By Bill Felker The day, immeasurably long, sleeps over the broad hills and warm wide fields. To have lived through all its sunny hours seems longevity enough. – Ralph Waldo Emerson The Moon and the Sun The First Full Week of Deep Summer The Hummingbird Moon became the new Fledgling Moon at 9:52 p.m. on June 28 and waxed throughout the period, reaching apogee, its position farthest from Earth on June 29 at 1 a.m., and entering its second quarter on July 6 at 9:14 p.m. Rising in the morning darkness and setting in the evening, this Moon passes overhead in the middle of the day. The sun’s declination remains near its solstice position of 23 degrees, its highest point in the earth’s sky, in the first week of July. The day’s length, however, loses about five minutes. Aphelion, the point at which the earth is farthest from the sun, occurs at 2 a.m. on July 4. The sky of summer’s aphelion reflects the parallel universe of circular time. At noon, the stars overhead are the stars of winter’s midnight: Orion due south and the Pleiades overhead. On the clearest July afternoons, January’s Sirius is visible in the southeast. Weather Trends The Dog Days and the Corn Tassel Rains often begin on July 3 as the chances of highs in the 90s rise and thunderstorms multiply. Although the July 6 cool front brings some relief from the heat, chances of mild 70s on the 8th and 9th are relatively low in most of the nation. Zeitgebers: Events in Nature that Tell the Time of Year Purple coneflowers, white vervain, horseweed, germander, teasel and wild lettuce blossom in the fields; tall bellflowers and great Indian plantain open in the woods. The first white-flowered thimbleweeds set thimbles. Black raspberries and strawberries decline quickly in warmer years; the best mulberries have fallen. July’s wild cherries ripen, and elderberries set fruit. Thistledown lies across the pastures in the windless afternoons, cottonwood cotton collects along the streets. The oats matures and the first tier of soybeans blooms. Maroon seedpods have formed on the locusts. Some green-hulled walnuts are already on the ground. The earliest cicadas start to chant. This year’s ducklings and goslings are nearly full grown. Trumpet vine flowers fall in the midsummer rains. Continue to watch for great spangled fritillary butterflies in the garden, and often hummingbird moths come to visit the beebalm around this time of year. Listen for adult robins guiding their fledglings through the honeysuckles with short intermittent peeping. In the Field and Garden Try to time your harvest as the barometer is rising after cool fronts pass over your property. Dig your garlic before the heads break apart. Plant your autumn turnips right afterwards. Young raccoons and groundhogs become serious marauders as they grow to maturity. This may be the time for you to take preemptive measures to protect your corn and other crops. Sell lambs and kids for Independence Day cookouts or tailgate parties at parades and celebrations (take orders). Keep your rabbits cool. Air conditioning is best, but shade is a good alternative. If you use a fan, don’t point it directly at the rabbits. Plan for early autumn sales: the Harvest Moon Festival (September 10) and Rosh Hashanah/Jewish New Year (September 25 – 27). Rose hips are forming on the wild roses. Traditional goat lore says that rose hips are a good supplement to help keep reproductive systems healthy. Younger animals have a harder time adjusting to intense summer heat. High humidity makes it even more difficult for them to adjust. At farmers markets, sell late black raspberries, mulberries, early elderberries, the first wave of summer apples, peaches, blackberries and wild grapes. Mind and Body The S.A.D. Stress Index (which measures the forces thought to be associated with Seasonal Affective Disorder on a scale from 1 to 100) falls back into the single digits this week and reaches 0 on July 5 and 6. Almanack Classics A Funny Sheep Story By Kelvin J. Hostetler, Shelbyville, Mo, Lambing time rolled around this year as usual, and with it came the same chores of watching ewes, moving them into the lambing shed as they lambed, leaving them there until the lambs were old enough to go out, and moving them back out again. Everything went about as usual until this one morning as I was moving another ewe and her lamb back out with the rest, our Great Pyrenees guard dog came on the scene. Now this was absolutely not what mama ewe wanted. I must have been latching the gate when the ewe charged. When I got turned around to watch was when the fun really began. The ewe charged the dog, and her lamb followed after. And somehow the baby got mixed up about who was the mama. Baby started baaaing, Mama started bleating, and the dog started running with foster baby right on his heels, and Mama right on the baby’s heels. And yes, I was laughing to beat the band. Oh, the look on the poor dog’s face as he looked over his shoulder so guiltily and not knowing what he was doing wrong. It really made my day. Send your memory stories to Poor Will, P.O. Box 431, Yellow Springs, OH 45387. Five dollars will be paid to any author whose story appears in this column. ANSWERS TO LAST WEEK’S SCKRAMBLER In order to estimate your SCKRAMBLER IQ, award yourself 15 points for each word unscrambled, adding a 50-point bonus for getting all of them correct. If you find a typo, add another 15 points to your IQ. IENWS SWINE NIDE DINE NNBGEI BENIGN ENINAC CANINE OIECMBN COMBINE NGISCON CONSIGN NEPI PINE CREENIL RECLINE ENILEDA ADELINE NEIOOHSNM MOONSHINE THIS WEEK’S RHYMING SCKRAMBLER EIBDR IDLGE ETID WIED IIEDDV DSNIEI EDIUGMIS UIEIDCS EDYHEDLAMROF EDICIROXU Copyright 2022 – W. L. Felker
|
