July 10-16, 2006

I love the season well,
When forest glades are teeming with bright forms.
-Longfellow

The astronomical calendar for the third week of middle summer:
The Phlox Moon, the moon under which all the garden phlox come into bloom, is full at 10:02 on July 10, then wanes through its third quarter, changing phase to its fourth quarter on July 17 at 2:12 p.m. Hercules and Ophiuchus fill almost all of the southern sky at 10 p.m. throughout the week, hovering above Scorpius and Sagittarius.

Moving in from the west with the Milky Way, Cygnus, Lyra and Aquila precede Delphinus and Pegasus. At noon, Sirius, the Dog Star, adds its heat and light (you can often see Sirius, even with the sun shining, at midday), tipping the scales to the Dog Days of middle summer.

Weather patterns
July 21: Mid-July weather is relatively stable in most years (hot and dry with an occasional thunderstorm), but the likelihood for rain increases as the July 21st front moves across the U.S. Thanks to this weather system, however, highs in the mild 70s are recorded about a fourth of all the years above the Border States. The nights around July 23 bring relatively cool sleeping conditions more often than at any time in July.

Natural year
When hemlock and parsnips turn brown and brittle in the sun, then early summer’s clovers and grasses are past their prime.

When velvetleaf blooms in the fields, then expect the driest time of summer.

When wild cherries darken on the wild cherry trees, then expect potato leafhoppers to be causing serious damage to your potatoes.

When peaches ripen in the Midwest, then strawberries are coming in throughout Ontario, and peonies are flowering on homesteads along the northern rim of the Great Lakes.

When you see the foliage of multiflora roses yellowing, you know that poisonous white snakeroot is budding in and around the woodlots.

When wild grapes ripen, then begin the dry onion harvest.

When the green fruit of the osage orange is big and fat enough to come down in thunderstorm winds, then watch for swallows to be congregating on the high wires, resting on their way south.

When the first milkweed pods form in the fields and pokeweed has green berries, then pick your first elderberries for wine.

Mind and body
The S.A.D. Index, which measures the forces that contribute to seasonal affective disorders on a scale of 1 to 100, remains in the moderate 20s and 30s through most of the period, reflecting the debilitating effect of midsummer heat.

Best fishing
The waning moon will be overhead near dawn this week; be on the water before sunrise and stay fishing until lunchtime. The arrival of cool fronts on July 14 and 21 will cause the barometer to dip and should stimulate more angling action.

Duck killer>
A true story by Susan Perkins from Hardtimes Farm, Ky.

Two summers ago, my daughter-in-law Brandi came running into the house screaming, “I think a snake’s getting the baby ducks!”

My daughter Laurie and I jumped up and ran out to the shed where Brandi said she heard a bunch of glass breaking. There was a mother duck who had made her nest in a cardboard box stored on the top of some wooden shelves used for storing my canning jars.

It was real dark in the shed, but I could make out part of a snake in the filtered light that made its way through the oak boards covering the building. When our eyes became adjusted to the dark, no one could believe what we saw.

A huge - and I mean huge - cow snake had the mother duck coiled around her twice and was squeezing the life out of her. His intention was not to eat her, but all her newly hatched babies. She must have fought him like the devil to cause him to try and kill her. And kill he would have, if I hadn’t grabbed his tail, startling him enough to uncoil, allowing the duck to break free. The snake disappeared through the cracks in the floor, falling beneath the building.

Three of the babies were dead, crushed from the fight that had taken place. If I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes, I would never have believed a snake could kill a big duck by playing python. We moved mother and babies to a safe location, as I was sure the snake would return to finish the job.

Poor Will’s Scrambler
In order to estimate your SCRAMBLER 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.

NEALC, CLEAN
ENECS, SCENE
ENERP, PREEN
AMEN, MEAN
ILNEOSAG, GASOLINE
EINARM, MARINE
CEFFNAIE, CAFFEINE
EIOUNTR, ROUTINE
ENIRUOBMAT, TAMBOURINE
INEDARS, SARDINE

Here is this week’s rhyming Scrambler:

NAIRB
INAPS
EANW
INAV
NIEV
ENVA
INARD
NIRAG
ANITNCO
PAENGCHMA

This farm news was published in the July 5, 2006 issue of Farm World, serving Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan and Tennessee.