Feb. 4 -10, 2019 So when you come to those dark February days of doubt, you go and listen to the maples, feel them, let their slow, impalpable pulse of soil and sun flow into you … And you know that things are waking up down at the root of this tree. Sap is getting ready to work its way upward. You know, just as sure as you know what day it is. -Hal Borland The Skunk Courting Moon, new on Feb. 4, reaching apogee (its position farthest from Earth) on Feb. 5, waxes throughout the week, entering its second quarter at 5:26 a.m. on Feb. 12. Lunar position favors the pursuit of fish and game after lunch, especially as the weather systems of Feb. 6 and 11 approach. The dark, waxing moon also favors the sprouting and growth of seeds planted under lights this week. Weather trends The second barometric high of the month arrives near Feb. 6 and generally chills the beginning of the second week. Feb. 7-9 frequently bring dangerous weather to the nation’s midsection and produce some of the most frigid mornings of the entire year. The third cold wave of the month, ordinarily the last severe system of late winter, arrives near Feb. 11, bearing a high chance of precipitation and sunless skies. But as this system moves east, the chances of milder weather become substantial. The natural calendar Feb. 4: Almost every year, skunk-mating season begins by the end of the Groundhog Day thaw. Salamander breeding time opens in the first mild rains, and bobbing blue jays announce blue jay courting season. Doves called occasionally throughout December and January; now their full mating time swells and augments the predawn songs of cardinals and titmice. Feb. 5: When you hear mourning doves singing before dawn, organize all your buckets for tapping maple syrup. When you hear red-winged blackbirds in the wetlands, the maple sap should already be running. When maple sap runs, prune houseplants to encourage spring growth. Feb. 6: When you see sparrows courting, cut branches of forsythia and pussy willows for forcing indoors. When the first daffodil foliage is 2 inches tall, monarch butterflies begin to migrate north from Mexico. Feb. 7 When the red tips of peonies push out just a little from the ground, listen for blue jays seeking mates and watch for wild turkeys to be gathering in flocks. Feb. 8: Cardinals began their mating calls before dawn in the last week of deep winter. Now they are in full song by 8 in the morning, sometimes singing all day. Feb. 9: Depending on the year, growth occurs on ragwort, dock, sweet rocket, asters, winter cress, poison hemlock, sedum, mint, celandine, plantain, poppies, pansies, daffodils, tulips, crocuses, aconites, hyacinths and strawberries. Feb. 10: The pollen season, which ended with early winter, has now begun again across the South with the blooming of mountain cedar, acacia, smooth alder, bald cypress, American elm, red maple, white poplar and black willow. Bluegrass, which stopped flowering in midsummer, revives and starts its seeding cycle. As the February thaws bring moisture and warmth from the Gulf of Mexico, they also bring the pollen from all these flowers to the North. Field and garden When the first knuckles of rhubarb emerge from the ground, it’s time to seed your cold frames with spinach, radishes and lettuce. When trees bloom early but the flowers are killed in the cold, then feed your bees to take up the slack. When the first snowdrops emerge from their foliage (but are still not open), be sure your cabbages, kale, Brussels sprouts and collards are sprouting under lights. When aconites bloom, spread fertilizer in the field and garden so it can work its way into the ground before planting. Tree-tapping for sap is favored between Feb. 15-20 as red-winged blackbirds burst into song and the moon is fat and round. In the countdown to spring from now, it’s: •Just a week until the first red-winged blackbirds arrive, and skunks prowl the nights and to the first snowdrop bloom and the official start of early spring – a time when maple sap season can begin at any moment •Two weeks to major pussy willow emerging season and the time during which salamanders mate in the warm rains •Three weeks to crocus season and owl hatching time and woodcock mating time •Four weeks to the beginning of the morning robin chorus before sunrise •Five weeks to daffodil season and silver maple blooming season and the first golden goldfinches •Six weeks to tulip season and the first wave of blooming woodland wildflowers and the first butterflies •Seven weeks until golden forsythia blooms and skunk cabbage sends out its first leaves and the lawn is long enough to cut •Eight weeks until the peak of middle spring wildflowers in the woods •Nine weeks until American toads sing their mating songs in the dark and corn planting time begins •10 weeks until the Great Dandelion and Violet Bloom begins Best of the Almanac Grannie in the Hole! From Hardtimes Farm, Ky. My now-deceased grandmother owned 80 acres of an island in the Missouri River in the 1950s. Her two sons and two daughters, along with their families, spent many wonderful times there. The first spring, the women of the family drew the short straw and had to dig the outhouse hole. The men were to chop weeds in the fencerow and front yard. The women were busy digging and sweating when they heard laughter coming from the kitchen. There, in plain view, sat the men, drinking beer at the kitchen table. It was unseasonably hot, and my mom and Granny hatched a plan for one of them to have a stroke and fall in the hole, teaching the men a lesson. It was decided Grannie would be the one to take the fall. She lowered herself into the hole, stretched out as dramatically as possible, while my mom and Aunt Betty screamed at the top of their lungs: “Your mom’s had a stroke! Your mom’s had a stroke!" The men's feet never touched the steps as they jumped from the back porch running. They gently lifted Grannie from the hole, but Grannie was losing her game face and starting to grin. My mom pulled her straw hat over her face, but it was too late: her shoulders were beginning to shake with laughter, giving the whole joke away. The men were so mad, they threw Grannie back in the hole and locked the women out of the house for the rest of the afternoon. |
