2024, Business, Farming Update, Uncategorized, work

Part 2: Oats Continued

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Today’s Farming Update comes from Ben.

Last week I talked about getting the oats out.

This week we get to combining, or harvesting the oats. This hot humid weather did not aid drying the oat stems or mixed in grass. Other guys were saying the moisture was high on their oats, but usually they’re cutting it while it’s standing. That only works if you don’t have too much grass standing with the oats. . Swathing it allows the stems to dry out and then combine better.

Parm stated to combine on Wednesday afternoon. I ran a sample up to Elgin to have it tested for moisture and test weight. Moisture was 10.8%, almost too low, and TW was 30. For food grade, they want it 36-40 pounds. And the local elevators won’t even take it if it’s not at at least 34. Remember the test weight is what a standard bushel of a particular crop should weigh. So a bushel of oats should weigh 32 pounds and lighter than tat you get docked on the price.

Other years I’ve not had a problem with test weight. Inside the combine harvester, there are fans to blow out the chaff, bits of cob, or lighter crop material. Typically, buy turning the fan up, it allows you to blow out the lighter oats and keep the heavier stuff. Course, if it’s all light, lie it seems to be this year, either it blows all the crop out, or the test weight is light. For whatever reason, the experts say that letting it sit for a day will increase the test weight. And moving the oats through a grain cart and into the semi will gain a point. But I am not sure I can gain 5 points.

Yield wasn’t too great either, For all the grain that looked like was in the field, well, I mean that the deer didn’t eat and what hadn’t broken off, I’ve only got 25 bushels /acre. this year was too wet, I guess, and the rusts fungus must have been more of a problems than I expected. An d last year I complained it was too dry. I am never happy.

And then we got 2 inches of rain Wednesday night. Surprisingly, Parm was able to come out Saturday and get the rest combined. I took a sample out the the grain cart up to my local Seed dealer because I knew I could get the grain gossip from him. this time my test was only 27 pounds but the moisture was up. He said everybody was struggling to make the test weight and even our local oat champion, who is the one pushing the food grade stuff, said he was struggling to get the 34 test weight.

By the time Parm finished combining, all 25 acres I had was less then a semi load. Thankfully, I have this one neighbor that always buys some oats to mix with his calf feed and was willing to take the whole thing. I called the co-op to ask how much dockage would be on this low test weight. With a base price of $3.05 per bushel, their chart only goes down to 28 and it’s $.52 dockage at that point. 30 test weight would be $.32 dockage. Well fudge.

I like having Oats in the crop rotation, and honestly, I have made money on other years, so I remain optimistic. Maybe next hear will be better. I mean it pretty much has to be.

WHAT WAS YOUR WEIGHT IN HIGH SCHOOL? CAN YOU STILL FIT INTO YOUR UNIFORM / WEDDING DRESS / LETTER JACKET?

2024, Uncategorized, Weather, Words

Climate Control

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I work in a two story office building that was converted from an open design with few walls or offices to a labyrinth of cubicles and offices to meet the needs of our agency. I have a lovely office with a window. It is the most uncomfortable place I have ever worked.

When all the walls were put in to replace the open concept that the previous company had, the contractor had to also put in a heating and cooling system for each new work space. There are several different heating and cooling zones on each floor, each with its own thermostat and heater/cooler. It is unfortunate that the contractor didn’t make a schematic of what offices were in which climate zones. It appears that some of the upstairs offices are on some of the downstairs thermostats. It is impossible to control the heat and cooling. No matter what the thermostats are set at, they each stay at 70 degrees, while the office temperatures are sometimes in the lower 60’s or upper 50’s.

My office is usually freezing. The office across the hall from me is usually too hot. I have two ceiling vents, and we suspect they are on different thermostats. The day it was 108 outside last week, I had my space heater on and was wrapped in a shawl while I worked at my desk. Many of my coworkers have space heaters they use on a daily basis. The temperature control is no better in the winter. None of the windows can be opened, so we can’t cool or heat using outside air either.

