By Pete Burmeister on
News From The Coffee Shop
April 22, 2012 10:01 PM
VEISHEA was held this past week on the Iowa State University campus in Ames, IA. If you went to school at ISU or aren't living under the proverbial rock within the State of Iowa; you know what this event is all about. Unruly inebriated college kids, burning dumpsters, and riots that garner front page press. All jokes aside, had you been at the parade on Saturday, a burning dumpster would have felt pretty darn good! The chilly damp air and steady rain at times kept a lid on any potential "black eyes" from coming out of this years really neat celebration. I have some really good friends from my college days that were heavily involved with the planning aspect of VEISHEA and with making sure the largest run student event in the country survived whatever sucker punches came flying their way. All things considered, they did well, as did this years leadership group. How you get that many vastly different students, cultural organizations and clubs to remain civil is a bit of a mystery. Every small town in Iowa could use a healthy dose of whatever they're doing beneath the campanile in central Iowa. It would probably resolve a lot of the multi-generational issues that linger in rural Iowa today. Then again, maybe not. On lighter note...I noticed this year that there was only 1 big helium balloon in the entire parade. Float numbers were down too. I'd imagine someone somewhere had safety issues with both of them. I hope that bad idea and trend gets reversed... kids can go to any town celebration in the state and see a parade of firetrucks.
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| The fasten seat belt sign was just turned on! |
My wife and I made the 125 mile trip to the Alma
Mater in 34 minutes this time. Big thanks to friends Michael and Rachel for letting us co-pilot for the day. I overheard "Zulu" being used on the headset several times throughout the trip. It's a fun word to say, which is mainly why I was interested in what it meant. Here's what I learned in la men's terms from my pilot: "it's the time pilots use in the aircraft that is standard all over the world" (no time zones involved). After a quick Google search, I learned that the Department of the Navy serves as the country's official timekeeper, with the Master Clock facility at the U.S. Naval Observatory, Washington, D.C. You can follow the link if you desire to learn more. Or, if you don't give a damn about the meaning, you now have a nifty word to add to your vocabulary.
 |
| Little Jerry and his hens. |
We're in the chicken business. Five Buff Orpington hens and a rooster my daughter calls Little Jerry- thanks to a little coaxing from me in the naming department. Those of you who were avid Seinfeld watchers probably remember Kramer's pet rooster, Little Jerry in one particular episode. You may recall, that Kramer got his pet rooster mixed up in a cock fighting ring... it didn't end well for Little Jerry. Our Little Jerry is no pet, he is one mean dude though. So mean in fact, that my daughter only enters the chicken pen fully equipped with a 1/2" piece of conduit when she collects the eggs. If his attitude continues, there's a good chance he'll be finding a new home. He might actually prefer that over the alternative of being pestered non-stop by a 2-yr. old. Either way, doesn't look like it's going to end well for this Little Jerry either.
Cows to Grass, Hawkeye Wedding, Pink Tacos
By Pete Burmeister on
The middle to end of April begins a very busy Spring when your in the farming business in Iowa. Of course there's countless fields to tend to, what with anhydrous to put on, tillage work and planting, but those tasks are a mere cake walk to the process of moving cow/calf pairs to summer grass. Those of you who have the privilege of caring for the sacred cow (in some religions, most notably Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, Zoroastrianism as well as the religions of Ancient Egypt) know exactly what I'm talking about. My brother and I both have full-time jobs during the week, which leaves evenings and weekends to help the old man care for 260+ beef cows. Having said that, here's what I've learned with cattle: If it can go wrong, it will-- and at the most inopportune times, they can run upwards of 40 mph is they want too, the only way to move cattle fast is to move them slow, stay away from ones with the crazy eye, and they bring out the best and worst personalities in everyone... much like a wedding!
