The scurs feared the Weather Eye would not deliver another above-normal-temperature week and their fears were confirmed. Are we feeling lucky or are we resigned to the drudgery that is winter? Starting Wednesday, cloudy with a modest chance of snow and freezing drizzle. Highs in the low 30’s with lows in the upper teens. Thursday, mostly cloudy with a slight chance of snow. Highs in the upper 20’s with lows in the upper teens. Mostly cloudy on Friday with flurries. Highs in the low 30’s with lows in the mid-20’s. Saturday, mostly cloudy with a modest chance of snow. Highs in the upper 30’s with lows in the mid-20’s. Mostly sunny on Sunday with a modest chance of snow in the evening. Highs in the mid-30’s with lows in the mid-20’s. Monday, mostly sunny with highs in the upper 30’s and lows in the low 20’s. Mostly cloudy Tuesday with highs in the mid-30’s and lows in the mid-teens. On the 18th, we’re down to 8 hours and 54 minutes of daylight. The normal high for December 18th is 25 and the normal low is 12. The scurs must have a list from Christmases past they can recycle. No need to rush into things.
Still some activity in area fields, primarily tiling at this point. The surface soil is frozen, although not so deep so as to stop the process. We were fortunate to have the late November and early December weather we had, allowing late season tillage and fertilization to be completed. Machinery was put away and yards were able to be buttoned up properly after appearing that the early November conditions would put a crimp in our style.
At the ranch the bird population at the feeders showed that some of the birds we generally don’t see much of this late were still here. A grackle and a red-winged blackbird both made an appearance on the 5th as ducks and geese continued attempting to keep a patch of water open on St. Olaf Lake. It appeared over the weekend they finally gave up and the lake froze over. A Cooper’s hawk has been frequenting the yard at the ranch and when that happens, the birds at the feeders become sparse. My fishing line experiment on the horizontal suet feeders seems to be thwarting the feeding attempts by the house sparrow and starling population. They definitely steer clear of that one and instead focus on the other two. I have news for them: I have more fishing line and bell sinkers.
Much of the week last week at the ranch was occupied by well problems. As if on cue, once the weather turned cold it was time for that to act up. The hydrant snapped off down in the well pit and needed attention pronto. It was repaired and after the repairman left, the pump wouldn’t shut off. The next day the pump was pulled and checked, then placed back in the well with new pipe. It decided it perhaps wasn’t as good as it had led us to believe so another visit was required, replacing the pump after pulling the original back up out the well. All in all it made for a cold Tuesday and Wednesday with plenty of wind to go along with it. It was good to have the well operational again though. Turning it on and off only when necessary was starting to remind me of Green Acres.
It was 50 years ago this December that our family embarked on the journey of a lifetime or at least that’s certainly how it seemed at the time. My oldest brother was in the Peace Corps in Venezuela and my parents had decided it would be a good idea to take the rest of the family there over Christmas to visit him. There was a fair amount of preparation to get ready for it in advance, typhoid and yellow fever immunizations to name a few. The yellow fever vaccine was a piece of cake. The typhoid shots at that time were a series of 3 or 4 and made one’s arm ache for several days afterwards each time. Better than the alternative however.
The day finally arrived when we loaded up the ’63 Buick Invicta station wagon and headed for Miami, where we flew to Caracas. The journey to Miami was long and I’m sure seemed even longer for our parents as three bratty kids, ages 9, 7 and 4 along with one teenage older brother, making things miserable at times for them. It was perhaps buffered somewhat by the interesting places we saw, stayed and ate at along the way. It took several days to get there as we passed through many different states. There was the music on the car radio. I still remember The Beatles’ “Hello, Goodbye” being popular at the time. I’m guessing Dad was probably more than happy to forget about it.
I can’t recall if we visited the Kennedy Space Center before or upon our return from Venezuela. Our visit was during the earlier stages of the Apollo project and the building where the rockets were assembled was still relatively new yet. The machine that transported the rockets to the launch pad was huge and travelled at a snail’s pace. We saw some of the electronics of the day, remnants of some of the Gemini or Mercury programs I believe. All very interesting as we’d seen much of this unfolding before our eyes on TV. A black and white TV of course.
The Miami International Airport in 1967 was probably much different than it is today. It was an almost relaxed atmosphere, a far cry from air travel today where everyone seems so uptight and crabby. The airplanes were also impressive when seen up close through young eyes. All different colors and sizes, with rows of windows on some seeming to stretch on forever. Also very different than today was the sheer number of carriers, too numerous to remember.
I don’t think any of us had flown at the time so that was to be an experience in and of itself. We flew on Varig airline, the international airline of Brazil. Something that made the flight unique was the fact we had been bumped up to first class. That doesn’t happen much anymore either. We each received a neat little bag containing toiletries. While I don’t recall the food on the flight, it must not have been too bad or I would’ve remembered it. One other item that made the flight unique was the fact we were able to fly over Cuba since we were on a Brazilian air carrier. This was a mere five years after the Cuban Missile Crisis, something we small fry probably didn’t have a full appreciation of then.
There are many more recollections to come so we’ll continue that in next week’s installment.
See you next week…real good then.