What is the best/worst work environment you ever had? Are you usually too hot or too cold?

2024, Business, Uncategorized, work

Unfortunate Coincidences

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My agency is going through a national accreditation review this week, which involves visits from the accreditation agency personnel and extensive reviews of our policies and operations. Everyone has been on edge. A positive review with few problem areas is important for us to continue to receive various forms of Federal funding and grants.

I giggled when I came to work yesterday morning to see, in the parking lot, the van for the business that stocks the candy and soft drink vending machines in the lobby. The workers were unloading boxes to bring into the building. The company is called Braun Distributing, and they stock vending machines all over town. They also are a wholesale vendor of alcohol. That is why Budweiser is emblazoned all over the delivery van that was in the parking lot. We provide both mental health and substance abuse treatment, and it sure looks odd to have the Budweiser van in the parking lot. I teased our clinical director that the accreditation reviewers would be pretty suspicious of how exactly we were keeping our employees and clients happy. It was a rather unfortunate, but funny, coincidence, I thought.

What are some awkward, funny, and/or unfortunate coincidences you can relate?

2024, History, home, Kids, Uncategorized

Good Friends

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When we moved to our neighborhood in 1988, it felt as though we had moved to and outpost of the Czech Republic. The Karskys, the Knopiks, the Kovash family, and the Dvoraks all lived next door or across the street. They were all somehow related to one another. Mrs. Karsky described us as “a nice young couple with a young son” to the other neighbors, information she had got from our real estate agent. Everyone was excited when we moved in, as most of the people on the block were older and/or retired. There were no children on the block.

36 years later, we are the older people on the block happy to see new and younger faces in the neighborhood. Only the Knopiks remain as the Czech contingent. There are lots of young children, especially on our side of the street. A couple of houses south of us lives a hard working family from Zimbabwe. They have a teenager who walks back and forth past our house most days during the school year to get to the Catholic High School, as well as several younger daughters and a young son who are friends with the Hispanic family on the corner. The other day I was driving past those houses when I saw the three Hispanic little girls, their brother, and all the Zimbabwe children sitting in a row on the curb. They had exhausted themselves in the enormous jumper house that the Hispanic dad had inflated for them all to bounce around in.

We share surplus garden vegetables with the neighbors, and everyone gets along. It is so nice to see the neighborhood continue to be a haven for young families and for the more mature, longer term residents.

What was your neighborhood like to grow up in? Any “bad apples” or nice grandparent-types as neighbors? Who were your best childhood friends?

2024, books, Fitness, Games, Mysteries, TV

Sweating it Out

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When I went to the gym last week, I turned on the tv attached to the stationary bike.  This doesn’t sound like front page news, I know, but it’s extraordinary to me for two reasons.

First, I have never turned on the little tv EVER.  I joined my gym about 30 years ago.  A franchise of a California company was opening and they sent representatives to BIW to scrounge up some memberships.  I’ve spent most of my life trying to get myself to exercise; if there were a vitamin I could pop that could replace exercise in my world, I’d be all over that.  When the reps offered up an extraordinary rate for BIW folks, I signed up.  (And not only was it extraordinary but the price never went up in all the years I was a paying member.)  And I went to the gym like clockwork because for most of those years I got money back from my health insurance company and from BIW – for about 15 years the amount of payback was actually a couple more than I paid the gym.  It was like getting paid to exercise. These days I do mostly stationary bike and occasionally laps in the pool.

The second reason it was extraordinary was that when I turned on the tv, I searched for the Olympics.  You all know I am not a sports fan of any kind.  I only follow gymnastics a smidge because YA follows and I hear things from her. Other than that, I know nothing. When I play Trivial Pursuit, I always make sure there is a sports person on my team because I am useless in that category.

