Today.........

   Having written a longer blog post than usual tonight I hit the wrong button and erased it all. It was only my usual drivel and I'm not in the mood to re-type it. So, this is sent so you both see I'm okay. Sorry!

Takk for alt,

Al

Outside of Phnom Penh, Cambodia is huge garbage pile. These students are children of parents who make their living picking garbage. An NGO (Non-governmental agency) runs the school. The picture was taken in 2009.

This was a joke between Joanne and I!

 

Where are we?

    Of course, the answer to the title of this blog is "We're here."   We're home, we left home to drive home😀 Leaving The Little House this afternoon we drove to the OFH where we'll stay until we drive back to The Little House.

   What did I see on the drive to St/ Paul? Most of the beans are harvested. Maybe half of the corn is combined. Quite a bit of fall tillage is done. There are a few fields planted to cover crops to protect the soil this winter. Most of the beets have been lifted. Will the huge beet piles spoil in this hot weather while they await freezing temperatures or processing?

   Odie came out of the field this morning a ball of mud. He stood patiently in the shower while the mud was washed away.

Takk for alt,

Al

Patience personified!

        Cockleburs, burdock, beggar's ticks and a whole assortment of other burs entangle themselves in a longhaired dogs coat. Springer Spaniels, of which Odie is one of a long line, are longhaired. The typical solution for dogs that hunt is a grooming 'field cut'., i.e., all-over cut very short. Because Odie has a close lying curly coat the groomer and I opted to only trim legs and feet. Perhaps that was a mistake.

      Saturday and today he returned from an outing in the field sporting many burs. Years of experience in bur removal has taught me much. One of the most helpful tools is a letter opener. It's the plastic kind with a point to insert in an envelope with a razor embedded to slice the envelope. In bur removal the point slides under the bur and the razor slices the fur freeing the bur.

     Thor, Bjorn, Kai, Gunnar, Kjell, Trygve and Kaia were Odie's predecessors. In one respect he outdoes them all. None of the previous dogs were very patient about bur removal. Every effort is made to keep it pain free, yet from time-to-time hair is pulled. Consequently, dogs get restless trying to pull away. Not Odie who lies perfectly still, even staying put after the process is complete. It certainly makes the task much easier.

Takk for alt,

Al

Quiet House!

     While Odie always wants to play, he seldom barks. Perhaps he's barked four times while he's been with me. That's an advantage in the OFH. Going from five in the house to one reminds me of what a quiet life I lead. A consultant observing my satisfaction at being alone once said to me "You'd make a good prisoner of war!" Thankfully that's never been my fate. Spending most of 2020 alone here during the worst of COVID, wasn't a problem. A cold car parked on the street was the worst park.

   After Kaia died, I realized how much I rely on a dog for companionship. Odie, belying his eight-year age is always ready to play. All's well with us.

Takk for alt,

Al

Sometimes when he thinks he's been ignored too long he picks up his blanket.

Rare Opportunity!

        A well-planned open house celebration for my brother's significant decade birthday today brought together 40? family members. Many came from a significant distance. Held at the church fellowship hall it gave good opportunity to converse with seldom seen family. My brother is a lifelong pillar of this community so there very many local residents in attendance. My children were keen to connect with their uncle. Hosting four of them in The Little House was fun. The house is small but somehow, we make it work, 

    My children are well connected to their cousins, all of the living, with one exception, were present Two, from the same family have died. Scattered as they are it's seldom they can all be together. 

    Eight accompanied me on a tour to the cemetery. They visited the graves of great grandparents. grandparents, aunt and uncles and also cousins. It's the cemetery where Joanne is buried.

Takk for alt,

Al

My children with their cousins. My son is in the blue shirt in the back and his sister is one his right.

Family Time!

      My brother is the subject of a birthday gathering tomorrow. So, family has been assembling. A niece and her daughter from Milwaukee dropped in this afternoon. L and family came last night so The Little House is bustling with energy. Tonight the family gathered at a local restaurant that had a private room for dinner. There were about 25 persons present. The two who came the farthest came from the Los Angeles area of California. The venue allowed for significant conversation. Tomorrow's gathering is in the form of an open house. There will be a large crowd, so this presented a good opportunity to actually converse with the birthday 'boy'. The Little House is in convenient proximity to the festivities. It's a gift to assemble for such a happy occasion.

      Takk for alt,

       Al

Dog in a manger!

          Cleaning out bird nesting boxes today brought to mind the old fable named in the title of this blog. Over half of the nesting boxes were stuffed with twigs. When the boxes were first posted they were intended for bluebirds. No bluebirds have been seen but they are very popular with tree swallows.

