May 20-26, 2019

I am abroad viewing the works of Nature and not loafing.

-Henry David Thoreau

The Golden Buttercup Moon wanes throughout the remainder of May, reaching apogee (its position farthest from Earth) at 8:27 a.m. on May 26 and entering its final quarter at 11:34 that same day. Passing overhead in the early morning, this moon encourages fish and dieters to bite.

This week, lunar conditions are ideal for planting all garden flowers and vegetables (especially root crops), as well as for working with livestock, family and friends.

Weather trends

The final week of May is typically a wet one, with completely overcast conditions more common than during any other time of the month. On May 25-27 rain falls almost half the time, and May 29 is one of the rainiest days in the whole year.

Average temperature distribution for this time of the month is a 5 percent chance of highs in the 90s, 30 percent for 80s, 30 percent for 70s, 25 percent for 60s, and 10 percent for the 50s. The brightest days of the week are usually May 27 and 30.

The natural calendar

May 20: The first shiny blue damselflies emerge. White-spotted skippers and red admiral butterflies visit the garden. Gold-collared black flies swarm in the pastures. Leafhoppers look for corn. Scorpion flies make their appearance in the barnyard.

May 21: Daddy longlegs are all over the undergrowth, partial to clustered snakeroot and its pollen. Bright green six-spotted tiger beetles race along the maze of deer paths in parks and woodlots.

May 22: Grasshoppers come to the fields. Northern spring field crickets, the first crickets of the year to sing, are singing. Baby robins are out of the nest. The antlers of bucks are one-third grown. Reckless adolescent groundhogs wander the roadsides.

May 23: Wood hyacinths and spring beauties disappear during Honeysuckle Week. Violets stop blooming until autumn. Dogwood petals are taken down by the rain and wind.

May 24: Rhododendrons open after azalea petals fall. Poison ivy and early thistles bloom. Catch the poison ivy now before it spreads; dig the thistles before they go to seed.

May 25: Some Canadian thistles are budding. Wild strawberries climb though the purple ivy and the sticky catchweed. Blue-eyed grass is open. Wild iris blooms in the wetlands. White clover blossoms in the lawn.

May 26: Multiflora roses, spirea, boxwood, and yellow poplars are ready to bloom. Evergreens have 4-6 inches of new growth. Sycamore and ginkgo leaves are half-size, and the rest of the maples fill in.

Field and garden

Now at the transition to early summer, concentrate on controlling April and May weeds, insect and disease control, and timely harvest of early vegetables. If you have not already clipped the heads off the garlic plants, do it now.

Schedule work with your livestock, including castration, tattooing, worming, and clipping hair and hooves as the moon wanes. Finalize all spring culling. Make tentative notes about which animal to breed to which, why, and when.

Slugs are causing problems if the land is wet. Alfalfa weevil infestations become more common just as pickle planting is completed, and the earliest zucchini and squash harvests are underway.

In the countdown to summer, it is:

•One week until roses flower

•Two weeks until the first mulberries are sweet for picking and cottonwood cotton drifts in the wind

•Three weeks until wild black raspberries ripen

•Four weeks until fledgling robins peep in the bushes and fireflies mate in the night

•Five weeks until cicadas chant in the hot and humid days

•Six weeks until thistles turn to down

•Seven weeks until sycamore bark starts to fall, marking the center of deep summer

•Eight weeks to the season of singing crickets and katydids after dark

•Nine weeks until ragweed pollen floats in the wind

•10 weeks until blackberries are ready for wine and jam

Best of the Almanac

Bring the Hoe!

By Sylvia P. Gibbons

Switzerland County, Ind.

I remember when I was 7 or 8 years old, my parents bought the farm where I still live. The family that owned the farm before us raised hogs, and in the near pasture was a small deserted hog house.

My mom raised turkeys, so one of the hens moved into the hog house to hatch her eggs and raise her family. Mom would go over to the old building every two or three days to feed and water the hen. As time came close to hatching date, Mom would gently lift the hen off her nest and sprinkle the eggs with warm water to soften the shells for easier hatching.

One day near the time of hatching, Mom was performing this deed and we heard her yell. Now we were some distance from the hog house, but we heard her yell quite clearly: “Bring the hoe!”

My dad and two older brothers ran to help, and in the nest, under the turkey, was a big black snake. My dad took the hoe and cut off the snake’s head, and inside the snake were all 21 turkey eggs. Then my brother held the snake’s tail while Dad gently squeezed the eggs out of the snake’s body.

The snake had swallowed all of the eggs, but had not broken any of them. The turkey seemed to take all of this in stride, and believe it or not, every egg hatched!