Fencelines

[MN Shutterbug]

The Beach Boys, Bachman Turner Overdrive and Three Dog Night bring back fond memories. Can't forget Abba and Led Zeppelin. I can still remember popping their 8 track tapes in and out of my car player and occasionaly getting one all wrapped up inside.

Mark, have you ever taken note of the date the hummers typically show up in late summer? I looked at a couple of my photos from 2 years ago and saw the date I took them was August 20, one day after they had reportedly reappeared in my area. I want to get out and spend a little more quality time with them this year.

[Dotch]

Well, I didn't even have an FM radio in my Vega but I had a casette deck that used to eat tapes from time to time in my burnt orange '74 Gremlin, complete with black accent decals on the side. If I'd had a Pacer like that it would've looked like a Halloween pumpkin. Must've been the Starsky and Hutch influence or something. Only AMC could've come up with a color scheme like that.

No Mike I've never written anything down as far as the dates they seem to roll through. This year we've had hummingbirds all summer so I'm not positive but they may have nested in the yard or somewhere nearby. There are some smaller models that I suspect might be the little tykes. The nectar is starting to disappear at a more rapid pace so they may be starting to move through. The greedy orioles I've mention don't seem to be letting up on it yet either. They just belch and want more.

[MN Shutterbug]

Birds belch? I learn something new every day.

Thanks for keeping this forum interesting, Mark.

[Dotch]

You love the thunder, you love the rain

The scurs got the rain forecast and even though it was parceled out it was still a welcome sight. Will we see more this week? Starting Wednesday, partly cloudy with a slight chance of a shower or thunderstorm. Highs near 80 and lows around 60. Thursday, mostly clear with highs of 80 – 85 and lows of 60 – 65. Mostly sunny becoming partly cloudy on Friday with a slight chance of a shower during the day and a slightly better chance of showers overnight. Highs 80 – 85 with lows near 65. Partly cloudy Saturday with a modest chance of showers increasing by evening. Highs 80 – 85 and lows around 60. Slightly cooler for Sunday under mostly sunny skies. Highs 75 – 80 and lows of 55 – 60. Partly sunny for Monday with highs around 80 and lows near 60. Slightly warmer and mostly sunny on Tuesday with highs of 80 – 85 and lows around 60. The normal high for August 20 is 81 and the normal low is 58. The scurs will be hitting the food stands hard at the Steele Co. Fair as a warm up for the Great MN Get Together the following week.

After going o-fer the first third of the month, some nice rains fell over the weekend. While they were metered they were still welcome. Oh sure, the gloom and doom crowd has already weighed in that it wasn’t enough to maintain the crop that’s developing out here in the field. While that may be true in some respects, maybe they’d be happier if we didn’t get any rain at all. We may not have the crop we could’ve had but then we never do. We have a better crop here than many places so we’d better be thankful for that at the very least. Personally, I love to hear some thunder and some rain on the roof this time of year. Some early planted, early maturing soybeans are pushing R6 so the heat we had during July and the first part of August really moved things along quickly. Some early planted early maturing corn showing some denting already too so the corn is on the same page. Sweet corn yields have been respectable but no record setting yields are being talked about.

The area bird watching has included the sandhill cranes once again. Almost scared the bejeezus out of me one night while I was weeding the garden. It looked like 3 small airplanes were circling over my shoulder. At night they have been holed up by the pond letting out that almost creepy hollow call. This of course upsets Ruby to no end causing her to woof loudly. With me it just causes me to tell Ruby to be quiet then roll over to go back to sleep, glad to hear them once again. Speaking of hearing birds again, the chickadees that were setting up shop in the windbreak figured out that the goldfinches were hanging at the feeders for a reason. Now the chickadees flit back and forth when they find an opening, knowing the sunflower seeds are ripe for the taking. They’re a good guide too as when the feeder gets empty, they’ll hang upside down from one of the perches, trying to get an angle on one last seed stuck in the opening. The final nest of wrens appears to be on the wing as are the last of the tree swallows in the nesting box at the kindly neighbors. It is quiet now in the morning with no wrens or robins singing, only the sound of goldfinches and hummingbirds. Fall is edging ever closer.

In the garden the string beans are about ready for the first picking. The mosquitoes that were the bane of all lawn and garden enthusiasts have slowed immensely with the drier weather. This makes it more pleasant to find those zucchini that suddenly grew from 12” to 24” overnight. The first planting of sweet corn is coming to a close. It lasted longer than I would’ve guessed given the heat. The second planting is coming on although it may have some colored kernels due to the close proximity to the Indian corn that took its sweet time to tassel and silk. Oh well, it might look more like eating a bowl of fruit loops than an ear of corn.

Was in the mob movie watching mode with such notables as Scarface and The Godfather the other day. Oddly enough, I never get the chance to watch any of these in their entirety. Someone usually calls and interrupts or I fall asleep. So with that in mind while drowsily channel surfing one night, decided to watch what I thought was a show about a mafia hit man. The show is called Billy the Exterminator and if any of you have ever seen it, you know that it has nothing to do with the mafia. As the name implies, it has everything to do with a guy looking like a biker dude from Louisiana who goes around killing cockroaches, wasps and rats as well as catching snakes, javelinas, raccoons and squirrels, etc. The show kept my interest and I couldn’t look away; must’ve watched 3 episodes in a row. Just something fascinating about watching someone getting stung or bit and coming out on top without resorting to excessive swearing and nuclear weapons.

See you next week…real good then.

[Dotch]

Oh won’t you stay just a little bit longer?

The scurs managed to scare up some light showers last week, darn light showers that is. What’s on tap this go round? Starting Wednesday, mostly clear with highs near 85 and lows around 60. Thursday and Friday partly cloudy skies, highs in the low 80’s and lows near 60 with a slight chance of rain Friday. Slightly warmer on Saturday with highs of 80 – 85 and lows again near 60. Sunday, partly cloudy, with a slight chance of a shower. Highs near 75 and lows of 55. Mostly sunny for Monday and Tuesday with highs of 75 and lows of 55. The normal high for August 28th is 79 and the normal low is 55. The scurs will be making a beeline to their favorite foot long hot dog stand on the NE corner of the Coliseum at the MN State Fair.

Crops continue to march towards harvest with much of the corn denting or starting to this past week. Moderate temperatures have helped this crop hang on but time is starting to run out. Each passing day without rain takes the potential yield down a fraction. The soybeans are in a similar predicament, having largely finished flowering. There are clusters of pods on top hanging in the balance. Given some timely rain soon, they may keep a large percentage of those pods. Without it, the opposite is likely to be true. There were still some fields where soybean aphid numbers were continuing to build after early spraying in July. It may be beneficial to check these fields just to see what the infestation levels are. Third cutting hay appears to be a short commodity as little rain falling within the last month will limit tonnage substantially.

The garden at the ranch is kicking out zucchini at such a rapid pace, I’m wondering if we should sneak them into the neighbors Harvestore. Cucumbers are showing up at a rapid pace too. Between them and the zucchini that get too large, the sheep are waiting at the fence when it looks like there may be some goodies that land on their side. The 2nd planting of sweet corn appears almost ready to begin harvesting. If temperatures remain moderate and it stays good as long as the first planting did we should have corn well into September. The string beans kicked out several gallons of beans this past week and there are more developing. The tomatoes are loaded as are the muskmelons, leading one to believe if Jack Frost stays away for much of September, there should be an ample supply of both. Apples are beginning to blush and the chokeberries are black, meaning we’d better hurry or the birds will have consumed them all.

Would appear the hummingbird migration is underway. Lots of them darting around the yard, sampling flowers such as the salvia, petunias and 4 o’clocks now in full bloom. They’re also pulling harder on the nectar feeders. The orioles have started to say their goodbyes I’m afraid. The male orchard oriole was a no-show this past week for the first time in months. Likewise with some of the more brightly colored male Baltimore orioles. There is still a gang of young of both species but the amount of jelly they’re consuming makes me wonder how much longer it’ll be before they’re gone. Makes one sad that they can’t stay longer.

Through the marvels of technology this slightly abridged column is being written while I’m on the road as part of the Midwest Pro Farmer Crop Tour. The trip out to Columbus OH was largely uneventful and there was little in the way of rainfall for much of the distance. It had just rained in Columbus prior to our arriving there however. The corn crop looked about as advertised from the road: Variable and suffering from diseases such as Goss’s wilt in addition to obviously being nitrogen deficient across much of IL and IN. The soybeans at least from the road appear to have fared better at least from a plant health standpoint although some may be behind maturity-wise if the field we plant a sample plant from is any indication. We’ll know the scoop better by the evening of August 25th after sampling fields across the Midwest.

Packing for the Pro Farmer Crop Tour it became apparent that I lack clothes folding talent. Women apparently are naturally born with this gene. When I pack the clothes usually look like they rode around wadded up under the seat in my pickup for a week. When Mrs. Cheviot packs them for me, the clothes always look like they did hanging in the hanger. Word to the wise: Always have your wife pack your suitcase. That way you can get on to bigger and better things like taking a nap to rest up for your trip, wherever it may be.

See you next week…real good then.

[Dotch]

All along the southbound odyssey

The train pulls out at Kankakee

Rolls along past houses, farms and fields.

The scurs have made themselves scarce after failing to scrape up much for rainfall this past week. Will they be able to come out of hiding soon? Starting Wednesday, partly cloudy becoming mostly sunny. Highs of 80 – 85 and lows of 65- 70. Thursday, mostly clear with a good chance of an evening shower or thunderstorm. Highs near 90 and lows around 70. Partly cloudy on Friday with a slightly better chance of showers. Highs 80 – 85 and lows 55 – 60. Saturday, partly cloudy with a slight chance of shower. Highs 75 – 80 and lows near 55. Mostly sunny and cooler on Sunday. Highs 70 – 75 and lows of 45 – 50. Monday, partly sunny with highs around 70 and lows of 50 – 55. Mostly cloudy on Tuesday with a good chance of rain showers. Highs near 70 with lows around 50. The normal high for September 5th is 76 and the normal low is 52. As of the 26th, the sun is rising after 6:30 a.m. and is setting before 8 p.m. The scurs will be celebrating Labor Day by napping while dreams of MN State Fair pronto pups dance in their heads.

After being on the road with the Pro Farmer Midwest Crop Tour for a week it’s good to get back home and see what’s transpired with the local crops. Unfortunately very little of it has been for the better. Our patented August “mini-drought” the past week coupled with a 90 degree day, followed by an 85 degree days with strong southerly winds put major stress on the crop. It hastened maturity as well. When I left, much of the corn was dented but not showing much of a milk line yet. Now in many fields the milk line is already half-way down. Silage harvest is underway and the promise of more heat this week will push corn maturity even more rapidly. A rain at this point will only help maintain the yield that is there, it won’t increase it. The soybeans on the other hand still have some upside potential, if it rains. Without it, the last pods set are likely to abort leaving the intangibles of bean size and weight to influence final yield.

Yes, another Pro Farmer Midwest Crop Tour is in the books. This was my 8th tour of duty and all in all it went pretty smoothly. Oh sure there were a few bumps in the road like the thunderstorm that hit about the time we were heading across the IN/IL border near Kankakee. As luck would have it, my rain suit and overshoes were riding around with the people who were hauling our luggage from point A to point B. After waiting out the storm awhile, we quick ducked into Wally World, grabbed some boots and another rain suit then kept on truckin’. The crop was about as advertised. The late, wet start in states like OH, IN, and IL was evident. Corn in OH was very green yet primarily because it had been put in the ground late. Much of it was still milk to dough stage so it had a long way to go. Luckily the protection afforded them by the Great Lakes helps keep the odds of a frost there to a minimum as we saw in 2009. Wet conditions following planting caused large amounts of nitrogen loss particularly in IN and IL. Planted in wet conditions, shallow root systems, along with lack of rain then being exposed to extreme heat raised havoc with yield potential. Add in a corn crop in the Western Corn Belt that had been exposed to disease, lack of moisture in addition to excessive heat and a record corn crop it doth not make.

