The scurs and the Weather Eye predicted continued warm temps with light precip again. Nailed it, again. Is this the week Old Man Winter awakens from his slumber or does he roll over and go back to sleep? Starting Wednesday, mostly cloudy with a moderate chance of snow. Highs in the low 20’s and lows dropping to near -5. Thursday sunny becoming cloudy with a good chance of evening snow. Rising temperatures to around 10 above. Cloudy on Friday with snow likely. Highs in the mid-20’s with lows in the low teens. Saturday, mostly cloudy with a modest chance of forenoon snow. Highs in the low 20’s and lows back down to near -5. Partly sunny on Sunday with a slight chance of evening snow. Highs in the mid-single digits with lows just below zero. Monday, partly sunny with highs in the upper single digits and lows around zero. Partly sunny for Tuesday with highs near 10 above and lows around zero. Sunset will occur after 5 p.m. on the 15th and on the 21st we start picking up daylight at about two minutes per day. The normal high for January 21st is 24 and the normal low is 4 above. The scurs have decided to get out the new long winter gatkes. Many moons to hibernate until spring is here.
We’re almost through what are statistically our coldest several weeks of the winter. If you’ll recall last winter however I wouldn’t start putting the patio furniture out just yet. Unless of course you wanted to run over it with the tractor so you can get new stuff next spring. So far it hasn’t been too bad though. We’ve had a day here and there that reminds us that it is after all MN but within a matter of a few days it passes. Probably the worst thing now is the snow with the ice lurking beneath. More than once I’ve come close to taking a digger hauling water buckets. Need to find my bag of cherrystone grit. For some it’s already too late for that. Lots of reports of falls, sprains and broken bones. If it snows and gets cold enough maybe it’ll slow the temptation to be ambulatory anyway. Works for me.
At the ranch we’ve started on the first of the round bales from this past summer. Actually it was part of a swap deal with the Dubya’s. It’s some beautiful hay. After taking the quick hitch off and putting the bale spear on, the ewes were most appreciative to be eating something green for a change. The bales have been stored outside so there’s a little spoilage on the outside. However employing an old hay knife, it peels off pretty easily with the pitchfork. Being the forage scavengers that sheep are, they pick at the peeled off outer shell until every last edible twig has been consumed. Then they lay on the duff and chew their cuds under the 4” wool comforters they’ve grown.
All that wool makes it more difficult to see how far a ewe is into gestation. It does appear however with the few precious minutes increase in daylight that more are on the way within a few weeks. Since there aren’t a lot of them showing just yet, it might be advantageous to wait a tad to shear. Last year we delayed shearing when it became bitterly cold and we weren’t sorry we did. This year may be different but it is still January and no one including the ewes likes being cold before, during and after shearing.
We have had some unusual bad luck lately in the barn though. We started off the winter with about a half dozen cats, about five too many. I’d found homes for some and needed to get them peddled before too much longer. I came down to the barn one morning to find one of last year’s kittens mauled to death. A few mornings later I found another one dead that was all chewed up. Yet another one was missing and hasn’t come back to eat when they’re fed. I wanted to get rid of some cats but would rather do it humanely rather than picking up the dead ones. The lord works in mysterious ways sometimes I guess.
One of the benefits of a leaner cat population should be lower selection pressure on the songbirds. Game birds too. The cardinals have become daily visitors to our yard and feeders. Fewer cats won’t hurt the pheasants either. Few things are harder on nesting pheasants and pheasant chicks. We continue to see the pheasants daily too on our way down to the barn. It still startles us at first when they come roaring out of the trees as they do but we’ll get used to it. Once back in the house after chores the blue jays, woodpeckers, chickadees and goldfinches entertain us as we get ready to head out for work. Beats watching TV that’s for sure. No impeachment proceedings or fake news in the backyard.
Ruby has wintered well thus far. She’s no longer the gimp she was earlier, having recovered from what caused the hitch in her giddy up. She still doesn’t wander far when it’s potty time though. There is a large deposit of Ruby logs in the yard right in front of the house. To some extent it’s convenient. Watch your step in front of the house but no need to worry about stepping on dog mines in the rest of the yard. That issue will be dealt with shortly if the next major snowfall forecast is correct. Last year the addition of the snow blower made short work of her deposits 7’ at a crack. So far there are no huge snow piles to contend either with so am confident we can launch a lot of them into the road once again. I might want to get the highway dept. to put some warning signs up first though.
See you next week…real good then.