The scurs had the Weather Eye tone down the rainfall amounts, but they need to work on the frequency. Can they dial that back or are we still stuck on the wash and wear cycle? Starting Thursday, mostly sunny with a fair chance of evening rain. Highs in the mid-70’s with lows in the mid-50’s. Partly sunny on Friday with a good chance of p.m. rain. Highs in the low 70’s with lows in the mid-50’s. Mostly sunny on Saturday with a fair chance of rain. Highs in the mid-70’s with lows in the mid-50’s. Sunday, mostly sunny with a modest chance of evening rain. Highs in the upper 70’s with lows in the low 60’s. Mostly sunny on Monday with a fair chance of rain. Highs in the upper 70’s with lows in the upper 50’s. Tuesday, mostly cloudy with a good chance of thunderstorms. Highs in the mid-80’s with lows in the upper 50’s. Partly sunny on Wednesday with highs in the upper 70’s and lows in the upper 50’s. Saturday is June 1st already and we’ll only gain about another 13 minutes of daylight before the summer solstice. The normal high for June 1st is 74 and the normal low is 55. The scurs will be ordering another transport of mosquito repellent. They’re gonna need it.
Tough week to get much done in the fields with some surprise rainfall and amounts this past week. The rainfall frequency continues to leave its mark, with measurable precip being recorded on 15 out of 28 days in May at the ranch. Even though the amounts tailed off after the surprise overnight rain on the 22nd- 23rd, it continues to hamper any notions of getting corn herbicides applied. Aside from the potential for wash off, it’s difficult to see where it’s wet when the soil surface is constantly damp. Some may have areas to replant after water ponded again, but with the muddy field conditions, it’s difficult to determine that just yet. Corn looks good all things considered though, despite the cooler temps last week. Soybeans continue to emerge and are looking good as well. Here again, there were intentions to apply pre-emergent herbicides that just didn’t pan out due to wet soil conditions. Sunshine and warmer temps are in order.
Same thing at the ranch in the garden department. Too early to start mudding the garden in, although if it keeps it up, it may shift some of the intended planting. There are always things that will make it though, and once planting it starts, the garden goes in fairly quickly. When growing a lot of vine crops, it covers a lot of real estate. Tomatoes also take up a fair amount of space too, as it’s nice to have room between plants, allowing them to dry off and limit disease potential. If we decide to plant sweet corn, that too is planted in an expeditious fashion. A planter makes the whole process smoother, with rows being planted in a matter of minutes. The garden being located on a south facing slope doesn’t hurt as it seems to get going fast once it’s planted.
There are plenty of positives around the yard from a vegetation/floral perspective. Mrs. Cheviot’s pots and planters are in early summer form. They’re already on the hummingbirds’ radar. The peonies are just starting to open, and the rhubarb is huge after all the rain. All the bushes and smaller plants such as the astilbe and coral belles wintered well. Likewise with the hydrangea and burning bushes. Once the bunny guards were removed, they took off. Watering them frequently last year probably didn’t hurt. The LP tank is completely enveloped by the tiger lilies with only the lid showing. Probably the most pleasant surprise though has been the lupines. Planted three springs ago from seed, the plants were so spindly when they emerged, making me wonder if they’d ever amount to anything. After making slow progress last year, more of them are looking like they’ll be players. The clump that bloomed last year has a half dozen nice long blue flower spikes.
Looks like we may see the last ewe finally lamb after one more showed up on Sunday. There were indications that the last two suddenly bagged up. Thinking it could be a few weeks yet, it was a surprise to see a newbie during chores. Everyone is doing fine, so we’re awaiting the one we’ve been looking for, for quite some time. It’s time to get weaning done as soon as pastures and fences are ready. No sense burning up any more hay than absolutely necessary for starters. Additionally, fat, greedy brood ewes competing with lambs irritate me greatly. When they beller after weaning, it makes up for some of the times they’ve nearly taken my feet out from under me when trying to feed them. Reason 2,334 why we eat them.
Poppy was the lucky recipient of a tennis ball to play with, this time courtesy of Kristy from Krause’s. After 25 years of having Border Collies, we’d gotten away from tennis balls as they didn’t last long. Give dogs like Lucy or Ruby a tennis ball and within about 15 minutes, they’d peel the fuzzy covering off and swallow most of it. Luckily it passed through them, but you were constantly reminded when seeing yellow fuzz all over the lawn. With Ruby in particular the tennis balls didn’t last long. She had jaws of steel. Not long after she tore the covering off, she’d pop them! Not the case with Poppy. She brought the new tennis ball to me, ready to play when we first gave it to her. Within a few days, it was obvious she liked it just as much as the Chuckit balls, with only a minimal amount of chewing on the covering. She likes playing with it so much in fact, she loses it under the love seat just like all her other toys.
See you next week…real good then.