The scurs and the Weather Eye delivered yet more great early fall weather. Will they take a fall or continue on a roll? Starting Wednesday, mostly cloudy with a good chance of rain. Highs in the low 80’s with lows in the upper 60’s. Thursday, mostly cloudy with a good chance of daytime showers and thunderstorms. Highs in the upper 70’s with lows in the mid-50’s. Partly sunny on Friday with highs in the mid-60’s and lows in the low 50’s. Saturday, sunny with a modest chance of evening showers and thunderstorms. Highs in the mid-70’s with lows in the upper 50’s. Mostly sunny on Sunday with highs in the upper 70’s and lows in the low 60’s. Monday, sunny with a slight chance of a shower or thunderstorm. Highs in the upper 70’s with lows in the mid-60’s. Mostly sunny for Tuesday becoming cloudy with a decent chance for a shower or thunderstorm. Highs in the upper 70’s with lows in the mid-60’s. Sunset will be at 7:30 CDT on the 12th. The Full Moon for September falls on the 14th. September 16th we fall to 12 hours and 30 minutes of daylight, roughly the same as we had back on March 27th. The normal high for September 14th is 74 and the normal low is 51. The scurs will be on the lookout for Halloween candy arriving daily in stores nearby.
The Full Moon as mentioned arrives on the 14th and is known as the Full Harvest Moon as it is the closest to the autumnal equinox. Some years it’s in October, but more often than not it falls in September. The Harvest moon allowed the pioneer farmers to work far into the night when it wasn’t cloudy and/or raining of course. They knew better than to put lights on their horses and kept normal hours that way! The Ojibwe knew this as the Rice Moon and the Sioux called it The Moon When Plums are Scarlet. At the ranch we have wild plums, although by the time they turn scarlet the birds have them long gone. We have to go by the Full Apple Moon as the trees are usually heavily laden with fruit — when the wind doesn’t blow them off first anyway.
It is the Full Harvest Moon and at least as of this writing it appears we will escape Jack Frost’s wrath at least for now. Given the amount of earlier maturity soybeans planted after waiting for later maturing varieties to become fit last year, it may surprise us how quickly harvest may be upon us. The forecast is also finally giving us some hope. After a cooler than normal start to September it appears to be turning the heat up with some above normal temperatures on tap. This past week corn continued to move toward maturity as some of the earlier planted, earlier tasseling and silking hybrids started to show a milk line. Soybeans also were showing signs of turning, although there were also areas of fields where pod and stem blight appears to be afoot. Some of these same areas of fields were apparent two years ago. The premature ripening that results frequently doesn’t do major yield damage on a field wide basis, but in areas where it occurs it can reduce yield significantly.
At the ranch we continue to see the slow transition into fall even though summer tries its best to hang on just a little longer. There was still a male Baltimore oriole in full colors at the jelly feeder on the 9th. The morning glories, cannas and four o’clocks continue to do their thing as the hummingbirds are starting to be more frequent visitors. The barn swallows slipped away under the cover of darkness and the loud bird singing that was constant in June mornings is a distant memory. One can sleep undisturbed with the windows open again — not a bad idea as the temperatures dip down into the 40’s and 50’s. That’s what they make blankets for.
Our rainfall in August was once again below normal at 3.16” at the ranch and in Bugtussle proper a measly 2.67” for the month. Normal at the SROC in Waseca is 4.75”, making it traditionally the wettest month of the year. Seems the sheep or at least one of the ewes decided the grass looked greener on the other side of the makeshift fence by the granary. It had been that way for 10 years and none of them ever bothered to mess with it. It only takes one agitator though and after a few episodes of putting the culprit back in, I decided to put a stop to that nonsense. Driving a couple steel posts, attaching some insulators and electric fence wire, I placed a hot wire about exactly where those erect Cheviot’s ears would make contact with it. Seems to have been effective. Hopefully it completed the short circuit between the ewe’s ears.
It’s been a while, but the Silver Hawk finally made it out of the garage for our anniversary. Wasn’t a long ride, but it got the car limbered up and the thrill of driving a classic automobile returned once again. The road to town is now smooth, so it makes the ride that much sweeter. We had supper and it was beginning to get dark. As we were about to leave someone had noticed the car and asked if it had good lights. Yes, I replied, they’re sufficient. 12 volt? Yes was my response again. Actually, Studebaker had gone to 12-volt systems in 1956 as did the U.S. manufacturers who had done so earlier in the decade on a few models.
Something else that’s a common misconception is that the wipers are run by vacuum as many older cars were. It depended on the model, and Studebaker was using electric wiper motors on some of their models as early as the 1930’s. The Silver Hawk has an electric wiper motor with a two-speed switch. However, as with many old cars, the wipers are fickle and like some humans, only work when they feel like it. The wipers in this case only function on the slow speed, sort of. Sometimes they quit randomly about halfway through the cycle so it’s best not to monkey with them. That’s why copious amounts of Rain X have been applied to the windshield. One can see well as the rain beads off the windshield rapidly when you drive fast enough. Not a problem once you hit overdrive.
See you next week…real good then.