The scurs were happy to see one more week sawed off our winter with above normal temps. Will the Weather Eye deliver yet another week in paradise or are we doomed to return to our regularly scheduled programming? Starting Wednesday, mostly sunny with highs in the mid-20’s and lows in the upper teens. Thursday, mostly cloudy with highs in the mid-20’s and lows around 10. Mostly cloudy on Friday with a good chance of afternoon snow. Highs in the upper teens with lows in the mid-single digits. Saturday, partly sunny with highs near 10 above and lows around 0. Mostly sunny for Sunday with highs in the mid-teens and lows in the low single digits. Monday, mostly sunny with highs in the upper teens and lows in the mid-single digits. Sunny for Tuesday with highs in the mid-20’s with lows in the mid-single digits. The Full Moon for the month occurs on the 20th. The normal high for the 20th is 22 and the normal low is 3. Looks like that coal the scurs got in their stockings might come in handy yet.
The 20th ushers in the Full Moon for January, known as the Full Wolf Moon. It was so named for the wolves that would howl around the Native American encampments. It also goes by the Moon after the Yule or The Old Moon. The Ojibwe knew this as the Great Spirit Moon and the Sioux knew it by Frost in the Teepee. Given all the water tank heaters, lights on morning and night during chores plus trying to stay warm ourselves, at the ranch we know it as the High Electric Bill Moon.
The Full Moon will also be noted this time around for total lunar eclipse. The moon will enter the total eclipse at 10:41 p.m. and the totality will end at 11:43. The moon will be full at 11:16 p.m. All of this, of course, becomes a moot point should the skies happen to be cloudy. The forecast at this point looks good, so keep your fingers crossed.
It has been a dry January thus far with only trace amounts of precipitation being recorded both at the ranch and in Bugtussle proper. While we’re likely to see measurable precipitation before month’s end, the dry conditions aren’t necessarily a bad thing. As Mark Seeley is fond of saying in presentations to ag related groups, this is a good time of the year for a drought. While the dry weather may have some effect on surface waters, it typically has little impact on the soil moisture for spring planted crops. Soils are frozen and therefore don’t absorb precipitation. Our soil moisture was plentiful going into freeze up though, and that hasn’t changed much. The lack of snow cover has driven the frost deeper however. Last check at the Waseca’s SROC had the frost down to 14” on bare soil.
There has been plenty of ice in inopportune places in the door yard at the ranch. After making a run to downtown Matawan to procure a load of corn for the Cheviots, I pondered how I would handle the hilly terrain. There is one flat spot in the yard and it’s nowhere close to the barn. I pulled the load as close as I thought I dared and suddenly the pickup and gravity box began sliding sideways down the north slope towards the livestock trailer. Luckily it caught on some bare sod before any collision occurred. I blocked the wagon and unhooked it, thinking with the 656 it’d be a slam dunk from there on out.
No dice. Even with the tire chains, a cab and 800 lbs. of fluid in each rear tire, it just spun on top of the frozen soil, tearing the sod off. Rats! (or words to that effect). On to Plan B. Backing the wagon down the driveway I was able to get a grip on the crushed rock, and, dodging ice patches, pointed the wagon’s backside downhill where I wanted it. When it made the shed door, I unhooked again and latched onto it with the 24 hp behemoth skidsteer. With bald tires and all the other hassles so far, I wondered how that was gonna fly. Once I gained enough leverage on the tongue though, it grunted and shoved the wagon right back where it belonged. I breathed a sigh of relief. As Scotty on Star Trek used to say, “I cannot change the laws of physics.” Wagons, like a lot of other things, like to run downhill.
My affinity for Studebakers is well known, so friends often give me “things” to whet my appetite. Last week Matt of Matawan’s Dad stopped in with a Studebaker advertisement from a 1950 Farm Journal. It pictured a 1951 Studebaker Commander complete with bullet nose and white sidewall tires. Equally as interesting though on the backside of that ad was one for Spam including a recipe for Spam ‘n’ Corn Pudding. Um, OK. Also, in small print at the bottom of the page was a note reminding folks to “Hear MUSIC WITH THE HORMEL GIRLS-Saturday CBS-Sunday ABC.” So who were these Hormel Girls and what was their significance?
Like Studebaker, Hormel was a major contributor to the war effort in WWII. While Studebaker was occupied with cranking out over 63,000 Wright Cyclone engines for B-17 bombers, Hormel was busy feeding our troops and allies. By the end of the war, 90% of Hormel’s inventory was being shipped overseas. They needed a plan to convert to peacetime production. To promote domestic consumption, in 1946 they hired a group of female musicians who had served in the war and the rest as they say is history.
Initially a drum and bugle corps, in 1948 they morphed into performing big band music on the radio to hawk Hormel’s products. Eventually the group included non-military musicians. In addition the rather fetching young lasses went from town to town in 35 matching white Chevrolets promoting Hormel products. The group continued to expand in popularity, being the 4th highest rated radio program in 1953. Sadly, in December of that same year Hormel pulled the plug on them as the promotional effort was costing the company $1.3 million a year. The sun was setting on the Golden Age of Radio. Television was becoming a more modern, cost effective method of advertising. While the Hormel Girls were no more, their shows had served the country and company well, not to mention selling a lot of Spam.
Read more on the Hormel Girls at: https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/history-of-spam-hormel-girls
See you next week…real good then.