Archive for September 2023
Avoiding Calamity
More than six inches of rain caused flooding in New York City yesterday. Our property was surrounded by massive lightning-filled blobs on radar but the areas of greatest intensity just missed our exact location. At sunrise, when I would normally be walking Asher and tending to the horses, dramatic rain and thunder were peaking in intensity.
When I finally ventured out between the waves of rain, I found the horses squeezed under one side of the overhang, understandably jumpy. The roar on the metal roof when precipitation is heavy amps up the drama factor considerably.
As I made my way cautiously around and between the frequently rearranging foursome to clean up manure, the threat of potential calamity was noticeably increased. Avoiding an unfortunate issue relies on luck as much as intelligent decision-making.
As far as I can tell, the horses weren’t aware of the flooding in New York. They don’t know that the dysfunction of elected officials in the U.S. Government is once again threatening a shutdown of our federal workers. They have no idea that health insurance premiums continue to climb out of balance with individual incomes. (Cyndie moved to Medicare this year leaving me alone on our previous plan. The cost for one person [me] went UP! when she was removed.)
The horses are masters of dealing with the immediate moment and their immediate surroundings. I find it wonderfully soothing to clear my mind of the calamities playing out in the world and pause my activities to stand with the herd to feel their energy, even when that energy is one of heightened alert.
Nothing else matters.
The moment the weather calms, the horses do the same.
I met with some precious luck yesterday afternoon after a slip of footing provided a mental flash of a possible worst outcome which did not materialize.
Asher was making a sudden turn toward a recently placed rodent control station that I wanted to clearly train him was “off-limits.” My hasty reaction led to a step with too much momentum onto a surprisingly slippery rock surface. That fraction-of-a-second thought process recognized I was going down and the destination was covered with many bigger rocks.
Face first was guaranteed calamity. Out shot my right arm and my hand landed incredibly hard. The dog still needed attention and I ignored the pain to deal with him. A moment later I was left trying to assess what bones in my hand and wrist were at risk of fracture.
Cyndie was up at the lake and I was home alone. This was not a good time to need medical treatment.
Fingers all moved. Wrist flexed. Ice controlled swelling. Final assessment: a wicked bruise.
Calamity averted.
This morning, returning to the house after walking through the woods with Asher, I found the rodent control station (which had been secured in place with a 10-inch stake) lying in the middle of the front yard. He obviously had beat me back to the house.
More training will be required.
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Good Dog
We have reached another milestone in the last phase of the driveway project. Yesterday we completed planting grass seeds over the last portion of the dirt along the newly landscaped sides of the asphalt. Now we wait. Well, we occasionally water, but mostly, we wait.
Turns out, we’ve got a dog who doesn’t appear to mind waiting around with us. While we have been working up and down the driveway, Asher has hung around patiently between bouts of zoomies where he sprints back and forth between us.
Asher had disappeared from sight for a while and Cyndie found him lying just inside the door of the barn. Such a treat for us to find him looking so content.
I was home alone with Asher for a little while yesterday and working along the driveway. He busied himself for a little while digging after a mole and then I lost sight of him. When Cyndie returned, she found him sitting quietly on the steps at the front door of the house.
I think Asher is showing a good level of satisfaction with his current situation. We are feeling a good level of satisfaction with his adjustments to living with us.
He’s proving to be a really good dog.
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Grass Gripe
While I have been toiling to prepare the dirt along our driveway and in the back pasture for grass seed, one thought keeps going through my mind. We are working hard to nurture grass seeds to germinate. 
Preparing the soil, distributing the seeds, raking the seeds into the dirt, spreading straw over the top, and watering the area in an effort to establish a carpet of green where previously there was none.
Meanwhile, grass has grown in front of our hay shed despite a total lack of effort from us to make that happen.
Over and over yesterday while raking, my mind reviewed the unlikely fact that grass seed falling from baled hay lands on the hardened gravel drive. The soil wasn’t prepared for seeds. We never watered that area. It gets too much sun. Vehicles drive over it. We don’t want grass to grow there.
Despite all the reasons grass should not sprout there, it has done so with unbelievable effectiveness.
It’s just plain wacky. It’s an imbalance in the universe. It defies logic.
Don’t mind me, that’s just a little grass gripe I harbor. Let’s end this post on a more positive note. How about a photogenic ground cover in the rocks just beyond our front steps?
Add to that a shot of the golden sunset Cyndie captured the other day:
Beautiful, no?
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Fall Planting
There is a lot of new dirt on our property since the 13 loads were dumped and spread along the edges of the driveway and down the drainage swale across the back pasture. If we let nature take its course, that dirt will be an open invitation for a wide variety of gangly growing weeds common to the area.
One alternative is to plant enough grass to claim the dirt in place of opportunistic weeds. We dawdled for some time during the most recent dry spell, not wanting to put seed down where we can’t reach with hoses to water. Planning ahead, we purchased a 25-gallon tank with a sprayer to water along the majority of the driveway.