By Pete Burmeister on
My wife graduated from the University of Northern Iowa's graduate school this past week. She doesn't like to brag, so I'll do it for her. It was quite an accomplishment. The way she managed a full time job, a toddler, a husband who works and farms, and a graduate program at the same time for 2 1/2 years without being committed to the nut house in Independence deserves an 'at a boy! The graduate ceremony was held on a Friday night. As usual, there was pomp and circumstance surrounding the event along with scattered names throughout the program that I couldn't correctly pronounce. Most were PhD students who were being "hooded" by their major professors. Thank God there were only a hand full. I was able to keep my composer through most of it, but when Wing Sez Winnie Wong hit the stage...... we'll c'mon! We celebrated the graduation by hosting a small party in the shop the next day.
If you've read this blog in the past week, you're aware that Saturday was also the running of the Kentucky Derby. As you could probably tell, I'm a horse racing fan. This year's Derby went down as most do, Churchill Downs and NBC walked away with the lions share of the profits while the stable boys walked away, well... dead. There's a dark side to every sport and the dark side to horse racing happens in the stables. Costas ought to get a microphone in front of the hired help if he wants to sell more TV, I guarantee some good stories would develop there. On second thought, that might be a better job for the folks at ABC. They seem to specialize in smear campaigns (ie. LFTB). There won't be a triple crown winner this year yet again. If Bodemeister breaks well at the Preakness next weekend, nobody will catch him on the shorter track. The Maryland Jockey Club does have a marketing jewel in I'll Have Another though, as they double down on all-you-can-drink-beer and rock concerts at the track on race day in an effort to promote the sport to younger generations. It won't work. The Preakness Stakes will be run on another track in the near future.
We're almost finished with planting season 2012. We actually missed a lot of the heavy rain and were able to be in the field every day this past week. For the record, the ground is working up almost as perfectly as one could hope for. All the time in the tractor must have the old man's wheels spinning. He was talking about planting square fields in circles the other day. My initial reaction was.... you're off your rocker! After talking it through, he's now got me wondering why they don't plant the irrigation pivots out west in circles, which would be the same shape. There would be a lot less turning. Please advise to prburmeister@gmail.com.
2nd Fiddle, Tentement on Wheels, Emporium
We didn't out class anyone with our travel rig. Our camping and fishing equipment was fairly outdated (almost vintage) compared with most of what we saw going down the road and on the various lakes we fished. While the photo above wasn't our exact setup, it does help paint a picture of what we probably looked like as we navigated it through nearly 100 small scenic towns throughout Minnesota over the weekend. We caught a lot of blank stares and eye rolls over three days of traveling. I figure most folks were reminded of Cousin Eddie's Tenement on Wheels in the movie National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. "Don't worry, we're taking it with us when we leave next month"! Nonetheless, it was a cheap way to travel and quite convenient to boot. We did our traveling at night and then woke up each morning right on a new lake ready to fish. You might think an outfit like that would be prone to breakdowns; however, other than a tie-down strap for the camper snapping, our equipment ran like that proverbial ape.
We ran across a great place to eat on Saturday night, Benson's in Walker, MN. It was by accident that we stumbled into the place. Pizza is their speciality and it was good, but the atmosphere and service was great! Turns out our server was the owner's son and a character at that. My brother Joe is adamant you can tell the locals from the tourists in northern Minnesota simply due to their lack of fashion sense. After studying the staff at Benson's Eating & Drinking Emporium, I'm beginning to think he's on to something. Regardless, we both got a chuckle out of our server's sense of humor and the men's restroom... by only 7 PM the toilet door was ripped off, the flushing lever was lying on the floor and the garbage was overflowing to say the least. Evidently that's common. When I asked our server about it, he said he just usually goes across the street to the BP gas station and uses their facilities. Don't let the restrooms scare you, the place had done over $50,000 in business that day and had the rest of the night yet to go. Here's the web link, http://bensonsemporium.com/ if you're ever in the area it's an experience you don't want to miss.
