Fencelines

Dotch · June 16, 2012

There are lots of birds nesting here. Boo-koo robins and chipping sparrows in particular. Sad news on the brown thrasher nest I mentioned though. Was out there cutting brush and tree limbs this morning and noticed all the eggs are gone. Just prior to that, I saw a brown thrasher that was obviously injured in the yard. It got away into some thick stuff before I could get ahold of it. And just prior to that, I saw a stray cat hanging around, not far from the bluebird house. It's not aware I am heavily armed but it'll find out the hard way if I see it again.

Dotch · June 20, 2012

Listen to the rhythm of the falling rain…

After getting everything rinsed off by the Thursday evening and early Friday morning rains last week plus the recent heat and humidity, the scurs are still soggy. Will this next week change all that? Starting Wednesday, mostly cloudy with a good chance of showers and thunderstorms. Highs 75 and lows near 60. Mostly sunny and gorgeous on Thursday with highs around 80 and lows of 60. Partly cloudy on Friday with a slight chance of an evening shower or thunderstorm. Highs of 80 and lows around 65. Slight chance of a shower or thunderstorm on Saturday and warmer with highs of 80 – 85 and lows around 65. Mostly clear on Sunday with highs around 80 and lows near 65. Partly sunny on Monday with continued pleasant temperatures and a chance of an evening shower or thunderstorm. Highs around 80 and lows near 60. Cloudy and cooler on Tuesday with a chance of rain. Highs of 80 and lows around 65. The normal high for June 20th, the summer solstice is 81 and the normal low is59. We will experience the longest day of the year with 15 hours and 28 minutes of daylight. The sun will rise at 5:31 a.m. and will set at 9 p.m. The scurs will be bottling some of that sunlight and warmth for January.

Heavy rains went through on Thursday last week and brought an end to another two dry spell. When one looks at the rainfall pattern, it has gone in spurts, preceded by high winds then followed by two weeks with very little other than very localized precipitation. The results have actually been overall favorable thus far with a corn crop that appears to be well rooted and soybeans that are shrugging off their annual dose of iron deficiency chlorosis quickly. Once we get by Wednesday’s rainfall event we should be in for another drying out period. Corn has really jumped and some of the later planted fields changed dramatically. The nodal root system has expanded deeper into the soil profile where more nitrogen could be found. The result is that nice deep green color we like to see this time of year. Some soybeans are starting to flower already and while no soybean aphids have been found just yet locally, they have been found elsewhere so it’s generally just a matter of time. Second cutting alfalfa is underway in some fields and the tonnage looks better than what was harvested for first crop. Hay supplies will be tight so getting as much as one can will be important.

The early mornings at the ranch are generally brought in about 4:30 a.m. by a robin that I swear has a bullhorn. Never seen bird with a set of lungs like that. It wakes up the chipping sparrows and the house wrens so that by 5, it’s so loud you have to close the windows if you plan on getting back to sleep. Usually by July, much of the loud singing has subsided and it becomes easier to deal with the usual sheep bellering. This past week brought a male rose-breasted grosbeak back to the feeders to keep all the bright yellow male goldfinches company. The hummingbirds have located the min-petunias in the pots now although they don’t pass up the sugar water in the nectar feeder either. The killdeer continues to sit on the nest at the kindly neighbors while on a sad note, the brown thrasher nest in the garden was devoid of eggs as of last weekend. Just before that I spotted a brown thrasher in the yard that appeared to be injured as it managed to escape into the underbrush. Just before that I noticed a stray cat that apparently has set up camp in one of the numerous brush piles. Over the years I have developed a dim view of stray cats and put them in the same category as skunks, opossums and raccoons to name a few.

As some have noted the fireflies are out and at the ranch, it’s no exception. Not sure if we’ll see the numbers we have the past several years but they’re certainly on the early side. This also coincides roughly with the hatch of corn rootworms and reports are that feeding on corn roots has begun. In the garden you may want to keep an eye on your vine crops. Why? Lots of striped cucumber beetles were noticed feeding on seedling cucumbers at the ranch on the 18th. Control measures were taken quickly so the other vine crops will bear watching as well. Spotted cucumber beetles have been seen in area corn fields for almost a month already so not sure what they’re up to. Also seen at the ranch were some click beetles. These develop from wireworms in the soil, generally a pest of corn seedlings. We used to enjoy playing with them as I’ve mentioned before. Flipping them on their backs, they flip over with a click of their head capsule. Oddly enough, I find myself still playing with click beetles.

The soccer mom van recently developed another malady, namely a loud exhaust system. Made it difficult to be very stealthy when sneaking off with my driving wig on to the store where you go to the bathroom in the big orange silo. The boys at J & S just grin when they see the contraption coming, affectionately dubbing it “The Cash Cow”. There is virtually no end to the repairs they could perform on it but there is a limit as to what the checking account and common sense allows us to spend on it. Somehow we got off easy this time as the exhaust system had just come unhooked ahead of the catalytic converter. It only took an hour or less to repair with the part being readily available locally. Mrs. Cheviot said there were almost tears of sadness when they couldn’t milk more than a hundred bucks out of it. Oh well, we have lots more vehicles. After all, June is Dairy Month.

See you next week…real good then.

Dotch · June 26, 2012

Time passes much too quickly when we're together laughing…

The scurs did well mid-week and on the weekend forecast but days 6 & 7 continue to baffle them. Will they remain baffled another week? Starting Wednesday, partly cloudy and hot with highs near 95 and lows near 70. Partly cloudy with a slight chance of showers and a thunderstorm for Thursday and another warm one with highs near 90 and lows of 70. Slightly cooler for Friday under partly cloudy skies. Highs around 85 and lows near 65. Mostly clear on Saturday becoming partly cloudy with a slight chance of a shower or thunderstorm in the evening. Highs of 85 and lows near 70. Partly cloudy on Sunday with highs of 85 and lows of 70. Mostly sunny and warmer on Monday with highs again near 90 and lows near 70. Partly cloudy for Tuesday, slightly cooler with highs of 85 – 90 and lows of 65- 70. A prediction for Independence Day calls for mostly cloudy and cooler with a possible shower or a thunderstorm. Highs near 75 and lows of 60 – 65. The normal high for July 4th is 83 and the normal low is 62. The scurs will be working on their wrist action for turning up the A.C.

Crop growth following last week’s generous rainfall and warm temperatures has been nothing short of tremendous. We should see tassels in some area corn fields prior to the 4th of July, something we would not have imagined last year at this time. Most soybeans are flowering as of this writing and pea harvest yields continue to impress. Small grains are through the flowering stage and are into the critical grain fill period. Hopefully the heat doesn’t ruin what appears to be a nice crop. Second cutting alfalfa is in the process with reports of better yields than what was harvested from the first cutting.

The garden progress has been positive too although the weeds are right on the heels of the vegetables. Some nitrogen was applied to the various crops Saturday and was dissolved by light showers. Some additional watering was necessary to move it into the soil however. It’s doing its job as everything is taking off. This week will be crucial for getting the tiller through the vine crops so they can work their magic and canopy over any small weeds that come afterwards. The tomatoes have liked their home where new ground was broken up with them in mind. Potatoes in the main garden have responded to the brush clearing that was allowing too much shading during critical part of the day. In the small garden, the Pontiacs are about waist high and flowering like mad. Should be interesting to see what’s under those vines come fall. It always is.

We continue to be a bird nursery and there are so many to different species it’s tough to keep track of them all. Most of the tree swallows have now fledged, leaving behind their now crusty feather lined nests. I usually clean them out just in case there’s a chance a late nesting bluebird is looking for a spot. Appears the bluebirds at the kindly neighbors' pasture have left the nest, having seen some young birds there recently. At home, the bluebirds continue to incubate 3 blue eggs in their nesting box on the old plow. They let you know when they think you’re too close to the nest so it’s best to leave them alone. The killdeers must have hatched too, leaving behind one egg that was apparently sterile. Unfortunately no one was around to witness them leaving the nest which is not surprising. Once they’re dried off they’re ready to run. There has been ample killdeer calling from the soybean field adjacent to the area where their nest was located so it’s likely that’s where they went. It’s been interesting to watch a mother and young downy on the tree holding the sunflower feeder. The mother would fly up to the feeder, grab a sunflower seed, crack it open then scoot around to the youngster and stuff it in its mouth. This process was repeated numerous times making one wonder how many more times until she’d had enough and would tell junior to get his own seeds.

Ruby and I have been manning the ranch all by ourselves with Mrs. Cheviot in MO at a sheep show and sale. We’ve had our ups and downs. Luckily there were lots of leftovers from the weekend. On Sunday we decided we’d had enough with the antics of a yearling ewe who’d cleared the panel into the fat lamb pen. Since her destiny was that of a brood ewe anyway the logical course of action was to put her in the pasture. Trouble was none of the brood ewes were in sight so after putting the ewe where she belonged Ruby and I set out to find the others. It didn’t take long and with Ruby’s nice out run and follow up, they were all together. The same ewe however decided to hop over another panel to get back into the fat lamb pen that night when I fed them. After putting a cattle panel in its place, she was captured once more and hasn’t bothered since. Must’ve hear my mutterings about Morgan’s Meat Market. You may run but you can’t hide, especially when you’re the biggest, fattest, greediest pig, er, ewe in the pen.

Auntie Mar Mar’s visit to celebrate her birthday last Friday night was entertaining. She enjoyed one of her favorite pastimes watching the birds even though she isn’t real good at identifying them. Hint: All the little black and yellow birds are goldfinches. A birdfeeder and bird book are definitely in her future. We were able to use the new grill again to see how it functions and it passed with flying colors. The time also passed too quickly with many a good laugh, especially when Mar Mar told us she was coming back to steal Mrs. Cheviot’s pots and dig up my potatoes. Looks like we’ll probably need to put up some of those cattle panels around the house to keep her out.

See you next week…real good then.

Dotch · July 2, 2012

The heat is on, on the street, inside your head, on every beat

The scurs were right about it being hot they just missed the part about it staying hot and not cooling down for the 4th. Since the column goes out to a select internet crowd, they get another crack at it. Starting Wednesday the 4th, partly cloudy with a slight chance of a shower or thunderstorm. Highs near 95 and lows around 75. Mostly clear for Thursday with highs again near 75 and lows around 75. Partly cloudy on Friday with a slight chance of a shower or thunderstorm. Highs 95 and lows of 70. Partly cloudy and slightly cooler on Saturday with a modest chance of showers and thunderstorms. Highs near 90 and lows of 65 -70. Partly cloudy for Sunday’s Farm and City Day parade with a moderate chance of a shower or thunderstorm. Highs near 80 and lows around 65. Monday and Tuesday, mostly sunny with highs of 80 – 85 and lows of 60 – 65. The normal high for July 8th is 83 and the normal low is 62. On the 8th we will have lost approximately 11 minutes of daylight since the summer solstice. The scurs will be glad because it will be easier to elude the much vaunted Fireworks Police under the cover of darkness.

With the odd holiday in the middle of the week going on, we somehow overlooked the Full Moon for the month. Not to worry the internet subscribers will still be able to read about it in a timely fashion and in reality, the Full Moon name actually describes a timeframe and not the individual where the Full Moon happens to fall. The Full Moon for the month occurs on the 3rd and is generally known as the Full Buck Moon as the bucks’ antlers are in the velvet. The moon also goes by the Full Thunder Moon for the thunderstorms that are common or supposed to be for the month of July. It also goes by the Full Hay moon. The Ojibwe knew this as the Full Raspberry Moon and there are indeed wild raspberries ripening locally until the birds eat them that is. The Sioux were also fruit eaters, calling this the Moon When the Wild Cherries are Ripe. At the ranch we know it by several names, including the Where Did I Put the Bug Spray Moon.

Crop progress has been a little more mixed this week depending on where you live. The “haves” who got more rain have been surviving the heat relatively unscathed. The “have-nots” who were on the short end of the rainfall have noticed the corn leaves beginning to roll on the hot afternoons. It isn’t quite such a big deal prior to silking but during silking, 4 hours of leaf rolling adds up to 1% yield loss as per a presentation by Dr. Jeff Coulter, the only Extension agronomist named after a plow part. Soybeans are continuing to look less like an afterthought and more like a real crop, particularly where they’ve started to outgrow the iron deficiency chlorosis. Small grain fields turned rapidly towards the end of last week, something that typically does not bode well for phenomenal type yields. My neighbor’s Spring Treat sweet corn should be about ready so can’t wait.

It was a good week to get familiar with the air conditioning unit once again at the ranch. Prior to about Wednesday of last week however, it was nice to open the windows at night to let the house cool down then close them during the day. Coming back into the house, it rarely got above 74. By about Wednesday though Ruby and I’d had about enough. The high was 97 it wasn’t cooling off in the overnight so we flicked the switch. The weather did relent on Friday night and we opened the windows up once again to listen to the grasshoppers and toads sing.

