I am abroad viewing the works of Nature and not loafing. – Henry David Thoreau

In the Sky

This week of the year, the Big Dipper comes as far as possible into the southern sky, and its pointers (the two outside stars of its dipper cup) are positioned almost exactly north-south after dark. Now Cepheus and Cassiopeia, which were nearly overhead in early winter, have moved to the far side of Polaris along the northern horizon. 

The Moons of May.

May 30: The Honeybee Swarming Moon enters its final quarter.

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 the 25th, 26th and 27th rain falls almost half the time, and the 29th is one of the rainiest days in the whole year. Average temperature distribution for this time of the month is as follows: 5 percent chance of highs in the 90s, 30 percent for 80s, 30 percent for 70s, 25 percent for 60s, and 10 percent for 50s. The brightest days of the week are usually the 27th and 30th.

The Natural Calendar

Fawns, only a few weeks old, follow close behind their mothers this week. Reckless adolescent groundhogs wander the roadsides. Young robins and a variety of songbirds are out of the nest.

Northern Spring Field Crickets, the first crickets of the year to sing, are singing. 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.

Daddy longlegs are hiding in 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. Grasshoppers hop in the fields.

Wood hyacinths and spring beauties disappear after deer are born. Violets stop blooming until autumn. Dogwood petals are taken down by the rain and wind. Rhododendrons open after azalea petals fall. But 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. Multiflora roses, spirea, boxwood and yellow poplars are ready to bloom. Evergreens have four to six inches of new growth. Sycamore and ginkgo leaves are half size, and the rest of the maples fill in.

In the Field and Garden

Poison ivy and early thistles bloom. Catch the poison ivy now before it spreads; dig the thistles before they go to seed.

Now at the transition to Early Summer, concentrate on controlling April and May weeds. Watch for insects to spread throughout the garden. 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.

Countdown to Summer 

• 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 blackberries are ready for wine and jam

Almanack Classics

What Was Killing the Chicken?

A True Farm Story

By Fanny Lindsey, Willard, Ohio

When I was 9 years old, we lived on the farm, and we had a lot of chickens. Well, once along about 1 o’clock in the morning, everyone was awakened by noise, and we got up to see what it was.

The dog was barking and the chickens were clucking. We put the light on and saw something running from the chicken house. But we couldn’t tell what it was, and when we went out to see what had happened, there lay six dead chickens.

Boy, my dad was mad! So, he got two of my uncles to agree to sit in the chicken house all night with guns. Well, it was coming late, so they went in the chicken house for the night.

Well, we all went to bed, thinking everything would be all right. I couldn’t sleep, I was so scared. And then along about 2 o’clock, there they went, dog barking, guns going off.

Everyone got up and went outside. And my uncle said “We got it!” so we went to see.

Oh my, it was our black cat! Every one of us children was crying. Poor Black was gone.

“We have to stay another night in there to make sure we got the right animal,” my uncles said, after feeling bad about our cat. So that night they went out again. At first it was real quiet, and I could not sleep again.

When we heard the dogs bark and guns going off, we all ran outside and my uncles came out and said: “We did get that dirdy old weasel this time for sure!”

Well, everyone was happy to sleep at last, but you know later on, more weasels came....

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