Last week’s torrential rains provided a real test for the scurs and the Weather Eye. Will our break come soon or will we continue breaking records? Starting Wednesday, sunny with highs in the low 60’s and lows in the mid-40’s. Thursday, mostly sunny with highs in the mid-60’s and lows in the upper 40’s. Mostly sunny Friday with highs in the upper 60’s and lows in the upper 40’s. Saturday, mostly sunny with highs in the upper 60’s and lows in the low 50’s. Mostly sunny on Sunday with a slight chance of an evening shower or thunderstorm. Highs in the low 70’s with lows in the mid-50’s. Monday, partly sunny with modest chance of a shower or thunderstorm. Highs in the low 70’s with lows in the low 50’s. Partly sunny becoming mostly cloudy for Tuesday with a chance of showers and thunderstorms. Highs in the low 70’s with lows in the low 50’s. The normal high for October 1st is 67 and the normal low is 43. Now that the flood waters have subsided, they will be confined to swimming in their own backyard.
What a weather week last week turned out to be. Early harvest activity came to a screeching halt as heavy rains raked the area in the overnight hours of the 21st and 22nd. At the ranch the storm total was 5.42” although .35” had fallen the day prior. Another .55” followed over the weekend. In town it was even more generous with 7.91” of rain falling on the 21st and 22nd, being supplemented with another .47” over the weekend. It’s just wet all over as of this writing and while sunny, breezy, low humidity conditions prevailed on Monday, the temperatures only reached the mid-60’s after starting out in the mid-40’s. Not a rapid drying day, although at least it wasn’t raining. Some crop remains in standing water after everyone had been banking on no holes in fields due to a near-storybook growing season in terms of rainfall locally. There will be some loss in those areas due to crop unable to be recovered mechanically and perhaps some damage to the grain itself.
The rains probably left their most noticeable mark in area towns where flooding caused road closures, evacuations as well as business and school closures. It became extremely difficult to get around with all the road closures with the flooding of 2010 already being a distant memory. As it turned out, we were more fortunate this time around. Rainfall in the eastern part of the LeSueur River watershed was less than it was in 2010, allowing waters to recede perhaps a little more quickly. Some were quick to point that it was drier in 2010, so this episode should’ve been worse. However, when it rains with the kind of intensity that it did in either event, the water isn’t going to infiltrate these soils very rapidly. If anything, this time the already-full soil moisture profile in the top 5’probably allowed surface runoff to occur at even a little more rapid pace than in 2010.
After the storm at the ranch there was some debris to pick up in the yard, but not to the degree those in town had to deal with. That said, it was time to attempt to fish the vine crops in the garden out of the mud before they started to rot. It was extremely wet to say the least. The Gator left some nasty ruts but at least the gourds, squash and a few pumpkins were salvaged. Most of the Indian corn also made it into some buckets so fall decorating can commence once and for all. Be nice if it dried up before attempting to harvest corn stalks for the corn shock. Getting stuck harvesting the garden would be a little embarrassing.
The sheep have made some contribution to the decorating cause as well. The leftover gourds, squash, pumpkins, etc., from the year before find their way over the pasture fence. Some of the seeds in turn manage to make their way into the soil. The vines then became huge this summer with all the rain and warmth. The sheep do a good job of keeping the stuff weeded. Only trouble with the sheep is if there’s something out there you might want to use for decorating, best claim it before they decide it’s time to start eating it. It’s too late when you look out at the vines and it suddenly looks like a stampeding herd of elephants has trampled them.
Alas it appears we may have seen the last of the hummingbirds at the ranch for the year as of the 21st. They apparently were getting out while the getting was good ahead of the storm. They’ve suddenly been replaced by the marauding group of giant blue jays that shows up in the fall. There were eight of them hopping from limb to limb, making them bend downward with each movement they made. The jays gobbled down the ear corn and greedily helped themselves to the sunflower seeds. For the time being the goldfinches are back to being their nomadic selves again. Just a smattering of them now versus a few weeks ago. In all likelihood, there is an abundance of seed that should be ripe in the CRP so that’s probably where some of them are spending their time.
And finally, fall along with the wet weather has caused some of the four-footed critters to start moving about looking for places to hole up for winter. On Sunday morning we smelled strong skunk odor in the barn when we did chores. Then after playing in the Studebaker much of the day, upon our return Mrs. Cheviot came to the house with news that a skunk was sleeping under the trailer. I quickly loaded my trusty blunderbuss and trod barn-wards to do battle with the stinky striped squatter. Found it in a good spot where it was easy to dispatch and then dispose of the body. One thing about it, if you’re a skunk, raccoon or a possum, odds of your living to a ripe old age are pretty slim at the ranch.
See you next week…real good then.