The scurs were relatively certain the jig was up for a while on above-normal temps and the Weather Eye confirmed it. Will we get lucky in the new year or will it be same ol’ same ol’? Starting Wednesday, mostly sunny becoming cloudy with a good chance of evening snow. Highs in the low single digits with temperatures rising. Thursday, cloudy with a good chance of daytime snow. Highs near 10 above with lows in the low single digits. Partly sunny on Friday with highs in the low single digits and lows near -10. Saturday, mostly cloudy and colder with highs in the mid-single digits below zero and lows near -10. Partly sunny New Year’s Eve Day with highs in the mid-single digits below zero and lows again near 10 below zero. New Year’s Day, partly sunny with highs in the low single digits below zero and lows near 10 below zero. Mostly cloudy Tuesday with highs in the low teens above zero and lows in the mid-single digits below zero. The normal high for New Year’s Day is 23 and the normal low is 5. The scurs are hoping the din from all the noisemakers has died down on New Year’s Day so they can settle in for a long winters nap.
New Year’s Day ushers in the first full moon of the new year. It goes by the name of the Full Wolf Moon as wolves were known to be howling outside the encampments of the tribes in the Northeast U.S. The Ojibwe called this The Great Spirit Moon and the Sioux named it The Moon of Frost in the Teepee. At the ranch it’s the Happy to be Done With Chores Moon.
A little clandestine tiling was completed last week ahead of the bottom falling out of our temperatures, and just in time. The soils are freezing deeper with each passing day, although the recent accumulation of snow in places may have deterred it somewhat. The snowfall was variable and somewhat of a surprise as predictions were for less than an inch at one point. In Bugtussle proper we recorded about 5 inches and at the ranch closer to 4 inches. One doesn’t have to travel very far north or south and one runs out of the snow belt. Still, it made for a white Christmas and looked pretty as long as you didn’t have to move it.
The alien continues to plague me, although I am making progress — if you can call being the largest producer of snot and phlegm in the free world progress anyway. At least I’m not feeling the body chills and aches anymore. Methinks that may have had something to do with some of my self-medication over the holiday season. At least I no longer sound like Barry White. Probably more along the lines of Sam Elliott or Steve Cannon now. Maybe I can do Dodge truck commercials or a radio show that’s the same shtick every day. Hi gang!
The birds seem to be responding to the recent cold spell by tapping into the food we put out for them. The suet in particular has been a hit as the need for higher energy foodstuffs increases. The cardinals are back to their late afternoon, pre-sundown routine too, feasting on safflower that’s tossed out of the feeders. Not that the birds wouldn’t do just fine without being fed. They’d just have to work a little harder at it. That’s fine because that’s what the feeders are for: An amends perhaps in exchange for the habitat changes we as humans have inflicted on them. Not to mention adding color and activity to our somewhat blasé and static landscape.
The sheep continue their winter mode in a generally uneventful fashion. Once we got the water back up and running it’s made life much simpler at choretime. Feeding round bales to the brood ewes makes life easier and the addition of a feeder specifically designed for sheep cuts down on the waste. Once a bale is gone, there’s virtually nothing left that interests them. We needed to spend a little money before the end of the year so another one of those feeders is on order.
Another expense for the sheep enterprise was the addition of a cab for the tractor, recently purchased as a result of brother Roger’s keen eye on Craig’s List. It’s not new of course, but if it works out like it should and the heater is functional, it should serve the purpose. It was a bit of a process to pull it off however. The cab was down near Spillville, Iowa, home of the Bily Clocks Museum. I was still not feeling up to par so Roger graciously offered to take a look at it and put it on his trailer if it was deemed worthy of the asking price. In the meantime I was delivering Christmas gifts to our renter at Spring Valley and checking on things at the home place ahead of the cold snap.
We’d debated whether he should just pull it back to his place and pick it up at a later date or attempt hauling it back to the ranch if time allowed. Happened that we were able to link up on the Iowa side of the border just south of U.S. 63 and Iowa 9 to make the swap. The cab looked to be about as advertised and likely worth the price. It was clamped onto the trailer pretty well so all I had to do was find the 2” ball with the 6” drop in the pickup box and we were in business.
Iowa 9 winds around a bit but eventually it got me to U.S. 218 for a straighter shot at home. The cab rode fairly well all the way back to the ranch with one of the side windows popping open being about the only notable event. I stopped at the John Deere dealership lot in Osage to close the window, checked the ratchet straps, then took off again. Made it home about a half hour before dark so perfect timing. It’s not fancy but everything appears to be there. The idea is to work in less discomfort, not necessarily to impress the neighbors. Now to get it to neighbor Jon’s, get it off the trailer and and see if it fits like it’s supposed to. Always an adventure.
See you next week…real good then.