2025, Family, Food, Health, home, Mysteries

Carb Fest

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Over the years I’ve tried a lot of different food plans.  Whenever I hear of someone talking about how good they feel on some particular diet, I get curious.  I’ve even tried raw a couple of times; the second time I lasted the longest – four days.  Tried the zone for a bit.  The Mediterranean is pretty close to our regular habit, although as vegetarians, we pass on the occasional fish/meat.

 The keto diet was the one that I toyed with for quite some time before giving it a shot.  I have two good friends who swear by it.  I loaded up on a few keto carb substitutes and I made it three weeks.  But I didn’t feel better.  In fact if you factor in how much I was thinking about carbs, dreaming about carbs, crying about carbs, I was much worse.

So it probably won’t surprise anybody that every now and then I let my delight in carbs get the better of me.  Every month or so YA asks if Great Harvest is making Derby Cookies; they are her favorites.  She is also very fond of the various cheese breads that Great Harvest makes.  When she looked at the March newsletter, she was happy that the Derby cookies were on the docket as well as the gouda garlic bread.  Since she was traveling and I was in party prep, I made the bakery run on Saturday (that’s when they do the gouda bread).  I thought that ordering ahead would help, but it didn’t.  In addition to YA’s bread and cookies, I left the bakery with a White Cinnamon Chip loaf and an Apple Caramel loaf (mostly apple, not much caramel – a perfect ration for me).

This is a lot of bread, even for me.  YA will take care of the gouda and probably most of the cookies.  Guess I’ll just have to suffer through my two loaves.  Sigh. 

Anything that occasionally just makes you lose control?

2025, Food, Gatherings, Mysteries, Uncategorized

Potluck Pi ??

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Most people probably don’t feel this way, but all the prep going into a big party is actually a gift to myself.  The confluence of making lists, organizing, cooking and then being with the people of my life makes a big party a perfect experience for me. I’m pretty sure that if there was such a thing as a glow-meter, I’d be off the scales during my gatherings.

I often get asked what guests should bring to one of my parties.  If you’ve done this, you’ve gotten my standard answers.  “Bring yourself.”  “Bring your appetite.”  Occasionally I will tell someone if they have a particular beverage that they can’t live without, they might bring that. 

It’s a testament to how our society has changed that everyone goes under the assumption that every party is potluck and you have to pony up.  A friend who has never been able to come to my Pi Day festivities (but has always stopped by the next day for tea and leftovers) showed up with a strawberry rhubarb pie.  She was a little worried and left it sitting on the dining room buffet but it was just fine and I put it out.  But it is a bit like bringing coals to Newcastle when you bring pie to my Pi Day.  LOL.

Folks brought flowers (all of which are doing nicely and safe from the cat) and, of course, wine.  My people do seem to be wine people.  Lots of empties into the recycling after the party was over! 

And for those who aren’t local or couldn’t make it, here is a list of this year’s pies:  Blueberry, Dutch Apple, Peaches & Cream, Macadamia Coconut Caramel, Crack, Chocolate Chip/PB Whoopies, Banofi, Pear Croustade, Key Lime and Butterfinger Cream.  Oh, and let’s not forget the Strawberry Rhubarb!

Do you have a go-to dish that you take to potlucks? 

2025, Family, Farming Update, Seasons, Uncategorized, Weather

First False Spring?

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The weekend Farm Report comes to us from Ben.

I feel like I’ve been really busy the past week. I don’t know why exactly, I don’t know what exactly I’ve been doing, I just feel like I’ve been running from one thing to the next.

However I know spring is coming, I heard a kill deer! And the Sandhill Cranes! And I got out the pot with the chives in it. There’s still some ice on the north side of the house and I saw a small snowbank in a patch of grass, but we’re getting there. As I write this on Friday, they’re predicting thunderstorms for Friday evening. ” They” say, the first frost will be six months after the first thunderstorm. Which gets us into mid-September which, while not ideal, wouldn’t be unheard of either. There was a large halo around the moon Wednesday night. Google says spiritually, some traditions see a lunar halo as a positive omen, indicating a time of good fortune, spiritual alignment, and harmony. Good, let’s run with that one.

I spent Thursday at a meeting on nitrogen management in Southeast Minnesota. A continuing education course of sorts. Focus on the southeast Minnesota region is relevant because of the karst geography and sink holes and how rapidly ground water can enter drinking water. Please know, farmers care a great deal about their farms and the water we are drinking, and our soils as well. Putting on more fertilizer or chemicals than a crop can use is a waste of money. There were a lot of charts, and graphs, and a lot of data presented. If you notice from this picture, commercial fertilizer started being available shortly after World War II and greatly accelerated in the 1960s.