There are once again scads of small toads in the yard with most of them concentrated in the road ditch where the culvert frequently contains water. There are also some large toads hopping around in the barn catching flies. Judging by their girth they're fairly successful little hunters even though they give a person a little start when discovered behind a bucket or bag of feed. The mosquitoes have done what everyone expected they would; become a nuisance for those needing to be outdoors. They’ve been bad even during the daytime. When one is out of the breeze they come lookin’ for you. They aren’t nearly as fun as the fireflies whose rise from the grasses just after dusk is nothing short of surreal.

Luckily we have the toads to help out as well as an abundance of recently fledged barn swallows and tree swallows. Both seem to enjoy snapping flying insects out of the air and there are plenty to grab. The barn swallows have developed a real distaste for Ruby though although she seems to enjoy chasing them around. It appeared the orioles’ consumption of jelly and nectar was slowing somewhat until late last week when they brought the youngster along to feed. In short order they cleaned out both the nectar and jelly feeders Friday afternoon, then scolded me when I went to refill them. That’s gratitude for ya! There is a young male orchard oriole that has been making regular visits now and he must’ve informed the chickadees that jelly is good stuff because they’re eating it too. The birds suddenly missing in action are the hummingbirds. It’s likely that the females are busy feeding the young at this point so they’re preoccupied with catching insects for them. The males stay away from the nests so as not to attract predators that see their bright throat patch. They’re likely busy with some of the many flowers in bloom in the wild presently. When the young fledge from the nest, don’t be surprised if there are more hummingbirds than ever at the feeders and plants around the yard.

See you next week…real good then.

Dotch · July 10, 2012

But day after day, the show must go on…

Lucky for the scurs they haven’t been calling the amount of rainfall in their forecasts. It rained in the general area both days they predicted, just not enough to measure. Will we see something measurable this week? Starting Wednesday through Thursday, mostly clear with highs of 85 – 90 and lows around 65. Partly cloudy becoming mostly cloudy with a slight chance of daytime showers and a moderate chance of an overnight thunderstorm on Friday. Highs again of 85 – 90 and lows of 70. Partly cloudy Saturday and Sunday with a modest chance of a shower or thunderstorm on Saturday and a slight chance on Sunday. Highs around 90 and lows near 70. Mostly sunny and hot on Monday with a slight chance of a thunderstorm. Highs near 90 and lows around 70. Partly cloudy on Tuesday with a modest chance of showers and thunderstorms. Highs near 90 and lows around 70. The normal high for July 15th is 83 and the normal low is 62. We will experience 15 hours and 8 minutes of daylight on the 15th, roughly the same as we saw on May 26th.

Crops by and large took the heat fairly well last week. Corn was tasseling and silking right along by the 4th and by Monday, some of the earliest planted corn was pollinated some of the 30” row soybeans are working on closing the rows. Some herbicide applications still need to be made so it will need to be done soon. Soybean aphids are still scarce to nonexistent, yet. While the heat wave likely slowed their reproduction, chances are they will make their presence known before it’s all said and done. Livestock producers were not so lucky with the heat. Last Thursday was tough with no breeze and heat indexes well over 100 degrees. This made it tough on cattle, turkeys, hogs and sheep. We lost a lamb that evening that had been born a couple days prior. There was just no way it could get enough fluid by drinking milk off the ewe to stay hydrated. Otherwise we were lucky, maintaining as much air movement as we could on confinement animals and keeping water sources full and clean.

We continue to see evidence of more new bird arrivals in and around the ranch. It had to be close to jump day at the pond for the wood ducks as the hen was sitting atop the nesting box on Sunday morning. The mosquitoes, deer flies and wood ticks have been so vicious however that I didn’t venture down to the area to witness the event. A female orchard oriole was dipping jelly out of the feeder then flying to a branch where she was feeding it to her young. And while I’m not sure if it was a young one or not, there was a hummingbird at the feeder again on Sunday morning. It was back again in the afternoon. More barn swallows are appearing all the time and that’s good news for keeping the flying insect population in check. The bluebirds continue to raise their brood in the nesting box attached to the old plow at the ranch. The female usually appears anytime you get near the plow. The bluebirds at the kindly neighbors have started a nest for a second brood. What happened to the kestrels? They have scattered to the 4 winds although the other day I saw 5 apparently young kestrels playing around on the wires not far from where Ingeborg used to live. Could it have been the 5 that hatched in the wetland this spring? There’s no way of knowing for sure.

In and around greater Bugtussle we are starting to hear the cicada’s call already. TH from Waseca heard some a few days before we did on July 3rd at the ranch. Oddly enough, a week or so prior the cicada killer wasps were setting up shop at the City Hall garden. In the native prairie pasture, the yellow Indiangrass and big bluestem are also ahead of schedule having headed out over a week ago. The burn in the CRP really brought the bluestem out as in places it has become almost a solid stand. Can almost envision the Ingalls family wading through the tall grass prairie with the mountains of Walnut Grove in the background. (that’s a joke)

The garden needed some extra attention this past week. Seems the cucumber beetles are extremely aggressive this year and won’t leave the vine crops alone. That and of course the heat and dry weather prompted me to add some water into the equation, something I generally don’t do very often. Some of the garden is doing fine without it particularly the tomatoes. They showed no sign of stress although they did stop setting fruit during the hot spell. The bunnies pretty well destroyed the beet and snap pea crop. It will give me a chance to attempt a late summer planting of peas however about the same time the winter radishes are seeded. This time there will be a fence to contend with.

It was sad to hear about the passing of Andy Griffith on July 3rd. I still remember watching the show when it was first on and we had the old black and white Columbia TV. The older episodes are still in black and white even though I now watch it on a color TV. No one was more unflappable than Andy while he kept Barney reined in and protected Mayberry from the riff raff that drifted through from time to time. The show was so wholesome and down to earth that whether you were young or old, you could appreciate the message and the humor. Some of the old vehicles are interesting to look at too. The characters could’ve come from just about any Smalltown USA although not everyone had an Andy as sheriff. Seems like the Barney Fife type was equally as common. It’s still easy to catch the old reruns on TV Land and they honored Andy Griffith last Saturday and Sunday with an Andy Griffith marathon. I must admit, I caught a couple episodes including the classic where Aunt Bee makes pickles that taste like kerosene. Watching that show is still a guilty pleasure after all these years. Thanks Andy for making it possible.

See you next week…real good then.

Dotch · July 17, 2012

The things that pass for knowledge, I can’t understand

The scurs were close in the rainfall department which counts if you were one of the lucky ones who received it. Notice how they slyly continue to evade the amount question? Will we see any improvement in the precipitation picture? Starting Wednesday, partly cloudy with a moderate chance of a shower or thunderstorm. Highs near 85 and lows around 70. Thursday, partly cloudy with a slight chance of s shower or thunderstorm. Highs around 85 and lows near 70. Friday, partly cloudy with highs of 90 and lows of 70. Hotter on Saturday with a slight chance of a shower or thunderstorm. Highs of 90 – 95 and lows near 75. Sunday, partly cloudy with a slight chance of showers or thunderstorms. Highs 95 and lows near 70. Monday and Tuesday, partly cloudy to mostly sunny with highs around 90 and lows of 65 – 70. The normal high for July 20th is 82 and the normal low is 65. The 20th is significant because we’ll slip below 15 hours of daylight for the first time since May 21st. We’ve also lost 29 minutes of daylight since the summer solstice on June 20th. The scurs will need to start their Tiki torches a little earlier to ward off the bugs around the “ceement” pond.

Vista’s noted Swedish astronomer has spotted Venus and Jupiter in the early morning skies to the east at roughly 4:30 a.m. You probably recall that Venus spent much of the winter and spring shining brightly in the west. It is now a morning “star” again, outshining even the larger Jupiter. When the noted Swedish astronomer was asked what he was doing up at that time of day he claimed to be watering the flowers.

Crops continue to hang on through the heat, looking better perhaps than they have a right to. Corn continues to pollinate with some of the middle and later plantings coming online. As of this writing for some of those fields it’s still a little too early to tell exactly how they’re reacting. One thing is for certain however and that’s with every day we go without rain and endure the heat, it will not help ear length. Soybeans are beginning to set pods and are for the most part R3. It is past the labeled time to apply glyphosate at this point. A few soybean aphids have been found but the heat has been slowing them down too. With the dry conditions one thinks about spider mites but so far they have been no-shows in and around Greater Bugtussle. Having said that someone will cut some hay or a road ditch somewhere and we’ll probably see some. We also could see some grasshopper movement into crops given some of the same circumstances.

It was a week of hoping it would rain substantially and for most it did not. The showers and thunderstorms that moved through the area on Friday the 6th offered very little in the form of relief unless one was living on the east side of the viewing area. Gazing at the sky from the Waseca Co. Fair, one could see the high top of a thunderstorm developing to the south and east. Trouble was, we were looking at its backside. As we were leaving the fairgrounds we heard a report of a large amount of rain near the Holy Land (they always get more rain there) so we were optimistic that we may have received some. The road was wet all the way home, a good sign. When we turned onto our road however the pavement suddenly was dry and there was no puddle to greet us at the end of the driveway. We’d been missed again and there was only a tenth in the gauge, part of which had fallen earlier in the day. The kindly neighbor phoned me the next morning to see what we collected in the gauge at the ranch. One gauge there read 2” and that’s less than a mile and a half as the crow flies from the ranch. Ground truthing it with a soil probe in the field a few days later and there was no doubt: Him speak ‘um truth.

The dry weather woes don’t seem to faze the bird population at the ranch. The bluebird young have fledged and their call was scattered among the trees. A young male cardinal has been spotted cleaning up under the birdfeeders along with a mature male. A pair of rose-breasted grosbeaks enjoys the sunflower feeder when the large numbers of goldfinches let them. A few more hummingbird sightings although they’re still not as numerous as they were through the months of May and June. There are still a few barn swallows yet to leave the nest adding to an already prolific group of young patrolling the grounds. Not sure if they’re why the mosquitoes are seemingly starting to let up but having them around certainly doesn’t hurt.

Seldom do sheep qualify as intelligent but they seem to be smart enough to accumulate a knowledge base that makes them a threat to get out at any given inopportune time. Take last Friday at the Waseca Co. Fair for instance. When the animals were being judged, those that were chosen to come back for State Fair lineup were temporarily put in small holding pens on the side of the show ring. Every year it seems one or more figure out how to undo the gate latches and a sheep rodeo ensues. This year was no different and several of them became so difficult it became necessary for me to hold a few gates shut so Mrs. Cheviot could attend to her ring duties. Another ring man and I ended up nicknaming one lamb “Einstein” based on his performance.

We were just about to head back to the fair that evening and as we were going down the driveway we noticed a couple of our own lambs were out. They’d slipped through the electric fence and as soon as we chased them they went back in. We put the fence back up but it wasn’t charging. It was getting towards dark and since sheep are clannish there was little danger that they’d stray very far should they decide to get out again. We took off and had a great time with some friends and when we came home the lambs were still in. The next morning I was up early and found them still asleep yet as I did the chores. I then set out to find where the fence was grounded and after walking almost the entire length I discovered the broken wire and repaired it. While I was eating breakfast, I looked out the window to see what appeared to be the instigator warily strolling towards the fence, about to test it. The ewe lamb kept walking slowly then suddenly did a backflip when it contacted the wire, nearly causing me to spit my coffee out. Ya gotta get up purty early in the morning to put one past ol’ Mr. Cheviot.

See you next week…real good then.

Dotch · July 24, 2012

So goodbye yellow brick road, where the dogs of society howl

The scurs caught the rains right and no one complained that an event was rained out. Apparently everyone knows what’s at stake. Will we turn the corner on the hot dry weather this week? Starting Wednesday, mostly cloudy with a good chance of showers and thunderstorms. Highs of 85 and lows near 70. A modest chance of rain for Thursday under partly cloudy skies. Highs of 85 and lows of 65. Mostly sunny and cooler on Friday with a slight chance of showers and thunderstorms. Highs of 80 and lows around 65. Mostly clear becoming partly cloudy on Saturday with a modest chance of showers and a thunderstorm. Highs near 80 and lows around 65. Partly cloudy with a continued modest chance for a shower or thunderstorm on Sunday with highs once again of 80 and lows near 65. Mostly sunny for Monday and slightly warmer with highs around 85 and lows near 65. Tuesday July 31st brings another slight chance for showers and thunderstorms under partly cloudy skies. Highs of 85 - 90 and lows of 65 – 70. On the 29th the sun will rise at 6 a.m. The normal high for July 31st is 82 and the normal low is 61. We will see 14 hours and 36 minutes of daylight, roughly the same as we see on May 10th. The scurs have no time to waste as they enjoy their time before the school bells start to ring once again.

