Amy and I are visiting family in Anoka, Minnesota, for a couple of days, and everyone gathered tonight for her grandmother’s 85th birthday.

Oh ya, and the weather’s always a popular subject, eh?

Same for Paul Smokov, 84, of Steele, N.D, who looks at pig spleens and predicts: "It looks like a normal year with no major storms. That’s what the spleens tell me."

Smokov, who along with his wife, Betty, raises cattle on their 1,750-acre ranch north of Steele, says if the spleen is wide where it attaches to the pig’s stomach and then narrows, it means winter weather will come early with a mild spring. A narrow-to-wider spleen usually means harsh weather in the spring.

Forecasters are calling for a normal winter — matching Smokov’s prediction.