Good news from the Nash Rambler dealership: Parts to repair the heater in the ’74 Gremlin Weather Eye arrived. And not a moment too soon, judging by the hate mail the scurs were generating. Will the warmup prove to be lasting this time or dish up one more nasty surprise? Starting Wednesday, mostly cloudy with a decent chance of showers. Highs in the upper 50’s with lows in the low 40’s. Thursday, mostly sunny with highs in the low 60’s and lows in the upper 30’s. Sunny on Friday with highs in the low 60’s and lows in the mid 40’s. Saturday, partly sunny with highs in the low 70’s and lows in the low 50’s. Mostly cloudy on Sunday with a modest chance of showers. Highs in the mid-70’s with lows in the low 50’s. Monday, mostly cloudy with a fair chance of rain. Highs in the upper 60’s with lows in the upper 40’s. Mostly cloudy for Tuesday with an increasing chance of rain into the evening. Highs in the mid-60’s with lows in the low 40’s. The scurs will get the luxurious back seat of the burnt orange ’74 Gremlin prepared for Saturday’s May basket extravaganza.
Continued progress in area fields allowed many to finish their corn planting in style. Stocking hats, winter jackets and gloves are a style. Soil conditions continued to hold as scant precipitation was recorded. Corn planted April 16th had a radicle just starting to emerge from the kernel as of Monday afternoon. Emergence generally takes anywhere from 100 – 120 GDU’s depending on soil temperature, soil moisture and assorted other factors. Average soil temperatures at the 2” depth only got above 50 degrees for about two days up until Monday. However, when we can start racking up 15 – 20 GDU per day it goes faster sometimes than one might anticipate. Soybeans are going in the ground as well. Soil conditions again are favorable, and the calendar date says it’s OK despite the weekend snow showers that made some wonder what they were doing out there. At this point it’s all good.
At the ranch, thoughts of gardening and planting are starting to stir. The purchase of a new tiller would help spur that on and one way or the other it will happen. Finding one suitable has proven to be a challenge, especially one with a domestically produced engine. Not that I don’t trust the Chinese, their engines simply haven’t had the test of time some of their U.S. counterparts have. Since the new garden area was worked down once last year, it needs to be sprayed with glyphosate before attempting to whip it into shape. The soil test came back in great shape so once it’s worked up, we should be in business. Since it’s in the vicinity of the electric fence, some electric netting for the bunnies might come in handy. Can never be too careful when bunnies are involved.
We continue to see new birds arrive now that temperatures have warmed. We saw Harris’s sparrows in full adult plumage finally. The blotchy feathers on the immature bids make their ID a little more questionable although pairing the song with their presence helps make it more positive. They’ve been coming through every year for a couple decades. The white-throated sparrows arrived en masse. Monday at lunchtime there were nearly 20 of them wandering the backyard, some with the bright white stripes on their head complete with the yellow supraloral. If we see a white-crowned sparrow we should have the normal trifecta. We can’t go to Canada but that’s where most of these three species wind up. Not fair although the orioles and hummingbirds should be heading our way soon.
Finally, some progress too getting some of the trees desperately needing to be dealt with. A larger model old chokecherry tree that was an eyesore after numerous storms ripped it up along with a boxelder that also had one too many windstorms. The chainsaw was stubborn, but it worked just well enough to knock off the desired limbs on the chokecherry, making it safe to latch onto and drag to where it could be pushed in the pile. The boxelder was more difficult but after the chainsaw biffed it, the handsaw cleaned up the necessary limbs nicely. Once the limbs were all hauled away, I’d discovered a hole in the trunk that very possibly was being used by some chickadees. Judging by the scolding they possibly had a nest in it. Decided to leave the trunk until they’re through with it. The tractor will make short work of it when the time comes. Sort of like the short work I made of the fresh rhubarb pie Mrs. Cheviot had concocted after my day of tree wrassling. Nummy!
The strong SE wind Sunday made the perfect day to burn one of the major brush piles so tried out my new burning permit. After jumping through the hoops and barrels I finally secured permission from the Trash Fire Police. I took a paper bag and some newspapers to start the pile. Within a matter of minutes, we had a roaring blaze. It got so hot that it started the chokecherry stump directly in line with it on fire. There were plenty of other branches and limbs scattered around the pasture so decided to grab those. Otherwise, the sheep tend to flip them onto the electric fence, grounding that out. About the time I was under the boxelder trees I noticed what appeared to be ashes floating down. They weren’t ashes, they were snowflakes! There was no doubt in my mind that I’d picked the right day to burn. The way it came down, everything was getting damp, enough so that it was knocking farmers out of the field while my fire consumed many moons worth of ash, silver maple and boxelder residue.
After that I was winding down and in a quandary about what project to start next. It was supposed to warm up so getting all the solar lights out and in place seemed logical. There were over a dozen of them and starting late in the day, I questioned what kind of shape they might be in. Most had batteries but some were without. In addition, some were refugees from Mom’s when we had cleaned up the place earlier in the year. Some were operable immediately and some perhaps needed the benefit of a partial day’s sunshine & WD-40. By the time nightfall rolled around Monday, most were working. Some additional twiddling and tweaking resulted in a dozen functioning models on the patio. Watching them change colors is almost mesmerizing and means warmer days lie ahead. It’s about time.
See you next week…real good then.