May 8-14, 2017

 

I saw the morning when SPRING walked the land ... Footprints greened the grasses, violets hidden there, Her smile a warm caress that made the ROBINS sing. A touch caused buds to swell, lilacs a royal bloom: A spate of rain, the promise of things to

come: Mother Nature, the LORD’S HANDMAIDEN in the plan of things. -William Bailiff, Toledo, Ohio

 

 

Moon time: The Mock Orange Moon becoming full at 4:42 p.m. on May 10 wanes fat and gibbous throughout the first half of May, reaching apogee, its gentle position farthest from Earth on May 12 and then entering its fourth phase on May 18.

 

Rising late in the evening and setting before dawn, this moon shines throughout the middle of the night.

 

Sun time: Now the sun is within 6 degrees of its highest position in the sky, and the progress to summer slows from approximately 5 percent per week to about half that. By May 15, the sun reaches a declination of 18 degrees, 50 minutes, almost 90 percent of the way to solstice.

 

Planet time: Jupiter, visible in the west after midnight, disappears from view before the sun comes up.

 

Star time: As Leo moves off to the west by ten o’clock at night, the likelihood of frost diminishes sharply, and tender bedding plants, tomatoes and peppers can be set out – as long as you are prepared to protect them on cooler nights. When Leo has moved well into the southwest and the Milky Way fills the southeast, then frost should certainly stay away until October.

 

Weather time

Sometimes the weather stagnates between the May 12 front and the May 20 front, creating conditions favorable for the first heat wave of the year.

 

The May 15 front and the next two are often followed by the “Strawberry Rains,” the wettest time of May in the lower Midwest and the Mid-Atlantic states. May 15 is a good target date for having fields planted in order to avoid a serious delay in seeding. Spring rains and humidity can also increase the risk of internal  parasites and foot problems in livestock.

 

 

When tulips are in full bloom in the North, the best of the spring wildflowers have all disappeared in the Southwest. But you can still find prickly pear cacti flowering in the desert.

 

When all the petals fall from your crab apples, then the great spring dandelion bloom reaches far into the Northeast, trumpeter swans will be laying eggs near Yellowstone Lake and goslings will be hatching throughout the lower Midwest.

 

Farm and garden time

 

When multiflora roses come into flower, look for the bronze birch borer to emerge and oystershell scale eggs to hatch. And when American holly blooms (about the same time as the multiflora roses), then potato leafhoppers will be hopping in the potatoes. Orchardgrass is heading. Prune forsythia, quince, mock orange and lilac after flowering is complete. Carpenter bees continue to arrive, looking for nesting sites; seal and caulk your siding. Increase planting now – try to finish by the beginning of the Strawberry Rains.

 

Remove seed heads from rhubarb. Alfalfa is budding; some farmers are cutting it to control weevils. Migrant workers move north. Marketing time: This is Mother’s Day week, increasing the likelihood that you will have robust flower and shrub sales at farmers’ markets.

 

Mind and body time Late spring continues to offer you a fine horoscope, changing your winter patterns: you may have an easier time waking up, have more energy, be able to pass up carbs more easily, lose weight more easily, have an easier time concentrating, feel more sociable and generally feel more optimistic.

 

Creature time (for fishing, hunting, feeding, bird-watching): As the moon passes overhead after midnight, be fishing and watching for turkeys from earliest light throughout the morning. Fish and game should be more active under the waning moon when the May 12 and 15 cold fronts approach, pushing down the barometer as they come.

 

Birders, look for migrating white-throated sparrows, ruby-crowned kinglets, yellow-rumped warblers, magnolia warblers, tanagers, grosbeaks and orioles. Almanac literature

 

 

By The Bylers Greenwich, Ohio Early one morning, my uncle grabbed a paper and went to the outhouse. Sitting there reading while doing his business, he heard a rattling and a scratching. But he didn’t pay much attention to it, until all at once -

 

He looked around and there he saw a big, fat rat coming his way, up over his naked legs it went, and up my uncle jumped screaming and making funny noises – and out the door he went.

 

We don’t know if he was finished or not. And did he take his pants along? We don’t know. But after that, he always knocked around before he went in the outhouse!