The scurs were pretty sure we were in for a rare treat and were we ever! Will we head back into anytime winter soon? Starting Wednesday, mostly cloudy with an increasing chance of rain towards evening. Highs of 65 – 70 and lows of 50 - 55. Thursday, mostly cloudy with a good chance of rain. Highs of 65 and lows around 50. Partly cloudy on Friday with a slight chance of showers. Highs of 65 and lows of 50. Partly cloudy on Saturday with a high of 60 and lows of 40. Partly sunny Sunday through Monday with highs of 65 - 70 with lows around 50. Slightly cooler on Tuesday with a chance of showers and thunderstorms. Highs of 65 and lows of 35 – 40. The normal high for March 25th is 46 and the normal low is 26. Now that June weather has come and gone the scurs are thinking about setting off some fireworks. Surely the fireworks police wouldn’t expect anything yet.
What a week of record setting March weather! Every day brought more warmth and a little higher temperatures. At the ranch we topped out on St. Patrick’s Day with a high of 79. Several of our car thermometers read as high as 80. Pastures have greened up and as if on cue, several of the last ewes decided to lamb. One of the main reasons to shear the ewes before lambing in February is so they will lamb inside. However when it’s nearly 80 degrees, that goes out the window so they decide to drop them wherever it’s convenient away from the other ewes. Makes the lambs a dirty mess sometimes but the ewes lick them off so it’s all good. In the fields as expected, small grains were seeded and fertilizer applications have begun. Alfalfa has broken dormancy and so far the survival looks good.
The evening skies were also a treat as the planets Venus and Jupiter continued to impress, low in the western sky when coming in from the barn about 11 p.m. Mars has also been at about 10 o’clock in the sky around 8 p.m. in the evening. Vista’s noted Swedish astronomer recently phoned me with a startling discovery. The three planets as viewed through his telescope are still round!
There have been several firsts for the season as a result of the warm weather. A few Western Chorus frogs were first heard on the pond at the ranch on the evening of the 15th. The next night they were at full volume, with thousands of them all croaking at a fever pitch. March 15th was also the night I saw my first mosquito. The thing was huge, almost the size of a buzzard and I stared in disbelief as it landed on my arm and attempted to bite me. This meant one thing: It was time to start Ruby on her heartworm meds already. Trouble was, we’d given her the last dose back in December. Luckily good old Gus had left behind a couple unused tubes of topical material that also controls ticks, something else that will no doubt be running ahead of schedule. Am purposely staying out of the tall grass. I don’t want to know if the ticks are out there although tormenting them once discovered gives me perverse pleasure.
Ruby had another big weekend. The world’s largest Border Collie, Zip and his owner along with another friend were visiting so Ruby had someone to play with. In addition Ruby shared her sheep with Zip so he could enjoy staring and growling at them too. Ruby enjoyed to wrestling with Zip so it seemed like there was always some action somewhere. The wrestling matches were fine except when they took place inside the house. When they started crashing into the furniture it was time to take it outside. Not much different than a couple kids truth be told. Older dogs like Zip can teach younger dogs new tricks too. While watching TV we heard a strange sound the other night: Ruby lapping water from the toilet. She’s never done that. Monkey see monkey do.
The weekend brought with it a whole list of things to get done before spring. It was time to pick up the pruning mess from the weekend before, move ewes and lambs, take the tree wrap off, and plant some early garden. Again, there was plenty of dog help especially with Zip being a stick lover. Taking off the tree wrap is always a good way to take stock of the progress the trees are making. All the trees appear to be in excellent condition even the peach tree. The pears were heavily budded and close to breaking dormancy as were the apple trees. The nannyberries were starting to leaf out too. Outside the window where I work at my confuser, the Silver Maple was flowering. Spring has sprung.
The aforementioned weekend guests pitched in and helped out with chores including moving ewes with lambs. Unfortunately there were no newbies born over the weekend so the opportunity for them to witness a live birth went unfulfilled. The odds of seeing one are getting slimmer. There are only three or four ewes left to come in. After resisting temptation on Saturday, Sunday I had to plant some garden. The ground worked up beautifully with just one pass. Cherry Belle and Scarlet Globe radishes to put in along with some Oregon sugar pod peas. Will they make it? Hard to say but if they don’t, there should be plenty of time to plant more. If they do produce, being early season crops it should allow us to plant something after they’re done. Double cropping!
I would be remiss if I didn’t congratulate the NRHEG Panther girls’ basketball team. While we haven’t made any games this year we have listened in on the broadcasts on the radio. It probably doesn’t hurt that we’ve watched these young ladies grow up right before our eyes. Even though they didn’t bring home the big prize, they played well enough to bring home the third-place hardware, something no other basketball team has ever done here. And the not-so little-anymore neighbor girl set the single-game tournament scoring record at 48 as well as the three-game tournament record at 112 points. All in all, very impressive and important enough so that all things at the ranch came to a screeching halt as history was being made. That takes some doing. Congratulations ladies!
See you next week…real good then.