       So why did 'Dog in the manger' come to mind? Wrens had stuffed more than half of the boxes with twigs to prevent other birds from nesting in them. The wrens don't use them, but they prevent other birds access.

    Next year I'll try a different approach. I'll leave the boxes open until there are many swallows present. Hopefully the swallows will claim them before wrens stuff them with twigs. When there are no swallows near a box, I'll open it so see if it's full of twigs. Perhaps removing the twigs will allow swallows their use.

   These boxes have been up a few years. To ensure their stability I added two additional anchor screws. 

Takk for alt,

Al

   

A "dog in a manger" wren filled this box with twigs.

Work!

     Work fascinates me. I happily watch others work. That occupied my morning as a very nice young man repaired my tractor tire. He was a new serviceman to me. There must have been at least a dozen times the previous repairman had come to fix a tractor tire for me. Yes, I'm tire jinxed! 

   So, the bulk of my morning was spent watching him fix the tire. He knows his stuff. Quickly assessing that the tire was tubeless he examined the tire for a leak. The tire was new a year ago, so, unless punctured was likely okay. After filling the tire with air, he sprayed it and the rim with water watching carefully for air bubbles. A tiny bubble emerged where the tire fitted on the rim. Aha, the culprit was slight failure of the tubeless tire to seal on the rim.

   We consulted on two possible repairs. Inserting a $100. tube was one option. The other choice was to treat the area of the leak, which was the option we chose.  After dismounting the tire, he polished the area of the leak and remounted the tire. Removing and replacing a large tractor tire is no simple task and the reason I don't attempt it. 

   With the task complete he was on his way, and I await a bill for service in the mail. 

Takk for alt,

Al

PS Yes, I did enjoy watching him work.

Tire Jinx!

        Friday was a mild summer like day in October with only gentle wind. "Perfect" I thought to spray some thistles. Perennial plants draw up nutrients as winter approaches. This makes them vulnerable to herbicides. There is a sizeable thistle patch in the CRP field that was burned this spring. In late June, I mowed it to keep it from going to seed. Now it's healthy and eagerly anticipating vigorous growth in the spring. Eager to take advantage of its hunt for nutrition I sprayed it. Ever since June I've been procrastinating removing the sprayer from the tractor and now I know why I waited. 

    Spraying complete I removed the sprayer and left the tractor in its spot in the garage. Saturday, when I entered the garage, something didn't look right with the tractor. Closer inspection revealed that one of the large, rear tires was flat. Suspecting a deer antler may have punctured it I did a close inspection but found none. 

   A call to my tire repair shop of choice ended with a repairman scheduled for today. This afternoon he called to say he couldn't make it today but will come at 8:30 tomorrow. This is the tractor which had multiple flat tires two years ago resulting in new tires.

Takk for alt,

Al

Previous tire repair, same tractor.

Old Learning!

        After my first-year college, the summer of 1957, I took a job as a farm hand for a farmer. After all, what else did I know? His farm was a bit distant from my home, so I stayed with his family during the week. Breakfast was at 5:30 and dinner at 9:30 so commuting wasn't practical.

    My Dad's tractors were Farmalls, made by International Harvester. Farmalls had foot clutches and I had spent countless hours using them. My new employer used John Deere tractors which, in those days, had hand clutches. After a few awkward moments I became adept at driving tractors with hand clutches. Adjusting these clutches is relatively simple and I soon learned the technique.

    When I drove my newly purchased John Deere, with a hand clutch, onto the trailer yesterday I quickly recognized that the clutch needed adjustment. Today I adjusted the clutch. There's a certain satisfaction in remembering, and using, a skill learned 69 years ago, one that I may not have used since. 

Takk for alt,

Al

Most of our, almost 200-mile trip yesterday was in fog like this.

Things Happen!

        When yesterday's blog mentioned that there'd be an adventure today, I didn't anticipate an opportunity to invoke my mantra "Things happen." But things do happen, and happen it did. 

     A tractor (see picture below) followed me home from near Milbank, S.D. That location is important for the story that follows. Leaving Sinai at 8:00 am we got to the tractor about ten. That was the intended adventure. It's not every day that a tractor follows me home, though it used to be more common in my tractor collecting days.

   This tractor followed me because it's not a car. Bret, who accompanied me on this adventure, recently bought a Corvette. That made me think it would be fun to have an Austin Heally like the one I bought after my Marine Corps discharge. After doing some research about used ones for sale I realized the price was prohibitive. Then, too, my lifestyle isn't appropriate for a sports car with rural summers and urban winters.

