I was thinking about Ben’s question about stepping up as I was doing errands yesterday morning. My mom is also giving up some of the responsibilities that she’s been shouldering (some a little unwillingly) for quite some time. It’s not going as easily as she would like.
When I drove back up into my driveway, the neighbor girls were eager to tell me that there was a cat out front. The grandparents were visiting as well and it was clear that between the two girls, the two parents and the two grandparents there wouldn’t be anyone who did anything except report the existence of this cat.
So YA and I ventured out the front door to deal with the cat. It was a big white cat w/ black and brown markings, very happy to come to me and get scritched and petted, purring quite loudly. It allowed me to pick it up and that’s when YA said she thought it belonged to one of the houses across the street. We took it over and talked to the owner through the door – apparently it’s an outdoor cat; there was food & water there on the front step. When I put the cat down, it went for the food immediately so we headed home.
This isn’t the first time I’ve been elected as official “animal wrangler” in the neighborhood. I’ve been called to deal with bats twice. Once an obviously pet rabbit was found in a yard and I got a call; signs up at the vet and around the neighborhood didn’t result in owners coming forward but luckily we found a good home pretty quickly. I’ve rescued four dogs who have been loose on the street (all four had tags so got home to their owners). And for several years there was an escape artist two doors down (Duffer) that everyone was afraid of except me, so I had to drag him home repeatedly.
I’m not sure why I somehow have been designated the animal problem solver but it seems my lot in life.
I feel like I’ve been busy lately. Nothing important, just… day to day living.
Crops are coming along. I talked with the co-op about spraying fungicide on the soybeans. I’ve never done it before, but I know some of the neighbors have and they report a good return. It will cost $33/acre to do it. $20 for the actual ground application and $13 for the chemical. Plus, some beans knocked down in the process. If beans are selling at $15 / bushel this fall, I will need the fungicide to increase yield by 2 or 3 bushels / acre to justify the cost. The neighbors have seen 10-15 bushel / acre increase over not treated so we’ll see how that goes. Curiously, aerial application is only $15/ acre! I’ve got too many trees, too many neighboring houses, and too small of fields to use that, but I was really surprised it’s cheaper. I supposed they can cover a greater area faster. It always comes back to efficiency doesn’t it?
My corn will be tasseling any day now. I’ve seen some of the neighbor’s corn already tasseling. Just depends on those GDU. (1559 to date. +110) Once the tassel is fully emerged, the plant is at full height. Silks will appear in a couple more days and then one or two weeks of pollination begins. There are so many critical things in any plant’s development but getting all that pollen from the tassels to the silks is a big one. The kernel won’t develop if the silk attached to it doesn’t get pollinated. Hard rains, hail, or storms can mess all that up.
And with the heat, some of the corn is curling up to protect it self. This is a rocky area, so the roots are shallow. Notice how the leaves have curled up?
And the oats is turning color, it just needs to keep standing, no wind storms, and hopefully this hot weather doesn’t boil all the milk out of the heads. It should be ready to cut in a couple weeks. Then get it harvested and the straw baled. I only planted 10 acres this year; less than half of normal because I was expecting the knee replacement this summer.
The straw delivery trip to the boonies of Winona last week was a great drive. 119 miles, took a few hours, saw lots of countryside with very little traffic, met a woman named Sunshine, had lunch in a bar in Witoka where my chicken sandwich was actually two chicken strips placed inside the bun. And there was enough lettuce on it to choke a horse and more fries than two of us could possibly eat. We even found the back way into Farmers Park: A minimum maintenance road that was pretty awesome and I’m glad we had the truck. It was washed out and rough with not one, but TWO single lane bridges.
I mentioned taking two hens to a friend. The next day I had a record 22 eggs! We wondered if the other chickens felt threatened and that they better step up production?? But no, couple days later there was only 8 eggs, then back to the usual 15 or 16. Production varies like that.
The little chicks are blending right in. Here’s some chicken photos including Rooster 3 minus a tail. Not sure what happen there.
That duck in the brush pile ran down to get something to eat one night and that was the opportunity we needed. The pile was burned. The duck was very put out for a couple hours. Sorry. It’s just the way it is.
