Another St Pats day has come and gone. Not being Irish or Catholic, I am not full of green beer as are many of my countrymen tonight, although I am willing to bet a good number who are aren't Irish or Catholic either have still over indulged in green beer. I think I have read or heard there are more people of Irish descent in the USA than there are in Ireland, could that be right? At any rate in some parts of our vast melting pot, St. Patricks Day is one of the major holidays, even here in the mid section where there are more Germans and Swedes the skirl of bagpipes could be heard in places like Wichita Kansas today(I reckon if you go to www.kwch.com and/or www.kake.com you can get a glimpse of St Pats day Kansas style).
Without any records to back this up, I believe today was the warmest St Pats on record, we got to about 80F. My short sleeved shirts have not been hauled out yet, so I planted our garden tatties in long sleeves with my broad brimmed straw hat so not to burn my ears and face in the blazing March sun(it isn't often you read that phrase). I expect some of the more anxious, or perhaps prompt, farmers in southeast Kansas were in the field planting corn(maize to you folks). For the first time that I know of, crop insurance has set a date not to plant before, it is April 1st for us on corn, I will have no problem abiding by that. We did plant two rows of sweet corn in the garden, I told Amy the worst that could happen was they freeze out and we start over. All the schools are on spring break, often this is the worst week of March weather wise, but so far spring break has been great, the town is crawling with kids riding bikes and enjoying the sun.
I get a little nervous when I realize we are about to start the big push again. Corn planting will run into haying and soybean planting, moving cattle to grass and burning will conflict with field work, and before you know it wheat harvest will be upon us. Each afternoon when the wind hasn't blown we have seen a few columns of smoke, I expect next week if the warm weather continues we will see spring burning begin in earnest. We have managed to get through our high fire danger without a big fire, from here on out we will be more likely to simply guide the fires along when they get out of control rather than put them out, in other words guard buildings. Unless you are in a situation where the conditions are simply too dangerous to allow a fire to keep burning, there is little point to putting out grass that will probably be set back on fire in a week or two. Before you know it the cattle pots and bull wagons will be roaring down the roads in clouds of dust bringing cattle from all over the US to graze the Flinthills. Many will be from Kansas, but there will be lots from Texas, Oklahoma, and even some more exotic spots like Oregon or Mexico. There is a little friction between people like me who own our own cattle, and "pasturemen" who lease vast tracts and bring cattle in. I live in a sea of grass, yet it is very difficult for me to rent more.
All in all, this Saint Patricks day was a good one, it is easy to be filled with optimism on a nearly perfect late winter day, no matter what you see on the news.