The scurs predictions for scant rainfall chances and amounts as well as warmer temps were on the money. Will we see more of the same? Starting Wednesday, mostly sunny with a slight chance of evening thunderstorms. Highs in the lower 90s and lows in the upper 60s. Partly cloudy on Thursday with a slight chance of showers and thunderstorms. Highs in the mid 80s and lows in the mid 60s. Friday, partly cloudy with highs in the low 80s and lows in the mid 60s. Mostly sunny for Saturday and Sunday with highs in the upper 60s and lows in the lower 60s. Mostly cloudy for Monday and Tuesday with chances for showers and thunderstorms. Highs in the upper 70s and lows in the upper 50s. The normal high for August 25th is 79 and the normal low is 58. The scurs know it can’t be long before the large yellow livestock hauling vehicles resume their regular schedule.
This column is coming to you from the road this week, as we travel with the Pro Farmer Midwest Crop Tour. The first day of travel towards our destination in Champaign, IL found a generally much better looking crop from the road than what we’ve been accustomed to seeing in South Central MN. The crop, in particular the corn, is predicted to be huge nationwide, although there are some recent indications that the bloom may be coming off the rose so to speak. I’m not going to speculate on that right now; that’s why we take the yield checks and take into account crop condition. Then we have some data to go on. Without data, it’s just a windshield survey. Follow us on agweb.com and on Twitter at #pftour13. My handle is @MNWeedWizard if you want to follow my tweets.
The trip had an interesting beginning to it. Packing the large bag, I discovered there was still something in one of the zippered compartments. When I opened it up, I discovered a bunch of dirty socks and underwear left over from last year’s Crop Tour! I wondered why it seemed like I ran out so quickly so I purchased some new ones, figuring that Mrs. Cheviot had probably disposed of some of the more tattered models. No problem. Now I should be able to go for a month before having to worry about it. Then go buy more.
There have been some techno issues though. It seems like the more technical these electronic gadgets become, the more trouble they cause me. One would think for someone who lusted after one of those Philips turntables that used heat sensitive controls to operate it you’d be able to figure these things out. I also had a Toshiba microwave that had a touch pad for controls back in about 1982. Must not have done me much good. I was in a quandary when trying to start the leased vehicle and accidentally stepped on the brake, allowing me to start it. When I tried to remember what I’d done the next time, just poking the start button did nothing to satisfy my need to get moving. About that same time someone called and I had a dickens of a time trying to run the touch screen on that. Seems I’m unable to handle more than one techno disaster at time.
Then of course there are all those little icons on the buttons in cars you’re apparently supposed to be born knowing the meaning of. Driving a rental car from Cedar Falls to Columbus, OH I had plenty of time to play with most of the buttons and actually figured out how to turn the radio on by the time I arrived at my destination. I still remember trying to get the rear window defroster to work on my own pickup. There was a button for the heated mirrors that had a little picture of the mirrors on it so that couldn’t have been it. Then there was one that had a snowflake on it so one would think that might be the correct button. For whatever reason, the rear window did not defrost. Come to find out, that one was for the air conditioning! A lot of good that did me in January.
The dogs always seem to know something’s up when one of us is leaving. Fudgie and Ruby act almost as though they’ve done something wrong. There’s more clingy behavior, more moping and less of the typical behavior. If they only knew how much we miss them when we’re off galloping around the country. That’s one of the beauties of a dog however. No matter how long you’ve been away, when you return they’re always glad to see you and expend some additional energy towards letting you know that. Perhaps they think if they do that, you won’t be as apt to take off on another extended journey again anytime soon. Of course it could also be that they would like to go along the next time. When asked if they’d like to “go with” they suddenly become very excited. More than once we’ve had to coax them back out of the car when the door gets left open afterwards. That’s a clue.
See you next week…real good then.