More nice weather means more fan mail for the scurs and their vaunted Weather Eye forecasting equipment. Will the Post Office continue to deliver them fan mail or will they receive hate mail with the next stretch?
Starting Wednesday, mostly sunny with a modest chance of showers and thunderstorms. Highs in the upper 70’s with lows in the upper 50’s. Thursday, mostly sunny with highs in the mid-70’s and lows in the upper 50’s. Sunny on Friday with a slight chance of an evening shower or thunderstorm. Highs in the low 80’s with lows in the upper 60’s. Saturday, mostly sunny with a slight chance of evening showers and thunderstorms. Highs in the mid-80’s with lows in the upper 60’s. Partly sunny for Sunday with a moderate chance of showers and thunderstorms. Highs in the mid-80’s with lows in the mid-60’s. Monday, mostly sunny with a modest chance of showers and thunderstorms. Highs in the mid-80’s with lows in the mid-60’s. Mostly cloudy Tuesday with possible showers and thunderstorms. Highs in the mid-80’s with lows in the low 60’s. The normal high for August 4th is 81 and the normal low is 61. We will have lost a full hour of daylight since the summer solstice. After giving their air conditioning a breather, the scurs will be closing their windows, awaiting the return of September.
Indeed, weather such as we’ve been experiencing is very early September-like when highs are in the upper 70’s with lows in the mid-50’s. Fortunately we’ve amassed enough GDU’s that a brief cooldown isn’t the worst thing. Also, with the drier weather in late July, it helps to conserve the moisture until we can get to the next rain. It could bring a few worries such as white mold which ran rampant in some fields last year.
White mold was found in the area on July 25th so cooler weather may not be the best answer for that. In the meantime, corn continues to thunder along, with more plantings reaching dough stage. Soybeans are also motoring with some of the later maturing varieties planted early reaching R5. Reports on small grain and pea yields have largely been disappointing. Too much heat for those later planted cool season crops.
Lawn mowing has reflected some of the wet conditions prior to our drier spell at the ranch. It’s amazing to me how much barnyardgrass has made its way into portions of our yard especially in the road ditch. It’s generally considered a moisture loving annual grass. Along with crabgrass it’s also very juicy, making what comes out of the mower deck look like green cow manure. The lower stem is also tough so while the leaves are gumming up the underside of the deck, the stems pop up quickly once the lawn has been mowed for a short time. The resulting goop also sticks to the road and likely the undersides of people’s cars when mowing the ditch. While it may look like green cow manure it probably smells better in the garage.
The orioles at the ranch have largely dispersed. A major hatch of house sparrows showed up and began monopolizing the jelly. Soon the orioles were gone so there was no reason to put jelly out to feed the intruders. Maybe they’ll move on so we can feed some of the migrating orioles instead.
Some jelly was placed in the feeder over the weekend with no takers-not even the catbirds. The bluebirds we were watching at the kindly neighbors apparently all made it out of the nest. Not sure if the adults will attempt another batch or not. The nesting box where they raised the first brood was occupied by a house wren within days of the fledgling bluebirds leaving it. Apparently they’ve occupied the rest of the nesting boxes too if the collection of hundreds of little sticks in them is any indication.
The birds are quieter in the mornings now that we’ve moved through July. Most of the song we hear in the morning comes from the common yellow throats and house wrens. For some reason it’s easier to fall back asleep to their music than it is the robins that were using a bullhorn earlier. Even that wasn’t as obnoxious as it is some years as the AC ran for many nights right on through the morning hours. It probably doesn’t hurt that the sun is rising a little later each day either. That doesn’t keep the wrens or the warblers from continuing some evenings well after the sun is down. No one is complaining. Not much singing goes on after dark in January. Swearing perhaps but not singing.
The garden-what there is of it-continues to at least make us think there will be something to harvest. The tomatoes like the recent weather and are filling up their cages nicely. They’re growing slowly enough though so they can be trained rather than flopping on the ground. Zucchini are flowering so that’s a plus for things like shish kebobs. The sweet corn never got planted so it was fortunate that the sheep shearing neighbor had a large patch with staggered plantings. The string beans grew nicely while I was gone. They could use a weeding soon. Now that the mosquitoes have subsided, it might happen. The fall vegetables were ordered so am looking forward to seeding them soon. Several varieties of greens, radishes, and of course snap peas top the list. Fall pea pods are like candy.
The sheep have had it made for most of the summer. The pastures responded to the ample moisture and it makes one wonder if they’ll get it gnawed off by fall’s end. They usually do even when we’ve had good growing conditions. Speaking of good growing conditions, the lambs have really benefitted from the cooler weather. They’ve responded by growing rapidly on a minimum of feed. It will be nice to get the second cutting hay up soon so they’ll have that added bonus. One can never have too much hay.
The ewes have been sharing their pasture at the kindly neighbors with several uninvited guests. Woodchucks were appearing from time to time and would even show up in the barn. I suspect they liked the access to fresh, clean water the same as the sheep do. The other night I stopped by to check on the ewes. An as has been the case so many times this summer, the fence was grounded out. Thinking it was the woodchucks again crawling between the bottom rung of barbed and electric wires I set off to find the ground. I heard some clucking and looked up to see two hen turkeys and counted 18 poults. They’re probably waiting for the bur oak acorns to start falling. With everything else they have to eat the sheep are happy to give.
See you next week…real good then.