The scurs were glad to get a few more days of warmer temps through early week, but some strange noises emanating from the Weather Eye have them worried. Is the other shoe about to drop or will our charmed weather lives continue? Starting Wednesday, mostly cloudy with a good chance of rain changing to snow by evening. Highs in the mid-50’s and lows in the mid-30’s. Partly sunny for Thursday with highs in the low 40’s and lows in the mid-20’s. Friday, partly sunny becoming cloudy with a slight chance of rain changing to snow in the evening. Highs in the low 40’s and lows in the low 30’s. Saturday, mostly cloudy with a slight chance of snow. Highs in the mid-30’s with lows in the low 20’s. Partly sunny on Sunday with highs in the mid-30’s and lows in the mid- 20’s. Monday, mostly cloudy with a slight chance of snow. Highs in the mid-30’s and lows in the upper teens. Tuesday mostly sunny and slightly warmer. Highs in the upper 30’s and lows in in the mid-teens. On the 7th we slip below 10 hours of daylight again for the first time since February 3rd. The normal high for November 11th is 44 and the normal low is 27. The scurs will be flying Old Glory in honor of all those who have served.

November 6th brings the Full Moon for the month, known as the Full Beaver Moon. The time of year to trap beaver and other furbearers was important as it meant a plentiful supply of warm fur for the long winter ahead. The moon also goes by the Full Frosty Moon. The Ojibwe knew this as the Freezing Moon and the Sioux called this the Moon of Falling Leaves. At the ranch we’re content to call it the Moon to Plug in Water Tank Heaters.

Harvest is nearing completion in most quarters. Corn yields continue to be generally disappointing with occasional blips over 200, but yields largely in the 160-170 range. Simply too much water in June, nitrogen loss, poor root systems, stalk rot, and a mid-September frost that caught some of the same areas that were already in trouble due to the other factors. Add it all up and it’s a season most of us are glad to be done with and get on to another one. Heading into next season, conditions for fall application of anhydrous ammonia have been nearly ideal locally. The relatively light precipitation for the past two months has led to very friable soils. Fall tillage is also progressing well and despite the fact the corn started out wet, the relatively quick end to harvest was a pleasant surprise.

Some lows in the low 20’s did indeed bring out the water tank heater in the main barn as the water would’ve been frozen solid otherwise. It also meant draining hoses in order to avoid hauling water buckets around. Luckily that was short-lived, although we know full well that won’t last. Banking the well pit with fresh bales will need to happen too before too long. The old ones make good cover for sensitive plants and decompose into the garden, enhancing the soil for upcoming seasons.

At the ranch, fall has also progressed rapidly. Carrots were harvested and being left in the ground this late they’re almost ridiculously sweet. Some of the small trees were wrapped as well as the bunnies don’t seem to care that there is still plenty of green grass they could eat. The leaves were ground up ahead of Monday night’s rain. Strong breezes allowed a few stragglers to sneak across the yard behind me. Fudgie and Ruby were both tuckered out after following the mower back and forth for much of the day. They enjoyed it as it will likely be their last tire biting and lawnmower herding session of the season. 

The dense canopy of leaves suddenly being down revealed the typical large number of bird nests left behind every fall. As we’ve mentioned before it’s no wonder it gets noisy during the spring and summer months. There is the usual collection of robin, mourning dove, chipping sparrow and grackle nests along with some that after weathering it’s really hard to tell. Probably the most interesting among all the nests is likely one belonging to a catbird. It all makes sense now. Between the dense bushes and the 40 billion mosquitoes contained in them I could never locate the reason for all the scolding. Thanks Mike for the nice photos of the catbird nest from your place this summer to help cement that one!

Probably the biggest news coming out of the ranch though is the trenching in of the phone line that was residing on top of the ground for over 13 months. Not exactly sure what triggered the sudden recent activity by the phone company. Could’ve been the irate phone call from Mrs. Cheviot. Might’ve been the scathing complaint I filed with the MN Public Utilities Commission. Or perhaps it was my less than complimentary letter including the picture of Eddie Albert talking on the phone on the telephone pole. Whatever. I could go on about the actions or inactions of the phone company, but somehow we are just relieved the debacle is over. Being able to mow the lawn straight through without moving the line or concern about chopping it up for the first time all year was a moral victory. And, seeing the cable lying alongside the road less than a week ago, having it buried again meant one less thing to worry about with winter closing in.

See you next week…real good then.

