Oct. 25–31, 2010
Now comes leaf-fall, and the color rustles in the wind, skitters at the roadside, drifts in sheltered corners ... The leaves come down and the glory of the autumn woodland is briefly a restless golden drift, a wine-red flurry in the wind ... The countryside is festive in motley for a little while, rustling and raggedly beautiful.
-Hal Borland

Lunar phase and lore
The Cricketsong Moon wanes throughout the period, entering its final phase at 7:46 a.m. Oct. 30. It moves from Gemini into fertile Cancer on Oct. 27, then into Leo on Oct. 30.

This waning moon favors quarterly dipping of livestock for external parasites, and is best for worming, trimming of hooves, castration and butchering.

Also, dig up your onions; cut off the mum tops; feed your hungry trees and bushes (after they’ve dropped their leaves); and cut flowers and herbs for drying. Complete the silage harvest and bring in the corn and soybeans.

Now is also the time to start forcing paperwhites and amaryllis bulbs for the holiday season, especially on Oct. 27-29 under Cancer. Gardeners should put in spring bulbs and dormant roses, and mulch perennials before November rains begin.

Soil should be tested, and the lawn mowed (hopefully) for the last time. And don’t forget that dahlias, gladiolus and cama need to be dug and stored with care before November’s deeper freezes.
Lunar lore also suggests that mammals may become pregnant more easily during the moon’s third quarter than during other weeks of the month. As for fishing and hunting, the moon will be overhead.

The moon wanes through its third quarter this week, and it will be most powerful above you between midnight and dawn. For your convenience, select the second-best hunting and fishing times – the afternoons – especially as the Oct. 30 and Nov. 2 cold fronts approach.

Weather patterns
Record highs for November are almost always set during the first days of the month; the chances for an afternoon in the 70s actually increase by 30 percent over those of last week. Clouds usually thin out; autumn rains hold off.

However, the first weather system of the month arrives between Nov. 1-4, and it can bring the first killing frost of the year. After this front, highs typically drop sharply from the 60s into the 50s or 40s, and the sugar maple leaves fall – an easy landmark for the beginning of late fall.

Looking ahead: November’s temperatures fall one degree every 50 hours, finding the mid-30s by the end of the month. Typical highs slip down to the 40s and average lows dip below 29 by Dec. 1. With averages plummeting a total of 14 degrees, expect around 15 mornings below freezing in the month ahead.

Daybook

Oct. 25: Watch for foot rot to increase in your herd or flock with wet autumn pastures, especially in the Northern states. Clean infected hooves and feed your animals kale from the garden, and molasses, oats and pulped carrots in order to improve healing.

Oct. 26: Pastures may be re-greening in some areas now, part of the second-spring process that brings a resurgence in wildflower development in the woods. Provide plenty of free-choice hay to livestock in order to reduce the chance they will gorge themselves on fresh growth.

Oct. 27: Wrap new trees with burlap to help them ward off winter winds. Complete fall field and garden tillage before November chill and rains.

Oct. 28: When thimbleweed heads are tufted like cotton, that’s the time to plan marketing your goat and sheep cheese, Christmas cacti, dried flowers and grasses, poinsettias, mistletoe and ginseng for the holidays.

Oct. 29: The Muslim festival of Eid Al-Adha is only 19 days away. Could you be marketing your lambs and kids in the range of 55-80 pounds for this market?

Oct. 30: The moon enters its final quarter today. Since this is a weak lunar day, the cool front that crosses the nation near Oct. 30 should be milder than average.

Oct. 31: Feed the trees after all their leaves are down. If you put the leaves in bags and leave alone, they will turn to compost and be ready for the garden in March of 2012 or 2013.
Countdown to late fall

Throughout the Midwest, this is the last week of the best autumn color. The second tier of leaves, consisting mostly of early box elders and maples, has come down (the first tier was the ashes and locusts and buckeyes). The third and final phase of middle fall begins today, with the oaks and the osage, white mulberries and ginkgoes, the late black and sugar maples changing into full color.
As foliage comes down, eastern phoebes, yellow-bellied sapsuckers, catbirds and house wrens depart. The last turkey vultures follow the robins south. Cattails begin to break apart this week and beggarticks, long finished blooming, are ready to stick to your pants. The final asters of the year go to seed. Morning fog becomes more common.

Harvest continues, with half of the corn and three-quarters of the soybeans cut in a typical year. Apple orchards have been picked clean of fruit. More than 80 percent of the winter wheat has been planted and 65 percent has typically emerged.

Frost watch

The following shows the chances that a killing frost will have struck your plants by the date indicated. Calculations are based on average frequency of freezing temperatures during the month of November.
•Nov. 1: 85 percent (at least a 100 percent chance for light frost)
•Nov. 5: 87 percent
•Nov. 10: 95 percent
•Nov. 15: 97 percent
•Nov. 20: 98 percent
•Nov. 25: 99 percent
•Nov. 30: 100 percent
Living with the seasons