By Bill Felker Lunar perigee could boost appetite for humans and animals Everywhere in the countryside there is a glimmer of autumn reds. Hawthorn bushes are laden with crimson berries, while the clusters of black elderberries are surrounded with vinous red leaves. On brambles, the ripening berries are a glossy purple and some of the leaves are scarlet. The lower leaves of docks are also turning bright red. – Derwent May The First Week of Early Fall The Moon, the Stars and the Sun Lunar perigee, when the moon’s position is closest to Earth, occurred Sept. 7 at 1 p.m. The Moon is full on Sept. 10 at 4:59 a.m. Rising in the evening and setting in the morning, this moon passes overhead in the middle of the night, telling all creatures to feed more heavily at that time. As cool fronts approach around Sept. 8 and 12, fish, game, livestock and dieters should want to eat even more. By Sept. 8, the sun reached three-fourths of its way from summer solstice to equinox. The amount of daylight shrinks below thirteen hours for the first time since the first week of April, and more than another hour will be lost from the day’s length between now and Oct. 1. September evenings, the Big Dipper lies close to the northern horizon, and Cepheus (shaped a little like a house) lies on the other side (the southern side) of Polaris, the north star. Perseus, a monster slayer in Greek mythology, rises out the east, and Hercules, another Greek hero, fills the western sky. Weather Trends The Sept. 12 cool front usually brings only a slight chance for frost in states along the 40th Parallel; it does, however, arrive at the time during which the percentage of average amount of daily sunshine begins to fall more quickly, accelerating your livestock’s sensitivity to the shortening days. And, this year, full moon on the 10th, close to perigee on the 7th, creates a recipe for the first light freeze of the fall. As the moon wanes and moves farther from Earth, however, temperatures will moderate until the last week of September when the new moon will again bring frost to the north and cooler weather to the South. Zeitgebers: Events in Nature that Tell the Time of Year: The warmer afternoons bring a faint smell of autumn; the cooler mornings sometimes offer a hint of wood smoke. In the woodlots, nettle has gone to seed. Hickory nuts are down, and squirrels are collecting black walnuts. Goldenrod is peaking. The large, violet New England asters are coming in, along with a variety of small-flowered asters. Beggarticks, white snakeroot, goosefoot, horseweed, Jerusalem artichokes, clearweed and smartweed are still in full bloom. Crickets and katydids sing throughout the nights. Chipping sparrows are leaving the area. Butterflies that you might still see in the field and garden: skippers, swallowtails, cabbage whites, sulphurs, coppers, azures, viceroys, monarchs, buckeyes, red admirals, tortoise shells, question marks, commas, pearl crescents, fritillaries and graylings. In the Field and Garden The waning moon favors harvest, weeding, preparation of the woodpile, repair of fences and roofs, the administration of vaccinations, trimming hooves, shearing and worming. Treat your dog and cat for late-summer fleas and ticks, too. Fertilize perennials to encourage improved flowering next spring and summer. Plant the last lettuce and radishes of the year. On the farm, prepare land for planting grasses, canola and small grains. Bring in the third crop of alfalfa and clean up all the summer apples. Cut the corn for silage Mind and Body September’s relatively pleasant temperatures and clear skies keep Seasonal Affective Disorder at bay throughout most of the month. Hormonal energy may increase at this time of year, creating an “autumn surge” that combats S.A.D. In addition, numerous signals from fauna and flora (observed and named or not) alert the observer to coming changes in the season. The resulting anticipation at the approach of a landscape entirely transformed in shape and color and sound often reverses any negative effects of the shortening day, frost and the moon. After full moon on the 10th, the SA.D. Index falls gradually into the 20s, showing the benevolence of cooler weather and the growing stimulation of autumn signs. Almanack Classics The Lucky Chicken By Tim Pappas, Grafton, Ohio I was at work one day when my superior came up with a large box. He had found a chicken walking around the parking lot, which was pretty odd, the lot being in the middle of Cleveland, Ohio. Since I lived on a farm, my superior was curious if I would tell him what kind of breed it was. I told him it was a barred rock hen, a good laying breed, in good shape and told him it was worth $5-$10. Satisfied with this information, he asked if I’d take the bird and give it a home. “Sure thing,” I replied, as my wife had an assortment of chickens on our farm in Grafton and could surely take on one more. At day’s end, I was homebound with a boxed hen, and on arrival, went through the usual routine of dog greetings followed (always secondly) by my wife’s. But before I could tell her about the new acquisition, she told me about a missing hen – a barred rock! Suddenly the mystery was solved. The previous evening, a heavy rainstorm caught us out in the barn. As we made a dash for the house, my wife saw a rock hen perched under my truck on the rear axle. Since I leave for work well before dawn, that hen rode the truck’s undercarriage for 32 miles of major highway travel. On being released from the cardboard box, the lucky chicken ran straight to her stall and promptly laid her egg. No worse for wear, she went right to work scratching gravel in the drive and bugs in the pasture. In her older age, due to her unbelievable adventure, she received a private house with an outdoor run and lived out the life of a happy (and very lucky) chicken. *** 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 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. ERVECL CLEVER VEER EVER REELV LEVER VEREN NEVER EEAORVDN ENDEAVOR EEORVWH HOWEVER WHNVREEE WHENEVER EEARVTWH WHATEVER EREVIHHCW WHICHEVER REVES SEVER THIS WEEK’S RHYMING SCKRAMBLER LSSEIM SELIM LESIG IESLT PSLIE YESSTL IAESSL DALIS ERILS FLSIE Copyright 2022 – W. L. Felker |
