The scurs hung in there last week and did manage to correctly predict the light showers that temporarily decreased the fire danger. What’s on tap this week? Starting Wednesday, clear with highs of 65 and lows around 40. Clear again for Thursday with highs of 65 and lows near 45. Clear on Friday and Saturday with highs near 70 and lows of 45. Partly cloudy on Sunday with a modest chance of a shower. Highs once again near 70 and lows around 50. Monday and Tuesday, warmer and partly sunny to mostly cloudy with some possible showers both days. Highs of 75 and lows near 50. Sunset will occur on the 28th at 6:59 p.m. The normal high for September 30th is 68 and the normal low is 42. The scurs will be gathering sticks and twigs for a small recreational fire to celebrate the onset of cooler evenings.
The Full Moon for the month occurs on the 29th and is known as the Full Harvest Moon. The light from the moon allowed farmers to work long into the night bringing in the harvest. Of course nowadays, nighttime field operations tend to be lit up like small cities so the moonlight becomes somewhat irrelevant. The Ojibwe knew this as the Full Rice Moon as this was the time at which the wild rice, an important part of their diet, was being harvested. The Sioux knew this as the Moon of Drying Grass, likely as we’ve seen this fall, the native prairie grasses take on their dry, brown color. At the ranch, we know this as the Moon Where We Do Chores in the Dark.
More rapid field progress this week as showers slowed operations ever so slightly on the 21st. Farmers have to be pinching themselves when looking at the calendar and the corn moisture. Recent reports are seeing 105-day waxy corn dry enough to bin without artificial drying, unheard of for September 24th. Good news in the yield department for both corn and soybeans as well. Soybean yields were feared earlier to be back to where they were last year. That hasn’t been the case in general wit most coming in between 50 and 60 bu./acre. Corn yields continue to impress and few are complaining. No reason they should. With fields to the south of here in IA running below 100 bu./acre, we have a lot to be thankful for.
The frost pretty well ended the growing season for most things if you didn’t get them covered anyway. The low of 30 at the ranch marked the first time we’ve had freezing temperatures since April 17th. Still, it didn’t kill everything. The 4 o’clocks, which are usually relatively sensitive, escaped relatively unscathed while impatiens in pots near the house were pretty well scorched. The impatiens in a pot near the road ditch where it is lower were hardly even touched while a volunteer gourd was absolutely cooked on a higher spot on the end of the driveway. I’ve never been able to figure out why some places freeze hard when they shouldn’t and vice-versa. We did cover the tomatoes all up but it still managed to singe the upper portions of the plants. Again, no rhyme nor reason to it.
Have we seen the last of the hummingbirds at the ranch? Maybe. The last documented one we saw was on the 21st. However, looking back at last year, we thought they had left only to see them return for a brief encore appearance when temperatures warmed back up. At the feeders now it’s mostly blue jays, a hairy or two and some house finches. There are still lots of goldfinches feeding in the CRP as seed production there apparently keeps them satisfied. An immature red-bellied woodpecker has been hitting the ear corn feeder apparently, voicing his displeasure when finding the cobs bare.
Boxelder bugs have made their return. The last time they were really bad in our house was during the drought in the fall of 1988. After installing a new furnace since then that moved more air through the ductwork, most of them made a posthumous reappearance. The good news is there don’t appear to be as many Asian ladybeetles this year to annoy us. Just the boxelder bugs will probably have to suffice.
Saturday morning before leaving for my Aunt’s 90th birthday party, I decided to build a quick corn shock as we’ve done in the past. This year was no different although cutting the Indian corn stalks with the loppers made for more bending and less fun than it could’ve been. So instead, I fired up the weedeater with the brush cutter attachment and voila! Hundreds of Julienne fries! In a matter of minutes all six rows of stalks were on the ground. I loaded the stover onto the Gator and hauled it back to the house to tie it into bundles. In order to get the shock to stay put I cheated just as in the past and pounded a steel post first before strategically setting the bundles against it. After it was completed I marveled at my new masterpiece thinking to myself, yup, just like the pioneers used to do.
The panel jumping champion ram nicknamed Sausage was put into service on Sunday afternoon. His jumping days likely behind him after spending most of the summer get fat in a pen, we managed to get him to bound into the trailer with Ruby looking on. Sausage’s weight probably hovers around 220 so he’s not exactly easy to maneuver. We got him flipped on his behind though in the confined space of the trailer to trim his feet as they tend to grow long on penned animals. Off to the kindly neighbor’s pasture where he was immediately smitten by his newly found harem and kicking up his newly trimmed heels in delight. Could there be love in the air on this Harvest Moon?
See you next week…real good then.