My brother helped me get the brush mower hooked up and I’ve been mowing weeds in pastures and waterways. Of course I always have my tractor buddy with me. The corn is a tall as the tractor.
If it’s just grass, I’ll leave it standing, no reason to cut it. But there are a lot of thistles, wild parsnip, ragweed, stinging nettles, burdocks, and stuff that needs to be controlled. I’ll spend a few days yet mowing.
My nephew just retired after 25 years in the Air Force. He had the rank of Colonel and was a Base Commander in the St. Louis area. He had a big ceremony last week and some of the family went down. He’s a big nerd and they celebrated that by having several Star Wars characters there in costume. Unfortunately, Covid hit the gathering too.
Read an article about Ukraine; they are big producers of wheat and corn. But with the war, shipping has been an issue so their storage facilities (the ones that haven’t been damaged) are still full of last year’s crops and there’s no room to store this years crop. So they can sell it at a loss just to move it and get the storage facilities empty, but then they don’t have the income to support the families and communities either. Not to mention a shortage of food coming up. And as the war moved on from some of these areas, they needed ‘sappers’ to clear mines and other munitions from the fields, then they had to drag rockets and war detritus from their fields. Not something I have ever imagined doing, thankfully.
Padawan has been trimming weeds, and mowing grass, and he learned the basics on using a chainsaw.
EVER FELT PRESSURE TO STEP UP? WHAT ARE YOU SPIFFING UP LATELY?
We just can’t get a break with the weather. Our home garden got planted late due to freezing temperatures in May, and then we had a hail storm in June that took out the tomatoes and peppers and shredded the beans and peas.
Our church vegetable garden is planted in six, waist-high raised beds. We planted bush squash, peas, beans, and savoy cabbages there. We planted the squash and cabbages in raised mounds just to give them ample depth for roots. That garden didn’t get the hail we did at our house several blocks away. Last Sunday the bush squash and cabbages at church were looking spectacular. Then, on Tuesday, the wind hit.
I never realized how shallow squash roots are. The wind gusted up to 50 mph, and almost entirely uprooted the squash. Husband frantically placed cedar shakes around the squash and cabbage mounds to block the wind, and piled more dirt over the exposed roots. Many of the squash stems were bent and the leaves broken off and wilted. By yesterday they looked a little better, but, again, this sets back possible harvest.
Our home garden wasn’t affected by the wind since the plants are at ground level, not in waist-high raised beds. I think we will have ample cabbages and squash to take to the food pantry if the church garden doesn’t produce.
Let’s have some weather inspired songs and poems today.
There is a strip mall near Nonny’s place that we visited more than once (Panera, post office, UPS store, Walgreens and Starbucks – we had a lot of errands to run). It is very poorly designed, with parking spaces laid out every which way and with some one-way arrows that everybody ignores.
YA’s game of choice on her iPad this weekend was Parking Jam – in which you have to get all the cars out of a parking lot without jumping any berms to crashing into other vehicles.
Then when I ran out to get a few things this morning before work, I drove by the backside of the Hub parking lot. If you have ever seen the backside of the Hub parking lot, you’ll know that it is just wasted real estate. All the entrances to the mall are on the other side and no one parks in the back – not even employees. But this morning I noticed that in the last week they have re-painted all the parking lines back there. What a complete waste of paint and time!
I mentioned to YA when I got home that clearly parking lot design must be a completely neglected part of architecture school – they can’t teach this and have so many folks be so bad at it? Or can they?
“Life is so much better when you learn to have just a little bit of fun, or a lot bit of fun, because we all believe in magic at some point,” Maui says. “A lot of times, life can get pretty dull and boring. So why not just enjoy every aspect of it that you can?”
These words were spoken by Merman Maui. Maui is part of a growing group of folks worldwide who have taken to the water as merfolk. It’s called “mermaiding” and there are competitions, including a World Championship. Even the scuba diving industry (PADI, SSI and NAUI) have gotten on board and now all offer mermaid courses.
