April  6-12, 2015

The grass of spring covers the prairies,

The bean bursts noiselessly through the mould in the garden,

The delicate spear of the onion pierces upward,

The apple-buds cluster together on the apple-branches …

The resurrection of the wheat appears with pale visage

out of its graves.

-Walt Whitman

Lunar phase and lore

The Cabbage Butterfly Moon wanes throughout the week, entering its final phase at 10:44 a.m. on April 11.

Rising late in the evening and setting late in the morning, this moon is overhead before sunrise, favoring fishing early in the day, especially as cold fronts approach around April 11 and 16.

Lunar position shines on the planting of root crops and setting out of shrubs and new trees as the moon wanes through Capricorn on April 10-12 and Pisces, April 14-16.

Weather trends

Between April 1-June 1, up to a dozen frosts typically occur in this area.

Of course, in some years, frosts end with March. Normally, however, the approximate chances for frost follow a regular and steadily declining trajectory through the end of May.

April l: 95 percent chance

April 5: 90 percent

April 10: 80 percent

April 15: 70 percent

April 20: 50 percent

April 25: 40 percent

April 30: 30 percent

The natural calendar

April 6: As soon as hummingbird moths seek nectar, allergies often intensify, as all the trees and grasses come into bloom.

 April 7: Long grass in the lawn is a sign that opossums and raccoons are giving birth in the woodlot and young goslings are hatching beside the ponds and rivers.

April 8: The juniper webworm emerges, and eastern tent caterpillars may begin to weave webs on flowering fruit trees.

April 9: Today is the average date for violets to bloom from Washington, D.C., all the way across average elevations of the United States. When violets flower, that means swamp buttercups, toad trillium, cowslip, trout lily, small-flowered buttercup and ground ivy will also blossom.

April 10: Black and gray morel mushrooms come up at this time of the month, the same time that orchard grass is ready to harvest. When ticks and mosquitoes become troublesome, the morel season is about over.

April 11: From now on, the chance of measurable snowfall rapidly decreases until it becomes only 1 in 100 by April 20. Butterfly season is in full swing as gold finches turn gold.

April 12: When the great annual dandelion flowering begins, snakehead mushrooms appear and the water in farm ponds is warm enough for pan fish to begin to breed.

In field and garden

April 6: After the cold front due near this date passes east, the possibility of damage to flowering fruit trees increases. Early daffodils are sometimes frozen by this front and the next.

April 7: The field and garden day is increasing at the rate of 2 minutes per 24 hours. Japanese beetle grubs now move to the surface of the ground to feed.

April 8: Band seed alfalfa. Make rhubarb pie. Mosquitoes bother livestock. Complete spring transplanting of berries, bushes and trees.

April 9: All across the country, farmers are seeding oats and spring barley.

April 10: Shear sheep. Breed mares. Sow field corn. Seed tobacco beds.

April 11: The April 11 high-pressure ridge almost always means it is grass-cutting time around the farmhouse and in the city. Some sheep owners are putting their flocks to work cutting grass, controlling weeds and reducing the undergrowth in forests.

April 12: Today is Greek Orthodox Easter: Like Roman Easter lambs and kids, Orthodox Easter lambs and kids should also be milk-fed.

Almanac literature

Great American Story Contest entry

Good Old Days: 1944

By Bill Vickery

New London, Ohio

It was the fall of 1944, and I was 6 years old. Our family lived on a farm southeast of Muskegon, Mich. I was the youngest of three older brothers and I also had a younger sister.

One day, my brothers were smoking cornsilk in the cornfield and they took me with them.

They wouldn’t let me smoke because I was too young. Then they ran out of matches, so they sent me to the house to get some.

While I was in the kitchen looking for matches, my dad walked in and asked me, “What are you doing, Billy?”

And being a young 6-year-old, I said, “We needed matches so Richey, Bobby and Donny could light the cornsilk they are smoking in the cornfield.”

My dad said, “I used to do that when I was a kid. Do you care if I join you?”

Naturally, I said, “Sure, why not?”

Needless to say, after he led us back to the house, we all knew we were in trouble.

He had us line up at the kitchen door, oldest first, me last, and he stood in the kitchen with his belt in his hand. By the time he got to me, I was crying so loud he let me go.

I would like to say this is the end of the story, but my brothers whooped me pretty good, and I was never invited to smoke cornsilk again.

Well, then there was the time that Bobby and I threw a 2-incher down the trap door of the outhouse when my dad was sitting in it, and it went off too fast … but that is another story of 1944.

Winners of the Great American Almanac Story Contest will not be announced until all selected entries appear in this column.