But that day, there was an intersection of my issues.  I didn’t have a book; I’d had a bunch of errands, including meeting YA for lunch and I completely forgot to grab a book even though the gym was on my to-do list.  And no stray books skulking around in the car either, which is also unusual.  I thought about stopping at Southdale library (between BIW and the gym) but I just didn’t want to.  I figured I’d just fart around on my phone for 30 minutes while I cycled.

When I jumped onto the bike, it occurred to me that I could turn on the little TV and watch THE OLYMPICS!  I’m not sure why I am not a jot interested in sports/athletics but I can watch Olympic coverage for hours and days on end.  I was in Madison for several days and my friend and I had the games on pretty much full time if we were at home.  That’s how it always is; I don’t expect to watch any Olympics and then I watch, follow specific athletes, text a couple of friends who I know are watching.  When the games are over, my interest will disappear, pretty much overnight.

So there I was – the person who hates to exercise — watching sports on the gym television.  When Leon Marchand was trailing in second place for most of his 200M Butterfly and then poured it on the last 5 seconds to take the gold, I raised up my arms and cheered (quietly)! I feel like a different person lives in my skin during the Olympics.

Do you have/have you had a go-to exercise? 

2024, Fitness, Health, Uncategorized

The Posterior Chain

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I have been struggling on and off over the past couple of years with sciatica down both my legs. The whole situation is complicated by my lumbar scoliosis. I have been in physical therapy for the past several months, and it has kind of helped, but I still have a lot of pain, or at least did until now.

My physical therapist changed her strategy a couple of weeks ago and has focused on what she calls the posterior chain, the muscle system that runs from one ankle, up the leg and across the lower back and glutes, and then down the other leg. All the muscles work together, so that I can feel the stretches in my right ankle when she manipulates my left leg. I figured out the source of the whole problem last week on my own, and I am proud to say and the culprit is my bifocals.

I realized last week that I walk consistently with my head down so that I can see where I am going and I don’t trip. I lowered my head to get a clear view right in front of me because of my bifocals. My lowered head was messing up the weight distribution up and down my back. The minute I started making sure I kept my head up. 75% of my leg pain disappeared. Some of my other back muscles have protested with the change, but that is to be expected. I haven’t tripped yet. It is a hard habit to break, though.

How is your posterior chain? What are your recent exciting discoveries?

2024, animals, Family, Farming Update, Theatre, Uncategorized

What A Ride

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Today’s Farming Update comes from Ben.

What a week it’s been. So much going on and I pretty much hit the wall on Wednesday, but I powered through until Thursday when, after Wednesday night’s rain (2.06 then another .2″) I could stay home and have a lazy day. I may have drifted off a couple times. 

We are REALLY excited about the hot and cold water faucets installed in our garage.

No more cold water dog baths! It’s kinda dumb how excited we are about this! 

Plus got ‘SpongeBob, the Musical’ ready to open and that became a really fun, silly show with more witty one liners and dialogue than I realized. (When lighting a show, I’m not fully listening for the first few rehearsals; my mind is in other places. Yeah, I’m supposed to read the script first, but you, it’s only ‘Spongebob’…) The show opened last night. 

Last week, I did finally finish cutting oats. I started Thursday, the swather ran for an hour and a half and died. An hour later it ran for half an hour and died. The next morning it ran for 45 minutes and died. (The generator isn’t working either, so I’d drive the gator up there and take the battery jump pack along and jump start it every time). I made some phone calls and googled symptoms for a while. This thing has a Chyrsler Slant 6 engine in it. If you know anything about cars, you know about the Slant 6. It was ubiquitous in Chrysler cars for quite a few years in the 1960’s and ’70’s. It might be the fuel pump, might be the ignition coil, hard to say. John Deere doesn’t stock any of those parts anymore, but I called a local auto parts place. The young man there– key words being ‘young man’, I knew he was too young. And when he said to me, “Is the coil that round cylinder thing?” I knew I had the wrong guy. 

