The Weather Eye continues to give the scurs fits after thinking they had the cold and snow problem licked. Will their woes continue or will Old Man Winter loosen his grip a tad? Starting Wednesday, mostly cloudy with a good chance of snow. Highs in the mid-20’s with lows near 10. Thursday, mostly sunny with highs in the low 20’s and lows in the upper single digits. Mostly cloudy on Friday with an increasing chance of snow by evening. Highs in the mid-20’s with lows near 20. Saturday, cloudy with a good chance of snow increasing by evening. Highs in the low 30’s and lows in the low 20’s. Mostly cloudy for Sunday with a good chance of snow in the forenoon. Highs in the upper 20’s with lows in the low teens. Monday, partly sunny with possible flurries and highs around 20 with lows in the low teens. Partly sunny for Tuesday with a continued chance of flurries. Highs in the low 20’s with lows around 10. On the 24th, the sun will rise before 7 a.m. On the 26th, we’re back over 11 hours of daylight for the first time since last October 15th. The normal high for February 26th is 32 and the normal low is 14. The scurs are rationing their Valentine’s Day candy as it’s a long pull until Easter.
Winter continues to drag on. After lulling us to sleep with some nice weather from December up through mid-January, it has started to wear on everyone. One has to remember it got an early start in November and even made us think twice in October when it snowed 4” in places. While our February snowfall isn’t record breaking in this area, several other areas are seeing record setting snowfall. Still, as February’s go, snowfall has been well above normal and temperatures have been well below normal. We are however already near the seasonal normal for snowfall at the SROC which is 52.8. We still have March and perhaps April left to go. Thus far in Bugtussle we’re at 53.8” and at the ranch 52.7” as of February 19th. Frost depth on bare soil as measured at the SROC is 19”. One saving grace of this snow is it has insulated the soil so that the frost hasn’t penetrated much deeper. We’ll have enough problems to worry about the way it is including the snow pack to our south.
Probably the worst thing about our snow in February is that it hasn’t thawed much since the 5th. We got a lot of mileage out of the snow that fell on the 11th and 12th, having to move it three times after the winds deposited and redeposited it. It hasn’t snowed huge amounts per snowfall event although it has snowed frequently. Measurable snowfall was recorded on 9 of the first 18 days in February at the ranch. This February snow has been relatively dry snow as well, making it easy for the wind to move it. Likewise, it’s been easy to move with the tractor and blower. In my rookie season as a snow blower owner/operator, that’s probably a blessing. Being able to take full swaths since the snow is so fluffy and not terribly deep has made the learning process less painful than it could’ve been.
The deep snow keeps our backyard bird population busy at the feeders including the pheasants. Didn’t mean to scare them out of their roosts but one night blowing snow into the pine trees sent about a dozen packing in disgust before dark. The next morning they were back at their corn feeder so they must not have been over it. It appears too we may have our very own cardinal at the ranch. In years past, we’ve shared one with neighbor David. Now it appears there are two males, one that stays here and one that comes up here from below the hill. Their spring song is evident already at chore time as the sun comes up. It’s a beautiful noise after a winter that’s largely quiet and devoid of much bird singing.
Lambing has been a slow process thus far. Not that it’s a bad thing. The cold weather has tried our patience more than once. The snow certainly hasn’t made keeping the feedlot clean a bowl of cherries. I discovered the snow blower can also doubles as a forage blower when getting into the hay build up around the mangers. The lambs don’t care and are demanding more space. Their wish will be my command very soon. Feeding small pens of anything is one of my greatest pet peeves. It takes a lot of extra time and more feed particularly hay gets wasted. Being the individual who ends up being the chief handler of 400+ small square bales annually at the ranch, I tend to take it personally. My aching joints second the motion.
Have you experienced some of the same issues with other drivers I have this winter? I recently read a ranking of drivers by state and MN ranked as 6th worst. I’d believe it. I don’t know how many nasty weather days with reduced visibility I’ve seen people driving around without their headlights on. They must assume they automatically come on or have a death wish. In my pickup, the running lights do come on once the vehicle is in gear. The tail lights however don’t come on unless the lights are manually turned on. That varies a lot by vehicle so the best bet is to turn them on. I’ve also noticed people driving with their parking lights on. Huh? It doesn’t help them to be seen for much distance but I guess it must be the cool thing to do.
Something else that I’ve asked for clarification on but have never received a consistent answer concerns the use of emergency flashers when the vehicle is moving. It’s confusing. When vehicles are moving slowly, it’s frequently difficult to know what they’re up to until you’re right on top of somebody. More than once in over 40 years of driving I’ve come across someone parked under an overpass in the driving lane with their flashers on. Talk about a death wish.
It’s time for some positive thinking before a person gets too far down. Seed catalogs provide warm thoughts of what one might be able to plant for spring. The garden area still needs to be moved at the ranch so that project is on the list. Along with that time needs to be allocated for the burning of several brush piles. Cooperation from Mother Nature and the People’s Republic of Steele Co. will be needed on that one. Time to make the annual trek to kiss the ring of the Trash Fire Police. Will this be the year that the trusty lawn mowers Whitey and/or Howard are replaced? They were still running well at the end of last season so odds are they’ll make spring training. The smell of freshly mown grass can’t be far behind.
See you next week…real good then.