Soybeans came into play in the 1940s.

It’s interesting to think how much of our farm practices are not really that old.

One of the comments made was that we could do a lot better with our fertilizer practices if we could more accurately predict the weather. A lot of fertilizer and nitrogen is applied in the spring as pre-planting or at planting. And yet the following picture shows the plants greatest need for Nitrogen is tasseling through ear development.

While the greatest amount of precipitation and the greatest chance to lose nitrogen happens in the spring.

So why do we apply it in the spring?

Well, that’s kinda just how it works. Corn does need some starter fertilizer to get going from seed. And we do soil testing to know how much nitrogen is already in the soil, and it’s just easiest to do it before anything is planted. I have done some ‘side-dressing’, which is injecting anhydrous nitrogen between the rows when the plant is 18-24” tall, but there’s also more damage to the standing corn when turning at the ends, or not driving straight. And some guys, with the right equipment, can apply liquid nitrogen when the plant is 6’ tall just before it tassels, but that takes tall sprayers, and again, there is crop loss. In my small fields, I’d damage so much turning around on the ends that it would defeat any gains.

 I’m greatly simplifying a lot of this, it’s too much to get into here, but it was all really very interesting.

And much of the data presented yesterday really didn’t show much difference between spring applications and later applications. We just have to know that we are going to have less available for the crop. It was also noted, we see so many new products claiming to save money and time. But if the cost of the new ideas ultimately don’t create much of an improved crop yield, ($$$), then they fall out of favor.

The bathroom! Here is a before photo-

And finally, minus the shower glass yet, the after photo-

It looks really nice. It IS really nice. Kelly has already enjoyed the bathtub several times. I really like the rich color of the cabinets in the laundry room.

The heated floor is nice.

It was hard finding room for towel bars and grab bars, and we probably gave up some storage that we hope we don’t come to regret. But it sure is an improvement.

We had a bidet in the old bathroom, one of those simple ones from Costco that you simply add to the toilet seat. This time around, we ordered an actual bidet seat. It’s quite the deal. Or at least so I’m told. I haven’t used it yet. I haven’t used that function yet.
When you approach the toilet, the lid opens on its own and a nightlight comes on. For us gentlemen, there’s even a light inside, I guess so we can tell what we’re aiming at. Our contractor said he’d seen a lot of toilets, but he didn’t think he’d seen one that fancy before. Lest you think otherwise, it is not gold plated.

Later this summer we’ll start on the downstairs pink bathroom remodel. I do not expect a bidet in that one.

WHAT WOULD YOU ADD TO YOUR BATHROOM? WHAT HAVE YOU SEEN AT NIGHT LATELY?

2025, Government, home, News, Uncategorized

Annexation

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I was much alarmed recently to see that some strange State legislator from Iowa was proposing to annex all the bottom southern counties in Minnesota, including my beloved Rock County, and make them part of Iowa. I haven’t seen much in the MN press about this, so I am hoping that it is being viewed as a political stunt and nothing to take seriously.

I lived within 15 miles of Iowa my whole life and lived in south central Iowa for a year, and I sure wouldn’t want to become an Iowan. Too conservative for my tastes. I also lived for a year in southern Indiana, and my, was that strange after living in Manitoba for six years. North Dakota is conservative, too, but I have managed to tolerate it for 37 years. People here are quirky enough to make life fun and interesting despite the influence of big oil and conservation politics.

We still plan to move to Minnesota in the next year, but if the Iowa annexation actually happens, it sure won’t be to Luverne!

What states or countries have you lived in? Where would you consider or not consider living?

2025, Family, Food, Travel, Uncategorized

Seriously Early Dinner?

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With YA out of town, I’m in my “eat what’s here and don’t shop” mode.  I actually enjoy this part of YA traveling.  (Not as crazy about being in charge of Guinevere’s early morning and late night trips outside, but I’ll live.)

This week there have been quite a few leftovers in the fridge – more than usual.  Since I also worry about food going bad, I decided that I would have dinner for breakfast.  I’ve done breakfast for dinner many times in my life but except for a handful of cold pizza starts to a day, I’ve never actually heated up what I think of as dinner food and had it as the first meal in the morning.

I heated up some rice with carrots and parsnips and had it alongside some brie and applesauce.  It was very nice and now I’m thinking I should switch things up more often.  The only  hitch was the feeling that I needed dessert afterwards!

Do you have any foods that you wouldn’t normally eat for breakfast?