With another bonus week the scurs are convinced that the well-lubed heat control cable continues to produce warm temps from the Weather Eye. Nash-Rambler had it right! Will our good weather fortunes continue another week or is the other shoe about to drop? Starting Wednesday, mostly sunny with highs near 50 and lows in the mid-30’s. Mostly sunny and warmer with a slight chance of an overnight shower on Thursday. Highs in the upper 50’s and lows in the upper 20’s. For Halloween’s ghosts and goblins, sunny and cooler with highs in the low 40’s and lows in the upper 20’s. Saturday, sunny and slightly warmer with highs in the upper 40’s and lows in the upper 30’s. On Sunday, mostly cloudy and warmer with a slight chance of a shower. Highs in the low 50’s and lows in the low 40’s. Monday and Tuesday, partly sunny and continued mild. Highs in the low 50’s and lows in the upper 20’s. The normal high for October 31st is 51 and the normal low is 32. The scurs are tuning up the 3.8 liter six in the pumpkin orange ’74 Gremlin X, the perfect vehicle for collecting Halloween treats. Good thing there is no clock in it to set back at precisely 2 a.m. on Sunday morning.

Luckily Mother Nature gave us a treat in the way of a warmer-than-normal last half of October. Corn that everyone feared would never dry down was suddenly at very acceptable moisture levels. Even waxy corn, renowned for hanging onto its moisture and drying hard, has come down into the upper teens. Corn yields however have been fickle. Much of the corn on corn has been disappointing with yield in many cases in the mid-150 range when drown outs are factored in. Not surprisingly corn on prevent plant acres has yielded very respectably. The bias has also been towards corn yielding better as one goes east, partially because of the number of prevented plant acres but equally as important, rolling topography that allowed the heavy June rains to run off and not pond on those fields. Soybeans harvest is for all practical purposes complete but again, showed the same east-west bias as the corn yields.

The Indian summer had everyone feeling rather giddy in spite of the fact the breezes had largely taken our fall color and plopped it on the ground. Case in point being the bright yellow Norway maple leaves cascading down the road cut. The sheep are happy to see one more category of treat however in addition to the usual apple cores, peelings and misfit vegetables. There’s a distinct line where the fence divides the lawn and pasture. On the lawn: Leaves. In the pasture: No leaves. The mower will make short work of the leaves soon enough on our side of the fence, turning them to confetti for the earthworms and other soil dwelling invertebrates. 

The last of the apples were harvested Sunday afternoon. After giving away a few bushels earlier, there were still 3–4 bushels of Haralsons, a couple bushel of Firesides and about a dozen remaining SnowSweets. All have their fit and while some like their tart taste for eating raw, the Haralson is still a tough-to-beat cooking apple. They don’t turn to mush while the complex flavor comes through. The variety has been around a long time, released by the U of M in 1922. Fireside was released in 1943 and is primarily an eating apple although it is not real crisp. It makes up for that with its sweetness and also works well for baked apples.  SnowSweet is a 2006 release and is generally an eating apple that oxidizes slowly. It maintains the white flesh color as someone observed as I gnawed on one the other day. The apple can also be made into sauce but with caramel, some say they are better than (fill in the blank).

The fall birds are taking center stage more and more. More activity on the suet from downy and hairy woodpeckers as well as the red bellies. A nuthatch seems to always be on one of the sunflower feeders during daylight hours and the jays get their fair share not only of sunflowers but corn from the ear corn feeder. There are a few pine siskins hanging around too. Not sure why, but they pick at the thistle seed and leave, only to return again from parts unknown. 

The time change is upon us and not a minute too soon. I mentioned a few weeks back that the alien had struck and turns out it never left. I’ve been through numerous cycles of starting to feel better for a few days only to be dragged back down into feeling like crud for a few more. The coughing, as Mrs. Cheviot mentioned, was coming from down around my toenails. If that weren’t bad enough, no matter how much I’d sleep, I was still tired. After about a month of this nonsense, Monday I’d had enough and consulted the local doctor. As luck would have it the diagnosis was about what I figured: Walking pneumonia. Now, it sounds worse than it really is. There’s no high temp as one would have with regular pneumonia but as the name suggests, you just sort of keep going through the paces and the stuff keeps nagging you. With some wicked antibiotics and other tincture, I’m taking the gloves off so I can get back in the game. This seems to have gone on forever but there is no alternative. There are dozens of tasks to be accomplished before the snow flies. In the meantime, we get our stolen hour back for some precious extra sleep. I was beginning to think that day would never come.

See you next week…real good then.

Last week’s judicious use of PB Blaster on the Weather Eye heat control cable apparently paid big dividends for the scurs. Weather this past week was absolutely gorgeous. Will their new found remedy continue to yield results? Starting Wednesday, sunny becoming cloudy with a good chance of a shower developing after midnight. Highs in the upper 50’s and lows in the upper 40’s. Mostly cloudy on Thursday with a good chance of morning showers. Highs in the upper 50’s and lows in the mid-40’s. Then the beautiful weather comes back. Mostly sunny on Friday with highs in the upper 60’s and lows in the mid-40’s. Sunny on Saturday with highs in the mid-60’s and lows in the mid-40’s. Sunday, mostly sunny becoming mostly cloudy with a slight chance for an evening shower. Highs again in the upper 60’s with lows in the upper 40’s. Partly cloudy and cooler on Monday with a modest chance of a shower. Highs in the upper 50’s with lows in the low 40’s. Tuesday, mostly sunny with highs in the low 50’s and lows in the mid-30’s. The normal high for October 25th is 55 and the normal low is 34. In a month the normal high will be the same as the normal low for October 25th. With corn harvest upon us the scurs anxiously await the roar of Bugtussle’s very own ten-man dryer.

