The days shortened. The air grew frosty. Nights were loud with the honking of geese, and suddenly the leaves were down before gusts of wind. The days were noisy with blowing, and the house filled with the sound of crickets’ thighs. – James Still

The First Week of Middle Fall

In the Sky

The Pleiades and the Hyades of Taurus lie on the eastern horizon after dark, announcing Middle Fall in the Northern Hemisphere. Summer’s Milky Way, however, is still directly overhead, and June’s corona borealis has still not set by ten o’clock. Cygnus the swan is still high above you, along with August’s Aquila and Lyra. The pointers of the Big Dipper point north-south at 10 p.m. Find them deep in the northern sky, right along the horizon.

 

Weather Trends

Phases of the Disappearing Spiders Moon

Oct. 10: The moon enters its second quarter.

Oct. 17: The moon is full.

Oct. 24: The moon enters its final quarter.

Weather Trends

Highs only in the 40s and 50s are more common this week than last, with Oct. 11, 12 and 13 being the days most likely to see such cold (a 40 percent chance). Oct. 12 is the first day that measurable snowfall has a 5-10 percent chance of occurring. 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. And full moon on the 17th increases the likelihood of cold.

The Natural Calendar

Acorns increase in importance for whitetail deer between the first week of October and the first week of November. White oak acorns are typically consumed first, then the deer move on to the red oak acorns – some of their favorite autumn treats.

Perennials, shrubs, fruit trees and pastures may be fertilized throughout October to encourage growth and improved flowering next spring and summer. This is also a good time to enlarge, thin or transplant day lily and iris collections.

Standing corn will tempt wildlife in many areas through the end of October, but the percentage of feed available from cultivated crops started to decline at the rate of approximately 2 percent per day beginning at the end of September.

Ginkgo fruits turn pale rose color. Beggartick burs stick to your pants legs. The earliest Christmas cacti, kept from previous years, come into bloom. Asian lady beetles (the brown autumn ladybugs) sometimes swarm throughout the region.

Wildflowers and grasses usually stop flowering by the middle of September, and nourishing seeds will be forming for birds and mammals during autumn throughout fields and woods. Among the most common wildflower food, the nutlets of the goldenrod attract deer, especially after acorns are gone. Cranberries are popular as long as they last, and wetlands often provide other options for late fall feeding.

Barn swallows usually abandon local barns. The foliage of the staghorn sumac is bright red by this date seven years in 10. Migration of toads and frogs continues to take place. Most species of butterflies no longer visit your garden. Scout for squirrels in areas where black walnut trees are common. The leaves of the black walnut fall earlier than those of most trees, and squirrels are partial to the nuts. Box elder and buckeye trees sometimes lose their foliage early, as well.

In the Field and Garden

On the farm, silage chopping is typically more than three-fourths complete, a fourth of the grain corn has been cut, and half the soybeans. Hormonal changes in sheep and goats follow the shortening days, creating the peak of autumn breeding season.

After full moon on the 17th, lunar conditions for planting root crops, 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 heaviest time of Halloween market sales begins in the middle of October. Be ready to fill your roadside stand with gourds, pumpkin and Indian corn.

Cull apples and wormy fruits to make sure they don’t bring insects and disease next year.

October is the month when this year’s litters of coyotes usually begin their attacks. Be on guard to protect your farm animals.

Almanack Literature

Worse Than a Snakebite!

by Larry Border, New London, Ohio

When I was 8 years old, my hero was Cowboy Gene Autry.

That year, I had to have a cyst removed from my face, and I was terrified. To calm me down and ease my fear, my family promised me a red-handled Gene Autry Rapid-fire cap gun.

After surgery, sure enough, I was rewarded with my prize, my cap gun.

Living in the country in an old farm house, we had no indoor plumbing. So, when nature called my name, I went to the old outhouse. It was a deluxe outhouse because it had not one but two holes.

However, sitting in the outhouse, taking care of business, I managed to knock my Gene Autry Rapid Fire into the other hole. I was panic stricken and went into the house screaming and crying.

My mom and Dad came running, thinking I had been bitten by a snake. But it was worse than that. Sobbing, I told them what had happened, the disaster of knocking my cap gun into the hole.

My dad, seeing how distraught I was, fished the gun out of the gump with a coat hanger. Since we had no running water, he took my gun to the creek, cleaned it up and returned it to me.

I was a happy cowboy once again.

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.

EHCKC CHECK

KHCE HECK

KCSPE SPECK

EEUQCH CHEQUE

ZHCCE CZECH

CEPK PECK

CLLCTOE COLLECT

CETH TECH

KRET TREK

CZAET AZTEC 

THIS WEEK’S RHYMING SCKRAMBLER

NEHCKPE

NCKTRTLUEE

KEBUZ

OOEEGNSCK

DECKRETRQUA

CKREW

CHEPAYCK  

KCNKRBEAE  

KDECREOF  

ERCHEKC

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