Although the heater core was replaced on the ’74 Gremlin, the Weather Eye was slow to generate much heat. Then the scurs suddenly remembered in their zeal for warmer spring temperatures they’d added water, but no antifreeze! A rookie mistake! Will the antifreeze be the solution to the Weather Eye’s temperature woes or is it doomed to remain stuck on the permafrost setting? Starting Wednesday, mostly cloudy with snow likely. Highs in the mid-30’s with lows in the upper 20’s. Thursday, partly sunny with highs in the low 40’s and lows in the mid-20’s. Partly sunny on Friday with highs in the low 40’s and lows in the low 30’s. Saturday, mostly cloudy with highs in the mid-40’s and lows in the upper 20’s. Sunny for Sunday with highs in the upper 40’s and lows in the low 30’s. Monday, sunny with highs in the low 50’s and lows in the upper 30’s. Mostly cloudy Tuesday with possible showers and thunderstorms. Highs in the mid-50’s with lows in the upper 30’s. The normal high for April 23rd (St. George’s Day in England) is 61 and the normal low is 39. The scurs are thinking Old Man Winter needs more fiber in his diet next year.
Another net negative week of weather has farmers’ daubers down. When one looks back at the calendar, last year at this time things were starting to roll. Some corn had been planted on the 17th and roughly a third of corn planting followed the week after that until rain shut us down on the 25th until about May 7th. In other words, not all the corn went in the ground when everyone wanted it to. Had conditions remained fit of course most of the corn probably would’ve been planted in April. It wasn’t and the fact remains that much of our record-setting corn crop was actually planted after the first week in May. Not only that, but much of the corn planted was longer-season hybrids farmers originally purchased. So you’re saying there’s a chance? At this point I wouldn’t rule anything out.
Last week was a miserable week of weather for April to be sure so no one can blame farmers for being impacted by it. Aside from Thursday, when we saw our first 50-degree high of the spring, it struggled much of the week to make 40 for a high and the ground was frozen solid almost every morning. Essentially nothing was done in the field and those wanting to work on equipment told tales of woe. Diggers still froze down, shed doors frozen shut and muddy yards make it easy to create major ruts while jockeying large equipment around. Most of us with livestock have solved that problem. We’ve already made a rutted up muddy mess of our yards.
The weather continues to frustrate us at the ranch as well. With the nice day we had Thursday we’d decided since the fence was still stuck in the snowbanks, we’d make an enclosure with hog panels so they could at least get outside and enjoy some fresh air when the weather was nice. That lasted one day when the rain came on Friday. Of course the blizzard on Saturday piled snow in the enclosure as high as the hog panels. Let no good deed go unpunished as they say. I could probably try to scoop the snow out with the tractor, although it would probably make a lot of ruts in their lot. Doing it before the next forecast snow on Wednesday would be tempting fate anyway.
Things had just been starting to look up too. The yard had firmed up nicely and the driveway was about as good as it gets for this time of year. On the evening of the 10th before dark I was planning on lighting the charcoal grill. I had some lamburger thawed and since the night was decent, I wanted to get at it while it was still light out. Ruby suddenly set up a fuss, barking at an intruder outside the window. I thought at first it was the furry black and white stray cat we must’ve inherited using the small garden as a litterbox. Upon closer inspection it was Pepe Le Pew who I dispatched post haste with my trusty blunderbuss. Only trouble was the skunk attempted to return fire, stinking up the entire backyard. This caused a game delay. When the odor finally dissipated, I was once again grilling, only now it was under the lights. First time I ever remember my grilling being delayed due to chemical warfare.
I took pity on the bird population ahead of the weekend blizzard and stocked all their feeders. Before and during the storm there were more juncos at and around the feeders than I’ve seen in many moons. There were lots of grackles and red-winged blackbirds as well along with numerous house sparrows. The cardinals were definitely glad the sparrows were kicking seed out on the ground for them. The only feeder I neglected to fill was the ear corn feeder for the pheasants. I made amends by filling it before the next storm du jour. When checking the black cutworm trap I noticed pheasant tracks in the snow along with accompanying fox tracks. About 10 pheasants, mostly hens had flown out of the spruce trees behind the house the night before while checking the LP tank. They’re in the yard for a reason. Food and shelter are usually two good ones.
While it was prolonged, the blizzard actually wasn’t one of the more spectacular snowstorms I’d lived through. One has to remember given my age, I’ve probably experienced some of the worst winter storms on record. The ‘60s and ‘70s were loaded with nasty blizzards. It seemed like school was always running well into June due to the numerous snow days. The Halloween Blizzard of 1991 though was probably the nastiest one. This last storm made me recall it as some of the ash tree limbs that were still dangling from that one let loose and came down in the yard. The wind gusts of over 50 mph probably had something to do with it.
Some of the noteworthy storms have occurred in April. Can remember sliding in the pasture at home on April 29th as a kid one year wishing that winter would never end. It always did. Then I could go fishing. In 1984, around April 23rd it let loose in North Central North Dakota where I was living at the time. It snowed me in for a couple days. I just nicely made it home. The visibility on the 10-mile jaunt from my Rolla office to my little house on the prairie near Armourdale Dam was cause for a white-knuckle drive. Not many trees on that route. When the storm subsided and I finally got into town, there were snowdrifts up to the tops of the store windows! When I dug out this past Sunday I was on a mission. Just like after the North Dakota storm, I desperately needed to get toilet paper.
See you next week…real good then.