Kennedy is rolling over in his grave

The scurs and Weather Eye overachieved once again, silencing their critics. Has Old Man Winter thrown in the towel or is he just toweling off? Starting Thursday, mostly sunny with highs in the mid-40’s and lows in the upper 20’s. Mostly sunny on Friday with highs in the low 50’s and lows in the mid-20’s. Mostly sunny Saturday, with highs in the upper 30’s and lows in the low 20’s. Sunday, sunny with highs in the mid-40’s and lows in the low 30’s. Mostly cloudy on Monday with a slight chance of rain. Highs in the mid-50’s with lows around freezing. Tuesday, mostly sunny with highs in the mid-40’s with lows in the upper 20’s. Partly sunny on Wednesday with highs in the mid-30’s and lows in the low 20’s. On the 27th we’ll see the sun set at 6 p.m. CST. On March 4th, our daylight gets longer by three minutes per day. The normal high for March 4th is 33 and the normal low is 17. The scurs are starting to get their patio furniture out of storage.

Shortly after this reaches print, February will be in the books. It looked like we would see another one of the patented years when February average daily temperatures were lower than in January. Recent years when that was the case include 2020, 2021 and 2023. After the brutal cold last week, one might’ve thought it would be a slam dunk. January was about dead on for average daily temperatures, although it had its fair share of below zero lows at 14. They were broken up into bite-sized pieces, however. The longest stretch of below zero lows went from January 19th through the 24th. Up until recently, February was lagging behind temperature-wise. However, if one takes the forecast highs and lows for the final four days of the month, adds them to the temps already recorded and divides by the 28 days in the month, average daily temps for February should be slightly warmer than January. I don’t think anyone will complain about that.

With below zero lows on 12 out of 13 days from the 9th of February through the 21st, the cold spell tested our mettle. It made for more than its fair share of bad hair days. Most don’t enjoy getting their ears frozen, so stocking hats are the order of the day. The primary goal is staying warm, not making a fashion statement. I don’t recall a stretch where I hauled more buckets of warm water across the yard to the barn. It didn’t help that the ewes kept lambing the entire time. Miraculously, no lambs died as a result of the cold. They got up quickly, and the ewes did a stellar job of mothering them. We caught most of those that developed respiratory ailments and treated them. That brings up a problem we ran across. We can no longer purchase even basic antibiotics such as penicillin from our favorite local feed store. By rights, we probably should have a veterinarian come out and prescribe the drugs the way the laws were re-written. Most vets don’t make house calls, let alone have time to do them. The main idea is to keep animals healthy. Doc Kennedy from Pipestone would be rolling over in his grave.

With the recent cold, it’s been critical our ewes are in good rig. Too thin and they suffer after shearing, making it more difficult to keep up with lambs' needs, especially with multiple births. Get the ewes too fat and they go down with lambing paralysis prior to lambing, risking loss of ewes and lambs both. Having them shorn provides a good report card on how you did with proper nutrition. Feed, especially corn, may be cheap, but it can easily get the flock overly fat, especially when fed too heavily early in gestation. That’s why feeding something like corn screenings early in gestation and easing them into higher energy feed such as corn works. This winter has been ideal for sheep as it’s been dry up to this point and snow hasn’t hindered their movement. It allowed them to meander around and get exercise for the duration, making some wonder if they were on the loose. Most winters they’re confined to their lot, hemmed in by snow, content to grind away on their round bales.

I looked longingly at the garden catalogs when I first got them, but couldn't get fired up as easily as last year. With some scattered patches of snow and the frost depth at 27” at the SROC, it’s easy to understand why. Last year on February 27th, the daffodils were already 4” tall on the south side of the house. I’d planted some radishes in late January just to see what they’d do. They’d also emerged by that point. Worm castings were seen on March 3rd and the pussy willow catkins had started to emerge. The robins were back as well. This year? It could be a while before robins will be pulling any earthworms from the soil. They’ll have to make do with crabapples and American cranberry at the ranch for now.

Poppy has been enjoying the warmer temps too. It means she can go back out to the barn and keep her kitties herded on the way. Sure there’s some mud presently, but she manages to traverse it despite her low undercarriage. Once back inside, the sliding glass door has stayed thawed now, so it’s open season on the fox squirrel population. I have to admit, the squirrels aren’t nearly as fat as they have been thanks in large part to Poppy chasing them. There will likely be some newcomers to her backyard too as we move into March. Have seen signs of the rooster pheasants skirting the garden below the hill. Corgis are cattle dogs not bird dogs fortunately. There were lots of pheasant tracks when we had snow and saw a few on Sunday making their way across the pasture to the CRP. During spring courting season, the roosters usually set up shop in our plum & sumac thicket. Hopefully they can hide in their little love nest undetected.

See you next week…real good then.