After suffering through some colder weather, the scurs have directed the Weather Eye to see what we can do about warming things up. Have we seen the last of Old Man Winter or is he waiting in the wings for an encore performance? Starting Wednesday, cloudy with a good chance of showers. Highs in the upper 40’s with lows in the low 30’s. Thursday cloudy with a modest chance of a rain and snow mix. Highs in the mid-40’s with lows in the mid-30’s. Mostly cloudy on Friday with a slight chance of a rain and snow mix. Highs in the upper 40’s with lows in the mid- 30’s. Saturday, partly sunny with a slight chance of morning snow and rain mix. Highs in the low 50’s with lows in the low 30’s. Partly sunny on Sunday with highs in the mid-50’s with lows in the upper 30’s. Monday, mostly sunny with a slight chance of rain. Highs in the upper 50’s with lows in the low 40’s. Mostly sunny for Tuesday with a slight chance of rain. Highs in the low 60’s with lows in the mid-40’s. On the 27th we creep over 12 hours and 30 minutes of daylight for the first time since September 15th. The normal high for March 27th is 46 and the normal low is 27. The scurs are thinking we may be seeing light at the end of tunnel. Or at least the light in the Kelvinator.
Finally a little better forecast to sink our teeth into. I’ve already heard some whining about wanting to get in the field. Yes, driving tractor is fun, but memories are short. It’s seldom we are able to get in the field here in March and the past two seasons have been no exception. When we do, those with small grain have an opportunity for decent yields and better-than-average quality. For corn and soybean production, that isn’t necessarily the case. Yes, it’d be wonderful to be able to do fieldwork ahead of planting and go at a leisurely pace but this is MN, not central IL. Those who slog through the mud a couple times a day taking care of livestock manage to keep things in perspective. The time will come so be prepared when it does. In the meantime quit whining and get the chores done.
The frost is officially out of the ground at the SROC where the measurement is taken under bare soil. Out feeding bottle lambs I checked on the north facing slope by the barn about 10 p.m. Still found frost down about 4”. It has refrozen several times over the past week, especially following the rain that fell last Thursday. Low temps were in the low 20’s three consecutive days after that. In addition to north facing slope, I’d venture to guess we still have frost on north sides of groves, fencelines and buildings. Some were able to haul pack manure over the weekend. Reports were it sunk in a little, but the ground seemed to hold up relatively well. It didn’t last long; it got greasy on top and mud resulted. That tends to take a lot of the fun out of it.
I’ve found the social distancing or lack thereof rather interesting. While waiting to get takeout food at The Willows a couple people looked at a friend and I like we had the plague. We were well out of the 6’ distancing guideline. On a Saturday trip for supplies to the store where you go to the bathroom in the big orange silo, most were keeping their distance. Right away though I saw a couple people hug each other and later on a couple was walking around the store holding hands. Did these people not get the memo? Perhaps it’s because it’s second nature out here in the country where our closest neighbor is a half mile away. We’re usually just happy to see someone.
The coronavirus shutdown has had some positive effects at the ranch. I mentioned working on pasture fence. Getting the electric fence operating this early was a feather in my cap. Since I was in the area, I cleaned out a wood duck house that needed it for a few years. A snowbank extending out into pond on top of the ice held me up as I removed the old nesting material and dumped in a new supply of shavings. The ice had melted around the post so in another day or so it would’ve meant wearing waders in the ice cold water.
While I was at it I checked on the pussy willow progress in the wetland around the pond. Much to my surprise a couple of the bushes had nice catkins on them so harvested a supply for the floral shop where Mrs. Cheviot works. I couldn’t find a couple of the bushes I’d plucked some off of from last year. That’s probably OK. It was really wet where they likely were. Getting stuck wasn’t an idea that thrilled me let alone getting the tractor stuck trying to pull the Gator out. With funerals being more limited in scope anyway, there probably won’t be as much demand. Still, if you die and are reading this, you’ll know where they came from.
We do have things to occupy our time with livestock. As mentioned last week we had a recent uptick in bottle lambs. They seem happy as well they should. If someone fed you five times a day you’d be happy too. As of this writing there’s still one little natural colored buck lamb in the garage. His small size belies his lung capacity. For a little guy he is really loud! The BLAS 2.0 (bottle lamb alarm system) is armed at all times. Turn on the light, come in the garage, touch a door handle or make a hinge squeak and the alarm immediately goes off. Try to sneak an ice cream treat out of the freezer? Just like the BLAS 1.0 system: Busted.
Inside the house Ruby is in charge of live entertainment, with an emphasis on the live part. This small red and white Border Collie has never had an off switch and shows no sign of developing one. One can only play about so much ball with her before going absolutely crazy. Wanna eat something? Nope. Time to play ball. Wanna relax and get under your blanket? No you’re not. Let’s play ball. No? OK, let’s play the growling game where you point the TV remote at me and I growl! Not good enough? Let’s watch a dog show so I can bark at them on TV! Lots of dogs on commercials to bark at as well as anything else that happens to set me off including horses, elephants, camels, Clint Eastwood and Julie Andrews. After an evening of Ruby, it wears a person out. Try a week’s worth of that and you begin to get the picture.
See you next week…real good then.