    Then I came across an ad for a tractor I've always wanted.... way cheaper than a sports car. So that's how one happened to follow me home. Now for "things happen."

    Driving down Interstate 29, towing a trailer carrying said tractor, a trailer tire blew out. Fortunately, the trailer is a tandem, meaning it has two axles and thus 4 tires. Also, fortunately we were less than 4 miles from Brookings and a tire repair shop. The good tire carried the bad one high enough that the tire rim was not damaged on the road.

    Waiting for only a few minutes, the men in the shop went to work on the trailer. With a new tire in stock, it was quickly mounted on the rim. However, as things happen, there was a complication. When the tire blew out the tread wrapped around the axle. The repairmen worked for almost an hour to remove that old tire.  But they only charged me the cost of the tire. So, now the tractor is reposing in shop. 

    What about Odie you ask? He slept peacefully on the seat between us. Such, a good dog!

Takk for alt,

Al

The tractor that followed me home.

The remains of the tire.

Adventure on the horizon!

      While adventure lurks on the horizon this day was very placid. Odie and I hang out. He's always keen to play. I chased the guinea hens out of the yard before letting him out or he'd chase them, Today was a beautiful summer day, though daylight is noticeably shorter. It will be interesting to hear reports of the moisture in corn after these warm (hot?) days. 

    This is brief but wanted to reassure you both that we're okay.

Takk for alt,

Al

Odie with his favorite squirrel toy.

Summer in October!

       Local temperature reached 86 degrees today. That was accompanied by wind gusts of 42mph. Fires in combines during harvest are not uncommon. A bearing might get hot and ignite accumulated dust. Were such a fire to ignite a field during a high wind it would be almost impossible to stop. Such high heat with strong winds will quickly dry crops. Corn will likely be dry enough to store in bins. This will save farmers the expense of having to artificially dry corn for storage.

Takk for alt,

Al

 

Harvest Report!

         After a rainy September this dry October is a farmer's dream. Most farmers are concentrating on Soybeans. Despite the dry July and August bean yields are very good. Reports suggest that soybean yields are averaging about 60 bushels per acre. That's good for this area. The beans are 9% moisture, which also is good. The Soybean Plant at nearby Volga, is paying about $12.25, per bushel. That's up a bit.

     Some corn is also being harvested. Not enough to determine yields. A load of corn came to the local elevator this and it tested at 14% moisture. That's in the safe zone for storage. With moisture that low farmers will harvest corn as soon as bean harvest is done. Local corn prices are about $4.50 per bushel, up slightly. 

Takk for alt,

Al

Barber Time!

       Odie had a bit of a hair trim. His wavy fur lies so close to his body that, in consultation with the groomer, we decided to trim the longer fur on his legs and feet. The beautiful wavy fur on his back was left undisturbed. He sheds less than Kaia did. Because he's only been with me for slightly over two months there hasn't been sufficient time to fully understand his grooming needs.

    With his grooming done we took Al to the groomer. Sorely in need of a beard trim and haircut that was accomplished. The barber is the granddaughter of a farmer for whom I worked in the summer of 1957. Said farm was distant enough from my home that I boarded there during the week. The farmer died many years ago, but his widow is now 98.

Takk for alt,

Al

Harvest Dreams!

      It's as if the farmers had control over the weather. September offered frequent rains and much needed moisture. Pastures which were brown in August are now a lush green. October has turned dry and sunny. It's perfect weather for harvest which is now in full swing. If only farmers could control commodity and fuel prices. 

    Commodity prices have improved some. But diesel fuel is now about $6.00 a gallon. That's almost double the price last year. Virtually every modern farm machine engine uses diesel. Fertilizer costs are also at record highs.

   Ripe soybean fields, and to a lesser extent corn fields, are very dusty. Clouds of dust envelop combines as they harvest the crops. On windless days there is a pall of dust hanging in the air.

Takk for alt,

Al

Things Happen!

        Made all the arrangements for a 7:45 appointment this morning with my primary care doctor. It takes planning because her clinic is in Golden Valley, where we used to live. It means traversing Minneapolis from east to west and from south to north, plus bits of other communities. Then there's the complication of rush hour, too. Nevertheless, Odie was exercised and I had a quick breakfast before launching into the maelstrom of traffic.

    At 7:35, smugly I might say for negotiating all the challenges, I was at the check-in desk. The nice clerk said, "Your appointment was cancelled." I replied, "That's the worst thing I've heard all day."  She went on to say, "A voicemail was left on your phone at 6:13 a.m." Checking my phone there was said voicemail. So, now it's my fault!  At 6:13 Odie and I were in the park sans phone.

