The scurs winter of discontent with the Weather Eye continues. Another week of below normal temps has them ready to call George Romney at AMC and demand answers for the Weather Eye’s inconsistency. Will the weather moderate this week or will the scurs be frequenting Misgen’s again? Starting Wednesday, mostly cloudy with a good chance of evening snow. Highs in the upper 20’s with lows in the low 20’s. Thursday, cloudy with a slight chance of forenoon snow. Highs in the low 30’s with lows in the low 20’s. Mostly sunny on Friday with highs in the upper 30’and lows in the mid-20’s. Saturday, mostly cloudy with another good chance of snow. Highs in the mid-30’s with lows in the mid-20’s. Cloudy for Sunday with highs in the low 30’s and lows in the low 20s. Monday, cloudy with a decent chance of snow. Highs in the upper 20’s with lows in the low 20’s. Tuesday, cloudy with highs in the low 20’s and lows around 10 above. The normal high for December 1st is 32 and the normal low is 16. The scurs are starting their Christmas shopping procrastination early this year. No time to waste like the present.
Another topsy-turvy week of November weather last week had tentatively put fall tillage and anhydrous ammonia applications to bed. But wait, there’s more! After rain fell on Friday night the soil surface turned muddy. The ground froze up Saturday night allowing some field operations to resume at least in some fields. Primary tillage commenced once again and even some anhydrous ammonia was applied. Not all fields were thawed enough however as evidenced by areas left where the implements simply wouldn’t go in the ground. Trying to work frozen soil has been tough on equipment. As one sage observer pointed out after Thanksgiving weekend, 2019 probably won’t be a good year to buy a used ripper.
The weather has had an impact on activities at the ranch as well. Getting the equipment ready to haul manure without a heated shop takes a lot of the fun out of it. Between the skidsteer and manure spreader there are a lot of zerks to grease. Changing over from the bucket to forks on the skidsteer can be tricky at times. Everything has to line up. The oil changing process on older tractors and skidsteers also takes a little more finesse than it does on more modern models. Care needs to be taken to avoid pinching gaskets and rounding off corners on drain plugs. Being somewhat of a contortionist is definitely a plus. To get everything ready takes the better part of a day if one wants the equipment to hold up. Hauling pack manure as only sheep can pack it can take its toll, especially when there happens to be some frozen hunks in it. Not my first rodeo so forewarned is forearmed.
Sunday allowed good footing in the field north of the ranch so it was go time. The weather rarely does us any favors especially this time of year so best take advantage of it. That meant working on the pack from the outside in so that if/when it decided to get colder, at least the pack inside would be less likely to be frozen, ideally. The northwest wind was raw and the temperature was falling when I got at it. Once the spreader was loaded at least I could get in the heated tractor cab for ten minutes while hauling and spreading the load. Once back however it was back out in the elements. I did manage to get a major hunk of the main barn done so was happy about that. The sun was down when switching the spreader over to run just the apron and the last dab of manure out the back. The new LED lights lit everything up so it was easy to see. I climbed back into the cab and surveyed the landscape around me. A lot of other lights moving about. I was not alone.
The sheep in the main pasture received their pumpkins on Thanksgiving Day along with ground fall apples and a few ears of corn. At first there was only one ewe deciding to take advantage of the sudden bounty. Within an hour or so the word must’ve spread and the rest of the gang descended on the treats. It is rather amusing to watch something without opposable thumbs or anything else remotely resembling intelligence try to eat pumpkins on a hillside. The next day I needed to head to Krause’s for some feed. I bumped into an old friend and mentioned we’d fed the pumpkins to the sheep the day before. The co-owner of the establishment asked if I wanted another pumpkin. In the window was a large specimen still in perfect condition. Best get it out of there before it deflated she said. The sheep were most appreciative. They discovered it wasn’t frozen and quickly gnawed a big hole in the most recent addition.
We’ve seen a lot of bird activity with the cold cloudy November. Lots of juncos, downies, hairies, blue jays and chickadees with a loyal contingent of goldfinches. One male red-bellied woodpecker favors the ear corn. The male cardinal has been busy banging off the windows and even took on the pickup, alternating between the side view mirror and windows. Mixed in with the juncos a few newcomers to the ground under the feeders included a white-throated sparrow and a fox sparrow. Not sure what they’re doing here yet but they likely won’t stay if the past is any indication. All of the birds appear to be eating well and are in good shape. The squirrels have been eating ear corn and are also in shape. Round is a shape.
It’s sure been a welcome relief to drive on the recently paved St. Olaf Lake road. I’ve been motoring to work on it every day for the past 33 years. It was getting old as rough as it had become. Many a day the last several years I’d take longer routes just to get around some of the roughest stretches. People who had tried to use the bike trail in the recent past told me it had become nearly impossible to ride on it. The expansion joints were like hitting a dead furrow straight on with a narrow front tractor. The road reputedly has one more lift to go yet in the spring if the info from one of the workers was correct. Nonetheless, it is already vastly improved, making the daily commute a lot more enjoyable. At least I keep tabs on the geese bitterly clinging to the hole in the ice on St. Olaf Lake. Still some there Tuesday morning by the way.
See you next week…real good then.