June 10-16, 2019

The exuberance of June … It began at daybreak with the chirping and chattering of birds close at hand and in widening circles around us. And then, what greater wonder than the rising of the sun?

Even the nights, as yet without insect choirs, were alive. Fireflies against the mass of trees were flashing galaxies which repeatedly made and unmade abstract patterns of light, voiceless as the stars overhead …

-Harlan Hubbard

The Milkweed Beetle Mating Moon waxes throughout the period, becoming full on June 17 at 3:31 a.m. Rising in the evening and setting in the morning, this moon passes overhead in the middle of the night, favoring that time for angling. Full moon is associated with stress in livestock and people.

Weather trends

Unsettled conditions often surround the approach of the June 15 cool front as late spring and early summer hold their final skirmishes along the nation’s midsection. Thunderstorms are likely as full moon influences this weather system, and chances of hurricane formation increase.

After summer is victorious, precipitation typically stays away for several days. Between June 15-19, average temperatures climb their final degrees, reaching their summer peak near solstice.

The natural calendar

June 10: Chances for highs in the 40s and 50s now recede from the probability until late August. The sunniest days of the month usually occur between now and June 26, and the first major heat wave often develops across the Gulf and the central states.

June 11: Virginia creeper, poison ivy, purple coneflower, carnation, blueweed, pokeweed, and tiger lilies all bloom this week.

June 12: Pollen from grasses reaches its peak in the central portions of the United States, as bluegrass, orchard grass, timothy, red top, and Bermuda grass all continue to flower. In the northern forests, pines, spruce, hemlock, arbor vitae, alders, and birch reach the height of their blossoming, and their pollen often arrives with cooler weather.

June 13: Elderberry bushes come into full flower and cottonwood cotton floats in the wind, and the first chiggers bite in the garden.

June 14: Quail whistle and mate in the woods when tent caterpillars emerge in the trees and the first Canadian thistles go to seed.

June 15: Virginia creeper is flowering. Blackberries have set fruit. The first trumpet vines sport bright red-orange trumpets, and the first Deptford pink and first great mullein come into bloom.

June 16: Along the roadsides, white sweet clover and yellow flowering sow thistles announce the center of early summer.

Field and garden

In an average year, soybeans are often almost all planted, and more than half the crop has emerged. Cucumber beetles reach the economic threshold. Cherries ripen as crown vetch flowers. Wheat is almost all headed and about three out of 10 fields are often turning. The first cut of alfalfa hay is typically three-quarters complete as sow thistles bloom.

The extra water you put out for your livestock helps maintain wildlife on your land, especially birds, which reduce the insect population.

Check the nutrient content of your livestock’s forage. The more you know about what your animals eat, the more you will be able to improve their overall condition by adjusting their diet. (That works for people, too.)

Next week’s waning moon and the dry days of late June are especially favorable for beginning the winter wheat harvest, and for completing the first cut of alfalfa and beginning the second cut.

In the countdown to late summer, it is:

•One week until bee balm blooms and beckons all the bees

•Two weeks until cicadas chant in the hot and humid days

•Three weeks until thistles turn to down

•Four weeks until sycamore bark starts to fall, marking the center of deep summer

•Five weeks to the season of singing crickets and katydids after dark

•Six weeks until ragweed pollen floats in the wind

•Seven weeks until blackberries are ready for jam and brandy

•Eight weeks until aster and goldenrod time

•Nine weeks until the season of fall apples begins

•10 weeks until the corn harvest gets underway

Best of the Almanac

Herd but Don’t Touch: A Sheep Dog Story

By Neal Thomas

Richland, Ind.

Maintaining the same line of border collies here at Hooppole Valley Farm since 1970 has meant training several individuals and a few litters. It’s always difficult, sometimes impossible, to make sure our dogs understand that our free-ranging poultry may be herded but never touched.

Beech, our yearling male, though, goes into nurturing mode around chicks, kids, calves or lambs when I say “baby,” and he had never until yesterday had a poultry problem.

He had been with me helping keep the cows away while we loaded a semi with grain, but when I called him when the truck came back for a second load, he didn’t come. My wife found him beside the pen with a rooster, assumed he had killed it, and scolded and kenneled him.

When I turned our three dogs out for their evening run, I forgot to look for the rooster. This morning I searched for its remains to dispose of, but couldn’t find so much as a feather until I looked in Beech’s box.

I immediately began severely reprimanding him while I retrieved … a live rooster, able to stand. I apologized. The rooster had been injured earlier in mortal rooster combat, and Beech had been protecting the bird the whole time.