The scurs forecasts are becoming repetitive, aren’t they? Rain, clouds, cool, and not much else. Will we ever see summer or are we stuck on early May? Starting Wednesday, mostly cloudy with a good chance of showers and thunderstorms. Highs in the mid 60s and lows near 50. Mostly cloudy Thursday with a slight chance of showers and thunderstorms. Highs in the mid 60s and lows in the low 50s. Partly cloudy on Friday with a slight chance of an evening shower or thunderstorm. Highs in the upper 60s and lows in the low 50s. Saturday, partly cloudy with a modest chance of showers and thunderstorms. Highs in the low 70s and lows in the upper 50s. Mostly cloudy on Sunday with a good chance of showers and thunderstorms. Highs near 70 and lows in the upper 50s. Monday, partly cloudy with a slight chance of showers and thunderstorms. Highs in the low 70s and lows in the upper 50s. Mostly sunny Tuesday with highs in the upper 70s and lows in the low 60s. The normal high for June 7th is 77 and the normal low is 55. We will experience 15 hours and 22 minutes of daylight on the 7th, gaining only 6 more minutes by the summer solstice. The scurs are saving lots on suntan lotion so far this summer.
It continues to be a spring that defies the odds. First, it breaks rainfall records for the area for the three-month period of March. April and May, then decides to remain cold and cloudy so that fields are having a difficult time drying out. This has translated into large holes in some corn fields where corn simply never germinated and hence did not emerge. Most of this occurrence can be traced to drainage. Yes but we have lots of tile, remember? Yes, but tile systems are only designed to handle so much and over 18” of precipitation in the last three months has overwhelmed them. If you don’t think so, there are plenty of people who were stuck and would likely argue with you. Corn planting, except for some attempting to fill in some of the aforementioned holes, has largely come to a halt. Soybean planting finally began in earnest although fields remain in marginal condition in terms of fitness.
The ewes and lambs were finally weaned off this past week and lots of bellering was in store overnight. This primarily because the ewes going to the kindly neighbor’s were on the trailer waiting until morning. Oddly enough, the ewes settled down pretty fast this time around, apparently realizing that the lush pasture grass was a lot better cuisine than what they’d been getting in dry lot. The lambs enjoyed having extra bunk space and not having to compete with their own mothers for feed. The fencer at the kindly neighbor’s wanted to be a little persnickety after working initially a few weeks back when the fence had been redone. Mowing under it and redoing the grounds didn’t seem to help as the light would only flash intermittently even though the spark was evident when doing the screwdriver test. Eventually I gave up as the time to mow the lawn was diminishing. The next day when I came back to check on the fence and ewes, the fencer was working normally again. Go figure.
The bugs were equally responsible for my early departure. Between the mosquitoes and blackflies, they had annoyed me long enough. The worst part is the mosquitoes will likely be with us for a while. All the ponded water and continual wet conditions has played right into their hands, er, beaks. Another way that droughts have an advantage over wet seasons.
The June bugs have also been banging off the window screens and around the garage lights. Coming from white grubs, the adult insects are merely a nuisance while the larvae damage root systems on lawns providing an open invitation for moles to come looking for them.
The bird migration is largely complete although a couple catbirds arrived just the other day. They’ve made themselves right at home, using the jelly feeder whenever the orioles aren’t. A group of cedar waxwings has been hanging around too, appearing to eat the petals off the apple trees. Hadn’t seen that one before. It appears the indigo buntings may have taken up residence here. There could be a nest in one of the arborvitae near the garden area. I say area as there still is no garden planted due to the wet conditions. That’s O.K. If the buntings don’t mind it may stay that way for a while yet. They’ve been helping themselves to the oriole nectar feeder anyway, pecking at the openings for long periods of time.
The berry bushes planted for the birds have burst into bloom. Nannyberries, American cranberry, chokeberries and red osier dogwood are all lending their fragrance to the fresh morning air. If the floral outburst is any indication, there should be plenty of food for weary autumn travelers or overwintering guests of the feathered variety. Of course when mowing the lawn, it’s something to look forward to.
On my last trip home I made a visit to the attic to see if I could locate some of the treasures reputedly hidden there. I did finally locate some boxes that were clearly labeled with my name on them so it was like opening King Tut’s tomb or at least taking a journey through the past. I found old 4-H records complete with pictures of lambs as well as some of the field of corn shocks we’d made one fall. There were souvenirs from both trips to Venezuela and college applications. Probably the most interesting thing I ran across in my brief search was a 1959 Motor Trend magazine that came from my cousin Phil once upon a time. In it they detailed several of the new cars for that model year including the 1959 Studebaker Lark. It claimed the six cylinder would cruise right along at 70 mph. Funny, I don’t remember pedaling the 1960 Lark VI that fast. That and it steered hard. Sometimes it even took two of us to drive it.
See you next week…real good then.