The on-and-off rain showers over the weekend have prepared the dirt nicely so we are now ready to go full-speed toward getting seed down. Yesterday, we started in the back pasture
We invited Asher to enter the pasture with us so he could hang around while we worked. It looked like he was doing well in ignoring the piles of manure everywhere, putting his primary focus on running under the shower of grass seeds and straw being spread.
I told Cyndie to watch for grass growing out of the hair on his back in the next few days. Then he came close enough for me to smell that he must have rolled in one of those piles of poop. Silly pooch. He earned himself a rather crude version of a sponge bath before being allowed back in the house.
After lunch, I checked the radar to see if there might be enough of a window of time between rain showers that we could start seeding at the far end of the driveway by the road. With two wheelbarrows, we hauled bags of grass seed, rakes, and a bale of straw down near the mailbox.
Shortly after raking each side of the driveway in preparation for the seed, the dark clouds and rumbles of thunder moving toward us hinted it was going to arrive sooner than I suspected. Fearing the potential for a strong enough downpour to wash new seeds away, we decided to delay seeding for another day and retreated hastily indoors.
We hope to resume planting today. It is tough to know how much time we have left in the growing season with climate warming extending our 80°F days into October and rumors of a strong El Niño lasting at least through January-March 2024.
It will feel better in our minds to have tried to get grass started this fall, even if the percentage of yield is lower than we’d like. It’s a healthy distraction from thinking about embarrassing team losses on the football turf.
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Losing Lousy
It was an ugly weekend for my football teams with both the college Gophers and NFL Vikings losing games they could have/should have won. It’s a good thing I am mentally healthy enough to not let such trivial things spoil my outlook. Now, the embarrassing situation with our national government, in addition to the climate calamity being forced on the planet, are proving to be a little harder to shake.
Thankfully, I’m still feeling the lingering effects of joy and laughter from the overnight guests and biking adventure of the previous few days.
Also, I have the increasingly leaf-covered trails in our woods available for meandering while forest bathing. I’ll be alright.
There was one football victory worth noting. My old high school team, Eden Prairie, is now 3-0 after defeating Shakopee in EP’s Homecoming game on Friday. High school and our old community seem like such a world away to me now but allegiance to a winning football program is an easy thing to hold forever.
Here’s to not letting the lousy losses have a negative effect on us.
Happy last Monday of September! We are now on the fall side of the autumnal equinox. Enjoy!
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Weather Luck
My assessment at the end of our bike ride on the hills around Wintervale is displayed visibly in this image captured by Beth Bertelson:
It rained much of Friday night but we woke up to a pause in the precipitation and the ground was only a little damp outside. However, radar evidence indicated another batch of potentially heavier rain moving in our direction at a rate that would put it over us right when we wanted to head out.
Undaunted, the group of my friends who ventured the roughly hour-long drive to our place were going through the preparations to ride without hesitation.
As the minutes closed, I sensed the trend of movement on that next mass of wet weather was going to slide just south of our location. Instead, we ended up getting a dose of ground fog that faded the beauty of the fall colors and obscured the distance view of the horizon at the high spot that usually offers the best vista.
Soon after descending the invigorating glide down from that potential view, the fog dissipated and the dryer air hinted we were going to be granted perfect conditions for our time on the road.
One highlight of having my cycling friends join me on these roads was the combination of ride buddies from two different worlds. There were people I met on the annual June rides now known as the Tour of Minnesota and two riders I grew up knowing in Eden Prairie, Minnesota.
Paul and I have known each other since grade school and shared a number of epic biking adventures over the years. That shot is taken at Vino in the Valley restaurant near the Rush River. You can see in the background we were blessed with periods of blue sky at the midpoint of our route.
After a pause on a bridge by a limestone cliff, we started the long, slow climb up the steep hill that marks the transition between the two worlds of lush valley and wide open farm fields.
We made it back to Wintervale in perfect time and celebrated our accomplishment with a delicious lunch feast. The laughter and riding afterglow was precisely what I was longing for and very reminiscent of the week-long Tour of Minnesota we have every June.
Cyndie and I added a few tours of our forest, the labyrinth, visits to the horses and interactions with Asher to top off a perfect adventure that fit surprisingly well between bouts of inclement weather.
We needed the rain and I really wanted to ride with friends. I am very lucky that I was able to have both. Overnight last night we received 1.25 inches of rain. Ahhh. Perfect timing.
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Can’t Control
If I could, I surely would have the rain refrain from raining on us during the hours when my friends and I want to go for a bike ride today. It is taking a lot of effort to hold my attitude in a healthy place against the unfavorable weather forecast that has been threatening for days to rain out this event we have been preparing to host.
While we were on a walk with Mike and Barb yesterday, Cyndie found a bright red heart-shaped leaf.
