2023, Family, home, Seasons, Uncategorized

Spring Cleaning

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Our town is looking a little worse for wear now that all the snow has melted. The streets are coated with sand from the sand trucks. Litter is flying around catching in the shrubs that haven’t yet set leaves. I see lots af dog owners cleaning up you know what in their back yards. Husband cleaned off his grills and grilling area, trimmed the False Indigo, and bagged up leaves and raspberry canes that we intended to bag up last fall but didn’t get to it until it was covered with snow.

I had what my children would call a Dutch fit on Saturday. Friends of ours were due to stop in for a visit in the afternoon on their way back from Pine Ridge. They had gone there to start the cleaning and set up at the Sun Dance grounds. The Sun Dance isn’t until July, but I guess there is rather a lot of things to do to have all the sweat lodges cleaned and the food and dancing and camping areas ready in time. Spring cleaning happens on Pine Ridge, too.

I realized that our home wasn’t fit for company after a long winter with a busy dog. We started cleaning as soon as we got up Saturday morning. We dusted, washed floors and a few windows, cleaned bathrooms, and vacuumed. I also made two pies, a peach and sour cherry pie and a French Canadian pork pie to serve our guests. Husband was somewhat disgruntled and said that this was one of those occasions where could hurt himself trying to keep up with me. The dog was very excited by the activity level and ran around us as we cleaned. When our friends arrived the kitchen was spotless, all the dishes were put away, and there was no dust anywhere, not even between the slats on the Stickley dining room chairs. Husband worked hard on those. We had a lovely visit.

Not long after our friends left, the cold I had been fighting all week hit me hard, and I spent all day Sunday inert on the sofa. At least the house is clean.

What do you do for spring cleaning? How is your community looking like after this tough winter. What are your favorite spring flowers?

and sand

2023, Farming Update, Theatre, Uncategorized, work

Another Week

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Today’s farming update post is from Ben.

This week was all about theater. The College show, ‘Boy Gets Girl’ by Rebecca Gilman, opened Thursday night

‘Spring Awakening’ by Steven Sater and Duncan Sheik, opened at the Rep theater Friday

Boy, two shows at once. I’m not sure I’ve ever done that before, and I knew it wasn’t a good idea when I said I’d do it. But musicals are so much fun to light! And this show, ‘Spring Awakening’ is a rock musical, and with this director, it wasn’t something I wanted to pass up. Flashing lights spinning and changing color, plus haze in the air! We call it ‘Flash and Trash’.

Plus, it’s springtime and yeah, I had my hands full. One day at a time is how to manage that.

I was running on adrenaline a few days. I knew I could sleep in Wednesday morning and that was what kept me going Tuesday after programming lights until 1:30 AM Tuesday morning.

I sure am glad I got oats planted last Thursday and Friday. Saturday, I spent most of the day outside doing random stuff. Drove to Plainview and picked up the grapple I got from the auction.

Got the drag out and got the oat fields dragged. It’s a way to smooth them out, fill in the marks from the drill, and prevent erosion until the fields get established. (At least, barring heavy downpours).

The coop that does all my fertilizer and spraying, sent out a letter this spring that employees are hard to find, and in order to try attracting more, they’re going to be closed a few Sundays. Mother’s Day, Easter, and some other dates.

Times change. When I was growing up, we didn’t very often ‘farm’ on Sundays. We still had to milk and do chores, but nothing more than that. In fact, they used to say, ‘Farm on Sunday, fix on Monday’. I’ll bet Clyde has something to say on that.

Lots of guys farm every day they can because they have so many acres they have to get done, or as in my case, it’s one of the only free days I have, and we hope for good weather. I don’t often have to fix on Monday, it’s just not the rule it used to be. I guess that higher deity understands. I suppose those bigger guys are doing a lot themselves so the coop being closed a random Sunday might not be a problem. I’ll work around it. Don’t really have a choice. And I don’t really blame them; not many people willing to work seven days a week even if it’s only for a couple months. We keep getting farther and farther from agricultural roots and what that all means.

This weekend, Saturday, I hope to get the hydraulic tips on the blade changed and grade the road. Pull in all the gravel that got scraped into the grass over the winter. (The township has heard about that too. Several people complained about gravel in their grass. Well. It just was this year.) Maybe I can get the hydraulic hoses hooked up for the grapple too. Sunday I’ll visit mom. I haven’t been there in a couple weeks.

