Planter’s, Corn Planting, Sugar Maker, Egg and Garden Moon

The scurs and Weather Eye keep trying but haven’t been able to shake the “S” word. Was last week Old Man Winter’s last hurrah or is he just getting his second wind? Starting Thursday, partly sunny with highs in the mid-50’s and lows in the mid-30’s. Mostly sunny on Friday with highs in the upper 50’s and lows in the mid-30’s. Sunny on Saturday, with highs in the mid-60’s and lows in the mid-40’s. Sunday, mostly sunny with a slight chance of a shower or thunderstorm. Highs in the upper 60’s and lows in the mid-40’s. Mostly sunny on Monday with highs in the upper 50’s and lows in the upper 30’s. Tuesday, partly sunny with highs in the mid-50’s and lows in the upper 30’s. Mostly cloudy on Wednesday with highs in the low 60’s with lows in the low 40’s. On April 10th, the sunrise is back to 6:38 a.m., the same as it was March 8th, the day before DST kicked in. The sun will rise at 6:30 a.m. on the 15th and we’ll achieve 13 hours and 30 minutes of daylight on the 16th. The normal high for the 16th is 56 and the normal low is 35. Not exactly poetry in motion, the roller coaster temps are giving the scurs motion sickness.

The Full Moon for the month falls on the 12th and is typically known as the Pink Moon for the ground phlox that carpet wooded areas in parts so the country. It also goes by the Planter’s, Corn Planting, Sugar Maker, Egg and Garden Moon. It is also known as the Paschal Moon as it is the first Full Moon after the vernal equinox. Easter is thus determined as the first Sunday following the Paschal Moon. The Ojibwe called this the Frog Moon as frogs were becoming active while the Sioux knew it as the Moon of Greening Grass, important for the buffalo that composed a large portion of their diet, their clothing and dwellings. At the ranch, if we’re lucky we can call this the Season’s Last Lamb Moon. Hopefully that will be the case. Been a long time coming. Since late November anyway.

Speaking of that, we have been making progress in that respect. We were able to move all the ewes with lambs on the ground together in the main barn over the weekend. It’s always a rite of passage when we reach that point. No more diddling around in the lambing barn with small pens so chores become less labor intensive and more streamlined. It was especially exciting this year as we’d been nursing one lamb back to health since shearing in mid-February. It wasn’t warm when we started that day. As luck would have it, one of the ewes started the lambing process just as we were setting up. We’d placed a panel to separate and protect the ewe and tiny newborn lamb from the others. Unfortunately, the group knocked the panel over and trampled the lamb. The lamb was unable to get up and was getting chilled. We had little choice but to take him to the house where he could warm up. 

We held out little hope that the lamb would make it. By the time we finished shearing, he hadn’t gotten up off the deck. After a few hours it started to stir and before long it was crying, trying to get up. We tube fed it warm colostrum supplement and while it was getting stronger, it was unable to get up. Eventually it gained enough strength to stand but couldn’t walk. Looking more closely, the lower part of his left rear leg was broken and bent at an angle. Channeling our inner Dr. Pol, we devised a splint from a couple paint stirring sticks. Wrapping his leg first with an ace bandage, we duct taped the splint in place, then overwrapped it with vet wrap. Within minutes he was motoring around. We moved him to a small dog kennel in the garage for bottle feeding. You couldn’t tell he had a broken leg when he was allowed to roam free. After a few weeks of that, we moved him to the lambing barn. He had a larger pen with access to a pelleted ration, hay and water. Time to practice being a sheep rather than a houseguest.     

We took the splint off to determine how his leg was healing. It looked straight and promising. Splint readjusted and reattached. A couple more weeks passed, and we took the splint off for good. We allowed him to stay in the pen for a week to see if it was healed as well as it looked. Sunday morning, our little woolly patient was integrated into the large group of ewes and lambs. It didn’t take long, and he’d mastered the creep feeder and was able to exercise in the main lot. Sometimes I hesitate to write about some of these small victories as it seems something bad tends to happen to the subjects. I’m taking a leap of faith here and hoping that’s not the case this time. You might ask, did you ever name the lamb? Yes we did. We named him Will. Why? Because he definitely had a will to live.

Poppy continues to ease into spring. The mud has subsided and there’s a fast track again for pursuing her squirrels. Best of all there are no muddy paws to wipe upon her return to the house. It won’t be long, and more garden will be planted so she’ll be able to dawdle in another of her favorite places. There should be more sunflowers to hide in on hot days and some wax beans added to the string bean portfolio this year. When they get large enough, her short-legged Corgi body completely disappears under the bush bean canopy. More than one way to frustrate your owners when they can’t find you. It’s a process finding new and creative ones too.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t say thank you here to LaVonne Meyer. I was thinking I should stop to see her sometime as our paths hadn’t crossed for a spell. After all, she was the reason I’ve spent all these hours writing lord knows what and for whom. Seriously, I remember her asking for an ag related column back in 2003. I still have it. I thought after writing it, it would be an occasional project. Next thing I know, here’s LaVonne asking if I could write another one the next week and then another. The rest is history. Anyway, I came into town a few weeks ago and when I went by LaVonne’s house, I noticed vehicles in the driveway and people hugging. My heart sank. Too late I thought. I watched the photo presentation tribute on the funeral home website. There was a reason I rarely saw her. She was a very busy lady. She was in the garden a lot too come to find out, much as my Mom was. Mom got to meet LaVonne on one of her visits and thought the world of her. I still have the note that Mom sent her, renewing her newspaper subscription. La Vonne gave it to me a few years back and I still have that too. Pretty sure they’ve probably had coffee and goodies together while talking about their families, enjoying a good laugh. Thank you LaVonne.

See you next week…real good then.