Recent rains have been a godsend. Most have received anywhere from .7” to over 3” in places. The moderate temperatures due to overcast conditions haven’t hurt either. As a result, corn and soybeans continue to weather the heat better than anyone would’ve expected. The root systems on the corn plants appear to be deep and even during the hottest days the amount of leaf-rolling on the early planted corn has been minimal. Soybeans have moved ahead too into the R4 stage in most fields. Not a lot of pods set yet but as the saying goes, August is the bean month. If we can continue to receive some rains from now through the end of August, we still have the potential for a pretty amazing soybean crop. Soybean aphid detects have increased but are far below treatable levels so far. There has been a lot of talk about spider mite infestation in the soybeans. Oddly enough, there has been more talk about spider mites than there have been spider mites. These tiny arachnids tend to show under dry weather conditions and aren’t limited to soybeans. They like plants such as petunias, marigolds and prickly ash to name a few. The last major outbreak here was during the drought of ’88 and we have seen nothing remotely resembling those conditions yet. Rather than playing guessing games, for some good, unbiased info on spider mites in soybeans, check out this info written by a couple of friends of mine:

http://www.soybeans.umn.edu/crop/insects/spider_mites.htm

Up until recently, lack of rain has meant watering the garden, something I don’t like to do. However, given the amount of time and effort that has gone into this thing so far, it’s a small price to pay to ensure we actually have something to harvest. Things really do look good though and the vine crops in particular really responded to the watering. Once they got some rain well, they’ve exploded and cover most of the garden where they’re allowed to run. The hum of bees in the morning pollinating the flowers when they’re open is something to behold. Onions are getting about ready to harvest, the tops starting to dry down already. The lettuce and remaining snap peas were tilled under to allow any moisture to accumulate for the winter radish crop as well as another planting of peas. Had our first cuke of the season and there are zucchini coming on line along with a string bean crop that’s just starting. The good eats for the next several months are something to look forward to.

There seems to be one loyal hummingbird staying around the ranch. It appears to be a young one and has the feeder as well as all the potted flowers to itself. The young male cardinal has stayed around and has proven to be a feisty young lad. When the much larger grackles get in his space he becomes very agitated, letting them know his opinion of their presence. More power to him! Hopefully he chases them all away. The orioles seemed to ebb and flow more this past week although about the time you thought they might be slowing up, the feeders would be empty again. Male goldfinches are starting to lose their bright yellow color ever so slightly. The females are likely about to nest as they are showing up less frequently at the feeders. August is usually their month to nest.

Ruby has weathered the heat rather well. She is one lucky Border Collie, being able to stay in the air conditioning most of the day except during chores of course. Her favorite spot being behind the love seat where there is a vent blowing nice, cool air on her. Some days when we can’t find her, once called the thumping and bumping as she crawls out from behind the couch makes her location readily apparent. When coming home she greets us at the door with what can only be described as a bizarre combination howling/talking sound. The cool house still doesn’t stop Ruby from tearing out the door as soon as it’s opened to run the little indented dog paths she’s worn into the soil. The need to keep the sheep and the resident squirrel population in line is ingrained. One needs only to follow the yellow brick road to know her whereabouts.

See you next week…real good then.

Dotch · August 1, 2012

I need to get back home to cool, cool rain…

The scurs were relatively certain we’d get a respite from the heat and indeed we did. We didn’t however receive much rain as July continued to be miserly in that department. Will August treat us better? Starting Wednesday and Thursday, partly cloudy with a modest chance of a shower or a thunderstorm Wednesday. Highs near 85 and low around 65- 70. Partly cloudy on Friday with a slight chance of daytime showers with a good chance of showers and thunderstorms in the evening. Highs of 85 and lows of 65. Partly cloudy and cooler on Saturday with a slight chance of showers and thunderstorms. Highs around 80 and lows near 60. Mostly sunny and cooler on Sunday with highs of 80 and lows near 60. Mostly sunny Monday and Tuesday with highs of 85and lows of 65. The normal high for August 7th is 81 and the normal low is 61. We’re also losing over 2 minutes of daylight each day now. The scurs need all the daylight they can get to stockpile wood, thinking we’ll pay the price for the hot dry summer we’ve had.

There are actually 2 Full Moons in the month of August, the first one occurring here on August 1st and the second one, a Blue Moon on August 31st. We’ll focus our efforts on the first one at this point however. The Full Moon on August 1st goes by several names, with the most common name being the Full Sturgeon Moon, as this was the month when the tribes of the northeast were catching sturgeon in the Great Lakes region. It also goes by the Full Red Moon due to the reddish color it frequently takes on due to dust in the air this time of year and by the Full Green Corn Moon and the Full Grain Moon. The Ojibwe called this the Full Berry Moon, presumably for the abundant blueberries in season during August. The Sioux called it the Moon When Geese Shed Their Feathers as well as the Moon When the Cherries Turn Black. At the ranch it is known as the Moon When No Vacations Are Possible.

Crops continue to move rapidly towards the finish line. With GDU’s running a good 10 days to 2 weeks ahead of normal, one suspects harvest will start early this year. The little dribbles of rain most have received in July have been disappointing and the heat has taken its toll on the corn. Looking in just about any corn field, one can find ears that are tipped back and not filled the end. There is corn denting already so in roughly 3 weeks we should see some reaching physiological maturity. The soybeans at this point appear to be taking the hot dry conditions more in stride with some early maturing fields already approaching the R5 stage. There have been some increases in pest pressure and both corn and soybean fields bear watching. Some who sprayed insecticides early banking on residual claims should pay particular attention as knocking the beneficial insect populations out of fields can make them prime targets for infestation.

The garden has kicked it into gear producing abundant zucchini, yellow beans, cucumbers, onions and some new potatoes. Taste testing those first potatoes is always a treat and even zucchini is tolerable after not having any fresh for a year. Watering has become a necessity to help tide things over however until we can garner a decent rain. It helps but it’s still tough to beat Mother Nature on these rich prairie soils.

Around the ranch the evenings are hallmarked by the sound of happily singing crickets, katydids and toads. The toads should be singing happily as fat as they are. Several are about tennis ball size and shape, apparently having dined well on the large insect population most of the summer. Much of the daytime singing by the birds is over with the exception of one wren that apparently still has young in a nesting box near the garden. Shouldn’t be long though and they’ll be on the wing. Another hummingbird has shown up although between the two of them, they really haven’t been competing for feeder space. The orioles have slowed down finally with primarily the orchard oriole group consuming sugar water and jelly. Not a bad gig if you can get it.

There have been all sorts of questions about those pesky biting flies; first and foremost what are they other than names we can’t print. They are known as stable flies and they have been a real nuisance this summer. They love to bite exposed flesh and the bite from their sharp proboscis feels about like someone sticking a pin into your skin. Old famer tales claim that these flies are merely house flies that bite when they are in fact a separate, distinct species. They are slightly smaller whereas the common house fly is larger and has sponging mouth parts. The habitat they inhabit is much the same although they generally don’t survive well in a fresh manure pack situation. They prefer a more mixed bag of damp, loose bedding and manure mixed in, grass clippings, wet straw, etc. Both males and females bite and suck blood. Like mosquitoes, the female must consume blood to produce viable eggs. The warm winter we had was probably a boon for their survival. They tend to overwinter as pupae in an environment that doesn’t freeze such as a manure pile that generates heat. That’s why after hauling manure before fall freeze up, I spend all winter worrying about them freezing their poor little hiney’s to death. ;-)

See you next week…real good then.

MN Shutterbug · August 1, 2012

Mark, I do have to admit that I always gain knowledge from your writings.

Dotch · August 7, 2012

Say, can I have some of your purple berries?

The scurs were on target for some much needed rainfall and a welcome cool down. Will our good fortunes continue? Starting Wednesday, partly cloudy with a good chance of a shower during the day and a modest chance of a shower overnight. Highs of 80 - 85 and lows around 65. Partly cloudy on Thursday with a slight chance of a shower. Highs of 80 and lows close to 55. Mostly clear and cooler on Friday with highs of 75 and lows near 55. Partly cloudy on Saturday with a slight chance of a shower. Highs near 75 and lows of 55 - 60. Partly cloudy and slightly warmer on Sunday with a slight chance of a shower. Highs around 80 and lows of 60. Mostly sunny on Monday with highs of 80 and lows near 65. Partly cloudy on Tuesday and warmer with a chance of showers. Highs of 85 and lows near 65. The normal high for August 14th is 82 and the normal low is 59. On the 14th we will have 14 hours and one minute of daylight, having lost 1 hour and 27 minutes of daylight since the summer solstice. The scurs will be breaking out the sweaters while roasting weenies and marshmallows to celebrate our cooler evening temps.

Crops continue to thunder along following what was a lifesaving rain on Saturday morning and a kinder, gentler temperature regime. July was not kind to us at all with 1” of precip total being recorded at the ranch. Trouble was that inch of rain fell in 9 separate rainfall events. High temperatures for the month did not fall below 80 degrees at Waseca until the 28th and there were 10 days when the highs were 90 degrees or more and 8 overnight lows where the temperature was 70 degrees or higher. As a result corn has definitely lost some top end yield as a result of the heat and lack of rain but relative to other places in the country we have very little to complain about and everything to be thankful for. Soybeans have really benefitted from the recent change in conditions and given another rain or too could be the Cinderella story once again. Crop health has been excellent and odds of a pest outbreak catching them before they’re out of the woods become a little slimmer each day.

The Olympics have brought something to watch on TV the past couple weeks. We’ve watched as the athletic events are showcased with competition conducted under a peaceful and cooperative atmosphere. Even Ruby has been interested and sometimes so much so that we’ve had to let her outside to cool off. The equestrian events get her so worked up that the growing, barking and running at the TV set is more than we can stand after laughing about at first. The reaction is the same as she has when Bonanza comes on with Hoss, Ben, Little Joe and Adam riding up to the screen. Apparently Ruby is not a horse fan.

The swallows have been congregating on the wires around the ranch in recent days and soon they’ll be heading back south. Most appear to be tree swallows but they are joined by the resident barn swallows as they feed on the flying insect population. Some evenings the dragonflies have done much the same only to a lesser degree. The last batch of baby bluebirds at the kindly neighbors should fledge this week or next. Opening the observation door revealed 3 nearly fully feathered nestlings hunkered down. The orioles continue to show up after leading us to believe they’re gone. Sunday there was another brightly colored Baltimore male among some younger models. For the birds moving through this fall, there will be very few acorns in the yard at the ranch. Just as we suspected, the freeze this spring put a real hit on their flowering. The chokeberries however are loaded with purple berries. The berries from this aronia species are noted for their antioxidants so popping in a handful of the juicy but mouth puckering fruit is a special treat when mowing the windbreak this time of year. They last on into winter if they’re not all eaten first so I tend not to borrow too many from my feathered friends. Could be a long tough winter for them.

Vista’s noted Swedish astronomer made another visit to make me aware of the Perseid meteor showers that occur during mid-August. The meteors occur when the earth passes through the dust left over from a comet. The clear nights with should make for some good viewing. August 11th from 11 p.m. until an hour or so before sunrise should be the prime observation hours. If one desires to take their sweetie out on a blanket to watch in the yard, the noted astronomer’s suggestion is to remain fully clothed even though the mosquitoes aren’t too bad. It could be cold out.

The garden continues to produce in abundance. Crisper drawers are full in the fridges and it’s beyond our capability to eat it all so we’ve been distributing it to those without. Made a journey eastward to Mom’s last Saturday with string beans, potatoes, carrots, onions, cucumbers and zucchini in tow. Made a stop at the neighborhood sheep shearer while I was at it to take along some sweet corn as the patch at the ranch is a week or so away yet. Once at Mom’s the produce and lamb chops I’d brought along provided us with the raw material for a feast. It was a relaxing afternoon finally, one devoid of people calling and asking questions that could’ve waited until Monday. It was also one of those times when I was able to learn about all kinds of people I’d only heard about when growing up but had never met primarily because they were already dead and gone by the time I arrived on the scene. These were days before Twitter, e mail and Facebook when people actually talked and really communicated. The time always passes too quickly however and before I knew it, it was time to head back home. I was glad I’d taken the time though. Some of what I learned helped put things into perspective not only in my life but in the perspective of humanity. Those good ol’ days weren’t any bowl of cherries and were truly times when people pulled themselves up by their bootstraps and helped each other out. Sometimes it appears this is a lesson we need to learn all over again.

See you next week…real good then.

Dotch · August 15, 2012

Harmlessly passing your time in the grassland away...

The scurs kept it coming last week with another dose of cooler temperatures, making July a more distant memory. Can they deliver more of the same? Starting Wednesday, mostly cloudy with a modest chance of showers during the day and a good chance of rain in the evening. Highs of 85 and lows of 60. Thursday, partly cloudy and cooler with a slight chance of shower. Highs near 70 and lows around 50. Friday and Saturday, mostly clear with highs near 70 with lows near 50. Mostly clear on Sunday and Monday with highs of 75 and lows of 55. Partly cloudy on Tuesday with a slight chance of showers. Highs of 75 and lows near 65. The normal high for August 20th is 75 and the normal low is 65. The scurs have some last minute school shopping to finish up but that won’t keep them from lounging for a few last lazy hours as they await the return of the yellow livestock haulers.

