With no rain or snow, the scurs were proud of the forecast generated by the Weather Eye. Will they be singing the same tune next week at this time, or singing the blues? Starting Wednesday, mostly sunny with a good chance of a late afternoon thunderstorm. Highs in the mid-80’s with lows in the mid-60’s. Mostly sunny Thursday with a fair chance of a daytime shower or thunderstorm. Highs in the upper 80’s with lows in the mid-60’s. Mostly sunny on Friday with a good chance of a daytime shower or thunderstorm. Highs in the upper 80’s with lows in the mid-60’s. Saturday, sunny with a fair chance of a shower or thunderstorm. Highs in the upper 80’s with lows in the mid-60’s. Mostly sunny on Sunday with a modest chance of showers and thunderstorms. Highs in the upper 80’s with lows in the mid-60’s. Monday, mostly cloudy with a good chance of showers and thunderstorms. Highs in the mid-80’s with lows in the mid-60’s. Partly sunny on Tuesday with a good chance of a shower or thunderstorm. Highs in the upper 70’s with lows in the low 60’s. The Full Moon for this June falls on the 3rd. The normal high for June 3rd is 75 and the normal low is 55. The scurs are welcoming the summer after the never-ending winter by testing out their AC.
Saturday marks the Full Moon for the month and it is aptly named the Full Strawberry Moon as this delicacy is only available during this time of year. On shortcake with whipped cream, ice cream, angel food cake, in malts, in jam, and the list goes on. Tough to beat this tasty berry and especially when they’re fresh out of the strawberry patch. The Ojibwe and Sioux agreed on this one with both tribes naming this moon in honor of the strawberry. Unfortunately at the ranch, we have no strawberry patch, yet, anyway. We’re stuck with Moon when Bread Molds Quickly or Corgi Hair along Baseboards Moon.
Crops responded well to the heat, although there was no bringing some of the large thin spots or nonexistent spots back to life. This has probably been the worst spring season for replanting crops locally that I can ever remember. The timing of the heavy May rains couldn’t have been much worse along with the duration of cloudy days occurring as part of it. Making the call on corn was probably easier as the areas where corn was missing, plants were not coming or were going to be so late emerging those plants wouldn’t have contributed much if anything to the yield. The more difficult question was whether to tear up entire fields or just stab in some corn in the holes. Every field was different and there was no one size fits all rule.
Soybean stand assessment was more problematic because there are/were still plants trying to emerge with potential to fill in the gaps. However, as temperatures remained warm and no rain fell, in some fields soybean seedlings began to snap off below the cotyledon. When that happens, the seedling is done even though the stem will remain green for a while. Too many of those coupled with a thin stand spell trouble. Most times soybeans manage to maintain a stand that, even though it’s thin, it will yield just fine. Not always the case this time around. The tale of the tape when measuring the actual stand is critical. What looks good from the road can be deceiving.
At the ranch, we finally made some progress on the garden. Amazing how quickly the soil conditions changed from saturated to dry and hard as a brick. Moving the garden to a south facing slope was a good idea for the potential of planting earlier. Not unlike cash grain cropping, that involves getting the ground into shape for the following spring. When that doesn’t happen, it takes a lot more effort to get the garden whipped into shape come spring. Fortunately, we have access to water, so we can easily supplement the fruits and vegetables if need be. It’s already become clear that some of the plants around the house have benefited from supplemental watering. Eventually, it usually rains and the worries we had about drought and watering become a distant memory. Let’s hope so. Otherwise, it’ll be a long summer.
The yard changes in a hurry once it warms up. All the apples are long since done flowering as are the lilacs that seemed to flower earlier than normal this year. Usually they’re a Memorial Day phenomenon. Even the aronia berries and nannyberries have finished blossoming. Preliminary observations on the fruit trees are encouraging. The pear trees, both the Parker and Patten, appear to be loaded. The apples are more of a mixed bag, with the Haralson and Fireside trees taking a break. There may be a few apples on both trees, but nothing like they’re capable of in their “on” year. The Honeycrisp might not have quite as many apples on it as last year, but there will likely still be plenty. The apple tree to keep a close watch on is our SnowSweet. It appears poised to have a breakout year. Hopefully early impressions hold true for the remainder of the growing season. While it’s a later apple, the sampling we’ve had makes them well worth the wait.
Poppy continues enjoying her outdoor time, especially chasing some birds, but especially the insects. Her interests include the hummingbirds that get close enough so she can almost grab them. Mourning doves tend to stick tight until the last second, making good chasing candidates. Inside, chasing flies and ladybugs keeps her occupied. Outdoors, her favorite butterflies are the red admirals with their herky-jerky flight pattern. She’ll never catch one, so they’re in little danger. June bugs are another time-consuming pastime, especially at night when they’re active. Poppy can spend a lot of time dawdling, chasing them around in the dark. Usually, this occurs during her last potty break when we want to go to bed. Poppy continues to have close calls with some of the bumblebees visiting Mrs. Cheviot’s numerous planters. One of these times she’ll grab one and there won’t be any mistaking what happened. Who knew we had a budding ornithologist and entomologist in our midst?
See you next week…real good then.