2025, animals, Automotive, Farming Update

Say What?

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Today’s Farming Update comes from Ben.

I was watching Luna’s ears the other day and got to thinking about how dog ears can move so much considering how thin they are. Down the rabbit hole I went. Dogs have eighteen muscles in their ears, humans have six. They are born deaf as the ear is sealed up for about the first three weeks. You can get dog hearing aids! I’ve always loved how soft a dogs ears are.

I was headed to Plainview the other day, updating and getting quotes for a new farm insurance policy, and I had time so I took one of the scenic back roads. I don’t know if y’all have noticed these silhouette Bigfoot cut outs that are becoming popular. I see a few here and there, and I drove past one farm that must have a dozen of them. I frequently pass one farm that has one painted red, white, and blue, but for sheer volume this place was the winner. They have one life-size with two child size ones tagging behind, then there’s one in the yard carrying a couple of steel wheels, there’s another one by the shed, and there was a few others in the pasture. I guess we’ve just never got the appeal of yard art like that. We never had the bent over butts, although we have done the pink flamingos, and I do have an old road grader parked in the lawn now and mostly it’s just a pain to mow around. A friend of mine said he liked to put art in his yard because he didn’t have to mow the grass under it, which is a worthy point, but every couple of months I have to move this road grader to a different spot or the weeds get so bad you can’t see it amongst the weeds. I know we could do some landscaping around it. ‘It’s on my list’ ™.

The oats is heading out, a little area went down one day last week. And with the storms this week, more went down. It’s still green so that’s a little unusual.


Looks like some of the peas have started to be harvested by the canning companies. They sure make a mess when it’s raining like this. The canning companies don’t stop for weather. As I understand it, they have a schedule and they need to stick to it. Again, it’s all about those Growing Degree Units. Stop for the rain and they’re behind next week. We’re about 160 GDU’s over normal.

We got .8” of rain Wednesday, then 2.4” on Thursday. That makes over 6” in June. Ok, that’s enough, FOR NOW- I say that carefully. Down in our valley we can’t tell how windy it is. There have been two tornado warnings for us this week. Course I was standing in the machine shed door watching the rain come down. Ever been in a steel building while it’s raining? Rain on a steel roof is so loud you can’t talk over it. And it sounds much worse inside than it really is outside. But in my new shop, it’s quiet and cool and nice. Except for a few leaks… We’ve caulked all the roof nail heads, sealed all the joints and the sides and roof peak, and I still get drips.

After the first day of all three padawans, I split them up the next week. I’m better with them one at a time. Although it depends what’s happening. Next week we start some summer projects at the theater and I may be able to use all three.

We cut brush down around the barn and got rained out and did a bunch of stuff in the machine shed. Still working on that ‘to-do’ list. Finished a few odds and ends in the shop. Got plywood on the new pallet racking, took the battery out of the Farmall ‘C’ and found the smoking wire on that, literally. Working on the 630 and the new air cleaner, muffler, fan belt, radiator hose, throttle plate, ect. The four bolts that hold the muffler are all corroded (they’ve been there since 1959) and I believe I’m gonna have to drill and tap new holes for those. I did take the tractor down and power wash it.

Ordered parts for both tractors. And I thought before I get too far into this I better call a friend of mine that works on old tractors and get his opinion. He’ll be out one of these days.

The corn is a good knee high and just about canopied, meaning there shouldn’t be any weed pressure after this. And I can’t see the water standing between the rows now. The soybeans, the ones the deer haven’t eaten, yet, are looking good. They’re about 8 inches tall, but when you look across the field it looks very ragged and uneven and upon closer inspection it’s because the dang deer keep eating them right down to the ground. It’s so darn frustrating! The weed pressure is getting pretty bad on the beans and I know they need to be sprayed, and the co-op knows it, too. We need a little less rain and wind so they can do that.

We’ve let the little chicks out and they’re very happy about that.

WHAT PARTS OF YOUR BODY CAN YOU WIGGLE INTENTIONALLY?

2025, Gatherings, Kids, Uncategorized

Summer Camp

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I drive past the local college every day on my way to work. Yesterday I noticed quite a few school buses in the college parking lot, signs that the week long summer high school football camp was starting.

My agency used to be housed in a former dorm at the college, and the building overlooked the college practice field. We could watch and hear the 100 or so boys as they practiced their tackles and formations. I can’t imagine what the dorms and food service were like all week.

Our children attended music camps and Concordia Language Villages in the summer. We especially liked the Suzuki Camp our daughter attended in Montreal for a couple of summers, with an added benefit that we attended with her. I usually attended church camp a kid. Husband was a camp counselor for a couple of summers at a church camp near his home in Wisconsin. One highlight was the night the Grade 5 and Grade 6 boys in his cabin caught about 50 frogs and let them loose in the cabin. Ah, Youth!