Crop progress continues to amaze for the calendar date and a little rain hasn’t hurt. Rainfall has already surpassed the inch we got in the month of July at the ranch and is close in the gauge in town. 98 day corn planted April 11th was half milk line late last week meaning it is about 7 – 10 days from physiological maturity. Some of the early planted soybeans in the 1.8 maturity range are a bona fide R6 stage meaning they have at least one pod at a node on the main stem with a fully expanded trifoliate where the seed fills the pod cavity. Recent rains probably won’t do much to benefit the corn but will certainly help the soybeans fill some of the pods that have been set late in the season. The question still remains however how many will be set, what will the moisture and temperature conditions be from here on out and how much time do we have left before a killing frost. The recent cooler temperatures have reminded us that Mother Nature still has a mind of her own and is capable of changing it whenever she feels like it.

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A little more of the garden at the ranch continues to come online with each passing week. Both yellow and green beans are reaching full capacity along with the zucchini and cukes. More melons and squash are showing up and they are huge. One visitor noted the nice pumpkins and I had to point out that they were actually Mooregold squash. The tomatoes have been slow to ripen with just a few of the small yellow pear tomatoes. Luckily I stopped in to visit someone I had been meaning to meet for quite some time who happens to be a tomato aficionado extraordinaire. After getting a tour of his garden he gave me a generous bag with a sampler of 4 or 5 different heirloom tomatoes. They were absolutely fantastic and am hoping we can reciprocate with some melons as they get ripe. I’ve done some more planting here as well. July 31st the winter radish crop was seeded and within a week they were up. They are starting to thicken up so that one can easily tell there is another radish crop on the way. The winter radishes are unique in that they are fairly large and sliced like a kohlrabi they remind one of that. The initial texture and taste is similar but usually about 5 seconds later the similarity ends when they unleash their firepower on your taste buds. Over the past weekend, more snap peas were planted along with some lettuce and another row or radishes-this time some usually designed for spring seeding but mentioned the option for fall/late summer seeding so thought I’d give it a try.

The pasture welcomed the recent rains as well and has greened up in response. The sheep have dipped into the native prairie pasture at the ranch already so it would help if the rains continued to recharge the batteries of the cool season grasses in the remainder. In our home pasture and the pasture at the kindly neighbors weeds have been relatively well controlled for this season anyway. However looking closely one can see there are some bull thistle and musk thistle rosettes appearing, apparently also benefitting from some of the recent rains. These are true biennials so they will either need to be dealt with this fall if time allows or early in the spring when they’re still vulnerable. They can be controlled when they get larger but it takes more chemical to accomplish the job. It still bothers me to see a thistle or two sticking up where I can see it so I always carry my trusty bean hook in the truck just in case. Have bean hook, will travel.

At the kindly neighbors pasture the young bluebirds have fledged and they are hanging around the oak trees. It appears the last of the barn swallows has taken wing at the ranch. The interesting thing is they continue to come back and roost in their nest. The hummers have continued to increase in number and activity, keeping the feeders and flower pots worked over daily. The orioles we nearly gave up on a few weeks ago have made a rapid resurgence. There are still some young orchard orioles but most now are young Baltimore types with an occasional brightly colored male in the mix. At times there are up to a half dozen at the feeders or in the tree where they hang so the jelly and sugar water consumption rivals that we experienced earlier in the season once again. Some young goldfinches are appearing now very drab in color and smaller in size than the rest of the crew. They are all hungry it seems and keeping the feeders full has been a full time job. As mentioned last week, there are few acorns. Checking at the kindly neighbors pasture, there is evidence a few must have fallen from up high in the trees where temperatures were warmer and the flowers on the oak trees were not frozen. All that’s left though are the cups that held the acorns, making one wonder if the squirrels have put them away for safekeeping or squandered them while eyeing the birdfeeders.

See you next week…real good then.

Dotch · August 20, 2012

Number nine, number nine, number nine, number nine

The scurs were right again about rain and also right about not guaranteeing an amount. With .02” measured at the ranch, there was barely enough for a mosquito’s bath. Will we see enough for 2 mosquitoes this week? Starting Wednesday, mostly clear with a high of 80 – 85 and a low of 65. Thursday, partly cloudy with an increasing chance for a shower or thunderstorm by evening. Highs near 85 and lows near 65. Partly cloudy and slightly cooler on Friday with a moderate chance of rain. High near 80 and lows around 65. Saturday and Sunday, partly cloudy with a chance of thunderstorms. Highs of 80 and lows near 60. Monday and Tuesday, mostly cloudy with a chance of shows and thunderstorms. Highs of 80 – 85 and lows of 55 – 60. On August 26th, we will see the sun set at 8 p.m. The normal high for the 26th is 79 and the normal low is 56. The scurs will be sharpening their Crayola’s in all 64 colors.

Crops largely went without rain this past week but maturity was slowed by cooler temperatures. Most soybeans are now R6 or very close to it and some corn will have reached black layer by the time this reaches print. The threat of soybean aphids and spider mites has largely been put to rest as the maturity of both crops is simply too advanced with some minor exceptions. Soybean aphids will likely still build enough of a presence so they will move back to buckthorn as the soybeans reach maturity but as the Boy Entomologist points out, the aphid days necessary for them to cause economic damage is higher than they are capable of.

This somewhat abridged version of Fencelines is coming to you from the road while I’m on the Midwest Pro Farmer Crop Tour. For those receiving this column via e mail, follow us on Ag Web and on Twitter, #pftour12. This trip has become my annual departure from the land of road kill sweet corn and raccoons. It’s my 9th tour of duty and the worst of it is, I think I’m beginning to get the hang of it. Maybe it’s because I’m starting to know what to expect and maybe it’s because of all the familiar faces as we gather for the first night in Columbus OH. It is a long and arduous week however and with State Fair in MN right on its heels, there’s not much left of me by the time Sunday rolls around. Thank goodness Byron Jones’ wife bakes all those cookies so I can maintain my stamina.

How does the crop look? From the road, some of it doesn’t look as bad as advertised. However, a windshield survey is very frequently deceiving. That’s why getting out in the fields and looking at the crop is so important. We had an opportunity to look at some graphic examples of this from some Iowa fields and if the results there are any indication, we’ll be in for a long week of looking at some pretty disappointing crops relative to what we’re used to seeing. We have the distinction in MN of being in a garden spot. While things aren’t perfect, they are far from the ugliness we’ve seen up to this point. We have much to be thankful for even though we seem to enjoy complaining about what could’ve been. Some need to be reminded that as bad as they think they have it, someone usually has it much, much worse.

That doesn’t mean there aren’t things to look forward to however. Fortunately we have kind friends and neighbors who look after things while we’re gone, doing chores and keeping the garden produce harvested. Speaking of looking forward to things, the lettuce and additional winter radishes were emerging already when I left. The snap peas had sprouted but as of Saturday morning hadn’t made the soil surface. The light watering I gave them may have helped so curious to see their progress. The cucumbers registered their complaint about the dry conditions by wilting under some warmer temps. They were also rewarded with another drink of well water.

The bird feeders were filled too but it’s likely that they will have emptied everything out by the time I return home. That’s okay. There are plenty of flowering plants to keep the hummingbirds occupied and the number of thistle patches around the countryside will no doubt have the goldfinch’s attention. Even the orioles who have been on a tear lately consuming jelly like no tomorrow are likely getting about ready to move on. It’s always sad to see them go but it’s the natural order of things. That and some other dummy can buy them jelly as they make their way south for the winter.

The lawn is definitely up for a shave when I return. It looks like some teenage boy’s patchy attempt at growing a beard. The weeds have done rather nicely on the sparse rainfall although some of the bluegrass appears to have received enough so that it needs to be evened up. Even though it will be dusty and dirty, waiting for a rain is not an option. One is only able to look at something that ugly and weedy about so long.

See you next week…real good then

Dotch · August 29, 2012

Bring it on home, Bring it on home to you...

The scurs were overoptimistic about rainfall but at least we got some. Will we get any more this week? Starting Wednesday, mostly sunny with highs near 95 and lows around 65. Slightly warmer (okay, hotter than Hades) if you on Thursday with highs nearing the century mark and lows around 65. Mostly clear on Friday and Saturday with highs dropping down to 90 and lows of 60 - 65. Mostly sunny on Sunday with a slight chance of an evening shower. Highs around 85 and lows of 60 – 65. Mostly sunny and cooler on Labor Day with highs of 80 and lows of 60. Partly cloudy with a chance of showers on Tuesday. Highs of 85 and lows of 55. The normal high for August 31st is 78 and the normal low is 54. The scurs will be resting their weary carcasses on Labor Day after a grueling hot summer.

August 31st will provide us with one of those somewhat rare occurrences, namely a Blue Moon. Originally a Blue Moon was defined as the 4th Full Moon in a season although today’s generally accepted definition calls a Blue Moon the second Full Moon in a month. It can also be called a Blue Moon if the moon itself appears blue due to dust particles suspended in the atmosphere. Actually the frequency with which a Blue Moon occurs is about once every 19 months although it is not a given and there may be several years in which it does not occur. Since this Full Moon has essentially no name, a la Clint Eastwood in the Spaghetti Westerns, some have dubbed it a Full Fruit Moon and others since the September Full Moon will be the Harvest Moon, are calling this one the Full Corn Moon. Oddly enough since Native Americans used the moons as one of their methods of measuring time, it doesn’t always mesh with our monthly format. At the ranch however we have no such problem, it’s known as the Moon When the Garden Overwhelms Us.

The grueling hot summer decides to come back in late August for an encore performance. Thought maybe we were done with 90 degree heat didn’t you? Coupled with the continued sparse rainfall, that heat has pretty well cooked the goose of any chance we had at adding additional soybean yield on later maturing soybeans. For the most part corn has reached physiological maturity and the heat will hasten the dry down. No doubt about it, there will be plenty of corn harvested in September here as stalk quality and weak ear shanks could become an issue. Everyone got a reminder of how costly that dry corn could be this past spring when all the volunteer corn showed up. 10 – 20 bushel per acre on the ground would’ve paid for a lot of dryer gas.

The garden has been ultra-productive this year although due to some miscommunication it seems we’ve made more promises than we can keep. When I’ve wanted something to eat or promised someone something, suddenly the cupboard is bare. Oh well, the snap peas are up and the winter radishes continue to look impressive as we approach the fall season. They should after the watering they’ve had. Certainly hasn’t hurt to supplement the scant rains they’ve received. Thanks to some additional timely watering muskmelon crop has started out as good as it looked with some of the sweetest cantaloupes we’ve raised in many moons. The tomatoes should throttle up this next week. Watering has also helped the posies. The 4 o’clocks and the morning glories have become an explosion of blooms the hummingbird population can’t seem to resist. The morning glories are approaching the halfway point on the yard light pole. It appears only a hard freeze stands between them reaching the top.

The sheep have ground their pasture down pretty well and look forward to all the vegetable peelings and leftovers sent their direction over the fence. Sweet corn husks and cobs are among their favorites although the melon rinds and cucumber peelings disappear quickly. There are no apples for them this year at the ranch after a banner year last season. The last SnoSweet apple was destroyed by a bird so we’ll need to wait at least another year to sample any from our own tree. That said with the dry weather conditions it’s probably not a bad idea to water the fruit trees this fall. The last update from the SROC in Waseca indicates lower available soil moisture in the top 5’ than we had at any time last year. We certainly didn’t make any miraculous recovery this past week.

The birds are in a transition stage around our yard right now. Thinking there still might be an oriole or two around yet after my week long absence, I put a couple dollops of jelly in their feeder and refilled their nectar feeder. Checking the feeders the next morning, it appeared there had been some activity. The scolding from the trees above confirmed my suspicions: They’re still here!

Another Pro Farmer Crop Tour is in the books and best of all I lived to tell about it. Never have I witnessed so much poor crop over such a vast area. One of the interesting things though was the low amount of destroyed and harvested crop relative to what I’d seen the network media report in early July. While there were some corn fields where the yield was essentially zero, most had at least some corn in them that would still make them worth harvesting. And, in some areas where rains fell a few weeks ago, the soybeans actually looked respectable all things considered. Not saying it isn’t a disaster but sometimes it seems especially at the national network level, the media would rather the facts didn’t get in the way of a good story. On my level, I’m just glad for the opportunity to participate in this event and call it as I see it yet another year. Like everything else I do though, it seems when I reached the ripe old age of 50, it takes more time to recover. Most importantly though as I’ve said in years past, Oh Auntie Em, there’s no place like home!

See you next week…real good then.

Dotch · September 6, 2012

Let it roll, baby, roll

Let it roll, all night long

After a hot end to August, the scurs have their heart set on a cool down. Will it happen this week? Starting Wednesday, partly cloudy with a slight chance of a shower of thunderstorm. Highs 75 – 80 and lows near 50. Mostly sunny on Thursday becoming partly cloudy with a modest chance of an evening shower or thunderstorm. Highs near 75 and lows around 55. Partly cloudy and cooler on Friday with a modest chance of a shower. Highs close to 70 and lows near 50. Mostly sunny and continued cooler conditions. Highs around 70 and lows near 50. Sunday and Monday, mostly clear and slightly warmer with highs of 75 and lows of 55 – 60. Warmer on Tuesday under clear skies. Highs of 75 – 80 and lows around 60. The normal high for September 10th is 75 and the normal low is 50. On the 5th we slip below 13 hours of daylight, about the same as we were back on April 5th. The scurs will be tuning to watch the Vikings, knowing full well a nap will probably break out.

