By Bill Felker Changes in the weather transform the very feel of the world’s presence, altering the medium of awareness in a manner that affects every breathing being in our vicinity…. Although it rarely occupies our full attention, the weather is always evident on the periphery of that attention, an ever-present reminder that the reality we inhabit is ultimately beyond our human control. – David Abram The Moon, the Sun and the Planets The Second Week of Early Summer The Hummingbird Moon, new on May 30 at 6:30 a.m. waxed throughout the period, reaching lunar apogee (the Moon’s position farthest from Earth) at 8 p.m. on June 1, and will enter its second quarter at 9:48 a.m. on June 7. Rising in the morning and setting after midnight, this Moon passes overhead in the afternoon and evening. Fish and other creatures should be most active at those times, especially as the barometer is dropping before the arrival of the June 6 and 10 cold fronts. By the end of the first week of June, the sun has reached a declination of 22 degrees 44 minutes, around 95 percent of the way to summer solstice. Saturn, in Capricorn, is the first of the major planets to rise after midnight. Mars and Jupiter follow in Pisces, followed, in turn, by the brightest morning star of all, Venus in Aries. Weather Trends The June 2 cool front may bring a light freeze along the Canadian border and at higher elevations of the mountains, thanks to the power of the new moon at the end of May. The low-pressure system that accompanies the June 6 front initiates a four-day period during which there is an increased chance of tornadoes and flash floods. Even after this front passes to the east, storm strike four years in 10. Part of the reason for the rise in 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. Zeitgebers: Events in Nature that Tell the Time of Year Not long after peonies come in and the exotic flowers of the yellow poplar open, just past the prime of poppies, the last leaves of the canopy cover the land. When the high foliage is complete, then the wild multiflora roses and the domestic tea roses bloom, the last Osage and black walnut flowers fall, clustered snakeroot hangs with pollen in the shade, and parsnips, goat’s beard and sweet clovers take over the roadsides. Rare swamp valerian blossoms by the water, and common timothy pushes up from its sheaths in all the alleyways. Miami mist, pink yarrow, yellow moneywort, silver lamb’s ear and the rough Canadian thistle bloom. Wild onions and domestic garlic get their seed bulbs. Poison ivy and tiger lilies and catalpas are budding. Daisies, golden Alexander, groundsel, sweet rocket and common fleabane still hold in the pastures, but garlic mustard and ragwort are almost gone. The bright violet heads of chives droop and decay. Tall buttercups recede into the wetlands. Petals of mock orange, honeysuckle, scarlet pyrethrum, blue lupine and Dutch iris fall to the garden floor. The columbines come apart as astilbe reddens. Nettles and grasses tangle with catchweed. July’s wild petunia foliage is a foot tall. Giant yucca plants send up their firm stalks not only in the Miami and Ohio Valleys but also deep in the Caribbean. In the Field and Garden When goslings leave the nest, mulberry season peaks, and when you see the first monarch butterfly, watch for young coyotes to come after your chickens and new lambs and kids. And when May apples have fruit the size of a cherry and honeysuckle flowers have all come down, look for cucumber beetles to reach the economic threshold on the farm and in the garden. When fireflies fly at night, chinch bugs hatch in the lawn, and powdery mildew becomes a problem in the garden phlox. When yucca plants send up their stalks, young grackles leave their nests, and nettles have grown up to your chest. Then, Japanese beetles start to attack roses and ferns. Azalea bark scale eggs hatch, too. Check for foot rot in your livestock, especially if the weather has been rainy and the pastures and runs are muddy. Don’t let your rams and bucks get overheated (which can affect their sperm count) when the temperature rises into the 80s and 90s. Be sure shade is available. Exceptionally high temperatures may inhibit your bees’ ability to make honey. Heat can also contribute to temporary sterility in male livestock. A three-week cycle of deworming, combined with every-three-week pasture rotation, could be effective in eliminating worms early in the summer. Mind and Body Unless the weather is unseasonably hot, few people suffer from S.A.D. in June. The Index reveals a rare window in the year during which astronomical and meteorological factors that cause stress are reduced to almost nothing. The lush growth and flowering of Early Summer easily counter the influence of the moon in the first half of the month. Full moon and perigee on June 14, combined with rising heat, however, increase the challenge to equanimity, as does new moon on the 28th. The S.A.D. Index (which measures the forces thought to be associated with Seasonal Affective Disorder on a scale from 1 to 100) drops below the teens this week. That’s the best so far this year. Almanack Classics Cinderella By Marian Schweighofer, Tyler Hill, Pa. Cinderella had been an orphaned lamb raised in the house and gave us her fair share of trouble as most bottle babies do. She slept beside the wood stove in the little pile of ashes and wood chips that inevitably seems to accumulate in that area. She followed us daily to do the barn chores but refused to stay in the barn with the other sheep. We would sneak out when she was distracted but in a few short moments she would be back up to the house with her insistent blatting demanding to be let back in. She chewed up the phone cords, begged at the dinner table, ate dog food with the dogs and in the spring learned to chase cars with them. She was not in the least bit interested in the 200-plus sheep flock that grazed the lower pastures nearby. As summer approached, we had to come up with a solution for our now large lamb that refused to be a sheep. The flock was moved to the high pasture which is over a mile from the house. Cinderella was transported up to the high meadow in the truck. It seemed to work. She spent her summer vacationing as our other sheep do on pasture. Meanwhile down in the valley we worked diligently finishing the construction of our home. The plywood floors were covered with hard wood floors, my personal pride and joy. In November the construction insurance was ready to be exchanged for a homeowners policy. The agent sat politely on the sofa with his papers and a cup of coffee before him on the table. The flock had been rotated down off of the high meadows and were once again in plain view from the house. This made a pleasant sight from our picture window of sheep dotted along the banks of the brook winding through the valley. Our 3-year-old opened the sliding door and called out the traditional, “Here sheep, com’on sheep!” with enthusiasm. To my dismay, what followed was bedlam. Cinderella answered the call and brought with her half a dozen cohorts right in through the still open sliding door. The 3-year-old high-tailed it out of there for her room. I dropped the cookies I was carrying in as I tried to stop the flow of unwanted indoor sheep. The band of intruders skittered and slid on the hard wood floor, upset the coffee table with the papers. They crashed into the glass of the sliding doors before making a hasty retreat. That is, all but Cinderella. She was calmly eating the spilled gingersnaps from the floor. The agent still sat unmoving and wide-eyed in the after math. I never bought the insurance from him or perhaps he didn’t want to sell it to me. Cinderella never did turn into a totally normal sheep, but we still laugh about the day the insurance man came in to visit. Send your memory stories to Poor Will, P.O. Box 431, Yellow Springs, OH 45387. Five 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 yourself 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. EREB BEER AREY YEAR REIT TIER EEAHDR ADHERE RIMA AMIR ETRA TEAR EREV VEER REILAVAC CAVALIER EARPAPDIS DISAPPEAR ERETNULOV VOLUNTEER THIS WEEK’S RHYMING SCKRAMBLER NAIRB INAPS EANW INAV NIEV ENVA INARD NIRAG ANITNCO PAENGCHMA Copyright 2022 – W. L. Felker |
