Add winter blankets

During the muddy, early holiday season, the scurs and the Weather Eye were of a mind that perhaps Old Man Winter had left the building. Do they remain convinced or has their attitude changed in the New Year? Starting New Year’s Day, mostly sunny with highs in the low teens and lows around 10 above. Partly sunny Friday with highs in the upper teens and lows in the upper single digits. Mostly sunny on Saturday with highs in the low 20’s and lows in the mid-teens. Sunday, mostly sunny with highs near 30 and lows in the upper teens. Partly sunny Monday with highs in the upper 20’s and lows in the mid-single digits. Tuesday, partly sunny with highs in the low 20’s and lows in the mid-single digits. Cloudy on Wednesday with highs in the mid-20’s and lows in the upper single digits. On January 3rd we see our daylight back to just over nine hours per day. It starts to increase by just over a minute per day on the 4th. Sunrise will also start making a noticeable early appearance starting on the 7th at 7:47 a.m. CST. The normal high for New Year's Day is 23 and the normal low is 7. Regardless, the scurs have stashed a lot of holiday goodies.

Almost forgot that the 1st Full Moon of the year is already upon us on Saturday the 3rd. It generally goes by the Full Wolf Moon as during this time it was common for wolves to be heard by the natives and pioneers. Whether the wolves were communicating with each other or just plain hungry remains debatable as no one has ever asked them and they’ve never said. In the Anglo Saxon tradition, this was known as The Moon after Yule, the celebration timed around the winter solstice before Christianity was in place. The Ojibwe called this The Sucker Moon as the suckers were running in rivers and streams at this time. The Sioux were known to call it The Frost in the Teepee Moon as one can only imagine during below zero stretches on the prairie. At the ranch it is The Warm Boots and Gloves Moon or the Warm Lap Corgi Moon.

 

Warm gloves and boots were the order of the day this past Sunday as Old Man Winter unleashed his wrath once more. Not that the snowfall amounts were astounding, but the windblown snow raising havoc with visibility made it worthy of the blizzard designation. It also quickly served as a reminder that these little prairie towns make excellent snow fences. At the ranch, we also catch our fair share of snow. Once the manure hauling was done Saturday in the mud, it was time to switch gears back to snow removal mode. Like so many things out here, nothing is easy. The tractor needs to be reattached to the snowblower after unhooking from the spreader, the bucket needs to replace the manure forks on the skidsteer. All of this is best done when it’s warm out like Sunday morning was. Everything becomes more difficult when it’s cold.

 

Speaking of manure hauling, I made a significant dent in it on Saturday. The cold December weather concerned me as it tends to freeze the pack. However, after it warmed back up again, I was optimistic I’d be able to haul at least some of it. Of course snow needed to be moved out of the road ditch first before I could even think about getting to the field. I did that Friday along with greasing everything, hoping that I could make a major push on Saturday. As planned, I got through over half of the main barn despite steering with the brakes at times in the field. The only part of the pack that was semi-frozen was near the east overhead door. The warmer temps helped thaw the pack, but it heats from underneath as well. When it gets 2’ deep, it takes one mean winter to freeze it solid, especially inside a building. At times, it looked like it was smoking as the beaters chewed it up. Nope, just steaming.

 

It’s seed catalog time again. It doesn’t look much like gardening season yet, but it helps one think warm thoughts in the meantime. It’s always kinda fun to reminisce about what worked and what didn’t too. Looking back at last year’s column this time of year I saw that one of my goals was to raise muskmelons again. And raise muskmelons I did, but not without a struggle. Wet weather plagued the process much as it did many field crops. Late replanting made me doubt that they would ever make it. It’s unlikely they would have without the exceptionally warm September and early October. While it messed up some aspects of the garden, the muskmelons weren’t one of them. There are also some new plantings, transplanting’s and a Honey Gold apple tree to look forward to once spring has finally sprung.  

 

Christmas came and went. We had some dog time with Poppy on Christmas Day, but Friday and the weekend were busy outside preparing and getting barn cleaning done. Then Poppy got her snow back on Sunday. Her first order of business was to do her obligatory zoomies through it. Bunnies and squirrels becoming easier to track as well. The cold isn’t to her liking, and after being outside about so long, she lifts her paws to let us know she’s ready to come back in. Fortunately Corgi’s are great lap dogs and nap dogs. Few things Poppy enjoys more after an outdoor bomb session than curling up against your leg on top of a fuzzy blanket. No arguments from me after I’m done moving snow. The warmth coming off that long body is as contagious as the ensuing nap.

 

See you next week…real good then.