The scurs and Weather Eye blessed us with yet another warmer than expected effort. Will we continue to bite off hunks of winter or finally begin to choke on it? Starting Wednesday, mostly sunny with highs in the upper 30’s and lows in the mid-20’s. Thursday, sunny with highs in the low 30’s and lows in the mid-single digits. Mostly sunny Friday with highs in the low teens and lows around zero. Saturday, mostly cloudy with a good chance of snow by evening. Highs in the upper teens with lows around 10. Mostly cloudy on Sunday with a good chance of snow. Highs in the mid-20’s with lows in the low teens. Monday, partly sunny with highs in the low 20’s and lows around zero. Partly cloudy for Tuesday with a slight chance of snow. Highs in the low teens with lows around zero. We’ll see daylight increasing by just over 2 minutes per day starting on the 21st. The normal high for January 21st is 22 and the normal low is 4. The scurs have it on good authority that warm sunny days lie just ahead. They’ll be heading off to St. Olaf beach to catch some rays.
We managed to get through what is typically the coldest part of the winter. We did however collect another major snowfall event last week that was more typical of a March snowstorm. The storm was given the “blizzard” designation although by most standards, it was pretty tame at least into the early morning. The snow was heavy and wet, so much so that the strong winds had little effect on blowing it around. Doing lamb check at around 10 p.m. it had only managed and inch or so of accumulation. Looking out the window closer to 4 a.m. one could see everything was white and the wind was howling. Rather than get too interested in the weather, it was more prudent to go back to sleep for a while. Plenty of time to play with the snow later.
Was surprised at choretime to find over 7” of wet snow evenly spread across the dooryard. In town it was much the same. Given the wind one might’ve expected to see more drifting. As sticky as the snow was though it made no sense to attempt using the blower. Like most people did I used the bucket to hack trails so we could get from building to building. When the weekend arrived the weather cooled down and it was easier to use the blower to finish what had been started. Very satisfying to see all the frozen Ruby concretions fly out the chute and over the snow piles into the road ditch.
Lambs continue to trickle in slowly at the ranch. The only fly in the ointment has been the lambing barn that hasn’t been cleaned. The recent snow didn’t help matters. Finishing the cleanout of the remaining pens in the main barn was a feather in my cap however. Loading it up was a little like working in a broom closet; tight quarters while trying to avoid tearing equipment off the wall and leaving the pens intact. It made for one monster load by the time I was done. Like any good livestock farmer, I wasn’t about to make two trips. The 656 growled as the beaters on the spreader pulverized the load, leaving a thick layer evenly behind. Meanwhile, Mrs. Cheviot had the pens bedded with straw quickly and moving the ewes with lambs back into them went smoothly. Best of all it was drier and the air quality was vastly improved, at least in the barn. Out in the field? Let’s just say I was glad the wind was out of the west.
The lambs in the main barn are doing splendidly and have responded to it being clean and dry. The first lamb born back in early December looks like a miniature beef steer. The next two took off like a rocket in the past week. Another ewe lamb born Monday and set of twins born Tuesday look good but are in the lambing barn where moving them sooner than later may be in everyone’s best interest. If we can’t get the lambing barn cleaned we’ll have to keep rotating ewes with lambs through the main barn, open up the loafing area and establish a creep feeder. Looking at the longer term forecasts there may be some bumps in the road but indications are the lower temperatures will be of relatively short duration. It just might work, this time. As the decades have taught me, getting by with something once doesn’t constitute it becoming standard operating procedure especially when dealing with the weather.
Ruby has long been in charge of entertainment at the ranch and this past weekend was no exception. Between playing ball, making strange dog noises, and sharing her popcorn she doesn’t skip a beat. She also found another enemy on the TV to go along with the Myrbetriq bladder character: The Cologuard fecal specimen box character. Why not? Her sudden growling usually gets noticed especially when it involves watching TV. Not that her attention span is particularly long but she seems to hone in on the more “unusual “ads and their equally “unusual” representatives. Upon hearing Ruby’s growling it was no surprise to look up from my magazine and understand immediately that the little Cologuard specimen box man was not welcome in her house.
See you next week…real good then.