And memory makes the summer doubly pleasant,

In all my autumn dreams

A future summer gleams,

Passing the fairest glories of the present! – George Arnold

The Fourth Week of Early Fall

In the Sky

Barely visible at sundown. Jupiter rises in Taurus before midnight. Mars in Gemini follows Jupiter and Orion. Saturn in Aquarius is visible in the east at sundown.

Phases of the Disappearing Spiders Moon

Oct. 10: The moon enters its second quarter. 

Oct. 17: The moon is full.

Oct. 24: The moon enters its final quarter. 

The Shooting Stas

The Draconid Meteor Shower is a minor shower producing only about 10 meteors per hour. Look for them before dawn on Oct. 8.

Weather Trends

Weather history suggests that the cold waves of Middle Fall are likely to cross the Mississippi River on or about Oct. 7, 13, 17, 23 and 30.

Full Moon on Oct. 17 is likely to intensify the weather system due on that date.

Most of the days this week will be in the 60s or 70s, with the latter predominating. On Oct. 4, however, a 10 percent chance for highs only in the 40s occurs for the first time since May 25. Light frost strikes 10-20 percent of all the nights, with Oct. 3 most likely to bring a damaging freeze in the 20s (but just a 5 percent chance of that).

The Natural Calendar

In this week of early fall, milkweed pods burst in the wind and the first juncos come back to the Lower Midwest for winter. Cottonwoods, catalpas, redbuds, sassafras and poplars are turning. Daddy longlegs are disappearing from the undergrowth. Foliage of poison hemlock and ragwort grows back in the wetlands.

The locust trees are gold, and the reds show more now on the surviving ashes. The hedgerows are often bright scarlet from poison ivy and Virginia creeper. The full turning and falling has begun through the countryside.

Zigzag goldenrod is still open, and most asters. Most tall goldenrod has rusted, and the August wingstem is turning black, the ironweed seeds becoming brown and soft. Swamp bidens plants are lanky and old now. Darners are still hunting, but the damsel flies are almost gone along the river.

The mornings occasionally bring the peeping of migrating robins, and once in a while a cardinal will call. Cricket song has replaced cicada song. Yellow jackets become more numerous, cabbage butterflies tamer or more reckless in the search for nectar and favorable sites to lay their eggs.

The harvest of pears, cabbage and cauliflower is ordinarily underway by the last week of early fall. Halloween crops have come to town, and most of the corn is normally mature. Just about all the dry onions have been dug, and fall apples are nearly half picked.

In average years, the potatoes are just about all in the bag, and the grape harvest is in full swing. Soybeans are mature on 50 percent of the area’s farms. Twenty percent of that crop and the first fields of corn have often been cut. A fourth of the winter wheat has usually been planted.

Terns and meadowlarks, yellow-rumped warblers and purple martins migrate south. Chimney swifts, wood thrushes, barn swallows and red-eyed vireos join them as Early Fall moves to a close.

In the Field and Garden

As grazing season ends, livestock owners gradually move their animals to supplements and hay. Avoid sudden changes in diet which can cause problems with all your animals.

Before you forget what bloomed where, put identification markers around your perennials. One more thing: plants and bulbs intended for spring forcing should be placed in light soil now and stored in a place where temperatures remain cool (but not freezing).

Watch out for oak leaves as well as for fallen acorns, peaches and plums which may be harmful to your herd or flock. That may mean keeping animals out of a woodlot in which they have grazed through much of the summer.

As your animals move in toward the barn yard with the colder weather, be sure that they don’t become overcrowded – a condition which can cause stress and complicate the breeding process.

Good hygiene is also especially important at this time: treat for external and internal parasites and keep hooves trimmed.

Autumn S.A.D.

Forces related to Seasonal Affective Disorder (S.A.D.) become more apparent in October as the length of the night increases and chances of mild weather decrease.  Although cloud cover is ordinarily not a major factor in S.A.D. this month, the odds for completely overcast conditions rise steadily. Full Moon on the 13th could stress gardeners, and perigee on the 26th, close to new moon on the 2nd, is expected to disrupt moods as well as the weather.

As the forces that tend to increase S.A.D. gather momentum, however, other forces may help to decrease the effect of October’s changes. The landscape, so suddenly transformed, can create exhilaration as well as shock and dismay. Often a resurgence in the undergrowth creates the impression of a second spring and a promise of new life in the new year.

The migration of birds may cause a restlessness in humans, a desire to move on in space and time; and while such feelings can be discouraging to those who feel trapped in their situations, they can also reawaken old dreams and strategies for achieving them or for finding compensation for not achieving them. And so the turbulence of Middle Fall not only produces loss but also offers physiological as well as spiritual resources for renewal.

Almanack Literature

Defenseless in Michigan

by Larry Border, New London, Ohio

When I was a child back in the summer of 1955, I carried newspapers and saved my money to buy a hunting knife. It was a Jim dandy, had a bone handle and a leather sheath.

My family was going on vacation in Upper Michigan to a cabin located in a bear-hunting camp. As an 11-year-old boy, I knew I could protect me and my family from bears with my trusty hunting knife.

The cabin had an outhouse not far from the front porch, which utilized chemicals. You didn’t have far to go to use the facility, and in the brutal winters, the hunters appreciated that.

So, when nature called my name one day, I stepped into our outhouse and closed the door. I unbuckled my belt and I heard a strange keri-plop.

Oh no! my trusty hunting knife fell into the deep, dark muck below, never to be seen again, leaving me and my family defenseless and an 11-year-old boy broken hearted and with a great financial loss.

Poor Will pays $4 for any human interest story used in this Almanack. Send your tale to Poor Will, P.O. Box 431, Yellow Springs, Ohio 45387.

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