The family and I loaded up the SUV the first part of June with our good friends AJ & Emily and their son for a long weekend vacation. When I say loaded, I mean tourist style loaded. Every seat in the vehicle had a body in it, the stroller was ratchet strapped to the roof, and we had a cargo rack attached to the receiver hitch on the back of the Tahoe. We set our sights on the largest city in Nebraska and their renowned zoo. I figure you can tell a lot about the quality of a zoo by how well they hide the fact that the animals are really just in cages. The Henry-Dorley Zoo did it up right and I'd recommend a trip to see it with the family in the near future.
While the animals were the main attraction and the giraffes the highlight of the day for my daughter, I found the people watching to be most spectacular. It's hard to describe the cross-section of our society the Omaha Zoo represented that day, but I'll give it a shot. Young & old, yuppies & county folk, the obese, tramp stamped, & nose rung, and a sprinkling of what appeared to be normal-pull-your-own-weight adults and their families. Most of the critters who live in the zoo usually appear less than impressed with the countless wandering humans that stroll in front of their pens each day. Still, I can't help but wonder what must be going through those monkey's minds when the front gates open each day and they witness the ever deteriorating physical appearance our culture has become. While I'll never know what the chimps are thinking, this much I can tell you... if I wind up in a nursing home, it's going to be like a scary zoo haunted by flab and faded-blue tattoo ink!
Every summer my wife's family holds Christmas in June. It's a great time for a large family to get together and enjoy each other's company without killing one another. The numerous young children can run and play outside and it gives the parents and grandparents more space to enjoy the day without being couped up in the house in December. Each year the Xmas has a theme, this year it was Redneck Xmas. You may have seen these photos on the blog over the last week showcasing some of the costumes the relatives sported. If not, it's worth another look. Attached are two of my brother in-laws and their git-ups for the day. Matt, bringing back the throwback Chariton Chargers track jersey and Jeff, playing the Turtle Man. Surprisingly, they're both off the market ladies! What can I say other than--you can pick your friends, not your relatives--all in good sport, of course.
Just a quick update on the 2nd Annual News from the Coffee Shop Crop Tour '12. We're well underway on the planning and sponsorship portion of the event. I had the chance to get together with a dozen others late last month to bounce ideas off each other for this year's tour. While everyone didn't agree on everything, we were able to get a rough draft together to start planning from. So far, we've got a great crop tour/yield estimation planned along with a multi-brand corn/soybean plot for evaluation at the Henderson Event Center, an evening happy hour/meal and tour results presentation followed by an up and coming County Music Artist, Scott Shelby from Bells, TX to wrap up the day. More details to come on the exact timeline of events. If your reading this, you've probably seen the countless updates I've been giving about the many sponsors that have already stepped up to support this event. There will be more to come, but I want to say thank you to each business that has supported this idea so far, we couldn't do it without you. If anyone has questions about sponsorship opportunities, just give me a call 319-327-0806. Within the next week, you'll be seeing a few highway banner's placed on heavily traveled roads throughout Buchanan County in an effort to help spread the word about the crop tour. As always, details will be released as they are finalized right here on News from the Coffee Shop. As we get into July, we'll be looking for area farmers who are willing to allow use of their fields. Again, if you have interest in this portion please call me at the number above. With that, I'd like to personally invite you to attend all or part of the day's events on August 24, 2012 and enjoy the company and interests of other crop tour enthusiasts.
Top Ten, Amish TV, Tulsa Time
It's been awhile. In an effort to explain my lack of new material lately, I'll use the all time number one cop-out and the biggest pet peeve of mine... "I've been busy." Have you ever noticed the people that use this line are never too busy to update their Facebook status, are completely inefficient in the use of their time, and in most cases just have no freakin' idea what busy really is!
