It’s time for cheap sunglasses
The scurs managed another near flawless forecast period as we continue munching our way through February. What will they conjure up for this week? Starting Wednesday, partly cloudy with a slight chance of snow with chances increasing overnight. Highs of 35 – 40 and lows around 25. Mostly cloudy on Thursday with a chance of snow. Highs 35 - 40 and lows near 20. Friday, mostly cloudy with a continued slight chance of snow. Highs of 30 with overnight lows dropping to 15. Partly cloudy on Saturday with a chance of snow overnight into Sunday. Highs of 30 and lows around 20. Sunday, mostly cloudy with a good chance of snow. Highs 30 – 35 and lows of 10 - 15. Mostly cloudy on Monday with a chance of rain and ice. Highs of 20 - 25 and lows near 10. Mostly cloudy Tuesday with a slight chance of icy rain. Highs of 20 - 25 and lows around 15. The normal high for February 28th is 32 and the normal low is 15 so we should be seeing some rather seasonal temperatures. On the 26th we will be over 11 hours of daylight for the first time since mid-October. The sun will set at 6 p.m. on the 28th. The scurs will be enjoying a few more weeks before those insipid time bandit evildoers require us to set the clocks ahead.
Snowfall totals from the area varied but at the ranch we garnered roughly 2.5” of sticky, wet snow which melted down to a whopping .59” of liquid equivalent. Typically the snows from earlier in the season have run .07” - .1” per inch of snow accumulation. It looked pretty wet when moving it as the pile resulting from the snowdrift in front of the garage resembled a stack of white cheese curds. The weather pattern may be making a sudden change. This week marks one of the few times all winter that we’ve seen a forecast for precipitation nearly every day. Precipitation at this point is a good thing as some of it will likely find its way into the ground. What’s more as we get into March, the 30 day outlook is calling for better than even odds of above normal precipitation and temperatures. If that holds true, the trend of receiving more of our precipitation in March as rainfall rather than snow would be likely to continue.
The recent stormy weather brought about some noticeable changes in bird behavior at the feeders. Two pine siskins showed up on Saturday out of nowhere and made the goldfinches look large in comparison. Some of the suddenly numerous goldfinches are just beginning to exhibit a slight yellowish cast as they pick at the black oil sunflower and thistle seed. Two chickadees have become regulars as have the nuthatches. The blue jays seemed to be eating more corn than the squirrels while the downies and hairies continued to tap away on the suet. Rooster pheasants can be heard crowing here and there across the landscape and are spotted occasionally in the standing corn stalks neighbor Mark left across the road. Along area roads, large flocks of horned larks are noted. There’s been some debate as to whether they migrate or whether they’re here all the time. If they stay, it’s not always apparent everywhere as they first showed up in large numbers in early February.
Ruby has been keeping us amused. The Westminster Dog Show was a riot as she seemed convinced some of the dogs were coming right out of the TV screen. The growling and barking interspersed with her nightly ball playing meant constant activity until bedtime. Her vocabulary has continued to expand, especially when the Gopher’s basketball or hockey teams are playing. If you say “Gophers?” out of the blue she’s instantly on alert, probably because the word is frequently associated with “chores”. We typically announce to her we’re doing chores a little early on the game nights so we can get back inside to watch Gopher’s games. Apparently she’s picked up on it as she tenses up and cocks her head as if to say, “What are you idiots talking about? Chores are done!”
The lambing process took a couple week hiatus until last Saturday. We had a ram get sick last fall and apparently after breeding the first three ewes, he must not have been up to the task after that. We quickly put another ram in with the ewes so chores will become more time consuming with all the new arrivals. It’s always best for everyone including those doing chores to get the ewes and lambs moved out of the lambing barn and down to the loafing barn ASAP. Small pens and cramped quarters do no one any favors. The ewes would rather be in a group than in individual pens as sheep are naturally clannish. The lambs are happier to have more room to run as well as access to a creep feeder. The sooner they get on solid feed the sooner they can be weaned and the ewes put out to pasture.
With driver’s license renewal time looming large on the horizon, it was time to get the eyes checked out and order new glasses as well as trying out some daily wear contact lenses. After eight years your eyes can change I guess. Not wearing glasses is nice when going in and out of buildings as we do frequently this time of year. As anyone who has livestock can attest, steamed up glasses are a pain in the neck. However all this monkeying around meant with these older eyes I have to wear cheaters for reading and sunglasses for driving. Suddenly going from one pair of beat up glasses to four after repairing the beat up pair for a spare was quite a switch too. Remembering where I put them will be the challenge methinks. Checking out the selection I was surprised to find no cheap decent non-prescription sunglasses that were worth wearing. What’s more some of them were ladies’ glasses and they were all mixed together. I finally selected a pair that would suffice and was amazed the cheaters were cheaper than the sunglasses. Heck, there were even some cheater sunglasses for less than a buck although thinking about it, I’m not sure what they’d really be good for. Maybe for lounging around poolside reading back issues of some accumulated periodicals. Based on my bloated retirement fund from the NRHEG Star Eagle, that should happen any minute now.
See you next week…real good then.