The Thanksgiving, with its reliable bounty, its reunions, its hours of perfumed air, is over, and the raking, the planting of bulbs, and the digging of root crops are finished for the year. The freezer and pantry shelves are as full as they are going to be: What we have done, we have done; and what we have left undone, we have left undone. — Jane Kenyon

The Moon in December

The Moon: The Moon is full on December 5

The Moon enters its last quarter on December 14

The  Moon is new on December 20

The Moon enters its second quarter on December 27

Sun Time: On December 2, the Sun reaches its earliest setting of the year in much of the Lower Midwest, and it continues to set at the same time for 12 days. 

Star Time: Orion is the most obvious of all the star groups, and around him cluster some of the easiest stars to identify. Leading Orion into winter is red Aldebaran, the eye of Taurus. In front of Taurus, the seven sisters of the Pleiades lie almost in the center of the sky. Above the Hunter’s raised arms, Capella is the largest light in Auriga. Above and behind Orion, Castor and Pollux, the brightest stars of Gemini mark the east. Trailing along in the southeast is Sirius, the giant Dog Star.

Weather Trends: The high pressure system that typically arrives at the end of December’s first week is a major pivot for severe weather throughout the states along the 40th Parallel. A secondary front often increases the assault on your homestead between the 11th and the 13th. 

Zeitgebers: Events in Nature that Tell the Time of Year: When sunset reaches its earliest time of the year, the brittle leaves of the pear trees fall. This is the time during which the second bloom of forsythia flowers ends, when witch hazel blossoms wither, and the last of the golden beeches, the willows, osage and oaks come down. Even though this is one more week of endings, it is not a week of stasis. Spruces are growing new needles. Caraway and henbit sometimes flower in the sun, and a dandelion or a periwinkle opens in scattered fields and lawns. Fresh chickweed, which sprouted at the end of the summer, is blossoming in warm corners of the woods. Catnip sometimes grows back beside thistle, moneywort, chickweed, wild geranium, leafcup, henbit and yarrow.

Farm and Garden Time: Try to complete harvest of corn, soybeans and sugar beets before the arrival of early winter, which normally storms in with the second December front, bringing the first taste of snow to the Border States and often a major blizzard to the North. The Christmas tree harvest is well underway, and the last poinsettias have come north. In greenhouses and sunrooms, tomatoes sown in July will be getting ripe as December approaches. Marigolds, zinnias, impatiens and other bedding plants saved from the cold may still be flowering. 

Mind and Body Time: The danger of Seasonal Affective Disorder increases as the winter period of solar stability (December 5 – January 8) begins, keeping the days short and the amount of available sunlight. Be out of doors as much as possible to maximize exposure to light. The bright flourescent lights of malls and shopping centers may also be helpful.

Creature Time (for fishing, hunting, feeding, bird watching): Cold fronts that usually arrive around December 3 and 8 will be preceded by a dropping barometer, encouraging activity in fish and game. Honeysuckle foliage continues to fall, opening up the undergrowth for hikers and hunters. If you are bird watching, set out additional feeders for suet and fruit as well as for seeds and grains. Keep track of the types of birds that arrive in your yard. Be ready for late and early migrants.

Journal

December 4, 1992: To the woods this afternoon, cloudy, 40 degrees, light breeze: Clover foliage keeping the paths green, with some dandelions, some plantain. Wind in the dry grass, oak leaves rustling, distant crows intermittent, no other birds for the first miles. Then the scream of a robin as though he were frightened or had been attacked.

 Moss was still bright beside me, became the dominant green in the woods. A few red raspberry leaves at the top of the hill, an occasional bank of honeysuckle berries. Nettles, protected by wild roses, were growing back in the valley, a foot tall. Top sweet gum seed balls were holding on. Teasel was dark in the dull goldenrod fields.

Osage fruts all yellow on the ground. Pale greens and pastels of the lichens. Then the landscape down the valley: bands of grays and browns above a sky of light stratus clouds. The trees black, pasture chartreuse: a cross section of the winter, veins of this time. Walnut hulls stained the wood purple. Coming back, I saw a pair of flickers; they screeched then flew west off toward the river. At my summer fishing hole, three tan moths, between half an inch and an inch wingspan, struggled through the cold. I cast my line out there: only one bite.

 Today, the pieces of the last season become.fragments of a new season, Early Winter, the first season of the new year.

Almanack Literature

The Ohio Coon Dog Field Trials

By Pete Jones, Lynn, IN

My life as a young boy was much different than the lives of most of my friends. Most of them spent Sunday in Sunday School and church. I spent my Sundays working at the Ohio Coon Dog Field Trials.

My dad built an electric generator with a gas engine for power. It would run his sound system in places where there was no electricity available.

My job was to climb trees and help place two large steel speakers in them. I would help string wire from the speakers to the sound systems. Dad could then make announcements about the trials or play music from a recorded player.

The trials were always held in the woods. Men would go about a mile away and drag a sack of coon manure over the ground. They would take the sack up to a tree where a coon would be tied to a lower limb.

The trial would be over when the first dog would tree the coon by looking up at the coon and barking at him. 

Yes, there was a lot of money bet on the dogs. The first to tree the coon won all the money for his owner. 

The last good thing I remember about the Coon Dog Field Trials was our picnic lunch. It consisted of a pork chop sandwich with green onions, a cold six-ounce Coca Cola and custard pie. I cherish these memories.