Temperatures plummeted this past week, prompting hate mail to pour in for the scurs and the Weather Eye. Does Old Man Winter continue his icy grip or does his arthritis kick in? Starting Wednesday, sunny with highs in the mid-teens and lows around 5 above. Mostly sunny on Ground Hog Day with highs in the midteens and lows around 10 below. Partly sunny on Friday with highs near 5 above and lows around zero. Saturday, mostly cloudy with highs around the freezing mark and lows in the mid-teens above zero. Partly sunny Sunday with highs in the mid-20’s and lows around 10 above. Monday, partly sunny with possible snow late. Highs in the low 30’s with lows around 10 above. Mostly cloudy on Tuesday with a fair chance of snow. Highs in the low 20’s with lows in the upper single digits above zero. On Ground Hog Day the sun will rise at 7:30 CST. On the 3rd, we begin gaining daylight at just over 2 minutes and 30 seconds per day. On the 4th, we attain 10 hours of daylight, roughly where we'll be on November 6th. The Full Moon for the month occurs on the 5th. On February 6th, the sun will set after 5:30 p.m. CST. The normal high for Ground Hog Day is 23 and the normal low is 5. The scurs will see their shadow on the 2nd. That means we will have another six weeks of winter. One can only hope it’ll be over that soon.
The Full Moon for the month as mentioned above will be February 5th. It goes by the Full Snow Moon as February was the snowiest month to endure for the tribes of the northeast. It was also known as the Full Hunger Moon as the resulting deep snow made hunting difficult. Larders were beginning to be drawn down as well. The Ojibwe knew this as the Sucker Moon as the suckers began to run in the rivers and streams at this time. The Sioux called this The Raccoon Moon as the creatures would awaken from their winter slumber during the warmer days during this moon. At the ranch, it is generally known as The Moon when Water Buckets are Hauled. Since it’s usually on the ice, may also be known as the Full Krause Grit Moon.
This past week’s weather brought us back to reality. Temps struggled to get above zero and few were happy about it. Understandably so. We’ve led a charmed life with temperatures trending well above normal for most of January. There had been a few below zero lows earlier in the month, but nothing like what we normally experience. Snowfall was right around the normal for the SROC at Waseca, which is 10.7”. At the ranch we tallied right at 11” and in Bugtussle 11.5”. Unlike the Twin Cities, while we’re trending slightly ahead of normal for snowfall, we’re nowhere close to setting any records as they have elsewhere. The snow cover we have should help keep the frost depth from going extremely deep if February temperatures moderate as some predict. Snowfall may be a different matter.
The snow cover also helps keep me from thinking about all the crud in the yard that will need to be picked up before lawn mowing season. Out of sight, out of mind. When it’s thawed, however, it’s revealed an ugly sight. There are large limbs, sticks, twigs, branches, cones, spruce needles, and other assorted stuff that’s accumulated from wind and ice storm events. Worst of all, it’s widespread and relatively uniform in coverage. Thinking it might be easiest to drive along with the skidsteer, rake it into the bucket, dump the debris on the pile, rinse, and repeat. Hopefully one of these days the sun, the moon and the stars will align and the DNR will
give their blessing for me to legally burn it. Not holding my breath.
When I did chores Monday night, there was an ewe acting “lamby.” She was holed up in the corner of the lambing barn looking miserable. When I fed the grain to the group, she came out to eat, but didn’t spend much time at it. Great. Supposed to be the coldest night of the month so far. Sure enough, she was pushing a few hours later when I checked in on her. By about 10 p.m. I’d seen enough, penned her up and pulled a huge buck lamb out of her backside. Toweled him down and considered my heat lamp options. The cord didn’t reach on the one nearby, so wanted to swap it out with the heat lamp from the other pen. When I did and plugged it in, it flickered and went out. Swell, or words to that effect. The 250W bulb base broke off in the socket. Back to the house to find a corn cob and another bulb. Could only find 125W bulbs, not what I like when it’s real cold. Beggars can’t be choosers.
In the meantime the lamb had slid over to the ewe’s bag and hooked on while she was still recovering from the lambing process. Watched that progress, but was concerned it wasn’t enough milk to get him out of the woods with the temperature at -14. I milked the ewe out and tube fed him another 4 – 6 oz. of colostrum. He conked out, so toweled him down one last time, grabbed a couple gallon milk jugs of hot water, tucked them in beside him and was in the house around midnight. I’d done what I could do. When I woke up it was almost 4 a.m., at least an hour later than I’d planned on sleeping. Took Poppy out with me and checked in the lambing barn. The lamb was leaned up against the cold outer wall, half awake. The ewe was up eating some hay and had cleaned. Got him up. He stretched and came to life. His mouth was warm when I checked it, and he ambled over and hooked onto the ewe. Hallelujah. Still a long way to go with this cold stretch, but some days, you know there is a God.
Mrs. Cheviot continues her therapy sessions and making progress. This past week she was able to walk some unassisted without the use of the knee scooter. She’s also been starting to use a rolling walker that was kindly loaned to her by a famous feed store owner from Hope. There is still a long way to go, especially with all the ice and uneven terrain from the winter’s rain and snow. Outdoors is off limits. It’s no wonder many have been falling on the ice. I went to put some air in a tire the other day and came away thinking our yard wasn’t nearly as treacherous as that parking lot was. There wasn’t a level spot in their lot and it was at very least an invitation for a twisted ankle or worse. At least at the ranch most of the ice is even. With the slope and curve in the driveway, it makes a wonderful bobsled run.
Poppy has grown up, but she’s still very much a puppy. Not unlike a kid that needs to be put down for a nap, when she’s tired, she’ll fight it until she can’t any longer. You can see her eyes are heavy; she just won’t let go and fall asleep when it’s obvious she needs to. Afraid she might miss something, although I’m not sure exactly what that might be. We lead a pretty mundane existence. One little ditty that has been unique is the strange little noises she emits when waking up from her naps. Sometimes it almost sounds like Roy Orbison on “Pretty Woman” only in miniature. If she starts wearing his signature dark glasses, we’ll know she’s a fan.
See you next week...real good then.