Now do ye dream of Spring when greening shaws

Confer with the shrewd breezes, and of slopes

Flower-kirtled, and of April, sweetling guest…. – Siegfried Sassoon

Oct. 25: the Leafturn Moon is full.

The Weather in the Week Ahead

Highs are usually in the 50s or 60s, with the odds for 70s near one in five. The danger of frost remains similar to that of the third week in October; about one night in three receives temperatures in the upper 20s or lower 30s. But by this late in the season, the chances of a hard freeze have risen past 50 percent, and the odds get better each night for killing lows.

This week is generally a brighter one than last week. Chances of sun are about 70 percent throughout the period, and some of the driest October days are the 26th, 28th, and 29th (each having just a 15 percent chance of precipitation).

The sixth high-pressure system of the month usually arrives near Halloween. If it is approaching on the 31st, that evening will be warm, with maybe a little rain. If the front arrives on the 29th or 30th, the eve of All Saints Day is usually brisk.

In the Field and Garden

Test your soil in several places before the autumn rains set in. Then spread manure and compost where needed in the pastures and the garden. Consider applying nitrogen, phosphate, and potash to the fields after harvest to decrease the springtime workload.

Fertilize the lawn. Then feed the trees after all their leaves are down. If you put the leaves in bags and leave them behind the garage or barn, they will turn to compost and be ready for the garden in March 2006.

Finish the fences and outbuilding repairs before the weather turns mean in November. Remember to eliminate the drafts from the livestock barn but not the ventilation.

Almanack Literature

The Babysitters’ Club

By Patty Greene, Rockville, Ind.

We live on a farm in Parke County, Ind. We have horses, cows, goats, ducks, geese, peafowl, potbelly pigs, cats and dogs. A normal farm. Maybe.

Last summer, my daughter let her Nigerian Dwarf goats and their babies out to roam the pastures. When evening came, she went out to put them in the barn away from the harm of coyotes and dogs during the night.

The mama goats came up when she called them, but no babies. Mandy, my daughter, was frantic. Immediately she got her brother to go with her to the back to look for her babies, fearing something had gotten all of them already. 

They got to the back pasture and found all the horses in a circle in the very back. When they got closer and continued to call for the babies, the horses looked up but did not move. (You need to understand that this herd of horses contained Percherons, Appaloosas, Quarter Horses, Paints and miniature horses. Quite a mixed group.)

Then, the horses, as a circled group, started moving toward them. There in the middle of the circle of horses were the missing baby goats, safe and sound with their babysitters.

After the horses got the babies to Mandy, they opened and let the babies go with her to their moms.