After changing the windshield wiper switch, the scurs suddenly noted the Weather Eye wasn’t putting out much heat. Will the new heater core solve the problem and can we count on the new wiper switch to keep us dry? Starting Wednesday, mostly cloudy with a decent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Highs in the low 80’s with lows in the low 40’s. Thursday, mostly sunny with an increasingly good chance of rain by evening. Highs in the low 50’s with lows in the mid-40’s. Mostly cloudy on Friday with a good chance of rain by evening. Highs in the upper 50’s with lows in the low 40’s. Saturday, partly sunny with a modest chance of morning showers. Highs in the upper 50’s with lows in the low 40’s. Mostly cloudy for Sunday with a good chance of showers. Highs in the mid-50’s with lows in the upper 40’s. Columbus Day, mostly cloudy with a good chance of showers and thunderstorms. Highs in the mid-60’s with lows in the low 50’s. Mostly cloudy Tuesday with possible showers and drizzle. Highs in the mid-60’s with lows in the mid-40’s. Losing approximately three minutes of daylight per day now, on the 6th we slide back below 11 hours and 30 minutes of daylight. This is about the same daylength as we had back on March 6th. The normal high for October 6th is 64 and the normal low is 41. It appears the scurs will need to get familiar with their umbrella, again.
The frost really didn’t amount to a killing frost but probably ended our growing season. I’ll defer to the SROC on that one. Harvest progress in the fields was slowed by cool, cloudy conditions with just enough moisture mixed in to make soybean combining a challenge. Dew stays on late in the day when it’s cloudy and struggles to get above 50 as it did on Saturday. Combining soybeans was limited to a few hours in spots over the weekend with soybeans in some fields still being simply too wet. Losing daylight as rapidly as we are isn’t helping matters. Some switched over to corn in the meantime to at least make something happen. Moistures have come down into the low 20’s on some of the earlier corn in spite of the dampish weather. Even some of the 105 day maturity hybrids are from 23% - 25% so nothing wrong with getting that out of the way. Stalk quality remains a concern and with a forecast rainy spell including some wind, stalks will not improve. They never do.
Sunday we bid adieu (we think) to the last of the hummingbirds at the ranch. I thought with the frost Saturday morning they’d be gone and within a matter of an hour they were at the nectar feeder. Sunday there was no activity at the feeder and I’d resigned myself to the distinct possibility they were gone. Not so fast! Buzzing around in the four o’clocks I spied one going from plant to plant. It moved to the cannas, then to the petunias on the patio and finally to the potted blue salvia. Monday came and none were to be found. They had a good run though. The first one we saw was on May 2nd. We’re glad to welcome them to our little oasis in the middle of a corn and soybean desert.
The cool weather made it a good weekend to do some of the chores around the ranch that become routine for us this time of year. Apples were picked off the Honeycrisp and the SnowSweet trees. Unfortunately the birds had wrecked a lot of the Honeycrisp apples, choosing to do the most damage on the very nicest apples. They hadn’t picked on the SnowSweet as much yet and we were able to gather a couple bushels of very nice apples. I was concerned it was perhaps a tad too early to harvest them but decided to go for it. My fears were put to rest when I bit into one of the bird damaged models. The apples were definitely ready to be harvested and tucked away from further harm. The trees were ready as well. It was time as the load the fruit placed on the smaller branches needed to be removed.
The screenings needed attention at the kindly neighbors, so on a cool damp Sunday I took off with the 656, glad to be out of the elements inside a cab. I had several containers for the screenings in the bucket along with a shovel to do battle. I must’ve stepped in some cat feces before climbing in the tractor as the aroma as it warmed up made me glad to get out once at the neighbors. I was able to shovel the containers full of screenings while in the bucket, then move them in place. All this without the usual wrestling match involving a trailer and dragging each container across the shed floor. The sheep at the pasture there were excited to see them as several of them knew what those containers meant. Screenings are like candy to them.
On the way home I heard a loud “CRACK!” sound somewhere on the cab and by the volume was concerned something had broken. Couldn’t see anything obvious when examining the mounting bolts and clamps but the next morning when filling water buckets I noticed a missing door handle on the right side of the cab. An “aha” moment. As luck would have it, I was able to drive to about where it must’ve hit the cab and sure enough, the chrome handle was lying on the shoulder not far from the Dubya’s driveway. Not much evidence of any damage and aside from a small missing pin in the handle, a trip to the local parts store should likely solve the problem. While tractor cab ownership certainly has its perks, who knew it could be so involved?
Once home and back in apple picking mode, I wondered where Ruby had disappeared to. I had my answer when she reappeared from the barn wagging her tail. Apparently she too had found a “present” the cats had left, only in a more a liquid form judging by her matted fur. She reeked, of course, and Mrs. Cheviot did her best to brush it out of her fur. That took care of some of it but with company coming, there was a bath looming on the horizon in her very near future. There’s a reason we’ve nicknamed her Stinky. She frequently earns it.
See you next week... real good.