The scurs were tracking well last week, calling the rain as predicted. Will they be as fortunate this time around? Starting Wednesday, partly cloudy with a slight chance of an evening shower. Highs around 80 and lows near 60. Partly cloudy on Thursday with a moderate chance of an evening shower or thunderstorm. Highs of 80 and lows of 65. Friday, partly cloudy and warmer with a moderate chance of a shower or thunderstorm. Highs of 80 – 85 and lows around 65. Saturday partly cloudy and warmish with a slight chance of a shower or thunderstorm. Highs 85 – 90 and lows near 70. Mostly sunny for Sunday with continued heat and mugginess along with a slight chance of an evening shower or thunderstorm. Highs around 90 and lows close to 70. Mostly cloudy on Monday with some relief from the heat along with a good chance of showers and thunderstorms. Highs around 80 and lows of 55 – 60. Remaining mostly cloudy and cooler on Tuesday with highs of 75 – 80 and lows around 65. The normal high for June 10th is 78 and the normal low is 62. The scurs will be lounging beside their cement pond .
Aside from the surprise .52” of rain at the ranch on Wednesday last week it has remained relatively warm and dry since Saturday. This allowed many fields of corn to be sprayed for weeds under ideal conditions. It was definitely time as some of the weeds that had escaped the digger earlier this spring were large and becoming a concern. Soybean emergence had also been an issue as evidenced by some unevenness in the stands. Fortunately soybeans are fairly resilient and once they shrug off the “uglies” from the iron deficiency chlorosis, they begin to resemble a real crop. Small grains are heading out and alfalfa has benefitted greatly from the rainfall the last part of May. First cutting was disappointing in some places with some eager to blame insects based on their presence at the time of cutting. However, weather after the crop broke dormancy was not always “alfalfa-friendly” and led to slower-than-anticipated growth given the early start. The lack of precipitation from last fall and subsequent low subsoil moisture was not a positive factor either.
This week brought more activity from our feathered friends around the ranch. The young kestrels are approaching the time to fledge from their now extremely messy home. I went down to check on them Sunday night as I have for many weeks now and upon opening the inspection door on the nesting box, one of them hopped out and fluttered about 10’ into the grass below. I closed the door quickly so no more of them were tempted to come out, retrieved the escapee and stuffed it back in the entrance hole. I’ve been keeping a weekly photo record of their progress so the only way to get a photograph was to put the cell phone camera in the hole and snap the picture. It was hard to tell whether they were all in there yet, but judging by how crowded they were, it appears they’re all there. I would expect by next week they’ll be on the wing if the Sunday night’s performance was any indication.
In the yard, we had a female cardinal picking up under the sunflower feeder on Sunday. Cardinals are still a novelty at our place although they have been appearing with greater frequency the past several years as the bushes grow in size. The female orchard oriole has been making an appearance lately with her mate at the jelly feeder. A catbird or catbirds seem to have a taste for jelly along with a house finch or two. Probably the most significant observations involved the bluebirds. On Saturday a female bluebird was seen resting on the eave trough, then flew into the trees by the driveway. On Monday morning, the unmistakable royal blue of the male was spotted going away towards the pasture where there are three bluebird nesting boxes that are possible nesting sites. Will be interesting to see if they’re nesting in one of them or simply passing through. They’re always a treat to see regardless.
The Canada thistle population in the pasture around the yard required some attention. Some had attained a height of nearly 3’ since the May rains. Before going to a graduation Sunday, it was time to do battle. Having purchased some Milestone recently, the conditions were perfect. By the time we returned from the graduation a few hours later, some of them were already starting to writhe in agony. By the next morning they were all in a state of distress. Something about making thistles miserable that satisfies the inner sadist in me.
Sadly the last of the radishes were consumed the other night. They had a pretty good run though, supplying many meals worth and allowing us to share them with several others. Was a good a thing too as the second planting a few weeks later amounted to only some pencil thin roots and tops that bolted. Tomatoes, peppers, string beans and cucumbers were planted quickly Sunday night just before dusk so everything is in with the exception of some sweet corn. The weeds have really taken off with the recent warm temperatures so it will be a full time job to keep them at bay. Once the squash and pumpkins get rolling though there are few weeds that can compete with them. Rotating them around the garden not only helps keep the weeds down, they have the effect of mellowing the soil probably by deflecting some of the pounding rain with their huge leaves. Lord knows we’ve had plenty of hard rains thus far. The sphinx moths continue to work over the beautiful pots and planters Mrs. Cheviot has placed in front of the house while the toads ride shotgun for any flying insects that meet their criteria. All is right with the world…
See you next week…real good then.