By Bill Felker

There is no such thing as bad weather; the good Lord simply sends us different kinds of good weather. – John Ruskin

The Moon and the Stars

The Third Week of Early Summer

The Hummingbird Moon entered its second quarter at 9:48 a.m. on June 7. It waxed throughout the remainder of the period, becoming full at 6:52 a.m. on June 14, reaching perigee, its position closest to Earth, at 6 p.m. that same day. This is a Supermoon (full at perigee), Rising in the afternoon and setting in the morning, this Moon passes overhead in the middle of the night.

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, Arcturus is the brightest setting star. At noon, invisible Orion covers the south, promising the Dog Days of middle summer.

Weather Trends

In all but the northernmost states (and at the highest elevations), lows near freezing and highs only in the 50s now recede from the realm of serious possibility until late August. Although showers can be associated with warm temperatures, many of the days between the June 10 cool front and the next are dry.

Lunar perigee, with the Supermoon of June 14 and the June 15 cool front, is most likely to cause storms with hail and heavy rain. It is also likely that this Supermoon could contribute to the formation of a very early tropical disturbance in the Atlantic. The new moon of June 28 will chill the last days of the month and contribute to conditions which also could encourage hurricane formation.

Zeitgebers: Events in Nature that Tell the Time of Year

When pie cherries ripen, painted turtles and box turtles lay their eggs, and big brown stag beetles prowl the grass. When the canopy has closed above the woodland wildflowers, when winter wheat is a soft pale green, and the clovers and vetches are all coming in, then it is the best time of year for golden parsnip blossoms throughout the countryside.

Catalpas, privets, hawthorns and pink spirea bloom at parsnip time, and the number of fireflies grows in proportion to the flowers on the daylilies. The first nodding thistle, the first chicory, first daisy fleabane, the first great mullein, the first Asiatic lily, and the first tall meadow open. The first raspberry reddens, and the first orange trumpet creeper blossoms. Bindweeds and sweet peas color the fences with pastels.

In the garden, watch for butterflies. Monarchs, tiger swallowtails, red admirals, sulphurs, blues, question marks, cabbage whites, fold-winged skippers, silver-spotted skippers, tortoiseshells and buckeyes could be arriving at your flowers. Of course, it is not too late to plant flowers and attract those butterflies.

In the Field and Garden 

Now is the time for insect infestations to reach the economic threshold. Look for rose chafers and two-spotted spider mites on your rose bushes. Cucumber beetles eat the vines of the cucumbers and melons.

Gather cherries, mulberries, and black raspberries in the mild June days. Fertilize asparagus and rhubarb as their seasons end. Sidedress the corn.

Plant root crops as the moon wanes this week. Harvest strawberries at full moon for maximum juice (unless rains have been heavy). Harvest canola, commercial broccoli and squash. Consider putting in double-crop soybeans after the wheat is cut.

The second week of June often brings a heat wave. And that means extra attention to cleanliness in the barn and yard will pay off in fewer flies.

Plan to supplement late fall and early winter grazing when quality and quantity of forage declines. And plan to sell chicken, lamb and chevon for Father’s Day cookouts.

If the ventilation system in your outbuildings is inadequate, put in a fan this summer. It will give you improved air quality control throughout the year.

Mix medicinal herb seeds when you are seeding the pasture. Some favorites are borage, chicory, horehound, marjoram, rosemary, sage, tansy and yarrow.

To help control insects, plant or purchase flowers to increase the bird population. Flowers are also great in your roadside stand. Flowers in your yard announce prosperity.

When you shear or worm or clip hooves, keep your flock or herd together. One animal isolated in a pen can be hard to catch, may panic and hurt itself.

Mind and Body

The  S.A.D. Index (which measures the forces thought to be associated with Seasonal Affective Disorder on a scale from 1 to 100) rises quickly to a high of 30 on full moon day, but then falls into the harmless single digits past the middle of the month.

Almanack Classics

Storm Watchers

By Becky Corwin-Adams

When I was growing up in Northwest Ohio in the 1960s, we enjoyed sitting on our open front porch. Most homes had front porches back then. Like most of our neighbors, we had a wooden swing on our front porch.

My dad had always been fascinated by thunderstorms. Whenever we heard thunder, Dad would hurry out to the porch to watch the approaching storm. My older sister and I loved to join him. The three of us would sit on the swing and watch. Mom never really approved of our storm-watching hobby, as she was sure we would get struck by lightning. Mom never joined us on the porch during a storm.

We would sit with Dad on the swing until one of us (usually my sister) would get scared and go in the house. Sometimes the lightning got too close. Other times, the rain would be blowing so hard we would get soaking wet. Eventually, Dad was left alone on the swing. After the storm had passed, he would come into the house, laughing and asking us why we ran inside so fast.

One time, a chain on the swing broke and sent the swing, with the three of us, onto the porch floor. The impact made a small hole in the wooden floor. Of course, Mom came running out that time. Dad repaired the chain a few days later. The hole was always visible, even after the porch floor was repainted.

In 1975, when my oldest son was about a month old, I was at my parents’ house when a storm came up. A tornado warning was issued, so Mom decided we should take the sleeping baby into the basement. Of course, Dad was out on the front porch already. Mom and I sat in the basement for a while with the baby. Dad finally decided he should join us. The storm eventually passed and mom scolded Dad for being outside watching it.

Dad passed away many years ago. I still love to watch storms, although I don’t have a front porch. The drought this summer has brought back wonderful memories of those good times when we had lots of storms to watch, back in the 1960s.

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.

NAIRB                                  BRAIN

INAPS                                   SPAIN

EANW                                   WANE

INAV                                     VAIN

NIEV                                      VEIN

ENVA                                    VANE

INARD                                   DRAIN

NIRAG                                   GRAIN

ANITNCO                              CONTAIN

PAENGCHMA                       CHAMPAGNE

THIS WEEK’S RHYMING SCKRAMBLER

SSEM                                                  

SESRTS                                              

SESRIGD                                           

XCSSEE                                             

ESESNIF                                            

EIRPNCSS                                         

SESECR                                             

SSERGSNART                                  

WDLRNSESEI                                   

SSSHHPDREEE