Oct. 23-29, 2017

I walk about, taking stock of the innumerable changes on the hillside. The clump of golden asters is now dry and brown, the milkweeds, stripped of their leaves, are straight spikes thrusting up from the ground and holding the browning seed pods. Seeds are everywhere. I bend them between my fingers when I run my hands through the grass tops. Autumn is a time of accounting, summing up, harvest and inventory.

-Edwin Way Teale

Almanac horoscope

Moon time: The Apple Cider Moon, reaching apogee – its position farthest from Earth – on Oct. 24, waxes throughout the period, entering its second quarter at 5:23 p.m. on Oct. 27. Rising in the middle of the day and setting in the night, this moon passes overhead in the evening.

Sun time: Now sunset time is only half an hour away from its latest time of the year.

Planet time: Keep watching Venus and Jupiter move close together in the morning sky. They will reach conjunction on Nov. 13, after which Venus disappears from view.

Star time: Before sunrise, Orion fills the east; Sirius, the Dog Star, lying due south. Castor and Pollux follow along behind. The Milky Way forms a band from the southeast up into the northwest. Far in the northeast, the Big Dipper will be pointing to Polaris, the North Star.

Weather time

After the Oct. 30 weather system comes across the country, milder but rainier weather typically follows for the first few days of November. The moon’s weak position at the end of this October augurs well for mild temperatures (but rain) for Halloween activities.

The first front of November is ordinarily one of the gentler systems of the month, but this year’s full moon on Nov. 4 is likely to put a quick end to nice weather. Lunar perigee on Nov. 6 doubles the chances for cold – and even snow.

Zeitgebers: In this third week of middle fall, the oaks and the osage, white mulberries, magnolias, ginkgoes and the late black and sugar maples move toward full color and many woodlots shine in the morning – red, gold and green.

Spruces are growing new needles in the parks. Hepatica sends out new leaves on the hillsides. Fresh chickweed, which sprouted at the end of the summer, is blossoming. Catnip grows back beside thistle, moneywort, wild geranium, leafcup, henbit and yarrow, impervious to the falling leaves.

In the woods, quickweed still provides a deep green border to the paths. A few lance-leaf and zigzag goldenrod still hold. A few asters, chicory and Queen Anne’s lace plants still flower by the waysides. And in the swamps, skunk cabbage can be 2 inches high, waiting for February.

Farm and garden time

Wrap new trees with burlap to help them ward off winter winds. Complete fall field and garden tillage before November chill and rains. Destroy foliage of plants that were infested with insects.

Marketing time: Contact markets for your turkeys and your leftover gourds and pumpkins as Thanksgiving approaches. Plan to sell your goat and sheep cheese, Christmas cacti, dried flowers and grasses, poinsettias, mistletoe and ginseng during between now and Jan. 1.

Mind and body time

The increasing odds for cloudy, chilly weather and the rapidly shortening day keep the threat of seasonal affective disorder relatively high. On the other hand, the moon’s weak position this week should provide some relief.

Consider finding time to cook and bake as the evenings grow longer. That activity, combined with good food and the aromas of home, may help to ward off late-autumn blues.

Creature time (for fishing, hunting, feeding, bird-watching): Starlings cackle and whistle in the bright trees. The last white cabbage butterflies look for cabbages in the garden. The last daddy longlegs hunt the flowerbeds.

At night, crickets fill in for the silent katydids. Deer become more reckless as mating season deepens. The high canopy thins, and squirrels become easier to find.

The waxing moon will be overhead in the afternoon and evening this week, and if you hunt and fish after lunch as the barometer drops prior to the Oct. 30 and Nov. 2 cold fronts, your chances for finding fish and game should increase.

Almanac classics

The Electric Pumpkin

By Susan Perkins

Hardtimes Farm, Ky.

My dad was the world’s best practical joker. He was a true master at inventing jokes no one had ever heard of.

One Halloween he came home from work with the biggest pumpkin I had ever seen. He set it on the kitchen table and began cleaning it. He was very secretive as to his intentions for the monster pumpkin, but it was plain by the way he snickered and laughed to himself he was up to something big.

 I grew up in St Louis and being a practical joker myself, I wondered why Dad would place such a huge target out on the front porch. I was confident the giant pumpkin would not survive the first hour of darkness and would end up in a splattered mess on the sidewalk.

After Dad finished cleaning the pumpkin, he went down to the basement and returned with a roll of thin copper wire. By now my mom, my brother Kenny and I were really caught up by Dad’s actions. It did no good to ask him what he was doing; our questions fell on deaf ears.

Dad wove the copper wire in and out of the pumpkin, starting at the top and working his way down till the pumpkin was a weave of copper wire. He got up from the table and returned to the basement. He came back with the electric fence charger.

Next, he went out on the front porch, down the steps and got the garden hose. He then wet the ground beneath the banister where it was obvious the pumpkin was going to sit.

On returning to the kitchen, he handed the charger to my brother, who knew to follow Dad to the front porch. Dad carefully picked up the pumpkin and everyone headed for the front porch. Once there, dad hooked the charger to the copper wire on the pumpkin.

Now I know this sounds awful, but kids tried all night to destroy that pumpkin. After getting their socks shocked off, they would holler and let go, throwing it into the air. By the end of the night, the pumpkin was severely beat up. My brother and I spied from the upstairs window on the city kids who thought they would score on the giant pumpkin.

My dad died last February. Walt, my oldest brother, stood up at the funeral and told the story of the electric pumpkin. He was serving in Vietnam when this happened, but the story has been told so many times down through the years, it became one of his special memories of Dad.

The room burst into laughter after Walt finished telling the story of the eclectic pumpkin. For a few moments he lifted the sadness that had come into our lives.

Poor Will’s Almanack for 2018 is now available. Order yours online from Amazon.com or, for an autographed copy, order from www.poorwillsalmanack.com

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