What Do You Hear?

It was another crazy busy week here at the farm. I don’t think we had one day shorter than 12 hours. Busy planting, rolling and running trucks to and from the field. Barb went to Minnesota for a few days for some planned surgery and spending a few days with my sister. She is now back recovering and is getting better every day. The last of the crops went into the ground on the 17^th which Bob said was the earliest they have ever had them in the ground. Not bad when you are planting 4500 acres! Just in time too as the next day brought much needed rain to give the crops the moisture they needed. There are studies that show that your yield increases by up to 1 ½% for every day you have your crops in early (or decreases for every day late) so hopefully getting them in early will yield great results!

Chris did manage get stuck in one of the low spots......

Stuck in the mud!

Pulling it out with the 325 

With only a few days until Mother’s Day I had to decide what to get Barb as a gift. She said she wanted a camera but I kept having a reoccurring dream that she wanted a new spotting scope so she could see the deer better while sitting at the rig at our property in South Dakota. She already has a perfectly good camera. Sure it has dust on the lens and sure it does not focus all the time and maybe the zoom gets stuck once in a while, but other than that it is perfectly functional. And the spotting scope, well the one we have was fine when we got it many years ago but now they make such nicer ones and I really think she deserves one of those! And this reoccurring dream must mean something right? 

As it ends up she got neither, I made her a cake. Well, I kinda made her a cake. We have been working so much at the farm I had not had a chance to go to Minot to look at cameras, spotting scopes or get her a card or anything else. We have literally been busy from 6:00, 7:00 in the morning until 8:00 to 10:00 at night. In the meantime Barb has been on line looking at cameras and talking to B&H Photo on the phone trying to pick out the perfect camera. I have not seen her or heard her researching spotting scopes, I can only assume she is doing that when I am out in the field. 

Thursday before Mother’s Day I started to panic and was resolved to the fact that she was not going to get a camera or a spotting scope so I texted Holly at work and asked her if she could pick up a cake mix and frosting. The least I could do is make her a cake. With cake mix on the counter I walked by it the next two days trying to figure out when I was going to make it. Finally Saturday morning I found the time…..when Holly offered to make the cake for me. All I had to do was frost it! Barb loved the cake but when, Mother’s Day came and went without a camera or a spotting scope making an appearance Barb said she wanted a “do over” sometime in the next few weeks when we had time to go out to dinner.

Speaking of diner, we get out three times; once with Dan and Jeannie and two times with time with Bob, Deanne joined by Dylan on one of those outings. We went to Ebeneezer's Irish Pub in Minot with Dan and Jeanie. We caught up and made plans to get together this winter in Florida. The food was excellent, and would highly recommend it! Our other dinner was at the Hitching Post in Benedict a small town bar where the special of  the night was a hot roast beef sandwich. We were so full by the end of the meal we all about fell asleep on the way home.

Barb and I with Dylan and Bob (Deanne took the picture)

Our second adventure with Bob and Deanne included some sight seeing to see the one and only railroad tunnel in the state of North Dakota. Given the fact that the state is so flat there is not a lot of need for tunnels in the state. Even more amazing is the fact that this tunnel located in the Sundheim Park and Recreation Area was never used. At just under 1500' the tunnel was built in 1913 using mules and built entirely of timbers.

Adjacent to the tunnel is another interesting attraction. The Fairview lift bridge was built at the same time as the tunnel to accommodate steamboat traffic on the Yellowstone River but like the tunnel it never really went into use. It was lifted just once for testing in 1913 as steamboat traffic stopped on that river before the bridge was ever completed!

Photo compliments of Ghosts of North Dakota

Bridge Selfie!

On the bridge with the Yellowstone in the background

Since these sights were only a few miles from the Montana border, we drove down the road just to say we went to Montana!

We ended this adventure with one more one and only (well maybe only). Bob and Deanne's first flight of beer. These beer tasting newbees are not big fans of beer but after reading our blog for the past few years wanted to give it a try. So we stopped by Stonehome Brewery in Watford City where we learned a couple things.....Neither Bob or Deanne like dark or sour beer but they did find a couple of lighter and fruitier beers that they did like. In fact their favorite along with mine was the Dakatoh Zen while Barb's was Teddy.

Beer Tasting Newbees!

I did have a couple more interesting encounters. The first was a moose sighting in one of the fields nearby. Although not common there are several living in the area.

Chris took this picture from the cab of the tractor

The second encounter involved the Air Force. I was picking up some trash in the ditch when a military helicopter flew by very low, just above the power lines. A little while later a truck pulls up to me with Federal Law Enforcement written on the side in large letters. It pulls over to where I am and asks me what I am doing. “Picking up trash” I explain. The guy driving then says that they have “sensitive” cargo coming through and to stay away from the road. Sure enough a few minutes later here comes 12 Humvees and another helicopter which all surrounded at long semi-tractor trailer. They must have stopped traffic in both directions somewhere down the road as there was no other traffic either way for a while. With all the missile silos in the area it does not take a rocket scientist (ya, I just said that!) to know what they were moving.

The ever present wildlife made for some great photo ops. Too bad Barb's camera is on the fritz, she could have taken some!

American Widgeon

Blue-winged Teal

My biggest revelation came yesterday when all the T.V and radio stations were abuzz with this whole Laurel/Yanny debate. If you haven’t heard it, here is a link. Apparently some people hear the word “Laurel” while others hear the word “Yanny”. No matter how many times I listen I hear the word “Laurel” and cannot imagine how someone hears “Yanny”. I thought it was a bunch of bologna until I told Barb to listen to this stupid thing on TV. She proceeds to tell me that she does not hear “Laurel” at all and clearly hears the word “Yanny”. It certainly explained a lot and magnifies why men hear things differently and do not always understand their wives as anytime she says she wants a new camera, all I hear is spotting scope! I'd better go order it now......