A little graupel fell Monday after Sunday’s quickie heatwave. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the scurs are trying to dial up more springtime temps on the Weather Eye. Does Old Man Winter make a comeback or is spring in the air? Starting Thursday, partly sunny with a good chance of evening showers. Highs in the low 50’s with lows in the low 30’s. Partly sunny Friday with a chance of forenoon showers. Highs in the low 40’s with lows in the mid-20’s. Sunny on Saturday with highs in the low 40’s and lows in the low 20’s. Sunday, sunny with highs in the upper 40’s with lows in the low 30’s. Mostly sunny on Monday with highs in the upper 50’s and lows in the upper 30’s. Tuesday, mostly sunny with highs in the low 60’s and lows in the mid-30’s. Mostly cloudy on Wednesday with highs in the mid-50’s and lows in the mid-30’s. We’ll start seeing daylight on March 7th at 11 hours and 31 minutes. Daylight Saving Time (debatable) begins on March 10th, so set those clocks ahead. The daylight increases at two seconds over three minutes on the 12th. The normal high for March 12th is 37 and the normal low is 21. In case they fall off a chair eating while changing their clocks, the scurs have retained the services of Jackie Chiles. DST is outrageous, egregious, preposterous.
Last week’s warm dry weather had farmers starting to stir. There were rumors of small grain and other early spring crops going in and anhydrous ammonia being applied. Fields are in exceptional condition for any fieldwork necessary. Most are starting to get equipment ready to go if they haven’t already. Still some taking out brush in fence lines, unheard of for most years. Our February precip was well below normal with only .43” of liquid equivalent falling in town and .36” at the ranch. February snowfall was 3.3” and 2.9” respectively. The SROC at Waseca fared only slightly better with .52” of liquid equivalent and 3.6” of snow. The normal February precip for the SROC is 1.2” with 10.8” of snow. We have received right at 12” of snow in New Richland since October and 13” at the ranch. At the SROC, total snowfall so far this winter is 11.3”. Normal snowfall for the winter season at the SROC is 52.3”.
Before people start jumping off grain bins, remember we have significant moisture in the ground from after the crop was mature in mid-September and October. Also recall we had some substantial precipitation that fell as rain in December. Plus, any of the small amounts of precip we’ve had haven’t run off. We’re not long on moisture, but there’s no reason to perform recreational tillage and risk losing the moisture we have. I’ll echo Tom Hoverstad’s sentiments that with most soils thawed already, we’re in a good position to take advantage of any precip that falls until planting time. Even as dry as many believe it to be, several inches of rain followed by cooler temps could slow planting progress significantly in many areas. And, after surveying the shaded north side of our building site Monday, the frost has recently come out. It was very muddy there yet. Plenty of time. No need to be in a hurry yet. Best do it once and do it right.
It’s more fun for a while observing the positive things happening anyway. Poplar buds enlarged over the weekend. Without rain, the silver maple is dripping sap. leaving a sticky, smeary mess on the south windows of the house with all the wind. The daffodils on the south side of the house were up about 4” back on February 27th. The low that night was predicted to be cold, so I dutifully covered them with several large upside-down flowerpots. It was -2 at chore time the next morning. I was rewarded when removing the flowerpots the following afternoon. The daffodils escaped the cold unscathed. That and they’re loaded with flower buds. I also noticed a few of the radishes I planted back on January 31st were starting to emerge. Worm castings were noted by the barn on March 3rd, so they must think it’s spring too. Robins have been frequenting the yard since then. Ewes are grazing in the pasture like it’s mid-May. After Sunday’s windy conditions, the ice is out on St. Olaf Lake. Beaver Lake was similar with a tiny amount of ice still on the southeast side.
Following Sunday’s record high temperature, figured a reconnaissance mission was in order to assess the pussy willow progress. It was so windy Sunday it would’ve been unpleasant and possibly dangerous if there were any sparks, or some dry vegetation became lodged where it could ignite. Of course, getting the Gator out after it had been shoehorned into a tight spot was a challenge, but by gum you have to know these things! I got down to the wetland after chores around dusk. Even in the low light I could see my timing was about perfect. Some of the catkins were just emerging nicely where the bushes weren’t shaded. There was plenty of time, I thought as I picked a dozen or so twigs. A rooster pheasant nearly scared the bejeepers out of me after the sun set when I finished. I jumped in the Gator and pulled for home. A nice way to exhale after a busy day.
Lambing continues to grind away. 18 ewes have come in and 11 left to go. Looks like they’ll be coming in sorta sputtery fashion as the month rolls on. We’ve been fortunate with the weather and have had good success. Most of the mothers have taken exceptional care of their lambs too with one exception. She simply hated one of her twins. He was a nice lamb, so we tried to hang onto her for a few weeks to allow him to nurse, hoping the light bulb would finally come on. Normally with our flock it’s worked that way. Step out of line and, unless you’re a main cog in the machine, there’s an all-expenses paid trip to market when they don’t pull their weight. They can be replaced.
Poppy won’t be going anywhere anytime soon. She has a whole house full of toys. She plays with all of them, two or sometimes even three at a time. Never know when she’ll trot around with a ball or a kong, a binky stuck on her nose or a ring over her head. The worst thing is she leaves toys scattered all over, so it can be like walking through a field of land mines in the dark. She also continues to enjoy her people, this last weekend with one of her 4-H families. She also has groupies as I’ve come to find out. Sounds like there’s the promise of more visitors as word gets out we have a few bottle lambs to feed. Doesn’t matter. Once the bottle feeding is done, there is always plenty of time to play with Poppy. She’ll make sure of it.
See you next week…real good then.