The scurs and the Weather Eye were preaching moderation in all things, including temperatures and precipitation. Will some draw the short precipitation straw again this week or will it be someone else’s turn in the barrel? Starting Wednesday, partly sunny becoming mostly cloudy with a good chance of evening rain. Highs in the mid-80’s with lows in the mid-60’s. Thursday, partly sunny becoming mostly cloudy with a good chance of evening rain. Highs in the low 80’s with lows in the mid-60’s. Mostly cloudy on Friday with a good chance of showers and thunderstorms. Highs in the low 80’s with lows in the mid-60’s. Saturday, partly sunny with a moderate chance of showers. Highs in the low 80’s with lows in the low 60’s. Mostly sunny for Sunday with highs in the upper 70’s and lows in the low 60’s. Monday, mostly sunny with a chance of late day showers and thunderstorms. Highs in the upper 70’s with lows in the mid-60’s. Partly sunny Tuesday with possible showers and thunderstorms. Highs in the mid-80’s with lows in the mid-60’s. On Saturday the 9th we’ll see sunrise at 5:31 a.m. We’ll have 15 hours and 24 minutes of daylight and only gain about 4 minutes more by the summer solstice. The normal high for June 9th is 77 and the normal low is 56. Given the recent warm temperatures the scurs will be testing out their new water wings in the ceement pond.
Another good week of crop growth. Fortunately temperatures moderated and parts of the weekend were downright cool. No one complained not even their air conditioners. The first planted corn was V6 – V7 on Monday and early planted soybeans were V2 – V3. Some corn is going through the ugly duckling stage as it often does when switching from the temporary seminal root system to the permanent nodal root system which will carry the crop through to maturity. Some areas received excess precipitation this past week and may benefit from additional nitrogen applications. Application of herbicides has been catch as catch can. Between wind and rainfall, applicators have had to pick their spots. The first cutting hay that has been baled and has been exceptionally nice. With neighbor Jon’s hay curing and the south breeze wafting the aroma up the hill it just doesn’t get any better than that.
Gardening time has been at a premium this spring and happens a piece at a time at the ranch. The morning glories are taking off and should begin their ascent up the makeshift trellises. After all the refuse was removed from December’s well battle, Mrs. Cheviot planted the bed by the well in short order. Not to be outdone I mustered enough ambition to plant the canna bulbs in the backyard garden. While it’s a labor intensive process start to finish, it’s worth it to see the hummingbirds feeding on the nectar of the bright red flowers.
Our summer birds are fully entrenched. The dickcissels and bobolinks sing in the pasture while the common yellowthroats are camped in the plum thicket. All the feed sack string intended for oriole nesting material has disappeared so something apparently found it to their liking. In addition to the normal oriole population, there have been more catbirds this year than ever. They always talk about being in the catbird seat. These catbirds are always busy and don’t have time to sit.
At the ranch haying is one the horizon even if the forecast needs to be more encouraging than what was seen above. There are still a few round bales from last year and several from the year before to be used up. Eventually it will be nice to have some small squares although I’ve never heard anyone say they were looking forward to baling them. The baling itself isn’t the bad part. It’s the loading, unloading and stacking that still makes it one of the least favorite activities remaining on the farm today. If you want to get rid of people fast, just say the words “bale hay” and I guarantee they’ll disappear in a heartbeat.
We managed to finally get everything weaned on Sunday. The ewes were absolutely awful to deal with this time as Cheviots can be. Their reputation for being lively is legendary and they were determined to live up to it. It didn’t help matters that there were ewes to be culled and put in a separate pen along with yearlings that needed to go to pasture. Once that was done it was time for a group to be loaded into the trailer bound for the kindly neighbors pasture. There were two black ewes and six white ewes, all very fat and unlikely to lose weight given the growth there.
When I got to the kindly neighbors with the ewes I unloaded the mineral feeder first and quickly scoped out the fence. It was extremely windy. Rather than kill their soybeans with deadly agro toxins I opted to bring the weedeater. Good thing I did. Along with the usual downy brome and Canada thistles, the poison hemlock had exploded in the heat. After unloading the ewes, I tackled the fence. It’s probably over a quarter mile of fence when one goes all the way around it. Along with taking the weeds out one has to untangle the electric fence wire from the barbed wire. Luckily there were only two spots where that occurred and it took minimal effort. Once back to the barn, plugged the fencer in and shazam! The old International weed chopper sprang to life, emitting its familiar pinging cadence.
I stopped back Monday evening to check on the sheep. There was very little bellering and they’d settled in just fine. With all the food you can eat and nothing better to do why wouldn’t you be? The waterer was working properly and the fencer was still pinging away. All was right with the world. I checked in at the house and the female spousal unit greeted me as did Annie the resident collie, who received her first dog treat of the season. I asked if they knew the sheep were there and was told they’d discovered them sort of by accident. The kindly neighbor lady said the male spousal unit had decided yesterday that he should run his weedeater along the fence by the yard. He came back in to say I’d beaten him to it. That would have to be some kind of a first.
See you next week…real good then.