After leaving the old year behind, the scurs New Year’s resolution is on getting back on track in the new one. Will they get off on the right foot?
Starting Wednesday, partly cloudy becoming mostly cloudy in the afternoon with a modest chance of snow. Highs of 15–20 and lows of 5–10. Partly cloudy for Thursday with a high near 15 and lows of zero to 5 above. Clear on Friday with highs back up to 20 and lows around 5 above.
Partly cloudy and warmer on Saturday with highs of 20–25 and lows near 10. Mostly sunny on Sunday with highs of 25 and lows of 10–15. Mostly cloudy on Monday with highs of 25 and lows of 15.
Partly sunny and warmer on Tuesday with highs above freezing at 35 and lows of 15. The normal high on January 8 is 22 and the normal low is 4. On the 8, we will also see 9 hours and 7 minutes of daylight, having gained 13 minutes since the winter solstice. The scurs will be getting the patio furniture out before you know it.
At the ranch, December tallied 1.29” of liquid equivalent with 13.35” worth of that falling as snow. At the SROC in Waseca, typical December snowfall is about 14.” We received .55” of liquid precip in November and 1.19” of precip for December of 2011. We recorded 7.5” of snow a year ago at the ranch.
The one noticeable difference is that a much larger proportion of the precip in December last year fell as rain. While that’s still a long way from breaking out of the drought, we are still receiving some moisture. As pointed out before, we generally don’t make much of a dent on recharging the soil profile as the soils are frozen.
And they are frozen. At the SROC as of the 28, there was 11” of frost in the ground on bare soil.
On the bird feeding front, the winter weather and conditions to our north appear to be producing an irruption of sorts. There was one redpoll noted on Friday at the feeders. On Saturday, there were several in the upper branches on the row of ash trees south of the house. By Sunday, the numbers had swelled to around 15 that suddenly descended to the feeders in the crabapple tree.
The last time there was an irruption, they outnumbered the house sparrows and seemed to actually drive them off. Bird activity this past weekend was brisk and it will be interesting to see how many more of the redpolls arrive. For little guys they can really put it away.
The winter sports diet on TV has been superb lately and promises more of the same for much of the long winter nights. The Gophers football team went down to defeat in the last minute but they were competitive after being 13-point underdogs. The football program has been below mediocre for so long it was just refreshing to see them get into a bowl game.
The Viqueens beat the Packers last Sunday, something sure to warm the cockles of any MN sports fan’s heart. Even if Adrian Peterson didn’t quite break the all-time rushing record, it has been interesting to watch him, especially in light of the ACL injury he sustained at the end of last season.
My beloved Gopher hockey team continues to roll, causing Ruby to hide behind the couch as we cheered during the tattooing they gave #1 Boston college. Tubby’s charges take on Michigan State on New Year’s Eve Day and begin what should prove to be an interesting Big Ten season.
Time to get the chores done early so we can watch the Gophers. Ruby cocks her head wondering what the strange connection is between “chores” and “gophers.” Fortunately, they are not called the “squirrels” or she’d go through the sliding glass door.
With the holidays coming in the middle of the week this year, it seems tough to tell what day of the week it actually is. There’s no rhyme of reason to it. Monday seems like Saturday which in some respects is kinda O.K., given Monday’s propensity to suck. The sad part is Wednesdays have felt like Mondays for the past couple weeks.
Eventually, we’ll get back to a normal existence, although we still have a couple Christmas celebrations to go yet as of this writing. No reason to step on a bathroom scale anytime soon. Nothing to see here, move it along.
The Bernard family Christmas was this past weekend. The way things were going I was almost afraid it was going to turn out like Christmas Vacation.
Mrs. Cheviot had booked a wedding she had to decorate for. That meant having to be extra well prepared for both events.
We had people coming in from all over the country and one can never be sure when Cousin Eddie might show up in a beater RV. Luckily, it came off without a hitch. No trees were torched even though I had the chainsaw at the ready just in case. Ruby really doesn’t do a very good Snots impersonation either, hoarding as much attention as everyone would lavish upon her.
Grilled food was ready about when we had guessed it would be even with the cold weather. It still seems amazing how fast a turkey cooks on a grill. An 18 lb. bird took about two and a half hours even in the cold weather. In the oven, that’s about a four hour process. Best of all, it didn’t hiss and collapse when I cut into it.
See you next week…real good then.