We had about 4” of snow earlier this week. And the wind, wow. We had some drifts on the road. Then we had Thunderstorms and 1.5” of rain. And there’s still some snow in corners and piles. The weather is never dull. Last week I really felt behind. This week, not so much anymore.

Next on my schedule is college commencement May 10th, so will be setting up for that May 8 and 9th.

Here’s some pictures of a valley I’ve been watching. It was the first place it started to green up and the progression has been fun to watch.

March 15th, March 30, April 7th starting to green up. April 20th looking like Spring.

WHAT WAS YOUR LAST ADRENILINE RUSH?

WHAT DID YOU LAST GRAPPLE WITH?

2023, Art, Movies, News, Uncategorized

Scrap Artist

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I ran across this yesterday. This artist lives in Lemmon, SD, about 80 miles south of where we live. I have never heard of him before.

https://www.kfyrtv.com/2023/04/19/lemmon-sd-artist-gets-international-attention-new-documentary/

The Scrap documentary highlights people who have found uses for objects that are no longer needed. For eample, one of the stories involves a British man and his family who have restored more than 2000 British phone booths that have turned up in all sorts of locations in England. Another team of architects has turned abandoned ocean liners in a cafe and a church. I think it is great the documentary film maker also highlighted the sculptor in Lemmon.

Having been around farmsteads for much of my life, I can imagine that there is scrap metal galore to use for projects like this. I think about all the things that got thrown in the groves at my grandparents’ farms. You often see old corn pickers and threshing machines parked on top of hills out here as monuments to the past. I just think it is wonderful that he can do this in Lemmon.

Do you know any actively working artists? What are some ideas you would have for repurposing things we don’t use anymore, like telephone booths? Ever done much work with blow torches?

2023, animals, Fantasy, Health, Mysteries, News

The Newest Tsar

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The word on the streets of New York is that there is a new “rat mitigator”; the headlines are screaming “A NEW RAT CZAR”.  Her actual title is City Director of Rat Mitigation but it hasn’t taken long for the czar moniker to have grabbed ahold of everyone’s attention.

I know that czar gets added to a lot of titles – Bird Flu Czar, Climate Czar, Energy Czar.  My favorite is Elliott Abrams title of Democracy Czar during the GW Bush administration.  Czar and democracy seem like odd bed-fellows to me.

I feel a little sorry for the new Rat Czar; it can’t be an easy job and it’s hard to imagine that in a contest between rats and humans, that the rats don’t hold most of the cards.  But you never know!

What do YOU think we need a tsar of these days?

2023, Family, Food, Uncategorized

Value Added

22 Comments

Husband and I did such a good job eating leftovers out of the Lutheran Freezer over the past couple of months that I decided last weekend that I would go crazy and actually cook some new dishes. Husband left it to me to do the cooking while he and the dog cleaned up the yard. I had the best fun!

We have a number of legs of lamb in our freezers, and I decided to make use of one. I didn’t want to just roast a whole leg. One of my favorite lamb dishes is a Kreatopita from the island of Kephalonia that has lamb chunks, tomatoes, feta, and hard boiled eggs all encased in phyllo. It calls for only 1.75 lbs of lamb, so we had to find other recipes to use up the remaining leg meat. We opted for recipes from a stew book by Clifford Wright, a historian and food writer who specializes in dishes from the Mediterranean. He also came up with the Lamb Pie recipe.

The first stew, which also used 1.75 lbs of lamb, was an Andalusian recipe called Spanish Lamb, Heirloom Beans, and Fennel stew. That stew had four different kinds of dried heirloom beans, most from Spain and Portugal. Next came Fiery White Haricot, Onion, and Lamb Stew of the Housewives of Algiers. I used cassoulet beans in that. It used 2 lbs of lamb. The rest of the leg meat was cut into chunks for kebobs that husband grilled. That recipe was from 14th Century Catalan and used about 1.5 lbs of lamb marinated “in the Arab style” with ginger, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, saffron, marjoram, and sherry vinegar. I made two vegetable curries and Indian rice to go with the kebobs. One of those recipes was the eggplant curry recipe that PJ contributed to the Kitchen Congress. It is one of my favorites.