On the soybean side, a less than perfect crop although perhaps not quite as mortally wounded as the corn crop. The soybean pods we saw across most of the eastern Corn Belt were still pretty flat and soil moisture with the exception of parts of OH and parts of IL where the aforementioned thunderstorm travelled was lacking. Insect and disease pressure were at low levels so at least it had that going for it. The area of IA we travelled through had a nice looking bean crop with plenty of pods and were true R6 soybeans.

Arriving back home and with Mrs. Cheviot at the State Fair, it was time to get back to work on some of the projects that were left dangling. The lawn was a mishmash of weeds, crabgrass, barnyardgrass and dormant bluegrass and the trimming hadn’t been done. The ranch was approaching that abandoned farmstead look. The flowerbeds and garden looked like weed control plots and there were vegetables to be harvested. Along with that, the orioles are still here as are the migrating hummingbirds so their feeders needed filling and cleaning too. It would’ve been nice to sleep after a week of driving, meetings, a time change, getting up early and staying up late as well as having microphones, digital recorders and TV cameras in your face. However it’s just not that easy after being “on” all week to flick a switch and turn it off like that, at least not for me. Must be some of that Border Collie rubbing off on me so I put my nervous energy to work. Mower blades were sharpened, the weed eater gassed up, and bags and buckets were prepared. Ruby and I were ready to rock.

The real Border Collie Ruby was again on sensory overload with all the lawnmower tire biting and hiding from the weed eater to be done. She heads to the barn whenever the chainsaw or weed eater come out of hibernation where she entertains herself by staring down the sheep. No doubt she had even more fun staying with our dog sitting friends at Beaver Lake while we were gone. Ruby made new friends with their neighbor’s golden retriever Josie. Took a little while I was told but before long, there were 2 dogs having a great time running and playing with each other. As it should be.

See you next week…real good then.

[Dotch]

But there’s a full moon risin’, let’s go dancin’ in the light…

The scurs breathed a sigh of relief after coming through with some much needed rain on Friday and Saturday. They went into hiding once again after predicting rain on Tuesday. What are the odds we’ll see more rainfall this time around? Starting Wednesday, mostly clear with highs of 70 – 75 and lows around 50. Thursday through Saturday, mostly clear with highs of 75 – 80 and lows near 55. Partly cloudy on Sunday with highs of 75 – 80 and lows of 55 -60. Mostly sunny again on Monday with highs around 80 and lows near 60. Partly cloudy becoming mostly cloudy on Tuesday with a chance of showers and thunderstorms. Highs near 75 with lows of 50 – 55. The normal high for September 10th is 75 and the normal low is 50. The sun begins setting before 7:30 p.m. on the 13th. The scurs will be glad as it is safer for them to operate wit the windows open under the cover of darkness.

The 12th ushers in the Full Moon and since it is the Full Moon closest to the autumnal equinox it is known as the Harvest Moon. Even though relatively little will be harvested by that day the period between this and the next will likely see harvest activity. This moon is called such as it allowed those early settlers to work into the evening under the moonlight. The Ojibwe called this the Rice Moon for the wild rice they were harvesting and the Sioux, concerned with the buffalo called this the Moon When Calves Grow Hair and the Moon When Plums are Scarlett. Not much different than today; it was all about food.

The benefit to the crops from this last rain were somewhat minimal depending on how much you received and what stage of growth they were in. Much of the corn was half milk line or more so the benefit was likely nonexistent in those cases. Some of the latest planted corn if one happened to receive and inch or so probably got some mileage out of it. Likewise with some of the soybeans. Some of the flat pods may have the potential to fill yet and there may be some seed size and/or weight gain as a result of the rain as well. Following the showers, there are finally some soybeans turning so we may well harvest some of them in September yet. The rain definitely showed promise in some of the pastures and hay fields.

The pasture at home greened up almost overnight following the rain as did the lawn. All told at the ranch we received a shade over ½”. The lawn will need attention again before the weekend. At Mom’s near Spring Valley, nearly 1.5” fell over the same period so the lawn there should be ready to bale by the weekend. The home pasture at the ranch has been getting shorter as the summer has progressed. However the sheep have been doing well on the native prairie portion, grazing on the warm season grasses such as yellow Indiangrass and big bluestem. With any luck we will see some fall recharge before too much longer and the cool season grasses will be more to their liking.

There are still some indications it’s not quite autumn just yet. On September 1st, there was a lone firefly still flashing us and after one of the rain showers, there was a little green tree frog glued on the outside of the living room window. Neither will likely be the case in another couple months. The barn swallows are still hanging on at the ranch although given the large flocks of swallows congregating on the wires, one of these days our little bug eating friends will fly the coop for warmer climes. The orioles have remained another week as well. There have been several mature Baltimore males this past week, some juveniles and a few female orchard orioles. They’re relatively quiet though and it’s beginning to sound more like fall with chickadee, nuthatch and blue jay calls dominating the crisp, cool air.

Ruby is in training camp for fall. The only way to get good at anything is to practice and that’s what we’ve been trying to do every night we can. At the kindly neighbors pasture we’ve been working at putting the ewes in the barn, something that needs to happen before they can be trailered back home for another season. The first night she did well after I walked with her to the north end of the pasture where the sheep like squabbling over the apples that fall out of the old tree there. Upon spotting Ruby they took off on a dead run and the chase was on. She cut them off and after a few “stop” commands, they decided she was too quick and went in the barn. The second night, she was excited when I let her out of the truck and wanted to get out on the pasture. I opened the gate for her and she took off on her own to the north end of the pasture. Within seconds the sheep were coming at me and went in the barn with minimal effort. I love it when a plan comes together.

The garden has definitely come together as there are string beans coming out of our ears right now and the carrots are as sweet as sugar. The horseradish is tempting me to dig it this fall and rightfully so. It’s great with most red meat and is a major contributor to other condiments like cocktail sauce. One of my little fat buddies and I had lunch one noon at the local eatery and the waitress there was extolling the virtues of horseradish with the special that day. “It’ll put hair on your chest!” she proudly proclaimed. Hmmm, I though to myself, this might explain a few things about some of the girls I used to go out with.

See you next week…real good then.

[Dotch]

…gonna make you burn, gonna make you sting…

The scurs have been on easy street as it’s real been real easy to predict rain: There isn’t any. Will there be any chances of precip any time soon? Starting with Wednesday, partly cloudy with highs of 55- 60 and lows falling to 35 giving us a chance of scattered frost, especially in low lying areas. Clear on Thursday with highs around 60 and lows again of 35 – 40 with yet again another chance of scattered frost in low lying areas. Mostly clear on Friday and slightly warmer with highs of 60 – 65 and lows of 50 – 55. Partly cloudy Saturday and Sunday with highs of 70 – 75 and lows of 50 – 55 both days. A slight chance of rain for Sunday night. Mostly cloudy on Monday with a chance of showers and highs around 70, lows of 50 – 55. Cloudy again on Tuesday with a chance of showers. Highs 60 – 65 and lows of 50 – 55. The normal high for September 15th is 72 and the normal low is 48. The scurs will keep predicting precipitation on the premise that one of these days they’ll be right.

Precipitation or lack thereof has been on the mind of everyone as this crop closes in on maturity. Fortunately moderate daytime and cool evening temps the past 2 weeks have helped us to make the most of the stored soil moisture and precipitation we have had. We have gone a long time without a substantial rainfall event. To put things in perspective the last time we measured an inch or more of rain on a widespread basis was back on July 16th. Since that time we have measured only 2.23” and at the Mall for Men the amount is a tad less than that. It doesn’t help matters that the rainfall we have had has come in measured amounts, needing several cracks at it to add up to a half inch. Much of the corn is approaching maturity and the frost predicted for Wednesday night should have little impact on most fields. The soybeans however are a different ballgame. Fields have been slow to turn which is a good thing from a potential yield standpoint. When it comes to a frost though, damage could be devastating if it’s cold enough and of long enough duration.

About a week after the last rain fell and greened up the pasture it turned back to brown again. Many livestock producers are in the same boat. If this drought persists and pastures don’t re-grow soon, there will need to be a lot of hay fed that’s already in short supply. The easy way out would be to liquidate the livestock enterprise which somehow doesn’t sound too bad come about January. Everyone knows that won’t happen however. There wouldn’t be anything left to complain about once a person managed to dig out of the snow banks and got to town.

The birds and insects don’t seem to mind and go about their business the same as ever. Cicadas were buzzing like mid-summer with the recent heat and there were still some fireflies yet on the 10th. There are still a few orioles yet, a male Baltimore was eating at the nectar feeder on the 11th and there was a female orchard oriole eating jelly yet on the evening of the 12th. Goldfinches are numerous and can empty the feeder that holds just over a gallon of sunflower seed in about a day. With the price that sunflower seed commands these days, I make them clean it up before more is offered at least in that feeder anyway. Hummingbirds are busy during the daytime at the nectar feeders as well as on some of the flowers in the pots, the names of which sound more like diseases than a posies. The night shift is occupied by the white-lined sphinx moths. Around dusk when the hummingbirds hang it up for the day, typically we’ll see 4 or 5 of these relatively large moths working over the 4 o’clocks.

Insects in the corn fields right now are just about enough to make your skin crawl. There are still a few bird cherry oat aphids that make a mess on your shirt and the goo they contain makes you itch. That and all the black stuff from the molds on the corn plants sticks to your skin better. There are some insects will taste test you as well. The main things that bite are the ladybug and lacewing larvae. They’re shaped almost like little alligators and the bite sometimes burns a little or stings until one wipes them off. No biggy, you just keep on truckin’. Doesn’t even leave a welt anymore.

The hot summer has necessitated that I keep a pair of shorts in the truck for days when the heat gets to be unbearable. Usually I start out with a pair of jeans on and after looking at a few fields, it’s time to change. The recent hot spell was a prime example. By 11 a.m., it was getting too warm. I’ve perfected changing to an art where step one after pulling into a field approach is to take off one boot, stand on one leg, quick slide out of one leg of the pants and put on one leg of the shorts, then slip my foot back into the boot so as not to get my sock all full of crud. Repeat step one with the other side and voila! All changed. Some have asked if I’m afraid someone is going to see me in my underwear. Nah, I find one can fool ‘em every once in awhile by going commando.

See you next week…real good then.

[Dotch]

All I see turns to brown…

While the scurs were a little off on their predicted frost temperature, the event occurred anyway. Any chance of an encore performance any time soon? Starting Wednesday, mostly cloudy with a slight chance of a shower. Highs near 55 and lows 40 – 45. Thursday, partly cloudy with highs of 55 – 60 and lows of 35 – 40. Mostly clear both Friday and Saturday with highs near 70 and lows of 45 – 50. Sunday and Monday, clear to partly cloudy with highs of 75 with lows near 50. Tuesday, cooler under mostly sunny skies. Highs 65 – 70 and lows once again near 50. The normal high for this year’s autumnal equinox on September 23rd is 70 and the normal low is 45.On the 21st, the sun will rise at approximately 7 a.m. and on the 26th, we will officially be under 12 hours of daylight, something which last occurred on March 17th. The scurs will be enjoying a closely supervised recreational fire to make Some-mores.

Dry is about all one can say about the last 2 months. A killing frost managed to bring an end to the growing season rather abruptly last Wednesday night and Thursday morning. The damage was evident around the yards and gardens and by 8 a.m. one could smell the aroma of silage from area corn and soybean fields. Not to say there weren’t areas that were hit harder than others and no question low lying areas took the hardest hit. With soils as dry as they’re been crops and gardens became easy targets. How much injury the crops sustained remains to be seen and it depends on who one talks to. Some are convinced their green as grass soybeans are still going to produce better than everyone thinks. While that could be, one thing is certain: Past experience with such events has caused a delay in maturity on the soybean crop. Those who had anticipated being all done with soybean harvest by October 1 may want to adjust their harvest schedule.

Rainfall continues to be an issue as well. Despite the welcome rainfall on Sunday and Tuesday morning, we still are running behind normal for the month. At the ranch and in the gauge at the Mall for Men, we have garnered a measly .8” for the month. There are positives in that lawn mowing is largely unnecessary and wiping mud off your boots hasn’t been an issue. The negatives are overwhelming including corn fields that are a tinder dry potential fire hazard and the pasture that has turned to brown. With the exception of the native prairie area, grass is becoming scarce and it may mean visiting with the Dubya’s about some of those year old round bales they’ve been trying to sell me for oh, say about a year.

