The scurs got a call from the Nash Rambler dealership stating the heater parts for the ’74 Gremlin Weather Eye were backordered, again. Were our warmer temps on that same order or will we get a rush delivery soon? Starting Wednesday, mostly sunny with a slight chance of showers. Highs in the mid-40’s with lows in the upper 20’s. Thursday, sunny with a modest chance of evening showers. Highs in the upper 50’s with lows in the low 40’s. Mostly cloudy Friday with a modest chance of showers. Highs in the mid-50’s with lows in the mid 30’s. Saturday, mostly sunny with highs in the low 50’s and lows in the mid-30’s. Partly sunny on Sunday with a slight chance of evening showers. Highs in the mid-50’s with lows in the low 40’s. Monday, partly sunny with a modest chance of showers and thunderstorms. Highs in the mid-60’s with lows in the upper 40’s. Mostly cloudy for Tuesday with a modest chance of rain. Highs in the low 60’s with lows in the mid-40’s. The Full Moon will occur on the 26th. The normal high for April 26th is 62 and the normal low is 40. The scurs will need to start a go fund me page to for repairs on the Weather Eye if Mother Nature doesn’t cooperate soon.
This month’s Full Moon is on Monday and generally goes by The Full Pink Moon, so named for the ground phlox that are among the first flowers to bloom in the woodlands of the northeast. It also can go by The Full Hare, Fish, Egg and Paschal Moon. The Ojibwe called this The Broken Snowshoe Moon as well as the Frog Moon. The Sioux knew it as the Moon of Greening Grass, bringing with it optimism that the buffalo they relied upon would soon return to graze. At the ranch it’s The Full Lawnmower Moon. Time to get mentally prepared for another action packed season of driving back and forth and round and round.
Fieldwork progress was slow this past week. Not a lot of rain but colder than normal temps had farmers second guessing the proper course of action. 7 – 10-day forecasts continue to throw colder than normal temps at us while remaining dry. Eventually it will warm up. Several did plant some corn to check out their planters and make sure they were operating properly. Others did nothing while some plunged ahead, planting as though a big rain was coming. What I suspect as we continue to flip pages on the daily calendar, it’s not going to make a lot of difference. Once it’s in the ground it’s out of your hands anyway. Our GDU accumulation has been abysmal since the first week in April. That’s air temperature to say nothing of soil temperatures that have struggled to put together many consecutive days above 50 degrees in the 2” - 4” depth. Aside from seeds imbibing moisture, not a lot has happened in most fields. Then we decide which is right and which is an illusion.
Around our yard spring has certainly been slow. While some are gung-ho and mowing lawn already, there are only a few spots it might be justified on ours. Most of the time would be spent looking for wheel tracks to see where you’ve been. Very few dandelions yet except right south of our house to use as a guide. A warm rain followed by warmer temps would change all that in a hurry. The rhubarb we had high hopes for by Easter is in suspended animation. This past Monday marked the 2nd time we’ve covered it to keep it from freezing along with the peonies. With more frost in the forecast after press time, it probably won’t be the last time this week either. The leaves on the trees are slowly appearing but we’re not going to make any effort to cover them. No one can make me either.
There were still a few positive signs that spring is progressing. A group of tree swallows appeared in the yard on Saturday. Their loud, bubbly call seemed to say, “We’re here! We’re here!” They didn’t stay long though and perhaps with good reason. Their primary food source is flying insects. They might’ve been pretty hungry by now if they’d stuck around. We have had some immature Harris’s sparrows in the backyard that have been with us a week or so. They’re seed eaters there are plenty of those in the yard. This species of sparrow is threatened. When we didn’t see any of them last year so feared they perhaps were bypassing us or their numbers had declined. To see them again is reassuring. The white-throated and white-crowned sparrows can’t be far behind. Then bring on the orioles and hummingbirds!
I tempted fate over the weekend in order to keep moving forward. I took the chains and the snowblower off the 656 so I could put a round bale in the lot for the ewes with lambs. With a cruise coming up later in the day, it was nice to have a bale for them to gnaw on rather than having a mostly peaceful protest in progress before we got home. My greatest fear was that Sunday night’s forecast of light snow would turn into major inches. It did not so I was spared the wrath of neighbors looking for a scapegoat. I kept my facial covering just in case. Not superstitious just covering all the bases. That and it’s cold out here where the wind blows constantly.
Numerous clandestine operations occurred earlier but our first “official” car club cruise of the season found us heading to Thompson IA. Eight automobiles wound their way there across the IA prairie to The Branding Iron. Not much fieldwork going on there yet either. Nice to use these cruises as reconnaissance missions from time to time. What seemed like a long but uneventful day was over in a flash by the time we pulled into the yard. As expected, the resident ovines were in an uproar, voicing their displeasure over our late arrival back home for chores. They had however chewed their way into their round bale and drank a lot of water. They already looked full! So much so I cut back on the hay fed inside. With justification. After gobbling down their grain, there was a lot of hay left in the mangers come morning. Sort of like restaurant leftovers. Best eaten while it’s still fresh.
See you next week…real good then.