Time may be too short for our Designs...

The World itself seems in the wane. – Sir Thomas Browne

Phases of the Thin Time Moon

Nov. 15: The moon is full.

Nov. 22: The moon enters its final quarter.

Weather Trends

The 15th, 19th and 20th are the days this week most likely to be mild with highs in the 60s. The fifth cold front of the month comes through at the end of the period, and the 21st brings a slight possibility for a high only in the 20s. The 15th is the day most likely to bring precipitation, having a 60 percent chance of rain or snow. The 20th is also fairly damp, carrying a 50 percent chance. The 18th is the driest day of the week; it has only a 20 percent chance of showers or flurries.

The Natural Calendar 

Sugar maples, burned by frost, gradually drop their foliage. Almost every junco has arrived for winter. Indoors, your older Christmas cactus is budding or even blooming. Water paperwhites, daffodils, tulips, crocus and amaryllis in pots for solstice bloom.

Opossums and raccoons increase activity in the warmer evenings. Deer are mating. Improvident woolly bear caterpillars, the latest of the year, hurry across the roads when the sun shines. Crows congregate for winter.

Privets are holding on, their leaves a yellow gray-green. Sugar gums sport a few red remnants. Leaves of the decorative Bradford pear are dark brown, ready to come down in a heavy frost. Osage fruits cover the ground.

Moss has new sprouts, a promise of March on old logs. Winter wheat grows taller, creating wide patches of emerald green in the gray landscape. The grasses along the freeways have turned pale. Fields of goldenrod heads glow in the sun, more exotic than when they were in flower. Box elder seeds shimmer. Burdock burs are poised, waiting for you to brush against them.

The Leonid meteors fall through the constellation Leo on the nights of Nov. 17 and 18. Find them following Orion and Cancer after midnight.

Colors deepen too in the swamp. Protected by the water, cress shines; dock and ragwort grow back beside the dead field grasses.

Christmas cactus has begun to blossom. Paperwhites, set in moist soil or in pebbles with water, send up their foliage.

In the Field and Garden

Grazing ordinarily ends in Midwestern pastures as the ground temperature approaches 40 degrees. Strawberries can now be mulched with straw. Fertilize trees after their leaves have fallen. Schedule your frost-seeding for January and February. Deep water all perennials before the ground freezes, especially if your garden suffered from the drought this summer.

Clean up all around the yard and garden, cut your wood, clear out the hedgerows and haul manure. Plant next year’s sweet peas for early April sprouting.

Test the soil of the field, pasture and garden, adding the correct nutrients for late autumn and early spring growth.

Finish repairs to the outbuildings. Plant an evergreen in the yard – now that the leaves are down, you will be able to position it for best winter appearance.

Fertilize pastures for improved winter hardiness and stimulation of growth in early spring.

Almanack Classics

An Outhouse Surprise

By Ruth Ann Meyer

Sidney, Ohio

Back in 1966 at a public auction, we purchased an 80-acre farm that included an older house, barn, two sheds and an old outhouse.

Since we needed a larger home, we decided to hire a carpenter to build another bedroom and bath.

My husband used the tractor and manure loader to raise the rafters higher. As he turned to get another load, he got too close to the outhouse and tipped it, and it started rocking so much it almost was upset.

Imagine everyone’s surprise when one of the workers rushed out, pulling up his pants, wondering what had happened.

Everyone had a good laugh except the one on the john.

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.

TIDUA AUDIT

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THIS WEEK’S RHYMING SCKRAMBLER

EDUF

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Copyright 2024, W. L. Felker