At the ranch, we set pots and planters in the garage as well as covering the tender vegetation we wanted to save such as the tomatoes. They were just too nice and starting to bear. Luckily we had several long hospital curtains someone gave us way back when that turned out to be just the ticket. Much heavier than bed sheets, they protected the ‘maters and peppers extremely well. And we wondered what on earth we’d ever do with those old things! Mrs. Cheviot even covered the hummingbirds’ beloved 4 o’clocks and while they were covered with bed sheets, the soil there had been watered so it retained the heat better than other areas on the grounds where we hadn’t.

At first we thought the frost had pushed all the hummers south. There was no sign of them through Monday morning, convincing me they had flown the coop. Then suddenly Monday evening, I noticed the nectar feeders were down from the ¼ full mark where they’d been in the morning. Sure enough, before chores there a couple feeding on the salvia and pulling on the nectar feeders once again. They won’t stay too much longer although every day they’re here now is one day more than we thought we had. The sphinx moths on the other hand have not returned although with some warmer nights, it wouldn’t surprise me to see them working over the flowers in the bed again.

A heads up to all those who may have some squash or pumpkins remaining in the garden. You may want to check them for cucumber beetle and rootworm feeding. Seeing the petals on the sunflowers that had been so pretty in the morning all chewed to pieces before nightfall, I decided to go check the squash and pumpkins as they are frequently victims of neglect. Sure enough there were plenty of striped cucumber beetles, spotted cucumber beetles (also known as Southern corn rootworm beetles), Western corn rootworm beetles and northern corn rootworm beetles chewing the outer skin on them. Luckily they were primarily focused on the immature squash and pumpkins so a quick treatment with an insecticide quickly subdued them in a very localized manner. Harvesting some that were ripe also helped the cause.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the recent raisin bars that Auntie Mar Mar sent my way. Like my Mom’s pie and bars, I hoard them because I don’t want anyone to know I have them until after they’re all gone. With a tall glass of milk, they’re absolutely wonderful as a snack after a long writing session. Along with the garden vegetables, raisin bars make me a regular columnist. There, that ought to get me back in her good graces or at least get me more raisin bars.

See you next week…real good then.

[Dotch]

I tried so hard to stand as I stumbled and fell to the ground…

The scurs have been leading a charmed life. In spite of some of the early week drizzle, not too many complaints about the past week’s weather. If you liked that, you should love this week. Starting Wednesday, mostly sunny with highs near 75 and lows around 55. Thursday, mostly sunny with highs of 70 and lows dropping to 45. Clear on Friday and slightly cooler. Highs 60 – 65 and lows around 40. Saturday, clear with highs of 65 – 70 and lows of 50. Clear once again on Sunday with highs of 70 and lows of 40 – 45. Monday, clear with highs of 60 – 65 and lows of 45 – 50. Tuesday we see partly cloudy skies and highs of 65 – 70 with lows around 50. Our normal high for October 1 is 68 and the normal low is 42. The sun will set prior to 7 p.m. on the 29th reminding us that summer is gone for real. The scurs will be burning a little more kerosene in the lantern while reading their Star-Eagle each evening.

Some harvest activity has taken place in the area and results have been surprisingly good, especially when one takes into account the amount of stalk rot present in some fields. Corn has been running in the 180 – 200 bu./acre range with moistures from the upper teens to the mid- 20% range. Test weights have been decent as well, something we wouldn’t have guessed coming off the hot weather in August. Apparently our cool finish has paid some dividends. With the exception of some earlier maturing varieties planted early, soybeans are lagging behind as expected after the frost/freeze. Yields on those that were mature have been a pleasant surprise although the impact from the frost on full season varieties remains a major factor in what will likely be an overall disappointing soybean crop. With some fields already harvested, fall tillage has begun. Most are saying it’s pulling hard, something that should come as no surprise as dry as it’s been. Wasn’t unusual as a lad when plowing in dry conditions to jump off the tractor at the end of the field to feel the moldboards and they’d be warm.

Activity at the birdfeeders has been slower than in past weeks, something that’s not altogether a bad thing. The hungry goldfinches’ appearances have been more sporadic perhaps due to the increased number of small hawks in the area as others have noted. The orioles are a faded memory and now it appears the hummingbirds have may have joined their ranks. The last one spotted at the ranch was Friday morning the 23rd and while the flowers are still bountiful, it doesn’t appear they’ll make an encore performance. Still, with the leaves so green yet, one almost expects to see one. The ash leaves being about hummingbird size and color serve as the perfect camouflage if they are still around. The fall birds are becoming more entrenched including nuthatches, chickadees, and a male red-bellied woodpecker. The giant blue jays, about the size of leghorns are back again too for what could be a long winter.

We continue to pick away at the garden bounty. The tomatoes are finally starting to ripen and it’s not surprising they’re taking this long after seeing how green the sweet corn stayed right beside them. No manure or commercial fertilizer was used and the sweet corn was green as grass until the freeze ended the growing season. Muskmelons have been less than expected. With a later than desired planting date they never seemed to get out of the blocks. Time to dig carrots and potatoes before the weather changes its mind. Indian corn is once again the star of the show. The ears are long, filled to the tips and relatively free of insect and disease such as common smut. It’s like unwrapping a gift each time an ear is husked to reveal the wide variety of colors and unique patterns formed by the kernels. The apples have been a hit as well. The Firesides have been excellent eating and the Haralsons are blushing red so it won’t be long before trying them out in a pie or two. It’s hard to make a house smell much better than that.

Fall colors around the ranch are coming slowly. The sumac brush on the road cut is starting to turn brilliant red and the wild plums are developing a soft flame-orange tinge. Other trees are slower to change and any leaves falling on the pasture side of the fence are quickly devoured by the ewes. In the fenceline, some Virginia creeper vines are providing a sharp contrast to the still green leaves of the trees they’re climbing. Nannyberry fruit is starting to turn bluish-black and the leaves are showing the slightest hint of a scarlet turn.

With the MN sports weekend being a bust, it was time to put some rams in with the ewes at both pastures. Shadow, the older ram we had been using decided his time had come so we needed to use another ram in his stead. Shadow was aptly named as anytime you turned your back he was right there. He usually wouldn’t hit you but he’d sure make you think he could. If he did hit you, he inflicted major pain, knocking you down making it tough to get back up. The ram we put in to replace him proved to be rather obstinate about moving from his pen into the pasture with his new harem. What a fool! Ruby came to the rescue however, getting around behind him and at least convincing him she might take a hunk out of his backside. He moved the direction we wanted, allowing us to get him back inside the fence where we could regroup with another panel and force him through the gate. Dealing with an ornery critter that outweighs you by 50 – 75 lbs., is faster than greased lightning and equipped with 4 wheel drive, you need all the help you can get.

See you next week…real good then.

[Dotch]

All we are is dust in the wind…

The scurs didn’t see the above normal temperatures coming but as usual, no complaints. Will our charmed life continue? Starting Wednesday, mostly sunny with highs of 80 - 85 and lows near 55. Clear on Thursday with highs remaining well above normal for this time of year at 75 – 80 and lows of 55 – 60. Partly cloudy on Friday and Saturday with highs near 75 and lows of 55. There may be a slight possibility of a shower on Saturday but don’t hold your breath. Sunday, partly cloudy with another slight chance of showers. Highs 70 – 75 and lows around 50. Partly cloudy for Columbus Day with yet another slight chance of showers. Highs around 70 and lows near 50. Tuesday, partly cloudy and continued warm. Highs 70 – 75 and lows around 50. The normal high for October 10th is 64 and the normal low is 39. The scurs will be decorating for Columbus Day and awaiting the Full Moon on the 11th.

The Full Moon on the 11th is known as the Hunters Moon. This was the moon when the tribes of the northeast were busy hunting and putting away food in sufficient amounts to survive the long winter ahead. A feast was often scheduled on the date of the Full Moon in observance of the season. The Ojibwe called this the Falling Leaves Moon and the Sioux called it the Moon of Falling Leaves or the Moon of Changing Season. The leaves should be pretty this week but it won’t be long and they’ll be off the trees making us wonder where the growing season went.

Garnishing only .99” of precipitation at the ranch and .8” in Bugtussle proper, area harvest progress continues to move along at a rapid pace. Once again, Mother Nature has turned up the thermostat making LP suppliers moonlight as the Maytag repairman. Yields are continuing to be a pleasant surprise as is the moisture content of the corn. Funny what last week’s 47 mph wind gusts and this week’s 80 degree heat can do. About the only way to describe field conditions is dry and dusty. Combining beans without a breeze or auto steer can lead to a combine enveloped in dust making it difficult to see. Hard to recall a year where soybean plants been pulverized into an almost powder-like state. The dry conditions have also resulted in numerous fires as well so extra precautions need to be taken to clean out areas where dust and crop residues tend to collect. Monday afternoon saw two fires on the horizon and resulted in one fire call locally.

The warm temps have also made insects come out in force for one last hurrah. Last Wednesday’s warm temperatures led to an explosion of those little native pink ladybugs at the ranch and along with them lots of northern corn rootworm beetles adults. Luckily for us, neither of the species was interested in coming in the house. As quickly as they had appeared, the next day they were gone with the wind and cooler temperatures. Syrphid flies have been annoying and while some mistakenly call these hovering flies “sweat bees” they are harmless. The larvae consume loads of aphids so we can be thankful for that. Another nuisance has been the small, wedge-shaped minute pirate bug. While pirate bugs will taste test your arm and make you itch, they don’t leave a long lasting calling card. They also consume aphids and as the growing season has wound down, so have aphid populations. Saturday afternoon led to the first of the spider “ballooning” events. By evening as the sun was getting low, the gossamer strands from thousands of tiny spiders could be seen blowing in the breeze from tree trunks, grasses and fences just about anywhere you looked.

The aforementioned northern corn rootworm adults along with their little chrysomelid buddies, the striped and spotted cucumber beetles continued to attack the remaining squash and pumpkins left in the garden at the ranch. It was time to spring into action on Sunday night and rescue them from their plight and place them up closer to the house. The pumpkins and squash that the beetles had ruined soon were tossed over the fence to the sheep who were only to happy to devour them, bugs and all. The blue jays have been fingered as the culprits in taking some nasty hunks out of the apples. Again the sheep have been the beneficiaries of their criminal activity. Robins continue to move through in small groups. While there are few earthworms near the soil surface, our travelling guests enjoy dining on the nannyberries and remaining chokeberries. Think they’d be my choice too even if there were worms available.

See you next week…real good then.

[Dotch]

Now I feel the wind blow outside my door…

Another week of warm and the scurs may not have the heart to tell folks that it will change. Will it change this week? Starting Wednesday, partly cloudy becoming mostly cloudy with a good chance of showers. Highs of 70 and the low should be near 50. Partly cloudy on Thursday with a slight chance of a shower. Highs around 65 and lows dropping to 45. Friday partly cloudy with highs of 55 – 60 and lows near 40. Saturday partly cloudy with a slight chance of an evening shower. Highs of 60 and lows of 40. Partly cloudy and cooler on Sunday with highs 55 and lows dipping to 35. Mostly cloudy on Monday with a slight chance of a shower. Highs of 60 and lows around 35. Jack Frost pays a visit again on Tuesday night. Highs of 60 and lows dropping to 30. The normal high for October 15th is 61 and the normal low is 37. The scurs will be picking out their pumpkins soon for the end of the month gala.

As of the 16th we will be at 11 hours of daylight, having lost an hour and 8 minutes since the autumnal equinox. The sun will set before 6:30 on the 16th and rise after 7:30 on the 17th. Time flies when you’re having fun. The Big Dipper continues to occupy its place in the NW sky after dark as is the case when autumn is full blown. Someone asked the other day what the object was relatively low in the eastern sky not long after sunset. The answer to that would be Jupiter. In the morning relatively high in the western sky an hours or so before sunrise, Jupiter can be spotted shining brightly on the way to the barn. Probably even if you’re not on the way to the barn.