I called NAPA and I asked first, “Do you know what a Slant 6 is?” The guy scoffed. “Do I know what a slant 6 is!” OK, good. I can talk to this guy. He told me when he first started working for NAPA he was in a small farming town, and being a city boy, he didn’t know what a ‘swather’ was. He learned fast. THIS was the right guy to talk with. I replaced the ignition coil and a resistor, and it ran for 45 minutes and quit. But an hour later, it ran for 3 hours. And I was THIS CLOSE to finishing all the oats. It was 9:15 at night and dark and while there are two headlights on the swather, they don’t really light enough to see anything. And then, feeling optimistic and picturing being done, like the MN Vikings, it let me down. (Sorry for the dig. Courtesy of my brother in law, on Friday Kelly got to spend some time at the Vikings Training Camp with our daughter in law, Michelle.) The next morning, I finished cutting the last of the oats in about 15 minutes and drove it home. I guess I’ll replace the points, condenser, and fuel pump, and get the generator repaired, and maybe next year it will run better.  

In places, it looks like the deer wrapped their tongues around the plant and stripped the grain right off; it was just stalks. In places it was broken off or down. And in some places it looked OK. 

I’ll talk more about the harvest next week. But it wasn’t good. 

I couldn’t find the ducks one morning. They have found the pond. They will do a good job cleaning up the algae. And we lost one. There was a carcass down there one morning. Shucks. 

We’ve decided to have the barn painted. And I don’t want to do it, nor do I want to be climbing the ladder to the peak, nor should I be climbing up there. Twenty some years ago when I painted it last, I put the extension ladder in the loader bucket and put that up on the roof of this lean-to. And I still couldn’t reach the peak. I’ve done some dumb stuff, but not usually the same thing twice. 

I happen to see a guy painting the building where daughter attends, and we’ve hired them to paint the barn. They’re out power washing the old paint off this week. 

I had some good volunteers helping with theater stuff again.

One teenage padawan, Max, is back, so he and a volunteer met me at Menards and they loaded up 35 sheets of 1/4″ plywood (we call it ‘lauan’ which is kind of a general term) while I paid for it, and then I met them outside to load it. 

The three of us carried it into the theater. Then two more helpers arrived and the lumber yard truck showed up with two guys and the 7 of us hauled 25 sheets of 3/4″ plywood inside. It was too dang hot to work much harder than that. Plus the sprinkler repair guys were there and they moved a sprinkler pipe that was in a sightline from the booth. 

And that’s why I drifted off on Thursday. 

DESCRIBE A GOOD NAP. 

2024, Food, home, Uncategorized

Perfecting Pastries

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When we visited our daughter in Washington last April, we went to a cookware shop in Gig Harbor. I found a new pastry cookbook there, and last weekend was my first attempt at the recipes. I tried the dough for laminated pastries, and made croissants and Franzbrotchen.

The book New European Baking is by an American baker, Lauren Kratochvila, who was trained in France and runs a bakery in Berlin. The recipes look wonderful, although are pretty complicated. There were illustrations that were helpful, and the finished dough tasted wonderful. I don’t know how many baboons have made their own croissant dough, but the basic premise is that you envelope a 10 inch square of butter (about 9 oz) in a 10 inch round of dough, and then proceed to roll the dough into a 30 inch length, fold the dough in a specific way, chill it, roll it again to 30 inches, fold it again, chill it, and then roll it out into a 20 X 12 rectangle and cut the dough into rolls. The end product has hundreds of butter/dough layers because of the folds. This all has to be done really quickly so the butter doesn’t get soft in between the dough layers and ooze out. I was so irritable and stressed during all this that Husband was afraid to come into the kitchen.

I have made Julia Child’s croissant recipe in the past. This recipe was more complicated, but I am determined to try it again. My rolls turned out pretty good for a first try, although they didn’t have the perfect shape that the book author showed in the book photos. They were light and airy and buttery. The Franzbrotchen have a cinnamon filling and are supposed to look like squashed bicycle tires. You can see the rolls I made in the header photo. I considered this first try a learning experience, and I am going to try them until I get them as perfect as I can.