How our weather fortunes have improved! Progress in the fields picked up steam as the week wore on. Soybean harvest is now nearing completion in most of the area including the replants. Corn harvest has begun in earnest with moistures running in the low to mid- 20’s. Test weights have been a little on the light side with many reports of 52–53 lbs. Several potential reasons for this given the loss of nitrogen following the heavy June rains, an early frost in some areas and stalk rot, also catalyzed by the wet June weather. Standability has become an issue in some fields and as was mentioned in previous editions, one will want to stay on top of corn harvest and not be waiting for corn dry enough to put it in the bin. Travels over the weekend also revealed a potential major problem over much of Southern Minnesota. It appears we could be one 40–50 mph windstorm away from a lot more down corn.

On Saturday, with corn harvest commencing it meant getting the screening wagon back to its rightful owner for a refill. This is almost always more difficult than it should be. First the tractor wanted to be persnickety about starting. Seems the solenoid is going and it takes some finesse to get it started. Of course the skid steer that I had repaired the week before was dead as a stone. Again, after getting nothing from putting the battery charger on it and some head scratching, I remembered a 30-amp fuse on it had blown 10 years ago. It exhibited the same symptoms so after fishing around the odds and ends drawer I located a 10-year-old package of 30-amp fuses. Replaced the fuse and voila! Back in business and able to move the wagon out of the space it was cramped into. The trip to beautiful downtown Matawan was all that it could’ve been and more. The wagon trailed well and actually made it to the destination in one piece. Well almost. The piece of electric fence wire holding the chute up had broken. Luckily I always carry a spare. It’s an unwritten rule that if you borrow something and it breaks you’re obligated to fix it. The former mayor of Waldorf and his sidekick seemed pleased to see it was restored with factory original parts.

Bird migration continues to roll along. There are still lots of robins and now that it’s warmed up a little, they’ve focused their attention to the earthworms that have become more willing to some above ground. Oh sure they’re still feeding on chokeberries, but they do enjoy their earthworms. Bluebirds aren’t as plentiful of course, but their softly spoken call makes one aware of their presence. It also reminds me of the broods that were fledged both at the ranch and the kindly neighbors’. Hopefully next year will bring even more. The fox squirrels continue to give Ruby and Fudgie something to occupy their spare time. With a little help from the blue jays the little rodents have cleaned up all the acorns under our trees, eating some but probably distributing them to points unknown. Finding the flat cap from one of the red oak acorns on the patio, one can only imagine where the seedlings might turn up.

Gardening has slowed primarily due to lack of daylight hours after work. The snap peas have disappointed with only a couple rubbery pods resulting after the heavy frosts. There are still carrots to dig and they look promising. The longer they are left in the ground the sweeter they seem to be. Soil conditions are such that one of these weekend afternoons we’ll need to take advantage of that. And we’re still enjoying the last of the tomatoes while sampling more of the new spuds. One softball sized red Pontiac is enough for a whole pan of fried potatoes. Combined with onions and some fried eggs on the side, it’s a combination that always qualifies as comfort food when one runs out of ideas for a quick supper. There are still lots of apples remaining to pick too so there can be some pies and baked apples. Did manage a trade of some apples for some excellent pears. While small they were very sweet. Even after the trade it still didn’t look like we had picked any apples. 

Sunday meant a whirlwind tour to SE MN, the land of rolling hills and limestone bluffs. Taking MN 30 to Stewartville, U.S. 63 to Spring Valley and the back road to Chatfield via Fillmore is about as good as it gets. The return route west out of Chatfield on MN 30 made for an encore performance as we wound our way along the Root River valley and climbed up the Cummingsville hill. The entire journey colors were at their peak and with every turn and bend in the road, a new panorama unfolded. The red oaks combined with the flame orange maples and yellow basswood were breathtaking with contrasting green pockets of white pines interspersed. Our return to the ranch coincided with the firing up of the corn dryer at neighbor David’s. Some say that it seems awfully loud but it’s just part of the furniture. Actually it qualifies as a sleeping aid. Upon my head hitting the pillow and hearing the hum of the dryer, it’s like singing a lullaby to a baby. The evidence: Sunday evening within a matter of minutes I was out like a light. The perfect end to a perfect day.

