The scurs keep turning the dial slowly on the Weather Eye and the positive results are even slower. Will we finally see some relief from this cold weather bondage or are we doomed to be locked down indefinitely? Starting Wednesday, mostly cloudy with a good chance of rain. Highs in the upper 50’s and lows in the low 50’s.
Thursday, partly sunny with a modest chance of forenoon showers. Highs in the low 70’s with lows in the mid-40’s. Partly sunny on Friday with a good chance of rain in the evening. Highs in the upper 60’s with lows in the upper 40’s. Saturday, mostly cloudy with a good chance of rain. Highs in the upper 60’s with lows in the low 50’s. Partly sunny on Sunday with a modest chance of morning rain. Highs in the low 70’s with lows in the low 50’s. Monday, mostly sunny with a modest chance of evening rain. Highs in the upper 70’s with lows in the upper 50’s. Mostly sunny for Tuesday with a fair chance of rain showers. Highs in the mid-80’s with lows in the mid-60’s. The normal high for May 15th is 69 and the normal low is 48. After a week of running the heater, sounds like the scurs may want to get the AC working on the Weather Eye. That’d be cool.
Aside from most finishing up soybean planting, very slow progress was made on crop development. Corn emerged ever so slowly over this past week and most soybeans remained below the soil surface as of this writing. It was probably a good thing as temperatures on Saturday and Tuesday mornings got as low as the upper 20’s on some thermometers. At the ranch we saw 31 and 30, respectively. The position on the landscape has a lot to do with what your temperatures are, in particular low temperatures when the air is still. Something else that was unique about the Saturday freeze was there was little actual frost noticed on plants. The extremely low dew points probably had a lot to do with that. Dew points both mornings were in the upper teens and low 20’s. The air has been extremely dry as of late and it hasn’t changed much, yet.
Some area lawns, including the one at the ranch, have grown extremely unevenly. Well-below-normal precipitation and cool temperatures have slowed growth in places, particularly where the dog hasn’t used it for a bathroom. At the ranch, we mowed the road ditch weekend before last, but stopped once the temperatures started behaving like it was still early April again. Grass wasn’t growing much and it was too blasted cold to sit on the mower for any length of time. Even the radishes planted back on April 11th planted on a south facing slope in full sun have made minimal progress. The rhubarb hasn’t been setting any growth records thus far either. Others have complained of the same thing. At least we have the weather to talk about.
We have to have something to talk about other than the obsessive all COVID-19 all the time coverage on the airwaves and social media. Life is going on out here in spite of all that. Crops are growing, trees are leafing out and flowering and birds are returning to their summer homes. Getting outdoors and enjoying fresh air and sunshine is probably the best thing one can do. The physical and mental health benefits are well documented. There’s a reason your mother told you to go outside and blow off some steam. She was right.
I enjoy watching sports on TV and admit I’ve missed it. I’m fortunate that I grew up liking westerns in both movie and TV format. I’d forgotten how well some of the shows were written. The Virginian was one such show I’ve revisited. Lee Jay Cobb starred along with the late James Drury and his sidekick Doug McClure. It centered on life at The Shiloh ranch with lots of horses and cattle. I could also see how Dad easily fell asleep during that one. It was an hour and a half long, making it unique among the westerns popular on TV in the ‘60s. He’d sometimes doze off during Bonanza or Gunsmoke, but The Virginian would’ve been a slam dunk.
Birds are indeed returning at the ranch anyway. On the 5th we saw our first catbird and white-crowned sparrow of the season. A quick trip to the wetland revealed a pair of blue-winged teal, a pair of mallards and a drake wood duck. It’s likely the female is occupying the nesting box out in the water. On the 7th, we saw a male Baltimore oriole and a rose-breasted grosbeak the next day. On the 9th there was a red-headed woodpecker in the trees along with three Baltimore orioles keeping the jelly feeder occupied. Still looking for a hummingbird and an orchard oriole. Afraid the Harris’s sparrows we’ve seen passing through over the past 20 years skipped over us this time around or at least weren’t there when we were watching. They’ll likely be back and sometimes we catch them in the fall too. Keeps it interesting that way.
We’re nearing the end of our commitment to the lambs we’ve faithfully bottle fed. This year’s edition has been a long haul starting in late January. The lambs, through no fault of their own, wound up either orphaned or simply weren’t provided enough nutrition from the ewe. Several of them could’ve been left for dead in the freezing temperatures, but it’s hard to stand by and allow that to happen. By the same token, they have to have a will to live. There are limits to our resources and patience. This group took to the bottles and was on to solid feed quickly, so that was a definite plus. The way they blow through it now, it’s a lot easier to pull the pin and stop mixing up milk replacer. At least when they get their last bottle we can have a little graduation celebration for them. Might need a bottle ourselves.
See you next week…real good then.