The scurs were disillusioned by the performance of the Weather Eye. They’re beginning to think this one came out of an old Nash as the temperatures this past week were old school. Will the scurs’ confidence return or will they be looking for another Rambler dealer? Starting Wednesday, sunny with highs in the low 40’s and lows in the mid-20’s. Thursday, mostly sunny with highs in the low 40’s and lows in the upper 20’s. Mostly cloudy on Friday with a decent chance of a rain/snow mix in the forenoon with snow possible in the afternoon, perhaps into early evening. Highs in the mid-30’s with lows in the upper teens. Saturday, mostly sunny with highs in the mid-20’s and lows in the low teens. Sunny for Sunday with a slight chance of evening snow. Highs in the upper 20’s with lows in the low 20’s. Monday, mostly sunny with highs in the upper 30’s and lows in the mid-20’s. Tuesday mostly sunny with highs in the upper 30’s and lows in the mid-20s. On November 15th our normal high is 42 and the normal low is 25. Thanksgiving preview forecast: Mostly cloudy with a high near 40 and a low near 20. The scurs can almost taste that turkey on the Weber already.
Farming, at least fall tillage and anhydrous ammonia application, largely came to a screeching halt after overnight lows dipped into the lower single digits over the weekend. It then failed to get above freezing during the earlier part of the week. To put how cold it has been in perspective, the high and low for Saturday the 10th were typical of the normal temps for the first week in January. Fields that had become semi-fit again following liquid precipitation on the 5th and 6th suddenly froze in places over 4” deep. This becomes hard on tillage equipment if you can actually pull the implement. Slippage and power hop were complaints registered when many stopped trying. Some are hoping that this week’s warm-up and the promise of warmer temperatures through Thanksgiving will allow some of the unfinished fieldwork to be completed. It may take some timing to catch the refreeze at night to gain traction if the surface soils get greasy during the day.
The cold temperatures served as a sudden reminder as to why many of us are starting to detest winter: It means a lot of extra work, especially if you live on a farm or in the country in general. At the ranch chores are already more work. It’s back to smashing ice out of buckets or carrying them to thaw in the garage for the small pens. With Mrs. Cheviot leaving Tuesday and me being left to my own devices, I dug up the canna bulbs, all three or four bushels of them. Then I ground up the leaves in the road cut with Whitey. Shortly after that I made sure all the hoses were drained, the automatic waterers were disconnected, heaters were placed in water tanks and the well pit was covered with utility grade hay. Within a day it got colder and snowed. Then it got serious about it with single-digit lows. It didn't mean getting ready for winter was finished however.
Friday night the bountiful apple crop was moved upstairs where the unheated space makes an excellent walk-in cooler. Saturday I spread the muddy, damp cannas out on top of some paper on the heated garage floor to dry. I moved the hay feeders around and put round bales in them for the main flock. Sunday, we moved some ewes over in the main group and a ram came back from his fall duties near Chatfield. I moved a bunch of junk out of the way and hooked up to the wagon. I made the trip to the kindly neighbors’ to shovel up the remaining screenings. A mouse must’ve expired in the heater as it was pretty ripe in the cab at first. Must’ve been a small mouse or one that had dried out pretty well as the odor seemed to dissipate the longer the heater ran. Let’s hope so. Next weekend should mean barn cleaning time. There is plenty of odor to deal with without that.
The winter birds have familiarized themselves at and around our bird feeders although a robin was still at the ranch as of the 8th. Its tail was also snowed on for at least the third time. Any bets on it becoming spring anytime soon? The male cardinal has set up shop on the patio railing where he can more easily fly into the sliding glass door. Ruby does a pretty good job of warding him off as the rug by the window is one of her favorite spots to nap when the sun is shining. Unfortunately in November, sunshine has been a scarce commodity.
I have another ongoing wildlife experiment involving the numerous fox squirrel population. On and along our property boundary I recently counted no fewer than seven squirrel nests. This experiment has the squirrels sampling corn from ears with different cob colors, white and red. I had some ears left over from a plot I discovered that had white cobs and encountered several fields when soil sampling containing ears with white cobs. Red is the predominant cob color so it only made sense to mess with the squirrels. So far, after 5 or 6 sets of ear changes, they prefer the corn from white colored cobs, consuming them first every time the two cob colors were compared. The blue jays and red-bellied woodpeckers seem less discriminating, eating whatever happens to be easiest to pluck off the ear. Another variable to take into account in this scientific study.
And finally, thanks to Jessica for digging up that old photo of me holding one of our fall born lambs from 1993. It brought back memories of our days showing Cheviots nationally. I like to think of the lamb as an original “barn find.” Pretty sure we ended up showing it in the fall class. We typically showed straight up, meaning the registration paper reflected the correct birth date rather than a fictitious one to gain a size advantage over the competition in a later born class. Although as the male half of the Bandwagon star duo pointed out to me many times, it’s not when they’re born, it’s when you find them.
See you next week…real good then.