Oct. 4-10, 2010
Ever so slowly, daylight turns to dusk;
Ever so finely, autumn winds are born.
The season’s flowers have withered and fallen,
How could one fulfill their sweet intent?
-Ch’en Tzu-ang (8th Century A.D.)
Lunar phase and lore

The Elderberry Wine Moon darkens until it becomes the Cricketsong Moon Oct. 7 at 1:44 p.m. Rising in the morning and setting in the evening, this moon lies overhead in the middle of the day.

In Virgo on Oct. 4-5, and in Libra on Oct. 6-7, the thin crescent moon will favor harvest, cutting hair, surgery and dental work. When the moon is new, it will lie in Scorpio until Oct. 9, favorable for planting winter wheat (past local Hessian fly-safe dates) and sprouting the earliest bedding plants of 2012.

Transplanting of trees and shrubs, sodding the lawn, dividing and transplanting perennials are also suggested for those dates.
As the moon wanes through its final quarter, it will be in its most auspicious hunting and fishing position – directly overhead – in the morning hours. At the first part of the week, be up at dawn working the woods and water. By the end of the period, sleep in and start your activities before lunch.

The second significant high-pressure system of the month passes through the area between Oct. 5-9. As the barometer falls in front of this front, conditions should be especially favorable for working the shorelines and woodlots.

The Draconid meteors fall in the vicinity of the North Star after midnight on Oct. 8-9.

Weather patterns

On average this is a cool, partly cloudy, pleasant period. Temperatures in the 80s occur only four times in a decade during this week of the year. You can also expect two afternoons in the 70s, two in the 60s and, for the first time since spring, two in the 50s.

Once every four years, the afternoon high only reaches 40. Frost strikes at least on at least one occasion six years in 10. And it almost always rains once or twice between now and your next “Almanack.”

Daybook

Oct. 4: Complete autumn culling before all your grain disappears. Start with the wethers: October is one of the year’s strongest wether market months.

Oct. 5: Consider applying nitrogen, phosphate and potash to the fields after harvest in order to decrease the springtime workload.

Oct. 6: Pods of the eastern burning bush are open, and hawthorn berries redden. Wild grapes are purple, and the tree line that seemed so deep in summer just days ago is suddenly poised to break into its final color of the year.

Streaks of scarlet have appeared on the oaks, shades of pink on the dogwoods. The ashes all show red or gold, the catalpas and the cottonwoods are blanching. Shagbark hickories, the tulip trees, sassafras, elms, locusts and sweet gums change to full deep yellow, merge with the swelling orange of the maples to create a variegated archway into middle fall.

Oct. 7: Today is new moon day for the Cricketsong Moon, falling on the exact day that the second weather system of October is due to cross the Mississippi River, often bearing frost.

Between this high-pressure system and the next, snow enters the realm of possibility all across the northern tier of states.

Oct. 8: Chimney swifts, wood thrushes, barn swallows and red-eyed vireos move out of the county this first week of middle fall. Flocks of blackbirds and robins migrate across the countryside. Yellow-bellied sapsuckers move through the woods. Woolly bear caterpillars suddenly multiply. Cobwebs are rare.

Oct. 9: Seed winter greens and plant winter grains between now and full moon on Oct. 22
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Oct. 10: The demand for goat’s milk rises in the fall, and prices start to rise too.

Transition to middle fall

The Japanese beetles complete their departure when middle fall arrives this week. In their place, cucumber beetles hide in the roses. Now cricket song has taken over from cicada song. Yellow jackets seem to become more numerous; cabbage butterflies appear tamer and more reckless as they search for nectar and favorable sites on which to lay their eggs.

Aphids are disappearing in the colder nights. Leafturn was sporadic throughout the state last week. This week, the ashes will all be shades of red or gold, and they will blend with the deepening of the maples to create a rich and variegated archway to middle fall.