The trip to Misgen’s paid huge dividends for the scurs as the slightly used but not abused Weather Eye performed to perfection. Have we righted the ship or will we need to watch more P.J. Fleck motivational speeches? Starting Wednesday, mostly sunny with highs in the upper 40’s and lows in the upper 30’s. Thursday, cloudy with a good chance of showers. Highs in the upper 40’s with lows in the upper 30’s. Mostly cloudy on Friday with a good chance of showers. Highs in the low 50’s with lows in the low 40’s. Saturday, mostly cloudy with a modest chance of showers. Highs in the low 50’s with lows in the upper 30’s. Partly sunny for Sunday with a moderate chance of showers. Highs in the upper 40’s with lows in the low 30’s. Monday, mostly sunny with highs in the upper 40’s and lows in the mid-30’s. Mostly cloudy Tuesday with highs in the mid-40’s and lows in the upper 20’s. On the 27th we dip below 10 hours and 30 minutes of daylight. A sneak preview for Halloween: Cloudy with highs in the mid-40’s and lows in the mid-30’s. The normal high for Halloween is 51 and the normal low is 32. The scurs are banking on leftover candy to tide them over until Turkey Day. Thank goodness Thanksgiving is early this year.
Finally the weather gods smiled upon us allowing combines to harvest soybeans almost at will. One had to wonder if there really was a sun. With all the hard freezes the soybean stems are almost pulverized into dust. Moistures have been hovering in the 12% range in spite of the high winds over the weekend. Temperatures haven’t been extremely warm which helped maintain the moisture percentage. Some have finished their soybean harvest and are focusing on the corn. In reality the damp conditions that hampered may have had a silver lining. Many were able to get after fields of corn that were down or were going down further with the seemingly never ending wind. Corn moistures are anywhere from the upper teens to the low 20% range.
At the ranch we finished our apple harvest although we still have plenty of ground falls to go over the fence to the sheep. The apples were numerous and the quality in general was excellent. I try to make sure I grab one every day to gnaw on as part of my lunch or for a snack later in the afternoon. When I stop at the kindly neighbors to do chores at night, the sheep there look forward to the core landing in their pasture.
It has been chilly however. The 25 degree low Sunday morning froze the hydrant up in the barn. I’d neglected to remove the hose and drain it. When it did thaw out late morning I made sure to see if the hydrant was draining back as it should. Nothing worse than hauling buckets of water from the house across the ice all winter. As luck would have it when I put my palm over the faucet it created the desired vacuum so no adjustment was needed. Another crisis narrowly averted.
The Dubya’s recently put some electric fence around their hay field and pastured the cattle on it. They have some nice looking cows and calves. The black and brown bodies moving about the green background look right at home there. When coming up the road from the south, seeing the cattle on one side and the white Cheviot sheep grazing on the adjacent hillside makes for a pastoral scene, something likely not seen for some time in the vicinity.
I finally gave up and took the hummingbird feeder down. I’m relatively certain that we won’t be seeing any more hummers for several months although if it snows one more time on the robin’s tail it should be spring, right? They’re still coming through in waves, feasting on our crabapples and remaining nannyberries. The hummingbird feeder is replaced with a suet feeder so bird watching can continue from the oval office window. A friend recently teased me that a lot of folks read in the bathroom but we watch the birds. At least during the daytime anyway.
My wardrobe selection was recently critiqued by the kindly neighbor and his sidekick. I had my best chore jeans on, tattered yet almost still in one piece. Still some wear in them yet before they become grease rags or Mrs. Cheviot sneaks them into the trash. They were convinced that some kid would pay big bucks for jeans that looked like that. I should probably look into that. Guessing that I probably have a fortune in tattered jeans in the closet just waiting to find the right marketing opportunity. All that hay baling just might pay off. Or not.
In Bugtussle the 10 man dryer is continuing its run at the elevator as it has for many autumns now. The original 5 man dryer was replaced by one twice as big so it naturally would be a 10 man dryer. Neighbor Jon has the dryer cranked up just below the hill. Some might say it’s loud and that it is. However, there’s something about the sound that knocks me right out when I hit the hay. Unfortunately it’s disrupting my catching up on Gunsmoke reruns.
Sunday finally presented an opportunity to take the Silver Hawk out for what might be a final cruise. Never say never though. If the weather stays nice, I’m not above driving around in November even if it’s a little brisk. There’s enough bleed by in the heat control valve that the heater core located under the front seat on the passenger’s side keeps it warm. Again Studebaker was ahead of its time with a built in bun warmer.
Our destination was The Trail Blazer in Madison Lake. In the process we got to check out the new pavement on the Lake Road. It was smooth as glass and a far cry from the choppy, rough mess it was. We trekked up Hwy 13 and just for laughs took US 14. The three on the tree Borg Warner T 86 transmission with overdrive performed flawlessly and we made good time. On the way we even wound up passing someone who looked in disbelief as we rolled on by. Once we arrived we watched the first half of the Vikings game. The food and service were as good as remembered as we chatted and caught up on our busy lives. We left at halftime and were able to catch a few minutes of the 3rd quarter once we got home. There was even a little time for a cat nap. Not a bad day of motorin’.
See you next week…real good.