Poor Will's Almanack by Bil Felker 

 

Nov. 10-16, 2014

Time may be too short for our Designs ...

The World itself seems in the wane.

-Sir Thomas Browne

Lunar phase and lore

The Toad Migration Moon wanes throughout the week, entering its final quarter on Nov. 14 and reaching apogee, its position farthest from Earth, Nov. 15. Rising in the evening and setting after sunup, this moon moves overhead after midnight, making earliest morning the most promising time of day for fishing and scouting for game – especially a day or so before the cold fronts of Nov. 11 and 16 reach the lower Midwest.

The lunar position favors harvest throughout the period; set in late bulbs, shrubs and trees when the moon lies in Cancer between Nov. 10-12.

Weather trends

High temperatures are typically in the 40s and 50s now, but certain days bring a greater risk of biting winds than others. Nov. 11, for example, is the first day so far this fall when the chances for a day in the 30s jump from October’s 2 or 3 percent all the way to 40 percent.

And Nov. 13, although often mild, brings the slight possibility for a high only in the 20s for the first time since April 6. Freezing nighttime temperatures are recorded an average of 55 percent of the  time.

The natural calendar

Nov. 10: Many people who live above the 40th Parallel may now begin to experience vitamin D deficiency as cloud cover thickens.

Nov. 11: Throughout the nation, practically all weeds and wildflowers become dormant. Only in subtropical Florida do Bermuda and Johnson grass, chenopods and amaranths continue to bloom.

Nov. 12: Rose of Sharon shrubs are half-bare. Honeysuckles weaken, berries becoming more prominent.

Nov. 13: Sugar maples, burned by frost, gradually drop their foliage. Almost every junco has arrived for winter. Indoors, your older Christmas cactus is budding or even blooming. Water paperwhites, daffodils, tulips, crocus and amaryllis in pots for solstice bloom.

Nov. 14: Opossums and raccoons increase activity in the warmer evenings. Deer are mating. Improvident woolly bear caterpillars, the latest of the year, hurry across the roads when the sun shines. Crows congregate for winter.

Nov. 15: Privets are holding on, their leaves a yellow gray-green. Sugar gums sport a few red remnants. Leaves of the decorative Bradford pear are dark brown, ready to come down in a heavy frost. Osage fruits cover the ground.

Nov. 16: Moss has new sprouts, a promise of March on old logs. Winter wheat grows taller, creating wide patches of green in the gray landscape. The grasses along the freeways have turned pale.

Fields of goldenrod heads glow in the sun, more exotic than when they were in flower. Box elder seeds shimmer. Burdock burs are poised, waiting for you to brush against them.

In field and garden

Nov. 10: Grazing ordinarily comes to a close in Midwest pastures as the ground temperature approaches 40 degrees.

Strawberries can now be mulched with straw. Fertilize trees after their leaves have fallen.

Schedule your frost-seeding for January and February. Deep-water all perennials before the ground freezes, especially if your garden suffered from the drought this summer.

Nov. 11: Clean up all around the yard and garden, cut your wood, clear out the hedgerows and haul manure. Plant next year’s sweet peas for early April sprouting.

Nov. 12: Test the soil of the field, pasture and garden, adding the correct nutrients for late autumn and early spring growth.

Nov. 13: The sugar beet harvest is almost always complete by today. Indoors, your Christmas cactus starts to bud.

Nov. 14: The moon enters its weak final quarter today, making the week ahead an excellent lunar time for completing harvest and cleaning up the garden.

Nov. 15: Mulch perennials. Fertilize the lawn. Finish repairs to the outbuildings. Plant an evergreen in the yard – now that the leaves are down, you will be able to position it for best winter appearance.

Nov. 16: Fertilize pastures for improved winter hardiness and stimulation of growth in early spring.

Almanac literature

Great American Story Contest entry

A True Happening

By Edna

Greenwich, Ohio

My brother got a baby rabbit from one of his school buddies.

It was winter, and it was about too cold outside for the rabbit, so my brother just kept it in the house.

Sometimes, my brother would let the rabbit out and play with it on the floor, and sometimes he would have to clean up some puddles and little round things that looked like chocolate chips.

Oh, how my brothers and sisters love chocolate chips!

One time, my brother missed one of those little round things on the floor. My sister was around and saw it.

She thought it was a chocolate chip, so she picked it up and put it in her mouth.

And boy, did that thing come out of her mouth in a hurry! I don’t think she ever tried that  again.

When it got warm outside, my brother moved the rabbit out, so my sister didn’t have a chance to try that again.