Through the clear streams the fishes rise,

And nimbly catch the incautious flies.

The glow-worms, numerous and light,

Illumed the dewy dell last night;

At dusk the squalid toad was seen,

Hopping and crawling o’er the green. – From “Signs of Rain” by Dr. Edward Jenner

The Moon: The Blackberry Moon, new on the 17th, reached apogee, its position farthest from Earth, on July 20 and enters its second quarter on July 25 at 6:08 p.m. Rising in the morning and setting in the evening, this moon passes overhead in the afternoon.

The Sun: The Sun completes its residence in Cancer this week and enters the Late Summer sign of Leo on July 23, having moved about an eighth of the way toward autumn equinox.

The Planets: Jupiter in Aries rises after midnight and travels high in the sky by dawn. Saturn arrives in the evening sky with Aquarius in the southeast and follows the southern stars throughout the night.

The Stars: The Sun’s position in Leo moves the Deep Summer noonday stars into the west, and the Dog Star, Sirius, becomes less aggressive, foretaste of cooler weather ahead.

The Shooting Stars: The nights of July 29-30 bring the peak of the Delta Aquarids after 12 a.m. in Aquarius. This shower can bring up to 20 meteors in an hour. The bright Moon at the end of July, however, may make meteor watching less rewarding.

Weather Trends: The coolest days of this period are typically July 22 and 23, when mild 70s are recorded about a fourth of all the years. The 23rd brings pleasant sleeping weather more often than any time in July: a full 35 percent of the nights drop below 60 degrees. The most consistent day of the period, and of the whole month, is the 24th, when highs in the 80s come 95 percent of the time. Rain is a bit more likely this week than it was last week as chances of showers rise over the next seven days from 20 to 30 percent to 35 to 40 percent.

The Natural Calendar: Elderberries turn purple and black walnut leaves yellow in the heat. Pokeweed flowers turn to berries. Seed pods form on the trumpet creepers and the locusts. Catalpa beans are full and long. Fogfruit, great Indian plantain, wingstem, sundrops, small-flowered agrimony, tick trefoil and velvetleaf all flower now as full Moon approaches. A slight turning of the leaves begins on some of the redbuds, Virginia creepers, box elders and buckeyes. Foliage of Japanese honeysuckle and the multiflora roses often shows patches of yellow.

The best of the early morning bird chorus is over now for the year. Swallows are migrating; they can often be seen congregating on the high wires. Cicadas chant full force. Fireflies are often past their prime, fawns are a third grown and blue jays are suddenly quiet. The first katydids begin singing after dark, and crickets intensify their song. Woolly bear caterpillars become more common falls.

In the Field and Garden: Include the mums in your summer care; give them a little extra food now for extra blossoms in September. Dig potatoes and dry onions, cut cabbage for kraut, pickle the cucumbers, gather sweet corn, top tobacco, bring in oats, wheat, alfalfa and all the summer market crops. Plan your fall and winter plantings now; make a garden map of current bulbs, then list additions you would like to make in October. Autumn turnip planting and tobacco topping are often begun today, guided by the first purple blossoms of tall ironweed. Out in the countryside, farmers prepare soil for autumn wheat planting. The melon harvest is at its zenith. The harvest of peaches usually begins this week; the fruit should become fat and juicy as the Moon swells.

Mind and Body: The closing days of the sun in Cancer always bring a visible change to the landscape, and that change can be reflected in human attitudes and behavior. The day’s length has only shortened by half an hour since solstice, but the growing night influences hormone levels in many mammals (including humans), and when the day falls below 14 hours in the first week of August, sheep and goats enter estrus, a sign that the position of the sun in the sky has triggered a major shift in the tide of the year.

Almanack Classics 

Old Outhouse Archeology

By Jay Budde, Archbold, Ohio

When Barbara and I purchased an 1870s farmstead a few years ago, the property’s history was much of the appeal to us. This was the first home settled in our township. We did not dream we would ever find the shallowly buried “treasure” we uncovered when we purchased an outhouse recently.

Yes, we bought a vintage wooden one-holer at auction from a fruit farmer. Transporting the outhouse 20 miles in a small pickup is a story for another time. What we learned about our property and its owners when we looked for the right spot for the “new” old outhouse, however, involved a little outhouse archeology.

With a little intuition, luck, and probing with a rebar, we found the concrete foundation of a four-by-four pit – clearly the footprint of an outhouse – behind the smokehouse. My wife’s studies in history told her that families deposited much of their discarded history in their outhouse, so the decision to dig was made.

Fortunately, we had friends visiting who had not read Tom Sawyer and agreed to help us dig for historic treasure.

After two feet of brick bats, several hours and three feet of digging, we ran out of energy and interest, but we did find treasure and history: a plastic toy rifle (from the 1950s layer), a cracked plow share (from the 1940s layer) and numerous dinnerware, medicine bottles, crockery and metal household items. You get the idea.

The lesson? There may be more deposited in your old outhouse pit than you think. We recommend leaving it there for future archeologists.

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THIS WEEK’S RHYMING SCKRAMBLER

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