While the scurs were disappointed with the cold air still being dispensed by the Weather Eye, they were glad last Wednesday’s rain wasn’t worse than it was. Will we finally get a glimpse of summer or are we stuck in the refrigerator for another week? Starting Wednesday, sunny with a slight chance of evening rain. Highs in the mid-70’s with lows in the mid-50’s. Thursday, mostly sunny with a slight chance of showers. Highs in the low 80’s with lows in the upper 50’s. Partly sunny on Friday with and increasing chance of rain by evening. Highs in the upper 70’s with lows in the low 60’s. Saturday, partly sunny becoming cloudy with a good chance of evening showers and thunderstorms. Highs in the upper 70’s with lows in the mid-50’s. Cloudy on Sunday with a good chance of showers and thunderstorms. Highs in the upper 60’s with lows in the low 50’s. Monday, mostly cloudy with a slight chance of showers. Highs in the upper 60’s with lows in the upper 40’s. Partly cloudy for Tuesday with a continued possibility of rain. Highs in the upper 60’s with lows in the low 50’s. The normal high for May 18th is 70 and the normal low is 49. The scurs are betting this will be their first chance to float around in the ceement pond.
The Full Moon for the month occurs on the 18th and goes by the name of The Full Flower Moon for obvious reasons. The April showers will bring the May flowers if it ever warms up. The moon also goes by The Full Corn Planting Moon. While many would argue the April Full Moon would be better for Corn Planting Moon, we don’t always get to choose. The Ojibwe knew this as the Blossom Moon and the Sioux called it The Moon When Ponies Shed or The Moon of the Green Leaves. Every moon at the ranch is the Moon When Border Collies Shed and we are glad to finally see some green leaves. Was beginning to wonder if the leaves on the bur oak trees in our yard were ever going to get as big as squirrels’ ears.
After last Wednesday’s rain, very little was able to be accomplished in area fields until about Monday. Sun, temperature and wind were uncooperative so equipment was at a standstill most of the weekend. Rumors of emerged corn were circulating, but as a rule most of corn planted on April 24th still needed a few days as of last Saturday for emergence to occur. We are fortunate locally. Roughly 75% of the local area corn was planted as of May 7th. It’s been a slow process waiting for fields to dry, though. One silver lining: weed growth and development has been slowed by the cool start to the growing season. Hopefully the upcoming warm forecast comes to fruition, corn emerges so we can row it and soybeans are planted by the weekend. It would help make everyone quickly forget the cold start we’ve had. We deserve it.
Indeed we do. At the ranch after mowing the lawn once, it really hadn’t done much overall as of the weekend. I did finally got Whitey out and mowed the road cut known as El Capitan. Thinking it had dried sufficiently, I took on the challenge. It had dried some, although it wasn’t as dry as I thought. Some discretion was necessary to avoid getting stuck in the bottom. The ditch staying as damp as it has makes sense though when one thinks about it. The weather simply wasn’t warm enough or dry enough to evaporate and vegetation simply hasn’t needed to take up much moisture with the cool temperatures. Where it was dry enough it mowed decently. Banking on the forecast holding so the portion of the ditch that was left can be dealt with later in the week.
Even with the cooler temperatures there were numerous new bird sightings. A red-breasted nuthatch was seen on the 10th along with a catbird that found the jelly feeder to its liking. A male orchard oriole was also a jelly feeder fan while a male rose-breasted grosbeak was busy cleaning up pieces of corn the squirrel had left behind. A female grosbeak was seen on the 12th at the jelly feeder. On the 14th, an indigo bunting was on the thistle feeder and our first wren was singing in the windbreak. If you build it they will come.
We’ve also had waterfowl and upland gamebirds hanging around the yard or not far from it at the ranch. A rooster pheasant has been camping on the edge of the yard, crowing and flapping his wings vigorously starting about 5:30 a.m. That’s approximately the same time the cardinal starts flying into the windows. While checking the moth traps one morning, a sandhill crane was picking through the manure spread last fall north of the buildings. Much too big to be a sparrow. The most recent sighting was from the seat in the oval office where I spied something about the size of a crow in the silver maple tree. Then I saw another one and there was no question it was a pair of wood ducks checking the cavities of the tree over. Since I still have a spare wood duck house, I’ll have to find a place to put it. If I put it in the maple tree outside the bathroom then I’d have live entertainment every morning. Of course I might never come out of there.
Ruby got her booster shots at the area immunization clinic last Tuesday. She was generally well behaved, considering the wait in line was around an hour. No one’s fault really as the previous nights when the clinics were held the weather had likely been miserable. She was in heat during those sessions anyway so we had to settle on the last night offered. Suck up that she is, Ruby made friends with some of the people in line, shaking hands and wanting her tummy scratched. While her behavior belies her age at 9, she is showing a little gray around the muzzle, not unlike her owner. She definitely can out-nap me. Think I still have her beat in the snoring department.
For Mother’s Day, Mrs. Cheviot and I motored off to one of our favorite little eating spots in the Studebaker. It made the trip relatively effortlessly especially, once it was shifted into overdrive. The 259 V8 doesn’t necessarily have a lot of power, but there’s a lot of gas pedal left should a person decide to use it. After being used to driving today’s cars, hopping in and driving the 60-year-old Silver Hawk is a trip back in time. One notices there are relatively few creature comforts or safety devices. There is no seatbelt to fasten, no buzzers or bells, no outside temperature thermometer or a clock. The radio doesn’t work, so no need to monkey with that. Driving a piece of automotive history while keeping an eye on the gauges, shifting gears and listening to the machine’s performance is about all the stimulation one can handle.
See you next week…real good then.