Out of its little hill faithfully rise

the potatoes dark green leaves,

out of its hill rises the yellow maize-stalk, the lilacs bloom in the dooryards. – Walt Whitman

In the Sky

By the end of April, the Sun has reached a declination of almost 15 degrees – that’s approximately 80 percent of the way to solstice. Venus and Jupiter share the constellation Aries as the two largest and brightest Morning Stars (Venus the biggest and brightest of all).

The Moons of May:

May 1: The Tadpole Moon enters its   final quarter.

May 7: The Honeybee Swarming Moon is new.

May 15: The moon enters its second quarter.

May 23: The moon is full.

May 30: The moon enters its final quarter.

Weather Trends

Late Spring arrives this week, the warm weather creating unmistakable markers in the progress of the year. Among those landmarks: 

The 26th and the 30th record freezing temperatures less than 5 percent of the time, the first time that has happened since late September.

After the 22nd, chances of snow drop below 5 percent below the 40th Parallel.

Chances of a cold day in the 30s or 40s fall to only 10 percent on the 22nd, then plummet another 8 percent on the 26th.

Beginning on April 27, highs in the 90s become possible, and the chances of a high in the 80s pass the 20 percent mark. The chances of a high above 70 degrees are now 50/50 or better for the first time this year.

The Natural Calendar

Peonies are budding, garlic mustard, celandine and buckeyes flower. All the dandelions go to seed.

Bees, flies and mosquitoes become peskier. Worms breed in the wet earth, and the first young grass snakes hatch and explore the undergrowth.

Redbuds complement the last of the crab apples as the land gets ready for May: wild phlox, wild geranium, wild ginger, celandine, spring cress, sedum, golden Alexander, thyme-leafed speedwell, garlic mustard, and common fleabane are budding and blooming.

Ducklings and goslings are born along the lakes and rivers; warblers move north.

The Milky Way fills the western horizon as Orion sets just behind the sun. Now the middle of the night’s sky is in prime spring planting positions, Castor and Pollux to the west, Leo with its bright Regulus directly overhead, and Arcturus dominating the east.

Black tadpoles swim in the backwaters. Bass move to the shallows. Great brown May bugs begin their evening flights. In the woods, nodding trilliums are blossoming.

Ruby-throated hummingbirds arrive at local feeders. There are buds on the black raspberries, mock orange, and mulberries. Star of Bethlehem and wood hyacinths have come up in the lawn. Nettles are waist high along the fencerows.

Countdown to Summer

• One week until clover blooms

• Two weeks to the great warbler migration through the Lower Midwest

• Three weeks to strawberry pie 

• Four weeks until the first orange daylilies blossom

• Five weeks until roses flower

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

• Seven weeks until wild black raspberries ripen

• Eight weeks until fledgling robins peep in the bushes

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

• 10 weeks until thistles turn to down

In the Field and Garden

The high leaf canopy casts the first shade on the flower and vegetable garden. It’s time to be planting in the sunniest part of your property.

Orthodox Easter takes place on April 28 this year. Orthodox Easter animals should be milk fed. They can be a little bit bigger than the Roman Easter lambs (40-60 pounds) and should be nice and fat.

Haying is often underway below the Ohio River. Some orchard grass and rye may be ready to harvest in southern Ohio. Transition your livestock slowly from last year’s old hay to this year’s fresh hay.

Fight armyworms and corn borers. Attack carpenter bees around the barn.

Almanack Classics

One True Love (A Romantic Sheep Story)

By Leah McAllister

Oldhome Farm - Arkansas

My husband of 30 years and I attended high school together. He arrived during our sophomore year. I had never dated anyone, even though I was asked out lots of times. But I was very picky, and had an ideal in my head that none of the boys I knew could measure up to. Not long after meeting Greg, I realized I had met my one true love. It took him until our senior year to ask me out, but once he did, there was never anyone else for either of us. A little over a year after our first date, we were married.

Thirteen years ago, we got into the sheep business on a small scale. Our good friends and neighbors were the original owners of our first flock of mixed breeds comprised of Romney, Marino and Suffolk.

In that first flock we had a Romney ewe named Hilza, who was the lead sheep. She had a very stately air about her, and she refused to breed with any of our rams. Greg wanted to get rid of her, saying she was just a “dud” and a drain on the grain. But I loved Hilza and told him she was just like I used to be: she had yet met her ideal mate.

Eight years later, we were building our Suffolk flock and culling our other breeds. I still refused to sell my Hilza. Then one day a friend of ours asked if we could keep her Jacob ram for a while. We agreed, and Jeffery the ram came to live with our boys for a while.

One evening, as we were putting the girls into the barn lot for the night, Hilza refused to come. She stood by the gate to the boy’s paddock and pawed at the fence. She would look at us, bleated, and pawed at the fence.

I told Greg “I think Hilza wants in there.”

Laughing, Greg opened the gate for her, and she charged in and ran right up to Jeffery. They became constant companions, and she mourned his leaving when he went back to his home. That spring Hilza gave birth to her first lambs, one an exact duplicate of Jeffery.

Some of us girls just know what they want, and refuse to settle for anything less.

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