The scurs and Weather Eye skated by with another better than usual for January forecast. Can they duplicate that feat or are we out of free passes for a while? Starting Wednesday, partly sunny with a fair chance of evening snow. Highs in the upper 30’s with lows in the low 30’s. Thursday, mostly cloudy with a good chance of snow developing and continuing through the evening hours. Highs in the upper 30’s with lows in the upper teens. Cloudy Friday with a fair chance of forenoon snow. Highs in the upper 20’s with lows in the low teens. Saturday, mostly cloudy with highs in the upper teens and lows in the upper single digits. Mostly cloudy on Sunday with highs in the low 20’s and lows in the upper single digits. Monday, partly sunny with highs in the mid-20’s and lows around 10. Mostly cloudy for Tuesday with highs in the upper teens and lows in the mid-single digits. On the 13th we see the sun set at 5 p.m. as our daylight continues to increase. The normal high for January 13th is 21 and the normal low is 4. The scurs are guessing that their woodpile is sufficient to make it until spring has sprung, next month. Optimism is contagious.
We’ve certainly lived a charmed life thus far this winter. Only one major storm and temperatures for the first half of winter we could only dream of. It may not come without a price, depending on your point of view. Some of the insects prevalent in area fields last season are held in check at least temporarily by colder than normal temperatures. Not that we shouldn’t be enjoying our good fortune temperature and precipitation-wise; it’s just that there may be unforeseen consequences once the growing season commences. And while traits and pesticides are helpful, relying on them as our sole line of defense has proven to be a mistake many, many times after going to the well once too often.
The mild weather hasn’t stopped the bird population in the yard from taking advantage of our generosity. A very healthy chickadee population is usually present, along with nuthatches, blue jays, juncos, hairies, downies, a red-belly, a song sparrow, a pair of cardinals and an increasing number of goldfinches. We offer suet, black oil sunflower, safflower, thistle seed and corn, both mixed in some feeders and ear corn for the squirrels. Their numbers have increased as well. At first it looked as though there were one or two. At last count, there were seven. One other one met its maker on the road, probably on its way up the hill to get a handout.
The local pheasant population has also been evident. Their tracks in the snow are pretty distinctive. I’m pretty sure we don’t have any roving bands of chickens in the area. The pheasants clean up under the bird feeders and make themselves right at home. In the late afternoon, however, they’ve taken to roosting in the evergreens. I used to wonder why until going outside at night about this time of year to check for lambs. Recently I can hear the distinctive calls of great horned owls, likely their mating call. They can’t be mating all the time, however, and have to eat. Pheasant tartare is definitely on their menu.
Friday marked the arrival of the first lamb of the New Year as well as our first ewe lamb of the season. I was in a hurry after being dogpiled at work much of the day. I normally like to get to the ranch and check on things after lunch, but it took until almost 3 p.m. I also needed to get to Krause’s for feed yet. I spied a ewe with a new lamb by the hay feeder. From a distance everything looked good in spite of being 20 degrees. There was no breeze, so that was a plus. I observed them up close for a minute as the lamb hooked onto the ewe. Decided they’d be fine and could be penned when I got back. They were fine, and upon my return, Mrs. Cheviot was home in a matter of minutes. The lamb wriggled and kicked at Mrs. Cheviot all the way down the hill to the barn. The ewe followed her baby obediently while Ruby and I tailed her to the pen. Yup, that lamb was definitely gonna be just fine.
After unloading the pickup last Saturday and distributing the last of the possessions from Mom’s, I finally had a day to do with as I wished. Well, sort of. Almost like being caught in some sort of spell. Time to play catchup and finish cleaning the rest of the main barn. Mostly anyway. First the snow needed to be shoveled out of the spreader and then the apron chains pried out of the ice. Not doing so for the better part of an hour would have resulted in certain disaster. Once that was accomplished, the tractor was hooked up to the spreader to make sure there would be no nasty surprises once the pto was engaged. Sure enough, frozen manure had built up on the rear sprockets to the point that a possible apron chain derailment might be possible. Cussing as I chipped away at that and greasing some of the critical zerks afterwards took most of another hour.
In order to get to the field, a management decision was necessary: Take the chains off the tractor, run up the highway with loads, unsure if I’ll get stuck in the field and be able to navigate the icy sloping yard if/when I returned, or do I leave the chains on and dig a path with the skidsteer through 50’ – 60’ of 2’ – 3’ snowdrifts in the ditch to make it out to the field? I chose the latter as, once I put the chains on, I really hate taking them off or putting them back on. There’s nothing remotely resembling fun about either process. After another hour, I’d blazed what looked to be an acceptable trail to the field. After that, some major limbs were chain sawed off the bur oak, so they wouldn’t tear the flashers off the tractor cab. Almost time to start hauling, except the bucket needed to be changed over to the forks on the skidsteer. If you’re not in a hurry, the forks go on quickly. If you’re in a hurry, it tends to be a royal pain to get the pins lined up with the mounting brackets. Guess which time it was?
As it turned out, my decision making process was 100% correct. It would’ve been nearly impossible to operate in the slippery yard without the chains on, speaking from experience. The snow in the field was an intangible. From the road, it really didn’t appear that deep. Once out there, appearances proved otherwise, especially on the leeward side of rises and down in the swales. There was snow up to 2’ deep, something the 656 probably wasn’t going through without the chains on while pulling a full load. Calling a neighbor to pull a tractor and spreader out is real embarrassing. Once I got going, we thundered right along, considering there were also panels, gates and animals needing to be moved. Six major league loads later we called it good for the day. One more set of pens yet to be cleaned and the main barn is done. Not a moment too soon either with more snow on the way.
See you next week…real good then.