The Big Burn!

 Five years ago I signed a Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) contract to put some of land into grass. The contract specified that mid-contract, i.e., in the fifth year of the ten year contract, some habitat renewal is necessary.  The choice is between burning before May 15, or light discing after Aug. 1.  One field of approximately 45 acres is ideal for burning.
 The major grasses in this CRP field are native to Eastern SD and are late summer, warm season grasses.  They are Big Blue Stem, Switchgrass, Side Oats Gamma and Indian Grass.  They are energized by spring fires as swept across the prairies.
  An invasive species is Brome Grass, which I think came from Russia.  It is extremely competitive and is an early spring grass that colonizes in the early season while the afore mentioned grasses are still dormant.  A spring burn knocks back the Brome Grass and sets up the warm weather grass for a good start.  After five years there was also a thick thatch that gives thistles a place to start.
  Eastern SD is still quite dry and so a burning is still in effect.  After surveying my field, the local fire chief  gave me permission to burn.  The field is ideally situated for a controlled burn.  It is boarded by a road on the west, pasture on the south and a plowed field on the east.  The only area of concern were the tree rows I had planted on the north.
   Monday I went to work on a firebreak between the grass and the trees.  Using my ancient disc to cultivate a twenty foot fire break it quickly became apparent that this would be more difficult than I'd anticipated.  The old disc works fine in plowing but on the sod it barely made an impression.  After an hour of going back and forth on the fire break the disc died. 
  A quick call and a twenty+ mile trip with the tractor I was back at work with a disc I'd borrowed from W.  It was only marginally better than my old one but persistence pays off.  By dinner I'd beaten a track into the sod that I thought would be adequate.
  A call to the Curmudgeonette got me the predicted wind speeds and directions for Tuesday.  The forecast promised light winds from the south east.  North would be better but light winds are helpful.
  At 7:00am D. and I began firing the grass from the northwest corner to widen the fire break protecting the trees.  With the dew on the track I disced we figured that there was little chance of the fire spreading north.  By the time we had fired the grass along the fire break the width of the field the wind switched.  Wind switches often raise havoc with controlled burns but in this case the wind switched to the north which was perfect for our purpose.  By 10:00 the entire field had been burned and there were only a  few pockets of fire left and by 11:00 the fire was entirely out.

  The pictures show before, from a couple of years ago, and during the burning.  The camera battery died so the after pictures will have to wait until I go back.

Backside both ways!

Thinking back on it it was rather ingenious. Certainly not my idea because I was the youngest. When L was 10, R was 8, D was 6 and I was 4. It solved a lot of problems.
We owned a '42 Chevrolet, Fleetline, 2 door. A very sleek looking car for it's day. The problem it solved was 'who sits where' when there are six people in a 2 door car? Dad drove and mom sat in the middle of the front seat but where will the kids sit? Heading out for a trip to town one of us would call, "front side going" someone else "backside both ways". The deal was that the best seat, front by the door, could be reserved one direction while a back side seat could be reserved both ways. So the person riding in the front by the door going, would switch with the person in the middle of the back, on the way home. The ones by the windows in the back could have that seat both going and coming. It saved many fights.

Remembering Bill Holm

The late Bill Holm was recognized as the 2008 Distinguished Artist by the McKnight Foundation. In the testimonial booklet that was published in conjunction with the award David Pichaske quotes Walt Whitman "Resist much, obey little." He goes on to say "In most things, Holm set himself squarely against the established power structures and received wisdom of his hometown-and America- during the 1950s, embodying the '60s version of Whitman's admonition: 'Whatever the power structure wants you to do is probably not in your best interest so do the opposite.' In an early essay titled 'The Grand Tour,' Holm wrote, 'One of power's unconscious functions is to rob you of your own experience by saying we know better, whatever you may have seen or heard, whatever cockeyed story you come up with; we are principle, and if experience contradicts us, why then you must be guilty of something.'"
This rings true of my experience and some of the most satisfying moments I had in 40 years of ministry were those time I could use what power I had to intervene on behalf of someone being mishandled by senseless bureaucracy.