Another week of above July-like high temperatures has moved this crop beyond what anyone would’ve imagined even in mid-September for the calendar date. 99 day maturity corn planted the first week in May was coming out of the field at 12.7% moisture. Waxy corn, known for its slow drying characteristics was down to 15%. It is almost eerily quiet however with very few dryers running across the countryside even though one knows that harvest is moving along at warp speed. Moisture in the soybeans fell too. Too dry, yes but unavoidable given the circumstances. It’s simply not possible to combine all the soybeans in the area within a couple days, which is about how quickly the moisture fell from 12% to 7 – 8%. Rainfall continues to be sparse and spotty with the first measurable precip at the ranch for the month falling on Saturday at .01”. Fire danger in the fields has remained very high and for last week there were at least 5 fires noted while out and about. The light showers that fell on Monday afternoon did help alleviate it some. If we keep burning up high priced combines, it doesn’t take much anymore for even these light drizzle events to be considered million dollar rains.

Harvest at the ranch is nearing completion. The last of the squash and the gourds were harvested on Sunday. Always amazing how well some of the gourds can hide, not unlike the little fat buddies when there are honeydew projects to do this time of year. The Indian corn was picked and the ears were probably as nice as we’ve ever raised. The stalks somehow withstood the high winds and were tied into bundles allowing me to fashion them into a corn shock. I cheated of course by pounding a steel post into the ground first so those high winds wouldn’t flatten it. Something about a corn shock just says fall is here, especially when surrounded by pumpkins, gourds and Turks Turban squash.

With all the wind, leaf watching turned out to be a situation where if you blinked you missed it. Sure, there are still localized pockets of color with some oaks retaining their leaves such as the pin oak and red oak trees in our yard. Most of the area has been pretty well denuded however. The sheep don’t seem to mind as they’re busy keeping the pasture vacuumed and free of leaves.

Birds continue to move through although activity at the feeders has been slow. There are occasional nuthatches, blue jays and chickadees but no sign of the goldfinches that threatened to eat us out of house and home. It was a good weekend to take down the nectar and jelly feeders however. The orioles have been gone for the better part of month and the hummers haven’t been seen for a couple weeks now. That and the winds have emptied them for me so there’s little to dump out. Bluebirds have been migrating along with more robins. It’s not unusual to look out the window in the morning to see a robin gobbling down crabapples. In the fields killdeers are numerous and Juncos were spotted in a customer’s grove on the 6th telling me these nice days won’t last forever.

The warm weekend caused me to open the windows once again. It was downright warm in the house Saturday night so the cool breeze felt good as I hit the sack. About 6 in the morning one of those unpleasant odors wafted inside. Apparently Pepé Le Pew had either been struck by a car or was alarmed about something and nearby too, judging by the strength of the odor. It was also about the same time Ruby had been let outside for potty so it was a little touch and go when Mrs. Cheviot let her back in. No run in this time but given a Border Collie’s propensity to herd cats, birds, lawnmowers etc., it won’t come as a surprise if/when it happens.

See you next week…real good then.

[Dotch]

It's gettin' dark, too dark for me to see…

The scurs were on top of their game last week, telling us it would start to cool down. Somehow that shouldn’t come as a surprise the 2nd week in October. More fall this week? Starting Wednesday, mostly cloudy with a high of only 45 and lows dropping to 30. Thursday, mostly clear skies with highs of 50 – 55 and lows staying above freezing at 35. Warmer on Friday with mostly sunny skies. Highs near 60 and lows of 40 – 45. Saturday, partly cloudy with highs again around 60 and lows near 40. Minute chance of an overnight shower. Partly cloudy on Sunday with a tiny chance of a shower. Highs near 60 and lows around 40. Cloudy and cooler on Monday with a slight chance of a shower. Highs of 50 and lows around 30. Mostly sunny Tuesday with highs around 50 and lows near 35. The normal high for October 21st is 58 and the normal low is 34 so temperatures will be seasonal. The scurs are eyeing the candy dish sure in the knowledge it will soon be full of Halloween treats.

The area did manage to garner some rainfall this past week as well as more wind. Rainfall was extremely variable with 2” falling near Easton and only a tenth in Bugtussle proper. West of town in suburban Matawan nearly an inch was measured while at the ranch we manage to scare up .3”. At least the fire dangers have subsided somewhat although there was a fire again last Friday during some of the windy conditions. Eventually this will come to a halt once everything is in the bin or hauled to town. What a difference a week made temperature-wise though. Last weekend folks were cruising around in their shorts and this weekend it was time to break out the coveralls. Harvest progress finds many finishing up with corn, a nearly unprecedented feat. With the army of tillage implement operators working the fields seemingly right behind the combine, area fields follow the season; they get dark pretty fast.

Road construction season has been never ending in this area seems like. With Highway 30 and 83 under construction, it’s been difficult to get around easily. The harvest season plus the number of people detouring around the construction has put additional pressure on the gravel side roads. The washboards it has helped create can rattle your dentures loose and with little rain, it’s difficult to grade the roads.

Around the yard at the ranch sure signs that summer is over include the sudden bright coloring of the flowering kale and cabbage. Some prefer the purple while others are sold on the white centered varieties. It’s nice to have some of both methinks. The 4 o’clocks have pretty much thrown in the towel for the season. There is still an occasional bloom but they are small and inconspicuous. The plants have been focusing most of their time on producing the grenade-shaped seeds that usually mean lots of volunteer plants next spring. Ditto with the morning glories. Some flowers yet as the plants begin to degrade into the twisted, tangled mass that catches snow if not removed. The surprising plants include the impatiens that after a watering and a little rain, continue to bloom far past what we’re use to.

The fall birds are making a subtle return to the feeders as well. A hairy woodpecker was the most recent returnee to the sunflower feeder. The red-bellied woodpecker has made himself at home on the ear corn even though he sometimes has to wait for the squirrel to leave to gain access. The juncos are back and seem to like the fact the summer vegetation is still intact, making wonderful places for them to hide from would be attackers such as a sharp shinned or Cooper’s hawk.

What a difference a week makes. The weekend of the 8th and 9th I was manufacturing a corn shock with a pair of shorts on. This past weekend though it was s good idea to get bundled up while finishing the last of the vegetable harvest. The potatoes, onions and carrots were dug. The onions were disappointing as expected. Planting them in June was probably not a best management practice although while small in size, they still do the job when fried up with some of the new red Pontiac potatoes. Still tough to beat Pontiacs for frying. Some of the stabbing victims made it from the garden to the pan in under an hour so they don’t get much fresher than that. The carrots were exceptionally nice again this year and yielded a large washtub full. Best of all since it has been dry, there was very little soil clinging to them. Some of them were so long that they broke off in the dry hard soil when trying to extract them with the potato fork. Didn’t seem to matter when they were scrubbed up and microwaved.

Ruby got to help with the vegetable digging process. As each forkful of soil was lifted to expose the potatoes, she was right on top of it, waiting for one of those spuds to make a false move. Picking tomatoes meant a lot of watching too as some of the damaged fruit made its way over the fence to the sheep. Yes sheep will eat just about anything including overripe tomatoes. Something being thrown and sheep to watch as a result. A little red and white Border Collie can’t ask for much more than that.

See you next week…real good then.

[Dotch]

The heat was hot and the ground was dry…

The scurs made it through another week unscathed. Their forecast for tiny chances of showers were true both from an amount and odds standpoint. What’s in store this week? Starting Wednesday, partly cloudy with highs of 50 and lows of 30 – 35. Thursday through Saturday, clear skies with highs around 50 and lows near 30. Sunday, partly cloudy and slightly warmer with a small possibility of a shower. Highs of 55 and lows of 35. Mostly sunny on Halloween Monday, warmer again with highs near 60 and lows around 40. Tuesday, mostly cloudy with highs once again near 60 and lows of 40. The normal high for Halloween is 51 and the normal low is 30. The scurs foresee no repeat performance on the 20th anniversary of the Halloween Blizzard for trick or treaters.

Harvest continues to streak towards the finish line. Some anhydrous ammonia has been applied and like anything else, if you’re the one doing it, it went on perfectly. If you’re not, it probably is too early yet. Some areas did receive more rain than others in the October 13th rainfall event so it is quite variable. Soil moisture continues to be a question mark though as the hard soil conditions particularly on the higher, lower organic matter parts of fields are making it difficult for tillage implements to penetrate to full depth. With little rain falling one may want to be a little picky about where and when ammonia is being applied. As one who spends many hours afield this time of year, even where more rain did fall, there are still places the soil is extremely hard and anecdotal evidence from those doing fall tillage tends to make me believe I’m not seeing things.

What I am seeing fortunately for the pheasants, both of them, is a lot of corn on the ground behind the combines. Some are in denial that there is much field loss. Given the extremely dry corn and ear droppage that occurred when the snapping rolls grabbed the stalk along with the whirring chopping corn head blades, it makes one wonder why there wasn’t more in some cases. It doesn’t take much corn to add up to a significant loss. For instance, if you see only 4 kernels per square foot on the ground, that’s almost 2 bushel per acre. In many cases this year, it’s not unusual to see 10 – 20 kernels per square foot.

Rainfall continues to be a concern. We are far short of what we’d normally expect at the ranch with only .37” of precipitation falling thus far. In town it’s even worse with only a tenth for the month. Last week’s report from the SROC in Waseca summed it up nicely when they reported they were at only 42% of field soil moisture capacity or about 5 inches less than we would expect for this time of year. Dryness abounds.

It has been slow at the ranch on the bird watching front lately but there were a couple rooster pheasants that flew out of neighbor Mark’s corn as he was harvesting the other day. His grove is one of the nicest in the area when it comes to winter shelter for them. Made me feel good to see they were still around. Once the corn is off there always seem to be more pheasants out there than we once thought on this side of Bugtussle anyway. Oh sure we still have a few chickadees, juncos and blue jays along with the occasional smattering of a goldfinch or two but certainly nothing like we had in August. TP has reported similar findings at her feeders in town. Give them time. With a colder and wetter winter predicted it won’t take long if that happens for many birds to be looking to press the “easy” button. The squirrels have already done that. Putting some of the ear corn collected out in a feeder last week, the one lone fox squirrel made the first couple ears last several days. Replacing it one morning, I was shocked to see it all gone the next morning. Deer perhaps? The following morning there were 3 fox squirrels taking turns so it came as no great shock that the corn was disappearing as fast as it was.

Sunday finally meant a long awaited trip to Mom’s with Ruby in tow. Luckily Ruby had worn off the powerful odor of whatever it was she rolled in earlier in the week. She definitely earns her nickname, Stinkpot, when that happens. It was our annual vegetable delivery trip, taking some of the bounty we have been blessed with to share. We brought a sampling of most of what we produce including Haralson and Fireside apples, Pontiac and Norkotah potatoes, 3 kinds of squash, carrots, Indian corn and gourds. Since we had recently butchered lambs there were also some packages of that to be shared. Ruby and Fudgie were off for their run around the yard. When it came to deciding what to fix for dinner, there was plenty to choose from so I grilled some lamb steaks while Mom cut up some carrots, micro waved some squash and baked a couple potatoes. There was already a pie baked when I arrived so the aroma was enough to make anyone hungry. Can’t top Mom’s apple pie with the brown sugar crust with plenty of cinnamon and some ice cream on top. Apple pie just isn’t apple pie without both. Best of all I got to take the rest of the pie back home along with a freshly baked loaf of banana bread as well as a bag of pretzel M&M’s. Think I got the better end of that deal.

It will soon be time for the little fat buddies to start their winter training sessions. The chairman of the board seems to be mired in tillage operations at this point so we’re waiting until he gets that out of his system. In the meantime there will be plenty of tales about the wild cropping season we’ve just been through and the endless honeydew lists that await the little fat buddies after they’ve made all their daily scheduled appointments. There are also likely to be lots of goodies with Halloween and the church bazaars (or is it bizarres?) to supply us with nourishment for the long winter ahead.

See you next week…real good then.

