After this past week’s cool conditions, the scurs are wondering if Mother Nature’s thermostat is broken. Will the repairman arrive to repair it anytime soon? Starting with Wednesday, mostly sunny with highs in the upper teens and lows around 5. Mostly sunny for Thursday and slightly warmer. Highs in the low to mid-20s and lows around 10 above. Partly cloudy and warmer for Friday with highs in the mid to upper 20’s and lows of 15 – 20. Saturday, mostly cloudy with a slight chance of snow. Highs around 35 and lows near 20. Cloudy Sunday with another slight chance of snow. Highs again in the mid-30s and lows of 25 – 30. Mostly cloudy Monday with a chance of snow. Highs inching close to 40 and lows around 30. Partly sunny on Tuesday with highs in the low to mid-40’s and lows near freezing. The normal high for March 20th, the first day of spring is 42 and the normal low is 24. The scurs are predicting with the vernal equinox upon us once more hens will be crabby while setting on all those eggs standing on end.
Yes, the first day of spring is happening and that’s going to be about it. Looking longingly at last year, many are of the opinion that this could be a late spring. Well, at any rate it’ll be later than last year. As we’ve mentioned before, radishes were planted on St. Patty’s Day and I can recall grilling lamb chops on the grill in my T-shirt. The relatively minor amount of small grain was going in the ground as it should’ve been. Some corn was put in the ground in late March, although reports were mixed on its performance. Corn planted the first week in April seemed a much safer bet! Last week’s snowfall was indeed a wet one with another .95” of water melted out of it. Much of that still remains on the frozen soil surface, so while it benefits streams and wetlands, it does little to recharge soil moisture for crops. You can bet it will still make for some messy road conditions though.
I should’ve guessed on the morning of the 11th that spring was a ways off yet when walking across the yard to the barn. A relatively large group of snow and blue geese was overhead, winging their way south! Their higher pitched call made their identification easy and the intermixing of older blues (dark bodies, white heads and necks) had me recalling my early post-college days living in the flyway in North Dakota. Always a sight to see the hundreds of thousands making their way south. But wait! That used to be in October and November!
Around the yard, rooster pheasants continue to make their presence known in the plum and sumac thicket, probably great grandsons of Little Jerry by now. One rooster was in the ash tree outside the sliding glass window so after grabbing the camera he naturally high tailed it out of there so no photos. There are at least two pair of cardinals visiting under the feeders during the day and they’re often there until after the sun sets. The redpoll numbers appear to be starting to tail off somewhat. I hope so. Spring needs to spring and they’ve eaten a lot of thistle seed. Kestrels were spotted in the area so I need to get to the wetland area yet to get some spring housecleaning done in the wood duck house they’ve staked a claim to the past several seasons.
The skunk finally met its maker on Saturday. After Fudgie had a close call with our uninvited stinky guest in the barn as I was feeding lambs, it strengthened my resolve to do away with the pest. I secured the area, making sure the skunk was no longer in the barn, then I cracked some eggs into the live trap upon the advice of my trapping consultant. Sure enough, a few mornings later, there was skunk odor emanating from the granary. Peeking around the sliding door, it was obvious to me the trap had been sprung. Chores were done first and then I morphed into commando mode.
I grabbed my trusty blunderbuss, chambered three shells, then quickly slid the granary door open. Yep, it was the skunk all right and a big one at that. I had beforehand attached about 30 yards of bale twine to the trap so I could pull it out in the open and get a good shot at it. I’d heard if you put a cover over the skunk so they can’t see you they won’t spray. However, I wasn’t taking any chances on getting that close. As I pulled the trap out of the granary the critter became agitated, letting loose an enormous cloud of spray. The stench was putrid, almost nauseating, even though I was well upwind. When the trapped skunk was where I wanted it I pumped a #4 20-gauge shell into the enemy, dropping it like a sack of dirt. I muttered a few invectives in the direction of the conquered and went inside to let the air clear before disposing of it. As I told one of my little fat buddies earlier in the week, I’ve never felt bad about shooting a skunk. Still don’t.
Lambing thundered along last week to the point where we only have about four ewes left to lamb. There was even a set of triplet ewe lambs born but what to name them? They’re a novelty and fortunately the ewe is raising all of them. Thus far they haven’t needed any help from a bottle. The barns have been getting full and the weather needs to break one of these days so we can let all of the ewes with new lambs outside.
Congratulations to the NRHEG basketball girls on winning the Class AA championship! While we were unable to attend the tournament games, we faithfully listened on the radio or watched them on TV. After all, our neighbor girls were playing and leading the team to victory. Probably the most impressive thing about their big win came on Sunday morning; they were all in church at 9 a.m. As Mrs. Cheviot said, I think we found names for the set of triplet ewe lambs, namely Carlie, Maddie and Marnie. Way to go girls! Kudos on your tremendous accomplishment! We don’t name sheep after just anyone.
See you next week…real good then.