The Weather Eye lulled the scurs to sleep with a warmer than normal forecast. Will the slumber continue or does Jack Frost issue a wake-up call? Starting Thursday, mostly sunny with highs in the mid-60’s and lows in the low 40’s. Partly sunny Friday with a fair chance of rain showers. Highs in the low 50’s with lows in the mid-30’s with potential light frost in spots. Sunny on Saturday with highs in the low 50’s and lows in the mid-30’s with a good chance of a frost. Sunday, mostly sunny with highs in the upper 50’s and lows around 40. Sunny on Columbus Day with highs in the mid-60’s and lows in the mid-40’s. Tuesday, sunny with highs near 70 and lows in the upper 40’s. Partly sunny on Wednesday with a slight chance of rain. Highs around 70 with lows in the upper 40’s. On October 6th we slide below 11 hours and 30 minutes of daylight, about where we’ll be again on March 6th. The normal high for October 6th is 64 and the normal low is 41. The scurs will be turning off the AC and covering their ‘maters Saturday night. Gotta have that one last Halloween BLT.
Harvest has begun in earnest across much of the region. However, there are only so many hours in a day and even this large, modern equipment can only harvest so much. The recent warm temps over the weekend dried the soybeans quickly causing much snarling and gnashing of teeth. Harvest loss increases and selling water versus dry matter is always preferable. Not usual and neither is the grumbling about it. Corn has dried down as well and some are eyeing the possibility of dumping a portion in the bin without drying once again. This was almost unthinkable six weeks ago, although this probably won’t be the case with the replant corn. At least that made it to black layer without frost, which should boost the test weight well above what it might’ve been. The replant only comprises about 25% - 30% of the acres locally, so even if it takes more drying, it’s not the end of the world. So far, stalk quality hasn’t been the issue it could’ve been, yet, in either planting. Still have to get it picked, dried and in the bin.
Birds continue to migrate through our backyard. It appears we may have seen the last of the hummingbirds, although last year, they took a few days off before reappearing again. The last date we saw one so far this year was September 26th. Last year it was October 4th. I put the last of the small batch of sugar water out in case a straggler needed to recharge. The warm, breezy weather dried up many of the puddles the birds were using, so keeping the birdbath full is an every other day occurrence. There have been a lot of robins in particular using it. There are usually a half dozen nannyberry pits in the bottom when it’s time to refill it. Even though there aren’t many earthworms near the soil surface, the robins and other birds seem to be doing just fine on the berry and crabapple offerings here at the ranch
Warm weather has brought out some of the more annoying insects recently. Al Batt wrote about the minute pirate bugs last week. Not only do we have them to contend with, we have an abundant supply of multi-colored Asian lady beetles. Like the minute pirate bugs, the lady beetles have run out of soft-bodied insects such as aphids to eat in both the corn and soybeans. They don’t appear to be particularly specific about their aphid preferences. With the replant corn remaining green and the lack of a hard frost, there have been aphids to keep them occupied up until recently. Now the corn has reached relative maturity, the lady beetles are back knocking on your door for a place to hang out for the winter. After they’re done messing up as many apples as they possibly can in our yard first of course.
A more pleasant and less intrusive insect in our yard has been the white-lined sphinx moth, or more correctly moths as there are several of them coming to the petunias, salvia, impatiens and four o’clocks nightly before and after dusk. Their hovering from flower to flower is almost hummingbird-like, but they’ll allow you to get fairly close to them before they fly out of the way and onto the next flower. Purslane is one of the favorite plants for their larvae to feed on. Since we had plenty in the garden this year, it should come as no surprise that we have lots of sphinx moths. Watching them work over the petunias almost every fall as a lad was a treat that made a lasting impression. It’s still a treat to admire their flying skills, knowing that their days are numbered as the inevitable draws closer.
The Fall Car Cruise came and went again over the weekend as a slightly abbreviated version in Black River Falls, WI. As they say, half the fun in driving these classic automobiles is getting there. Others may poo-poo that notion, since they grew up driving old cars. They’d really rather not go back to driving them. One more good reason for those of us who do enjoy driving them to leave those people at home. Then we don’t have to listen to them whine! JJ’s chopped ’38 Chevy with the 350 in it was a sweet ride and the candy apple red color catches everyone’s eye. No AC, but it wasn’t unbearable wearing shorts even when it was 90 degrees. We found some great places to eat including J&J BBQ in Nelson, as well as Re-Pete’s and Gimi’s in Black River Falls. I think JJ and I should start a restaurant review guide after this trip.
Got looking at the calendar and it doesn’t seem possible that Poppy will have resided with us now for a year on Columbus Day. She has really turned into a good little companion, and, while she still has a lot of work to do in the obedience dept., she’s making progress. All part of being a Corgi. As we say, it’s a good thing she’s cute sometimes. The garden and the barn are her two favorite spots as we spend much of our time in both places. She adapted well to winter having come from Missouri, where I hesitate to call what they have in December, January and February winter. More like our late fall or early spring. She really did enjoy the snow as our winter wore on. We on the other hand did not. One can definitely see her shiny coat thickening up as winter approaches. Not sure if that’s an omen, but am pretty sure Poppy wouldn’t be putting it on if she was expecting 70 and sunny for the next six months.
See you next week…real good then.