Old Man Winter grabbed the wheel and went on a joy ride last week. It left the scurs, the Weather Eye and everyone else with white knuckles. Will the scurs & Weather Eye see their way clear to yanking his driving privileges for a few weeks or are we buckled in for the duration? Starting Wednesday, sunny with highs in the low 40’s and lows in the upper 20’s. Thursday, mostly sunny with highs in the low 40’s and lows in the mid-20’s. Sunny Friday with highs in the mid-30’s and lows in the mid-30’s. Halloween, sunny with highs in the low 50’s and lows in the low 30’s. Sunny on Sunday with highs in the mid-40’s and lows in the low 30’s. Monday, sunny with highs in the mid-50’s and lows in the low 30’s. Partly sunny for Tuesday with a modest chance of afternoon showers. Highs in the low 50’s and lows in the upper 30’s. Through the art of governmental meddling, the sun will set on Halloween at 6:04 p.m. Three days later it will set at 5 p.m. Utterly amazing! The normal high for Halloween is 51 and the normal low is 32. The scurs will be exhausted after dispensing Halloween treats on a Full Moon, feeding ghosts and goblins as well as changing their smoke alarm batteries and setting their clocks back an hour. Working overtime.
It is indeed a Full Moon on Halloween, something that has not happened across all time zones since 1944 according the Farmer’s Almanac. It is also unusual in that it is the second Full Moon in October, thus making it a Blue Moon. It goes by the name of the Full Hunter’s Moon, as it was a timeframe when larders were being stocked by not only the pioneers, but Native tribes as well. It also meant harvesting warm fur for the long cold winter ahead. The Ojibwe knew this as The Falling Leaves Moon and the Sioux called it The Moon when Wind Shakes the Leaves off Trees or the Moon of Changing Season. At the ranch, we know it as the Frozen Water Bucket Moon. Many hours will be consumed over the course of the next several months dealing with them.
Progress in the fields was largely brought to a screeching halt as a result of the snowfall events. Even tillage was unable to be performed as traction was lost with the melting precipitation. Snow hung up on cornstalks and husks, causing those who knew better to park their machines and wait it out. Others decided to tempt fate and paid the price, plugging the combine with snow and thawing it out in the shop afterwards. The fall that was way ahead of schedule so far suddenly became more in line with what we’ve experienced in a more normal year for many. Corn that was harvested has been slower to dry with the colder air. It also didn’t dry appreciably in the field and in some cases likely picked up some moisture. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted.
Speaking of that, the snow also brought an end to any notion I had about taking the Studebaker out for one last ride. How so? With snow it’s like magic that the sand and salt mixture comes out of snow plow trucks, particularly in the People’s Republic of Steele Co. Rather than scrape the roads off, then wait for the sun to melt the ice, tax dollars are spent to make sure that people can continue to drive like maniacs as well as keeping car washes and body shops in business. Instead of exposing a collector automobile to the hazardous material, one opts to park them for the winter, unless several inches of rain fall to wash the roads off. Odds of that happening become less and less with each passing day. Oh, what could’ve been…
It looks like gardening is officially done for the season. The cold temperatures last week finished off the cannas and four o’clocks that were still desperately trying to bloom. After returning from another bomb session cleaning and moving items from Mom’s place, I tackled digging the cannas. Not a minute too soon the way it looked. The snow that had been falling much the day had tapered off some. There was an inch of frozen soil on top of the bulbs, however, that fortunately crumbled off fairly easily. The bulbs themselves were beautiful and growing points intact in spite of the cold conditions. I’d also taken the liberty to dig a few daffodils at Mom’s and was able to get those planted in a spot on the south side of our house here, where hopefully they do well. I was amazed how deep they were when I dug them up and tried my best to plant them at roughly the same depth. Fortunately, I had more “dog help” from Ruby than a person should be allowed to have. Oh well, she works cheap.
There are still plenty of ground fall apples to scoop up yet, although the snow needs to melt off first, so I can find them all. If all goes as planned, after the apples are cleaned up, there should be time to give the lawn a good going over to grind up the leaves. Like the last several years, however, it got cold early enough that some trees, including the Norway maple, still have their leaves attached. With the earlier part of the fall progressing as it was, I was optimistic we’d see some more color. When the Norway maple sheds its leaves at full color, it looks like a golden waterfall cascading down the road cut. Like last year, the leaves are a dull olive green and will fall off the tree when they get darn good and ready. The leaves eventually blew away once the weather really got cold. Not going to attempt to grind them up wearing my winter garb. Wearing mittens and insulated coveralls while mowing the lawn takes a lot of the fun out of it.
The ewes continue to eke out enough forage from the pastures to keep them happy for now, even though the cold weather stopped any foliage regrowth in its tracks. They’re apparently content to eat fallen leaves while picking at the nooks and crannies they overlooked earlier. I wondered how hungry they might be after they spent a day rummaging through the snow. I tossed four scoop shovels full of apples over the fence, expecting to see them come on a dead run. Instead, the flock just looked at me and kept browsing on whatever was handy. Eventually, a half dozen ewes came over and nosed through the apples some, but when I came out the door for chores in the morning, there were still plenty left. Apparently looks are not deceiving. The sheep are fat and they’re not hungry. Some of us humans should be so lucky.
See you next week…real good then.