More warmth, courtesy of the scurs and the Weather Eye, set well with almost everyone. Will Old Man Winter continue to snooze or are we in for a rude awakening? Starting Wednesday, partly sunny with a slight chance of evening showers. Highs in the upper 40’s with lows in the mid-30’s. Thursday mostly cloudy with a good chance of rain. Highs in the upper 40’s with lows in the mid-20’s. Mostly sunny on Friday with highs in the upper 30’s and lows in the mid-20’s. Saturday, mostly cloudy with a slight chance of evening rain and snow. Highs in the upper 30’s with lows in the mid-20’s. Mostly cloudy on Sunday with a slight chance of rain and snow becoming all snow by evening. Highs in the upper 30’s with lows in the mid-20’s. Monday, mostly cloudy with a slight chance of a forenoon rain/snow mix. Highs in the low 40’s with lows around 30. Mostly cloudy for Tuesday with a slight chance of a wintry mix. Highs in the mid-40’s with lows in the upper 20’s. Depending on what day length chart one looks at, we go over 12 hours of daylight somewhere around St. Patrick’s Day. The normal high for March 17th is 40 and the normal low is 23. The scurs have plenty of corned beef and cabbage on hand for the occasion. Probably some green low carb adult beverages to wash it down with as well.
This past Sunday brought us a taste of what we’ve been longing for since October 27th: A high temperature over 50 degrees. It brought with it breezy conditions, so if one was out in the wind, it didn’t feel quite that warm. Snow melt was rapid. Much of the scant snow left in the fields disappeared and snow piles in the road ditches shrunk substantially. Luckily, there had been a slow, sustained freeze and thaw cycle going on for much of the first week of March, which should help shorten the duration of flooding from the melt. Soils have begun to thaw in places and yards are beginning to firm up as well. At the ranch we generally have quagmire in front of the main barn. However, this year it has already lost some of its normal sloppiness. Let’s hope it continues.
Likewise, there is evidence that the frost is coming out of the ground. Using my trusty divining rod (electric fence post) on the south facing slope, there were places already on Saturday where the frost was limited and some cases was undetectable at 12”- 18”. In the small garden on that same slope, where the ground had no cover, there was no frost at all. This prompted me to purchase some radishes Saturday in case the ground might be fit enough to stab a few of them in. Alas, checking Sunday afternoon there was still moisture wicking its way to the surface in spots; too tacky to consider planting. There will be better days. At least the ground is bare and the frost is out in that spot. That’s a big plus. A year ago on March 9th we were still looking at snow cover of around 20 inches. What a difference a year makes.
With the warmer temps it has me looking longingly at the Studebaker and getting it ready to go for another season. Seeing and hearing all the motorcycles out and about on Sunday made me especially antsy. There are some things that need to be done to get the Silver Hawk operational, although being driven only about 500 miles last year, there wasn’t a lot of wear and tear. I’ll still have the oil changed and get it looked over so there are no major safety concerns. Then it would be nice to get enough rain to wash all the salt and other assorted material off the roads first. Getting some of the mud in the driveway to a more manageable level wouldn’t hurt either.
We are getting down there on the lambing front with only a handful of ewes left to come in. There was a mini-flurry of activity last week, but luckily we had processed and moved enough so we had room. We also moved the bottle lambs out of the garage, finally to the lambing barn. Warmer temps had a lot to do with it. If the weather had been like it was last year they probably would’ve been in there until Memorial Day! Instead since we always have to go out and check the lambing barn anyway, putting them in there was a slam dunk. The exposure to other sheep might cause the light bulb to come on, making them decide they are actually sheep. It’s also nice to know I can sneak out to the garage freezer once again for ice cream treats without setting off the bottle lamb alarm system.
The time change continues to wear on us at the ranch. Turning the clock ahead an hour this time of year is just exactly what we don’t need, especially when it means stumbling around in the dark doing morning chores. This just after starting to enjoy morning daylight, thinking there might be light at the end of the tunnel on what’s been a long, drawn out lambing season. Evidence continues to mount that the DST time change may cause more potential health concerns than first imagined. Studies have now linked it to migraines, strokes, heart attacks, cancer, miscarriages, suicides, diabetes, allergies, and injuries. It has also been linked to immune system suppression, just what no one needs if the coronavirus ever amounts to the media hype.
At the ranch we changed the time on as many clocks as we could remember. Each clock has its own quirks. Some of the battery powered models are finicky, stopping once you’ve changed the time. It usually takes some tweaking and swearing or a new battery to get them functional again. Both of our microwave clocks have a different protocol to reset the time as does the one on the oven. The one in the Buick should be alright because I was too lazy to change it back last fall. Since no one enjoys turning their clocks ahead an hour each spring I’m thinking we should just omit that step. Using the same twisted logic some did when coming up with the DST folly, we should just keep setting our clocks back an hour every fall instead. After all, turnabout is fair play, right? And just think how much healthier and happier we’d all be!
See you next week…real good then.