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| Chances of temps in 90s are dropping as of next Thursday |
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Poor Will's Almanack
By Bill Felker
Aug. 30-Sept. 5, 2010
I used to sit on the Spring Slough Trestle to read and write and dream, spending time as wisely as I knew, watching the years pass, at first slowly, and then with increasing swiftness, and never counted a moment there ill spent.
-August Derleth
Lunar phase and lore
The Wild Plum Moon wanes throughout the week, entering its final quarter on Sept. 1 at 12:22 p.m. Rising in the morning and setting in the evening, this crescent moon is overhead in the middle of the day.
The best lunar conditions for fishing occur with the moon above you near lunchtime this week. Favorable meteorological conditions occur as cool fronts approach the area around Sept. 2 and 8. Dieters could waste themselves on Twinkies and corndogs, however, at noontime near those dates.
Throughout the week ahead, take advantage of the feeble waning moon for animal transport and maintenance. Also, put in root crops. Peonies and other perennials may be divided and fertilized under the dark moon to encourage improved flowering next spring and summer.
Cutting hair to retard growth on goats and people is also recommended at this time. Add shrubs and trees to your property to encourage root growth.
Venus, Saturn and Mars remain in Virgo during September, rising after dawn and moving to the western horizon by dusk. Remember that planets do not twinkle like stars. Also, Venus will be the largest light in the western sky, and Mars will be red.
Jupiter accompanies Pisces during September, coming up in the east after dark, moving overhead by 2 a.m. and setting in the far west before dawn.
The Piscid meteors fall through Pisces, in the southern sky, an hour or two after midnight throughout the month. The Alpha Aurigid meteors pass through on or about Sept. 23.
Weather patterns
The effects of the first September cold wave usually appear by Sept. 2, which is the first day since June 4 that 90s become unlikely.
Then on Sept. 3, a 55 percent chance for highs only in the 70s. Sept. 4 also brings a good chance for chilly weather, and it begins the long period of the year during which there is at least a 10 percent chance for highs below 70 degrees.
Warmer conditions typically return on Sept. 5-6, but the second high pressure system of the month, which arrives between Sept. 5-11, has brought lows into the 30s one year in 20.
Sept. 6 is the first day of the season on which there is a 5-6 percent chance of light frost on the gardens of Yellow Springs. Chances increase at the rate of about 1 percent per day through Sept. 15.
Between then and Sept. 20, chances grow at the rate of 2 percent per day. Between Sept. 20-30, they grow at the rate of 5 percent per day.
Daybook
Aug. 30: Pokeweed berries are full purple. Soybeans start to shed their leaves as the first beans ripen. Sometimes a quarter of the field corn is mature, a quarter of the tobacco has been cut and a third of the commercial tomato crop has been picked.
Aug. 31: The sun’s position is the same now as in early April, and the rate of the night’s expansion increases from middle summer’s two minutes per day to three minutes.
Sept. 1: The last fireflies are flickering. Redheaded woodpeckers, red-winged blackbirds, house wrens, scarlet tanagers, indigo buntings, eastern bluebirds and black ducks migrate.
Sept. 2: White and violet asters, orange beggarticks, burr marigolds, tall goldenrod, zigzag goldenrod and Japanese knotweed come into bloom, blending with the brightest of the purple ironweed, yellow sundrops, blue chicory, golden touch-me-nots, showy coneflowers and great blue lobelia.
Sept. 3: Hogs on pasture? Consider this rule of thumb: Five to 15 100-pound hogs per acre of good pasture. Grazing can often replace up to half of a gestation diet.
Sept. 4: Wood mint puts out new stalks. Watercress revives in the sloughs. Next May’s sweet rockets and next July’s avens send up fresh basal leaves. Scattered violets flower. Sweet Cicely sends out its foliage again. Sedum reappears, lanky from its canopied summer.
Sept. 5: In the chicken house, continue to cull poor layers as the fall progresses. One sign of a good layer is a full, bright red wattle.
Countdown to early fall
These are the last days of late summer, the transition time to early fall. Red, purple and white phlox and the violet Resurrection lilies have almost disappeared. The tall loosestrife, which began its season in the middle of June, has completed flowering.
Purple coneflowers and Joe Pye weed are pale now, and golden coneflowers have begun their three-week process of decay.
Deep in the woods, the final days of this year’s wildflowers coincide with the first days of the season of second spring, a season that lasts well past February. March’s purple deadnettle comes up in the garden, initiating its eight-month season of growth and flowering. The garlic mustard that will flower two Aprils from now sprouts in the rain.
Living with the seasons
People who suffer from pollen allergies have about two more weeks of serious irritation, thanks to ragweed coming down from the North and the last tier of wildflowers – including goldenrod – blooming throughout the South and lower Midwest. By the middle of September, however, pollen counts typically are only about half of what they are today.
Readers with questions or comments for Poor Will may write to him in care of this publication.
(Please refer to the newspaper for the remaining portion.) |
| 8/25/2010 |
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