[Dotch]

And the leaves that are green turn to brown

The scurs keep predicting relatively dry conditions and with this kind of accuracy, it makes them want to buy some lottery tickets. Will their luck hold another week? Starting Wednesday, cloudy with a good chance of rain. Highs of 40 - 45 and lows of 25. Mostly clear on Thursday with highs reaching 45 and lows dropping to 30. Mostly sunny and warmer for Friday with highs of 50 and lows around 40. Another slight chance of rain for Saturday with cloudy skies, highs of 50 and lows near 35. Mostly clear on Sunday and Monday with highs reaching 45 - 50 and lows around 30. Mostly sunny Tuesday with highs of 45 – 50 and lows near 30. We slip below 10 hours of daylight on November 7th. Incidentally the normal high for November 7th is 46 and the normal low is 27. The sun will set before 6 p.m. on November 5th and through the wonders of government intervention in our personal lives, it will magically set at 4:58 p.m. the following day. Then, after rising at 7:59 a.m. on the 8th, it will rise at 7 a.m. on the 9th. The scurs will be hiding their Halloween booty to avoid paying capital gains while waiting to set their clocks back at 2 a.m. on Sunday morning. It’s a long time yet until Thanksgiving.

Yes it’s time once again to set those clocks back and put the time change folly to bed for yet another year. Our bodies will respond in kind to having an extra hour to play with, generally positive and exactly the opposite of how they respond when we are shorted an hour in the spring. The data are quite clear on this point. With more and more research indicating that sleep is more important in a healthy lifestyle than was once thought, it is time for our elected officials to quit messing with the clocks and our health. Someday someone is going to look back and say to themselves, “Hey, he was right.” That is if they ever have time enough to stop diddling around text messaging, Tweeting and playing on Facebook to read it.

Fall harvest should be all but complete in this area by the time it reaches the press on Wednesday. Yes there may be a few who aren’t completely done but there isn’t any award for being done first. The worst thing about people being done this early is they have a lot of free time on their hands. That free time can be a dangerous thing when it comes to recreational tillage. Working these dry fields down this fall could lead to dust storms of the Great Depression proportions if we’re not careful. Leaving them in a somewhat roughened state may not only help stop soil from blowing it may also catch more snow, something that could become more important if we don’t start getting precipitation soon to replenish our stored soil moisture before winter. Speaking of precipitation, in the SROC’s final installment of their Crop Weather Update for the season, it was noted that this has been the driest August-September-October period since they began keeping records in 1915 at 2.22”. At Bugtussle in the official Mall for Men rain gauge, we fared slightly better at 2.3” At the ranch we tallied a whopping 2.53” for the same timeframe. We must be living right.

The pockets of color remained through much of last week although when the thermometer dropped to 25 at the ranch on the morning of the 29th, things began changing more rapidly. Some of the green leaves still on the trees were suddenly in a free-fall and the sheep of course were loving that. The pin oak and northern red oak leaves went from a deep red to a dull red in a matter of a day. It won’t be long and the leaves on the red oak will fall off and the leaves on the pin oak will be a rusty brown, hanging on until spring. The Autumn Blaze maples around town added some late color to the boulevards of Bugtussle even though they too were starting to fall on Saturday, making those who are obsessed with their lawns perhaps a bit perturbed. Even some of the hard maples that stay green then brown when it freezes then lose their leaves are showing some color this fall. What an odd year it has been.

We sold a ram that we weren’t sorry to see go on Saturday. Weighing in at around 250 lbs., he was a big, muscular, brute as Cheviot rams go with a penchant for jumping over panels and getting into places he didn’t belong when penned up. He had an attitude and wasn’t real pleasant to deal with when it came shearing time either. Knowing he was a pain to handle we had limited his escape routes and had a stout wooden panel he’d think twice about jumping over ready to move in behind him in the alleyway. When we opened the pen he came out in a hurry as I grabbed the panel. He decided to suddenly turn on me and wouldn’t have thought twice about trying to flatten me with the panel on top. About that time 30 lbs. worth of Ruby had crawled under the trailer and sprang into action. Diverting his attention, she got in behind the bruiser and drove him toward the trailer. This allowed me to move expeditiously with the gate, severely limiting his options. In the trailer he went as we looked at each other in disbelief when Mrs. Cheviot slammed the door behind him. We expected to be winded after chasing this ram around the yard for a half hour. Instead we were ahead of schedule and able to enjoy a breather thanks to the little dog’s bravery. Maybe that dog food and treat expense is worth it after all.

See you next week…real good then.

[Dotch]

If I get there before the snow flies, and if things are going good…

The scurs may have missed the snow in the forecast but as of this writing, it remains to be seen whether the weather will rinse us off a tad or continue to dry clean us as it has become fond of doing the past several months. Starting Wednesday, mostly cloudy with a slight chance of showers in the morning with skies clearing in the later afternoon. Highs of 40 and lows around 25. Thursday, clear skies with highs back to 40 and lows once again near 25. Clear skies again on Friday and warmer, marking the start of another warming trend. Highs of 45 and lows of 30. Partly cloudy on Saturday and warmer with highs of 50 and lows of 40. Partly cloudy becoming cloudy by evening with a slight chance of an overnight shower. Highs near 50 and lows around 35. Cloudy on Monday and continuing warmer than normal. Highs of 50 and lows once again staying above freezing at 35. Remaining cloudy on Tuesday with a chance of a shower. Highs staying near that 50 degree mark with lows around 30. The normal high for Nov. 11th, Veterans Day is 44 and the normal low is 25. The scurs will be flying the flag in honor of those who fought for their rights to freedom of the press.

The 10th brings us the Full Moon for the month and it is named the Full Beaver Moon for the trapping that was part of the fall ritual for the fur traders this time of year. It is also a time of year that beaver are actively storing up food for the long winter ahead. It is also known as the Full Frosty Moon. The Ojibwe called this the Full Freezing Moon and the Sioux knew it as the Moon of Falling Leaves. They likely weren’t too worried about the impact the leaves would have on their lawns.

Around Greater Bugtussle, there are a few remaining trees exhibiting some color, most notable among them being the hard maples that are bright yellow this fall. Surprisingly enough the strong winds didn’t manage to totally dislodge all the leaves from their branches and Monday morning it was still interesting to look at the trees, some still stubbornly clinging to their autumn cloak of many colors.

Jupiter is still a fixture in the sky both morning and evening, showing up at dusk in the east and shining brightly as the most prominent feature aside from the moon. Now that the time has changed, we’re not seeing it in the morning in the western sky as easily because it’s light out. Check an hour earlier however and it can still be seen, cloudy weather aside.

The birds are starting to return in slightly greater numbers now. There are half a dozen goldfinches making regular daily appearances and the red-bellied woodpecker has made herself at home with the ear corn. More blue jays are announcing their presence and some house finches are becoming common guests. The nuthatches have been loyal visitors and have company as downy and hairy woodpeckers help themselves to the sunflower seeds. Of course, the juncos are always present, ready to clean up under the feeders, especially where the squirrels have essentially made cracked corn from their corn feeder.

The Orange Army took to the woods and fields this past weekend. It didn’t sound like there was much gunfire however so most of the deer were safe. It shouldn’t come as much of a surprise as it was extremely windy both Saturday and Sunday. Like most wildlife, deer tend to stick close to cover and don’t venture forth any more than they have to. Not being able to hear something coming eliminates one of the tools they use to escape predators. This is also why the little fat buddies are holed up at the Mall for Men during inclement weather. In addition to forestalling a honeydew list, there are usually cookies to be consumed.

One might think the gardening season is over with but there are still some winter radishes yet to be harvested. The snap pea planting turned out to be about like the rain needed to make them a success, disappointing. There were a few pods on the earlier varieties but they were pretty rubbery by the time they were spotted. The frost and dry weather had already taken their toll. The winter radishes that have been sampled while small certainly pack a punch. They’ve fared slightly better than the peas with the dry weather but if I had it to do over again, I’d opt to plant both crops a week or so earlier to take advantage of any rainfall in the earlier part of August.

There are still a lot of things to be done at the ranch before the inevitable sets in due to some of the as yet imaginary precipitation that’s been forecast. On the way out to do chores the other night I heard something go zipping by my feet in the shadows. A bunny was making tracks as fast as he could for the electric fence with Ruby in hot pursuit. That reminded me that I needed to get the tree wrap on some of the small trees that were planted or they’ll be cottontail candy. Of course if we get 24’ of snow like we had in 1936 as the white bearded Cockshutt owner points out, my problems will be solved. I may be tunneling under the snow to get to the barn like they purportedly did, but at least the bunnies won’t eat my trees.

See you next week…real good then.

[Dotch]

Run, rabbit run…

The dry cleaning continues as the scurs predicted although we did manage to scrape together a couple hundredths at the ranch on Sunday. Are we looking at any more rainmakers in the near future? Starting Wednesday, partly cloudy with highs of 35 – 40 and lows dropping to 20. Partly cloudy on Thursday and slightly warmer. Highs of 40 – 45 and lows of 30 – 35. The nicest day of the week should be Friday with partly cloudy skies becoming mostly cloudy by evening with a slight chance of a shower. Highs around 50 and lows of 35. Mostly cloudy Saturday with a fair chance of a rain. Highs around 50 and lows near 35. Partly cloudy on Sunday and colder. Highs of only 30 and lows of 20 - 25. Partly cloudy on Monday with highs of 35 and lows around 20. Partly cloudy and warmer on Tuesday with a slight chance of showers. Highs 35 - 40 and lows near 30. A sneak peak at Thanksgiving Day looks mild but mostly cloudy. Highs of 35 and lows of 30. The normal high for November 19th is 39 and the normal low is 21. The scurs are busy thawing their deluxe turkey from Wagner’s in the fridge.

There is still some anhydrous ammonia being applied here and there although the days for that are likely numbered. That and fields where it works adequately are becoming fewer and farther between. It has been a struggle this fall all the way around when it comes to tillage. With the dry soils, wear and tear on equipment has been ferocious. Snapped bolts, shanks, springs and plow lays wearing rapidly have been a hallmark of one of the driest falls in recorded weather history. Worst of all, there appears to be no relief in sight, making it likely that we’ll go into freeze up with very little moisture in reserve for next years crops. Counting on snowfall for much help is probably wishful thinking. Living from rain to rain with a crop teetering on the edge of starving for water is nerve-racking to say the least. Oh well, as predicted, it will rain again. Put your money on roughly 10” somewhere around April 14th.

The wind has also been a factor this fall. It is either dead calm or it’s gale force winds howling with not much in between. When it was calm, the maple lost its leaves in the road ditch and they cascaded down the road cut, giving the appearance of a lemon-colored waterfall. The wind has played to my advantage however. The leaves I was convinced needed to be ground up with the lawnmower have largely disappeared so there’s no need to do that. And of course any that happen to bounce their way across the lawn into the sheep pasture are quickly devoured by the woolies.

It’s getting time for one last push to finish fall work at the ranch and to button things up for winter. The nice weather over the weekend presented a wonderful opportunity to change over to winter oil in the skid loader. It’ll be barn cleaning time any day so it’s always a good chore to have done prior to that. Repairing the last of the storm ravaged hay mangers was another activity to check off the list as well as piling up some of the storm related brush that had accumulated. The perpetually burned out light in the barn caught my eye too. Up the ladder I went with bulb in hand only to discover another of the “Made in China” marvels was broken off at the base inside the fixture. Gee, what a shock.

It also was a good time to harvest the winter radishes, some of which turned out about the size of pullet eggs. They were nothing compared to some of the baseball-sized bulbs raised by Shannon Schoenrock’s uncle but they were adequate. What was disturbing though was the fact the rabbits had chewed the tops on some of them right into the ground. They had treated the snap peas rudely too although since there was primarily foliage and not much for pods it really didn’t hurt anything, yet. It did make me think about the new crabapple and pear trees we’d planted however. From those observations one could deduce it was time to wrap and water them before matters got away from us. Not much for green tissue to munch on so those little trees were apt to be first on their menu. The rabbits may be on our menu if they don’t knock it off.

Birds were more numerous at the feeders this past week. More goldfinches as their numbers have swelled to nearly a dozen. They are particularly fond of the sunflower at this point, probably because the wind doesn’t blow them off the feeders as easily as some of the thistle feeders that become parallel with the ground. Seems to be more blue jays and woodpeckers too, leading one to believe that wintertime is just around the corner.