The blast furnace like heat and wind last week moved the crop maturity along at a breakneck pace. Most April planted corn as of Friday had reached physiological maturity and soybeans were turning rapidly. Some corn has been harvested and the results are variable. On some of the lighter soils to the southeast rumors of sub-100 bu./acre corn have been heard. Closer to Bugtussle, the corn has been a pleasant surprise with moisture running in the low 20% range and in the 160 – 180 bu./acre range. Some recent sweet corn yields have gone over 8 ton per acre for the first time so there has definitely been some encouraging news. Unfortunately the cavalry never came in the form of significant precip during the last 3 weeks for most of the soybeans. They may turn out to be the crop that could’ve been once again. We’ll know once the combines roll and if things don’t change they could roll all night long just like last year.

In the garden, winds and high temperatures blew the sweet corn over the cliff maturity-wise in matter of two days. Corn that had been excellent to eat on Tuesday was done for by Thursday. Even the raccoons were apparently not impressed that it was sticking in their teeth. The melon crop has exploded as anticipated and the quality has been superb. Some years like last year, they were disappointing but in years like this one everything clicked. The cucumber beetles however have been doing their level best to make things miserable in the rest of the vine crops however. There is an exceptionally high level of spotted cucumber beetles this year not only in the garden but also in the fields. It makes one wonder if given the warm winter, we aren’t seeing some localized overwintering and what kind of diseases they might be vectoring. The cucumbers have about given up the ghost after their feeding and it appears they may have cucumber mosaic virus. The tomatoes also are showing up with some whitefly infestations but as of yet, they haven’t caused appreciable damage.

On almost any given plant around our yard, one can find aphids of one sort or another. Dry, warm weather conditions seem to favor aphid populations. For instance I’ve located them on the oak trees, muskmelons, Indian corn and cucumbers. It is interesting to watch the beneficial insects hone in on the heavy infestations however. At any given time one can see ladybugs, lacewing nymphs, pirate bugs, syrphid flies and tiny parasitic wasps vying for their prey. It's apparently been an especially good year for the parasitic wasps as there are more aphid mummies in evidence than I ever recall seeing. Aphid mummies result from the wasps poking their ovipositor into the aphid, depositing an egg and the wasp larva consuming the aphid from the inside out. They emerge from the puffed up, typically tan-colored shell of the aphid body once their life cycle is complete.

Overall, it is shaping up to be an early falls on just about every front. The heat and lack of precipitation has hastened the process. As mentioned, harvest has already begun in places and given the forecast, it won’t take long for fields to be bare. Trees have shed many of their unnecessary lower leaves due to stressful conditions. Some prime examples around the yard include poplar, ash, silver maple and black walnut trees. The dry leaves seem to have more of a typical October smell to them and when the wind blows, they have formed a mulch around some of the garden plants. The nannyberries have begun to blush as have the sumac. The nannyberries themselves are ripe which about 2 – 3 weeks ahead of schedule is. They were a tasty snack however as I made one last dirty, dusty trip around the backyard on the lawnmower. The weeds were just a little more than I could stomach and some of the grass on the west side of the house was long and still surprisingly green.

Mrs. Cheviot made a triumphant return to the ranch after a week at the Great MN Get Together, and then promptly fell victim to this year’s version of the State Fair Sheep Barn Crud, complete with chills and thrills. Of course it probably has something to do with the diet she consumes while there in addition to the hours she keeps. The air quality and ventilation in that building has always left something to be desired. After about 4 days, the ammonia and dust in the place doesn’t do anyone’s lung tissue any favors. Stay in the Cheviot Sheraton or Hampshire Hilton for 7 or 8 days and it’s amazing anyone lives to tell about it.

Ruby doesn’t care. She’s just glad to see us upon our return, regardless of condition. While we’ve been away, she’s been busy cementing her position as Most Spoiled Border Collie on the Planet. Staying at some friends’ house on Beaver Lake while we were gone, it’s a little like being at Club Med for her. I have a sneaking suspicion she might’ve tried to sleep on a bed or couch if she got the chance. Of course, we’d never allow that kind of behavior here. No sireee!

See you next week…real good then.

Dotch · September 12, 2012

Don't turn your back on me baby…

The scurs got the cool down they wished for and more. Will this week continue the trend? Starting Wednesday, partly cloudy with a good chance of showers from about midday on. Highs of 70 and lows of 55. Thursday, mostly cloudy with a slight chance of rain in the morning becoming partly cloudy by afternoon. Highs of 65 – 70 and lows of 45. Mostly clear on Friday with a high near 70 and lows of 45. Mostly clear for Saturday and Sunday with highs of 70 and lows of 50. Monday, partly cloudy with a modest chance of a shower. Highs of 70 and lows dropping to 45. Mostly cloudy on Tuesday with a chance of showers. Highs around 65 with lows near 40. The normal high for September 15th is 73 and the normal low is 48, about the same as we experience on May 21st . The scurs will be up for another weekend of football based on last week’s performances.

Harvest progress has moved at an unbelievable pace for the calendar date. Widespread corn harvest does not generally happen in MN during the first full week in September so this is a first. Yields have been outstanding with some fields toying with the magic 200 bu./acre mark. A few soybeans have also been harvested with pleasant surprises when the crop has been hauled over a scale. Yields have been running in the low to mid 50’s on the early maturing soybeans. Some would argue that is how our soybean crop started out last year too and ended up with disappointing yields. If you recall we also had a killing frost in mid-September that took a toll on the later maturing varieties as well as some extreme heat that dried them from 12% down to 8% in a matter of a couple days. Time will tell but odds are this will be a better soybean crop than last year and probably better than we feared just a few short weeks ago.

We received some generous rainfall last week and while it was generally too late, it should help with the fall tillage especially in the greater Bugtussle area and points east. At the ranch we garnered 1.47” and in Bugtussle proper 1.3” fell. It was a godsend for pastures if only temporarily. More rain will be needed to allow them carry livestock later into the fall. The fly in the ointment with the rain was the wind that was associated with it. Waseca recorded gusts around 45 mph and Rochester had gusts up to 75 mph. Because of the weak stalks in the corn, the result has been stalk lodging below the ear in some fields. This warning shot is largely responsible for a lot of the corn harvest in the area along with the memories of last year’s corn in this year’s soybeans.

The wind had less to do with it perhaps than the warm temperatures and insects but it suddenly became time to harvest the garden on Sunday. The cucumber beetles that were the scourge of the squash and pumpkins most of the season began chewing the skin some of them thus hastening the picking schedule. It was time however as the vines had little foliage left even though the vines themselves were still green. The worst part of the damage these insects cause is not necessarily the lack of keeping so much as it is the flat flavor it imparts to the squash. If not consumed or processed quickly, the bright flavor becomes flat in matter of a few weeks so guess what we’ve been eating? The insect and bird damage on the Indian corn has also prompted us to harvest much of that as well. The large colorful piles of corn with the husks pulled back along with orange, yellow and green of the squash, pumpkins and gourds serve as a reminder that fall is here, and we have to be grateful for the bounty we’ve been blessed with.

Around the yard at the ranch, the air has suddenly gone quiet. It appears the orioles are at long last gone. Haven’t seen any since last Wednesday’s rain and the jelly consumption is about nil. The nectar consumption continues however as the hummingbirds keep pulling on it daily. They’ve really it the flowers hard as well which is no surprise. There are so many to choose from especially in the mornings when the 4 o’clocks and morning glories are open fully. The impatiens are inviting and the salvia has made a dramatic comeback since the rain. Their fire engine red blooms are sure to satisfy any finicky hummer. The barn swallows are still moving through but the numbers seen daily are dwindling. The locals must be long gone as they no longer occupy the outbuildings overnight. The fall birds are steadily asserting their presence at the feeders once again. The blue jays are raucous, the chickadees scold, and the nuthatches are constantly picking sunflower seeds to wedge in the tree bark where they crack them open with their sharp little beaks.

The time to turn the rams in with the ewes is upon us. Last week saw the departure of a couple of rams to new owners and hopefully for greener pastures. Producing a decent ram is not the easiest thing in the world and finding someone who likes one you’ve raised can be even tougher. Like people, every ram has a different personality. Even Sausage and Tube Steak, the two panel jumping experts from last fall turned out about as different as night and day. Both of them liked to be scratched and Sausage always seemed pretty tame. Get in the pen to catch them however and Sausage wanted nothing to do with human contact. Tube Steak wanted to take me on which played right into my hands, making him that much easier to grab. It also cemented what we had warned the guy getting him about: Watch your back or you might get pancaked when it is turned.

See you next week…real good then.

Dotch · September 18, 2012

Won't you please tell the man I didn't kill anyone. No I'm just tryin' to have me some fun

The scurs got it to cool down finally but not before it reached 95 degrees first. Have we seen the last of the 90’s for this year? Starting Wednesday, partly cloudy with a slight chance of rain. Highs around 70 and lows near 45. Thursday, partly cloudy and a little cooler with a modest chance of an overnight shower. Highs of 65 and lows of 45. Partly cloudy Friday with a slight chance of a shower. Highs near 60 and lows around 40. Saturday and Sunday, partly cloudy to mostly sunny, highs of 65 and lows of 40 – 45. Monday, mostly sunny, highs of 70 and lows of 40 – 45. Partly cloudy with a chance of a shower. Highs 65 – 70 and lows of 40 – 45. The normal high for the first day of autumn on September 22nd is 71 and the normal low is 45. Sunrise on the 21st will be at 7:01 a.m. and on the 25th, we will be back to 12 hours of daylight. We are losing daylight at the rate of approximately 3 minutes per day. The scurs will be trying to figure where all the lost daylight went and how to get it back.

Another week of scant precipitation meaning harvest progress continuing largely unabated. This is one for the record books as most would tend to agree. To have as much corn out of the fields as we have is unheard of. Yields have been far above expectations and the quality is part of the reason. Much of the wet corn coming out of the fields at 20% moisture is above 56 lb. test weight. It should pick up another point or two making it some extremely heavy corn. I know the screenings picked up at the kindly neighbors so far are very heavy, nearly the same weight as ground corn. The only holdup on soybeans has been the number of green beans yet in the sample. The soybeans have been testing 8 – 10% moisture but the green material collecting on the outside of a bin is sure to cause headaches down the road for those who have to store them.

It has been tinder dry in the field and the shallow wetlands that provide resting areas for migrating waterfowl are almost all dried up. The pond here has a growth of smartweed in the main part of the basin. It makes excellent forage for ducks and geese but they need some water in order to get at it. Even the deeper pond at the neighbor’s to the north is drier than I ever recall seeing it, with areas where the bottom is no longer covered with water. The Le Sueur River around the golf course is just about where it was last year at this time. There are a few shallow pools and puddles in places but it isn’t running much.

Around the yard at the ranch, signs that fall is here continue to mount. White-lined sphinx moths have taken the evening shift on the impatiens while the hummingbirds have continued their daytime duty. It likely won’t be too much longer although they were still here on the morning of the 18th. We’ll be counting the days we still have them as a blessing. Most of the goldfinches have become occasional visitors once again. I often wondered where they went but a visit to the CRP gave me a clue as to where some are anyway. There are plenty of native prairie plants in the aster family there making for some fresh, new food for them.

One such plant as was pointed out by E.G. was prairie dock, sometimes known as prairie rosinweed. This perennial plant starts out with some large basal rosette leaves that remind one of a scrawny burdock. The leaves are scratchy however and before you know, it has shot some tall flower spikes skyward, sometimes 6’ – 8’ in height. The flowers are yellow and when mature, they have seeds that are very similar to a sunflower around the inside of the outer portion of the flower head. Another plant he identified was called rattlesnake master. This carrot family plant isn’t of great importance for wildlife other than certain bees but it does have a distinctive spikey white inflorescence. Interesting to note how the plant got its name. While the heads when dried were used by American Indians as rattles, the name came from the pioneers who believed the root of the plant was an effective antidote for the treatment of rattlesnake bites. Turns out they were mistaken.

Had occasion to travel to Preston over the past weekend to attend the retirement party of my brother-in-law. The trip brought back many memories of my youth and probably more than I would’ve imagined when we left home. Motoring down MN Hwy 16, recalled many a trip to the Fillmore Co. Fair over the years. The Branding Iron was our destination and that too brought back many memories of gatherings there over the years. I wondered whether some of my old Preston acquaintances ever ate there but figured the chances of seeing them were slim and none. When we got there the establishment was just as I remembered. Very open and with a spectacular view of the countryside from its perch atop the hill overlooking Preston. We were greeted by the party and the festivities began, with Jim pointing out that a black bear had been spotted not all that long ago on the football field below.

