Air November 28, 2001

Thank you Mark, and good morning everyone. I guess everyone enjoyed the nice weather and good food over the Thanksgiving holiday. It would appear that our extended Indian Summer finally met up with the reality of late November. And this should now serve as a wake up call for all of us.

We live in Kansas. We are now less than a month away from winter. Expect anything from the weather. Sure, we would expect highs in the 40s and lows in the 20s this time of year. But what we’ve experienced previously this month is nothing less than high temperatures that will put November 2001 into the top three hottest November’s on record. The question now is, are you ready for winter? Are your vehicles ready? Do you have a plan of how you are going to handle chores and necessities in cold weather and possibly snowy weather over the next four months? Because from now until early April, you know what kind of weather we might have. And my experience has always been that the less prepared you are for anything, the more likely it is that you will see that extreme weather! Are your vehicles winterized? Do you have all the necessary cold weather gear in them. That would include frost scrapers, jumper cables, blankets, gloves, maybe some extra coats or a pair of insulated coveralls and insulated boots. Don’t forget a couple of those awful looking, but free, stocking caps you got from the seed dealer. If you’re stranded and it’s cold, you won’t care how bad it looks, it’ll still keep your head warm. Do you have the farm stead cleaned up and organized so you can get where you need to be when you need to be there. When its 10 degrees and the snow is blowing, it is no time to be trying to remember if you moved that old harrow out of the way, or not! Take care of all that now, while your aren’t rushed and you can still see the obstacles. Make sure that all your inclement weather gear and equipment is cleaned, accessible and ready to go. On a cold day like today would be a good time to straighten up and clean up the shop so that if you do have to bring something in to warm it up or work on it, you don’t have to spend half the day clearing a space. This may be the coldest weather we have this winter..... but I wouldn’t bet on it if I were you!

This is Chuck Otte, Geary County Extension Agent, with Ag Outlook 2001.

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