Looks like we’ll be hosting Mom and Fudgie again this year for Thanksgiving. Should be a good time to relax, watch the birds at the feeders and do as little as possible other than gorge ourselves. It’ll be time for the tossing of the pumpkins as we ready ourselves for another Christmas holiday season. The Cheviots are always appreciative and make short work of the pumpkins and out of code squash, if they’re not too frozen that is. Of course it’s not quite the same when auntie Mar Mar is absent. I think her activities in the Chaz Bono fan club must be taking up most of her free time these days. That’s too bad. Always looked forward to those blueberry bars...

See you next week…real good then.

[Dotch]

We left for Frisco in your Rambler…

The scurs got their ducks in a row although the Saturday rain turned to greasy skid stuff. No matter, it was precip and it should be gone by the time this hits the streets. More importantly, what’s in store for Turkey Day? Starting with Wednesday, mostly clear with highs near 50 and lows around 35. Mostly clear Thanksgiving Day with highs reaching 55 and lows of 40. Partly cloudy on Friday with a slight chance of a rain shower. Highs once again of 55 and lows of 35. Mostly cloudy on Saturday with a chance of a rain/snow mix in the morning and a chance of rain in the afternoon. Highs around 40 and lows of 25. Mostly sunny on Sunday with highs of 35 – 40 and lows of 20 – 25. Monday, mostly sunny with highs of 40 – 45 and lows falling to 10 – 15. Mostly cloudy on Tuesday with highs of 30 – 35 and lows of 15 – 20. The normal high for November 24th is 36 and the normal low is 19. For the 24th we will see 9hours and 21 minutes of daylight. The scurs will be firing up the Weber by the crack of 10 a.m. so the turkey will be nice and golden brown by noon.

As mentioned we did see some precipitation over the past weekend and even if it was in the form of snow, it still counted. At the ranch, it amounted to .11”, the most precipitation recorded since October 13th. It was enough to get highway crews out spreading car carcinogens (salt) on area roads although by afternoon most roads were relatively free from snow and ice. Most fieldwork is complete although there is still some manure being applied and an odd anhydrous rig being spotted here and there. Soils remain dry and we may be at the mercy of the spring rains to recharge our soils before plating season.

Barn cleaning has commenced at the ranch. Saturday was just a tad nasty to sit out on a tractor without a cab so oil was changed and the heat houser was attached. In other words you have me to thank for the warm up! At least I didn’t have to put the chains on to get out to the field through the snow like last year. Sunday brought about a nicer day from a precipitation standpoint so it was time to tear into ‘er. As usually happens it takes almost as long to get everything ready and move stuff around as it does to actually clean the barns. Everything needs to be hooked up, adjusted and get its annual greasing and lubing. This in addition to noting how bad things are leaking here and there. While I know the equipment probably came greased, it still makes me feel better if it gets done. There was still enough daylight after all that to allow 5 monster sized loads with probably 3 more to go in the rest of the large barn. Who knows, if people leave me alone long enough during the early part of the week, one just might be able to sneak in a couple more loads. Just can’t get enough of that barn cleaning I tell ya…

While out with a load of nature’s finest, I spied 3 pheasants, 2 roosters and a hen. The roosters came out of the new tree planting and the hen was in some brushy habitat in the fenceline. It was good to see them as there has been some question as to whether pheasants even exist anymore. Not much new in the bird department otherwise except that the chickadees have been AWOL for a few weeks now. It could be the leghorn-sized blue jays scared them off. It’s probably getting about time to put out some suet soon. The starlings should have found someplace else to eat by now and if they come by here, they face increased odds of eating some lead. After the leaves dropped it became apparent why we have so many squirrels: We have 5 or 6 squirrel nests. They haven’t started tackling the ear corn as rapidly as one might expect and are content to clean up under the sunflower feeders instead. Their main function is still to drive Ruby nuts with their treetop acrobatics.

Once barn cleaning has been completed it will be time to work on the Studebaker Lark again. It’s inside the heated garage this winter where it can be worked on in comfort. Parts are accumulating so hopefully once it’s running, the restoration project can get underway. The most recent addition was a NOS (new old stock) air cleaner found in CT from some Studebaker swap pages. It was a lucky find. As anyone who has restored a car can attest, one of the first parts mice will destroy is the air cleaner body. They love to stuff them full of things like seat cushion material and as a result of their occupation, the mouse pee corrodes the bottom out. Sometimes it can be repaired with JB Weld but some are just plain ruined. To find one still in the box unused, especially for a car as old or as rare as a Studebaker is a little unusual. However, it fits the mold.

Studebaker was an unusual automobile company. Some looked down their nose at the company because they tended to make products either ahead of their time or behind the times. The Lark fit into a time where the country was in a recession and people were looking for an economical automobile. Cashing in on what the Rambler had started, the Lark took the automobile market by storm in 1959 and put Studebaker into the black for the first time in many years. It apparently got the Big 3’s attention for it wasn’t too long and products such as the Ford Falcon, Plymouth Valiant, Mercury Comet and Chevy Corvair began hitting the roads hoping to re-capture the market share they had lost. Unfortunately for Studebaker the Big 3 succeeded. Combined with some bad luck and blunders in management, it marked the beginning of the end for Studebaker. By December 1963, the plant in South Bend IN was closed and automobile production was moved to Canada. In 1966, the company ceased manufacturing automobiles. I still think it would be a good idea as my bumper sticker says to “Bail Out Studebaker”! It would sure make it easier to get parts.

See you next week…real good then.

[Dotch]

But Oz never did give nothing to the Tin Man, that he didn’t, didn’t already have.

After pulling away from the Thanksgiving dinner table the scurs fell into deep slumber only to be awakened Friday night by the pitter patter of raindrops on the roof. Will we see more liquid precip or are our options about to dramatically change? Starting Wednesday, mostly sunny becoming partly cloudy in the afternoon. Highs of 40 – 45 and lows of 25. Thursday, mostly cloudy with a slight chance of snow in the morning and a chance of snow in the afternoon. Highs near 35 and lows around 15.Mostly sunny on Friday with highs reaching 30 and lows around 20. Partly cloudy Saturday and Sunday with a slight chance of snow both days. Highs 30 – 35 and lows around 20. Monday, partly cloudy and cooler. Highs of 25 and lows of 10 – 15. Tuesday, mostly sunny and cold with highs of only 20 and lows near 10. The normal high for December 1st is 33 and the normal low is 15. The scurs have solved all the problems associated with Black Friday shopping. It’s called Black Christmas Eve shopping.

We did actually receive some liquid form precipitation this past week on Friday night/Saturday morning. At the ranch we recorded a whole .22” and in the rain gauge we’d forgotten to bring in at the Mall for Men, there was a strong .2”. In town we’ve shattered the previous month’s precip record by a tenth and at the ranch we’re within a couple hundredths of catching up to October’s precipitation. It still hasn’t done anything as far as contributing to soil moisture recharge but at this point, beggars can’t be choosers. Some have asked the burning question: With the soils as dry as they are, will the soil tend to freeze more deeply or shallower than we’d expect under more typical fall soil moisture going into freeze-up? I put this question to someone who would know, namely MN State Climatologist Mark Seeley. The answer: “Research shows that the dry soil will freeze deeper in the absence of snow cover than wet soil.” There ya go.

The recent light rains did make it less dusty in the fields of course. Amazingly though it didn’t even track mud back out of the field when hauling out the last of the main barn’s manure at the ranch. That was another mission accomplished. Who knows, we may even get the sheep back from the kindly neighbors pasture before they take their Christmas lights down. Seems like I get a little slower at doing it all with each passing year. It sure feels that way after barn cleaning too. Trying to move around the next day reminds me I’m not 18 anymore. I feel more like the Tin Man in the Wizard of Oz asking for my oil can.

Before Thanksgiving last week there was already a rash of Christmas decorating as evidenced by the holiday lighting on an evening drive. Too early I thought although with the warm temperatures it was understandable. Still, it’s hard to get in the festive spirit with the fields bare and lawns brown. No hurry, there’s plenty of time to get some snow and brighten the landscape. As most winter forecasts agree, we have an above normal probability of a colder and wetter winter than normal.

Mom visited for Thanksgiving and we made it all the way and back to Spring Valley in the Soccer Mom van all in one piece. I even went sans my driving wig as I figured if someone saw me they’d figure the van belonged to Mom. The highlight of her stay was probably the trip to the store that carries everything that the store where you go to the bathroom in the big orange silo doesn’t. Still don’t know how Jim does it but am sure glad he does. Thanksgiving Day itself came off with only one major hitch: About the time I was ready to head for the sliding glass door and out to the grill, the bottom of the blender containing the basting sauce for the turkey gave way, spilling a half gallon of 7 secret herbs and spices all over the kitchen floor. With her cat-like reflexes, Mrs. Cheviot quickly started mopping up the mess and I got the food processor out in an attempt to create another batch of sauce before the turkey progressed too far. Got out there just in time as the bird was beginning to turn a nice golden brown. After narrowly averting that disaster, the meal was exquisite, thanks to Mrs. Cheviot’s diligence in preparation and patience with Mr. Cheviot.

We were also blessed with Auntie Mar Mar’s presence after all on Thanksgiving, even though there were no blueberry bars. She did arrive in time for the annual dumping of the pumpkins however. A little disappointing though because the sheep that usually spend the afternoon chasing them as they roll down the hill weren’t cooperating. They were content to lie around the lot chewing their cuds. The pumpkins really didn’t roll either as they’d lost much of their integrity. Being thawed out and flattened on one side will tend to do that. Not to worry, the sheep found them the next morning and within a few hours reduced them to a scattering of orange scraps.

Mar Mar to the rescue on the blender; a Black Friday special at the store that has less fishing tackle than Betsy’s Dad had one to replace the 30 year old model that had succumbed. Mar Mar had to take one for the team on her shopping venture though. Her nephew Ben devoured the leftover turkey we’d sent with her while she was in the store.

See you next week…real good then.

[Dotch]

Looking at you I can read your mind…

The scurs slight chance of snow on Saturday turned out to be our first major snowfall event of the season. Will we add to the accumulation or are the snow gods content with this amount? Starting Wednesday, partly cloudy with highs of 25 and lows of 15. Thursday, partly cloudy with highs around 20 and lows of zero to 5 above. Mostly clear and cooler on Friday with highs of only 15 and lows again of zero to 5 above. Warmer on Saturday under clear skies with highs of 25 and lows near 20. Mostly cloudy and warmer on Monday and Tuesday with highs of 30 – 35 and lows of 20 – 25. On the 10th we slip below 9hours of daylight with sunrise at 7:37 a.m. and sunset at 4:36 p.m. The normal high for December 10th is 29 and the normal low is 11. The scurs will be retrieving the Festivus pole from the crawl space and readying themselves for feats of strength.

Winter has come to Bugtusslians one and all. Snow covers up the ugly brown and gray as well as brightening the landscape. This past weekend’s snowfall generally brought accumulations of 4” – 6” of wet snow. It came down gently though and blew around very little after falling. The moisture content of the snow was welcome, with .38” worth of water being melted out of the snow at the ranch. The new snowboard for measuring snow and determining moisture content associated with it saw its first use of the winter. It proved to be more accurate than just catching the snow in the gauge as in the past. The more accepted official method is to place a piece of board 16” x 24” on the ground in an area where it is representative, avoiding trees and buildings yet be somewhat sheltered so the wind doesn’t blow the area clear. Using the gauge as a cookie cutter a “biscuit” is cut out of the snow accumulated on top of the board then melted down to be measured. How much more accurate is it? Just a for instance when comparing the 2 methods of measurements, only .27” of water was melted out of the gauge located in its usual position. Over the course of the winter, those differences can add up.

There are lots of things happening astronomically this month not the least of which is the Full Moon on Dec. 10th. This Full Moon is known as the Full Cold Moon, the Full Long Nights Moon or as the Moon before the Yule. The Ojibwe called this the Small Spirits Moon while the Sioux referred to it as the Moon of Popping Trees or the Moon When Deer Shed Their Antlers. At the ranch it is the Moon Where We Don Longjohns.