Enough on that. Last Friday, Crop Tour '12 was held. Simply put, the day was an overall success. The weather cooperated, the scout teams made up of farmers and agribusiness people networked, saw interesting agronomic issues in the fields, and got a pretty good idea of Buchanan County's yield potential. You won't hear me talk much about the final yield results-- the estimates don't mean much to me or the folks who crawled through the fields on that hot August afternoon. The takeaways from this event are to learn something from someone you wouldn't normally interact or do business with, enjoy the company of folks that share your same interests, and have fun! Outside of one individual, the group of primarily 80 forward thinking farmers did what I'd thought they'd do-- tolerate each other's personalities and come up with an average county yield. (You can find the actual yield results at the top of this page). On a sincere note, I would like to thank all of the participants, group leaders, sponsors, and my friends and family that helped make the day a success in its 2nd year.
Here's My Top Ten List from Crop Tour '12:
10. New trucks from Dunlap Motors for the scout teams
9. Surprisingly decent overall county yield potential
8. Door prizes
7. Jake Baldwin describing his scout team's 211 bpa yield check as "cherry-picking"
6. After hours w/ Adam White, Chris Soules, Stephen Burke, Rob Rudolphi & more
5. Wolfey's lunch stop in Quasky
4. Round table discussion with the scout teams
3. US Bank's hospitality tent
2. Scott Shelby plays until 3:40 am
1. Steve Walhart quits Crop Tour before 10 am
I've been tuning in to the Republican National Convention over the last few nights. Mainly due to the fact that we have Amish cable at home and it's the only thing on. Here's my thoughts/questions:
The Iowa State Cyclones open their football season at home, Saturday, September 1st against the Tulsa Hurricane. My wife and I will be headed to Ames, IA to tailgate, catch up with old friends, and cheer the team to victory. You might have heard the Clones are 1 1/2 pt. underdogs.... My prediction, Iowa State wins by 4 in a turnover prone game, where the Cyclones defense bends but doesn't break in the red zone. I plan on spending the rest of the labor day weekend living on Tulsa Time!
Ground Sow
Cows to Grass, Hawkeye Wedding, Pink Tacos
By Pete Burmeister on
News From The Coffee Shop
April 30, 2012 9:21 PM
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| Christian Ballard, Karl & Stacy Klug, Adrian Clayborn, and Broderick Binns |
You probably noticed that the last statement about cows segues perfectly to my next story about weddings. My wife, Erin and I headed to Des Moines last Saturday to kick-off the wedding season and help celebrate her godparent's daughter's marriage. Wow, that's a mouthful! If your still trying to figure it out, don't bother, the important part is that I was able to attend. Stacy married a guy by the name of Karl Klug. You might remember he played D-line for the Hawkeyes during their dominant run in the Fall of 2010, with the three other guys in the picture to the left. All four now play in the NFL: Christian Ballard with the Minnesota Vikings, Karl with the Tennessee Titans, Adrian Clayborn with the Tampa Bay Bucs, and Broderick Binns recently picked up by the Arizona Cardinals in this year's draft. It's easy to see why they were such a dominant unit when the four played together, especially when you get in the same room. They make 6'0, 210 lbs look like a wet weasel. Don't worry Cyclone fans, you won't find me cheering for the other team on September 8th when the two play for the now controversial Iowa Corn Cy-Hawk Trophy. Still, it's hard to argue with Ferentz's program and success rate in getting guys into the pros. Best Wishes to the Newlyweds!
There were taco trucks on nearly every corner in downtown Des Moines this weekend. I'm still not sure why. Maybe it's a weekend occurrence during the warmer months in Iowa or possibly some special festival going on. I wanted to stop at one of the taco stands, but instead tuned into the local Spanish station and experienced the culture through music. It got me thinking though, why not buy an old motor home, paint it pink, and travel around to various city celebrations delivering piping hot cuisine right from the Pink Taco! Now there's a business idea for ya!