See you next week…real good then.

With the scurs’ memory slipping, the Weather Eye from the ‘74 Gremlin continues to make them ponder: Would the heater control cable benefit from a shot of PB Blaster to help warm up the temperatures?

Starting Wednesday, sunny with highs in the low 60’s and lows in the mid-40’s. Mostly sunny Thursday with highs in the mid-60’s and lows in the mid-40’s. Mostly sunny for Friday and slightly cooler with highs in the upper 50’s and lows in the upper 30’s. Saturday, slightly cooler and mostly sunny becoming partly cloudy towards evening. Highs in the low 50’s and lows in the mid-40’s. Partly cloudy Sunday with a slight chance of a passing shower. Highs in the low 50’s with lows around 35. Monday, sunny with highs near 55 and lows in the upper 30’s. Warmer for Tuesday under continued sunny skies. Highs in the low 60’s with lows in the low 40’s. The normal high for October 16th is 60 and the normal low is 37, much the same as we see around April 20th. With daylight disappearing at roughly 2 ½ minutes per day, twilight comes a little earlier each night. We dip below 11 hours of daylight on October 16th, something we haven’t experienced since February 24th. The scurs suspect they should be looking for their ice scraper soon.

Progress was made in the fields, although it continues to be slow going. Some corn has been harvested, but it will be a while, especially with soybeans still in the field. While yields have generally been a pleasant surprise, continued heavy dews and frosty mornings made for several later-than-wanted starts to the day for soybean combining. Add to that the general unevenness and it has been a frustrating soybean harvest thus far for many. The hard frosts of the past week should help in that department, but it still takes warmer temperatures to help that come to fruition. Unfortunately our calendar is heading the wrong direction. As Mark Seeley, Extension Climatologist from the U of M points out, we have a wider range of temperatures this time of year. Sure it warms up in the daytime, but it takes a while to get there. With the longer nights, the landscape tends to cool down more. Also, our high temperature for the day tends to occur earlier on a relative basis. For instance, our maximum daytime temperature occurs from 5–6 p.m. in July. In October that happens from 4–5 p.m. and in December, it slides up to 3–4 p.m. Let’s not go there just yet.

The birds are certainly telling us at the ranch that winter will be here before we know it. The hummingbirds haven’t been back since the 4th, although we’ve left some sugar water in one feeder for the benefit of any stragglers. While the frosts have done in much of the flora, there are still lots of salvia that escaped relatively unscathed. On the 10th, some of our migrating spring visitors, namely the white throated and Harris’s sparrows, were heard and seen. One wonders if they’re the same individuals we saw in the spring but there is really no way for us to tell. The birds are transitioning from summer to fall as well. Lots of blue jays calling and flying from one feeder to the next. A red-bellied woodpecker appears daily on the ear corn and a white-breasted nuthatch frequents the sunflower feeder as I eat my cereal each morning. A handful of goldfinches still visit occasionally, the brilliant yellow summer color of the males already a distant memory. Large flocks of robins continue to make their way through, having picked the nannyberries nearly clean in just a few weeks’ time.

Gardening continues as we dug the potatoes under Ruby’s close supervision. She must think I’m going to unearth more play balls as she tenses up, ready to pounce should one of the tubers make a false move. Fudgie would rather do what most kids do this time of year and that’s roll in the leaves. The ash leaves are starting to accumulate in areas and while there are no real piles, they’re crispy and make lots of noise so it doesn’t seem to matter. Like many in the area, we’ve also picked lots of apples, mostly to give away and/or trade. The Haralson and Firesides are enormous this year and the Haralson tree in particular is loaded. Sunday we had some beekeeper customers from Eagle Bend who bought a ram and some ewes from us. Mrs. Cheviot wound up swapping some gourds, Indian corn, carrots, squash and apples for a copious amount of honey, both regular and the spun variety. Heavenly! 

Sometimes a sense of nostalgia comes over me. 40 years ago I distinctly remember the fall of ’74 when it froze early. Dad decided it was a good idea to borrow the neighbor’s single row McCormick corn binder and shock a small field. Corn shocks add a pastoral view to the land, but as anyone who has performed the task of shocking can tell you, it’s a lot of work. IH made its last corn binder in 1953, marking the end of an era. Few missed carrying the heavy bundles or were sad to see the corn binders gone. The neighbor’s model was a horse-drawn model that had been converted so it could be pulled by a tractor. It also had a bundle carrier. The bundle carrier was a nice feature allowing bundles to accumulate as one drove across the field. A rope was pulled engaging the conveyor on the carrier and dumping the bundles off in piles for more efficient shocking. Many of the binders of the day had made the next step to being PTO powered. Oddly enough, most farmers didn’t retro fit those models for horses. Apparently there was no place on the horse to attach the PTO shaft.

See you next week…real good then.