After consulting with Vista’s noted Swedish astronomer, it turns out there are lots of planets to be viewed this month as well. Jupiter continues to be prominent in the eastern sky at dusk and remains visible most of the night. It sets in the west in the early in the morning. Jupiter however has been upstaged by our sister planet Venus and is the brightest object in the evening sky other than the moon. Check low in the southwestern sky at dusk and it should be easy to spot. As the month wears on it will rise higher in the sky and by the New Year will shine for 2 ½ hours after sunset. Mars and Saturn are also visible, with Mars rising in the east just before midnight and Saturn in the southeastern sky well after midnight. Saturn’s rings have opened to about 15 degrees from horizontal so this is a good time to view the planet with a small telescope. As the noted astronomer and I discussed, it would probably a good time to awaken your wife or girlfriend (but not both at the same time) so they can enjoy the planets too.

It has been the time of year to sell off this year’s lamb crop and bring the feed bill back down to reality. The lambs were fairly cooperative about loading but as is sometimes the case, a couple of the buck lambs we held back decided staying in a pen wasn’t their idea of a good time. Upon arriving in the barn for chores that night, I noted neither was in their pen. Of course they were in the pen with some ewes we’d kept open. Doing it all, I corralled one of the escapees only to see it jump over the wood panel as I attempted to catch the other fugitive. That meant the pen needed major reinforcement which I did before finishing chores. Afterwards I decided if they were out again by morning they would have new names to replace the unprintable names I’d just given them. Their new names: Sausage and Tube Steak.

Not all rams are difficult to get along with however. Friday afternoon before the snow was forecast, it was time to get the ewes back home for winter. Luckily for me the kindly neighbor himself was walking about the pasture as I pulled up with the pickup and trailer. Best of all he offered to help load them. Ruby was along but her services weren’t needed. Being the stealthy guy I am, I’d slipped the sheep some hay on my way by earlier and snuck around the end of the barn to close the door behind them. Direction to back me in perfectly to the door was provided and we moved a panel around so the sheep had no other place to go but in the trailer. That doesn’t necessarily mean they go in easily although this time luck was on our side. The ram we call BernaRRd has always been a big teddy bear and easy to catch so I latched onto him. Leading him over to the trailer door we had a quick one-sided conversation that went something like, “I know you probably don’t want to go in there but just this once let’s pretend.” He must’ve read my mind or can understand English because he suddenly jumped right in. As sheep will do, the 10 ewes followed right behind him. Once the last one was in the trailer I quickly slid the door shut. The kindly neighbor looked on in amazement as I laughed, telling him that sheep were put on the earth to make turkeys look intelligent. After witnessing that I think he probably believed me.

See you next week…real good then.

[Dotch]

To keep my sweet chiquita in eau de cologne…

With most of the snow now gone the scurs can focus on getting the temperatures right. Will our snow free luck continue? Starting Wednesday, mostly cloudy with a good chance of rain becoming snow after midnight. Highs of 40 and lows near 25. Thursday, partly cloudy and cooler with highs of 30 and lows of 15. Partly cloudy on Friday with highs of 25 and lows around 15. Partly cloudy and warmer on Saturday with highs of 30 and lows of 20. Sunday, warmer again with a chance of overnight rain/snow mix. Highs of 35 – 40 and lows near 25. A slight chance of snow Monday with highs near 30 and lows around 20. Mostly sunny for Tuesday with highs of 30 and lows of 15. The normal high for December 15th is 26 and the normal low is 9. The scurs will be taking some time off from preparing to get mentally prepared for Christmas shopping. Lots of time yet.

The December 10th early morning eclipse largely was a disappointment in this area of the state although it was probably more interesting than what we’d been led to believe. From the view at the ranch, about ¾ of the moon was covered by the earth’s shadow when it disappeared under a cloud deck before setting. That’s OK if we can wait until November 28th 2012, we can see a penumbral eclipse at moon set. In 2013 we’ll see a penumbral eclipse on May 25 and a total eclipse again on April 15th 2014. Of course if the Mayans are right we won’t have to worry about it.

The snow has largely disappeared from the landscape and much of it has ended up in the ground as dry as it is. Add some of the forecast rain to the mix and we may be starting to recharge our soil moisture. There is still a long way to go and anything at this point is welcome. Looking at many of the small wetlands and shallow ponds in the area certainly makes one aware of that. Interestingly enough, St. Olaf Lake has opened back up again amid reports of other area lakes still maintaining a cover of ice. The geese that stayed on the lake until the initial freeze up and the strong winds over the weekend probably had a lot to do with it. There is still an ice shelf in the NW corner of the lake visible from the road however reminding one that it won’t take long once it gets cold to refreeze.

The chickadees are back again at the ranch! Yeah, it’s no big deal to some but to those of us loyal birdfeeders, it’s like it just isn’t winter if those little guys (and gals) don’t show up. The birds in general have been keeping a much lower profile at the feeders than some winters in recent memory. Others who are avid bird feeding fans are reporting much the same. It does keep the bird seed budget more in line to be certain. The irruption of redpolls and siskins a few years ago is still fresh in my mind when filling the thistle feeders. Trying to keep up with them was almost impossible and makes the weekly trek to fill the feeders seem like a cakewalk.

Slow steady progress is being made on the Studebaker project. The carburetor is getting a thorough going over at Pete’s Service. A wise idea before discovering the mouse urine found in the air cleaner also damaged the carb. More literature has also been procured to help expand knowledge of the model and trim package. The most recent yet to arrive purchase from the Studebaker National Museum includes what’s known as the factory production order.

By supplying the VIN#, this basically will tell me what options the original car was equipped with, date of manufacture, the destination (likely Marzolf Implement in Spring Valley, the local Studebaker dealer), the paint color (there were 2 different colors of blue used on 1960 Larks) and other info to hopefully make the restoration go more smoothly. There are some items on this vehicle that were likely add-ons such as the hood ornament, some additional trim and a side-view mirror. Studebaker was big on having some options installed at the dealership as they felt it helped keep the dealers shops busy. In addition, it allowed customers to purchase some options at a more reasonable price than if they had been installed at the factory.

We’re hoping it refreezes soon. With the recent thaw, Ruby really stinks after running around in the freshly cleaned barn. Somehow she enjoys frequenting the areas where the spreader traffic was heavy and there is thawed manure. Add a little moisture from the melted snow and voila! Her favorite eau de cologne!

See you next week…real good then.

[Dotch]

Like a dog that begs for something sweet…

The snow last Friday took the scurs by surprise. Luckily by Sunday the surprise disappeared. Are we in the running for a white Christmas? Starting Wednesday, partly cloudy with a slight chance of overnight snow. Highs of 35 and lows around 25. Partly cloudy on Thursday and slightly cooler. Highs of 30 and lows near 15. Friday, mostly clear and cooler. Highs 25 – 30 and lows of 15. Mostly sunny on Saturday with highs near 30 and lows of 20. Christmas Day should be partly cloudy with highs of 25 – 30 and lows around 15. Monday, partly cloudy with highs of 25 and lows of 20. Mostly sunny on Tuesday with highs of 35 and lows around 15. The normal high for December 25th is 24 and the normal low is 6. The scurs will be making a list and checking it twice so they can be the model of efficiency given the vast amount of time left to Christmas shop.

The 21st will mark the 1st day of winter and the shortest day of the year for us as far as daylight is concerned at 8 hours and 54 minutes. The actual day of the solstice can vary from year to year from the 20th to the 23rd. The amount of daylight varies from day to day by a matter of several seconds. Days will be getting longer eventually although not easily measured for several days following the winter solstice. Part of the issue is the sun keeps rising a little later until well into the first week of January following the solstice while it keeps setting a little later at the same time. Eventually the time begins to offset and there becomes a noticeable difference.

In the heavens during the early evening hours, Jupiter continues to be present relatively high in the eastern sky while the even more spectacular Venus continues to stay out a little longer each night before setting in the SW. As bright as it is, it actually twinkles somewhat and gets some rose coloration to it when it approaches the horizon. This has prompted some over the years to phone in calls about UFO’s. Of course it’s never reported what kind of holiday cheer might have been involved prior to the sighting.

The snow from last week probably wasn’t as surprising as the rain was. At the ranch we recorded .46” of rain on Thursday which was followed up by another .08” from Friday evening’s 2” snowfall. So far for the month of December we’ve tallied .92”, the most since September’s .99”. While we’re nowhere near to setting any records we are making some slow progress toward getting enough moisture to get a crop started next spring. Soils are slightly frozen now but they weren’t when the rain fell. Additionally on the rough surfaces found in many area fields, most of the water finds its way into the ground. Virtually none of it is running off at this point.

You knew it couldn’t be too far off: The annual Christmas gifts for the crack management staff at the Star Eagle from yours truly. For Fearless Leader (aka “Jim”) a new camera after I broke the old one while being photographed by the corn shock a few weeks ago. For the Kingpin (aha “Jody”), the full boxed set of McHale’s Navy. It should bring back fond memories. Given his rapier wit, I have a feeling that might have been an accurate depiction of life during his tour of duty. For Reed, new shoes for pounding the streets of Bugtussle searching out those crucial stories. For Kugie, the famed ‘CCO cough button. Maybe it’s just my radio, but he always sounds a little like Patrick Reusse, sorta like he could hawk up a greenie any minute. For Rachel, the Star’s very own Cabbage Patch kid, a new reference book called How to Speak Farmer. This will come in handy for future articles when you have to write about farm equipment. For example, it explains that a “stripper plate” is a part of a corn head, not something an exotic dancer eats off of.

Ruby is getting ready for Christmas. She’s like a furry little 4-legged kid in a lot of respects. She’s perceptive and knows something is up although not exactly what. Decorations, Christmas trees, presents and human treats all over her turf are all probably clues. She is helpful when something sweet hits the floor during a cooking bomb session. Definitely saves on clean up time. We’re debating whether to get her a Wii-Fi so she can practice herding sheep in the house or a trail camera so she knows when her squirrel is down out of the tree. Either way I think she’d be happy. Or, more likely we could go the cheap route and buy her a new kennel bed and another batch of play balls. Guess what? She’d be happy with that too. One nice thing about dogs and Border Collies in particular: They’re easy to please. Never had one complain they didn’t get what the neighbor’s dog got.

Happy Festivus…see you next week.

[Dotch]

She makes the Indy 500 look like the Roman chariot race now…

With the slight chance of snow last Wednesday circling the bowl, the chances of our white Christmas went down the toilet as predicted by the scurs. Are our odds any better for the New Year? Starting on Wednesday. Partly cloudy with a chance of overnight snow. Highs of 35- 40 and lows around 30. Partly cloudy for Thursday with a slight chance of a rain/snow mix in the afternoon into the evening. Highs once again of 35 – 40 and lows near 30. A slight chance of rain and snow for Friday under mostly cloudy skies with highs reaching 40 and lows of 25. Partly cloudy on Saturday with highs near 45 and lows close to 25 for New Years Eve. Partly cloudy and slightly cooler on New Years Day with a slight chance of flurries. Highs around 35 with temps dropping to a brutal low of 20. Monday mostly sunny and cooler with highs around 30 and lows of 15 – 20. Slightly warmer and mostly sunny on Tuesday with highs of 35 and lows of 15 – 20. Our normal high for New Years Day is 23 and the normal low is 5. We will have gained 4 minutes of daylight since the winter solstice so things are looking up. The scurs will be putting their party favors in storage for another year.

Quite the winter we’ve been having so far or lack thereof. If you wanted a white Christmas you needed to look for snow on the north side of a building or grove. The warm trend seems to be hanging in there although some forecasters are indicating that by mid-January our luck may have run out. We shall see although at the same time we’ve burned up quite a chunk of what we typically consider winter. This one is beginning to remind me somewhat of the winter of ’86 – ’87 when it stayed relatively open and warmed up enough so that wheat was drilled into some area fields as early as late February. Something that was also typical that winter was blowing soil in the peats such as was seen in areas on December 26th. Some snow cover would be welcome not only from a moisture standpoint but to help decrease the amount of wind erosion.

