Having subdued the leak beneath the Weather Eye to a trickle, the scurs have set their sights on a kinder, gentler forecast. Was the recent snow just a warning shot or the tip of the iceberg? Starting Wednesday, mostly cloudy with highs in the mid-40’s and lows in the mid-30’s. Thursday, sunny becoming cloudy with a slight chance of evening rain. Highs in the upper 50’s with lows in the mid-40’s. Mostly cloudy on Friday with a slight chance of rain. Highs in the low 60’s with lows in the mid-40’s. Saturday, mostly sunny becoming cloudy with a good chance of evening showers. Highs in the low 60’s with lows in the mid-40’s. Mostly cloudy on Sunday with a good chance of rain. Highs in the low 60’s with lows in the mid-40’s. Monday, mostly cloudy with a modest chance of rain. Highs in the low 50’s with lows in the upper 30’s. Sunny for Tuesday becoming with an outside chance for a shower or thunderstorm. Highs in the upper 40’s with lows in the upper 30’s. On the 16th the sun will rise at 7:30 a.m. CDT and we slide below 11 hours of daylight for the first time since back on February 25th. The normal high for October 19th is 58 and the normal low is 36. The scurs have rented extra space in anticipation of all the Halloween treats.
Preoccupied by the forecasts for snow, I failed to mention the Full Moon for October that occurred back on Sunday. It goes by the Full Hunter Moon and while some may be calling it the Harvest Moon, do not be deceived. The Full Harvest Moon is the one nearest the autumnal equinox. This Full Moon did however allow pioneer farmers to work into the night as well as it generally rises not long after sunset. If the sky is clear it will be very bright. It was also a time where Native Americans and settlers alike would be stocking their larders with staples for the long months ahead. The Ojibwe called it the Falling Leaves Moon. The Sioux who also knew it as the Moon of Falling Leaves or the Moon of Changing Season. At the ranch we know it as the First Chores Done in the Dark Moon. At least we’re not walking to the nearest stream to haul water. That’d be a hike.
Sending mixed signals last week, Mother Nature tipped her hand and introduced us to her pals Jack Frost and Old Man Winter. The growing season came to an end Friday night. After the growing season got off to a slow start, it kicked it in gear in July and September to make what seemed to be cold growing season into one that was close to normal in terms of GDU accumulation. The only trouble with that is the growing season GDU’s are calculated from May 1st. If your crop didn’t get planted until June, May didn’t matter. For the most part, though, much of South Central Minnesota was fortunate to get the crop in the ground in a relatively timely fashion. Where we couldn’t, earlier season hybrids and varieties were subbed in to help counter the later-than-desired planting date. The end result is that frost should have a minimal impact here, one of the few things that finally went right. No guarantees on what’s to come weather-wise however so it could still be the battle start to finish the past two cropping seasons were.
The crop harvested so far has been acceptable to mildly disappointing. White mold left a mark in some soybean fields, again. For those who decided to switch over and pick corn, moistures have had a difficult time getting much below 25%. Yields have generally reflected some issues with brittle snap and stalk rot issues as well. Many of those picking corn knew this in advance. Those who aren’t aware of the problem may be in for a rude awakening. Some also might do well to calibrate their yield monitors to be sure that they aren’t merely putting a number on the screen. Too many times over the years people have been either pleasantly surprised or sadly disappointed once the grain runs across a scale, the true gold standard.
At the ranch we continue to enjoy our late season tomatoes. The last of the crop was picked on Friday night before it snowed. Despite our shortened gardening season we still had to be pleased with their output. We had plenty of tomatoes to eat and some to share. I can see already that some of them that were just barely blushing when picked are showing signs of ripening. If we play our cards right we should have ripe tomatoes through the end of the month. We never complain about that at the ranch. Having one of those tomatoes in January or February would be something to cheer about.
Ruby has been enjoying the tomatoes too. She’s been the beneficiary of several meals of dog food soaked in bacon grease from the manufacture of BLT’s. Once she smells the bacon being fried she knows what comes next. Her coat shows it too, coming back in thick and heavy. Some might say that’s a sure sign of a cold, nasty winter ahead. I don’t know about that. What I do know is that it’ll be one huge bunch of dog hair to sweep up the rate she’s going.
Having warm fur or clothing is a must come winter. With winter breathing down our necks, we had a bomb session at the Mall for Men to determine what Steve Cannon called long underwear on his show. We were in a quandary as having last listened to the last Cannon Mess over 22 years ago, none of us ever deciphered what he said. Hearing it on an AM radio through tinny speakers in rattly old tractor cabs or diesel trucks probably didn’t help. It sounded sort of like “gotyas, gottias, gotchas”, or something to that effect.
Then Betsy’s Dad had a stroke of absolute genius: Given his discipleship of both Seinfeld and The Cannon Mess, why not look for a Yiddish word meaning underwear? After all, Seinfeld was chock full of Yiddish sayings and descriptive terms. Cannon was from The Range where Yiddish words were part of the vocabulary. Lo and behold, he found a term, “gatkes” that means underwear. Pronounced “got-kas”, the mystery was solved. Now when it gets cold, we can say with confidence that it’s time to get out our long winter gatkes. And they say we never accomplish anything that really matters in the office.
See you next week…real good then.