George Romney comes through in the clutch! The Weather Eye is repaired and once again the scurs are getting some heat in the forecast. Maybe AMC will overtake The Big Three after all. Still little in the rain dept. however. Will Mother Nature continue to dry clean us or are we due to be showered? Starting Wednesday, mostly cloudy with a good chance of showers and thunderstorms. Highs in the upper 70’s with lows in the mid-60’s. Thursday, mostly cloudy with a good chance of showers and thunderstorms. Highs in the upper 70’s with lows in the mid-60’s. Partly sunny on Friday with a moderate chance of showers and thunderstorms. Highs in the low 80’s with lows in the low 60’s. Saturday, partly sunny with a moderate chance of evening showers. Highs in the low 80’s with lows in the low 60’s. Partly cloudy on Sunday with a good chance of showers and thunderstorms. Highs in the upper 70’s with lows in the low 60’s. Monday, mostly sunny with a good chance of showers and thunderstorms. Highs in the upper 70’s with lows in the mid-50’s. Mostly sunny for Tuesday with a slight chance of showers and thunderstorms. Highs in the upper 70’s with lows in the mid-50’s. We are gaining daylight at a more leisurely pace of just under two minutes a day. On the 23rd we’ll go over 15 hours of daylight. The normal high for May 23rd is 71 and the normal low is 51. Now that the CDC says it’s safe to go outside without a mask, the scurs may stock the cement pond with fish. They’ll still put masks on the fish just in case.
Another week without rain has some starting to worry that we may be in for a dry summer. Indeed, we have been dry, although as we’ve maintained, there is generally plenty of moisture to carry this crop a while until the cavalry arrives. Rainfall has been spotty and a thimbleful at a time. After many years with abundant spring rainfall, it definitely has our attentions. The Palmer Drought Index is showing the drought increasing in recent weeks, although longer range forecasts are tending to see it let up at least in this area. The cool weather coupled with the dryness has compromised stands in corn fields, particularly where it was planted too shallow, as well as in soybean fields afflicted similarly. Timely rain can cover a lot of sins. Lack of it reminds some how lucky they were when “getting by with it” became “standard operating procedure.” Never count on the weather to do you any favors.
At the ranch we continue to inch closer to having a garden after moving it from its former location in the windbreak. The area broken up last summer was tilled Sunday and worked up well. The only downside like farming is it needs to rain. We have access to water, but we’d rather not go down that road for anything other than transplants, at least initially. One thing I noticed was I must’ve picked one of the rockiest pieces on the ranch. It’ll need to rain to wash the rocks off, so I can pick them up. Otherwise, they just blend in. Apparently, the March 9th planted radishes in the small garden needed the heat. I harvested a nice bunch Monday night after chores. A lot of firepower along with a sweet aftertaste, not unlike the fall radishes we’ve raised over the years.
I did finally break down to buy a new to me lawnmower. It’s a zero-turn model with a joystick, so it takes a little getting used to. I’m used to the T-bar in the skidsteer, so I’m not totally unfamiliar with the concept. One difference, however, is I generally run the T-bar with my left hand, which I consider my finesse hand. The joystick is on the right-hand side of the mower, so running it lefthanded would be tough. It has been a steep learning curve so far, although there haven’t been any major casualties. The main thing is to keep a loose grip on it and don’t overreact. The Big Dubya saw me operating it while I was giving it a test drive and texted me, wondering if it had autosteer. I told him it did, especially if you let go of the joystick and a branch hits it.
Mrs. Cheviot got a lot of the pots planted over the weekend. Good thing, too. The hummingbirds arrived after last week’s print deadline just like normal. They’re small right now, but given the heat in the forecast and proper watering, they’ll take off like a house afire. The hummingbirds found the nectar feeder, but after a few days I noticed they weren’t hitting it anymore. Upon closer examination, it was empty! That might’ve had something to do with it. Like a naughty child, the catbird was heard, but not seen up until recently. Oddly enough the grape jelly feeder started disappearing more quickly. A common yellowthroat could be heard Saturday night as I sat on the patio listening for the various bird songs. It’s not all rocks and cows out here, although the Dubya’s brood cows with calves are a thing of beauty against the deep forest green of the cereal rye.
As pretty as those cattle are, we have our own livestock to deal with. Monday morning, we made another step towards summer. We let little Bunny and her mom out of their luxury accommodations to comingle with the rest of the flock. She had grown remarkably as a result of all the room service. When we vaccinated, tagged and docked her tail, we couldn’t believe how big she was. When we turned her out, we were amazed how quickly she had caught up to the rest of the lamb crop. This after having been four or five lbs. max at birth. Her mother took great care of her and even after they were turned out, she protected little Bunny from the others whenever they’d take a shot at her. Bunny does have quite a set of wheels on her. When the lambs would run, it caused her to run excitedly in circles inside her pen. Can’t wait to get a warm day followed by a cool night. Then we’ll get a chance to see just how good her wheels are.
See you next week…real good then.