Did you attend summer camp? How did you spend your time in the summer when you were a kid?

2025, gardening, home, Kids, Uncategorized

Rewarded!

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We rolled the stump down to the boulevard.  I didn’t think that anybody driving along would see it and think “hey, we could use a big stump for something, couldn’t we?” and take it.  I was hoping however that it was small enough that the yard waste folks would take it.  Nope.  Turns out that they’re fairly strict about that kind of thing and my Plan B of rolling it into my trash can was quashed when I saw in the garbage/recycling website that it is actually illegal to put “substantial” yardwaste into your garbage can.

YA was not tricked into thinking that chopping up the stump was a fun way to spend her time so I finally decided to tackle it myself.  If I chopped it into small chunks, I could put them in my yard wastebags with my run-of-the-mill weeds.  In order to make myself do this, I had to say “just 20 minutes”.  It helps that our little chainsaw has a fairly short battery life so 20 minutes is about all I can do at one shot.  At the rate it was taking, I figured this would be a 10 or 12 day project.

While I was working on this, I noticed a woman working on the yard kitty corner to me.  She didn’t look familiar and there was a name emblazoned on her pick-up that indicated she had been hired, as opposed to living there.  As I continued on other yard projects, I noticed she was coming across the street.  Turns out she is the mother of the gal who apparently has just bought the place.  She asked about what kind of bags the city requires and I pointed out my paper bags.   I asked her if she needed a couple and I gave her two and when she asked, I gave her directions to Menards which is about as cheap as you can find the bags these days.  We talked about what you could and couldn’t put out; I told her about leaving bigger branches/small logs out for people to take.  I then mentioned that the city wouldn’t take my stump which was why she had seen me cutting bits off.  To my surprise she immediately said she could take the stump in her truck; her home is on 30 acres in Wisconsin and she has a perfect place to dump it.  I was stunned.  And grateful.  I almost offered her more bags.

So within 5 minutes, we had rolled the stump into her wheelbarrow, pushed the wheelbarrow across the street and gotten the little monster into the back of her pickup.   After three weeks of it sitting on the boulevard, miraculously and suddenly it’s gone!

I don’t think I’ve ever had a good deed of mine reward me so quickly and so wonderfully. 

Can you think of a time a good deed has paid dividends?

2025, Family, Travel, Uncategorized

Canoe

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Yesterday Husband declared that after we move to Minnesota we are taking a trip to Alexandria so he can buy a canoe.

Husband has wanted a canoe for decades. He chose the Alexandria shop on the recommendation of someone from the Wenonah Canoe Company. While Luverne isn’t close to any reasonably sized lakes, there are several navigable but smaller rivers nearby that he is excited to explore. The rivers in our current location are either too shallow or too big (The Missouri).

He wants a one person canoe. That is fine with me. I had a truly wonderful and exhilarating experience on a BWCA canoe trip with my church youth group in 1974, and that was all I needed to have a happy life. We canoed in Manitoba during our courtship and early marriage, but my canoeing days are over. He can take his day excursions on the Rock River and Big Sioux River, and I will sit comfortably at home with the dog, drawing on my Dutch roots and practicing niksen.

What are your most interesting canoeing or boating experiences? Does niksen hold any interest for you?

2025, animals, Government, Uncategorized

Feeling Mulish

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We live about 40 miles from Theodore Roosevelt National Park. It is very rugged, with buttes, gullies, strange rock formations, rattle snakes, big horn sheep, bison, and prairie dogs. We have enjoyed hiking there since our children were little.

In about 1998 the United States Forest Service built a 144 mile trail that connected the South Unit of the park with the North Unit. It is called the Maah Daah Hey Trail, which is a Mandan Indian word for “grandfather”. Bicyclists, hikers, and horse riders use it a lot. We have hiked a mile or so on it.

In 2023 a bridge near one of the trail heads collapsed into a gully, and that area of the trail has been closed. The Forest Service is responsible for its upkeep, and recently started bridge repair. Although motor vehicles could have hauled in the bridge materials, the Forest Service chose to use some of their pack mules to do the hauling so as to not disturb the landscape. The Forest Service has about 300 pack mules that are kept in Missoula, MT and help out with projects like this in our region. They only make the mules carry about 150 pounds of material at a time, which is about only half of what the average mule can haul. They retire the mules when they are about 25 years old and care for them for their remaining years. I think that is sweet. Who knew the Forest Service owned mules?

Where are your favorite places to hike or ride? Any experiences with mules or donkeys? Felt mulish lately?

