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Signs of seasonal change pick up next week across Midwest
 
Poor Will's Almanack by Bill Felker 
 
Oct. 6-12, 2014
Thus times do shift; each thing his turn does hold;
New things succeed as former things grow old.
-Robert Herrick
Lunar phase and lore

The Hickory Nutting Moon reaches perigee on Oct. 6. It then becomes full at 5:51 a.m. on Oct. 8. Also on that day, a total eclipse of the moon will occur beginning approximately two hours before sunrise.
Rising in the late afternoon to evening and setting after dawn, this moon will be overhead in the middle of the night. Lunar conditions for harvest are favorable through the week, but wait until the moon darkens to set in spring bulbs.
As cold waves approach on Oct. 7 and 13, creatures should be hungrier than usual, especially with the moon overhead near midnight.
Weather trends

Full moon on Oct. 8 increases the likelihood of a hurricane coming ashore along the East Coast or a strong frost-bearing cold wave moving across the Plains around those dates.
The proximity of October’s full moon to lunar perigee suggests that frost may well strike deep into the nation’s midsection.
The cold fronts of October bring an occasional day when the thermometer reads only in the 30s; 3-4 days stay in the 40s; at least a week of afternoons are in the 50s, another seven in the 60s, another seven in the 70s, and 2-4 in the 80s.
Light frost strikes 10-20 percent of all the nights this week, with Oct. 3 the most likely to bring a damaging freeze in the 20s (a 5 percent chance of that). Oct. 12 can even bring the first chance of flurries to the Ohio Valley.
The natural calendar

Oct. 6: Mullein stalks stand bare like withered cacti. In the perennial garden, varieties of late hostas, like the August Moon and the Royal Standard, discard their petals, bringing to and end the hosta flowering season that began in early summer.
Oct. 7: Cricket song has completely replaced cicada song. Yellow jackets become more numerous in the windfall apples. The period of peak leaf coloring begins along the 40th Parallel.
Oct. 8: Don’t forget to look for the lunar eclipse this morning as the moon sets.
Oct. 9: When the fruits of the ginkgo tree turn pink, then next year’s skunk cabbage protrudes in the swamp and the knuckles of next year’s rhubarb show in the garden. When the burning bush is completely red, then snow becomes a possibility.
Oct. 10: As middle fall comes to Ohio and Indiana this week, the maples are transformed, and the ash, locust, hickory, red mulberry, cottonwood, crab apple, redbud, box elder, buckeye and walnut leaves all come down in average years.
Oct. 11: The tips of many spruce trees are putting on pale fresh growth.
Oct. 12: Most wildflowers, even the asters and goldenrod, have gone to seed. Snow season spreads across the northern states.
In field and garden

Oct. 6: Mulch root crops to keep them from turning to mush when the ground freezes solid. Heaping leaves or straw around kale and collards can often keep these hardy vegetables alive through numerous heavy frosts.
When the moon is full, bring in the honey from your hives (leaving plenty for the bees). Do your Thanksgiving turkey marketing now: Have your turkeys all placed before the leaves turn.
Oct. 7: When leaves reach peak color, then mating season begins for the whitetail deer. When maple leaves are down, then plant crocus, daffodils, tulips, snowdrops and aconites before November turns the weather much chillier.
Oct. 8: Plants and bulbs intended for spring forcing should be placed in light soil now and stored in a place where temperatures remain cool (but not freezing).
Oct. 9: Sow next spring’s garlic any time after full moon. The Japanese beetles and aphids disappear in the shortening days. Taking their place, cucumber beetles hide in the late roses.
Oct. 10: Plant a grain/grass cover crop in your garden, and then check your horses for bot eggs.
Oct. 11: Half the winter wheat is normally in the ground now, and almost a fourth of the crop has usually sprouted.
Oct. 12: Barn swallows fly south as cornfields are at least one-fourth cut. Check sludge depth in septic tanks this week, before the weather turns much colder.
Almanac literature
Great American Story Contest entry
Indoor Goat
By Ivory Harlow
Chillicothe, Ohio
“You don’t want to keep just one goat,” the seller warned me when he dropped Salt off at our farm. “Goats are herd animals and she’ll have a fit if left by herself.”
“She won’t be alone long. I plan to build a herd before the end of the summer,” I promised, and waved goodbye as the man drove away.
I spent that afternoon working in the garden, with a good view of Salt in the pasture. She seemed content and comfortable at her new home. She heartily snacked on a field full of clover, glancing up occasionally to meet my eye. She didn’t exhibit any of the stress signs the seller cautioned she would have without the other goats.
She probably thinks I’m a goat, bent over weeding like this, I thought.
As the supper hour approached, I stood up, dusted off my dirty knees and headed toward the house to start cooking. As soon as I was outside her line of vision, Salt started wailing, “MEEEEeeeeeHH!” She rushed around the barn and followed me to the house.
“Well, I guess you can graze in the yard while I cook dinner,” I told her. But Salt did not graze; instead, she stood and stared intensely into the kitchen window, watching my every move. I ate my dinner outside with her on the deck to appease her, already worrying how she’d brave the barn by herself overnight.
I walked Salt to the barn just after sunset. She followed me into the goat pen. “Look, your own bed of straw! And here is your hay and water,” I told her as I scratched between her horns and slid the pen door closed. Before I made it out the barn, she started to cry.
Each step I took toward the house, Salt’s bawling grew louder and more frantic. I shut the door, closed the bedroom windows and tried to sleep. After an hour of sleepless guilt, I reasoned I’d feel better about it if I just checked to make sure she was okay.
I was surprised by the silence when I stepped outside. I tiptoed to the barn, peeked into the pen and saw her standing exactly where I’d left her – with her nose pressed up against the pen door. Her face lighted up as soon as she spotted me.
“Well, this won’t do,” I told her. “You’ll have to come inside with me, because I’m not sleeping out here!”
Fortunately, the farmer was out of town on business. “What he doesn’t know won’t hurt him, Salt. I hope you can keep a secret.”
She waited outside while I spread blankets to cover the hardwood floor.
That’s how Salt became an indoor goat. Two years and nine goats later, Salt now sleeps in the barn.
But she still likes to leave her herd to visit me in the house when the farmer is away.

10/2/2014