April Snows

     Time to begin farming again.  Past time, actually.  But with the lack of moisture the past few years, you have to think about breaking out any more grass.  If it’s going to stay dry, it’s as easy to have no crop without tilling the earth as it is to put all the work into breaking out the sod and still having no crop.  It takes a lot less work to keep it in grass.

    But, we have had a few drops of moisture.  The wheat planted last fall doesn’t look too bad for all it has been through.  (Here, an acquaintance pointed out, goes my native pessimism.  “Doesn’t look too bad” is in the negative.  “Looks fair to good” would be the more positive way of stating the wheat condition.)

 

     The late cold weather had less of an effect on the wheat here in Eastern Colorado than it did in Kansas, where the development was farther along.  A Goodland, Kansas gardener who writes a column in the weekly newspaper compared this April with last April.  Last year, he had early spring crops, radishes, peas, growing full tilt.  This year, the soil is so cold that as of the middle of April, nothing had begun to grow.

     But some moisture tagged along with the cold weather.  So, time to finish breaking out the sod.  One of the biggest reasons I am two weeks overdue is in a way related to weather.  We had a barbershop program planned for March 23.  It snowed out, blizzarded so bad that I 70 was closed. 

     We rescheduled for May 4, which meant we had to continue practicing.  Then, we had another program to do in Sharon Springs on Sunday April 21.  I took off for Colorado on Monday April 22 in misty drizzle.  I experienced a great variety of weather on my trip to the farm, from spotty sunshine and balmy temperatures (the fifties) in Burlington, to the fog and drizzle I left.

     The sunshine gave way to overcast.  By the time I reached Genoa, the tops of the windmills were hidden in cloud.  As I reached the farm, the giants had disappeared entirely.

 

  By Monday evening:

 

 

 

     Tuesday looked like this in the morning:

 

 

         And like this in the evening:

 

     Note the nearly-full moon playing at being a mole on the roof’s cheek.

     Not the best farming weather, but very welcome moisture, of course.  It was nice enough that I could lay out the course for another row of bushes north of the yard.  The old Ponderosas are losing their lower branches and don’t provide the wind protection, they used to.  Overboots and coveralls separated me from the unmelted snow, mud, and chilly air.

    Wednesday evening brought another little shower and some weird skies, but the snow was pretty much gone.

  Even Pikes Peak donned a rarely-used coat for this late spring weather. 

 

       I might be tilling the soil by now, but there’s this barbershop thing in Denver, a district convention with lots of singing and fun stuff to do.  Oh well, I guess the farming will wait.