And the Spring arose on the garden fair, Like the Spirit of Love felt everywhere; And each flower and herb on Earth’s dark breast Rose from the dreams of its wintry rest. – Percy Bysshe Shelley

Lunar Phase and Lore

The Cows Switching Their Tails Moon was full on the 26th at 10:32 p.m. and reached perigee, its position closest to Earth, on the 27th at 10:00 a.m. It wanes throughout the remainder of the period, coming into its final quarter at 2:50 p.m. on May 3. Rising in the night and setting late in the morning, this moon passes overhead (telling all the birds to sing) before sunup.

Weather Trends

Early May brings highs above 60 on 75 percent of the afternoons, and warm 70s or 80s an average of 55 percent of the time. May 2 is often the coldest day of the period, bringing cool 50s on 35 percent of the afternoons, and only a 20 percent chance of 70s or 80s. Frost strikes only 10 to 15 percent of the mornings, and is most likely after the first high pressure system of the month passes through around the 2nd of the month, and after the second system arrives near the 7th. 

Zeitgebers

(Events in Nature that Tell the Time of Year)

Early grasses go to seed as Baltimore Orioles arrive. Star of Bethlehem season begins in the garden, spring cress season in the woods. Ruby-throated hummingbirds come to your feeders. There are buds on the black raspberries, mock orange, and mulberries.

Nettles are waist high along the fencerows. Oak leaves are the size of a squirrel’s ear. Elm leaves are the size of a rabbit’s tail. The high tree line is completely alive with new, glowing foliage or orange buds or golden flowers.

The dry season comes to an end in Central America, meaning that hurricane season is only four to six weeks away. Hicatee turtle season ends along the Gulf of Mexico.

Lilacs are in bloom. The black tern, the magnolia warbler and most varieties of sandpipers reach the Ohio Valley. Darners hunt the swamps. Peonies are budding. Cattails are three feet tall. Cliff swallows migrate as buckeyes come into full bloom and carp mate. Smallmouth bass are in the middle of their intense spring feeding.

Countdown to Spring

• One week until the beginning of clover time in yards and pastures.

• Two weeks until the first orange day lily flowers.

• Three weeks until roses bloom and thistles bud.

• Four weeks until the first strawberry shortcake.

• Five weeks until cottonwoods bloom and send their cotton through the air.

• Six weeks to the first mulberry pie.

Mind and Body

The S.A.D. Index, which measures seasonal stress on a scale from 1 to 100, reached a harsh 49 on April 26 and 27, thanks to lunar phase and position. After that, however, the numbers fall dramatically, reaching a very mild 22 on May 3. At this point in the year, the day’s length is summer-like, the weather is usually mild, and only rain and the moon bring out S.A.D. in susceptible people.

In the Field and Garden

Haying is underway across the South. Thyme and horseradish are open in the herb garden. On the farm, hunt aphid, cutworms, sod webworms and weevils while the moon wanes.

Winter wheat is often 10 inches high, and about a fifth of the crop is jointed. Tomatoes are almost half transplanted. Complete sweet corn planting, and be thinking about soybeans: soybean yield loss can be up to one bushel per acre per day for planting after the first week of May.

Rhubarb should now be perfect for cutting. Soil temperatures reach 60 degrees in milder years. The last of the region’s livestock moves to pasture.

Almanack Classics 

The Way It Was Before?

By Sally S. Straight, Lexington, Ky.

Now you have heard about skunks in the outhouse, I am sure. Why, a while back, it was no surprise to encounter one of those beasts on the way to visit the “little house in back.” And sometimes if you left the door ajar a bit, the skunk would just happen to walk into the business section of the privy, and it would raise a real stink if you frightened it.

With the coming of indoor plumbing, you would think such problems would be things of the past. Most of the time that is true, of course, unless you happen to leave your back door ajar and you have just one bathroom in your house.

In the late winter and early spring, skunks are courting, digging up lawn grubs, and just plain wandering around. And sometimes they go where they don’t belong.

So anyway, one chilly early morning Daddy went out to check on the lambs and he accidently left the back door open. That must have been when Mister Skunk just happened to walk right in and apparently got lost, and ended up in our nice indoor bathroom.

The good thing was that the skunk did not spray any of the people in the house. The bad thing was that we had a fierce skunk hater, our golden retriever, Attaboy. And so I woke up to some wild barking and snapping and then terrible skunk smells. It smelled so bad in the bathroom that we wished we had the old outhouse back. And in fact, we couldn’t use that bathroom for quite a while. In fact, we could barely use the house. I stayed home from school because I smelled like a skunk. Daddy went in to work, but they sent him home. Mama just threw up all day.

How long did it take to get the house back to the way it was before? I’m not sure anything will ever be the “way it was before.”

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Poor Will’s Almanack for 2021 (with the S.A.D. Index) is still available. For your autographed copy, send $20 (includes shipping and handling) to Poor Will, P.O. Box 431, Yellow Springs, Ohio 45387.

Copyright 2021 - W. L. Felker