What have you tried to perfect and with what success? What pastry would you like to learn to make?

2024, Family, home, Travel, Uncategorized

Moving to France

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One of my high school friends is a rather successful composer and music teacher who studied composition in Paris with Nadia Boulanger. I wasn’t too surprised to hear that my friend has decided to move permanently to France.

I can’t imagine what is involved in such a move. It is complicated enough planning a 500 mile move to Luverne in the next year or so. I don’t imagine it is at all financially possible to move one’s entire household to another continent. I marvel at how my ancestors left Europe, leaving what they had and starting over in a new place thousands of miles from home. There were a few precious items that were packed and transported, but everything else was left behind.

The last time we made a long distance move was when we moved to ND from Indiana in 1987. We didn’t have much then, and the move wasn’t too hard. We have a lot more stuff now. Husband has agreed that he has way too many books and is bravely starting to cull them. They will go to the local library’s used book store. He has agreed that his old college philosophy books will go to the landfill. He insists that we are moving the piano to Minnesota.

Every time I go in the basement or garage, I cast a critical eye on our possessions there. Do we move dozens of empty canning jars? What about the book cases if we are getting rid of the books? Do we move the bean poles, soaker hoses, and tomato cages, or buy new after we move? How about the snow shovels and rakes? In some respects, getting rid of it all and just starting over from scratch seems more simple, but I know it isn’t possible.

What is the longest distance you have moved households? What did your ancestors bring with them to the US when they immigrated? What country would you move to if you decided to immigrate?

Business, Mysteries, Uncategorized

Lapsed Retail

42 Comments

I’ve always been fascinated by empty store fronts.  Always a little sad because a business hasn’t made it and intensely curious about what will replace it.  There are three particular spots on my horizon.

In 2013, Beek’s Pizza and Diamond Lake Rentals just off of 54th and Lyndale were destroyed by a spectacular fire.  It was January; the fire department had a devil of a time and the water froze into sheets of ice.  It actually looked like a bit of an ice palace the first couple of days after the fire.  A few years later they did some digging on the site but only for a few days.  Other than that the lot has sat empty all these years.  Apparently some property management company purchased it in 2021 but not a darn thing has happened.  Personally I’d love to see a bagel shop but I won’t hold my breath.

Near 50th and Xerxes there used to be a Michelangelos Pizza.  It was a favorite spot of mine – great pizza and a fabulous salad with riced provolone cheese.  They closed suddenly for renovations in 2017 and then never re-opened.  Apparently they found more structural problems than they anticipated and then the owner of the building passed away.  Somebody’s been working on it since last winter and the Tono’s Pizzeria and Cheesesteak sign went up a few weeks ago.  I drive that direction a lot and I have to say, they’re not moving at the speed of light. 

The other sad dark retail that I pay attention to is the huge ex-Rainbow Foods storefront down on 66th and Nicollet.  I used to shop at that Rainbow but knew it was in a death spiral.  Store needs money to keep it up to date, since store isn’t up to date, people stop shopping.  I was not surprised when it closed in 2018.  I know that the Rainbow brand is owned by Jerry’s so I was hoping that they would fix it up, rebrand it and re-open, but that hasn’t happened.  Early last fall there were signs up saying it would be a Halloween store, but that never happened.  They only action the spot sees these days is the big fireworks tent in the parking lot every July.

I suppose some of the reason I’m fascinated is that I know that space/land just sitting there in a retail-zoned spot is costing somebody money.  I’m guessing you still have to pay taxes on the property, even if you don’t have a thriving business.  Rainbow/Jerry’s is probably working to do something with the space, but the other two spots had to have been chewing a hole in somebody’s pocket for all these years.  And the Beek’s property has actually had some legal action due to the inactivity, so even more expenditures. 

Not sure what I’ll do when these storefronts aren’t empty any longer.  I support I’ll find others to stalk.

What kind of business would you like to see open near you?