Nut House, Stable Boys, Crop Circles
Nut House, Stable Boys, Crop Circles
News From The Coffee Shop
May 11, 2012 10:07 AM
May 11, 2012 10:07 AM
2nd Fiddle, Tentement on Wheels, Emporium
By Pete Burmeister on
News From The Coffee Shop
May 29, 2012 5:03 PM
My brother is a good fisherman. Regardless of the location, he is usually the one in the boat that catches the first fish, the biggest fish, and the most fish (much like reading the Dr. Sesus book). While that means I usually play 2nd fiddle in the boat, I'm still willing to give it a go, hoping some of his knowledge and ability rubs off on me. This time it did! We fished the Brainerd. MN Lakes area this past weekend with hopes of landing a lunker Walleye or two. After hitting the local Super Walmart (local Walmart- wow that's an oxymoron) at midnight on Friday for a fishing license and a $100 worth of tackle, we got some shuteye before launching the boat at 5:30 AM the next morning. To my surprise, the fishing started out hot. The first cast resulted in a nice 17" Large mouth Bass. Moments later, a decent Northern Pike and a "pig" Bluegill (again, with the oxymoron's). Joe snagged a worthless Rock Bass-- beady red eyes and all! Little did he know at the time that it'd be his last fish of the day. An hour later I netted a 16" Walleye and somehow hooked the same boat rope twice while trolling one of the breaks in Gull Lake. Things went cold after that. The fish quit biting, the wind picked up and the temperature didn't get over 50 degrees the rest of the day. I'm not complaining, because I love to fish. But, the combination of those weather conditions and lack of getting so much as a bite over the next 7 hours made for a damn long day.
We ran across a great place to eat on Saturday night, Benson's in Walker, MN. It was by accident that we stumbled into the place. Pizza is their speciality and it was good, but the atmosphere and service was great! Turns out our server was the owner's son and a character at that. My brother Joe is adamant you can tell the locals from the tourists in northern Minnesota simply due to their lack of fashion sense. After studying the staff at Benson's Eating & Drinking Emporium, I'm beginning to think he's on to something. Regardless, we both got a chuckle out of our server's sense of humor and the men's restroom... by only 7 PM the toilet door was ripped off, the flushing lever was lying on the floor and the garbage was overflowing to say the least. Evidently that's common. When I asked our server about it, he said he just usually goes across the street to the BP gas station and uses their facilities. Don't let the restrooms scare you, the place had done over $50,000 in business that day and had the rest of the night yet to go. Here's the web link, http://bensonsemporium.com/ if you're ever in the area it's an experience you don't want to miss.
Spectacle, Redneck Xmas, Crop Tour '12
By Pete Burmeister on
By Pete Burmeister on
News From The Coffee Shop
June 22, 2012 11:33 AM
I've been chastised by some in the past weeks for the absence of my weekly tales about the situations I encounter and the reactions I have to them. So without further ado....
Every summer my wife's family holds Christmas in June. It's a great time for a large family to get together and enjoy each other's company without killing one another. The numerous young children can run and play outside and it gives the parents and grandparents more space to enjoy the day without being couped up in the house in December. Each year the Xmas has a theme, this year it was Redneck Xmas. You may have seen these photos on the blog over the last week showcasing some of the costumes the relatives sported. If not, it's worth another look. Attached are two of my brother in-laws and their git-ups for the day. Matt, bringing back the throwback Chariton Chargers track jersey and Jeff, playing the Turtle Man. Surprisingly, they're both off the market ladies! What can I say other than--you can pick your friends, not your relatives--all in good sport, of course.