I can imagine that anyone reading this will wonder what the heck we are going to do with all this food. Well, not much went into the Lutheran freezer, and it is all so good that we will eat it up pretty quickly. The curries are really going fast. In cooking all this, I used up many things we already had in our freezers and larder. We are coming to increasingly appreciate the wonders of Mediterranean cooking.

How spicy do you like your food? What are your favorite Mediterranean dishes? When was the last time you had a cooking frenzy?

2023, Business, Media, News, Uncategorized

Nutcracker!

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This is another tidbit of news from the Rock County Star Herald, the weekly newspaper from Luverne, MN.

After considerable discussion, angst, and protest, Luverne’s Board of Appeals and Adjustments approved the variance request for a 73-foot-tall nutcracker on South Highway 75.

The nutcracker motif is an attempt by a faction of some of the more forward thinkers at the Chamber of Commerce and supporters of the very elderly woman in charge of the Rock County Historical Society to capitalize on her donation to the museum of thousands of nutcrackers she used to keep in her home. She taught with my mother, so I am sure she is in her late 90’s.

The city wants a way to allure people to town to look at the nutcracker collection and spend money and move to Luverne. I suppose nutcrackers are interesting to some people. Hard to say how appealing this will be. It has been quite a city controversy.

What mascot or symbol would you like erect outside your town? What have been interesting controversies in your community?

2023, Family, History, Media, TV, Uncategorized

Banners

35 Comments

My home town of Luverne, MN got some press many years ago as one of the communities featured in the Ken Burns documentary The War. There is a Veteran’s nursing home, as well as a really nice military museum in the courthouse. I believe my paternal grandfather’s First World War gas mask is displayed there. He served in with the US Army Engineering Corps in France. When my cousins and I were young we would play with that gas mask and take turns wearing it. It was pretty weird and fascinating. Luverne loves its veterans.

Today I will mail an application as well as a 8 x10 photo of my father in his Second World War Army Air Corps uniform to the Luverne Chamber of Commerce so that his photo and rank can be displayed on a banner on Main Street. The Chamber is putting up 82 banners of veterans on all the lamp posts. They also do this every year for the graduating high school seniors. I think this is swell.

Any veterans in your families? Whose faces would you want to see on banners on the lampposts in your town?

2023, animals, Family, Farming Update, Gatherings, home, Nature, Uncategorized, Weather, work

WHEW

45 Comments

Today’s Farm Report comes from Ben.

Man, this week. Or this month. Or this year. Or maybe this Spring. Whoosh. There it goes…

I had that equipment up at the online auction that ended on Tuesday. But the corn head for the chopper (the part used when chopping up corn. Just like it sounds I guess) was in a part of the old shed that I never try to get into until June. It was quite the deal getting the corn head out on Sunday evening. (Saw Hamilton Sunday afternoon. Yes, it was as fantastic as I expected).

There was still ice and snow back on Sunday. Remember that? I chopped and dug and eventually cut 6” off the bottom of one door before I got them open. Then moved the hay rake, and thank goodness the swather started, and I had to chop out more ice because the swather has no traction. Then moved some other junk, THEN was able to get to the corn head out and load it on the trailer. It was kind of a process.

Hauled that to the auction lot on Monday, went to the vet’s office across the street and spent too much money on tick prevention and heartworm pills for the dogs. Talked to the agronomist about getting fertilizer spread for the oats, ordered diesel fuel, and picked up oats seed. Had a township ‘Board of Appeals’ meeting regarding property taxes in the afternoon.

After the meeting, Daughter and I picked up driveway markers, I moved the snowblower out of the shed, and Kelly and I cut some brush behind the shed. It was a good day.

The auction. My stuff didn’t sell as good as I wanted it too. But the chopper was 40 years old and been in the shed unused for the last 20 years, so at least it’s gone. The rear blade sold pretty well. And the old tools of dads went for a couple bucks.

The ‘vintage’ item I had were old cultivator shields. Sold for $2. Scrap price might have been $3 or $4…I thought someone might have a unique use for them. No one would use them as cultivator shields anymore. And I bought a rock “grapple” bucket for my loader.  It’s like ‘fingers’ to grab trees and rocks and “stuff”. Always wanted one. I’ll need to add some more hydraulics line to run it… you remember how the last hydraulic project went. I will pay more attention to this one.

The killdeer have returned. The Sandhill Cranes are back (Hi Steve!) and Kelly has been listening to them call during the day since she has the windows open in this warm weather.  The chives are coming and Kelly found a deer shed on one of her walks.