   The doctor has a daughter who is about two. My guess is a sick child caused the doctor's cancellation. It happened to me once before, though I hadn't gotten to the clinic. If I'm upset about anything it's assuming a voicemail left on my phone, about an hour before my time to leave, is adequate notice of cancelation. Actually, if it had been a text I'd likely have seen it.

   Where am I?  Why, I'm 'here' of course. 😁 This here happens to be The Little House.

Takk for alt,

Al

Space Agent!

    It was my idea, that we meet for Happy Hour downtown. The place has a good food selection for Happy Hour. Sitting placidly in my apartment when the phone rang. The query "Are you stuck in traffic or did you space?" Unfortunately, it was the latter, I totally spaced our plan. They were in no hurry to leave so I made a belated entrance.

   Occasions like that unsettle me. Forgetting engagements rattles me and neither do I like to be late. That comes from my father who always wanted to be early and he always was. I can't be late even if I try, it's an utter compulsion to be on time.

   So that's what passes for news..

Takk for alt,

Al

 Posed with a long neck woman in the hills of Thailand. I purchased the scarf which I'm holding from her.

"Author Reveal"

      A few blogs ago I quoted an author's description of autumn and indicated that I'd give his name later. It's now time for an "Author Reveal."  The author is contemporary Karl Ove Knausgaard. Either of you guess that he's Norwegian? Well, he is!

   He's gained fame for his Death in the Family: My Struggle Book 1, A Man in Love: My Struggle Book 2, Boyhood Island: My Struggle Book 3, Dancing in the Dark: My Struggle Book 4, Some Rain Must Fall: Book 5, and The End; Book 6.   Perhaps you want to read the Struggle books next week, all 3600 pages.

   For quite a while I've been aware of these books, but the sheer size has been daunting. Finding a shorter book by him in a used bookstore I thought it would be a good way to get acquainted with this author, and it was. Reading Autumn, published in 2015, psyche's me for reading more.

   Autumn is a book of essays and letters. The letters were addressed to his unborn daughter. The essays are on random subjects, each less than three pages. The first three essays' Apples, Wasps and Plastic Bags, are indicative of how random they are. Every essay is well written with language to savor even surviving translation. Many contain profound insights on which to ponder. He's made myriad connections which have never occurred to me.

Takk for alt,

Al

Life in the OFH

     M's a fan of Odie. So, last night M brought a bag of dog treats to our dinner table intended for Odie. As our dinner progressed a woman with a seeing eye dog was seated with a group near us. The owner of the dog didn't notice her dog wander over to our table. With a bag of dog treats available on the table I gave the visiting dog a couple which she readily accepted. After eating the treats, the dog laid down next to me and fell asleep. There she slept until we arose after our dinner.

   The dog awakened as we arose. I led the dog, a huge labrador, back to his/her owner. As I handed over the leash I said, "She followed me home can I keep her?"  The response was and emphatic "NO!"

    Obviously, it doesn't take much to entertain us!

Takk for alt,

Al

Travel Memories!

         With my traveling days in the past, it's fun to relive memories from those times. In 2008 Joanne and I travelled through Amsterdam to Hungary. We spent a little time in Amsterdam on the way, thus the picture of the cheese store a couple of days ago.

    Our time in Hungary was spent in Budapest. Staying in a small boutique hotel downtown we explored much of the city on foot. The opera was playing so we attended a performance of Pucino in the classic old opera house. Enjoying the traditional cuisine, we ate well.

   From Budapest we took the train to Vienna where we stayed for several days. Naturally we enjoyed a Mozart concert. Housed in B&B downtown we were able to visit much of the city on foot. Next door to the B$B was a small, family run restaurant. Taking many of meals there we became acquainted with the proprietors, with whom we're pictured below.

    With my traveling days over I'm quick to encourage younger persons to travel as they have opportunity.

Takk for alt,

Al

One Accomplishment!

     After a couple of social engagements today I went to the Ramsey County Courthouse. At that site I voted. They were well organized and there was no waiting. Early voting is considered 'absentee' so it was necessary to fill out one form. After completing my ballot, correctly I might add, I thanked the volunteers and left. The trip took about 30 minutes. With my irregular schedule where I'll be on election day is not clear, so, now I've happily fulfilled that important task.

    One of the perks of life in the OFH is the ease of entertaining. A friend joined me for breakfast, and the dining room is mostly empty and very quiet. It's a reasonable cost also with the meal priced at $8.75. Two friends joined me for lunch before a game of cribbage. Both light eaters their soup bowls cost $4.00 each. Yup, I'm the big spender! 😀 

Takk for alt,

Al

Perhaps if the rain stops for a while I can go back to picking rocks.