The scurs made the most of the warm temps last week and managed to stay entertained. Will winter make a comeback or is it time for the robins to come back? Starting Wednesday, partly cloudy becoming cloudy with a slight chance of rain in the evening. Highs of 35 – 40 and lows of 30 – 35. Mostly cloudy with a slight chance of rain on Thursday. Highs of 45 and lows of 25. Partly cloudy and colder on Friday. Highs 30 – 35 and lows of 20 – 25. Mostly cloudy on Saturday with a chance of significant snow in the evening. Highs near 30 and lows of 20 – 25. Mostly cloudy on Sunday with a slight chance of snow in the morning. Highs around 35 and lows of 15 – 20. Partly cloudy on Monday and Tuesday with high around 20 and lows near 10. The normal low for December 15th is 26 and the normal low is 9. On December 8th we will be down to 9 hours of daylight. The scurs will be keeping an eye on the calendar hoping the March weather continues.
Our fall drought continues to make folks nervous. The gauge at the Mall for Men tallied a scant .5” for the month of November and the gauge at the ranch wasn’t much better at .55”. To put matters into perspective, during the August through November timeframe at the SROC in Waseca, normal precip totals 13.25”. At the SROC for those same months this year, they have measured 4.41”, making rainfall 8.84” below normal since July. We’ve faired only slightly better at the ranch at 5.6” in those same months. Bad deal, right? While it’s not a good deal, during those same months at the ranch in 2011, we had a total of 2.88” and at the SROC, 2.52”. In other words, we’ve actually had more rain in August through November this year! If and when this drought breaks, it could be sudden like last year, bringing us rain when we had to have it, replenishing our soil profile and causing many to proclaim the drought over. If you’ll also recall, we had little subsoil moisture going into last winter but we managed to get snow melt to count for something as soils were not frozen deeply. Plus soils were (and are) fractured from deep tillage and there were frequently large cracks in the ground where tillage was not performed. This allowed much of the moisture to penetrate rather than running off. It all added up and the rest as they say is history.
In the skies we continue to see Venus in the east as the “morning star” with Jupiter shining brightly in the east after sundown. During morning chores, Jupiter is just going to bed in the west. Last week made for a spectacular conjunction between the Full Moon and Jupiter in the early evening, with Jupiter just above the moon, The Big Dipper seems huge at evening chore time, low in the northern sky right over the main barn. If you’re looking for it and don’t have a barn you may be out of luck. The proximity to the horizon bends the light making it appear larger than when it is more overhead. It’s one of the easiest celestial features to see this time of year as a result.
The small barn was declared officially cleaned on Saturday after the door was jacked up enough to allow entrance for the skidloader. Taking the roll cage off the skidloader is not an option. I don’t know too many dead guys who were glad they’d done it. Sure it could’ve probably been pitched by hand but what’s the fun in that? Sheep pack manure is some dense stuff and generally comes off in large, heavy sheets. It’s not the most pleasant to deal with in the first place, let alone using a pitchfork. There were 2 loads, 1 a standard size load and the last one was monster-sized. Probably should’ve made 2 plus loads out of it but wanting to get done and do chores kept me piling it on. Sheep are like any other livestock in that they enjoy freshly bedded pens and barns. The temperatures on Sunday went a long way towards drying out the condensation on the floor, giving the flock a place in out of the wind to sleep the new straw.
The wetland is back on the radar once again. With all the dry weather this mid-summer and into the fall, the basin/pond area has not held water since late July. We graciously received approval to deepen it from the proper channels so we’re moving ahead with the project. One of the nicest things about it is the fact that water can be diverted from an area that drowns out on the adjoining field into the wetland. There should be more water available to the wetland and deepening it will allow additional capacity while the farmer will no longer lose crop to standing water. That’s the way it should work rather than the lack of cooperation we encounter all too often. Wetlands benefit us all by providing cleaner water in addition to habitat for wildlife.
Sunday we sold a group of three bred ewes to a loyal 4-H’er we’ve been helping. The ewes in the main barn weren’t too bad to deal with as they were already close to the building. The ewes in the pasture were a little more problematic in that they needed to be brought up to the small barn to catch the one we wanted out of a group of 20. Ruby to the rescue. It had been a while since I’d done much for training or used her for herding. No surprises though when we walked out to the pasture. She did what Border Collies have imprinted in their makeup from centuries of herding: made a great out run, circling the ewes and quickly gathering them into a group then headed them back to the barn. While she looks like she might be a China doll, Ruby’s actually pretty durable and built for speed. Being more of a drover than a herding dog is handy most of the time as that’s what we need anyway. Within a matter of minutes we had the ewes by the barn as Ruby backed off as commanded, making them feel more at ease and safe to go in. Seeing Mrs. Cheviot carrying some hay into the barn didn’t hurt but we had to get them there first to find it.
See you next week…real good then.