Autumn is finally, officially gone. Like the evening of the day, the fall has been a time of ceaseless alteration. Cold, in the autumn, is overcoming the heart just as darkness, in the evening is overcoming the light. – Edwin Way Teale

The First Week of Early Winter

The Moon Meteors and Planets

The Goose Gathering Moon became full on Dec. 7 at 11:08 p.m. and waned through the period. Rising in the evening and setting in the morning, this moon passes overhead in the middle of the night. The period prior to the arrival of the Dec. 15 weather system provides the best morning conditions for seeking fish and game. Be alert for pressure on your flock or herd from predators as the cold deepens.

Throughout December Jupiter travels overhead in Pisces during the evening, following the Great Square and setting after midnight. Mars rises with Orion from the east after dark and continues to share Taurus with the red star, Aldebaran. Venus appears once again, now in the far west after sunset in Sagittarius. Saturn in Capricorn follows Venus into the horizon.

The Geminid meteor shower lasts until Dec. 17, and its peak occurs on Dec. 13-14, sometimes bringing up to 100 shooting stars per hour.

Weather Trends

This week of the year typically brings the second major cold front of the month between the 8th and the 10th, and the third major high-pressure system between the 11th and the 13th. Completely overcast skies dominate 60 percent of the days, and precipitation should be expected as the cold waves approach.

Afternoon highs are usually in the 20s or 30s (a 55 percent chance for temperatures so cold). The 10th and the 12th are the days this week with the best chance for warmth in the 50s (slightly better than a 30 percent chance for that), and severe weather with below zero temperatures and highs only in the teens is rare: the 14th is the only day when such things might occur.

 

Zeitgebers: Events in Nature that Tell the Time of Year

The absence of migratory birds magnifies the rattle of the remaining downy woodpeckers, isolates the calling of the crows, the chatter of sparrows, chickadees, titmice and kingfishers. Solitary sparrow hawks are back to hunt mice. Only a few ducks overwinter on the rivers.

Now barberry shows off its scarlet berries better than at any other time of year. Blood-red staghorns remain on the sumacs. In the garden, hardy flowering cabbage and kale show off their rainbows under clouds or sun. Without snow and ice, the leaves dapple the ground with brindle chromatics, bronze, cinnamon, hazel, fawn, chocolate.

In the Field and Garden

Plan to seed your bedding plants under lights with gentle radiant heat provided below the flats if possible). Root grape vine cuttings, too. Check on bulbs that you dug up in autumn, making sure they are not getting moldy.

Hanukkah begins Dec. 18 and Christmas is only two weeks away. As harvest time winds down for grain crops, the holiday market becomes stronger. Christmas cacti, dried flower arrangements, grapevine wreaths and bulbs for forcing may sell briskly at farmers markets, offering welcome income to the small farmer and hobbyist.

Mind and Body

As the moon wanes, the likelihood of Seasonal Affective Disorder also wanes, but the long nights, cloud cover and cold weather continues to challenge sufferers at close to the highest level of the year throughout the month.

Almanack Classics

A Gentle Farmer

By Lou Beard, El Paso, Texas

I was raised outside of a small, quaint town in Ohio by the name of Sycamore. It was a peaceful town where the Sycamore trees grew wild by the small creeks. My father was a loud-spoken, large-frame strong farmer, but a gentle one. He did not appear that way, nor did I think if him in the way when I was young. But now, I, as an adult older than he was when he died, realize how gentle and compassionate he was.

When the sows on the farm were ready to have their babies, he would sleep in the bar with them. He put them in individual pens by themselves, and he would sleep outside on a cot, waiting for the right time. The “cot” was a bed made from bags of hog feed stacked up and a bale of straw. When the time came, he was right there to help deliver the little ones. As they appeared, he would clean them, wrap them in a clean, dry feed sack and lay them aside until all the babies were born. Sometimes 12 or so, if one appeared weak, it would be taken to the house for extra care. He knew that if it were left behind in its weakened condition, it would not survive.

After he analyzed all the little ones, he would put them back in the care of their mother. Of course, checking on them often. I can remember two sows delivering at the same time, and Dad jumping over the divider between the sows to help both mothers deliver their babies. Most of the mother sows would deliver within a few weeks of each other, so he stayed out in the barn for weeks until it was all over.

He knew that every animal was important to his livelihood and to the welfare of the family. He did the same thing with the cows and sheep. By the time the birthing season was over in the spring, we had a bunch of healthy animals in the barn and a few, sometimes more than a few, frisky rambunctious healthy pets in the basement room we called the furnace room because it was so warm. My sister and I raised the weak babies on bottles. We warmed the milk and fed them in the middle of the night and in the mornings before school.

I can’t remember ever losing a little pig or lamb. Every year it was the same thing. We got so accustomed to having little ones in the basement that it seemed strange to have an empty furnace room. I can remember crying when Dad would say, “It’s time for them there babies to go out and face the real world.” That was the day Mother was more than happy, but for us, it was a sad day.

ANSWERS TO LAST WEEK’S 

SCKRAMBLER

UAOTR QUARTO

WOBNAIR RAINBOW

UBATAEL TABLEAU

TTIOEP TIPTOE

SUSEATURO TROUSSEAU

EROZ ZERO

TERFAWLOG AFTERGLOW

LOWAGNBU BUNGALOW

CCLAIO CALICO

FLSTTAEO FALSETTO

AHOW WHOA

THIS WEEK’S RHYMING 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. Yes, you are a genius.

OIOLF

ZABGBO

ELTSIMTEO

TLUMTOA

OOAVTC

OOHI

OOIARTN

CHIOATSPI

PRESIMSOIRA

OOOIARRT

HACEPUA

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Poor Will’s Almanack for 2023 is now available. Order yours from Amazon, or, for an autographed copy, order from www.poorwillsalmanack.com. You can also purchase Bill Felker’s new book of essays, The Virgin Point: Meditations in Nature, from those sites.

Copyright 2022 – W. L. Felker