More pics

Easter Pics.

The odessy of a toaster.

A year out of the Marines and my last year at Augustana College, 1963, I was living at First Lutheran Church, Sioux Falls. It was my job to lock up at night and help the custodian of this large, downtown church. Some women, among whom was Camille Newcomb, cleaned the church kitchen. They decided the Sunbeam Toaster was obsolete so they gave it to me.
It still works! In fact we used it almost every day until recently. The curmudgeonette and L2 tired of it because it doesn't do very well with ultra thin bread. It still toasts fine if the bread isn't too thin. But, it's been retired to Our Little House on the Prairie as an object d`art.
Last fall I asked C. T. to put a new electrical cord on the old toaster. After taking it apart into dozens of pieces he decided that the replacement cord I'd purchased wasn't adequate for the temperatures generated while toasting. With great patience, persistence and a dash of the miraculous he was able to reassemble it. If you visit Our Little House you'll see it standing proudly looking as it did when it was manufactured in the '40s.

My father was a horse man!

Sometimes I feel like an anachronism even more than my age would suggest. All of my grandparents were born in the eighteen fifties. My father was born in 1883 in Lac Que Parle County, MN, and moved with his parents by wagon in 1885. I remember a certificate displayed in our home that he received for being resident at the time South Dakota received statehood in 1889.
The oldest of four children he grew up on grandpa's homestead and lived there until 1962 when David came home to farm. Horses were his thing. His younger brothers were interested in mechanical things. Henry had a huge 40-80 Avery tractor he used for building roads, the rear wheels of which were eight feet high. Sam ran dads threshing machine during harvest.
Dad moved from horses to tractors reluctantly. In 1941 he bought an IHC B, a tiny little thing with 17 horse power. He was able to farm 160 acres with it, by spending hour after hour, day after day in the field. He may have upgraded to more horsepower but during WWII it was almost impossible to buy a tractor. When the war was over veterans received preference in buying tractors so it was either '47 or '48 (David says '47, I say '48) that he able to buy a Farmall H. That tractor is still in the family.
He kept one team of horses after he bought that first tractor. Their names were Bill and Daisy, gentle beasts, he used for mowing, raking and pulling hay and bundle wagons. Finally Daisy went blind and was sold. Her replacement was a bit cranky and kicked as she was being led into her stall knocking a hole in the barn wall.
Once I saw a picture of him with a dozen or more horses lined up in front of the barn. Oh how I wish I had that picture now. Dad died in 1969 at age 85.

Warren D., rest in peace.

Warren D., age 86, a thoughtful, wise, gentle, man was buried yesterday. All of his children, grandchildren and step-grandchildren were there, the farthest coming from England. In his honor, popcorn was served at the wake and hot dogs at the lunch after the funeral. There was a large crowd at the funeral and many at the wake.
I knew Warren for 49 years, ever since I began to make moves toward joining the curmudgeonette's family. Warren was married to the curmudgeonette's cousin for 62 years. Warren was not the same man I first knew those many years ago.
Why was he different? Warren has four very interesting children, all of whom have lived abroad. He travelled to visit them in various parts of the world. His grandchildren have picked up in travelling and life where their parents left off. Following the wake I had a fascinating conversation with a granddaughter and her husband about their 13 month trek around the world on their honeymoon. Warren changed because he was open to his children and grandchildren and he let their experiences influence his perspective on life and the world.
He was always a thoughtful person graduating from Augustana College (my alma mater) with a history major. His genius was allowing family, life and relationships to influence him. May he rest in peace and may we be inspired by his example to be life long learners open to others and the experiences they bring to us.

Plowing is done.

On April 2, I pretended it was the '60s. Using David's 656 IHC to pull my 4 bottom semi-mounted plow of the same vintage, I was able to plow six acres in six hours. I'd hoped to do the discing the next day but it was too cold to be on an open platform tractor so that will wait for warmer weather. It's still to early to plant corn so waiting until the ground warms is no problem.