The scurs and their loyal companion the Weather Eye were met with scorn and derision by disgruntled fans after last week. Are we about to break out of our January temperature slump or will we have six more months of winter? Starting Wednesday, partly sunny with a slight chance of evening snow. Highs in the mid-teens with lows in the lower single digits below zero. Thursday, mostly sunny with a moderate chance of snow. Highs in the mid-teens above zero and lows in the mid-single digits above zero. Partly sunny on Friday with a moderate chance of snow in the p.m. hours. Highs in the mid-teens and lows in the mid-single digits below zero. Saturday, mostly cloudy with a good chance of daytime snow tapering into the evening hours. Highs in the upper single digits with lows near zero. Mostly sunny for Sunday with highs in the upper teens and lows near 10 above. Monday, (Lincoln’s real birthday) mostly sunny with highs near 20 and lows around 5 above. Mostly cloudy Tuesday with a chance of snow. Highs in the upper 20’s with lows in the low teens. The normal high for Valentine’s Day is 27 and the normal low is 9. The Valentine’s Day chocolate and candy can’t appear soon enough for the scurs. Been a long dry spell since Christmas.
Some dabs of snow in the past week have kept a cover on most things. It was relatively light in terms of moisture content so it also had the ability to blow. Snow removal professionals made note of the mileage Old Man Winter got out of it when cleaning area driveways and dooryards. Some have commented that the snow we’ve had should help our cropping moisture situation in the spring. Unlikely. The ground is frozen and the January 23rd measurement from the SROC in Waseca had the frost depth at 19”. It’s probably deeper than that now as the walk-in door on the barn is beginning to stick. It does that usually when the frost depth approaches two feet. At any rate, unless you’re a mosquito, a frog or a duck, one of the prime benefits of our winter precip thus far is to recharge area wetlands.
Don’t know how many were actually able to see the lunar eclipse back on January 31st. Overall it was somewhat disappointing, although at the ranch we were able to catch occasional glimpses when it peeked through the clouds. That seemed to be the disclaimer missing by many hyping the event. Yes it was unique, but seeing it through the clouds for those of us mere mortals is next to impossible. Common sense should tell one that even though like warm temperatures, it’s become an all too rare commodity these days.
The roster pheasant troupe that appeared when we sheared back on January 27th has swelled to a dozen members as of Tuesday a.m. The word must be out. They all seem to like the ear corn set out for them. Usually I put 8-10 ears in their feeder in daylight hours so as not to encourage the nocturnal bunny population quite so much. The squirrels have their separate feeding station and while they focus on that, they still manage to carry some ears of corn around the yard for laughs. About the only other noticeable change in the bird numbers would be the large number of goldfinches suddenly hitting the thistle feeders, then, as quickly as they appeared they’re gone again. Many of the bid books describe their behavior as nomadic. They aren’t kidding. Guessing there are probably some hungry small hawks watching them more closely than I do.
Ruby has kept us entertained during some of the recent cold stretches. Many times we’ll finish outdoor chores then work on indoor chores with the TV on only to be startled when something sets her off in a barking frenzy. Saturday Mrs. Cheviot was gone, so it made a good time to collect and take out the garbage in addition to cleaning up the kitchen. No sooner did I come back in from taking out a load and Ruby cut loose with a hissy fit. The culprits? Not only a dogsled team but dozens of Huskies in their kennels on some glacier in Alaska. Shifting gears to Gunsmoke didn’t help. The horses incurred her wrath as I chided her to be quiet. Sunday wasn’t any better flipping over to the Puppy Bowl. That caused instantaneous barking and growling. Not giving this Border Collie the remote any time soon.
The Super Bowl came and went for another year. It was actually a good game with plenty of scoring to keep our interest. The halftime show was so-so unless you were a twenty or thirty-something female. Of course I probably won’t be satisfied with a halftime show until they get Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones and Jason Bonham to perform. Cold day I’m afraid. For the most part the ads were a swing and a miss this time. Some were cute, but most did little to entertain or convince me to buy that product. Maybe I’m just getting old and crotchety, but several times it had me wondering just how much someone had paid the outfits that wrote the ads. Hope it wasn’t much because then at least they would’ve got what they paid for.
Lambing continues, although they’ve been coming in more slowly than anticipated. Still, we’re so thankful the wool is off and the lambs we do have on the ground are doing well. The roller coaster temperature ride has made feeding a bit more challenging. When it was constantly cold, one could feed a large volume of corn to the ewes and they were always hungry. Once the weather warmed up a few days it seemed their metabolism suddenly changed and they left some feed in the bunk. Trying to adjust for it was frustrating at first, but once the weather decided it was going to be cold and ornery about it, they seemed to gradually come back on full feed. Odd. Hasn’t been a problem for me.
See you next week…real good then.