Cooler temperatures and rain showers prevailed last week, making the scurs and the Weather Eye scramble. Otherwise it was generally some beautiful October weather. Will Mother Nature take her foot off the gas again or will it just shift us into overdrive? Starting Wednesday, cloudy with highs in the low 70’s and lows in the mid-40’s. Thursday, mostly sunny with highs in the low 60’s and lows in the mid-40’s. Partly sunny Friday with highs in the low 60’s and lows in the mid-40’s. Saturday, partly sunny with highs in the mid-60’s and lows in the low 50’s. Partly sunny on Sunday with a slight chance of showers, highs in the low 70’s with lows in the mid-50’s. Monday, sunny with a modest chance of rain, highs in the low 70’s with lows in the mid-50’s. Mostly cloudy for Tuesday with a modest chance of rain, highs in the mid-70’s with lows in the low 50’s. The sun will rise at 7 a.m. DST on September 21st. The normal high for the 21st is 71 and the normal low is 47. The scurs have big plans for a repeat performance of August. No need to drain the ceement pond just yet.
Corn and soybeans made slow progress towards the finish line, although it was muted by last week’s cooler temperatures. Corn milk lines changed very little last week. with many hybrids stuck on half milk line or nearly at maturity if they were early planted, early maturing hybrids. Soybeans also continued to change color, although the beans in the pods themselves moved at a snail’s pace. That should change this week with warmer temps and breezes to knock more of the leaves off. Here again, some of the early planted, early maturing fields will be close to maturity and the combining will commence quickly in those cases.
Looks like the orioles have finally left the ranch as of the 12th. None were spotted on the 13th or have been since. They had a good run though, with our first sighting on May 7th, a tad over four months. A shame of sorts that we don’t have more time with them, but one has to be fortunate we see them at all. North farther such is not the case. The last barn swallows snuck off over the weekend as well. At least the hummingbirds will keep us entertained for a few more weeks until the inevitable. They’ve been staying busy with the nectar feeders and all the flowers that too will soon will come to a close for winter. Some migrating warblers; the black and white warblers in particular have moved through recently, making one believe that summer is indeed over and not coming back anytime soon.
Apple and pear harvest began at the ranch primarily in the form of ground fall harvest. The Honeycrisp apple tree is loaded and a fair number of apples, particularly the smaller models, have fallen off. Some of them are bird pecked or are otherwise undesirable. Regardless, they still need to be picked up for sanitation reasons. Likewise with the pears, although they were harvested over the weekend due to the heavy pressure from the squirrel and blue jay population. The variety Parker was designed to be picked green and ripened inside anyway. The pests still ruined a number of them as well. Their loss is the sheep’s gain. They last a matter of minutes when tossing the odd apple or pear over the fence to them. A five-gallon pail full of ground fall fruit doesn’t last them a day.
With each passing day it appears more unlikely that a Canadian adventure will occur. Recent news articles seem to indicate the possibility of opening the border anytime soon is slim. While commerce has continued, nonessential travel from the U.S. has been forbidden. Sad really. 90 percent of the Canadian population lives within 150 miles of the U.S. border. Yet, the overall population is only about 11% of the U.S. population. The Canadian population density is about three people per square mile, whereas the U.S. is closer to 93 people per square mile. There are areas of the U.S. that are sparsely populated as well. It would seem that if someone living out in the sticks in the U.S. testing negative for COVID wanted to visit someone living out in the sticks in Canada who also tested negative for COVID, there ought to be a way for it to happen. Just saying.
Another cycle repeats itself. A regular customer, Gary, had told us last fall it was his last year raising sheep. He unexpectedly called a few weeks back and needed a ram. Come to find out he had kept some ewes and had decided to go one more year. Fortunately, we had a few buck lambs we’d kept back for replacements and show purposes. We’d separated a couple off in a pen, unsure how many he might need to breed to the ewes. Turned out he had kept only a dozen ewes that were intended for lambing next spring, so only one would be necessary. Had it been 20 or 30, it might’ve been a tall order for one buck lamb.
When Gary showed up Saturday morning with his topper converted to a trailer, it was business as usual. We got him backed in close enough so as two old geezers, we didn’t need to do a lot of chasing and catching. Using the panels, we were able to quickly direct the candidate into the trailer without even having to touch him. I think the buck lamb was almost as surprised as we were when Gary shut the gate on him. When it came time to leave, Gary produced a bag containing a pair of wool slippers he’d made for both me and Mrs. Cheviot. Those will be mighty handy after coming in frozen from chores at night over the winter months. They’ll also provide fond memories, whether it’s truly Gary’s last year raising sheep or not.
See you next week…real good then.