The scurs were right about the chances of snow. It just wasn’t of the measurable variety for much of last week. Will our fortunes change? Starting Wednesday, cloudy with a good chance of snow. Highs around 30 and lows of 15 – 20. Thursday, partly cloudy with a chance of some overnight snow. Highs again near 30 and lows of 20 – 25. Friday, partly cloudy with a slight chance of snow. Highs of 30 – 35 and lows of 15 – 20. Mostly cloudy on Saturday with another slight chance of snow. Highs of 25 and lows around 15. Sunday brings partly cloudy skies with highs around 30 and lows near 20. Monday and Tuesday, mostly sunny with highs of 40 and lows of 25 – 30. The normal high for March 1st is 33 and the normal low is 16. The scurs are guessing there may be one more snowstorm of major proportions before March Madness is said and done.
Warm temps last week brought the boxelder bugs out to sun themselves on the south side of the Mall for Men. More precip last week too, but not much in the way of thawed ground yet to allow much penetration. The SROC in Waseca was still indicating a frost depth of 14” on bare ground as of February 27th. Some moisture in the snow we’ve had is lost to evaporation, especially with the high winds we received over the weekend. It’s a little difficult to gauge exactly how much, but one can surmise by watching the sidewalk in front of the house dry off it is substantial in the top inch or so. Is the weather pattern changing? Slowly perhaps, but it does appear to be. March may not come in like a lion per se but it may be more like a lamb that needs to be dried off.
Speaking of lambs, their numbers in the past week quintupled at the ranch. Fortunately Mrs. Cheviot was around to ride herd on them so they were well cared for and off to a great start. The creep feeder was installed over the weekend and more ewes with lambs were moved to the loafing area. This allows more space in the lambing barn, although when the temperature takes a dive, having enough body heat isn’t always a bad thing. Keeping the barn well bedded so it stays dry during wet weather is critical. Pneumonia is lurking just around the corner if you don’t. The ear tags arrived so it’s time to process the lambs and ewes, making note of who is who. Ewes that aren’t milking up to snuff get a red tag so they’ll be easier to spot when it’s time to cull them. Bottle lambs are cute but oh what a nuisance. There are few times when one of them actually manages to become a contributing member of the flock.
The bird activity continues to remain at a higher level than what we’ve seen for much of the winter. The consumption of black oil sunflower seed in the last two weeks primarily by goldfinches surpassed what was consumed in the past two months. They’ve also tagged the thistle hard so it’s probably about time for a new bag of that. The chickadees have been singing their little two-note “fee-bee” spring song. We haven’t seen any robins just yet, but they can’t be too far off. There are still some crabapples on the Indian Magic tree to tide them over until the earthworms make the soil surface.
The appearance of the little fat buddies this winter has at best been staggered and haphazard. Perhaps it’s the jet-propelled pop machine that keeps anyone from hearing anything other than loud grunts. Perhaps it’s just the weather too. It simply hasn’t been nasty enough to force them to come into town to tell everyone how bad the roads are just yet. Some signs their habits may be changing: a reappearance of Vista’s noted Swedish astronomer. He recently returned from a trip to Mexico and claimed the stars and planets were the same ones we see here. About in the same spot in the sky also. Who knew?
Something that may lure the little fat buddies back into the fold include the recent Girl Scout cookie sale. They do seem to work wonders. Last Friday I made a run to the accountant’s office and then stopped at the license bureau to purchase several license tabs, a boat license as well as to renew my driver’s license. It went smoothly and when it was all finished, the gal who had waited on me told me to have a good weekend. I took off feeling good about all the odds and ends I’d tied up to end the week. Upon returning to the office I got an envelope ready to mail then received a call that the hay supplier to the stars was about to drop a round bale off. I swung by the post office and then quickly home to watch the gate so the sheep didn’t go roundabout. It was late enough so it was about chore time so we got that done and went in the house to watch Gopher hockey.
During the first period something was bothering me. There was something I’d forgotten to do. Then suddenly it dawned on me. Had I paid the lady at the license bureau? I couldn’t remember writing the check, although I had seen the receipt in the package of stuff I’d procured. I fished through my wallet and sure enough, I still had the check! Their offices were already closed, but I felt terrible. Some poor lady had probably tried to reconcile the books for the day and they likely didn’t balance so she was probably wondering where the error was all weekend. Some may have thought, hey, I got by with one, I don’t have to pay. Not me. I’m just not wired that way. When Monday morning rolled around I made a call as soon as I could while en route to their offices to explain the situation. I apologized for spacing it out and they in true Minnesota Nice fashion said it was as much their fault as it was mine. They hadn’t discovered the error yet so when I got there I wrote the check out and left some Girl Scout cookies to atone for my sins. As I headed out the door I could hear them say, “Who was that masked man anyway?” “I don’t know, but he left this box of Tagalongs.”
See you next week…real good then.