A gift from the universe to help us maintain a focus on love despite whatever rain clouds might come our way.
Last night our world was brightened mightily upon the arrival of my biking buddies Bob and Julie in advance of today’s planned ride. Healthy energy combined and magnified as we introduced Asher to them and then took a walk down to see the horses.
The soil is so desperately dry here and the growing plants and trees are so visibly parched that rain showers are needed more than my friends and I need to bike. I can’t control the amount or timing of precipitation falling today but I can control my reaction to it.
If it isn’t raining for the few hours we’d like to ride, that would be just grand.
It seems weird to say it, but if it rains a lot all day, that would be even better.
The “September fall colors ride with John” can be easily morphed into an “eat a lot of great food together, converse, and play games by the fireplace” with John and Cyndie event.
I definitely can’t always get what I want. I really, really wanted to ride with my friends and enjoy the beautiful scenery on the roads nearby.
I want the type of weather we had here during the four days prior. However, the opportunity to have a great time with good people provides priceless value regardless of the arrival of ride-busting precipitation.
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Overnight Guests
A lot has happened around here overnight lately. Construction (spider webs), Excavation (ground bee nest dug up), and now Guests! Barb and Mike Wilkus came to meet Asher for the first time yesterday and slept over so we could go out to dinner and then have some hang time together afterward.
Mike got a chance to tool around on my Greeworks riding lawn mower.
We visited Tattersall Distillery in River Falls for the first time for dinner and met a really great server whose accent hinted he might be fluent in the Spanish language. He told Mike and me that he is half-Bolivian. We told him to surprise Cyndie when she returned to the table by speaking to her in Spanish as if he already knew she would understand him.
It worked pretty well and triggered additional stories and visits with him throughout the meal, which boosted a really nice dining experience well beyond just the good food and impressive space they have created at the location that was a huge Shopco building when we first moved here.
The fall colors are turning finally and one day can bring a big change to individual trees that is startling to witness. If it were possible to stare long enough, you could watch it as it happens.
Tonight we are expecting more overnight guests to arrive in preparation for a group bike ride Saturday morning. I picked this day back in the beginning of August and have seen day after day of perfect cycling weather pass. Now a threat of rain is arriving, which we desperately need, but that’s one thing that really puts a damper (pun intended) on group riding.
Maybe that’s one way to break a drought. I’ll just plan way ahead for people to come to Wintervale for a bike ride and the odds of getting rain that day will go way up.
We’ll take whatever we get. No matter the weather, it’s always more fun around here when company comes to visit.
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Reluctant Success
Beyond green energy, there is a significant reason that I was so fervently interested in getting an electric lawn tractor. I have a difficult relationship with gas engines. They are fine when they work, but when they don’t, I am at a loss as to figuring out what is wrong and fixing it.
When an engine doesn’t start, is it because it is flooded? Is it too cold? Bad fuel? Air filter? Fuel filter? Spark plugs? Have I neglected recommended maintenance?
Changing oil on schedule is a hard one for me. I put it off because I don’t like to do it. Then, when I finally do the job, it seems too easy to be something to dread. I don’t like adding oil because of the warning about not overfilling. I think I overfilled the first push mower we ever owned when living in the suburbs. It coughed blue smoke ever after. That’s when I switched to a non-motorized push reel mower.
Now, when I need to, I add oil very slowly and check the level multiple times. It never seems to change. That drives me nuts. I think the range from not enough to too much is way too narrow. The dipstick on the Yamaha Grizzly is very short and the whole thing always looks wet when I pull it out. It’s threaded and after I dry it off, it needs to be turned fully in to check. Then I need to turn it out to discover the whole length looks wet again.
Yesterday, I changed the oil in the Grizzly. Without looking at the existing filter, I went to an auto parts store to buy a replacement. They gave me this tiny canister that I was sure must be too small. He cross-checked twice and confirmed that is what is listed. When I got home and removed the panels on the ATV to see the filter, it was exactly the same as what I bought. Success!
The manual says it takes 2.11 liters of oil. I put in 2.0 and the dipstick is totally wet. I’ll keep checking.
I’ve made it through the summer using my new Greenworks lawn tractor for mowing and am ready to find the old gas-powered Craftsman a new home. It hasn’t run for a year (and really needs an oil change) and I haven’t been able to start it. First, the battery was dead. I got that charged and the engine turned over but it never fired once.
I finally resorted to searching online and stumbled onto a video that precisely addressed my problem. The guy said it is a simple fix with a Torx screwdriver. Sure it is. After watching the video (which didn’t contain any non-related distractions!), I went outside and discovered that was exactly the problem.
Adjusted the choke cable and the engine started instantly.
Two annoying fossil fuel successes in one day. I need to remember this next time I start getting all angsty about gas/diesel engines. (By the way, the New Holland diesel needs an oil change, too.)
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Relative Something 