Fly like an eagle, let my spirit carry me

The scurs and Weather Eye were on track as we experienced our first major spring snowstorm. Will it be the last or is Old Man Winter ready for an encore? Starting Thursday, mostly sunny with highs in the low 40's and lows in the upper 30's. Mostly sunny Friday on the vernal equinox, with highs in the low 50's and lows in the upper 30's.

 

Mostly sunny on Saturday with a slight chance of rain changing to snow. Highs in the upper 50's with lows in the mid-30's. Sunday, partly sunny with highs in the mid-40's and lows in the mid-20's. Cloudy on Monday with highs in the upper 40's and lows around 30. Tuesday, mostly cloudy with a fair chance of rain. Highs in the low 50's with lows in the low 30's. Cloudy on Wednesday with a fair chance of showers. Highs in the mid-40's with lows in the upper 20's. On the 23rd, we'll see the sunset at 7:30 p.m. CDT. The normal high for March 23rd is 43 and the normal low is 26. The scurs will be hankering for maple syrup soon.

 

The afternoons of March 8th and 9th presented tremendous afternoon opportunities to clean up around the yard. It was also a good time to deal with some of the low hanging limbs that take the fun out of mowing lawn, as if there's a lot of fun to begin with. I noticed how much sap flowed when pruning some soft maple and boxelder. I was guessing the sappers had started collecting and boiling it down in earnest. While I was picking up all those sticks, I pondered how much benefit I'd gain from it. Frequently storms create a fresh crop of sticks and debris. While it may be a waste of time, it's still that much less that'll need attention later. As a precaution, I'd tightened the shear pin on the snowblower and fueled up the tractor. Little did I know...

 

The weekend storm caught no one by surprise. It was all some TV stations could talk about, cutting into regularly scheduled programs with storm updates as it approached and conditions changed. It was our most noteworthy storm of the season, with roughly 11" measured in New Richland and 10" at the ranch. It was typical wet., spring snow, although I was surprised late Sunday afternoon how well it went through the blower. It gave the tractor a workout, but it went through without plugging it up. It went even better the next morning when temps dropped to 3 above. At the ranch, the liquid equivalent precip was 1.4". This included a bunch of sleet, graupel and rain that preceded the snowfall. At 4:30 a.m. Sunday morning, there was thundersnow. For this winter season anyway, March has regained its reputation for the snowiest month. Hopefully April doesn't say, "Hold my beer." It did just that in 2018.

 

The snow will melt, but in the meantime there were a lot of daubers down. What appeared to be Mother Nature inkling an early spring suddenly came unraveled. The daffodils and crocuses that were making a move suddenly found themselves buried under a foot of snow. In places there are drifts 2' - 3' deep covering the electric fence I'd been so proud of charging. The consolation is that any ewes left to lamb soon will be forced to stay up around the buildings. Their portal to those new tender green spears of grass has been temporarily cut off. Prior to the snow there had been three bald eagles devouring most of a roadkill deer carcass. They had it nearly picked clean by time the storm hit. Any remains are buried under several feet of snow. It used to be a big deal to see an eagle from a distance, much less having them sitting in our trees between courses of venison.

 

Before the recent cold snap it was very close to ice out on some area lakes. St. Olaf Lake had one floating chunk of ice in it ahead of the storm while Beaver was more stubborn, maybe 1/3 open. The SROC in Waseca reported that the frost depth on Monday the 16th was back to 3" after being absent less than a week earlier. With forecast highs back in the 50's soon, any frost left in the ground should leave quickly. As it was, it was nice to have the ground somewhat frozen for moving snow, especially when using the bucket. No one enjoys replacing the sod after gouging the turf during snow removal operations.

 

Poppy is getting more mature. Deep, heavy wet snow means those short Corgi legs don't offer enough clearance for that long Corgi undercarriage. Cuts down on her zoomies. Easier to sit on the porch and sniff the breeze. That's one of the reasons that getting the front yard blown out becomes crucial. More exercise area and it frees up space for Poppy’s bathroom activities rather than concentrating them only in places that are passable. As a side benefit, flinging all that scattered Poppy poo over the edge of the road cut with the blower cleans the yard up nicely. The odds of bringing a hunk indoors with you on a shoe or inside a vehicle with the heater on are greatly diminished.

 

See you next week...real good then.