lights in the house, but we’ll stick with these for the bathrooms.

Any decorative or fashion trends that are surprising to you? Are you a bright white or soft white kind of person?

2025, Family, Food, Uncategorized

The Last Rye Bread

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When Husband moved to Winnipeg for graduate school in 1978 he was immediately captivated by the rye bread from the City Bakery, a venerable institution that made wonderful baked goods. City Bakery rye had just the right texture for Husband, neither mushy nor hard, with an open but fine grain. He has spent the last 47 years trying to replicate it.

For all the years of our courtship and marriage I have watched him try scores of different rye bread recipes. Some sour dough, some not, some with dried yeast, some with fresh yeast, some with caraway, some with no herbs, some successful, some true disasters. They have been baked in a variety of pans. Last weekend he declared that he had finally found the last rye bread recipe, which he made yesterday. He also declared that he would throw out seven rye bread recipes and keep seven rye bread recipes.

We shall see how long this lasts, and when I shall have to see him fuss over some new rye recipe. It is hard to be a perfectionist.

What is your favorite bread? What have you tried to emulate or perfect?