Perhaps we have a deep and legitimate need to know in our entire being what the day is like, see it and feel it, to know how the sky is gray, paler in the south, with patches of blue in the southwest…. I have a real need to know these things because I myself am part of the weather and part of the climate and part of the place, and a day in which I have not shared truly in all this is no day at all. — Thomas Merton

The Moon:  The Strawberry Moon is full at 11:43 on June 3. It reaches lunar perigee its most powerful position of the month, on June 6.

The Sun: By the end of the first week of June, the sun has reached a declination of 22 degrees 44 minutes, almost at its solstice position.

The Planets: Moving retrograde into Cancer, Venus is still visible at sunset, and Mars, remaining in Cancer shares the horizon with Venus after dark. 

The Stars: Continuing to follow the year in stars, find Early Summer’s boxy (or teapot-shaped) Libra due south, with Scorpius close behind. If you look up to the middle of the sky, you will see a horseshoe-shaped constellation, the Corona Borealis, and to its right the bright planting star, Arcturus. 

Weather Trends: The cool fronts associated with Early Summer typically cross the Mississippi on or about June 2, 6, 10, 15, 23 and 29. Major storms are most likely to occur on the days between June 5 - 8, June 13 - 16 and June 24 - 28. Full moon on June 3 (strengthened by perigee on the 6th) will chill the first two high-pressure systems of the month and will most likely be accompanied by frost in northern states. New moon on the 18th will increase the likelihood for storms in the middle of the month

The Natural Calendar: Markers for this week include first lilies and thistles in bloom, sweet mulberries, box turtles laying eggs, and winter wheat turning pale gold-green throughout the countryside. The canopy has closed above the woodland wildflowers when clovers and vetches are all blossoming. Canadian thistles and crown vetch open in the fields and pastures. Oakleaf hydrangeas blossom in the city, pickerel plants in ponds, balloon flowers in gardens. Yucca plants flower, and young grackles leave their nests. 

In the Field and Garden: As the moon wanes, consider putting in double-crop  soybeans after the wheat is cut. Plant the vegetable garden for August and September harvests: root crops now, flowers and vegetables that produce their fruit above ground after new moon. June is haying month in the upper half of the nation. 

Mind and Body: The arrival of fresh produce to market, the greening corn and soybean fields, relatively mild temperatures, the filling in of the high canopy and the start of rose-blooming season all converge to augur well for low seasonal stress.

Countdown to Late Summer 

• Just another week until wild black raspberries ripen, until fledgling robins peep in the bushes and fireflies mate in the night

• Two weeks until bee balm blooms and beckons all the bees

• Three weeks until the start of day lily season and cicadas chant in the hot and humid days

• Four weeks until thistles turn to down

• Five weeks until sycamore bark starts to fall, marking the center of Deep Summer

• Six weeks to the season of singing crickets and katydids after dark

• Seven weeks until ragweed pollen floats in the wind 

• Eight weeks until blackberries are ready for jam and brandy

• Nine weeks until aster and goldenrod time

• Ten weeks until the season of fall apples begins

Almanack Literature

The Orphanage

By Lou Beard, El Paso, Texas

Every year on the farm there were little orphans from the mother sheep. Even with today’s research and knowledge, it remains a mystery why a mother will reject her baby.

Dad would bring the orphans into the basement of the old farmhouse that was heated with coal. The furnace room was in the basement and always warm from the heat of the coal. We were always happy to make the beds for the orphans in little boxes. Mom saved old clothes, sheets and blankets for this special occasion every year. 

Over the years, there were many different animals brought into the makeshift nursery in the basement furnace room. There they were cared for, neutered, fed and loved like babies. Mother would warm the bottles of milk, and we would get out of bed in the middle of the night to feed our babies. It made no difference what they were -- lambs, calves, or little piglets, kittens or puppies, they were babies that needed us. We named them all, and as they grew up, they became pets that knew their names. Animals are intelligent little creatures, and I believe they knew that we had saved them.

ANSWERS TO LAST WEEK’S SCKRAMBLER

SNARTIPER TRANSPIRE

GAMINFRIE MAGNIFIER

ERISPNCO CONSPIRE

DDIRHR REHIRE

REPINSI INSPIRE

KCBAIRRE BACKFIRE

IRME MIRE

MUIPER UMPIRE

PPRLSUIE SUPPLIER 

EQUISER ESQUIRE

ERTCFIEIR RECTIFIER.

THIS WEEK’S RHYMING SCKRAMBLER

OMOGNOWL

TOUWORG

OOPNHC

PMISRERASOI

NABREDLILREO

OOKYT

OOERRT

OOEDPRT

OOERTM

OEITTSL

UIODST

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.

Follow the summer with Bill Felker’s A Daybook for June in Yellow Springs, Ohio and A Daybook for July in Yellow Springs, Ohio. These daybooks are applicable to the entire Lower Midwest and contain all the nature notes used to create Poor Will’s Almanack. Order yours from Amazon. You can also purchase Bill Felker’s new book of essays, The Virgin Point, there.

Copyright 2023 – W. L. Felker