There is a beautiful spirit breathing now

Its mellow richness on the clustered trees,

And, from a beaker full of richest dyes,

Pouring new glory on the autumn woods,

And dipping in warm light the pillared clouds. – Henry Wadsworth 

Longfellow

The Moon: The Apple Cider Moon wanes through its last quarter, becoming the new Pumpkin Moon on Oct. 14. Rising before dawn and setting before dark, this moon passes overhead in the middle of the day.

The Sun: The night lengthens by more than a quarter of an hour this week as the day shortens to a little over 11 hours. Nearly four hours have disappeared from the day’s length in the past four months, and autumn darkness is setting in.

The Shooting Stars: The Orionid meteors appear in Orion during the early morning hours of Oct. 21 and 22 at the rate of 15 to 30 per hour.

Weather Trends: Highs only in the 40s and 50s are more common this week than last, with the days around new moon being the days most likely to see such cold (a 40 percent chance). While some days are often warm, others are typically cooler. For example, the 11th of the month has only a 15 percent chance of a high above 70.

The coldest morning so far in the season usually comes on Oct. 13, when the chances of a low in the 20s are 20 percent for the first time since spring.

The Natural Calendar: Middle Fall arrives this week and signals the departure of chimney swifts, wood thrushes, barn swallows and red-eyed vireos. Long flocks of robins migrate across the region. Cattails and thimble plant seed heads begin to break apart. The leafturn and leafdrop accelerate, and the relative stability of middle September comes apart. A fourth of the dogwoods and a third of the maples are almost bare.

By the end of the week, most of the ashes, buckeyes, box elders and black walnuts will be close to gone. Foliage barriers around your property may disappear completely. Shagbark hickory, chinquapin oak, tree of heaven and great shrub-like pokeweeds are thinning out. There is a steady drizzle of ginkgo and locust leaves.

In the Field and Garden: Under the dark moon, lunar conditions for setting spring flower bulbs and transplanting perennials are ideal. Dig up cannas, caladiums, tuberous begonias and gladiolus prior to heavy frost. Put in autumn landscape shrubs and trees. Test soil after harvest is complete in field and garden. Plants and bulbs intended for spring forcing indoors should be placed in light soil now and stored in a place where temperatures remain cool (but not freezing). The best lunar grain harvest conditions, as well as the most propitious lunar times for clipping hair, trimming hooves, worming livestock, putting on shingles and having surgery, should occur throughout the period. Check your horses for horse bot eggs, too.

Mind and Body: Whether a person is excited at the World Series or the football season or school or autumn’s colors, whether one is sad that summer has ended or that cold weather lies ahead or that wildflower bloom is almost complete for the season, few people can fail to be influenced by the changes of Middle Fall. Throughout the land’s transformation, the “horoscoper” (a person who watches time) can find consolation and promise to balance the negatives of October.

Attentive to details, the time watcher sees the future as much as the present or past, places each particle of change in a context that repeats and therefore softens loss and anticipates return.

Almanack Classics

The Case of the Jumping Mother

By Ryan Zimmerman

We decided to move some of our ewes (female sheep) to a different pasture. We chased the ewes into a pen but one wild Barbados ewe jumped out of the pen and ran out the open front door. Then she jumped back into the pasture where her lambs were located.

We caught the other ewes and loaded them into the trailer. Then we chased the Barbados ewe back into the pen, but we had forgotten to close the door, and she jumped over the pen, out the door and back into the pasture.

This time, we made sure the door was closed. So, we chased her back into the pen. She jumped out of the pen again, but the door was closed this time. So, she jumped right through a closed window and jumped back into the pasture.

We chased her back into the pen for the fourth time. My brother stood in front of the broken window this time, and we caught her before she got away.

We loaded her on the trailer with the other ewes and took them all to the other pasture about a fourth of a mile away. But within an hour the Barbados ewe was back with her lambs.

ANSWERS TO LAST WEEK’S 

SCKRAMBLER

EINEFR REFINE

CNINILE INCLINE

ELCMENTIEN CLEMENTINE

DERUNNELI

UNDERLINE

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TURPENTINE

EEAIELHPTNN ELEPHANTINE

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UNDERMINE

VIDNIE DIVINE

EIONV OVINE

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VALENTINE

THIS WEEK’S RHYMING SCKRAMBLER

LULF

ULPL

LOWO

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OUNBTIFUL

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Copyright 2023 – W. L. Felker