Weather ... or Not?

"Weather" or not we found a weather balloon is still up for debate. (It looks like the cat has an opinion, but he kept it to himself.)

Randy drove past "trash" on the road a few times on Friday before stopping to investigate. He thinks it's the remains of a weather balloon, though there was no attached data box.

We used a more archaic method to determine our rainfall this weekend. The rain gauge collected 0.80" of rain. It gave the 2015 wheat crop a nice drink of water. 

When the kids were in elementary school, a weather balloon provided a "show and tell" opportunity.

According to How Stuff Works, scientists have been using weather balloons for more than 70 years. In these days of advanced radar systems, you have to wonder if the weather balloon will soon become obsolete.

But the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says the National Weather Service uses radiosonde data to accurately assess and predict changes in the atmosphere: "The data help forecasters identify and warn the public and pilots of severe weather and helps verify satellite data and input for weather prediction models. The data also further research for weather and climate change."

Here's how it works: 

As the balloon rises through the atmosphere, radiosonde sensors measure and transmit profiles of air pressure, temperature and relative humidity from the Earth’s surface to about 20 miles high in the sky. While in flight, radiosonde sensors also obtain data for wind direction and speed. Radiosonde data are received by a ground-tracking receiver, which processes it for transmission to weather forecasters and other data users. This information is a primary source of upper-air data for weather prediction models.

From the NOAA website

According to NOAA, the National Weather Service recovers less than 20 percent of the 75,000 radiosondes released each year. We wish we could have helped them out, but the data box was missing on this one.

Schizophrenic Weather

Stafford First United Methodist Church

It was 96 degrees on the bank thermometer when I drove by on Saturday afternoon.

It seemed that we had bypassed spring and skipped ahead to summer.

But the palm branches at Sunday's church service waved in a chilly, overcast day.

 

And then, overnight on Sunday, we hightailed it back to winter.

A couple of inches of snow blanketed the forsythia ...

and the quince, weighing down the delicate pink flowers with a coverlet of white.

And wouldn't you know it? We needed to move cattle. (More on that later.)

I might have been sorry that I complained about the 96 degrees. While I waited, I distracted myself from the shivering by taking photos. (I should have worn a heavier pair of socks.)

This morning, it was 22 degrees. That's a drop of 76 degrees in a couple of days. (Time will tell how the wheat crop copes. It's a long time until harvest.)

Kansas weather is undeniably schizophrenic.

O Pioneer!

The weatherman said a dirty word.

Sleet.

I prefer to delete that word from my vocabulary. And while we're at it, let's skip "freezing rain," too. And unless we're talking about tea, I could do without "ice."

Time will tell which of these will fall from the skies during this round of winter weather. The frozen precipitation is hard on new baby calves. It can be hard on farm wives, too ... especially if it means no electricity.

I would not have made a good pioneer woman. I like my modern conveniences way too much.

I certainly don't want a repeat of the December 2007 ice storm. We were without electric power for 12 days. Electric lines and poles toppled under the weight of the ice.

Crews have been working in the area replacing power poles and electric lines. With some sporadic outages as they switch equipment, I've been reminded about how dependent we are on electricity. Like most rural folks, we also don't have water when the electricity is out.

As long as I get a little advance warning, I can handle it. It's just those unexpected four-hour stretches when I have to channel my inner Laura Ingalls Wilder.

I must admit: I like reading about The Little House on the Prairie more than I like experiencing it.

Everyday Miracles

Each day is a different one. Each day brings a miracle of its own. It's just a matter of paying attention to the miracle.

Paulo Coelho

At this time of year, miracles are all around us here on the County Line. When circumstances are difficult, maybe it's a little tougher to see the miracles. And, admittedly, Randy worked hard for those miracles during two winter storms, battling snow and sub-zero temperatures to help mama cows care for their new babies.

We lost a few babies during those frigidly cold and snowy days, just like many ranchers across the Midwest.

The weatherman this morning says the next few days will include sun, rain, sleet and snow. I don't think hail is on the agenda, but who knows in Kansas?

There's nothing like adversity to make you appreciate the times of "sunshine," both literally and figuratively. All but six of the heifers have calved. We are more than halfway through the calving season for the older cows. We have 61 new baby calves on the ground. It seems that almost every time Randy comes back into the house, he adds to that total.

It's a pleasure to watch the baby calves play in the pasture and enjoy the sun ...

... and take time for a little snack.

Seeing the miracle of new life never gets old.

A Fairytale Ending?

The little dollops of blue in the wheat field looked like Hansel and Gretel had dropped bits of cotton candy to mark their way to grandmother's house.

Just like the fairytale brother and sister's dropping of breadcrumbs, the Kanza Co-op was marking the path. It wasn't the way to Grandma's house, but it was to show where they been and guide them to where they were going next. On Friday, crews sprayed a combination of liquid nitrogen fertilizer and Finesse herbicide on some of our wheat fields. (By the way, the blue droplets aren't the fertilizer and herbicide. It's a biodegradable marker to help the rig driver know where to make the next pass through the field.)

There were two different spraying rigs in our fields on Friday. One was marking the way with a blue "trail" and the other used white. A "nurse" truck came to the field to replenish the rigs.

This saves time and fuel, since the spray rigs can replenish their supply of the fertilizer without having to drive back to the Zenith base of the co-op to refill.

Just like Hansel and Gretel, Randy is hoping for a happy ending. If we get a little of the rain forecast for later in the week, the rain will incorporate the mixture into the soil. That would be good timing.

On February 11, the wheat field across the road was covered with between 8 and 9 inches of snow. The snow helped insulate the crop from the sub-zero temperatures.

With the quick turnaround of temperatures, the melting snow produced about an inch of moisture for the wheat crop.


There was great debate at the end of the week: Had the 95-degree temperature swing harmed the wheat crop?

If the wheat crop breaks dormancy (wakes up, in layman's terms) and then we get a hard freeze, there's a chance for freeze damage. That would drop yields for the summer of 2011 harvest.

Just like in a fairytale, there are a lot of pages between "Once upon a time" and "They lived happily ever after."

The plot thickens. We'll just have to stay tuned to see how the story turns out.