By Bill Felker It is Nature’s rutting season. Even as the birds sing tumultuously and glance by with fresh and brilliant plumage, so now is Nature’s grandest voice heard and her sharpest flashes seen. The air has resumed its voice, and the lightening, like a yellow spring flower, illumines the dark banks of the clouds. All the pregnant earth is bursting into life, like a mildew, accompanied with noise and fire and tumult. She comes dripping rain like a cow with overflowing udder. – Henry David Thoreau, Journal, May 20, 1856 The Moon and the Stars The First Week of Early Summer The Warbler Migration Moon entered its final quarter on May 22, and wanes throughout the period, turning into the Hummingbird Moon on May 30 at 6:30 a.m. Rising in the morning and setting in the evening, the dark moon passes overhead in the middle of the day, encouraging fish and other creatures to be hungrier around that time, especially as the final cool front of May approaches. At 10 p.m., Virgo will be due south, and bright Arcturus, the largest star in the central sky, will be almost overhead. When you do morning chores, you’ll see the Milky Way above you and the Great Square moving in from the East, fertile Pisces right behind it. To the far west, the spring planting star, Arcturus, is the brightest setting star. Weather Trends Rain is often heavy as the final front of May approaches, strengthened this year by new moon on the 30th. When this high moves away, however, it usually leaves sunny, dry conditions. Summer warmth typically begins several days later. Zeitgebers: Events in Nature that Tell the Time of Year When flea beetles are feeding in the vegetable garden, cedar waxwings will be migrating through your land, and fiddler crabs will be emerging from their tunnels in the estuaries of the South. When you see the first brown “June” bug clinging to your screen door, look for young fireflies glowing in the night grass, and when you smell the locust flowers opening, the first mulberries will be ready for mulberry pie. In the wetlands, wild iris will be in bloom. When you see cottonwood cotton floating in the wind, then deer will be giving birth, and pollen from grasses will be reaching its peak. Most warblers have flown north by this time of the month, and almost all other spring migrants have either arrived or have passed through the area. Spring turkey hunting closes throughout much of the region; update your turkey journal, noting which dates and weather conditions favored turkey sightings. Blackberries are blooming along roadsides of the Lower Midwest. That is when sunflowers are in full bloom in California, and spring wheat and oats are just about all planted in the North. In the Field and Garden When you see nettles waist high, then check the garden for cutworms. And when Canadian thistles start to bud, it’s safe to plant your peppers, cantaloupes and cucumbers. But check for armyworms and corn borers in the fields. When you hear spring crickets sing, look for leafhoppers in the garden and snapping turtle eggs along the rivers. Then when you see the first elderberries blooming, check for bean leaf beetles and alfalfa weevils in your field and garden. Heat stress can slow the rate of gain in livestock. Protection from the weather, plenty of water and adequate feed and supplements may help to reduce weight loss. Cucumber beetles reach the economic threshold in the garden. Chinch bugs begin to hatch in the lawn. Whiteflies attack azaleas. It’s pruning time, after flowering, for forsythia, quince, mock orange and lilac. But mulberry season is just beginning, and it typically lasts through Early Summer. Gather eggs frequently to reduce spoilage. As the weather heats up, don’t forget to refrigerate your eggs. Keep your chickens’ water fresh and cool. Put in the last of the hot-weather vegetables (like tomatoes, squash, eggplant and peppers). And don’t forget pumpkins for Halloween. If you are getting a pig, consider digging a shallow pond for it to cool off in. Increase the availability of loose salt to your animals as the heat increases. Mind and Body Some studies have shown that more events which people consider miraculous occur between May and September than in the other months. May through September are also the months during which the greatest weight loss in humans typically occurs. If you are going to diet in 2022, now is the time to start (even though if you lose weight, it may be a miracle). And the S.A.D. Index (which measures the forces thought to be associated with Seasonal Affective Disorder on a scale from 1 to 100) remains mostly in the harmless 20s this week, helping to keep you from being discouraged. Almanack Classics A Mouse for Marty By Pliny Fulkner, Happy Times Farm, Ky. When I was a young boy, I thought I wanted to be a priest. Since the diocese had just built a new minor seminary (minor seminaries are for high-school age kids), and since the local priests were beating the bushes to fill the place with students, I ended up being part of the first freshman class. Our seminary days were spent in study and prayer, broken up by sports. I was slow to adapt to this kind of life, and gradually my natural inclination for causing trouble overcame my better tendencies. One of my unpriestly habits was playing tricks on my fellow students, especially my friend Marty. And on a cold winter day, as all the seminarians were standing silently in line to enter the refectory for lunch, I noticed a dead, dry mouse lying on the floor beside me. Immediately realizing the possibilities of this creature, I bent down, picked it up and put it in my suit jacket pocket. (We all had to wear suit and tie throughout the day). We entered the dining hall and sat down, said our prayers, and a lector began to read to us from the Bible. And on the table was a big container of soup. The person at the head of the table began dishing out the soup, and, while the rest of the students distracted Marty, I slipped the mouse into his bowl. Everyone started eating, but before Marty could actually take a spoonful, I started pointing and whispering, “Wait, Marty, there’s a mouse in your soup!” In spite of the spiritual reading taking place, we all burst out laughing, and when we told the prefect (who was supposed to be in charge of keeping order) that we had found a mouse in Marty’s soup, he was shocked, took away the soup and complained to the poor cooks, who were far more upset than Marty – thinking they had accidentally served a contaminated meal. Neither Marty nor I (nor 95 percent of our classmates) ever reached the promised land of ordination. Of that, folks can be grateful. Send your memory stories to Poor Will, P.O. Box 431, Yellow Springs, OH 45387. Four dollars will be paid to any author whose story appears in this column. ANSWERS TO LAST WEEK’S SCKRAMBLER In order to estimate your SCKRAMBLER IQ, award you 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. NWONK KNOWN OEZN ZONE AOELN ALONE ENOBMORT TROMBONE UONWNKN UNKNOWN EONRP PRONE OESTN STONE NOWGR GROWN EEEONHPLT TELEPHONE IODSWN DISOWN THIS WEEK’S RHYMING SCKRAMBLER EREB AREY REIT EEAHDR RIMA ETRA EREV REILAVAC EARPAPDIS ERETNULOV Copyright 2022 – W. L. Felker |