A quick internet search comes up with dozens of sites that sell mermaid tails, from very inexpensive ($20) to a site which is so expensive that you have to email them for pricing (some second hand tails on their site are listed around $2,000).
Merfolk report that they enjoy the feeling of refuge in the water, the quiet and even peace. “When you put your mermaid tail on at the beach or pool, you become a superstar” says one mermaid who performs and teaches.
I tried often to do the mermaid kick as a child but definitely never mastered it. Maybe if I had an actual mermaid tail and fins I would do better!
What magical creature would you like to exist? Or to be?
Last Thursday was Psychologist Day as well as Bastille Day. I advised my coworkers to not be alarmed if I and our psychology resident stormed the barricades because we weren’t getting the guillotine out until next week. Only a couple of my coworkers knew what Bastille Day was or what I was talking about.
In honor of Psychologist Day, a Ukrainian coworker gave me a china plate emblazoned with pysanki. It was a lovely gift and much appreciated. I can use it. I am perplexed, though, about the gift from our psychometrist.
My Human Service Center and the Center in Bismarck, where Husband works share the services of a go-getting and spunky young woman who administers and scores our psychological tests. She is very efficient and works quickly. She is also very impulsive, and professes to know nothing about plants. In honor of Psychologist Day she bought large, potted fig trees for each of the four psychologists she works with. She hoped we could keep the trees in our offices. These trees need bright light. I am the only one with a window in my office. Husband brought our two trees home from Bismarck on Wednesday and they are sitting on our kitchen counter for the time being until I can get them to my office. There they will sit on a table by my window along with a large potted rosemary plant. I can’t use the table for much of anything now. It is covered in plants. I don’t want to crush the exuberance of our psychometrist, so I will do my best to keep these trees going. I know that when she drives out to my Center she will want to see how they are doing, so I don’t feel that I can give them away, either.
What is the oddest or most awkward gift you ever received? Who is the most impulsive person you ever worked with? Any advice on how to grow Fiddle Leaf Fig Trees?
The Botanical Garden, which opened to visitors here in 1859, is the oldest public garden in the US and among the top three public gardens in the world.
The first US kindergarten was started here in 1873 by Susan Blow. (You can still see her original class room!)
The Eads Bridge, completed here in 1874, was the first arched steel truss bridge in the world. The bridge continues to carry automobiles, pedestrians, cyclists and light rail trains!
Several new foods were popularized here in 1904: the hot dog, the ice cream cone and iced tea.
Famous folks from here: Maya Angelou, Yogi Berra, Daniel Boone, William Burroughs, Vincent Price, Stan Musial, Marlin Perkins.
Two weeks plus post-surgery and putting socks on is still kind of a process. Picking black raspberries was harder than I expected, too. But I’m getting there.
Last Monday the two corners of CRP got planted to a ‘pheasant habitat’ blend of wildflowers and grasses. And we got three loads of crushed rock delivered for the farmyard. One dumped in a pile for use as needed and the other two spread on the road.
We have a brush pile of sticks collected from the yard since December, and we’ve been meaning to burn it all spring. Several times Kelly has said “This would be a good night to burn the brush pile” and then we fall asleep on the couch.
But the other night we were out there ready to do it! Aaaand there’s a duck nesting under it. Sigh.
A few years ago, we started a pile of sticks on fire and there was a good blaze going before a chicken came running out from under it. So, we look before we light it now. The duck only has three eggs… not sure they’re even fertilized. But the fire is still on hold.
I’m delivering straw this weekend with my friend Paul, and we’re going out in the middle of nowhere. It’s a Winona Address…and it’s a great drive on lonely gravel roads and hills and valleys and S-turns and I have a printed map because there is no cell phone reception down in there. I love going there.
Crops are looking good. Two weeks ago, I had a photo of Kelly on July 4 and the corn was up to her waist. In 10 days, it’s doubled in height.
Soybeans are up to her knees.
I’ve talked about 15” rows vs. 30” rows and how we like the crops to canopy to help prevent weeds growing. Compare these photos: first is the neighbors 30” rows and second is my 15” rows.
Growing degree units are 1384, 94 above normal for my area. The hot weather coming helps, but the plant actually shuts down above 86 degrees, so we don’t actually gain GDU’s after that.
