The scurs rallied once the Weather Eye got back to some late October temps. Do we retain our newfound warmth or is it our last hurrah? Starting Thursday, sunny with highs in the mid-50’s (not a typo) and lows in the mid-30’s. Mostly sunny Friday with highs in the upper 40’s and lows in the mid-20’s. Partly sunny on Saturday with highs in the upper 30’s with lows in the low 20’s. Sunday, mostly sunny with highs in the mid-30’s and lows in the low 20’s. Partly sunny on Monday with highs in the mid-30’s and lows in the low 20’s. Tuesday, sunny with highs in the mid-30’s and lows in the upper teens. Mostly cloudy on Wednesday with highs in the low 30’s and lows in the mid-teens. On December 9th, we start losing daylight at less than a minute per day. We also are down to just under nine hours of daylight, with just under six minutes left to lose before the winter solstice. The normal high for December 9th is 30 and the normal low is 15. While it’s time to retrieve the Festivus pole from the crawl space, the scurs successfully procrastinated for another week without Christmas shopping.
The unbelievably nice stretch of fall/early winter weather continues, allowing more projects to be completed around area farms. Among them have been tiling projects, some of which arose after the heavy May rainfall pointed out places where additional drainage wouldn’t hurt. I have too much tile, said no farmer ever. Frost depth remains shallow, if frozen at all. A week ago this past Monday, 1” of frost was measured on bare soil at the SROC in Waseca. This was before temperatures hit below zero- and single-digit lows on November 28th and 29th. Both air and soil temperatures have warmed since that time. St. Olaf and Beaver Lake were nearly frozen over with only small areas staying open. The open areas have enlarged, and one has to wonder if the warm temps predicted will allow them to become ice-free once again. If the warmer temps and lack of snow don’t help shorten our winter, it’s at least a far cry from where we were last year at this time.
It was a busy week at the ranch continuing to get everything in place for winter. Two livestock trailer loads of small square bales were procured, thanks to help from my little fat buddy. Sure, I could’ve probably done it myself, but there would’ve been a lot less of me left to perform the rest of my tasks. Wednesday a.m. the carpenter who was putting in the basement windows came after having to punt on Monday when the low at the ranch reached 0. Helping him get his bearings and giving an occasional assist, it allowed time to unload and stack one trailer’s worth of hay. What a great job to have those windows done as I admired his handiwork while the boxelder bugs came to life on the south side of the house. The new windows should help keep them out of the basement. It’ll also mean fewer snakes, frogs, mice or even larger livestock gaining entrance to the premises.
The next day meant another load of hay in the trailer and parked alongside a load of cornstalks that had been sitting for several days. Friday could’ve been a potential day to unload and stack both commodities, but email notices for Poppy to make a vet appointment kept cropping up. An opportunity to do just that presented itself that afternoon, so away we went. More on that below. When we got back it was too late to start another major project, so Saturday became D-Day. After a morning feed run, the hay was unloaded and stacked. Once I had a little lunch, the cornstalks were unloaded and temporarily stashed under a roof, waiting to be stacked on Sunday. Thought I’d throttle it back a little. Chores were done, garbage taken to the dumpster, fall decorating tossed over the fence to the sheep, cornstalks were stacked, the hayrack hauled back to its owner, paid for the cornstalks and plopped a round bale in the yearling ewe lot. Chore time again. So much for throttling it back a little.
Cornstalks make wonderful bedding for sheep. Not a lot of people bale them in small squares, however, so was very fortunate to find some not far from home. Was first introduced to them by a former Cheviot breeder and Bandwagon star. They were crispy-crackly dry, and this year’s version was exactly that. One of the most important factors in keeping sheep healthy is keeping them dry. Damp wool prior to shearing makes that more difficult. Poor ventilation and wet conditions mean more bedding needs to be used. In order to keep ewes and newborn lambs from having respiratory issues, they have to start dry and stay dry. Sure, one can treat with antibiotics, and bedding isn’t cheap, but losing a valuable breeding animal or an entire bloodline because of negligence is a lot more costly in the long run.
The highlight of the week though was Poppy’s trip to the veterinarian. After figuring out Friday morning she needed her vaccines updated, there was an opportunity to do that in the afternoon. She’s not the greatest rider yet, but upon exiting the vehicle and seeing people, she’s anxious to meet them. Once I got her in the exam room, she became an instant favorite with the vet techs who cooed and squealed about how cute she was. After she got her shots, they also trimmed her toenails, so now she’s much stealthier. It helps her sneak up on those big, nasty cluster flies when they start buzzing around the house. The warm weather woke a bunch of them up this past week, and if they get close to Poppy, she suddenly turns into Taz. If you grab a flyswatter to assist, her bark is ear piercing. Under no circumstances utter the word “bug,” or she’ll level the place. Who knew something so cute and cuddly could instantly become a weapon of mass destruction?
See you next week…real good then.