June 4-10, 2012

When June is here – what art have we to sing

The whiteness of the lilies midst the green

On noon-tranced lawns? Or flash of roses seen

Like redbirds’ wings? Or earliest ripening

Prince-Harvest apples, where the cloyed bees cling

Round winey juices oozing down between

The peckings of the robin, while we lean

In under-grasses, lost in marveling?
-James Whitcomb Riley

The Black Swallowtail Moon, full on June 4 at 6:12 p.m., wanes throughout the period, coming into its final quarter at 5:41 a.m. June 11. Rising late in the evening and setting in the morning, this moon moves overhead near sunrise, making breakfast the worst time for dieting but the best for angling and feeding children, especially as the June 6 and 10 cool fronts approach.

The waning moon in Capricorn on June 5-7 and in Pisces on June 9-11 favor the planting of all root crops, and the setting in of bedding plants, shrubs and trees. Lunar stress on people and livestock wanes this week, creating a favorable setting for working with animals, as well as for romance, a vacation or business success.

Deep in the sign of Taurus, Venus reappears as the morning star by the middle of the month. Mars, still in Leo, glows red along the western horizon after sundown.

Jupiter in Taurus (not far from Venus) rises before dawn, leading Orion out of the east. You can tell Jupiter and Venus apart because Venus is always the bigger of the two. Saturn rides Virgo, overhead after sunset.

A partial eclipse of the moon will occur on June 4, visible throughout most of the central United States and Canada as the moon is going down.

Cool fronts are due to cross the Mississippi on or about June 6, 10, 15, 23 and 29. Major storms are most likely to occur on the days between June 5-8, 13-16 and 24-28. Part of the reason for the risk for severe weather is the increase in the percentage of afternoons in the 80s and 90s almost everywhere in the continental United States and southern Canada.

Markers for this week of the year include cucumber beetles in the cucumber patch, hollyhocks and purple coneflowers open in the dooryards and, if the birds allow, cherries become ripe enough for pie. Thistledown emerges among the thistles in the fields, and red berries form on the honeysuckles.

June 4: After today’s full moon, plant carrots, beets and turnips. Gather cherries, mulberries and black raspberries. Fertilize asparagus and rhubarb as their seasons end. Sidedress the corn.

June 5: Chinch bugs begin to hatch in the lawn. Whiteflies attack azaleas. Weevils assault the yellow poplars.

June 6: Strawberries are thinning in the southern half of the nation as black raspberries start their season in the Ohio Valley. The darkening of the golden winter wheat measures the steady advance of June.

June 7: Wild onions and domestic garlic get their seed bulbs as poison ivy, tiger lilies and catalpas are budding. Cicadas emerge from the ground, leaving their exoskeletons on tree trunks.

June 8: By the middle of early summer, commercial broccoli and squash harvests are under way in the North. Six to 12 leaves have emerged on the field corn. Strawberries are about half harvested in Ohio and Indiana, but that season is just beginning along the Canadian border.

June 9: Although June may bring beautiful weather, it can also bring livestock bloat from legume pasture, toxicity from moldy clover and parasitic pneumonia. Summer is also prime time for attacks from lice, ticks, screwworms and fly maggots.

June 10: Chiggers bite near this date in average years; their season lasts through August in the North, but may persist well into autumn throughout the Southern states.

Sheboygan, Wis.

When you ask someone for a favor and tell them you owe them one after the favor is granted, the resulting return request could be a learning experience beyond any you have ever had. I learned this lesson when I had a need to borrow a pickup truck to move some furniture.

The only person I knew who had an old farm truck that I might be able to borrow was a farmer who was a customer on my bread delivery route. The truck was borrowed and used without incident. The farmer did not want any payment and acknowledged my offer to do him a favor in return when needed.

He acted like he already had something in mind. And about the second week after the use of the truck, the farmer said I could repay the favor that afternoon after I completed my route.

When I finished my delivery route and pulled into the farmyard, I was wondering what I had gotten myself into. The farmer came out of his house carrying some type of clothing. He greeted me with his usual big smile and handed me a pair of overalls. He said, “Put these on and let’s go to the barn.”

Then we headed out to the barn, to the pig pen. There, I saw a monster of a sow with four piglets in a pen about 10 feet square. The farmer handed me a length of two-by-four about four feet long, and he entered the pen and told me to stand outside next to where the sow lay.

These instructions preceded the fact that now he was going to castrate these piglets!

He gave me no more background about that, probably having no idea I was a bona fide city slicker. My instructions were simply: “If while I am cutting the piglets and they squeal, the sow might think I am harming her little ones. She might charge at me. If she does, you hit her with the two-by-four and stop her.”

The farmer then proceeded to remove a large pocketknife from his overalls and exposed an obviously sharp blade about five inches long. He sat on a box placed in the pen and picked up one of the four piglets, turned it over between his legs to expose its private parts.

By this time, the little one being handled was squealing. But the big mother just moved her head a bit and settled back. The squealing porker got cut before my very eyes. Very expertly, the farmer cut the testes sacks, removed the testicles and placed the patient back on the ground. Then he went to the next piglet!

And all went well. The sow behaved, the farmer performed his surgery and I fulfilled my obligatory return favor. But the next time I ask a favor and promise to return it at a future date,  I think I will try and get an idea of what the favor might be, so I can know if it falls into my squeamish category or if it is something I might know something about!