I haven’t seen the female duck lately, and there’s two males here. I’m hoping she’s sitting on a nest. I saw eggs in the pond and when I googled “Why are there duck eggs in my pond”, the thought is ducks are lousy moms. Eggs just sort of ‘pop out’ where-ever they are. Like the pond apparently. Google also said not to eat them.

When the diesel fuel was delivered, I was talking with the driver that the gauge has been broken since I got this tank and I couldn’t get the old one out. He said it shouldn’t be that hard; “get a hammer and chisel.” And those, along with an 18” pipe wrench and a pipe extension handle, we did get the old one out. The new gauge is nice.

Been hanging lights and started programming lights for the musical ‘Spring Awakening’ at the Rep theater, and finishing up set stuff for ‘Boy Gets Girl’ at the college. Both open next Thursday and luckily college rehearsals are afternoon and the Rep’s are evening.

And I farm between things.

Started planting oats Thursday night! Hope to finish on Friday. It’s even a little dusty. I keep forgetting the thermometer to check the soil temperature, but I know it’s warmed up.

CAN YOU TALK LIKE AN AUCTIONEER?

2023, Family, Food, Health, Medicine, pets, Uncategorized

Give It Up

27 Comments

Husband came home Wednesday from his work day in Bismarck to find his right big toe was swollen from gout. He drives to Bismarck on Tuesday nights, stays at a hotel, and works at the Human Service Center all day on Wednesday. Sometimes he takes lunch with him from home in a cooler, but he often just scrambles for lunch on the fly from the grocery stores. Wednesday it was hummus.

Chickpeas are really bad for gout. He knows this, but really loves hummus. He still eats it. He also is seriously allergic to cats, but we have had cats in our home for 35 years. A dripping nose and sneezing are more tolerable to him than the absence of purring. A swollen toe is worth some hummus. I know I could never give up down pillows or comforters if I became allergic to feathers.

My Uncle Alvie, the poker player, always broke out in hives when he ate fresh strawberries. He always feasted on his wife’s homegrown strawberries though, no matter how itchy he got. I know that allergic reactions can be serious. I had a graduate school friend who would go into anaphylaxis if she walked into a home with gerbils or guinea pigs. A work friend recently got a bunny for her son and after a few hours her eyes swelled shut and poor Coco had to go back to his breeder. They were heartbroken.

Do you have allergies? What would be hard for you to give up for allergies or health issues?

2023, Business, work

Life Lesson Learned

36 Comments

Last year when I retired, I made an online calendar to count down the last 30 days.  I did it online because I didn’t want to hurt my boss’ feelings.

When she called me in January to ask if I would handle two special projects, I was hesitant but eventually figured it would be a nice favor to do her and that extra money never hurts.  I had several stipulations that I hoped would make the projects easier:  100% work from home, no set schedule, no meetings except the few needed for my specific projects, no training.

Since I only work when there is something to do, my hours have been variable.  Early on, I was just working 3-4 hours a week.  The last six weeks, it’s been around 20 hours a week.  The first week of May will likely be around 40. 

As you can see from the photo above, I’ve made another calendar to count the days.

My appreciate of corporate America has not increased since last summer.  Still too many buzz words (collaboration, pivot, synergy, core competency, subject matter expert).  Still too much inter-department conflict.  Still clients who completely ignore timelines and 30+ years of advice. 

The biggest issue although is my feeling that I just don’t want to be tied to work any longer.  Not that I have massive numbers of other things to do; I just want to be free to do what I want when I want… even if it’s reading all day while playing online solitaire.

Someone asked me over the weekend if I wouldn’t be susceptible to more requests from my boss in the future – if I would feel guilty if she was struggling to get everything assigned.   I’ve thought about it and realized that no, this has been a lesson learned.  I don’t want to do this anymore.  In addition, I worked for this woman for 32 years and she has never gotten anyone from outside the organization to come back to do special projects; she has 32 years of experience working this stuff out.  If I say “no” in the future, I’m sure she can work it out without me. 

So, I’m counting down.  I included the weekends because I will be working on Saturday, May 6.  It’s the final event of the two projects and except for a few hours of wrapping up the accounting, which will probably be in June, it will be the end of my work.  I can’t wait!

When was the last time you were counting the days?  Have you ever actually made a countdown calendar?