The scurs’ slight chance of snow on Saturday turned out to be our first major snowfall event of the season. Will we add to the accumulation or are the snow gods content with this amount? Starting Wednesday, partly cloudy with highs of 25 and lows of 15. Thursday, partly cloudy with highs around 20 and lows of zero to 5 above. Mostly clear and cooler on Friday with highs of only 15 and lows again of zero to 5 above. Warmer on Saturday under clear skies with highs of 25 and lows near 20. Mostly cloudy and warmer on Monday and Tuesday with highs of 30 – 35 and lows of 20 – 25. On the 10th we slip below 9 hours of daylight with sunrise at 7:37 a.m. and sunset at 4:36 p.m. The normal high for December 10th is 29 and the normal low is 11. The scurs will be retrieving the Festivus pole from the crawl space and readying themselves for feats of strength.
Winter has come to Bugtusslians one and all. Snow covers up the ugly brown and gray as well as brightening the landscape. This past weekend’s snowfall generally brought accumulations of 4” – 6” of wet snow. It came down gently though and blew around very little after falling. The moisture content of the snow was welcome, with .38” worth of water being melted out of the snow at the ranch. The new snowboard for measuring snow and determining moisture content associated with it saw its first use of the winter. It proved to be more accurate than just catching the snow in the gauge as in the past. The more accepted official method is to place a piece of board 16” x 24” on the ground in an area where it is representative, avoiding trees and buildings yet be somewhat sheltered so the wind doesn’t blow the area clear. Using the gauge as a cookie cutter, a “biscuit” is cut out of the snow accumulated on top of the board then melted down to be measured. How much more accurate is it? Just a for instance when comparing the two methods of measurements, only .27” of water was melted out of the gauge located in its usual position. Over the course of the winter, those differences can add up.
There are lots of things happening astronomically this month, not the least of which is the Full Moon on Dec. 10th. This Full Moon is known as the Full Cold Moon, the Full Long Nights Moon or as the Moon before the Yule. The Ojibwe called this the Small Spirits Moon while the Sioux referred to it as the Moon of Popping Trees or the Moon When Deer Shed Their Antlers. At the ranch it is the Moon Where We Don Longjohns.
After consulting with Vista’s noted Swedish astronomer, it turns out there are lots of planets to be viewed this month as well. Jupiter continues to be prominent in the eastern sky at dusk and remains visible most of the night. It sets in the west in the early in the morning. Jupiter, however, has been upstaged by our sister planet Venus and is the brightest object in the evening sky other than the moon. Check low in the southwestern sky at dusk and it should be easy to spot. As the month wears on it will rise higher in the sky and by the New Year will shine for 2 ½ hours after sunset. Mars and Saturn are also visible, with Mars rising in the east just before midnight and Saturn in the southeastern sky well after midnight. Saturn’s rings have opened to about 15 degrees from horizontal so this is a good time to view the planet with a small telescope. As the noted astronomer and I discussed, it would probably a good time to awaken your wife or girlfriend (but not both at the same time) so they can enjoy the planets too.
It has been the time of year to sell off this year’s lamb crop and bring the feed bill back down to reality. The lambs were fairly cooperative about loading, but as is sometimes the case, a couple of the buck lambs we held back decided staying in a pen wasn’t their idea of a good time. Upon arriving in the barn for chores that night, I noted neither was in their pen. Of course they were in the pen with some ewes we’d kept open. Doing it all, I corralled one of the escapees only to see it jump over the wood panel as I attempted to catch the other fugitive. That meant the pen needed major reinforcement, which I did before finishing chores. Afterwards I decided if they were out again by morning they would have new names to replace the unprintable names I’d just given them. Their new names: Sausage and Tube Steak.
Not all rams are difficult to get along with however. Friday afternoon before the snow was forecast, it was time to get the ewes back home for winter. Luckily for me the kindly neighbor himself was walking about the pasture as I pulled up with the pickup and trailer. Best of all he offered to help load them. Ruby was along, but her services weren’t needed. Being the stealthy guy I am, I’d slipped the sheep some hay on my way by earlier and snuck around the end of the barn to close the door behind them. Direction to back me in perfectly to the door was provided and we moved a panel around so the sheep had no other place to go but in the trailer. That doesn’t necessarily mean they go in easily, although this time luck was on our side. The ram we call BernaRRd has always been a big teddy bear and easy to catch so I latched onto him. Leading him over to the trailer door we had a quick one-sided conversation that went something like, “I know you probably don’t want to go in there but just this once let’s pretend.” He must’ve read my mind or can understand English because he suddenly jumped right in. As sheep will do, the 10 ewes followed right behind him. Once the last one was in the trailer I quickly slid the door shut. The kindly neighbor looked on in amazement as I laughed, telling him that sheep were put on the earth to make turkeys look intelligent. After witnessing that I think he probably believed me.
See you next week…real good then.