The party was relaxing and the food was delicious. As attendees began leaving for home I spotted some folks just coming in who looked familiar. I couldn’t place where I’d seen them but it really wasn’t important. After we’d visited a little more I glanced over at the table where the people were seated and suddenly it dawned on me that one of them was the wife of an old high school friend and classmate. She was also the sister of a friend I’d known in college. Sure enough, he appeared from the salad bar along with his wife, as did my old high school classmate, who also happens to be the state district representative from Preston. We couldn’t believe that we’d all suddenly run into each other like that. It had been 30 odd years since I’d seen my old college friend and 6 or 7 years since I’d seen my high school buddy. What were the odds? We talked a while and then their food came so we had to cut it short. It was probably a good thing. We were starting to delve into the sordid past of our Bailey Hall days. This included tales of death defying feats such as shoe polishing north wing toilet seats, frying squirrels in the dorm room and trips to visit Dr. Shnoxel. We were just trying to have us some fun. Honest.

See you next week…real good then.

MN Shutterbug · September 18, 2012

It has been tinder dry in the field and the shallow wetlands that provide resting areas for migrating waterfowl are almost all dried up. The pond here has a growth of smartweed in the main part of the basin. It makes excellent forage for ducks and geese but they need some water in order to get at it. Even the deeper pond at the neighbor’s to the north is drier than I ever recall seeing it,

It's really quite astonishing and a bit sad to see so many sloughs totally bone dry this year. It's going to take a lot of moisture to recover from this drought. I just hope it all isn't in the form of snow.

Dotch · September 27, 2012

Because I'm still in love with you on this harvest moon.

The scurs hung in there last week and did manage to correctly predict the light showers that temporarily decreased the fire danger. What’s on tap this week? Starting Wednesday, clear with highs of 65 and lows around 40. Clear again for Thursday with highs of 65 and lows near 45. Clear on Friday and Saturday with highs near 70 and lows of 45. Partly cloudy on Sunday with a modest chance of a shower. Highs once again near 70 and lows around 50. Monday and Tuesday, warmer and partly sunny to mostly cloudy with some possible showers both days. Highs of 75 and lows near 50. Sunset will occur on the 28th at 6:59 p.m. The normal high for September 30th is 68 and the normal low is 42. The scurs will be gathering sticks and twigs for a small recreational fire to celebrate the onset of cooler evenings.

The Full Moon for the month occurs on the 29th and is known as the Full Harvest Moon. The light from the moon allowed farmers to work long into the night bringing in the harvest. Of course nowadays nighttime field operations tend to be lit up like small cities so the moonlight becomes somewhat irrelevant. The Ojibwe knew this as the Full Rice Moon as this was the time at which the wild rice, an important part of their diet was being harvested. The Sioux knew this as the Moon of Drying Grass, likely as we’ve seen this fall, the native prairie grasses take on their dry, brown color. At the ranch, we know this as the Moon Where We Do Chores in the Dark.

More rapid field progress this week as showers slowed operations ever so slightly on the 21st. Farmers have to be pinching themselves when looking at the calendar and the corn moisture. Recent reports are seeing 105 day waxy corn dry enough to bin without artificial drying, unheard of for September 24th. Good news in the yield department for both corn and soybeans as well. Soybean yields were feared earlier to be back to where they were last year. That hasn’t been the case in general wit most coming in between 50 and 60 bu./acre. Corn yields continue to impress and few are complaining. No reason they should. With fields to the south of here in IA running below 100 bu./acre, we have a lot to be thankful for.

The frost pretty well ended the growing season for most things if you didn’t get them covered anyway. The low of 30 at the ranch marked the first time we’ve had freezing temperatures since April 17th. Still, it didn’t kill everything. The 4 o’clocks which are usually relatively sensitive escaped relatively unscathed while impatiens in pots near the house were pretty well scorched. The impatiens in a pot near the road ditch where it is lower were hardly even touched while a volunteer gourd was absolutely cooked on a higher spot on the end of the driveway. I’ve never been able to figure out why some places freeze hard when they shouldn’t and vice-versa. We did cover the tomatoes all up but it still managed to singe the upper portions of the plants. Again, no rhyme nor reason to it.

Have we seen the last of the hummingbirds at the ranch? Maybe. The last documented one we saw was on the 21st. However, looking back at last year, we thought they had left only to see them return for a brief encore appearance when temperatures warmed back up. At the feeders now it’s mostly blue jays, a hairy or two and some house finches. There are still lots of goldfinches feeding in the CRP as seed production there apparently keeps them satisfied. An immature red-bellied woodpecker has been hitting the ear corn feeder apparently, voicing his displeasure when finding the cobs bare.

Boxelder bugs have made their return. The last time they were really bad in our house was during the drought in the fall of 1988. After installing a new furnace since then that moved more air through the ductwork, most of them made a posthumous reappearance. The good news is there don’t appear to be as many Asian ladybeetles this year to annoy us. Just the boxelder bugs will probably have to suffice.

Saturday morning before leaving for my Aunt’s 90th birthday party, I decided to build a quick corn shock as we’ve done in the past. This year was no different although cutting the Indian corn stalks with the loppers made for more bending and less fun than it could’ve been. So instead, I fired up the weedeater with the brush cutter attachment and voila! Hundreds of Julienne fries! In a matter of minutes all six rows of stalks were on the ground. I loaded the stover onto the Gator and hauled it back to the house to tie it into bundles. In order to get the shock to stay put I cheated just as in the past and pounded a steel post first before strategically setting the bundles against it. After it was completed I marveled at my new masterpiece thinking to myself, yup, just like the pioneers used to do.

The panel jumping champion ram nicknamed Sausage was put into service on Sunday afternoon. His jumping days likely behind him after spending most of the summer get fat in a pen, we managed to get him to bound into the trailer with Ruby looking on. Sausage’s weight probably hovers around 220 so he’s not exactly easy to maneuver. We got him flipped on his behind though in the confined space of the trailerr to trim his feet as they tend to grow long on penned animals. Off to the kindly neighbors pasture where he was immediately smitten by his newly found harem and kicking up his newly trimmed heels in delight. Could there be love in the air on this Harvest Moon?

See you next week…real good then.

Dotch · October 3, 2012

Please tell me where have all the hobos gone to

After seeing no showers amounting to anything the scurs have set their sights on getting this week right. Will they predict any rain? Starting Wednesday, mostly sunny with a slight chance of a shower. Highs of 75 – 80 and lows of 45. Thursday, much cooler with a slight chance of a shower in the forenoon. Highs of 55 and lows around 35. Partly cloudy and cooler on Friday with high temps of only 50 and lows falling to 30. Saturday and Sunday, mostly clear with highs of 50 – 55 and lows of 30. Slightly warmer on Monday and Tuesday with a slight chance of showers. Highs of 55- 60 and lows of 35. The normal high for October 8th is 66 and the normal low is 40. The scurs will be making hobo stew down by the rusty railroad tracks on Columbus Day.

The Harvest Moon lived up to its billing with the brightness allowing one to walk around without a flashlight outside just about anywhere you wanted. And farmers were hard at it. The warm temperatures and dry conditions have meant farmers can harvest at will for the most part. One can get too much of a good thing however. With corn as dry as it is, there has become more loss at the head when ears strike the stripper plates and butt kernels go flying. Soybeans haven’t been immune to the overly dry conditions either. In addition to being 7% - 8% moisture some pods are popping open easily sometimes before the combine even gets there, to say nothing of sickle shatter when it does. Not unusual to find 5 – 6 bu./acre on the ground in places on recently harvested fields. Another week though should bring us pretty close to the end of harvest and it’ll only be the 8th of October. That means there will suddenly be a lot of free time on some people’s hands. Hopefully that doesn’t include a lot of recreational tillage on fields that have already been tilled. The soils are extremely dry and have worked up very fine. They are set up for a lot of wind erosion already and additional tillage will only make that potential for erosion worse.

Just how dry is it? At the SROC in Waseca, soil moisture is at the lowest level since they started recording that information back in 1977 at1.5” of available water in the top 5’. That said, most of that moisture right now is in the top foot in this area. We were fortunate to receive 1.95” of rainfall at the ranch in September but most did not receive that much. In town the amount was more like 1.7”. Soil sampling these fields has revealed that soils are getting drier too. This has necessitated using probes designed for use in dry soils. Sloughs, wetlands and streams are all as dry as anyone can remember. Water levels in lakes are also very low. Long term forecasts are not positive and some are indicating that droughts have a tendency to move from east to west. In our case, it already has. Between now and anhydrous ammonia application, it should allow time to trim trees in fence lines, clean up messes around the yard or heaven forbid, take some time off and go somewhere to enjoy yourself.

In the meantime the color peak should be sometime this week. If it works like it usually does, one good windy day and if you blink, you’ve missed it. The colors have changed rapidly though, likely in response to the dry late summer and warm dry fall. The colors have been intense however with some of the ash around the yard being particularly bright yellow. The nannyberries and chokeberries have both been a very intense red. The bur oaks are just starting to turn and they also appear to be more colorful than the dull brown they are some years. The red oak and pin oak in our yard should be fun to watch every day.

It appears our little hummingbird friends are gone for the season after leaving the nectar feeders out with no takers since September 21st. Juncos were first spotted here on the 26th. At the ranch and at the kindly neighbors pasture, groups of bluebirds are moving through. Oddly enough they seem attracted to some of the bluebird houses. Are they scoping out the housing market for next spring? We shall see. The robins have been busy devouring nannyberries, chokeberries and crabapples. With the dry soils there are very few earthworms and night crawlers near the surface so they have to make do. In the fields there seem to be an inordinate number of killdeers moving through. Are they trying to tell us something? Yes, they’re letting us know it will get colder and they’re leaving the area for warmer climes.

Ruby had a big weekend keeping up with several activities. It was time to get the last of the Pontiac and Norkotah potatoes dug so off to the small garden we went, potato fork in hand. Ruby is just fascinated by the soil moving when the fork is used to pry it loose. Her intensity increases when several potatoes are unearthed, just waiting for them to make a false move. Maybe Ruby thinks this is where the play balls come from but she takes her spuds very seriously. Probably one of her favorite fall pastimes though is chasing the water coming out of the hose. Mrs. Cheviot decided it was time to wash the siding on Sunday so spraying the house meant literally hours of entertainment for a small red and white Border Collie. It also meant one muddy mess of a small critter by the time it was all done so time for a timeout in the kennel where she fell fast asleep after her exercise time. After lunch it was time for naps all around anyway. Strange how that works this time of year.

See you next week…real good then.

Dotch · October 9, 2012

Who are you? Who, who, who, who? I really wanna know…

The scurs had another week of telling it like it is. While the lows came in a little lower than forecast, the rain showed exactly as scripted. What’s this week’s script? Starting Wednesday, mostly sunny with highs of 55 – 60 and lows of 40. Clear on Thursday and Friday becoming cloudy Friday afternoon with a good chance of a shower or thunderstorm. Highs of 55 on Thursday with lows of 25. High Friday of 55 and not as cool overnight with lows of 45. Showers and thunderstorms likely on Saturday under cloudy skies. Highs near 60 and lows around 45. Sunday, partly cloudy and pleasant with highs around 60 and lows near 45. Partly cloudy Monday with a slight chance of a shower. Highs of 65 and lows of 45. Partly sunny on Tuesday with highs of 65 and lows near 45. The normal high for October 15th is 61 and the normal low is 37. We will experience 11 hours of daylight on the 15th the same as we normally see on February 26th. The scurs will have their purple Vikings umbrella and refreshments at the ready just in case rain really materializes over the weekend.

Rains would be welcome around most of greater Bugtussle and environs. Crops are generally harvested and it comes as no surprise. With the kind of weather we had in September and so far in October, one would’ve been procrastinating pretty severely to forego the opportunity we had. Tillage has been coming along too although the wear on points and lays keeps the parts men smiling at local implement dealerships. Rain would definitely help cut down on some of that wear and tear as well as giving the soil a little more moisture with which to bind fall anhydrous ammonia. It is still too early for that however so best keep at the honeydew projects a few more weeks yet.

A few snow pellets hit the ground last Saturday morning and seemed to bring with it a whole host of juncos in the yard at the ranch. The recent cold snap has seen more activity at the birdfeeders once again. Lots of downies, hairies and one immature red-bellied woodpecker. The nuthatches and house finches keep things hopping too along with the reappearance of the leghorn-sized blue jays. The goldfinches are still around but not using the feeders much, tending to feast in the CRP yet as well as checking out the maturity of the sunflowers in the garden.

Speaking of the garden, we finally gave up on covering the tomatoes. The 24 degree Saturday night/Sunday morning low was just a little more than our ragtag assortment of blankets and tarps would handle. It’s still amazing how many appear to be in good enough condition to eat yet. This after we brought in four 5 gallon buckets before the freeze. The vegetables planted back in late July also withstood the freezing temperatures well. The winter radish crop shows little sign it was that cold and ditto with the snap peas and leaf lettuce. The experiment shows every sign of being a success. There are plenty of winter radishes to share although they really pack a wallop. The leaf lettuce is very crisp and sweet as are the snap peas. It’s time to dig the carrots soon though. Something else has been digging around them and after sharing the rest of the garden with several varmints over the course of the season, I’m not feeling very generous anymore.

