The scurs got Mother Nature back in the driver’s seat after being hijacked the week before. Will the Weather Eye dial in Indian summer or was Old Man Winter just getting warmed up? Starting Wednesday, sunny with highs in the low 70’s and lows in the low 40’s. Thursday, sunny with highs in the low 70’s and lows in the upper 40’s. Sunny Friday with highs in the low 70’s and lows in the mid-50’s. Saturday, mostly sunny with highs in the upper 60’s and lows in the low 50’s. Partly sunny on Sunday with increasing chances for rain as the day goes on. Highs in the low 60’s with lows in the mid-30’s. Monday, mostly cloudy with a good chance of rain possibly turning to snow late. Highs in the low 40’s with lows in the upper 20’s. Mostly cloudy for Tuesday with a moderate chance of snow. Highs in the mid-30’s with lows in the mid-20’s. On November 6th we slip below 10 hours of daylight and on the 8th the sun will rise at 8 a.m. The normal high for November 8th is 46 and the normal low is 28. The scurs will be soaking up rays by the cement pond. Best of all: No bugs!
Nice blue sky weather finally showed its hand and farmers were ready for it. People’s daubers get down with prolonged clouds and cold. After conditions were greasy on the surface last week and slow to change, fieldwork could commence once again. Plenty of primary tillage operations to be performed, manure to be applied as well as anhydrous ammonia. Soils are in great shape relative to the past several fall seasons and this week’s forecast of dry warm conditions won’t change that. The way October was going, one was starting to wonder if we would see an early freeze up and the end of fall fieldwork. With a good crop under their belt and prices better than they’ve been in many moons one senses some optimism again. High temps 30+ degrees above the prior week don’t hurt.
October was one for the books. With a low of 9 recorded on the 27th and 28th at the SROC in Waseca, soils froze up solid although it did allow farmers to gain traction on fields that needed to be worked. Something else that sticks out for the month is the amount of snow that fell. At the ranch and in Bugtussle, snowfall amounts were 9” and 8.4” respectively. Snowfall was responsible for slightly more than half of the liquid equivalent precip that fell for the month at the ranch and close to half in town. For the year 2020, October was our third snowiest month. It remains to be seen how it will stack up for the winter of ’20 – ’21 but it isn’t a good way to start no matter how one slices it.
Along with hampering field work it slowed yard work for us at the ranch. As mentioned last week, I was waiting for the snow to melt to clean up the apples. That finally happened so Monday night the last four scoop shovels full made their way over the fence to the sheep. They’ve grown accustomed to it. There have been protests (largely peaceful) from the ovines when there is any human activity near the fence. Now the apples are gone, they’ll have to rely on screenings that need to be picked up, since the weather has changed. There may be a window of opportunity to grind up the leaves and remove some of the longer grass growth that snuck by due to harvest starting early and extra time being spent on the weekend cleanup at Mom’s.
With the election being done, I’m so glad that the ads are over with all the syrupy music being played in the background, making the candidate look like a saint, then playing ominous music vilifying their opponent and misrepresenting them as nothing short of a mass murderer. Seriously? You politicians and your advertising geniuses really think the melodramatic approach makes me more anxious to vote for your client? Guess again. I’ve watched Dudley Do-Right. I’ve also been to Frostbite Falls many times.
We need to find things we agree upon to bring us back together. Maybe start small. Something that comes to mind is telemarketers and nuisance phone calls. I don’t know how many times recently I’ve been on a call and heard someone beeping in or seen the words “Potential Spam” comes up on the display. It wastes several minutes a day, which some might say isn’t a big deal. However when one takes into account how many times a day over the course of a week it happens, not to mention clogging your voicemail box, it becomes a big deal. The time wasted dealing with these parasites is real money. If varmints were an annoyance such as that, there’d be a bounty on them. Sounds like a plan to me!
Ending the time change, which we’ve written about for many years, has gained traction as well. Now we just need to decide whether to leave the clocks on Daylight Saving Time or Standard Time. Each has its merits. I don’t care. All the diddling around changing clocks and the health issues surrounding it should be enough for us all to agree that this stinker has been around too long. Make the call and go with it. Although I did enjoy that extra hour of sleep. Perhaps setting the clocks back an extra hour every few months wouldn’t be so bad. Just a thought…
One thing I’m sure we would all agree upon is Auntie Mar Mar’s blueberry coffee cake. Even though the label on the last batch deceptively claimed it had been made by someone else, I’m onto her. It’s a little like someone ghost writing my column. I may claim that from time to time but people are well aware no one else would write this stuff, nor would they want to. Following another cleaning bonanza at Mom’s I found the last batch of coffee cake when I got home. Mrs. Cheviot had mentioned it but hadn’t pointed out where it was. Once located there was no question what to do. Heated up in the microwave and slathered with Hope Creamery butter, it was awesome. Sure beats the tar out of Drake’s.
See you next week…real good then.