The scurs remained high and dry as the Weather Eye foretold. Will our warm conditions and sparse precip continue or does Old Man Winter lower the boom? Starting Thursday, mostly sunny with a slight chance of evening snow. Highs around 30 with lows in the upper teens. Partly sunny Friday with highs in the low 20’s and lows in the low teens. Sunny on Saturday with highs in the upper 20’s and lows in the upper teens. Sunday, sunny with highs in the upper 30’s and lows in the mid-20’s. Mostly cloudy on President’s Day Monday with a good chance of rain changing to snow. Highs in the mid-30’s with lows in the upper teens. Tuesday, mostly cloudy with a fair chance of light snow. Highs in the upper 30’s with lows in the mid-20’s. Sunny on Wednesday with highs around 40 and lows in the mid-20’s. We’ll see 10 hours and 30 minutes of daylight on the 16th. The normal high for February 19th is 28 and the normal low is 10. The scurs will be rummaging through the woodpile in search of some oak. Gotta stay toasty while enjoying those Valentine’s Day goodies.
Recent sunshine has brightened spirits despite losing our highs in the 50’s. With the cooldown there was some ever so slight grumbling with most aware that we’ve been trending much warmer than normal. Some Februarys are simply extensions of January and if that’s to be the case this year, we would take it. I get flashback pictures on my phone from years past and even those from last February weren’t pretty. Fortunately the snow cover kept the soils from freezing deeply and added moisture to what was a dry profile going into winter. Is there frost in the ground presently? At the SROC in Waseca, the frost was out as measured under bare soil back on February 8th, only to return at 3” again on February 12th. Some winter for a week or so then it looks like a return to more above normal temps. Precip may continue to be hard to come by, however. I hear no one clamoring to move snow just for the fun of it.
The lack of snow has meant plenty of horned larks can be spotted, especially on my drives to and from Bugtussle. They’re fairly nondescript little brown birds from the windshield survey, but usually appear this time of the year in greater numbers. Some have been seeing robins, although at the ranch we haven’t had the pleasure despite all the crabapples and other fruit on the trees and shrubs. We have noted a flicker again. There was one that stuck around into early December, but it departed sometime before midmonth. We’re seeing more goldfinches again and there are some subtle hints of yellow on what are presumably males. Overall seed consumption is moving at a slower than normal pace. Warm open winter should allow birds to find food more easily, so stopping at our feeders is probably like us stopping for a Dairy Queen treat.
Shearing came off without a hitch, thanks to our faithful neighborhood shearer and the catching prowess of the garden gnome. It’s a little different from shearing I remember as a kid. The electric shearing machines were driven by a long flat belt, while the shafts that brought power to the shearing handpiece were solid, connected by U-joints. They were basically like a lightweight pto shaft. Nowadays the machines have a motor suspended from a hanger with a flexible shaft running to the shearing handpiece. Much quieter with fewer problems than when those clattering solid shaft machines would sometimes fly apart. They were a step up from using hand shears, however. As long as one cleaned the fleece off the tarp when the shearer was done and the catcher had another ovine contestant on their behind in place for him, steady progress was made. Aside from no longer using a wool box to bind small bales of wool with paper twine, that process has changed very little over the past 65 years. Neither has the good food upon completion of the task or the ensuing afternoon nap.
This time around, the shearing was nearly prefect timing. The temperature started out at somewhere around 25 degrees, and it was about 35 when we finished. We’d had five ewes come in already, but there were about 25 to go. Very little temperature stress as a result on all parties concerned. I can recall years when giving vaccinations during shearing that the vaccine would freeze in the needle. The 24 ewes and one ram were happy to go outside Saturday and they stayed outside all afternoon. Fresh air and dry bedding are two key ingredients to a successful lambing season. Monday morning more lambs hit the ground during chores. Without all the fleece to contend with, the lambs could belly up to the bar nearly at will. Prior to shearing, the ewes had been sleeping outside. With them sleeping inside at night, the extra heat given off makes for a comfortable lambing barn once the temperatures drop. When morning chores start, most of them don’t want to leave the little bowl they’ve hollowed out of the cornstalk bedding.
Poppy has assumed the mantle of little chore buddy, although you have to watch so she doesn’t eat too much foreign material. Cleaning it up after she yacks it up inside is overrated. After all these years of doing chores with bigger dogs like Border Collies, it takes some getting used to. We became accustomed to a Border Collies intense immediate response upon command. This Corgi tends to have a little more laid back attitude about that sort of thing, which can be frustrating. With our Borders, they came up to your knees or higher, so it was easy to see them. When Poppy does get to your side, her short stature makes her a lot harder to see. Many times I’ve hollered only to look down by my feet and there she is already, giving me that Corgi smile. No harm no foul.
See you next week…real good then.