While the scurs were a little off on their predicted frost temperature, the event occurred anyway. Any chance of an encore performance any time soon? Starting Wednesday, mostly cloudy with a slight chance of a shower. Highs near 55 and lows 40 – 45. Thursday, partly cloudy with highs of 55 – 60 and lows of 35 – 40. Mostly clear both Friday and Saturday with highs near 70 and lows of 45 – 50. Sunday and Monday, clear to partly cloudy with highs of 75 with lows near 50. Tuesday, cooler under mostly sunny skies. Highs 65 – 70 and lows once again near 50. The normal high for this year’s autumnal equinox on September 23rd is 70 and the normal low is 45. On the 21st, the sun will rise at approximately 7 a.m. and on the 26th, we will officially be under 12 hours of daylight, something which last occurred on March 17th. The scurs will be enjoying a closely supervised recreational fire to make S’mores.
Dry is about all one can say about the last two months. A killing frost managed to bring an end to the growing season rather abruptly last Wednesday night and Thursday morning. The damage was evident around the yards and gardens and by 8 a.m. one could smell the aroma of silage from area corn and soybean fields. Not to say there weren’t areas that were hit harder than others, and no question low lying areas took the hardest hit. With soils as dry as they’ve been, crops and gardens became easy targets. How much injury the crops sustained remains to be seen and it depends on who one talks to. Some are convinced their green as grass soybeans are still going to produce better than everyone thinks. While that could be, one thing is certain: past experience with such events has caused a delay in maturity on the soybean crop. Those who had anticipated being all done with soybean harvest by October 1 may want to adjust their harvest schedule.
Rainfall continues to be an issue as well. Despite the welcome rainfall on Sunday and Tuesday morning, we still are running behind normal for the month. At the ranch and in the gauge at the Mall for Men, we have garnered a measly .8” for the month. There are positives in that lawn mowing is largely unnecessary and wiping mud off your boots hasn’t been an issue. The negatives are overwhelming, including corn fields that are a tinder dry potential fire hazard and the pasture that has turned to brown. With the exception of the native prairie area, grass is becoming scarce and it may mean visiting with the Dubyas about some of those year-old round bales they’ve been trying to sell me for oh, say about a year.
At the ranch, we set pots and planters in the garage as well as cover the tender vegetation we want to save, such as the tomatoes. They were just too nice and starting to bear. Luckily we had several long hospital curtains someone gave us way back when that turned out to be just the ticket. Much heavier than bed sheets, they protected the ‘maters and peppers extremely well. And we wondered what on earth we’d ever do with those old things! Mrs. Cheviot even covered the hummingbirds’ beloved 4 o’clocks and while they were covered with bed sheets, the soil there had been watered so it retained the heat better than other areas on the grounds where we hadn’t.
At first we thought the frost had pushed all the hummers south. There was no sign of them through Monday morning, convincing me they had flown the coop. Then suddenly Monday evening, I noticed the nectar feeders were down from the ¼ full mark where they’d been in the morning. Sure enough, before chores there were a couple feeding on the salvia and pulling on the nectar feeders once again. They won’t stay too much longer although every day they’re here now is one day more than we thought we had. The sphinx moths on the other hand have not returned although with some warmer nights, it wouldn’t surprise me to see them working over the flowers in the bed again.
A heads up to all those who may have some squash or pumpkins remaining in the garden. You may want to check them for cucumber beetle and rootworm feeding. Seeing the petals on the sunflowers that had been so pretty in the morning all chewed to pieces before nightfall, I decided to go check the squash and pumpkins as they are frequently victims of neglect. Sure enough, there were plenty of striped cucumber beetles, spotted cucumber beetles (also known as Southern corn rootworm beetles), Western corn rootworm beetles and Northern corn rootworm beetles chewing the outer skin on them. Luckily they were primarily focused on the immature squash and pumpkins so a quick treatment with an insecticide quickly subdued them in a very localized manner. Harvesting some that were ripe also helped the cause.
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the recent raisin bars that Auntie Mar Mar sent my way. Like my mom’s pie and bars, I hoard them because I don’t want anyone to know I have them until after they’re all gone. With a tall glass of milk, they’re absolutely wonderful as a snack after a long writing session. Along with the garden vegetables, raisin bars make me a regular columnist. There, that ought to get me back in her good graces or at least get me more raisin bars.
See you next week…real good then.