The scurs and Weather eye continue to produce forecasts that are for December a thing of beauty. Will Old Man Winter make an appearance by Christmas or will he continue to practice social distancing? Starting Wednesday, mostly sunny with highs in the low 30’s and lows in the upper teens. Thursday, mostly sunny with highs in the low 30’s and lows in the upper 20’s. Mostly cloudy Friday with a slight chance of a rain/snow mix becoming all snow by evening. Highs in the upper 30’s with lows in the upper teens. Saturday, mostly sunny with highs in the upper 20’s and lows in the low 20’s. Mostly sunny on Sunday with highs in the low 40’s and lows in the upper 20’s. For Monday, the 1st day of winter, mostly sunny with a slight chance of rain and snow showers later in the day. Highs in the low 40’s with lows in the upper 20’s. Partly sunny for Tuesday with highs in the low 40’s and lows in the mid-20’s. A sneak peek at Christmas Day looks like sunny with a high in the low 20’s and low in the mid-teens. The normal high for December 21st is 24 and the normal low is 7. The scurs have postponed their Christmas shopping yet another week. Consistency is the key in all things.
Still farming going on of one sort or another. Tile plows were noted in areas as well as brush cutting operations and tearing out obsolete fences. The lack of snow and mild temperatures have made for a winning combination. Still plenty of manure hauling last week as the breezes indicated. It’s entirely possible some may have decided to pull more manure out of buildings after their initial haul back in October and November. It would help free up some additional capacity in case next fall is an ugly one, again. Memories of spreading manure on top of frozen ground in recent years are still fresh in many minds. Soils freezing over the weekend and the earlier part of this week may or may not put a halt to tiling in areas. One doesn’t know until one tries.
At the ranch manure hauling commenced Friday afternoon after spending the three nicest days of the week on webinars for work. The light dandruff- like snow falling on Sunday afternoon made it almost pretty or at least as pretty as hauling manure can get. A management decision to haul the outdoor pack first proved a wise one. The pack might not have made it through the spreader following a 9 degree low Monday morning and an encore of 12 on Tuesday a.m. Avoiding shearing pins, smoking the drive belt or wrecking numerous other parts is preferable. Discretion is the better part of valor although there isn’t a lot of valor about the operation. Unless of course if you consider hauling loads up the road while idiots try to pass you as you’re making a left hand turn. At least Mrs. Cheviot made me ginger snaps and I won’t bet sharing any of them with those clowns.
The transition from Thanksgiving to Christmas seems to come more quickly with every passing year. The icky gourds, apples and other assorted goodies have long since made their way over the fence into the sheep pasture. Mrs. Cheviot has the house at the ranch looking more like Christmas every day. Much of the decorating was completed while I was away at the old homestead. It was a welcome sight after a long day spent lifting, sweating, grunting and hauling. While it would be nice to have time to get a fresh tree again, the artificial trees are pretty. The aftermath isn’t nearly as messy to deal with either. I’m fine with that for now anyway.
More treasures continue to make their way home from the home farm over the weekend with more to come. So far most of it seems to blend right in. It matches some of the pieces already in the pole shed and will likely be used for future reference. A coulter off a #60 International plow, a share from a #8 International plow , a cultivator bar, and pieces of the ’59 Lark that might otherwise blow off if not removed prior to hauling. The wheels were reattached to the old car so that within a reasonable amount of time it could be hauled back to the ranch. Amazingly the tires on the IH #37 disk continue to hold air while it also awaits the haul home. Hopefully the tires hold air long enough to get it on and off the trailer. After that all bets are off.
Our age continues to catch up with us. At the office Monday afternoon, one of the cohabitants was looking for his cap. He was convinced it was in the office someplace and was searching everywhere. The day before I’d befallen a similar situation with a jack knife I’d use to peel the foil seal off a bottle of Heet. Standard operating procedure is to put it in my jeans pocket where it resides for future reference. I was convinced I’d set it down on the shroud over the skidsteer engine where it had probably fallen down into the engine compartment. After looking for it about 10 minutes I discovered the knife in my hooded sweatshirt pocket. I NEVER put it in my sweatshirt pocket! Why now? When looking for the gentleman’s hat, I suddenly knew right where to look where I’d seen it before: on the dash of his car! No supernatural powers involved. Like everyone else I’m just getting old.
See you next week…real good then.