Poor Will’s Almanack
By Bill Felker

Sept. 20-26, 2010
Looking up the mountain this morning, I saw Autumn sitting on the first ledge, in a red and yellow shirt, with a jug of sweet cider in one hand, a bunch of purple asters in the other, a grin on his face and an unspoken hello in his eyes. He sat there for an hour or two, then went on up the mountainside and disappeared among the pines. The day became too warm for him. But he will be back.
-Hal Borland (from R.N.)

Lunar phase and lore
The Elderberry Wine Moon, full on Sept. 23 at 4:17 a.m., wanes throughout the week, entering its final quarter at 10:52 p.m. on Sept. 30. The bright, gibbous moon moves overhead after midnight this week, making the middle of the night the best lunar time for fishing and the worst time for resisting snacks.

Scouting for game and feeding fussy children should be most successful at the second-best lunar time – after lunch. Cool fronts due on or about Sept. 20, 24 and 29 should increase hunger in most creatures.

Planting of shrubs and trees is favored as the moon wanes. Also, harvest corn for grain and take care of garden maintenance, cut hair and chop wood. Worm your goats and wash, delouse, shave, trim hooves and clip around udders all at the same time (well, at least in sequence).

Autumn equinox
Autumn equinox occurs at 11:09 p.m. (EDT) on Sept. 22. The sun rose from the east-northeast and set west-northwest three months ago; now it rises due east, sets due west. Dawn and dusk continue to move south at the rate of about one degree per 72 hours until December solstice.

Days in the 90s disappear after Sept. 22, and even 80s will be gone in only three weeks. The odds for an afternoon in the 50s or 60s this week doubles over those odds last week, to 40 percent.

On Sept. 23 and 26, chances for a high below 70 degrees are better than 50 percent, the first time that has happened since May 4.

Daybook
Sept. 20: If you are building or renovating a henhouse, plan on three square feet per Leghorn and four square feet for breeds of medium weight like Plymouth Rocks.

Sept. 21: The autumn equinox front is typically characterized by warmth at its approach and by a likelihood of frost as it departs east. This year, full moon on Sept. 23 should strengthen the effects of this weather system.

Sept. 22: Today is autumn equinox: The season of light frosts deepens throughout the lower Midwest, the Middle Atlantic region and the East Coast. Sept. 24 and 27 even carry a 25 percent chance of a mild freeze – the greatest chance since May 10.

Sept. 23: Today is full moon day, and the moon’s strength adds force to the cold front due to cross the nation at the beginning of September’s fourth week. Today is also the Harvest Moon festival for many people of Asian descent.

Sept. 24: In Wisconsin, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Oregon and Washington state, the cranberry harvest has begun as berries darken in the cooler weather.

Sept. 25: If hawks are taking a toll of your chickens in the yard, try setting up poles with wire stretched between them. If you string pieces of metal, like lids from cans, along the string, the hawks are often frightened away. You could arrange to make this lanky scarecrow a wind chime, too.

Sept. 26: Touch-me-not foliage deteriorates. Late summer’s clearweed has green seeds. Older wingstem and ironweed are done blossoming. Wild lettuce leaves are stained with decay. The first fields of goldenrod are brown.

White vervain’s leaves are gray, sometimes streaked with maroon, tattered, laced from insects. Boneset is rusting. Beggarticks are almost ready to stick to your clothing. Jerusalem artichokes enter their final week.

Countdown to middle fall
At the end of September, enough leaves have usually fallen from the canopy to reveal the deep red of the Virginia creeper on branches and fences. Amber hickories blend with the ashes. White birch leaves show gilded edges.

By the end of the first week of October, enough orange maples, yellow sumacs, hickories and redbuds and red oaks have now joined the ashes and cottonwoods to give a full sense of autumn to the landscape. The burning bush is deep scarlet.

Beeches are flushed for their November change. The late fields of goldenrod, the dry corn and the rusting soybeans complete the fall scenario.

(Please refer to the newspaper for the remaining portion.)