2025, books, Family, home, Uncategorized

Making It Pretty

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This Thursday a photographer is coming over to take pictures of the house and yard for the real estate listing. We spent the weekend packing eight more bankers boxes full of books and sheet music and stowed them and the fourteen boxes of books we packed last weekend in the empty closets in the basement bedrooms. Then we put all the basement furniture back in place as the painter finished up painting the basement last Friday. We also took lots of unwanted things from the shelving in the furnace room and put them in Husband’s truck so he can take them to the landfill tomorrow. I straightened out the remaining items on the furnace room shelves so they look neat. Our new house has tons of storage and we don’t need to take any shelving with us. We hope to use the furnace room shelving as an added enticement to buy our ND house.

Today I am painting the front door and a couple of small garage doors and touching up some chipped interior paint upstairs. My goal then is to stow anything that might make the upstairs look cluttered in the upstairs closets. It will come out after the photographer is done on Thursday. I also plan to straighten up the work benches in the garage so they look neat and tidy. All this is an exhausting nuisance, but I guess this is the game you play when you sell your house. There is some consolation in knowing that everything we box up or toss out will make the final move that much easier.

I am thankful our realtor thinks our house looks nice enough as is (now that the basement is newly painted) without asking us to do any more “prettying up”. The idea to paint the doors was mine. (I intended to paint the front door 10 years ago when we had new siding put on, but never got around to it.) We will have to be vigilant about keeping the house as clean and uncluttered as possible though, for when the realtor has people over for a showing.

What kind of “prettying up” would you need to do sell your house? Any long put off chores for you?

2025, Automotive, Family, Fantasy, Farming Update

Into The Concrete Weeds

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Todays Farming Update comes from Ben.

Well I didn’t start anything on fire this week so that’s a win.

The co-op was out on Wednesday to spray the oats for broad leaves and apply a fungicide. They used a drone! I wasn’t there to see it but they took some video and had it in their newsletter:


https://youtube.com/shorts/wgsNnr2c6fo?si=tQ4SKhqTutv07eX-

According to the newsletter, the drone carries a 10 gallon tank, meaning it can cover about 5 acres, and the spray pattern covers about 25 feet at a pass, so they did my 25 acres of oats in a couple hours.
I think that’s pretty cool! I don’t know if they were flying it manually, or were able to upload GPS field maps from their other machine passes earlier in the year, allowing it to fly, mostly, itself. I think this is such cool technology. It didn’t make tire tracks through the oats, and it didn’t leave ruts in the soft ground with the recent rains. Some of the big farmers are starting to buy their own spray drones. It’s another tool in the toolbox.

Me and one of my summer padawans cleaned out two corners of the machine shed, rearranged machinery and got the corn planter and the grain drill put away, and moved the haybine to a different spot. Just about every day I spend an hour or two in the shop, “organizing”. I’m still rearranging and sorting out things. I sure am glad I put that used AC unit in there. I just run the dehumidifier and it’s staying about 64 degrees. I love it. I’m happy to putz out there as much as I can.

I’m trying to do some of my home ‘honey-do’ projects, as well. A couple years ago, Kelly took all the landscape rock out of an area and we added compost large rocks for a walking path, and planted some grasses. That only survived one year, and the biggest problem was keeping the dogs and the chickens out of it. Daughter and I went to the local compost site and got half a pick up load of compost on Wednesday. Thursday afternoon was pretty warm, but I waited until this area was in the shade and then I dug out the old stuff. Padawan and I will unload the truck on Friday.

I ventured off into the weeds one day. I knew there was an old cement mixer out there, and there was supposed to be a second one that I couldn’t see at first. A tree had fallen in front of it. And I mean I hadn’t used either one in 25 years or more. For all I could remember, I let someone borrow it. But I found both of them.

I don’t remember using the sliver one, but it was fun to spin the handle and make the barrel turn. I remember playing with it often. The header photo is a plate on the side of it.

And the red one Dad got from a neighbor. I know we used that one. Whichever one I pick to use now, it will need a little grease… but the innertube on one tire is still holding air!

Might need a new tire, but the tube is good!

Heck, it doesn’t even need tires, I’ll be using it right by the shed.

One of the projects on the list is a concrete pad outside the shop walk in door, and a concrete pad for a garbage dumpster. Figured the summer padawans could learn about pouring concrete. I’ve done just enough to be dangerous. I found a concrete calculator online, which gave me a total of about 3 yards or about 170 bags at 60lb each. Wow, that’s a lot of bags to mix up even with an electric mixer. Checking some big box stores, a bag is $4 – $6 each. I sent an online message to a local concrete place just to see what the deal is with small batches. I’m in no hurry for this. Could be a month or two.

Also back in the tree’s was the old combine that Dad bought in the 1950’s and I parked in the tree’s in 1990 something. Time to haul that to scrap iron.