Minnesota Nice? It apparently doesn’t exist once we get behind the wheel of an automobile anymore. This past Christmas demonstrated the lack of courtesy many are displaying toward their fellow drivers. On the way to and from New Hope on Christmas Eve, it was almost epidemic the number of times I was passed while moving with the traffic flow only to have a driver cut in front of me at the last second to get off at the next exit. To make matters worse, on Christmas Day while travelling in excess of the speed limit myself on bumpy and rough Fillmore Co. 1, someone was on my tail until they turned off a few miles north of Spring Valley. Not to be outdone, while on Fillmore Co. 2 west of Chatfield, someone rode my rear bumper on the sloping, blind curves that were showing signs of becoming frosty as temperatures fell below freezing. I finally pulled over and let the clown by then followed them into Chatfield where they very immaturely stayed stopped once the light turned green to prove a point. They sure did alright. They proved to me as a result of their stupidity they arrived no sooner than they would have had they slowed down for the icy conditions and we have a growing problem with people who think the roadways are a racetrack and they’re self appointed NASCAR drivers.

Here’s a novel concept for the New Year: Let’s back off and drive more courteously. The few seconds you think you’re saving by riding someone’s tail could turn out to be among your costliest and deadliest. Deer can and do suddenly appear on a roadway in a fraction of a second. I know because I’ve hit them. That and you just never know who you’re messin’ with. When I was living in rural North Dakota, it was assumed that everyone was driving around with a loaded weapon because basically everyone actually was driving around with a loaded weapon, including me. I’m not advocating that here but oddly enough, the aforementioned poor driving habits were never an issue. Same holds true in regard to some of the unmarked cars (plain brown wrappers) floating around. You don’t know when they’ll show up either. I’ve stumbled across them a few times making my heart sink once the grille lights came on only to discover they were after someone far ahead of me who was making my own speeding look like I was in a Roman chariot race. If you’re offended by what I’ve written, good. I hope you’re ticketed appropriately and your insurance rates are jacked up big time if you’re unable to control yourself behind the wheel. Some of us are getting real tired of this type of behavior. I have a feeling I’m not alone.

On to a more pleasant automobile related note: The Studebaker project. The factory production order as they were known by Studebaker arrived last week. By supplying the serial number to the Studebaker National Museum I was able to obtain a copy of this informational document. Studebaker apparently kept fairly meticulous records of their production. The production orders from prior to 1959 are on microfilm and from 1960 – 1966 are original paper so the document I have is a direct copy of the original. It tells me the car was ordered on March 22, 1960 and the final assembly date was April 6th which coincidentally happens to be Bert Blyleven’s birthday. As I guessed, the paint color is the latter color blue that Studebaker used that year, Pacific Blue. Gulfstream Blue was discontinued on March 1st 1960. The serial number, the body number and the engine number all match those listed on the production order as do the key codes. The codes used for the various packages and options are exactly as they appear on the car with only a few minor add-ons from the dealership. This was not a high end automobile and the Lark was never meant to be. Considering that this was Otto Hendrickson’s last car when he ordered it, that’s exactly what one would expect.

See you next week…real good then.

[Dotch]

Dance in the dark of night, sing to the morning light.

The scurs were on target with the Thursday/Friday precipitation events but failed miserably to predict the New Year’s Eve. Oh well at least they got the New Years Day flurries right. Will we continue on our warm streak? Starting Wednesday, mostly clear with highs of 35 and lows of 25. Thursday, mostly sunny with highs of 40 – 45 and lows around 30. Partly cloudy Friday and warmer with highs of 45 and lows dropping to 25. Partly cloudy and cooler on Saturday with highs of 30 - 35 and lows near 20. Sunday, partly cloudy with highs of 25 – 30 and lows near 20. Partly cloudy on Monday with highs around 35 and lows near 15. Tuesday, cloudy with a chance of snow developing. Highs of 35 – 40 and lows of 10 – 15. The normal high for January 9th is 23 and the normal low is 5. On January 4th we will be back over 9 hours of daylight, having gained a whole 7 minutes since the winter solstice. We’ll keep gaining about a minute a day until about the 15th. The scurs will be putting out that patio furniture before you know it, the stuff that didn’t blow away last fall that is.

The Full Moon for the month of January falls on the 9th and is known by several names. Most popular among them is probably the Full Wolf Moon, due to the wolves that could be heard howling outside the Indian winter encampments. It has also been known as the Old Moon or The Moon after the Yule. The Ojibwe called this the Great Spirit Moon and the Sioux by several names, including the Moon of Strong Cold, Moon When Wolves Run Together and the Moon When Frost is in the Teepee. Am guessing the frost in the teepee didn’t have anything to do with being out carousing with their little fat buddies in those days.

Speaking of the little fat buddies, a special thank you to all of those who supplied extra Christmas goodies at the Mall for Men. They were so numerous it’s tough to remember who brought what in but were most appreciated by all of us. With all the slippery conditions and high wind warnings (both inside and out) there’s not question we needed all the additional ballast we could get.

What a confusing holiday season we’ve just been through. With Christmas and New Year’s Day both on Sunday, it was difficult to tell what to do on Monday. Since banks, the Post Office and many other businesses were closed, it didn’t make a lot of sense to go into work. However, it always makes for guilty feelings that you really should be there, NOT! Given the amount of leftover stuff to be done after both holidays, those days were reserved to play catch up and to visit with family. It still seems strange to see bowl games played after New Year’s Day. Used to be that day was reserved for the major bowls and the national champion was decided. Now it stretches on for weeks and without some heavy duty channel surfing, one never knows what is on when anymore. Guess what? If you thought the 2011 holiday season was screwed up, wait until December. With 2012 being a leap year, Christmas and New Year’s will be on Tuesday. Oh goody!

The goldfinches are becoming more faithful at the bird feeders once again. The strong winds had them holed up somewhere but once they subsided, the little olive birds were back after sunflower and thistle seed. There are still a few of the regulars such as juncos, blue jays, nuthatches, downies and hairies but the chickadees are AWOL again. The squirrels appear content to clean up under the feeders and ignore the ear corn set out for them. Rather than face Ruby’s wrath, they drag ears from the field up in the yard. Others have mentioned similar goings on at and around their feeders. Perhaps with a little consistent snow cover we’d see a resurgence in bird numbers and variety.

The lack of snow has also impacted something one wouldn’t think of: The sheep. Since there is no automatic waterer, only a large water tank with a heater in it, one knows approximately how much water they go through on a daily basis. With our brood ewe numbers down from last year one would think the water consumption would be down as well. Wrong-O! Apparently they were eating a fair amount of snow last year so the tank would only needed to be filled about every 3 days. This year filling the tank and draining the hose is an every other day occurrence.

Since the days are getting longer it was time to take a look at some of those garden catalogs that arrived. There are a few new items that caught my interest although nothing really new in the winter squash department. There are some new gourds that could be fun to grow. Because they are so competitive, producing gourds is a little growing weeds; the level of management required is pretty low. In honor of all the seed catalogs arriving, I decided on New Year’s Day to plant the amaryllis bulb Mrs. Cheviot had given me for Christmas before it popped its head out of the box. It’s amazing how that coconut growth medium expands to fill a container after adding warm water. Once planted, the amaryllis was placed in the south-facing living room. After a night of celebratory respiration in the newfound moisture, the sprout began showing signs of phototropism the next day, attracted to the morning light. This is a live one and will need to be turned regularly.

Mrs. Cheviot and several other acquaintances have contracted the alien once again. With the amount of barking she was doing though, I was debating about hauling her down to Little Jerusalem to see Ruby’s veterinarian. It’s easy to get run down this time of year and even easier to not eat right. There are so many sweets and high carb foods around without much for fruit and veggies typically. Oh well, after a week or so of me doing it all she’s starting to come around. When Ruby does her hot potato impression and sleeps on Mrs. Cheviot’s lap it helps keep the veterinarian away.

See you next week…real good then.

[Dotch]

She said don’t hand me no lines and keep your hands to yourself…

The scurs were a little low on their temperature predictions for Monday and Tuesday but no one aside from the ice fishermen are complaining about it. Will we head back into winter for awhile? Starting Wednesday, mostly cloudy with a chance of snow. Highs of 35 and lows around 10. Thursday, partly cloudy with a chance of some lingering flurries in the morning. Highs topping out at 15 and lows dropping to 5 above. Mostly clear on Friday with highs around 20 and lows near 10. Partly cloudy on Saturday with highs of 30 and lows around 15. Sunday, mostly sunny with highs of 25 and lows of 10 – 15. Mostly sunny on Monday with highs reaching 30 and lows falling to 0 to 5 above. Partly cloudy on Tuesday with a chance of snow. Highs of only 10 – 15 and lows hovering near zero. Days are getting longer and we are gaining daylight at about 3 minutes per day now. The normal high for January 15th is 22 and the normal low is 4. Hopefully it’ll snow so the scurs can make the best of the cold snap by making snow angels. Otherwise they’ll be dirt angels.

Through press deadline time anyway we have continued our trend of above normal temperatures and sparse precipitation. So far at the ranch we have only managed .19” of precip since January 1st and roughly 1.2” of snow. We’ve tallied 3 days with highs of 40 or above with several others above freezing. Including the Tuesday & Wednesday recorded highs, it will likely make 5 days with highs above 40. We are now heading into what is typically the coldest part of January for our area. If the forecasts hold true we will likely experience colder than what we’ve been used to but it isn’t likely to be anywhere near record cold. This has had some interesting impact in the area. I know for instance that there was some primary tillage that occurred on an area field and there are still very few people willing to venture forth on the ice relative to what we’d typically expect for this time of year. I also know there are almost daily reports of someone going through the ice somewhere in MN as the ice simply is generally unsafe for motorized vehicles much larger than small pickups around here. Even with those, it’s probably not worth the risk of calling a tow truck to fish them out if they fall through. And if you insist on driving your automobile to get some fish, at least for awhile going to the grocery store is probably your safest bet.

According to information supplied by Vista’s noted Swedish astronomer, in the month of January we will continue to be blessed by Jupiter and Venus as they come closer together in the early evening sky. Venus is a little farther east each night and Jupiter while fading slightly is a little farther west. One is supposed to be able to look at Jupiter with a decent set of binoculars and see 4 of its moons at this point. Mars is showing up earlier as well. Look for the Red Planet around 9:30 p.m. on clear nights in the eastern sky. By dawn it should be high in the southwest sky. It will become brighter and will rise earlier every night, rising about 8:30 on the 31st. Saturn is visible at dawn high in the southern sky and is getting brighter like Mars as our planet gains on its orbit.

It has been an absolutely dreadful past 12 months for watching MN sports on TV with the possible exception of the Golden Gophers men’s hockey team. However even they are showing signs of developing performance issues in recent games. First the Twins play uninspired baseball losing 99 games and the Vikings follow suit matching their all-time worst season record at 3 - 13. Now the Gopher men's basketball team has picked up where they left off during last years Big Ten season, losing all their conference games thus far. Not to make excuses but every time I watch the Purdue men's basketball team no matter who they play, the amount of hand checking referees allow them to get by with astounds me. I don’t recall that much groping going on since the days of the old drive in theater in Spring Valley. Although, like other young lads in my class, being the mild-mannered, serious-minded, chaste individual I was, I always just watched the movie and ate popcorn in the Studebaker when on a date there. Someone told me about all that other stuff though.

This warmer weather seems to suit many just fine however including moi when it comes to choretime. It doesn’t bother me in the least not to be cleaning out feed bunks and their lot or smashing ice out of buckets daily. It’s also nice that the brood ewes are able to stay outside most of the time. It cuts down on the need for bedding and keeps them from filling the barn full of manure. Since they’re dry, all the fresh air has been good for their overall health. There are days when I don’t even have to drain the hose during the day, something that sure didn’t happen very frequently last winter. And, it should also make for easier shearing if this dry pattern holds for another month or so. The shearer should appreciate that.

Speaking of shearers, the local barber at the Mall for Men was recently put on the injured reserve list. Coincidentally, not long after that happened, the local sheep shearer was seen casing the premises in between jobs. Too bad he’s so darn busy shearing sheep or he might’ve been able to cash in on an economic goldmine. Rather than only charging a few bucks a head, he could’ve made it into the double figures. Would be a lot quicker for people too. Once the catcher grabs you and plops you on your butt, the shearer pulls your ear and safely tucks your melon under his arm. He wears deodorant though so not to worry. Given the speed and precision with which he can shear an entire ovine, a haircut would be over in a matter of seconds. Toss in a little wormer plus some pour-on insecticide once he lets you up and you should be good to go until you’re turned out on pasture.

See you next week…real good then.