It’s been cold. How cold has it been? Cold enough so that after a several year hiatus, I’ve dug into my outdoor wardrobe and let my face grow long in an attempt to stay warm. This has not been without its drawbacks however. Last week when it cooled down I bundled up well before heading into work. I stopped at the post office and while outside visiting with another gentleman, spied our new pastor coming in. I greeted him warmly and while he acknowledged me with a smile and polite conversation, it wasn’t quite the response I expected. Later that day I was soil sampling in a customer’s field when I spied him and his wife removing some velvetleaf out of the fenceline’ It was late afternoon and the sun was beginning to fade somewhat. I got off the 4 wheeler to talk to him and the conversation was very short and really not as friendly as I’d anticipated. Had I done something to tick him off? I mean, I showered that morning, brushed my teeth, used deodorant and everything. I got back on the 4 wheeler and finished sampling the field. I was still somewhat bewildered as I loaded the machine onto the trailer and headed back in for the day.

On Saturday I went into the office to get motivated to brave the elements once again. I was having coffee and chit chatting when suddenly the customer showed up. He wanted to talk to me about something so after bidding the fellow adieu I’d been talking to I wondered what was up. When he told me that he hadn’t seen me for s while and when he saw me all bundled up with a face full of whiskers he simply hadn’t recognized me! I was relieved and actually got a great laugh out of it. On Sunday at church, after ushering I visited my way downstairs and had a chance to quickly chat with our pastor before he left to preach to the Swedes. He confided that while he should’ve remembered the smile, he hadn’t recognized me at first either! Understandable. He’s still a relative newcomer and has probably only seen me when I’m cleaned up. Here I am all bundled up, hat on and a little grubby looking. Of course it probably wouldn’t hurt if I attended church services a little more regularly. All of this has given me a great idea though. If I decide to go out trick or treating this year, I’m just going to dress up as myself. No one will ever know who I am!

See you next week…real good then!

Dotch · October 16, 2012

With a purple umbrella and a fifty cent hat…

Copied and pasted from last week’s column, changed to 10 font and the scurs are ready for battle once more. They were right about the showers and thunderstorms for Saturday but did you notice how those crafty scurs didn’t predict any rainfall amounts? How about this week? Starting Wednesday, mostly cloudy with a good chance of a shower or thunderstorm. Highs near 60 and lows close to 40. Mostly cloudy for Thursday with another good chance of a shower or thunderstorm. Highs near 50 and lows of 35 – 40. Cloudy again for Friday with a slight chance of showers. Highs of 50 – 55 and lows around 40. Partly cloudy for Saturday and Sunday with highs of 50 – 55 and lows near 40. Cloudy for Monday and Tuesday with a chance of shower and thunderstorms. Highs around 60 and lows of 35 – 40. The normal high for October 20th is 59 and the normal low is 35. The scurs will be dumping their purple umbrella and cap after the drubbing the Vikings received at the hands of the Redskins. Go Gophers hockey!

Not much going on in the fields this past week save for some primary tillage on corn ground and with good reason. Harvest is for the most part over and the soils remain very dry. It remains too early yet for anhydrous ammonia applications and some are wondering if there is enough moisture especially as we head west to hold the nitrogen in place once it’s applied. Spring application of anhydrous ammonia or using urea or 32% as alternative nitrogen sources remain viable options should that be the case. The latter two forms are more expensive generally per pound of nitrogen but are better alternatives than fall applying nitrogen and losing it. Some have been advocating the use of fall 2’ nitrogen tests on the premise that we have some nitrogen left in the soil profile that may be usable for the next year’s crop. That may be but past experience with this test followed by warm temperatures and heavy rainfall in April, May and June has rendered the practice questionable at best especially east of Hwy 71 in MN.

So, what is our weather up to? If you listen to several of the pundits, they are claiming a change is coming for the latter half of October. This is where I turn into the original man from Missouri: Show me. So far the predictions for a change other than for cooler temperatures have missed the mark by a mile. If anything it has become even drier, something not even I, the eternal optimist believed possible. Last year in October at the ranch I recorded .37” of precip for the month. This year thus far I have recorded only .22”. Ah, but the month is still young you say. Looking back, that’s what we were saying last year at mid-month too. And we had, .33” at that time. I’m not trying to be a wet blanket coming off a tremendous crop but we’re in serious trouble if things don’t change. While the old adage that this is a good time to have a drought as far as crops applies, this pattern has entrenched itself for the second year in a row. It has become very difficult to make it rain anymore. Washing cars or windows and leaving wagons full of corn or hay out doesn’t matter. Tuesday morning that point was driven home when a surprise shower made me wonder if I should back a wagon containing a few screenings into the shed. I decided it was perhaps warranted but by the time I got it under cover, the rain stopped. Imagine that.

It has been another strange fall. Ladybugs haven’t been the issue they have been in the recent past although as predicted the boxelder bugs have more than made up for them. Eating my lunch at an abandoned farmstead Monday, I quickly rolled the pickup windows up as I had uninvited guests crawling all over inside. By no coincidence the old grove contained dozens of boxelder trees. Leaves came off the trees in a hurry even though the colors for a brief moment were spectacular. There still are some pockets of color but the woods look more like the end of October than mid-month. The 10 man dryer at the elevator ceased operation quite some time ago and even the neighbor David’s bin dryer only ran a day or so before it fell suddenly silent. That particular dryer is pretty loud but it creates the perfect white noise which to sleep by. How do I know? When its run is over, I don’t sleep as well for a while. The constant howl is soothing and reassuring should I awaken from my slumber as only a farm boy can appreciate.

It was finally time to take down the hummingbird feeders, clean them up and put them away. There comes a time when the chance of a straggler at our location is almost nil. And besides, there were still a few salvia that somehow managed to escape the freezing temperatures. The nectar feeders were replaced with suet feeder. To see if the migrating bluebirds would enjoy some mealworms, the jelly feeder was pressed into service. The squirrels have become part of an experiment with waxy corn versus regular dent. In our survey, it appears that squirrels chewing corn prefer waxy by a margin of 3 to 1.

The show sheep have returned from their travels on the show circuit. The brood ewes at home in the meantime have been getting by on short pasture, some corn screenings and the vegetable peelings and garden leftovers that come their way almost daily. It doesn’t take long for them to appear on a dead run anytime one approaches the fence especially with a bucket in hand. They are a lot like people however and that may explain some of the biblical references to them. They certainly have individual preferences about what they’ll eat. For example, one night we looked over the fence in horror as a few of them looked to be bleeding from the mouth. Turns out these were the ewes that had developed a taste for the out of code tomatoes we’d been tossing from the garden. On a white-faced sheep like a Cheviot, that’s gonna leave a mark.

See you next week…real good then.

Dotch · October 23, 2012

But now it's time for me to go. The autumn moon lights my way.

The scurs were predicting the rain fine but the paltry amounts made it seem more like heavy dews. Will we fare any better this week? Starting Wednesday, mostly cloudy with a chance of rain during the day with a good chance of showers and possibly a thunderstorm overnight. Highs 70 – 75 and lows around 50. Cloudy on Thursday with a good chance of chilly rain. Highs of 40 – 45 and lows around 30. Mostly cloudy and cooler for Friday with highs of 45 and lows of 25 – 30. Partly cloudy for Saturday and Sunday with highs of 40 – 45 and lows in the mid-20’s. Monday, mostly cloudy with a slight chance of showers. Highs of 40 - 45 and lows around 30. Tuesday, partly cloudy with highs of 40 - 45 and lows of 20 - 25. The normal high for October 31st is 52 and the normal low is 32. The scurs will be scouring their closets for the perfect Halloween costume to collect the optimum number of treats.

The Full Moon for the month happens on the 29th and is generally known as the Full Hunters Moon. It was at this time of year that the pioneers and Native Americans alike were stocking their larders for the long, cold days ahead. One has to marvel given the food preservation methods of the day and without cell phones, Play Stations and confusers how anyone managed to survive. This moon was known as the Falling Leaves Moon by the Ojibwe and the Moon of Falling Leaves by the Sioux. At the ranch, it goes by the Moon When We Grind up the Leaves with the Lawnmower.

The calendar date and temperature should reach a point soon at which it’s considered safe to apply fall anhydrous ammonia here in South Central MN. Soil temperatures at the 6” depth should remain at 50 degrees or less and the calendar date at which this typically occurs is generally sometime during the last week in October. It is a best management practice to use a nitrification inhibitor for fall anhydrous. It is a common misconception however that use of a nitrification inhibitor allows the application to be made earlier than what is considered to be safe. Something that also needs to be considered is the soil moisture. As one goes west in particular less rain fell in September so there isn’t as much soil moisture to hold anhydrous ammonia. This may result in loss to the atmosphere. If you can see it gassing out and smell it as you’re going across the field, you probably shouldn’t be out there.

Rainfall or lack thereof continues to be an issue across most of the area. At the ranch we actually tallied .18” in the past week. However, measurable rain was recorded on 6 of the 7 days, translating to an average of .03” per rain. The trend where we receive measured amounts a thimbleful at a time continues. Some insist a change is coming. If they said it was going to get colder and even drier I might believe it. The preliminary outlook from NOAA for the 30 day outlook gives us even chances of being above or below normal for temperature but better than even odds for below normal precipitation. The same applies to the 90 day outlook. About this time last year, they also came out with a prediction for a colder and wetter than normal winter as well and we all know what happened. We were one of the driest places in the Corn Belt at the time with some real concerns about our potential to recharge the soil moisture. Somehow we managed to pull off one of the most astonishing crops most have ever seen. Can lightning strike twice? It can but the question remains: Will it?

Harvest continues at the ranch. On Sunday the carrots were dug, processed and refrigerated. There was a two bushel basket and a washtub full of carrots after digging. All told, we placed a dozen gallon bags of carrots in the refrigerator and gave away a shopping bag full as well. The sheep were glad to see all the tops make their way over the fence. Some of the tomatoes were also frozen for later use. Have not tried this method of preservation before but am told it works well if they are to be used for stewed tomatoes, sauce or even juice. Just seems a little odd to see bags of red billiard balls in the freezer. Some ask if we’re done harvesting garden? Not by a long shot. The winter radish experiment exceeded my wildest expectations; they continue to grow sweeter and crisper. Trouble is there are a lot of them so digging them will take some time.

Apparently the leftovers from the garden have had some impact on the condition of the ewe flock despite the short pasture due to the drought. While we generally have been viewing them in the dark at chore time, daylight hours revealed them to actually be rather plump. Aside from the fallen leaves, the pasture apparently continues to sustain them. Supplemented with tomatoes, radish and carrot tops, sweet corn husks, cucumbers, melons and more recently a dab of corn screenings, the ewes are doing rather nicely. Cheviots are indeed thrifty little beasts as advertised.

The fall birds continue increasing in number and variety. There are several chickadees taking up residence near the feeders. On Sunday there was a flicker on the sunflower feeder actually consuming some, a rare occurrence here at the ranch. During a break from carrot harvest, numerous cedar waxwings were spotted downing crabapples from the Indian Magic tree. Several red-bellied woodpeckers are using the suet put out last week as are the hairies, downies and of course nuthatches. The blue jays are gluttonous and have confounded my previously mentioned waxy corn research with the squirrels. The jays are more likely to fill their pouch up quickly with whatever they can get their beaks on so the corn disappears without a preference being shown. The goldfinches are showing up in greater numbers as of late On Saturday there was one lone goldfinch. By Monday morning there were 4 and chances are they will bring their friends. It’s always good to see them return even though they sure can blow through a lot of sunflower and thistle seed.

See you next week…real good then.

Dotch · October 30, 2012

Waiting for the sun...

The scurs were on the edge of their seats as the rains fell last Wednesday night and Thursday morning. They’ll be focusing their efforts for the upcoming week to see if we get weather to allow us to finish a storybook season. Starting Wednesday and Thursday, partly cloudy with highs of 50 – 55 and lows of 35. Partly cloudy for Friday with a slight chance of showers. Highs again in the low to mid-50’s and lows near 40. Mostly cloudy on Saturday with a slight chance of showers. Highs of 45 and lows of 35. Mostly cloudy for Sunday with a slight chance of rain. Highs again near 45 and lows dropping to near 30.Parttly cloudy and cooler for Monday with a chance of rain with highs of 45 - 50 and lows around 30. For Election Day, partly cloudy with highs around 50 and lows falling to the mid-20’s. The normal high for November 6th is 48 and the normal low is29. We will also experience 10 hours of daylight on the 6th, the same as we typically saw February 4th. We also will see the sun set at 6:01 p.m. on the 3rd, yet it will set at 5 p.m. on the 4th due to the end of that ultimate in government meddling known as Daylight Saving Time. The scurs will be riding to the polls on Tuesday, sitting in the backseat bitterly clinging to their guns and religion.