See this corn plant growing in the middle of the soybeans.
That’s called ‘volunteer corn’ and it can be a problem in soybeans. Because we use crop rotation, usually a bean field this year was corn last year. If a storm or disease knocked down the stalk of corn, depending how much it’s fallen over, it can make picking it up at harvest that much harder. A lot of ears may fall to the ground and grow voluntarily in the field next year. Hence the term, volunteer corn. It doesn’t generally reach maturity with full ears, but depending on the amount, it’s competing with the soybean crop and it can be a problem at harvest.
Kelly let the little chicks out to run at large. Padawan and I took down the fence and they’re enjoying all the room. Of course, a new pecking order will need to be established eventually between the old hens and the new ones.
A friend of mine in town had given me some chickens a few years ago and was ready for more, so I took two of the laying hens and one of the younger chicks to her. At her place, the two laying hens went to her outdoor run and settled right in. The younger one made a break for it. Out the coop door, through the garden (The entire backyard is garden) into her garage, out the big door, across the street, and under the neighbor’s car. Two adults and my young Padawan in pursuit. Padawan really does not have much interest in the chickens, so the last thing he wanted to do was chase this one up the street. Eventually, the young chick reversed its course: back into the garage, back into the garden, in and around all the plants, and eventually, got stuck in a narrow spot between a retaining wall and a fence. Was captured, and returned to its new home. I really wanted a photo of all this, but I had left my phone in the truck. Use your imagination. Remember, the backyard is all garden so they’re dodging all that too. It was as funny as you imagine.
USE YOUR IMAGINATION AND GO OFF THE BEATEN TRACK. SAY WHAT YOU WANT HERE.
With my front and back yards full of flowers, I do need to think about water during the summer months, especially if there are going to be so many 90+ degree days. I watch the weather forecasts like a hawk to try to determine if Mother Nature is going to gift me with any free precipitation. If it’s going to rain, I really don’t to pay the City of Minneapolis for extra water.
It seems that almost every forecast of rain the past month has been a chimera – it shows as 50% or 60% and the radar shows the dark green riding right over my location – then nothing! Or else it does a very insulting sprinkle for 3 minutes. Last night I had the sprinkler on in front and when I went to water my baskets in the back, YA gave me grief. She said “it’s going to rain… it’s 80%”. I continued along, watering all the baskets and the bales while she made fun of me. As I finished up, it started to lightly sprinkle. She smirked as I came in the back. Then 5 minutes later I smirked when it hadn’t even rained long enough to wet a tissue.
I know weather is capricious but I would have thought that by now, forecasters could get a better grasp on this. I’ve said many times that if I were to look for another job, it would be as a weather forecaster. Then I could get a big salary to be on tv and the fact that I was wrong half of the time wouldn’t count against me on my annual review!
I guess for the rest of the summer, I’ll just assume there will be no rain, unless I wake up to it in the morning!
Bill mentioned a few days ago that his first little tomatoes had been swiped right off the vine. Now I’m paranoid about my first ripening beauties. There are 3 cherry tomatoes and 2 romas that are in various blushing states; I hope they survive until I pick them.
My cherry tomato plant is now taller than I am. Granted, it has a 24” start since it is in a straw bales, but I’m thinking that even without the bale, it’s going to give me a run for the money.
You all know that I started gardening in straw bales after someone here talked about Tomatoland by Barry Estabrook. I hadn’t grown any veggies for years prior to that, but the book was horrifying enough that I started casting about for ways to raise my own tomatoes and that’s when I discovered straw bale gardening. The rest is history.
I have the book The $64 Tomato by William Alexander on hold at the library. Actually it’s “paused” and I keep pushing the pause date back. It’s subtitle is “How One Man Nearly Lost His Sanity, Spent a Fortune, and Endured an Existential Crisis in the Quest for the Perfect Garden”. But now I’m a little worried. What if it makes me re-think my straw bale protocol? What if it makes me do the math?
I’m hoping it’s just a fun read with some laughs. Fingers crossed.
Trail Baboon 