July 5-11, 2010
So you walk the roads and fields. The bees hum. The hot air shimmers. Grass heads ripen. Summer possesses the land. And you can smell July, honey-sweet on every breath of air.
-Hal Borland

Lunar phase and lore
The Cherry Pie Moon wanes through the week, becoming the new Lily Moon at 2:20 p.m. July 11. Rising after midnight and setting in the late afternoon or evening, this moon moves overhead (its most powerful position) in the morning.

The harvest of wheat and the detasseling of corn are favored as the Cherry Pie Moon cede to the Lily Moon. While the moon is still dark, put in turnips and beets for autumn meals.
Seed another row of collards and kale for winter. Check your pets and livestock for internal parasites under the dark of the moon, too.

As the moon waxes next week, plant fall pastures and late greens, beans and early autumn peas, then set out autumn collards, kale, cabbage and broccoli.

Fishing should be most productive with the moon overhead near the middle of the day, especially as the barometer drops in advance of the cool fronts due on July 6 and 14. Dieting, however, may be more difficult at lunchtime.

Lunar influence on human and animal behavior is said to become stronger at the approach of new and full moon. Watch to see if the period of July 10-12 produces signs of the moon’s effect (increased stress, anger, depression, orneriness and the like).

Tidal and lunar influences have been shown to be greater at full moon and new moon times. You might expect more trouble with your flock, herd, spouse, parents or children, therefore, on or about July 11 and 25.

Weather patterns
There are usually three to five days each week suitable for fieldwork in July, and the sunshine likely to be experienced on any July day is 70 percent. The driest days, those with less than a 20 percent chance of rain, are July 6 and 16-18. The sunniest days are July 7, 10, 16-18 and 29.

In most years, the warmest days of the month are July 8-10, 16-21, 25-26 and 28. Normal average temperatures usually fall 1 degree in the wake of the final July weather system, the first drop since late January, and the first of the thermometer’s many steps to winter.

Venus and Mars are the evening stars in Leo, far in the west after sundown. Mars is red and appears much smaller than Venus. When you find Venus and Mars, look back to the southwest to find Saturn in Virgo. Jupiter lies in Pisces this month, coming up out of the east after midnight and moving almost to the center of the sky before dawn.

Daybook
July 5: As middle summer deepens, mimosa webworms appear on locust trees. Potato leafhoppers reach economic levels in alfalfa. Bagworms eat arborvitae, euonymus, juniper, linden, maple and fir.
Root diseases become more common in the soybeans. The wheat still standing in the fields often suffers from rust, powdery mildew, head scab and glume blotch.

July 6: Pastures of clovers and cool-season grasses stressed by drought early in the summer can suffer more severely during stagnant July weather. Consider developing annual pastures next year that can serve as a supplement to your perennials.

July 7: The best part of black raspberry season ends as the summer apple harvest gets under way. Roadside grasses turn like the winter wheat. Teasel flowers in the fields, wood nettle in the woods.

July 8: Giant green June beetles have appeared in the garden. Elderberry flowers turn to fruit, like the blossoms of pokeweed, poison ivy and the trilliums. August’s goldenrod can be four feet tall now.

Lupine pods break apart to spread their seeds. White snakeroot, ironweed, boneset, wingstem, tall coneflowers and gray-headed coneflowers are budding.

July 9: As the July Dog Days intensify, they will bring more Japanese beetles to the roses, leafhoppers to the potatoes and aphids everywhere. Keep flowers and vegetables well watered and fed to help them resist the onslaught of the insects and weather.
July 10: Blackberries are August-size this week, but still green in the North.

Countdown to late summer
Keep track of the sun’s movement with a gnomon (such as a fence post or any stick placed in the ground). The sun moves 5 degrees (out of about 23.5) toward equinox during middle summer. If you watch the shadow lengthen this month, you will be practicing astronomy in your own yard.

Now take cuttings from your geraniums, coleus and other plants you’d like to save indoors this winter. Keep gladiolus and dahlias watered in the mid-July drought. Include the mums in your summer care; give them a little extra food now for extra blossoms in September.

Prune suckers from your fruit trees. Wisteria vines can also be cut back now. Burdock and catchweed cause problems in the pasture – it’s getting to be bur-time throughout the land.

Almanac literature
Cleaning Up the County
By Larry Motel
Greenwich, Ohio
Last week, Larry Motel told about how his friend Jim, blind from an early age, met the girl of his dreams in college. In this episode, Larry tells the story of how Jim handled a few tough guys in a bar.
One time Jim and some co-workers had to go out of state for some meetings for a few days. On the way home, they stopped at a small tavern in a small town. They all sat down at a table, ordered some sandwiches, got something to drink, were served their food and were ready to have a nice supper.

Then three guys came in and started making a lot of noise. They saw Jim and asked him where he bought that ugly eye. They were all hanging on to him, slapping his arms and the top of his head.
Jim told them to stop, and one of the men flipped his food on his lap, and another dumped his drink on his shirt. The tavern owner called the police, but it took Jim only a few minutes to lay these three guys out.

As he was standing there, he heard the door open and a guy said, “I’m the sheriff.” He asked Jim if he was all right, and then he told the others to get out and not come back. Then, he came over to Jim and said with a smile, “I’m going to take your picture.”
“Why?” asked Jim.

“Well,” said the sheriff, “we have a newspaper in this county that comes out once a week, and your picture is going to be on the front page and the story of how you, a blind man, kicked the butts off of three guys who have been a pain in the neck in this county for years because they thought they were so tough. Thank you!”
Then he turned to the bartender and said: “Get this guy whatever he wants to eat. It’s on me!”