The rains that fell on the 24th and 25th were just what the doctor ordered. Not only did it allow farmers to feel more comfortable about anhydrous ammonia applications, it also allowed the graders to take out the washboards that had overtaken many of the area gravel roads. It also marks the largest rainfall event since September 5th. Altogether we managed 1.07” at the ranch and in town where no one actually farms a tad over 1.3”. The effect in the fields and area pastures was almost immediately apparent. In the fields some of the large hunks of soil were already beginning to break apart as of Friday and the pasture at the ranch had a nice green hue to it, something not seen for many weeks. After a cloudy cool weekend forecast, the Monday sun will likely be a welcome sight.

Not a lot new in the bird department other than I saw a Harris’s sparrow on its journey back through to their overwintering territory which is primarily in Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas. They’re a little less showy in the fall but they’re still unmistakable. Something that has my dander up is the suet I put out while attracting the desired woodpeckers, nuthatches and chickadees, has also been attracting starlings (expected) and house sparrows. Since they’re being persistent, I may employ one of my long awaited plans to hang the suet cake feeders from the bottom side of a board. Woodpeckers and the like are used to crawling around and hanging upside down whereas the starlings and sparrows reputedly lack that ability. Anything to make their lives less pleasant would be worth it.

Saturday at the ranch it was time to trim some of the lower limbs off the trees that had been slapping me in the face all summer in addition to deciding what trees to water first. As luck would have it, examining one poor little oak I’d been nurturing for years I discovered the rabbits were already in midwinter form, having chewed off all the impressive new growth it had put on over the summer. It wasn’t even the end of October yet, I thought to myself. So I strung the hose down to one of the pear trees and proceeded to get out the spiral tree wrap. Good thing I did too. Checking on the 15 Freeman maples planted in the windbreak, a couple of them showed signs that Peter Cottontail had been chewing the bark. Back in the yard not far from the aforementioned oak, one of the small Red Splendor crabapples was also barked up. This means war and a scorched earth policy literally when the wind is in the right direction. All the brush piles are prime targets now we’ve had some rain, given the proper wind conditions and an okey-dokey from the brush fire police.

The cooler weather has meant a renewed enthusiasm in the Studebaker Lark project. The early harvest has meant that field operations will soon cease and there should be more time to work inside. Picking up where we left off last spring had me searching for a water pump, a fuel pump, a heater core and a heater control valve. It’s not as simple as going to the local parts store. Finding the right part involves looking it up in the body and chassis parts catalog, yourself, and learning how to cross reference to know which parts are interchangeable on other models. They can be found, sometimes for a price, from several vendors so it’s best to shop around as well as checking the swap pages. It’s amazing through the network of the Studebaker Driver’s Club how many parts are still readily available, much of it NOS (new old stock). After all, the car is 52 going on 53 years old and Studebaker has been out of business since 1966. The deeper I get into the project the more enamored I find myself becoming with the company which was often ahead of its time.

Have I always had an interest in Studebakers? Sometimes seems like it. It probably started early on. As a wee lad of 4, I remember Alfred and Cora Meinke who lived across the road from us at the Stewartville farm had a bullet-nose, probably an early 50’s model Champion. It was a dull blue as many of them were. Paint seemed to oxidize more readily in those days especially since many cars had to sleep outside. When we moved to the Spring Valley farm, the neighbors on the corner also had one. Marzolf Implement in town was the local Studebaker dealer. Then there were the old car magazines we got from Cousin Phil, an avid car collector himself. Poring over those pages in our makeshift playhouse we were introduced to the likes of the Golden Hawk, the Packard Hawk and the Avanti, cars that commanded respect not only for their rakish styling but for their performance. The Lark VI itself was noted for neither but it was a tough, practical, reliable little car that became a member of our family. At only 38,000 miles, it deserves a chance to relive some of its previous glory. Probably a good thing it can’t talk though. Besides, I’ve owned Ford’s, Chevy’s, Dodge’s, Buick’s, Pontiac’s and even an orange AMC Gremlin. Not many can say they’ve actually owned a Studebaker.

Dotch · November 8, 2012

Tired eyes on the sunrise, waiting for the eastern glow…

The scurs were looking for a cloudy, cool damp weekend and by gum we got one. Will we see more of the sun this week? Starting Wednesday, mostly sunny with a high of 45 – 50 and a low near 35. Partly cloudy and warmer on Thursday and Friday with highs of 50 – 55 with lows Thursday night near 35 and around 45 for Friday night. Warmer Saturday with a slight chance of rain during the day with rain likely for the overnight. Highs 60 – 65 and lows of 30 – 35. Brace yourself for Sunday, highs of only 35 and lows falling to 25. Partly cloudy to mostly sunny for Monday and Tuesday with highs of 30 – 35 and lows of 20 - 25. The sun will rise at 7 a.m. on the 8th, the same as it did before the time change back on the 21st of September. The normal high for Veterans’ Day is 44 and the normal low is 29. The scurs will be flying Old Glory proudly regardless of who won the election.

It seems odd to be looking at the calendar while seeing or hearing very little field activity. Sure, there is the occasional drone of an anhydrous ammonia rig or the odd primary tillage operation but no corn dryers running or combines rolling up and down the fields. There are aeration fans running but that’s just background noise. Anhydrous ammonia has gone on about as well as most can remember. The rain we received around Bugtussle in early September carried a long way and the rain on October 25th was the icing on the cake. Subsoils remain extremely dry as anyone tiling can attest. This lends credence to the last estimate of soil moisture from the SROC and the rainfall records from many area rain gauges.

In the garden at the ranch, the rains have actually made it too wet to till for fall. The amount of evaporation and transpiration when the weather is cool and the season is at its close is very minimal when the temps remain as cool as they did over the weekend. The frosty temperatures have started to take their toll on the leaf lettuce that was a hit for making BLT’s. Unfortunately there aren’t many of the tomatoes we harvested that remain edible at this point, to a human anyway. The sheep on the other hand don’t seem to care. The winter radish tops are also showing signs that Jack Frost has been visiting them with greater frequency. It will soon be time to harvest and find a place to put them. A giveaway program for some may be in order as well. Hopefully the recipients won’t mind their little extra giddy up.

With fieldwork being largely over with, it has allowed some time to get at some of those tasks that have accumulated with work being hectic, storm damaged and unwanted trees among them. The lamb crop and a few cull ewes were sold on Thursday, freeing up some time and making chores bearable once again. Doing an hour’s of chores following a 10 – 12 hour workday gets old real fast. The bumps and bruises from loading them are well worth it. Saturday meant more hay to stack and after that, cleaning up the trees behind the barn that were sawed down last spring. They’d begun rubbing on the building and since the space is tight between the tree row and barn, not a lot of room to get at them. Getting dried out with leaves still attached they were becoming a fire hazard so it was definitely a job needing doing.

Sunday after church meant more of the same, this time sawing down the bottom half of the spruce tree that the wind stuck into the side of the garage 2 years ago. Pruning off all the dead limbs on the rest of the spruce trees took a good chunk of the afternoon. After putting the forks on the skid loader, much of that wound up in the huge brush pile south of the house. If you look from Bugtussle and see a glow to the east, you’ll know that I lit it up. Oh, and in between these jobs, the tree watering goes on, with the hose being moved every few hours to help the fruit trees and smaller evergreen trees make it through the winter. Next up: Barn cleaning and getting those leaves ground up on a dry afternoon this week.

The birds being attracted to the feeders and yard are changing ever so subtly. On Saturday, there was a bright red male cardinal under the apple trees. There are 5 of the huge blue jays that monopolize the feeders briefly and are then off to parts unknown. Chickadees are remaining loyal to this point anyway and the goldfinch numbers continue to increase ever so slightly, with a dozen now at last count. Some have pointed out the pheasant numbers still appear to be low and that’s definitely the case. I saw a couple roosters in the ditch across the road from our pasture and that’s been about it. Like last winter however, there is ample corn on the ground in the fields again this fall, largely the result of the high winds from the September 5th thunderstorms. Even though the fields have been worked, the pheasants will still have plenty of ears they can access provided the snow doesn’t become too deep or if the fields get iced over.

Was paid another visit by Vista’s noted Swedish astronomer and he left me with all kinds of wonderful info for the early morning and evening skies in November. Thus far they have been nothing short of spectacular for viewing the planets Venus and Jupiter. Jupiter rises about two hours after sunset in early November. By the end of the month it will rise about sunset. On the 10th and 11th, the planet Venus will be very close in the sky to the crescent moon shortly before sunrise. Venus rises in the east about 3 hours before sunrise. I think this is roughly the same time the noted Swedish astronomer gets up to check on the progress of the road construction by his house.

See you next week…real good then.

Dotch · November 13, 2012

And the wicked wind whispers and moans

The scurs were on their game once again unfortunately. After Saturday, one wished they hadn’t been. Will they be in sync this week? Starting Wednesday and Thursday, partly cloudy with highs near 50 and lows around 30. Friday, slightly cooler under mostly sunny skies with highs of 45 and lows of 35. Back to the 50’s for highs Saturday through Tuesday under partly cloudy skies.. High of 50 and lows of 30 - 35. The normal high for November 15th is 42 and the normal low is 25. On the 19th we will see 9 hours and 30 minutes of daylight, roughly the same as we experience on January 22nd. The scurs are glad they’ll have November 22nd to look forward to first.

Still some anhydrous ammonia going on as of the weekend but not much else going on in the fields. Rainfall totals from the weekend rains were generally light with only 0.2” tallied at the ranch. For the month of November thus far there has only been about a half inch. It’s still dry alright but aside from the drying day of last Saturday, most of the precip that is falling is adding to the available soil moisture. With soils remaining in a thawed state, that will continue to be true. Some have asked where we were on rainfall last year for the fall months and for the most part we’ve actually had more rain this fall than last locally. Last year at the ranch we recorded only .99” in September, .37” in October and .35” in November. This year those totals are 1.95”, 1.47” and .55” so far in November.

This past weekend was truly a demonstration of one of Mother Nature’s mood swings. Saturday was an absolute gem despite the wind. It was a marked improvement over the disappointment of Friday where the wind made it feel a lot colder than it was. How warm was it Saturday? It was 77 degrees at the Waseca airport, 74 at the SROC and about 75 on the official Edna thermometer on our granary. The wind had been southeast making me think about burning the brush piles. However the forecast predicted (correctly) that it was soon to switch to straight south, putting the buildings directly in the line of fire. I thought better of it and opted instead to grind the leaves that had remained damp much of the week. It was so warm I ditched my sweatshirt and mowed in my T-shirt. I smiled when a bumblebee appeared as I wheeled the mower around the well. It was likely the last one before winter sets in for good. Completing the mowing, it was time to tackle the winter radish crop. It was definitely T-shirt weather for that job. By the time they were all dug, it was chore time.

One could sense the weather was starting to turn by late evening when lightning lit up the skies and the hose was shut off on the last of the trees being watered. By Sunday morning, the temperature had fallen into the low 30’s. Climbing into the soccer Mom van to go to church, the sliding door was frozen shut. That afternoon staying inside and putzing with various small projects was not too difficult to do. Chore time came again though and at the kindly neighbors the electric fence was grounded out. Around the pasture Ruby and I walked to find the short. The northwest wind tore through my hooded sweatshirt like it was window screen, making me envious of Ruby’s fur coat. After locating the problem it was time to get back in the van and warm up a bit before heading for home. It was time to find the chore coat to go over my hooded sweatshirt before feeding the group there. I’d officially become a wimp but at least I was a warm wimp. By Monday morning, at 18 degrees Jack Frost had left his etchings on the glass in the storm door. The swirling winds drove the forenoon flurries, forming miniature drifts on the roof, a foretaste of things to come.

Looks like we should have plenty of food put away for the winter. The winter radish harvest turned out to be one of the big surprises for the season. A couple rows were actually spring types that could be planted in either season. There 6 rows total yielded a couple two bushel baskets, 2 washtubs and another bushel basket full of plants. The sheep were most happy to see another batch of garden refuse make its way over the fence as the tops were removed. When washed and bagged, there were 11 one-gallon bags of radishes as well as 2 Fleet Farm bags about half full. Good, bad or otherwise, that’s a bunch of radishes. Only fitting that the gardening season should start the season with radishes and end with them I reckon.

While Ruby has been busy shedding for much of the fall it appears that may be to slowing to a halt. There were days I’d peer in the wastebasket and judging by the hair she’d brushed out and swept up, it looked as if Mrs. Cheviot had thrown away another dog. Ruby’s new winter coat is shiny and she looks as sleek as a seal. Parting the fur however reveals a dense undercoat that works like a layer of Thinsulate to keep her toasty when she isn’t on the move which isn’t all that often. When checking the fence the other day she was scouting the opposition, namely the ewes that will need to come home soon. This of course only after the barns are cleaned first. A Border Collie’s work is never done.

See you next week…real good then.

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