The scurs had the Weather Eye on the more moderate setting this past week. Is Old Man Winter ready to go on spring break or more likely to break us in two? Starting Wednesday, mostly cloudy with a fair chance of evening snow. Highs in the mid-30’s with lows in the upper 20’s. Cloudy on Thursday with a good chance of snow. Highs in the low 30’s with lows in the upper 20’s. Mostly cloudy on Friday with a fair chance of snow before noon. Highs in the low 30’s with lows in the upper teens. Saturday, mostly cloudy with a good chance of more snow by evening. Highs in the low 30’s with lows in the mid-20’s. Mostly cloudy on Sunday with a modest chance of a forenoon snow shower. Highs in the low 30’s with lows in the low 20’s. Monday, mostly cloudy with highs in the low 30’s and lows in the upper teens. Partly sunny on Tuesday with highs in the low 30’s and lows in the low 20’s. On the 8th we begin gaining daylight at just over three minutes a day. Daylight Saving (really?) Time begins on Sunday. The normal high for March 12th is 37 and the normal low is 21. The scurs will be standing on three chairs, dutifully moving their clocks ahead. What could possibly go wrong?
Yes indeed, it’s time again for the government to mess around with our clocks and health again, much to the chagrin of those who have become fond of the sun coming up before 7 a.m. To be certain, the individuals who promoted this silly notion of Daylight Saving Time obviously didn’t have livestock to care for or a job to get to once they were done with that. Something just wrong about pulling the rug out from under your body when it’s just getting into a rhythm. With good reason. The sun will rise at 7:30 a.m. on March 12th, the same time as it rose back on February 1st. It will take until April 10th, almost a month, before the sun rises again at 6:30 a.m. as it did on March 11th. As the saying goes, only white man foolish enough to believe that you could cut a foot off the top of a blanket and sew it to the bottom and have a longer blanket.
Our winter weather has been record-setting at least at the SROC in Waseca. They recorded the wettest Dec. – Feb. period on record at 6.97” of liquid equivalent precip. It’s hard to say with certainty that that’s the case in Bugtussle or at the ranch as we simply don’t have enough years of data to draw that kind of conclusion. It has been very wet however with 6.89” recorded at the ranch in that timeframe and 6.44” in town. Normal for the most recent 30-year average at the SROC is 3.97”. Something unique about this winter has been the amount of precip that has fallen as rain. At the ranch for instance, about 2.4” of the winter precip was actually rain and not snow. It soaked into the snowpack and, along with the wetter than normal snow, has meant there is a significant amount of moisture still in the remaining snowpack, guesstimated up to 3” worth. The frost depth at the SROC was reported at 8” on March 6th so it shouldn’t take long once it warms up for the frost to go out. Fingers crossed.
It's been interesting to watch how the winter’s wet snow has impacted the sheep. Normally I fill their water tank about every third day. Typical late December and January snow will contain .07” or less of water per inch of snow. This winter, numerous times the snow has contained .1” or more of liquid precip per inch of snow. Add some rainfall the snow soaks up like a sponge and it becomes like a snow cone. When I’ve filled their water tank the past three months, it takes several days before there’s a noticeable change in the water level. Why? The sheep have been eating snow. They’ll do that when the snow has a high moisture content. This confounds my efforts to use the water tank to gauge when lambs are likely on the way. As the ewes get close to lambing, many times water consumption increases. Water consumption increases after lambing as well, but that water isn’t coming out of the water tank. Some schmuck is hauling small buckets of warm water from the house across the glare ice to those small pens.
Speaking of that, Mrs. Cheviot is getting closer to back to her normal routine. By using the Gator to chauffer her to and from the barns, we seem to make chores work. When the blizzard hit, it made chores somewhat bearable despite the inclement weather. Recently, I must’ve slipped or stepped wrong when moving sheep or hauling buckets. I didn’t fall and don’t recall hitting my left shin above the ankle. I noticed nothing right away, but could tell Sunday night I’d tweaked something. Monday morning it was sore and by evening chores, it was downright painful. I was hobbling around like Chester on Gunsmoke. I like Chester, but golly Bill, I would’ve rather been Festus. The best medicine was to just stay off of my feet as much as possible. Just glad the crunch in the lambing barn was over, and we had only a small handful of ewes left to go. It seems to be healing quickly, back to just sore on Tuesday morning. Hope so. Two gimps are not better than one in this case.
Poppy’s routine is becoming more and more normalized, even though she has the attention span of a gnat sometimes. For that reason I usually keep her on a leash at potty time and when we’re out doing lamb check. She’s a little too curious, especially when it comes to the traffic that goes by the ranch. There has also been a skunk in the vicinity. My nose doesn’t lie. The positive is that she’s become used to being on a leash, which our Border Collies never were. They were focused on what was going on in the barn and cared about little else. I do allow Poppy off the leash when we’re filling birdfeeders, even though it takes some hollering to get her attention at times. Still, the exercise is the main thing. When we get back in from those excursions, Poppy is still going 90 mph. Within a few minutes, however, her batteries start to wear down. The next thing you know, she’s sound asleep on the couch, atop the pillow she’s claimed without a care in the world. Life as a Corgi doesn’t look all bad.
See you next week…real good then.