2025, Media, Movies, Mysteries, Uncategorized

Oblivious?

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I’ve probably seen the first 10 minutes of the movie Laura 100 times.  It’s one of my go-to bedtime movies.  I can actually recite the first five minutes of the movie by heart.  For fun, I had it on during the afternoon over the weekend and I just happened to look at the screen as Clifton Web and Dana Andrews had this discussion:

DA:  Three years ago in your October 17 column you started out to write a book review but then at the bottom of the column you switched over to the Harrington murder case
CW:  Are the processes of the creative mind now under the jurisdiction of the police?
DA: You said Harrington was rubbed out with a shotgun loaded with buckshot, the way Laura Hunt was murdered, the night before last.
CW: Did I?
DA: Yeah. But he was really killed with a sash weight.
CW: How ordinary. My version was obviously superior.

A sash weight?  Despite how many times I’ve seen this scene, I would never in a gzillion years been able to tell you Harrington got clobbered by a sash weight

I’m not sure which is more amazing, that the line could get by me SO many times or that I   actually know what a sash weight is.  I live in a house that still has sash weights.  I’ve even taken out a window with sash weights and then put it back!

My guess is that knowing about sash weights will become a fairly specialized bit of knowledge as the years go by.

Tell me about something that you know that seems a little rarer than it used to! 

2025, Food, Mysteries, Uncategorized

So I’m a Bit Quirky

59 Comments

Quirk #1

When I find something I really like at a restaurant, it’s really really hard for me to choose something else the next time.  Even if it looks good.   Black Coffee & Waffle in St. Paul has several waffle options that look wonderful to me.  As I’m driving over there I’m thinking to myself that I should try something new (besides the almond butter, fresh fruit & granola waffle) and then I never do.   Same with the olive pimento veggie burger at The Tipsy Steer.  In what I consider a personal victory, on Sunday I actually got the crumb cake at Black Walnut Bakery.  I’ve looked at it several times but always end up ordering the bear claw, which Black Walnut makes with puff pastry, pastry cream and raspberry jam.   The crumb cake also had raspberry and was wonderful, but if I’m honest, I also bought a bear claw (just in case) and had it yesterday!

Quirk #2

Most of my adult life, I’ve done without a dishwasher.  Either I just didn’t have one or for many many years in my current house, it just didn’t work.  Now that we have a nice dishwasher that YA insisted on when we had the kitchen remodeled, I end up putting the clean dishes away about 80% of the time.  It’s not a horrible job – only takes about 5 minutes, but I’m finding that afterwards, I resist putting any dirty dishes in for a bit.  As if it needs to sit empty for a day or so before I start loading it up again.  Like it needs to rest and recharge?  Maybe it needs a spa day?

Any quirks you’re willing to admit to today?

2025, books, Fantasy, Kids, Uncategorized

Blond Book Party

38 Comments

Stopped by the library Saturday morning to return one item and pick up another.  At the return slot, I waited between two little blond girls, excitedly putting books onto the conveyer belt that takes them into the library. 

As I entered the library, a little blond girl was leaving with her mom and a massive pile of books.  Inside, there was another little blond toddler; she was helping her dad swipe books at the check-out station. 

After I grabbed my book and was heading out, two families came toward the library, each from opposite directions.  Each family had two little blond girls who seemed excited to be going to the library.

It was clearly a little blond party.  I was going to feel out of place until I remembered that when I was that age, I was blond as well – a little towhead in fact.

What kind of party would you like to attend at your local library? 

2025, Automotive, Farming Update, Theatre, Uncategorized

Running Smoke

36 Comments

The weekend Farm Report comes to us from Ben.

It was a busy week in the theater again. Shows the last two Saturday’s, but Spring Break next week, that will be a quiet week.

Not much happening on the farm. We survived the “blizzard” on Wednesday. Maybe two inches of snow, and I got a snow day meaning I had time to work in the shop and organize bolts.  I did pull some wagons out last week. See the header photo. The seed wagon has a good flatbed top that I built 25 or 30 years ago. But the wheels and frame under it, technically, that’s the “running gear” are pretty wore out. I have a much newer running gear, with better tires that I reclaimed after disposing of an old chopper box that was junk when dad bought it new in 1980.
So here’s a long boring story about that!

