Ye Olde Fat Farmer's Weather Report

YOFFWR!

Springtime weather!

Since the previous post (March 12) we've had an interesting weather event. Not atypical, mind you, just interesting.

To set the stage, we've had an early-ish spring in the sense that we experienced above-average air temperatures in January and thus far in March (mean daily +4.5F) and a slightly cooler than average February (mean daily - 0.7F), all accompanied by plenty of sunshine. We've had slightly less snowfall than average and we're about average on liquid precipitation.

To clarify the whole precipitation thing, I measure 24 hour snowfall in a dedicated snow gauge which is simply a 10 inch (diameter) by 15 inch (tall) cylinder. I measure the snow with a calibrated ruler, then melt it and measure the water level with the same ruler. Therefore each day with snow has a snow total, but the important (ish?) number is the liquid precipitation number. As a practical matter measured precipitation is only a proxy estimate of soil moisture, which is the really important thing.

Anyway, since January we've had mostly sunny and warm-ish days with brief periods of cold and light snow. We also had a single pure rainfall event on March 9-10. And of course we've had lots of above average wind since the beginning of the year.

Besides the spring-ish weather hints, nature began to green the landscape a bit early and bird migration/mating activity got started a bit early as well. Roughly two weeks early by my estimation, though keep in mind that my estimating is more a feeling and only slightly correlated with data.

All this following a very cold and snowy November and December.

I suspect that may be too much stage setting.

Nevertheless, the reason I bring up the weather is that I'm a farmer (you may recall that the definition of a rancher is "grass farmer"). I have no choice but to work with what nature gives me, and I rely on her sunshine and precipitation to make the grass grow so that I can turn it into a living by grazing cattle upon the grass in exchange for money. Therefore local weather and climate are important to me, and as I spend hours each day outside within the grassland ecosystem of the ranch (farm) I am constantly aware of the immediate weather conditions and constantly tracking seasonal weather trends and ecosystem behavior.

Also, because I'm trying to mansplain and demystify what I do so that my very few readers can gain a bit more understanding about how the food they consume has its beginnings.

Since everyone has to eat, what myself and my fellow farmers do is clearly important, but -- and I think it's very important to hammer this message home -- this doesn't make us important people. We are exactly as important as every other ape-lizard on the planet, and also exactly as unimportant at the same time.

Our modern system of civilization is set up so that we can trade money (concentrated labor/investment) for goods and services so that we don't all individually have to live in caves and spend all our time hunting, gathering, and trying to ensure that our progeny survive long enough to breed.

So farmers are important because they provide food, but don't ever forget the many other ape-lizards who inhabit the farm to table chain. Handling, storing, transportation, processing, packaging, distribution, stocking, selling, etc. Those people are just as important and vital as any farmer. And that includes the pimply-faced high school kid at the grocery store who bags and offers to carry your purchases out to the car, as well as the gum-smacking checker and the stockers who also clean up the mess when you drop a jar of pickles on the floor.

And you, kind reader, are also vitally important to the effort, because you purchase the food you consume to survive and some of that money goes into my pocket and allows me to buy food at the grocery store too!

So pat yourselves on the back. You are farmers too!

So let's have no more of this, "Oh thank you for allowing me to survive" business. It's not that I don't appreciate the sentiment, it's just that the whole food/survival system is on you too. We're all in this together. Period dot.

Ah, that feels better.

And holy guano, Batman, I did not intend to write this thing that just wrote itself. But I'm glad I did.

Regarding the blinking weather report, all of the above is to say that we've been edging toward spring as we always do this time of the year, and nature has not behaved exactly as she's done in the past. In aggregate, the overall effect has been pretty much the same for the last 15,000 years, but variability of weather and climate means that each year or annual cycle is significantly different in detail. Those differing details always add up to pretty much the same thing over time, but the differences are quite noticeable and mean that the farmer has to vary his production techniques to match what nature provides. If there's any art to the thing, it's there, in the variable approach to living with nature's variability.

Gah! It's taking me forever to get to the point!

Which is simply that we've had a brief cold snap which introduced an interesting variation on a late-winter season which featured some early spring-like weather trends.

On the 13th a front moved in, bringing sharply colder temperatures, gusty and miserably cold south winds, and the promise of mucho snowo. The chickens seemed to be pondering whether to do the outside chicken thing or not.



The flock decided that inside was better than outside.



And with good reason. By the next morning things were different. We didn't get that much snow -- only about a tenth of an inch. But we also got a tenth of stingingly cold rain, and when the temperature dropped below 32 degrees a thick, freezing fog set in. By light of the new dawn the world was coated in ice.



Even the graveled roads, lots, and yards were coated with ice and treacherously slippery. And that there, boys and girls, is unusual for this part of the world. Not unprecedented, mind, and not a certain sign of climate extinction murder-death-kill, but simply unusual.



Flash forward 24 hours to this (March 15) morning, and air temperatures were warming a bit as the slow moving front began to meander on its way. The warming temps meant that all the encrusted ice was letting go of its temporary home and taking the gravity assist to ground level.



Falling ice is the dangerous side of the Chicken Little Saga. Fortunately for us and our chickens, the birds were hesitant to venture out of the chicken house.



Along about the time I'd gathered eggs, word came from California. The ape-lizard tribe has been enriched (as it is thousands of times each day) by a new member.

Meet Leo, brand new ape-lizard. The wonders he will see!

The adventurous path each of us walk has a corporeal beginning and end. The path is, among many other things, a continuum of existence. All along the way our ongoing experiences are never each a single thing alone and isolated, but a continuous mix of events in an ongoing path of destiny. Each separate event has both subjective and objective upsides and downsides. Spring is interrupted by an unpleasant ice storm, but the ice storm brings moisture to the soil and is tangible evidence of nature's majesty. A new virus is born and an interesting combination of fact, fear, and information dissemination cause a great many lizard-apes to become psychotic. Yet the psychosis is mostly temporary, and provides much food for thought and introspection as well as a wealth of perhaps once-in-a-lifetime entertainment. Thousands die when overwhelmed by the new virus, yet many thousands more brand new ape-lizards join the tribe.

Be well and embrace the blessings of liberty.