Thank goodness the scurs got the Weather Eye to deliver some absolutely gorgeous weather. Will their forecasting warmth continue or will their forecast give us the cold shoulder? Starting Wednesday, partly cloudy with highs in the low 60’s and lows in the low 40’s. Thursday, mostly sunny with highs in the low 60’s and lows in the low 40’s. Mostly sunny Friday with highs in the low 60’s and lows in the low 40’s. Saturday, sunny with highs in the upper 50’s and lows in the low 40’s. Sunny on Sunday with highs in the low 60’s and lows in the low 40’s. Monday, continued sunny with highs in the low 60’s and lows in the low 40’s. Sunny for Tuesday with highs in the upper 60’s and lows in the low 40’s. The normal high for October 1st is 66 and the normal low is 42. The scurs plan on exchanging more e-mails with Hillary Clinton on her personal e-mail account.
Harvest actually got rolling in earnest over the weekend in places. Soils in many areas are still plenty wet however and slowed progress. Soybean yields are a very pleasant surprise although there are still fields slow to ripen. There are also often several yields on the same field as one noted observer pointed out when I asked him last week how they were running. There’s the yield monitor yield, the grain cart yield and the one that counts, the one over the scale at the elevator. Some corn has been harvested and yields are generally making farmers smile except for the most curmudgeonly perhaps. Sure, it always could’ve yielded more, it was too wet, the quality wasn’t as good as it could’ve been and so on. We all know them and know that sometimes it’s OK just to be satisfied with the way things turned out as they can’t be changed.
Am writing this on Mrs. Cheviot’s confuser as my hard drive decided to take a vacation after I got back from mine. It’s OK as it’s a unit with which I once wrote many of these literary masterpieces. Hopefully it hangs together until I can somehow get this sent to the newspaper. Also hopeful that my regular model comes back to life once my trusted computer guru gets through with it. Fingers crossed but no guarantees.
Trees got my attention this past week. Betsy’s dad had mentioned something about a tree that had mysteriously appeared in Verna’s yard. It had shiny leaves on it I was told. Scratching my head as is my wont, could not based on the description come up with an idea of what it might be. “Bring a hunk of it in here and we’ll check it out”, I said. Sometime Friday he must’ve dropped it off as it was crispy by the time I found it Saturday. Examining it more closely, I spied one leaf that was lobed before it snapped in two. Then it clicked: A mulberry!
We have some mulberries growing in our windbreak among the dogwood bushes that probably should be removed. Apparently they were spread there by the birds. The berries are popular with them and humans too I guess although it’s rare event to get one before the birds do. The white mulberry is native to China and while a rather invasive tree it is also the tree that serves as the main food source for silkworms. After introduction to the southeastern US long ago, attempts at producing silk were unsuccessful. The mulberries on the other hand have been very successful and have spread across much of the country.
The birds are continuing to make more moves as we head deeper into the fall. The hummingbirds were a “no show” Sunday making me wonder if they had moved on. Monday afternoon I slipped home to make a sandwich and much to my delight one descended from the tree to the feeder below. There was still one at suppertime feeding on some of the flowers. The flowers are starting to wane though so it’s a matter of time. The robins and waxwings are busy gobbling down the nannyberries as fast as they ripen. They’ve also hit the crabapples hard. Think I discovered where a lot of the goldfinches are hanging out. As I made a trip to Matawan on the back roads Saturday, hundreds of them flew out of the CRP that was covered with Maximilian sunflowers. There is a lot of food out there and checking the seed on some of the native plants including oxeye, it’s probably a lot more to their liking than some of what we put in the feeders. Once it’s gone, it may be easier to mooch off us. Other “fall” birds are becoming more common in the yard though. Flickers continue to be common, jays are active and the red-bellied woodpecker found the ear corn once again, when the squirrel isn’t using it of course. The squirrels have lots of red oak acorns across the driveway this time around and I almost nailed one upon our return from a cruise Sunday with the Silver Hawk.
Ruby has been up to her old TV watching antics again. A few weeks ago Auntie Mar Mar was amazed by her reaction to an elephant on the tube and later some giant insect that set Ruby off on a barking and growling frenzy. Mar Mar was in disbelief that the dog would react as she did. Ruby recently added another person to the list of people she doesn’t care for. After seeing her bark and growl regularly at such notables as Clint Eastwood and Julie Andrews, nothing really surprises us anymore. It was a little embarrassing though when Mrs. Cheviot informed me that she had been watching Pope Francis on TV and Ruby had another of her patented meltdowns. Well, maybe she doesn’t like guys wearing short white coats and beanies while talking about climate change I thought. Or it could be as simple as she’s just a Protestant. Never can tell about these Border Collies.
See you next week…real good then.