Just a quick update on the 2nd Annual News from the Coffee Shop Crop Tour '12. We're well underway on the planning and sponsorship portion of the event. I had the chance to get together with a dozen others late last month to bounce ideas off each other for this year's tour. While everyone didn't agree on everything, we were able to get a rough draft together to start planning from. So far, we've got a great crop tour/yield estimation planned along with a multi-brand corn/soybean plot for evaluation at the Henderson Event Center, an evening happy hour/meal and tour results presentation followed by an up and coming County Music Artist, Scott Shelby from Bells, TX to wrap up the day. More details to come on the exact timeline of events. If your reading this, you've probably seen the countless updates I've been giving about the many sponsors that have already stepped up to support this event. There will be more to come, but I want to say thank you to each business that has supported this idea so far, we couldn't do it without you. If anyone has questions about sponsorship opportunities, just give me a call 319-327-0806. Within the next week, you'll be seeing a few highway banner's placed on heavily traveled roads throughout Buchanan County in an effort to help spread the word about the crop tour. As always, details will be released as they are finalized right here on News from the Coffee Shop. As we get into July, we'll be looking for area farmers who are willing to allow use of their fields. Again, if you have interest in this portion please call me at the number above. With that, I'd like to personally invite you to attend all or part of the day's events on August 24, 2012 and enjoy the company and interests of other crop tour enthusiasts. Top Ten, Amish TV, Tulsa Time
By Pete Burmeister on
News From The Coffee Shop
August 31, 2012 3:18 PM
Enough on that. Last Friday, Crop Tour '12 was held. Simply put, the day was an overall success. The weather cooperated, the scout teams made up of farmers and agribusiness people networked, saw interesting agronomic issues in the fields, and got a pretty good idea of Buchanan County's yield potential. You won't hear me talk much about the final yield results-- the estimates don't mean much to me or the folks who crawled through the fields on that hot August afternoon. The takeaways from this event are to learn something from someone you wouldn't normally interact or do business with, enjoy the company of folks that share your same interests, and have fun! Outside of one individual, the group of primarily 80 forward thinking farmers did what I'd thought they'd do-- tolerate each other's personalities and come up with an average county yield. (You can find the actual yield results at the top of this page). On a sincere note, I would like to thank all of the participants, group leaders, sponsors, and my friends and family that helped make the day a success in its 2nd year. 10. New trucks from Dunlap Motors for the scout teams
9. Surprisingly decent overall county yield potential
8. Door prizes
7. Jake Baldwin describing his scout team's 211 bpa yield check as "cherry-picking"
6. After hours w/ Adam White, Chris Soules, Stephen Burke, Rob Rudolphi & more
5. Wolfey's lunch stop in Quasky
4. Round table discussion with the scout teams
3. US Bank's hospitality tent
2. Scott Shelby plays until 3:40 am
1. Steve Walhart quits Crop Tour before 10 am
I've been tuning in to the Republican National Convention over the last few nights. Mainly due to the fact that we have Amish cable at home and it's the only thing on. Here's my thoughts/questions:
Clint Eastwood- What the hell was that?
- Ann Romney- Well done. Sincere speech by the lady in red.
- Paul Ryan gets it. Unfortunately, if the Romney/Ryan duo wins in November, Paul will be charged with the task of reminding Mitt that his next speech is a "BIG ****ing DEAL", instead of straightening this country out. He should instead be the nominee for President.
- Mitt, I checked out at about the 6 min. mark of your sales pitch. I had to clip my fingernails.
Ground Sow
By Pete Burmeister on
News From The Coffee Shop
February 21, 2013 3:18 PM
I heard the term "Ground Sow" used at the Iowa Beef Expo last weekend to describe a breeding heifer in the junior show as she was leaving the ring---
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| "GROUND SOW" |
After getting a good chuckle out of the statement, I had to see what the online dictionary and all POWERFUL Google had to say about it......
As I suspected...it's not definable, but here's the image Google produced.
I'm not sure if this is the image the judge was trying to ingrain in the minds of the folks ringside last weekend at the Expo when complementing the kid's calf by calling his/her heifer a "Ground Sow", but I suspect it was not.
I know it's sometimes humorous for those who attend livestock shows regularly or who may have judged in college to incorporate some slang into describing livestock. It's their best effort to keep it fresh and fun while showing off just how much true livestock "talent" they have. I get that.... I think.
Having said that though, some slang terms are just plain stupid and don't make sense in any description. In this instance, "Ground Sow" is one of them... especially when describing breeding cattle.
Next time, let's try not to dumb things down as much folks!
Next time, let's try not to dumb things down as much folks!
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