My brother and I both learned to drive a standard clutch in the 1967 Chevy pick-up truck following dad and this combine around the fields. Times were different back then. I’m guessing I was maybe 10 yrs old. I can picture it like yesterday though. He would have been pulling this with the 630 tractor (that I still have) and combining oats and would dump it into the truck. Today’s huge combines are bigger, fancier, self-propelled versions of this.

MONTGOMERY WARD IS SELLING FLYING CARS. WHAT COLOR IS YOURS AND WHAT OPTIONS DOES IT HAVE? GOT ANYTHING TO SAY ABOUT WARDS?

2025, animals, Gatherings, holidays, Uncategorized

Up North

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Happy Solstice, Midsommar, or whatever you call the first day of summer! The days are longer now, which I appreciate.

I have heard from two friends lately who have experienced some very long days. One is a college friend who lives way up north in Sweden near the Arctic circle. She posted a photo of her and her husband dropping her brother off last week at the nearby train station at 2:00 am. It was fully bright out. She then mentioned that when she and her husband arrived home at 3:00 am, the sun was starting to rise. It must have not got dark there at all! She and her husband are evangelical ministers. I doubt they will be doing too much carousing at Midsommar festivities, which I understand can get pretty wild.

I also heard from my friend the international pet sitter. Her most recent gig took her and her husband to Dawson City, Yukon, to take care of a Great Pyrenees dog. It was a huge, friendly dog who wanted to sit on her lap. They loved the Yukon. The permafrost makes it impossible to pave the streets. The local liquor store and Drivers License Bureau share the same office space. She took a photo at 10:00 pm and it looked like she took it at noon.

I think the farthest north I have been is Gimli, Manitoba. I like it dark when I sleep, and I don’t think I would adjust well when it would be light all day.

What us the farthest north you have ever been? Any Midsommar celebrating today and tomorrow?

2025, books, Media, Mysteries, Technology

Browsing

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When I read Scientific American, it’s not usually a deep dive; I admit that a lot of the detail is over my head.  I would also say that most of the ideas, while interesting, don’t usually seem too personal to my life.

Until now.  Turned the page and found “Wiki-Curious” which described research about how people reign in (or don’t) their curiosity when they are online.  Apparently there are three different types of rabbit hole styles: busybody, hunter and dancer.

A busybody is someone who is all over the board, often going from topic to topic – not always topics that are closely related.  They found that in countries with higher education levels and greater gender equality, more folks browse like busybodies.

A hunter is a person has a more intense focus, circling around a fairly small number of related articles.   Hunters are more numerous where there is less higher education and lower gender equality. 

A dancer “links together highly disparate topics to try to synthesize new ideas”.   Don’t ask me to explain this.  This is the smallest group type.

I am normally a busybody until I hit on a topic that sends me down a rabbit hole, then I can be a lot more focused.  The one thing that is different for me is that once I go down a rabbit hole, it doesn’t take very long before my browsing leads me to books and then the browsing is over.

I’m currently on two book treks that started online.  Watching a show online by Lucy Worsley (a British historian) about the British love of murder mysteries has led me to several books about early female detective in literature.  Susan Hopeley, Loveday Brooke, Lady Molly, Miss Gladden – some of the earliest women detectives in print.  In addition of these, I have a couple more books coming from the library.  Fascinating.

The second rabbit hole started when I was reading an interview by Michael Perry about why he wrote “Forty Acres Deep”.  This was right before the Rivers/Ridges Book Festival and that was when I decided that I wanted to read all of Michael Perry’s stuff, in order.  I’ve read four so far and number five is on its way via InterLibrary Loan.

Who knows where the next rabbit hole with lead but I’m sure it will lead to books.

Are you a busybody, a hunter or a dancer?   Any interesting browsing lately?

2025, Family, home, Uncategorized

New Home?

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Well, on Monday we phoned the real estate company in Luverne for the first time and explained the sort of house we needed and our price range. Wouldn’t you know it, they had a house that met our needs and price, and later this morning we are having a video tour of the place. I am quite sure we will buy it. We saw lots of interior photos already.

It was built in 1998, with tons of room, so that we and my best friend who will live with us will be able to stay out of one another’s way and have privacy. It is a ranch style home with a finished basement. There are five bedrooms and lots of room for Husband’s books and Friend’s quilting stuff and visiting family. It also has a hot tub on the deck. The hot tub in the header photo is not the hot tub we may own. The one in Luverne is more square with a canvas cover.

I would never in a million years buy a hot tub. I don’t even own a swimming suit! We are just not hot tub people. I am more excited about the large gas range with double oven in the kitchen.

Any creative ideas what to do with the hot tub? Any interesting home buying stories?