The scurs woes continue as the Weather Eye drops the ball on another potential week for rain. Are we due for a change or are we headed for a summer of perpetual watering? Starting Wednesday, sunny with highs in the mid-80’s and lows in the low 60’s. Sunny Thursday with a slight chance of an evening shower or thunderstorm. Highs in the upper 80’s with lows in the low 60’s. Partly sunny on Friday with a good chance of a shower or thunderstorm. Highs in the low 80’s with lows in the low 60’s. Saturday, partly sunny with a fair chance of a shower or thunderstorm. Highs in the upper 70’s with lows in the upper 50’s. Sunny on Sunday with a modest chance of showers and thunderstorms. Highs in the low 80’s with lows in the low 60’s. Monday, sunny with a slight chance of showers and thunderstorms. Highs in the upper 80’s with lows in the mid-60’s. Partly sunny on Tuesday with a good chance of a shower or thunderstorm. Highs in the low 80’s with lows in the mid-60’s. We’re a little ahead of ourselves, but the paper doesn’t make it to people’s mailboxes before Thursday anymore. The summer solstice happens on June 21st. The normal high is 80 and the normal low is 60. The sun rises at 5:31 a.m. CDT and sets at 9 p.m. We’ll max out our daylight at 15 hours and 28 minutes. The scurs aren’t sure what to do with all this extra daylight, but they’ll think of something. Maybe take a nap.
Crops are making their move with all the heat, although Sunday and Monday felt more like something out of late September or early October. Low humidities with low dewpoints to boot, so little dew to move any surface applied supplemental nitrogen into the root zone where corn plants may or may not need it. One thing about the dry weather, it is forcing corn to go after moisture and at this time of year, that’s not a bad thing as we discovered last year. June was also very dry in 2022 locally with only 1.95” of rain falling at the ranch and 2.10” in Bugtussle itself where nobody farms. Around July 4th, there were Nervous Nellies of all sorts until significant rains showed up on the 4th and the 23rd. So far, we’re probably in a little better shape from a stored moisture perspective. While getting some rain would be nice, it’s not critical just yet for crops.
Area crops could be described as The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. The Good would be the soybeans. Actually, there are several nice looking soybean fields. There were some put in before the 10 day stretch of heavy rain that perhaps aren’t as uniform as their later planted counterparts, but where beans were stitched in, they came up in a hurry. Within a few weeks, they won’t be as noticeable. Soybean aphids were found last Wednesday, but it’s pretty tough to see them from the road. The Bad would be the corn. Decent looking corn fields without warts are few and far between, many very uneven with gaping holes evident where small corn plants are numerous collars behind their early planted counterparts. Then there’s the Bad, corn on corn. Unless it was the odd field that was moldboard plowed, happened to have the stalks baled off or wasn’t planted before the rains hit, odds are it’s one homely corn field. From pale color, unevenness, to interspersed with huge holes of ratty looking replant. Other than that, it looks OK.
Our garden is somewhat the same way thus far with some vegetables responding to the heat and our watering better than others. The tomatoes and peppers are transplants and most of them look to be adapting well, aside from a couple Celebrity’s. Pumpkins, squash, and gourds thrive on heat, although they need moisture to germinate. Some of those hills were in a moister area and took full advantage of it. Others like the Jack Be Little pumpkins have yet to show up. Odd because usually those are like weeds. Sweet corn is emerging well and the first string bean planting is emerging somewhat patchy. Cucumbers are just poking through in some of the hills. The jury is still out on the Indian corn, decorative sunflowers, and carrots. They were planted later and have yet to emerge. Cannas in the bed by the well are coming along and there are a few four o’clocks to help round out the hummingbird dining pleasure.
The hummers have been camping in the backyard since their arrival back in May. Whenever one heads out to refill or check to see their feeders aren’t full of ants, the buzzing sound of their wings can be heard, even though they frequently can’t be seen. The three feeders can be seen from several windows in the house. At least they were until the leaves on the soft maple obstructed the view of the one seen from the oval office. That wouldn’t do. So I got out the lopper and proceeded to prune what I thought were the right branches. Alas, when I checked, there was still one in the way. I got out the pole saw and within minutes, the view was restored. Something to look forward to in the morning. Certainly better than watching the garbage on TV.
After thinking I was done with the alien a few weeks back, it managed to linger for another few weeks. This has been the first week - knock on wood - I’ve felt semi-human in the last month. I suspect the smoke from the Canadian forest fires didn’t do me any favors. It seemed to keep my eyes watering, my throat sore and my head stuffed up. There is some question about how all the smoke may affect the corn and soybean crops. The general consensus at this point is it probably won’t negatively impact crop development early on. As we get into reproductive stages and grain fill, that’s when it becomes more concerning. A lot of variables at play in the meantime, so no way to really predict what will happen.
Saw the first fireflies at the ranch last Tuesday the 6th. There are somewhere in the neighborhood of 19 species of them in MN. Each one has its own frequency of flashes. Not up on any of them, but this particular small group had almost LED-like lighting. I had text messaged that info to the Boy Entomologist who informed me he would be doing the GDU calculation for rootworm egg hatch, which roughly approximates the appearance of fireflies. Sure enough, that info was about right on the money. The firefly population has been slowly increasing in our backyard. I’m thinking Poppy will be in for a real treat as she discovers one more flying insect to chase.
See you next week…real good then.