Already swallows are moving down from the north. I saw them ranged side by side on telephone wires this morning. In the circle of the seasons, there is no pause. Already summer slides toward autumn. On this hot afternoon, at the very summit of the season, signs of change are in the air. – Edwin Way Teale

The Moon and the Sun

The Restless Billy Goat Moon, full on Aug. 22, wanes throughout the period, reaching apogee, its position farthest from Earth, on Aug. 29 and entering its final quarter at 2:13 a.m. on Aug. 30.

Rising late at night and setting in the afternoon, this moon passes overhead in the in the morning, encouraging creatures to be more active at that time, especially as cool front of Aug. 29 approaches.

Aug. 22 was Cross-Quarter Day, the day that marks halfway to autumn equinox. Summer’s leisurely progress toward winter picks up speed now, the Sun appearing to move nearly twice as quickly toward the horizon as it did last month.

Weather Trends

The period of Aug. 25-27 usually brings a return of warmer temperatures in the 80s or 90s. Then comes the cool weather associated with the front that typically arrives in the last days of August, bringing the threat of frost along the Canadian border.

Zeitgebers

(Events in Nature that Tell the Time of Year)

Elms, sumac and sycamore start to turn. Panicled dogwood has white fruit and leaves fading pink, trefoils are decaying, and staghorns are dark brown on the sumacs. Ragweed pollen disappears with the last of the garden phlox. The year’s final tier of wildflowers is budding: beggarticks, bur marigolds, asters and zigzag goldenrod.

Telephone wires fill with birds as migrations accelerate. Flickers, redheaded woodpeckers, red-winged blackbirds, house wrens, scarlet tanagers, indigo buntings, Eastern bluebirds, robins, grackles and black ducks move south.

Purple coneflowers and Joe Pye weed are pale now, and golden coneflowers have begun their three-week process of decay.

Mind and Body

The S.A.D. Index, which measures seasonal stress on a scale from 1 to 100, drops into the gentle 20s as August moves to a close, reflecting the increasing odds for milder weather and the weakening of lunar influence because of apogee and the Moon’s weak position as it enters its final quarter.

And the shortening day signals the brain to prepare for the seasonal changes ahead. Some people feel an autumnal surge of energy during the coming weeks. Depending on your metabolism, the autumn surge can last into early November.

In the Field and Garden

Purchase crocus, daffodil and tulip bulbs for autumn planting and spring flowers. Order paperwhite and amaryllis bulbs for November and December blooms.

Farmers are preparing for the seeding of winter barley and rye. Sod the lawn in anticipation of cooler, wetter weather.

The best of hickory nutting season begins. Gather black walnuts and pecans, as well.

This is a good time to make or update a field and garden map. Mark areas where perennials have bloomed earlier in the season. Assess the success or failure of various garden plants and plots. Consider rotation of vegetable and flower crops for next year.

ALMANACK CLASSICS

“Bucky”

By Debra L. Brown, Buffalo, Wyo.

Among the bum lambs we raised one year were two young males my stepfather kept for breeding stock. One was a gentle, open-faced muley with a talent for leaping fences. The other was a Rambouillet who grew a fine set of horns.

The latter we called Bucky, and you had but to press a hand between his horns and he would back up, raise his nose and charge forward. To him, it was a challenge to a head-butting contest.

I thought this was cute, at first. He would lunge and smack his head against my fist, back up and repeat the process two or three times. And we would call it a draw. And I thoroughly enjoyed having my sister ‘try her hand’ at the little game. She was a wee bit apprehensive and quickly decided it was a dangerous sport best left to larger and more foolhardy folk than she.

But one day, I was a couple hundred yards downhill from the house. The young sheep were grazing above me near the yard. Glancing up, I saw Bucky look at me, lower his head, and begin a frenzied all-out sprint toward me.

He picked up speed on his downhill charge. I waited, uncertain as to the proper course of action. As the gap between us narrowed, I began to run in a wild zigzag pattern. Bucky quickly lost momentum as he pondered the direction changes of his once stationary target.

I avoided certain injury that day, but I was not so fortunate on a walk to the windmill with the dogs. Bucky happily accompanied us and on the return trip, he positioned himself next to me on the road. He lowered his head and suddenly sideswiped my shins with his horns. I dropped to the ground in agony, and I swear I could hear the ornery varmint chuckling as he continued up the track.

This by the woman who sent this story, too:

My stepfather is a Basque sheep rancher. On an occasion when I accompanied him to the lambing shed, I stood in the narrow chutes. He released a particularly wild ewe from the pen. She charged toward me like a runaway freight train and plowed through my legs.

As I was bent over trying to snap my knees pack in the proper direction, he gave me this sage, albeit late, advice, “Watch out! She’ll run over you!”

ANSWERS TO LAST WEEK’S SCKRAMBLER

In order to estimate your SCKRAMBLER IQ, award yourself 15 points for each word unscrambled, adding a 50-point bonus for getting all of them correct. If you find a typo, add another 15 points to your IQ.

CCOBOTA TOBACCO

OTMATO TOMATO

OUEDNGR UNDERGO

AEOWLGRTF AFTERGLOW

OOINMD DOMINO

HODAI IDAHO

XMCEIO MEXICO

OHLYLAT TALLYHO

IIGODN INDIGO

VOREGRWO OVERGROW

TOTELAFL FALSETTO

THIS WEEK’S RHYMING SCKRAMBLER

WROT

EWO

LOWF

EJO

EOH

WES

OHWS

AOVRB

DEBORAXU

UUAEBR

Bill Felker’s Daybook for September (with extensive details for every day of the month) is now available. For your autographed copy, send $20 to Poor Will, P.O. Box 431, Yellow Springs, OH 45387. Or order from Amazon or from www.poorwillsalmanack.com.

Copyright 2021 – W. L. Felker