When he first bought the chopper, blower, and wagons, in order to fill the silo’s by ourselves, it was probably the mid 1970’s. My brother helped Dad at first. When I got older, the best job for me, at 15 years old, was to run the chopper, leaving it to Dad to run the smaller tractor and pull the wagons home to unload. You’ll just have to trust me on that. It was actually safer in the big tractor just going around and around the fields, than it was pulling them home, hooking up the power take off (the PTO), unloading by the blower (the machine that blows the crop up the pipe into the silo) and running back out to the field. So, I did that. Dad had two chopper boxes: one being filled in the field, and one home being unloaded. Or on the path somewhere in between.

One box was 14’ long and was a used ‘Kasten’ brand box. The other was 16’ long, and old John Deere box. But it sat taller, and it wobbled more. And I guess I was afraid it was going to tip over, so I’d slow down in the chopper, and then the shear pins would snap off because the machine plugged up. Shear pins are a safety thing to prevent overloading the chopper, but evidently you can break them by driving too slow. I’m sure dad yelled at me to speed up, but I was nervous. Finally, in the interest of his sanity, he traded off the 16’ JD box for a 14’ Papec box. Doing a little internet research, the Papec company started in 1900 and looks like it had a pretty good product at first. But the chopper box they made in 1975 was cheaply made crap. I feel like it was always broken. I bought another used Kasten box in the mid 90’s. And eventually junked the Papec box, and now I have this running gear that was under it.

Chopping was a tough time. Chopping hay needed to be done in a timely manner and the the pipe going up the silo would sometimes plug up (on the hottest, most humid day of summer) and I remember being very angry while trying to get it unplugged. I remember telling Kelly one day there was 18 tires that could go flat while trying to chop. Kelly suggested that might be the wrong attitude. But it was true.

Which brings us back to the seed wagon top, which should be moved to the better running gear, and it will all be a much better ‘wagon’.

I remember dad swapping boxes and running gear. You jack up the box, put a 55-gallon barrel under the corners, pull out one set of wheels, and slip the other set underneath. Nothing too it.

I’m thinking I can lift the back end with the loader and chains, some blocks under the front corners, and Bob’s your uncle! There are two brackets on the front axle, and two on the back that secure the top from sliding around. Typically, we don’t bolt it tight, because it needs to be able to flex a bit, so we wrap a chain around it leaving it a little slack. That way it can flex a bit but not fall off.

I’ve been working on a show, opened this past Friday, called ‘She Kills Monsters’ by Qui Nguyen. It’s a show about the relationship between two sisters. One sister played ‘Dungeons and Dragons’ and the other sister is learning about the game as a way to get closer to her sister. It’s been a lot of fun to work on. It’s a great director, a great cast, an amazing stage manager who can figure out my light cues, and I have lots of smoke and haze and wiggling lights. I think I ended up with 155 light cues. That’s a pretty good number of cues for a 2-hour show. This isn’t even a musical. Many straight shows end up with 40 – 60 cues.

That last photo was me trying to get the smoke machine level adjusted right. This is clearly too much smoke. But isn’t it fun to see all the light beams!!

The bathroom is finally finished!

Almost!

It’s working, just waiting on shower glass yet, but the rest is done. It looks really nice.

Next week I’ll post the pre and post photos.

REMEMBER ROLLING DOWN HILLS AS A KID? WHEN IS THE LAST TIME YOU ROLLED ANYWHERE?

2025, books, Uncategorized, work

They’re Everywhere!

24 Comments

Writers, I mean. One of the perks of living in a smaller, more isolated community is that we get to know about the lives of people we wouldn’t necessarily get to know about in a big city. It goes both ways, though, and people get to know about us, too.

Husband and I usually purchase wine at the liquor store attached to our biggest grocery store. The liquor establishments have to be separate entities in ND, and grocery stores can’t sell liquor in the grocery store proper. We have come to know one of the liqour store clerks fairly well, and he always tells us about his day and recent life events, and he asks us about ours. He is a military veteran in his late 40’s. He knows we are both psychologists.

Yesterday while he was checking us out he stopped and grabbed a notebook and hurriedly wrote something down. He told us it was a for a scene in a novel he was writing about PTSD in military veterans and if he didn’t write it down he would forget it. He then shyly asked us if we had ever worked with veterans, and I was able to relate some of my experiences working in a VA hospital with Vietnam and Gulf War veterans some 30 years ago. He made it clear he didn’t have combat related PTSD, but he felt a need to write about it for those who did. At that point another customer came into the store and we had to end our conversation.

I guess I shouldn’t have been so surprised that he is writing a book, and it was just delightful to hear about his ideas. It made me wonder how many other aspiring writers are lurking behind cash registers and counters in town.

What would you write about if you were to write a book? How many published authors do you know? Have any favorite store clerks?