The scurs and the Weather Eye are seeing eye to eye as of late. Will their close weather association continue or will quarrels end it in a lover’s spat? Starting Wednesday, mostly sunny with highs in the mid-70’s with lows in the mid-50’s. Thursday, mostly sunny with highs in the mid-70’s with lows in the upper 50’s. Mostly sunny on Friday with an increasing chance of showers and thunderstorms by evening. Highs in the upper 70’s with lows in the low 60’s. Saturday, mostly sunny with a good chance of evening showers and thunderstorms. Highs in the upper 70’s with lows in the low 60’s. Mostly cloudy on Sunday with highs in the upper 70’s and lows in the low 60’s. Monday, partly sunny with a slight chance of a daytime thunderstorm. Highs in the low 80’s with lows in the low 60’s. Mostly cloudy for Tuesday with highs in the upper 70’s and lows in the low 60’s. On August 26th we slide back to 13 hours and 30 minutes of daylight, roughly the same as we had on April 16th. The sun will rise at 6:30 a.m. CDT and set at 8 p.m. The normal high for August 26th is 79 and the normal low is 58. Having saved enough of their shekels, the scurs have their hearts set on a foot-long hot dog from the northeast corner of the Coliseum at the Great Minnesota Get Together.
Crops continue their march towards harvest. Corn is starting to show some dough stage and by the last week of the month, some should start to show some denting, particularly those early planted, earlier maturing hybrids. Soybeans also are on the move with the vast majority solidly entrenched in the R5 stage locally. Some early planted 1.5 maturity soybeans should reach R6 sometime next week. Some of the later planted fields were still R4 as of last week, but will quickly reach R5. More white mold detects this past week, although as late as it got started, it’s unlikely to have the kind of impact it did in 2017 when many of those same fields were planted to soybeans. Regardless, those fields bear watching for future reference. Soybean aphids are increasing on some of the later planted soybeans that are lagging slightly in maturity. In other fields that are more mature, numbers have dropped. There is no way to know without actually looking at them.
We dodged a bullet east of town last Tuesday the 13th with some rough looking weather skirting generally just north of us. There was some hail that smacked crops around on the backroads to Owatonna, causing some substantial crop damage. Perhaps scariest of all was the tornado that skirted just to the north of the ranch. Several videos and still photos were circulated, with some making the evening news on TV. No damage from the twister at the ranch, but watching from a distance, one had to wonder what was transpiring. Thanks to the magic of cell phones, within minutes I knew what was happening and where. And the Dubyas’ cows didn’t care.
Our garden continues to look underwhelming, although some of the tomatoes are over 6’ tall. We did get our first vine-ripened tomato of the season the other day, so at least there was that. The July 8th string bean planting is flowering like crazy, so in a few weeks we’ll likely start to dine on those. The flowering plants are pretty, with the four o’clocks being especially beautiful this year. The mix of colors is fantastic, and the flowers are about petunia sized. As the name implies, they start to open about 4 in the afternoon and by nightfall they are wide open for business as foraging hummingbirds and sphinx moths can attest.
As had been my want to these many years, I headed off on yet another Pro Farmer Midwest Crop Tour last weekend. Also as mentioned last week, this is my 16th go round and may be the most intriguing trip yet. There is far more prevent plant acreage scattered over more territory than we saw in 2013. That year it was primarily limited to parts of Minnesota and Iowa. This time it extends across large areas of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois as well as parts of Iowa, Minnesota and South Dakota. Does rain make grain? We shall see.
Recently, I noticed the electrical substation east of St. Olaf Lake was undergoing some radical changes. More like a total dismantling and elimination process. I had the privilege while filling with fuel one day to ask a Steele-Waseca Electric Co-Op employee about what was going on. Interestingly enough, he said the substation there was indeed being removed temporarily. He also told me it was originally constructed back in the late 1930’s. Fortunately they are totally rebuilding and replacing much of it. Why do I say “fortunately?”
Like many area landmarks, the substation has been a longtime navigational aid, not unlike St. Olaf Lake, the golf course, and the pink schoolhouse near Wilton. Seeing these landmarks gives people a sense of confidence when they’re trying to find the ranch or anyplace else for that matter. I still remember years ago how many people became disorientated when someone painted the purple house. Of course these days everyone relies on GPS and Google maps. You’re taking a leap of faith that some electronic gadget won’t get you hopelessly lost in the weeds someplace. Just remember, if you’ve come to the pink schoolhouse after crossing the Wilton River Bridge, you can’t get there from here.
See you next week…real good then.